"Even if Courtney Love sang with Primus or Patti Smith with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the GUANO APES style could never be completely captured. " (Subway)
What’s behind these words? Very simple: It’s difficult not to get caught up in the Guano Apes!!
In 1994, as everything began, you could already tell that it wasn’t just any old band that was on its way to take the rock world by storm. The four from Goettingen – all in their early 20’s – are already virtuosos on their instruments: Bassist Stefan Ude slaps, strokes, and pounds his four strings in a frightening manner. Drummer Dennis Poschwatta makes a first impression like that of Animal from the Muppet Show; but he works together with Stefan so well that you can justifiably speak of a rhythm section from another world!
Guitarist Henning Rümenapp has a well versed understanding of the rare art of setting sound accents so that you actually already don’t miss anything! But there was something else, wasn’t there!?
Right...the vocals! Sandra Nasic is the name of the delicate, almost unnoticeable creature, that, when let out of its cage, sings its contemporaries into the dirt! Sometimes aggressive, sometimes silky-soft, and always loaded with emotion, she constantly imports new colors into the music! The band brought all of this under one roof on PROUD LIKE A GOD, their debut album in October, 1997 in Germany.
Inch-high goose pimple songs like "Maria", full-out rockers like "Open Your Eyes" – also the 1st single -, and eclectic Crossover-Fusion-Crackers like "Crossing The Deadline" will raise the blood pressure of anyone into good music! What an absurd statement? Maybe, but if there was ever a band that fits the description, "extraordinary" in every conceivable way, then it is certainly Guano Apes!
Those who have seen this band live before will understand why they won Germany’s most highly endowed up-and-coming Battle of the Bands competition in 1996. 1,015 competitors had to settle for at best 2nd place as Radio ffn and VIVA TV started the "Local Heroes" Festival, and that’s not nothing!
Guano Apes live their music 100%. One small band anecdote as evidence: As Dennis, Henning, and Stefan retreated one last time before the big breakthrough to regions Southern to bake their bellies in the sun, after just five days the Three Wise Men realized that they were missing something. No, no, not Mama’s cooking. The three wanted to get back to their instruments and their musty rehearsal room! In no time they packed their things and jetted back home!
And who knows, maybe the three gentlemen will reminisce about that day, then since PROUD LIKE A GOD has made the kind of impact that one associates with monster albums, there’ll be little time for vacations for the next three years!
