Page 3 - ISSUE 21

ROCKNATION ISSUE 21 PAGE 3

“Never Say Never” - It’s a song, a ballad – and not very metal artwork and we chose
indeed :) - about God or you loved ones or anyone that helps the one with the screw
you out when you’re down. As simple as that. piercing the head. He
“Metalheads”- And that is metal. Straight in your face explained that this is
message for the Metalheads to show how many of us there how he understood the
are and that we ain’t dead yet. tile “Livin’ in the Past”.
ROCKNATION: You enlisted Alessandro Del Vecchio an Italian The past is something
producer and composer for artists like Glenn Hughes. He is that has stuck in your
also a musician known from acts like Edge of Forever, head and you can’t
Voodoo Circle and Hardline. How did that all come about? get rid of it and it frets
Scream Maker: It’s a nice story. We were searching for harder and harder into
support opportunities in Poland. Opening for the greatest you. For us the artwork
is the best way a band can reach the right audience. I heard itself is like taken from
that Hardline was reactivated so I wrote to their management: the Past, from the ‘80
guys, are you planning to visit Poland? Guess, who wrote to be precise. And this
me back. Ale! He was the man behind the reactivation. We is the period in music
spoke via Facebook and he told me about his activities as a history we love.
composer, a musician but also as a sound engineer. And he ROCKNATION: You
appeared to be the guy we were searching for sound produc- live in Poland. What is
tion of our new album. Finally we hired him. Ale is maximally the music scene like
professional in all he does and along with that he is the most there?
down-to-earth and no-problem guy in the business I ever met. Scream Maker: The
I have a very explosive personality, but he is the guy who mainstream market is
literally never has given me the reason to be upset. Why? like everywhere – non-
First of all, he is very empathic and open, he’s always smiling metal :) But we have
and joking and the second – he just loves what he does so a strong underground
he never screws things up. I hate people who don’t love what with all sorts all music.
they do, because they destroy their own lives and the lives Sadly, traditional heavy
of others who have contact with them. Ale is not that kind of metal is not a genre with a great representation here. We have
person. He’s just great! And by the way - he’s gonna appear only a few of heavy/power metal bands. Nevertheless recent
at the Dio memorial as a guest vocalist we are organizing in years were the time of rebirth of the heavy metal scene in Poland.
Poland in May. Can’t wait to meet him again. If 5 years ago we had three significant heavy metal bands, now
ROCKNATION: You had Mr Rosław Szaybo a legendary this number is reaching 10 (and I am not talking about
artist who designed CD covers for many artist including completely new names, but the established ones). People are a
Judas Priest “British Steel” cover. On working on your CD little tired by the mainstream music and also by the extreme
cover please tell us how you worked with him on the design. metal (which was quite popular here, Behemot or Vader are of
Scream Maker: Let me begin with saying that Mr. Szaybo is a Polish origin) and are searching for something more subtle.
legend that was out of our reach back in a day. At least that Actually we had like 50 years of real socialism here, the music
was what we thought. was supposed to convey hidden anti-state messages, so even
“No, he won’t desing rock was an intellectual and social rather that a musical
an artwork for us. He’s phenomenon. When US had Bon Jovi we had rebellious punk
too big. He drank wine bands or soft rockers. Of course there are some music brands
with Frank Sinatra…”. from the period worth mentioning. Check out pop-rock band
But we decided on try- Bajm. It’s a Eastern European Van Halen with a female singer!
ing to get in touch with ROCKNATION: Please name some bands you have appeared with
him. He listened to our in Poland.
music and immediately Scream Maker: One of the best experiences was opening for
agreed on coopera- Tim “Ripper” Owens, ex-singer of Judas Priest. He was celebrat-
tion with us. He wanted ing his birthday that day and we presented him a gift – a special
to know all about the edition of Jack Daniels whiskey with Tim’s name on the label. He
band, the music and the seemed to be very happy, haha.. Other bands we played with…
album itself to be so many of them… We played I guess 5 shows with Turbo, polish
inspired for his work. metal and rock legend. We have much respect for that band both
He was 100% free with for the music and for the members. Wojtek Hoffmann, the
his artistic creation. founder and brain of the band, who happen to be a great
After three months I guitarist, played a guest solo in “Glory for the Fools”. He shreds
guess he showed us six like crazy there :) In march we played with Primal Fear and Blaze
different versions of the Bayley, ex-vocalist of Iron Maiden. (Continued on page 4)