Pete aka The Scarr, etwas schizophren, wirr und chaotisch aber ein verdammt guter Musiker hat sich unserer Fragen gestellt. Das Interview ist nicht übersetzt, weil ich seine Sticheleien zwischen ihm und seinen anderen Bandmembers, bzw. ihm selber nicht in angemessene deutsche Worte kleiden konnte/wollte. Lest selbst....Interview
Let´s start with some words about yourself, who is the person behind THE SCARR?
Me, the person: Right now I´m possessing this human Pete Johansen, he´s a real fucked up weirdo. Think I´ll let him do parts of the interview, though.
Pete says: Thanx very much.
The Scarr: The pleasure is all mine.
And what about the other musicians involved in THE SCARR?
The Scarr: On the album Pete played the violin and did most of the vocals.
Pete: I think it´s easy to hear when you take over.
The Scarr: Oh, it´s all in the electronics.
Pete: Yeah, sure thing.
The Scarr: At times I had to lend him out to colleagues of mine, some fellow demons. Arthur Ritis has been around for a long time, Roth Veiler is a rather new dude. Or should I say D-dude?
Pete: Oh, c´mon! It´s just Terje and me, playing keyboards and programming machines and stuff.
The Scarr: Sure. As if I care. So that Vanessa Hell, she´s not real either?
Pete: All in my head.
Are they only session musicians or did they have any creative input to this record?
The Scarr: They´re sort of session demons. They are very creative indeed. Pete is rather stiff´n´dry.
Pete: Oh, shut up. I wrote all lyrics and music on Animalenemy.
The Scarr: In your dreams.
Arthur Ritis: He couldn´t make music if you forced him. He´s tone deaf.
The Scarr: Moron.
Arthur Ritis: Blockhead.
Pete: Shut up!!
Are you the kind of typical "violin player" (like me…)? Started with the age of 6, didn´t want to practice, got on your parents nerves with the wrong tones…
The Scarr: So you´re a violin player? They´re all psychos.
Arthur Ritis: Totally out there.
Pete: Hrm. Well, I started playing when I was nine. Think my ma´s nerves was pretty weak already. My dad´s not the nervous kind. He loves every wrong note in the world!
Vanessa Hell: He was awful. He made Bach sound like Stravinsky.
Arthur Ritis: He´s still awful!
The Scarr: He stinks!!
Pete: Shuuuuut the FUCK UP!! Who´s the freakin´ viola player?
Vanessa Hell: It´s a sophisticated instrument!
Pete: Sophisticated, like hell!
Vanessa Hell: Precisely.
Tell me something about your violin, some details for the freaks out there!
Pete: I have five violins at the moment. Two Norwegian built fiddles. Two Barcus-Berry classic acoustic/electric. One Zeta strados electric solid body. In the studio I mainly use one of the fiddles Live I tend to use one of the Barcus-Berries. They´re all singers! They all got piezzo pick-ups, are rather low stringed. I use only some delay live, in the studio I use all kinds of gadgets. I like to use German bows, wooden. I use Dadario strings, steel. And my wife´s shoulder pads. Brilliant. They make you melt together with the violin. She makes them perfectly adjusted to my needs. All my violins are made in wood. I hate plastic fiddles. Zombies!
Vanessa Hell: What´s with zombies?
What would your music be without this instrument?
Pete: Beats me.
The Scarr: Top of the pops.
Arthur Ritis: Would be a star.
Vanessa Hell: Burn that crap.
You covered a song from Sting/The Police, why?
Pete: The Police version is rather dull, right?
The Scarr: RIGHT!!
Pete: So… There´s so much wonderful jealousy, hate and pain in there. I just had to give it a go.
Arthur Ritis: He´s a perv, you know.
Pete: Anyway, it seems more right my way, doesn´t it?
What is a scarr? Just a name or more?
The Scarr: First of all it´s my name. But also like a scar, you know? I´m Pete´s scar by the name The Scarr.
Arthur Ritis: Silly, but who cares.
Vanessa Hell: He is scarred, you know.
The Scarr: Yes, I threw him right across stage once. Hundreds watching. In Berlin. Years ago. Left my mark on him. Between his eyes.
How much has the country you live in influenced your music?
Pete: Nowhere Influenced me" "Well, yes. Quite much, I should say. And my hometown Sadness; immensely. I´m cold to my bones from staying so long out here. And the darkness… Hey, heard of Myllarguten or Ole Bull? Big Nowherian violin legends, playing alongside Paganini. Like me Myllarguten learned his skills from one of the Nowherian demons; Nøkken. My teacher, Skål for faen!, is a much younger devil.
Why did you chose this quite futuristic cover artwork for your cd?
Pete: It´s not futuristic! It´s now! It´s me on a monday morning.
Please tell something about the work with Morgul, Tristania etc…
Pete: Through my friendship with "His Master´s Noize"; Terje Refsnes, I got in touch with Tristania when he was producing their first album "Widowsweed". I fell in love (sic) with their music instantly. Since then I´ve played on two more albums with them. A pleasure each time. I´m going down to SoundSuite, France, in December to record with Morten Veland on his new project "Sirenia". Looking forward to it.
The Scarr: Morten is a genius, you stink.
Pete: Enough shit. Go play with the other little bastards.
Vanessa Hell: C´mon, let´s go possess some old priest. Make him pee in the holy water.
Pete: Off you go. Ah… Good riddance. Where were we… Ah, yes, The sins… Stig Johansen, drummer of The sins of thy beloved, approached me after a gig with a band I played in for five years; The Tramps. He wanted me to play on a demo they were making in SoundSuite. The demo led to a deal with Napalm. Lake of sorrow, their debut, and that other album, made it possible for us to tour quite much. We´ve been all over Europe and even Mexico! That was big fun. I´ve been on smelly busses for weeks and weeks playing gig after gig with no days off. I´ve cracked my head open in Berlin. I broke my arm in two places in Belgium. The sins have given me a lot. I owe them big time. Morgul is a cool guy making intricate and beautiful music. I don´t think I did my best work on his album. That French guy playing on his latest does a much better job. Morgul´s music is quite complicated to play. And I have no brain, so…
What are you doing apart from being a musician? Do you have a regular job?
Oh, I´ve done all kinds of stuff. Gotta have them stupid money, you know… From ´88 to ´01 I was sort of a full time musician. But now I´m much too old to be poor, so I just got this cool job filling white powder into envelopes and sending them off to the U.S. of A. I´m on sick-leave right now. Came down with this tough flu, you see…
Are you planning any live activities with THE SCARR?
I´m rehearsing with a live band right now. Would love to tour with my own material again. Talks are about a tour in Finland. If you know of any cool booking agencies, please tell me. Think it would be wise to do some sort of a support act for some bigger name(s). Don´t like empty venues, you know! I really like the German audience, so it would be fun to meet my friends in Berlin, Bochum, Stuttgart and all the other cool cities of Germany. I dig Austria, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland as well. And of course Denmark is a cool place. Looking forward to my first time ever in Finland. The vodka, the saunas, the music, just got to be big fun!
Last words to our readers…
Beware! The war is coming to a climax now! There will be no peace in Afghanistan. Peace is too expensive. War makes money. The priests on both sides will play their dirty games to lead us all in Ragnarok, as told by my heathen forefathers thousands of years ago. Next year the war will spread from USA to Europe and many more will die. We are very lucky to live in these times. It can take a year, five years or even ten; but the final days of the Christian terror and domination is now! So let´s all take farewell with all their lies and sick ways. In the near future a priest is something we scare children with to make them behave! Go brush your teeth or I´ll baptise you!!
(Ohne Worte.... die Redaktion)
Let´s start with some words about yourself, who is the person behind THE SCARR?
Me, the person: Right now I´m possessing this human Pete Johansen, he´s a real fucked up weirdo. Think I´ll let him do parts of the interview, though.
Pete says: Thanx very much.
The Scarr: The pleasure is all mine.
And what about the other musicians involved in THE SCARR?
The Scarr: On the album Pete played the violin and did most of the vocals.
Pete: I think it´s easy to hear when you take over.
The Scarr: Oh, it´s all in the electronics.
Pete: Yeah, sure thing.
The Scarr: At times I had to lend him out to colleagues of mine, some fellow demons. Arthur Ritis has been around for a long time, Roth Veiler is a rather new dude. Or should I say D-dude?
Pete: Oh, c´mon! It´s just Terje and me, playing keyboards and programming machines and stuff.
The Scarr: Sure. As if I care. So that Vanessa Hell, she´s not real either?
Pete: All in my head.
Are they only session musicians or did they have any creative input to this record?
The Scarr: They´re sort of session demons. They are very creative indeed. Pete is rather stiff´n´dry.
Pete: Oh, shut up. I wrote all lyrics and music on Animalenemy.
The Scarr: In your dreams.
Arthur Ritis: He couldn´t make music if you forced him. He´s tone deaf.
The Scarr: Moron.
Arthur Ritis: Blockhead.
Pete: Shut up!!
Are you the kind of typical "violin player" (like me…)? Started with the age of 6, didn´t want to practice, got on your parents nerves with the wrong tones…
The Scarr: So you´re a violin player? They´re all psychos.
Arthur Ritis: Totally out there.
Pete: Hrm. Well, I started playing when I was nine. Think my ma´s nerves was pretty weak already. My dad´s not the nervous kind. He loves every wrong note in the world!
Vanessa Hell: He was awful. He made Bach sound like Stravinsky.
Arthur Ritis: He´s still awful!
The Scarr: He stinks!!
Pete: Shuuuuut the FUCK UP!! Who´s the freakin´ viola player?
Vanessa Hell: It´s a sophisticated instrument!
Pete: Sophisticated, like hell!
Vanessa Hell: Precisely.
Tell me something about your violin, some details for the freaks out there!
Pete: I have five violins at the moment. Two Norwegian built fiddles. Two Barcus-Berry classic acoustic/electric. One Zeta strados electric solid body. In the studio I mainly use one of the fiddles Live I tend to use one of the Barcus-Berries. They´re all singers! They all got piezzo pick-ups, are rather low stringed. I use only some delay live, in the studio I use all kinds of gadgets. I like to use German bows, wooden. I use Dadario strings, steel. And my wife´s shoulder pads. Brilliant. They make you melt together with the violin. She makes them perfectly adjusted to my needs. All my violins are made in wood. I hate plastic fiddles. Zombies!
Vanessa Hell: What´s with zombies?
What would your music be without this instrument?
Pete: Beats me.
The Scarr: Top of the pops.
Arthur Ritis: Would be a star.
Vanessa Hell: Burn that crap.
You covered a song from Sting/The Police, why?
Pete: The Police version is rather dull, right?
The Scarr: RIGHT!!
Pete: So… There´s so much wonderful jealousy, hate and pain in there. I just had to give it a go.
Arthur Ritis: He´s a perv, you know.
Pete: Anyway, it seems more right my way, doesn´t it?
What is a scarr? Just a name or more?
The Scarr: First of all it´s my name. But also like a scar, you know? I´m Pete´s scar by the name The Scarr.
Arthur Ritis: Silly, but who cares.
Vanessa Hell: He is scarred, you know.
The Scarr: Yes, I threw him right across stage once. Hundreds watching. In Berlin. Years ago. Left my mark on him. Between his eyes.
How much has the country you live in influenced your music?
Pete: Nowhere Influenced me" "Well, yes. Quite much, I should say. And my hometown Sadness; immensely. I´m cold to my bones from staying so long out here. And the darkness… Hey, heard of Myllarguten or Ole Bull? Big Nowherian violin legends, playing alongside Paganini. Like me Myllarguten learned his skills from one of the Nowherian demons; Nøkken. My teacher, Skål for faen!, is a much younger devil.
Why did you chose this quite futuristic cover artwork for your cd?
Pete: It´s not futuristic! It´s now! It´s me on a monday morning.
Please tell something about the work with Morgul, Tristania etc…
Pete: Through my friendship with "His Master´s Noize"; Terje Refsnes, I got in touch with Tristania when he was producing their first album "Widowsweed". I fell in love (sic) with their music instantly. Since then I´ve played on two more albums with them. A pleasure each time. I´m going down to SoundSuite, France, in December to record with Morten Veland on his new project "Sirenia". Looking forward to it.
The Scarr: Morten is a genius, you stink.
Pete: Enough shit. Go play with the other little bastards.
Vanessa Hell: C´mon, let´s go possess some old priest. Make him pee in the holy water.
Pete: Off you go. Ah… Good riddance. Where were we… Ah, yes, The sins… Stig Johansen, drummer of The sins of thy beloved, approached me after a gig with a band I played in for five years; The Tramps. He wanted me to play on a demo they were making in SoundSuite. The demo led to a deal with Napalm. Lake of sorrow, their debut, and that other album, made it possible for us to tour quite much. We´ve been all over Europe and even Mexico! That was big fun. I´ve been on smelly busses for weeks and weeks playing gig after gig with no days off. I´ve cracked my head open in Berlin. I broke my arm in two places in Belgium. The sins have given me a lot. I owe them big time. Morgul is a cool guy making intricate and beautiful music. I don´t think I did my best work on his album. That French guy playing on his latest does a much better job. Morgul´s music is quite complicated to play. And I have no brain, so…
What are you doing apart from being a musician? Do you have a regular job?
Oh, I´ve done all kinds of stuff. Gotta have them stupid money, you know… From ´88 to ´01 I was sort of a full time musician. But now I´m much too old to be poor, so I just got this cool job filling white powder into envelopes and sending them off to the U.S. of A. I´m on sick-leave right now. Came down with this tough flu, you see…
Are you planning any live activities with THE SCARR?
I´m rehearsing with a live band right now. Would love to tour with my own material again. Talks are about a tour in Finland. If you know of any cool booking agencies, please tell me. Think it would be wise to do some sort of a support act for some bigger name(s). Don´t like empty venues, you know! I really like the German audience, so it would be fun to meet my friends in Berlin, Bochum, Stuttgart and all the other cool cities of Germany. I dig Austria, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland as well. And of course Denmark is a cool place. Looking forward to my first time ever in Finland. The vodka, the saunas, the music, just got to be big fun!
Last words to our readers…
Beware! The war is coming to a climax now! There will be no peace in Afghanistan. Peace is too expensive. War makes money. The priests on both sides will play their dirty games to lead us all in Ragnarok, as told by my heathen forefathers thousands of years ago. Next year the war will spread from USA to Europe and many more will die. We are very lucky to live in these times. It can take a year, five years or even ten; but the final days of the Christian terror and domination is now! So let´s all take farewell with all their lies and sick ways. In the near future a priest is something we scare children with to make them behave! Go brush your teeth or I´ll baptise you!!
(Ohne Worte.... die Redaktion)
