ASKA
Sure, it all started really when i was in the fifth grade heard my first rock album, KISS ALIVE!! I remember the moment like it's yesterday. The scenes are transfixed in my mind. Isn't it funny how we as people forget so much throughout the course of our lives but some other things are indelible etched in our memory for eternity. But anyway, that was really the defining moment in my life where i can say it all began for me. What followed ofcourse could be the story of any of a million aspiring musicians around the world.
Dreams of guitars, girls, money, fame, fortune and lots and lots of music followed by hours and hours of practice and forming bands,gigging.You know the routine. We follow the same patterns. Time eventually weeds out the people that were just having fun and leaves us the serious. I was for real. And so have been the majority of the people that have been in ASKA. Four CDs later, 13 world tours with 37 countries under our belt, and a new disc in the cooker and you could say we've been lucky to a degree because we've had the opportunity to make a lot of dreams a reality.
ASKA..what does it mean and what's the reason for taking this as official band name?
It means 'ASH' in the Scandinavian countries! Everybody loves Scandinavia, don't they?
We chose the name because my old guitarist and i had been sort of ceremoniously inducted into this going back when we were in high school and i figured my tattoo could do double duty. So yeah, we basically had the name long before we put this particular band together. With all of the other proliferation of band names out there, we also figured it would be a name nobody else would have.
How many 'Black Steel's have there been right? Probably a million. We thought ASKA would be safe. To date we couldn't get the band's website URL domain name because there is some german a/v company with that name. Never mind the Japanese version of Hall & Oates called Chage & ASKA. I think they all came after us though so never mind the bollocks.
Four releases so far. What's the difference between all of these albums?
All of the discs are vastly different. The big difference between our third disc 'NINE TONGUES and the fourth 'AVENGER' is that Avenger was a very unidirectional record.Also i sing all but half a song on that album whereas we split vocal duties three ways on the prior record.If anybody wanted to hear what the other guys in the band's voices sound like,they should get Nine Tongues. And because of the variety in singers we had a variety of Metal styles on that record.It wasn't as cohesive as Avenger!
Which album is your favourite one and why exactly?
Which ASKA album? Without a second thought, AVENGER! It's my favorite simply because it's the best and it's where we came closest thus far to achieving what we were after as a band. From the packaging to the music to the liner note text. AVENGER was a work of art and it was no surprise to me that it was accepted as well as it was.
So, there's a fifth album on the way George?
Oh yeah! We've been working on it for quite a while now. Through no fault of our own, we lost half the band in 2002 so, as you can imagine,it really put us behind schedule on the completion of the new disc. It's certainly though and it's shaping up to be even better than AVENGER.
As far as i know ,you are the guitar player/singer in the band. Is it hard to make such a combination and how did it all started?
Everything in life is hard if you don't work at it and combine that with a positive outlook.
Case in point: i could play guitar but never really considered myself a vocalist.I thought,no actually knew,i was a terrible singer but through friendly persuasion and an eventual shifting of my attitude, i've managed to become quite good. Proficient. For many musicians, playing while singing comes hard but you have to remember, my heroes were KISS! They certainly all had to cantend with their instruments while vocalizing.
Many Metal mags or webzines mentioned that the ASKA sound looks a bit in the vein of older Savatage or Iced Earth. Are you agree with that?
I'd say, aside from them and us all being Metal bands, i'd say no. If one had to classify us, i'd say we lean towards the Maiden/Priest camp but we are our own beast really. That will become even more evident with the new album, which will be out later this year.
Definitely i miss many great US Metal bands on stage here in Belgium such as : Manilla Road, Aska, Premonition, K-Octave, Cage, Eidolon, Nightshade,.... what your opinion about that?
Because it's very hard for a Metal band to make ends meet in this day and age, financially.
Nonetheless, ASKA has been in Belgium on at least two or three different occasions and had great shows there in clubks. Promotionns for these shows i imagine were slim but we loved Belgium.
Wish we could have seen more while we were there.We met a Bon Scott clone in Belgium. We brought him on stage and everything to do an AC/DC number with us and it went extremely well. This belgian dude could habe been Bon Scott returned from the daed,i kid you not.We had a great time in Belgium!
Something totally different now George! What do you think about the senseless war in Iraq?
Ah politics. One of the three things they ask people never to discuss!I know you're not going to like this answer brother but i fully support my president and our troops. The Iraqi regime that has so rightfully earned our enmity is despicable evil and add to the instabillity and volatility of a region already rife with discord and discontent. Innocents are dying brother, whether the US is over there or not. That's a fact.the greater evil is to have the power to stop this regime of murderers and killers and sit by and do nothing. Nobody likes surgery.
It's invasive, it's painful, sometimes you lose organs or body parts and you many even die but if the chances look good and the surgery is successful, then your life is saved and you live a higher quality of life than before. We need stability in the Middle east and Iraq is as good as a place to start as any that i can think of. Ten years ago they were defeated and surrendered to American and Coalition forces. Stay with me because this is important: The victors didn't say,'OK,you surrendered so we'll let you go back to terrorizing and killing and torturing your people and accumulatin weapons of war and such'.
No; this was not the case at all. Instead there were''conditions of surrender ''that were put forth by the Coalition. They were blessed with 12 years in which to comply and were given at least fifty'one last chances'! They never complied. They had the unmitigated audacity to break the trems of their surrender. They tried to have our president assassinated. There is no sympathy for the Iraqi regime in these quarters. The US Britain's steadfastness in this endeavour once victorious will immediately diffuses the arms race in the Middle East, bring the beginning of stability to the region and leave the world with one less despot. At least one would hope. And now as you can see, we are certainly not the Dixie Chicks or Pearl Jam!
Back to Metal now.How are going today in the ASKA camp and what are your ambitions for
t he near future?
Things are good today.we have a solid line-up of fantastic musicians dedicated to continuing the true Metal tradition and to getting that new record out.I guess that would be our immediate goal for the future. We're anxious to get that baby out there and in the homes of every Metalhead possible.
How's the US METAL scene today? Any new upcoming bands on the way?
Man, as much as i'd love to tell you the scene is alive and healthy, all i can really say is that's it's alive but not too healthy. There seems to be somewhat of a slight resurgence of Metal bands but the major labels and the public certainly don't seem to be responding as well as they could be.
The only way new Metal bands are getting any decent turnouts are to play festivals with a ton of bands on the bill. Roadshows are totally hit and miss right now.The Dallas/Fort Worth club scene has pretty taken a nosedive in my opinion but with music it's always up and down you know. Sometimes it's hot,sometimes it's not.It's al hell of a time to be a B.Spears type act though!
I wish you and the rest of ASKA all the best and hope to hear some more very soon! Any last comments?
Thanks brother. I appreciate it.All the best to you and much success with everything and i also appreciate you giving me an opportunity to sound off in your forum here.Anybody interested in seeing and hearing more about the band,visit www.askaband.com
Thank again and hail!