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I am pretty sure most of our readers do not know your background, so could you start by telling us a bit about you and your musical background… Dustsucker – Hi Guys, here is Marco from Dustsucker (drummer). Max (guitar & vocals) and me started the band back in the days in a small town near Bielefeld in north/west Germany. We are around for about more than fifteen years and we have released all in all six albums so far. We have a really wide range of musical influences which starts with seventies glamrock to punkrock and also lots of metal and hardrock influences can be heard in our music. As you might know, we had different bass players on each album but we both are the founding members of the band and still the only songwriters therefore our sound is pretty constant over the years. The album has been out a month now, how has the response been? Dustsucker – We’ve got a lot of positive responses throughout Germany and Europe. We’ve got emails and reviews in almost every main music magazine. A further hint for the good response is that we’ve got some airplay on independent radio stations. But I don’t want to hide that there are only a few not really good responses, but I think that’s a natural thing. So far I did a lot of interviews, because of the release of the new album. As you can imagine, the most responses are from Germany. What can a listener that has never heard your music before expect – if I mention Tank and their ‘Power of the Hunter’ album brought up to toady, how far off the target would I be? Dustsucker – Year! That’s an album that I own by myself since 1982, and therefore you should be right in the middle of the target. Tank is one of Max and mine all time favourite bands and for us it is not an insult that we are compared to such a great band. So, if you like, spread the word, that we are the German version of TANK! Where do you see the main difference between “Jack Knife Rendezvous” and your new album? Dustsucker – At first there are different pruducers on each album,so the sound is slightly different, but that's not the mainpoint. On "Jack Knife" we had a little more metal-influenced songs like "Under the Hammer" or the titletrack (the fastest song we ever wrote). On the other side DD is more a so called songorientated album with a more mature approach to the songs. So we don't want to prove how fast or how heavy we could get. I still like the "Jack Knife" album, especially "Dead on Wheels", but dd feels more natural to me and it feels really good to play the songs live or in our practiceroom. All in all it's the same band, but we try reach the next step in learning how to write good songs and I hope we can improve with next album too. Where does your inspiration come from, how do you approach the writing of songs? Dustsucker – First of all, I have to say that Max is the main songwriter, but ok. Most of the time we start with a simple guitar riff and a vocal hookline. Some of the inspiration came on Max’s mind while he was driving his truck, because he is a mother trucker and has always his little voice recorder with him. After that we are working out the tracks in our practise room with some kind of fantasy lyrics and in the end we put the lyrics together. We have a really wide range of topics in our lyriks. We always try to avoid the typical cliche rocklyrics. We have some serious topics like "Land of the King", which deals with a critical view on religious extremism. Some songs like "Lost and Forgotten" are more a personal experience of Max life and deals with lost friends, and memories of the old days...a pretty melancholical type of lyric, although the music did not really sound like that. On the other side we some "partylyrics" as well, for example "Let the Good Times Roll" is all about havin' fun and to enjoy life in general. So nobody could say we are narrowminded, hehehe! Tell us a bit about artwork… Dustsucker – Oohh, the frontcover .I am not really happy with that. I had the idea with the book and some "guy" or whatever look into the book, and so to speak see something like bad news. In my mind I had a different picture of that but the time runs out so we had to pick one of the first versions. The colours and the drawing was to much like "I am so evil" and slightly fantasy-like.
My idea was a more artistical, or stylish kind of thing. That's just my personal opinion. All in all it should represent the lyrics, for thats it's ok. I just don't really like the way it was drawn. Let’s speculate – you have been granted a free slot on a tour of your own choice – who would be your ideal touring partners? And will you be heading out on the road any time soon…? Dustsucker – The first name that came in to my mind was – surprise, surprise (!) – the motorcity mad man MISTER TED NUGENT! If Ted is on the hunt, to kill some buffalos, I have some substitutes for him. DOA, ZEKE or DIE ÄRZTE (German cult band) would be a great choice to tour with. Dustsucker – any special story behind your name? Dustsucker – Not really, the only thing I remember is that we were sitting in the university with a bunch of friends and we thought about some bands and names and things like that. And someone came up with the question, what's is “Staubsauger” in English, and so we invent the new fantasy word. That’s the whole story. What’s the ambition for the band on a longer term? Dustsucker – Our main aim is to get better with each album and we want to improve as musicians and songwriters to make the best music we are able to. We are not doing it for the money, but it would be not bad to earn some more money after all the years. What are the best and worst trends in metal today? Dustsucker – Oh! Let’s start with the bad things. At first I miss the atmosphere and passion from back in the eighties. When I was a young kid, I spend all my money (and the money of my grandmother, too) to buy all the rock/metal/punk records and to see all my favourite bands playing live. Nowadays a lot of kids are sitting at home and just listen to cracked music from the internet. I don’t want to sound like a depressive old guy, so lets the kids do their thing and we will see. The best thing for me is that there are still new bands around which play good music and it’s a good counter part to all the mainstream or redneck people. Another positive effect is that the young metal musicians are really good on their instruments. It seems that they practice all day long. Name an album, person or event that has had a huge influence on your life … and why? Dustsucker – The double live Gonzo album from uncle Ted, had a really huge impact on me because I never heard such a manic guitar player and performer before and I listened to that double album for almost a few years, I think. My most important relationship was to my grandma because she gave me some really good advises for life, for example that I don’t have to marry and other shit ;) As a music maniac, which I am, I could only name a live concert. And one of the most intense concerts I’ve ever seen in my life was Dead Kennedys and MDC live in Hannover, back in 1982. At this time there were no many hard bands, but MDC was a total burner for me. You are told that you are going to take part in an experiment where you have to live secluded for a month, and are allowed to take either 5 books or 5 albums with you. What do you choose and what would you have taken along with you and why? Dustsucker – Oh, that’s a very easy question for me! I’m not really into reading and books, I’m sick of it until I left the university, hehe. So I take 5 albums. Guess what? - Ted Nugent – Double Live Gonzo
- Reo Speedwagon – Get What You Paid For
- MDC – First Album
- Judas Priest – Sad Wings Of Destiny
- Iron Butterfly – In A Gadda Da Vida
Because this 5 albums cover all my musical interests from psycadelic rock to high speed hardcore. Thank you very much for answering my questions. Do you have any last rants for our readers? Dustsucker – We would like to thank all fans and maniacs who take care about dustsucker and dig our sound. We hope we can play some shows for you in the future. Cheers and greetz from DUSTSUCKER Interviewed by Kenn Jensen. | 
