Foto-© Jamie Morgan

Schon 2018 schrieben wir zur Debütsingle A Nation of Bloodsuckers der Herren Loral und Ronnel Raphael, aka Sons of Raphael, dass ihre Musik klingt wie aus der Zeit gefallen und sich gekonnt gegen den musikalischen Einheitsbrei wendet – und so ist es auch im Jahr 2021, dem Jahr der Veröffentlichung des Debütalbums des Duos! Dieses ist nun erst kürzlich in Form von Full-Throated Messianic Homage via Because Music erschienen und ist über einen Zeitraum von sieben Jahren entstanden. Wir sprachen kurz vor der Veröffentlichung mit den beiden Brüdern – unser Interview!

Your debut album will be released in two days, how excited are you?
Ronnel: Never been so excited in my who life! We’re very excited, because it’s been seven years making it and we actually finished making it three years ago. So it’s quite a relief. By this time we’re already writing the second album.

You already mentioned it, you’ve been working on the album for over seven years now, and it was already finished years ago, but did COVID have an impact on it anyways?
Lorel: To be honest, not too much, no!
Ronnel: No, except for its release, it had no impact really.
Lorel: It took us a long time to get the art works and visuals ready, after the album was mastered, COVID hit after that. We had to cancel our tour plans, but it didn’t influence the content of the album.

Does it have an impact on the album you’re working on right now?
Ronnel: I think that, with all the horrible things it brings to the world, it will pass. They always say that suffering is temporary, but art is forever. Of course the art will be affected for a certain extent, but certainly we’re not the kind of band that will be writing songs about it (laughs). Because we like to write songs about things that stay, about life and death and love.

You started making music together, because you figured, that the two of you understand each other best. Is it sometimes difficult to work with your brother?
Lorel: No not at all! It’s the easiest thing, because we have telepathy and we have the same thoughts, so it’s like one unit really. I wouldn’t wanna be in a band with anyone else than my brother. It makes things easier for us.
Ronnel: It’s wonderful to work together, we love each other very much. We don’t have any trouble with that!

Ronnel, you said, that you always loved when people left, when you played at talent shows when you where younger, because you kind of polarized with your music. Does this attitude still persist to this day?
Ronnel: To an extent! I think that, what I meant, when I was in boarding school, is that I realized you can have the same power to make people want to stay and watch your show and to make people leave. You still have the same power, it’s like the phrase that any publicity is good publicity, it’s the same thing here, as long as they see what we’re doing, it’s good. In the heart of our band, the attitude exists in a way, but at the same breath only if you don’t provoke for the sake of provoking. And I think I haven’t even done it in boarding school, even that video that we made in the chapel was not just provoking for the sense of provoking, it was something there. The same still applies now. But still, when we were touring and we played in Germany, people sent emails to our management, and complained about our show, I don’t even know why (laughs). But people get offended very easily and people love getting offended. I think what my brother and I do, is always really well thought about and always stands in line with our values our principles.

You recorded your album in a lot of different studios, did all of those had an impact the way the album sounds now?
Lorel: We went to those studios with a very specific idea and ambition, we wanted to capture specific sounds, so these walls and the machines of course had an impact on the sound. But it’s not like we were writing in the studio, everything was written before we went to the studio, and once we went there, we knew what we wanted to do, and we just recorded all the parts.
Ronnel: I think the studio in LA certainly made some sound impact though.
Lorel: Yes sure!
Ronnel: It was the greatest studio ever, but it does no longer exist, it closed down a few months after we finished recording there.

You were able to afford the orchestra on the album by betting on an NBA game, what would you have done, if you had lost the money?
Lorel: Great Question (laughs).
Ronnel: In order, to compensate the money for the orchestra, we would’ve just had to find other ways. No orchestra on the album (laughs).
Lorel: No, we would never do that, we always get what we want in the end (laughs). We had a vision, so we had to fulfill it. We already had the budget for an orchestra, but we wanted a bigger one, we wanted forty people and not just twenty-five, so we had to somehow find a way. Orchestras are expensive (laughs).

Your music video for Revolution was filmed by W.I.Z., who already worked with legends, like Oasis or the Smashing Pumpkins, is there anything you learned from him while working with him?
Lorel: We really did, so far I directed all the music videos for us, and it was nice to work with someone who is not me (laughs). And it was also nice to see his process because he is very spontaneous, he does things on the spot, and he is very interesting. That’s really good for my approach, because I am really calculated, and I plan everything, it was nice to work with someone who just changes his ideas as we go.
Ronnel: And I think he also showed us again, what we already learned while making the album, that suffering is temporary, but art stays forever. Because shooting the video was a real pain (laughs), it was -7°C, it was the coldest night in London, and we were very close to getting hypothermia. But now it’s looking wonderful.

It does!
Ronnel: Thank you!

What else inspired you, while writing songs for the album?
Ronnel: Philology very much is an inspiration. Different philologists, philology books, and the language of the Bible. I always say that all philology is like poetry for me, and so is the Bible. The themes of the Bible are something, that very much influenced these songs. We don’t really listen to that much music, so I think the source of inspiration doesn’t always have to be music.

What are your further plans for this year?
Lorel: We would love to tour, of course, but let’s see how that goes (laughs).
Ronnel: They say, that man plans and god laughs, I think we’ve seen that very clearly in the past year! We will finish writing the songs for the second record though!