SINNER interview. New album, ‘Brotherhood’ out on July 15th, 2022.

MAL-
Talking to Tom Naumann from SINNER. Thanks for joining us.
TOM-
Yeah, hello. Hope all is well over there.
MAL-
Yes, we’re going along okay, now I’ve been fortunate enough to listen to this album that ou’ve got coming out very soon, entitled ‘Brotherhood’, tell us all about it. How it came together who you’ve roped in, how long it took, tell us all that you can.
TOM-
I sat down with Matt in his kitchen and we started talking about writing and releasing a new SINNER album in September October 2020, and then I came home and then I started to write songs and the mission was that we would like to do music that we did already in the 90s like heavier and longer songs and we release albums like ‘Bottom Line’, ‘Judgement Day’ and especially ‘The Nature of Evil’. And we wanted to catch the vibe and the emotion and the spirit of those songs and we try to move it to 2020/2022. And yeah, and I started writing songs in November and so I did sent my ideas to Mat and then we talked about it and we change something, started doing vocal lines and lyrics and all that stuff. And then we were finished by the end of February, beginning of March with all the songs.
MAL-
Now with both you and Mat being in PRIMAL FEAR as well, as far as the songwriting goes, is there ever an occasion where you’re writing a song and your thinking, ‘no, that’s more PRIMAL FEAR?’
TOM-
No, never, because I think that writing songs for both bands has a different approach, like PRIMAL FEAR’s more Power Metal, you play more faster double bass stuff and you have Ralf like (screams) all the time and so that’s totally different to SINNER. SINNER is like more Heavy Rock and more some bluesy influences. Also some THIN LIZZY influences in it. So the songs are slower, not that heavy double bass parts like slower double bass with a lot of catchy melodies and twin guitar stuff. So I never had to thought that wrote a song for SINNER, which I thought that should have been for PRIMAL FEAR. Because normally when we write, for PRIMAL FEAR, SINNER has a break and when we write for SINNER, PRIMAL FEAR has a break. So for me, it’s pretty easy to separate both bands when it comes to the songwriting process.
MAL-
I want to talk about one song in particular and that’s ‘The Last Generation’. You’re probably going to hear this from a lot of people but that is just such an epic song and just really gets stuck into you very quickly, tell us about that one. How that came about was that you was that Mat?
TOM-
I started coming up with most of the music ideas and I recorded it and we had some long epic tracks also in the 90s with ‘The Nature of Evil’ or ‘A Question Of Honour’. And so I thought about I got this beginning which is the acoustic guitar and then, yeah, I thought it would be cool to add some orchestral parts in the middle of that song. And then, like I’m not a very good keyboard player. I’m not really good in creating orchestral parts but I do know I have something in my mind. Then I recorded with the melody I record with the guitar, then I have my two fingers system for the computer, doing all the trumpets, and all the violin stuff like that, but that’s not good enough. And then I asked a friend of mine from Switzerland and he helped me, then it sounded way better. And so we said, oh, that’s a nice idea, we should keep it and then we asked Oliver Palotai from the band KAMELOT. And he lives like 25 kilometers away from my home town. He’s a German dude. He’s really good in doing this orchestral stuff and so I talked to him and I said this is the part I would like to have it like that or best when you can change it to your own there and bring in your own influences. Yeah. Then he recorded it. We got it back and we had to listen and it was amazing. That’s that’s exactly what I had in mind. So we put it on the album. Yeah. And then we also asked Tom Englund from EVERGREY if he would like to add some of his amazing vocals and yeah and that was the song.
MAL-
As soon as you hear that song you just know something great is coming. So that’s my favorite on the album. Congratulations.
What other tracks on there did you want to tell me some stories about? There’s some good rockers on there, like ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘Brotherhood’.
TOM-
Yeah, I think ‘Brotherhood’, I think the title speaks for himself and when you listen to the lyrics, I think it’s about friendship of Mat and I because we know each other for more than 30 years right now. I’m playing in the band SINNER since 1988, and we started or founded PRIMAL FEAR together with Ralf Scheepers and this band exists for 25 years right now. So yeah, we have a pretty good friendship over this time and yeah, also the band like, I know Alex Scholpp, the other guitar player for more than 20 years when he used to play in a small band from from Stuttgart called DACIA AND THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, I was their booking agent. I’m playing with Markus Kullmann together, in an AC/DC tribute band for like six years. Mat and Markus are playing together in a band called VOODOO CIRCLE for a long time. So we know each other for very very long time right now, and we spend our time not only on stage also offstage and it’s not only. Yeah, we’re not only connected when it comes to music. We also have a private life and we do meet very often we’re having a barbecue were hanging out and watching soccer together having a just a couple of beers and we having a talk and we’re having a laugh and so I think that’s that’s the title ‘Brotherhood’ and Mat wrote the lyrics to It.
MAL-
Did any sort of lockdown affect the recording of this album at all or were you manage to carry on in your regular path and get through it?
TOM-
As the as the pandemic started an old like we we were forced not playing shows or tours or festivals anymore, everything was shut down. We are not allowed to practice together, or even to meet each other, so we started writing songs at home and, but the pandemic made us come together more closely for all the band because all of a sudden you do not earn any money anymore because you were not allowed to do your job. And so we decided then, when we do an album, we will also help our friends. So, we went into the studio from our tour manager and recorded the drums there and some guitar parts over there, so he could earn some money. Then we went to our friend Jacob Hansen from Denmark, who already mixed some PRIMAL FEAR, and SINNER albums. And we said, Jacob please mix the album again and so he earned some money. We asked Oliver Palotai to do the keyboard part so he was involved in the recording process and then we asked lot of friends, if they would like to participate on the album, singing and some stuff. So yeah, it was not really like that the pandemic influence us a bit when it comes to the songwriting stuff. But it sort of helped us when it comes to record the stuff. Because we did some stuff that we normally never do, like going into a studio of our good friend (name unclear) and hang there for a couple of days and do stuff together or ask a lot of people if they would like to sing on our album. So that was the positive part of the pandemic. So that we asked a lot of friends to be involved if they want to be involved on that album.
MAL-
It’s a pretty impressive guest list featured there. So that’s good that everyone got a gig so to speak. Yeah.
TOM-
When you’re when you’re in the business for a long time, SINNER released their 18th album and PRIMAL FEAR exist for 25 years right now. So you did a lot of touring and you play a lot of festivals and, you know, you start knowing musicians and you have a talk with musicians on some festivals, two weeks later, you meet this guy again, and then you start writing on Facebook and all of a sudden, this guy becomes your friend. We really have a long list of friends, because we are in the business for so long and it was pretty easy to ask our friends if they would like to be part of this album, like Erik Martensson, Tom Englund, Dave Ingram, Ronnie Romero, we all know these guys for such a long time and it was a real pleasure to work with them. And it was also pure fun because we said, ‘you need to sing the vocals over here and you need to do this and that but feel free to add something if you want to add something’, and most of the guys, they came up with some really cool ideas, and yeah it was a lot of fun man, we really appreciated working with them.
MAL-
Can I ask you a personal question? Don’t mean to offend you here but being left-handed as you are, what challenges did you face early on, A- getting a left-handed guitar. B- did it have any influence on which guitar teacher taught you? Did you have a guitar teacher? I’ve always been intrigued.
TOM-
So when I came to school and I was in the first class, I started writing with my left hand. And a teacher always hit at my left hand and said ‘you need to write with the right hand.
MAL-
They do that over here. Well, they did that over here too
TOM-
And my parents are both write right handed. And my father was a guitar player and he played with the right hand. So, when I picked up his guitar for the first time, I was like the other way around. So okay, ‘I’m a left-handed guy. Okay, no problem with tha. So, but I started playing guitar like in 1981 or 1982, I guess. And by that time, it was pretty tough to get a left-handed guitar but if you hang on a second, (goes and gets guitar). This is my first guitar.
MAL-
Your first ever guitar?
TOM-
This Ibanez guitar, this was my first guitar and I still have it. Even if you go in a music store they have like 200 guitars and probably three or four of them are left-handed, and probably not with a good quality so it’s pretty tough to get some good guitars for left-handed guitar players and I had a really really, really good guitar teacher and this guy, right now, he’s a really good friend of mine and we played some shows here and there together and have you ever heard of Peter Schilling? The song ‘Major Tom’?
MAL-
Yeah.
TOM-
Yeah and he was a guitar player, and I got a lot of lessons and when Peter Schilling got famous with that song he needed to stop the lessons because he was so busy with doing other stuff but he was my main influence when I started but it was no problem that I was a left hand guy. And now I’m a guitar teacher by myself and I have a lot of right-handed guitar players in front of me.
MAL-
Are you smacking them?
TOM-
No, haha, but if you look at the right-hand guitar player and you look at the left hand is like, looking in a mirror, because it’s like the same. Because I play the same chords, they don’t look different. Because I don’t play Upside Down, I have to the bottom string is up and all the time, it’s all the same. So I was when I play a chord, (demonstates) so it’s it’s easy for them to watch it and to play it then, I hope.
MAL-
Now that’s great. Thanks for answering that, I was wondering. Are there any funny tour stories like a ‘Spinal Tap’ moment that’s in your memory that you can tell me?
TOM-
Way too many to mention because when you’re on tour since 1988, there is so many funny and crazy stuff happened in my life and it’s unbelievable. And we all had these ‘Spinal Tap’ memories when like, you play the show, and then you need to do go outside of the venue when you and walk out of the venue to get to your dressing room and the show was over, we opened the door to get outside and it was raining cats and dogs. And I was the last guy, and everybody went into the venue to the dressing room and just in front of me, the door closed. So there was just only a knob, it was pissing rain. ‘Hey, open the door, open the door’ but nobody heard it because it was so crowded inside. And yeah, I had to walk back. And luckily the the backliners just opened the door to get the gear into the bus. So I was there, I was back in there, I was totally wet and then I need to walk through the audience, to get to the dressing room. And this was like this ‘Spinal Tap’ moment. Yeah, so have a lot of fun stories, but we don’t do not have enough time to talk about it, because it would fill a complete evening or complete week. So many funny stuff that happened on a tour bus, in a city, on festivals, on an airplane, we have so many fun things to tell, but it’s a good thing about being a musician, because if you live a life like that, okay, it’s sometimes, it’s really exhausting because playing is cool, but sometimes the traveling could be really a pain in the ass but if you live like a healthy guy and not overdo anything, then it keeps you young somehow being a musician because you’re always talking about funny stuff, you’re laughing all the time, you met a lot of people that are way younger than you are because we are old farts right now because they’re like 40 years in the business and young bands are coming up, but you meet them and you have a talk with them and that keeps you young. That’s the most important thing. Being young feeling young. That’s cool. Okay. Sometimes it aches in the morning when you have to get up, you have to get used to that. (points at my GILLAN shirt) He is such a nice and funny guy.
MAL-
He is. Yes, he played here, 1981 on the Future Shock tour and for many, many years it was the loudest gig I’d ever heard. It was fucking loud. It was. It wasn’t until SLAYER came along that they beat it for volume, Gillan was louder than Motorhead.
TOM-
Oh, and Manowar.
MAL-
Hey we’re just about out of time. ‘Brotherhood’ coming out July 15, excellent, I love it. And looking forward to that official release, best of luck with it. Thanks for joining me today.
TOM-
I really appreciate talking to you Really nice and funny.
MAL-
I aim to please.
TOM-
Yeah. So, stay safe, stay sane and celebrate life. Take care of yourself and you all your beloved ones. Hope to see you somewhere on tour.
MAL-
Thanks for having a chat with this good luck with the album. Hey, thank you have a great day
TOM-
You too.