This week I had the chance to chat with DEBAUCHERY’s Thomas Gurrath. Recently Thomas skyrocketed to worldwide fame after being fired from his job as a schoolteacher due to his involvement with German death metallers Debauchery, a band which he fronts and leads.A busy man, Thomas is also the force behind BIG BALL, a hard rock project that hails from Stuttgart and recently opened for SAXON during some of their European dates. “I had to ask for two days off [from school] so I could go with Big Ball on the Saxon tour” he explains, “The school [principal] put my name on Google and they found out about Debauchery,” setting off the now infamous chain of events. “I don’t care, it’s not as bad as it seems, my band thinks is very funny” he jovially adds, “I’ve been a professional musician longer than I have been a teacher (…) I decided to teach so I could help finance Debauchery and Big Ball.” Since going viral over a week ago, his story has readily provided free advertising for both his projects, no doubt giving the record company’s domestic ad campaign a boost as well as sales and exposure for both.
Debauchery, Thomas’ main project, has released a new album almost every year since 2003 via AFM in Europe. Their latest work, Rockers & War was released a little over a year ago. Thomas and the Kill Team are scheduled to play at Wacken Open Air this summer. “I’m really excited, it should be a lot of fun,” he adds about the W.O.A prospect, “this is the first time we play at Wacken so I’m very excited, this is also my first time going to the festival.”
With W.O.A in the horizon, what other plans are in the drawing board? Thomas is quick to respond: “the same as we had since [Debauchery] started, we’d like to bring our band to Canada and the U.S, do more festivals here and possibly record a new album in the fall (…) I hope it all turns out as planned.” And what about Canada? “We’d like to tour other countries (…) we’d like to visit Canada and the U.S but it is very difficult for us to get our gear across, the work visas and the paperwork.”
Thomas is the driving force behind Debauchery and Big Ball, handling most of the bookings and production duties himself, as well as recruiting some heavyweight help. “For the last Debauchery record Tom Naumann (formerly of Primal Fear) did the leads, and I had the help of a very good sound engineer.”
