This week’s featured Meet The Band artist is the German group Senna. Their debut album is Stranger To Love. Guitarist Marcel Dürr and drummer Viktor Warzecha introduce us to their band.
Chad Bowar: Give us a brief history of Senna.
Marcel Dürr: Senna started as a studio project. Simon (Masdjedi, vocals) messaged me out of the blue, because he liked my riffs and wanted to record some songs. The first demos seemed to resonate with everyone we shared them with a lot. Everyone pushed us to pursue this project more seriously. At that point, we looked for band members to form a proper band that can also play live. It didn’t take long for us to team up with Tom, SharpTone and Kingstar Music, things really picked up from there. Since then we’ve played many shows, a couple of tours through EU/UK and some festivals as well.
Describe the songwriting process for Stranger To Love.
Marcel: Honestly, it’s pretty straight forward. We usually start with a guitar riff and a little bit of song structure around it. At that point, we already hit the studio to work with our producer Manuel Renner on the songs. Before continuing to write the other parts, we consider the overall feeling and aesthetic of the song first. Only when we have a really good understanding of where we want to take the song we continue writing parts. We’re very critical during every step of the process and it worked out in our favor I would say. Writing might be a bit slower, but we end up using almost all of the material that comes out of this process.
What will be your strongest memory of the recording of the album?
Marcel: It was actually around when Leon recorded drums for the album. When writing, we always program drums, but seeing him play the songs made the songs and the whole album come to life. It was a “Holy shit, we’re really doing an album!” thing.
What was the biggest challenge in its creation?
Marcel: The songwriting process can be intense at times. Everyone was giving their all, everyone tried really hard to create the greatest music we possibly can. There were definitely some parts where Manuel and I had a clear vision, but somehow couldn’t manage to make it work. You would sometimes work a whole day for a single section of a song, you would be really burned out at that point, you just want it to be done. It takes a lot of discipline to still go “Man, this is not working, let’s scrap this.”
How would you characterize its style/sound?
Marcel: I find it hard to describe our sound, as we take inspiration from so many different genres of music. But I guess this is the characterization of our sound, we blend many different styles. At the same time, we work really hard to make songs that don’t sound like a collection of random parts thrown together. People seem to enjoy that aspect of our music, it sounds unique and fresh to them.
What inspired the album title?
Marcel: The title Stranger to Love just made sense with what most of the songs on the album are about. These days, especially with social media, people are more connected than ever but at the same time, lonelier than ever. A lot of us are struggling with that. Genuine love feels like it’s becoming harder to find, and for some, it’s gotten to the point where they’re not even sure what it’s supposed to feel like to love or to be loved.
What lyrical topics do you cover?
Viktor Warzecha: Stranger to Love is about everyday situations and covers different aspects of love – the love towards yourself and/or other people. Some verses might be the product of real experiences, but the lyrics are written kind of open, that even in Senna we give different lines different meanings and may find comfort or discomfort in them. That’s our goal with the lyrics in the end – everyone should be able to connect with the lyrics in their own way and find their own meaning behind the lyrics for themselves.
How did you come to sign with SharpTone Records?
Marcel: Thanks to our manager Tom Williams. He discovered us early and supported us from day one. Through him we got the connection to SharpTone Records and got signed. And we’re really happy with the cooperation between us, Tom and SharpTone. As a young band you tend to get your music out there as fast as possible. In the process of releasing Stranger to Love we learned to be patient – which was a good thing in the end, because we could dedicate a lot of time to the details and could think about long-term goals after the album is out. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
What are your goals and expectations for the album?
Viktor: Playing these songs live matters the most to me. Of course we want the album to be a success. But the ultimate goal would be to get people to come to our shows and enjoy our music live as well. We’d also like to see ourselves on stage in the festival summer next year – Rock am Ring would be a dream come true.
You filmed several videos for the album. What was your favorite shoot?
Viktor: There’s just so many great moments to choose from. Our director Leo Feimer and his team basically filmed all those videos in 4 or 5 days and we joined them for two days for the performance shots. My favorite shoot on scene would be those at the bar and in the club for “Blackout.” It was a great time hanging with everyone who helped us out for the video. We also got to play “Blackout” an unhealthy amount of times to get the shots for the band performance and the story perfect. But seeing the videos back to back after a while I’ve got to say that my favorite scenes are found in “Hurricane.” The way Leo gave this whole story a conclusion, combining shots from all those videos and finally transitioning into this scene with Merlina and Lenny on the motorcycle in the night – gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
What were some of the highlights of your recent tour with The Devil Wears Prada?
Viktor: To be honest the whole tour was a highlight. We enjoyed our time and talks with every single person behind the stage. We learned Australian slang from the guys in Ocean Grove. Dana from Kingdom of Giants helped us out with a few cool shots for our last single “Drunk Dial Anthem.” And we’re super grateful for TDWP for giving us the chance to open each night for them. These were the biggest shows we ever played and it feels unreal thinking back. London was especially crazy, people just got the right vibe that night.
What are your upcoming tour plans?
Marcel: We just announced a tour with Chaosbay for this fall and cannot wait to share Stranger to Love with everybody. There’s a lot more touring to come, but nothing we can talk about at this point in time.
What are some of your non-musical interests and hobbies?
Viktor: I’m starting to get into editing and videography, but I got there through music. Currently making reading books and watching movies a habit again.
Marcel: I have a regular desk job, so outside of music and work I try to stay physically active as much as possible. Mainly doing rock climbing, weightlifting, hiking, soccer, or any other sport involving a ball.
What’s currently in your musical heavy rotation?
Viktor: Meshuggah, The Hirsch Effekt, Defeater, Karnivool, Mehnermoos.
Marcel: Bilmuri, Thornhill, Unprocessed, Avralize and Loathe
Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Viktor: Bands to check out: Liotta Seoul and Avralize.
Marcel: Go to shows and support your local scene, it’s a lot of fun!
(interview published May 24, 2025)
