We Butter the Bread With Butter Guitarist Talks Touring, New Album + More

German metal outfit We Butter the Bread With Butter have just announced a headlining U.S. tour for 2014 (see dates below), but we caught up with them on their first run of U.S. dates earlier this year. The band has been around less than a decade but they have been pushing boundaries with their fusion of electronic and heavy  sounds. The band has had a busy year touring in promotion of their new record ‘Goldkinder’ and even toured the states for the first time this year.

Loudwire had the pleasure of talking with guitarist Marcel Neumann who spoke all about ‘Goldkinder’ and the creative yet long process of making the disc. Neumann also shared some differences he noticed between European and American fans as well as the group’s evolution as a whole. Check out our interview with Marcel Neumann of We Butter the Bread With Butter below.

Talk about your first tour in the States; how is the whole experience for you?

It’s unbelievable for us just to be here. There’s been a lot of great support from the U.S. but we could never make it over here to tour. The people are so grateful and thankful to us.  When we go to the concerts people go, “We’ve been waiting four or five years now.” It’s been an amazing time here.

Have you noticed any differences with touring or the fans between Europe and the States so far?

Yeah, actually touring itself – all the driving stuff is much more interesting because of the great landscapes. The audience is very, very different compared to Germany. For example, here we noticed that everybody is going to the show to have fun and enjoying the music. There’s nobody standing around at our shows. In Germany it’s like there are 1,000 people at the show, there are 100 that are having fun and the rest are just standing around and judging you if you’re cool or not. Here, everybody goes to the show to dance and jump and have fun. There’s a big difference here.

How are you guys getting around from state to state, in a bus or van?

I think it’s called a bandwagon? It’s awesome, it has a shower. [Laughs]

If you could tour with any band that you haven’t gone out on the road with yet who would it be?

Oh wow, I think there are a lot of bands we would love to go on tour with. Maybe bands like Muse? Just great bands that reach people all over the world like Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars or even Metallica. Rammstein or Linkin Park would be awesome, too.

What does the name ‘Goldkinder’ (which translates into ‘Children of Gold’) mean to you?

We wanted to have a single word that describes the emotions of the record. We chose ‘Goldkinder’ because for people gold means something like bright and beautiful and rare. The word children is about being adventurous and seeing the light of day. The coming together of these two words describes the emotion of the record quite well.

How was the process of creating this new record ‘Goldkinder’?

It was a very, very long process this time. It took about three years just because we never want to do the same thing as we did before. Our biggest motivation is to create something totally new and something nobody has done before. It took a lot of time to get a new style that we are satisfied with. We wrote about 80 or 90 songs and we threw them all away because we were never satisfied with it. It took so much time to get the new style and then when we found it, it was quite fast. [Laughs]

Creating all of those songs, how did you decide to part with it and start from fresh?

It’s never a problem to throw things away. It took a lot of work to do them. You always have to be true to yourself and if it’s not good enough then you really have to be honest. We’re always motivated to do better.

With the long process of creating the new record, since your first record, how have you evolved not only as a musician but as a person?

We are totally different people than in the beginning because we have gotten so many great experiences over time.  There have been so many amazing shows, we’ve played different countries and we’ve played a lot of different concerts. As a musician you have a different personality, dealing with new people and just how you see certain things.

On the new album how do you decide when to write in German and when to write in English for tracks?

Actually we tried last time to sing in English but it never sounded good for us. German is a language we can express ourselves best. English sounded unnatural when we did it and so we decided not to do it on this record. It doesn’t mean we will never do it, maybe we have to learn more about it but it didn’t sound good to us when we tried it out.

I love the song ‘Pyroman & Astronaut.’ What is one of your favorite tracks off of the album and why?

Every one of us has different favorite songs on this record. Mine, for example, is the fourth song ‘Ohne Herz’ because it has the most beautiful melody we’ve ever written. I love ‘Pyroman & Astronaut’ too, the heaviness and the straightforward emotion of the song.

On the track ‘Viva Mariposa,’ how did you decide to incorporate Spanish words and sounds into your music?

We never set barriers to our music, we never think “Oh you can do this but you’re not allowed to do this.” At first we always create instrumental songs and then we put lyrics. I always listen to the instrumental song and we try to figure out how it sounds and it sounded international and had like a Spanish dancing style to it. So why not put in some Spanish lyrics since it fit very well to the music.

This new disc is a representation of the band’s evolution. What aspects of who the band is can we hear on 'Goldkinder'?

I think you can hear that we grew up a little bit. We just came back to the roots of music, good groove, good riff and good melody and not so much technical guitar solos and all this fast stuff. We created a new kind of heaviness with the slower parts and a bigger atmosphere.

Teach me your favorite curse word in German? What does it mean in English?

Only one word? [Laughs] Let’s see, you tell me something and I can translate it.

Well being from New York, it's only appropriate that you teach me how to say “F--- off.”

[Laughs] "F---k off" in German is "verpiss dich." That’s good to know in German.

Check Out We Butter the Bread With Butter's Video for 'Meine Brille'

We Butter the Bread With Butter 2014 Tour Dates:

2/12 New York, NY @ Studio at Webster
2/13 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
2/14 Montreal, QC @ Underworld
2/15 Toronto, ON @ Hard Luck
2/16 Detroit, MI @ Shelter
2/17 Cleveland, OH @ Agora
2/19 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
2/20 Minneapolis, MN @ Nether Bar
2/21 Iowa City, IA @ Blue Moose
2/22 St. Louis, MO @ Fubar
2/24 Lawrence, KS @ Granada
2/25 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
2/26 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
2/28 Seattle, WA @ Corazon Lounge
3/01 Portland, OR @ Branxx
3/02 Sacramento, CA @ Assembly
3/05 Los Angeles, CA @ Whisky
3/06 San Diego, CA @ Soma Sidestage
3/07 Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
3/08 Phoenix, AZ @ Mesa
3/09 Albuqerque, NM @ Launchpad
3/11 San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
3/15 Grand Prairie, TX @ Quiktrip Park (South By So What?!)
3/18 Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
3/19 Orlando, FL @ Backbooth
3/20 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
3/21 Charlotte, NC @ Casbah
3/22 Springfield, VA @ Empire
3/23 Philadelphia, PA @ The Note