DAWNBRINGER Interview with Chris Black - Metal for Independents…

DAWNBRINGER is a unique genuine Heavy Metal band located in Chicago, Illinois. A mysterious aura covers the band that stays loyal and true to the path charted years before. Their latest effort is called “Into the Lair of the Sun God” and Crystal Logic took the opportunity to talk with Chris Black…

Professor, give us the date of creation, where and how the Dawn was brought to us.

I started writing this music in 1995, but the first release was in 1996. Many, many years ago, in any case. I simply wanted to record and release my own music, so I created these opportunities for myself.

From your first album to the latest opus, your musical style has schizophrenic forms. Where do you place Dawnbringer, how would you describe your music and which are the influences of the band?

I am influenced by heavy metal in all of its forms. Your friend is the same man whether he is dressed in rags or in an expensive suit. Likewise his surroundings do not matter, be it a crowded street or an empty house. He is still the same man, heavy metal is still heavy metal. You still recognize a friend.

Where this music evolution will lead and what really is the essence of Dawnbringer?

Again I can refer only to heavy metal. I am not trying to be flippant or dramatic, it's really that simple to me. Where this will lead, I do not know. The essence of Dawnbringer is to make albums. There aren't boundaries or plans beyond that.

From your past releases, what each one means for you?

Sacrament (1996) - This is essentially Dawnbringer's demo and easily the most experimental in terms of the different things we attempted. It does not have a lot of personal significance to me now, although of course it did at the time, although that didn't last long as the Unbleed writing and recording came up very quickly. It took me nearly 15 years to sell 500 copies of this one.

Unbleed (1997) - A very significant album in my personal history. Here we accomplished what I set out to do, which was make a thrilling, fast, melodic heavy metal album. It's very rough around the edges, but at the same time it has a vibrant energy that is authentic. The kind of album that can only be made by teenagers - indeed I was 18 when I wrote it and barely 19 when it was recorded. It was never mastered, and that will make a huge difference if we get around to doing it for a reissue or something.

Catharsis Instinct (2000) - Written in 1998 but not completed until 2000, this is Unbleed's somewhat malformed brother. Many people prefer it, but by comparison I think it is awkward and a bit underwhelming. It sounds to me like I wasn't sure where to go with the songwriting, and there is too much repetition of the lyrical themes as well. The acoustic guitars are this album's strongest element in my opinion, and I love the closing track "DNA".

In Sickness and In Dreams (2006) - This was actually written during a two-week period in 2003, then recorded gradually from December 2004 through 2005. The album form (14 songs in 24 minutes) was very much influenced by the band Zeke. In the long run this may be my favourite Dawnbringer album. It is our "thin green line in darkness". I also stopped using my pseudonym at this time, and the album cover is part of that step.

Nucleus (2010) - Our "breakthrough" album (at least so far), written very quickly and recorded even more quickly. Originally it was supposed to be a palindrome, and the first three tracks were written with this concept in mind. That approach soon became untenable, so instead we have 8 songs in various styles and the closing piece "Pendulum", which is in fact a palindrome. In some ways this album felt too easy, like it just came out of me without much thought or effort. There was a concept behind it, but I didn't press hard enough, so in the end, it's mostly about my alcohol problem which was really out of control at the time. I got sober about a month after the recording, so it was in some ways a cleansing experience for me. I don't think that's apparent from listening to it, but it's very much part of my connection (or lack of connection) with the album.

There is also an album from 1999 called "Snake" which has yet to be recorded. It is very progressive and bombastic, a bit like an opera. I still hope to record it sometime in the future.

You recently release your fifth full-length album “Into the Lair of the Sun God” from Profound Lore Records, an original recording with personality and uniqueness. Which was the writing and recording process of this material?

Ah, technically it is the sixth album as I do count "Snake" in the progression. But of course you had no way to know. I started writing last summer (2011) and then stopped to work on some other projects. Once those were out of the way, I picked up the writing again around December and January, and recorded in February of this year.

 
Which is the concept behind “Into the Lair of the Sun God”?

It's a story about a young warrior who cannot find a quest, so he invents
one for himself, yet still fails!

Do your lyrics affect your musical direction? Do you write separate from
the music?

For this album the story and the music were written simultaneously. The actual lyrics came later, but I was thinking in terms of a comic book or graphic novel. Each change in the music represents a new frame or image in the story. With each riff I knew what would be happening in the narrative.

I know that you write music from the heart and probably you don’t care about trends, but what do you expect from the music industry? Or, what would you want to succeed?

I want myself and my friends to succeed and that is what I am working for. More broadly I want to see music and sports change places in our culture.

How easy or difficult are things nowadays in the States regarding Heavy
Metal?

Generally speaking, making art is a difficult profession.

Do you have any plans about live shows? For many years you didn’t play gigs, right?

We have played twice in the late 1990s, then once in 2010, then once again this past Saturday! So now we have a total of 4 shows in our history. We would be happy to play more often. We feel the line-up and songs are working very well.

You sing and play everything except guitars in Dawnbringer. You also play drums in Pharaoh, you play bass and sing in High Spirits, same for Superchrist, and you were also member of Nachtmystium for some time. Plus, you also run an independent record label. How do you manage to deal with all these?

I don't know! If I stop to think about it, I get overwhelmed! It helps that I don't drink, don't watch TV, and don't have a "normal" job. Still, I need a break sometimes, and it can be hard to do that. There is always a new project on the horizon. Right now I am writing new songs and trying to rest.

So, what Metal stands for you?

Almost everything, right?

Thanks Chris. Keep up the great job!

Thank you as well, and you too keep up the great work! I wanted to release Randy on my label, seems like you guys were working a bit faster! Hahaha!

 

"Into the Lair of the Sun God" lyrics concept HERE

For Dawnbringer news visit the official FB page HERE

Visit Planet Metal label & mailorder HERE  

PRAYING MANTIS... This journey never ends! - Interview with Chris Troy

Praying Mantis is among the best and most unique bands that ever came out of England. The band is about to give some gigs during summer, while working on new material and I took the chance to have a couple of words with Chris Troy...

So here we are again. This is the third interview in the last years, this time for my personal blog/site. I’ve told you that Mantis' music always meant a lot for me. These melodies and lyrics made me wanted to be a better person, so thank you for that.

That is such a kind thing to say and it is very much appreciated.

“A chance we had, to cry for the new world”. So, do you think there is hope in the next years and what do you believe we, the people, should cry out?

Yes I do think that we will emerge and everything will return to a better level. Sometimes I look at the thousands of people as they disappear out of the cars, trains, buses, etc and head towards their jobs or things that they need to do. It all seems so such an intricate finely balanced economic model but in reality it only takes a very slight shift and everything can suddenly go off-balance which it has and it seems to have rippled everywhere. Some countries more affected than others! Cry out for more good music! :-)

“Time has no meaning, time tells no lies. Man has evolved as a predator in disguise”. So, is it all in man’s nature? 

I think it is. I wrote those lyrics in 1976!!! …And the theme seemed so very pertinent even back then. Around that time the population was under 4 billion and now it has gone over 7 billion in what is actually a very short interval in terms of the life of the planet. Yet we carry on unabated and if we continue down this incredibly blind and utterly ignorant path. Who knows what the future will hold. Man of course is the predator, maybe now, no longer in disguise..!

“Welcome to my childhood dream; reliving what I’ve missed before, time and time over again”. In July 27, Praying Mantis will play live in Cyprus at Power of the Night festival. How do you feel returning to the land of your father and which are your strongest memories from Cyprus?

I am hoping it will be a fantastic experience. My father unfortunately passed away around 16 years ago, and Tino and myself took him to Cyprus to see his family before he really became ill. So I have some very sad memories of the place but I also remember the fantastic people that we met… Everyone seemed so warm and friendly. We are so looking forward to it.

“Running for tomorrow, hiding from today. Running for tomorrow, can’t look back on yesterday”. But yesterdays define who we are, right? So, from all these past years of Praying Mantis, what do you believe you finally achieve? 

Well after all these years we are somehow still going as a band and this makes me incredibly proud. There is no doubt we have gone through some very difficult times but in addition there have also been some amazing moments. I feel so privileged to have been provided with a position to get our music and lyrics in a form that can be conveyed into people’s lives. And if they relate to the lyrics and interpret them how they feel the theme , then that is even better!!! There can always be more, but to the same degree we could always be richer! …i.e. I cannot complain, we have left our mark in history.
 
“Hide me from my memories, part me from my soul, but the pendulum of life will carry on”. You never quit music - thanks for us! – and that shows that this is something that you love doing. What music means for you?

No doubt it is a lifeblood. It is also a drug that sometimes you think you can live without, but then you realize you need it again and again, to have another fix! …Yes I am a music junkie!

“Hallowed and be thy name; seeking the road of redemption. Reach for the Gods in vain; guilty of love and temptation”. Which are the mistakes of your past that you would change if you knew the future?

Making mistakes is part of life. Some of those will inevitably be big and involve aspects that we may always regret. Yes there are certain stages at the beginning of our history where I think if we had ventured down that alternative road then we could have been where Iron Maiden are today! And in truth it was really that close! But you learn to be philosophical about these things and quite simply it wasn’t meant to be!

Back in Mantis, which are the songs that characterize your personality and your music?

That is a difficult one. Personally I love writing using minor chords as they conjure up darkness and a depth which consequently one can associate with equally dark and deep lyrics. That is me, I don’t think I have ever written a straightforward love song and I don’t think I am capable of doing that. :-)

After your last studio album, “Sanctuary”, you released “Metalmorphosis” with remakes of older classics. What’s the next step?

As you have stated “Sanctuary” was indeed the last studio album and any of the fans really did like it. “Metalmorphosis” offered us the chance to play some of the old classics with the current band line up. For the next stage, the cliche answer would be that we are working on a new studio album, and actually we are :-) … We will make every endeavor to make it the best album ever, but time will tell!

Give me a couple of words for each of the following names:

New Wave of British Heavy Metal – Great time. It was fantastic to be part of it.
Dennis Stratton – Fantastic guy and an amazing character. I will always fondly remember the time he was in Mantis.
Iron Maiden - Who? :-)
Diamond Head - Yes I think that they were a very good band; should have been bigger than they were.
Stratus – Sad in many ways. The key element of Stratus is that Clive Burr was in the band. I did actually really enjoy the rather brief period when that band existed.
Time Tells No Lies – It was the beginning for Mantis and people will always compare whatever we do to that album. Many fans/critics call it a classic now which is an honour.
Sanctuary – Most fans believe that album now stands up against Time Tells No Lies and hence hopefully we still have the formula to continue for the years we have ahead.

And close as you wish.

Thank you for putting together some of the most interestingly structured questions that I have ever been given to answer!!! :-)

Looking very much forward to playing Cyprus and playing to these amazing people. It will be an honour!

Praying Mantis will play live at 
Power Of The Night Metal Festival 
in Cyprus, along with other great bands, at 27/28 July 2012

7" Singles

Captured City - The Soundhouse Tapes pt.2 (1979) - also released as 12" single

Praying Mantis (1980)

All Day And All Of The Night (1980)

Cheated (1981)

Turn The Tables (1982)

Discography

Time Tells No Lies (1981)

Live At Last (1990 live album)

Predator In Disguise (1991)

A Cry For The New World (1993)

Only The Children Cry EP (1994)

To The Power Of Ten (1995)

Captured Alive In Tokyo City (1996 live album)

Forever In Time (1998)

Demorabilia (1999 compilation)

Nowhere To Hide (2000)

The Journey Goes On (2003)

The Best of Praying Mantis (2004 compilation)

Sanctuary (2009)

Metalmorphosis (2011 re-recordings)

  

 

Praying Mantis official site

with Praying Mantis in Athens 2010 
(Up The Hammers Festival)

SINISTER REALM Interview - Entering the Realm with John Gaffney

SINISTER REALM come from USA playing classic Heavy Metal with Doom and Epic elements. After two albums, they're working on their third effort and we took the chance to talk with the brain of the Realm, John Gaffney. Enjoy the interview and support this great band now. 

Lets go back in time, where and when did Sinister Realm was created? 

Sinister Realm started around the summer of 2008, a little before that I was playing in a band called Pale Divine with our original drummer Darin McCloskey. I decided to leave Pale Divine and Darin called me and said that he liked some of the ideas that I had brought down towards the end of my time with the band and he wanted to work on them. When we first started it was just me and him but as things progressed we thought the songs were really good and that we should get a full proper band together. So we did... a demo followed and we landed up singing with Shadow Kingdom Records, two CDs later and here we are!

How did you get in touch with Shadow Kingdom Records for your first album?

I knew about Shadow Kingdom because I had ordered stuff from them so I thought they would be a good label for us as they specialize in classic sounding metal and doom releases. Darin was playing in Pittsburgh with Pale Divine and he ran into Tim, the guy who runs Shadow Kingdom, and gave him our demo. He really liked it and offered to release our full length debut album.

At the moment, you are recording your third album, so in which production stage are you now? 

Well... we are not really recording the album, we are recording a demo of 5 songs. We’re working with a management company out of Europe called Gabriel Management and they want to shop us around a bit so they needed a demo to do that. We really just finished the whole thing up a few days ago. Hopefully something happens for us and we can begin planning to record our next album, which at the moment is titled "World of Evil".

Your second album, “The Crystal Eye”, is less doom-y than the first one and more straight, so what should we expect from the third one?

I think the third one will be in line with "The Crystal Eye". There's a lot of straight up metal moments but I always like to mix things up. Just like on "The Crystal Eye" there will be some slow, epic doom-y songs. I don't really like albums that are all one thing whether it be all slow or fast, I like when things are mixed up a bit, to me that gives an album some flow.  

Do you have any further information for us? Some songs names, release date etc?

The title of the album, as I mentioned earlier, is "World of Evil". I've written 7 songs so far, "Dark Angel of Fate" which is a fast Angel Witch type song. "Bell Strikes Fear" which is a rocking NWOBHM style number, "World of Evil" which is an epic mid-paced one, "Cyber Villain" which is a fast Priest style number, "Call of the Night Wolf" a melodic mid-paced one, "Four Black Witches" a  long one with some tempo changes and cool harmony lines and last for the moment, "The Crown of the Fallen King" which is a slow epic mournful doom-y number. We’re putting our demo out there with the help of our manager Bart Gabriel, to see if anyone would be interested in releasing our next CD which I hope would be out early 2013 but a lot remains to be worked out for the moment.

The line-up remains the same with “The Crystal Eye”?

Yes, thank goodness! Switching band members is never an easy thing but sometimes it has to be done in order for the band to move forward. Thankful we have a great bunch of guys that are all on the same page and dedicated to moving the band forward. Each member adds their own voice to the band and it's everyone's contributions that make Sinister Realm what it is.

The galloping bass reminds of Steve Harris, music reminds of Dio-era Black Sabbath, so which are your main influences?

Those are definitely two of my big influences. From a writing stand point I would say Maiden, Priest, Dio solo and with Sabbath, the first 3 or 4 Ozzy albums, Mercyful Fate and Candlemass are my biggest influences. From a bass playing stand point Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Bob Daisley, Roger Glover are some of my favorites and most influential. I've always liked bass players that add something to the songs so if you took the bass away the songs would not be complete, they don't have to be the fastest or most technical players, in fact as I get older I like that kind of playing less and less, I just really like bass players who play to the song and still add their own signature to it.

How did you get into Heavy Metal by the way?

AC/DC "Back in Black". I was aware of Kiss before that but I really flipped when I saw AC/DC on TV doing "You Shook me all night Long". The year was 1980 and I started searching for other bands like them. I used to listen to a college radio station, I don't know if you have that but in the States there are lots of them. The signal is not strong for the station but the DJs are college kids, so I would stay up late at night listening to the metal shows on this station and tape them on cheap cassette tapes. This is where I discovered bands like Priest, Accept, Maiden, Saxon etc. This was before the internet and I lived in a very isolated place, so I didn't have access to stores, I had no friends who liked metal so it was a real exciting thing for me to listen to these shows and discover new bands. It was there that my love for heavy metal was born and has never gone away.

Do your lyrics affect the music direction of your compositions and which are the themes you are dealing with? In your first s/t album there were more “demon”, “dead”, “damned” references and in “The Crystal Eye” more “swords”, “might” etc

I would say the music and the lyrics go hand in hand. Sometimes I'll start with a riff and if it has a certain sound or feels a certain way a lyric or two will jump in my head and that will set the mood for the song. Sometimes a song title comes to me and I'll sit down and try to write a riff that goes with the title or lyrical theme I want. As for what I like to write about, I usually write things that are a bit vague and use a lot of symbolism so the listener can put their own images to it. I like to play with imagery and words. Themes I usually like are the idea of searching into the beyond, the battle between good and evil in all of us, some of the things I see in the world or maybe my personal emotions towards people or situations. I think there was a bit more "Swords" and "Might" on "The Crystal Eye" because I was a bit angry at the time I was writing those songs, someone who was passing through my life was treating me rather badly so I guess my thoughts came out in some of the songs, at least symbolically.

In both albums your semifinal song is an instrumental with the band name in the title. “Enter the Sinister Realm” in the first album and “Battle for the Sinister Realm” (great track!) in “The Crystal Eye”. What’s the idea behind this?

I've always liked instrumentals, I think they add something different to an album so when it came time to write the instrumentals I wanted the titles to sound like a movie title, I was specifically thinking of "Planet of the Apes" the way each one of those sequels used the "Planet of the Apes" part… so thus "Enter and Battle for The Sinister Realm". I also designed them that they would flow into each other if someone were to play them one after the other.

What Doom Metal and Classic Heavy Metal mean for you and where do you place Sinister Realm?

I think of Doom Metal in the more classic Candlemass sense, it needs to be heavy, slow, epic and emotional. I'm not really a follower of all the various sub genres of doom like funeral doom so that's what "Doom" means to me. "Classic Heavy Metal" for me is 1980-1984. The seeds for metal were certainly planted earlier than that in the 70s but to me it all came into focus in 1980. Think about the album that Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, Ozzy, Saxon, Motorhead and others put out in 1980, it's like Heavy Metal really came into it's own that year. I know a lot of people refer to Sinister Realm as a Doom Metal band but to be honest I never considered Sinister Realm to be a doom band, I always saw us as 1980-1984 Classic metal. If you look at an album like "Heaven and Hell" or "Diary of a Madman", both those records have some slow heavy dark songs on them but I don't think anyone would consider them "Doom" records. So that's kinda the way I view Sinister Realm. We're a classic sounding metal band with some fast, slow and mid-tempo stuff. I think what happened on the first record was that we had two songs that were faster that didn't make the record for various reasons. If those songs had been on there maybe people would not have thought of us as a doom band, who knows though... it's all metal in the end, right? 

I believe that your main fan base residents in Europe, so how are things for traditional metal in the States?

Well, there are people that like traditional metal and it really seems like it's starting to spread to the younger generation. I see more and more kids when I'm out wearing Maiden and Priest shirts and I think they’re really starting to realise where the roots of metal came from. Metal still lies far out of the mainstream and metal core and stuff like that is probably what's most popular here. There is a legion of traditional metal heads in the States though, that guard the flame and keep it alive. Europe is great for their support of metal and Germany in my opinion is the metal capital of the world.

I saw you last January at Metal Assault festival in Germany and your performance was great. What do live shows mean for you and how difficult is for a band like you to arrange a tour or individual and separate shows?

Live shows are what it's all about for me, that's where you get to really learn your craft and interacting with the fans and metal heads is always awesome. I go to shows all the time as I just love the live environment. Here in the states it's not hard to get a one off gig and where we live on the East Coast we don't have to travel very far to play out of town. Getting over to Europe is a bit more challenging for a band like us, we haven't quite been around long enough to make certain things happen but were really hoping that we will be back to Europe and do a proper tour and that would be totally awesome!! So if anyone out there reading can help... drop us a line.

Thanks for the interview, cheers to the rest of the boys and I hope to see you live again and soon.

Thank you for your support of Sinister Realm and for helping keep Heavy Metal alive. We hope to be back in Europe in the not so distant future and we can all bang our heads and have a drink together... Long Live Heavy Metal!!!

 Official SINISTER REALM Site

Discography:

Sinister Realm (2009)

The Crystal Eye (2011)

 Line-up 2012:

 Alex Kristof - vocals
John Gaffney - bass, guitar, background vocals
John Kantner - rhythm & lead guitar
John Risko - lead guitar
Chris Metzger - drums

Upcoming Tour Dates 2012

30-06-2012 - Warriors Of Metal Open Air Festival, Ohio, USA
20-07-2012 - The Dirty 'OL Tavern Lancster, Pa. USA
21-07-2012 - The Pub on Main Macungie, Pa, USA
04-08-2012 - Private Party, USA
11-08-2012 - O'Reilly's Pub 2672 Coral St Philadelphia, PA, USA
18-09-2012 - The Pub on Main Macungie, Pa, USA

Dennis Stratton interview - British words of Iron & Harmony

Dennis Stratton is a legendary British guitarist known to many from his appearance in the first IRON MAIDEN album and for the few, by his long great course with PRAYING MANTIS. The last years he is active bringing the spirit of early Maiden in the new generations and he was kind enough to talk with us about his life in music all over the years.

How did you start playing music? Did you have any influence from your parents on that?

No, I didn’t have any influences from my parents. I started playing because a friend of mine who was in a band decided to sell a guitar, so I bought the guitar and started to learn the basics notes and chords. I used to go and watch in a pub a band called Power Pack, in the early days, at the age of 17. So I learned different notes and chords and then I joined the little band were I bought the guitar from. We were all friends, it wasn’t much of a band, and we just did a couple of rehearsals in a hall upstairs in a pub.

Which ones are the first albums and bands you’ve heard and loved back in the 70s?

The first bands I listened to, have to be The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I was sitting in the bedroom playing “Whole Lotta Love”. So that’s how it all started, staying in the bedroom playing Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple albums.

Most people don’t know that you played music since the early 70s. With Harvest from 1970, with Wedgewood from 1972 and Remus Down Boulevard until the Iron Maiden days. What do you recall from that decade? How were things for music in England back then?

Yea, you’re right. Most people didn’t know that I played in different bands before Maiden. Harvest and Wedgewood were sort of pub bands that did mainly covers, and that’s how we did get improved, by going at the pubs and playing for hardly any money, next to nothing. And then around ’73 we finally got a gig at the Bridge House (where we first watched Power Pack) with Wedgewood and there was another band playing there, with Dave Edwards, and we decided to get together and join forces and then came along Remus Down Boulevard (RDB). There were great times. Remus Down Boulevard started playing bigger gigs and we were signed by Quarry management which managed Status Quo and Rory Gallagher. We played in the Marquee and Jonathan King signed us who had a record company at that time and we recorded a live album at the Marquee around 1975. The biggest step was to go on a tour with Status Quo, because we were signed to the same management and we did a huge European/Scandinavian tour. That was unbelievable and we learned a lot in a short space and time, going from the clubs to a huge tour. And then, when we came back we had a line-up change. We had a different drummer and bass guitarist. We kept playing, but punk scene came along and there wasn’t many bands signed at that time…  

So, in 1980 you joined Iron Maiden. How did this happen and what the Stratton’s diary writes for that year?

Steve Harris and Dave Murray used to come every week and watched RDB at the Bridge House. I didn’t know they were in Iron Maiden, but they were familiar faces. Then I got a telegram that they were looking for a guitarist that would also do backing vocals. Someone with a recording experience and also a touring experience, so I fitted straight in. When I met Steve, Dave and Rod we had a little chat and they gave me a cassette and said to listen to them. I think it was a bit of a surprise to Steve and Rod, because being in a two guitar line-up for most of the bands I’ve worked with and listening to Wishbone Ash and other harmony guitar players, it just came natural for me to pull harmony guitars unto the early Maiden stuff, “The Soundhouse Tapes”, or whatever I was listening to the cassette, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Iron Maiden”, “Prowler”. It just came natural for me to fill out the guitar parts with harmonies. I think it took them by surprise because the harmonies did seem to work. Well, it did work, ‘cause they still using them now!  

It went very well and they asked me to join the band. At the time there were only three of them who signed to EMI because they didn’t have a drummer. I knew Clive from the early days and we were mates. I told him I joined Maiden and took him to the studio where he did a few rehearsals and then they asked Clive to join, so the band was then complete.

I worked only in the earliest stuff because that’s what we wanted to record. Signing to EMI lifted Iron Maiden out of the run of the mill bands that played in England at that time. You know, it was very hard for bands at these days, especially with the punk era coming in, a lot of independent labels opened up and put all these punk bands into singles, EPs and 4-track EPs, so Maiden signing to EMI lifted them out of that and became bigger. With the album coming out, the fan base of Iron Maiden was huge. They’ve done their homework, they did their groundwork, they constantly giged in the early days, so they did have a big fan base. In 1979 I was working with Maiden and in 1980 we carried on. We did some tours, with Judas Priest, Metal for Muthas tour – that’s where I met Tino and Chris from Praying Mantis where in the later days I ended up join them. It was a great year. The biggest thing was when we went to do the KISS tour.

What kind of man was Steve Harris back then?

Steve always knew what he wanted and he run the band with an iron fist. He knew exactly what he wanted – right or wrong - and he always knew that Iron Maiden will be big.   

  

How were things during the recording of the first Iron Maiden album? I know that Steve hates the production of that record but it has a few of the best maiden songs ever, like “Remember Tomorrow” and “Prowler”.

Steve didn’t like the production but you know, in them days it was all a big rush. The album was recorded very quickly. Luckily, I already had recording experience, so I did many guitar parts on my own with the engineers. It was recorded very quickly because there was the Judas Priest and KISS tour waiting. The KISS tour was very good and there I met Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. That’s were the crack started…  

So, why did you part ways with Iron Maiden?

It was just musical taste differences. I like to listen to soft songs when I’m not playing. The best way to relax is to listen easy listening songs and Rod seem to think when I was listening to The Eagles or David Coverdale singing “Soldier Of Fortune”, one of my favourite tracks, that I wasn’t into Heavy Metal or Iron Maiden and the argument started. He tried to keep the whole band together all the time, but everyone needs a bit of space. So the crack started to appear… 

How important do you consider the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement?

You already had Heavy Metal bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, but what the New Wave of British Heavy Metal did, was to bring out younger bands that were watching all these big bands all their lives, grow up, got their guitars, they rehearsed, recorded, doing the pub scene and it just gave them the opportunity to show what they can do. Unfortunately a lot of the bands didn’t get through and somehow disappeared after fighting a while. But other bands like Saxon and Def Leppard really make it. With Lionheart we did some amazing gigs with Def Leppard. So, some bands make it, some not.      

Do you remember Rob Loonhouse? The photographer of Iron Maiden and Praying Mantis? The “myth” says that he was the one who invented “air guitar”.

I remember Rob Loonhouse, he wasn’t a photographer, he use to dance around the dance floor with an imaginary guitar and he use to have competitions of who could do the best air guitar and Rob used to win a lot…

Which bands back then in England stayed in obscurity and deserved more popularity?

As I said before, the good bands made it, but there were some bands that I thought they had bad timing. One typical example of that was Lionheart…

You played with Lionheart, so give us a brief bio of that time.

Those were great times. Me, Steve Mann and Rocky Newton we wrote loads of songs. We used to do lots of sessions for people who couldn’t play or couldn’t sing. Unfortunately we did all the hard work but we did never deal, so that was how we use to earn their money. Lionheart recorded the album in Los Angeles and it took us 4 years of hard work to get us a deal with CBS. In these days, in the 80s, in 1984 you know, the AOR stuff… I thought Lionheart was a great band. It was a shame that when we came back from America, everything we were promised like tours, they all seemed to fell through. Bad timing, I don’t know, but Lionheart wasn’t given a chance after the album was recorded, to go on a tour for that album. We could go on a tour with Kansas, Journey, Foreigner, any other band alike.

From that time and on, you always had a more melodic approach in music, despite the raw Heavy Metal of early Iron Maiden. Which are the things that influence you in music?

I’ve always been in heavy rock bands and not so much into heavy metal. By joining Praying Mantis, that gave me the chance to show more of the harmony guitars and harmony vocals that I like doing.

In 1989 Paul DiAnno, while he was in Battlezone, he was approached by a Japanese contact to put on a show to celebrate 10 years of NWOBHM. So, if I am not wrong, then he contacted you and Tino Troy. “Live At Last” is the live album that followed under the name Praying Mantis & Paul DiAnno, Dennis Stratton. That whole thing had big success in Japan and Praying Mantis was established again as a band, and you became a full member, along with Bruce Bisland on drums, Chris (bass) and Tino Troy (guitars), while you and Chris shared vocal duties in the new (back then)  Praying Mantis album “Predator In Disguise”. This nostalgic NWOBHM celebration gave birth to a whole new music beginning in your career, right?

In 1990 we were approached by a Japanese company, Pony Canyon, to do three gigs in Japan to celebrate 10 years of New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Chris said that we can do it and they ask us if we could speak to Paul DiAnno and see if he was interested in doing it. Then we got Bruce Bisland on drums and later Clive Burr because Bruce felt from his bike and couldn’t play. We did the three shows and recorded it for “Live At Last” and I stayed with Mantis for many years.

You knew the Troy brothers since 1980, right? I really love Praying Mantis, but back then you had success mainly in Japan, and not at the rest of the world. Why do you think this happened? Which are your strongest memories from these years?

I know the Troy brothers since 1979 when we did the Metal for Muthas tour. I think we recorded some great albums and it is my kind of a band. Harmony vocals, harmony guitars, it’s not too heavy, and these were good years.

We were very successful in Japan, I think we did about 7 or 8 albums with Pony Canyon and sometimes I and Chris used to share some vocals. Again we had vocalist problems and we keep changing vocalists. That was a huge problem.

Which are the “Best Years” you are referring to the same titled song from “Forever In Time”?

It is about my early days, around East End of London, running around with a gang of kids and playing on sites where the houses were bombed in war and that was a part of the best years of my life that I just wanted to put into a song.

Later you parted ways with Praying Mantis. Why did this happen?

Pony Canyon had some problems and we were basically doing nothing. I spoke to Chris and Tino many times on the phone but nothing was happening. Tino went back into work, Chris was always at work but I wanted to do something different. Out of Mantis it was the first time, since probably my first gig, that I wasn’t contracted or wasn’t playing with a full-time band. I was basically on my own and that gave me quiet a lot of freedom, so I was contacted to go to Germany, Italy… In Italy, I am going the last five years and we are doing some Iron Maiden festivals there with different bands from Germany, Holland, England, all over, and these are great shows. It gives to children the opportunity to hear the songs of the first Iron Maiden albums.

I saw you in Keep It True festival in Germany this year with Roxxcalibur. You really enjoyed playing the old Maiden songs. What does this means for you?
 

We did three songs in Keep It True but when I go to Italy for the Iron Maiden conventions, there is a band, The Clairvoyants, one of the top tribute bands in Italy, or I would say in Europe for Iron Maiden, and they go on stage and play sets of early Maiden albums. And then I go on with them and do a 45 minutes set of the early stuff like the “Prowler”, “Remember Tomorrow”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Running Free”, “Iron Maiden”, “Transylvania”, we go through the whole stuff and I am loving that at the moment. I am going back to Italy to play on the end of June and then I will go back over there in August and September. 

Somehow, I’ve lost your traces the last years… So, what have you done lately?

I am still working very hard in England with three bands so I am constantly working. It is a busy time at the moment with all the festivals coming up. We’ve been in Bulgaria, South Africa and there is lot of stuff on YouTube and Facebook showing clips of us on stage doing the Maiden songs.

  

Knowing the mistakes of your past, what would you change in your music career?

I’ve made lot of mistakes in the past and I am still making them now!

Thank you Dennis! I wish you all the best from the bottom of my heart! West Ham is back in Premier League, also. So, good luck!

Yes, go West Ham! 

Ok Andreas, it was lovely talking to you. Everyone there in Greece, God bless you.

 Dennis Stratton Official Facebook Page