Sinbreed

Sinbreed (formerly Neoshine) is the result of a project which had its origin in the midst of the nineties. At that time, the young guitarist Flo Krause studied a Metallica Songbook and worked through every song of it with his guitar-teacher. “And Justice For all…” opened the eyes of the former 13 year old – the energy of that record became the major push of motivation for him, both for the instrument and also to develop himself musically. Now sensitive for that kind of music, he took first his father's records. He quickly became excited for Scorpions' “Blackout”, Black Sabbath's “Dehumanizer”, and in the end he found the record which determined his future musical direction from that point on: Judas Priest's “Painkiller”. In 2006, Flo described in an interview the importance of that record for him like this: “When I am once again deeply disappointed by a new monthly release I put on Painkiller – the world was still okay back in 1990.” After clearly defining the musical direction – technical drumming, demanding guitar-work with doubled leads and a powerful high lead-singing – it was a fateful meeting which once again should determine the direction of the still young guitarist from Hessen/Germany: At a festival in 1996 the pupil earned some money helping set up the PA and stage. At this summer-festival Flo joined the sound check of a band which ten years later should play an important role: SEVENTH AVENUE. “I had listened to these guys, the bands frontman was exactly a greenhorn like me and there it dawned to me: This guy must sing with you, that’s the kind of voice you have looked out for.” From that moment on playing guitar and music in general became the absolute priority for the pupil who tried very early to join some bands: “In one of my first bands I played together with a drummer who was about 20 years older than me and he gave me a tape of the first Malmsteen record. I listened to this record several times – but wasn’t able at that point to really grasp the dimension of the album. Only years later, after maturing as a musician a little bit I understood what was really recorded there in 1981.” Being able to play guitar on such a level was a kind of healing experience for the at this time still intensely practicing guitarist: “I want to say that I was able to play fast very early but it was also clear to me that I would never climb the heights of a YNGWIE or PAUL GILBERT.” But this did not mean for Flo to give away the music – exactly the opposite happened. Now he saw music in its whole variety and horizon and understood that apart from his effort for more instrumental capacity he should never loose sight of music as “the whole”. He mastered now the tension to think about the musical aspects of a producer while playing guitar for hours. Beginning 2000 he made the first steps in producing and gained experience in recording and music arrangement. Together with ANDREAS IANCU whom he got to know through another common friend the later NEOSHINE-material came to the surface. Andreas with his classical training and solistic capacity was the right partner for the more rhythm-oriented guitar player Flo. “Andreas showed me a lot of music-theory which you will never find in a teaching book. Till today I gain a lot from that.” Many songs of the debut came out that time, like “Arise”, “Neoshine” or “Ride On”. That it will take another eight years for this first record to be finished was mainly because of the more professional focus and the higher level of the protagonist. The character of “never being really satisfied” is mostly known among musicians. The decisive “next step” should be planned very carefully. But first it needs to be said what happened after most of the songs where composed. With the name NEOSHINE the first attempts began in 2005: MARTIN BRENDLER sang the first Demo “WITH A NEOSHINE” which brought mainly positive reactions. The a bit limited voice did not give real life to the songs and in a lot of reviews it was referred to as being close to the early eighties. This was surely expected by Flo – but wasn’t the aim in any case. He wanted to sound more fresh and unused. That’s why he looked for the singer whom he searched and found already ten years ago. “It became clear to me very early that I wanted Herbie to be the main singer. But you cannot send some kind of bad quality tape to such a singer and tell him that he just needs to scream a bit over it.” Flo mentioned in that regard. So it should take till the end of 2005 until Flo recorded his first real demo together with his friend MARTIN PILZ in his studio which for Flo should have the quality now to let HERBIE LANGHANS really listen to it: “Now everything was finished and then I struggeled with myself several times to finally send an Email to HERBIE with the question of singing. I worked for that now for some years and was happy when he reacted really cool on it.” After sending him the CD and the lyrics it did not take more then two weeks and Herbie had recorded the vocal parts of the songs. “When the CD arrived I was happy like a little child and wasn’t disappointed: With his vocals I was the first time absolutely satisfied with the material.” At the same time an interesting rumor came up in the Wiesbaden scene: BLIND GUARDIAN have a new drummer. At first sight not really interesting if this new guy would not have been someone like Frederik Ehmke. This Frederik of whom Flo had for years his phone-number and address in his diary? "End of the nineties my former guitar teacher gave me Frederiks number and said to me that I really have to talk to him. But I was far too much busy with my guitar-stuff and far away from the material which someone could have practiced with a band. When my friend then called me and gave me the news that a guy from my place became the new man with Guardian it dawned to me the first time that it should have been much better to have called him a bit earlier...". But happy enough this circumstance should not be a hindrance to connect with Ferderik beginning of 2006. The contact was made by his brother so after a practice-session and a bit of thinking the drummer decided to record the CD with NEOSHINE. “I was very happy about the yes of Fred. After testing some Death- and Thrash-Metal-Drummer for the Neoshine-material I was never really happy with these recordings but with Fred we found a real power-metal-drummer who is gifted for that beyond any doubt and who brought even his own ideas into the material.” But now we still lacked the bass-man. He was found quickly: ALEXANDER SCHULZ. Here in the local scene he wasn’t a no-name and Flo did already hear a lot about his base-play. And like always it was one more time a real incident which led to the first meeting of these two musicians: "One night I was totally drunk leaving a taxi and felt to Alex’s feet. When I recognized who he was we found out that we lived door to door in the same road as neighbours for years.” Twenty minutes later and after listening to three songs Neoshine had a new bass-player. Now the right record-studio needed to be found. After a tip of a friend the decision was made very fast: The BAZEMENT STUDIO of MARKUS TESKE (SYMPHONY X, VANDEN PLAS). Flo’s comment: “That was really damned funny that while looking for it you find exactly the right studio next to your home in which already a lot of first-class records where made, which I have for years already at home. Finally Markus was a very cool guy who put music over business and extremely helped us in a lot of areas till today and that made the whole stuff simply perfect for us.” The next demo, “Demo-EP III” now with the full set-up was recorded very fast and with that four-track EP the band reached the third place in 2007 at the talent-competition of the “HEAVY”-magazine. Flo’s reaction: “Latest after the good result at this competition I was convinced that it could be successful to publish the album. But because it became more and more difficult to get a record-deal as a newcomer I came to the conclusion to record the album by myself and then offer the finished product”. During that phase the change of names from NEOSHINE to SINBREED happened because there were some legal name-conflict with an American enterprise. Designed with a cover-Artwork of FELIPE MACHADO FRANCO (ICED EARTH, AXEL RUDI PELL) and with the pre-release of three songs of the album the first label-search began in January 2009. The next release will be the full-length release of the debut-cd. rebt. Current band members taken from Ulterium Records Frederik Ehmke – Drums Herbie Langhans – Vocals Alexander Schulz – Bass Flo Laurin – Guitars, Keys Homepage: www.sinbreed.com. To be continued… Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.