The Other

Formed on Hallow's Eve 2002 after a few successful years as the Misfits Coverband Ghouls, The Other has recently been labeled "Europe's most popular Horrorpunk-Band" by the press. The Other calls themselves "138% Horrorpunk" and rightfully so. But don't just take our word for it, find out for youself at www.Myspace.com/TheOther

1. Can you give us a brief history of The Other and how you guys started?

We started in 1999 as a Misfits Coverband called "Ghouls“ and quickly became popular in Germany, especially after the `96 line-up of the Misfits broke up. On Halloween 2002 we played our first own song during a Ghouls set. The song is called "Ripley 8“ and later became the opening track of the first THE OTHER album. The feedback to that show and our song "Beware Of Ghouls“ on the compilation "This is Horrorpunk“ was so overwhelming that we started taking The Other more serious and after awhile stopped playing covershows altogether. The Other quicky started playing shows all over Europe with many popular bands and – later on – toured the American West Coast and played big Punk, Metal and Goth festivals everywhere…The musical style has progressed since the debut, but we still call it 138% Horrorpunk.

2. What are some of your influences, musical and non musical?

Musically obviously the Misfits from 77-83 and from 96-99. Plus The Damned, especially their "Strawberries“ and "Phantasmogoria“ albums. Add a little bit of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Sisters of mercy, Kiss, Twisted Sister and Metallica and you get a slight idea.

Other things that have influenced us are obviously the stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King and Nathaniel Hawthorne plus certain works by Bram Stoker, Mary Shelly, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells and especially "The Strange Case Of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde“ by R.L. Stevenson. Jack Ketchum and Dan Simmons are great, too!

Film-wise we don’t make a secret of our inspiration: Universal Horror is our true love, especially the misunderstood creatures like Frankenstein, Tarantula and the Creature from the black lagoon. And we should not forget the Roger Corman Poe-movies the best Horror actor of them all: Vincent Price!

3. Tell us about your latest album “The Place To Bleed”.

Now the album has been out for more than a year and we’ve already written eight songs for the fourth longplayer. But we’re very proud of "The Place To Bleed“ because it’s been a big step for us. The songs are more sophisticated and we’ve developed our very own identity even further. True, the album may be a little heavier and modern then the previes two releases but that might have been the secret to it’s success. Since then we’ve been given the chance of playing some big shows and festivals…. The album also features our first song that is completely in German and features a female guest-vocalist who is a huge star in Germany…. We can’t let you know her name however.

4. What's your creative process like and how do you write your songs?

Sarge von Rock and I are the main contributors when it comes to ideas but the whole band works on them. Sarge or I bring in a melody or guitar riff and during rehearsal we build a song around this initial idea. I always have lyric-ideas written down as well. I’m constantly singing or playing ideas into my cell phone. Sometimes I wake up at night and record stuff.

5. Tell us about your comic book “Tales Of The Other” and any plans of new issues?

Since I was a kid I’ve been a KISS fan and have collected Marvel Comics and loved Horror movies. So I wanted to bring all this together in a comic about THE OTHER. And I’m sure you will aggree that the four characters that make THE OTHER are perfect for a comic-book. The comic tells the story about how three of us were resurrected by our Dr. Caligari in a plan to take over the work under the disguise of a "Shock-Rock“-band. It has four chapters for each bandmember and it’s thus a little hommage to the EC comic style of the 50s. We’re very proud that a horror-comic-publisher in Germany loved the idea so much that they took my story and made a comic out of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll write a book about the characters some day or someone will even make a movie about The Other. But right now we’re working on "Tales Of The Other“ Part Two and hope to have a team-up with some friends, like Blitzkid, Shadow Reichenstein or Frank The Baptist in there.

6. You guys have toured with amazing bands, who are some of your favorites you've toured with?

We’ve toured with Blitzkid the most in Europe and the US - and they’re like brothers. When we tour with them there’s no two bands anymore but one huge band. We hang around, we swap musicians on stage and we let Goolsby take all the girls without hard feelings J. We’ve had some very special shows with Germany’s most famous Punk-drummer Bela B. (of Die Ärzte) and his solo-project. 2000 fans a night and Bela was an awesome guy. He even announced us on stage before we got on…. The Damned were great guys, too. Talking to Dave Vanian in the backstage was a dream come true. He is such an inspiration. We also had a lot of fun with Wednesday 13 and his guys and with The 69 Eyes. A special honour was supporting The Cult, but we actually never got to talking to Ian and Billy cause they were so isolated and their management kept everybody away from them…. Oh, great friends of our are Frank The Baptist from San Diego, now Berlin. Lots of drinking with them!

7. Who would you like to tour with in the future?

Definately KISS, Die Ärzte, Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. I would have said The Cramps, too, but that’s not possible anymore, sady enough!

8. You guys are played at Weekend Of Horrors in Germany, can you tell us a little about that, like how that came about, when do you guys play?

It was killer, cause we got to hang out with Robert Englund and took pics with him and John Saxon. We also signed autographs to all the horror fans for about 1 and a half hours and took countless pics with fans. The show was killer, too. The kids who were there really had a lot of fun with us and it was more like an interactive gig with audience participation, singing-along, jokes, etc.

9. What's essential for you guys to have while you're touring?

For me it’s lots of tea, throat tablets and quiet. I really need my privacy to read, listen to music and just relax. Otherwise I’d lose my voice after the first two nights. I love traveling in nightliners cause it really takes the stress off checking into different hotels all the time, getting all your stuff packed, waiting till everybody’s out of the club, etc. Oh yeah and sometimes some company in your bunk is nice, too.

10. What's a day off like for you guys?

Shopping, sightseeing, chilling. Usually we don’t have days off, unless it’s a long way to drive with a stop over. We try to see the cities we play in but most of the time we’re glad to make it there in time for the soundcheck and start the whole procedure of getting into our stage-outfits.

11. Seeing as we deal with horror and comics, and you guys have your own comic, what are some of your guys' favorite horror movies and comic book characters?

I’ve mentioned some movies but here’s my best-of list:
The Exorcist
The Shining
The Creature from the black lagoon
Tarantula
The Fall of the House of Usher
Blair Witch Project
Frankenstein (James Whale)

My favorite comic-book characters are pretty mainstream, I’m sorry to say:
The original X-Men and especially Beast, Spider Man and Moon Knight

12. Any upcoming projects or events that you'd like to tell us about?

We’ve just did a cover of "Love Song“ by The Damned for a compilation called "Tribute to the real Punk“ by Roger Miret of Agnostic Front, plus a cover of "309“ by Johnny Cash for "Paid in Black 2“. Other than the we’re writing new songs for our next album and playing some nice festivals here in Germany this year.

13. Any plans for a North American tour in the future?

Yes, we've been getting some offers and plan on coming over in March or April of 2010. It will probably be the west-coast again and hopefully with our buddies Blitzkid or Rezurex. That would be cool. Anyone interested in booking us send a message to us at www.Myspace.com/TheOther

14. How can people get a hold of your music and merch?

A little more difficult outside of Europe. In the US you can get our CD through MerchDirect and also through Interpunk, Amazon, etc. One shirt is available at MerchDirect as well, but most of our stuff can be bought through XtraX. Here’s the link straight to our merch: XtraX The Other Merch

15. Anything else you want to say to the fans out there reading this?

Horror sparks creativity!

--Interview by Shaun May & Chris Retherford