"Reporting a Mirage", the title of the new Gods Of Blitz album, describes the breath-taking history of the band quite accurately. A story of a band that boldly overtook everybody and enjoyed success after success. And a story of hard work and determination. For the last two years, Jens Freudenberg (guitar), Olli Wong (guitar), Jakob Kiersch (drums) and Sebastian Barusta Gaebel (vocals, bass) from the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg have been working like mad. The band was founded in autumn 2004. From their quick signing to Four Music to the recording of their debut "Stolen Horse" to their first tour as support act for Maximo Park only few months passed.
There has been a single two-week break. The Gods Of Blitz spend their time rehearsing, writing and playing live. An approach that is reflected in their songs: Extremely tight three-minute pieces of uncompromising rock´n´roll. In the past year, the band played the big stages of all major German summer festivals, including Hurricane, Southside, Taubertal and Frequency.
Their German live dates with Wolfmother stunned rock journalists. The two bands were the perfect match, none of them trying to outdo the other. The package ended up being one of the live favourites of the year in garage rock expert polls. International praise followed: The Evening Standard headlined in its review of the London gig (as support for Mondo Generator): "The Night I Loved The Support Act To Blitz!" Remember: We´re talking about a group that was completely unknown to date. "Stolen Horse" was also released in Australia, Japan, Benelux, England and Italy.
In the past year, the Gods Of Blitz have played about one hundred shows. The fantastic response of the audience was worth all the hard work. It was a year of discovery, collecting experience, finding their place in the business. Now it´s time to bring it all together. The Gods Of Blitz are ready to take off.
Of course, they started thinking about a follow-up to "Stolen Horse" pretty soon. When they played the summer festivals they used their free time to write new songs. A band, looking for their own voice, free from expectations, guidelines or trends.
The journey is the reward. Several versions of songs were tried, some were ditched and in the end "we only kept the ones that really convinced us." Surprise yourself, be open to unexpected developments, take creativity as a collective trip to an unknown territory. "While your working, you´re not quite sure where this is supposed to lead to. It´s amazing what turns a song can take." "You learn to know better at what point you decide you really like something."
Personal maturity and past experience helped a lot. Their first bands have been solid underground. But now it´s time to leave experimental paths and meet where the Gods of Blitz discharge.
Yes, all four of them are experienced musicians and they know what they are doing. But to let go, they enjoy even more. This is why they have invited a person to take part in the song-writing process; someone who is not part of the band. Just as they did with their debut album. For this record, the external advisor was Ludwig Boess, a musician and arranger from Sweden.
When the writing process was finished, they packed their songs and took them to the studio where they worked on them with producer Torsten Otto. In only two weeks, the instrumentals for the entire album were finalised. The new songs are Gods Of Blitz at its best. Breathless, in your face, brilliant - with lots of new ideas and directions. The melodies are catchy and at the same time fantastically egocentric. The songs criticise society, they are packed with anger and angst but some of them also deal - and that´s new - with relationships.
"A punch with sophistication" wrote an Australian music magazine in a review of their debut album. An observation that is also true for "Reporting A Mirage". The album is remarkably timeless, tight, entertaining, smart and of international format. The Gods Of Blitz are prepared to take you by storm. There´s so much more to come.