Singing with ENGST on the curb at 'Three O'Clock at Night' – the new single from the upcoming album »Something is Always« coming this fall.
Rock and literary history has captured quite a few early morning hours for eternity. Just recently, Element of Crime sang about what it’s like to be “Awake at Four” not quite asleep and not quite awake. The Cardigans reached for their guitars in a half-asleep state on their album “Long Gone Before Daylight” with “03.45: No Sleep.” British playwright and author Sarah Kane struggled daily with her “4.48 Psychosis,” which she hammered onto paper in her dramatic final piece of the same name.
With their new single 'Three O'Clock at Night', ENGST once again subtly wobbles alongside HAIM, Halsey, Matchbox Twenty, and Eminem, all of whom have a song called “3 AM.” Musically, however, the band led by frontman, songwriter, and chief lyricist Matthias ENGST remains closer to bands like Broilers, Die Toten Hosen, or Feine Sahne Fischfilet. But ENGST share the perspective of all the aforementioned songs and pieces: This minefield between night and morning is rarely the moment for emotional highlights.
“For me, it was very important with this record to throw out a ‘This is it. This is me’ statement,” says Matthias Engst.
This also included “themes that make me uncomfortable, where I don’t come off so well myself.” The “theme” of 'Three O'Clock at Night' is a night that really happened in the life of the musician and social worker.
“At three o'clock at night, it's better to go home,” he sings with his charismatic voice – and then, of course, he doesn’t. He goes to his ex-girlfriend's apartment, whom he now misses. He knows that her new boyfriend already lives there and yelled up: “Fuck you, you son of a bitch!”
The song could have actually been placed as a powerful ballad on the radio. “Sure, that’s radio pathos,” Matthias Engst openly admits. “But with the word ‘son of a bitch’ in the chorus, we messed that up right away.” Then he laughs loudly and admits that they actually discussed it with management and production. “They wanted me to find another word. But the song is autobiographical. I’m sitting there drunk in the pub at night, realizing that I should have saved things with my ex, and then I run to her apartment, where the new guy already lives, standing completely drunk on the street and yelling up. I’m not going to say ‘silly head’ or something.”
The video for 'Three O'Clock at Night' can be heard and seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxbLQ3MEku8
This attitude is present in all 13 songs of their upcoming third album »Something is Always«. ENGST want to give it another shot – but they don’t want to sell their souls in the process. They simply realize that the band dynamic, as it is now, can achieve great things. “I believe it only works this way. With me, Ramin Tehrani (guitar, backing vocals), Yuri Cernovolov (drums), and Chris Wendel (bass, backing vocals). If one of us were to leave, I think that would be it for ENGST.”
To be honest, it has always been clear that ENGST can reach far beyond their punk roots. Their second album »Beautiful New World« made that clear, which made it into the Top 20 in 2020. Many thought: Matthias Engst could have been the new Tim Bendzko, Mark Forster, or Ben Zucker with that voice. Comparisons that are not meant as a diss here, but simply mean: He would have – if he wanted to make polished radio music – the voice for the masses.
But it is precisely in this contrast – and in the exciting biography of the man who has lived in Marzahn-Hellersdorf for 37 years and now runs the youth club “Energy” there – that the appeal of ENGST lies. “I believe many have that first impression of us,” admits Matthias Engst. “Because we can sound very tidy and poppy musically. If people haven’t seen us live, they think: ‘Yeah, that’s just a nice German rock-punk band.’ Then you do a piano ballad, and people say: ‘Look, the singer can also sing.’”
He really can. “And when they see us live, how we go off on stage and how covered I am in tattoos, they think: ‘Whoa, that’s wild.’”
The new single 'Three O'Clock at Night' is like the musical counterpart to this statement: a pure, pointed power ballad that transforms a less than glorious moment in Matthias Engst's life into a captivating and emotional song – one that could definitely be played on the radio if it weren’t for that son of a bitch… But maybe someone will dare to try!
Rock and literary history has captured quite a few early morning hours for eternity. Just recently, Element of Crime sang about what it’s like to be “Awake at Four” not quite asleep and not quite awake. The Cardigans reached for their guitars in a half-asleep state on their album “Long Gone Before Daylight” with “03.45: No Sleep.” British playwright and author Sarah Kane struggled daily with her “4.48 Psychosis,” which she hammered onto paper in her dramatic final piece of the same name.
With their new single 'Three O'Clock at Night', ENGST once again subtly wobbles alongside HAIM, Halsey, Matchbox Twenty, and Eminem, all of whom have a song called “3 AM.” Musically, however, the band led by frontman, songwriter, and chief lyricist Matthias ENGST remains closer to bands like Broilers, Die Toten Hosen, or Feine Sahne Fischfilet. But ENGST share the perspective of all the aforementioned songs and pieces: This minefield between night and morning is rarely the moment for emotional highlights.
“For me, it was very important with this record to throw out a ‘This is it. This is me’ statement,” says Matthias Engst.
This also included “themes that make me uncomfortable, where I don’t come off so well myself.” The “theme” of 'Three O'Clock at Night' is a night that really happened in the life of the musician and social worker.
“At three o'clock at night, it's better to go home,” he sings with his charismatic voice – and then, of course, he doesn’t. He goes to his ex-girlfriend's apartment, whom he now misses. He knows that her new boyfriend already lives there and yelled up: “Fuck you, you son of a bitch!”
The song could have actually been placed as a powerful ballad on the radio. “Sure, that’s radio pathos,” Matthias Engst openly admits. “But with the word ‘son of a bitch’ in the chorus, we messed that up right away.” Then he laughs loudly and admits that they actually discussed it with management and production. “They wanted me to find another word. But the song is autobiographical. I’m sitting there drunk in the pub at night, realizing that I should have saved things with my ex, and then I run to her apartment, where the new guy already lives, standing completely drunk on the street and yelling up. I’m not going to say ‘silly head’ or something.”
The video for 'Three O'Clock at Night' can be heard and seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxbLQ3MEku8
This attitude is present in all 13 songs of their upcoming third album »Something is Always«. ENGST want to give it another shot – but they don’t want to sell their souls in the process. They simply realize that the band dynamic, as it is now, can achieve great things. “I believe it only works this way. With me, Ramin Tehrani (guitar, backing vocals), Yuri Cernovolov (drums), and Chris Wendel (bass, backing vocals). If one of us were to leave, I think that would be it for ENGST.”
To be honest, it has always been clear that ENGST can reach far beyond their punk roots. Their second album »Beautiful New World« made that clear, which made it into the Top 20 in 2020. Many thought: Matthias Engst could have been the new Tim Bendzko, Mark Forster, or Ben Zucker with that voice. Comparisons that are not meant as a diss here, but simply mean: He would have – if he wanted to make polished radio music – the voice for the masses.
But it is precisely in this contrast – and in the exciting biography of the man who has lived in Marzahn-Hellersdorf for 37 years and now runs the youth club “Energy” there – that the appeal of ENGST lies. “I believe many have that first impression of us,” admits Matthias Engst. “Because we can sound very tidy and poppy musically. If people haven’t seen us live, they think: ‘Yeah, that’s just a nice German rock-punk band.’ Then you do a piano ballad, and people say: ‘Look, the singer can also sing.’”
He really can. “And when they see us live, how we go off on stage and how covered I am in tattoos, they think: ‘Whoa, that’s wild.’”
The new single 'Three O'Clock at Night' is like the musical counterpart to this statement: a pure, pointed power ballad that transforms a less than glorious moment in Matthias Engst's life into a captivating and emotional song – one that could definitely be played on the radio if it weren’t for that son of a bitch… But maybe someone will dare to try!
ENGST Live 2023
09.11.23 AT-Vienna, Chelsea
10.11.23 DE-Munich, Backstage
11.11.23 DE-Stuttgart, Im Wizemann
12.11.23 CH-Zurich, Exil
17.11.23 DE-Hannover, Musikzentrum
18.11.23 DE-Düsseldorf, Zakk
19.11.23 DE-Hamburg, Gruenspan
23.11.23 DE-Frankfurt, Das Bett
24.11.23 DE-Leipzig, Täubchenthal
25.11.23 DE-Berlin, Columbia Theater
Support: Bluthund
Festivals:
12.08. Rocco Del Schlacko
13.08. Taubertal Festival
25.08. Bullenhitze Open-Air
08.09. Haste Open Air
ENGST are:
Matthias Engst | Vocals
Ramin Tehrani | Guitar
Chris Wendel | Bass
Yuri Cernovolov | Drums
