..."We’re Crown of Glory, we rock
don’t worry !!!!"
1.INTRODUCE THE BAND TO THE FANS. WHICH
ARE THE CURRENT BAND MEMBERS?
Crown of Glory exists since 1998, but
we were not a „real“ band because we always had to search a drumer, doing
military service and education. In early 2000 we found our current drumer
Sam who rocks since 20 years through the underground of Switzerland. The
other band members are Heinz (singer), Markus (guitar player), Phil (keyboards)
and Cyril (bass guitar).
2.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL
STYLE? WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES?
It’s something beetween Power and Melodic
Metal. That’s what the people let us know in their reviews. But we aren’t
really sure ourselves. Someone also told us that it’s simple powerrock.
But we think the decision is to our fans who can give us their style. It’s
important for us to have some catchy melodies. On the one side it’s good
to be a great musician and to play really progressive stuff, but otherwise
there are no melodies which you remember after hearing it. So we decided
to be „small“ musicians, but to do some melodic songs. Main influences
are surely Savatage, Edguy, Royal Hunt, Stratovarius and bands like that.
3.HAVE YOU RECORDED ANY DEMO? IF YES,HOW
MANY AND TELL US FEW THINGS ABOUT EACH ONE. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO
FINISH THE RECORDINGS OF YOUR LAST CD? WHERE DID YOU RECORDED AND WHO WAS
THE PRODUCER? HAVE YOU SIGNED WITH ANY RECORD LABEL?
We recorded our first demo called „Destiny“
in March 2001 in our own studio. It took us one week to record and mix
it. We did this in the evening till the early morning because we had to
work all day. So we hadn’t much sleep, haha. It’s important for us to have
an own studio because there is no stress about a deadline to record and
there is also space to do some experiments. We produced this demo cd by
our own with a good friend of the band who did the mixing stuff. We didn’t
sign with a record label.
4.ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH IT OR
NOW AFTER A WHILE YOU FIND THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER?
After a while there’s always something
that could have been better. But that’s the way things are turning. With
a bit distance we think that the drums could have been louder and certainly
everbody of us did one or two faults. But just small things.
5.WHAT'S THIS ELEMENT THAT INSPIRES
YOU IN WRITING MUSIC?
We all wanna be rock stars, drive big
cars, get much groupies, like every musician. But in truth we wanna play
the music that we love. We don’t want just listen to it, we wanna do it
ourselves. And in fact it’s exactly the music we wanna hear.
6.DO YOU THINK THAT METAL MUSIC SHOULD
HAVE ITS LIMITS OR SHOULD IT BE ENRICHED WITH DIFFERENT MUSICAL STYLES?
Music lives from various elements.
And we think that there are always elements to put together with metal
music. Perhaps techno isn’t the right element but rap vocals as example
can give some great music. Look at Stuck Mojo. But it has always to be
hard and aggressive.
7.WHICH SUBJECTS DO YOU LIKE
TO HURT THROUGH YOUR LYRICS? WHICH THINGS INSPIRE YOU IN WRITING LYRICS?
DO YOU LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT EVERYDAY SITUATIONS OR DO YOU THINK THAT SOME
TIMES FANTASY IS A NICE AND EASY WAY
OF EXPRESSING REALITY?
We like books like „Lord of the rings“
and historical stuff. That’s a great influence for us to write about. Some
things are fantasy stuff, some describe our own lives and thoughts. Sometimes
fantasy is nice to express reality, but there’s always the possibility
to go wrong. Means, you can’t see the difference beetween reality
and fantasy. But in times like this perhaps it’s better to be in a fantasy
world than in reality. But the decision lies to you.
8.WHY DID YOU SELECT THIS BAND NAME
AND WHAT DO YOU
WANT TO SAY WITH IT TO THE PEOPLE?
We wanted a name which sounds great
and powerful. The other reason was that we wanted to give „us“ a name which
shows our style of music. Example : You go to a cd store and you see our
cd. With the name „Crown of Glory“ you don’t have to think about it, what
style it would be. You already know that it would be metal with classical
influences. But that’s the way we thought about it, perhapt we went wrong.
9.BRING TO MIND ALL YOUR SONGS. HAVE
YOU IMPROVED AS SONGWRITERS AND PERFORMERS? WHAT'S THIS THING THAT YOU
THINK MAKES YOU EASY TO RECOGNIZE FROM ALL THE OTHER BANDS OF THIS GENRE?
We think we improved as songwriters,
but there’s also a lot to do and to make things better. But we know how
our songs have to sound and we think we really got a flair to do some catchy
melodies. As performers that’s something other. In Switzerland it’s very
hard to get some gigs and we did 2 in one and a half year, so we don’t
think that we improved as performers because we hadn’t a chance to do it.
We think our singer Heinz has it’s own style. When you hear our songs you
wouldn’t expect a voice like this. Perhaps you think it would be like Stratovarius
or Helloween, but Heinz sounds more like Eric Adams with his rough and
strong voice. And the other thing is that we don’t set us limit in doing
songs. If one is 10 minutes, okay, we don’t give a damn about the length
of our music. But it’s important that there is variation and not just do
the same old cliches. And off course there’s a great recognize because
of our melodies which go directly in your brain. And the stay there, be
sure.
10.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A GUY TO CONVINCE
HIM BUY YOUR ALBUM INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE?
First of all there are five great songs
on this record. It’s a various mixture of midtempo (Destiny), eightys rocker
(Don’t give up), ballads like songs (Immortal), more progressive and savatage
like (Crying Freeman) and last but not least of Crown of Glory stuff (Crown
of Glory). The second reason to buy our record is that there are
almost all copies sold. We did 500 pieces and they’re away. And in the
end you get really „value for money“. The cd dures 35 minutes and it costs
only 15 swiss francs (about 15 Euro, sending inclusive).
11.WHICH SONG OF YOURS DO YOU THINK
IS THE MOST IDEAL TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK?
We think there isn’t a song which is
ideal to promote. The songs have to much variations in it (tempo, style).
There are some extrems too. Look at „Immortal“ that piano played ballad.
On the other side you got „Don’t give up“ which gives you power and strength.
But we are planing a new cd this sumer/autum and some people will be surprised
about it. That’s all we say about it for the moment. You will get more
informations soon.
12.IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD DO IN YOUR LIFE?
Philipp would be doing something else
(hahaha), Markus doesn’t know, Sam would be working in a zoo, Heinz would
collect dogshit and Cyril would be brewing beer.
13.HOW DO YOU FIND THE METAL SCENE
OF SWITZERLAND? IS IT INTERESTING? HAVE YOU HEARD ANY NEW UNDERGROUND BANDS
YOU FOUND INTERESTING AND WORTH TO BE MENTIONED?
The swiss metal scene isn’t really
great, but there are a lot of bands. Sometimes we think every metal fan
in Switzerland is playin in a metal band. There are bands playin Death
Metal, others do Power Metal, there are also some hard rock bands like
Shakra. Special typ : Pertness, a cool running wild like band. www.pertness.ch
14.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? DO
YOU LIKE PERFORMING LIVE?
We love live gigs but it’s very hard
to find a possibility to play in Switzerland. There are not much people
interested in banging their fucking heads. We want to play live, so we
work hard on finding some gigs. Often we organise it ourselves.
15.DO YOU LIKE READING BOOKS? WHICH
IS YOUR MOST BELOVED BOOK AND AUTHOR? WHICH HERO WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE?
Sam likes Georg Sparkland’s „Big Lizards“
and would be the new Highlander (although he doesn’t look like Christopher
Lambert), Markus reads car mags, Phil just likes newspapers. Heinz is a
great fan of J.R.R. Tolkien. Lord of the rings rules. His hero’s are Frodo
and Gandalf. Cyril likes Stephen King, John Saul, Raymond Faist. Lying
in a warm bed and reading horror stories is something I really like. I
got no heros but there are people I’m looking up. But there are to many.
16.WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMPOSE THE SOUNDTRACK
FOR A MOVIE? IF YES WHICH ONE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
Off course we would like to do that.
But it has to be an action or historical film. An other possibility is
a fantasy film but after Lord of the rings there would be no fantasy film
in cinemas for a long, long time, we think.
17.WHAT MADE YOU DESPITE BEING FANS
OF THIS MUSIC ALSO TRY TO COMPOSE YOUR OWN?
There were always some Idols like Judas
Priest or Tomi Aldrige (Sam) who gave me the kick to play drums. There’s
so much energy and power in heavy metal, you must be stupid to do something
else (Heinz). It’s not just the music that, it’s a way of life. Heavy metal
can give you so much, it’s a must to give something back and to be a part
of the hm-community (Cyril).
18.WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE
POLITICAL SITUATION INT HE U.S.A. AND IN THE WHOLE WORLD IN GENERAL AFTER
THESE TERRORIST ATTACKS?
It’s a tragedy for sure, but these
terrorists didn’t do it for pleasure. Sometimes the U.S.A. do to much in
this world. They don’t have to be everywhere, everytime. We don’t need
a world police. But for the victims, and they were all innocent, there
can’t be enough words and good thoughts to remind them. Death to terrorism.
19.THESE LAST LINES BELONG TO YOU...THANKS
FOR THE INTERVIEW AND I WISH YOU THE BEST!
To Nick and the whole greek metal scene
: Thanks for giving us the chance to do this interview and to speak to
you. We really appreciate your interest and we’re honoured about it. Hope
to see you all on tour in greek (perhaps we’ll see us in two or three years,
who knows). Stay hard and don’t forget : We’re Crown of Glory, we rock
don’t worry !!!!