I caught up with “Niklas Kahl” drummer of German dark metal giants “Lord Of The Lost” ahead of the release of “Swan Songs III” on 07/08/2020 via Napalm Records.
Skype Interview and Transrciption By Kenny Lehan
KL-
First question I have Nik.. is what can we expect from Swan Songs III?
NIK KAHL-
“Oh well course we are having a lot of “Thornstar” songs on “Swan Songs III” like the first Swan Songs which also had songs from the previous albums but we also have a lot of great new songs, especially written for Swan Songs III and I’m pretty excited about all the meanings but I’m also pretty sure that you will like it!”
KL-
Alright Killer sounds cool.. yeah and I see you guys will be live streaming with the Lord of the Lost ensemble for the release show for Swan Songs III tell us more about that?
NIK KAHL-
“Well yeah, usually we wanted to play this show at “M`era Luna festival”,but yeah of course of the well known reasons (COVID-19) it’s not possible. Unfortunately but we yeah.. didn’t want to release the album without any output without any show or anything like that. So we had this idea and we found a way to be able to have a live stream but unfortunately of course it’s very expensive to do it and so we asked our fan base on Facebook, we did a poll and asked what about the thoughts of the fans because the costs for this concert are about 15,000 euro’s, before we as a band are earning just one cent and yeah the feedback was just awesome so we started to organise everything and yeah that is what’s going on.”
KL–
Yeah definitely!
I really love the humour of the Lord Of The Lost social media posts the latest video for “One Ton Heart” has got really a funny vibe.. Its quite crazy and cool you know? tell us more about how that concept came about??
NIK KAHL-
“Oh well the concept behind this is pretty simple because it was Chris’s (Harms) idea he had this idea for a video like this for many, many years, already but we never had a song to fit to this and that was quite.. what I’m saying is quite the same as we told our label company…to our record company “Napalm Records” we just said well we never had the song fitting to this kind of video and now we also don’t have but we just did it”.
KL-
Love it! that’s awesome yeah so.. Has lock down boosted your creativity? what’s been going on with you guys?
NIK KAHL–
“ I mean we have this lockdown and we were not able to tour or anything and so like everyone else we have a lot of time so we’re yeah definitely using it for yeah.. a lot of output I mean we’re writing the next album coming out next year and we also preparing what we just talked about we are also doing the lock down versions of some of our songs”.
KL-
ohh yeah I seen “In Silence” And I love your break part where you take a beer that’s why I got the idea asking what your favourite beer is?
NIK KAHL-
“Haha!..Oh well there there’s no, no brand or anything but I like lager beer the other guys are more in IPA stuff and so on but no that’s not mine!”
KL-
Yeah sweet well what about Warsteiner??
NIK KAHL-
“Haha!..that’s okay but it’s not my favourite I like the Bavarian stuff.”
KL-
I see you joined Lord of the lost back in 2017 what has been the most insane moment so far?
NIK KAHL-
“Ah there were so many I think the very very most insane moment was the very first show with a Lord Of The Lost for me because it was very special because first of all Ive known these guys for years already and when they asked me to do this festival shows for them back in 2017. I only had I think 9 days to prepare for everything, 9 days for practising and rehearsing, I think about 17 or 19 songs something like this and the very first show was near my hometown on the festival “Rock Arts festival” which many years ago I was also doing the order for this festival so yeah it was kind of like coming home. The funny thing was that we wanted to rehearse altogether that the day before and I had to go to Hamburg what which is 250 kilometres away from home and it was the weekend of G20 in Hamburg so there was just it was like the last day on earth you cannot imagine so much police and all the all those guys destroying everything’s over there in Hamburg and we were not able to rehearse altogether the whole set and we drove to this festival so we played a show without playing together a whole set together and we went on stage and I was standing next to the stage and the intro was already in our in ears and I turned around to Chris(HARMS) and I was like hey Chris I don’t know your intro!! I don’t know when I have to go on stage!! so just give me a call when I have to go it was like now I know it’s alright okay. I went on stage and wave to the to the audience and then we started to play and I played just three or four maybe five or six bars of the song and it was like coming home it was a strange feeling it was so, we played a cool show we had so much fun on stage and after the show we went down the stage and we were not talking we’re just going down the stairs on the stage and Chris looked at me and he was like “man what are you doing next year? “ I was like Yep! So it was quite like the most insane moment but I mean Meanwhile we have two yeah kind of the whole world it feels like we were in Mexico and China and everywhere and there were so many insane things.. yeah!”.
KL-
Plans for the rest of 2020?
NIK KAHL-
“So yeah times for the rest of 2020 well first we hope that we are going back on stage but I mean there are still some shows and in our schedule but I’m really not sure if we can do it I don’t know I really hope but.. I’m an optimist but I don’t know.”
KL–
Its really unfortunate about the Iron Maiden tour dates as well because obviously you guys were scheduled to be touring with Iron Maiden but with the current situation of the earth…
NIK KAHL-
“Yeah I mean Luckily especially the Iron Maiden shows are just rescheduled for next year and we are still in and pretty awesome for us of course”
KL-
Yeah so after the lockdown has lifted how likely is it we will see Lord of the Lost back in the UK?
NIK KAHL-
“Oh until now I don’t know if there are any plans but I of course I hope that we will come back as soon as possible because we still have to finish at least one show I don’t know if you know about the situation in London? back in February we had?…”
KL– What Happened In London?…
NIK KAHL-
“We were on tour with “Equilibrium” for four and a half weeks and the last three shows were London and the festival in Birmingham and the day after we had to show in Belgium but unfortunately this tour was kind of yeah.. we are there because all of the 38 people in the crew and the band, we’re sick at one time on this tour everyone so no one was very cool the whole tour and the show in London…I think it was London we went on stage and Chris was already ill or I don’t know about a week after last four days with high fever and everything and everyone else of the tour crew was already back in life and yeah he was pretty ill and we just played I think three songs and I just started the 4th song and then he turned around and said something like..” no stop it! stop it! it’s over now!” and I was like oh do we have any technical problems? That was just a few seconds before breaking together and he spoke a few words to the audience and said “hey guys sorry but I can’t do it anymore right now And I hope we come back but right now I’m sorry” and he went down the stage and we were standing there like…” And I hope we come back, but right now I’m sorry” and he went down the stage and we were standing there like okay F***!.. what are you doing now, so we didn’t play the whole London show we didn’t play Birmingham and Belgium also, so yeah we have to come back we still have to finish something over there!”
LORD OF THE LOST live:
Record Release Show (worldwide streaming):
08.08.20 Tickets-
https://shop.lordofthelost.de/
Ensemble Tour 2021:
w/ Rain Diary
07.04.21 DE – Hamburg / Friedrich-Ebert-Halle
08.04.21 DE – Mainz / Kurfürstliches Schloss
09.04.21 DE – Wuppertal / Historische Stadthalle
10.04.21 DE – Munich / Alte Kongresshalle
11.04.21 DE – Berlin / Huxleys
LORD OF THE LOST links:
https://www.facebook.com/lordofthelost/
https://instagram.com/officiallordofthelost?igshid=15qialfqzctak
https://www.napalmrecords.com/
Kenny Lenehan 
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