Jason Brown asks Alex Beyrodt if we really are Worlds Apart?
Progressive Metal with a Power Metal edge seems to be a big thing right now within the Heavy Metal scene, and Silent Force are another excellent band who seem to be getting bigger on every album. Silent Force features ex Royal Hunt vocalist DC Cooper, who also recorded his solo album 'DC Cooper' for Inside Out Records a few years ago and what a great album that was. Now that Silent Force are back and strong then ever their new album 'Worlds Apart' released through Noise Records this year is a awesome album, full of power and yet melodic as well as technical. I managed to interview Alex the guitarist for a change this time around to find out more about this new album an why it has taken the band so long to release it. Here is what Alex had to say.
Ok Alex, it's nice speak to you finally, it's been a while since we last saw each other, WOA 2001 right? I'd like to ask you if the debut Silent Force 'Empire Of Future' was a success for the band? Also are they any songs from that album that particularly stood out for you & dislike & why?
"Yes I think it did really well to be honest, but I am not sure how many copies it actually sold but I do feel that you can always do better. In my opinion I think the label can always work better as we have DC Cooper in the band, ex Royal Hunt and I don't think the label did enough promotion to promote the fact that DC Cooper is in this band. If I owned the label I would of pushed the band with promotion so that the sales were higher. Yes there are songs from that album that I like and dislike. The songs I do like are 'Empire Of Future', 'Live For The Day'. Songs that I don't like too much are 'Broken Wings', I think this is a good song but I feel it didn't work out too good live and that is my personal opinion, but if you ask DC I am sure he will think differently."
There was a question I
wanted to ask the band before when I first did the interview which is, was there
any other vocalist's from Germany that you wanted to sing for the band before DC
came along? What about finding a singer from outside of Germany if any?
"Well Jason that is a good question, I really didn't think about any other singers to be honest as I was listening too DC's solo album in my car which is a great album & although I was never a fan of Royal Hunt I thought this guy has a great voice. If I had to pick a German singer I think I would of had Toby from Edguy, because he is a great singer and a great song writer and a great performer. If I had to find a singer from outside of Germany I think it would be a vocalist from Sweden, because I think they are very talented in Sweden."
Did the band do much touring for the debut album? I remember you playing WOA and the time schedule was changed without really notifying the press etc.. so I missed you which pissed me off, shame really as I would of liked to of seen the band.
"I am sorry that you missed us live Jason, we weren't happy about that too as a lot of people came to see us from all over the world and a lot of them missed us as well. We had to play 2 hrs before our original time so a lot of people did not know about this. I would not of minded if we played 2 hrs later, at least we could of told our fans to come back. However we did manage to tour with Stratovarius all over Europe and it went really well for us. We also played in Japan for the first album only on a promotion tour with DC and myself doing acoustic songs which was fun. That was another reason why I was pissed of with the label, if I had DC Cooper in the band I would of brought the whole band over to play in Japan and not just DC and myself. He was voted best singer in 'Burn' Magazine twice in a row, so that was a stupid idea from Massacre Records not to bring the whole band over. Labels don't want to invest in things like this nowadays and that pisses me off!! For the 2nd album we toured with Angra and we also played in the U.S. twice and also we went on tour with UDO after that."
So why did it take so long to release the 3rd album?
"Well when we toured with UDO, my drummer Andre was helping me with one of my amp heads and he slipped and had to have a operation, which took 8 months for him to heal, so we could not rehearse for a long time, but finally we did manage to record the album. There were also other reasons why it took so long to record the album, this was due to personal issues and also DC became a father and he wanted a little time off to spend time with his new born son. Also we had to negotiate a new deal with Sanctuary/ Noise Records which took a year to finalize. The reason it took so long to release was because we were not happy with the first contract we were offered, so it was changed a few times so that delayed things even more, it is business and you have to be very careful about what you are offered. I also got married in Japan to my wife who I met on the Sinner and Primal Fear tours I did over there. We also had to wait for Dennis Ward our producer, who was working on the new Axxis & Angra CD's, so tjhat also delayed the album been recorded."
Alex, are you still a member of 'Sinner' or have you now left the band to concentrate on 'Silent Force'?
"No I am no
longer in Sinner, I left to concentrate on Silent Force as I wanted to put 100%
into this band and make it really work. This is more than likely the last thing
I will do as I have been into this business now for so long and I don't think I
could start another band after this. I also played for Primal Fear too for a
short time in 2000 with touring."
Moving on Alex, let's talk about your new fantastic album 'Worlds Apart', what a great album this is too!! Do you think that the wait for this album was the right choice?
"Absolutely!! I think if it was recorded a little bit earlier I think it would of not sounded as good as it does now. Everybody loves this album and I only found 2 bad reviews on the internet and 40 good ones. This time I think we made the right album for once and the song writing and melodies are good and the cover is good and also the production is excellent. We also played extremely well together on this album as well. We really did take our time with this album as we wanted to get it right and I feel we have achieved this."
Why did you only signed to Noise/ Sanctuary Music?
"Well we only wanted to sign to this label because we were on tour with Stratovarius and we also had a band on Noise called 'Heavenly' and we could see at that time how much promotion and work Noise had put into this band and we noticed that in every record store we went in we could find a CD by this band, whereas when we were on Massacre we sometimes found it hard to find our CD's. So that is the main reason why we left Massacre and signed to Noise/ Sanctuary."
Alex let's talk about the songs from the new album, what are the songs about in your mind? Also are the songs wrote as a team effort?
"Well we have 2 types of
songs writing within the band. the 1st one is when we are all together in the
same rehearsal room and we jam just like bands like Deep Purple did in the old
days. Every member of this band gives 100% of their ideas to the other members
of the band. We have some songs from the new album which are written in 5
minutes within the rehearsal soon when we jam for instance 'Heart Attack', if
you listen too the end of that song and then the beginning of the song 'Hold
On', you will hear the same guitar riffs on each song just played 20 times
slower. Nobody realized this and if you don't hear it you will never know. This
happened when we were jamming for the song 'Heart Attack', and at the end Andre
did not stop and he did another beat and so we carried on jamming and we carried
on with the same guitar riffs and for some reason we came up with up with the
beginning for 'Hold On'. So in 5 minutes we had another song wrote, slowed down,
which happens to be my favourite song on the album. (ED:
So this album 
contains only 2 songs with fast and slow riffs of the same ideas?)
No (Laughing) it does not!! On the other side of writing, I have a studio in my
basement of my house, so I am also writing music and I have 12 new songs already
wrote for the next album without the jamming factor. So I write song and burn
them onto a CD and present them to the band and I leave it up to them to decide
what songs they want to start work on for the next album. DC is responsible for
writing the lyrics within the band. I am sorry but I don't know what the songs
are about, that is DC's department."
When you managed to sort out the problems within the band, what sort of time period did it take to record this album? I notice you recorded the album in 2 studios, why was that?
"Well Jase, it took us only 6 weeks to record and mix the album. It was recorded in the studio where Dennis Ward record's albums, this is called 'House Of Audio Studio' were we recorded the drums and the rhythm guitar parts where recorded at VPS Studio, which Victor from Rage records. The reason why we recorded the album in these studios was because of schedule reasons and also for money reasons. Victors studio is a lot nearer to me that it is for us to travel to Dennis studio. The guitar solos and my bass player Jurgen parts are recorded in my studio so there was no time pressure or money lost so I could concentrate on the guitar parts. I am not one of these guys who comes up with 3 - 4 solos in a week. I like to come up with maybe 3 solos in a day."
As we are talking about guitar solos, who are your guitar influences? Also are you a guitar tutor?
"Well I am inspired by Richie Blackmore, John Sykes, Randy Rhodes, George Lynch, and Yngwie Malmsteen. I use to be a tutor but not any more but I really hated it because if you do it for money then you have to take every student and some of them were awful, like 9 out of 10 were no good and only 1 was great! If there is a bad student then really you should tell them to stop wasting their money, but when you need the money for living it is hard to tell somebody like that to stop wasting their time and money."
What songs from the new album do you like and why?
"Well I like the first 6 songs & I also like the track 'Iron Hand'".
I have to say Alex, that I think the slower songs on the album are more suited to your band and also they are a perfect identity for the band, whereas the faster songs sound just like all the other bands out there. The slower songs are great!!
"Well thank you for your
kind words, yes I kind of agree with you on that. I do think they identify the
band more and you are not the only journalist who has said that about our slower
songs. I think we will take care of this issue on the next album."
So why did you decide to call the new 'Worlds Apart' also do you feel that the album cover reflects within the title of this album?
"Well it was a decision which was made within 1 minute. We did have another title which was called 'Line Of Attack' and for some reason we were recording some parts for the album in Pittsburgh and DC asked me if we should call the album 'Worlds Apart' as I live in the U.S. and you live in Germany, we both live in different worlds apart. Yes I do think the album cover reflects within the title of the album. You really have to see the whole package of the booklet to appreciate the whole thing. We told the artist what we wanted and also that we wanted our trade mark so we asked him to come up with something that would be suited to the artwork for the album. We think he did a great job on the artwork."
When do we except to see the band touring Europe? Will it also include a tour to the UK?
"I think it will be before the end of the year. There is nothing confirmed yet as we are trying to find the right tour for us, so we are praying and hoping some good will come along soon. I hope so play in the UK too, as I have not toured the UK, only played in London."
Well Alex, it's been a pleasure speaking to you once again, do you have anything to say? Take care and stay in touch, regards to DC from me OK.
"Well thanx to our fans for their support, we hope they like the new album and we hope to see all of you soon on tour. Keep supporting real Heavy Metal music as we need the support of all true metalheads out there, not only our band but every real metal band. I will also send your regards to DC, and thanx for the interview too."
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