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Interview
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #


Mike Terrana



I am interesting in playing, not in talking...



Prologue
Our interview with Mike Terrana about his project BEAUTY OF THE BEAT and many other matters concerning his great career.I
Mike Terrana
Hi Mike, would you be so kind to make some update on your recent activities? The news from the last month that you join Vision Divine band is really promising. How do you get in contact with these guys?

I’ve known Fabio Lione for almost 15 years. Fabio is the lead singer of Rhapsody and Fire and Labyrinth and Vision Divine and also for Angra, so I see him around when we’re on tour and we did a show in Israel last year – heavy metal show, we both live in Toscana, Italy – so we met at the airport and we were just talking on the way there and on the way back. Fabio contacted me maybe three months ago and asked me if I wanted to join Vision Devine. That’s what happened. I’ve just known Fabio for a long time. I’m doing my first shows with Vision Devine next week actually, July 16th-17th.

Another news came this year are about “Tip’s Included” project with some Italian musicians. What kind of music are you playing?

Ok, that’s some instrumental fusion music, and that’s one is of my friend and a guitar player – an Italian guy and his name is Marco Iacobini. We’ve made one record, we’re going to make another, and plus a tour in September, and I’ve been working with him for the past 5 years I think. It’s a fun music to play.

It won’t be an exaggeration to tell that you are the most popular rock drummer in Russia for the last decade. Starting from your extensive Russian tours with Rage first, later with Tarja band and several drum clinics here in Russia, do you feel something special about Russian audience? Do you keep in touch with any Russian drummers?

I love playing in Russia. I’ve been may times there with different tours, with different bands and with the last Tarja tour we were in Vladivostok and it was a great tour and the fans seemed to enjoy what I was doing. It was a great tour for me, I did a lot of drum solos there. Everything was fine and a lot of fun. I feel close to the Russian fans and I like to play for them, and I think they’re a great audience. They have a lot of energy, they<< like to go wild, and I have a VK page Mike Terrana – some people don’t believe it’s me, but it’s me (laughs) So if you want to talk to me in VK, you can, I answer most of the guys – for example yang drummers and stuff like that.

So you keep in touch with some Russian drummers, don’t you?

Yes, I keep in touch with a few guys. Last year I was in St.-Petersburg and I was a judge in the first drumming competition ever in Russia history. And there were really good drummers there. Yeah! It was a really nice show, a lot of great drummers coming out of Russia, It’s interesting to see that you know. When I grew up in America there was The Cold War, and I never thought I would see the inside of Russia, but now I have this opportunity and I’m even a judge in a drum competition. For me it was an honor, and it was very impressive and fun.

Do you often act as a judge in such competitions?

I don’t think drumming is a competition first of all. But it’s nice to young people to have this fair play, they win prizes and stuff like that. So it was fun to watch the drummers and I wasn’t really judging their technical ability, I was judging them in terms of performance in the audience, in the music and how musical they were. And most of the drummers were really great, and it’s not easy, it was a
Mike Terrana
long night, it was hard work to pay attention and watch everybody play, but it was important for the young drummers – they win prizes, they get some extra drums, and as you know drums are not cheap stuff and we break it. So some young drummers can win something and go on with their career, and it’s nice to watch it and be a part of it.

Last year you have parted ways with Tarja Turunen, a singer which you were working with since the beginning of her solo career. It was not clear from Tarja’s statement regarding your quit if you stop any mutual cooperation or it is just a brake – could you please share your vision?

Yes, it wasn’t clear for me either, but it’s not a break, it was a business conflict with Tarja’s management and myself … it’s over.

… And no mutual cooperation in the future is possible, is it?

I don’t think so.

What is the future of the project Beauty of the Beat?

Well… I will go on with this project, because initially the project was my idea and I named it. I’ve made a classical record called “Symphonic” (??). And at that point I was touring with Tarja and I mentioned to them, to her management, “Hey, it’s a great idea, be can combine forces. I can play classical music and Tarja can sing opera.” And they asked what we should call it, and I said, “Let’s call it Beauty of the Beat”. And that was it. That’s how it started. We did some really nice shows in Russia and in Poland. And I really enjoyed this mixture of classical music, rock and opera. It was a pleasure to work with Tarja, but I will go on now with this project, and I will do more different kind of a show, this kind of concept, but a bit more rock, not so much opera music.

Beauty of the Beat will still have the same concept as before, but it will be a bit heavier and rocking! I will play many new classical pieces on the drums along with the orchestra however when it comes to the vocal songs there will be more rock influences mixed with orchestration instead of the straight classic opera pieces. When I decided to start this project again I tried many different singers, from Europe, America and Russia, some famous and some where not so famous. After a few months I found this a singer by the name of Erika Bianchi in Italy. She is unknown, but she is very talented and beautiful. You will hear and see her soon ! ;) I could have made the choice to come out on stage with another equally Famous Diva Singer, but really whats the point, its already been done. Tarja, like many other female rock singers have inspired young women to have a singing career…There are so many talented people in the world and sadly, many of them never get a chance to be seen or heard. I think its nice to see and hear something fresh, its interesting, exciting and inspirational. Remember: Todays unknown artists …ARE TOMORROW STARS !

A bit earlier you have quit from Axel Rudi Pell band which you were a part of for almost 15 years. What kind of reasons were in this case?

I’ve been with Axel for about 15 years and during that time with Axel I played in many other bands – Rage, and tons of other projects and we always managed to work in my busy schedule and I was so busy with Tarja on the last tour – it was such an extensive tour – and Axel wanted to do his tour, and the dates were conflicting. So we decided to stop and another d
Mike Terrana
rummer took my place and I think it all was for the better for Axel and better for me.

I guess you aware that your ex-bandmates from Rage – Peavy and Victor – have parted their ways not long time ago. Did you have any conversation with them both recently? There were some rumors circulated that Peavy have proposed you to re-join Rage – was it true?

Yes, actually they did approach me maybe about a year and a half ago and they wanted me to do some shows with them at Wacken, and they wanted to use some tracks that I had recorded – there were some demos or left-over tracks. They wanted to release them on Nuclear Blast records. And I said, ‘Yes. Ok, what will you do for me?” They said, “Nothing”. And I said, “Wow!” (laughs) I said, “That sounds really professional! I wish you guys good luck. Carry on and thank you for your generous offer!” I didn’t quite understand what was going on. Actually they said a lot of bad things about me and it was funny that they called me up and asked me to play for them. It’s strange you know. I mean if you person farts in a music business, everyone smells it! (laughs) I know Victor has said a lot of bad things about me in SouthAmerica and in Russia.

I’ve never said anything bad, because basically it’s over, I don’t care, I don’t know why he is so fascinated about me (laughs). I think it’s funny. That they’re saying these bad things and then they call me and they ask me to play for them. I politely declined and wished them the best of luck and obviously they didn’t get much further together, and I don’t really know what happen.

We say that black PR is PR as well.

(laughs) yes, we can say that bad press is good press. They were saying a lot of things, like that I’m crazy. Yeah, I AM crazy, and I’m funny and I’m happy. I’m not angry. I left Rage because I just couldn’t work with them anymore. We were not cooperating together. And obviously THEY couldn’t cooperate together anymore as well after I left (laughs). Such things happen in the business you know. I’ve been doing it for 35 years, I’ve seen many things and many people come and go. And we have a saying in America “You see people two times in the music business and in the entertainment business – on their way up and on their way down. (laughs)
I just tried to go on and I’m interested in playing. I’m not so much interested in talking. I’m interested in performing and entertaining, I like watching people smile, for me that’s the joy and art of entertaining and music. I don’t see it as a competition and I don’t really understand all these interviews. I don’t know how many people read or listen to these things. I remember when I was a kid, in the 70-s, we had very few magazines, and very few journalistic coverage of bands like Judas Priest or AC/DC, we knew nothing about them, we only saw them on stage. And you know what – it’s better! (laughs) You know what I mean?

No backstage info!

Exactly! I think it’s really unnecessary, it’s too much information. I mean who cares what I like, or who cares what I do in my private time and what my opinions are. I don’t think this really matters. It’s very personal.

Yes I agree, but now with so much Internet everywhere it’s so difficult to keep private.

Yeah, but it’s too much. I mean really I have a lot of opinions, but I keep them to myself, because I’m
Mike Terrana
probably the only one who cares. (laughs) Why should I push my opinion to the people who don’t even know me? Why? It’s kind of waste of energy. For me What I can do is play music. I can reach to so many people, and I don’t need to say anything. And wether they know me or not, they like my performance, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my views, my life, politics.

That’s the beauty of music with transcends all cultural barriers. Politics is all bullshit. I’ve been all over the world and basically I see the same thing – people want to have fun, eat good food, drink some beers, listen to some music. People just want to relax. They work all week!
My job as a drummer is to entertain them, to take them away for two hours. Why should I feed them all of this bullshit that happens behind the scenes, I think that’s better to make good music and good entertainment. Frank Zappa once said, “Talking about music is like dancing to architecture.” And I believe it. I mean talk is cheap, everybody can talk. When you get on the stage, you play, you touch people, you make them happy, that’s all that really matters to me.

Let us go a bit through your past. There are 3 albums which you recorded with Tony Macalpine back in 90s. As you might know, Tony has experienced some serious troubles with his health recently. Do you still keep some contacts with him?

You know, I kind of lost contact with Tony, but we’ve worked together for about 10 years on and off, I made several records with Tony, we did touring together, I consider him a good friend of mine, I consider him to be a genius musician and a brilliant artist, I’m a very big fan of Tony Macalpine and I’m very sorry to hear that he is sick. I wish him well and I hope he is doing better. Actually I heard that he is doing better after some surgery. So it’s good news and I hope he’ll be back on tour and let the world see what he can do. He is an excellent piano player, brilliant guitar player and a beautiful composer. So I hope he is doing well.

Talking about Macalpine we cannot avoid looking back at his collaboration with Vitaly Kupriy, a well-known Ukrainian keyboardist you were working with for Artension project. What about Artension nowadays – are there any signs of life? Do you keep contacts with Vitaly, Roger Staffelbach or John West?

Yeah, I still talk to the guys, Vitaliy – not so much, I see Roger once in a while, I talk with John West once in a while on Facebook, but I think Artension is not making any more records, but I think the first two records we made were pretty cool. I think Vitaliy is a crazy and funny guy, excellent musician, excellent keyboard player and a good composer.
I know he is working now with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and I happy for him, I think it’s a good project where he can be seen and heard by a lot of people. I think he is living in Philadelphia at the moment.

I like Artension and I hope put the band together. I met Vitaliy and Roger in Switzerland in Yngwie Malmsteen show, I was playing with Yngwie Malmsteen. And Vitaliy came up to me and said, (makes funny voice) “I want to make record with you!” And I said, “Sure, Sure!” And a couple years later we did a record together.

You were cooperated with Kiko Loureiro, Brasilian guitar player from Angra on his solo records as well as in Tarja band. I wonder if you ever talk with Kiko regarding his work
Mike Terrana
in Megadeth these days? Perhaps you could be better choice as a drummer in Megadeth (with huge respect to Nick Menza, who tragically passed away a couple of weeks ago)?


I like Kiko, I think he is an excellent musician. He is very calm, controlled kind of a guy. He is very cool and very good looking guy. And he is also a great keyboard player. He is spending a lot of time playing piano, I love to listen to him play piano. He is playing acoustic guitar, he is interested in different kinds of music – like Bossa Nova for example.

He took me to my first Bossa Nova concert in Brazil and now I like Bossa Nova music a lot. It’s really good. And Kiko is also a very good drummer. On top of that he is a very good composer and a very nice guy.

The last contact I had with Kiko was when he joined Megadeth and I sent him congratulations, wished him well, wished him good luck and he said, “Thank you!” And I hope that he is doing very well in the band and I hope the world will have the chance to see Kiko with Dave Mustaine’s Megadeath. Speaking about drumming I’m not too sure I’m the right guy for the band, but if somebody asked me to do it, I would do it, Megadeth is a cool rock band for sure.

Another significant collaboration you went through the years is your participation in Roland Grapow’s projects. Can you confirm or deny the rumors that you were using drum kit of Ingo Schwichtenberg (ex-Helloween drummer, who suicide himself in 1995) during recording sessions of Masterplan and Grapow’s solo album “Kaleidoscope”? It seems you were very close to Roland and his family in late 90s, do you still continue as friends?

Yeah, Roland is still a friend of mine. He is not living in Germany any more, he has a recording studio in Slovakia, and that’s where we recorded the last two Masterplan’s albums. Yeah, when I first moved to Germany, Roland was still playing in Helloween and he kind of helped me to get into the German metal scene and got me to gig with Gamma Ray and Axel Rudi Pell, which was very nice of him to help me out like that. And I ended up recording Roland’s second solo CD “Kaleidoscope” and later on I ended up in Masterplan.
I can tell you that when I was recording Roland’s “Kaleidoscope” and the last two Masterplan records that I was on, I did used Ingo drum set and I treated this drum set as my own drum set, it’s a very beautiful Sonor Signature Series Kit , it has a very beautiful sound.

Unfortunately Ingo became mentally ill and committed suicide and we tried to keep him memory alive and I treat that drums respect. Between recording sessions I clean them. I did one live show with that drums, I took them on Masterplan show at festival in Slovakia and they sounded great. I was afraid to take that drums out to the festival, because the drums didn’t have cases, so we tried to take good care of that. Ingo I think was a good drummer and a good-looking guy and I think he had a pretty nice career with Helloween, but unfortunately he couldn’t carry on with the band, but we keep his memory alive. And I know he still has a lot of fans, so God bless him. It’s a pleasure to play his drums.

How do you see the situation in rock music business nowadays? Some people tell that music industry is dead, another think that more opportunities to come with media and social networks. What is your opinion?

I think if you’re a guy who owns a re
Mike Terrana
cord company and someone who wants to make his living only on selling records, I think you are in trouble, because no one is buying records any more. The country of Russia is probably one of the main countries doing bootlegs and making downloadings even before it became popular. But now it’s so popular to use different platforms – whether it’s I-Tunes or iFart – you can download music, it’s so cheap.

I mean you can pay 10 Euros a month and download all the music you want. Sometimes when I’m in a store and I see a CD which costs about 20 Euros, I think, “What are these people thinking about?” It just makes no sense. Why should I buy this CD for 20 Euros, when I can pay 10 Euros a month and download everything I want? It doesn’t make sense any more.
I don’t know what’s going on, I think everything changed so fast, that it took the record companies by surprise, it turned everything upside down and you see people that made a fairly good living selling records and now they basically have no money at all.

Also these platforms like iTunes or iFart – they don’t really pay royalties. So even if you get a million plays, you are not really having any money. If you are a musician, an artist, a recording artist – what do you do? You have to go out on a road. So now everybody’s out on a road.
The problem is – the venues are full, people don’t have enough money to go and see 6 concerts a week, it’s one problem after another! This kind of technological wave caused and created a lot of new problems. However I do find it a kind of interesting that you can reach a lot of people with the help of these media. If you are already an established artist - For example: if you are on YouTube and you have a Facebook page, a lot of people are gonna be your friends and you can talk to them. But if you are Bobby Nobody from New Jersey and you open up your Facebook page you might have 5 friends and nobody want to body talk to Bobby Nobody and your new band (laughs). Maybe Bobby Nobody is in trouble, maybe Bobby Nobody to find another job, I don’t know (laughs).

I’m somewhere in the middle, I’m Mike Terrana, a drummer from hell, I’ve been doing it for 35 years, so some people know who I’m. I wouldn’t consider myself to be so famous, but I like to consider myself to be known.

I’m lucky that someone knows me. Because I remember a time when nobody knew me and didn’t care! (laughs) So I try to use what I have at the moment, to stimulate any kind of steps in my career, my projects – whether I’m playing with Vision Divine, or I’m doing some shows with Beauty and the Beat or my own band called Terrana.

People come out, and somewhere and in somehow we survive. It’s not easy, and it’s getting harder and more challenging. But I like a good challenge, so I can tell you what – I make a lot of jokes about making money in the music business, but really if I wanted to make a lot of money, I would not become a professional drummer. O’k? (laughs) If you want to get rich, you should sell oil. O’k? (laughs) Or gasoline!

You are not the youngest guy in a world of drummers, but you still keep on going with double bass technic. Do you feel boring of it as time goes by? Seems there are not too many young drummers follow your path – or perhaps we will hear about them soon?

For me drumming was a kind of exercise. I can play double bass for a long time. I’m 56 now and I’m playing double bass like I di
Mike Terrana
d when I was 25. So I don’t see any problems.
I think there are a lot of kids out there that are playing double bass much faster than me now, and a lot of young people want to be drummers as a matter of fact. I don’t feel double bass is boring.

I play double bass since I was very young. And it’s a part of my style. I don’t consider it boring. I consider it boring to use it the same way. I think there are many different ways to use it. And I see a lot of young guys doing it right now – and they do some pretty good stuff. And I’m trying to grow myself all the time. I’m still practicing 6 hours a day when I’m at home, when I’m after road and tours.

I like to practice, I like to be alone with my drums. For me drumming is not my job, it’s a life style. I do it every day. Nobody pays me that I play 6 hours a day. I just go and do it. And what I like is that I’m alone with this instrument, every year I see myself growing, changing and getting a bit better – playing differently, playing more mature.

Like I said, when I watch other drummers play I don’t compare myself to them. I appreciate other drummers whether they are playing death metal, jazz – I like all kinds of drumming. I learn from it, and I’m influenced by it. And I use it in my own style. I try to put them into my own drumming. I don’t look at another guy and say, “Oh, I’m better than him!” or “He is better than me!” I don’t care.

Like I said it’s not a competition. When you play drums, when you play drum solo, you are expressing yourself. There is no “right” and there is no “wrong”. There are you and say that you want to say. And that’s what I’m trying to say to the young kids when they are playing drums. Don’t spend too much time on learning all these rules – just sit down and play and smile. If you are happy, you are making a good noise, then some day you will be making some music. That’s how I started.

Have you been to some shows or gigs as a spectator recently? What do you think about AC/DC with Axel Rose on vocals?

Actually I’ve been so busy with my own work that I very seldom have a chance to watch any other bands. When I was younger I saw so many concerts, support bands, headliners. Whether I had a chance to see somebody recently … U-2. I like the music from the 60-s stuff. I don’t know why.

As far as AC/DC goes I’m not really sure what’s going on there, but I think they just wanted to finish the tour. And if they wanted to use Axel Rose, well that’s fine. I’m an AC/DC fan and I like Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, so it’s a little bit strange to me to see Axel Rose there, but they’re doing shows and people like it, so… personal opinion.

As a person was born and raised in the United States, how do you feel about living in Europe for the last two decades? Seems like not too many American people stay in Europe for such a long period?

Well, I tell you what – my father comes from Europe, my father was born in Sicily, Italy. And he came over after WW2 with his father and started to live in America. I was born in New York. Both my parents are Italian. I have Italian blood in my veins.

And as I started touring around the world, I started see how people lived, how they ate, how they did thing differently than they do in America. And I remember the first tour I did in Europe, it was 1994 with Yngwie Malmsteen, I was impressed. I like all
Mike Terrana
these different cultures – France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, Scandinavia – everything is different – different language, different culture, different food, different mentality. And then I found that people in Europe like my style of drumming more than in the USA. Because at that time my drumming style different, I liked guys like Cozy Powell and Tommy Aldridge and that was kind of going out of style.
The grunge was coming in. And I thought maybe it was my chance to leave America and try my luck in Europe. I was doing a tour with Tony Macalpine in 1996 and we had a hard time out there. I lived in Los-Angeles, for 10 years, and I started to think maybe I should try to go to Europe and play drums. And so I did, in 1997 I packed everything up and I moved to Holland and I lived there for 1 year. Then I lived in Germany for 10 years, then I lived in Copenhagen for 4 years, and then I lived in Italy for 9 years. So I lived in Europe for 20 years, it’s been very good or my career and I think it was very good for me.

It’s changed me and has made me as a person, because I see how people do things. You know people who live in America, they live in a bubble. They don’t really see what’s going on outside the USA. O’k, it’s a big country and there are a lot of things you can do there, but there are a lot of places in the world that are equally beautiful and equally as comfortable to live in. I also feel quite comfortable in Russia.

I don’t have a problem when I’m in Russia. I love a lot of cities – Ekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, St.-Petersburg is a beautiful city, Moscow rocks! Krasnodar… all these places. Samara. I like Vladivostok. It’s beautiful. So for me as a musician I become a kind of bored when I stay at one place for too long. I’m very curious about how other people live. At the moment I’m in China and I’m here for 1 month and I see things that I’ve never seen before. They do different things – they drink hot water! Not tea, but hot boiling water! I tell you what – I like it here. I feel comfortable. The food is great, I’m eating really good. Of course you can eat some crazy stuff like snakes and bugs, but I mean some other stuff. (laughs) And it’s good, it’s really tasty. And I like the people. They are very relaxed. Eastern philosophy as well. For me living in Europe for 20 years is not strange. But I think a lot of American people couldn’t do it, because they need McDonalds and their American football and all this stuff. And I don’t care about that.

So China is the next place for you to live in, isn’t it?

Well, I don’t know about living here. The young people, really young people here speak English, it is a very big country, but I’m not sure if I could live here. Still I enjoy the mentality. They have very strict discipline and organization which I’m a big fan of. It’s a mixture of all the new – there is a lot of technology here, and people here are interested in the art of drumming. And I love that. I’ve been dealing with guys at the Factory in Beijing about my drums for 5 years, and I have very good relationship with them. They are very clever, they are making good stuff. People say, “Oh, shit, it’s made in China!” But very different stuff is made here – these united “Snickers”, your iPhone (laughs)

Some people say that flag of the USA is also made in China!

I think it is! The flag is made in China. I mean the thing is that the people here work hard, and it’s cheap. And if you try to make these things in other countries that would cost so much money that nobody will be able to buy them. So I don’t have a problem with it. It’s just business. Some people are complaining, but I think that’s the way things are at the moment. I just go with the flow, ha-ha!

Do you follow the election race in the USA? Which candidate do you support – Hillary, Trump, Sanders?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I don’t give a shit. I have no interest in it, because it’s all bullshit. All politics is bullshit, that’s why I play music. I’m not interested in politics. None of these people are gonna change anything.

By Ksenia "Wolfin" Victorova, Dmitry Dimebag Dasov, Philipp Degtyaryov
30 îêò 2016
the End


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