Interview date: 14.08.2008
Across the three days of Metal Mania Open Air 2008, out of 35 bands in total, Stormwarrior were the only true defenders of the power metal colors. Anyone who’s heard them will describe the band’s sound as something that can come very close to early Helloween, maybe because Lars Ramcke, the band’s singer and guitarist, vaguely recalls the elder statesman of the German metal scene, Kai Hansen, with his stage presence. And those who didn’t know them before the Komno show had plenty of praise for them afterwards. This quartet is anything but sweet or “bacteriologically disinfected” power metal. Within a highly melodic style packed with bombastic arrangements, in the spirit of the classic German power metal school, they always keep a dash of daring, rebellious and arrogant attitude, seasoned with obscure vocals. After the band’s gig on 14.08.2008, I headed backstage all fired up and caught the band’s bassist Yenz Leonhardt, who agreed to an interview without hesitation, and after a few minutes with the help of the tour manager we settled on the next day at 6 p.m., when I’d show up in the festival’s “backstage”.
The next day, Jens and I headed straight to the festival campsite, where we had an interesting chat out in the open, until the sky started pissing down like crazy…
RockLine: Yenz! Glad to have you here, and that we got the chance to see you play in Slovenia…
Yenz: Me too. It’s my first time in Slovenia ever. We hadn’t played here before.
RockLine: What were your impressions after yesterday’s show here at Metal Mania Open Air?
Yenz: At first we had big doubts. Especially after we watched a video on YouTube from last year’s Meal Mania Open Air. In the footage there were only 10 people in front of the stage, completely wasted. But what also surprised me before the show yesterday was that I heard some shouts from the crowd: “Hellowen, Helloween…”. I told myself, “That can’t be.” So I went among the people and talked to them. They told me they were just kidding, ha, ha… But once we started playing, all the doubts disappeared, the crowd was in a good mood, they followed us through the setlist, we felt great on stage, and I think we played a really good show yesterday.
RockLine: I noticed that too, people really liked you. You won them over and dragged them along with you.
Yenz: It turned out well. We had some technical problems before the show, too. My mic stand wasn’t on stage at all, the sound guy wasn’t on stage either, he was setting up the sound outside, out front at the house… I seriously wondered whether the whole thing would work for Stormwarrior this time. And yet, when I hit the first note, our sound was okay, and it was a really good sound throughout the whole set.
RockLine: Yenz. You’re a very busy musician. I saw you last year in Villach with Savage Circus, and you were also in the hard rockers Kingdom Come. How do you pull all of this off?
Yenz: I’ve lived by this principle since I was seventeen. It was really important for me to play every day and spend as much time as possible on the road, at gigs, on tours. A band where I play just twenty shows a year isn’t enough for me. I like to be as busy as possible playing, but a full-time job, in some office for example, would never suit me. The key is good planning, scheduling, organization. So far it’s always worked out well for me.
RockLine: Last fall you Stormwarrior released a new studio album, “Heading Northe”. What can you tell us about it?
Yenz: We’re really proud of our new studio album. It’s our third in a row. On the first two, Kai Hansen (vocals, guitar, Gamma Ray – ed.) helped us in the studio, and back then people said that we Stormwarrior depended on Kai Hansen. So we wanted to prove to the world with the new album that we can stand on our own two feet. So we produced the album ourselves and spent quite a lot of time working on the new record. We wanted to make a really strong product. I think we pulled that off very well with “Heading Northe” and we’re very happy with the result.
RockLine: Besides the melodies, your sound has a good dose of edge and darkness, thanks to the vocals too…
Yenz: Yes. And the vocals have improved and come a long way since the second album. As a band we really made an effort this time.
RockLine: Yeah. Your music has an obscure touch, you sound old-school, a little angry and raw…
Yenz: Yes. That’s the point. We want to stay dangerous. We don’t want to follow too polished a sound, or an already proven style in metal, a too-melodic style.
RockLine: Definitely. It mustn’t be generic, it has to be yours…
Yenz: Yes. That’s also the path to an authentic, rebellious sound.
RockLine: So how did you end up connected with Kai Hansen?
Yenz: In that respect Hamburg is really a small town. Even though a huge number of people live there, the metal scene is still small. There’s a really nice place called Headbanger’s Ballroom, located in the city’s harbor, and we were rehearsing songs together in the basement. And so it happened that Kai Hansen showed up there right at that time. Well, Lars had recorded the first demo back in 1998, before I even joined the band, and he played it for Kai then. Kai was slightly drunk, went to the mixing desk and cranked the music up to full volume. He really liked it, because it reminded him of his old days with Helloween, the very beginning of his career, so he said: “Good. One day I’ll produce an album with you guys.” After we recorded and released two more demos and two seven-inch singles, Kai kept his promise and produced our debut studio album in 2002.
At this point it started raining much harder, so we moved into Tjaša and Rok’s folding hotel – a six-person tent, where we carried on talking about Stormwarrior…
Yenz: Ho, ho. This already feels like a real apartment!
RockLine: We’d better be polite so the owners don’t throw us out into the rain…
RockLine: Okay, back to work. Are you Stormwarrior planning any kind of tour this fall?
Yenz: Yes. We’ll be joining Firewind for a tour through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and so on… And we’re already preparing material for the new album. We’d like to prove that we can put together a new album really fast. It’ll be our fourth album, coming out in June next year. That means that as soon as we finish the tour with Firewind, recording our next studio release follows.
RockLine: Is there maybe a story or concept hiding behind “Heading Northe”?
Yenz: No. “Northern Rage” was a concept album. This time it felt important to put out an album with songs aimed at the metal community too. Like Metal Legacy or Iron Force. An attempt at creating truly massive anthemic songs that set things on fire back in the old days, like Heavy Metal Fire and so on… Of course, the lyrics once again touch on the conflict between the Roman Catholic religion and the pagan religion, so that’s the 10,000 years before Christ. That element is strongly present on “Heading Northe” too.
RockLine: The album cover with the Drakkar speaks to that directly….
Yenz: Yes. That’s important to us. I’m a Dane myself, and that’s the land of our forefathers… we manage to conjure up a lot of magic live when we play and sing about this past, tied to Germanic mythology. It makes us even more confident and stronger, identifying with the chosen theme. But that’s not all. Like I said, a lot of songs are about the metal community, about the need for the metal community to stand together against the trendy pop scene.
RockLine: How do you see the metal scene in Germany and Scandinavia today in general?
Yenz: It’s very strong. And it’s coming to the forefront. Today young people are showing up again in England and the US who are really receptive to listening to power metal. Some of those youngsters are, for example, Avenged Sevenfold, who are currently on tour with Iron Maiden and draw a lot of elements from bands like Judas Priest. The audiences in the US and the UK are really young too, even kids, and they’re very interested in power metal. Things have turned around. 10 years ago everyone was saying heavy metal was dying, that it wasn’t worth the effort. Today the scene is extremely alive and working great.
RockLine: And how do you Stormwarrior work as a team when it’s time to sit down together and write songs? How does that go for you?
Yenz: We communicate a lot when we play together. Otherwise ideas come up individually, and we spend a lot of time on the internet. It works like this: somebody in the band gets an idea, makes an mp3 and sends it around to the rest of the guys. Then we get together and talk it through. I can, for example, contribute a bass line to a riff right away, but it mostly all happens over the internet, I mean, that initial spark comes through the internet…
RockLine: And I assume that’s the fastest way too?
Yenz: Yes, definitely…
RockLine: You can take a vacation while the others practice your riff, ha, ha, ha…
Yenz: Lots of bands write songs by having one person record them at home on their own, but we Stormwarrior put a song together when we’re all in the same room. It’s more authentic and more effective that way, because we fire each other up. Say you’re not playing fast and hard enough, the others in the band push you: “Ah, come on. You can do it!!!” and so on. It’s better for creativity too, which is higher when everyone’s together.
RockLine: I think that’s also really important for the band’s development, which is a lot more natural that way…
Yenz: Absolutely. We’re a band, not just a project that the first light breeze would blow away.
RockLine: A question for you as a musician. Who was your musical inspiration, what got you excited about making music? Who are your personal musical heroes?
Yenz: Personally I really admire Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath and Gary Thain from Uriah Heep, who was an excellent bassist and who died way too early. I’d stop right at those two. They’re enough. I’m an old-school guy and I’m very happy that I get to use that inspiration as part of Stormwarrior. Most people first get excited about playing guitar, far fewer young people choose to get into bass. But bass is a big challenge too. You have to be able to adapt your bass lines to the vocal melody and lock them in with the drum rhythm and the guitar riffs, and on top of all that you have to be able to add something of your own, your own as a bassist and an individual. There’s a huge amount of work in that, but I notice that today there are fewer and fewer bassists who pay attention to that sphere, or who take that element into account or understand it.
RockLine: One more personal question. Does fear ever grab you when you’re involved in some process as a musician, whether on stage, in the studio, and so on…?
Yenz: Do you mean as part of Stormwarrior, or strictly me personally?
RockLine: You can answer for both.
Yenz: As an individual I have plenty of fears, of course. You know what it’s like behind a closed door you’re facing for the first time in your life? You feel like there’s darkness on the other side. You’re afraid of the dark. You’re afraid of the unknown. I just try to force myself, in my head, to open that door and start getting to know the unknown, to identify with it. When you manage that, when you outgrow a fear, you grow as a person and become stronger. If you resist it, or hide, then you’ve lost the battle. That should be a way of life for all of us. To overcome the fears inside us and learn from them.
RockLine: Richie Kotzen (guitar, ex-Poison, ex-Mr. Big) said something similar a few days ago after a show in Austria, that music guides you through all those challenges whenever you need to jump over your fear.
Yenz: And you’re never alone. You don’t feel like a stranger anywhere, in any corner of the world. Because music is by your side all the time, and music is part of every musician. As a musician, fears come up and you doubt yourself when you’re facing going on stage, going into the studio, looking at the crowd below the stage, wondering if I’m good enough. That happens in all spheres of society, not just for musicians. Facing fear and becoming stronger and more mature because of it.
RockLine: Okay. Let’s touch briefly on your other band, Savage Circus. What’s going on with them?
Yenz: We’re working on our second studio album. I recorded the first six songs that will be on the album. Some of the songs are truly phenomenal, they sound mighty and punchy, and there are some great song titles too. Everyone who already liked our first Savage Circus album will be even more thrilled with the new one. It’s going to be very good.
RockLine: And what’s it like working with Piet Sielck (guitar/vocals, Iron Savior – ed.), your Savage Circus buddy?
Yenz: We work together great. I met him in a similar way to Kai Hansen. In Hamburg the metalheads really all know each other. Piet and I are very good friends.
RockLine: And what plans do you have for the future, you as a musician and Stormwarrior as a band?
Yenz: We Stormwarrior follow our plan slowly and very patiently. With every album we try to take a new step forward. This year we’re playing festivals, including some places where we’ve never played before, which means a lot to all of us. Also meeting new crowds and having them get to know us. When our fourth studio album comes out, we’ll be able to objectively judge whether the crowd following our music has grown at all. Along the way we’ll try to keep moving up at least two notches, stick together, keep our music dangerous and keep our rebellious attitude, without selling out our own essence. That’s what we all fight for in Stormwarrior. Without overthinking it, we simply want to keep doing exactly what we Stormwarrior are already doing.
RockLine: Okay, let’s slowly wrap up this interesting conversation. Jens, thanks for your precious time, it was great chatting with you.
Yenz: Thanks to you too, for all your kindness.
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