MM - Hi there, would you
like to start by introducing the band
members to our readers and telling us
where you call home?
Bruno: Hi everybody! We’re THE ORDER from
Switzerland,
we’re four awesome looking and unbelievable talented guys between 28 and
36 years, living in Berne (Mauro & me), Zurich (Andrej) and Basel (Gianni)
and we are here to ROCK!
MM -
Can you
tell us a little about how the band came into being, I believe you guys
already have a lot of history together?
Bruno: Yes, that’s true. Andrej, Mauro and I are close friends since
ages, it's almost 20 years ago since we
founded our first band |
 |
|
“Frozen Mind”,
since then we played together in Bands
like Jerk (Metalcore), Swamp
Terrorists (Industrial) and GURD (Thrash-Metal). |
We met Gianni (Singer)
first in 2002 when he did the opening slot for GURD with his Band: We
where totally blown away by his performance and I remember that I said to
Mauro that this guy would be the perfect man if I would start a own
project sometime. And, two years later, when I left GURD to start THE
ORDER, Gianni got in touch with me, because he listened to the demo-songs
on my website. He told me, that he likes the stuff and that he already has
some ideas. We met each other in the rehearsal room, jammed together and
we knew, that he is the man for THE ORDER.
MM - How have your old fans reacted to the
formation of this new band and what has been the rock media’s reaction to
the band so far?
Bruno: The reactions we get from the press are great so far; SON OF
ARMAGEDDON got 9 out of 10 Points in Rockhard, 9.5 out of 10 in Metal
Heart (Both Germany), we’ve been Album of the Month in Mindview (Belgium)
and we are very happy with the reactions so far. The reactions of the old
(GURD-)Fans are surprisingly positive in general. Of course, some of them
expected a thrash-album in the vein of GURD and are very surprised, that
THE ORDER sounds completely different but it seems, that even the Die-Hard
GURD fans like the album.
MM - Your debut album ‘Sons of Armageddon is
quite superb in my opinion, but are the band happy with the response it’s
getting so far?
Bruno: Thanks for the compliment. Yes, we are very happy with the
response we get so far! As already mentioned, we got amazing reviews from
all over the world and the reactions from the fans are great also.
MM - Would you like to tell us a little bit
about each of the songs on the new album and any stories behind them?
Madmen with Loaded Guns:
Heavy Modern Riffing, melodies chorus, socio-critical Lyrics. The
perfect opener for the album.
Son Of Armageddon:
Title track of the album. A classic up-tempo heavy metal song in the
vein of Accept or Judas Priest with a modern touch. My personal favourite!
On The Radio
Almost a pop song. Catchy, melodious and very cynical lyrics. This was the
first songs we recorded in the studio.
Sweet Stranger
Mid tempo rocker with a strong 80's touch. Reminds me of early Ozzy. Sweet and emotional
lyrics of becoming a father.
Love Died
The ballad of the album. This is the only song we wrote together. I
like the song very much and this would be the perfect single unless the
fact, that it's far too long for the radio stations (over 6 minutes)… And,
my favourite guitar solo is in this song! I always feel like a big rock star standing on a huge
mountain when I play it…
Ain’t got Satisfied
A straight rocker in the vein of Motley Crüe with a very catchy
chorus.
As One Tonight
Another old-school rocker with some kind of an AC/DC riff in the
beginning and an absolute awesome vocal-performance by Gianni.
Loser
A modern tune with a silent verse and a heavy chorus. I really like the
way Gianni sings the verse. To my mind, Gianni sounds like Chris Cornell
here, and I like the furious solo in the middle!
One Man
A very heavy, slow and epic song with tons of guitar tracks. I think, it’s
the perfect track to close the album.
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MM - How long did it take for the new album to
be created from first initial conception to the finished product, and how
many songs did you have to write before you came up with the final
track listing on the album?
Bruno: When I started THE ORDER at the beginning of 2004, I was not
sure, in what direction the music should go. I wrote about 20 Songs, some
hard/heavy rock-tunes, some thrash songs and also some modern metal stuff.
I recorded the demos at home (without vocals) and played them to the boys.
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After a short time we figured out, that Gianni's voice
fits perfectly to the heavy rock songs and at this point it was
clear, that THE ORDER will go in this modern hard rock direction. Because I
already wrote about 20 Songs before we got together, we just had to pick
up our faves. We started jamming in Spring 2005, recorded the first three
Songs in the Summer and the rest of the Album in Fall 2005. We didn’t
spend much time in the studio, we needed totally just 9 days to record and mix down the tunes.
MM - How does The Order fit in with today’s
music scene? And perhaps your local scene?
Bruno: To be honest I don’t care if THE ORDER fits any scene. We just
play the sound we like most. I just think its great, that hard rock became
again more popular the last years and when it comes to our local scene.
With Krokus, Gotthard or Shakra we always had a strong hard rock scene here
in Switzerland, even when this style of music wasn’t really popular in the
90's.
MM - Are there any plans to tour to promote the
new album and if so when and where?
Bruno: Of course, we are planning to play some shows this Fall to
promote the record at least in
Switzerland. But there are no plans for a
bigger tour. We think that this makes only sense if we had the possibility
to support a bigger band on a tour to reach as many people as possible. It
doesn’t make sense in our eyes to play a headliner tour because we’re
simply not known enough for that. We'll see, what the future brings.
MM -
How would you describe the music of The
Order in a few words and perhaps advertise your sound to some ears that
have never heard your music before?
Bruno: THE ORDER play a brand of classic hard rock and modern metal
with a lot of melodies, heavy, down tuned riffs and great, classic rock
vocals. If you like rock, hard rock or heavy metal, you gonna like THE
ORDER. Nothing more to say!
MM - Bruno, since your
departure from GURD, was it hard for you to persuade your former band
members Andrej and Mauro to join you in The Order?
Bruno: Absolutely not! They joined the band immediately after I asked
them. As you know, we know each other since a very long time and we’re
very close friends. I am very happy to have both of them with me and I can
say, that THE ORDER wouldn’t work with other people. I am too old now to
accustom myself to other musicians …
MM - The band are currently signed with the
label Dockyard 1. How did that come about and what was it about these
guys that made them stand out from the rest?
Bruno: To keep a long story short, we had offers from three labels and
Dockyard1 simply made the best impression to us. The People at Dockyard1
are veterans in the business with a lot of experience and they had the
best distribution network from all interested labels. I think this was
absolutely the right decision, because they do a great job so far and we
are very happy with them.
MM - How long did it actually take before the
band received any label interest – how did you go about getting signed
prior to hooking up with Dockyard 1?
Bruno: Very short, we finished the mix down in December 2005, made the
despatch to the labels in January 2006, checked the offers and one and a
half month later we signed with Dockyard1.
MM - Every musician at a certain point in time
decided to pick up an instrument and learn how to play. What was it that
made you decide to do so?
Bruno: I come from a very musical family, my father and also my
grandfather played various instruments and I started playing accordion (!)
at the age of 6. I switched to guitar at the age of 14 just because I
found this instrument extremely sexy (… at least a lot sexier than the
accordion) and this was also the time when I got into rock/metal music. I
was extremely impressed by guitarists like Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen
or Eddie Van Halen and I practiced day and night to sound like them. I had
private Jazz lessons for some years and in 1994 I went to Vienna (AIM –
American Institute of Music) to study rock/fusion on the guitar.
MM - If you could ask one of your
heroes/someone who's inspired you a question, who would it be and what
would you ask them?
Bruno: This would be Randy Rhoads and I would ask him how he created
this fantastic, unique guitar sound on the early Ozzy-Records…
MM - Finally, is there a message you would
like to send out to all your fans to close out this interview?
Bruno: Thank you all for the great response we get for our first Album!
Hope, to see you on tour sometime!
* We'd just like to say a huge thank you to Bruno for taking the time out
to talk to us today. Best of luck with the new album and we'd like
to recommend our readers check it out. Cheers!
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