German Metal band Defocus recently released their second studio album entitled There Is A Place For Me On Earth on March 1st. The bands singer Simon Müller and guitarist Jeff Uhlmann took the time to talk with Metal Express Radio about their latest album, their experiences from playing open air festivals, the Metal scene in Germany, and more. Check out the chat below!
Metal Express Radio: Your band, Defocus just released their new album entitled There Is A Place For Me On Earth on March 1st, what can you tell fans about the latest release?
Müller: We are super happy to release this album. We’ve been working on this for quite a while and we are excited for everyone to hear it. People can expect a lot of the familiar heaviness that comes with the Defocus sound but also a lot of new influences resulting in a very experimental songwriting, never heard before.
MER: How was the writing and recording process being your band’s second album?
Müller: It’s a shame, but even though we were not facing the pandemic anymore, we barely met for songwriting and had to do a lot of that remotely. In comparison to the first album, we worked together with Vojta Pacesny on the production and Simone Pietroforte for the mixing and mastering. Even though those guys are kinda far away (Czech Republic and Italy) we had such good times in our online meetings which we really enjoyed.
Uhlmann: Yeah, we pretty much did almost everything remotely. We would handle all the stuff in our own discord channel and we were basically sending us demos every day for the last few weeks.
MER: How was it as a band completing your sophomore album as opposed to writing together for the first time?
Uhlmann: I mean it was kind of the same but also very different. We still did most of the stuff online just like on the first record, but our approach was very different. At first we didn’t really know which direction we wanted to go and at the same time we didn’t want everything to sound the same. After writing the first record and caring so much about little details that probably no one ever notices, we knew that we just needed to start writing without any boundaries and commit to the ideas we came up with. For example, everyone listens to different music and we didn’t want to stand anyone in the way in terms of creativity and I think you can really hear that on the final record.
MER: You’ve released a single from the album entitled “Crooked Mind,” what kind of feedback have you been able to receive?
Müller: The echoes for “Crooked Mind” have been just amazing! People were going crazy about it as far as we perceived which motivated us a lot for the upcoming release of our new album “There Is A Place For Me On Earth”. To be honest we can’t wait to play that one live hoping to get the same feedback as on the internet.
MER: What do you see as plans for you and your band after the album release?
Müller: We loved the whole process of writing and finishing the album. Now, we cannot wait to play lots of shows and perform the new album live in front of all the lovely people supporting us and of course reaching new audiences.
MER: Who do you hope to tour with and why?
Müller: The answer to that splits up into two different categories. First one is being on tour with friends of ours, which always make us feel like home no matter where we are, just like last year with our buddies in Necrotted and Abbie Falls. The second part of the answer is bands we really appreciate for their music and what they do and to that probably everyone of us has a slightly different answer as our taste in music differs. For me personally, I’d love to be playing on tour with bands like Thornhill or Moodring as I am obsessed with their music. Other than that, I do think we as a band would definitely agree on bands like Counterparts, especially cause we can imagine the tour being funny as hell.
MER: You’ve done a number of open air festivals such as Summer Breeze Open Air, and Euroblast, what are some of your favorite memories from those experiences?
Uhlmann: There are quite a lot of those experiences thinking back to those festivals. I mean, Euroblast itself was a crazy experience as it was one of the first big metal shows after the pandemic and even people from Ukraine and other countries arrived just for the metal which was breathtaking! Summerbreeze was also so much fun because we met a lot of bands that we personally look up to. Another thing that was quite interesting, was the fact that on the last day of the festival (the day we were playing), it was raining so much that a guy was literally taking a bath in the mud during our set.
MER: Is there anywhere that has been your favorite place to play live? If so, why?
Müller: There have been lots of places where we really enjoyed being on stage. In most cases this just depended on the crowd which made it a perfect experience as for example the Metalacker Festival in the black forest. Everybody being on that festival was going all in which was just incredible! Other than that, we also had so many stops on our tour last year that were just incredible such as the ones in Berlin or Bern. Besides the audiences we cherished the most, where the whole team setting up those shows were super supportive and doing a great job.
Uhlmann: Yeah, Metalacker Festival was so much fun, literally the nicest people ever and the crowd was super into our set which made it even more fun.
MER: Where do you hope to play live that you haven’t yet?
Uhlmann: As we received a lot of messages and comments from the states or even Australia, we would love to go on tour overseas. Of course, this takes a lot of time and resources but we truly believe that one day this dream will become true!
MER: How would you describe the Metal scene in Germany?
Müller: The German metal scene is awesome! I mean, there are always local differences to this but in general I would say those people want to be inspired by the music. As soon as that’s given, the crowds will do everything to have a great time, no matter what. I perceived the German metal scene as very supportive and communicative, thinking of all the great conversations we had after our shows talking to people.
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