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.
|
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! |