First of all, can you make a brief history of the band?

I founded the band in 1987 as a kind of fun-thrash project, just to hang around and drink a lot of beer. After about 2 years full of gigs in youth-clubs and ugly bars I decided to change the targets to become a good band. In this time there were a lot of line up changes, mainly in the guitar-position so it took a long time to write the first good demo-tape (Signa inferre´92). After this tape there was only one change of the guitarist in ´93, and after that change our style turned to be power metal and no more thrash. We worked hard for the next recordings and the result was an EP called "GOD OF STORM" (´95). It was good reviewed by all press and we could play shows with great bands like Skyclad or Scanner, and CUSTARD became more popular in Germany. The next step was the full-length album "KINGDOMS OF YOUR LIFE" (´98) which was also good spoken by the press and we got the chance to play at the Wacken Open Air and a few tours as support. Finally we decided to look for a new singer, because Dirk played the lead-guitar and sung, too. Just before the recording sessions for "FOR MY KING" (´00) Guido became a member of CUSTARD and we are glad about his good work.

Please, could you give us some information about each member?

Guido Brieke, the new singer, he played in a band called Avalanche before he came to CUSTARD. He's 28 years old and married and he have two little childs. Karsten Knüppel plays the rythm guitars since '90 and he's an old school-friend of mine. He played in some rock bands before I asked him to move to CUSTARD. Michael Marquardt, the bassman, I know him a long time, too. But not from the school. His band was Social Decay where I helped at the drums at a recording and we became friends after that. In '91 he moved to CUSTARD. Dirk Wierczorek, the lead guitarist. He's a perfectionist. An old school-friend of Michael and he braught him to CUSTARD in '93, too. Finally I Chris Klapper. I founded CUSTARD and I play the drums and do the main theoretical work for the band. I've never played in other bands (except a few recordings or shows for friends).

Have there been any changes to the line-up?

Between '89 and '93 there were a lot of changes in our line up, but since ´93 the line up is stabile and we got friends. We added a singer last year, but we haven´t kicked anyone out, because Dirk play the best lead guitar I know and he only stopped singing.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never listened to your band?

Every music is hard to describe, but in our case I can say it´s a kind of power or true metal. We use the style- elements of this genre, like double bass and high pitched vocals and fast, melodic guitars. But in the main we made the musik we like. If you like bands like Hammerfall, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray or Helloween, then you´ll be satisfied with our music, too.

What are some of your biggest musical and lyrical influences?

As I said before, we love music like this bands do and we only can compose what we love. So our music is our interpretation of all things we listen to in the private life. Sure we are no thiefs but we don´t say "we found a new style!". At the first look our lyrics are only one more fantasy stuff, but if you can read between the lines, only a little bit, you can take each story as yourselves. Sure, in our time there are no dragons or else, but in the present dragons could be the state or a teacher or anything you fear.

Is there a main music & lyrics writer in the band?

Yes there is. Our musical director (hö) is the fucking perfectionist Dirk. When we work in the studio, we all do our parts again and again till Dirk say "It's O.K.!" Sometimes it's hard to stay cool! He is also the man, who gets the most and best ideas for the songwriting. I think he take his guitar even to bed. The most lyrics are written by Michael because he's really sick in his head! I often started a discussion about the meaning of his stories and after he told me about it 3 or 4 hours, I could believe him that the world is a plate! He lives in a world inside his playstation! Stupid!

You just released your album "For my King"... could you tell us more things about it? How much time did you spend on the composition?

Our last album "Kingdoms of Your Life" was released in ´98, but we didn´t spend all the time between in the compositions. We looked for a new label and changed the distributors and the booking agency in this time. And we played a lot of gigs and a tour. We looked for a new vocalist and all this took a long time. The pure songwriting took about a half year.

What elements do you think have been improved?

All music knowledge and experience is much better now. The harmonies are more detailed and the changes of the riffs and parts is more fluent. We got better musicians and the production is better than on "Kingdoms..."

How is going the acceptance of the album among the press?

Sure there are some bad reviews, but in the main it´s great again. We reached the title "Newcomer of the year" in some mag´s and we were asked for many, many interviews. After our live shows we have to do interviews, too. And when we ask some of the audience they are totally satisfied with all we do. So I´m glad with this album and I hope we can do the next as good as this. I hope that we get enough good ideas and enough money to do a great recording.

What are your plans for the near future? Do you have any plans for live shows?

We always play live shows, even when we are in the studio. But at this time we only play single shows or two or three days in a row. There are plans for a support tour, but that´s not clear at all, so I wouldn´t tell too much.

Who would be the ultimate band to tour with, active or not?

I think Stratovarius or HammerFall seems to be the ultimate bands, we wish to support on tour. But sure there are many more who are interesting for us. Let´s see what will happen in the future and how good is our label and the booking agency. We are ready to do a giant tour around the world, but I think it will be only Germany or with a little luck a part of Europe, then we are satisfied at all.

Do you have any additional comments?

Yes I have. We are proud about a good homepage, where you can read the latest stuff about the band. There is also an english section. In the next time we try to make it better and therefore we need many comments in the guestbook. The domain is www.custard.de You can also leave some comments about our music and therefore you can listen to a few parts in MP3 format. Check it out.

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