MM
- Firstly congratulations on yet another new album.
Doro – Yes you
liked it?
MM - Yes, I liked it a lot.
MM - And of course 25 years of Metal.
Doro - Yes time
has flown by. We celebrated it in December it was one of the happiest
days of my life, it was so nice, many many guests and over 8,000 fans
from all over the world. It was one hell of a show, one of the
longest shows we’ve ever played, three and a half hours. We had
my friends from Warlock and many ladies of Metal. It was the highlight
of my life.
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MM
- On to the new album ' Fear No Evil', you've managed to put
together a great mix of Heavy Metal and gentle ballads.
This seems very much the way you like to do things for the Doro
albums. Do you think this approach has become the secret
of your success?
Doro –
Yes, I wanted to have a combination something that sums up the
last 25 years. Some good old school stuff like ‘Night Of
The Warlock’ with the long intro and ‘Running From The
Devil’ which I think is more modern and aggressive, and '25
Years', which rounds out the album and tells you how much I
enjoy metal!
On the limited edition they have two more songs added and a
video.
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MM - I
believe the single ‘Herzblut’ has entered the German charts at
number 72, how do feel about this?
Doro – Yes. ‘Celebrate’ was
the biggest single we ever had and went to number 3 in November in the
Spanish charts. It entered at number 20 then went to number 5 then
to number 3 and I think it is still at number 5 and now 'Herzblut' has
entered the charts as well.
MM - This album once again features a
duet on it, this time it’s with Tarja on ‘Walking With The
Angels’. How did you two get together for this song?
Doro – I don’t know if you know but
I did a couple of walk-on anthems for a great friend of mine Regina
Halmich and she was the world champion of woman’s boxing. At her
last fight a couple of months ago I wrote a walk on song entitled ‘The
Queen’, at same time Tarja was there and we got talking and we thought
it would be cool to write something together. I wanted to write a
song about Power and Angel power and when I wrote the demo I wanted more
of an angelic voice, so I asked Tarja if she would be interested.
She said .. Yes, let's get together. She said she had a new album
coming out in the Winter and she asked me if I would sing on the song
'The Fear', so we swapped songs! This was the first time I’ve
sang a duet with a lady. I’ve done so many songs with great guys
so I thought why not with a great lady, and it was pretty perfect.
MM - Do you think you might do any more
work with Tarja in future?
Doro – Barry I
don’t know, maybe. We didn’t plan anything, she was there at
the 25 year anniversary show and it was the first time we played
‘Walking With The Angels’ and 'Fear' live and it was great. I
was so happy she was there. If anything came up and I thought she
would fit then yes, it would be a great idea.
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MM
- Would you ever consider a totally ballad orientated album or
perhaps putting together a collection of all your ballads onto
one album as perhaps a one off special edition?
Doro – To me metal always
meant freedom, like whatever you feel, whatever’s powerful.
I love double bass songs, I love anthems and sensitive songs as
well. Even from the first Warlock album on 'Burning The
Witch' we had ‘Without You’ and ‘Holding Me’. There are
many fans who only like the heavy songs and many fans who only
like the ballads. I supposed it would be a disaster so a
good mixture is good. I just write what I feel,
so if |
| only
ten double bass songs come out, then the next album would be
just that. But so far it’s a mix of different subjects
and different messages to convey different feelings and I like
them all, from as hard as it gets to as sensitive as it gets. |
MM - That's
how I feel about the success of the Doro solo albums, it's just that
perfect mixture of styles.
Doro – Yes, on
the ‘Triumph And Agony’ album there are two songs that we always
play and the fans like. One is ‘All We Are’ and the other 'Fur
Immer'. Even when people don’t understand a word of German 'Fur
Immer' is always the one that gets shouted out. Sometimes at the
encore we let the fans decide which encore we play and 'Fur Immer' is
always one of those. Yes it's good to have some change.
Even in a show I like to hit them hard first with the anthems, then
it’s the ballads and when the ballads come at the right time I love
them. Then again when we play festivals one ballad is enough.
I have a feeling that maybe people are into the hard stuff so I just
play to the audience and what feels good.
MM - Personally I love the new album,
but what feedback have you had from the other critics?
Doro – So far
only positive stuff, everybody likes it and they like different songs.
I’m very pleased with it. I’m sure there are people who don’t like
it, but I’ve never seen any of those. I’m so happy. With
every record you produce you become so attached to it it's like your
baby and you want to love them all.
MM - If you had to pick your two
favourite tracks off ‘Fear No Evil’ which would you choose and why?
Doro – My two favourites, well it
would have to do with my mood. I would say ‘Night Of The
Warlock’ and ‘On The Run’, but sometimes I would say 'Celebrate'.
But the mood I’m in right now it's ‘Night Of The Warlock’ and
‘On The Run’.
MM - Once again the artwork on the album
is just superb, do you have any input into the covers?
Doro – Yes, yes
it's always a team work. I was a graphic artist before I became
involved with music and I always get together with the graphic artist
and this one. Tomas we’ve worked together for the last two or
three years and we always come up with something good.
This time I want this cover to look more metal, so I called up my friend
Geoffrey Gillespie who is actually English and who lives in France.
I called him and said this album will sound more metal and I want
another painting again, and he said can I put the Warlock into it, I
said “yes, yes if you feel like it". And when it came back
I was so happy with it, he did a great job.
MM - What was the hardest thing about
putting this new album together?
Doro – Well
I’ve had so much stuff to do. We were on tour constantly.
We were on a long American tour, then we had all the summer festivals,
then there was our first tour in China a couple of weeks ago. Then
we were preparing for the 25th anniversary which took like a
whole year. There was so much to do like prepare, promote, it was
a wild year. Then I was in the studio for sometimes twenty hours a
day, so there was a lot of stuff going on, but that is a good sign.
I remember in the middle of the nineties when there was not much going
on and grunge was taking over, that wasn’t so good.
MM - With 25 years under your belt you must
have seen some big changes in the business over the years, what do you
think has been the biggest change?
Doro – Well
there was the one change where all the Metal bands were affected and
that was grunge in the middle of the nineties. That's when it was
very, very tough. Very hard to survive, very hard to keep a record
deal. It was very hard to keep it all going.
Then I got my first phone call in 1999 and my first record deal in the
United States. In Europe we could still do it but in the States
Grunge was so big nobody wanted Heavy Metal. Then in 1999 it
started up again with great tours and great festivals. We've
played Wacken five times now and this year we play Wacken again on the
Thursday. I’ll probably want to bring the whole show that we did
for the 25 year anniversary show along, like the set, the
huge Warlock, the ruins and the castle. But in the middle of the
nineties it was very tough and nobody thought it would ever come back,
but now I feel metal is almost as big as it was in the 80’s and when
we played Wacken it was like when we played Castle Donnington in 1986,
it was so good.
Now I appreciate the ups at lot more now, I appreciate every show and
every tour.
But now things are changing again with CD’s are not selling anymore,
it's much more about downloads. It’s a whole different picture
now with band concentrating more on the live stuff and way back I always
remember the touring to support the record, but now it's different.
MM
- You started out really as a pioneer for female fronted Heavy
Metal bands. Do you think it’s easier for women in the
rock world now?
Doro –
I always thought there was never a problem. I always
thought about that and for me it was never a problem and that if
I were a guy I would have done everything the same. I can’t
really say it was harder to be a woman because I just loved
music and metal and from day one the fan-base was there and we
had a great connection.
On the other hand in the 80’s there weren’t as many women
but now there are tons of great woman with great talent and very
strong personalities, I think in general that's good.
MM - The whole heavy metal scene has
seen off some of the more trendy music scenes, what do you think
makes Metal fans more loyal?
Doro –
Oh yes I would totally agree. I’m not an expert on other
music genres but I'd probably say that Metal fans are the most
loyal, the most tour hard. I love the fans and it's what I
live for. They're the most important thing in my life and
it will always be that way. On
the 25th anniversary there were like fans I knew |
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1983 and there were young kids and every other age, it was
great. |
MM - I like
going to shows and seeing the younger fans because they are the future
of the scene, like we were when we started. I think a lot more
venues should cater for a younger crowd.
Doro – In
Germany we have all ages shows, people get a chance to bring their kids,
especially the little girls singing ‘Are We Are’, I was look across
at them. In America it's more older and we have the little kids
outside listening to the show because they can't get in.
And to be honest I’ve never seen a problem in Germany from my
experience there have never been any problems with that.
MM - You have a few festivals lined up
for this year but no tour dates yet, will we be seeing Doro out on tour
this year at sometime?
Doro – It's in
the making. We're starting the tour in April and we tour the whole
year. We will play Wacken on the Thursday for the 'Night To
Remember' and the Rock of Ages festival, then we will tour the UK, maybe
with someone else but I’m definitely coming to the UK.
MM - You appeared at the Hard Rock Hell
festival here in the UK last year, how did that go and how does this
event compare with the likes of Wacken and the other European festivals?
Doro – It was
great and we had a great time and it was sold out. I know
Wacken is 10 times bigger and last year there was 70-80 thousand fans
and it was outdoors and this festival was indoors, but it was great
whether the venue is small or big. If the metal is good then
it’s a good festival, and it was good, it was great.
MM - When you’re not on the road do
you find time to relax or are you a workaholic at heart?
Doro – I never
have a day off and I never feel like I have any free time. It's
always connected with the music. If you're not touring, you're
doing promotion, or you're writing songs, or in the studio, or mixing
you're record! Everyday there’s always something, there's never
enough time, but on the other hand I like it and it's better than
sitting around at home. It's cool. I never took a vacation
ever. I think I’m not a workaholic but if I want to get things
done I just do it and I go for it, it doesn't matter how long it takes.
MM - Well thank you for taking time out on what
I’m sure has been a busy day of interviews and hopefully we’ll catch
up with you on tour hopefully in the not too distant future.
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