Saint or Sinner? Juergen Volk Speaks Out.

“Well that is going back some time now, this was about 15 yrs ago and when we first started out and there was a pub in our home town which had a whiskey mirror called ‘Glenmore’ which was a Scottish drink, and so we liked the name we ended up using it for the bands name. We know that it is named after a little lake in Scotland and my sister visited this lake and she said it was beautiful, we just liked the name so much that we wanted to have this name for our band. We had no other names for the band.”

“We did a lot of demo tapes. I think we did about 10 demo tapes and from the start we were a school band and we tried to figure out some different styles which took a long time to release our first demo tape. It took the band about 8 yrs to do a good demo tape and to get our first record deal. Listening back to the first demo’s makes me laugh as my voice was terrible and the demos sounded like they were recorded in the toilet, and they still do (laughing).”

“Well we first started out as a 3 piece band, and this was back in 82 and in 1990 we got our first record deal and by that time we were a 5 piece band and besides the drummer leaving we stayed with 4 of us until we broke up.”

“Well as you know we had a big deal with ‘Polydor’ in Germany and at that time they had started a big Heavy Metal campaign, and they were pretty big with German Folk music and this was the first time they did Heavy Metal music, the only other band that they really had was ‘The Almighty’.

Anyway after we released 2 albums they things did not work out. We later on looked for another deal, but nobody seemed interested in signing us because it was the time when the Grunge thing became very popular and nobody seemed to want to listen to Heavy Metal music. We seemed to have lost all of our magic and inspiration to carry on!!”

“Well I think that a lot of the indie labels were scared to sign us when we were dropped by a major label, they thought that we would not sell and they did not want to take the risk. Also they said that we were pushed very hard with promotion for Polydor, that they thought that they could not push us as hard as Polydor had”.

“Well it was pretty strange to work with ‘Polydor’ and our first art work for the debut album cost about 16.000 DM’s, and when we made the debut ‘Rawhead Rexx’ album it cost the same to record and produce the whole art work. At that time we were very young and we were feeling like rock stars and the designer came to talk to us about the art work for the ‘Glenmore’ album and he told us the price. and the label said it was fine!!"

“Well our original drummer had some problems with his ears which effected his drumming and in the end he could not practice anymore on his drums because of his ear problem. We are still good friends but it was un-fair for him and the rest of the band, and so we used Jorg for the 2nd album as a session drummer. Jorg is one of the best drummers around, he’s great!! Jorg was in it for the money and when we wanted him to play some shows with the band it would cost us a lot of money.”

“After all these years I think that the debut album is my favourite because it had better songs than the 2nd album. The songs on the debut were much heavier, but the overall production of the 2nd album was much better than the first.”

“Oh my God!! it was such a long time since we recorded that album it is very difficult for me to say really. I liked the ballad ‘Miracle’, and the opening song.”

“Yes we did a few songs. We did 2 -3 demo tapes which I will copy the songs and send them to you OK Jase!!”

“Well the band was formed back in 1999 and I loved all the members in my previous band and I tried to get new musicians for ‘Rawhead Rexx’ and it was very hard & difficult for me at the start. After ‘Glenmore’ broke up I started to wonder if I should start a new band or call it a day."

“Well I have been playing the guitar for many years now, even when I was in ‘Glenmore’. I use to play the guitar on my own but I could not play it live as it was too difficult at that time. When I formed my new band I just wanted to play rhythm guitar on stage because it is always boring when you are a singer and you have no instrument to play live when there is a guitar solo, you kind of feel stupid not knowing what to do. My guitar playing is getting better each day.”

“Well Danny the drummer was also in ‘Glenmore’ and after they broke up Danny came with me to form my new band. Rudy use to play with ‘Letter X’ (ED: Great Band!!) yes I agree with you Jase. Later on Rudy went to England (Liverpool) to the Paul MCartney school of music and Face went to the same music school and Danny in Switzerland and so they were friends. Danny recommended Face to me and the rest is history.”

“We only recorded the one demo tape. The songs that were featured on this demo tape were called ‘The Scream’, which was featured on the ‘Rock Hard’ sampler and soon after that Andy from AFM Records phoned me and said he was interested in signing the band. We were also in contact with ‘Noise’ and ‘SPV’, but ‘AFM’ seemed the best. This demo was not sold to the public, but like I said AFM wanted us from the start.”

“Yeah Horst has done a lot for the band. I have known him for many years now. He was the one who pushed me to carry on playing music, so thanks to Horst!!”

“Yes you are right Jase, it is a low budget film from Clive Baker from the 70’s and the monster kill’s everybody in a small village. I just liked the name and so I decided to use it. We had a couple of other stupid names but this suited the band the best.”

“I would have to say that our influences are the roots of Metal music, such as ‘Judas Priest’, ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Black Sabbath’, all the ‘N.W.O.B.H.M.’ bands and after ‘Glenmore’ we wanted to make music that was more melodic like ‘Queensryche’. I also think that now we are getting back to the roots because I do not feel that you have to jump on the bandwagon or to make difficult music that nobody can understand. To me it is very important that people can understand what you are playing without sounding like ‘Dream Theater’ or some bands like that.”

“I think that ‘Nuclear Blast’ are a good label, but we did not want to sound like ‘Hammerfall’ or a band like that and so that is why we signed to ‘AFM’ because not all of their bands like ‘Hammerfall’. I think that we sound more like a band from the USA than a band from Germany.”

“To be honest, I do not like to be called one of these names, I would say that we are playing Heavy Metal music!!”

“I think it was an easy thing to do for us because I have my own studio and Andy worked in Liverpool (UK) producing and when we recorded at his studio we had a lot of time because it did not cost any money for a producer. So we had more time to get things right without been under too much pressure. We worked really well together with both of our idea’s and after that we just called Charlie to mix the album for us as I have worked with him on the ‘Glenmore’ albums.”

“It took about 2 months and we are happy with the way it turned out because it sounded hard and very raw and this is the way that we wanted it to turn out.”

“Well I wrote about 80% of the lyric’s for this album and for me it is very easy with all this horror theme and I think the music is suited to the music.”

“Well it is a blood spilling game which is similar to that of ‘Ed Hunter’ by ‘Iron Maiden’ and I think there are 7 levels and there a plenty of ‘Rawhead Rexx’ monsters coming at you and you have to shoot them, it’s a fun game!!”

“Well for me it was pretty hard for me to come up with a name for the album. This was a new beginning for me so I thought of just self titling it.”

“Well I like the songs ‘Sons Of Mayhem’, because it reminds me of the old ‘Black Sabbath’ song ‘Heaven & Hell’ because Dio is one of my biggest hero’s so I wrote this song for him. I also like ‘Opposing Force’ because it is a mid tempo track and I also like the song ‘Town Of Skulls’ because it is very fast and it also has plenty of melodic hooks. I also like ‘Blood On My Hands’, because it is a great ballad.”

“Yes it it selling really well!! Most of the press like it but there are some that do not like it, but that is their opinion. I think that the German press still remember me from my old days with ‘Glenmore’ and so they still mark my new band with ties to ‘Glenmore’.”

“Well it was done by a friend of Danny’s who painted death in all different ways. So when we had the idea’s for the monster we told him what we wanted and he would go and paint them. He just painted them in oil paintings and I think it look great. His name is ‘Matze Frank’. A lot of the press thinks it is a shit album cover (Laughing).”

“Yes we have had some trouble with the art work in some area’s in Germany. Some of the record stores say that they cannot sell it because little kids are coming into the store and they are getting scarred with the art work. I think it is stupid and I also think the children should not be looking at these covers. It is not our fault, it is up to the parents to watch their children (ED: I agree).”

“Well we have done a tour with ‘Annihilator’ and ‘Nevermore’ as well as doing some of the biggest festivals. We are also about to go on tour with ‘Saxon’ this week, and we are looking forward to that very much. It is like a re-union for me, as ‘Glenmore’ toured with ‘Saxon’ many years ago.”

“Yes thank you Jason for the interview, it is great to speak to you again, I hope we meet next year at WOA or maybe another festival. To our fans, thanx for your support and I hope you like the album. We hope to play the UK one day!!”