A Warm Sigh with Tunes of Dawn

I can't claim discovering this band, but when I was made aware of them, I instantly fell in love. The baritone vocals and sweeping melodies turn my bones to jello. I’m excited to welcome Tunes of Dawn vocalist Hagen Schneevoigt here to the blog, so let’s get to it.

 Welcome Hagen, Tell me a little about Tunes of Dawn. How did they come into being? Who are the current members?

 It all started out in 1993 when we were a death metal band. But we became kind of bored over the years and decided to change our style. Also of the different tastes of the Members.
 Tunes Of Dawn is me, Hagen Schneevoigt, on bass and vocals, Martin Schorlemmer on drums, Gunter Büchau on keyboards and Rene Gödde on guitars.

 What are the band's influences? Personal influences?

 The main influences are of course rock and metal. But in fact we are all listening to different music like jazz, classic, pop, gothic and whatever, everyone brings their own taste into the band. The mixture of our tastes bring a lot of musical influences into our style. Type O Negative is definitely one of them, but there are so many others, ranging from Black Sabbath to Pink Floyd.
 Many times it’s not so easy to say which is the strongest influence, especially because it can differ so much from one piece to another. It was always important to us not to restrict ourselves to one style, to keep growing and try out new as well as old stuff.

What is the band’s writing process like?

 With most songs I have the outline in my mind and, by playing and everyone bringing ideas in, the song is created. Sometimes one of the others has a song-line created already. Other times I have a song completely written out and we just fine-tune it in the rehearsals.
 Within these different processes a song is sometimes created in one day; sometimes it takes a month or more. It depends on the mood we are in or we're trying thousands of different sounds for a song.

Two major themes for ToD seem to be suicide and hope. Care to elaborate on the juxtaposition of these two themes?

 Suicide always was a theme, symbolizing so much the extreme situations a human can get into, where taking your own life seems the most absurd thing to do for a living creature and, on the other hand, such a logical and easy solution of dealing with a world completely out of its mind. So, it breaks down to Hamlet’s contemplation whether there is more honour in bearing life in silent suffering, or to withdraw and refrain from taking part in this crazy game.
 Then again, it feels so helpless to just let everything happen, and there might be the option to fight. This is where hope comes into the picture. As long as we keep breathing there might be a way to conquer your own life and fill it with love instead of despair. And this is where you can find a strength in yourself you didn’t believe could be there and rise and rage. And, then again, you find it was all in vain in the end and all you want is to vanish and finally find time to relax, finally find peace. And be it in pieces. But because of that, our music is not just sad. Sometimes its hopeless too ;o)


What do you do when not playing with Tunes of Dawn?

Well, beside the band, each of us works in a regular job. Unfortunately the music does not pay. Some of us are also involved in some other musical projects, like playing in a cover band to gain some money or helping out friends in the studio with their recordings. It’s good to keep the diversity in our musical minds. Be it playing in a band with different music, sound- or composing-structure. Or keeping musically fit, for example playing in a cover-band.

What kind of bass do you play?

 Usually I play a 5 string LTD bass, but I also play Ibanez and an ESH bass. It depends on the sound I need.

 Favorite fan moment?

The last record release show in October 2010 in Berlin. In the middle of one song almost 500 people raised burning sparklers and fluorescing crosses. I almost forgot to sing. A stunning moment.

Most embarrassing moment?

 I think that was when a string of my bass and a string of Rene's guitar broke at the same time on stage. We just looked at each other and started to giggle. But mostly because we had to stop playing to change the strings. It felt like an hour. But shit happens.

 Whiskey or Vodka?

 Definitely both :o)


 If you could sit down to dinner with 5 historical people(living or dead, and they can be musicians) who would they be and why?

 I think that would be Elvis Presley, Peter Steele, Billy Idol, Jack the Ripper and Beethoven. The musicians are major influences for us. I would ask Jack the Ripper how he managed to never be caught.

 What is next for Tunes of Dawn?

What can we look forward to? Currently we are writing new material for the next album which will hopefully be released next spring. But before we are releasing a digital EP called "Basement Goodies" carrying some specialties like acoustic-songs, a remix and a song we have written for our friend Kilian Kerner for his show on the fashion week in Berlin. It will be out on June 1st.

 

you can find Tunes of Dawn at the following links~

http://tunesofdawn.bandcamp.com
www.tunesofdawn.com
www.myspace.com/tunesofdawnmusic
www.reverbnation.com/tunesofdawn
www.youtube.com/user/TunesOfDawn