Noisehunter
Hi Ronny, please let us know a bit of the history of the band and if you all played in other bands before joining Noisehunter. Somewhere I read that the band was formed back in 1977, is that true?
Hanny, Erwin and I founded the Band Noise during our Schooltime back in February 1976. After a few months we invited Rainer Hormel to join the Band as a bass player. He left the Band in 1986 after we recorded the first Album "Time to Fight". He didn't want to be a professional musician, so we had to accept his decision. We tried some bass players and after a while, we asked Mats Nicklas to join us. He was actually a drummer and had his own band, but we knew that he could also play guitar and bass. He was with us then until 1992. Before we could release our first album, we discovered that there already was a band called Noise in Berlin, so we renamed Noise to Noisehunter. Until this time nobody of us played in any other band. Before we found our own style, we sounded like Status Quo.
I think that the music of Noisehunter is at the same time melodic, fine, fast and heavy. How were you able to mix all these elements in your music and make it sound that great?
It came just like this. We did not have a concept to choose and define a style. Actually, we wanted to sound a bit harder, but we did't have the talent.
I would like to know if you feel that the music you played came out natural and spontaneous or perhaps all your concepts and ideas came from clear plans of how you wanted to sound?
As I said before, it was our way of feeling the groove and we liked melody and several voices. Most Ideas were spontaneous.
You played very powerful Metal, still rooted in the classic Metal bands. This was actually a complete movement, especially in Germany. What do you think of that scene in Germany way back in the middle 80s where lots of exciting, metallic bands with great personality came?
We were one of the first bands in this movement that got a record deal. We loved the scene, everybody and anything around this was so crazy and powerful, especially the girls. Then suddenly a lot of small labels came up and signed every band they could get. That was the beginning of a silent decease.
I'd like to know more about your memories on stage. As far as I know, one of your most memorable concerts was in Essen in front of a big audience. When you played live, did you have any kind of show or anything special to catch the attention of the crowd?
Ah, Grugahall in Essen. This was in 1978. 8000 screaming teenagers were waiting for the early boygroups from England (sorry, I somehow forgot the name...) and we had to heat up the crowd. This event was initialized by the biggest teenager magazine from Germany (Bravo). We were to play two songs that night, but for some reason the whole hall where screaming for more. So we were allowed to play one extra song. We played our cover version of "Johnny Be Good", but not as good as Judas Priest did. The only show we had this time was the kneeling down of Erwin during his Solo on lead guitar and the unintended throwing away of the sticks by myself, haha.
Were there any things you didn't do with Noisehunter and still would like to do? What were the worst and the best things that happened to the band?
I think there is nothing left to do with Noisehunter. This is history. We had our time and it was a great time. Of course we wanted to be very famous, but this was not on us. Our touring, especially in Eastern Europe, was the best I can remember - hammer! The worst was to realize that we reached a point of ending all this.
I noticed that you worked with Tom Krüger at least on your first two albums. Since he was the man behind the controls in lots of great albums including Stormwith and Veto, what do you think of his work with Noisehunter?
Tom was a really nice guy and an excellent sound engineneer. If he could have had more time to mix, the sound would have been much better. He just had two days to mix a entire album. Imagine the result, if he could have had maybe 14 days...
I know it is a very hard question, but I think is quite interesting as well: what did you think of your three albums when you released them, and what do you think of them now that time has passed and you see things from a different angle? Do you have a favourite album?
I don't have the lyrics of any of your albums (Gama never included them, right?), so I was wondering what songs like e.g. "Federal Republic of Metal" or "Metal lover" deal with. How ample were the topics you used for lyrics?
First of all I want to say that a lot of our lyrics had mistakes and we now are ashamed of this, but the content is quite OK. "Metal Lover" for example is about a gigolo in the Metal scene. He gets all the girls he wants and he is a dazzler. Otherwise, we used the same stereotype of lyrics like all the other Metal bands.
Something that catches my attention on your second LP is the very fine, lets say ballad, "I would die for you" that sounds at the same time powerful, a bit tragic, but above all very well done. What would be your fave songs of Noisehunter?
These are some unpublished songs, I will send you a Demo.
Also one of the most remarkable attributes of your albums are your always present double bass drum, that gave the music heaviness and power. What do you think of the modern Metal bands that are paying more attention to drums and vocals than to guitars?
The change I realized is the expression and the character of the lead singers voice. Most bands have an expressive singer and a smaller arrangement of instruments behind this.
Seldom, if at all, one could see a review about Noisehunter, not to mention interviews or articles. How much did this situation affect the band? What was the aim for Noisehunter? Perhaps to live off playing music after getting major recognition?
We had a lot of press and some television in Europe, big Articles in Metal Hammer and radio interviews all over Europe. So I think there has always been recognition. Our main aim was getting a major deal and we were very close.
The third album was released on ZYX I think, did this help the band? We all know that Gama was not the best label in promoting, something of what all the roster suffered.
We expected a lot from this deal, but they let us alone, so the review of the third album was respectively.
Why did Noisehunter split? If you had problems, were those troubles hard enough to avoid any solution and split the band up or did you all simply get tired of Noisehunter?
If you see my answer before you can imagine that nobody of us was amused of a bad review. The experts said that there is no clear line in "Too young to die" and they were right. We tried to sound more commercial to come closer to a major deal, but this was a kick in the ass. Our ass! So we started to discuss about our sound and the way to go in future. We decided to look for a lead singer to reach the main aim. Before long, Erwin and Mats split up and cancelled their decisions. Hanny and I started to find new musicians then, which took more than a year. We found a fantastic lead singer and started compose new songs. 20 well-formed songs in another three years. Most of these songs I liked very much, but our new lead singer was not reliable and had problems to get his voice ready on the point. After a while, I did not see Union Rox (the new project name) come up with a new deal or album, so I decided for myself to give up.
Is there any stuff you recorded that has not been released yet? If yes, what does it sound like?
There is, but to me it is hard to describe. Maybe a little like ... I don't know.
To me, the cover of "Spell of Noise" is one of the very best ever done in Metal, what do you think of that one? I think there are two different covers of "Too young to fight", can you confirm this?
"Too young to fight"? We liked the cover of "Spell of Noise" a lot. The cover of "Too young to die" was actually for Accepts "Russian Roulette". We got this as a part of our contract with Breeze Music (Dieter Dierks).
What did you and the other guys do after the split of the band? I think only Matthias Nicklas is still playing actively in a band, any of you others kept playing music?
Matthias is having a band and he is working for german television (RTL). Erwin is having a cover band and he is working in a harbour. Hanny is doing some totally different music than he used to do. We call it "Ballermann Music". He is the owner of a really nice Rock-Club. I do not play music any more, I just listen and enjoy and i have my own little software company.
In your opinion, what would have been the future of Noisehunter if the band had continued playing? Would it still have been Metal, or could perhaps major changes have happened after some years?
Yes, I think we would have had some major changes. May be we now would sound like Bonfire!?
Surely you noticed the many reunions that there have been in the last years. What's your opinion about them? Do you, by any chance, have thought of reuniting the band, maybe for some gigs at least?
Honestly, we tried this last year. We had some rehearsals with the very first cast, but in the end it stranded on our time. Everybody of us has a fulltime job and, besides Hanny, we have familiy. Of course I wanted to show my wife how we acted on stage, so I showed her the Videos, haha.
Interview done by Jose Cano in 2004.