I N T E R V I E W

Interview Marc Storace Chris Von Rohr (face to face)

Hello guys. How are you? You are a Swiss band, but I was in the US in the 80s and you were bigger there than in your country. How did this happen initially?

It is because we had an American management which was more interested in having the band touring the USA and Canada mostly. And it was easier for them. But we always miss touring our home country Switzerland and of course the rest of Europe. Yeah Switzerland is a small country. And we have a big sound! In England and in America people were instantly interested into our band, and then later Switzerland.

You must be crazy, because in France we read a lot about folks moving to Swiss not the other way around

I understand why, Hollande is insane, socialistic bullshit, you know.

And today do you feel more Swiss or Americans?

Both, Switzerland is the country of our roots, but we come and go and America is our second home, musically speaking.

So the 1000 Swiss francs question is: which is the bigger Swiss band? Krokus or Gotthard?

Hahaha, let’s put it this way: Gotthard was very successful in the nineties and in the beginning of the years 2000 because we were taking a nap, we were sleeping! But Krokus is the most successful band of all the times because we were in America, in Canada and in England so you cannot compare, there are two levels, Gotthard‘s level and Krokus’ level. We are friends, everything is ok.

Just kidding, but I think you know the Gotthard guys right?

Yes, I have worked as their producer and songwriter for 12 years, when Steve Lee was still alive.

So did you come to Clisson with your family or just the band?

Oh no no, we are not a “family band”. Just the boys and the groupies! The chicks!

How does it feel after so many years to be invited to such a big festival?

Of course we are very happy that we can make the first step to become famous in France, we can play a lot here and it looks like the audience loved our show and we loved it too! The reactions were great. So hopefully the ice is broken, now the press and everybody knows us, maybe through this festival we were able to open the door to France. And maybe we will come back more often.

How was your set?

Too short! We couldn’t play a lot of songs, so we had to reduce the number of tracks. We played one hour.

It was pretty early in the day but did you get a decent audience?

Yeah.

How was the organization of the festival?

Everything was perfect: good time, good spot, good food, good stage, and brilliant people; we will come back for an evening show.

So do you prefer to perform at large events, such as the Hellfest, or for a longer time at smaller shows, when you are the headline act?

It is always better to be the headline act, everything gets better, the lights, the show… You can play more songs.

The Hellfest is a very eclectic audience, old, young, does it make things more complicated for you?

It is cool, we are the only band with this sound, there are some nu-metal bands, some speed metal bands, some trash metal bands, some bullshit metal bands…

I remember that you shared the stage with Def Leppard in the 80s, they were here last night, did you get a chance to meet them?

Well it was not a very good experience, because they play music for chicks, it's all synthesized and processed music and we don’t like it.

Hoodoo and Dirty Dynamite were very good albums, did they work well commercially?

Yeah, it worked great, we are really happy about that.

Probably not as much as Headhunter? Do you also feel the crisis?

Yes of course, the records sales are not are not as good as they used to be, that’s the way it is now, no one can escape the crisis.

Next year it will be 40 years of the band, any special celebration planned in 2014?

Yeah we are going to release a DVD.

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