Join Us on Eurovision: Germany: Exclusive! Interview with Fahrenhaidt "We are big fans of a entire orchestra on stage, where everything has to be played live"

Fahrenhaidt are one of the Finalists for the German national selection 'Unser Song für Österreich' in Hannover with their songs called 'Frozen Silence' and 'Mother Earth'. They will perform in the national final on 5th of March 2015 in Hannover.

We had the chance to talk to Andreas John and Erik Macholl from Fahrenhaidt today about their participation in the German national selection, their brand new album 'The Book Of Nature', the collaboration with ESC winner Emmelie de Forest and much more. Read our interview with them below to find out what they had to say...

Hello Andreas, hello Erik, first of all gratulations that you are one of the chosen participants for the German National Final ‘Unser Song für Österreich’ on 5th of March 2015.

Who had the idea that you could participate in the Moldovan national selection?

Erik: Our manager Benny asked us if we are intrested to be part oft he German national selection ‚Unser Song für Österreich‘. We joked and answered ‘Yes’ – without knowing what that could mean for us :-) We never thought this could happen.. But one month later he told us that we are in the competition. It was a big surprise for us, because we are more or less new in music business as artists. We are super motivated and very excited. This is a big chance for us :-)

You will participated with the recent single ‚Frozen Silence‘ and ‚Mother Other‘. Who decided those two songs fort he participation in ‚USfÖ‘?

Andreas: Amanda Pedersen ist the lead singer of ‚Frozen Silence‘. We did know very quickly that we would like to participate with Amanda. ‘Mother Earth’ was chosen because it’s one of the up-tempo songs from our album ‘The Book Of Nature’.

Erik: ‚Mother Earth‘ is a very special song for us. It is the first song we had written for Fahrenhaidt. ..and ‘Frozen Silence’ is our first single, both songs are with the vocals from Amanda. I think the more specialized we are at the song selection, the better it is for the ESC, it has become very colorful in the years and we hope that we can contribute to the diversity.

What do you think about the other contestants from ‚USfÖ‘?

Erik: I think the selection is very exciting. There are a lot of different music genre. Andreas, I think you already have chosen your favorite.. ;-)

Andreas: I think this year there are again very diverse participants. Personally I’m a little fan of LAING. I’ve seen the girl band at the ‘Bundesvision Song Contest’ where they performed ‘Morgens immer müde’.

Erik: Personally I'm looking forward to Mrs. Greennird. Both are very likable. They had already won X-Factor in Germany.

Have you already started the preparations for the ESC or has your album release more priority?

Erik: Both is currently running at the same time. We are already rehearsing and we started to creat a live show. The visual presentation is very important to us. We want to bring the musical processed topic 'nature' artistically on stage.

You already publishe a rehearsing video from ‚Frozen Silence‘.The visualization is made extremely detailed and perfect. How long did the implementation take?

Erik: It took quite some time. You addressed a topic, what is said to us again and again - we are very detailed, and under compulsion to control. We like to work for so long until we are satisfied and we are very happy with the result. It’s not possible to use the 1:1 visualization for the national selection, because there are some technical challenges. We have to handle those challenges.

Andreas: With these elements, we definitely want to perform live later.

Erik: The implementation took about one month. Starting with the ideas to implementation. It was a long evolving process. You always have to see what works and what does not work, then some ideas are discarded .. But now we are very happy with the result.

The rules of the ESC's say that songs can not be longer than 3 minutes. Do you already have shortened ESC versions?

Andreas: Yes we already have shortened ESC-Versions. But it was not so hard, we have cut the intro and interlude. The character of the song remains intact.

Erik: With the shortened versions we are completely satisfied.

When will it be possible to hear the ESC-Versions?

Erik: The versions are only presented in Hanover and I'm not sure if these versions will be available on iTunes. There are, more or less, only TV-versions. The audience will hardly notice the difference.

What is the meaning of FAHRENHAIDT?

Andreas: We considered ourselves with what term you could capture the facets of nature. Of course, the temperature is always a big issue. There are warm tones, colder tones in ‘Frozen Silence ', for example, we have rather colder tones and you could describe quite well with Celsius and Fahrenheit. We spoke about "Fahrenhaidt" and we all thought that's pretty cool.

Could you tell us something about the concept of the album ‚The Book Of Nature’?

Andreas: Well, there is not really a concept. I always was looking for ways to calm down.. I remember that I was sitting one day in the evening on my piano and played piano.. For me it was relaxing…

Erik: As a result, Andreas had many musical themes. When I came back from vacation, it was always hard for me to get that feeling of relaxation upright. I like it very much like to be far away from civilization on holiday. One day I was totally stressed and went outside, where it was snowing and when I came back to the studio, Andreas played this tune, which you can hear now in ‘Frozen Silence '.

Andreas: We've brought the nature into the studio.

Erik: That actually brings it quite well to the point :-)

Can you tell us something about the beginning of your career?

Andreas: We started doing music in school.

Erik: That's true. We know each other since we were in school. At that time we still arguing about the only band keyboard;-)

How important is it for you to be part of ‚Unser Song für Österreich‘?

Erik: Well.. We know this is a very big thing. For us it is very important.

Andreas: We are very happy to participate once in the German national selection.

Erik: Hannover will be our first time that we will perform as "FAHRENHAIDT" in front of million tv viewers. It is a great asset for us to be there. I have a lot of respect.

What are your first ESC memories?

Andreas: My first memory is Nino de Angelo, as he represented Germany 1989 with ‚Flieger‘. As I was a child, it was more a schlager event and that reminds me Nino de Angelo singing ‘Ich hab die Zeit nie ganz vergessen, als wir noch Flieger waren…’ (Engl. ‘I've never forgotten the time when we were still flyer..’). There have already been some kind of revival of the ESC. Stefan Raab has revolutionized the German national selection some years ago. He represented Germany as artist with ‘Wadde hadde dudde da?. The highlight for sure was the victory from Lena in 2010 with 'Satellite'. :-)

Erik: As a child I haven't noticed that much the 'ESC'. Later I found out that a lot of winner songs or participating songs I listened many times in my life. I really liked the French Chasons. Especially ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son‘ from France Gall was pretty cool.

Andreas: .. this song has inspired us. Two years ago participated an artist of us, Betty Dietrich, at the German national selection ‘Unser Song für Baku’. For us she was our little ‘France Gall’. :-) We really like the retro sound and warm tones.

The females vocals on your album are from Alice Merton (Canada), Amanda Pedersen (Denmark) and Emmelie de Forest (ESC Winner 2013, ‘Only Teardrops’) Can you tell us more about this collaborations?

Andreas: We were looking for voices that touch us. In these three voices we have remained most depend. Emmelie fit anyway of her voice and image. The staging of Emmelie’s ESC winning song 'Only Teardrops' was very grounded and she has performed barefoot. That fits very well to what we had in mind.

Erik: Well.. we just asked Emmelie if she would like to record a song with us. Spontaneously she said ‘YES’. This was the birth of the song ‘Wildfire’ :-) We are very satisfied with the result of the collaboration with her. It was a lot of fun to work with Emmelie. :-)

There is already a video for ‚Wildfire‘ on internet. When and where was it shot?

Andreas: We shot the video three months ago in Munich. But it’s only a promotional teaser video.

How was it to work with Emmelie de Forest?

Erik: We have to say that we didn’t had the ESC in mind, as we requested Emmelie. ESC is currently for us only for about three months. The vocal recordings with Emmelie already took place last year in July. Her voice inspired us. We thought her voice woud fit very well with our album. It is a happy coincidence with Emmelie as ESC winner and us as a participant in the German national final. This connection is often mentioned in this context. It was completely unplanned for us and is completely a random. One of the songs from Emmelie was called 'Rainmaker' and the reference to nature was perfect for our project. Emmelie was absolutely professional in the studio. Also the video shoot was really great. We were very impressed.

At the moment there are performances planed only with Amanda. There are any plans with Alice and Emmelie?

Andreas: We are planning a tour for this autumn. We would like to go on tour with two of the singers.

Erik: There are likely to be Alice and Amanda. If accompanied us Emmelie at some concerts, we are very pleased. :-) The tour should be a real musical journey.

Your album ‚The Book Of Nature‘ will be out tomorrow. There are any favorite songs?

Andreas: For me it is ‘Lights Will Guide You’. It is the first song on the album after the intro.

Erik: As I already said, for me is ‘Mother Earth’ a very import song.

Andreas: …and of course, our single ‘Frozen Silence’. If this wouldn’t be one of our favorites, we wouldn’t have chosen as single :-)

What kind music do you listen to?

Erik: I really like soundtracks. I love soundtracks with orchestra music. I’m a big fan of big composers like Hans Zimmer.

Andreas: I am a spotify users and I have my playlists, where, of course, film music is included. There is also 80`s music inside and soundtracks of films such as DRIVE. For me it's a music mix :)

Erik: We like soundscapes and anything with a large orchestra. This inspieres us.

…a good transition back to the ESC :-) originally the ESC was a singer / songwriter contest, accompanied by an orchestra in the show. In some countries plays again a orchestra at the national selection. For example Albania and this year there will be an orchestra back in the Norwegian national final. What is your opinion about an orchestra at major events such as the ESC?

Andreas: I did not know that Norway will again have an orchestra. For us this means that we should apply in any case in Norway for the qualifying round next year :-) 'Frozen Silence' would suit much better with orchestra. But seriously, we're big fans of an entire orchestra on stage where everything is played live.

Erik: We also worked often together with an orchestra and we always had a great experiences. If this is reintroduced with orchestra, then I'm the first who signs.

Andreas: We will start a petition at the NDR and Brainpool for the return of the orchestra to the German national final. :-)

Erik: If we win, we have to compensate for Denmark, because we have stolen Denmark the singer. Than we will participate for Denmark. We have to talk with Amanda about that, but certainly she will agree. :-)

Thank you so much for answer those questions. Good luck for your album release tomorrow and your songs in ‘Unser Song für Österreich’ on 5th of March in Hannover.

See you there.. :-)