Das Interview mit Striker Gitarrist Tim zum aktuellen Album Stand In The Fire (English Version)

Artist: Striker

Orgin: Edmonton, Kanada

Genre: Heavy Metal

Link: http://www.striker-metal.com/band/

Bandmember:

Vocals – Dan Cleary
Guitar – Tim Brown
Bass – William Wallace
Drums – Adam Brown

Striker - Stand In The Fire

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Greetings to Striker in Canada,

Today we want to talk about your new and third studio album Stand In The Fire.

The preliminary signals have not been positive. Your lead guitarist Chris Segger left the band, and additionally the contract with Napalm Records was terminated. How much did this complicate the songwriting and the production?

Striker / Tim:

The songwriting and production for Stand in the Fire was actually the smoothest and easiest record we’ve done. Not to say that things are better without Chris, we certainly miss him, but I think for this album we were just more focused and were in a solid groove of working our asses off. In regards to Napalm, we had been talking about going independent with our last album City of Gold. Going independent was the best thing we’ve ever done and I don’t know if we would ever sign another record deal again. Labels can do some great things for you but ultimately in today’s music industry there’s not any room to survive when you are on a label.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

So you did everything on your own and released the album as your own production. The album continues to path into the 80s Heavy Metal sound, and my colleague was really stoked about the authentic songwriting. Was that a clear criteria for the production of the new songs?

Striker / Tim:

The only criteria we had was to make every song the absolute best it could be. We don’t focus on writing in a specific way or anything, it’s just what ever comes out of us during that time. We love 80s hair metal so that creeps into our sound quite a bit I  suppose!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Also the artwork is referring to the time three decades ago. Who was the artist for this cover, and why are you, as young guys, so fascinated by the beginnings of Heavy Metal that you dig deeper in this genre?

Striker / Tim:

The art was done by Coki Greenway from the USA. He’s done some really cool art for other groups and we were really happy with his work.  Basically we wanted a bad ass manowar type cover and that’s what we got!

If something is important to you, you’ll probably put a lot of effort into it. We all love music, especially metal, and we’ve listened to practically everything out there. The early stuff just speaks to us!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

For the sound of Stand In The Fire you worked with Frederik Nordstrom (In FlamesHammerFall) and Randy Black (Annihilator). How was this cooperation initiated, and was it a smooth process until the finalization of the album?

Striker / Tim:

Smooth as ice! Those guys are the best in the business. Really happy with how it turned out. We had worked with Nordstrom on our last album so we just called him up again, and we have met Randy a number times in the past. He’s actually family friends with our old guitarist Chris Segger.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

To dive a little bit deeper into Stand In The Fire would you please give some further information about the songs? What may the prospective listener expect compared to the past? Maybe you can also tell some nice anecdotes referring to one or the other song?

Striker / Tim:

I’d say Stand In The Fire is Striker on steroids. More of everything. We tried to keep the variety up on this album so there’s a few new sounds on the album. We’ve had really positive reactions from the fans and critics, basically if you like high energy music you’ll like the album. It’s very catchy and there’s something for everyone on it. As for an anecdote, well, I still haven’t changed the strings on my guitar I recorded the whole album on! They have extra mojo now.

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

So what is the schedule for Striker during the upcoming weeks? Did you already plan some shows in Canada or maybe even in Europe?

Striker / Tim:

We have a full North American tour coming up! From Late April to mid June. Going to be a crazy time and it will be our longest tour yet. We are working on our next European tour for the fall, and we are even heading back to the studio to pump out some new music!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

In Germany we have a very consolidated heavy metal scene with daily concerts in bigger cities. How can we imagine the scene in North America?

Striker / Tim:

Germany is the Holy Land for hard rock and metal. The USA is pretty good too once you’ve made a name for yourself but starting out it can be pretty tough. Canada is different because it’s so massive but has so few people. In many places in Canada you can go a few hundred kilometers before you even see a gas station, let alone another town or city. In the big cities it’s a pretty tight scene, though there isn’t too much mixing between cities since they are so far apart!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

You are quite new in the business, what are your plans? What are your daily jobs to earn money with, and with which artist would you like to share the stages?

Striker / Tim:

Ha ha well we’ve been around for almost a decade now! Between tours and albums we all work full time jobs. Basically the music industry is the biggest hobby industry out there. Even in big bands, the members all have other work outside their respective bands. If you are lucky you can fully support yourself from music, and that’s the dream for us. As for bands, we’ve already played with Metallica twice! So we can cross that one off the list.  But all the legacy groups from the 80s like Priest, Maiden, Whitesnake, Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, we all grew up to that stuff and playing with them would be an honour! Touring with Primal Fear was pretty awesome too!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

We started the interview with some negative points. Are there any positive incidents in the history of Striker, you will never forget?

Striker / Tim:

Direct support to Metallica for 2 sold out shows at home arena was pretty amazing. We are in the special features of the Through the Never movie! Our recent tour with Primal Fear was also a big highlight, and of course releasing Stand in the Fire on our own. We are also working on some really cool things for the future and I think the next year will be very positive for us!

Time For Metal / Rene W.:

Thank you very much for taking your time doing this interview. I wish you all the best for the future. The last word is up to you, and you may speak frankly to your fans and our readers.

Striker / Tim:

Awesome thanks for the interview! Big thanks to everyone around the world for your ongoing support, without you the fans and friends we could never do this!