What
is the style of your band?
Our band
likes German heavy metal style. We
characterise our music as Power Metal.
What
does the name "HOLY DRAGONS"
mean?
Dragons
symbolise might, power, wisdom, honour
and many other good qualities; and,
besides, they live long. For many people
dragons are evil creatures, but we think
the other way - the word "holy"
means juistice and protection.
When
the band was organised?
We don't
know exactly, because it's a long story,
but approximately it was formed in the
middle of 1997.
What
tendencies in modern music do you like
and dislike?
First,
we've got sick and tired of those fucking
young alternative bands with they hair
not more than 1 inch long, who strum on
their bullshit guitars. God knows why
this suckers think that they play
rock-n-roll. Many young musicians who
playing not real Metal, think they can
play, using only three chords and they
don't try to improve their technical
skills and develop their imagination.
Those lazy bands destroy Heavy Metal from
inside! It's very sad that in Britain,
the motherland of heavy metal, there are
no new interesting, vivid young bands at
present (Hey,Britain! Anybody home? Let's
return to the glory of British steel!!!).
But the things are not so bad, after all:
in Italy there appeared very good bands,
IRON MAIDEN with Bruce D. and Adrian
Smith, MANOWAR is still holding on and
fighting for Metal, in Germany and
Scandinavian countries Heavy Metal is on
the rise, Brazil and Spain are rising for
the fight for Heawy Metal!
Who has
influenced you most?
Jurgen:
"Richie Blackmore, Kai Hansen, of
course, then Iron Maiden, German heavy
metal bands (Helloween, Gamma Ray and
others), from classical music: Johan
Sebastian Bach, Vagner, Paganini, ,
celtic and scandinavian folklore. Daniel
: " My personal preferences are :
Eric Adams from Manowar (I'm the greatest
fan of Manowar in the world), Deep
Purple, Scorpions." Chris: " I
used to like a lot of heavy metal stuff
(like W.A.S.P, Alice Cooper, Ac/Dc and
others) but at present I like Gamma Ray,
Helloween, Rapsody, Hammerfall,
Stratovarius, Manowar and Iron Maiden.
When I was a child I was a Beatles fan
for a long time." Steve : " I
like all Steves, like : " Steve
Harris, Steven King, Steven
Spielberg." Bands, of course, Iron
Maiden, Scorpions, Queen, Helloween.
Equipment
that you prefer to use in your work.
What
concerns guitars, Jurgen likes any
Stratocaster-like guitars, good quality
made (he's very hard to please on that
point) with singles. Guitar processor is
"Boss ME", as it's very good in
use, preferably the 5th model, as it's
distortion (4) is the best suitable for
the sound of our band.
Now,
about your albums. How many do you have?
The first
one was recorded in autumn in 1998 in 28
hours of studio time on the 28 channel
digital studio in our home city Almaty,
drums were recorded with the drum machine
"Alesis SR-16", all the
keyboards were recorded by Jurgen.The
album contains 12 songs, though first
they were 13. This song "Robin
Hood", having the unlucky number,
was spoiled by the staff of the studio.
It was recorded later on the second
album. The name to the album "Dragon
Steel" was given by Chris. This
album was released by the local company
"Center Records". The second
one was recorded already in our own
studio, that we'd got by that time. The
establishment of the studio and the
recording went in one and the same time
altogether. As we were no longer limited
by the time, happy having the opportunity
of doing whatever we wanted, we slightly
overdid with electronics and special
effects. Now we want to make a remixing
of it. Since that time we've had changes
in the line-up, so we've changed the
style for the heavier, for the better. In
particular we rejected the keyboards.
With the new crew the band has recorded
the 3d album "Rock Ballads",
which was to be released by the contract
with the local label "Fair
Play" (now the band is not connected
with any obligations and all copyright
belongs to Holy Dragons). The 4th one
"House of the Winds" is very
aggressive by the texts because we've
understood that our life is a fight for
Heavy Metal. This album bears the spirit
of the ancient warriors, the Scandinavian
vikings, who were the first metallians,
the album also has a touch of
the
beautiful ancient legends and a fantasy
style. It reflects our thirst for victory
and freedom! The next album "Thunder
in the night" fully reflects the
present musical concept of the band -
Power Metal.
What
bands were you before Holy Dragons?
Jurgen had
the first band in 1989 (school band)
"King Speed" (played the same
style, but 200 times worse than now); In
1991-92 he formed another band
"Axcess" (Black Sabbath style),
then from 1993-1995 he joined the black
metal band "Izverg"(Hellion).
After that he formed "Holy
Dragons" once and for all! Chris in
1991 together with her friends formed a
heavy metal band "GB-5",
playing the bass guitar; in 1993-95
changed bass for the guitar and joined
another heavy metal band
"Lamia" (female vampire).
Steven and Daniel were together making a
project and later joined "Holy
Dragons". They were chosen among a
great number of candidates.
Who is
writing music and texts?
Well, we
all compose songs, but the majority of
songs were written by Jurgen, in all the
songs the vocal melody is thoroughly
worked out by Daniel; now we are working
on the material for 2001 and we make
songs together and on this album there
will be presented individual compositions
of everybody. Texts are written by Chris,
but the are based on the ideas of
everybody. Texts for "House of the
Winds" were written by Chris
together with Jurgen and Daniel.
Send us
your questions. We'll answer the most
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