Interview by Matteo Bussotti
Their latest album hit us like a stone with its powerful mixture of rock, metal, and hip-hop/rap-like singing. They are Kontrust, and their album “Second Hand Wonderland” is pure gold: fun, entertaining and adrenalinic. Being so impressed, we decided to interview one their singers, Agata, to get a “closer look” at this band!
Hello Agata, and welcome to Femme Metal! First of all, are you satisfied with your latest album, “Second Hand Wonderland”?
Hello out there! The pleasure is all mine.Yes, I’m very happy with the new album. As a musician and as a band your always proud of your latest piece of work, but in this case I’m really happy.
Where does the album’s title derive from? What’s the story behind it?“Second Hand Wonderland” is inspired by everything that happens around us. Events, emotions and of course a lot of fantasy that seems a lot more realistic than fiction. The wonderland we’ve created with this album allows you to escape reality, yet it’s based on impressions from the real world, that get all twisted and mashed up, until you create your own wonderland… your second hand wonderland.
Your name also, Kontrust, is a funny word game I guess! How did it come to your mind when you had to choose a name for your band?It just fits our style, plus it’s really recognizable.
Talking about your musical style. Needless to say, it’s very unique, and I find it extremely beautiful, never boring and always entertaining. So…why choosing “Crossover” as your musical genre, and not maybe a more classical “Metal” or Rock, or I don’t know…Pop?No matter what you do, you always get labelled. It seems very common to put a tag around it and write something on it, so you comfortably place it somewhere on your shelf. I guess the music we write has so many influences. It truly is a “crossing” of many genres. All of the styles mentioned above are included, plus many many more.
Having to deliver such a large variety of sounds (in your songs you go from Pop singing, to almost reggae/rap, to hard rock and metal)…how everyone puts himself in the songs? I mean, how everyone of you adds his own part to the “final product”? I guess every song, due to your particular style, is composed in all of its parts by everyone together!That’s our way of writing music. Somebody comes up with an idea, no matter if it’s an instrumental hook, or a vocal line, somebody else adds their idea to that. In the process countless parts get written, re written, dumped, buried, dug out, re arranged, add that special sauce and…presto! You have a Kontrust song!
Mostly it’s Stefan and myself. Either one of us starts and the other one adds their parts. Some lines happen together. In the end it’s always a team effort.
Talking about your band…what is, in your opinion, your best quality, or the thing that characterizes you the most? Or, if you want, your favourite aspect of the band!We’re weird, for the least to say! We don’t take us to serious. Haha! We’re one big family that works hard and parties hard and we love to play live. There is just something about connecting with the audience.
We know you’ve won several contests in Austria and now you’re one of Austria’s most famous and successful bands abroad. Were you expecting all this success at the beginning?No, I guess in the start you never do. Everybody has dreams and I can imagine that everybody who was born after 1950ish wanted to be a rock star at least once in their life. I guess we’ve just been really determined about what we wanted to do. It’s the hardest job on earth, but also the most rewarding one.
How’s your relationship with other bands you know? Is there a band you’d like to tour with?We’ve had the pleasure of playing together with many bands along the way. It always depends on the members of the band and that special vibe that’s going on. But when it comes to rock’n’roll it’s always good times!
In addition, do you think the relationship among musician can be improved? I mean, what means do you have to get in touch with other bands, and maybe organize tours or gigs, in your country or abroad? Does your label help you with that? How much do you think this interconnectedness among musicians can be helpful?First of all respect everybody out there. You can’t do any of this alone. It’s really important to work together with other artist, especially if you’re a young band starting out. But even later on that never changes. Choose the people you work with together wisely, be honest and in the end you shall be rewarded…sounds like a cliché, but that’s how it works.
Finally, Agata, what are your expectations for the future? Is there any project you have in mind?The next album! Right now we’ve just wrapped up our European tour and continue on all the summer festival shows throughout Europe. Somewhere in between we’ll start writing on new stuff. Never stop if you want to rock.
Latest Multimedia