Not Fragile
Crazy Guys, Crazy Time

17.06.2010

Cult German speed/power metallers Not Fragile did not get their name by chance. Having started simultaneously with Helloween и Running Wild, the band playing the classic blend of Teutonic metal never managed to make it into the top. But regardless of all trials and tribulations the musicians had to face, they are still loyal to their ideals and keep on delighting their fans. We contacted the band’s frontman and mastermind Torsten Buczko, who spoke to us about triumphs and disappointments he had over many years of his career, about the golden age of metal and about his current music.

You’re from Hamburg, the city which gave birth to the bands like Hellowen and Gamma Ray. Tell us, please, about the metal scene in Hamburg in the mid-80’s. Do you know Kai Hansen or Michael Weikath?

Yes, I know Michael Weikath personally, now he is living at the isle of Tenerife just as his bandmate Andi Deris, but I have a better relationship with Kai Hansen and of course Markus Grosskopf. Both are still living in Hamburg. In the beginning of the 1980s (1982-83) the hard rock and metal scene was growing very fast. A lot of good bands like the Roy Last Group, Pace, Rampage, Mania, Vengeance, Running Wild, Iron Fist (pre-Helloween), Lake Placid and Görmany (with Lenny Wolf of Kingdom Come), Snakebite, Airless, Caress and a few others, not to forget to mention the four kids of Not Fragile. Naturally there was a bit of jealousy between all of the bands in Hamburg, but there was no hate or everything. Most of the gigs together went down very friendly. This was a very exciting time. We were going to gigs once a week and if not we were playing our own shows, or together with other bands like Mania. This was happening one or two years right after the “big breakthrough” of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in 1980-81. All in all it was very fascinating for us and the whole scene. Big time and big fun!!

Hamburg is the native city for punk bands like Slime. Did you have some troubles with punks?

That´s right. Punk was the big thing from 1979 until 1982 in Germany. The four-year-older brother with nickname “Örns” of our first guitar player Arnd Stronkowski was a big member of the Hamburg punk scene and a youth club called “Startloch”. The “Startloch” was all the time filled with punks and members from different punk bands, including Slime, Paranoia, E605 and some more. There were also two rehearsal rooms in the “Startloch”. Arnd and I were also hanging around in the location after school and playing our fingers wound on a soccer table. So we heard all the punk stuff including the sound of his brother’s band Paranoia. We liked them; they sounded a bit like the Ramones. The Ramones were hot and quite cool at the time and we got some Ramones songs like “Cretin´ Hop”, “Rockaway Beach”, “I Don´t Care” and “California Sun” in our own set, which included mainly cover songs at that time. All in all there were no problems with punks. We always had a very friendly relationship with them. By the way, in 1983 Jörn “Örns” Stronkowski joined Not Fragile for half a year to keep the gigs going until we got a new drummer after Holger Walzers’ departure.

You formed Not Fragile when you were only 13. Why did you decide to be a rock-musician? Did you have any problems at school because of the band?

When we were starting the band, we were bloody young. Music was the important thing and took a big part of our life. Hanging around and listening to The Ramones, Van Halen, Kiss and all the upcoming NWOBHM stuff like Iron Maiden, Saxon, that was magic. After I had had guitar lessons for a few years, it was time to start a band. The first songs we played in 1980 were songs like “Bye Bye Johnny” (Chuck Berry), “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones), “I Saw Her Standing There” (The Beatles) and some tracks from the Ramones I have mentioned before. All that classic rock stuff in a beginner’s way, not very professional, sometimes very bad, if I think back in time. The first own song we wrote in 1981 was a track called “Street Girl”. I gotta laugh – 14-year-old boys create a song called “Street Girl”. Crazy guys, crazy time!!! We got our first gig at a school celebration in 1980. So, there were no real problems at school. Until 1983 we got a few gigs at our school and they were not bad at all, but thinking back, sometimes it is wiser to do more for the school in terms of learning the stuff for your whole life. There were moments when we only had our band in our heads and then it was difficult to write good tests and to follow all the lesions.

The title “Not Fragile” fits nicely to your music, but it doesn’t sound like a typical name of a metal band. How did you find this name? Were you inspired by the Bachman-Turner Overdrive song with the same title?

This is right, I had the Bachman Turner Overdrive album with the title track “Not Fragile” in my collection and I really liked it. After one year as The Tigers - oh God, what a stupid name - it was time for a change. So we decided to take it from the BTO album.

I guess you were a huge fan of glam-rock at that time and Slade and Sweet were your favorites.

Sure, Sweet, Slade and also the Bay City Rollers (my first musical love in 1976) played a big part in my youth. .  I was fascinated by strong hooks, that you can sing along right after you hear the track one time….and this is for me the Holy Grail to write songs. To this day, Slade and Sweet are the stuff I like to listen to, mainly in my car, when I drive to work, not every time, but sometimes, it makes me happy.

What kind of music did you play on your two demos in 1983 and 1985?

The 1983 demo tape called “Big Brother” included four tracks. We recorded it in Lamplight Studio where Lenny Wolf of “Kingdom Come” recorded important demos with his band Lake Placid two years before. With the opener called “Hardest Night” we pushed the sound straight forward to what became the genuine Not Fragile style. Speed and much melody. The other 3 tracks were more into hard rock. In 1985 the band released the six-track “Made Of Metal” demo tape. It was very successful; we sold more than 750 copies of it. There were very good songs on it, such as “Hard To Be Alive”, “Made Of Metal” and “Battle Eagle”. These songs are still in our live set. Crazy, but the audience still likes them.  The follow up were some compilation samplers on vinyl (USA/UK/Germany) with remixed versions of the songs from the “Made of Metal” demo.

What are your best memories about your first album “Who Dares Wins”?

Straight, hard work. We recorded and mixed the whole album in five days. It was very tough, but there was a special feeling at the time, a little bit like magic between the members. The sound was not high class, but it fits to the “no compromise” songs. After the “Who Dares Wins” release, we got a lot of fan mail from Japan and from the States, great time for the band. Until now we have a small but great following of fans in these countries.

How did you get an idea to record instrumental track “Opus 7-3”? I think it fits better to the artists like Yngwie Malmsteen. And what does “7-3” mean?

We were all big Malmsteen fans at the time, and Raico (Ebel, guitar) had composed this instrumental which you can compare to some Malmsteen stuff. “Opus” is serious, but “7-3” was only a funny thing. That´s all, not so deep minded.

You released a compilation album with the title “Who Dares Wins” in 2007. Why did you decide to use this title once again?

Because we remixed the whole “Who Dares Wins” album in a very special way. This is a regular re-release, so you can´t go out with a new title. Some of the bonus tracks are very hard to find. They appeared on different compilations in the last seven years. We got enough space on the CD for bonus tracks, so our label decided to put it together for a good value, especially for the fans.

Speed and power metal were very popular genres in Germany in the 1980’s. In your opinion, what are the reasons?

Not only speed and power metal, the whole metal scene was big and awesome until the late 1980s. Speed and power metal was the natural following of NWoBHM with bands like Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Saxon and many more, so it became very successful. Not only in Germany.

After the EP “Lost In A Dream” (1989) you recorded the album “One Way To Glory” but it was released only in 1993 under the name “Hard To Be Alive”. What happened to the band?

We recorded the album in the summer of 1989 in Delta Studio for a small independent label. At the recording time we had a great feeling; by the way, Accept recorded their legendary “Breaker” album there a few years before that. This was a great big thing for us… but after the recording we heard rumors, naturally about money. That was the first moment when many things went bad and downwards for us. Bills were not paid by the company to the studio. We heard nothing from the company for months. At the end of 1989 the company went bust. Frustration had a heavy toll on the band, as we still had a record contract and no way out. And no way to release the already completed album. The band broke up in January/February 1990. In 1991, Limb Schnoor, ex-manager of Helloween, helped us to get out of the deal. Unfortunately for the band this circumstance did not heal the wounds.… and the release in 1992  was too late. You can´t rise again with a three or four years old album.

This album still sounds awesome! What do you think about its production now?

Accept had recorded there, so it can´t be a bad production. It still sounds fresh. It´s OK !

There are very serious lyrics behind pleasant melodies on the song “Hard To Be Alive”. Why did you decide to write such lyrics?

These were my feelings at the time. That´s all.

Why did you change the band’s line-up very often? Don’t you think these changes disturbed the band’s development?

A band is like a married situation. If you can´t stand one another and if there are too many frictions, you have to leave, to break up or something like that… but it wasn´t mainly things like that. Some band members wanted to do another musical stuff and some other retired completely from making music. That´s life… but you are right, it did not help the development of a band.

In your opinion, why didn’t you get signed to a major label in the 1980s?

No way, most of the power metal bands in Germany stayed on independent labels and couldn´t get a deal with a major label. That was the truth in the 1980s. At the end of the 1980s some successful bands like Helloween, Chroming Rose and Running Wild managed to get major deals, but that was not the Promised Land. They all went back to independent labels with major distribution.

In 1995 you released “The Return” album. It sounds softer than your previous records. Did you try to attract attention of new listeners?

To release “The Return” album was the biggest mistake we have ever made. I thought I could write a few song and get back on track again, but there was nothing right. But without mistakes, you can´t improve, that´s it.

It seems you used acoustic guitars for the first time on this album. The new version of “W.I.R.” sounds great with new arrangement! Don’t you think about recording an unplugged album?

No, there are no plans to record a fully acoustic album. One or two unplugged songs - that can happen, but not at the moment.

After “The Return” you disappeared once again for six years. What happened to the band at that time?

We recorded “The Return” in spring 1994 and it was released in autumn 1995. It was a little bit like the “Hard To Be Alive” situation years ago. Bass player Matthias Belter and guitar player Wolf Rambatz said goodbye in winter 1994. I started writing material other than hard rock, some pop stuff. I was searching for a new meaning of life for the band. By the way, I needed a new guitar player and a bass player so Didy(Mackel joined Not Fragile in August 1995 together with Heiko Jensen. We did some gigs with new material, but it didn’t feel the same. It was too far away from the old genuine style. Heiko left the band in 1996 and Didy, Markus and I decided that if there was a chance to do another record, we would have to go back to our own style. So I started writing again. These development took a lot of time, to get the right feeling back, to write new catchy, speedy, power stuff. A lengthy process with many songs in different directions. We started recording for our comeback album in 1999 and that was the stuff which two years later became the album “21st Century Ballroom”.

I have known Didy since 1982; I really liked Mania. They were a few years older than us and more professional at the time. They were very friendly and we had a good relationship throughout the 1980s. By the way, we opened their show at the Hamburg Logo in 1985, and in the audience there were all the well known Hamburg musicians such as Helloween, Running Wild and many others. That was really a good show! Great fun!

Does the title “21st Century Ballroom” have any relation to the famous Headbanger’s Ballroom in Hamburg?

No, there is no relation to this venue.

Please, tell us about this club. I heard it was a very popular place among metal fans.

Metal fans around the globe heard about this place. It was not so big, but there was every time a great atmosphere. We played seven times at this nice club. It closed in January 2010, but it will be open again in a new location on the famous Reeperbahn in March.

The song “New Generation” shows your negative attitude towards war. What inspired you to write this song?

The tragedy of the war in Yugoslavia in the mid 1990s.

The song “Somebody’s Waiting” tells a touching love story. Does this story have a real prototype?

“Somebody´s Waiting” is only a sweet, speedy and powerful love song.

You said on your website that 2003 was very successful for the band – a new album (“Yesterday’s Heroes”) came out, it had great responses, the band played a lot of shows. How do you think – why did it become possible?

Two years after “21st Century Ballroom” release we got another album out titled “Yesterday´s Heroes”. It was not so successful as the previous album, but it went down well, and received a lot of good reviews. We played as a headliner on the Rock am Haff festival and it was amazing. More than 1,000 metal and music fans celebrated our gig. We got a good mixture of old and new songs in our setlist and added some cover tracks. Most of the songs you can sing along if you heard them once. If you are playing in a live situation this is very well worth.

You wrote in the booklet of “Yesterday’s Heroes”, “Guaranteed no keyboards, synthesizer and midi equipment used”. Do you still use analogue equipment when you record your albums?

In the 1980s we recorded especially with analog equipment, but since the “Ballroom” record, all our recordings are completely digitally recorded.

And what do you think about the bands like Nightwish or Stratovarious which use keyboards in their songs?

They need the keyboards for their sound. That´s really OK! They use it, we don’t. No problem. Without keys, both of them were not the same.

How did your song “Blood On The Land” end up in horror movie “Nikos – The Impaler”? How did you get to know producer Andreas Schnaas?

Our guitar player Marc (Trinkhaus) is an old friend of Andreas Schnaas and is involved in most of his films - mainly writing scores for the soundtrack or helping on the film set. Personally I don’t watch splatter/horror stuff. I’m more into thrillers and comedies, but it’s a lot of fun to play in stuff like this. Two years ago Didy, Marc and I got some small actor parts in the splatter movie “Don´t Wake the Dead” and currently Andreas Schnaas and producer Timo Rose cut their newest film output “Karl the Butcher”. Not Fragile appear in this movie as a gang. A little bit in the “Mad Max” style. And we contributed one new song called “Zombie Dance” to the soundtrack. I’m very excited, and I can´t wait until the DVD is coming out.

Please, tell us about your collaboration with Mike Terrana. Are you satisfied with his work on “Time To Wonder” album (2005)?

Years ago, Mike Terrana was living in Hamburg for a few years. We knew him and he knew us. Before we started the recordings for the “Time to Wonder” album we got more and more problems with our drummer Matthias Messfeldt. I asked Mike to help us out in the studio for a few tracks and he agreed. That was real tough and great work and I got so many wonderful memories of his work with the band. If we see each other, there is a very friendly atmosphere between us. A great guy!

And what you can say about Jutta Weinhold who laid down some backing vocals on “Time To Wonder”? I didn’t hear about her for a long time! What is she doing now?

Ooh, Jutta is still alive. A few months ago I saw here with her band Acoustic Randale in a club called “The Riff”. She can´t stop singing, so powerful and very amazing. All in all, a wonderful woman and a great friend of mine. Maybe she will lay down some backing vocals for our new album.

Your most recent album “Scratch the Surface” (2007) sounds more aggressive then ever. Why did you decide to record such album?

After the successful “Time to Wonder” album we thought that we needed more range in our style, so we opened our minds for some modern metal sounds. I still like the record, but 2.5 years after the release of “Scratch the Surface” more and more fans were coming out and saying, “Please go back to your old genuine speed and melodic style”. And what the fans are saying is right. I promise that the next Not Fragile album will contain all the fully loaded melodic speed stuff, which fans and friends are waiting for.

I think the song “Tear Into Weekend” has some punk influences. Am I right? What is this song about?

You’re right, this one has a little bit of punk influences in it, but it is only a little “sweety” love song about a girl who loves a musician.

Also you recorded an old Mania song called “Gods Of Fire”. I guess it was Didy who came up with this idea, right?

Yes, I promised Didy more than 7 years ago to record a Mania song, and on the last album it finally happened.

You released your latest album in 2007. What has happened to the band since then? When will you record a new album?

We´ve played some shows, restored and remixed our first record “Who Dares Wins” and started to work on the next album in June 2009. We are still working on the new album and we have to rehearse a very special set list for our important show at the Head bangers Open Air festival in July 2010. We will have a special guest with us, Preacher Warnecke (former member of Running Wild), who will perform “Victim Of States Power” from the first Running Wild album with Not Fragile. And… by the way, the new Not Fragile album release is scheduled for winter 2010.

Thank you very much for your answers! Please say a few words for Russian metalheads!

A big hello to all the readers and Russian metal fans. It was an honor to answer these questions. If there is a chance for Not Fragile to come to Russia, we will play our asses off for you. Keep the metal music alive. Rock on, thank you all and best metallic wishes.

Not Fragile on the Internet: http://www.not-fragile.de/

Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin
June 2010
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