My Interview With Janika Groß From molllust
After reviewing ‘Schuld,’ I had the privilege to talk with Janika about the album and Opera Metal
“The heart is classic, the pulse is metal” — molllust, in ‘Shuld’
Schuld is the first installment of molllust discography that includes Bach con fuoco (2013) and In Deep Waters (2015). The album, released in 2012, shows how classical music can dance a sublime dark waltz with the heavy sounds of Metal. The original concept behind molllust takes us to that endless search for the missing link between metal and the Classics.
Janika Groß, vocalist and composer, tells us about this desire to convey the breathtaking beauty of classical music through a truly expressive fusion between genres. This is molllust’s semantics: “moll” (the minor key) and lust; a band that seeks to transform music into a sensorial and Saturnian experience called Opera Metal.
In molllust’s Opera Metal the influence of the great masters of the Baroque is indisputable. When we hear Schuld, references start to pop to our ears: from Georg Friedrich Händel to the great Johann Sebastian Bach.
The piano is one of the reference instruments for the molllust (visually, this importance results in the highlight of the three “lll” in the name); thus, we could also mention Rachmaninoff and Brahms. Also fundamental to the conception of “Schuld” was the work of one of the leading figures of German progressive metal, Vurtox (Andy Schmidt) of Disillusion, who took over the reins of production.
Those who might think that when it comes to Opera Metal, this refers to the common operatic sound made famous by bands like Haggard, Nightwish, or Epica will find themselves lost in translation.
In fact, launched independently, Schuld was a risk taken by the musicians themselves since it reverses the paradigmatic model that led those bands to success and established the primacy of the classic over metal, that is, even though metal has a strong presence in the album, the spine and its root structure is composed by classical music.
Analyzing Schuld, “Ouvertüre,” starting from the loose notes of the piano, it evolves to the strings' singing, first the cello languor, afterward the fairy violin stridulates, and finally the electric instruments, percussion, and Janika’s soprano voice.
If in “Sternennacht,” the operatic reach is still slightly conventional, the masterful “Alptraum” collapses the horizon of references, and Janika mobilizes all the energy concentrated in her glottis to demonstrate her potential to ascend to the pantheon of metal divas.
Later on, “Spiegelsee” and “Lied zur Nacht” will bring the lyrical dimension of molllust to the zenith, with guitarist Frank Schumacher incorporating the warm tone of his voice into the musical corpus.
Also noteworthy are moments like “Schatten,” a theme that crosses borders and can bring us closer to darker musical environments and closer to Doom metal.
Finally, “Kartenhaus” emphasizes the increasing cardiac tension, legitimizing the band’s motto: “The heart is classic, but the pulse is metal.”
“Schuld” is a safe bet for all those who favor the eclectic character of music.
The singing is exclusively Germanic, but this is not even problematic, as we can read in the album booklet:
Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” — Victor Hugo.
Thus, this album is a true aesthetic experience that begins visually on the cover and booklet and reaches exaltation through the music hidden inside.
Interview with molllust lead singer and composer Janika Groß
Janika, you have an exceptional voice, and your singing is sublime. Could you tell us about your musical curriculum?
Thank you! I started playing the piano when I was about ten years old. My piano teacher was extremely committed and taught me not only to play the piano but also to feel and express myself through music. After singing in different choirs, I started to professionalize my voice at around twenty with the support of two singing teachers and resorted to private lessons. I worked a lot with classical arias to improve my voice a little more each day.
“The heart is classic; the pulse is metal.” Why?
Because this is something natural for us. My idea of creating music consists of starting from an immense variety of dynamics, the possibility of playing with delicate and simple emotions and expressing the most subtle feelings of classical music, combining this with the power, brutality, and aggressiveness of metal. I was under the impression that I had the possibility to express myself in a more powerful way than if I had only chosen a single musical style. It should be added that classical music often does not have a continuous pulse, but rather a rather free way of working with the times as a means of destabilizing the dynamics of music, with metal becoming very powerful in the most direct parts. This is a very interesting contrast.
Can you share which type of classical music touches you most deeply and the metal bands that give you the most pulse?
From a classical point of view, I love the music of romanticism. My favorite composers are Rachmaninoff and Brahms. But there are lots of pieces by different composers that I like, such as Chopin’s “Revolutionary Study” or Dãořák’s “Rusalka,” from the opera “Rusalka.” In the metal world, I was inspired by Therion and Tarja Turunen with Nightwish when I was a teenager. Later, I also loved listening to Rhapsody (of fire) and Disillusion.
Molllust plays Opera Metal and not “Metal Opera.” How important is it that “Opera” comes first?
We didn’t actually invent that expression. The genre that best describes what we do is called “Opera Metal,” so we appropriate that designation for us in the same way. I don’t think we created an Opera with instruments from metal, so “Metal Opera” would be misleading.
Why “molllust” and why “Schuld”?
“Molllust” is, in fact, a combination of the German words “moll,” which means “minor,” (the key), and “Lust,” which means “pleasure.” It demonstrates our willingness to make music imbued with a dark sound ambiance. “Molllust” is also very similar to the German word “Wollust,” which means “voluptuousness” and represents our passion for music. “Schuld” means “guilt.” In the lyrics of the songs, I sometimes talk about intimate feelings and thoughts. “Guilt” is a recurring theme that is addressed in different ways in the texts, especially in “Spiegelsee.”
Inside the digipack of “Schuld,” there is a quote from the writer of French romanticism, Victor Hugo: “Music expresses what cannot be put into words and which cannot be silent.” Could you explain what this means to you?
Music is a powerful language. It is full of emotion and can express nuances of emotions that cannot be described in such detail with words. But they also cannot hide. It is something that overflows from you through gestures, facial expressions, behaviors, the way we speak — and you can have all these nuances, partially unconscious, described more clearly through music than you could achieve with words. And, by the way, this is easier to understand even if they do not understand the language or the gestures of a region.
Where did you get the musical and lyrical inspiration when the time came to start working on “Schuld”?
This is really hard to describe. Melodies just come to my mind, and I just have to write them down. There doesn’t have to be a special inspiration. Sometimes I hear a simple melody, and my mind creates something completely different as a reaction or some kind of reflection. Sometimes it is also an event in my life that causes a musical way of coping with it. This can be directly afterward or many years later. Some kind of inspiration is also all the music I played, sung, and listened to. I think the more I’m affected emotionally; the higher is the influence. In most cases, I have an idea of a musical piece and just make it a bit more colorful when I write it down.
How do you compose?
Like the traditional classical composers, I write the score for the whole band and send music sheets to everyone. But the others have influence, too: together, we improve the compositions with our ideas, especially the drum lines. And sometimes I use some guitar riffs by Frank. In most cases, I have an idea of what the song will be about and start with the music. Then the concrete text follows. But in some cases, I start with the text, too.
“Schuld” has some beautiful artwork. How does it relate to the music inside?
When I wrote the song “Spiegelsee,” I had a clear picture in my mind. A young woman sitting at the shores of a deep lake at night, gazing into it and reflecting on what happened. We took that idea and made it more abstract. The water symbolizes the mirror of thoughts and feelings and is an element that permeates through the whole artwork. The fictional person in the artwork is me. But the idea of this picture is to focus on the emotions and the depths of a human mind with all its dark secrets.
Vurtox (Andy Schmidt) worked with you on Schuld. How did it happen, and how was it?
When we decided to record “Schuld,” we looked for a studio and a producer who understands and likes our music and who had the skill to create a great and fitting sound. With Andy, we found the perfect person for this really demanding task. It was a great pleasure to work with him, not only because of his skills. He is a very congenial person and an exhaustless source of inspiration. For more than one month, we worked almost every day together. In a little while, we had no need for words to know what the other one thought about a take. We were absolutely on the same wavelength, and without any doubt, we’ll return to him as our producer in the future.
Have you already started playing some of the new songs live? Would you please tell us how it was and how did the fans react? Is there a crowd favorite song?
Yes, we played them several times in concerts. People react pretty differently, depending on where we play and what kind of music they are used to hear. Some listen to us very carefully and with much attention, showing a delighted smile on their face. Others prefer the faster songs and love to dance. Of course, a song like “Alptraum” or “Kartenhaus” therefore have louder feedback, but I wouldn’t take this as an index for the song that touched the most hearts. Some, of course, don’t like our music at all. It makes me a bit sad when I get the impression that people don’t understand my musical language. But there’s almost no-one who has no opinion about us — people love us or hate us.
And what about you, do you have a special song from “Schuld”?
This is very hard to tell. The songs are all my “babies”; therefore, they are all important for me, and I like them, of course. On stage, I like “Kartenhaus” much because it has three things — fast, energetic parts, calmer and more thoughtful parts, and a passage that is more demanding concerning the piano playing.
What will the future bring for molllust? Any chance of seeing the band playing in Portugal?
In spring, we will release a CD with our special versions of four Bach pieces. We created them last year for a competition and decided to record them because we got such great feedback from the audience and the jurors (we won the competition). We’ll play as many concerts as we get — if we find a possibility to cope with the travel costs and get nice concerts in Portugal, we’ll come. Unfortunately, there are no concrete plans at the moment. We’ll see what the future will bring. Our next album is scheduled for 2014.
Anything you would like to add or share with your fans?
We are very thankful that our music found its way to Portugal! It is an honor for us to find fans far away from our hometown, and we would really love to play in Portugal one day. We wish you all a great start to the new year, and we are really excited about what it will bring for molllust!
Thank you for this interview, Janika. Best of luck to you and molllust.
This article originally appeared here on Rock n’Heavy.
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Opera metal is an intriguing idea. I enjoyed your interview 🌹