Interviews, gig fottage and more...
SINNERROCK
Photo: @alexanderjaroschenko
10/27/2019
SinnerRock is a one day Festival located in Altengronau - a small village in Sinntal, Germany.
The festival has been named after the location, which in english translates into Sin Valley - the people of Sinntal are basically called Sinners.
THE CREATORS OF SINNERROCK
Photo: Joerg Lobo
A couple of years ago Renate and Steve Iorio moved to this cosy place in Sinntal. After talking to many locals they decided to start their very own annual rock festival in the village, in order to bring new diversity to the village and to support their local bands.
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"We wanted to do a gig for our local people and everyone else jumped on. Next thing you know we are renting tents, big halls, stages and printing out tickets. It went from a gig from 50 or 60 people just for friends to 800 people overnight."
- Steve Iorio
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This lovely couple have been playing music themselves professionally for more than 25 years, and currently play in their band The Vagrants.
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When they're not performing or planning their next SinnerRock Festival they work with their booking agency Epic Touring, where they help organising festivals and tours for upcoming bands.
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Although Renate and Steve are looking to expand their festival they would like to keep it as a reasonable community event for now, and are aiming for 2500 - 3000 guests.
INTERVIEWS
Richard Röder works as a product manager in digitalisation part time, but his main focus is on his clothing brand Rockadel, where he is the owner and designer.
He has interviewed bands in the past and did so again this year at SinnerRock Festival with Steve Iorio and I.
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Photo: Joerg Lobo
ScroLl down to read about the amazing musicians from SinnerRock 2019
The On Fires
Dobermann
Grasshole
M. I. God
Rod Fritz
Fox and Bones
The Polars
Hazel the Nut
ILL Fish
C Ladd
Black Twin
Kimkoi
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THE ON FIRES
The on Fires is a two-piece band, consisting of the awesome Aussies Max and Marty.
Max performs as a singer, keyboardist, violinist (etc), and Marty sings as well as being the guitarist, bassist and drummer of the band. Talk about multitasking!
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The couple have been playing together for many years and spend the majority of their time touring to show the world what a truly high energy performance looks like.
In 2010 and 2011 they toured in China where they performed in front of huge crowds at some of the largest rock festivals in China.
They used to go by the name Asleep in the Park but changed it to The On Fires after a sweaty fan shouted "You are not asleep, you're on fire!" during their tour of Poland and Slovakia. ​
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The On Fires gave an electric show as they closed off the Acoustic Stage at SinnerRock this year, and were a tremendous help at the site both before, during and after the Festival.
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The on Fires is a two-piece band, consisting of the awesome Aussies Max and Marty.
Max performs as a singer, keyboardist, violinist (etc), and Marty sings as well as being the guitarist, bassist and drummer of the band. Talk about multitasking!
​
The couple have been playing together for many years and spend the majority of their time touring to show the world what a truly high energy performance looks like.
In 2010 and 2011 they toured in China where they performed in front of huge crowds at some of the largest rock festivals in China.
They used to go by the name Asleep in the Park but changed it to The On Fires after a sweaty fan shouted "You are not asleep, you're on fire!" during their tour of Poland and Slovakia. ​
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The On Fires gave an electric show as they closed off the Acoustic Stage at SinnerRock this year, and were a tremendous help at the site both before, during and after the Festival.
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DOBERMANN
Dobermann is an Italian rock band consisting of Paul Del Bello (lead vocals, bass), Valerio 'Mohicano' Ricciardi (guitar, backing vocals) and Antonio Burzotta (drums, backing vocals).
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Dobermann has existed since 2012, and in 2014 Valerio and Antonio joined the band as full time members.
The band spend a lot of their time touring, and have released three studio albums and one EP.
They have done all of this independently as they are in charge of their own booking, management and publicity.
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Dobermann were the headliners of SinnerRock Festival this year, and they closed off the festival in the best manners possible where all three gave a wild and impressive performance.
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Check them out under musicians
@dobermann_official
GRASSHOLE
Grasshole is a three-piece band from Melbourne, Australia who combines elements of Grunge, Heavy Rock and Punk-Pop to reach their sound.
In 2017 the band released their debut album Fuzz of Flavour, which assured them three Australia-wide tours and an extensive headline tour across Indonesia.
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Father Rick Hawkins (drummer) and son Karis Hawkins (guitarist, lead vocals) have been playing together for many years, and last year they met Brodie Glen who also plays in another Melbourne band called The Shorts. They asked him if he wanted join the band as their new bass player and come to Germany on tour. - He was all for that!
Grasshole managed to finish their latest album Wildfire just before heading to Germany.
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"In many ways it feels like the first album we've done. It has sort of re-defined our sound"
- Karis Hawkins
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Grasshole had a blast at SinnerRock festival where they rocked the Main Stage and have since then enjoyed Germany and the great variety of beer that follows.
@grassholeband
M.I.GOD.
M.I.GOD. is a German metal band consisting of Max Chemnitz (lead vocalist), Uli Holzermer (lead guitarist, backing vocals), Dan Hess (rhythm guitarist, backing vocals), Mick Steger (bassist) and Eric Wunderlich (drummer).
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The band have already made two EPs and two albums and they have recently released their third, called Specters On Parade. This has become a concept album where the message is, that will is the strongest gift and power of man and although life can be very hard sometimes, we are in charge of our own destiny and choose the path we want to walk.
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M.I.GOD. gave a great show as the only metal band at SinnerRock this year, and Max was just as exited about it as the crowd.
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It was a crazy crowd and I was pleasantly surprised by their reaction, and really enjoyed playing here."
- Max Chemnitz
@migodband
ROD FRITZ
Rod Fritz is an Australian singer-song writer who has been playing and performing for over twenty years. Sometimes he plays with his band Fritz, but in the last couple of years he's enjoyed the freedom of travelling as a solo artist.
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Music has helped him get through tough times when he was younger, and he feels like playing music was almost a therapy for him. Later on he turned it around by writing personal songs and putting them out for the world to hear, hoping they might help other people who are going through rough times.
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Rod Fritz moved from Tasmania to Melbourne to follow his lust to play music for a living. After traveling across the states and London, he went to visit family in Germany where he ended up staying because he meet a the girl of his dreams. He continues to play his original songs across Germany, and this year at SinnerRock Rod gave a heart-warming show on the Acoustic Stage.
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Photo: Joerg Lobo
@rodfritzmusic
FOX AND BONES
Fox and Bones are a Folk duo from Portland, Oregon consisting of Sarah Vitort and Scott Gilmore.
Scott had a fascination of Sarah before they even met. After receiving an invite from her manager to one of her shows, Scott went and gathered the courage to walk up to her and ask if she wanted to play with him. They tried it out and it turned out to be the perfect match!
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The couple had a period of writing separately, but they have been working on their latest single Running Free entirely together.
On the first album they recorded, they went for a very acoustic vibe and since then they have aimed for a more energetic sound with a little more drive in it.
When the couple aren't touring Europe they play at venues in the States, and even inside private homes for the people who are looking for a more intimate concert.
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Fox and Bones were very well received when they played on the Acoustic Stage at SinnerRock. People at the festival were impressed by the harmonies this beautiful couple can create.
Photo: Amandala Photography
@foxandbones
THE POLARS
The Polars are the oldest rock band in East Germany!
Consisting of: Wilfried Woigk (bassist, vocalist), Jürgen Bäzol (guitarist, backing vocals), Siegfried Heilek (drummer, backing vocals) and Viola Woigk (keyboard player, backing vocals).
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The Polars started out as a school band in 1959.
The band used four other names in order to keep playing after being banned in 1967 for allegedly being "the center of antisocialist tendencies". In 1981 they were allowed to perform under their original name The Polars again.
These guys have both experienced and been part multiple decades of rock music. Now that's something not most people can say! (wish I could.)
They are still performing and will do so for as long as they can.
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"I’ve been on the stage since I was 18. When I can’t go on stage I will be happy to go to the grave."
-Wilfried Woigk
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The Polars where the support band of the legendary British rock band Jethro Tull in 2016, where Ian Anderson came up to them after their gig and said "Good job!".
The guests at SinnerRock Festival this year could definitely second that statement after hearing them perform on the Main Stage.
HAZEL THE NUT
Hazel the Nut is a German pop-punk band, which formed in 2012. In this band we have: Sebastian Haupt (vocalist, guitarist) Michael Stöckinger (guitarist), Nick Ruth (bassist) and last but not least Philipp Hufnagel (drummer).
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Hazel the Nut has got two albums out already. One of them was recorded in Micheal's apartment and now they are going for a third album, which will be completely self-produced and released later this year.
This band have performed in front of both the bigger and the smaller crowds but they don't prefer one above the other as they just enjoy playing for the people.
- The crowd at SinnerRock this year definitely enjoyed hearing them play as well.
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Hazel the Nut got the title as band of the year in 2015 chosen by main-ding.de and the Musikhaus Thomann which led to them opening the stage for the English rock band Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
@hazelthenutband
ILL FISH
ILL Fish a rock band from Czech Republic, consisting of Míša Václavík, Tomáš MouÅ™enec, Martin Korecký, Jan Václavík, Jan LichÅ¥a Lichtenberg and Ondra ÄŒerný.
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Thomas Mouřenec used to play the drums, but now he performs as the lead vocalist in ILL Fish and does a great job at it! He is quite the multitasker as well, as he plays in four bands including this one.
They have released three albums in their years of playing and their latest was an EP in 2016 called No Stress.
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ILL fish played on the Main Stage on SinnerRock this year, where they blew the crowd away with a high energy performance. They definitely lived up to the dynamics you can get with this many people playing on stage - all of them giving it their A-game.
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@ill_fish
C LADD
Chris Ladd is a is a Canadian singer-song writer who goes by the name C Ladd.
He started playing music at the age of 10 when he got his first acoustic guitar from his parents. Although the strings where far too high from the tread board, he kept at it and has been playing ever since.
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Chris mainly plays his own material but he also enjoys finding covers that suits him. A song that definitely suited him as he performed at Sinner Rock was Motörhead's popular song Ace Of Spades, which got almost all of the crowd to sing along.
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In the 90's he, like many others, had the dream of being a successful musician with a great record sale but suddenly something in the world changed which made it a lot harder for any musician to earn a living of their music. The internet arrived! Regardless, Chris loves playing and creating music and he wants to keep doing so for as long as his body will allow him.
BLACK TWIN
Black Twin is a German band consisting of Sirko Adler (Drums and Vocals), Julian Günther (Bass) and Florian Ullmann (Vocals and Guitar).
Together they move between the worlds of Groove Metal and Alternative Rock and their lyrics often focus on the darker sides of the society we live in.
This shows in their latest album release called Generation Headdown, where the main theme is on the way people have got their hands glued and head buried in their phone.
Although they criticise this issue, they (like most of us) can relate to it as well.
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"We get locked in this cage as well, so we are part of the problem"
- Florian Ullmann.
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This year the people at SinnerRock Festival had the pleasure of hearing some of these songs as the band performed on the Main Stage.
@blacktwin_music
KIMKOI
Kimkoi is a band from Thuringia, Germany founded by Michael Schock and Lars Buchenauin 2014.
Micheal sings in German and he would describe their sound as dark country, independent music.
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Micheal and Lars are full time members of the band and in order to be more flexible and keep it interesting they change the other members regularly.
Kimkoi have been touring a lot and their most resent one was in Germany with Eric Fish, lead singer of the medieval metal band Subway to Sally on a tour called Ebbe and Flut.
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This year Kimkoi opened up the Main Stage at SinnerRock, where they gave the festival the best possible head start!
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@kimkoi_official