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Photos by Lisa Tiffany
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Interviewed by Mark Dean (Journalist/Writer/Contributor) Myglobalmind Webzine
After arranging a scheduled interview with Sami guitarist of Thrash legends Kreator before the bands recent Dublin show. I was therefore thrown and surprised to be brought into the bands dressing room only to be facing original vocalist-guitarist Mille Petrozza.
Hi Mille ,pleasure to chat to you before your Dublin show tonight.
Hows the tour going so far?
Mille “We have just done 2 dates in the UK so far,then this one in Ireland . I understand that your interview was supposed to be with Sami,but he travels from Finland, to each date”
Isn’t that difficult logistically?
Mille”No, no, it has always been like that”
How do you account for Kreator’s longevity as you have existed as a band since the eighties? Is it difficult to maintain your drive, enthusiasm and motivation?
Mille”This is actually what we do, I love music and I love metal. I am privileged to be in a position to be able to still do this after all these years and that there are still people that really support metal and people that like Kreator. We just try to keep sane, we try to come up with albums that still matter nowadays. I think that we are in a very privileged position simply because a lot of our audience also want to listen to our newer records. I know a lot of bands that have also been around since the eighties,and people are only waiting around for the old stuff. I think that this is a really cool thing now, for Kreator.I am just happy to be able to do this.The band is still growing, which is great”
Isn’t it more difficult now for bands to make a living now than when you first started out?
Mille”Depending on the bands, but you have to be lucky also. Of course when we first started there was no such thing as thrash metal. There weren’t too many bands of that type around. Nowadays there are so many different genres, thrash metal, death core, metalcore, death metal and sub genres. It is not as easy to get recognized you have to work a lot harder than even we had to back in the day. We had the surprise effect when we we came out with “Endless Pain”, it was a new raw sound that nobody had heard t before. Nowadays that new raw sound is not new any more. We now have to come up with quality music, Nuclear Blast our label are very supportive. They are the biggest metal label,that there is and we have huge support from them.”
Mille , if I could just take you back right now, how did you first get into rock music? Did you come from a musical family?
Mille”My father was a guitar player also, and I was always interested in music. When I turned twelve or something someone gave me an electric guitar. We had a guitar at home,an acoustic, but I didn’t like it and thought that it was boring. Once I started with an electric guitar that was it.”
Kreator @ The Academy, Dublin, April 26 (2013)
© Lisa Tiffany Photography
Did you find it easy in Germany back then with your first couple of bands to get gigs and opportunities?
Mille”You would be surprised, before we even went into the studio the band had only played two gigs. I talked to my friends in Exodus and when they told me, before they did “Bonded by blood”they already had like two hundred gigs in their pocket. Though that album sounds so much tighter and so much better because they were used to the material and the material was ready to roll. Listening to “Endless Pain”is very chaotic, as we didn’t get any gigs in Germany at the time, the scene was still developing then, there was no such thing. There was a heavy metal but not a thrash metal scene.”
All you had in Germany was the Scorpions?
Mille”Yep”(laughs)
Have you any early memories of your first bands, maybe that very first gig?
Mille”We still have the core of the band, me and our drummer Ventor were always playing together, and that was my first band. We have known each other since kindergarten.”
What was the first concert that you went to see?
Mille”Iron Maiden supporting Kiss, on their first album with Paul Dianno. I went to this show as a Kiss fan and left the show as an Iron Maiden fan.”
Do you keep in touch with the current rock music scene? What are you currently listening to?
Mille”Yes everything, I like a lot of stuff. I like anything from electronic music, and pop music to underground metal. I am looking forward to the new Evile album. I heard something on the Internet which was killer.”
Looking back through Kreators musical legacy, what to you are the best and worst releases?
Mille(laughing)”I would never answer that question. There were some mistakes but the thing is if I say that album “X”is shit, then a person that likes that album is going to feel offended. I think that we have done very strong albums but we have also done some weaker albums. That is just the nature of things. There were some albums in the nineties that were a little strange, a little different and weren’t that well received. We had put a lot of heart and soul into those, and I would never say that any album was a mistake. Maybe some of the albums could have been a little better produced, maybe?
How do you deal with criticism?
Mille”It depends, sometimes reading the comments on the Internet people can get really shitty. Sometimes you should read the comments on Facebook or Youtube,and you are asking…”What the fuck”? I don’t take it too personally and wouldn’t kill myself if I did. I am way too positive as a person to care. Whatever. You know that those people that are critical of a band, why don’t they just shut up if they don’t like a band. If I don’t like a band, I go out.”
(we get a Tm reminder to end the interview-they have a long list to get through…)
Final question everybody has personal heroes ,that have perhaps taught them something in their lives. If you had to interview your hero who would it be, why, and what would you ask them?
Mille”Klaus Kinski-( Nosferatu) , and I would ask him if it was really true that he had like ten heart attacks without really feeling it. They did some research on his actual heart. He is an interesting character, a German actor that is now dead.”
The Tm reappears to end the interview, short but sweet chat with a legend of the Thrash Metal music genre.
Thanks Mille for chatting to me, really looking forward to seeing Kreator again for the first time in over twenty years.
Mille “No problem.enjoy the show”
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