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The
whole NWoBHM movement was one of the strongest and most potent in all of
Metal and Hard Rock's history. Over the years a great many bands
have been influenced from the bands that featured in that movement.
Hailing from Germany Roxxcalibur are have put together an album full of
classic NWoBHM covers. We catch up with drummer Neudi who tells us
more about the band, the album and their decision to relive those glory
days ...
MM -
Firstly
would you like to start by telling us how the band came into being?
Neudi -
The
idea of a NWOBHM-tribute band was in my head for about 10 years and I
even placed some ads online around 2002. I never found people to share
this idea with me until we formed the band Viron in (I think) 2005.
With Viron we play a style that reminds some people of classic US-Metal
and we are often compared to Jag Panzer or Vicious Rumors. While
playing gigs we often met the guys from Abandoned, a successful German
Thrash act. Their guitar player (and singer) Kalli is also a fan
of the NWOBHM, same with bass player Mario who played in the Deep Purple
tribute band Child in Time with me. So us three Viron guys (Alexx
Stahl, Roger Dequis and myself) started talking about a NWOBHM tribute
band, had a BBQ at my house with a NWOBHM-listening session and a few
days later we had our first rehearsal. As this was pure magic we
decided to make a proper band out of it. This was in mid-2007.
MM - What
made you decide to do an album purely of NWoBHM covers?
Neudi
- First
let me say that doing an album was not our plan first. Roxxcalibur
was formed to play live. We have a “real” program for the
insider (with songs similar to those on our CD) and a more commercial
program if we are booked to fill a whole evening (still just NWOBHM, but
with some more Maiden, Saxon etc.). Our plan was to record some
songs for a CDR for our booking agency to work with. But even
before we played live, Limb from Limb Music Products told us, that if we
are ready he wants to offer a contract and do a CD with us. We
took it “semi-serious” back then but he went on talking about his
plans. When we played Headbangers Open Air along with Praying
Mantis and Sweet Savage in summer 2008, things got concrete and we
signed the deal in fall 2008. We went to Black Solaris studio to
record the CD which is finally out now.
Having
just NWOBHM-Covers on the album is a part of the main idea behind NWOBHM.
We take it very serious and would never play Judas Priest, Budgie or Motörhead,
even we all love these bands. Also we never would cover British
songs after 1985. On CD we have an additional rule: No songs of
the “big three” (Maiden, Leppard, Saxon) and no songs that were
already covered (and released!) by Metallica. It´s different when
we play live, but on CD we want to re-live those songs, that remained
unknown to the majority of today´s metal fans or that have been
forgotten in time.
MM - Of all the bands from that particular musical era, do you have any
personal favourites?
Neudi -
It´s
different. I know that both guitar player prefer the more rough and fast
stuff like Savage or Raven, while our bass player really enjoys the more
punk n´ rock bands like Girlschool or Vardis. Alexx of course loves the
bands with the great singers like Grim Reaper/Chateaux for example,
while I like those bands who still have a little 70's feeling left in
their style (Bleak House, Oxym, Jameson Raid etc.).
MM
- Will there
be a second and a third album and if so then what can we expect from
them?
Neudi
- Of
course it depends on the success of our first album. To some people we
are just a cover band as long as they haven´t heard the album.
Some expect not a band but a project. But as we have chosen so
many unknown songs you don´t feel like listening to tribute-band.
This argument doesn´t mean that we are not proud of what we do!!
We
have a long list for the next CD s and we will definitely go on the way
we did on NWOHM For Muthas.
MM
- If
you could put together a super-group from that era who would be in it
and why?
Neudi -
That´s
a hard question after we played with so many great singers and musicians
at the Keep It True Festival on April 25th.
Regarding
all the vocalists this was a kind of supergroup (Enid Williams, Dave
Hill, Brian Ross, Jess Cox, Terry Dark and many more).
As
we are in contact with so many original bands and they probably read
this interview, I don´t want to form this virtual group now *lol*.
I´d rather would like to set up two day festival with a superstar-like
line-up.
Headliner
should be a REAL Iron Maiden reunion with Paul DiAnno (unfortunately
Clive Burr wouldn´t be able to play, very very sad!) playing the first
two records and those Number of the Beast songs, they rehearsed with
Paul. Maybe Paul Mario Day could sing a song too.
MM - How
has the album been received by the rock media in general?
Neudi - It´s
very hard to speak of “In general” here. When we get reviews
in magazines that are around for years (like Heavy or Rock Hard here in
Germany) we have excellent reviews. These guys exactly understand
what we do and love the CD. It is a bit different with those mags
or onliners who have very young journalists. When I read “they
should have added a song from Judas Priest” then we know that haven´t
understand us and the CD at all. Even though these guys wrote
positive reviews as they like the music. So all in all we are very happy
with the press feedback so far!
MM
-
When
recording the album how important was it to remain try to the spirit of
NWoBHM?
Neudi - It
was nearly as important as the songs and our playing itself! Of course
we didn´t wanted to have a product sounding like 4-hour-recording in a
small studio from 1979. We could have done this in our rehearsal
room then *lol*. We recorded the basics (drums, bass and one
rhythm guitar) live, some songs even without a click track. The
rest of the recordings went quite usual then. We recorded in a
modern studio which showed in the first version of the end-mix. It
was absolutely great, fat and powerful.
Many
bands would die to have such a great sound on their CD but it wasn´t
fitting to Roxxcalibur. So we listened to many of the really good 80s
records like Powerslave or British Steel and analyzed what is different
to now-a-day´s productions. We found many small and bigger details like
the volume of the guitars in the mix or that the snare was the leading
part of the drum-set back in the early eighties (it is for sure the bass
drum these days). We then did a second mix and finally we are happy with
the result.
MM -
What
do you think it is about the whole NWoBHM scene that is different from
all the other Heavy metal styles?
Neudi - First
that it is no style at all! It was a movement and contained the
very beginning of the sub-styles we know today. From Black Metal
or Occult Metal (Venom, Witchfynde) over Speed Metal (Raven) over Doom
Metal (Witchfinder General) to Prog-Metal (Shiva) and Glam (Wrathchild).
Of course most bands were in the range of classic Hardrock and Heavy
Metal. So if you own a lot of NWOBHM records or CD s you can
fulfill all your musical wishes without leaving the British scene from
these days. In these six or seven years you can hear the
development of a whole scene. Of course the 70's bands like
Sabbath and Zeppelin were important and not to forget the punk scene of
the 70s, but real metal was created by many British bands between 78 and
85.
What
I personally love is that many small bands never had the budget to
record commercial records. This maybe sounds weird to many people,
but I like listening to hardrock/metal in that way. There are many
bands I just like in the beginning of their career like Jaguar. I
never liked “This time”, their second album (even they are great
again these days!!). Even the labels and their studios had
“their” sound. You don´t need to know the band to be able to
know if it is (was) a Neat band, a Guardian Records band (yes, the flat
snare-drum all the time) or a Ebony Records band (yes, that guitar
sound). Everything was kind of unique, no matter if the band
played hardrock or speed metal.
Owning
a collection of LP s and 7" Singles means that you have a part of
metal history at home. If you add some of the great NWOBHM-books
(Hello Malc!), and use the internet for even more information, then the
NWOBHM can be a kind of obsession...
MM
-
When
you were putting the album together, how hard was it to pick out the
songs you did for the album and were there any arguments amongst the
band as to which tracks were included?
Neudi - Ok,
I already talked about the songs we have excluded for any CD we will do.
Choosing the songs was easy: 5 musicians who are still fans (we are
between 32 and 42 years old) sitting in front of the stereo listening to
records and rate the songs in a list. Some special wishes were
included too of course. This is how the first 90 minutes of our live set
came together. 13 of the songs are now on our CD. The last
song we did for the CD was Lady of Mars by Dark Star as we got so many
requests from fans.
MM
- Are
Roxxcalibur a live touring band and will you be on the road soon?
If yes then when can we expect a live show?
Neudi - As
I mentioned before we currently can´t say what will happen with the CD
but of course we want to go out on the road. There are many festivals
that are interested in Roxxcalibur now after the CD is out and our gig
at the Keep It True Festival. Due to our contacts a package with two or
three original NWOBHM-bands and us would be possible...so let´s see:)
MM
- If
you could go back in time and see any of the bands from NWoBHM scene
perform live, which would you choose?
Neudi -
As
a 9 year old kid I saw Iron Maiden supporting KISS. It was their
first tour with Paul and Dennis in Germany. I am so thankful that
my father took me there!! During the last few years I was really
happy to see some great bands reunited again (Hollow Ground, Sweet
Savage, Cloven Hoof etc.). So I think I have to name some really
obscure bands now: Sparta, Bleak House, Jameson Raid, Oxym, Legend
(both!), Warrior (those on Neat Records), Aragorn, Shiva, JJ´s
Powerhouse, Trident, Taurus, Badge, Limelight....too many to mention
here:)
MM
-
What bands influenced the band members as young
musicians?
Neudi - We
grew up with NWOBHM and US-Metal the same. So of course Iron
Maiden and early Metallica were important for us all. Most of us
(except Alexx who started with bands like Manowar or Helloween as he is
younger than us and Mario who still loves punk and hardcore too) went
straight to speed and thrash in the late eighties but like so often you
need to get a lil' older to go back to the roots...
MM
- What
does the future hold for Roxxcalibur and how will this work alongside
your other primary bands?
Neudi - Times
have changed and so all this is possible. Back in the eighties it
would have been a problem playing in two recording bands. There
were more tours and single gigs, you had to record more often as vinyl's
had a shorter running time and of course sales were much better then.
Both Viron and Abandoned can be named successful but these days it means
that you play a tour and a “ok” amount of single gigs.
CD-sales are still good but not enough that it results in excessive
gigging. So we have enough time for two bands and really enjoy both.
MM - Finally
is there anything you would like to say to our readers about Roxxcalibur
and it's music?
Neudi - I
think Roxxcalibur is something for two worlds. The one is the world of
insider and NWOBHM-fans who may love what we do. The second one is the
world of metal fans who don´t care where a band comes from and maybe
are not too deep into all the details - those who simply enjoy good
metal music or are into the 80s stuff in general.
And
those who always say “everything was better back in the eighties”
can now prove that they really mean it by buying our CD *lol*.
Thanks
for the interview and sorry for my horrible English. We are just 5
bluddy Krauts:)
MM
-
We'd like to thank Neudi
for taking the time out to take part in this interview with us and wish
him and the band every success with the album and the future. It's
good to see the whole NWoBHM movment has not been lost in the midst of
time and can still be enjoyed by rock and metal fans of all ages.
If you're not familiar with the whole NWoBHM movement then check out
Roxxcalibur's album as it's a perfect place to start that journey. |