www.facebook.com/painkillerparty
From: Germany
Sounds like: Electronicore
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Painkiller Party" and is there any meaning behind it?
At the beginning of everything, there was Josefine. She had always dreamt of having a band that combines heavy music and fun but she had also experienced some disappointments while searching for such a band. So she decided to found her own. That was already in late 2016 but again, it took her until 2018 that she finally found musicians to take part in her band as most people were shocked by the concept or just didn‘t want to do anything that isn‘t Architects style. About the sound of our music: Despite that seemingly no one seems to understand, we always wanted to have our own unique sound. It was never the goal to be a „sounds like“-band and we surely never did. We have some role models, but that‘s only going as far as calling them an inspiration, nothing more. Still, most reviewers around the world are confused and point out that we don‘t sound like any generic metalcore/deathcore/trancecore band they know. Well, yeah, believe it or not: some bands really do not wish to be copies of other bands, haha! As for the name, there are not that many bands beginning with P and we even have two! Also, it‘s kind of a pun: We are the band whose music causes headache, so better have painkillers ready when joining our party, haha!
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
On first glance, we might appear as a „party band“ - but there is so much to discover under the surface! First, having no deep meaning IS the meaning! We want to bring people fun and joy in a cold, depressive world and not have them worry about all the things that are wrong in this world at least in the short time of listening to our music. A lot of our lyrics are about humourous porn scenes and that is because we also want to spread awareness that no one has to be ashamed about their sexuality. You don‘t have to look like a porn star but still can enjoy sex and be happy about it. Moreover, we find it shocking that for example violence is fully accepted in media while sexuality isn‘t. Music videos can contain guns and explosions, all fine, but we get censored and banned for showing an inch of naked skin. People watch crime films and having fun on basis of someone being murdered, musicians sing about killing their ex-partners – everything is fully accepted and that‘s so wrong on many levels. Sexuality is something normal, something positive – violence isn‘t. And, on top of all that, we are straight edge which means we do not consume any kind of drugs: no alcohol, no cigarettes, whatever. So all our party stuff happens fully sober and consciously.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
How do you define average? The average radio listener would need to be explained first that the deep vocals are indeed made by a woman and not by a man. The average metal dude would need to be explained it‘s not about slaughter and beer. Those who like electronic music need to be warned it‘s getting heavy. And those who like metalcore must be very brave because it‘s not about politics or abuse and the vocalist is female but not blue-haired and skinny.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Any band that writes their own music, has their own concept and puts love and dedication into their art, is welcome to tour with us. Fuck off with puppets who only show a nice face and scoop up money. Fuck off with those who regard music only as commercialism and not as art.
5. How has Covid affected what you do as a band?
It‘s hell! It‘s the apocalypse and sheer hell, that‘s what Covid is for artists in Germany. Sure, it is a global disease and the whole world needs to join in getting rid of it. Yes, people are dying which is terrible, and everyone has a responsibility to take care of the situation. But – and here comes the big issue for artists – while Covid is killing people, the Covid regulations here are killing people, too. All freelancers, artists, self-employed, independent workers get hardly any or no help at all by the government and no one even cares! At the beginning of Covid, we were given a financial aid for three months which sounded fair. But after three months, it wasn‘t over. Some of us couldn‘t work for an entire year or even more, not getting any more help though. And the „best“ of it: Now the government wants this money back as they changed the terms of conditions later on so that the money can only be used for company expanses. Haha, we are musicians, we are a company on two legs. So we are supposed to pay money back that we do not have because we were not allowed to work for an entire year and more. And it is not over yet… Now it‘s lockdown again (though as an artist you hardly feel any difference between lockdown and no lockdown), concerts are getting canceled again, also our first concert in a long while was canceled one more time. And there is absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel… People always make fun of the USA, the lack of healthcare and terrible situation for workers. Believe me, here it is even worse. All the glorious stories about social care are only valid if you are employed. If you do anything that can be counted as a free profession for your living, you are screwed. You can try to pay rent and health care and then eat your wall paper because no cent is left for food. Great!
6. What’s your take on the current state of Metalcore?
10 years ago, metalcore was a great genre full of young thriving artists who wanted to have fun and make music. Now however, it‘s different… modern (post) metalcore is so sterile and clean, it reminds of a dentist appointment. The sound is without any edges and the structures are all the same, the lyrics pretty much are all the same, too, and the melodies are so generic and forgetable that distinguishing between songs from different metalcore bands gets seemingly impossible. Every song is intro-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus with clean singing in the chorusses and some mid-screams in the verses, but no guttural lows or screaching highs. Everything sounds mediochre. The times where artists had passion and put that into their music seem to be over – it‘s more like all the musicians follow a formula to construct a song and don‘t really strive to be creative or something. This isn‘t rocket science and please don‘t make music sound like it.
7. What’s the current music scene like locally there in Germany?
There is no music, only Covid (for those who remember Ghostbusters) Everyone is broke, bands broken up, art broken down. Either you‘re mainstream artist and are getting pushed or you‘re underground and have to be aware that you may have to sleep on the street anytime soon (if you‘re not already doing that). No one gives a shit about alternative cultures or underground bands.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
Spotify pays you about 0.4 cents per stream, given that this song is played for at least 30 seconds without skipping or interruptions. So you have to get a song streamed about 1750 times to be able to afford one small cup of ice cream here. And that is only if you can keep all that money, which isn‘t the case with most distribution providers that bring your songs on Spotify etc. So tell me, how are you going to make a living of that? The answer is, you don‘t. You need to play concerts in order to make money as an artist today. But concerts aren‘t allowed and no one wants to go to underground shows anymore. Thank you, government.
9. What’s next for Painkiller Party?
We are about to film the fourth music video of our recent album soon. We love making music videos! It‘s so much fun creating the script (by ourselves), getting to the set and having the greatest video producer ever (and great porn producer, too). Next year in spring, the plan is to tour Eastern Europe if it is not going to be canceled again and again and again and again. Of course, we are working on album 3, too. And we also plan to survive without starving.
10. Any shoutouts?
Thanks to From the Depths Entertainment for having us! Thank you to everyone reading this. Please keep supporting the underground culture!
