Interview с Holy Moses : DARKSIDE.ru

Let’s start with the re-releases of your old albums that are coming out currently. How was it like to go back to those old recordings?

It’s really amazing! We’re releasing one of the old albums every four weeks, and it’s like sitting in a time machine. I’m writing my own liner notes for each release, a little bit about the situation at that time, and every four weeks I’m thinking back years ago, about what happened to my life at that time. It’s really strange for me, but really great, because a lot of remembrances are coming back.

Did you use the original master tapes of these old albums, or did you remaster them from vinyl or some other source?

(laughs) I have to say that we don’t have original tapes anymore, so we couldn’t mix a new sound. It’s really the old sound we had at that time. I think it’s really good thing, because you can’t change time, and it’s really important to have the sound of that time. It would be really strange to have a modern sound on old albums. What we did was taking the CDs we originally had and trying to do digital mastering to make them sound a bit better. But we couldn’t do so much, because we only had regular old CDs. And “Queen Of Siam” (1986), the first album, was never released on CD before, so we had to take the vinyl, put the sound into the computer and make a new mastering out of it. (laughs) It was a really funny thing – I found out that I had five of my old vinyls left, and I looked at each of them to see which one has no crushes on it so that we could use it for the re-release.

Does this mean that you didn’t add any new recordings to the old stuff? Did you leave all the original parts, or maybe you recorded some extra vocals or extra guitars?

No, it’s really the original thing. The only new addition is the bonus tracks, live recordings for nowadays, for example, from Wacken Open Air, where we played in 2005. On “World Chaos” (1990) there is also a video from 2001, when I was singing “Too Drunk To Fuck” together with Doro Pesch, as well as an audio recording of “World Chaos” from Wacken 2003. And on “Reborn Dogs” (1992), there are absolutely fresh live recordings. These are the old songs that we now have in our setlist, so we used them as bonus tracks on these albums. But the original work is totally the same we did when these albums were released originally.

You used the demo tape “Walpurgius Night” (1984) as a bonus on the re-release of “Queen Of Siam”. Do you have any plans to resurrect other demo recordings from the early days of Holy Moses?

Yes, we are thinking about it. It’s a really big wish of the fans, and it will be a unique thing. We only have those old demo recordings on music cassettes, recorded with only one microphone in our rehearsal room, because for the demo tapes we never went into a studio. Now I’m finding out, which of the demo tapes I still have in my apartment, and I think one of the next re-releases will contain some more of the old demo-tapes.

How was it like to work in the studio on “Queen Of Siam” back in 1986? Was it stressful or was it fun?

It was both - stressful and fun. It was the first time for the band to see a studio from inside, and everything was totally new for us. We didn’t have so much time, only 14 days for everything – recording all instruments and vocals and mixing them. This was really stressful for us, but we learned a lot, and it was good to see how to work in a studio. It helped us a lot when we were making other recordings later. But the first time was really unbelievable for us! (laughs)

And what was more difficult for you to record – “Queen Of Siam” or the latest album “Strength Power Will Passion” (2005)?

Both were really hard to record. “Queen Of Siam” was our first experience, it was stressful because we were really nervous. Now we know how the recording is going on, but when you are in the studio, it’s still stressful, because you want to do your best. You have a kind of time period to jump into the studio and do everything as good as possible, and it’s something we always want – to do the best we can do at this particular moment. So “Strength Power Will Passion” was no less stressful than “Queen Of Siam”, the only difference is that we are more used to it and we know how to do it. But doing it is every time the same, the band is still nervous every time they jump into a studio.

When your bass player Ramon Bruessler left the band in 1987, and you took over management duties, how was it like? Was it the necessity, was there nobody else who could do it, or was it something you always wanted to do?

(laughs) No, I never wanted to do it in the first place. The thing is that I tried to get managers and booking agencies all the time, but nobody was doing it in the way the band wanted to have it. If you do it by yourself, you know what you do and what you can’t do, you don’t have to wait for somebody else to do this job and do it really good. When I took it over in 1987, everything was totally new for me, and I had to go over it. Ramon gave me a lot of addresses of locations to play live, and it was the first time I was phoning people and trying to get the band onstage, I was talking to magazines so that they would start to promote the band, and so on. But it was a good thing, because I learned a lot about the music business. I did a lot of mistakes (laughs), because I didn’t know how to do it better, but as the time passed, I was getting more and more into this business, and now I’m really satisfied that I can do it. I think it’s a good job. Sometimes it’s really hard, because you have to do a lot of work, but you do it for yourself, and it’s a good feeling if you see the results and the band is going on.

By the way, you worked on television a lot since the mid-1980s, both in music shows and in other programs. How did you first get on television?

It started off when I was 14 and I worked for radio stations. When I got on TV, I worked more on soccer games, I was the host of a soccer show, but the same channel, RTL, had the idea in 1988 to make a heavy metal show, so they asked me if I wanted to do it. It was a really great job. A while later the show was stopped, but I tried to do it on the Internet, and I’m still looking around, because I would like to do a new TV show and help metal bands get more famous in the scene. But like elsewhere in the world, it’s really hard to bring heavy metal on TV. It would be my biggest wish to return with a TV show on a normal TV station, but right now I’m doing it on

Hardy TV, which will be re-launched on April 1, so you can download songs in mp3 for money. We will also have videos on it, and I will also do interviews and all these things again.

You have mentioned your duet with Doro on the song “Too Drunk To Fuck”, which you performed and recorded live at Wacken in 2001. How did this collaboration come about? Are you friends with Doro?

Yes, Doro is a long-time friend of mine, I think we’ve known each other for more than 20 years. I asked her if she wants to do it, and she agreed, but she came to the festival a little bit too late. We wanted to rehearse it shortly before the show, but she got stuck in a traffic jam en route towards Wacken Open Air, and she came across drug control, which is something they always have close to the festival. (everybody laughs) The police stopped her to see if she had drugs with her, but she had nothing, she was just being late for our show. So she had to jump on the stage directly, I only saw her blond hair in the backstage and went like, “Aahh, Doro is there!” We never rehearsed this song before, but the fans were so amused that we did it together! The funny thing is that I got it trouble with her manager after the show. He said, “Oh my God! Why did you do that? Such a bad song! “Too Drunk To Fuck” with the holy Doro?!” (everybody laughs) Me and Doro were really laughing! She is not with this manager anymore.

A side question: have you ever tried singing in a normal voice? Not in the studio, but maybe when you are with friends?

Oh no! I think I have no other voice. When I’m singing in a kind of normal voice, it sounds really strange. I did it a few weeks ago with my little niece when I was bringing her to bed, and she told me, “Please sing me a song for the night!” I started to sing one of children’s lullabies, and she looked at me and said, “Oh please, Sabina, stop it! It sounds horrible!” (everybody cracks) I think that says everything!

Another side question: what are your favorite female vocalists? What do you think of Angela Gossow or Tarja Turunen, for instance?

I think Angela is very good. I helped her a lot when she had problems with her voice, and she asked me a lot of questions about how to work with the voice. Among the really hard singers she sounds really good. I like Doro’s voice very much as far as the normal kind of singing is concerned. As to the hard singers, Rachel from Sinister is really good, and Angela as well. It’s good to see that other girls are getting into more brutal music, and I’m not alone. (laughs)

Let’s go back to the past now. Do you now think you made the right career move by leaving Aaarrg! Records and signing to a major label? Did it help the band, or do you think “The New Machine Of Liechtenstein” (1989) could have had more success on an independent record company?

This is really hard to say after such a long time. In a situation we were in 1987, it was the best for us. Aaarrg! Records were running out of money, they really had no money anymore to promote the band, they had troubles within the company, the few people working there were fighting against each other, and everybody was telling me, “You have to make the next step.” Warner Brothers really did a lot, it was good for us to be on a major label, because we learned a lot again. And we sold more copies of “The New Machine Of Liechtenstein” than of “Finished With The Dogs” (1987), and as of today, the sales figure is over 100,000. That was amazing, I think you couldn’t do more. I mean, there is always a possibility to do more for the band (laughs), but it depends on the money as well. The only problem on a major label is that the people there are not so much behind the music, they sell albums because they have a vision of selling points. The guy who signed us to Warner Brothers left the company before the album came out, and that was a new experience for us, because the people working at independent companies are always into the music, and in the major company are totally interested in other things. They only see the money and the sales behind something. That’s important for an independent company as well, but the problem with Warner Brothers was that the new guy who got that position had nothing to do with thrash metal. Not only Holy Moses were without a deal after that, I remember this great band Kruiz from Russia, who were signed to Warner Brothers like us in Germany at that time. Also Slayer, Testament and Van Halen were with that company at that time, and we all had the same problem – the people who signed us were not at the company anymore. For me right now it is good to find an independent label that has the power and the money to do something for the band.

“The New Machine…” was mixed in Los Angeles by famous American producer Alex Periales. How was it like working with him? What did he add to the music of Holy Moses?

That’s a good question. With Alex we learned a lot of things about production, he made the band do its best at that time. He gave us the background so that we could concentrate on the album, and he made us bring everything out on the CD. Afterwards I was not so much satisfied with the sound of the snare drum on that album, but at that time it was the modern sound, he did the same for bands like S.O.D. or Anthrax. It was good to work with a really professional producer, and Andy Classen learned a lot from Alex. I think the reason why Andy is such a good producer now is that he saw the fingers of Alex at work. In the studio a lot of things have to go together, I mean the arrangements, and Alex helped us arrange songs in a better way sometimes. He was with me when I was learning the English pronunciation of the lyrics, and it’s great to have a producer who speaks really good English, because he can make sure your pronunciation is always correct. It was a really good step for us to work with him and especially to be in the States. For instance, backing vocals on the album were done by Billy Milano from M.O.D., and Scott Ian from Anthrax would drop into the studio and we could talk with these musicians. We were talking about instruments, amps, how to get the right sound and everything. We were very young at that time, and it was really good for us to get experience from other musicians who were in the same business.

In general, where do you feel more comfortable – on stage or in the studio?

Oh, this is easy – on stage! (everybody laughs) On stage I’m getting the power from the fans back, so I give a lot to the fans, and the fans give a lot to me. But in the studio when you are tota

lly alone with your microphone, you have headphones on your ears, you listen to the music, it’s hard to get the proper feeling. I think it is the reason why I destroyed my ears, because I needed the music really loud in my headphones. When we play live, everything is loud, and I’m getting a good move, and this is always hard to achieve in the studio. You have to bring yourself to the point where you get the same power like onstage. What I do is a little decoration of the studio, I bring my skulls, crosses and all these things, I arrange a special kind of light, I drink a lot of vodka (everybody laughs) and whiskey. I close my eyes when I’m singing, and I get a vision in my head that thousands of people are in front of me in the studio. I try to imagine that all the people who will buy the album are now with me in the studio and looking at me, and it helps me do the best I can do. I need this kind of metaphors and pictures in my head to get in the mood. But sometimes alcohol is also helping in that. (everybody laughs)

Who came up with the concept of “The New Machine…”? Were you into science fiction at that period of time?

Yeah, I’ve always been into science fiction things. I love science fiction, and I see a lot of things that were science fiction 20 years ago now becoming reality. I like to think forward about what can happen to the world. There is a political side to it, but also the technical things. When I’m looking at my cell phone, it’s a kind of computer: there’s normal Windows on it, I can get e-mails, I can make phone calls, I can open Word documents, I keep my most important time plans there – I have everything in my fucking cell phone! (laughs) It looks like “Star Wars”! (everybody laughs) And I’m still interested in what may happen next. If you read the lyrics of “The New Machine Of Liechtenstein”, there I was talking about a machine that acts like a human being and that can destroy the world. If you look around nowadays, see all these terrorist acts and compare it, you may think there is a machine involved as well. When you see terrorists, they are behaving like machines sometimes, because they are not thinking about what they are doing. The vision is becoming reality more and more in a lot of ways.

The music of Holy Moses has always been extreme, but on the albums of the 1990s, such as “Terminal Terror” (1991) or “Reborn Dogs” it became even more brutal, and a lot of hardcore influences appeared. What factors were influencing the musical development of Holy Moses?

It’s always hard to stay. The first influences were bands like Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. But because of my voice we were progressing towards a harder, better and tighter sound. We always had a bit of the hardcore influence, even in the very beginning we were influenced by punk. A little bit of it also came because for “Terminal Terror” and “Reborn Dogs” we had a new drummer, Meff, who also played in a hardcore band called Toys Bizarre, which was later Ryker’s. But even if you listen to “Finished With The Dogs”, it is also hardcore-influenced, because Andy was a huge S.O.D. fan. By the way, the guys from S.O.D. were huge Holy Moses fans. Hardcore was always in our music, but you are totally right, on “Terminal Terror” and “Reborn Dogs” it was more extreme. That had to do with the fact that people in Germany wanted to have more than thrash metal, so the genre was going through a difficult period. Everybody was looking for ways to play harder, and Holy Moses was in the middle of that. We were experimenting to become harder and tighter, and that’s how the hardcore influences became so prominent in our music.

Why did you change the cover artworks for the re-releases of the “Too Drunk To Fuck” compilation (1993) and the “No Matter What’s The Cause” album (1994). Were you dissatisfied with the original versions?

We also changed the cover of “Reborn Dogs” just a few days ago. (laughs) I never liked the cover of that album at that time. I got another cover for “Reborn Dogs” from my boyfriend at that time as a birthday present, but we decided not to use it. Now when I was looking back at all the things I have from the “Reborn Dogs” time, I found this cover and said, “Cool! We take it!” (laughs) But we have the old one included in the booklet, so the fans will be able to change them as they want. You have two covers – the new one and the old one – at the same time. “No Matter What’s The Cause” for me was not a real Holy Moses cover, because the logo wasn’t original. I didn’t like it, but the rest of the band liked it. Now I could make the decision on my own (laughs), so I said, “OK, I will put the old one in the booklet, and we will make a new one.” As to “Too Drunk To Fuck”, the attitude to this complication has changed. In 1993, when we were releasing it originally, it was a best-of album. We played the song “Too Drunk To Fuck” live at that time, and we thought that this title fits to a best-of CD. Nowadays, years later, “Too Drunk To Fuck” is one of our most important hits, the whole audience is entering the stage when we play it, and they are singing this song with us. So I wanted to give the fans a picture of them to show them, “Hey, I love it when you’re coming onstage and growling “too drunk to fuck” together with me.” So I changed the cover, and it will have the picture of the audience, but the old one will once again be in the booklet.

A lot of your early covers were done by Reiner Laws, who even played guitar in the band at some point. What happened to him after he left Holy Moses?

I don’t know. (laughs) He was really a comics painter, this was his life. As Holy Moses were growing bigger and bigger, he didn’t have the time anymore to make his pictures and comics, so he decided to go on as a painter. But I am trying to find him, I don’t know about what happened to him. I have asked other comics painters, but none of them is aware about what he is doing nowadays. I think he’s still living in my hometown, I know he was doing some Helloween covers, so it should be really interesting to get in contact with him again. I am trying to find back all the people around Holy Moses for the DVD, I want to make interviews with these people, because they are part of the band’s history. Perhaps in the next interview I will be able to tell you what happened to him.

Have you already decided on bonus tracks for the upcoming re-releases of “Reborn Dogs”, “Too Drunk To Fuck” and “No Matter What’s The Cause”?

For “Reborn Dogs” I will have to look in my computer. Right now we are doing so many recordings that I forgot it myself. One

second, I will have it! (laughs) OK, the bonus tracks are “Fuck You” (live), “Master Of Disaster” (live) and “Lost In The Maze” (live), all recorded during our show in Leipzig on February 11, 2006. Something really new! (laughs) As to “No Matter What’s The Cause”, I don’t know, we will decide it next weekend. We will look over the recordings we have done in the last days, and we will make the decision. It will be a surprise for us as well!

When you left Holy Moses back in 1992, how was it like to be on your own, after playing in the band for about 10 years? Was it difficult to put a new band together?

Yes, it was a hard thing, because I saw that I had to stop to find a new power for Holy Moses. A lot of things happened in my life, and we had problems between the band members. Andy Classen was thinking about becoming a producer and not playing in the band any longer, and I was really disappointed with everything. But with my friends from Warpath – Schroedey (guitar) and Ozzy (bass) - it was really easy to found a new band called Temple Of The Absurd. It was good, because I was not alone, because one of my best friends was doing Temple Of The Absurd together with me. I could put all my feelings in the lyrics of Temple Of The Absurd, and I started to get new power to make a new start with Holy Moses in the beginning of 2000.

You said that when people talked about you, they always called you “Sabina of Holy Moses.” In your opinion, why did Temple Of The Absurd fail to become as popular and as important for you as Holy Moses are?

The people knew me from the first moment as “Sabina of Holy Moses,” and I myself was feeling like “Sabina of Holy Moses” all the time. In my heart, I never left the band. For me it was only a break for few years, when we were making no records, but still when somebody asked me, “Who you are?”, I said, “I’m Sabina of Holy Moses.” It’s my life. Temple Of The Absurd was only a period when I was coming over some kind of depression. For me it was another home that I needed to get the power back. I’m Sabina of Holy Moses, there’s no other way.

What do you now think about the two records that you did with Temple Of The Absurd? Are there any plans to re-release them as well?

They are part of my history, and perhaps one day I will put out both of them together, because a lot of the young fans would love to know something about this band. I love the first record, “Absurd” (1995), but when we were making the second album (“Mother Creator God”, 1999), I already saw that I was not so much into Temple Of The Absurd anymore as I had to be. It was not the thing I wanted to do, I was already starting to write new songs for Holy Moses, and you can feel this in the second album. But I have to say that it’s my history, and it’s good that I had Temple Of The Absurd, because otherwise Holy Moses would not exist right now. Ozzy, who was the bass player in Temple Of The Absurd, is one of my best friends, and now he’s a member of Holy Moses. So it brings the story together again.

In the 1990s you were one of the first big names to start playing regularly at Wacken Open Air. In your opinion, what makes this festival so special?

Wacken Open Air is so special, because it’s not only a live show or a live festival. It’s a meeting and a party of metal fans, it brings metal fans together like a family, and I think that’s the reason for the success of Wacken Open Air. People from all nations, from all over the world are meeting not only to watch the bands, they want to celebrate metal. I think this is the right expression: Wacken Open Air is a celebration of metal. The festival now lasts three days, but most of the fans are coming one week before and staying one week later, so it’s like a holiday.

And how has the festival changed over the past 10 years?

More and more people were learning about the festival, they were hearing from friends that this is a kind of party and celebration. When I was there for the first time, it was really small, about 800 people in the audience. Over the next years it was growing, but you couldn’t really feel it. With some festivals you can feel that they are growing and becoming not as good as they were before, but with Wacken the special thing is that it’s growing really big, but the feeling is still the same. The festival started with one stage. When I played there for the first time, it had two stages, then suddenly there were three stages, then four, and now they have five or six stages. (laughs) But they still have a room for everybody –for all kinds of genres, for bigger bands and for newcomers. The attention to newcomer bands is really high, they have the Wacken Metal Battle competition, and everybody can really feel good at the festival. The organizers still have the same passion for the music, and they have preserved the original vision of the festival as a party.

You had a lot of health problems in the end of the 1990s – first cancer, and then a bike accident. Many people break down when they have such tough experience, but you came back even stronger. What helped you go through all these problems and solve them eventually?

I think it was music, metal music, and my fans. They gave me the power, because I saw that this is my life, and people want to have me as a living person, not as a dead one. I got so many really nice letters, people were describing their own problems, and this gave me a lot of power. I mean, I have a really strong soul and a lot of power in my body, and I told myself, “I don’t wanna die because of health problems or some fucking bike accident. This is not fair! (laughs) I want to live!” And I think that’s the most important thing – you should not give up, you should always keep in your mind that you wanna live. Thanks to it, I could come back really aggressive and with a lot of power again. And over the years I was getting more and more power back, and the result is the “Strength Power Will Passion” album. The message of the album is that you need strength, power, will and passion to overcome all your problems and succeed in the things you’re doing. My passion is my music, Holy Moses, and this is what allowed me to live through all these problems.

By the way, do you still ride a bike after this accident?

No! (laughs) The old one was totally destroyed, and I never went on. Once a witch was reading my hand, she saw this accident, and she told me, “Don’t go on two wheels again.” I was really shocked, I looked at her and said, “Why?” She said, “Something strange will happen

, please don’t do it!” I explained her that I had had an accident, and she said, “You will have another one. Please stop it!” And so I did.

When you decided to reform Holy Moses in 2000, did you try to bring back any of the original members, or was it your intention to put together an absolutely new band?

It would be my wish to have the old ones back, but I knew that it was not possible. Ramon is now a doctor of geography, he decided back in 1987 to go for the university and not the band, drummer Uli Kusch was playing for Helloween at that time, and Andy Classen said in the first moment that he will produce it and help me until I find a new guitar player and songwriter for Holy Moses, but he will never go back on stage. So I had no other choice than to find new people, and it took me three years to get really great people for my band. It’s hard to find new people who have the same feelings for the band as I do, but now I’m really happy. It would be great to have the old ones, but as I feel now, it was the best solution to find the new musicians who are really behind the band. Time is changing, and you have to go with that.

You got a deal with Century Media for the next two Holy Moses releases – the “Master Of Disaster” EP (2001) and the “Disorder Of The Order” album (2002). Why didn’t you continue with this label after that and opted for Armageddon Music instead?

It was a normal thing. I had a contract for these two albums, and after that they offered me a new deal, but I had already started to work for Armageddon Music. I was a really young label with a lot of power, so I said that I want to have the band on Armageddon Music, because this will help both the band and the label. I think it was a fair step. I talked really openly with Century Media, and they were fine, they could understand it. I’m really happy now to work with Armageddon Music, and I’m happy that they agreed to do all the re-releases and wanted to have the whole of my back catalogue here. It’s a good feeling.

“Disorder Of The Order” is the last album you did with Andy Classen. Wasn’t it a bit scary to continue without him? After all, he was involved in all recordings of Holy Moses up to that point…

Andy promised me all the time that he will do it until I find new members. You are right, it was a little strange, because he didn’t have the feeling that we have in the band nowadays. But there were no other possibilities, because the other band members at that time couldn’t produce recordings and write new songs. And Andy is like my brother, we understand each other totally blind. (laughs) He knows what I’m feeling, what I want to do, so I decided to do this album with Andy. But I’m really happy that I found a new guitar player, Michael Henkel, who is like a soulmate of Andy. He is now the producer and he is writing songs together with me, Ozzy and our new drummer Asgard, who can also play guitar and bass. We are already composing songs for the next album that will come out in 2007. Now the period with Andy is really history, but it took time to come over this situation and to make the band free from Andy. But I think the heart, soul and mysticism of Andy will be in the band forever, because he is a mystical part of it.

When and how did you meet Michael Henkel and how did you get him in the band?

I have a studio in my house, and he went there with his band called Erosion, an old and really well-known thrash/hardcore band from Germany. They recorded a new demo tape, and at that moment I came back from Andy with the “Disorder Of The Order” album in my hands, really fresh out of the studio. Michael asked me, “Wow, can I listen to it?” And I said, “Yeah, come over to my apartment.” He loved the album directly, and at that moment he told me, “If you ever need a guitar player in the band, call me.” Three months later I had to find a new guitar player, but I forgot Michael. (laughs) I was phoning the whole world to find a guitarist. Then one night I was lying in my bed thinking, “Oh my God, I have to find a guitar player, there was somebody, somebody said to phone him if I needed a guitarist.” And his name came back to my mind. By the way, the funny thing is that Michael also played with Andy in a band called Richthoffen. So I phoned him, and at that moment he was somewhere in the south of Germany sitting on an apple tree. (everybody laughs) He told me, “Please be careful, I’m falling down an apple tree!” One week later he came up and he could already play most of the Holy Moses songs. We got directly together on tour in September 2002, and he was the best for Holy Moses, because he really feels Holy Moses. Now I feel really good with him in the band.

“Strength Power Will Passion” was basically recorded by Michael and drummer Julien Schmidt alone, while you had a full line-up for live shows. Why didn’t you use those guys in the studio?

They couldn’t play so well. Michael could play guitar and bass so good, and our bass player at that time was only for live shows, he couldn’t play properly in the studio. The other guitar player was not good enough either, we split with him after Wacken Open Air and now decided to play live with just one guitar. It’s the same as always in Holy Moses – Andy was always the only guitar player, and sometimes we invited second guitarists for live shows. But now we have the original configuration of Holy Moses – one guitar, one bass, and one drummer. This is fine, and we will continue like that. On the next album our current bass player Ozzy will play in the studio. He’s now playing live shows, and you can hear that it’s working fine.

You have said in many interviews that you don’t practice satanic rituals or anything like that. But why did you use so much occult imagery on the cover of “Strength Power Will Passion”?

People sometimes don’t know that the pentagram is not related to Satanism alone. It’s a mystical sign, and Satanism was just using this symbol for its own purposes. I’m totally free, I don’t think that Satanism is bad, but I don’t wanna push myself into one direction. A pentagram and all these things had a lot to do with the Bible as well, a pentagram, or rather a mandala is used in Buddhism, too. If you look into my lyrics, you will see that I’m a very mystical person, I’m thinking really deep into the soul of things. When I’m trying to write about terrorism and political things, everything has to do with the mystical point of view as well. I used these symbols to show people that this pentagram protects me from outside influences, that is why my head is in the middle of this pentagra

m. This is one of the meanings of this symbol, and it has nothing to do with Satanism.

One of the songs on the new album, “Death Bells II”, was originally found on your demo tape in the early 1980s. Why did you decide to go back and resurrect this song?

No, this song has nothing to do with the old track, there’s nothing in it from the old times. The only connection is that when I was writing the lyrics, they were fitting with the title “Death Bells”. Death bells had something to do with my accident – the death bells are ringing and waking you up from the dead. And I had the same situation in the beginning of my career – I had to wake up because people wanted to force me to go into certain directions. For instance, my parents wanted me to study and become a lawyer or a teacher, and then the death bells were ringing the first time to say, “Sabina, do what you feel, don’t do what other people are saying.” This is the only connection to the old song.

Can you tell us the story behind the bonus track on this record, the song you’re singing together with Tom Angelripper?

(laughs) This is a funny thing. Normally the music of Holy Moses is really aggressive, really powerful, and the lyrics are really deep. But on the other hand, Holy Moses is a funny band, too - when you see us on stage, we are laughing, we are having fun, we have this song “Too Drunk To Fuck”, it’s also a party. And because everything was really dark and deep and aggressive on the album, I said, “I want to have a hidden song that explains the other attitude of the band, that shows that we are funny people, that we enjoy life. And because I had been singing together with Tom Angelripper his Schlaeger songs at Wacken Open Air, I decided to invite him to do this cover version together. When I’m singing in my deep voice, this is totally different than the German original. So this was a joke, and my best friend Tom Angelripper is the best one to do things like this together. (laughs)

Can you compare the situation on the German thrash metal scene nowadays and in the 1980s? What period do you personally like better?

In the beginning of the 1980s everything was really new, we didn’t even know that we were doing thrash metal. Other people named it thrash metal, and it was the same with bands like Destruction, Kreator and Sodom. We did the music we liked and nobody was speaking about it as thrash metal. The term was created much later. This is a big difference to nowadays, because now when people start to play thrash metal, they do it by purpose, they say, “We want to do thrash metal.” They know what they are doing, and we never knew. (laughs) But it’s also fine. It’s good to see that a new thrash revolution is happening in Germany, I see it here on Armageddon Music, where we have bands like Spellbound, which is produced by Andy Classen, or such bands as Delirium, Reckless Tide and Contradiction. They all do thrash metal in a new form, and this is really good.

What kind of audience do you have at Holy Moses live shows nowadays? Do many old fans come to see you, or is it mostly a younger crowd?

It’s a really good mix. A lot of older fans now have families, they are sitting on their couches, drinking beer and watching TV. (laughs) You only get them for special events, but I must say that we are still very lucky to have them. The really good thing is that we have a lot of young fans. We played a lot of shows last month, and I see that the audience is changing, more and more young people are coming to our concerts. They are sometimes very astonished when they find that we have so many albums out, they don’t think that we’ve been onstage for 25 years. And we have a lot of death and black metal fans as well, so we’re not only getting thrash fans. Many of the younger fans are into death and black metal, and they also like Holy Moses, and this is a good step into the future for us.

Can you say a few words about the retrospective DVD that you are planning to release in spring?

We want to do a documentary DVD, it should include the whole history. We don’t want to have only one show on it, perhaps we’ll do a thing like that later on. I have so many old tapes in my apartment, and I’d like to show them to the people, to show how the band has been growing over 25 years. I’m now writing a concept for the DVD. In the beginning we had no video recorders and no cameras, but I have a lot of pictures, and I will make a kind of movie out of these pictures. I will also do interviews with old members, with the people around us, and will be something like a visual book. (laughs) It will show the evolution of the band from really small gigs to Wacken Open Air and huge festivals like the one in South Korea. You will really see which steps the band has done over the years.

Speaking about live shows, there were plans for Holy Moses to go to Afghanistan and play a concert there. We know that the show was cancelled, but why were you willing to play in such a dangerous place?

We first thought that the concert was supposed to be for the people out there, to bring some fun in their life after such a bad war. I think music can also bring peace to the people. But later we got the information that we would be doing it for the soldiers, and then we were explained that they wanted us to do cover songs and stuff like that. And then we said “no”, it was not the thing that we thought was behind the idea. That was the reason why the gig was cancelled.

We also have heard that you will be playing in a resort city of Yevpatoria in Ukraine this summer. Is this show already confirmed?

Yes, it’s confirmed. We will play on August 12, and we will fly to the country on August 10. I saw on the map that this place is directly at the Black Sea, and everybody is telling us that a lot of people from Russia are coming there to spend their holidays. (laughs) One week prior to that we will be playing in Bulgaria, also at the Black Sea, so it will be like a summer holiday at the Black Sea for us. (laughs)

And what are your expectations from a trip to a post-Soviet country?

I have never been to Ukraine or Russia, and I’m really happy to give the fans a Holy Moses live show. I’m getting so many e-mails from Russia and Ukraine, and everybody’s saying, “Oh, for all these 25 years you’ve never played here!” So my expectations are to have a really huge party, to meet friends with whom I’ve only had contact via e-mail, it’s really something special. It’s Europe and it’s not so far away, but we’ve played in every other country, we go to France, Spain or whatever, but in the years before it was really hard to go to Russia. It’s good that politics are becoming easier in this sense, and that we can start with this step. I hope that we’ll have a really good party, drink a lot together (laughs) and that out of this show we’ll get new contacts to do a whole tour in Russia.

Special thanks to Alexei "KIDd" Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Natalie “Lynx” Khorina
March 15, 2006
9 май 2006 the End

Holy Moses

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