Intervju - Doro Pesch Doro Pesch firade nyligen 25 år som artist med stort holabalo i hemstaden Düsseldorf. Dessutom är hon rykande aktuell med ett nytt album, "Fear no evil". Jag har tidigare intervjuat den lilla tyskan, men den intervjun blev tyvärr aldrig utskriven, mest pga att inspelningsutrustningen krånglade, samt att jag helt enkelt glömt bort intervjutiden och blev smått överraskad när hon ringde upp mig i nya lägenheten som jag och frun just höll på att måla om. Nu, några år senare, möter jag Doro på Soundpollutions kontor i Gamla stan och den är en pratglad sångerska som tar emot. I nästan viskande ton och med en stor halsduk, pratar hon på utan stopp. Det blev en trevlig stund med en av Tysklands stora hårdrocksstjärnor och snack om bl a gamla tider, hennes 25-årsjubileum och spelningar i Kina. What´s it like celebrating 25 years? Doro Pesch: Oh man, I tell you... I can´t beleive it. Time flew by. I still remember when I had my first band and times went so quickly. I definitely have great memories and I never thought it would get this exciting. We just celebrated my 25 th anniversary in my home town, in Düsseldorf, Germany and we had many guests and many guesta from the past and the 80´s. And actually one of the highlights, we did like a little reunion with my old Warlock band members and sometimes I turned around and looked at my drummer and remembering that he joined the band when he was like 15 and now he´s a grown man and his daughter is now 15. It was so amazing! I guess things turned out better than you thought when you started out? Doro: You know, when we started out we just wanted to do music. Actually, when I had my first band, the word heavy metal wasn´t even around. At least we didn´t know about it and there weren´t any magazines and then a couple of years later came the first fanzines. A couple of fans were always listening when we were rehearsing and some people said "Are you a heavy metal band?" and we said "Yeah, sounds cool!". I think we were really lucky to be at the right time and the right place and to me, metal always meant freedom. To do whatever you feel like with full power and energy. I love hardcore stuff and diehard stuff, but I love anthems and very melodic stuff, so it always meant freedom. I always tried to do my best and I didn´t think that we would survive that long. After we did the second album, "Hellbound"... it was so difficult to make and it took about a year and it was really painful and I was so exhausted I said I would never ever do a record again in my life and now it´s record number 17. I guess what doesn´t kill you makes you harder. What was it from the beginning that turned you on to metal? Were there any special records you bought or discovered when you were younger? What really got you into the metal scene? Doro: I remember my first concert was Whitesnake in 1980 and it was amazing. David Coverdale was a god. He was so good! Then I thought that every concert would be like that but they weren´t. Next band I saw, I was still working and the only one with a car so I always had to pick up everybody and we were running late... I was a big Judas Priest fan and I had a Priest record at home, but back then there weren´t any magazines... so we walked into the concert and everybody was freaking out and it was great and the I turned to my guitar player and said "It´s so unbelievable! I´m so blown away!" and he said "Hey, that´s not Priest!". I said "Really!", and it was Accept. They were like mind blowing and then came Priest and that was unbelievanle too, but then I became an Accept fan too. I remember we had the first record out "Burning the witches" and it had been out for just 2 or 3 weeks and some promoter asked us if we wnated to play and it was either Belgium or Holland and I don´t remember the club, but I remember the venue and it was pretty nice, maybe a couple of hundred people. He said "Well, there´s another band playing and I think you guys would fit with them. Do you want to play?" We said "Yeah!" and he said "The other band is from America and they´re brand new.". So we did the gig and it was great and there was so much energy and it was crazy and stagediving going on. After we played we said "Let´s check out the other band!". Some people said they were from San Francisco and they just had first their record out and it was Metallica! So I became a total Metallica fan and the beginning of metal was super exciting. And yeah... we had our first record out and we signed to Mausoleum Records in Belgium and to be honest, it was just because they had the coolest logo. That was the way to go. We had no idea and we just wanted to make music. We didn´t know anything about the business aspects and we didn´t care. We just thought "Cool, we´re doing a record!". Then the record became very successful and we were totally surprised. W had no idea that so many people knew about the band and it was getting more and more exciting and then we got picked up by another label, Polygram, and then some people said that we could play the legendary Monsters of Rock festival. It was in 86 and a great line-up with Ozzy, Scorpions, Motörhead, Def Leppard, Michael Schenker and us. Then we got on the Judas Priest tour in 86 and it was the first time I came to Sweden. It was like a dream come true and then I quit my job, when we got the Priest tour. Yeah, I think I read about that in this great book "Heavy metal painkillers" by Martin Popoff. Doro: Yeah, it was unbelievable! Did you learn anything from that experience? Touring with a band like Judas Priest, who at that time were massive? Doro: We learned that... we got treated so good and I remember on the last show... I think it was in Scandinavia and I think Sweden was the second to last and Helsinki was the last show and it was like a surprise when we played "Burning witches", all the pyros went off and it was like their gift to the support band. I thought, if I ever have a support band, I will treat them as good. I must say that I had a great chance to learn from the best. I leraned a lot especially from my old heroes. Then the next tour was with Ronnie James Dio and I learned to always be professional and always give it your all. I saw Dio half a year ago and it was exactly the same as in ´87. His voice sounded unbelievable and he still gives a 120 percent every day and every gig. Everybody knows how hard it is so sometimes you just have to work harder to survive. People who were doing it back then are still doing it. I learned a lot and I remember Gene Simmons, when he was working with us in 1990, and he was a very very good producer. He was so caring and he said "I not only want you to make a great record, I want you to learn some stuff!" and I wrote my first blues and gave it to Gene to check it out and he said "Hey, do you know about the blues?" and I said "No, not really!" and he said "Ok, we´ll change that!" and the next day I had the whole blues collection and he got me every album and then he went"Let´s check out some really cool blues!" and we went out to little bars and we saw Dr John, so he really taught me a lot. I gotta ask you. One of the first metal shows I saw on TV was from Westfalenhalle in Dortmund in 83. Did you attend that one? Doro: Was it "Rockop in concert"? I don´t remember the name, but it was Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot and so on. Doro: Yeah, I think it was "Rockpop in concert". Were you there? Doro: No. Was it 83? I think it was 83 or 84. That was like one of the major things for me when it came to heavy metal. They showed it on Swedish TV and back then it was really rare. We had two channels and showing heavy metal on TV was not a common thing. Doro: No, I don´t even know if it was shown on German TV. When I grew up there was a show called "Rock palast" and they always had like 6 or 7 bands and my parents always said "What are you watching? You have to go to school!". And I loved music since I was three years old and it wasn´t metal back then. The first song I really remember was Little Richard´s "Lucille" and I was just old enough to... my parents were like really pissed, because the only thing I wanted to do was listening to music and especially that song and nothing else mattered, so they were a little bit worried. (laughs). Then I grew up with glam rock. Yeah, I read that your first album was T-Rex! Doro: Yeah! I remember we were on vacation and it was one of my last vacations with my parents. I think I was 8 or 9 years old and then Marc Bolan died and I heard it on the radio and the whole vacation was ruined. I was crying the whole 2 weeks and my parents tried to go to a nice lake where kids cold play. (laughs). Music was always more important than anything else. Then later on it of course turned into metal. Same for me. The new album then? Has it gotten easier putting an album together or harder? Do you ever get writer´s block? Doro: It´s always like... after one and a half year on tour and then go back into the studio to do a new record, it´s always exciting. Every record was always painful to make, always! There was one simple record and that was the live record, because everything was done already. The songs were written and we just had to perform and we had a great engineer to mix it. That was the only easy record to make. All the others were painful because you go through phases and certain things go really quick and then the recording sucks or the mixing sucks. It´s always something, so when it´s all done and out it´s so great. It´s always a process and you have ups and downs. There´s no easy way. There was only one record where I wanted to do it a little different and it was the "True steel" album. We were pushed by all kinds of channels, like the record company, the agency, the producer... everybody wanted to push Warlock into a little more commercial direction and to make it sound more pop. That was the only time when I really sang the record under tears. They had another guy who wanted to touch up the lyrics. At first I said ok, because we couldn´t speak English that well. Somebody said "We´ll get someone to help you with the lyrics.". I said "Ok! But just touching up.". They said "Ok!" and then I met the guy and he said that they´d already worked on the songs and he said "Check it out!" and I said "What do you mean?". He said "Yeah, and we wrote the lyrics and...", and I just (opens mouth). (laughs) One special song, I think it was "Heaven´s like hellfire", one of my favorite songs on the album and he said "Yeah, I´ve got a much better title and the record company loves it!". And I was like "You´ve already talked to the record company? That´s not cool!". He said "Yeah, yeah, it´s the greatest song and now it´s called "Igloo on the moon" and I thought "What the fuck!" (laughs) It´s a Spinal Tap title! Doro. Yeah and I said "That´s not metal man!" and then we got into an argument. He said "Go back to the hotel and let me do a little thing and then come back and check it out!". I came back and everything was rewritten and already ok´d by the record company and that I must say is totally different in these days. The bands and the artists have so much more freedom. Back in the 80´s, the big record companies had tons of people working there and they all had different ideas and everybody wanted to have a hit of course and more pop and then I had lyrics that I didn´t like, but then I had to sing them anyway. That was the only record that I really thought... I never ever wanted to make these compromises again. We went on tour and nobody in the band wanted to play the new record. (laughs) But you live and learn. When you´re thinking of the title for a record, do you come up with like 10 different ideas and then choose from them or did this one just come to you just like that? Doro: With "Fear no evil", I sang the "Night of the warlock" song and there´s this one line that goes "Don´t fear no evil tonight, night is the night... night of the warlock." and when I sang "Fear no evil", it felt a little bit deeper than the other words and I thought "Maybe that's a good song title?". I wrote it down and first it was called "Don´t fear no evil" and then I changed it and I wanted something positive but still metal. So the title stuck, but we had many many other titles and then I talked to Geoffrey Gillespie, who painted the album cover and he wrote some titles and I wrote back and then he painted the album cover. When I was singing it, somehow it talked to me. Sometimes I change the title in the last two days when it´s just about to go to printing, so sometimes I can drive people crazy. The single "Herzblut", you also recorded it in French, Spanish and Portuguese. What was the reason behind that? Is that just for reaching out different markets? Doro: I did a couple of singles in different languages and now when I´m in Sweden I definitely want to sing "Herzblut" in Swedish when we´re on tour, but the record company said "Do four versions, that's enough." and a maxi single just has so much time. I did a Spanish version of "Let love rain on me" and a French version of another and people said "Hey, you were just in South America!" and lucky enough some people could help me. Then I was in Hamburg, working with Andreas Bruhn the ex guitar player of Sisters of Mercy and I asked him about it "You know, Herzblut would be nice to have in a different languages." and he said "Yeah, here´s another singer and she's Portuguese!". So she came to the studio and translated it, so it's not possible without help. But it has to feel good and sound good. In some languages it doesn't sound good. We have a couple of songs in German, but not every song would sound good in German. English always works, but "Herzblut" is not in English. I tried it, but it didn't mean as much. Some people asked me about the song "Immer" and why it's just in German. It has some parts in English, but people ask "Why didn't you translate it to English?" and I said that immer and forever isn't the same. Forever is a bit superficial, but immer means more for me. Do you speak any French, Portuguese or Spanish? Doro: No, Portuguese is very difficult I must say. But we are often in Spain and since we've toured there so much... You can order a beer. Doro: (laughs) Yeah, yeah and French I had in school, but I definitely want to learn it. Cool! What was it like playing in China? It was your first time, right? Have you tried playing there before? Doro: Actually, someone first asked us if we wanted to play there in 2009 and then it came up like "You guys wanna play now (2008)?". I had preperations to do for the 25 th anniversary and there was so much stuff to do. The last couple of weeks were extremeley rough and then they said "Well, you can go to China three weeks before the concert." and I said "Oh man, I don't know!". Then we thought it might be the last chance so we thought "Ok, let's do it!". I had to send them all the lyrics and the records. There is some heavy censorship going on. The German embassy took care of it, but my band members, one is Italian and the others are American so they were a little bit disturbed about it. They had to go and fill out more and more papers, but in the end we got it. We played two gigs and it was really amazing. One was in Beijing and one was in Guangzhou, which was in the south and it was really hot and it was like 15 000 people there. We're lucky that we have it all on film. There was a tv-crew and we definitely want to put it on the dvd along with the 25th anniversary. I don't know when it will be out. We have like three hours and twenty minutes and we really want to put a little China special on there. Were there any lyrics that they didn't approve? Was it all ok´d or...? Doro: I had to make the setlist before it and then I just sent in the songs which I thought would be ok, but live we played everything and then I asked the promoter "Do you think I can add a couple of more songs?" and he said "Man, you will get me into deep trouble, but just do as you please!". They were very well prepared and there were big screens and they translated every lyric and at the end they sang a little bit of German. At first when I was listening to it I went "That sounds a bit like German, but it can't be.". Then I watched it on dvd and they had actually learned some German. It was awesome and one of the best experiences. We're going back there in June, I think. So when are you coming back to Sweden then? Doro: We want to start the tour in April and I heard we may be playing Sweden Rock Festival. Not this year, but the next one. We played there two years ago. We're definitely playing Wacken and I want to bring the whole show, not all the guests ans people, but the whole show from the 25th anniversary. And we're playing some other festivals too. But we're coming back here. We have made so many friends here like Crucified Barbara and Fatal Smile. Did you hear about the singer in Fatal Smile, that his house burned down? Doro: Oh, Thomas´ house! That´s terrible. I think I saw some pictures actually. Same thing as Biff Byford. Yeah! I actually talked to him recently and he´s moving back to England apparently. Doro: Oh, really. Shit happens in life. You live and learn. You do. Thank you so much! Good talking to you. Doro: Thank you!
|
|