Much like their peers in Polyphia, Unprocessed are a band starting to earn serious status. Their latest LP Gold conveys this band’s stunning ability to create a sensual tension with their instruments, something which feels authentic, raw and totally unique. Back at Radar Festival for a third year in a row, we sat down with guitarist Christoph Schultz and bassist David John Levy of Germany’s instrumental wonders, to talk all about their recent Live In Texas footage, their relationship with TesseracT and their awe-inspiring performance at Radar Festival.
Most recently, you guys released your Live In Texas concert footage. Seeing as Unprocessed are a German-based band, what made you choose that date in Texas supporting Polyphia specifically to record the gig? Do you have special connections or memories yourselves of that city which swayed your decision in filming there?
Christoph: Also the look of the venue was one of the reasons too. The backdrop, the lighting, the venue was attractive for us to film in.
David: Well really it was the biggest show of the tour we did with Polyphia and also it’s their hometown show and their biggest headline show to date, so we just knew from that that it was going to be an awesome show. We instantly knew it would be a good decision to film it there.
Taking of support tours, you are back in the UK next year for a run of UK shows with TesseracT. Talk to us about how that tour slot came about and your relationship with the band.
C: We met James [Monteith] a couple of years back, but we have also played once with TesseracT before. I am really looking forward to meeting the whole band and just spending a longer period of time with them on tour.
D: TesseracT are also one of our biggest influences, especially at the start of Unprocessed we all loved them.
Do you think that puts a bit more pressure on you guys touring essentially with your idols, or do you think that will positively impact your experience touring with them?
D: Well it’s been kind of the same touring with Polyphia, because if we weren’t influenced by them in some way, we wouldn’t be such a perfect match for the tour and that’s how I think it came about. We were always in a similar bracket to all these bands, even now when TesseracT and Unprocessed have grown into completely different bands. But if you know both of our bands, you would know where our crossovers are. I wouldn’t call it pressure, it just makes it a great experience for us.
Well Unprocessed seem to be firm-favourites here at Radar, you’ve performed at the festival every single year since its inception down in Guildford. You clearly love this festival to make you want to make the trip over, so from the perspective of a band who has done it before, what do you love about Radar Festival and were you excited to bring your previous Radar energy into this new location up in Manchester?
C: Our first ever Radar Festival was such a nice experience for us, so we were really excited to come back, especially with the line -up being as sick as it is this year.
D: For the music that we make and the scene that we are in, Radar is just one of the most relevant festivals for us to play. Also we are just really good friends with some of the people at this festival too, which makes it easy for us to come back and love it here.
Well judging by your amazing performance yesterday, as a band you all look like complete naturals on stage and the music just flows so nicely between you and the crowd. How was the performance yesterday for you guys and did you feel that level of love being conveyed back to you up on stage?
C: I think at this point in our career, we have some kind of routine in place for when we perform on bigger stages like at festivals. Despite it being the same routine we have when we play bigger shows like festivals, we feel more secure every single time because of that.
Unprocessed‘s latest album Gold is out now, available to stream or purchase HERE.
