Artwork by @mystupidsketchbook
WHO are they?
Der Ringer are Jonas Schachtschneider, Jakob Hersch, Jannik Schneider, David Schachtschneider and Benito Pflüger.
“We all met on Myspace in our teens. We really liked the amazing super cool tunes we all had as Myspace profile songs and we all had incredibly cool designs, so we instantly fell in love with each other without ever having met in real life. Jonas and David are an exception to this because they are brothers, but in the end I think Myspace also helped them to get to know each other (and also themselves) better because they don’t really talk much.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs?
“All five of us write the music and the lyrics, so the lyrical content varies quite a bit. It can be anything from Benito missing his girl on tour in the Alps, to Jannik fantasising about falling in love with a video game character, to Jakob imagining what life would be like as a soft little snail. I think the general theme is love and emotions in the internet age. It’s all very very emotional, that’s the most important thing for us.”
WHERE did they grow up?
“We all grew up in Hamburg except Benito, who grew up in the more rural parts of Germany. We all live in Hamburg now. We have lots of friends in the music scene here, but I don’t think we and the other bands here necessarily sound similar. To be honest, I think we mostly find the music we like on the internet and not in local clubs, so that’s what shapes our sound. But there are lots of great people here who have helped us as a band and also in life. The two most important places for the album were probably our dark and smelly practice room/home studio in Hamburg, where we developed all the songs, and Rome, Italy, where we finally recorded and refined everything and formed it into a cohesive album. But for us it doesn’t really matter where we write the songs, as long as we have time and a laptop.”
WHY are they called Der Ringer?
“‘Der Ringer’ means ‘The Wrestler’. We chose that name because in our teens, every now and then, we amazingly ditched our laptops and met in person. On these rare occasions we started wrestling to feel physical pain and convince ourselves that we were actually present in real life.”
WHEN can I see them live?
“Our debut album SOFT KILL was released on 27th of January and we are going to play the songs live on the following dates:
15.02. Hamburg – Hafenklang (Goldenes Zimmer)
16.02. Mainz – Schon Schön
17.02. Stuttgart – 1210
18.02. München – Orangehouse
19.02. Wien – RHIZ
21.02. Düsseldorf – FFT
22.02. Leipzig – NAUMANNs
23.02. Groningen (NL) – De Gym
24.02. Berlin – ACUD”
HOW can I get to know them better?
Listen & Watch: Website // Spotify // Soundcloud // Youtube
Like & Follow: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
The Five Ws of 