Serious Black
Album Of Our Life

18.08.2022

Sometimes we do an interview for pure promotional purposes: a nice band has a cool new record, and we want the world to know about it as much as possible. There is, however, another scenario: a band does things that leave us wondering why on earth they are acting this way, and we approach them to get more clarity on that. This is exactly what happened to international power metallers Serious Black – the departure of charismatic singer Urban Breed was a shock to all the fans, and the course the band took on the follow-up record, “Vengeance Is Mine”, was also quite surprising. We did the best we could do in such a situation: we contacted founding guitarist Dominik Sebastian, and he spent an hour explaining us the reasons why things happen the way they do – both this time around and at various points in the past. Hopefully you will get more clarity about the band from reading this interview, too.

We followed you closely during your recent attempt to play a European tour where you fought very hard, but unfortunately did not succeed. For those who didn’t follow the developments that much, can you tell us what happened to that tour?

We had to postpone our “Kings Today” tour from 2020 already because of worldwide lockdowns, and after the last rescheduling it was supposed to take place this week. We wanted to do Spanish concerts in November last year, but they couldn’t take place either because of another thing. We thought for months about doing at least German shows because the crossing of borders would make it much more complicated than it was. From 22 concerts or something, we compromised to do just eight in Germany, so that we would not have any border crossings. But at the last moment the German government increased the allowed number of audience members, but they banned the promoters to offer catering, which means no drinks and no food throughout the concert. That’s not possible for some promoters, because selling food and drinks is where they actually get money from. And when a concert lasts three or four hours, people get thirsty, of course – how do they think it could work? We really wanted to accept every little thing that the government requested – wearing a mask, remaining seated or whatever; we just wanted to bring some normality to people’s life. Everyone wants to go out and watch live music, this was the reason why we fought that hard to do at least those eight concerts. But it didn’t happen because some promoters couldn’t afford doing it without catering, and if it’s only five concerts, it makes no sense for us doing it, so we had to postpone it again. Luckily Mario (Lochert, bass) did a great job, he managed to find great touring dates in November and December this year; it wasn’t possible sooner anyway. Every active band in the world is just waiting for a green light to go on tour again, and they have reserved every possible date. I don’t know how Mario did it, but he found a good route for the tour in November and December.

Your Russian gigs a few years ago were also unfortunately cancelled at the very last moment, even though you actually arrived in St. Petersburg. This situation was never explained by the local promoters, maybe you could finally tell everybody what happened?

(laughs) Actually I don’t really know. We were in Tokyo, Japan, and had to fly to Russia the next day, so it was quite stressful for us as well, but in Tokyo we were told that the Russian gigs wouldn’t take place. They told us that the locations were closed – that’s what we got to hear from the Russian promoter. I don’t really believe that, but I don’t know what is the real thing behind that. Of course, for us it was too close to be able to change flights and go directly from Tokyo back to Germany, or to Austria for me, so we had to go over to St. Petersburg. We had a great evening there, a great dinner and some vodka, of course, and took a flight home the next day. It was very strange, very strange.

With Serious Black you’ve had a lot of quite difficult situations – cancellations like these, famous members such as Roland Grapow or Bob Katsionis leaving. The band in general looks quite unlucky from the outside, but how does it feel from the inside? Why does it all happen to you?

(laughs) Well, membership changes happen in every band – look at Metallica, Iron Maiden, you name it. Every band has personal problems now and then. For Serious Black it seems that we’re doing every record with different people. (laughs) The first time when it happened with Roland Grapow and Thomen Stauch, it happened because they had health problems or other stuff to do, so we already played our first tour with a different line-up – Bob joined, and later Alex Holzwarth joined. All these people had some great jobs to do outside Serious Black – Alex with Rhapsody Of Fire and now Rhapsody, and Bob with Firewind, so now and then we had to look for a different drummer or a different guitar player. It’s just Mario and me who have played at every single Serious Black concert!

The big thing was, of course, the departure of Urban. That’s the most cutting thing for a band, when the singer is changing. Look at Iron Maiden – they have had this problem twice, but still they are here. It’s not the best thing to have, but I think for Serious Black it was for the better. The period before it came to the point where Urban quit was extremely unnerving and exhausting, because… I’m looking for the right words… it’s not that easy…

It all began before the recording of the previous album, “Suite 226” (2020). On this record I was much more involved than on the other albums, because I had had my public job and stuff like that. On “Suite 226” I was much more involved in the recording process, it was very difficult to work with Urban because he didn’t hold any deadlines for delivery of his vocal performances. He sat in his house in the U.S., and we thought that he would record his vocal lines to finish the record. But he didn’t give a shit about any deadlines, and he wasn’t even reachable for us or the record company, we couldn’t get him on the phone or via email, he wouldn’t respond. We just wanted to know what the problem was to find a solution together. We even tried to reach him through friends or family – no, nothing, he just didn’t deliver. We got his final recordings three months after the deadline – can you imagine? No one says anything about a week or two if at least every second day something comes over, but he was just like dead and delivered his final recordings three months after the deadline. It was so annoying, we were already really angry and aggressive, but you can’t go over to the U.S. and punch him in the face. (laughs)

That’s also the reason why we didn’t do any special boxset for that album. We had special boxsets for every record we have released, starting from the first one, “As Daylight Breaks” (2015), but not for “Suite 226” because of this major delay by Urban. Of course, chart entries were bad like hell, we lost many interviews and cover stories, but it wasn’t the end yet. We already had a tour with Hammerfall booked, and it makes no sense to go on tour with such a big band without a record. Mario did the finalization of the record in a few days so that at least we could keep the release date. On tour, Urban’s behavior increased. He didn’t show up for soundchecks, he didn’t show up in the merchandise area after shows, he sometimes didn’t perform the way he used to on the previous tours. It was such a “fuck-it-all” attitude. Also he told lies about us to crewmembers, which they told us later on. He told them, “I don’t need any soundcheck because Dominik can’t play the guitar, he’s an asshole and blah blah blah”. I would really get angry with him sometimes. We had some discussion, quite serious, Serious Black discussion. (everybody laughs) For me, I would prefer to kick him out right after that tour and say, “Here’s your flight, never see you again, bye”. But this didn’t happen, because we wanted to do some summer festivals, and the next tour was planned, the “Kings Today” tour. We couldn’t kick him out like I would do.

Some months later, in 2020, when all the lockdown happened, he apologized. He contacted us over a closed chatroom from the “Mirrorworld” tour or whatever, there were only me, Ramy (Ali, drums) and a former crewmember in it. In this chat, he apologized for his behavior in the last years, “hope you can understand and excuse” and stuff like this. We looked at each other like, “What the fuck? If he wants to have a talk with us, he knows exactly how he could reach us in an official way. It makes no sense to use a closed chatroom”. If he really wanted to talk about what happened, he knew how he could do it. So we didn’t react and waited for an official request to talk or apologize, but it never came.

A few days later we started getting requests from magazines and business partners. They asked us, “What’s going on with Serious Black? Urban posted on Facebook that he was out of Serious Black”. The magazines contacted us, and that’s how we got to know that Urban was out. He never asked to have a talk or apologized, he just posted in public that he was out. And later on he tried to turn around the situation in his own favor, so that he would stand there better than us. It was ridiculous, and it became clear for all of us that we couldn’t work with him anymore.

After the departure of Urban, Henning Basse (ex-Firewind, ex-Metalium) stepped in to help you with vocal melodies. Why didn’t you continue with him on a permanent basis?

We were in touch with several singers worldwide to find the right singer for us. Henning Basse was an idea, but we didn’t come together on business matters. On some songs we worked together quite well, we used some of his ideas for melody lines and also some lyrics, so he helped us out on, I think, four songs, and we also got his feedback on some other songs. I would tell him, “What do you think of this?”, and he would say, “That’s great, take it”. But when it comes to becoming our permanent singer, we didn’t get together. Meanwhile, AFM Records told us that Eden’s Curse were splitting up, and that Nikola (Mijic) would be a great choice for us. That was the point where we left it with Henning. But we are great friends, and we will probably work together on some songs for the next album.

We didn’t find any songwriting credits on “Magic” and “Suite 226”, so could you please say a few words about the songwriting process in the band: how was it like before, and how is it like at the moment?

Every one of us brings in some ideas, riffs, songs, whatever. We are listening through all the stuff, and then we choose the best of the best to work on. On the last albums there are many songs of Urban, some are by Bob, and Jan (Vacik, keyboards) did quite many songs. On the first record there were Roland, Thomen, Jan, Mario and me, we worked really close together. On the other albums Bob worked close with Urban, Jan did a lot of work. Every one of us writes. The only thing that was different is that on the previous albums Urban did all the lyrics, or at least most of them. On this record, everything is done by ourselves, many songs and lyrics were written by Mario, sometimes in cooperation with Ramy or with me, I wrote some songs in cooperation with Mario and Ramy, one song was written by Ramy in cooperation with all of us. (laughs) “Vengeance Is Mine” is really a cooperative album. Whoever brings in a good song, it is taken.

As far as we understand, the songs on “Vengeance Is Mine” are more about personal topics, love and rock music, which is quite different from the previous two albums. Did you and Mario grow tired of fantasy and psychology concepts that were present on “Magic” and “Suite 226”, or is it the influence of the new singer?

No, it’s not the influence of the new singer, because when we wrote the lyrics, we didn’t have Nikola onboard. But we had to do the lyrics, because we didn’t want to waste any time. All the instruments had been done, the arrangements had been done, and we didn’t want to wait until we found the right person on the microphone so that this person would have to write the lyrics and the vocal lines. We worked proactively so that when we got the right singer, he would perform what we had done. On the next record, of course, Nikola would be much more involved in the writing process, but on this record we did it ourselves. And it just happened that a few months before all the things happened with Urban, after the relationship that Mario had had for the past four years or something, he was just dropped like hot potato from one day to the other. They were together, he did everything for her, he helped her out of some personal stuff, including drugs and stuff like this, he gave her a new perspective, a new life more or less. On the very last day before she left him, they sat together, and she told him that she would never leave him, that she was so happy with him and blah blah blah. And 12 hours later it was like, “I don’t give a shit what you’ve done for me, I leave you alone, fuck off”. (laughs bitterly) You can imagine how Mario looked. This was the kickstart for the lyrics which turned out very emotional and personal. We looked very deep inside ourselves in those lyrics. On top of it, when she left him, she said lies about him, about us, his entourage – it’s just sad how wrong you can be about a person. We had also known her for the past four years, and it all seemed quite good. She was playing with Mario’s child, and they seemed to go along very well with the mother of his child. Everything looked perfect! This is the storyline of Mario’s lyrics.

And the other part of the concept has to do with various people in our daily lives that we had to work together with – musicians, business partners, stuff like that, who also said lies. It’s about intrigues, megalomania, egomania, we had to deal with that, and we sometimes covered then against bad things, against a record company or whatever. It was for us a psychological thing to write it all down, to rectify everything, we wanted to clear up all the things that have happened, we are simply sick and tired of this kindergarten, and we just don’t want to, and will not cover anyone anymore.

In the Russian language, there’s an expression “Suite 6”, which means “High security mental hospital” or “psycho ward”. Does the number 226 has a similar meaning in English or German languages, or is there any other meaning behind this number?

There is some, if remember well, it’s a date of birth of someone. (Urban Breed was born on February 26, 1970 – ed.). And suite is like a hotel room, but in a psychological way. It’s a cell, but the protagonist that’s kept in this cell thinks he’s in a hotel room or something.

In the box set of “Vengeance Is Mine” there is a bonus CD with eight cover versions of pop hits. As far as we remember, you didn’t do any cover versions before it. Why did you decide to a full cover CD? How did you choose the songs for it?

Actually we did one cover version on “As Daylight Breaks”, it was “No Son Of Mine” by Genesis. We always wanted to do a cover CD, but it wasn’t possible, because Urban didn’t want it. Now we were free in every meaning of this word, and we did it. Every one of us came up with some songs which could be great to do in the Serious Black style. We didn’t want to have too many rock songs, we searched for pop songs like “Take On Me” by A-Ha or “Spending My Time” by Roxette. We had a list of 20 or 30 tracks, and then we decided which songs could be redone in the Serious Black style in the best possible way. We didn’t want to cover a metal song to turn it into another metal song, we’re not a cover band. When I want a cover version, it shouldn’t sound like it’s done by a cover band. It should be Serious Black – and even if you know the song from the radio, it’s now different, really different, it’s Serious Black. Again, as on the actual record, we worked very closely, and it’s actually the first time since “As Daylight Breaks” that we worked like this. “Mirrorworld” – I have no memories of this record actually! (laughs) I did some solo stuff and some acoustic stuff, but when the CD was done, I was like, “Oh, is this the CD? Interesting!”

We’re looking forward to hear the cover CD very much! The promotional copy doesn’t include it!

It’s only possible if some of you gets the box. It’s not going to be released in any other way. Maybe in a few years it will be put on streaming platforms, but I haven’t laid my hands in the fire. For the time being it’s exclusive to the box.

A similar question – how are you going to choose songs for your setlists? Will you focus on “Vengeance Is Mine”, or will you continue playing a lot of older stuff?

Of course it will be a potpourri, a best-of, if you want, of new stuff and old records. We focus more on the songs from “As Daylight Breaks” and “Vengeance Is Mine”, and in between there will come across some songs off “Mirrorworld”, “Magic” and stuff. We will play many songs from “As Daylight Breaks” because they are evergreens, and they are exactly the music that we wanted to play: power metal. The other records had more influences of prog, rock and stuff like this, and most of the songs are not that catchy for live performances, while on “As Daylight Breaks” you have “Akhenaton”, you have “I Seek No Other Life”, we know that those songs work on stage. Of course, we will have one or two songs from every other record, and, of course, we have to promote “Vengeance Is Mine”. We have a new singer – why should he do too many songs from old eras?

Apart from Serious Black, you are involved in Edenbridge and Jacobs Moor, Ramy and Nikola also have other commitments. How are you able to arrange your schedules so that Serious Black remains, at least until the pandemic, an active touring band even though everybody plays elsewhere?

That’s absolutely normal, because once in a while you want to play different music styles. Up to now it hasn’t been a problem, but for everyone in Serious Black it should be clear that this should be their main band. If there is a collision of a date with Edenbridge, they know exactly - “OK, we have a date here, but Serious Black are also playing, so we cannot play with Dominik”. They have to find a substitute for me so that they could play their concert. For Ramy, I think, it’s quite similar. He’s playing with Iron Mask, I think, two times a year. (laughs) Nikola has Alogia and Eden’s Curse, they didn’t split up, that’s what I know now. Of course, we talk to managers of all the other bands, and if I have a concert with Jacobs Moor, I tell Mario, “If possible, I’m not available here”, and he takes care of those things. First come – first served, but the most important gig will be with Serious Black anyway.

You’ve been playing very many different kinds of metal with different bands: Mortus was quite close to gothic metal, Thirdmoon are melodic death metal, Edenbridge are sympho metal, and Serious Black are heavy/power metal. What music do you listen for your own pleasure? Are there any styles you would like to play, but haven’t had the opportunity yet?

Most of the stuff I listen to in my private room is classical music and movie scores, like Hans Zimmer, James Horner or whatever. Other things are prog rock and things like that. Of course, I sometimes listen to more extreme stuff like Nevermore and even Sepultura, or more symphonic stuff, like Nightwish or Within Temptation. I also play classical guitar, this is my main instrument so far, finger picking, Johann Sebastian Bach and stuff like that…I learned it at music school for 12 years, but I haven’t played it for a long long time.

You and Mario are the backbone, so to say, of Serious Black, you’re the only ones who’ve been in the band since the very beginning even though others come and go. How did you first meet each other? Do you always agree on everything, or do you quarrel a lot?

It was 12 years ago. I was playing with Edenbridge at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, it was at Kohlrabizirkus, a big hall, where Mikael Akerfeldt was also playing, and Mario was with us as a sound engineer. That’s where we met for the first time, and we had a good time together. Then I did not see him for a few years, but then I went to Dreamsound Studios in Munich for some recordings with another guy, I was paid to play guitar on his stuff, and Mario was the sound engineer again. We got to talk more, and he told me about his idea about creating a band with some stars in it, a band where everyone writes, where we work closely together, like in a real band, not with one songwriter and a few minions who only play. That was quite interesting for me, because I knew that I could play (laughs), and we worked together quite well and liked each other in some way. So it happened that I joined Serious Black.

In the first few years I was more or less a guitar player. I did some solo stuff on the records, some acoustic stuff, some writings as well, a chorus here and some verses there, but starting from “Suite 226”, I’m the second person after Mario in the band. We are the only ones who are left over from the original band. Of course, we don’t agree on every single thing, but it’s not much arguing that we do. Once in a while I have my own ideas, and I’m telling him about them, but as long as he explains me why something is like this and something is not like this, I’m fine with that. He never says just, “No, fuck it.” He explains why we do this and why we don’t do that, and for me it’s OK. My idea is probably not the worst idea, probably we could use it later. It’s not really arguing, but a good discussion on the eye level, I would say.

Now that the tour is rescheduled for autumn, and the album is completed and will be out in two weeks, what plans do you have for Serious Black for the near future?

First of all, we have to concentrate on the release to promote it more and more; of course, we’re doing interviews right now, and it’s very important because it didn’t happen with the last record in that way. The first concerts are going to happen in early March, we are planning to go to Spain for three concerts, one near Sevilla is a festival, and the signs are good that we’re gonna play those concerts. It would be the first three concerts after the release, and we’re looking forward to that. In the summer we’re already booked for some festivals, one is in Austria, it’s called Area 53. Then we will see how the release is working, because when a release gets great chart entries and stuff like that in the first weeks, then promoters might go like, “Oh, Serious Black have a new CD, it’s good (laughs), we have a spot here and a spot there, let’s invite them”. We hope the release will do great and promoters will jump on that and give us a call that they want us on their festival.

Serious Black on the Internet: http://www.serious-black.com

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova (AFM Records) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Photos courtesy of AFM Records
February 8, 2022
© HeadBanger.ru