Thanks, I’m fine! I had a lot of work the last weeks organizing the release show and doing promotion for “Reborn”, but now everything works...

 

Ok there is Marco and Loc on guitars, Matthias on bass, Flo on drums and I (Chris) do the vocals.

SRTK started in 1999 with a whole bunch of other members. It’s just Marco and I left from the original line-up. Some may wonder what happened but it’s just easy to explain. In 2003, right after our split release with our dudes in Deadlock, Patrick, our old drummer, got the opportunity to join our friends in Caliban for their US-Tour. Right after that, they asked him to join them constantly. That was also the time when Stefan (bass) decided to put more focus on his other band Deadsoil. So Marco A., Marco S. and me had a meeting and we came to one important thing about SRTK: we never would let it die! We were ready to rock and just released the split, so we put all our energy into finding new members for SRTK. So I called a friend from the old days, Matthias, we played together in Stalemate, and he didn’t even spend a thought on saying “no”. So the only problem we had, was finding a good drummer and that was a hell of a job!

So we asked a friend, Christof of Japanische Kampfhörspiele, if he could help out for some shows, while we were looking for a constant drummer. That took us over a year! Then we met Flo, who was looking for a new band. So we caught him, chained him behind the drum kit and that’s where he is right now, haha!

Before that we didn’t ask him too many questions, better we had, because nowadays we know why his nickname is chaos...But he’s the right man giving us what we needed. You think that sounds like a happy end... no, that’s not the end of the story... In September 2004 Marco S. called us for a meeting and he told us, that Caliban asked him to join them as new Bass player.

The thing you need to know is that he was unemployed for a couple of years and he definitely had to find a job within the next few months. So why not playing in Caliban and doing what he ever loved, playing stages all over the world?!

I think that was the hardest time for SRTK ever, and we were nearly ready to quit all the shit. You know you put all your energy in something that belongs to your heart and than someone looses your ground...

Marco S. pleased us to keep it going and he introduced his best friend Loc to the band. Me and the rest of SRTK never became familiar with someone else that fast, so SRTK were reborn within some days! Now, and trust my words, we have the strongest line-up ever...everyone in the band is so enthusiastic and energetic that we can’t wait to rock again...

 

 

 

I don’t know why, but everyone asked this question: how did you came up with your name Six Reasons To Kill?

And I must say: I don’t really know! We were looking for a name that sounds kinda evil and explains the music. It’s was thought to be a little bit sarcastic and we wanted to make a “joke” about all that evil image of heavy metal, we were like hey, a metal band has to sound brutal, and what else sounds more brutal than “A Reason To Kill”...And six is just the number of the beast, hehe...

 

There is not really a special band to name; we are more influenced by different types of music. Everyone in the band has his own faves and different types of music he prefers.

Loc for example loves Chamberlain, Marco is influenced by At the Gates and Metallica and I’m the guy who prefers the groove monsters like Unbroken, Bolt Thrower or Heaven Shall Burn. All these influences are the ground for SRTK’s sound.

Lyrically I write about things that bothers me. We have totally different lyrics, so Reborn is not a concept album. There are lyrics about dying (A Cold Sensation), pollution (Symbols of Ignorance), people with psychological problems (Cutting Away), politics (Against All Enemies) and about mankind with all its mistakes and false behaviour.

We never try to preach, but from time to time I feel like holding a mirror to myself, so I can see things more clear. That’s often the time I sit down to write some lyrics.

 

It’s always strange to talk about reactions you get on your music... so maybe you should say something about that. What do you think about ‘Reborn’???

I just can say that we are blown away by the fantastic reactions so far...

 

The recording was very relaxed. We recorded in the Kohlekeller Studios in Germany. Kristian is a great guy and it was awesome to work with him. He is very professional and has absolutely a clue how a band has to sound like! He did an amazing job...

 

...and America! We just signed the contract with Tribunal Records in the United States.

That truly raises our expectations on ‘Reborn’. It’s the second album which will be released in Asia. In 2001 we released our debut CD ‘Kiss The Demon’ on Howling Bull/Imperium Rec. in Japan and it sold very well. We’ll see how far it takes this time. We would love to tour in Japan and hope that will happen this time.

 

 

 

I hope that they're going to run into the record store, buy our record and make the biggest circle pit Japan has ever seen... hahaha!

No, I really don’t know. It’s hard to say... That depends mostly on the promotion you get over there. I hope that we can top the ‘Kiss The Demon’ selling rate...

 

That’s quiet easy to answer! In Japan for example are fixed CD prices normal. I guess a CD is always around 30€ no matter if it is a Metallica or Six Reasons To Kill album.

So labels try to get something special on the Japan- release.

 

We hope so! But it’s very expensive to get over there, so the labels need to sell a couple of CDs before they invite a band to come over. It’s just a money thing...

 

Yes, we are working on that. Right now there is nothing set, but maybe we’ll have the opportunity to support Disbelief, Ektomorf and Betzefer on their European tour in October/ November. We’ll see how that works... There are already a lot of single shows booked, so watch out for a show near you! We also plan to come over to the Netherlands. We hope to play some shows with our friends God Dethroned there.

 

 

 

First of all we would love to tour with our dudes in Caliban, because that would be a family tour! Besides that we are trying to get a real Metal tour just to let the kids know, that there is good music besides the Metal scene... We always have great reactions on metal shows! That’s also kind of a new territory for SRTK. I don’t want to say, that we didn’t play Metal shows so far, really not, but we were never on tour with just metal heads. A dream would be to support Bolt Thrower, Obituary or Black Dahlia Murder.

 

I think it’s great that some hardcore bands get known outside the hardcore scene.

The thing I don’t like is that nowadays nearly every hardcore band calls itself a metalcore band just to sell a few more copies of their record. In 1999 when we started, we set the goal to combine the metal sound with the ideology of the hardcore scene. And I think we were and still are the most metallic sounding hardcore band in all these years. That was also always the problem with SRTK. The hardcore scene said that we sound too metallic and the metalheads missed the leads in our music.

Music wise I see SRTK as a true metalband. Lyric wise I believe that we are still hardcore...We always wanted to be a band with a message!

 

I would love to see metalheads as well as hardcorekids dancing and slamming to our music. We hope to tear down some unnecessary boundaries between the metal- and the hardcore scene. Let music speak for itself and open your mind a little bit. Hopefully we see you in the pit on one of our shows! Check our homepage for details www.sixreasonstokill.de

Go and get ‘Reborn’! It’s worth buying it...

 

Thanks for your interest in Six Reasons To Kill and of course for the interview.