An Interview with Thomas Rainer (L ame Immortelle).
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
“The wounds that made me write the lyrics and songs are basically still bleeding”
(Thomas Rainer)...
It has been three years since we’ve last heard for L’ame Immortelle, three years of silence, three years of anticipation and finally the wait is over. Thomas and Sonja return with their new full length album “Momente”. I caught up with Thomas to talk about the new album and what we can expect as the moments pass away.
O: So L’ame Immortelle are back after three years of silence, how does it feel to be releasing a new record?
TR: It feels great and looking back at it I am really happy we took such a long break to be able to deliver this album instead of something that won’t have been up to our high standards.
O: You and Sonja have both had your own projects to attend to (Nachtmahr and Coma Divine) have you found that L’ame had to take a back seat for a while?
TR: Yes, but for it’s own good. When we started working on this album we found that things were not going as smoothly as usual and the more we worked on it, the further we got away from the result we wanted to achieve. This also led to personal conflicts and so we called it a day and got ourselves a break from the band for 12 months. After we met again after this period we were hungrier than ever for finishing this record.
O: How easy or difficult has it been to balance the two bands?
TR: It’s always difficult but that mostly is limited to the allocation of time. Both bands have clearly different directions, both musically and strategically and therefore rarely conflict each other.
O: “Momente” is being described as each song representing moments in life, is this a personal album in the respect of these are yours and Sonja’s moments?
TR: I would go as far as saying that this is the most personal record since “Als die Liebe starb” The wounds that made me write the lyrics and songs are basically still bleeding
O: How was the recording process for you guys?
TR: After we left the initial problems behind us, we made a very sophisticated pre-production for the whole album that pretty much laid out where we wanted to go and what we wanted it to sound like and that time consuming preparation paid off a thousandfold. Everything was running smoothly and with a vision that clearly defined the tracks basically recorded themselves. We also had great session musicians at hand that shaped the sound of this album together with us.
O: How would you say “Momente” has progressed in sound and context from Namenlos?
TR: Not wanting to stress a word, that has been used millions of time before, but I think it sounds more mature. It’s an album that carries on the flame rather than worshipping the ashes. Defining a new sound with one eye turned to the past if you know what I mean.
All is very organic and we used as much real instruments as we could. All “real” instruments you hear like piano, strings, fender Rhodes, Celesta, etc. have all been recorded. No samples have been used. Only instruments that are supposed to sound synthetic (synthesizers, electronic drums) are.
O: Can we expect to see you on tour or at any festivals in the New Year?
TR: No plans about that.
O: You yourself have toured the UK a number of times with Nactmahr, you have gained a lot of fans as well as L’ame Immortelle fans too. Could we ever see you and Sonja on British shores?
TR: Like I said there’s no plans for touring at the moment and as much as I love playing in the UK I strongly doubt that L’ÂME IMMORTELLE is popular enough on the Island to tour. It’s more a German thing. Sadly.
O: Am I right in thinking you were originally going to call the album just “L’ame Immortelle”, what made you change it to “Momente”?
TR: At first we wanted to do a self titled album to underline the importance it has to us, but have decided to use a more descriptive title in the end as in our opinion an album title should always reflect it’s contents – be something like a very short synopsis.
O: With so much time away from L’ame has it be easy or difficult to get back to playing this type of music (compared to Nachtmhar)?
TR: Not at all, bearing in mind for how long I’ve been doing L’ÂME IMMORTELLE before even thinking about NACHTMAHR
TR: That is really impossible today. It’s like asking a parent of 10 kids who his favourite one is.
O: Your music has always been full of energy, gothic undertones and highly emotional, would you say you are both emotional people?
TR: Totally. Without that we couldn’t honestly make this kind of music
O: What aspirations do you want to achieve with L’ame Immortelle in the coming year?
TR: With all that we have already achieved, it’s not about achievements anymore. We want to touch people with our music, that’s all.
To find out more about L’ame Immortelle and for music, pics and merch check out:
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