As Powerwolf gears up for their biggest tour production to date and the Wake Up the Wicked album release, we sat down with Falk Maria Schlegel to discuss the inspiration behind the new songs, their cinematic videoclips and what we can expect from their upcoming shows.
Hi Falk, how are you today? Are you enjoying some time off before the start of the tour?
I’m doing very well, thank you! We’re actually working hard on the final touches before we start the US leg of the tour on August 29th. We’ll kick off at the Hollywood Palladium, which is an awesome venue. After that, we’ll have two weeks for rehearsing and preproduction, then we’ll hit Hamburg on October 4th and Amsterdam right after!
Are you looking forward to touring again?
Yes, I’m really looking forward to playing the shows!
I can imagine we’ll hear quite a few songs from the new album. Some titles hint at historical themes, and Sinners of the Seven Seas was filmed on a historical ship replica. Is history an overarching theme of this album?
Partially, yes, but not completely. We did focus more on stories with historical aspects, religious elements, folklore, and mythology, and ended up finding a lot! We picked these topics because we are getting some more nerds that help us with the research into these topics, haha. A lot of these ideas also come from our fans, which is really awesome. I used to worry we’d run out of ideas, but now it almost seems like we have too many themes to explore.
1589 tells the story of Peter Stumpp, who was believed to be a werewolf back in the day. He was part of an important werewolf tribe and was sentenced to death in 1589. We found historical proof of this, though there’s no evidence he was actually a werewolf — he might have just been an outsider punished for something else -. In the video of the song we didn’t want to show any killing scenes, but instead chose to picture the suffering of Peter Stumpp. This song would be a good example of this combination between history and mythology that we took for this album. We love mixing these different kinds of themes in our songs, and also did this with Sinners of the Seven Seas.
Can you tell me more about Sinners of the Seven Seas?
Sinners of the Seven Seas is not just about traveling and conquering lands, like most of these sailing stories from back in the day seemed to focus on. Instead we also tried to capture the slow decline of morale on the ship during its voyages. We wanted to take a different perspective and, in the end, I think we achieved a perfect mixture of these themes.
1589 is my favourite. This is also because I visited Cologne for the preparation of the song. I did a hike there, which was called the path of Peter Stumpp, which really emerged me in his story. For the video itself we went to the south of England in November last year, where it was raining, with lots of fog, and got to visit all these amazing places. We went to an open-air museum focused around that time period and visited a forest that looked a bit like the Sleepy Hollow movie from Tim Burton. That way we really felt the atmosphere, almost like being in the story itself. For Sinners of the Seven Seas, we filmed on an actual boat, which made me incredibly seasick, haha. But when we are rehearsing these songs again after playing them at these locations, your mind goes back to these experiences as well; it will feel like I am on that boat again, minus the sea sickness. We bring those stories on stage with us, keep them in mind, which I feel reflects on how we perform the songs as well. It is different from the songs we film in front of a green screen or songs we don’t have a video for.
Why did you decide to put so much work into these big music videos?
I think the starting point for that was with the Monumental Mass concert movie, where we wanted to present our story in a more cinematic way. It is a little bit boring to just have a performance video of a band playing in a hall, so we tried combining performance with scenery and storyline. It is not easy though, because you only have three or four minutes to show everything. No one sees that we are recording for a week straight and only end up with four minutes of material left.
Will the elaborate videos translate to the live shows as well? With even bigger and more spectacular decor than we are used to?
We’re trying! We have stage props to transform the stage into a church, and will try to deliver a separate scene for each song we play. For this we want to use some elements from the videos on stage as well, which we are still working on at the moment. In the end, it will just be one huge heavy metal party, it will be crazy!
In both videos of the videos we saw burning pianos. How many pianos were harmed in the making of the videos? 😉
1589 had one piano, which started to burn very quickly once we lit it because it was very old and dry. I think I ended up with only ten seconds to play because it burned away in such a short time. I kept screaming at the director to keep it going, because I knew we would only get one chance at this take, and I was scared he would stop before the song would end. For Sinners of the Seven Seas, we used a harmonium, like I play on stage. For this scene I had a bit more time since we were in the water. I’ve used five or six harmoniums in video shoots—eBay is a good friend for finding them! I don’t tell the sellers what we’re going to do to their instruments, though, haha.
Will the third video have a burning piano as well?
No, I promise I didn’t burn one for that video, haha. It will also look completely different from the previous ones.
What is this third song about?
It’s about how We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints—we all sin in some way. Obviously not in a way where people get hurt, but more in a way of being different. We don’t want to be normal. For this song we used a children’s choir for the first time. We were not sure if it would fit with a Powerwolf song, but it provided a great contrast with the song title, and I think it worked out perfectly.
Absolutely! I agree that the album is heavier compared to our previous albums. It already starts with the first song, Bless ‘Em with the Blade, which hits you like a thunderstorm, woosh, coming over you. It should have you asking: wow, was that the first song already? We’re a heavy metal band, and while we have good singalongs and pop elements, we still want to show our heavy metal roots.
Do you have a favourite song on the album?
It’s hard to choose because I love the whole album, but if I have to pick, I’d say 1589 or Heretic Hunters.
I liked Heretic Hunters the best! It seems like it would be a great live song, I already felt like chanting along with the chorus when listening to it for the first time.
That’s so good to hear, because we felt the same when rehearsing the album and still figuring out which songs we would play live. It really feels like a live song. From the moment it starts with the hurdy-gurdy, you can immediately feel this movement in your body, making it clear what you should do during this song. I feel like the song is a bit different because we used the medieval instrument, which gives it more of an impact.
Is there a song you enjoy playing live the most?
It depends. If there is a song during which I have to play a lot live, I can’t jump around as much. If there is a part that I can play with only my right hand, then I still have my left hand to cheer the audience on. I love Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend because I can do movements behind my organs. I like to show with my whole body how much I am enjoying playing them. I want to feel the song on stage. Playing live is exciting because you never know how the audience will react. Sometimes that makes me also pop out an unexpected move that I then keep for future shows. That is the most fun part for me; not knowing what will happen. The first time that we play a song live on stage, it is a mixture of being super, super nervous and really excited for me.
If you enjoy moving around on stage while playing, have you considered buying a keytar?
Never! Personally, I hate this keytar thing. It reminds me of Modern Talking, and looks a bit silly to me. However, there are bands around, like Battle Beast, who incorporate them in a really good way. Then it’s completely fine. But for me personally: no. Like I already said, we are a heavy metal band. I always tell our main composer during the writing process that he can keep out the organ in certain parts of the song. At that point we always joke that it’s because I want to jump around and interact with the audience during that part of the song, which is partially true. But I also think that it’s just not always necessary to add a keyboard to our songs. These parts end up being the parts of the show in which I can interact with the fans however I want. However, when I can’t jump around, I like to make up for it in other ways, for example by putting my fire organ right in the middle of the stage, to make it really spectacular. More is more, is my motto!
You mentioned Battle Beast, who, along with many other bands, have covered a Powerwolf song. Would you like to see one of the new songs covered by another band?
Right now, there are no plans for that, but we’ve loved hearing other bands’ interpretations of our songs in the past. It’s always an honor, and we’d be excited if it happens again.
You guys are preparing for the tour so you obviously have no time to play any festivals this summer. Are you bummed that you don’t get to play any this year?
When we started preparing for this album and the tour, we said that we would put our full focus on that. But still, it feels very strange; I’ve never had this happen before where we didn’t play any festivals in summer. I can’t open Instagram of TikTok without seeing all these amazing bands playing all the metal festivals, and my god, I really want to do it again next year. Fortunately we have our tour to look forward to, which will be our biggest production yet, so we are quite busy with the preparations. But it will almost start and you will definitely see us back on the festival lineups next year!
The tickets for the shows are going really fast, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans that are still unsure about whether they should come see you live?
Don’t hesitate! Come and join the Powerwolf family. You’ll leave the venue feeling like part of the wolfpack. If you’re unsure, just come—you won’t regret it!
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