By John Vidiadakis

Markus, let's go back in the first days of Sieges Even. What is the taste these days have left in your mind and heart, and what do you now think on the debut album, "Life Cycle"? 

Talking about the early stages of Sieges Even is like talking about a timelong past. Looking back, this time was very important for my personal and musical development. To me the band was some kind of a stronghold, warding off the hardships of my daily life. It was the first possibility to turn inner thoughts into outer pictures, to make the unconscious more conscious, if that is possible at all. Being young musicians and fascinated by different artists we wrote "Life Cycle", an album which represented all our musical experiences and skills at that time, and also our influences. I don't listen alot to Life Cycle anymore but whenever I do I feel that there are some good and true moments on the album. The sound is brutal an direct but I think songs like "Roads to Illiad" and "Straggler" can still persist.

"Steps" was a release far beyond its era, and even now it remains a difficult, strange album. How did you get into its creation and what do you think now on music so complex and technical as the one on "Steps"? Can such high technique have as a result the lack of feeling in music? 

I don't think that "Steps" is so far away from "sense of change". The main difference is the production. Actually, we had some technical problems during the recording sessions and in a sense this helped to make "Steps" so mysterious. But of course: the music was difficult too, and it was our intention to write a difficult album containing songs demanding and challenging, an album that would last. Too me technique and emotion are no strangers to each other and no contradiction at all. It was our aim to combine as many poles as possible and the result were songs like "Act of acquiescence" or "Tangerine windows of solace".

"A sense of change" was the last album of Sieges Even where you participated, and is considered by many as their best one. Do you agree with this opinion? Why didn't you experiment more in the symphonic style of "Change of seasons"?

Well, I am still proud of that album and I really enjoy listening to it once in a while. But, to be perfectly honest, to me it is only the unfinished commencement of a new musical and lyrical stage we had just reached at that time. And I think it is still unfinished and will remain unfinished. Talking about "change of seasons" I had the feeling that the other band members considered this song as my personal ego trip. But to me the only aspect of importance has always been the final result, the conclusive picture of a period and of an album. So I think of "Change of season" as an important detail of that painting called "A sense of Change". It is sad we couldn't go further.

Which were the reasons for your arrival from the group? Are you still in contact with them and with the former band members?

Mainly personal reasons. I had to quit to progress and to widen my musical horizons and looking back it was the right decision even if we had some great days that we shared together. No, unfortunately I'm not  in contact with them anymore. But hey, I talk to Franz Herde once in a while.

Which moments do you consider as the highlights of the Sieges Even career as long as you belonged to the group, and which difficulties and bad memories would you like to forget?

Let's talk about the good days! Well, to me the greatest thing was watching the process of writing music finally ending up in the recording sessions and in the production of the album itself. Personally, I really do love being in the studio, working on details and the sound. I also enjoy playing live. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to play live that much at that time but we had a really legendary show with Psychotic Waltz in a city called Verl (which lies in the north of Germany). I still remember the start of the show with Oliver and me playing the intro of "Anthem" together. Those were good times.

What do you think on their latest two releases, "Sophisticated" and "Uneven"?

Excellent musicianship, no doubt about it. But I always considered music as some kind of mirror, a way of finding something of yourself in a world beyond words. I can't find something in their music that has something to do with my life. Ten years ago they would have caused me cardiac arrest
with their music and I really appreciate them being around doing their thing but today that kind of stuff doesn't interest me very much.

After your departure, which were your directions into music? Is there any material issued, and what are your future plans?

After my departure I mainly focused on the "classical" guitar. In fact, I haven't touched an electric guitar since I left. I started learning clarinet, lute and piano. And I wrote alot of chamber music for string quartet, solo guitar, voices, piano, ensemble and so on. At the moment I write for a guitar magazine and I'm writing a book, an introduction to classical guitar (containing a CD with technical studies and pieces by Bach, Tarrega and other composers) which will be published in summer or so. After that I'm going to release a solo album containing all my compositions for solo guitar that I wrote during the last years. The album will presumably be entitled "Unsheltered Places" and even if there will be only me, my guitar and a room I can still find some resemblance with the music I wrote with "Sieges Even". But the music will be much more personal, like pictures from the soul, like musical archtypes. Another major project I'm working on right now is the setting to music of Wilfred Owen's poem "Anthem for doomed youth" (maybe you remember "Anthem -Chapter I" on the steps-album?) for soprano, string quartet, guitar, piano and percussion. This poem is still haunting me.

Your lyrics were always really emotional and personal. In some way, they are characterized by a constant pessimistic feeling, which differs though from misery and depression and is rather bitter, while at the same time sweet, in a really inner way. Do you think it's easy for an artist to write in such a way? Is it a road for your mental and psychological catharsis, and how important it is for you when the listeners are able to find themselves, too, into the lyrics?

It's really hard to talk about the lyrics. Someone said that there exists a certain beauty in sadness and I do believe that. But, and that's absolutely important, sadness and even misery can be dangerous to our psyche. The sweetest melancholy can be a threat to the soul, and the things I utter, doesn't matter if it is in music or in a poem, have to lead into life. When I wrote "Change of seasons" it was like painting a picture. The picture still exists but after having finished and recorded it all is said and done. I can let go and move on.

Which are your favorite groups and artists, and what kind of music fits better to every one of your moods? Which groups and artists would you name as your influences?

Too numerous to mention! Today I am mainly influenced by the written word, e.g. the writings of Walt Whitman, Hesse, Christoph Ransmayr, H?lderlin or Thoreau, to mention but a few. Even seeing a painting by Lyonel Feiniger or William Turner can be very inspiring. Of course I listen to alot of music, mainly classical music from the 20th century like Hans Werner Henze. One contemporary composer I definitely admire and recommend is Giya Kancheli. I still listen to Rush, Sarah MacLachlan, Peter Gabriel, Allan Holdsworth, Gustav Mahler, Heitor Villa-Lobos and so on.

Do you watch the progressive metal and progressive rock scene nowadays? What do you think on today's music generally?

No, I'm not very familiar with today's progressive rock scene. I was somehow disappointed by bands like Dream Theater and the latest albums of Queensryche. Don't get me wrong: their are all fantastic musicians but what's so progressive in their music? To me being progressive means to go beyond the threshold of conventional experience.

Did you enjoy the "cult" status of Sieges Even, or would you prefer further publicity and fame? Do you think it's easy for the artist to control the bad consequences of overexposion to publicity and much "success", or is it finally "the act of resignation" from real art? After
all, how do you see the meaning of "success"?

The word success still remains self-defined. To me success has nothing to do with the  number of sold copies of an album. If many people like what you do: great. But that shouldn't be the motivation to write music. The great thing about Sieges Even was the absolute creative freedom we enjoyed which enabled us to write an album like "Steps". It's sometimes hard to feed the music instead of being fed by the music but a well-written composition makes up for everything.