The Chemnitz duo Tears is newcomer of the year, Linus Volkmann states in his column.
Tense NDW wave – with the best longing and madness lyrics from here to Tierra del Fuego. Tears are the newcomers of 2023.
Highly concentrated top journalists of the features section – still trained on the relics of Rudolf Augstein’s remains… Welcome to these lines! Because despite all their competence and the conspiratorial hours in the brandy room of the Spiegelhochhaus, the journalists’ boxes, like every year, look enviously at this visionary homemade column in which I cradle the fresh newcomer of the year in my arms. After long months of hesitation, this should then seep into the feature pages. Like its predecessors in this series: Team Scheisse was found here in 2021 and Pogendroblem in 2022.
Well then. Let’s get started when everyone is ready.
Forget
The title of the series this year almost invites you to think: “I wish I did could Forget 2023!” Because so much regress, so much ruin was rare. But that’s precisely why I’m happy to share such an incredibly great discovery with you here: Tears from Chemnitz. Without any articles. Who doesn’t get flashbacks to the very first Strunk novel “Meat is my Vegetable” and the Tiffany band described there, who always defended themselves against the “Die” – of course in vain?
Tears, these are Gwen Dolyn and Steffen Israel. I came across the former by chance because she has a cover of an EA80 song on YouTube in her outfit from the time (Gwen Dolyn and Toyboys). EA80 – this is an incredibly charged dark punk legend from the eighties (which is still active today) and the song “Dr. In the original, Murke’s collected silence represents something very monolithic across all scenes. It is all the more astonishing that Gwen Dolyn was able to add so much that was equal and new with her interpretation. I’ve been hooked ever since.
And Steffen Israel? Well, you know him as the guitarist from Kraftklub. Okay, everyone should at least know Kraftklub, but Steffen himself doesn’t really stand out as a loudspeaker in this band. Based on an old Simpsons episode, I would say about him: “And Steffen… that could be the quiet, religious guy who goes crazy at some point.”
Fun of course. Steffen is probably not particularly religious.
This week (beginning of November 2023) their debut album HAIR OF A DOG is being released and I’ve rarely been so sure: That’s the thing, people. Just listen for yourself.
And of course read what they both have to say. Have fun.
Okay, I would like to annoy you with really exhausting, special questions. But that doesn’t do it justice, after all you are a completely new act. So let’s start simple. How did you meet?
GWEN [grinst Steffen an] …Don’t say it!
Why not? Tinder, or what?
STEFFEN [lacht] Nope, elitepartner.de! It is the best platform if you are looking for a band. You know, a piece of paper like that in the band house doesn’t do anything anymore. No, nonsense. We met through music.
GWEN Steffen played a piece of mine on his podcast and mispronounced me…
STEFFEN Unfortunately it happens to me often because I always just read the bands beforehand… It’s not the hardest name for you, but it somehow caused me to stumble.
GWEN You definitely did something very funny with my name, so I felt invited to send you a voice message. Of course I was really happy and flattered that I was appearing on such a well-known podcast. [Der Podcast von Steffen Israel und Kraftklub-Sänger Felix Kummer heißt „Radio mit K“]
STEFFEN [stellt die Kontaktaufnahme noch einmal nach] “Hello my name is Gwen Dolyn.“
GWEN Haha, yes, really West German.
STEFFEN And then we started talking about music in the chat. And she said that she was looking for “Dr. Murkes” wanted to do another punk cover version like this again, this time “Duel of the Last” by Chaos-Z. To be honest, I didn’t know the song, but when I heard it, I was thrilled too. It gets better and better the more you listen to it. Then I offered myself if she needed someone for the project, I would be happy to be there. Then we met in Berlin and things got really serious.
GWEN For me, this all took place during a major period of change anyway. Lovesickness and uprooting – I ended up changing cities and felt a great urge to simply do things differently. With my solo project I was always very much on my own, Toyboys were my live band, but apart from two pieces they didn’t participate in the songwriting – so I found it inspiring to work with Steffen. So with someone who also writes songs.
STEFFEN The extent that the band has now taken on was not the plan at all.
GWEN Exactly! Actually it was just supposed to be a joint cover version.
So I imagine it like this: you finished “Duel of the Last” and realized that there was more to it?
GWEN You might think now, but it was different: it was more likely that we simply didn’t finish “Duel of the Last” and then started working on a few other ideas at the same time because it was so frustrating with this piece. Steffen threw his guitar pick at the computer!
STEFFEN It fell out of my hand…
GWEN Of course! At least that’s how it all worked out. The demos around it became more and more because “Duel of the Last” remained difficult for so long. And you also have to add that we both got along really well, showed each other music and quickly realized how much we complement each other. Steffen is quite a bitch, I especially notice that when I see him play. For me, however, that is quite a blank space. Especially hits that everyone knows and can sing along to, I always just look at them questioningly… Then I bring up some cute indie bands that they’ve never heard before.
STEFFEN Wait a minute, it sounds like I really only listen to pop! I have a big heart for American garage and indie sounds, for example.
GWEN We simply benefit each other, that’s what I was trying to get at.
STEFFEN I experienced everything very intensively, a great phase. We immediately incorporated many of the pieces that we played to ourselves into our project: “Yes, we need a part like that too!” “It’s great, listen here, that would be it!”
GWEN [lacht] But in the end it didn’t turn out that way at all.
STEFFEN We had the vision that we were creating something very dark and also heavy, but somehow… the music took us somewhere else. I guess we were just kidding ourselves when we thought we were the new deep darkwave indies.
GWEN There was a lot that we thought was cool and that we would have liked to have been, but then we realized that we wanted to develop ourselves with this project. So don’t try to be anyone or follow and stick to a concept. We want to feel freer with tears. This led to the question: What are we concerned about then? And our answer was, it’s about metamorphoses as well as coming to terms with your own demons. That’s why I immediately had this image of the dog’s hair in my head. So there is this tension that something can be both a poison and an antidote at the same time.
I have to ask the stupid question: hair on a dog, what does that have to do with self-realization?
GWEN This comes from the English saying “The hair of the dog that bites you” and, quite simply, refers to the “counter beer”. You have a hangover and you have to drink another one the next morning so that it isn’t so bad. So it’s about becoming aware of the things that are making you miserable – and eating them in digestible bites. As with immunization or therapy.
I often feel the same way about encrypted texts that I think: Actually, it’s just a smart jumble of words that acts as if there’s so much behind it, but actually the alleged deeper level of meaning doesn’t even exist. When it comes to tears, although the lyrics are often hard to decipher at first glance, I don’t have that feeling at all. That’s what particularly fascinates me is that you feel, oh, here’s something for a change really something to discover – it’s worth thinking about individual lines here.
GWEN I also find what you describe, with its lack of content, extremely unpleasant – and I’m glad that you don’t read my texts that way.
The fact that it’s a lot about fears and dark places in your own psyche can be seen without a magnifying glass – also because you deal with it openly on social media. Do you find this openness, this vulnerability easy in your art?
GWEN I’ve been hiding for too long in my adult life – and I’ve lost a lot of time to all the anxiety that came with it, as well as the, yes, material poverty that came with it. It’s still super stressful for me today to write songs and put my emotions into a form that you can present, but it’s really a survival strategy for me. I’ve tried a lot of other things too, but that’s just what I get along with best. If people follow me on social media, then they can of course find a lot of me in my music – while those who only read the songs tend to read them as social commentary. Which, of course, they are.
And Steffen, what is it like for you to suddenly be so much more exposed with this project? At Kraftklub, that takes on the grief of one. Here in tears you now have to explain yourself.
STEFFEN It’s okay… but luckily I’m not alone. Less than a duo wouldn’t work for me.
When you see couples on stage, you usually imagine that they are too in real are together. How do you feel about love?
GWEN Haha, you’re the first to dare to ask that!
And?
STEFFEN The song “It’s not what it looks like” is the first song on the record. To make that clear.
[Schweigen]
STEFFEN [verschmitzt] Music connects us. This is our love.
[Schweigen / Ich hoffe, dass noch mehr zum Thema kommt. Doch die beiden gucken bloß freundlich.]
Okay, okay, then last question: Hype Town Chemnitz. Gwen, how did you settle in here? Steffen, what was the first thing you showed her about the city?
STEFFEN First of all… Of course the best Vietnamese restaurant! Because Gwen likes to eat Vietnamese. And then? Do I have to think…
GWEN Since then, I’ve actually been showing Steffen around the city. [lacht] No, he showed me the clubs quickly. We were in the world’s echo and were also able to open the new Atomino. In any case, Chemnitz is really sweet for me base, as there isn’t that much going on and there is a lot of nature around. But there are also a few nice cafés, I like sitting in cafés, I have to say – and I was able to introduce Steffen to the ones that are here. In addition, as a poor artist you can afford something to live in Chemnitz – but of course you can also afford it as a rich one.
Kraftklub embody this attitude that cultural life is possible outside of Berlin. And people don’t necessarily have to be absorbed into the capital at some point.
STEFFEN But I still don’t see myself as a brand ambassador for Chemnitz. Gwen just loved it here.
GWEN That’s right.
The album: Tears – HAIR OF A DOG (Eklat / Release November 3rd)
The first tour in spring 2024. Many cities are already sold out. You can find an overview of all the dates here.
What happened until now? Here is an overview of all the pop column texts.