Great Crusades - "The Great Crusades are coming to your town to convert you to rock and roll!" (Brian Krumm)

Obviously, musicians from The Great Crusades are people are very open for pleasant conversations in the atmosphere of a wooden kingdom of cozy cafe with a pint of sparkling German beer that became for us a pleasant bonus, besides the visit of their concerts in Germany within recent concert tour. And still they adore speaking about the group which pleases and will continue to please admirers of the nostalgic-daring Chicago blues rock from those far days when this talented four - true friends and colleagues at first gathered and in days that are so far and foggy because they in the near future they also are going to conquer the Russia their the heart-felt tavern rock-ballads. Generally, tour, the mass of a positive and their immense discography that became the result of a relentless works - is the reasons of this interview which Brian Krumm willingly agreed to give for us - he answered on our questions with sense of humour and sincere desire to tell to the world about feats of the Chicago crusaders!

Hi, Brian, thanks that you supported our idea to interview The Great Crusades! For us it a great honor to talk with you, dudes!
Hi Man. It seems so long ago since I saw you and I want to sincerely thank you for coming all the way from Russia to see our shows! It means so much that you would spend your hard-earned money to come see our band and to witness a little bit of the craziness that goes on while we are on the road. I don't even think I had a chance to sit down with you and have a drink and THANK YOU for re-releasing an album that meant so much to me and to the band in our early years. I do hope you had a great time and I do hope that you had a chance to see some parts of Germany and Europe that you have not seen before. I hope we can meet again in the future! Please, let's promise to do that! 


Tell to us please about that how began the story of The Great Crusades? If to me not changes my memory, you gathered about 15 years ago. This period rather not small and because your collective probably endured many changes and periods of so-called take-off and falling. You continue to create in the same collective as 15 years ago? 

Yes, we have been together as a band for about 15 years now. It's crazy. But the band is made up of my best friends in the worlds, so that makes it easier. I formed the band in about 1996 or 1997 when my college band, The Suede Chain, was in the process of breaking up. The Suede Chain had some success, especially in the Midwest of the United States. We had a regional hit called "Daisy Dawn," which allowed us to tour quite a bit. But alas, people had to move on to do what they had to do for their own lives. This happens quite often with people that play in bands. However, when the band broke up, I decided that I was not done with playing in bands. A friend of mine in Champaign, Mike Rader, suggested that we form a band in the style of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and I immediately put the wheels in motion. The band released an album on a small label in Champaign-Urbana, called Mud Records, and the album was well-received by critics and fans alike. The album, the first spilled drink of the evening, even got a mention in Rolling Stone, which I'm sure you can guess was an absolute thrill for me. That album was also released by a small label in Germany called Trocadero Records. Soon after, I moved to Chicago (in 1998) and it just so happened that Brian Hunt, Brian Leach, and Christian Moder ended up in Chicago too. That's when the band really formed as it is today. We recorded and released the next album in 2000 on Germany's Glitterhouse Records, which was called Damaged Goods, and we're still going today. It's quite an adventure to this day. Of course, sometimes life makes it harder to make music every year, but somehow we keep on going.



One can to call your music just "infernal mix" of a country, the blues, psychodelic pock and even a pub ballads in traditional forms for American music. Tell please how you decided to choose such stylistics? 

It's actually not that surprising that our music has so many diverse influences because each member of the band has very diverse interests. For me, I've always been a fan of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and going back further, R.E.M. and the band Camper Van Beethoven. Hunt and Moder are big fans of the band Kaiser Chiefs and Brian Leach has a background in music from the 1970s, such as T. Rex, Big Star, and the Beatles. Somehow, it all boils down to a very interesting soup.


How do you think, The Great Crusades can be in the same row with such legends of rock music, say, as Bob Dylan, Gary Moore, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, etc.?

Ha! I would never put the Great Crusades in the same category as those bands, those "legends." I respect each of those artists, because I realize how much work it takes to write songs and perform the songs live and to actually manage to keep a band or a musical career together. We actually played a gig with Gary Moore in Duesseldorf. Did I tell you that? It was a great gig and a highlight of our career. The Scorpions gig was outstanding as well. Actually each gig is its own special treasure. Usually.


May you mentally imagine your band in the future? In May/June of 2014 was planned a large-scale concert tour on Europe in support of your latest album "Thieves of Chicago". Tell about this action in more detail? Who who gives help for your band in the organization of foreign concerts?

It's hard to imagine the future, because a lot of it depends on the opportunities that we are presented with. Many times, we have an offer to play a festival or two or an opportunity to put out an album with a new label, such as Blue Rose, and that stirs us on to create new music. It kicks our asses to make new art. Hopefully, things like this will continue to happen and we'll just keep on cranking out new stuff. The tour for "Thieves" happened as a result of the hard work of our tour manager Carsten Mueller and myself. We usually book tours together and it's been working out so far. We may get some other booking agents aligned to help us in the future. 


What countries you are going to visit and you will be act in Russia? 

We would love to visit Russia some day! We'll basically go anywhere that people want to hear our music!





Will be your shows any "highlights"? how do you think why The Great Crusades don't use the so wide popularity and how big the contingent of your admirers? 

There are always a few places that we love to play and some places that feel like "home," that we will probably play until the band doesn't exist anymore. For the second question, I consider ourselves lucky to be "popular" anywhere in the world, as I know so many bands probably think the same way. s


Had you to communicate with fans of your creativity? 

The best way to communicate is always face-to-face, which is why playing live shows is so important. We not only get to play the shows, but we also get to say hello to folks we haven't seen in a long time.


It should be noted that The Great Crusades have a very interesting scenic image. It happened naturally or was thought up, or, for example, to emphasize your musical color? 

The band name The Great Crusades was not created with much thought. It just sort of sounded like a cool band name. Lame story, but it's true. But there is a cool aspect of "The Great Crusades are coming to your town to convert you to rock and roll." !

In the 60th of last century the rock music arose first of all, as music of protest– it isn't simple against some social system, but against narrow-mindedness, against an philistine way of life. How do you think there is in your music such tendency which in fact proceeds from the roots of rock of old school? 

I very much admire many artists from the 1960s, especially The Doors and Bob Dylan. I'm not sure how The Great Crusades' music relates to them or to other artists from the 1960s, but I know that many artists in that time frame broke new boundaries and the music they created pales in comparison to some of the music being created today.


What principles do you follow when choosing a label? For you important a commercial success or after all creative, independent background?? 

It's an interesting question. Sometimes the labels choose us, instead of us choosing the label, as is the case with GSP! : ) The way I look at it, labels or other people who want to release our music just make my job easier. I'm always interested when reputable people want to release the band's music and promote the band's music, because it's always better to have people spreading the gospel of The Great Crusades rather than just having me do that job.

Thanks a lot for that you took part in ours interview, undoubtedly our readers learn about you a lot of new and interesting information). Happily!