Interview with Wolfgang Rothbauer - Zombie Inc., August 2011

Zombie Inc. is a new band, but with members that earned their stripes already in other bands, what made you decide to start Zombie Inc.?

Wolfgang: Well, all of us grew up with early 90`s Death Metal, hmm, ahh, except Martin, I think he started a bit earlier. Anyway, so, finally we put our thoughts to a project and walked ahead with the intention to form a redux version of a 90s sounding old school Death Metal group entwined by our own identity. Our ideology was formed that early 90`s, so it's kind of going back to our former life again, at least for this period!

What makes your music different from a lot of other death metal acts?

Wolfgang: Hmm, difficult question, I think our difference to other bands is the real old-school feeling, that is gone lost in nowadays Death Metal productions. I miss the atmosphere and the spirit, that made the old school Death Metal outstanding. Concerning “A Dreadful Decease” from Zombie Inc. we tried to find this again, I mean there is nothing really new to find in it, we did not create something new, although we did not try it anyway, but we made it something special!

Who are the main song writers in the band, or is it a real band thing?

Wolfgang: Well, Gerald wrote 4 songs and I wrote 6 songs for this album, so concerning the song-writing, the Debut was not a real band thing. But Gerald and I, gave the other musicians plenty of space to unfold themselves into the songs. They had enough time for arrangement and inspiration. At the end, everyone of us followed the feeling of old-school during the process and it worked well!

The music is a mix of different old school 90’s death metal styles, which bands are you most influenced by?

Wolfgang: Hmm, in case of song-writing for Zombie Inc. we are emotional influenced by Carcass, Entombed, Autopsy, Dismember, Obituary, Edge of Sanity, Deicide and Gorefest. I mean Zombie Inc. sounds like Zombie Inc. but our subconscious mind can not be wiped away, we grew up with the 90s Death Metal, as told. Its funny, because some of our friends and fans told us that the atmosphere of „A Dreadful Decease“ feels like in the vein of the Swedish band Bloodbath, well, if so, its good, but I thought our sound feels older.

I come from the Netherlands and we have some very underestimated death metal bands in my opinion, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets, Sinister, Thanatos etc. etc. American bands seem to be more popular and I think that is because they are Americans and not Dutch. Is it more difficult for a band from Austria too, to become popular?

Wolfgang: Well, these four bands you named, I know them since a long time, and in my opinion they are successful bands as well, I personally like their music, especially Sinister, so I don't understand your question? I mean, what is popular and how far does it go? Of course, in general it is really difficult nowadays as well as years ago for Austrian or Dutch Bands to grow. Let's go deeper into your question: You have to remind that there are hundreds of American bands which are unknown and will stay underground, the same than in Europe, so what you see and think that is more successful, is the result of some hard-working American bands which took the chance to find attention in Europe and had luck that it worked out. In comparison, for example lets take America vs. Europe, in the 90`s you can pick out Florida vs. Stockholm in point of metal-headquarters. So the result is 1:1! The other thing could be that Europe is “Americanized” so most things that comes from there must to be better than things from Europe. Well, that's my personal point of view, maybe I am far way wrong. Finally I think, YES it's difficult for Austrian Bands as well as for Dutch Bands to become easily popular, because it's neither Sweden nor the USA, but both of our countries own plenty of amazing metal bands!

Was it easy to get Dan Swanö for the mastering job? Satisfied with the result?

Wolfgang: Well, I don't know if it's true that Dan only work on albums, if he likes the music, beside that,  we are proud of the fact that we got him for the mastering job, and we are really satisfied with the result. He did a great job as well as we are satisfied with martins mix of the album. They even know how old school DM must sound like!

What has Martin Schirenc been doing the last years?

Wolfgang: Martin has a lot of work with Hollenthon, and he recorded and mixed plenty of Bands and Albums in his own recording studio in Vienna. He did a lot of Festivals, Tours and Song-writing the last years. He is a busy man as all the other musicians in Zombie Inc. work for other bands too.

Do you know if there is any chance that Pungent Stench gets re-united?

Wolfgang: As far as my last Information is, NO! But time is going on and minds can change! We will see, what future will provide for all of us!

With members  playing in other bands, isn’t it going to be difficult to play live with Zombie Inc.?

Wolfgang: Of course, it will be difficult, but everything is able to get organized! Our focus turns around festivals and tours. We will see how big the requests are, after this we can take a look into other possibilities.

Are there already plans (for that)?

Wolfgang: Well, we already got some gig-offers, but as told, we have other bands as well, so  lots of dates are not available! We concentrate on festivals and tours in 2012!

Can we expect more albums, or is this just a one time release?

Wolfgang: Yeah, you can expect more albums if this release is going to be that successful as we hope!;) It depends on you guys!!!

Anything else you want to share with our readers?

Wolfgang: Thank you very much for your interest! We really appreciate this! Spread the word and support Death Metal, and support us.

Interviewed by Reinier de Vries