Interview mit dem Sänger von NORMA JEAN, Cory Brandan:

Okay, maybe we'll start with a little introduction! Who is NROMA JEAN and how did you get started?

I’m Cory from NROMA JEAN but… I was not in the Band from the beginning. But I am a member of NORMA JEAN since three years now. Actually I’ve joined in January three years ago. So I have been on two records but I was not in the band when it started back in the days.

How do you feel about the actual tour in comparison with the tour three years ago with Atreyu?

Of course when we went with Atreyu on tour, it was their tour and nowadays we have our own tour and the kids definitely came out to see us live and on the last tour three year ago the kids did not want to see us.

So it is going pretty well at the moment…

…it is not only good, it is awesome! (laughs)

Did you expect such awesome shows?

No…we didn’t have any expectations when we went to Europe. But it has been awesome so far.

How do feel about the other bands?

We share the stage with bands we only wanted to come with us on tour. We’ve picked them. I think they are all doing an amazing job. You know, theses bands are out there just because they want to do something different, so they are doing a really amazing job.

You think that this tour roster could cause some problems. I mean NORMA JEAN is well known for the most people as a very heavy and chaotic band and the rest of the bands are more like into classic Metal and Rock music.

I would say that this is exactly perfect because there is no point in taking bands who sound like us. We want different people to come to the show, you know, fans of the other bands that play and fans of NORMA JEAN. We play for their fans and they play for our fans. This is what this tour is about. I regard it as a problem when you take bands with you who exactly sound like you because then you don’t have anything new and you will always play for the same kids. That is why festival and style tours are so great because they combine so many different kinds of music and you have so many people coming to see that. The whole point is that touring is for playing to new people. So it is no problem to go on tour with these bands; it is exactly what we were supposed to do.

How did you feel about the response concerning “Redeemer”?

Totally mind blowed! Like, last record we definitely did something totally different from the first one, and this record now is totally different from that before. There is something that we want to continue like we don’t want to do the same thing twice. The Response so far was really insane and we didn’t know what to expect. For me it is such a more technical record combined with natural straight forward Rock sound on “Redeemer”. So we are definitely really excited about it.

Did you gain some negative response from your fans?

Definitely! But we can’t please everyone but I mean that’s okay when people like our old stuff and still come out to our shows because we will sure play some old stuff during our set. So, for us it is like we are keeping doing something different. And I think that people don’t think about the fact how dumb it would be if we would do always the same kind of music. I mean when this record would be same sort like “O’God The Aftermath” all the fans would be like: Oh, that sucks! They are always doing the same thing.” You know? I think that some people don’t want to be pleased. But it’s still cool. We make new friends and our old fans still appear at our shows. So, we play for both and everybody is happy.

Your cover artwork reminded me of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, so can you tell me who had the idea with the cover and is there a meaning?

Yeah, it is really a cool cover and I also felt reminded of this movie. The cover was actually done by an artist and originally it was a painting in the house of the guy who produced the record and we really liked it and we got in contact with the artist and we said that we would like to use this painting for our CD. You know, it became somehow a part of us because we were for a long time in the house and we always pass the painting and looked at it.

Is the Artwork connected to the lyrics?

Only the name is connected to the artwork. I think that the word “redeemer” is really well pronounced by this artwork. But maybe only we see it in that way. So everybody has to choose his own interpretation concerning the artwork.

I have found a lot of discussions in the internet concerning the artwork, because many people argued if it is painted or real?

Yeah, it is painted but it looks that awesome that you could think that it is a real picture. I really like the pictures of this artist because she also paints a lot of people in daily life situation and give them somehow a desperate look.

Where do you get your inspirations from to create such a new sound on each record?

I think we are always searching for something new. I mean when we have finished “O’God The Aftermath” we all were like “We have no idea what are we going to do next” and that is really interesting because we never have any idea how our next record is going to sound. We automatically get there. When we get to the point to record some new material it just goes. I mean we all listen do different kinds of music and we love to play every kind of music. I will never know what we re going to do next but as inspiration we have a lot of different kinds of music.

There are many bands that are able to write songs during their tours. Do you do that, too? Or do you have a complete different approach when it comes to writing new songs?

On the one side such an approach towards music is really perfect if you don’t have that much time and your attitude towards your own music is like “What’s down is done”. But we will never do this like that because when we are on tour we are all involved in different jobs. We don’t sit together and have that much time to write new songs. Maybe it would be better if we would write songs on tour because then we would not spend that much time during our records. But in the end we like to take off for writing and creating new music. I mean music is like an art form and so it takes some time to create it. I really appreciate the fact that we can do whatever we want on our label. I mean look at these poor dudes you have to put out every year a record because they have signed such contracts.

Do you think that the Line-Up tonight will attract a lot of people who don’t listen to your message or even think the complete opposite of your Christian message? I know that you get to answer these questions a lot, but it is also a personal interest of me.

We get to hear that really often, that is true but I don’t regard it as a problem if people don’t listen to our message. First of all music is sound and it can’t be good or bad or Christian or Non-Christian. So if you like Deathcore and believe in Satan than it is your belief and I’m fine with that. But it is important to regard music as something that cannot be defined as good or bad. And in that sense we are not very different from other bands. We play heavy music but with the difference that we believe in God and this is our passion. It is the same thing with straight edge for example. People are very passionate about that thing and that is the reason why the make music about it.

Okay, but my question was more pointing to your lyrics and your message because I think that the majority of the people don’t listen to your message.

I know what you mean. There are a lot of bands that I like but I have no idea what they are singing about. You know, but our songs are about personal things that happened in life and how you could do them better and the core of our songs is the belief in god bit I mean everybody has to decide for him what is good and what is bad.

Do you want to achieve something with your music when people listen to it?

Totally! I mean it is perfect when people can identify with the lyrics. I also identify with lyrics of other bands like Smashing Pumpkins or Strongarm. The message is really important for me and so I hope it is also important for our fans.

Okay, this is a good last statement! Do you want to make a last comment?

Yeah, I would say that everybody should check out “Redeemer” and our website www.normajeannoise.com! And thanks a lot for reading this.