Germany’s Flowing Tears recent release ‘Serpentine’ saw them successfully walk the edge between goth and metal. However, with the departure of vocalist Stephanie Duchene, many wondered how they could continue less her powerful presence. On Halloween I caught up with guitarist Benjamin Buss to sample his strange brand of depressive humour.

-Shan Siva

Lets start with an easy one - where does the name come from?
Benjamin: uh, that’s the worst question to start....maybe you should ask it at the end. But that’s ok because it only gets worse from now ha ha. To be honest we hate the band’s name. The origins come from some 14-year-old kids trying to found a very depressive band. Actually, no one from the original line-up, including the guy who thought up the name is still around. But there’s a point where you can no longer change your band name so we continue to carry the burden on ha ha.

The name sounds ok to me…
Benjamin: well, to us it’s a bit of a cliché and I don’t think we’re as gothic as some might believe us to be.

What exactly is Darkwave?
Benjamin: to be frank I don’t really care about labels that say we’re gothic or darkwave or whatever. When I write a song or compose music I just do as I feel. I don’t qualify it by saying “oh, is it darkwave then?”. I think its true that we don’t write happy music, but we are not gothic and we are not gothic people.

Hmm, but Roy (our Dutch BH correspondent) tells me you’ve played the Wave Gothic Treffen festival....
Benjamin: and that’s ok because we like some of the bands and I really like the atmosphere that is created by 10,000 goths all dressed up in Leipzig – its amazing! But the goth metal section of the festival is pretty small so there is only a certain section of the crowd that will come and see us. The rest is gothic, electronic and the rest.

Well, Leipzig’s a pretty depressing city - I can see how it appeals to goths or students.
Benjamin: yes, and I like that! By the way, I am a student too ha ha! In fact, 3 of us are studying and it’s actually a pretty good job to have if you’re a musician. You can take time out for the band and it gives us something to do when the band isn’t busy.

You must be the only full time band with part time jobs as students…
Benjamin: oh, we have jobs too - I work in a library. I just go into the bookshelves and compose or do interviews ha ha!

How did you get into this band?!
Benjamin: well, 3 of the founding members and myself all went to the same school but we didn’t know each other. Later when I joined Flowing Tears we discovered we had all gone to the same school - seriously ha ha! I saw the very first show of the band back in 1994 when they were sort of doomy - and were playing with 3 hardcore bands ha ha - and at the end of the show I was the only one left in the venue ha ha ha ha!!!! So...ha ha I told you things would get worse...after the show the guys asked me if I would produce their demo, which I did. Soon afterwards their guitar player left the band and they asked me to join - but I didn’t really want to ha ha! However I couldn’t escape and over the years I’ve gotten used to being in it ha ha! This is a band where no one knows why we are in it but somehow we are all trapped ha ha!

And you’ve managed to trap Century Media too!
Benjamin: yeah! We were supporting The Gathering when we got spotted and it was great because I’ve always liked Century Media’s bands from the time I was 12 or 13. Ok, our first 2 albums were released on an Italian underground label called Seven Arts music, which doesn’t exist anymore. But after we left them we made more demos and luckily we were also on a German compilation made by Rock Hard magazine.

How did you come by Stephanie?
Benjamin: purely by chance! Our first album was with a male vocalist and when he left we couldn’t find a replacement that could sing melodically. One day the bassist came to rehearsal with Stephanie in tow as she happened to be in the same class as him. We thought we would try her out and things worked out. But now she too is retired - along with the 3 original guys who no longer play music. To keep it simple, she wanted to have the band as a hobby as she was fed up of heavy touring whereas for the rest of us the band is our life. So I think if we had compromised it would’ve been the end of the band.

Well, that’s sad because Stephanie had a voice.
Benjamin: yeah, she did have a voice and it wasn’t a standard female voice either so it was very difficult to find a replacement with that deep female voice, which is a trademark of Flowing Tears. We didn’t actively search for Stephanie part 2 but the person had to at least match our style and although we had lots of technically good people but they all didn’t fit. A friend of mine who was aware of the situation asked me to check out a band he knew and it was Helen’s band.

Was it difficult to recruit Helen (into a band that no one wants to be in)?
Benjamin: luckily she already knew Flowing Tears! She’d seen the band in 1998. I checked out her biog before going to the gig and it said “favourite band - Flowing Tears” so I thought “hmm, this might work” ha ha!! In fact, it was the same way that I joined Flowing Tears myself.

Tell me about your other albums like ‘Jade’ - how do they compare to ‘Serpentine’?
Benjamin: well, ‘Jade’ is more boring ha ha! No, its more atmospheric and less rocking - good stuff to listen to at home but not to play onstage. We reached that conclusion after the full European tour. So that’s why ‘Serpentine’ got heavier and the new one will be heavier still.