Interview to FEARPARK (Germany)

1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.

Hey there, thanks for having us. Right now we are in the “chill-area” of our rehearsal room. We have some sofas, and a coffee table arranged for hanging out. In a broader sense, were located in the southwest of Germany. We have very pretty nature and a big metal community.

2. For those new to Fearpark, ould you please introduce the band in the most spontaneous way?

We are FearPark and we play traditional Metal at its very finest! No poser stuff, only real true Metal.

3. The band has born in 2021, As an emerging band in the extreme metal scene, what are some challenges you've faced, and how have you overcome them to pave the way for your future?

Trying not to get drunk while rehearsing is a big challenge. But jokes aside, the biggest challenge for us as a relatively new band is to be taken seriously by the people who could actually help us out, like club owners, festival organizers,

promoters and such. Very few of them are willing to give emerging bands a chance. It’s only slowly getting better for us. What really helps is establishing contacts with other bands. That way you can get some gigs as an opening act and get noticed by those people.

4. Can you name some of the bands who you first really admired and helped shape your future in music?

I think Helloween and Blind Guardian are the bands who influence our music the most. But we basically listen to any good, old school True Metal, like Judas Priest, Dio, Manowar, Saxon, Accept, Iron Maiden…

5. What attributes do you think that a new Heavy Metal Band should have in order to gain identity and be unique?

Don’t follow the mainstream and also never listen to what other people tell you would be good for you. It’s your band, not theirs, right? So do what you want to do and what feels right for you.

6. You´ve already released a debut demo “Grave Lantern” with 4 tracks, How has the reception been for your music so far?

Many people were really excited for the physical release and some told us it’s all they listen to in their cars. We still sell some CDs at every show we play. It’s very hard to get noticed outside of the local community though. On YouTube and Spotify our music hardly gets any views / streams. Nevertheless, we are very proud of our online presence and that we can be found on most platforms.

7. Is every member of Fearpark involved in the composition of your songs? Can you tell us a bit more about your own creative process?

Yes and No. Some of the songs were written together, some songs were written almost entirely by individual members with only few changes from the others. We don’t have a strict creative process. Everyone of us brings ideas to the table and we do what works best for each individual song.

8. Were there any elements of the recording that proved particularly troublesome?

Getting a decent sound on a budget. Studios these days want thousands of Euros for a single song and still have the audacity to not even bother recording it completely.

Everything that can be done digitally will be, like programming drums instead of recording them. There’s no authenticity in that. Therefore, we decided not to go to a studio and instead record everything by ourselves. We couldn’t have done it without some of our amazing friends though. Elias Auber form Tales of Valor recorded the drums for us, Luke Appleton from Absolva mixed the Demo and a colleague of Aaron mastered it.

9. You have played some really cool shows previously, what is one of your favourite things about playing live and touring with other bands?

The free drinks backstage. Just kidding! There is no single best thing about playing live. It always is an honor to be able to present our music to an audience that values it. Also getting to know our audience personally before and after we are on stage is really great!

10. What can fans expect from an Fearpark live show? Do you have any particular routines before hitting the stage?

Our routine is mostly just hanging around, talking and drinking beer. Someone always has to take a shit right before we go on stage. It is really important however, not to actually take a shit. That way you can be on edge the entire show and give a more

frantic performance.

As to what you can expect from a FearPark show, we’d say: Blasting sounds and lots of heavy metal POWER!!! We’re a band you can have fun with. Also you get to see

our beautiful mascot Samantha on stage.

11. The metal world is known for its intense brotherhood and camaraderie. What’s the craziest and most memorable experience you’ve had as a band so far?

The first thing that comes to mind are the festivals we’ve played so far. In 2023 we were the opening act at the Wolfweez festival and in 2024 we got to be the very first band to play at the very first RVBang festival. Those were awesome!

12. How would you define your relationship to local promoters and, more

widely, the German Heavy metal scene in general? What would you like to see emerging in this microcosm?

What we would like to see are more people giving new bands a chance. Our relationship with local promototers is almost nonexistent, because we aren’t that well established yet. There are execptions though. The owner of the Sonnenkeller in Balingen is a nice guy. He took a chance on us very early on and has booked us many times since.

13. The German metal scene is quite varied and strongly represented

throughout several genres. How would you explain this large creative output in such a variety of styles?

Beer. It’s as easy as that. It is the German beer. It’s able to inspire brilliance beyond compare. There’s a reason we are the land of the poets and thinkers, y’know? ●

14- How do you define “underground” and where do you see yourself and your band in it?

I think we’re underground in the sense that we are barely established outside of our local community. Where we’re from, everybody knows us by now, but getting noticed outside of your area is quite hard, especially if you don’t have an album yet.

15. The underground can be quite hostile at times, but in exchange you can be sure you’ll have a loyal fanbase. How do you perceive this?

Fortunately, we have not experienced any hostility so far. Quite the opposite: Where we’re from the bands are mostly really friendly with and supportive of each other. We definitely can relate to the loyal fans though. There are some folks who have seen almost every single one of our shows from the first one on. Those are the people we are doing this for. Music is meaningless without people to which it means something.

16. What can fans expect from your upcoming debut album? Are there any particular themes or influences that you're exploring?

There will be quite a bunch of new songs that surpass the ones on our demo by far! We are always seeking to improve our songwriting and become more sophisticated with our compositions. Also, we are currently looking for ways to get the best possible sound for our debut. A lot of people have already asked us for an album, and we want to deliver the very best product to them, that we possibly can.

17. And now we have finally come to the end of this interview, do you have some important words for our readers?

Stay true and please support your local metal scene.

https://www.facebook.com/FearParkBand