NERD SCHOOL | Interview
Hello Tom, Hello Lars! You recently released your first album, which you recorded in your standard duo lineup. What reasons led you to this lineup besides, as mentioned in the band bio, scheduling difficulties or similar issues with various bassists?
Tom: I believe the main reason is simply our shared wavelength and musicality. For NERD SCHOOL, we not only wanted people to fit in with us personally, but also to share the same passion and time for the whole thing as the two of us do. Additionally, they should also fit musically. All in all, it’s not that easy to find everything in one person at once.
Lars: The passion for music, a common wavelength, and not least the willingness to cover 600 km just for a rehearsal have seriously advanced the Nerd School project. Those were certainly reasons, and on the other hand, the friendly aspect that can support something like this is highly valued! So, we ultimately decided: "Let’s give it a try!" With a technical implementation that Tom can surely elaborate on.
Tom: I remember that in the bands I played in before, making music was often a constant, musical struggle because four people had completely different views of what the band was. It was always viewed under the guise of positive friction, but ultimately it was totally exhausting and in most cases completely pointless.
When the songs stem from a shared (life) feeling, it’s much more satisfying than constantly having to fight over every nuance and every note. I’ve experienced all of that, and I found it all super exhausting!
Lars: One must also say that we eventually didn’t see the whole experimenting and trying out in the duo setup as a disadvantage at all. It was more of an advantage that arose for us, as we realized we could perhaps implement things on a musical level that would have been more difficult as a trio or quartet, where there might have been more friction and disputes. Getting the maximum out of two people was another exciting aspect that emerged from it.
I think it shows! What you do as a duo, many other bands can’t even achieve in a 4- or 5-piece lineup. With two guitars, a bassist, and an extra singer. It all sounds like a very well-rehearsed team!
Lars: We received a similar compliment yesterday, which I personally really like: we are extremely tight, on point. And I believe that’s what we’re trying to pursue.
You can really see the implementation on stage; you communicate quite casually, the entries fit, and that’s not so easy when you have to focus on singing while also playing the guitar...
Tom: … Keyword: device tap dance
… that would be the transition to discuss the technical implementation. Since you have this duo setup, it’s naturally a bit more challenging to implement what usually might require two guitars and a bass with just one guitar, and then also sing...
Tom: … Above all, the freedom of movement is unfortunately often limited. I would love to celebrate the songs more often, but suddenly I find myself bound to either the microphone or the effects board in the next two seconds. That’s the typical keyboardist disease.
Do you use two amps or three with your guitar?
Tom: Three!
So two guitar amps and one bass amp?
Tom: Exactly!
Normal strings or extra thick ones? There are many people who use extra thick strings to make everything sound even thicker.
Tom: Well, I don’t really believe in super dropped tunings, like down to B or so, because it immediately sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age and also doesn’t fit my vocal range. I don’t want to delve into the whole technical aspect here, as I don’t really see that as the focus. Of course, we surprise many with how big we sound, even though we’re just two. But ultimately, we’re not a technical band; it’s primarily about the songs, and I think that whole reduction process in the arrangement already finds enough resonance.
We recently received a review in another magazine that put it quite well: "You have to first embrace a certain kind of minimalism; if you can do that, you’ll discover a lot of new things!"
Was that a review of a concert or the album?
Tom: Of the album. I’m pleased when people tell us that you have to listen to the album several times to like it because that shows we’ve managed to create some depth, even though we’re just two.
I don’t actually find the album that minimalistic. I’ve listened to it multiple times and miss the bass at all, which is also prominently featured on the album. Moreover, it’s super produced, like a thick rock record. Did you record it live or track-by-track? How many guitar tracks are there? What else?
Lars: We used a whole day to record the setup live. We essentially played through our concert a few times, and in the end, we had 13-14 pieces, of which 12 remained. The drums were finished after one day.
Tom: We then had a guitar signal on four channels, or even five channels. However, we always had the same frequency response. We recorded two guitar channels, one line channel for reamping, and two bass tracks, one distorted and one clean. From that, we first mixed a basic foundation, and then for various songs and passages, guitars were sometimes doubled. Plus vocals, it took about three days in total.
So, just as it is on the album...
Lars: With the live recording of the drums plus the guitar tracks, plus a bit of overdubbing for special guitar parts, plus vocals that were laid down later - we obviously didn’t record them live - it actually only took three days.
Tom: However, we mixed for a total of maybe 14 days.
... and then mastering separately?
Lars: Yes, spread over an entire year. It took about a year, maybe a little longer, from recording to release. We recorded everything in spring 2011, and the whole album was only released on May 18, 2012, a year later. Ultimately, the tenor of both producers was that we wanted to try to preserve the live sound and energy as much as possible. But basically, we wanted to keep it as original as possible and not turn it into a glossy production.
Tom: So what I find important is that only when you’ve properly recorded a piece does it truly come to life. It’s not just the recorded music tracks that matter, but also everything in between that you describe with sound design. There’s a lot of stuff in the background on the album that swirls, jingles, scratches, and hums in passages, which you often only hear subliminally, but it’s super important because it creates atmosphere and thus depth. We only realized that during recording. You have a passage where a guitar fades out over eight bars; you can do that live, but on the album, you think, hmm, something is missing there. That’s how many stories emerged, where we could play with little rap parts hidden in the background, clinking bottles, creaking doors, and who knows what else.
There must have been some reactions to the album; what were the most interesting, exciting, etc. for you?
Tom: What I find positive is that people often don’t really know where to place us, or conversely, people hear many things that they often can’t put together under a common denominator. I think that’s totally cool! The range goes from Metallica to Jimi Hendrix to Rage Against The Machine to Clawfinger, and we’re surprised every time, but we can’t completely negate it. These are all influences we carry within us; it all goes through our 2-man mill, and what comes out always somehow sounds like Nerd School. So I’m not too unhappy about that; rather, I’m quite happy about this variability of the mentioned bands.
Lars: The comparisons in the reviews sometimes remind me of a colorful bag of "mixed" that you buy at the kiosk. There’s something for everyone in there. A real mix of genres and styles... Wave, punk, of course rock, stoner, hardcore, there was an incredible amount in there. Ska was also mentioned; I haven’t really heard that on our own album yet. But I found it interesting and exciting, and it just shows me that the people writing about it are listening to it and engaging with it. I don’t perceive that as negative criticism but rather find it interesting to read and see that they really listened to it seriously.
Tom: The fact that many people often can’t properly categorize us and look for examples and links to approach NERD SCHOOL probably also has to do with the fact that this is our first album. I believe that with the second or third album, people will be more accustomed to it and then know what to expect from us. Then the surprise effect might not be so great anymore, and you might also hear the next album quite differently.
Lars: We didn’t set out to be particularly versatile or to cater to all these genres. We try to create something that feels right for us as a duo without orienting ourselves one-to-one to specific bands.
You also don’t always reinvent the wheel, so it’s certainly not uncommon for someone to say: I’ve heard something similar before at...
Tom: We don’t have that expectation. But if we make another album, it will probably be a bit more thought-out in the sense that we’ll think a bit more about the style and sound. When we’re both in Berlin soon, we’ll finally have the opportunity to work on pieces more regularly. Given the limited time so far, it was primarily necessary to get the pieces down and be able to play them in a reasonable framework. We haven’t really tinkered with it much.
Lars: We didn’t have that rehearsal situation, that typical jamming. Instead, we always had to get to the point as quickly as possible to achieve a productive result in a short amount of time.
Are there reactions outside of Germany with possible tour offers?
Tom: It’s not quite that far yet. There are reactions from abroad via the internet; it’s always interesting to see from which countries people suddenly reach out to us on our Facebook page: Korea, Israel, and who knows where. That’s always very interesting because we always wonder how they stumbled upon us. But the paths of the internet and YouTube are unfathomable. Otherwise, we just did a relatively detailed interview with an American blog called Nerd-Locker, which of course also stumbled upon us due to the affinity of the names. We would love to do more with that and play abroad. Scandinavia would also be a great opportunity for me. A lot of rock ’n roll has come from there in recent years; maybe there’s a chance, and we’re very open to it.
A question that relates a bit to your background. You did this Metal Messiahs Mitte thing before NERD SCHOOL officially existed. And then somehow played before a Beatsteaks concert? How did that idea come about, or how did you come up with that name?
Tom: That’s a long story… with a lot of coincidences. We didn’t play before a Beatsteaks concert; we distributed CDs there. Those were the very first beginnings when Lars and I not only jammed but also created our first pieces. Myspace was a thing back then that I didn’t have access to at all. I only stumbled upon it when there was a Myspace Secret Gig with the Beatsteaks in Berlin. To get in, you had to be friends with the Beatsteaks on Myspace. So, I just did that and realized that Myspace was a very useful tool for exchanging first demos between Lars and me. Lars could also listen in at work...
Lars (laughing): … nice at work...!!!
Tom: So I quickly created a band account without having any information that would have been important for that. I just made up the most ridiculous name that came to mind. Band name? ... has to be catchy: Metal Messiahs Mitte! somehow Berlin Mitte and so on. It quickly became a lot of fun to create such a completely crazy band alter ego; I can only recommend it to everyone! Band photos? .. just typed in Google image search "trio from behind" or "rock trio from behind" so that none of us would be seen (there was still a bassist back then). Concerts? ... of course! Rick am Ring, Rock im Park plus Hurricane and Southside, which no one ever does at the same time! Anyway, a little later came the day with the Beatsteaks concert, and I wanted to go there, so I drove by the Lido at five in the afternoon, and there was already a 200-meter line, with doors opening at 9. So it was clear that there was nothing to be done. Then I noticed that our entire target audience was standing there, and I thought we should check how they react to the first sounds. I then sped over to the nearest Saturn, bought three double spindles with single-form blanks, and with my girlfriend’s notebook and mine, I burned about 70 copies in about an hour, put a little sticker on it: My Secret Band: Metal Messiahs Mitte, and off we went! And then I arrived at the Lido, and people were all standing behind barriers in a line, and they were ripping the CDs from my hand. You take everything for free. After a few minutes, there were already the first disturbances, so the security said, stand over there, we want to have our peace. And then suddenly, there were 4-5 photo reporters from Tipp and Zitty around me and a TV crew from rbb wanting to know what this was all about. There was only this reference to our Myspace page. Our songs, my voice, and a few photos, and this whole combination with Metal Messiahs, the current Beatsteaks album at that time was Limbo Messiah, and this gig led people to think it was a side project of the Beatsteaks, Ärzte, and who knows who else. We then had 300-400 clicks and new friends on Myspace every day, and it skyrocketed within days. With the end result that six weeks after I came up with this word MetalMessiahsMitte, there were over 6000 links on the internet, and we were listed for Rock am Ring. Unofficially confirmed in alphabetical order between Mando Diao and Marilyn Manson. We naturally took that with amusement at first and continued it a bit. People found it quite entertaining, and we tried to resolve it with a big bang at Rock am Ring. There was a kind of scavenger hunt where people could find and unmask us. However, the biggest highlight was that later at Rock am Ring, we met Bela B. and Bernde from the Beatsteaks backstage, one after the other, and I told them: we have this thing going on, and everyone thinks you’re in our band. And both of them stood there facing us and said: "Yeah, I’ve heard about it!" That it even reached such people was fascinating.
A question about your videos. They all look very nice and lovingly made. Did you design them all yourself, scripts etc., Tom?
Tom: No, not necessarily. I work in that area, and of course, you develop ideas, but we develop them together. Sometimes something like that arises quite spontaneously. You find some cool location and do something there without directly knowing which song it might fit later, but that results in a lot of NERD SCHOOL creativity. But we also plan some shoots properly organized, but being flexible to make spontaneous decisions is also possible.
So it’s already a thing between the two of you, or do you let others mix in as well?
Tom: It would be interesting to let people whom we believe can add their own artistic aspect have free rein. There are contacts and ambitions, but so far, it’s all been DIY.
Lars: I wouldn’t mind if, for example, Anton Corbijn said he’d like to do something with us...
Is there anything else you urgently need to get off your chest?
Tom: Just that we hope to play as much live as possible. I believe our band simply lives from being able to convince people live. The album is one thing, but I think live playing is very, very important for us, and we’re just happy when people come back and we have the opportunity to play as often as possible.
Lars: It’s a lot of fun to play in a club that’s tight, where people are sweating, but it’s also fascinating to play at a festival on a big stage with the corresponding technology...
Tom: … where 2000-7000 people could stand, haha….
Lars: A lot is still to come. We’re taking on a few festivals this summer, but in the fall and next year, we want to really take off.
