David: Yes this is David Defeis calling from Virgin Steele for Ben.

David: How you doing?

David: No problem....no problem.

David: Thanks a lot man, thanks a lot!

David: You're right, it is definitely a different approach. If a fan has never heard those records they might be a bit puzzled but what I've been finding thus far is that it has been pretty positive, people are understanding what those albums, they are not new records, and since they were done in the early 80's and people are taking them for what they are which is how they should be taken instead of anything resembling who we are now. It is just a very preliminary sketch of what would come to be later you know?

David: Well, it was the 80's (laughs) That's when those records were made.

David: : (laughs) Yes but there were various genres of 80's metal. You know you had your hairspray kinda thing like Poison and Motley Crue but you also had bands like us, Metallica, and W.A.S.P. and other things as well so its just a broad term. But yes those records were made in the 80's. When we first began we had a path that was one foot in the epic barbaric romantic thing which we would develop much more later on and the other side of the coin was being from the U.S. We liked bands like Van Halen and we grew up listening to blues based bands like Led Zeppelin so far as influences remaining in the earlier efforts, and then the style just got more and more refined as I just clamped down on exploring what could be done from a compositional standpoint and I just gradually felt more comfortable going in that other direction.

David: Thanks, I'm glad to do things that the fans appreciate. I'm not the one to do things halfway if I'm going to revisit a work, I like to bring it up to date or bring more to it with today's vision, and bring it to you as what it could have or should have been initially so it feels special. If someone's going to re-buy an album there's definitely more value there. I believe in value for the dollar or Euro now I guess (laughs) for the fans because albums cost a lot of money.

David: Well I've been singing since before the first album was made. I was in my first band at eleven, I certainly can't remember how every facet of my voice was like at eleven years old, I'm sure it wasn't very good (laughs). Growing up under the shadow of the Zeppelin that flew over the USA you had to have a good range to sing that kind of music so I just worked on that by singing Zeppelin songs, Queen, Deep Purple and just refining what it is I do with it and I'm still on my quest, to do more and more things possible with the voice. My main motivation vocally was to be a human guitar. I wanted to sound like a guitar solo, an extended sustained guitar solo. I was very into Jimmy Page, this might sound strange, but him and Eddie Van Halen were very big influences on my singing.

David: : I understand the style you mean. All I can say is I open my mouth and I sing and I try to sing for the song , what the lyrics mean and what the song feels like to me, I just try to paint a picture and at the end of the day I hope its a good picture and I hope people will like it (laughs) that’s it man. I also come from a different background than the singers you were referring to, I come from a more of a blues background like Robert Plant and the people Robert Plant liked all those guys like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson that kind of thing so there's a lot more of a blues element to what I do as opposed to having more "traditional metal" roots.

David: Oh wait, we forgot about the bonus tracks! You wanna go back to them?

David: Ok, the bonus tracks for the first album were recorded during the sessions for the album such as Lothlorien but left off for whatever reason such as not enough room on the vinyl LP or maybe it was just too soft at that point in time to put out. The other tracks, those demos, were done between the finishing of the first album and before we started the second album and were done in a really cheap shitty studio in the back of a used car, Burn the Sun the early version, Life of Crime and The Lesson and that's about it for that record. The second record Guardians of the Flame, the bonus tracks are the EP we did in America called Wait for the Night and in Europe it was called A Cry in the Night. The other tracks are Blues Deluxe, a live track done in 1990, has Edward Pursino in the band and he had been with us for quite along time. I put that on there just as an example of Edward with the bands old rhythm section so yea, it was just goodnight, goodbye there it is.

David: Well, we're recording lots of shows. We have many shows in Europe on file and this particular place were gonna play this Saturday is a very good sounding room and we have a good relationship there. I actually go there and have drinks and stuff like that so it should be pretty easy and fun to capture a good live performance there so that's what I'm hoping for. If we get everything we need from that show then maybe that's the whole thing, if not then well be recording more and more shows along the way until we find one and go "Yea this is the one we want to put out" but were not rushing into it.

David: : Its semi-finalized but its not really finalized until the show is done, even if we go on stage with the setlist, sometimes we change it midstream. like "Ah I don't wanna do that one lets do this one", maybe I'll call something out that's not on the list or occasionally Edward will launch into a song that isn't on the list. There's a certain amount of freedom for improvisation in a live show, we do go on stage with a setlist, at least now we do, there were times when we didn't, we'd just wing it. Like I said though it can change quite a bit. That's from the old school from growing up with bands like Queen and Zeppelin or even later Guns N Roses where it could change midstream which keeps it interesting for us as well as the audience so you never know what might happen so if a fan comes and sees us several times on a tour, they hear different songs instead of the same exact set that some bands do nowadays, because you know that gets boring.

David: : I haven't seen them since oh... the Powerslave tour so I wouldn't know (laughs)

David: On the live album?

David: It's possible.

David: That's an interesting choice. Sometimes we do that occasionally so it's possible.

David: Dominion Day. We haven't done that live yet so who knows. Every year when it comes to doing a tour we rethink "What have we not ever played" and six months from now we might bring it out. Every song really has a chance of being played but if you name something that will for sure be played I'll let you know, keep going.

David: Thy Kingdom Come will most likely be there.

David: Chains of Fire...We haven't done that one since the early 90's.

David: : Yeah that's a good possibility.

David: We were doing that for a little while but we never quite tightened up a live version. We occasionally play it in rehearsal, that's one well be tackling next in our next cycle of songs so ehhh, maybe.

David: Vend Vidi Vici is a staple in most sets and we like to end with that. Time-wise, the song's over ten minutes long and live, its even longer. Unholy Water, Edward and I have been fooling around with an acoustic version of that. We've done several concerts acoustically he and I, just one acoustic guitar and my vocals. That's one of the things we've been toying around with and as it gets more tightened up you have a real good chance of seeing that one

David: I think so, yea were heading in that direction and the planets are starting to align and the Weeping of the Spirits is starting to crystallize in that shape or form (laughs) so yea I think that's possible.

David: We were in Texas in 19... Oh god last time we were in Texas was in 89 I think. We played in a place called On the Rocks in Dallas three or four days in a row.

David: (laughs) Well Texas is a big state man.

David: I Am the One was part of a medley for awhile with Angel of Light and a few other things. Occasionally we do that. Don't Say Goodbye Tonight is played pretty regularly. Redeemer and Guardians of the Flame we started playing again in the summer in Germany for the first time in years, what else? Conjuration of the Watcher is pretty much a staple now. Maybe we'll start doing Children of the Storm, Minuet in G Minor we do, I cant remember what the hell else is on there.... Oh a Cry in the Night we do fairly regularly. It's an acoustic version now. Yea more stuff might creep in. We change stuff up every few months or so "Lets try this one or lets try that one" and if it works then we keep it.

David: I think we always wanted to do one, we just were always in the midst of creating something new, making an album, touring constantly. Now that we have some time to actually reflect a bit, I thought instead of going forth with more material than what we already have, because we have so much material out already in the past five years alone with all the albums we've done ,so instead of making some more songs we'd have to stick into the live set , we decided to sit down and record a live album that encompasses at least this point in our career and go forward and maybe do another live album further down the road. I've always wanted to do one but not just a regular live album, I wanted to do a special live album. I'd really like to do 2-3 discs to fit everything in, the epic side, the more straight-ahead things in, and some of the acoustic things we do in, just a really well rounded record.

David: It's possible. If I have my way it'll happen. I'll prepare it if the record company will release it though that’s another question (laughs). But well see, there’s much more negotiations to go through on that account .

David: Yea I do have footage of that but to put out a release of the whole thing would only make sense in Germany because when they aren't singing in English ,they're speaking in German so it would have to be done totally in English to translate outside of Germany. I do have footage of that though and would like to include bits and pieces of it of what went on there so people could at least have an idea of it and maybe at some other point do a special filming of the work entirely in English and do a special filming of that for a DVD. I'm doing a third metal opera right now so maybe the DVD could include all three of them.

David: It's one of the things I'm working on right now. It's a big metal opera thing based on ancient Samarian myth about this woman named Lilith who is regarded as Adams first wife before Eve and it really concerns the schism between male / female divine principles for lack of a longer explanation.

David: To answer your first question, my inspiration comes from anywhere, basically living life you know? I'll be driving the car and get ideas, actually that's when I get alot of my ideas when I'm driving the car which is kinda dangerous but that's when most of them come. When the body is engaged in a physical activity, then the mind is free to wander and I get a lot of the starts of songs in that fashion. However I start on a song whichever way it comes, just jamming around or a lightning bolt to the head and you get an idea and many hours of sitting at the keyboard working things out, developing the song, trying different chord shapes, different arrangements, melodies, counter melodies and taping everything to a shitty little twenty dollar cassette recorder and listening to that and making final versions on that before going anywhere near the studio. It's alot of hours spent developing things using everything I possess, using every ounce of knowledge, every ounce of feeling just trying to stay true to whatever the original picture in my brain as to what the song should be until it's final conclusion and nurse them along until they are complete like a book with a beginning , middle, climax and an end. That kind of thing. That's the kind of framework all the songs go through basically.

To answer your second question, I'm not much for any kind of organized religion, I believe in a certain spirituality, I believe in nature, a certain force of the cosmos of the universe if you will. I think Christianity and many of the religions that are active today are based on much older pagan, so called "pagan", mystery religions. Jesus, the dying and resurrected god-man, that myth is an old ancient myth that dates back to Osiris and the Egyptians ten thousand years ago and Dionysus, it's all the same guy, it's all the same myth, it's just cloaked in different languages. Religion should celebrate the commonality, what they all have in common, instead of all the differences because the differences are all bullshit. They're all talking about the same stuff which was all derived from older sources.

David: I don't think we'll ever sound like the first two albums. There might be a track that sounds like On the Wings of the Night or something from later, but I don't think we'll ever sound like the first two albums again, the band is just a totally different animal.

David: You're right. You wouldn't be. I think living in the USA and growing up with all those records it made total sense to you. I think people in Europe who expected Noble Savage part II or Angel of Light part II again were a bit put off. For us when we did it, it just felt totally natural. I knew it wasn't epic, I knew it wasn't the Angel of Light or The Burning of Rome, but it was a kinda symphonic blues with I Dress in Black and Crown of Thorns. It had that kind of big pomposity to it but it was more bluesey, more earthy, more rock n roll , more sex rock if you will, so it wasn't a stretch at all because we grew up with that kind of music. It was what it was its a moment in time and I really like that album and there are a couple of things floating around still in that vein. I think what people should realize about Virgin Steele is that we are in love with making music and we don't conform to what someone's expectations of us are and once you start doing that is when you start going down. "Oh I should be making this kind of music instead of making music I want to make." Yea I could sit there and think " What do fans expect of Virgin Steele" and then think well which fans of what era? Just the current stuff, Marriage forward, or do I make another Noble Savage for the people who think that's the best album we've ever done? I cant think that way, I mean I could but it would be confining and I would hate the results of making music that way. I just have to make a record that I think is good and a progression to where we have been rather than being a slave to what people might expect. I've always said expect the unexpected and we've always done that. As long at the end of the day it's honest and it's a good attempt, I'll put it out. If it's contrived and complete bullshit then I'd have to say "Scrap that and start over."

David: : DRINK BLOOD AND GASOLINE!!! (laughs) On tour when the voice has to be used a lot yeah you gotta stay away from the party aspects, stay away from smokey places, cut down on all the drinking of wine or beer or scotch all that sort of thing and get proper rest, exercise fairly regularly, and when singing be aware of the voice and what shape its in, go up a step when you feel up to it and when you're not try and sing around it, warm up properly, do exercises to warm up the voice that sort of thing, have a good mix on stage and can hear yourself properly in such a way where you can feel comfortable to emote. There's a lot of shit that goes on in singing and it's really trial and error. I never had any proper training or whatnot but I was going for bringing something to that crunch situation where you got to deliver and keep it going. That's something every singer goes through, your night of darkness where you blow your voice out a few times and learn your lesson and go from there.

David: Yea its something around there.

David: I've had no training yea. My sister was an opera singer and I went to her vocal coach once or twice when I was sixteen years old but I wouldn't say that I had lessons like I had piano lessons which I went every week and learned to play the piano. I basically learned by doing, by being in bands, by losing my voice, by getting it back, by analyzing other singers, "what are they doing, what's happening, how's this guy using his voice, what's going on here with this note, how's he doing that" and listening to female singers and what's going on there.

David: No problem. In sounding confident it just builds into the voice by combining a love for the material that you do and having good words to sing. You can come across as confident but as far as feeling confident on stage, that requires a bit more effort from knowing your instrument and experimenting with it. I spent lots of hours in my bedroom with the door closed with my Led Zeppelin records, Black Sabbath, Queen, Uriah Heep just whatever, trying to sing the songs and often failing then going back and saying "Oh now I see what's going on here." For years and years I wasn't aware of the head voice, what people call the falsetto. When I was fifteen or sixteen years old my natural chest voice was pretty high then anyway, I'd hear Robert Plant do certain things and I'd be really pushing to hit those notes and I'd think to myself "Wait a minute there has to be an easier way" and I discovered the other part of the range and then started working that and learning not to overblow the chest voice so you wouldn't lose the head voice. There's all kinds of parameters you just have to experience through the act of singing with a band and writing songs and so forth. The only other way to do that to shorten that time is to go to a good vocal coach, trust him and explore the voice. I never did that for better or for worse at this stage of the game I am what I am (laughs).

David: : I think that the scene in Europe is quite strong on the Power Metal and the Black Metal and some of the Death metal. The scene is pretty vibrant and strong with a lot of festivals and venues to play. That particular scene is slowly starting to creep into certain pockets of the states which is good. Whether or not it will overtake the other thing that people call metal here with bands like P.O.D. or whatever I don’t know. Its really worlds apart, even though its only an ocean apart but it's a really different mindset not necessarily the fans but in the way the corporate structure of the record company works for them to give that kind of music the European style, what we do, more of the time of day, this I don’t know. It's slowly happening but whether it will blow up again really big like it happened in the 80's, I don't know. Maybe that's what part of what keeps metal, this kind of metal, strong, keeps it a constant act of pushing against the grain and sometimes make you stronger that kind of thing, and makes you more determined each year to keep going on. At the end of the day maybe its ok.

David: Yeah that can happen and I think is happening right now to a certain extent. Like I said, I think metal will grow bigger but maybe not as much as say Judas Priest in the You've Got Another Thing Coming days, or if you're ever gonna see it on VH1 or MTV, who knows stranger things have happened and things do go in cycles so maybe the pendulum will swing around again and you'll see Virgin Steele on Behind the Music. (laughs).

David: For the future...Lots of stuff actually. Like I said earlier, there's this metal opera Lilith thing. There will be another record which will be completely different than most Virgin Steele records. I'm actually working on both of them at once, and it's still a little fuzzy in my mind, because I go back and forth "Oh I'll use this for this record and this for that record" so it's not quite that organized but in my brain. I have a concept of the other Virgin Steele record which will be quite interesting and I think you'll be surprised at that. Of course there’s the live album, which may come before any thing, then maybe it won't, I don't really know what we'll put out first. There will be a DVD, tons of more touring, we have tons of dates we're lining up, hopefully many more years of making records with maybe the occasional off-shoot side project there’s just no end. I've also started putting together my own home studio so there'll be a lot more we can do. I've already done the initial arranging of all the gear and have the basic setup going so over the next couple weeks we'll actually finish the tracking of what will be the next studio album.

David: Hello Metal Reviews readers!!! Yes, I will say thanks for your support, your beliefs, your faith in what we are doing here in Virgin Steele. We hope we can always live up to your expectations and we intend to go forth into the new century with POWER, with mystery and the SWORD OF THE GODS!!!!!

David: Thank you sir, I've enjoyed it!

David: Ciao!