The Handshake Affair is a smashing screamo/hardcore band from Dessau, germany. Their songs come around with catchy hooks, aggressive vocals with an additional melodic voice and synthesizers. We got the chance to talk to Eric, the vocalist of THA, and he told us a little it more about the band!
Let’s start with Rico, he plays the drums. Basti plays bass and Philipp plays the guitar. My name is Eric and I do vocals.
We’re hailing from Dessau, Germany. A pretty small town not far from Berlin. Our hometown is a boring city in eastern Germany and there is literally nothing exciting about it. So that’s pretty much why we decided to make music together.
Actually we never changed the band’s name. We came up with this name 3 years ago and we still like it. Although there is no deeper meaning behind it.
I’d say our music is a mix of vigorous riffs, technical guitars and very melodic parts. We’re trying to write songs that stand for themselves. We’re always trying to avoid just to put together several parts. We’re pretty “song orientated”.
There are so many bands that we look up to. But if we had to choose we’d pick bands like Thrice, Norma Jean, Blink 182 and Incubus. But we listen to a lot of different stuff from pop to jazz, from metal to classical music.
Phil and I went to school together and know each other for more than 15 years now. We started to make music when we were 14 and bought our first guitars at the exact same time. When we started to take the band thing seriously we soon heard about Rico, looking for a band. So we started to jam and it soon clicked, and now he has been in the band for more than 2 years. Basti joined in april 2009 and we’re so happy to have him in the band, feels like he’s the part that was always missing in our music.
Well, basically i write about my own personal issues. On our latest record “Safe & Sound” i wrote about what i experienced in a certain situation of my life that was pretty important for me and my personal self-discovery. Sometimes it’s difficult not to write in your mother tongue but i try to write pretty honest lyrics, although they aren’t very figurative or metaphorical.
Even when we’re not on tour or playing music together we’re devoting ourselves to music all the time. At the moment Basti is preparing himself for a jazz music college and I’m playing the piano. But we do have other hobbies as well. Phil is running a clothing line called “Horselover” that supports the preservation of the rain forests. And Rico loves to grab his skateboard on his freetime.
Let me think, there are many things. Rico once forgot his asthma inhaler and almost bit the dust behind his drumset. One time someone put a piece of broken glass on our sampler and i cut my hand while performing but didn’t notice it at all, so i spread my blood all over the place, pretty martial haha. And once i accidently punched myself in the face with my own microphone in the most stupid way possible. Our guitarist Chris, who once was in the band, he broke his kneecap during the first song but finished the whole set. Afterwards his knee was totally crumbled.
We don’t have a favorite song to play. At the moment we love to play all the songs from our new record “Safe & Sound”. But we still love to play some old songs as well as brand new material. But the most fun is almost the newest song you wrote.
I don’t know. Never thought of it. I think we wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. Maybe: “See you at the bar!” haha.
Rico and I are definitely into pop-punk, so i think we choose Boys Like Girls. And i hate Joe Jonas for dating Taylor Swift haha.
We’re big fans of electro music. But we’ll rather listen to it in the clubs than trying to do it on our own. I guess we’re better writing music with real instruments.
We’ll be still playing music and hopefully had the chance to see a lot of interesting places/cities. Besides that Phil is replanting and reforesting the whole planet and Rico became a pro-skater!
