To celebrate the release of their new album, I emailed The Kruegers‘ with a few questions about the band, their future, and the album itself.
For those who haven’t read the review, The Krueggers are a nu-metal, post-grunge band originating in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hysterical Cold Side and Dark Memories is their first full-length album to be released since they began in 2011. Or just go read the review right here.

GRIMM: Please state your name and what you do for the band

Hi Abigail, my name is Henrique Gala and I play bass in The Krueggers.

GRIMM: I know you spent years working on this album- how did it feel to have it released and out there in the world?

It’s an amazing feeling. We work hard for a long time to have this album out as our first official release by a label. We started in 2011 and recorded 2 independent albums, but we didn’t have a distribution or a promotional campaign behind the releases. With “Hysterical Cold Side and Dark Memories” launch by Eclipse Records, our music is hitting people all over the world and this is amazing!

GRIMM: What’s it like being a rock band in Brazil? Was it difficult finding supporters?

If you have a rock band in Brazil, there are only two options: make soft rock music in Portuguese and try to get famous for a year before being completely forgotten or play whatever you want in English and try to export your sound. We choose the second one. Brazil has a solid rock fan base, the gigs from major bands, like Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, and Iron Maiden, to name a few, are completely sold out, but the crowd generally doesn’t support much new rock bands here. Labels are only interested in Brazilian genres like Sertanejo (kind of a Country Music) and Brazilian Funk (which have nothing in common with the great American Funk like James Brown). So most of the rock/metal bands here chose the path to sing in English and try to export the sound like Sepultura did in the ’80s.

GRIMM: Where did the name The Krueggers come from? And how did you come up with the album name?

We like Freddy Krueger and Nightmare on Elm Street a lot, but we choose The Krueggers just because we think that sounds cool. But definitely we have some insights from the movie and Wes Craven’s character. We like to think that our music has the power to be in the people’s dreams once listened and make them feel the feelings that we expressed in the song’s lyrics.

For the album name, we think that we all have a part in our brains to lock some dark memories and, sometimes, these memories came back in a “hysterical” way from that side of the brain that is trying to get the control of your mind and put you down. We made these songs thinking in this “storage” from our very own brains, expressing some of these memories and thoughts about nowaday’s world to show that it’s possible to control or silence your inner demons and fears and move on.

 GRIMM: What was the main inspiration behind the music?

Certainly was the passion for what we do. We hope that people get connected with our sound at difficult times and see that many people have the same problems. You are not alone and you are strong enough to leave these dark times behind. This is why we make music.

GRIMM: What song would you say you’re most proud of?

“Lying Machine”, definitely! This song was the last one that we wrote for the album and had opened new and exciting possibilities for our sound. You certainly can wait for more songs like this one in our upcoming releases.

GRIMM: Who was the biggest inspiration behind the album?

Like every band in the world, we have lots of influences from bands that we love (and you certainly can hear it in each song), but the main inspiration was our personal lives, problems, feelings, angst, and pain.

GRIMM: Who do you feel your music resonates with?

This is a hard question… sometimes people comment on our social media channels comparing us to bands that we even don’t know. But personally, I think we have a lot in common with 90’s rock. Grunge is one of our main influences (Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, STP), but we love other stuff that some metal, punk and nü metal bands (like Sepultura, Korn, Ramones, Pantera) did in the ’90s too and we try to get all of this together in our sound. Musically speaking, I think that our sounds resonate with people that grew up in the ’90s (like us) and are looking for something familiar, but fresh. Lyrically, we hope to connect with people that identify with the feelings that we put on them.

GRIMM: What hopes do you have for your future as a band?

With the album launch, in a near future, we hope to get a strong fan base around the world and start touring at small venues, festivals and be the opening act for the bands that we love that are still on the road.

GRIMM: Where would you most like to tour?

Across the US, especially Seattle! But we would love to visit European countries in a van playing in different cities every day.

GRIMM: If you had to summarize the album in one sentence- what would you say?

True. We put all our feelings on it, but there’s much more coming!

Thank you, Henrique, for answering my questions! I wish The Kruggers the best of luck in their future endeavors, and I encourage you all to listen to their album!