Helldorados hail from Stuttgart, Germany and they are Massacre Records hot new sleaze/rock n roll band. Having just released their second album (first on Massacre), band mates Chris (drums) and Pierre (vocals) makes this chat very interesting.
1. What type of band are you?
Chris: I would descripe us as a classical four-piece which includes a singer, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. To describe our style of music is much more difficult, I think, it is definitely Heavy Metal but it contains different subgenres like Sleaze, Hard Rock or whatever you want to call it.
Pierre: I don’t want to downgrade us, but I would simply call it a Rock N’ Roll band.
2. Can I get a backstory on the band/ band biography?
Pierre: After the musical apocalypse left the music industry across the globe in ruins. The Boogieman himself puked the four chosen ones back into the ruins of Stuttgart Rock City, Germany. And now the hit potential of a catchy ABBA tune runs through the sleazy Guns N' Roses ear canal and damages your brain with Pantera brutality - that's the Helldorados. Or something like that... (both laughing).
3. How did you guys come up with your band name?
Pierre: Well, once again, we were looking at the development of the music industry in the last fifteen to twenty years and lots of things had changed. So the El Dorado, the incredible golden country did fall apart. So, what has been left? Helldorados are here to make people think and listen to some handmade music, some Rock ´N Roll music with style. No fake! Guess, that is what Helldorados means!
4. What made you guys decide to form a band?
Chris: I guess just the love for music. I knew Steve (guitars) before Helldorados and we’d play in a lot of different bands from Top 40 to Punk Rock. Pierre and Gunnar knew each other before and played also in a previous Helldorados line-up.
Pierre: Well, and if the mountain wont’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.
5. How does music affect you and the world around you?
Chris: My world would be terrible without music! I’m surrounded by music every day. There are so many styles of music worth to be heard. You can call me a nerd – a music nerd. I don’t only listen to everything but I also have a lot of conversations about music through the day. It’s definitely my favorite thing in life! And it’s useful to learn from music when you want to write your own songs.
Pierre: Nothing more to add, except for the nerd thing...
6. What lyrical theme do you guys use in your music? What message do you want to send?
Pierre: I write all the lyrics and share it with Steve, Gunnar and Chris during rehearsals. I want everyone in the band to know what the song is all about, so they can relate to that. All the lyrics, every line and and every word is something authentic, something I experienced myself. Take our first single „You Live, You Learn, You Die“ for example. I wake up one morning, take away the curtain and look outside my window. On my neighbors roof, two dead doves with their heads bitten off by a buzzard. So here I write: „... like a dove without a head, you never learn to fly...“. But of course we also have endless nights of parties. So here you get the lyrics from the song „Girls“.7. What bands have influenced your band and its sound?
Pierre: The great thing about Helldorados is, that every one of us is coming from a different background. Steve is a real great guitarist who loves all great guitar players like Steve Vai, Michael Schenker or Georg Lynch. Gunnar is really into seventies Rock like Led Zepplin, Deep Purple or The Who. For me, I love basically every good song. Of course old stuff like Sabbath or Alice Cooper up to Guns N’ Roses or Scorpions. But you can also find some of the greatest hook-lines in the music of ABBA or a-ha.
Chris: For me it’s mainly Thrash Metal, Hardcore Punk and a mixture of these styles. Sacred Reich is my all-time-favorite-band. Otherwise I like stuff like D.R.I., Dead Kennedys, Terrorizer, Cryptic Slaughter, Black Flag and noise like that. But like you can hear in our music. So it is really a great mixture of everything that creates the Helldorados sound. If you want, call it Hell Metal?
8. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Chris: The best way for me to write new material is to meet with our guitarist Steve. He has a lot of great ideas and we can push each other. Normally Pierre uses to sit next to us to get inspirations for his lyrics. When we meet in the rehearsel room to arrange the new ideas Pierre and normally Gunnar join the process.
9. What can you tell me about your self-titled album? What are your expectations for it?
Pierre: I don’t know if we are in the position to expect anything but I hope that the people who bought the álbum, like it, too.. It is like everybody tells you before: the first album is the easiest because you have all the time in the world to write the songs. And we are fucking proud of what we created.
Chris: I’m glad about all the great reviews, the interest and all the support we get. That means so much to us, because it was a lot of hard work to realize the album. The next one will be even harder to fulfill all the expectations.
10. Do you guys have any new music in the works?
Pierre: Yes, absolutely!
Chris: We have already a lot of new material. After all we improved a lot as songwriters and it takes time to create something that we all can relate to.
11. What inspires you to do what you do?
Both: I guess, simply the love to create music.
12. What advice would you give to fellow bands?
Pierre: Maybe it sounds absolutely stupid, but be yourself. Of course nobody wants to hear this, but seriously who wants to see another AC/DC, Iron Maiden or Rammstein copy if you are able to listen to the original. Musically today no one invents the wheel anew. However, if I see a band on stage, I notice quite fast whether they are authentically or only pretend.
13. What are your dreams and goals?
Pierre: short-term to finish this interview and find some sleep (laughing), middle-term to release another album and make a living out of it, long-term repeat short- to middle-term goals
Chris: Hell yeah, but I already told you that the business is hard.14. What can the fans expect to see from you in the future?
Chris: Something you’ve always dreamed off, but forgot what it feels like.
15. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Pierre: First of all, get your ass in gear and ask your local record dealer about the latest Helldorados release. You know how it works! Remember holding a real record in your hands with lots of hours of work, putting together this awesome artwork and this unique style? Yes, and if you lazy bastard don’t get it there, surf online to Amazon, iTunes and all the other stores. Last but not least, and that is obviously the best way, find everything for a better living at www.helldorados.com
Chris: Thank you very much for your attention!
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