As the 14th album of SAMSAS TRAUM, „Vota Tenebris I“ released on the 26th june 2026. One may expect frontman Kaschte to run out of ideas after over a dozen albums, but that is far from true. Even though the ideas behind the eleven tracks come from samsarian fans, each song carries the typical dark sound of SAMSAS TRAUM. With „Vota Tenebris I“, Kaschte gifted us another grandious album that also amazes with awesome sound. We have talked to the lyrical genious Alexander Kaschte about the exact concept of the plate, as well as his inspirations.
„Vota Tenebris I“ came about as a „creative crowdfunding campaign“ where fans could become patrons of the songs. For readers who can’t picture what that means: What exactly was the album concept?
Because, to the dismay of many, I have the habit of jumping back and forth between musical styles on my albums – I’m interested in the production methods of different music styles and I like to really let loose in that regard – I wanted to offer the fans a bit of peace of mind and predictability. Ergo: the fanbase was allowed to tell me what kinds of songs I should write for them.
Where did the idea come from to build an album entirely around fan requests?
That had completely unspectacular monetary reasons – like with many of my colleagues, my financial situation has also been in constant decline; a development that affects every area of my work. For more than a decade now, my band has had more to do with crisis management than with creativity; besides making concerts and tours happen, this also affects the production of my albums. Direct contact with the hardcore fanbase is an obvious step there, and in my case I’m blessed with a pretty patient and loyal bunch who, among other things, paid for the mastering of the new album at Abbey Road Studios in London.
What exactly did the fans’ input look like – was it about topics, stylistic wishes, or even specific musical components or lyric building blocks?
We deliberately kept the process open-ended, and that’s how we received the widest range of instructions. Some fans, for example, wanted a piece with a political reference to the present day; others wished for songs dealing with the loss of loved ones – and others simply wanted another song like “Thanathan und Athanasia,” “Für immer,” or “Blut ist in der Waschmuschel.”
Did you find it difficult to then turn those ideas into songs that meet your own standards? Was there a track that was especially challenging?
No, I can’t really say that. Basically, at the beginning I boiled every wish down to its core and sketched out an idea. At a certain point, ideas take on a life of their own – and then you have to let go of all expectations and give them the freedom to unfold; so to speak, you have to be “in the flow” with the material and accept that it almost keeps spinning itself forward on its own. I found out that this is how I work best. I prefer to assign the songs to their little pots afterward, instead of limiting them right from the start.
Was there a fan idea that particularly excited you?
Because I like theatricality, kitsch and extreme violence – I’m into South Korean movies and Italian giallos – “Die Fratze meiner Einsamkeit” was of course tailor-made for me. The vengeful, scrawny psychopath guy is a role I still enjoy playing even at 48.
How happy are you with the result? What, in your opinion, could have gone better?
Nothing could have gone better; I’m very happy with the result. The album is one of the few SAMSAS-TRAUM albums that I can keep listening to myself again and again. Most of the time I avoided my music after it was released; that’s not the case with VOTA TENEBRIS I. This time I set particularly high standards for my vocals and worked myself harder in the studio than ever before; I’m proud of that. After quite a few records that were dominated by screamed vocals, my “natural” voice is back in the foreground on VOTA TENEBRIS I – I didn’t want to half-ass it and had to deliver.
Will there be crowdfunding projects like that again in the future?
Next up we’re going to produce VOTA TENEBRIS II and we also still have TINEOIDEA II in the pipeline – these projects will keep us busy enough for the foreseeable future. Over the next two years I also want to focus more on other bands and projects, so the fans will be perfectly happy even without any further crowdfunding projects.
The song „Leitstern“ is dedicated to your daughter. Where did the idea of writing a song for your daughter come from – was there a specific moment that triggered it?
The initial spark for the song is mentioned right in the first line: I watched Ronja sleeping and saw how the blanket kept rising and falling – and I wanted to write a song about it.
Was it harder or easier for you to write this song with such a specifically personal connection than it might be with other, more abstract topics?
Because in the past I’ve also processed almost exclusively personal things in my music – the album “Asen’ka”, for example, is about my wife’s pregnancy with my oldest daughter Anfissa, and the song “Für dich”, which came out later, is also addressed to Ronja – it wasn’t difficult for me at all. Authors often write about what they know best. But I have to admit that over the years I’ve wanted to share less and less personal stuff with the public; I now want to keep a lot of things to myself so as not to trivialize them.
How do current world events affect your music?
Do you feel the need to express your world-weariness in your music?
I don’t feel any world-weariness. I’ve been looking at political world events in a scientific and neutral way for over a decade, and I don’t feel even remotely represented by any German party. However, like Alice Cooper, I believe that preaching and propagating opinions is the opposite of rock’n’roll – I can point out interesting facts and set processes in motion, but my fellow citizens – better: fellow human beings! – have to do the thinking for themselves. The process of division that has been taking hold in the thinking of the German population for quite some time was not only pushed forward by right-wing parties; the German left has also contributed its share to dividing the country. Germany is lost to me. It has no code and won’t be able to develop any code anymore. Does that make me sad? No. Germany deserves what’s coming now.
Do you sometimes get the feeling that there’s a big discrepancy between “normally” listening fans and those who really engage seriously with the lyrics? And would you criticize that some don’t do so sufficiently, but are “only” enthusiastic about the sound of SAMSAS TRAUM?
If I’m being honest, I don’t give a damn about that. I’m sure that with 99.9% of the songs that give me strength, the artist’s intention was different from what I interpret into the songs. Also, in the streaming age I can already count myself lucky if younger listeners even listen all the way through to my songs – and with lyrics like mine, I can’t seriously blame anyone for not properly understanding my words or not engaging with them enough. At the end of the day, it remains the most non-material of all the arts: music.
In your reasoning for the cover choice for „Vota Tenebris I“, you describe a feeling of arriving behind the longing of the picture’s protagonist Hylas, as well as the potential possibility that SAMSAS TRAUM might no longer exist in the second half of 2026 (which fortunately doesn’t seem to be the case). What exactly led you to that thought?
Well – at some point you reach the point where you understand that time alive is limited and that from then on you should use it wisely. For thirty years (you really have to let that number sink in – thirty years, wow!) I’ve been provoking and stirring people up and self-therapying through music. But in truth I always wanted to be a keyboardist and composer and write film scores (and be able to dance). So? Should I slowly start composing film scores and take dance lessons – or keep producing albums that I’m paid badly for? The right answer is: I should do everything, but most of all the thing I really love.
The threatened or announced end of the band has been running through the history of SAMSAS TRAUM for many years now. Where do these doubts about the band’s continued existence come from, and where are we at the moment – how acute is SAMSAS TRAUM threatened by the end?
On May 2, 2026 – on the 30th anniversary of my band – we decided within the family that SAMSAS TRAUM can no longer be allowed to play first fiddle in my life, and can’t do so. Since then, other things have taken priority. The permanent state of crisis and the frustration that comes with it had to come to an end at some point. Just to give you one example of frustration: Since the day VOTA TENEBRIS I was released, the number of my listeners on Spotify has been dropping, even though I’m being told from all sides how brilliant my new album is. Spotify trains artists like Pavlovian dogs. Anyone who lets Spotify influence them long-term ends up with serious head problems. Will I still release albums in the future? Of course. Will I take these albums seriously? Sure. Will I expect success or make myself financially dependent on them? After 30 years in which, thanks to my fans, I was able to make a very good living from music, the answer now is unfortunately “No”. But it’s very likely that the best music SAMSAS TRAUM has ever released will be created now – because I don’t care about anything and I have nothing left to lose.
Many artists – illustrators, but also musicians – see the topic of artificial intelligence as a threat of a very concrete kind. In the Käfertelegramme you mentioned that, as an artist, you don’t reject AI across the board; what experiences have you had so far using AI in the context of art? To what extent have these influenced your work so far?
I regularly use ChatGPT and have the AI explain to me which stores in Tokyo offer the best selection of KAMEN-RIDER figures. Of course I also have Chat summarize for me how, for example, the K-pop market in South Korea works and is structured; but because I sometimes also ask Chat about things I know a great deal about, I’ve already been able to find out that AI quite often brazenly lies its ass off to its users.Of course I’ve also taken an in-depth look at Midjourney and Suno; here I found that you have to invest a lot of time before you get the results you’re imagining. It’s only fair if social media gets flooded with AI slop: Anyone who wants to be entertained for free shouldn’t be surprised when the content doesn’t cost anything anymore. I’m not one of those people who join the chorus of AI hysterics, and I see the whole matter more in evolutionary to Darwinian terms. As a musician I’ve experienced the collapse of several markets over three decades, constantly had to forge new paths in order to be allowed to earn money with my music, and in the process I’ve had to humiliate myself painfully more than once – and now I’m supposed to have sympathy for accountants and illustrators who are worried about their jobs? Please. Take it in stride and become better and more original than the AIs!< 
Are you planning to involve AI in song or album production in the future? If so: do you expect pushback because of different views, and how, in your opinion, can those be discussed?
Absolutely not – AIs draw on material that already exists and churn it up into supposedly new creations based on mathematical patterns. But I’m only interested in things that haven’t existed yet, and I’ve proven that impressively in my career. My music is supposed to sound like me, and it only does if I compose it myself. SAMSAS TRAUM are a very strange and special band – it’s good if we don’t sound like Taylor Swift, Helene Fischer or WITHIN TEMPTATION.
So if it’s not actually over with SAMSAS TRAUM after all for the time being: Can fans soon look forward to live appearances from SAMSAS TRAUM again?
No. The NCN FESTIVAL in September near Leipzig will be, for a long time, the last opportunity to experience SAMSAS TRAUM live. After poorly attended one-off shows, weekenders, and miserably paid festival performances, I no longer want to waste my time on the elaborate planning and organization of gigs. My live team consists of a total of nine people – most recently my musicians made more money from our shows than I did, while my kids had to get by at home without me. That’s not what self-respect looks like.
Thank you so much for the interview, Alex! To wrap things up, one last round of m1 brainstorming: What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the following keywords?
Indispensable on tour:Hearing protection – on stage and in the sleeping bunk.
Your fans summed up in three words:My fans are loyal, passionate outsiders.
Streaming:A curse and a blessing.
Football:Unimportant.
Gothic vs. Metal:Both are crap. The most interesting representatives of both genres never cared about boundaries.
SAMSAS TRAUM in 10 years:A Wikipedia entry. Don’t take it so hard!
Thank you for the interview!
19. August 2026 Marina Piluso
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