BiB: Nik Leuthold (NONEXISTER) – How Punk, Climbing, and DIY Spirit Forged a Cinematic Metal Band

0:10 Bring it backwards. Bring it backwards. Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards. Bringing it back. What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards, a podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to chat with Nick of the band Non Existor over zoom video. Nick was born and raised in Zurich in Switzerland and talks about how he got into music. He comes from a very creative household as far as writing and literature goes. His mother is actually a published author, written numerous books and wrote a book with him when he was 12 years old that was published as well. So he talks about being in interviews at 12, talking about this book that he had written with his mom. He got a music around 8, started to play guitar, got very into punk and hardcore music.

1:13 Was a huge part of the DIY hardcore punk scene. Nick is also a very avid rock climber. So he moved to Spain for 10 years, started this like venue slash rock climbing club in the mountains in Spain. Talks about that a bit, moved back to Switzerland and that's where he started Non Existent with Marco. He talks about forming the band, writing this debut album, and he talks a lot about the music videos the band puts out because they are incredible. I mean, each music video looks like a short film. The most recent video is for a song called where does your mind go? And the actress holds her breath underwater for four minutes so you can kind of watch her, you know, the pain and suffering she's going through with just a camera on her as she holds her breath underwater for four minutes. It's really, it's a great music video, so make sure to check that out and you can check out the video version of the interview on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be amazing if you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Tick tock at Bringing back pod.

2:34 And if you are listening to this on Spotify, Apple Music, Google podcasts, please rate and review the podcast. That would be huge. It helps tremendously. So please, please, please do that as well. We'd appreciate your support if you follow and subscribe to our podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're bringing it backwards with Non existor. Hey, how are you, Nick? Fine, thank you. I appreciate you doing this. Yeah, I appreciate you being interested. Thank you, Adam. Of course, yeah, I'm Adam and this is about you, the band, your journey in music and the album that's coming out in a couple weeks here I can't believe it's already March or almost. Yeah, it's wild. Amazing. So I always start off born and raised. The bands in where? Switzerland. Is that what I saw?

3:27 Yes, exactly. Zurich. Zurich. Are you originally from there? Yes. Okay. Born and raised. Yeah, born and raised. Not always lived there, but born and raised. Born and raised. What's so like growing up there? I know, it's. It's the capital, right? Of the. Of the country? No, it's one of situations a little bit like in. In a few countries. The. The capital of Switzerland is not very big. So it is kind of. It's the biggest city. So it's the. But it's not the capital. I. I must have gotten confused there. No, the political capital is. Is burned. Oh, okay. Shows how much I know about the. About geography, huh? Often people do do this confusion because Zurich is the cultural and the economic capital. It's just the biggest city. Oh, got it. Okay. But it's not the political capital of the country. Exactly. Interesting. So what was it like growing up there? I mean, it's the biggest city, so obviously the, the most populated place. Is it the place that has the most, like, clubs and, and all of that as far as, like, music goes? Exactly. It's.

4:32 It's. I. I love it. I came back as well. I lived in, in Spain for. For a long time or for 10 years. And I always wanted. Or. I appreciate it for sure more now as well, probably when you've been out. But I always appreciate it because what is really nice is that there was a slogan once of tourism Switzerland that was called little big city. And that's described a lot. So it's a city as. It's the biggest city. It's where the clubs are, it's where the music goes on. It's where the cultural life. And the cultural life is very interesting. I mean, techno was born in Zurich and Berlin and Zurich was before Berlin. So just to give it, you know, it's. It's a. It's a thing.

5:14 Electronic music was basically born here. And so it is a very interesting place. But in the meantime, it's small. You can actually traverse the whole city on your bike within an hour. No way. You could just go around the whole thing. That's wild. Not around. You can traverse it, you know, but still. Yeah, okay. Go across the entire city. Entire city in an hour with a bike. So it is just half a million. It is close to the mountains, and still it feels like a really big city in terms of what you get in as a Music scene and as clubs and. And other cultural offers. That's incredible. And as far as your specific journey in music, do you come from like a creative household? Any musicians in your family? Like where did you start off? I come from a.

6:06 No musicians in my family, but my mother is a writer. Oh, cool. Published around 20 books and a journalist. What did she write? I'm just curious. Sorry. Like non fiction or fiction books? What does she write? Both, but mainly feminist topics. So she was one of the important feminist writers of Switzerland. Wow. When like you know, in the beginning of. Of this literal or the high times of feminism in the 70s and stuff. That is awesome. That's really cool. So she do like book tours and stuff. Do you remember as a kid like her just kind of being, you know, tucked away writing and then like when a book came out, seeing your mom's name on it. That must have been pretty cool. Yeah. And. And I brought a book out with her as well.

6:54 We kids. A kids fiction novel that came out. So I was with 12, I was quite. You know, because I was like featured as. As co author. So I was. Was when I was 12, kind of, you know, in interviews because of this book and stuff. It was. That was a. Was a. A creative. That's. It was a creative household for sure. But more in literature. Wow. Than in music. Yeah. But you, you're the songwriter as far as lyrics go in the band. I am the co songwriter. Marco and me, we do it together. But I am the singer and I'm the lyrics writer. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. So when it comes to that, I'm sure obviously having mom in the house as a writer and even being a co author on a book at 12 years old, that's probably something that you were naturally good at.

7:44 Or was it. Are you interested in English and. Or maybe not English, but in literature and writing as, as a. As a child or like did you kind of hone that skill early on? Always. I wrote other stuff as well then, you know, I lived quite a wild life so I didn't stick on it. But I wrote a few theater pieces. I'm always writing. It's very. It's very natural to me and it's important. I've been a journalist for a while in my life, so it's something that comes very natural. That's very close to me. Yes. Writing is something that's part of me. And talking about English, I learned English very, very young and I'm. I have a very fast access to any language.

8:29 So for me it's. It's I'm. I'm. It's not, not unnatural to write in another language when I'm good at. And. And so I'm doing. I write in. In French and Spanish sometimes as well. Really? I wish I had that skill, man. I took. I grew up in San Diego. We. I could throw a rock and hit the border and of Mexico and I still like, I. I could listen and hear Spanish and in kind of, you know, hold a conversation. But I wish I was like really fluent in the language. I just. It never stuck for me as. Even as a kid. Like, I just. I don't have that muscle in my brain. I'm just jealous of and envious of people that can do that. I think it's such a rad, you know, skill to have and not only. I mean just something to have in general to be able to go to another country and just be able to communicate. It is a nice skill. Yeah. And I have the advantage that I even pass as a native in. In many countries and that's cool as well. And that's in Spain. They think I'm from the Basque country. And so it's, it's a nice thing. You can kind of, you know, you. You get incognito. Yeah. I was gonna say you gotta go fly under the radar. Like.

9:43 Yeah, I'm. I'm. I'm from here. As far as music goes. When did you get into music? And then I know just you. Like you said earlier, kind of like the, like, you know, electronic music scene kind of start or really did start in Switzerland. And was that something that you were interested or were you into that prior to. Not what you're doing now with, with non existor obviously. But like where did you start as far as music goes? Or have you always been really interested in the metal scene? I've always been interested. I mean when it's the start. Start was as a kid. I started playing the guitar at 8 and then wrote my own songs and stuff. Singer, songwriter style. That's what I did.

10:24 And then you go through all these, these faces of. Of. Of a teenager or some do. Probably I was more like a little bit in the. In the hippie direction and then goth and then punk. And so my. Actually my adult life was. Was then first in the goth scene and then in. In the. In the punk scene. And I'm very much in the DIY punk scene. That's actually my thing. So I actually lamentably didn't. Didn't take part of this electronic movement and I would liked that. I Wouldn't have been as ignorant. But I was a punk, you know. Right. I was interested in punk and hardcore and very much in this DIY scene as well from my life. I lived in squat houses.

11:21 I was. And I'm still often an activist. Less. Less radical probably than I was. But still, still, I mean you can see the features in the. In the lyrics as well. Well, and in the video. Right. I mean the music video you guys put out. Exactly. That I'm. That I have. Have opinions and. And. And that I'm concerned about the world. So I lived in this DIY scene that's actually my. I a musician, my musical history. So I mainly did complicated hardcore in the 90s, you know, all these. Where in the 90s were all these.

12:05 From no means no to whatever. All these rhythmical complicated hardcore stuff. And I did and I made punk. That's actually the two things that I did before non exist or mainly. Okay, interesting. And it's when you said, you know, you were punk and got. It was just like that was it. Right. You didn't pay attention much to what was going on as far as the electronic scene. And that's how I kind of grew up too. I feel like my generation was almost the last of the. If you listen to punk, you listen. That was it. Like you wouldn't tell your friends like, oh yeah, I went home and listened to this pop record. It was like I listen to punk or I listen to hip hop or I listen to this and exclusively that. And now it's like you look at lineups and festivals and with Spotify playlisting and everything else, it's like the, the spectrum of. You could like Ariana Grande and Rancid and you know, whoever. Like it's. It's so big in open now. It's. It's fascinating to see that for me at least instead of when I grew up, it was like you got. If you listen to punk, you listen to like these bands.

13:12 Yeah. And then you find bands that they sounded like or. Or a new band spinning off of that genre instead of like in this song. And if you're into. Into skater punk, you don't. You're not into the rougher stuff. And if you're into the rougher stuff, you're not into skate punk. Yeah, it gets really, really, really niche when it comes to even that. It's like, oh, you listen to this hardcore. Well, I only listen to bands like know Operation Ivy or I only listen to Slayer type music. It's. Yeah. It's funny how that it even broke down even further when you looked at it. Now it's like you can listen to everything, and a lot of people listen to everything more so than.

13:54 Than before. And I think it's nice, you know, it's nice as well for the DIY scene. I mean, I'm still very much in the DIY scene and I appreciate it a lot. It's beautiful being part of cultural scene, a part of the normal music scene as well, or the usual, or commercial, whatever, to be part of a scene where people really do it by heart. You know, every place you play, people often work for free just to have their cool club. You're not talking. It's not about the money. It's about. It's much more important that the bands get really good food, that they can drink as much beer as they want, then the actual money you get, as long as you can get to the next venue, you know, and have. Right. Gas money to get there or whatever.

14:38 And. And all these people doing all this cultural stuff by heart, it's still a very important scene to me. To me. So I think it's beautiful that this scene is not only flooded with punk and hardcore now, as it was, but that there's so many different events happening there. You know, there's. There's electronic parties, there's hip hop, there's all kind of. And that's, that's much more interesting actually, in the end, culturally. But you'll see these cross, you know, genres kind of crossing over a lot more now. Or, like, you have this, this type of artist that will go this direction, but they're still kind of, you know, intertwining both their influence. It's. Yeah, it's really.

15:19 I feel like the. It's just broken open this whole new, like, idea of what, you know, music can be instead of, like, so binary. Like, I only like this, and that's all I'm going to listen to, and that's all I care about. And yeah, it's just a fascinating world. So you. I mean, in the DIY scene, you're in, what, punk bands, hardcore bands, and from there it's like at one point you end up moving to Spain. And was that to pursue music or, like, were you in a band that, like, you know, had some recognition, like, what kind of continued your journey on in. So the important thing there was I'm a very addicted climber. Oh, like mountain climbing? Yeah, rock climbing. I mean, rock climbing. Sorry. Yep.

16:04 And I'm. I'm. I travel the world always for hard rock in in another. And then hard rock, you know, Hard. Rock during hard rocks. Yeah, exactly. So for. For hard roots and for the community and just, you know, it's a. It's a. Sports like, like. Like surfing often or stuff. You travel to the good spots and. And. And there's a good community, so. And Spain is kind of one of the capitals, if not the capital of that sport, or it is actually the capital of that sport. So I spent a lot of time there and I just got stuck in. In a climbing zone. Climbing place that was emerging and very important at the place with a lot of very hard routes to try. And there was a beautiful place to sit for sale. So we bought it together with friends and put our own climbing lodge there, which as two of them are musicians as well, which is a concert venue as well and stuff. So we put a good climbing and concert bar, lodge, restaurant in the Spanish mountains. And that's where I lived for 10 years, hosting this project and making music there and hosting a lot of bands there and stuff. And then I came back and I always had

17:36 a dream of an industrial project, you know, industrial metal project kind of. I was always into alternative metal and stuff. And Marco and me as Zurich's got a very good music scene, but as it's not that big, you know each other somehow as musician, you know, you follow each other's stuff if you're not of totally different ranges. I don't know every chess musician here, but I mean, he did stuff. Yeah. Within your scene of people who you. You're seeing at clubs and. And. And shows and stuff. You. You exactly kind of follow. Know everybody. And we were talking about this before already now, you know, now and then that we both have this.

18:18 This idea. So I came back and I didn't have a pro, didn't have a project. So my first idea was to ask Marco actually if he's up because it was. Yeah, it's the old. The old dream actually. Let's do this instead of jumping into the next punk band kind of. And to me, who is a singer really, and, And a writer it is from. I mean punk is the soundtrack of my youth, is the soundtrack of my movement, is very important to me. But for me too, there's a lot of potential in being able to work that. And I always had a leg in theater as well and in movies. So I always did stuff there as well. That's why I wrote theater pieces as well. And I've never had it as my main art, but it was always something that touched me a Lot and that I'm. I'm. I worked with in professional projects. So this is.

19:22 To go into this field gives me the opportunity to actually do much more. Even my art, I think. No, it was. Yeah, I was gonna say because the videos you do for the music are very, you know, theatrical and. And they look like a film. Right. I mean, they're like short films. Yeah. So I was gonna ask you about that. Like, was that kind of going into this project? Were you thinking that way? Like, okay, I. I love the. I want to do this style of band. I want to have this sound, but I also want to make sure it kind of, you know, is linear to being able to write cool music videos that mean something instead of, you know, maybe just writing to be in a band. But it's. Did you want to mesh the two. Was that kind of the idea going into this? No, that came with the time, actually, which started, you know, was. We were drinking a beer together and a few drinks in a bar. And I asked Marco and then we just started and it was always clear there should be something in the direction of industrial, alternative metal stuff like that. But then we started actually very intuitively.

20:33 And the beautiful thing was that we noted that we match extremely creatively. Creatively. He. You know, it was really just like a revelation almost, you know, when we started to work together. Can tell you a little anecdote on this after and then come back to the videos. And so we started to work and then out of this, doing all these things, for me, it was clear that it has to be this kind of sound. So that this would be theater. Ali the theatrical and that Marco has this always. He. He makes atmospheres when he makes music.

21:16 So it was the perfect. That was the idea, I think, as well of the match. He knew I'm a versatile and theatre Alex Singer. I knew he makes atmospheres. He layers sounds to create emotions and stuff. So it was, I think, for both clear that sound. The songs are probably not gonna have usual or not all are gonna have usual sound structures, you know, that they can have a lot more freedom that sound songs could be long and stuff. And so we just worked on this. But then when you work on something like this and it is so atmospherical in terms of sound, and you make lyrics that mean something to you, that are socially critical, philosophical, where you really think about things, contemplate about things. If you have this figurative side, this. This side of thinking in.

22:17 In. Motion pictures, in scenes, in, you know, cynical, then you often have images in your head already that are Scenic. So that's where it started actually, that it was clear, okay, we want to make an extension of our art into this field. It was not planned in the beginning, but if I look back in my life where theater and movie always played a role, or from time to time played a role, it's actually quite logic. But I don't think I thought about it before we started. Okay. It just kind of happened that way during, during the process, as many things.

23:01 That's what I said about the. And that's so beautiful in the collaboration with Marco. He's a really, for me, quite a genius in layering and, and, and creating stuff. A very genius producer. And we agree on so many things. So what happens is we don't. I mean, if we have to discuss things, we do it very respectfully and we don't have fights like other bands probably have and. But. Or you hear a lot of stories there. But as well, we inspire each other a lot. We often say we're. We're definitely one of these projects where you can say one and one is three or even five, because neither of us two would be able to make this music alone.

23:52 So it's actually really the match who produces it. And that's the. The anecdote that I wanted to tell you on the first song, you're Paying Up My Veins, which was always the first song just by hazard. It was the first song we wrote, was the first song. It is now the first song on the album, was the first song we made a video for, but not planned as well. But that was actually. We met in Marco's studio and he just presented a rough track, some rough elements. And as you are a little bit timid in the first time, when you meet another musician, you have a player. Hey, what do you think? And I was like, wow, you know, like I said, open the mic. You know, I said immediately, open the mic. And he was, what?

24:33 Wow, this guy just wants to sing immediately? And said, yeah, record, you know. And I sang immediately. And then I was Tim and I said, well, what do you think? I gave you a different option. Wow, that's great. I'm going to take all of them. You know, it was like all this, so. So we have a very intuitive way of working and I think that's a very great thing as well. Not only because it's very nice to work that way, but as well because it is a very good option to make good art, I think, because art, as is best at its. Its best happens, I think, when it can flow and when you have to interfere always with your brain. You break something that you can't produce after. By your conscious brain. Yeah, no, 100%. Because if you're in kind of the moment and then you're like, oh, hold on, let's stop this for a second and try blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then you're. Yeah. You're almost putting a stop to whatever could have been or where you were kind of going in that one direction. Yeah, yeah.

25:40 That's why I always record when I improvise. I always record. Oh, so you're able to kind of pull some of that sometimes. Like. Oh, like this was really rad. And maybe it will fit on this other song. We'll. We'll do it. My Mostly like this. When I. When I start to. To make. Make vocal lines, I improvise usually first. Oh, and then you can kind of. And go back and take the melody or whatever. Right. Pick or. Marco picks. That's what I love a lot in. In the work with Marco as well, that he picks very often and he takes things that I would have thrown away because I didn't hear it because it's mine. So I'm over critical. And he said, oh, it's great. Look because of that. And then, you know. So I like this kind of collaboration a lot as well.

26:23 Yeah, no, that's awesome. And with like us, like with the songs that you do. I mean, the music videos you put out, you know, kind of going back to that are. Are so like I said, they're like films, right. They're like short films. And the amount of effort and work goes into that is it. You have the song and then you're like, oh, this would be a. I have this great. You said you kind of see images when you're doing. When you're writing. Is that kind of going back to. Okay. Like this would be a rad music video. Like I already had this kind of idea while this song was going. Can happen. I often have images in my head when I. When I write, or even Marco when he does. But sometimes they become a video like Drowning in the Void.

27:09 This is based on. On my initial story. Then I had to have meet with Justin Stoneham, a great director who is very, very nice person to collaborate as well, who with whom we then developed actually the book and. And made the video. And once the book was written, he slipped into the role of the director and I slipped into the role of the actor. Oh, you have a book on this too. I didn't realize that. I mean, the storybook you know. Okay. Oh yeah, yeah. God. They like the treatment of the treatment. Got it. No, the treatment is only. No, I mean the, the really the, the actual book where you have every detail. You know, the first. Okay, I understand. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. The final, final decision actually how you do it. But on many other things, I mean I'm doing art for long enough to know that it's not always my, my idea doesn't have to be the best one.

28:15 You know, you, you lose a lot of selfishness I think throughout, throughout the years. And that's a good thing because you, you're more attentive. There's so many good people around with so many good ideas and I'm, I'm not unexperienced in, in these fields, but I'm not a director, professional director. And so often we get actually we do shout outs for the songs for the videos to a bunch of directors through a production company we like a lot with whom we collaborate. And we do shout outs and see the treatments that come in. And we don't say. Yeah. And we don't say we want a video for this song. You just send all the songs and see what some comes back. Exactly. Because again people are best when they can work intuitive. So they should write a treatment for the song that inspires them. Yeah, I like that. And then you can get a. Probably a bunch of different ideas and different directors or is that styles the. Ones we really, we really, really like. So of the videos that are out now, it would be too many laurels for us to say we have the images because it's only drowning in the void. Until now that is based on a, on a story that I initiated and the others were just great ideas by other directors and it goes that far that if that they even convinced us

29:45 sometimes of things that we wouldn't have thought. The, the video for A Promise in the Air is a dance video. Yeah, that's a rad video. And that's a. Like you talked about like length song links. I mean you, the songs like over like almost six and a half minutes and you watch the music video and it's so engaging that like I didn't realize I'd watched a six minute video at the end. I was like, damn. Like I didn't realize the song was that long. That's nice. Yeah, yeah. I hope the, the, the, the song did the same effect on you. I think it's a no. 100. It was. I just checked it out first before I listened to the song in Full. I. I was sent, you know, your. Your. Your PR stuff, and I had the video and I was like, oh, watch the video. Why not? Instead of going to the link of Spotify or whatever it may be. And I was like, damn, like, this is really cool. And I didn't realize the length of it. Oh, wow. You know, there's a lot of songs nowadays are three minutes, three and a half minutes.

30:42 So the most recent video you did in a song for Where Does My Mind Go? How is that? Was that one shot? I mean, she's underwater for, like, literally three minutes. Four. Four minutes without coming up. Four minutes. Four minutes. How. How do you find somebody that can hold their breath out? I grew up as a swimmer, and I could swim 50 meters underwater there and back, and I'd come up and be, like, about to die. Like, literally, like, four minutes is so long. I mean, 50 meters is long already. Respect. Not four minutes. And that was when I was, like, 17. Now I could now, I probably, you know, do 30ft and then have to pop up. But.

31:35 It is a one shot. It is a one shot. It is real time. That's incredible. And what do you put a casting call, like, who can hold their breath for four minutes? We didn't have to. It was. It was by hazard. Um, this was the idea of director Elias Resigati. And it was just. We were totally flashed by the idea. It was a great idea. And so. So we were totally convinced. And then we're thinking around, and just by accident, I know an actor here in Zurich who is a freediver as well. Okay. I just remembered that she was not performing for about two years or one year, I don't remember, because she was traveling Southeast Asia doing freediving with her boyfriend, who is an actor as well. And so I said, hey, probably we should ask Momo if she's able to do that. And.

32:34 And she's a great actor, and she's a freedom. That was just lucky that we knew her. Oh, my God. Does she hold some sort of record? I mean, I would. I would be interested to know how long somebody could hold their breath underwater. Because. Because four minutes seems like you've got to be the top, you know, 0.01% of human beings that could do that. Apparently not. I just wrote an article that for us is incredible. But apparently people who are really professional free divers, they do between eight and 11 minutes. Oh, my. It's like, how does your. I don't. I like, how does your brain go without oxygen for that long? It's just so Crazy. It's very interesting what Momo said, you know, because. About.

33:21 About the process, because she said it's. It's quite a special thing to have to do this. I mean, what you have to do is control your breath, your emotions, your body, your blood flow, your heart rate, you know, all that stuff. And so doing this, even as a professional actor, doing this in front of a film team is something very special. And then what happens when you do free diving, I mean, I'm just repeating what she said, is that you have this. You have to get into this total calmness, control it completely. But then from time to time, your body notices the lack of air, and you get into kind of a panic, and then you have to fight the panic and get control of that.

34:16 And she had this process in front of a film team and having the song in the year. So what happened is throughout, because she had to know when it's, you know, how long she has to take and stuff. I was gonna ask you, like, did you have to, like, hold the flag up and say, it's time that you. Can come up now underwater, you know, water. I mean, you don't hear it the same way, but you hear it. She said throughout the. The. The. The. The verses, she was in this calm, calm mode. And then when the refrain came, the panic came, you know, was kind of. According to. According to the. To the song structure. Song structures quite often. Interesting. Wow. Yeah, I watched that. I'm like. It took me a couple times. I'm like, yeah, she definitely is under.

35:04 Because you see the air bubbles up, like, very, very, like, subtly at some moments. Like, not very many come up, but you're like, yeah, I would imagine you have to be in some sort of very meditative, like, you know, state to be able to really hold your composure that long. And then she's opening her eyes. Like, I've. You know, that would not add to the fun of being underwater for four minutes either, I would imagine. Yeah. No, and the thing is, I mean, I don't know if it happened to you, but to me, I mean, I. I feel it. I suffer with her. I feel it almost physically. And I think the reason is because it's real. She is actually suffering. She's not acting. Yeah. It's like I can't even imagine, right. You. You just. You can think of when you can't catch your breath or when you're underwater and you're like, okay, it. It.

35:53 My body's, you know, freaking out. It's time to get. It's time to get to the surface. And she's just so calm and you can kind of see, like you said, her fighting it. And then it's back to like a calm. And then she comes up and it's like smiling like, what? And not. It's just like, yeah, I'm out. Like. Yeah, she was quite panicking in the. In the beginning. No, she's like, like. Right. And then it's slowly she kind of gets into the. She goes like back and like, whoa, what happened? You know? Right, right, right, right. It's. Yeah, it's. It's a really. It's a really cool video. And these songs were. All. This is like the first batch of material you all have put together together. And then you're gonna put the debut album out because it sounds like you said. Yeah. The first song he released was also the first song you did a video for. Yeah. On the album.

36:45 On the album. Yeah. So, yeah. So these are all. It's not. It wasn't planned like this, but it's actually the. The playlist of the album until now as well. But that was. Was more by accident as well. So it's the songs in this thing and then there's more songs on the album. But all the songs that we brought out so far are on the album. Amazing. Well, I'm excited to. To check out the full record. Are you doing videos for every song? We don't think for the whole. But probably how. How arts come. But we have new songs. Okay. So probably we're gonna come with the new songs, but there's two really cool videos still in the making that will come. So there's a video for Storm coming. So store the. The song Storm is coming out with the album with a video which is a serious topic. It's about the rise of the. Of the extreme right at the moment and other extremists.

37:53 And the video is from the same director who did how do you dare? Oh, really? Okay. What a great video that it was. I love how it's. I mean, you think that it's the beginning where. Where he's being. Where this person's being arrested by the police. And then it's like this whole back. It. Like it goes in reverse. Like what. Here's the real story. And then it ends in the pizza place. And yeah, it's. That's a really great video. What. What we said before. I mean, you were talking about how do you dare. I mean, this video. It's Dave Bullivant from. From England, from the uk who does. Who does these Videos and he's a incredible director and what he actually managed. I mean how do you dares about victim blaming? And victim blaming is not a phenomenon. It's usually discussed in terms of sexualized violence and this is an important topic, but it is actually a phenomenon, a psychological phenomenon that happens everywhere. You know, you can't have. It's usually perpetrators blame their victims always. Right, right, right.

39:06 Every genocide was rectified by a lie about how bad these people are or that they attacked the, the perpetrators or whatever. You know, it's, it's everywhere and it's even there in small scale in all of us. You know, we tend already as kids to say ah, you know, you beat up somebody and say no, but it was him, you know, because yeah, he did this first. That's why I did it, why I retaliated. Right, exactly. So it, it is the same phenomenon from just usual not you know, understandable kind of, you know, in an everydays onto up to mass murdership, you know.

39:50 So it is a very interesting topic to, to think about and I think it is as well how do societies get fanatized and get to be perpetrators as a whole? You know, how do you switch it? Because you don't see yourself as a perpetrator. You always see yourself as a defender, even if you are, if, if you are the perpetrator. So it is interesting and probably as well important to think about these things in a self critical way. And that's why I mean the lyrics are a little bit more an accusation but even more in the video we play with your perspectives and with your prejudices. You know, you see this person on the floor and it's in the beginning and that's why we took somebody who is, is androgen. You don't really see in the beginning is it, is, is it a her? Is it him and stuff.

40:51 Yeah, that was quite a flip at the end there, right? Yeah. And you think first she's the bad girl or she's the bad guy, you know, and then you get the thing all wrapped up and the thing and, and then you, you find out and you. We hope you get a little bit to think about your own perceptions because you thought wrong in the beginning. You know, that's a little bit as well. The, the thing where you ask a little bit about your own prejudices and stuff, you know. So. And he did this beautifully and I. And, and he did now a beautiful one for Storm that is. Yeah, coming out on the 15th with the album and then we have next one that I really want to mention here because I think it's a really nice thing. There's a video coming from for Carter for the only German on the. On the album that is quite ironic and. And very unusual. And this is a crazy video. It's the craziest video we've done so far. It is a wild ride through Berlin with a lot of Berlin original figures in there. You really, really want to point.

42:13 Point this one out. So if you like our stuff and, and that's. It's the cherry on the cake after the album and I think it's really worthwhile to. To take this one. It's going to come out in May. Okay. Can you give us any idea what. Like what do you want to hold the. The story idea had to wait for it. I mean anyway you. As it's such a. Such an incredible story. I can't actually really feel it because it's really crazy. Right through Berlin. It is actually this person Carter played by me. It's the second one where I act his story a little bit. Which is not a person in the. In the lyrics. In the lyrics Carter is another person. But here we named in on the set set we called him Lewis, but he hasn't got a name. Who actually is the old dandy party king of. He was the party king of Berlin but he went down the drain. And now we get a little bit to get his story and we follow him through Berlin in his bad times and get revealed a little bit how he got there and surf with him through Berlin. Because the song talks about all these kind of people who have the

43:46 talent to always get into the same shit. One are very sympathetic. Like that's the first verse. Friends. We probably all have this friend who always has problems drugs. And then he gets out of him again and then he falls into them again. But every time you meet him he has this one great idea that will save. Solve everything. Oh no, not again. This is going to be your next disaster. Don't you know it by now? Right. And the second verse is about a person who tends to always fall for the next sect, you know, or for the next. You know, like fatter a thing. Yeah. She starts with. With. With.

44:30 With Asian sects and then goes into Christian sex and whatever and every time works for free and stuff and, and. And. And doesn't get. Get happy. So it's a little bit like these things and in this. In this ironic way we take a very nice view of Berlin and, and. And its figures and it's. It's. It's Corners from the clubs to the streets. I love it. I love it. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited for the albums, obviously excited for, for these videos because you guys do such a, such a great job on them and I appreciate your time. Nick, thank you so much, man, for doing this. Thank you. I didn't, I hope I didn't extend it too much.

45:12 Oh, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. I, I just didn't want to take too much of your time, so I love it. I have one more actually question for you if you have a minute. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists, for aspiring artists, like new, anyone that wants to do this as a musician or you know, any bit of art? I guess. Yeah, don't. Probably what I pointed out before already. Don't be too timid on one hand and don't be too stubborn on the other one.

45:55 See openly what other people bring. There's so many cool people with so many good, good, good ideas and so many good capabilities and, and talents. And so that's the stubborn side. Don't think you're always on the right side. Let things flow and, and try to put your. The need of self esteem a little bit back, you know, to, to flatter your ego. Just work on your art. And then on the other side, be, be confident on this. Let it flow. And when it comes and you like it, you like it, you like it. You. Rick Rubin.

46:39 A very famous saying from Rick Rubin is art is gift to God or to the gods or whatever you want. You know, you're not doing it for the public, you're not doing it for the audience. I mean, you want it to be loved by the audience, but it, you have to let it flow. You have to do what you think is right without being too selfish and pushing people away who could add something. Well, good, you know, but, but let it be. If, if your neighbor who does metal or who does blues and like it, okay, it's probably not your audience, but. But if you're convinced of it, it's good.

47:27 Bring it backward, bringing it backward, bringing it backward, bringing it backward, bringing it backward, bring it backward.