Senna

A Moment In Time with SENNA

Interview by Ken Morton

Leading the next wave of talented young artists ready to make their mark on the heavy music scene, SharpTone Records’ newest signing Senna has just released their debut EP A Moment of Quiet upon the world at large. Recorded with the help of producer Manuel Renner of Überlärm Studios, the EP’s five stunning tracks are packed with Senna’s dynamic hard-rock meets progressive post-hardcore style. Featuring the massive talents of Simon Masdjedi (vocals), Tobias Stulz (guitar/vocals), Marcel Dürr (guitar), Fabian Cattarius (bass), and Leon Dorn (drums), Senna has opened for the likes of Being As An Ocean, Holding Absence, and As Everything Unfolds. Highwire Daze caught up with guitarist Marcel Dürr via Zoom to find out more about this amazing band on the rise...

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Senna, and how long the band has been together.

I’m Marcel, I play guitar in Senna. We started in 2019.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?

We are in Mannheim – not everyone lives in Mannheim, but everyone lived in Mannheim at some point. It’s also where we have our rehearsal space and where we meet up in general. And Mannheim I would say is almost the second biggest music scene in Germany because we have The Pop Academy, which is a University where you can study music, but in an applied setting – not actually playing jazz or classical but playing shows and pop music. So that’s why we have a very active music scene. And I feel like it’s either Mannheim or Berlin for a lot of people – which is absolutely crazy because Mannheim, it’s a big city but not like Berlin or Munich or so. But we have a very active music scene and there’s a lot of government support. It’s really awesome

Marcel Dürr of SENNA

to be a musician in Mannheim honestly.

SharpTone Records – they have bands such as Holding Absence, Caskets and Boston Manor on their label. What has it been like to be signed with SharpTone Records and how did that come about?

Honestly, it’s insane – like exactly what you just told, so many bands that we absolutely love – especially the ones that you said – the biggest bands on scene right now. The way it happened – we talked to our manager Tom from Stray From The Path – and he’s also working with Tandem Management. We hadn’t been with a label and we talked about that of course. So he asked us “What would be your ideal label if you could dream?” And all of us said “SharpTone.” Because almost all of our favorite bands are with SharpTone. And he kind of made it happen, to be honest. So it kind of just happened. It’s amazing – we’re blown away by it and very grateful of course.

Let’s talk about the new EP. Is there any overall story or concept behind the EP title A Moment Of Quiet?

Yeah, it’s not like something that’s very clear from the beginning. It all started with the last song from the EP which is called Morocco Mint. It’s obviously just coming from a very stupid working title where we were drinking a tea that was called Morocco Mint. So we had this as a working title for the longest time. We kind of liked the tea culture aesthetic which is very – like fine china, very fragile, a lot of gold, nice teapots, very calming. So we kind of liked that aesthetic, so we came up with a lot of tea related names for the other songs. So A Moment Of Quiet kind of seemed fitting, because it was like you take a breath, you relax, you sit down – you just have your own peace of mind for a short while. So that’s how that came. And we wrote almost all of it during Covid, which of course a lot of stuff was happening, but the reality for a lot of people was kind of sitting at home in quarantine or having lockdowns. We in Germany were also having lockdowns, so especially for the music scene, it was very quiet. And we also used that time to write all of the songs for the EP, so it was kind of fitting in many ways.

Let’s talk about Jade the single and the music video. Is there any overall story behind that, and do you know how to fence or sword fight?

(Laughs) No, I don’t. I don’t know how. But the general theme of Jade is also something you can see in the video – it’s kind of like overcoming your own struggles a bit. The whole fencing thing is what the videos guys came up with – Leo Feimer and Thomas Otto are the names of the two guys we worked with. So they came up with the concept. And the narrative was kind of

fitting – that you’re kind of losing a battle – like you’re fighting with your inner self where you’re kind of feeling not confident and you don’t have the energy to do anything. For a lot of people it’s an internal struggle – like you’re fighting yourself – which can be seen in the video symbolized by fencing, so that was very fitting. You kind of see the protagonist girl in the video failing at first, and then she finally overcomes her struggles and can win the battle. It’s very symbolic for overcoming your own struggles and being proud of yourself – showing up, getting out there, presenting yourself, and being content with it.

Tell me about Lavender, the guitar playthrough video you did, and your Ibanez guitar.

That was one of the very early videos we did. A lot of the stuff we do with Senna is very technical on guitar and I also use the double thumping technique for the guitar nerds out there – so maybe some of you know Tim Abasi – he kind of popularized it in modern metal music. I’ve been a fan of Ibanez since like forever. My first guitar was an Ibanez guitar. I also remember having a catalog and just looking through it – and when you’re a kid, you don’t have that much money to spend. But yeah, I was drawn to them, and they always catered to the modern guitar riff – and to me that still holds true. A lot of guitar players I look up to are with Ibanez as well. You also see different needs for different people – so right now there’s this trend where it’s going away from this super metal looking, very black kind of sharp edges guitars and more towards more traditional guitar shapes and just general specs. So Ibanez does that fantastically but their AZ Series, but they also have the metal guitars as well. It’s just an awesome fit for me as like a modern guitarist in metal or rock music.

Do you have an endorsement with Ibanez?

Uh no, not yet. I would love to absolutely, but at the moment no! There are so many people endorsing Ibanez already that I look up to. It’s kind of the same thing with SharpTone, where you look up to it and at some point you’re lucky enough to be one of them. It would be awesome, honestly.

You recently opening for Being As A Ocean – and I believe Holding Absence and As Everything Unfolds were also on that show. How did that show go and what was that experience like?

The shows were awesome. The first show was terrifying to be honest. A lot of us hadn’t been on a stage for over two years, so it was really nervewracking. But everything went super well. The people responded well too. We felt confident. We are all doing something that we loved doing – and doing it after two years of not being able to do it was just awesome. But also the guys from Being and Holding Absence and Everything – all of them were so welcoming to us and so nice. It was an incredible experience. We felt like they treated us as equals. When I was a teenager, I was listening to Being As An Ocean. They’re like legends for us – and being on the same stage as them and sharing the same – we had vegan barbecue which was awesome! And just sharing a table with them – getting to know all of them – it was like mindblowing! It felt really good and I hope we can continue to play a lot of shows in the future – also with those bands but with many others.

What’s up next for Senna?

So we’re already writing the album and we’re making really good progress. The EP was already finished well over a year ago. And then we started talking to Tom, we started talking to SharpTone and so on. So we had some time to spare, and we already started writing some more music. We’re actually working on new music. It’s still far from finished, but we’re already making good progress and we’re really happy with how it’s turning out. And hopefully we’ll also play a lot of shows.