In our latest interview, we explore the unorthodox world of VOR DIE HUNDE, a grindcore band that’s breaking all the rules and making a killing in the process.
These four businessmen from the future aren’t just playing music; they’re crafting a high-octane, revenue-generating music with a sound that’s as brutally captivating as their business model.
Greetings. For those new to VOR DIE HUNDE, could you tell us how the band formed and what brought you all together?
VOR DIE HUNDE are four businessmen from the future, who are using their knowledge and competitive advantage to make lots of revenue in the present through the fail-safe business model of a grindcore band. Essentially, what brought us together was our passion for generating large incomes by creating great, customer-centric products in the extreme metal/extreme punk segment.
We have all known each other for many years and have been working on other businesses together, but VOR DIE HUNDE has proved to be the most promising in terms of turnover and customer satisfaction.
Your band name and lyrics are in German, and even your social media posts are in German. Is this intentional or do you not speak other languages?
There’s always a strategy behind building your business. Our detailed analysis before starting out showed that the ideal beachhead market for a product spectrum like ours would be the German-speaking market. Extreme metal products have a long tradition here, but the customers are rather old-fashioned, which is why they prefer being addressed in their native language.
However, since we plan to expand our operations and internationalize, we have been developing plans to translate our products and services into other world languages like English, Chinese, Spanish, and possibly Arabic. The respective markets might compel us to do this if we intend to reach our goals and exponentially increase the number of goods sold in the future.
Referring to question number two, how did the band get its name, and what is the meaning behind it?
Every company needs a compelling brand name that customers like and can identify with. The whole VOR DIE HUNDE brand went through a long and intense development process to optimize the fit with its target audience.
Therefore, we looked for an abstract expression on a meta-level and finally chose VOR DIE HUNDE (Engl. “to the dogs” from “to go to the dogs” = “to rapidly decline” or “to deteriorate shockingly”) as a label that perfectly sums up the customers we want to target.
Referring to question number two again, can you tell us about the lyrical themes of VOR DIE HUNDE?
Traditional grindcore companies like NAPALM DEATH, AGATHOCLES, and BRUTAL TRUTH have long based their product philosophies on top sellers like anti-fascism, anti-capitalism, and social criticism. At VOR DIE HUNDE, we believe in a different approach: we have invented a whole new process where we enhance traditional grindcore products with modern, science-based aspects of turbocapitalism, spiced with neo-liberalism, utilitarianism, and similar positive life attitudes.
One might think this is contradictory and totally incompatible with the values of original grindcore, but by adapting it to the zeitgeist, we have finally brought grindcore into the 21st century!
Which bands have influenced VOR DIE HUNDE’s sound, and in what ways?
As business people, we take immense pride in learning from the success stories and failures of past and existing companies in our own or adjacent niches. Obviously, the overall product has a large overlap with a number of Swedish or Scandinavian companies like ROTTEN SOUND, NASUM, ENTOMBED, and DISMEMBER. We also drew inspiration from market leaders like NAPALM DEATH and MISERY INDEX, but boutique grindcore manufacturers like FEASTEM, EASTWOOD, DISTASTE, BASTARD PEELS, and GEIST should also be mentioned.
We have even drawn inspiration from fields as diverse as German rap, Balkan folk, electronica, country, and singer-songwriters – literally, no one is safe from our competitor analysis department. Apart from that, companies like JAPANISCHE KAMPFHÖRSPIELE and KNORKATOR, as well as German-speaking business-people like GERHARD POLT and JOSEF HADER, have widely influenced the philosophy behind our brand. All of these enterprises, which are partly also our close partners, have had an immense influence on our end products in the way they are engineered, produced, and marketed. However, we still try to put a very individual note on all our articles, which seems to be well received by our buyers.
So far, you have released two full-length albums. What has the feedback from the underground been like so far?
Yes, so far we have released two full-length test products for the audio market. The intention was to get customer feedback early on before we release actual products with a full range of functionalities. Since we have a very customer-centric approach, we chose this path to make sure to develop our products close to the market. So far, there has been nothing but great feedback, and our customer satisfaction, measured using the Net Promoter Score (NPS), is skyrocketing!
Apart from that, we have been featured in a couple of selected lifestyle magazines (Ox, Away from Life, …) to test this way of promoting our portfolio and it went quite well. So we are looking into expanding this approach if it gives us access to new customer segments.
Can you tell us more about the artwork presented on your album covers?
The designs for our initial articles, “Ein Gehirn wäscht das andere” (Engl. “One brain washes the other”) and “Auch Opfer unter den Deutschen” (translation not possible with currently available technologies), were made by Russian and Belarusian artists so far. Our intention was to mask our capitalist intentions behind a communist veil by using Soviet agitprop visuals. This proved to be a great sales trick, as we were able to convince a large number of anti-capitalist users to buy from us.
However, communism unexpectedly went out of fashion in early 2022, which is why we intend to change the whole look and feel of all upcoming items to a rather premium luxury style. But we are still in the process of updating this, so it might take us another couple of weeks to do that.
How do your songs come about? Is it a result of teamwork, or do you have a different approach?
Basically, we have two full-time engineers (David & Stefan) working on all the sub-products. They partly manufacture the rough parts by hand, but there is also some programming involved in these first steps. A complex and intricate process is then applied to assemble the individual parts in the office of our Chief Propaganda Officer Lukas, who also serves as the Director of Production.
As David is also the Chief Marketing Officer of VOR DIE HUNDE, he develops all the wordings and the ideological part of our products, which are then added to the overall output by Lukas. Some parts like the product design are—as already mentioned—outsourced to low-pay countries in Eastern Europe or Asia sometimes, but this depends on various factors. We mostly try to keep our costs low so there’s more profit left for the management team in the end.
I can’t seem to recall seeing any serious social media posts from you guys. Why is that?
Actually, all our posts are dead serious because we operate in the extremely sensitive and anti-humorous grindcore environment. So we try to keep all of our communication channels free from sarcasm, cynicism, irony, and sardonicism – what other companies tend to use – ways of criticizing politics, society, pop culture, or other aspects of human life. We exclusively talk about the business aspects of our products. At the end of the day: it’s all about selling stuff! And what is a grindcore company if not a flourishing high-revenue business? Thus, it would be absurd to use humor as a cheap way to attract clients.
Where can we see you perform live?
We are sending our sales representatives to a series of internationally renowned, high-ranked specialized grindcore, punk, and death metal trade fairs this year. Currently, we are in the process of finishing a new groundbreaking high-tech product, which is why our next appearances are scheduled for August 2024:
03. August – JuZ Burghausen with Ulthar, Succumb & Feaces Christ
13. August – Rockhouse Salzburg with The Black Dahlia Murder
17. August – TBD
31. August – PunkOiRama Festival with Knochenfabrik and many others
However, we are open for B2B collaborations and willing to send our sales reps to promising conferences and trade fairs upon request if there is a fit with the attending audience.
What is VOR DIE HUNDE planning for the near future?
Basically, we are just finishing up the development and production cycle for our newest invention, which we plan to release later this year for our newly acquired luxury target group. So far, there are no other short-term plans than focusing on the distribution of this eclectic and highly useful release by approaching new business partners, trade fair organizers, magazines, and other companies who can help us increase the impact of this novelty.
Also, since we have been working relentlessly for the last couple of years, we intend to spend some of the surplus revenue from the recent time on sports cars, expensive business trips, and possibly some luxurious company real estate. The long-term plan for VOR DIE HUNDE is to massively invest in our expansion strategy. Soon, we will enter other business sectors like consumer electronics, commodities, and possibly staple products.
Our claim for the future: “VOR DIE HUNDE is the Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Saudi Aramco, Apple AND Royal Dutch Shell of Grindcore.”
Do you have any messages for your old and new fans?
We strongly recommend checking out our whole product portfolio as soon as possible! Come to one of our product
presentation events mentioned above, check out our shop at vordiehunde.bandcamp.com, and invest large parts of your hard-earned salary into VOR DIE HUNDE! Follow us on LinkedIn! Be a true, respected leader in the new-age grindcore community by joining the international VOR DIE HUNDE movement for only 79,99€ 19,99€ per official T-shirt!
Thank you for cooperating with us, and we wish you a successful rest of your business day!
