Not
many bands perform "Horror Heavy Metal". Obviously the most
well known combo in this genre is Mercyful Fate than later King Diamond.
But USA also gave us a great band : HALLOWEEN. This band is responsible
of masterpieces known as "Don't Metal With Evil", "No One
Gets Out !" and "Victims Of The Night", but keeps on recording
excellent material with "Horror Fire" and I guess the coming
"Terrortory". The following interview was done with vocalist
Brian Thomas... Conducted by Patrick from Iron Woof in Marsh 2007. |
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Hello
Brian. Tell us what records lead you to play Heavy Metal… The legend says
that in 1983, October the 31st, Bitch played its last gig and HALLOWEEN
played its first one. How did it happen ? And did you change the name
also because of Bitch from L.A. ? |
How
did you find bassist George Neal and drummer Bill Whyte ? George Neal was a friend of Rick's and was playing in a band called Roxx. We called him when we parted with Ed. Bill Whyte was in a band called Nightmare who were doing a kind of copycat version of us stageshow etc. When Mark Scott wanted to go back to playing guitar we started looking for a drummer. I had seen Bill play and suggested that Mark come and see him. He did, and wasn't impressed, Bill had a real bad night that night with the sound quality at the club. We kept looking, but then, Mark had to leave the band for personal family related reasons. I knew that Bill was better than the performance that Mark had seen and I approached him. At first he was reluctant to join but I kept pestering him and telling him that he should be with us and not a band that was copying us. Eventually he agreed and became our new drummer in Dec. '83. In ’84, you recorded a self-financed vinyl single, titled “Trick Or Treat”. I guess it was pressed at a small number of copies. Did it help the band in promotion ? We just did the 45 because that was all we could afford at the time. We were hoping it would lead to an album release. We had recorded the "Don't Metal With Evil" stuff twice. First time didn't come out very good and didn't include "Scared to Death" (that was written in the studio 2nd time around). I think we only made a couple hundred of the singles ("Trick or Treat" / "She's a Teazer"). I'm not sure on the amount, it wasn't much. It did help a little bit, but we still had to borrow the money to make the album. We didn't get a deal or any real money from it. There was also a self-financed cassette of your debut album. Why did you go that way some months before the release of the LP version ? Again it was a financial situation, we didn't have all the money we needed for the manufacturing of the actual LP so we made a cassette version that was printed by a friend of the band and personally hand stuffed by my girlfriend at the time and myself. The other guys and crew and manager and his girlfriend helped a little too but we did the bulk of it. We also didn't want to make the fans wait, we didn't know how long everything would take (artwork, pressing, getting the money worked out etc). Eventually we got the rest of the money together and released the official release. The “Don’t Metal With Evil” LP was released in 1985 on MCM Records. I don’t know other bands on this label. So is MCM a label you created for the band ? Motor City Metal Records was created by us to release other Detroit area Metal bands as well as ourselves. We never really got the funds together to make that happen so it became our personal label (it's always that damned money thing... ya know?) . How was the response for your first album ? Did you have a distribution in Europe ? Because back in the days, I never saw an HALLOWEEN album in French records stores... Here in our area it was really good. We weren't signed to a major label so we didn't really expect much but the record sold really well for us 13,000 -15,000 copies worldwide back then that was pretty good. We had a distributor here in Michigan that dealt with a lot of independent distributors. But as our luck would have it that company ripped us off and went out of business. We were there best selling act. They didn't like Metal music so they treated us like shit from the start, but they sure liked the money they were making off of us. It was a company called Metro-America and they sold our stuff to Important Record Distributors, Dutch East India, and several others we were sold in Europe, Japan, Indonesia, South America, Canada, and around the USA. I'm sure it wasn't promoted very much and that is probably why you never saw it. (We haven't had the best of luck). |
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Did you tour in
the USA for the album ? Were you headliner or did you open for some big bands ? We played a lot back then but it was mostly in the Midwest USA. We headlined big shows here in Detroit and neighbouring cities like Cincinatti, Chicago, Cleveland, and even in New York City. We have also opened for a lot of big name acts... Megadeth, Queensryche, Savatage, Pantera, Trouble, King Diamond, Armored Saint, Nuclear Assault, Crimson Glory, Skid Row, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, Metal Church, Testament, Seven Witches, Zoetrope, Uli Roth, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, Doro, Lita Ford, Wendy O Williams, Sanctuary, and many others... In ’86, you recorded your second album “Victims Of The Night”, but it wasn’t released at the time. Was it mainly because of financial reasons ? We had a deal with the studio for a set price. Due to several factors on both sides we ran into lengthy delays and the process was never completed, the tracks were recorded (some not even finished) but the record was never mixed. It sat in the studio basement, unfinished and with a discrepancy over the money owed, until 1996...Molten Metal records contacted us and asked about the unreleased material and we started working on getting it and getting it finished. We did the best we could with it considering the situation. I love the songs but it is not my favourite in regards to the production and the way they were recorded and mixed. I would like to go back and have a do over with that one... |
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I
have the ’87 “L’Amour Rocks” compilation LP, featuring
your song “Come And Get It”. How did you end up being on this
compilation ? Wasn’t Mercenary Records interested to offer you a
records deal ? Finally you released
the “No One Gets Out !” ’91 album on MCM. What kind
of response did you get for the CD ? |
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What were your activities between 1993 and 1997 ? Did you play in other bands ? We just played in Abandon and both George and myself went through horrible divorces. Which had a lot to do with why the Abandon stuff probably didn't go farther... In ’97, HALLOWEEN was back with the “Don’t Metal With Evil”, “Victims Of The Night” line-up and you played live. How was the reaction of the audience ? Was there a mix of old fans and new fans ? That show was very cool the reaction was awesome and there definitely was a mix of old and new fans. It was fun and it felt great to be back on stage with HALLOWEEN and the big stage production. Abandon was very bare bones just about the music and not so much the stage show so it was fun to actually have the big show again...When we played songs from "No One Gets Out" it was obvious that Donny's presence was missing, so sometime shortly after that show we re-enlisted Donny to join Rick on guitar... Man that was awesome but hardly anyone got to see it, because we started writing the next CD and didn't play out very much, then in 2000 Rick left the band and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. The same year, International Metal Alliance (a co-operation between Molten Metal and Hellion Records) released “Victims Of The Night” on CD. At last, justice has been done for this excellent album ! Were the reviews favourable in the press ? Did the CD sell well ? The reviews were all pretty good...Some people didn't like the electronic drum sounds that Bill was experimenting with at that time (including us), but like I said earlier we did what we could with what we had to work with. At least it got released, it is a descent CD...It sold pretty good too...It helped that it was the "classic" line-up on that record too... |
In
’98, you re-released "Don’t Metal With Evil” on CD
format (again on MCM). This time, the album got a good distribution. Looking
in the past, are you proud of your debut album ? As I stated earlier, I love the songs from both of those earlier records (in fact all of our songs have been pretty good), we try not to write filler songs, so they all are good to me, but the production on the first 2 records was limited by the budget we had to do them. I would love to hear them done properly. Over all I am proud of them, though, yes.. The same year, International Metal Alliance (a co-operation between Molten Metal and Hellion Records) released “Victims Of The Night” on CD. At last, justice has been done for this excellent album ! Were the reviews favourable in the press ? Did the CD sell well ? The reviews were all pretty good...Some people didn't like the electronic drum sounds that Bill was experimenting with at that time (including us), but like I said earlier we did what we could with what we had to work with. At least it got released, it is a descent CD...It sold pretty good too...It helped that it was the "classic" line-up on that record too... In ’98, you re-released "Don’t Metal With Evil” on CD format (again on MCM). This time, the album got a good distribution. Looking in the past, are you proud of your debut album ? As I stated earlier, I love the songs from both of those earlier records (in fact all of our songs have been pretty good), we try not to write filler songs, so they all are good to me, but the production on the first 2 records was limited by the budget we had to do them. I would love to hear them done properly. Over all I am proud of them, though, yes.. “No One Gets Out !” was re-released on CD (with the "Vicious Demos" as bonus tracks) in 2001 by Molten Metal, which was great. Are you satisfied with the work done by Molten ? John Mestad was an enormous help to us, we probably would not be together still if not for him. He bugged the shit out of me to do the "Victims" CD and then the rest came together from there. He helped us to get amazing artwork from Craig Simpson and was instrumental in getting the CDs out to a large audience whom had been denied our releases before then. We miss our involvement with Molten Metal not really sure what happened... Unfortunately, I missed the “Tricks, Treats, And Other Tales From The Crypt” ’03 CD. Can you speak about this album ? In November 2002, various problems caused us to disband (this time we thought for good). I won't get into the details but I wanted out of the business, I had had enough of all the BS and backstabbing that goes on in this business and in particular the Detroit music business people that we had been dealing with... In spring of 2003 our former merchandise guy called me and asked if I wanted to start a new band. It would be myself, Donny, a drummer named Jason Rossvannes (who had been a long time Halloween fan) and himself, John Guarascio on Bass. I said no immediately, I did not want to start over and I was working a good job and very busy. But over the following weeks he and Donny were persistent and finally I agreed to give it a listen. We got together and just naturally played through some HALLOWEEN songs to get started and it actually felt good. We were going to call the new band "Death Valley Driver" or "DVD", but as we started rehearsing John put some feelers out on the internet for a reaction, and found that a lot of people were still interested in HALLOWEEN, and in fact ended up getting us invited to co headline the Keep It True II Festival in 2004. So we decided to just go ahead and use the name HALLOWEEN. Bill didn't want to be in HALLOWEEN anymore and George was swamped with work and couldn't play so we thought well this won't be the first time that HALLOWEEN has had new members so here we were the 4th major line-up change. (thus the 4.0 on the CD). We decided to record a collection of HALLOWEEN songs. All brand new recordings of classic songs, in a tribute type setting and release it on the bands 20th anniversary; HALLOWEEN of 2003. We called it "Tricks, Treats And Other Tales from The Crypt..". and it was only a limited release. It features Tommy Vendetta (guitar), Jason Rossvannes (drums), John Guarascio (bass), Donny Allen (guitar), Brian Thomas (vocals). |
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Weren’t
Rick Graig and Bill Whyte interested to stay in the band ? In 2000 Rick Craig moved to Atlanta and recorded a southern rock album with Ean Evans (Lynyrd Skynyrd) in a band called Noon and in 2002 Bill left the band to pursue his recording studio endeavour and then joined Abandon for a short stint. We wish nothing but the best for them and all of our extended HALLOWEEN family. We all made some great music together, and we are still brothers even though we are sometimes out of touch... Donny Allen is back in the band. How did you find drummer Rob Brug ? Did you know him because of the third Damien album ? Why guitarist Billy Gray didn’t last long in the band ? Donny was in the band originally from 1991 to 1993 and then rejoined in 1998 and has been with me ever since. George Neal came back to fill in when John couldn't make the trip to Germany and got the bug to be back full time so he has been back pretty much since April of 2004, Rob Brug was a long time fan of the band and a friend as well through our friends in Toledo and in particular Damien. We recruited him partly by accident I was checking him out for a side project and when I heard him play I knew he needed to be in HALLOWEEN, Jason had injured his shoulder and we talked it over with him and made the switch. Rob is awesome check out Damien "Angel Juice". Rob also is great with recording he did our new CD "Horror Fire" and the "E.vil P.ieces" (EP). He is also doing an amazing job on the new CD "Terrortory" which were are doing right now. Billy Gray re joined the band in the spring of 2006 after jamming with us on stage during the 2005 HALLOWEEN season, he also appears on the new EP. The band sounds great with 2 guitar players that has always been the goal but we always had some kind of setback. Hopefully this will be a long term thing this time. We also have a guy playing some keyboards with us on rare or special occasions His name is Mike Rector he's not actually in the band just helping us out as a kinda utility player. He may do some acoustic work with me on some side project songs as well... Do you think now you will have to release your stuff only by MCM ? It would be nice if we got picked up by a label but we always have MCM as an option that is the nice part of it we know it is always there for us...We would love it if a label would pick up our entire library and maybe re do some stuff... You released the “E.vil P.ieces” MCD and “Horror Fire” CD in 2006. I’m glad you are back with new recordings. Until now, have you got a good response for both CDs ? We have had an awesome response to both new recordings which feels great to still have fans and people who like what we have to offer even after all the disappointments and all the time that passes. We still love to write and play and we are excited about the upcoming projects TBA... You
will play in a German festival in the summer of this year. Have you ever
played in Europe before ? Do you think of releasing a DVD with
an HALLOWEEN's show ? But also bonus material, as for example the promo
video you shot for “Trick Or Treat” ? Did you made other promo
videos ? Thank you Brian for answering the questions.
I hope they were interesting. feel free for the last words... |