I N T E R V I E W

Interview Victor Smolski

In the new album, compared with the rest, Peavy modulated his voice; it was more smoothly. What do you think of it?

It's true. It was different from the last album. It was more "live recording". You know, we enjoyed the last CD and the last tour, but it was a huge production with orchestral stuffs, so we decided to make in the new CD straight and powerful songs. We did the songs ready for Nuclear Blast sampler which I produced, and Peavy like very much this kind of straight songs, especially with our new drummer André (NDLR : Hilgers), with whom we had a lot of fun in studio, and it was a kind of live recording.

One or two songs like "One step ahead" are closed to styles of bands like Sentenced. Do you agree?

The songs are different. You know the song "Terrified" from this Nuclear Blast sampler? It's this way. We just tried little different tuning. We also experimented other songs like "Lord of the flies" which is different.

Your new drummer, do you think he brings something new to Rage music?

Well, we'll see what he brings. It was easy working with him because he is a real metal drummer, he plays very tight, very straight, and he feels music the same way as we. With Mike (NDLR: Terrana), it was always difficult to make arrangements because he didn't really want to play head-straight; he brought too much fusion elements; it was not really heavy; he didn't like these powerful drum songs; he didn't like these kind of samples on mix, and then it was a real bad feeling inside the band; he is a very strange guy. It was absolutely not fun working with him anymore. André is very easy; he is a very nice guy. When he starts to make arrangements, he really thinks what is better for the song. In studio, he was pretty fast: in five days, he recorded every songs, and on stage it's good feeling playing with him because he always plays very "stable dynamic". With Mike, on stage it was difficult because when something fast going on, it's "dynamic go down" and slower songs are very low, so he always makes trouble with his monitor, although André is very easy. I think for the future it will be much better working with André because he feels exactly the same way.

Will he make a drum solo tonight during the show?

No, I don't think so, maybe later. He'll just try to play songs cool.

If we discuss about tonight, what will be the planning of your playlist?

Well, we'll play a lot of songs of the new CD and a lot of songs which we haven't played for a long time, songs like "Under control", "One more time", so songs which we hadn't played for the last five-six-seven years. So, it's really something new. And we'll have female way today on stage, so it will be a very interesting show.

Which guitarist influenced you the most ? Because your playing looks - I wouldn't say neoclassical - but clean and technical

I don't have special idol or something like that.

Malmsteen?

Not really. From the beginning, he was very good, but the last couple of years, I never listened something of him. I think my influence is more like guys like Shawn Lane because I played a lot with this guy. When I was in America, we jammed together, and we did a lot of jobs together. It's really difficult because when I was young I learned lots of different styles, from jazz, from every style of music, so the last couple of years I tried just to have fun with the guitar so I don't want to play one style, so I try to mix it. When you check my sound, it's just a mix of modern stuff, but it's also like blues basis inside, also classic style mixed.

Do you remember last time you came in Paris?

It was two years ago.

On April, 2006.

It was with Freedom Call at the Elysee Montmartre. Tonight, it's gonna be hot on stage I'm sure !

One of your shows in Paris took place at La Cave Le Chapelais (near the place de Clichy), on the 22nd of November 2003. To see the show, the fans of Rage came just after the Iron Maiden and Helloween show in Bercy, and you played late at night in front of true fans in this cellar nightclub, on a very narrow stage, where the sound was incredibly loud ! Do you remember this gig ?

I remember. Well, our sound engineer is a real fucking loud guy! I like very much when the stage is powerful. A lot of musicians use theses ear monitor and it's not for me: I like feeling the power on stage, especially with this new amplifier which ANGL customized for me.

In all your career, you reached very soon 20 albums. Have you experimented all kinds of metal : symphonic, heavy and trash...Does something remain you would like to experiment next years ?

Rage is a strange band because in every new CD, we always try something different. It's exactly what I like because we never plan how we will sound in our next CD. We just compose and then record what we feel on this moment. I think it's the best way to be true to the fans, because when you make too much business and say "OK, this CD was sold better, so we'll make the sound like this", it's bullshit. Last years, we tried these orchestral stuffs, more bombastic, the CD more straight; more powerful, and we'll see what will come next, I'm sure there will be something new.

So maybe you'll be opened to black and death metal, why not ?

Oh, I think the most important for RAGE is Peavy's voice, and he has a special style. So, I don't think we'll completely go to death metal.

You released every 10 years a special "anniversary" record ("10 years in Rage" in 1994, and "From the Cradle to the stage" in 2004). Have you ever thought about the 30th anniversary album in 2014 ?

Next, it will be 25 years. And I think about making something very special, maybe a kind of "best of" with a couple of new songs, with a lot of guests. Rage already did a ten years "best of", but it was a kind of compilation for the record company, not for the band. So, Peavy was not very satisfied with this "best of", cause it didn't really sounded like he wanted. We want to talk with Nuclear Blast, and may be next year we could bring a real "best of", like we want and a couple of new songs with friends and guys from previous line up, we'll see.

Tonight, you'll share the stage with Edenbridge...

And Freakozaks, which come from Russia.

What do you think about these new metal female ? If you had the opportunity to select a band to play with you on stage, which band will it be?

For me, all these new metal bands with female vocals, sound like Nightwish. Couple of songs are really interesting for me, but it's not really heavy enough. It's like too much pop music for me, so it's something different. I think during the last four, five, six years, there were too many female bands, which don't have fresh ideas, I mean it's copy for the copy.

Please, tell us some bands you will dream to share the stage with ?

Oh, there is a lot of bands! It's difficult. I think, I would enjoy going on tour with bands like Symphony X. I like bands which play every show something you can hear, not only just headbanging, not only just power, but something interesting for ears.