MR: Thanks for your call, David. Your last album "Sonic Dynamite" has been elected album of the month for April on metalreviews.com (90/100).
David : Fantastic ! Thanks.
MR - Your album is great andit deserves it. With "Electrified" and "Sonic Dynamite", Pink Cream 69 seems to have digested the departure of Andi Deris.
David : Yeah, I think so. Of course, it was difficult for the fans to accept it at the beginning - the fact that he left - I joined the band and it changed. It didn't help things, but I agree that with our two last albums, people (fans) have accepted me now. No doubt about it.
MR - How were the sales of your last album "Electrified" ?
David : I am not sure about the numbers, but this album was a fresh start for the band, we have also been touring in Japan and Brazil with the previous album....so a 'good start', open new doors again.
MR - Any pressure from your label for this new album ?
David : We "changed" to Massacre. We made the record (they didn't hear the demo) and they basically signed us.
MR - PC69 is playing melodic hard rock. We cannot say that this kind of music is in fashion compared to the "True Metal" wave, or the way it was at the end of the 80's ?
David : In a way it is true. If you look at the sales of the market, it is not so easy for this kind of music. But I am happy to see there is a scene for our type of music, traditional or what ever....even if we consider us to be a part of that....in some ways. But obviously, it has been difficult for the band.
Our last two records have "comforted" people. But I don't think this "wave" affects us so much : we are still playing the music we love and that's the most important thing
MR - What a multi-ethnic lineup ? You're English, the bassist is American, the guitarist is German and the drummer is Greek (MR : like uuuussssss !!!). There must be funny situations with all those different cultures...
David : Yeah.....and four languages I guess....but again, the most important thing is the music.
MR : Which has no language.
David : Yes.
MR : Dennis Ward has done a hell of job with the production again!
But why him and not somebody from the outside for the production ?
David : Someone else quite often brings their own ideas, concepts and stuff which is great, but they're are also quiet often expensive, so ...they're not gonna do it for free and also Dennis does a great job. So why not ? He knows exactly what we are looking for and it is also a team effort.
MR : One thing that impressed me on "Sonic Dynamite" is this "plug and play" music.
We can almost feel thst it has been great fun recording this one !
David : In the past we were doing demos and killing ourselves in the practice room, but I think for this one we wanted something fresh. We had worked about two weeks (practice) before entering the studio. It was lot more fun, as you said, we didn't go crazy about small parts. If we had something to change, we just changed it.
MR : Can you tell us more about the lyrics for "Sea Of Madness".
Is it a message for the new generation ?
David : That's a good question. I should say yes...in a kind of way : scared about the world, every day you have those new technologies and the basic of madness out there... and we are part of this madness. It's more and more difficult to stay in one piece, to stay cool with all that crazy stuff that's going on these days in the news. Basically : "there is a way, you will find a way to be able to get through it.
MR : Which brings me to the next question: "Speed of light" is talking about the web and new technologies. Today technologies are changing "at the speed of light".
David : Yeah, here we are talking about being online (web) and the new world has been created out there. It is moving very fast and as human beings we thought it was a good concept for a song.
That's the "concept" of the record : sonic dynamite, sound, explosions and the power.
"Sonic Dynamite" song is talking about being on stage, the feeling to be on stage and playing music in front of people which has gone a little bit with all those boy-bands (laugh).
MR : A theme is also prevalent in "The Spirit" song...talking about the music in general.
David : Yeah. It is what made me start in the first place. The spirit goes on.
MR : The art-cover, the booklet and especially the digipack CD are really great.
Heavy metal packaging has really improved these past few years.
David : I think so. A lot of people said : "Wow, your work this time for the packaging is great.".
For us it is a way to find us in a CD shop. If it looks powerful it will interest people and they will may be check it out. If it just looks like...really boring or what ever, they will pass. We try to take every chance possible for the people to give it a listen.
MR : More than ever today with all those bands.
David : Of course. I am also going to the record shop to check out new stuff, new sounds and quite often I discover 10 new CDs or bands. You know better than me about the amount of stuff thats going on these days. You probably get a lot of CDs and have a wall full of CD's.
MR : What kind of music do you currently listen to ?
David : I listen to a lot of stuff...a lot of the 70's stuff. I am a big fan of that kind of time : Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple. And on todays stuff....hummm I am really lost in a way. I am going back in time these days when I'm buying a record.
MR : I agree. It looks that the best period of writing songs where the 70's, early 80's.
David : Yeah, and we are also not original ourselves. But, we have try to combine, especially on this record, the Pink Cream thing and what I brought to the band and try to be more modern in a certain way.
MR : You're gonna be one tour with Axxis (double headliners) and Balance of Power will open the shows. Difficult to find a better line-up these days for melodic hard rock fans !
David : I haven't had the time to listen to Balance of Power's last album, but yeah... it's gonna be a double headline tour. I am enthusiastic to go out on tour and we will prepare ourselves for this tour, and hopefully to go this year to Japan, Brazil and Holland.
MR : The double headline will be done only for Germany. Is that right ?
David : We wanted it especially in Germany when the record will be released, because this is our market basically. We wanted to get out there as soon as possible (just after the release of the album) and we will be at Wacken this year also.
MR : Hope to see you there...
David : You have to make yourself known out there. And if you write something else about our interview today, it will be the perfect place to tell you "Hey mother f....., what did you write on your website" (laughs).
MR : How do you plan this "double headline" tour ?
David : I am not sure. But I believe at this point...Axxis will finish the shows. Even though we will open for Axxis, it will be like...a festival. You know, we don't want to enter in "who is the most famous". I think it is more important for the fans : it is value for their money, it is three great bands. I hope we're gonna give pleasure to all those fans and be there each night and give the best of ourselves on stage.
MR : A last message for our readers and your fans?
David : It is great to be able these days to talk about metal on the web. It gives also more chance to unknown bands to be online, to be available, to be read and people don't have to run always after magazines (MR : we are receiving mails from metal fans in certain countries where metal mags and metal CD's are not available and where only the web allow them to listen, read about their bands). To all our fans, see you on tour.
MR : See you at Wacken, David.
David : Just wear a red rose and I'll know where you are (laugh)
MR : I'll try to find one of those.... Thanks again for this wonderful album and have a nice tour in Europe. Cheers.
David : Take care. Bye bye.
There are 0 comments on this interview. Last one on Fri Sep 17, 2004 6:38 am
View and Post comments