Doro
My Fans Are My Life

09.07.2009

When people start calling somebody “king” or “queen”, it’s not for nothing. Titles like “a new sensation”, “the hottest newcomer”, “No. 1 selling artist” may come and go in a minute, but you have to really sacrifice your life for music to be called a “king” or a “queen”. When Doro Pesch is referred to as “German metal queen”, this expression is justified by 100% percent. And the story of this interview will give you the idea why. We met Doro in Moscow, where she was playing a show in support of her latest album “Fear No Evil”. Originally the interview was supposed to take place before the show, but the band and the singer didn’t have enough time for the soundcheck, so the tour manager suggested coming back when the stage lights are out. Nobody knew at that point that Doro, delighted by the fans’ warm response, would not only add six or seven extra songs to the setlist, but also remain on stage after the gig to sign stuff for the next 75 (!!!) minutes. In the middle of the improvised signing session we approached the tour manager again, basically thinking that for us the game was over. “No, no, she will do it,” the tour manager said. And she really did! Even though it was well after midnight, even though her flight was taking off in six hours, even though she had a terrible cold and was tired as hell, she still found the time to speak to the reporters from a webzine we’re sure she’d never heard before of. A really unique and unbelievable person – that’s all we can say.

How did you like tonight’s performance?

The Russian audience is awesome. Ever since we came here for the first time, I think it was in 2001, it’s been awesome, and tonight it was again so overwhelming and unbelievable. They were singing every song from the first minute until the last minute, there was high energy and so much adrenaline. It’s such an honor for me to be here. The first time when I came to Russia, I played in this club, and now I’m coming back! I didn’t expect it, I thought the show would hopefully be great, but it turned out more than anybody could ever wish for.

Your latest album “Fear No Evil” entered the German national charts at position No. 11, which is your highest chart entry in Germany ever…

Yeah, for heavy metal it’s unbelievable! You have to compete with all pop music…

We really like the new album, but the albums before that, such as “Calling The Wild” or “Fight”, were also amazing. In your opinion, what made “Fear No Evil” such a big success?

I think the time for metal is better than ever. We had two singles out before – “Celebrate / Night Of The Warlock” and “Herzblut”, and they were very successful too. In Spain, “Celebrate” hit the charts at No. 3, which is unbelievable, because I had never had a single in Top 10, not even in Top 20! Usually I was concentrating on albums, and it was a big surprise. They kind of paved the way for “Fear No Evil”. I love every album, but of course, I’m most attached to the new one. Every album had great magic and its highlights, but this one has a good spectrum of songs – from die-hard metal like “Caught In A Battle” to nice anthems like “Night Of The Warlock” and “Celebrate” to great ballads like “Walking With The Angels” and “25 Years” and “Herzblut”. I think it’s a great mixture, but most of all I think the time is great for metal. And we are celebrating my 25th anniversary, so everybody is in good spirits, excited and happy, so this contributed a lot, too. Anyway, it’s great to have a high chart position, but in the end I just care what the fans say.

It’s probably a trivial question, but where does the title of the album come from?

The first song which I wrote for the new album was “Night Of The Warlock”. We were putting on this big show, and the Warlock we use in our stage set is so big that you can only use it on very big stages like Wacken. It took a year for the guy to make it. And then I thought, “Wow, we have to make a song for the Warlock”. I started writing it in New York with one of our composers, Chris Lietz, and it was clear that this song would make it on the album. Usually we write many songs, and then we choose the best ones, but this time I knew right away that it would be the one. I love the big intros and background singing, and I think this is one of the nicest songs on the album. And it has this line “Fear no evil…”, and when I wrote it down I thought, “Wow, this sounds very nice.” We had many other titles, but in the end we stayed with this one. I wanted to have something positive but that would still sound metal.

It sounds like a message…

To me it’s a good message, too – not to fear anything, to go for it.

Another noticeable song on the new record is “Celebrate”, where you have more than 10 female singers from other bands as guests, and you also have Biff Byford from Saxon involved in this track. How did Biff end up in this all-female environment?

On the single, we have three versions of it – one with the fans, one with Biff and the all-female version, and on the album we mixed them all together. Me and Biff have been good friends for many years, so I just gave him the demo and said, “Check it out and tell me if you like it.” He wrote me back, “Oh, it’s great!”, and we made a special version with him. I was very happy when everybody whom we invited either came to our studios or sent in the files. It’s a great song, like “True As Steel”, it’s something you can sing along, that will make you feel really good. When it comes to ballads, I like to have sadder subjects, but as to anthems, I like positive songs like “All We Are” or “True As Steel”.

There was an announcement that your old friend Lita Ford is coming back to music. Are you still in contact with her? Do you plan to do something together?

We didn’t keep in contact, but I heard that we are playing at a festival in Madrid later this year, and Lita Ford will be there, too. I heard that she’s again doing it, and it’s great.

In October you will be playing at the Metal Female Voices festival in Belgium, where, as it is clear from the name, only female-fronted bands will be playing. We have an impression that ladies are becoming more prominent in heavy music again in the past few years. In your opinion, why is the public opinion turning again towards girls in metal?

It’s great that there are now female voices in almost all genres from gothic metal to death metal. Angela from Arch Enemy, I think she’s fantastic, Tarja is great, Sabina Classen, Cristina from Lacuna Coil – I think they are great women who have a great unique style and great voices. I think it shines through that they’re very talented, and it’s a good time for many females now. It’s cool to have such festivals, it was never happening in the 80s.

In 2006 you appeared on the cover of the Harley Davidson magazine in Germany and Austria. Are you really a fan of motorcycles? Do you use them in your everyday life?

Yes, I’m a big fan, I love to ride, but usually I ride with my friends, because I don’t have a license. But I love bikes, I love Harleys, and when they asked me if I wanted to do a photo session, I said, “Oh yeah!” As to my everyday life, usually I’m on a tour bus, and my free time is so limited, but when I do have it and the weather is nice, I go out riding. Unfortunately, it’s not so often, because I’m on tour or in the studio nearly all the time.

In the video for the song “Herzblut” we see a man who is about to commit suicide and writing his death note. What made you choose this theme for the video? Don’t you think that there will be problems with playing it on MTV or Viva?

Our videos almost never get played, maybe late at night. In general, metal musicians are kind of outlaws, we don’t get played much, so I thought, “I just want to do a nice video and I don’t care if it gets played on MTV.” I would be great to make it on the air, but I know that it’s more for the fans and the Internet. We just did a video because we wanted to do it, and the video director, who previously worked on all our DVDs, said, “I have this idea,” so we discussed it and agreed to use it. You’re right, it’s a very sad and dark video, but it gives you warmth in the end. I touch the dog’s head, giving him positive energy, and then he runs to the guy, and the guy never commits suicide. It’s pretty dark, but I think it’s a nice story.

When you came to Russia the previous time, you had Oliver Palotai playing guitar and keyboards for you. Why isn’t he with your band now?

He’s still in our band, but he has some side projects, he plays in Kamelot and he has his own band he’s concentrating on, so we had to get Rob (Katrikh) in. Sometimes when Olli wasn’t available, Luca Princiotta filled in, but Luca has his own band, too, and he goes on tour with it. I always support it when somebody wants to do something on the side, that’s totally alright. It’s very difficult to be a musician and to survive, you have to do whatever you can do, so I’m very supportive of my musicians when they want to do something. I don’t ever wanna say, “I’m holding you back.” We just arrange it in the right way, we try to have somebody else playing.

Rob was born in Russia, which is actually unbelievable. We met in New York, we agreed to do the next tour, to play in Spain, Germany and Russia, and he said, “Yeah, I was born there!” It’s the first time he’s back since he was six years old.

How often do you hear cover versions of your songs? Are there any of them that you like the most?

Oh, there are tons of cover versions, and I think they’re all great. There’s one cover version by the band Donots, they cover “All We Are”, and this punk version is awesome! In Spain there’s a band with two women, they cover “I Rule The Ruins”, and it’s awesome, too, you can find it somewhere on the Internet. There’s actually a tribute album out, it’s called “A Tribute To Steel”, where they cover Warlock songs, and every band gave their best. There’s a very interesting version by a Scandinavian band called Sabbaton, they cover “Fur Immer” – it’s different, but it’s great. I can’t pick just one version, I like them all. When something is done with a lot of heart and soul, I immediately love it. It can be a different style, such as punk rock, or something in the vein of Rammstein, but it’s still cool.

More about Warlock – you resurrected the band for the performance at Wacken Open Air in 2004, which we were lucky to attend. How was it like playing with the guys again? What are they doing nowadays?

We met on the 25th anniversary again and did a set. It was great, we’re still good friends, so it was a good feeling. We’re doing one show in Zaragoza, Spain, on June 28, it’s a headliner gig, and many other bands like Motorhead and Twisted Sister are playing there. There will be a lot of pressure, because we haven’t played for a long time, but we still wanna do it. The only guy who’s not doing it is the bass player who gave up music and doesn’t wanna play again, so Nick (Douglas), our bass player, is filling in. Maybe we will continue doing shows, but not very often.

Whenever you play a show, you are singing at the very edge of the stage, very close to the audience. And whenever we see you at European festivals, you are always very friendly, talking to fans and so on. Have you ever had any negative experiences with fans at live shows or backstage?

(surprised) No, never! It was always utmost positive, I always appreciated it deeply. My fans are my life, that’s what I care the most, that’s the most important thing to me. I’m always happy when the fans are there. I’m always very curious about what they have to say, what they like the most, what they don’t like, what their life stories are, they sometimes inspire me to write songs and to try to be a better person. I have seen many people who have very hard destinies, and when I think of them, I go like, “Oh, I’m alive, I’m healthy, I can do what I want to do.” For some people it’s impossible, especially in the countries where metal is not allowed, it’s hard to believe but it’s true. Tonight there was a fan, a beautiful lady, and she looked happy, but she only had one leg. It didn’t seem like she was affected by it, even though her life is harder than most of ours. We’re on the road, we can always do what we love, and I deeply appreciate the attention I get from the fans.

Some time ago Onkel Tom was playing in this club, and the fans were climbing up the stage, causing problems with security, and the show even had to be stopped, because a security got into a fight with a fan who didn’t want to leave the stage. At your concerts things like this cannot even be thought of, at least, we’ve never heard about anything of this kind…

There’s a great foundation and great respect vice versa. I love and respect the fans, I’m honored to have fans, and they know it and feel the same for me.

Doro on the Internet: http://www.doropesch.com

Special thanks to Vera Dmitrieva (Spika Concert Agency) for arranging this interview

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Natalie “Snakeheart” Khorina
May 27, 2009
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