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Desperately seeking … Gothic Girl, Dark Scene Boy

We presented the dating website for single Metalheads BOUND BY METAL some time ago, interviewing its founder Martin Schmid. In the meantime this bilingual website has celebrated the second anniversary and thousands of new users, offering start pages in 10 different languages, e.g. French, Danish, Polish, Italian and – Finnish! Now there are some great news, a dating site especially for the Gothic & Dark Scene: WOVEN BLACK. Martin tells us more…

First congratulations for the Bound by Metal b-day and 7.500 users! Have you expected that or was it a surprise? 

Thank you. Yes, I had expected that after the first year of Bound by Metal that it would grow further. Yet when starting this project, there were worries whether all this work was all in vain, because there are other Metal dating platforms out there. I simply wanted to create one that is better than the others and free of charge.

Have you become full-time admin in the meantime?

Well, I do have a full-time job as software developer in a health startup. Bound by Metal and Woven Black are best described as ambitious hobby projects.

Are you still working alone on these websites? 

Basically yes. There is another person helping me with the  Community Management, but that’s it. Yet it’s enough to manage both portals.

What has changed since the launch of as Bound by Metal?
Or did you have to change something to improve the website? 

Basically nothing has changed since the launch of the website. There was some improvement on tech and usability and I have added a few small useful features. And yes, early this year we launched a redesign of Bound by Metal, which leveled up the visual appeal in my opinion. That was exciting because I am not really a designer. But thanks to the support by Whiskey-Cola you can manage such creative challenges, too 😀

Is the majority in this Metal-dating community located in Germany or are more people using this platform from abroad? 

The German speaking community is clearly the majority, also because there was much more advertising for it here. Second are US Americans, but Bound by Metal features people from around the globe.

How about the gender ratio, is it in 50:50 balance or whose hearts are more lonely? 

The ratio is about  40% females to 60% males at Bound by Metal, which is quite normal and balanced for a Metal-Dating-platform, I think.

Woven Black has since its launch 50:50 which is ideal.

What is the average age? Is there something for  … errr… people who watched Metallica as support act or remember Rammstein as a Demo-band on a magazine sampler (to put it like this…) ?

Haha,  yes, we have those too, many users are in the 50+ range, some even 60+. The largest group, however, are people from 25 to 34 years old, followed by 18 – 24 year olds.

What is the most common question for you as admin? 

Most questions concern bands, whether we could add artist X or Y to the rooster. Which of course we’ll do, as long as this artist belongs to the scene. Everybody can add favorite artists to the personal profile, which in turn is shown on the platform’s artist page, which makes it very interesting.

What was the idea behind Woven Black? Are so many Goth fans involved here or what was the reason? 

Although the Metal scene and the Dark Scene do overlap, there are so many differences which are more important than the common issues, I think. There is a reason why every scene has their own festivals, Wacken is totally different to the Wave-Gotik-Treffen, to make a point. And because I have always felt at home in the Dark Scene and noticed that only few Goths warmed up to Bound by Metal, I had the idea to honor the Dark Scene with their own portal.

Since when does Woven Black exist?

Woven Black was launched June 2019, it is brand new.

How can you become a member at  Bound by Metal or Woven Black?

Simply click on “Sign Up” with nickname, name, age, address (as you can discover people near you) and e-mail address, confirm, and you are part of the community. For those who require more convenience, you can sign up via Facebook too 😉

Do you have membership fees or the like? 

No. Every feature is for free on this page and will remain so.

What are your hopes for the future? 

World peace. A sustainable way human kind treats Mother Earth. And staying in good health.

Thank you for the interview!

BOUND BY METAL deutsch
BOUND BY METAL in English

WOVEN BLACK deutsch
WOVEN BLACK in english

Klaudia Weber

reckless and merciless dictator, so KNEEL! In other words, editor-in-chief, translator, website and ad admin, "Jane of all trades" - - - addicted to books (everything between Lord Of The Rings & quantum physics) and music, mainly Metal made in Finland. Furthermore, there's painting, drawing, movies, theater... so you can expect some variety on this website too. MA Master of Arts, English and American studies & Media communication = completed two full studies parallel within 5 years; very proud of my achievement - a bit later in life thanks to a scholarship - as a working class girl in a highlyconservative-romancatholic nation...