(1) HOLY DRAGONS is now started working on the new
album tentatively entitled "Judgement Day". What's the current status of the
recording session? I heard the band has finished to work on the first instrumental part…
did you really satisfy this, I mean the end result of this instrumental part? How do you
proceed with the rest i.e. vocals, mixing, mastering, etc?
CC: Well, so far we’ve recorded 8 tracks and after
that we decided to postpone the recording session till autumn to have a short rest in
summer.
JT: We have made the preliminary mixing, but it’s not
the final result yet, we will do the most important part when we’ll work with the voice.
May be we’ll have some special effects, different noises there etc. We did’t do it in
“Thunder...” and “House...” but “Judgement Day” is different in musical
material and the special effects are gonna suit there, I think.
(2) Could you please briefly
inform us about the contents of this new album?
CC: Well, the conception and the whole idea of this new
album is not the one from the Bible. We didn’t mean anything connected with the end of
the world. The thing that we actually meant is that someday, very very soon there’s
gonna come a HEAVY METAL REVOLUTION on the heads of different pop-performers, false metal
kids and these alternative shit! And on this day everybody will understand what real music
is!
Talking about musical
evolution, how do you see the band progress as to compare with previous albums, especially
the latest one "Thunder in the Night"?
JT: Comparing “JD” with “Thunder”, I can say
that “JD” is more powerful in sound and, I hope more, melodic in vocals. Though, may
be it’s more straightforward and we’ve more emphasised the riffs. In general, it
develops from such songs from “Thunder...” like “Glory War”, “Fury under
control”.
What do you guys expect from
the new release?
CC: What do we expect from it? Well, we didn’t think
much about it
(3) I think "Thunder in
the Night" was not too old since it's released back in early 2001. What made you
decide to release the new one in a short time?
JT: By the period of 2001 we’ve got a lot of
unrecorded songs, despite the fact that some people consider metal a conservative musical
genre, only self-confident people can say that it’s not developing, and the
non-expressed musical material is getting old. There are some situations when you compose
some lick, some years pass and some band invents something alike. And if this band is
well-known, there always will be a couple of unsigned bands who will do the same and you
start to doubt if you have invented it yourself! I think that if we express our ideas in
time we can avoid such situations. And anyway, heavy metal keeps changing (I don’t know
if it changes for the bad or for the good... but now it is much different from what it was
in the end of 80ies ) and we must keep up with it. Since the beginning of Holy Dragons we
had a great deal of the musical material for 50% composed before HD. Some songs were
composed in the last century (in the 80ies). Only now I feel that we have settled all the
scores with this mountain of material and now we’ll be able to compose together songs,
going along with the new age, age of Aquarius.
How did you hook up with
DRAGONIGHT AGENCY for this release? And will you again work with the same label for
"Judgement Day"?
CC: Well, Dragonight Agency actually is not directly a
label, it’s an agency for the international heav metal supporters, which really helpls
to keep the flame of metal alive. And it’s ruled by a great guy Bart Gabriel, whose
heart fully belongs to metal. We have met him through Internet and established contacts.
And for the next album I ust say that it’s also planned to be released in Dragonight.
(4) HOLY DRAGONS is not so
well-known in my country as well as the Asia continent, so could you please describe your
personal views on each of your previous recorded stuffs:
(a) "Thunder in the
Night" (2001)
(b) "House of the Winds" (2000)
(c) "The Best (Fair Play)" (2000)
(d) "Rock Ballads" (1999)
(e) "Knights of Camelot" (1999)
(f) "Dragon Steel" (1998)
CC: All members of our band like both “Thunder” and
“House” most of all. We like them equally and perceive them as one sometimes. Well,
you know like Helloween’s “Keepers” 1-2 ? As the musical material is good and it was
fun to work on them.
JT: Specially about “House”. This album was created
fully from the songs composed in 1989-93, “Thunder” has two such songs also: “Mr.
Drunkenstain” and “Legend of the Warriors” and I think they sound rather good.
CC: “The Best” was a very castrated collection of
songs, chosen by a local label for release.
JT: Some “smart” guy hoped to gain money on us by
this album! And to gain a lot of money he wanted it to be suitable for everyone: from
little kids to old ladies. So, we don’t release our albums on our local labels.
CC: “Rock Ballads” appeared after we had a lot of
ballad material, which we didn’t use in any of our albums, so we decided to make up a
special ballad album out of all this material.
JT: “Knights of Camelot” was closer to progressive
metal and not so fantasy-like as it may seem from the name. Something progressive with
lots of keyboards sound, many special effects etc. And as I can see now it has too much
synthetic sound, which I don’t like now.
CC: “Dragon Steel” is our first album and everything
is said by that!
(5) Yes I know that your band
exclusively played Power Metal the German heavy metal style which reminds me to such great
bands as Helloween, Running Wild, Gamma Ray and even Scorpions… what encouraged you to
approach such music style? What made Power Metal music really interesting in your eyes?
CC: All the bands, that you’ve mentioned and
especially Gamma Ray are very close our understanding of power metal and things that we
are doing. And I personally think, that power metal is that style, which is more close to
me spiritually, technically and ideologically.
JT: I like power metal and especially power metal of
German style, because this music has the best balance of melody and heavy riffs,
symphonism and energy and spirit of living rock-n-roll, technical perfection and soul. In
the best bands of this style everything is perfect: fantastic guitar and drums techniques,
vocals, caring far away into the stratosphere, and at the same time there’s no fixing
only on the techniques as in bands of progressive and neoclassic. In power metal technical
perfection doesn’t shadow the expressiveness of musical material. The best
representatives of this style are able to carry listeners from the fields of metal battles
to the psychodelic world as Gamma Ray do or to the world of fantasy, Tolkien as Blind
Guardian do. A good power metal band is able to play compositions in any musical genre,
but they play only music, which they consider worth to play.
Are you also interested in
NWOBHM?
JT: Oh, it’s my first love!!! Many people feel the
influence of NWOBHM in our music. I think that if not for NWOBHM, there will be nothing
now, at least nothing worth to speak of. This style influenced power metal a lot and for
good. Our first album was more in this style and in every album we try to make at least
one song in this style. In “Thunder...” it’s “Turbo, 911” and in “Judgement
Day” it is “Altar of the Second Chance”.
(6) Looking at your way of
working that's really productive yet innovative, may I ask you about your way of composing
music… was it really hard to the band to create such brilliant riffs and memorable
melodies, etc? Do you refer to others to call ideas & inspiration to write a song? Are
the songs composing by a single person or teamwork? What sort of elements really
emphasised in each composition?
CC: Our riffs manner developed step by step from the
first album and till now and this tendency is going to be developed in the “JD”. What
concerns melodies, it is our trade mark: catching melodies :-) .
JT: Also about riffs, the thing is that we have to give
concerts here very often, but the equipment is not always powerful and so the sound
quality is lower than is should be on a proper metal gig. So, to make the audience rock on
a very “silent” equipment, we have not only to work for 150% on the stage, making show
and also to invent powerful riffs. I think we can do it!
CC: We even had a gig, when we played only on back
combo-line amps, because the concert organiser “forgot” to rent all the necessary
equipment. But we managed to rock the audience!
JT: What concerns song composing, we usually have
several song ideas as a team in the band, I usually compose the main instrumental part of
a song and thoroughly develop and work out the guitar line. I have a “data bank” on my
computer, where I put some licks, riffs, any musical ideas not only mine, but also of all
the HD members. Then I use all this material in composing songs.
CC: Oh, yes, and when a song is ready, here I come to
blow life and idea into it ?. But seriously, I always listen to the musical material very
attentively and the music itself gives me the idea of what it is about. Then I start to
write the text.
JT: Lately, our vocalist Dan comes up with very nice
ballads and he is doing them very carefully and thoroughly, one or two a year, but they
are worth it! And the ballad on “JD” is his. Our bassist has a lot of ideas, but
unfortunately he has no enough patience to develop them and he makes a good contribution
into the bass line of songs and on “JD” we have a song, which we can say we composed
reall all together and we think that in future we gonna have such songs more and more.
(7) Do you think to choose a
proper type of equipment and suitable brands of instruments are really important for the
band to come up with an appropriate sound and production quality? What about the studio
the band entered, did it provide complete facilities and conditions for better and
comfortable recording session?
J.T: Yes, here I fully agree with you. Then, the
selection of the studio equipment is also very important. Because, some equipment, which
suites one musical style can be not very good for the other musical style. It especially
concerns guitars and everything connected with guitars. Well, we’re lucky to have our
own studio and it has almost all the necessary facilities for proper sound recording.
Speaking in a more detailed way, we have 32 digital channels record-machine, but in future
we would like to have an analogue equipment like TASCAM, but now we can’t allow to have
it yet. What concerns guitars, we use BOSS distortions and other BOSS products in our
work. I personally use Fender-Stratocaster guitars. In studio I prefer to use my fave red
Strat, made in 1982. Chris plays Gibson LP model guitars. “Judgement Day” was
recorded, using a hand-made guitar “Siren Super Grade” with classis Les Paul design.
Our bassist constantly changes basses and it’s difficult to say what is he playing now
:-) ! But honestly it was a difficult job for us to record live drums, I think we did it,
but we are going to improve it and there’s no limits for the further perfection. But
still the results you will hear in “JD”.
(8) I guess you're (the band)
ultimately fascinated with the existence and cult of ancient creature, the dragon? Dragon
was extensively applied for the band name, CD cover…. What's so special about the
dragon? Was it the main theme you write in the lyrics? Please further explain about your
lyrical concept? How do you relate the content of the text with emotion & motion of
the musical structures?
CC: Yes, these creatures (Dragons) are really
fascinating for me and other members of the band. And the theme of Dragons really belongs
to HM, I think. As a Dragon is an authentic heavy metal creature. And there’s one more
reason: the dragon theme is not deeply developed among the hm bands, I don’t know why.
All of them just slightly touch it. Then, Dragons are powerful, wise, large, beautiful and
wearing a lot of metal :-) !!!! And we’ve chosen Dragon as our band symbol due to all
reasons, mentioned above and the name Holy Dragons sounds good!
(9) Ehmm! I think lots of people quite confused about the difference
between Power Metal and Speed Metal… please further elaborate your personal definition
for both music genre, what are the similarities and differences between them?
CC: As for me I think, that the term Speed Metal was
applied mainly in the 80ies, as this style was developing at that time, but now it has
developed into power metal.
JT: Really, the border between these styles is very
thin and you can hardly define one from another, but in my opinion Power Metal is Speed
Metal, which inherits certain elements from such styles as: True Metal, Epic Metal (I
myself cannot classify Manowar to which of these styles the band belongs), NWBOHM,
Sympho-Metal and even Trash! But as one my friend says (he is 20 years older than me) :
“Once it was all called simply Hard-n-Heavy”?
Could you please mention at
least 5 names of the best Power Metal bands?
CC& JT: Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian, Manowar, Rage and may be
in future Holy Dragons will humbly occupy the fifth place ?!
(10) HOLY DRAGONS is hailing
from Kazakhstan, a country that is not really familiar to the readers, to me especially.
How does metal/underground music scene looks like in your country?
JT: Yes, here in Kazakhstan underground is well
developed, but metal bands we can count, using only fingers of one hand. There are many
mostly young bands, playing punk, grunge (there are about 50 such bands only in our
city!), a little less there are alternative and folk bands.
CC: Speaking about Power Metal, it’s sad to say that
we are the only one (!) band here. But there’s also a very, very young band, playing
classic metal – a band, called Black Fox. And we are like trying to bring up the younger
generation of bands here and may be soon there will appear more metal bands, but it’s
too early to speak about it now.
Do you have lot of support
from metal fans down there?
CC: Right! A lot of support comes from our metal fans,
who are really our great friends here.
What about death/black metal
movement, does this kind of extreme music widely spread in Kazakhstan?
JT: To begin with, I myself played for some time in the
first death metal band in Kazakhstan, which was called “Izverg” and it existed till
1995. At present, there are two death metal bands here, which stay rather apart from our
activity and we practically don’t have any contacts with them. They have their own fans,
their own places, where they hold gigs, their own ideology and they live in their own,
very limited and closed world, and it’s a very deep underground, not very much known to
the public, not specially interested in it. In the beginning of 90ies, when this music was
in fashion here it wasn’t underground but now, they have isolated themselves from the
others...
(11) How many live shows the
band ever played so far? Which is the most memorable one and why? Please describe how does
your live performance look like?
CC: Well, since the beginning of the band we had about
60 gigs big and small. One of the most memorable gig was the first one (it was the first
underground 12 hour festival and almost all the underground lovers were present there),
when the public was shocked, because they haven’t heard anything in this style here at
that time and the general opinion of the people was that Heavy Metal is already dead.
People stood were frozen with their mothes open, but when we finished the first song the
audience exploded. And the next day all around the city there appeared a lot of graffiti
with our name on the walls. And also one of the most memorable was our recent big gig on
the 22d of June. The crowd was overroaring the 14kvt amplifiers, so we couldn’t hear
ourselves on the stage sometimes. And the concert was lots of fun and good emotions.
JT: Usually we play 16 songs, but we also had gigs
where we played 22 compositions and we had gigs when we played 12 songs. In a year we
usually have a couple of big shows and festivals and many small ones: when we manage to
rent a powerful equipment, we make a big show and usually we make smaller gigs in little
clubs on our own equipment.
CC: How does our live performance look like? Hmm, have
you seen Gamma Ray? Well, it’s almost the same ?!
Instead of your own songs, do you guys play cover song, if yes,
please give examples which the band played regularly?
CC: Actually we don’t like to play covers of other
bands, because we have a lot of our own material. But, we have a funny idea for the coming
Halloween this year. To make 10-12 covers of different metal bands and go in Halloween out
on the stage with the programme made from these covers. And not only to play them , but
also to perform the band itself, whose cover we are playing: their looks, costumes,
manner, everything! I think it will be fun! And to finish with several our songs. And we
gonna play covers of such bands for the Halloween show: Iron Maiden, Helloween, Manowar,
Accept, Gamma Ray, Running Wild and many others. I really hope that we would make it and
our friends will help us in creating this show.
(12) How do you see the future
of HOLY DRAGONS? What do you plan for the band let's say for 5 years to come? What do you
hope for the band as well as the entire Power Metal scene?
JT: I personally want to sign a contract with a big
label, like NOISE or NUCLEAR BLAST and to release all our albums in Europe and in the
whole big world. To continue recording one album per year, and each new album must be
better than the previous one in quality and musical material. To record a good live gig
(audio and video versions). And to settle one vital problem for our band : A drummer! We
have constantly changing drummers and it’s a big headache. So I hope to find the right
person soon!
CC: For the entire Metal scene I hope that in future
the mass media and musical channels will give more attention for the good quality metal
bands and that metal people will have a serious weight in the whole musical world and
Heavy Metal will proudly step out from the underground in full power!!!
(13) Last but not least, do you have something to say to the readers?
Final words are yours…..
Feel the power of the steel,
We will get the score,
We were born to fight and win,
N GLORY WAR!!!
These words from our song
“Glory War” very well express our message to Heavy Metal people.
Merchandise for sale (mention
price)?
Now “Thunder in the Night”
is available in Dragonight agency, you can order it there, the price is 4$ without postage
(see all the information on our web-site) In the near future we’ll distribute all our
albums ourselves, follow all the news on the web-site.
Airmail address:
CIS, Kazakhstan
Almaty, 100
Abay av.17-43
Holy Dragons
Email: jt_holydragons@hotmail.com
Website: http://truemetal.org/holydragons
P.S. the questions were
answered by Jurgen Thunderson (JT) and Chris Caine (CC) |
