THE HIRSCH EFFEKT – In The Shadow Of Habits

Feb 04, 2026   »   interview   »   U2602

text: V. A.   
»   photo: Freakshot

The trio from Hanover makes music that you don't just have to hear, you have to experience: both ritualistic and extreme. We interviewed singer and guitarist Nils Wittrock on the occasion of their new album “Der Brauch“ (The Custom). Your new album will be released at the end of the month. Listening to the pre-release, it's striking how diverse the songs are – within a single track, the mood swings between melancholic calm and frenzied energy. The overall sound is very distinctive. Where would you place yourselves musically? And who would you recommend your music to? „Well, that’s where the problems already begin (smiles) With the previous albums, I would have said that, overall, it was still somehow metal, but I can’t really claim that for this album. To enjoy our music, you definitely have to be open to heavier sounds, but it’s not a typical, nonstop barrage. Maybe our music can be recommended to people who have an open ear for prog rock. If one should even recommend listening to music at all.” When did you start working on the new album? How did the process go, and how long did it take to write the album? Do you constantly write new songs? „No, for us it clearly works in cycles. Right now we’re in the album promo and tour preparation phase, and I’m not writing songs at the moment. Maybe again soon, though. The writing phase for Der Brauch lasted pretty much exactly from September 2024 to February 2025. Only the final track took a bit longer, because another tour got in the way in spring.” Alongside the complex music, there are once again short, concise, one-word song titles. Is this contrast a conscious choice? What are the themes of the songs on the album based on? Is there an overarching concept? „What clearly sets the song titles apart from those on previous albums is that they are German words whose meaning is immediately clear to most of our listeners. On the six albums before, we played around a lot with song titles. Many of them were puzzling, and you had to work out the connection to the songs. I felt like keeping things simpler this time and also found it fitting for the concept of Der Brauch. In our promo shots for the album, we’re also visually working with the idea of an archaic, if you will “German” custom or ritual. And those common terms, each with its respective article, just fit very well. The album title can be understood as referring to the custom we ourselves have created over the course of our now eighteen-year band history. Customs and traditions can give you stability on the one hand, but on the other hand they can also lead you to repeat things simply because you don’t know any other way, or because you’ve always done them that way (or in the case of the band, at least for a very long time). This is the question I asked myself together with the band at the beginning of the writing process: why am I actually still doing this? The cover artwork carries an interesting symbolism. The head motif is a recurring element on your covers. How closely is it connected to the album or to a specific song? „Yes, I see it the same way. The artwork was created by an artist from San Francisco named Alejandro Chavetta. We don’t give him any specific instructions. He receives summaries of the song contents and develops his own idea from that. So I can only give you my personal interpretation. For me, the cover is the perfect mix of the creature that appeared on our last album Urian and the woman shown on Holon: Anemnesis. I find that very fitting. To me, our new record sounds as if we returned to the album Holon : Anemnesis and explored which musical direction we might have taken back then, before we positioned ourselves more in that math/tech corner.” The band was founded many years ago, yet your name is still quite unusual today. Is it more connected to nature (Hirsch/deer as an animal), or does it have something to do with Rahel Hirsch? Why did you choose this particular name? „If I had known back then that I would still be asked about this so many years later, I might have come up with something better. (smiles) The name was a spontaneous idea of our drummer at the time. The fact that the name leads you onto a false trail (like you said, Hirsch as an animal) while actually referring to a medical phenomenon appealed to us right from the start.” What does this year look like for you in terms of concerts and touring? You already played in Budapest two years ago – can we expect you to return here soon? „Oh, that would be great. I have very fond memories of the show at Analog Music Hall. That was as a support act for Caligula’s Horse. For now, though, we’ve only planned an extensive tour in Germany and are seeing how that goes. But I wouldn’t give up hope that the album will also be heard outside of Germany again!”

Bezár

Bezár

Bezár

views     »     the hirsch effekt, underworld international, underworld in english