1. Seeing as you guys started as a Misfits cover band, the influence is obviously there. What would you say it is that makes The Other stand out from other Misfits-influenced horror-punk bands?
If you listen to the four albums we’ve released you can see a major development over the years. Our first album was totally based on the Misfits sound. We just wanted to write songs that could have been on a classic Misfits album. But with our sophomore effort, We Are Who We Eat, and the third album, The Place to Bleed, we included more goth and metal influences. With New Blood we’ve now found our true identity. You can still hear the roots since the songs are still fast and melodic and dark, but they are also more modern and show the love for details. That is something that a lot of other Misfits-influenced bands still lack. I also run Fiendforce Records and most of the demos I get are of kids that paint their faces white and play Misfits songs with different lyrics, which are just re-tellings of other horror movies. We’ve always tried to work on everything with our heart’s blood, the music, the recording, the lyrics, the outfits and makeup, the photo shoots, the live show, our comic-book (I guess that’s the KISS-influence). We want to do everything perfect; we don’t just sing about horror, we live it!

2. Name one horror film per band member that best represents his personality, and why.
That’s a tricky one… For me it would have to be one of my favorite movies, the original The Wolf Man. My favorite horror movies are from the 1920s to the 1950s, especially the Universal Classics. And The Wolf Man is a nice spin on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theme. I’m actually a pretty nice guy, or so I’m told, but sometimes my primitive inner-self takes over and I run wild, metaphorically speaking. But that’s part of my personality – as if my alter-ego Rod Usher was really a part of me – so I’m okay with that.
Our drummer, Doc Caligari, took the name from the German expressionist classic movie. He’s a huge fan of the movie’s style and we always wanted to work on a live show that resembles it, but I think his personality is better reflected by other movies, like Re-Animator. Doc likes horror movies that are bloody and sickening, and he is also the inventor in the band. He builds our props and tinkers with everything just like a mad creator. And he gets in a very bad mood when things don’t go his way.
Sarge von Rock invented his name because he liked the idea that he’s a nasty and mean WWI sergeant who feeds on the soldiers he has killed. I’m not sure if there’s a movie out there that reflects that, but he does like recent flicks like Dead Snow. In reality Sarge is a lazy sweetheart, somebody you would expect in a romantic comedy. And Migore Drake… he would be at home in a Science Fiction movie, because is a total tech-nerd. He has everything new and technically sophisticated, so he would be perfect as Bishop in Aliens, I think…

3. What does the title of the new album, New Blood, represent? I noticed that the tracks are bookended by “New Blood” and “We All Bleed Red?” Is there a significance to all this?
Even though we’re not too fond of torture-porn movies, we do like the horror movies that we watch to be scary and bloody. Not romantic teenybopper films. And the recent Twilight hype represents everything that horror and punk-rock are not. Both are not safe, nice and sweet. Horror and punk need to be scary and sometimes bloody. So, “New Blood” is a spin on “New Moon.” We also chose this title because we felt that our new album sounds like we had a huge injection of new blood. We felt fresh and rejuvenated and the songs reflect just that. And that’s also why the first and last title deal with blood, to show that the new blood flows from the beginning to the end.

4. How about the album imagery of the subway car? Reminds me a bit of Midnight Meat Train. How would you describe the concept for the album art?
We’ve always modeled our album covers after movie posters. Just look at our Land of the Dead cover to our second album. And, yes, Midnight Meat Train was an inspiration, because we really loved the cover and the movies. But an even bigger inspiration was Let the Right One In, which had a comparable cover as well. We didn’t want our girl to look like the monster right away, we wanted the viewer to be unsure about whether she is the victim or the one out to get you. Even though the album is called New Blood, we like to keep the gore a bit hidden in our artworks and photos, because that what is hidden can be a lot more terrifying, then that what you can see right away.

5. Why, several albums in, did you decide to finally release a song in German? What is the track about?
On our second album part of the song “Passion For The Kill” is in German and on our third album the track “Der Tod Steht Dir Gut” is all in German, cause the fiends liked the first experiment so much. And then “Der Tod Steht Dir Gut” became an underground club-hit for us and a live-favorite, so we wanted to continue that tradition, just like we have a Poe-inspired song on every album. “Hier Kommt Die Dunkelheit,” the track from the new album, superficially reads as a regular horror tale about a disease that sweeps the country, but if you look closer, it’s actually a tale about globalism and the things that go wrong in it’s wake. The little guy on the block feels threatened by it and it’s mostly those who have money and power anyway that profit from it, so it can actually be seen like a disease. But in the end we don’t want to judge, we just want to bring up the subject for discussion. That’s what horror should do and that’s what we try to do with most of our songs.

6. You cover Johnny Cash’s “Like the 309″ on the deluxe album bonus disc. Tell me about the decision to cover the Man in Black, particularly this latter day track?
I know it’s trendy to like and cover Johnny Cash, but we didn’t care. All in the band are big fans, especially of his Sun Records period. Cash seemed like the person who actually went to hell, looked death in its eye and fought his own demons. He made many wrong decisions and almost destroyed himself and his family. A little bit like a modern E.A. Poe. But Cash lived to sing about it and wore the black to take a bit of the world’s sins on his shoulders. He was a rebel in the country scene and had a kind of pre-punk-attitude. That makes him so tragic and interesting. “Like The 309” was the last song that Cash wrote before he died and the lyrics deal with death, too. So there many reasons to cover one of his songs and especially this one.

7. You guys have been all over the place – what’s the scariest goddamn thing that’s ever happened to you while touring?
We had a little near-death-experience when driving on the autobahn at 200 km/h when a tire burst. Good thing the van didn’t turn over or there were other cars close by, that way I hit the breaks hard and was able to drive to the side. Other then that, there was nothing really scary. We like to visit ghost towns, castles or museums while on tour, but sadly enough we’ve never seen a real ghost. I once almost had a heart attack while visiting the Hamburg Dungeon. Some guy dressed up as a vampire suddenly stood in front of me and I almost shit my pants. But actually I love to be scared. It’s good to let out some genuine emotion here and there and still feel that one is still alive…..ähhhhh, did I say alive? I meant “undead.”