This interview was made by the "Rock Stage" staff to Tilo Wolff, where he talks about his new project called "Snakeskin" and Lacrimosa's Future.

"Lacrimosa is dead"… this is what more than one thought when they know Tilo Wolff was recorded a soloist album, so that the composer and singer put a message on Snakeskin's the web site (his controversial soloist project) in order to suffocate the panic fire and to affirm that the release of the album "Music for the Lost" was not Lacrimosa's epitaph, band that is 15 years of wandering around the musical underworld in this 2004. The phantom is going to continue rounding our unnamed fantasies for much more time, without any doubt.

By a call conference since Germany, Tilo's voice sounds so clear as he were torturing us since the hinge post, in the same way that Poe’s ravens. During half hour, Lacrimosa's leader talks with Rock Stage and over all the things, he wants to make clear that the following year he is coming to Mexico to release all the fury of his demons… together with the nymph Anne Nurmi.

How the necessity of recording a soloist album arises?

I'd always had the anxiety of composing music different to what I have been composing for Lacrimosa, although I didn't discover how I have to do it, was precisely in the past tour, in which actually I visited Mexico, when I realized the lyrics, which in Lacrimosa had been always fundamental, should pass to second place. I usually write songs in the piano and the lyrics flow according to the music, but they are protagonist in the song, this time I decided to do it in another way.

In "Music for the lost" you are singing in a different way and also you use the electronic music more than ever, the sound is very cyber…

I totally agree, one of the main ideas of Snakeskin was to work my voice with computers in order to became it in another instrument, I wanted to sound as an animal shouting inside the recording studio, the name Snakeskin is referred to this, to feel me as a snake changing the skin, when you are in the skin of a reptile in the desert is something magic, you can infer many things about the animal, but you will be never sure about how is the owner of that skin.

Do you have any plan to go in a tour with Snakeskin?

No, since the beginning I thought it as something that won't go out of the recording studio, I've been always alone and only some times I left some people to approach to the project. Besides, I am very busy with the next Lacrimosa's album as to plan any concert.

You said the lyrics were not very important. So, do not they have a history?

Yes, they do. Because for me, write the lyrics is like have a daily, I just write about those feelings I am interested in.

What did Anne think about Snakeskin?

When I told her for the first time, it took her by surprise, but when I showed her the first songs, she told me: "I can't wait to listen to the complete album".

Some people think Snakeskin did not have reason to be, because at the end you are the brain and motor of Lacrimosa…

It may be because I have been my whole musical life with Lacrimosa, but I prefer to think that perhaps someone who does not know my band can bring over it because he or she likes Snakeskin.

Have you ever been bored about Lacrimosa? Wishing to leave it?

NEVER! To be bored about Lacrimosa would be bored about my own life, I can't imagine my life without that band, but you’re right, if I’d ever been bored about it, I’ll have no doubt in leaving it.

Lacrimosa will never be that kind of band that we can see playing at MTV Awards, won't it?

Of course not, It really bothers me the idea of playing my songs in a great TV network, I hate the music business because everything must be perfect, the success is measured in numbers, in all the time I have been working in this, many executives have asked me how many cds I sell, but never one of them has asked me how much I love my work, the music should be seen as it is: Art; and not as a car that you can sell to the best bidder. It is very cruel how they make artists everyday, but after a song of them is a hit you never know about them again. I shouldn't allow Lacrimosa to be part of that gearing, actually, I wouldn’t like to the band became more popular towards a grade in which I couldn't live my life as I do it.

Many people point you as a gothic icon, what do you think about this?

I don't care about the people's thoughts, when I started in the music, I wrote only for myself, because nobody knew me. Nowadays, the things have not changed, if I wrote thinking about the others, I'd start to make music with the head and not with the heart, and that would be fatal.

What do you think that is gothic now?

It depends on the country in where you live, but for me gothic is a way to express your feelings, through the music you listen to or the way you see yourself. In fact, it has to have a connection between music and image, but it is not about being sad 24 hours per day, it is horrible that many people see the gothic in that way.

And many Lacrimosa's fans have that idea…

Yes, because gothic is related to the darkness and depression, but everything is relative, there are people that can be happy with my songs and it makes me happy.

How old are you?

Let me calculate… I think I am 32 years old.

What do people of your age think of you are in this environment?

People, who really love me, accept me as I am without asking questions. Besides, there are people who think I am a strange guy that should find a job, but I don't care, I've never felt me attacked if someone look at me with surprise, and that does not happen frequently, because most of the people around me is similar to me.

Do you feel fortunate for having found Anne?

Of course! Since the beginning of Lacrimosa I wanted to have a woman in the band, but I couldn't find the appropriate one, when I met Anne, I knew we were going to understand us, what you listen to in the recording studio or what you see on the stage is what we are, two souls in a perfect connection.

You are a big fan of Chaplin; do you like to shoot a movie?

Yes, I do. And this will be similar to Chaplin's work, I think his capacity to make us laugh since the interior tragedy was terrific, that is much about the world, we laugh even though internally we are dying, as if we had a full-time mask. Of course, I'd like to shoot a movie, but Lacrimosa consumes all my time. But I wrote a short story that is going to be released in Germany in a book, soon.

What about a novel? You are a big fan of Franz Kafka…

It would be great! Perhaps by the time I could shoot a movie, I could write a book. In this moment I just want to be in Lacrimosa and that more people know Snakeskin.

Are you coming back to Mexico?

The next year, is an agreement.

Interview by: Arthur Alan Gore