Johannes Schult

This is yet another instrumental track with a title that has little to do with the music. I like how surface tension sometimes appears to be fragile, especially on bodies of water on a windless day. Floating was another thing that came to my mind while working on this track.

I wrote the music right after getting out of my bed on the morning of May 14, 2010. The dialogue between the acoustic and the electric guitar wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for in the first place. Still, I’m quite content with the track and its dynamics.

#21 Surface Tension

This is a piece I’ve recently written for Manticess. I don’t know yet if it will end up in one of our songs. I had made a scratch recording with improvised German lyrics. Eventually, I added some grammar and decided to turn it into a 52-second song. It’s just two acoustic guitars and my voice. It suits the lyrics, I think. Susanne will certainly sing it much better, but you get an idea what our music sounds like in the early stages.

#20 Die Fremde

Langsam wird es Abend.
Die Sonne ist verbleicht.
Langsam kommt die Dunkelheit.
Sie rennt nicht, nein, sie schleicht.

In der Nacht kommt der Schatten.
In der Nacht kommt die Angst.
In der Nacht kommt die Fremde,
Der du nicht entfliehen kannst.
In der Nacht kommen Geister
Und sie singen ein Lied.
In der Nacht kommt die Furcht,
Dass es kein morgen mehr gibt.

In der Nacht kommt der Schatten.
In der Nacht kommt die Angst.
In der Nacht kommt die Fremde,
Der du nicht entfliehen kannst.
In der Nacht bist du einsam
Und du kommst nicht zur Ruh’.
In der Nacht kommen Träume
Und du ahnst, die Fremde bist du.
Die Fremde bist du.
Die Fremde bist du.

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Es amüsiert mich immer, wenn Fußballer, nachdem sie ein Tor geschossen haben, sich bekreuzigen und ein Dankeschön an Gott gen Himmel schicken. Ein paar schieben vor Spielbeginn auch ein (An-)Stoßgebet ein. Das wirkt im ersten Moment alles putzig, wird bei näherem Betrachten aber grotesk, spätestens wenn sich zwei Spieler gegenüberstehen, die an den selben Gott glauben und für einen Sieg beten. Da müsste ein gerechter Gott doch ein Unentschieden bewirken. Oder würde es von der Stärke des Glaubens abhängen? Könnte man am Ende sogar Fußballergebnisse als Gottmessgerät betrachten?

Da auf dem Platz gewöhnliche jede Menge Ander- und Ungläubige stehen, ergibt sich leider keine so klare Gleichung. Es gäbe hier allerdings eine einfache Lösung: Man lässt den Vatikan in die FIFA und bei der Weltmeisterschaft mitmachen.

Es soll auch Leute geben, die meinen, dass sportlicher Erfolg das Resultat von Übung, Talent und einer Prise Glück ist. Schließlich existiert auch eine weltliche Erklärung für die Hand Gottes. Wer dagegen meint, der Glaube wäre mitentscheidend für das Spielergebnis, macht aus dem Ballsport quasi einen heiligen Krieg. Was für eine Rolle dabei dann der Schiedsrichter spielt, ist mir noch nicht ganz klar.

These are the days music is given back to me; not always in the way I like or expect it. But who am I to make demands? I guess it’s better to settle with what is there than to complain.

WatchTower put out a new song and went on to play a fantastic gig at the Keep It True festival. Now a few weeks later I get the news that Alan is no longer in the band. So instead of hoping for another album or tour any time oon I now treasure the memory of the concert even more.

Änglagård reissue their second album “Epilog” with a proper recording of “Rösten”. I have no idea why they had to add a bonus cd for less than four minutes of music. But those precious few notes and chords are achingly beautiful. One couldn’t imagine a piece of music fitting the atmosphere of the album more perfectly. It’s both amazing and shocking to learn that it took basically years to complete the recording of just this tune. So instead of hoping for another album or tour any time soon I now treasure the wild and strange creativity of Änglagård even more.

The Hooters just played a series of shows in Europe. I’m truly lucky to live here. Last Friday they even played in my birth town. The band keeps coming up with new material, the majority of which is really great. Still, they tend to stick with the songs I like less. Another change I regret the lack of jamming on stage. I remember long improvisations in “Twenty Five Hours a Day”, “Deliver Me” and “Mr. Big Baboon”. I loved it when they inserted Beatles or Elvis tunes. Needless to say I was happy that at least some of that spirit returned with Tommy Williams in “500 Miles” this time around. So instead of hoping for another album any time soon I now treasure the live shows even more. And I keep the memory of their previous tours, especially the incredible show in Stuttgart in 2004 and the then new songs they played in 2005.

This is what happens when I come up with a song in a hurry. I started out with nothing and ended up with this dark story. The title was a rather arbitrary choice. I didn’t even know whether there is a Lincoln in Texas. I just checked: there is one.

#19 Lincoln, TX

Jane is talking to the red old barman
Stalking me out like a roaming son
Here in the desert of Lincoln, TX
Promise me heaven outside the door

I can see there’s a man in the shadows
And I know I have seen him before
He turns around and says, I’ve been waiting to meet you once again

I return to Jane and the barman
I say, I’m sorry for the mess I made
I drink my whisky and I head for the front door
Leaving the body and a bribe behind

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Yesterday, the Hooters played in Friedrichshafen. This was the first time I had to take the ferry to get to a concert. Funnily, the band played “South Ferry Road” this time around. They also had plenty of songs from “Out of Body” in the setlist, four in total. I liked that. Two new songs from the upcoming EP “Five by Five” were also featured. “Pissing in the Rhine” was sung in German; a quick rocking opening track with no deeper meaning as far as I can tell from one listen. “Silver Lining” was a bit closer to serenity of the “Time Stand Still” record, yet had an upbeat infectious chorus. One of the highlights was the ending of “500 Miles”. Eric (on harmonica) and guest musician Tommy Williams (on guitar, helping out until Eric’s broken shoulder is healed) delivered a fascinating duel that reminded me of the tours in 2004 and 2005, when the band jammed quite a lot. I wasn’t perfectly happy with Johnny B being put into the encore section of the setlist. I always loved how “the big hit” came on halfway through the set, paving the way for a grand finale of non-stop rock with Karla, Satellite, Danced and so on. Anyway, be sure to catch the band on their 30th anniversary tour this summer!

1. Pissing in the Rhine
2. Day by Day
3. South Ferry Road
4. Fightin’ on the Same Side
5. The Boys of Summer
6. Great Big American Car
7. Silver Lining
8. 500 Miles
9. Morning Buzz
10. Deliver Me
11. Private Emotion
12. I’m Alive
13. Twenty-Five Hours a Day
14. Satellite
15. All You Zombies
16. Karla With a K
17. And We Danced
18. Johnny B
19. Free Again
20. Boys Will Be Boys
21. One of Us
22. Time After Time

Check out manticess.bandcamp.com! The site contains all music Manticess have released so far. You can listen to all songs online. If you like them, you can download them in the format of your choice – for free! (Just enter 0 when asked to name your price.) If you really like our music, you can pay us! We’d like that. Now tell all your friends!

This is yet another instrumental piece. It’s merely a quick combination of chords and notes. But then again, most songs are. I took the chance to play on the piano, even though I only had my digital camera to record the audio. So the sound is crappy, but you can watch me playing. I wrote and recorded the track last Sunday, after two days of heavy metal at the Keep It True festival. Please excuse minor timing problems. After all, I had to guess the tempo in order to make the song 52 seconds long. So I did have a slightly better version recorded, but it was a couple of seconds too long. The version you hear here is actually has a bit a silence appended at the end to make it long enough. I know that’s cheating, but I rather have it like this than with the additional noises you can hear on the video (which does reach the 52-second mark).

#18 The Time We’ve Lost

This is a song in German about a shopping list. It deals with the everyday encounters at the supermarket. Thankfully, I had to stop at the 52-second mark. Otherwise the song would have ended with red cabbage being the last item on the shopping list.

#17 Einkaufszettel

Ich sah noch aus dem Augenwinkel, wie sie im Aufzug verschwand.
Ich nahm mir ihren Wagen, der vorne in der Schlange stand.
Für einen Euro Pfand gehörte er vorübergehend mir.
Da entdeckte ich ein kleines Stück Papier.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Sie brauchte ihn jetzt nicht mehr.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Und ich vermisse sie so sehr.

Dabei kenne ich sie gar nicht, weiß nicht mal ihren Namen.
Doch was sie einkaufen wollte, lässt Großes erahnen:
Buchstabensuppe und Möhrensalat, Cornflakes und Bio-Käse,
Eine Packung Taschentücher und zwei gezeichnete Küchengefäße.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Tomatensauce im Doppelpack.
Es war ihr Einkaufszettel.
Sie hatte ganz klar Geschmack.

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is a little homage to WatchTower, written in anticipation of their show next Friday.

Eleven years ago I wrote a song called “Golden Future” for From Thy Ashes (my band back then). It was an attempt to combine a whole bunch of complicated parts. The result wasn’t very impressive. But I figured back then that the ideal unit for writing such material wasn’t a couple of bars; much rather does it boil down to chunks of maybe three or for notes. If you have a big simple thing and start adding details, the music just gets weary. So this time I didn’t really bother with the big picture and concentrated on making every single note count.

I started out with the drum track, programming some wild, odd bars of hectic noise with only very vague ideas of guitar riffs in my head. I have little (meaning no) advanced harmony knowledge, so I just played what I’d never play in an ordinary e minor setting. Half-step runs? Yes, please. I wrote pretty much every single note by trial-and-error as I went along, recording the tiniest bits separately, one by one. I was baffled how flawless it all sounded once I stuck everything together. I played the bass on keyboard, as usual. At that point I was close to keeping the song an instrumental. Most of you probably wish I had. But then I figured I could mirror the title of WatchTower’s third album, Mathematics, by singing about my profession: statistics. I dare to say that it all made sense in the end. At least to me. I know, I sound somewhat ridiculous when I try to channel Alan Tecchio’s vocal style. Still, I’m very happy with the overall outcome!

#16 Statistics

When I say what I do for a living
The response is silence
Statistics: misunderstood and ignored
Statistics: valuable and powerful

I love data
I love Stata
Statistics: misunderstood and ignored
Statistics: powerful and valuable

(words and music by Johannes Schult)