Interviewing well-known musicians is great, but sometimes it is more rewarding to discuss the debut album of a young band, particularly when the musician involved is excited about the music. You see, this excitement speaks volumes on the dedication and the motivation a new band carries. Singer Anna ‘Ace’ Brunner from LEAGUE OF DISTORTION checks all the criteria, and the best way for other to “see” this is by listening to the following chat. Anna shared with METAL KAOZ her enthusiasm for the LEAGUE OF DISTORTION debut and self-titled album and shed some light what has been happening backstage.
“I had the idea and vision of forming a band with friends I’ve known for years,” Ace reveals. “And it was always kind of in the back of my mind, but I didn’t have or didn’t take the time to really sit down and do it, until the whole Covid stagnation started. And that’s when [interrupting herself] everything broke down of course – no gigs, no tours planned – and then it was like ‘this is the time; I’m gonna use this time right now and work on ideas, get the boys together.’ Actually, it was more or less [interrupting herself] Ax [Felix Rehmann], our bass player, was always by my side - in any musical project, I knew he was there – and then I asked Jim [‘Arro’ Müller] and he was totally up for it too. Then, Aeon [Tino Calmbach] came along, so that’s how it all started. The modern Metalcore was something that really was interested me because I really love it when the guitars are really low and it’s rough and dark, so that was definitely something I was aiming for, but having the freedom of just mixing different influences, like Pop-py influences, allowed to some of the early experimentations to stay because it was kind of the vibe. We had no limits – it was like if we liked it, it was good.”
“I write the lyrics but I always discuss those with the boys as well,” Brunner adds. “Because I’m standing in front of course, but we all are standing there with this message and I want everyone to feel the same, feel comfortable with the harsh words and also the deep topics. So, I always have the trust to use the words to get the attention and also to not be afraid of what people might think or say. And if they hate it, that’s OK too. It’s hard times not to take the comments personal but we know where we stand for and we want the people to wake up and think – that’s definitely a good thing, absolutely.”
Discussing LEAGUE OF DISTORTION’s touring plans and the possibility seeing the band touring the States in 2023, she comments:
“We are actually working on opportunities to kind of compensate the missing CALIBAN dates, so nothing I can tell you concretely but stay tuned and you’ll probably see it in the next few days. We’re also planning doing something in 2023. But there are no plans yet to cross the Atlantic. I think the first step is Europe – not staying in Germany as a German band – and not only doing Austria and Switzerland, but really getting out there in Europe. That’s gonna be the next step. Honestly, it would be an absolute dream for me to tour the US, so I don’t know how we can get that earlier – it’s not always that easy.”
Listen to the entire interview below.