Kreator: Interview

In-person interview with Mille Petrozza of Kreator

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

March 23rd 2010, House Of Blues, Hollywood CA

Andrew: You did a headlining US tour last year and now you are back here to do the 25th anniversary tour. What's different this time around?
Mille: We're playing different songs this time and there are older songs in the set. It's definitely a different vibe since playing a lot of those songs just feels different. On the last tour that we did, we did more songs off of 'Hordes Of Chaos'. This time we are doing other songs from the album, but the same amount of songs. We mixed it up a little bit to make it more interesting.

Andrew: You let fans vote for the set list for this tour. What was the reason for that?
Mille: We always get requests for songs. There is some very obscure stuff that we usually don't play anymore. So we wanted to see what was possible, how we can mix it up and what people really want to hear on this tour. Surprisingly, the votes were for songs we already had in the set list! We had to make a compromise. We can't go too obscure because then the flow wouldn't be there. So we had to choose between what we like, what the fans like and what works within the set. Playing songs that didn't work wouldn't have made sense. The songs that we put in the set are songs we haven't played forever and some songs even since 85 or 86. But they work and its fun to play them.

Andrew: How did the rehearsal for some of these songs go, specially those that you've not played for a while?
Mille: Yeah we had to re-learn all that stuff, but it wasn't so hard because it was somewhere here. I have it all in the back of my mind. I have them all, like on a hard disc or something. They were just hidden and I dug them out. It makes a lot of sense to sometimes go back and listen to songs to kind of get a vibe from those songs that have a timeless quality. You're not aware when you're not playing them. So doing this was a really nice experience for us, rediscovering our own music again. But then on the other hand, it was also important for us to play certain songs from 'Hordes Of Chaos' that we didn't play last time. Doing those older songs is good for us of course, but we are constantly writing new music. A Kreator concert where we play two hours wouldn't happen because the music is too intense. We have to keep it down to an hour and a half.

Andrew: 'Hordes Of Chaos' was recorded on analog tape. What made you do that?
Mille: We just wanted to have a vintage sound. We wanted to have an old-school sound that we liked when we were growing up and all those other records were done on 12-inch back in the day. Nobody does it anymore because it is a lot cheaper and less complicated to record to a computer and hard disc, which is fine also because it has great things and big possibilities for everything. So it was important for us to try something else and capture the vibe of the music, rather than over-analyzing stuff and going too much into details.

Andrew: Would you agree that Kreator's sound has been getting more and more 'old school' with each of the last three albums [Violent Revolution 2001, Enemy Of God 2005 and Hordes of Chaos 2009]?
Mille: I think nowadays it's important to develop a trademark as a band. One way of doing it is being pure and raw. On the other hand of course, there are so many possibilities when we go into the studio, putting down the tracks and working in an almost orchestral, very symphonic kind of way. So its all possible and without limitations we want to try to see how much there is in us as musicians and how much we can do without using too much of that new technology. I'm not against it and I think it is great. It is amazing to be able to work that quick and effectively. On the other hand, for the character of any band, it's always good to keep it simpler.

Andrew: German thrash has elements of death metal in it. Do you think that makes it unique, as compared to the American thrash bands?
Mille: Metallica and Exodus were important for us. But anything after that, the most important Bay Area band to me was Possessed. Those were the three bands. The more melodic style came way later. I was never too big into bands like Anthrax. They had some sort of humour to them. I've always liked serious thrash metal. It is a form of art and I don't believe in putting humour in it. I'm not saying that nobody should use humour, but as Kreator, we like to have a dark and serious atmosphere without joking around. If we want to joke around, its private. Music should be serious and epic. To achieve that, it is not possible to loosen it up too much, being like a rock n roll party band. That's not for us.

Andrew: Vocally how much do you think you've progressed?
Mille: I always try to come up with different melody lines. To me the lyrics are the most important thing. Sometimes the melody lines take a long time for me to develop. To me, finding the perfect song is still a challenge. Every time I go back into the creative frame of mind, I'm trying to find the perfect Kreator song. It's still not there yet and I keep on looking for it. I'm a fan of the singer-songwriter. I'm really into Neil Young and certain German bands that have the ability to just play a song and play guitar to it. It's a different technique as compared to just having a singer. Bands like Metallica in their hey day, they had that. They perfected it.

Andrew: Where else are you planning to take this anniversary tour and when will the next album be recorded?
Mille: We are going everywhere for this tour. After this we are going to Russia and Turkey among many other countries. It will be a busy year. And on the other hand, I think we'll be recording the next album in the summer of 2011.

Andrew: You should play in India sometime soon!
Mille: Oh yeah, we got an offer but it was nothing serious. We got some sort of offer, but it didn't come through. But I would love to play there. It would be great if that were to happen.

Andrew: How do you deal with playing a huge festival show like Wacken where sometimes you are not the headliners?
Mille: We are among the headiners every time we play at Wacken. At that festival, there are not really any headlining bands. There's always a band that plays last and then two bands that play afterwards. That festival is very extraordinary and special because the bands that play there are all mixed up. Every year it's very exciting for the people that go. But for me, every show is the same. Not that I don't care but any show is equally important. Its not like if its Wacken we have to be extra special. All we do is give our 150% every night.

Andrew: Germany has given us some legendary thrash bands like Destruction, Sodom, Holy Moses and Tankard. Is there a possibility of all of you touring together, here in the States?
Mille: We tried but its not working. We asked the guys even for this tour. For some reason, they don't want to do it. They are not interested. Hopefully it works out sometime. We are trying, we worked on it and I think Destruction wants to do it and Sodom doesn't.

Check out the band's official website.

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