1. Your debut album called
"Dragon Steel" was recorded with Andreas Kraft on vocals, which left the band
after that the album was released. You have already recorded five full time albums (plus
ballads' album of course), but you send me last four… and because of that I have no idea
how voice had that guy. And I wonder, was "Dragon Steel" so bad that you decided
to hide it from me :) here? Could you describe that album? Could you say something about
Andreas? You said: "vocal manner didn't suit the style of the band" and then he
left the band. Did he left on his wish? JT: Dragon Steel has somewhat "cold" sound. At that time we
were still looking for our own style in music and the album turned out in the end to
something in between prog and power metal. The average length of a song in the album was 7
minutes.
Chris: Andres left on his own wish. There were two reasons
of his leaving : first-since the beginning he always wanted to play some very different
metal style like hard-core and the second, he wasn't a real vocalist, so frankly speaking
he didn't cope with his job as a singer at all.
2. Then Jurgen temporality took care of vocals. Why didn't
he become a regular Holy Dragons' vocalist?
JT: I took the place
near the microphone because there was nobody to sing. I never considered myself to be a
cool singer but we tried a couple of people and didn't have much progress with them. But I
wasn't satisfied with my singing and we continued to search for a singer and I went back
to the guitar.
Chris: Jurgen is a wonderful guitar player! And he is a
great composer but it was difficult to play and sing at the same time, so we thought that
a free vocalist would be much better.
JT: Thanks! By the
way, sometimes I still sing all concert set instead of Holger when he can't be present on
the rehearsals, he is an actor and has less free time than other band members. Now I've
trained to do it at the same time but at that time it was very difficult for me.
3. A local firm, as I read in your bio, declared to sponsor
and promote the band under the condition that you will create a ballad album… and you
did it but unfortunately they seemed to rip you off. Anyway you have luck and there
appeared someone who get interested in that CD. It is quite unusually thing when metal
band record album with ballads only (and what is important it was at the beginning of your
existence) and all of them were new tracks. Could you possibly say something about that
album?
Chris: By that time we had a great number of ballads,
enough for the whole album. But they were not all that sweet sugary songs, which usually
come to people's minds when they hear the word "ballad". Some of the ballads are
rather heavy and serious, so I thought that it would be a good idea to collect them all
into one ballad album and at that time there appeared that offer from one of the firms.
JT: The thing is
that this firm wanted to promote us as a pop group, and naturally we refused when we
understood their aims. Our pop industry (as everywhere) is based on lies and hypocrisy.
These are games for vain idiots and I haven't yet gone crazy to play these idiotic games.
4. What are the differences between "Thunder in the
Night" (first version) and "Thunder in the Night" that was released in
2000? I'm mean mainly musical change. I know that it got five old tracks and some new ones
and at the end it was divided into two releases "Thunder in the Night" and
"House of the Winds".
Chris: First of all, I I'd like to say that "Thunder
in the Night" wasn't divided into "House of the winds" . "House of the
winds" is a totally separate album. The first version of "Thunder..." was
divided later into "Knights of Kamelot" and "Thunder in the Night".
JT: The first
version of "Thunder in the Night", which is now called "Knights of
Kamelot" is only like a demo-tape than a full length album. However we started to
record it like a full-size album, but despite long lasting rehearsals before the recording
drums and bass-guitar were simply awful. Then we rerecorded the major part of the tracks
into the "Thunder in the Night" and the last left 4 tracks were included into
"Judgement Day" album in Russian.
5. "Robin Hood" - the track from "House of
the Winds" also appeared on "Judgement Day" because I haven't heard it's
first version I would like to ask: was it changed? And why did you decide to put that
track once again. The first difference looks to be obvious: the second version is in
Russian and recorded with Holger's vocal :).
JT: Not from the
"House..."! From the first version of "Thunder in the Night". It was
rerecorded on the same reason : lousy drums and bass and vocals. We didn't want a good
song to finish its existence in a demo, which will never see the light : )). So, it was
rerecorded in "Judgement Day". The only difference with the original version is
Russian language and before we had in the middle of this song a flute, which was played by
the keyboards and now we have only guitars there.
Chris: By the way, this song is very old and it was
planned to be included into Dragon Steel, but unfortunately the ready-made track was
spoiled by the studio stuff and we decided not to include the 13th song into the album.
6. In 2000 the vocals for your debut CD "Dragon
Steel" were recorded once again but this time with you new vocalist - Daniel Throne.
So it looks that you really didn't like Andreas voice hehe. I guess that the Daniel's
version of your debut is much better?
JT: That's deadly
right! We are not the only ones who didn't like Andres vocals. Nobody did! Some people
even asked to give them only the instrumental version of the album. When I asked them :
why? They were confused and said something like : well, we prefer instrumental music. But
the reason was obvious : the awful vocals. We rerecorded vocals and the song "Sorry,
mama" completely and there were some keyboards added to some songs, which reflected
our vision of music at that time.
Chris: Dan has made much better job than Andres! At least
he never sang out of tune! : ))).
7. In the same year you started to cooperate with
Dragonight Agency. I wonder how did you meet Bart Gabriel? And how the cooperation was
going?
Chris: We met him via Internet. For some time being our
cooperation was very good. He did a lot for us and we're grateful for that. He made Poland
and polish people our best metal friends. Thanks to Bart we have many friends in Poland.
JT: We have really a
lot of friends in Poland. For example, a writer Michal Studniarek or the owner of the
polish Manowar site Rafal Tutuk and many other friends and fans.
8. It is said that Holy Dragons do not cooperate with
Bart's company anymore. Don't you mind telling me why?
JT: Starting from
some point Bart began to ignore our existence. That's more than strange as we had very
good and fruitable cooperation for some time. So, what's the point of staying in the
Dragonight, being forgotten? Just to be mentioned on the site with some stars?
9. Holy Dragons is six years old but in spite of that till
now you had some serious conflicts wit other musicians and what is connected with it there
were some line up changes. Are the founders hard to work with or maybe it isn't easy to
find proper musicians? (because I have already heard your latest album I know that there
is no problem with the founders I guess that they had and still have clear vision of
further band's development and push the band in the right direction – but that is only
my statement – keep on rockin' guys!)
Chris: On behalf of the founders of the band (as I happen
to be one of them) : )) I can say that all these line up changes were because the people
that left were not really belonging to Holy Dragons. They were just guests, visitors, who
wanted just to while away the time, playing in a heavy metal band. You know something like
a hobby : not very serious, no obligations, no real faith in what you are doing. And they
didn't fit us with their qualification with such attitude to music. The current line-up is
the best since the beginning. What's the biggest thing about the current line-up is that
they all do care about the things we are doing and do their best, every little bit of
their work in the band. And more - they like the way the band is developing.
JT: When people
don't want to understand me, I'm hard to work with. Our previous band members didn't like
heavy metal much and played it only because they thought that in HD they would get what
they would not get in other bands. In my presence they shouted how they all liked heavy
metal but in reality they never understood the spirit of it.
10. Why did Daniel Throne left the band?
JT: We always had
very good understanding with Dan and we never had real conflicts. He was one of those
people who took everything seriously and worked a lot. But unfortunately he didn't care
much about his voice. He could walk around, having a sore throat and didn't want to go to
the doctors and have his throat cured. So, many times we had to postpone rehearsals and
recording sessions and gigs. Sometimes we even had to delay our recording sessions for a
month. But we separated with him not because of that. The real reason was that our former
bassist always blackmailed Dan, saying that : "If I'm expelled from the band (and he
was at that time on the edge of being kicked out from the band) you'll have to leave too,
because we're friends. You must leave with me because of solidarity."
11. …anyway… you couldn't find better substitution than
Holger Komaroff. This guy is just amazing!
Chris: Yeah! He has a wonderful voice and great vocal
opportunities! He hasn't shown all his vocal abilities yet and I hope that in future he
will make much greater things!
JT: I worked with
Holger 10 years ago in my project "Axcess". We played hard-n-heavy, then the
band split up and we lost tracks of each other for a long time. And after Dan has left
Holger found me and we decided to try again. And it turned out to be a great job and a
very fruitful cooperation!
12. Was it Holger idea to start singing in Russian?
Chris: No, it wasn't only his idea. Or I should better say
it was our common idea. We all have decided to sing in Russian almost similtaneously. It
just happened so. You see, from the very beginning we were an english speaking band, so we
thought it would be a great idea to try something new.
JT: The thing is
that now the situation is as follows : we have a great Russian speaking community, which
needs real power in Russian, because Russian language power is in great demand. There are
some bands, but they are known only in Moscow and Moscow region. Many people listen to
Aria and the project of their former vocalist "Kipelov" but it's not power
metal.
13. Your new drummer Jurii Morev is seventeen years old, I
suppose that he has real talent if you chose him for your drummer in spite of not having
big incipience. Am I right? Where did you get him? Also your bas player is only
one-year-older form Jurii. So your plan is to have really fresh and young blood in rhythm
section I guess? :)
Chris: My friend (BF's guitaris), told me about him. So,
we decided to try the guy and found out that he suits us. He has a good potential and soon
he can become a really very good drummer. I think that you right saying about the fresh
and young blood in the rhythm section, I have always said that the rhythm section
(especially the drummer) has to be younger that the others : )).
JT: I gave to many
our prospective drummers the song " In the search of Unicorn" and never saw them
after that. Ha-ha-ha! Morev listened through all our songs and his face was stone cold!
And he came back to the second rehearsal and to the third and so he still keeps coming to
the rehearsals! A brave guy! But seriously speaking he studies in the local music college
on the percussion department. After having played in our band about a month and a half, he
had his exams on drumming. He was expecting his turn to play for a long time, as many
students were tortured on drums for half an hour. When he started playing, he played about
10 seconds, his teacher told him that he could go home, as his exam was passed!
14. Is the current line up perfect? Did you lastly find
musicians that you were looking for?
JT: I hope that this
new line-up is good. May be in five years I'll be more detailed about that question.
Chris: The current line-up is very promising and our new
fresh young rhythm section has a good potential and our mature vocalist is still looking
for every possible way to improve his singing. : )
15. Before "Judgement Day" you recorded demo
"Warlock". Don't you mind saying something about that four-track demo? What was
the reason of recording it?
JT: It was an
attempt to start the recording of "Judgement day" : ). In reality it was our
last work with Dan. At that time the band was on the edge of splitting. Everybody had a
very depressive mood and everything was just falling out of hands. And you can feel the
traces of this depression in our musical material - when a band is trying to create a
depressive mood on purpose it is one thing, but when the songs get depressive but they
were not at all planned to be like that it another thing. Having recorded 4 tracks Dan has
left the band. The work has stopped and only next year we were able to continue it again.
16. Your music style has change quite a lot. It is hard to
compare "House of the Winds" and "Thunder in the Night" with your last
two albums "Judgement Day" and "Gotterdammerung" Isn't it? I think
that on the whole only high tuned guitar are your trademark that mainly connect those
releases (beside of lyrics of course). Will you agree?
JT: With every album
we slightly change the structure of music, trying to do it the way that all our good
inventions will be presented it them. I don't like when the bands from album to album are
doing the same things, but it would be worth for some bands to play in the same style as
they did in the 80-ties! Ha-ha-ha! We won't rush from one extreme to another as Metallica
and I can assure you that we'd never release an album, having a name "Chameleon"
or anything like that! But we'll never become a factory of producing identical matrixes of
songs.
17. I have no idea what is people reaction for
"Gotterdammerung" but in my opinion that CD is just great! And one of your
biggest advantages is that you sing in Russian. It is excellent language to sing… very
expressive and create brilliant atmosphere… What can you say about that album? Do you
think that you will manage to bit that CD with your next album?
JT: Absolutely! No
doubts! Speaking about this album and its perception : when we worked on this album I
personally listened a lot to old Black Sabbath with Dio and early albums of Blind
Guardian. I think that this album owes much to these bands with its spirit. This album is
accepted with great inspiration by people. It was already called an "album-bomb"
or "album-granade".
18. Whole alum is fabulous but I like one element in your
music especially. In track called "Altairs of the Liars" there are at the end of
the song great vocals (after that pause) that reminds me something in kind of Islam
prayer... (I don't know how should I call it but I hope you know what I'm thinking about)
and it is just amazing!!! Can I expect more such an oriental elements in your music in the
future??
JT: This part was a
100 percent Holger's improvisation. And it was absolutely fantastic! The song itself was
devoted to the lairs from religion. We have liars from rock-n-roll, we have false prophets
and we have liars from religion, which pursue their own purposes with the help of the
religious dogmas. I don't mean in this song only islamic religion or any other religion.
In the beginning of the song you can hear the prayer of a muezzin and the chime of a
church bell. Such a combination is a nonsense, we wanted to remind people, that there are
liars in any religion and they like vampires feed themselves with people's hopes and
fears. In this we generally wanted to create the atmosphere like there was in Palestine in
the times of the New Testament.
And more : The intro of this song very well
suits the name of our album and the concept of the Twilight of the Gods (Gotterdamerung is
translated like Twilight of the Gods) : people of different religions are trying to make
their gods hear them, but gods keep silence and there are wars, murders and conflicts on
the Earth.
19. Far Eastern elements, Russian language and Heavy Metal.
Don't you think that it is very unique and original mix? It is something new and great,
that is why I love "Altairs of the Liars"; so much :)!
Chris: There will be such elements in future for sure. As
we've said we try to involve and develop the best innovations in our albums in future.
Plus, don't forget that we live in a place, where East and West meet, so that is naturally
reflected in our creative activity. And this mix of elements comes from the mixture of
cultures, which we have here in Kazakhstan.
20. How is condition of Kazakhstan's Heavy Metal scene? Are
there any other Heavy bands beside of Holy Dragons? What bands from Kazakhstan would you
like to recommend?
JT: The situation
here is not at all like in Poland. We can't even speak about any Heavy Metal scene here.
Some time ago I wanted to make Kazakhstan Heavy Metal internet portal, something like
powermetal.kz but then I understood that there will be nothing to write about. There are
some death and black bands, which appear and then disappear without any traces left. There
is a band, called Black Fox. They play classic heavy metal. The band is very young, and
I'm now producing their debut album. And there is another young (much younger than BF)
band, called Phoenix. They play something like italian variant of power metal. I'm
producing them together with BF. But Phoenix has very serious problems with vocalist and
it may delay their release till some indefinite moment in the future. Naturally, we all
are here in the underground and officially we all don't exist, despite the fact that here
we've officially released more albums than any local pop-group, (4 official releases in
Kazakhstan on tapes totaly 10 000 copies) which greatly welcomed by our local journalists
from press and TV. I'm sure that even if we take top in the world hit-list, they will do
everything to shut the fact up!
21. When can we expect your new album? It will be in
Russian I hope?!
JT: The material for
the new album is almost ready. In winter we hope to start the recording of it. It will be
recorded in two languages, first in Russian, then in English.
22. Do you have any new tracks? How are they if you have
any?
Chris: We have 10 new tracks plus there will be some
tracks, which Holger composed before HD. But his tracks are closer to hard rock. May be
we'll take some of his songs too. I don't want to speak about the new tracks yet. Let that
be secret. : )
JT: In general, we
have a lot of material but we've selected 10 best tracks.
23. I read that many people want you to records both
“Russians” CD's in English… hmm I do not understand them. I'm sure that your music
will lose some of its magic if you record these songs in English. Don't you think? What if
Aria decided to record their albums in English? :) In some way it is the same!!!
Chris: We originated as an English-speaking band because
we wanted to be understood everywhere in the world. I mean for us lyrics also plays a very
important role. We want to convey some message for the people doesn't matter where they
live. The same thing with the Russian language - many people don't know English and they
also want to get our message. So, I think we must do both variants. We don't have the
right to betray our Russian speaking fans and we also don't have the right to forget about
English speaking auditory.
JT: Now the English
version of Gotterdamerung is a bit delayed because it's rather difficult to Holger in his
33 years of age just at some instant begin speaking English. In general we try to express
more in our fantasy lyrics that it is usually accepted. Because fantasy is a very good
basis to say indirectly (like in the fables) to sing about some things, which are very
important for every person despite the time or the world he lives in. I mean people that
live in the fantasy world with 9 green suns have the same feelings and emotions as people
who live in our neighborhood. For example a song about Wiedzmin (Sword of Destiny) is not
about about Sapek's book but it's a song about that everyone has its own sword of destiny,
doesn't matter if he wishes or not. We may close our eyes to this reality but it will find
you anyway.
24. Do you have any deal already singed? If you have please
tell with witch label and when it happened. Chris: We've signed a deal with Russian metal
label "Metallism" and we expect our albums to be released. At present they are
working on the cover art work for the albums. This label also has a mailorder, so you can
buy them in Poland too.
JT: More detailed
information about it you can find on our web-site when everything will be ready.
25. I have no doubt that you can't earn for live playing
music, so I wonder what do you do for living?
JT: Chris is an
English language teacher at a local State University. Holger is an actor in a children's
theatre company but as the salary of an actor is very low is always busy, conducting
parties, children's holidays etc. Our bassist Chris Larson is a carpenter and Morev is
still a student and I have some occasional earnings and mainly I'm conducting the affairs
of the band.
26. Ok, so for the end I would like to ask you for some
words to the readers of Heavy Metal Pages if you do not mind.
- Feel the power of the steel,
- We will get the score,
- We were born to fight and win,
- IN GLORY WAR!!!!!!
Keep spirit of Metal, be true in everything
you do! |