Band: GIRLS UNDER GLASS
Country of origin: Germany
Style: electronic dark wave
Questions by: Kai Mathias Stalhammar
Answers supplied by: Volker Zacharias (vocals, guitars)

First of all, you will have to excuse me, since I didn't have a chance
to read through any of the interviews you've answered so far (and I
believe, there were many!), therefore: who (and why) came up with such a
weird bandname?

- Its just a name. It sounds great. You are the first one who thinks that
the name is weird (it is! - ED).
 
You were one of the first bands to enter Nuclear Blast roster, but what I am curious to find out, is why you parted ways with them.

- No, we were one of the last bands entering a sublabel of Nuclear Blast, Deatwhish Office. Because Nuclear Blast closed Deathwish and G.U.G. are obviously not a metalband they had to drop us. The last material "Equilibrium" was much more goth again, thats why we went to work together with Tilo of Hall Of Sermon.
 
"Equilibrium" was issued via Hall Of Sermon, however, later on, you moved to Van Richter, the label which is small. Quite a surprising decision.

- We did not move to Van Richter from HOS but split the market. Van Richter
released a sort of best of album for the US market and was allowed to
release a "Frozen" EP with new mixes and other tracks along with
"Equilibrium" in the future.
 
"Frozen" is rather a collection of remixes than an album of the full value,
don't you think?

- Its an EP. The "Frozen" EP was meant to be a EP and I hope Van Richter
promotes this release as a EP.
 
"Seminal Madonna hit title track"... How come??

- Again: Its a single, so of course its the title track! (actually, what I meant, is why you decided to cover Madonna. Simple as that - ED)
 
Do you feel like you're related to metal scene anyhow?

- No, not at all. I like new metal stuff like LINKIN PARK, KORN etc. and of
course a couple of the US industrial stuff (NIN), but thats it. We never
were and never will be a metal band.
 
What genre do you think, fits you more, gothic / dark wave or EBM /
industrial?

- Electronic Dark Wave.

What type of music fan GIRLS UNDER GLASS would appeal to most of all,
metalhead or a freak on synth-pop? Or, perhaps, it depends on one's own
interpretation of what is music and what is crap, on whether he / she has eyes wide open or mind closed?

- We don't care about the music taste of our fans, but you are right in
saying, that they should be open minded to several styles otherwise they
will have a problem with our music, because we love to mix styles and
influences from several decades and music styles.
 
Bands of your kind appear as more or less claimed and demanded in Europe,
but still somewhat very "under". Neither top-sellers, nor completely
unknown. Isn't it what makes gothic and EBM scene so different?

- We are a well respected and well known band because we were one of the
first bands in Germany who were part of the scene, but we were never a top
seller. But this is okay. To be a top seller you have to be much more
image-orientated. We never took care about our image, so thats the result.
But its fine with us. In general VNV NATION, PROJEKT PITCHWORK, APOPTYGMA, LACRIMOSA, OOMPH! and many otherbands are in very high Chart Positions in
germany. So the sales were massively increasing during the last 5 years.
So its just as I said: We are in the middle of nowhere. We do music for a
open minded minority.
 
"G.U.G. is one of the most influential gothic / darkwave and industrial bands on the underground scene for the past two decades". Ok, I guess it might be interesting to know what bands confessed a) you have influenced their works b) in G.U.G. being one of their primal influences. Can you recall any right now?

- No, I can't. I have no idea if we were that influential to other bands, I only know that PITCHWORK met at a G.U.G. concert and decided to found a band.
 
When should we expect the release of next full-length CD by G.U.G., and what will it bring us, audially?

- The new CD is just out for 1 week now (the interview was answered on 4th of October 2001 - ED). So we will do some touring in February and we will work on new TRAUMA material (our 2nd project) to be released in the first half of 2002.
 
Do you know anything regarding Russia? Any (metal?) bands coming fromthe
country of mine you've heard lately?

- Sorry. No. I have no idea about the Russian music scene.

Thanks for your time. Last statements?

- Thanx for the interview.