ROCKNATION ISSUE 21
“Never Say Never” - It’s a song, a ballad – and not very metal
indeed :) - about God or you loved ones or anyone that helps
you out when you’re down. As simple as that.
“Metalheads”- And that is metal. Straight in your face
message for the Metalheads to show how many of us there
are and that we ain’t dead yet.
ROCKNATION: You enlisted Alessandro Del Vecchio an Italian
producer and composer for artists like Glenn Hughes. He is
also a musician known from acts like Edge of Forever,
Voodoo Circle and Hardline. How did that all come about?
Scream Maker: It’s a nice story. We were searching for
support opportunities in Poland. Opening for the greatest
is the best way a band can reach the right audience. I heard
that Hardline was reactivated so I wrote to their management:
guys, are you planning to visit Poland? Guess, who wrote
me back. Ale! He was the man behind the reactivation. We
spoke via Facebook and he told me about his activities as a
composer, a musician but also as a sound engineer. And he
appeared to be the guy we were searching for sound production of our new album. Finally we hired him. Ale is maximally
professional in all he does and along with that he is the most
down-to-earth and no-problem guy in the business I ever met.
I have a very explosive personality, but he is the guy who
literally never has given me the reason to be upset. Why?
First of all, he is very empathic and open, he’s always smiling
and joking and the second – he just loves what he does so
he never screws things up. I hate people who don’t love what
they do, because they destroy their own lives and the lives
of others who have contact with them. Ale is not that kind of
person. He’s just great! And by the way - he’s gonna appear
at the Dio memorial as a guest vocalist we are organizing in
Poland in May. Can’t wait to meet him again.
ROCKNATION: You had Mr Rosław Szaybo a legendary
artist who designed CD covers for many artist including
Judas Priest “British Steel” cover. On working on your CD
cover please tell us how you worked with him on the design.
Scream Maker: Let me begin with saying that Mr. Szaybo is a
legend that was out of our reach back in a day. At least that
was what we thought.
“No, he won’t desing
an artwork for us. He’s
too big. He drank wine
with Frank Sinatra…”.
But we decided on trying to get in touch with
him. He listened to our
music and immediately
agreed on cooperation with us. He wanted
to know all about the
band, the music and the
album itself to be
inspired for his work.
He was 100% free with
his artistic creation.
After three months I
guess he showed us six
different versions of the
PAGE 3
artwork and we chose
the one with the screw
piercing the head. He
explained that this is
how he understood the
tile “Livin’ in the Past”.
The past is something
that has stuck in your
head and you can’t
get rid of it and it frets
harder and harder into
you. For us the artwork
itself is like taken from
the Past, from the ‘80
to be precise. And this
is the period in music
history we love.
ROCKNATION: You
live in Poland. What is
the music scene like
there?
Scream Maker: The
mainstream market is
like everywhere – nonmetal :) But we have
a strong underground
with all sorts all music.
Sadly, traditional heavy
metal is not a genre with a great representation here. We have
only a few of heavy/power metal bands. Nevertheless recent
years were the time of rebirth of the heavy metal scene in Poland.
If 5 years ago we had three significant heavy metal bands, now
this number is reaching 10 (and I am not talking about
completely new names, but the established ones). People are a
little tired by the mainstream music and also by the extreme
metal (which was quite popular here, Behemot or Vader are of
Polish origin) and are searching for something more subtle.
Actually we had like 50 years of real socialism here, the music
was supposed to convey hidden anti-state messages, so even
rock was an intellectual and social rather that a musical
phenomenon. When US had Bon Jovi we had rebellious punk
bands or soft rockers. Of course there are some music brands
from the period worth mentioning. Check out pop-rock band
Bajm. It’s a Eastern European Van Halen with a female singer!
ROCKNATION: Please name some bands you have appeared with
in Poland.
Scream Maker: One of the best experiences was opening for
Tim “Ripper” Owens, ex-singer of Judas Priest. He was celebrating his birthday that day and we presented him a gift – a special
edition of Jack Daniels whiskey with Tim’s name on the label. He
seemed to be very happy, haha.. Other bands we played with…
so many of them… We played I guess 5 shows with Turbo, polish
metal and rock legend. We have much respect for that band both
for the music and for the members. Wojtek Hoffmann, the
founder and brain of the band, who happen to be a great
guitarist, played a guest solo in “Glory for the Fools”. He shreds
like crazy there :) In march we played with Primal Fear and Blaze
Bayley, ex-vocalist of Iron Maiden. (Continued on page 4)