Interview with Durcel Haze

Comprised of two Austrians, a German and a Hungarian, Durcel Haze formed not too long before the pandemic and have now hit the shelves with their great debut release Down The Rabbit Hole.  I recently talked to the band about the new album, recording during the pandemic and more.  

Can you give me a little history on how the band got together?

Edi and Woif knew each other from the local music scene for a long time, Edi and Klaus play ice hockey together. When Woif's former band dissolved in 2019, they founded the new project, but at first without a singer and bass player. Edi has a very extraordinary monthly event in Kufstein, an open stage jam session called LIVEheit, where Janos started to join the stage from time to time, so Edi asked him out for a beer. It was a love at first sight, so the band looked for a rehearsal room and started to work together. One of the first common investments was a fridge for the beer, that operates and supports the band since 2019. (https://youtu.be/YHYJReM56p8)

What kind of impact did covid have on the band?  Also, were you able to record the album together or did you have to do that remotely due to the pandemic?

There was a major impact. From one day to another we were not allowed to meet anymore. This triggered the band to go for a level up. Woif came up with the idea to found a company from the band, as according to the measures, work was an excuse to meet. This way with regular testing we could meet.

The preproduction of our first Album went offline. We recorded our demos at home, sent it to Reini, our producer. The main production was possible to record together, however, we paid attention to keep the least number of the people in the studio, so that the risk of getting sick stays low. The post production went also remote, as it was tricky to cross the border at that time.

However it was one of the most productive times of the band and we are very proud of the result.

Two of you are from countries that speak German and the other two are from Hungary where it’s Hungarian, but then the lyrics are in English.  Was it difficult working that out when you were writing the songs?

So Edi and Wolf are from Tyrol, Klausi is Bavarian, so they have a kind of a common language. Janos moved to Tyrol on carrier reasons and his German is very basic, therefore the communication turned to mainly English. There were no challenges on the communication, as everybody speaks the international language of music and beer. It was more challenging to find the common style we would like to present Durcel Haze, which ended up in a quite diverse debut album. At the end we believe the diversity holds the speciality of the record.

How does your songwriting process tend to work?

Well, there are many ways. It can happen, that one person comes with an idea which is almost complete. This could be a full instrumental demo, or even including vocals and additional harmonies.

We also have the luxury of 2 rehearsal rooms, one is for demo recording, the cellar, the other is where we prepare for the stage. When we get together in the cellar, it also can happen that one arrives and he had an amazing idea at lunch break.  We start to directly record it and capture all the additional ideas which comes up in the meantime. Then the lego adventure is starting to try different combinations of the recorded parts.

The final steps are happening in the live rehearsal room, when we arrange the songs in a way that we can imagine them on stage too. Then for the album we sent it to Reini, in other cases, we try to play it on stage and check out the reaction of the audience. When it works the song will stay in the repertoire.

I really like “Unleashed Confusion” a lot.  It’s a little more aggressive than most of the other songs and to me at times has an almost Bad Religion punk vibe. Can you tell me about that track?

Thank you very much, we are happy to hear that. The main riff came from a lunch break idea, most probably after a stressful meeting... First we arranged the instrumental parts, and then the song was resting, until we got to the situation that due to the main production timelines we had to finalize many songs in a very fast, and the measures did not let us meet. We have distributed the work in between us.

The lyrics came from the situations when loneliness leads to the point of self reflection and digging down in your mind and in your memories. This is the source of the confusion. You cannot always justify whymyou make certain decisions, but re-thinking those will help you to learn and improve yourself. This way you can reach a more conscious status. We also love it.

“Stand Together” really stands out from the rest of the songs.  It has a hint of a Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys vibe at the beginning.  Can you tell me about that song?

You are completely right with the vibe of the song. Actually the name Durcel Haze was chosen on a trip we had visiting Dublin to a Foo Fighters show, and I also think it is not a secret that all the band members are a fan of the Irish culture including all the food and beverages. This way it made sense to add a song to the album which shows a different side of the band and talks about belonging and unity. The song just brings up very sweet memories every times we have the chance to play it.

The bass on quite a few of the songs is more prominent than is the norm for most bands.  Was that something you consciously tried to do?

Shaping the main sound of the record was influenced by the passion on bass and distortion. Also on the guitar recordings we used additional octavers and fuzz effects. The interference of these frequencies ended up in an even bassier sound, which has been controlled in the post production. Anyways, it was an intention to give a strong garage taste to the record as we wanted to provide something special to our listeners.

The lyrics to “Nighthawk” are dark, but unfortunately a reality for some in the world we live in.  Can you tell me a little about that?

It is a bit embarrassing, as when the song has been written there was no news about the Ukranian-Russian conflict and the song was meant to be an anti-war song recalling an imaginary scene of an airbattle. In this battle the main focus was to be on the pilot who turns into a soulless killer due to the fear. However we are just simply very sorry about the current situation, it is still unbelievable that it is happening.

Are the lyrics to “Deadbeat” biographical or did the inspiration come from somewhere else?

The inspiration for the "Deadbeat" lyrics came from a rough meeting with a client during a Workday.

In the evening Edi was having dinner with a bunch of friends in our hometown Kufstein. There was lots of good food, beer and just having a good time. Then – Two tables away – Edi spotted his client which was really rude to him that day – sitting there and having dinner all alone. Thats the Story.

The lyrics to “Agnus Die” tell more of a story and are a bit different than the other songs.  What was the inspiration there?

The lyrics are a kind of a remake of the story from the bible. The main character is a young girl, who incarnates as the lamb of god. She faces all the sins, sacrifices herself and summons the four horsemen to clean-up the mess. For us it made sense to group it with the other songs, as to be honest most of our lyrics are rather pessimistic, but still transferring a message which can be motivating.

There’s a live show on Youtube that was recorded last April, and amongst the songs you played were three, “Fukusumi Tittnipple High”, “Raise Your Fist” and “Come Get Ready”, that aren’t on the album.  Do you think we may be seeing those released sometime in the future?

We really hope that we will have the chance to record them, but currently it is not on the schedule. You have to join the concerts to hear such songs as we have more than just the songs on the album. We are also in a song writing period currently and those songs are more in the focus.

You have a Donnie Darko looking rabbit that has been on all your single covers and now is on your album cover.  What can you tell me about that?

We wanted to bring our “Durcel Haze” to life. If you like you can it imagine like “Captain Planet”. When all four of us are coming together to play music something arises which is bigger than us and it can do things no one of us can. So everytime we team up – Durcel Haze rises.

I know most of you, if not all, were in other bands prior to Durcel Haze.  Are any of you currently in other bands or is it strictly this band?

We have only Durcel Haze on everybody's desk at the moment. The other bands are not active unfortunately.

I usually don’t ask this, but is there a story behind the band name?

“Durcel Haze” is a Modification of the German “Duracell Hase” which means the Duracell Rabbit you may know from the Battery commercials. As Klaus and Edi play a lot of ice hockey in their free time, one day it happened in a locker room that there was a Hockey Magazine lying around. One of the Team started reading it and there was written something like “player XY is running like a young Durcel Haze”. So the Teammate got a bit confused because he didn't knew a famous hockey player with the name “Durcel Haze”.  After a while another player took over the magazine and it turned out that it just was a mistake.

The original text was “player XY is running like a young Duracell Hase”. But we liked the sound of Durcel Haze and put it on the list of potential Band Names. The Rest is History. Also the connection to our rabbit on the artworks comes from there.

Have you been able to get back out there and do live shows again and if so how has that been going?

Happily we have had many shows. We could play in Innsbruck, Wörgl, Salzburg and Vienna too. We are planning shows in Rosenheim and also in our hometown Kufstein too. We are also looking for further opportunities. Currently it is quite challenging to get shows as all the bands which were incubated during the pandemic are back again, the scene is very competitive.

What kind of plans do you have for promoting the album?

The most important way for us is also the classic one: gigs, gigs and gigs.

As mentioned earlier, it's difficult at the moment, because the scene has to consolidate again first, and many bands are pushing onto the stages.

Therefore, we are working on social media to get more exposure, but all bands do the same.

However, advertising is part of the music business, because everyone does that, too. It is not the best part of playing music, but you do not have a good chance without proper promotion.

Anyways, we always try to stay natural, honest and true and do not use artificial tricks (e.g. bots) to create a fake image.

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

By now, we have a strong presence on the internet, so visit us on Youtube, Spotify, Instagram or on any other platform of your choice. We also released three music videos, which we managed with limited budget and ended up with a decent quality. You will find some entertaining content, so it is worth following. We are also actively answering on the social media channels, so when you are interested in which beer is our favorite from the region, or how was the screaming guitar solo of ‘Dream Dark’ created, or just want to get a CD or T-shirt send us a message!

(Hicktown Records / Durcel Haze)