Video Interview: Lupus Lindemann of Kadavar
I’ll be honest. It felt a little weird on Xmas Day 2020 when, sitting around my wife’s sister’s living room with family, I loaded up the Kadavar live stream on my phone and watched the Berlin trio kick out jams on after presents were opened. But hey, it was that kind of year.
Established as forerunner of German, and really, greater European heavy rock and roll, Kadavar peaceably severed ties with Nuclear Blast in 2020 and announced the formation of their own imprint, Robotor Records. As early adopters of the live-stream format that’s become so common in the COVID-19 era, the band would have Studio Live Session Vol. I on their Bandcamp page before most acts even figured out how to go live on Facebook through their phones, taking the momentum they had from an interrupted tour and translating it to that setting. The Xmas show, some nine months later, was all the more welcome.
In November, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann, bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup and drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt issued The Isolation Tapes (review here), which singled itself out from their past offerings not just by being their first self-release, but adopting a sound fitting to the moment of its creation during pandemic lockdown. Germany, as Lindemann explains in the interview below, is currently under another round of closure until at least the beginning of March, so one finds the lonely spirit of some of this material striking in their relevance, even as Lindemann talks of writing a dirty rock record to follow-up. Given the restlessness and anxiety of existing in this stretch of time, you get where he’s coming from there too.
And not to harp on it, but that was part of what made the second livestream, the Xmas show, so refreshing as well; the feeling coming through that Kadavar, who under normal circumstances would’ve spent a significant portion of 2020 on tour, were no less anxious to play than their audience was to listen and watch. I don’t know how the rest of the living room felt, but I was definitely on board.
I’d never interviewed Lindemann before, so I’m glad to report he wasn’t a jerk. We talked about The Isolation Tapes, about the first and second streams, leaving Nuclear Blast and starting a label, writing new songs, the Leipzig-based Re-Generation Festival they were putting together that was of course postponed, flat earth and other conspiracy theories (no, he’s not a believer), and much more.
Hope you enjoy.
Kadavar, Interview with Lupus Lindemann, Jan. 14, 2021
Kadavar, The Isolation Tapes (2020)
Kadavar, Studio Live Session Vol. II (2021)
Robotor Records on Thee Facebooks
Tags: Berlin, Germany, Kadavar, Kadavar The Isolation Tapes, Robotor Records, The Isolation Tapes
What I love about the Obelisk is the depth of coverage, never a 1 sentence review. This interview is more a conversation, lots of subjects covered and really cool to hear Lupus talk about what influenced the Isolation Tapes. I love Kadavar because they are always willing to push their sound and direction on every album and Lupus covers this as well.