With a rich production and progressive elements, the German progressive alternative rock band PORTER brings their sound, which is rooted in the energetic, guitar-led alternative rock of the 1990s, into the modern era. The band has been together for a while and combines the individual band members’ tastes for hardcore, alternative, punk, and indie rock into a completely original blend. Check out the exclusive interview below:
1. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
PORTER: The basis of our music is definitely the guitar riffs that carry the songs. In addition, there are sometimes anthemic choruses and various layers of ambient guitars that are intended to take the listener on a journey into our song worlds. Describing our own sound is actually almost the most difficult thing to do, because, as I said, each of us brings a lot of different influences to the table and will certainly hear them in the same way. Listening to music is always an extremely subjective thing – fortunately. At some point, we settled on the term “progressive alternative rock”. Whether that’s true or not is for others to judge, you for example.
2. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
PORTER: At the very beginning of our career, we certainly had this phase of emulating certain bands or sounds. However, that was more the case in the bands before PORTER. Lars, Frank and Markus, for example, played in a band that was largely based on the wave and post-punk of the 80s, such as Joy Divison or The Chamaeleons. Volker, on the other hand, played speed metal with his band at the same time, which was probably also influenced by thrash metal bands like Slayer. In the 90s, some of his own songs became more epic and complicated. On the one hand, they were inspired by metal and dark wave, on the other by funk and crossover. When we started with Porter, we didn’t really have any direct role models, but the idea was to get to the point more quickly with the songs and to write short rock songs. I think our last album “Wolkenstein” finally freed us from outside influences and is now a kind of transitional phase between the PORTER from the early days and the riff-orientated PORTER that we are today, with more drive in the direction of metal and more progressive.
3. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
PORTER: There’s something to be said for both. We used to exist exclusively for playing live. The recordings were then something like the highlight to capture the state of things as far as our songs were concerned. That has changed somewhat since the last album “Wolkenstein”. We’re having more and more fun working and experimenting in the studio, which is probably mainly due to the fact that we now do everything ourselves and no producer is talking to us and trying to push us in a direction that has nothing to do with us. Having our own studio gives us the greatest possible freedom and our guitarist Lars is now an incredibly accomplished sound engineer and mixer.
4. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
PORTER: As a band, we never try to be trivial in the lyrics of our songs, but instead always take the approach of criticising social issues and putting our finger in one or two social wounds. We are of course aware that not everyone pays much attention to the content of rock songs, but we nevertheless offer our listeners this level. Our new album “Genosha” in particular has a basic lyrical concept that runs through all the songs. We are aware of what a fragile world we live in and that, for example, an intact environment, social coexistence and democracy are not God-given, but must be defended again and again against increasingly strong totalitarian and fascist tendencies. Basically, we shed light in different ways on the question of what kind of world we want to live in and how far each and every one of us has to go in order to be able to change something for the better at our own level. So our lyrics are definitely political, yes.
5. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
PORTER: The most important thing for us, of course, is that the music is listened to, whatever the motivation. So you can enjoy the music without having to attach importance to the lyrics, the stories and the messages. We are aware that fewer people pay attention to the lyrics in rock music. But: We offer our listeners the opportunity to delve deeper into our songs.We don’t believe that music should be apolitical. But hey, of course everyone can read what they want out of it. How could we impose rules on the listeners?
6. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
PORTER: Well, it’s no secret that as a band you always invest a lot of passion, but also a lot of time and money into your work. Of course, you don’t usually get back what you put into it in monetary terms, but that’s never been our goal. We’re no longer 20 and we each have our own lives. The band and our music are already the reward for our efforts. But what you get back with interest is the passion with which we work. Every little bit of feedback on the songs and every big smile on people’s faces at our concerts makes us breathe as a band. If it stays the way it is or, of course, gets even better, then everything is fine the way it is! I don’t think you need to form a band without a large dose of idealism.
7. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
PORTER: The songwriting process is always pretty much the same for us. One of the guitarists, usually Lars, or our singer comes into the rehearsal room with a rough song idea and plays us his idea. Then we all jam along to what we can imagine on our instruments and the vocal melody, and the song slowly emerges piece by piece. It’s a bit like moulding a roughly hewn block of marble with lots of little hammers until you end up with a real Rodin. So we prefer to work on the songs together in the rehearsal room, which is no longer a matter of course these days. Markus, our drummer, writes the lyrics, he always has a bunch of lyrics ready and that’s how inspiration and musical ideas come together to form a big whole.
8. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
PORTER: The worst phase in our band’s history was definitely the last 6 years. We had already finished writing all the songs for the new album and had already recorded most of them when a stroke of fate virtually took us out of the running for years. We were condemned to inactivity for a relatively long time, until we fought our way out of it again with a lot of energy and willpower over the last year. But hey, our hunger to finally be able to release all the songs and present them live is all the greater.
9. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
PORTER: In principle, it’s always been the respective release and getting feedback on new songs. However, our album “Genosha” is something special right now. On the one hand, we are now a six-piece for the first time and have a new singer, on the other hand, we have also reinvented ourselves a bit and have come into our own musically. And that feels really good right now. And somehow we’re also very happy that we’re still around and that we can still make music together, that’s not a given after all these years. Almost all the bands that started with us are gone. We’re still here – and we intend to stay.
10. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?
PORTER: If things go in the wrong direction at a political level, we give a clear message and there are red lines that are not accepted. Otherwise, haters are simply ignored. But to be honest, we hardly have any problems in this respect, which is actually surprising as we are very clear when it comes to taking action against racist, homophobic or marginalising tendencies. Most of the people who engage with us and let us know are incredibly great and very considerate. I think we can be very grateful for that too.
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