The Hamburg based bluesrockers from The Blue Poets -the new musical project of former Errorhead guitarist Marcus Deml- have just released their selftitled debut album and are already on a rise in their home country. In 2005, Marcus received the prestigious Guitar Hero award of US magazine Guitar Player which was handed out to him at the Cleveland Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame by Joe Satriani. He has contributed to various musical projects by working with amongst other things: Snap!, Nena and Simon Collins. On top of that he released 5 full albums with Errorhead and toured around the globe several times with Grooveminister, Kingdom Come and many other projects. We reached out to Marcus to ask him some questions about his past, present and future without losing the focus on his amazingly talented new formation The Blue Poets.
Can you please introduce yourself to the people who haven't heard of you or The Blue Poets?
I've started The Blue Poets in early 2015 and before that i was the leader of the experimental rock group Errorhead. Before that I was a session and touring musician and i have hundreds of albums and dozens of tours under my belt.
Who are your biggest influences and how much did they infect the sound of The Blue Poets?
My influences range from blues over rock to jazz and classical music, it's hard to single some out because even electronic music influenced me in some way. With The Blue Poets my influences take me back to my childhood; Jimmy Hendrix, Deep Purple, Frank Marino, Johnny Winter, Gary Moore, Free and so on but i don't really conciously think about anything when i write or play.
The craziest are the japanese. They send detailed analytics from my solos and even count the pickstrokes and bendings.
How much did the experience you've made with your former band Errorhead helped you when forming The Blue Poets?
Well, I was running Errorhead for over 10 years. which involves everything from writing to producing, enginering, booking and distribution. I've basically learned to become independent in the music industry.
Did your Guitar Hero Award affected your popularity or recognition in some way?
Awards always help, even if there are too many of them. They don't make you a better player either. People just seem to have a justification to listen to you.
Do you, on your turn, hope to influence younger guitar players? Did someone came up to you in the past to say he or she is indeed influenced by the way you play or you've convinced them to pick up a guitar?
There are a few people that i seemed to have influenced, which is strange and rewarding at the same time. I am always amazed when somebody puts up a cover on YouTube, or plays my signature licks. The craziest are the japanese. They send detailed analytics from my solos and even count the pickstrokes and bendings.
i think that passion is the most important aspect in life and of course in music. It doesn't help when you are a technical brilliant musician and have no passion.
Even though that your music obviously has a lot of 70's influences i think it has a very modern sound to it, especially in the way Gordon uses his voice. Are you hoping to bring back some 70's passion back into peoples ears while adding a more modernized sound?
We didn't try to do anything. I wrote the music and the lyrics in a few weeks, made some homestudio demos and played it to the guys. Then we rehearsed it for a few days and recorded everything shortly after that. So nothing was planned or mapped out, it's just the way we sound together, which thankfully seems to give it a different flavour. But as you adress it: i think that passion is the most important aspect in life and of course in music. It doesn't help when you are a technical brilliant musician and have no passion.
Blues music has found it's way back in popular music the last couple of years with bands like The Black Keys, Royal Blood and the return of Death From Above 1979. Do they or does their succes also affects what you are doing in any way?
Honestly. i don't know any of these bands. I am fairly ignorant to anything new. When i was a session guitarist i was always checking out the newest stuff, so I would know what the producers reffered to in a recording situation. But since i've started playing nothing but my own music, i don't have to do that anymore. I prefer to listen to old and forgotten music.
Are you solely focusing on the German market for now or are there plans to expand your reach in the near future?
We are distributing the album worldwide. We just started promoting the album in the U.S. So far we only have European live plans, but i hope that will change soon . Especially the Japanese people seem to be very interested and I've never played in Japan before.
What about other plans for the future? Are you already thinking about a second album or is it all about your debut at the moment?
Right now we are promoting the album as much as we can. That will last till the end of 2017. If things go well, we will record another album shortly after. But, i've learned to live in the moment. It might be possible that we will do this for the rest of our lifes, or never do another record again. Which would be a shame.
