Interview with Dissorted guitarist Florian Schadhauser

Recently I had the chance to talk with Dissorted guitarist Florian Schadhauser. I want to thank him for taking time away from the band to chat with all of us here at Heavy Metal Time Machine. Enjoy! 

Andy (A)-Let's run it all down. What is your band's name and who plays what?

Florian (F)-Our band’s name is “Dissorted”. We are from Bavaria, Germany.

Our band consists of Mirco (vocals), Florian (guitar), Dillon (bass), Sebastian (guitar) and Martin (drums).

A-Speaking of the name where did it come from?

F-I founded the band with a good friend of mine (he was the first drummer of Dissorted) in 2004. One Night we were sitting at a barbecue in his garden, having a few beers and we were talking about the band’s name.

After a few suggestions, he came up with “Dissorted”. Since this is not a regular word, I was asking him, what this means. He said, he had been sitting in front of a guitar amplifier and looking at the distortion knob. And as he was thinking about the word “distortion”, the name “Dissorted” came to his mind. We thought, that the name sounded good and we kept it. This is what happens, if you confront drummers with guitar amplifiers…But the band we started in 2004 is quite different from what the band is now. I am the only original member. As we moved to Munich in 2009, we started the band from the scratch and developed our own and new style with new members. Actually, we don’t play any songs, that were written before 2009.

A-It's all about the thrash isn't it? And by that I mean you guess do a damn fine job of it on "I"!

F-We are all into fast old school heavy metal, so it’s probably natural to end up in a thrashing band. This is what we like to do. But we don’t have strict boundaries. Everybody in the band throws in some influences to spice up the basis of the band. We always try to sound unique and authentic. Over the years we developed our own style by combining bay area thrash metal like Testament, old Metallica, Exodus with some good old heavy metal like Iced Earth. But this came very natural.

A-All the same is exceptional! How's the reception been for your new EP in your home country?

F-For this EP we wanted to do the best job, we could do at this moment. We are very happy with the result.

The reception is really great. Some songs have already been played in local radio stations in Germany and even in the USA. We have already sent copies of the EP to USA or Chile.

A-Where do you go from here? Will you be playing outside of Germany?

F-Our goal for 2015 is to play as many concerts as possible. Most of them will be in Germany. But we also have the possibility to play in Austria and Italy next year. Maybe we can add a few more places the next months.

A-What's one thing about Dissorted that people might not know?

F-Actually, we are very open and communicative. So if you know us, you get to know our dark secrets very fast – if you want to or not…One thing, not everybody knows, is, that our singer went on stage in Koblenz in fall 2013 with a stomach flu, that really broke out at the day of the concert. He was in a bad condition, but he said, he wanted to do the show, because we drove 500 km for the concert and the people in front of the stage were waiting for us. After the second chorus of the first song he put away his microphone and run through the crowd, heading for the toilette. We finished the song and started the second song without him, because he hadn’t come back. I was playing with a wireless guitar system. So I went off stage – still playing – and visited him on the toilet. Unfortunately the stomach flu had already done its work and he was puking.

As I came back on stage (the rest of us was still playing the second song of the set), we stopped and said, we can’t finish our set, because our singer was ill. As the audience was requesting more stuff, we said, we could play a few songs without vocals. So we started off the second song again. During the first chorus, a guy (looking like an undead) was fighting his way through the audience towards the stage – it was Mirco. He came up on stage and we finished the concert together (except for three songs, that were too hard to sing in his condition). Right after the show he fled to the backstage area and puked in the wastepaper basket.

And I really have to say, that I respect him a lot for that, because most of the musicians would have canceled the concert. But this also shows his (and our) passion for the band.

A-I'll say! That's some drop dead serious determination there! Wow! So tell me Florian, a kid walks up to you and asks what thrash is. What's the one album that you would hand him?

F-Slayer – Reign In Blood

A-'Nuff said! 

A-Either or time. Metallica or Megadeth?

F-Early days: Metallica. Today: none of them

A-I'd say "Kill 'Em All" up to "Master Of Puppets", but after Cliff died the band died with him. Megadeth wise I've always been partial to "Peace Sells..." and "So Far, So good...So What!". How about this one, Exodus or Anthrax?

F-Early Days: Anthrax (because of the great live shows). Today: Exodus (great records during the last years)

A-Testament or Slayer?

F-Testament (unfortunately Slayer isn’t the band, it used to be)

A-Agreed. It's sad, but true. That brings up a good question though. If Dissorted could play with any one band who would it be?

F-Testament or Exodus

A-Either one of those would be a show I'd like to see! Where would you like to see the band in five years?

F-Being in the same line up like now. Playing gigs frequently. Having two three full length records.

But we don’t have strict goals or bondages about what we should achieve. We will always do our thing, have fun and enjoy what earn with that.

  

A-Good answer! Where should we direct people who might want to pick up a copy of your new EP?

F-We have a homepage (www.dissorted.de), where you can find news, songs, videos, pictures etc. and contact us. We also have a facebook-page (www.facebook.com/dissorted). You can contact us there, too. You can either write to the band contact or to a single member. Both is OK for us. You will certainly get an answer.

A-I always give bands the last word. Anything you want to add or say to fans Florian?

F-The coolest thing for us, is to get in touch with the people at our concerts. So if you like our music, just come by and have a beer with us. If you have already heard our record, feel free to give us some feedback – we are always open for that. And of course be aware of future actions of our band.
  
Review of Dissorted's EP, "I":
 http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2014/10/dissorted-i.html