Im Gespräch mit Stefan Altzar

Im Gespräch mit Stefan Altzar

Wir haben euch neulich hier die Review zum Album der PREHISTORIC ANIMALS serviert. Jetzt hatten wir die Gelegenheit, mit einem der beiden Gründer der Formation einige Fragen zur Band und deren Musik zu besprechen. Hier findet ihr das Interview mit Stefan Altzar.

Hi there. My name is Amir (I’m a drummer myself). As one of the founders of metal-heads.de the music magazine for fans of the heavy side of music, I’m happy to hook up with you today to get an update an insight regarding your latest activities. Our attitude is: Distortion is our passion! So anything goes, using an electric guitar. And with the PREHISTORIC ANIMALS you can claim tob e on the right side there…Hahaha! I thank you for the chance to do this interview. My review will be up on our homepage on 23.11.2020 (it´s in German though). So I wanted to give the people out there chance, to learn more about your band and music, as I came across the album and thought, it’s worth speaking about!

PREHISTORIC ANIMALS – how it all began…

MH: to be honest, I’ve not heard about PREHISTORIC ANIMALS before November 2020 and I can imagine, that many others also need to get some insight. Can you please tell us, how you started the band and how the development came up making it 4 out of 2 musicians?

Stefan: Samuel and I started everything as a recordingproject in 2015. We didn’t really have a goal, but it started to sound very good, so we realized that we had to release it. The album, „Consider it a work of art“ was released in November 2018 and shortly after that, people started to contact us. We got a couple of festivalgigs in August-October 2019 and we realized, that we had to have a band. We spoke to Daniel Magdic and he said yes. We also hired bassplayer Noah Magnusson and Stefan Jernståhl on keys. We started rehearsals, did the gigs and we got great response.

PAIN OF SALVATION and other bands from the past

MH: being a founding member of well known PAIN OF SALVATION, at least Daniel (guitar) is recognized by the scene. What did the other musicians do, before entering this band?

Stefan: Me and Samuel played together in alternative rockband POUND. We did two albums. I have my own Stefan Altzar soloproject and have worked together with Tony Harnell from TNT for a lot of years. Noah is also member of disco/soul band, NIGHTSHINE.

MH: I don’t know, if you like to categorize or to be categorized. But could you please – to give our readers an idea of what you sound like – find a description of your style of music. I like the mix of straighter rock and prog elements, when looking at your latest album!

Stefan: I think it’s a mix of Progrock/metal and alternative rock with a lot of pop and 80’s vibes.

Here is a good chance to discover the music

From KING’S X to MUSE – a wide range…

MH: how would you describe your main influences as a band?

Stefan: We love KATATONIA, A PERFECT CIRCLE, MUSE and KING’S X. I could mention 20 more, but you get the idea.

MH: Metal music has gone through various changes in style and I think, the traditional bands and elements are still alive and on the other hand new influences are coming in. What is your opinion? And what are the basic trademarks, that it needs to make it good metal?

Stefan: Some kind of raw organic energy. I love metal music, that is inspired by other genres.

MH: I bet, the band doesn’t bring in enough money to fill the fridge. What do you guys in the do as dayjob to stay alive? In combination with that: what are the longterm goals, that you wanna achieve with your music/the band?

Not only the school of life teaches you…

Stefan: Daniel, Noah and myself are teachers. Samuel is a little bit like Chandler in Friends, no-one remembers what he is working with. Haha! He works in an office…In a perfect world, we are still making the music we want, but with a much higher income.

MH: regarding playing live…what musicians would you love to share the stage with and/or what band would you like to tour with and why?

Stefan: I would love to tour with MUSE (Enormous stageproduction) and share stage with KING’S X (Brilliant musicians).

MH: regarding playing live – festival, club gig or big venue? There are various kinds of gigs to play for a band to play. Small sweaty club gigs, big venues or even stadiums and then these 3-day-festivals in front of 50.000 to 120.000 people. What kind of performances do you prefer and why?

The perfect number

Stefan: 1000 people at a venue are perfect! A lot of people, but you are still in contact with them.

MH: are there any plans for some touring maybe even in Germany or the Netherlands after this worldwide corona-crisis is over some day? I mean, all being save and the conditions regarding „the virus“ under control.

Stefan: We have a German festivalgig booked in April. We played at Progpower Europe last year, so we have a lot of people liking us in the Netherlands. We are doing our best to get more gigs there.

MH: what were your plans for PREHISTORIC ANIMALS, when you recorded the new material regarding the future? Are these plans still alive in this worldwide pandemic?

There were different plans…

Stefan: We wanted to make the album of the year and a lot of people seem to like it. The thing that didn’t go as planned, was of course the touring. But hopefully, it will get better next year.

MH: the final words is always to our interview partners. Here YOU get the chance to tell the people out there something, that you think is important, regarding music in general, the latest album or whatever. So, here we go…

Stefan: I hope you all will take some time to dive into the world of PREHISTORIC ANIMALS. We are very pleased with the new album – „The magical mystery machine (Chapter 1)“. I also hope that we will see you on tour 2021 or 2022. Be safe!

MH: thanx for sharing your time and all the info. I wish you all the best with the album and the future efforts and hope to see you perform live on stage at some point. I really miss concerts in general and especially I wanna see some of the great bands, I recently discovered on CD!!

Zum Schluss: es ist ein erster Deutschland-Gig für 2021 geplant. Schaut mal hier.