Interview with Markus of Winter by DJ Jason
DJ Jason: Are you (Markus) the sole writer? Who are the members of the band at this time and what are their roles?
Markus: Yes, I am the sole writer and composer. The band members are Hugo Ribeiro (drums), Michael Donner (keyboards) an me playing all other instruments and – of course – singing. Sometimes there are guests like f.e. Nera Mamic, a croation female singer or swedish prog guitarist Fredrik Pihl on lead guitars. We also had a sax player on two tracks or a violin player here and there. But that is just to add some extra flavours to the music – the basic band is us three. We are playing on every track.
DJ Jason: Your epic song ‘Heroes’ seems like it is in direct reference to a story. Is the inspiration for the lyrics something that you’d like to talk about?
Markus: This song is about the american war of independence. Where people who lived like brothers (or even were) became enemies. I tried to express the feelings of a soldier. The burden they carry, the loss, the pain. But it can easily be transferred to any modern war as well – i.e. in the Ukraine. I can’t imagine that soldiers anywhere in the world really love killing and like what they have to do. So this is some kind of a soldier’s cry for help. A song about the madness that war is.
DJ Jason: Are there any songs that you’d like to talk about? Also, is ‘Pale Horse’ a new album?
Markus: Well, ‘PALE HORSE’ is not new. The album is from 2021 and was indeed the first WINTER album. After that came ‘FIRE RIDER’ in 2022, ‘HEROES’ in 2023 and ‘KEEPING THE FLAME ALIVE’ last year. Our new album is currently in the mix, will be called ‘MY DARK HEART’ and shall be released November 2025. Well – there are so many songs we could talk about. I still love the ‘PALE HORSE’ album. It was a great start with some great songs. The title track ‘Dark Light’ or ‘Beginning of An End’ or ‘Sweet Desdemona’. After all it is the most dark and gothic album up to now. Our forthcoming album will be more in that direction again. ‘PALE HORSE’ war written during the times of the COVID19 pandemic so there are a lot of really dark and depressive lyrics on it dealing with the end of the world, the riders of the apocalypse and stuff like that. I did not sing about the pandemic or COVID but about dark times in general. ‘Beginning Of An End’ is a song about a rebel who was caught and sent to prison. He knows outside mankind is dying while he sits in his lonely cell waiting for his execution. But there is also hope. 😉 ‘Sweet Desdemona’ is some kind of love song for my wife Danny. Danny is Desdemona. 😉 She is my light in the darkness of this world. And there are a few cover songs on it. Five cover songs. I never did that before or after. I really like my version of ‘Mad World’ still. I think I did a good job with that one.
DJ Jason: Winter has a lot of different sounds ranging from Rock to Metal to Goth and even some Folk sounding bits, but your newest work has leaned more heavily into Goth. Was this a conscious decision or a natural evolution?
Markus: When I started making music in the 1990s I was listening to merely pop music. So my first albums were totally different. I used to sing in a higher range then. Very clear, high voice. I was not into gothic music at that time. Then I discovered a song called ‘Your sweet 666’ by a young and unknown band (at that time) called HIM. I loved that very low voice of the singer. The first HIM album and later the records of The 69 Eyes changed my way of singing. And my taste for music. I did dig in deeper into that modern gothic rock’n roll stuff. Mostly from Finland or Sweden. Still love all these bands. There were a lot – forgotten nowadays. Like Entwine, Tenebre, To:Die:For – well – a lot. 😉 So I started singing with a lower voice and did write more gothic material to fit this new voice of mine. I was a natural development – nothing I did do on purpose. I always do write the songs I like. And of course all the other music I listen to (a lot of Metal, but also Pop and classic Rock) has influence on my compositions. It depends a lot to what kind of music I listen while I write a new album. But yeah – I think WINTER has no definite and distinctive style. It is a weird mixture of three or four styles – as you said Gothic, Metal, Pop and Folk.
DJ Jason: How has the new album been received by the fans and press?
Markus: For ‘PALE HORSE’ we did a lot of promotion and it was really well receieved nearly everywhere. Well, you will never satisfy everybody but it did receive a lot of good reviews. But nevertheless the sales were not as expected and so we lost our record contract with DRAKKAR. I did release the following albums on my own label. Unfortunately I did not have the money to do a big promotion for them so well WINTER still is flying under the radar as we say in Germany. We have a true and local fan base but the general audience does not even know we are existing I guess.
DJ Jason: A few years ago you worked with Florian Grey for the song ‘Into The Void’. How did this collaboration happen and do you have any memories about it?
Markus: Yeah – that was great fun. Well… it is a song from our second album ‘FIRE RIDER’. Before that a compilation album with older songs of mine was released. We decided to film a video for the song ‘A Love worth Dying For’. I was an uptempo rock song and the director said „We should film a live performance with the band“. So far so good but our drummer is from Portugal and we could not get him to shoot a video in Germany. Too expensive. Well and as I said – I play all other instruments except the keyboards. So we needed a band miming to play the song in the video. Florian Grey were at the same label at that time and the director of our video was just hired to do three new videos for Florian as well. He said he would ask him, and Florian said yes. So, Florian Grey are my backing band in that video. It was my idea to sing a song together. We were in the middle of the production, no song was finalized but I had ‘Into The Void’ and I thought that this would be great for us. I sent it to Florian and he loved the song. So, he recorded some voclas for it. We did shoot the video on that same weekend we filmed the video for ‘A Love worth Dying For’ AND two videos for Florians forthcoming album. Really tough but as I said – also a lot of fun. We are in touch since then and I wish him only the very best for his career.
DJ Jason: Are there any other musical artists that you would like to work with?
Markus: Too many to name. 😉 Some definitely out of reach – like Ville Vallo or Jeff Lynne but others, well we will see. 😉
DJ Jason: Germany has been famous for large scale music festivals for a long time now. Have you played at any of them? If so, what was the experience like? Also, do you feel it’s harder to get bookings for being German during this time of international bands getting so much exposure (thinking specifically of Wave Gotik Treffen)?
Markus: It is hard because we did get NO gigs at all. We did not even find an agency. And without it is impossible. So we did not play live for a long time. Frankly I do not miss it very much. I have always been more a creator in the studio than a performer on stage. It is a repetition of what you have already achieved. And I am suffering of stagefright – so that never has been such a pleasure for me.
DJ Jason: Who are your favorite bands to perform with?
Markus: As a support? HIM. (Ville Vallo) or 69 Eyes. Or together with them on one stage? I really don’t know…
DJ Jason: Does Winter have any goals or aspirations that you’d like to share? What will the future be for Winter?
Markus: Bright I hope. 😉 We will see. I will go on producing albums for sure. The next one is nearly finished and we will see where it will lead us. And maybe we will do some LIVE things but I don’t know yet. IVE things but I don’t know yet.
Winter on Facebook
