Interviewer : Oliver Klemm
Published on : March 1987
HAIL TO GERMANY
"That is the reason why I intensively deal with the German language at the moment. I bought some educational books and study very keenly". says Joey right at the beginning of our conversation. Well, in that case let's test it by having this interview in German.
"No", he laughs, "I'm not ready for that just yet. But next time my knowledge should be good enough".
Fair enough, we'll postpone it. Two years is a long time for a break. Long enough to be forgotten.
"I don't see any problems for Manowar. We have the truest and most loyal fans in the world. The tour last year proved that. Our fans, especially the German ones, won't forget us that easily because they know we won't forget them either. Often you'll find that bands don't give a shit about their fans anymore as soon as they are on top. Because they think that they don't need them anymore. Before they notice they are down again. You have to face it: the fans don't need the band but the band needs the fans. We are aware of that. We fight for every single fan and our fans honour that."
Last time we spoke at the "Easter Metal Blasts" Joey didn't want to talk about the new deal and material etc.
"As long as it was uncapped we didn't wont to give any information away. At the time we had some offers from record companies but we signed at Atlantic Records. We have signed for ten (!!) records. Atlantic is giving us every freedom we need , these guys believe in us in every way. That is the difference to our old company 10 Records. According to them we were to heavy, they wanted us to back down. Atlantic in contrast says: Guys, play what you want, we know it will be good. That's the ideal way of working. They gave us a budget which was more than opulent. Therefore we could really tap the full potential when we recorded the new Album "Fighting the World". And I don't just say that cause we produced the record, I say it cause it's the truth. No other heavy metal band has ever had such a sound! We used the latest sound studio techniques and recorded it straight away digitally. We are having the idea to release "Fighting the World" on CD so that the bulky sound comes into one's own. Especially for the drums we got a specialist who invented a method that allows us to save specific drum sounds directly on the computer so that we can recall them the way we want to. At the moment we are the only band that uses "the drums of death" as we call them. I am sure that within one or two years every drummer who thinks a bit about himself will use that system. Joey is also thrilled about the song lyrics. "Without any doubt the new tracks are the best we ever had on an album." He says and describes every single track in detail so that we have to resign because of lack of space. With one exception: " We recorded 'Defender' again to honour our friend Orson Wells. When we had the idea of him to speak the intros to some of our songs we send his manager some material. We didn't really expect an answer but one day he called us up and accepted. We were deeply touched when we received the message of his dead.
A huge Manowar tour over the whole continent is about to start. Begin of the odyssey is... Germany!!!!
"That's our 'thank you' for the German fans who have always stood by our side. Most of our fan mail comes from Germany, which we read without fail by the way. Concerts in Germany are always quite something, the atmosphere is unique".
So - he gets interrupted by a voice at the other end of the line - the next Manowar album is gonna be 'Hail to Germany'
"Good idea." he laughs."That's a real good idea."
OLIVER KLEMM
