1. How did the band get started? How did you meet
and how long have you been together?
Gerald Kloos: Rolf and I played together in several bands in
the early nineties. Then we joined different bands and met again 1998.
Rolf introduced me to the rough mixes of his technical-guitar based
material. This was the starting point. I was deep impressed by his
compositions and glad to get an offer to play the drums. We produced
3 instrumental tracks and started to make people aware of our music.
We sent demo-cds all around the world, designed our homepage etc.
(Check it out: http://www.rolfmunkesband.de)
and did a lot of promotion. Fortunately after searching for a long
time for an adaquate singer and bass player we found the missing pieces
(Götz Mohr: vocals, Frank Höfliger: bass) to take the next
step, a few months ago: switching from an instrumental project to
a real existing band with a powerful vocal-counterpart to the guitar-licks.
2. How would you describe your music?
Gerald
Kloos: It´s a combination of virtuos guitar playing with
some flashlights on instrumental segments and high-class vocals in
the tradition of Coverdale and Ronnie James ... well come on, you
know who!
3. What are your biggest influences?
Gerald Kloos: That depends on the musicians. Sure there
are certain influences we all share. For example Rock and Hardrock
bands that combined compositorial mastership with instrumental virtuosity
like Rush, Malmsteen, Steve Morse Band or Mr. Big to mention just
a few. To me personally the music of Thin Lizzy, Rush from 1975-1981,
Yngwie and Dio were (and still are!) the biggest influences.
4. What influence do you think your bands has in music and metal
today?
Gerald Kloos: Uhhh. There are so many bands
around. It seems there is not to much space for new pioneers in rock
or metal. The last years were dominated by the daily crap of MTV.
So unfortunately many perople grew up without any melodic musical
background. We still believe in handmade rock music aside the temporary
pushed "music"-genres in the media... and more: we are convinced that
some day (hopefully not too far in the future) people will be interested
again in real music made by real musicians.
5. What made
you want to be in the band? And if you weren’t in the band what
would you be doing now?
Gerald Kloos: First of
all, I love Rolfs guitar playing since the first day I heard him play,
way back in 1986. It´s the same with the powerful vocal abilities
of Götz. All of us are involved in side projects, so it´s
for sure that all of us will ever be into music.
6. Are
any band members in side projects? If so what are they, and explain
a little about them.
Gerald Kloos: Rolf is involved
in many music projects. Too many to mention. One of them named "Abra"
is oriented to the softer side of rock music with a lot of acoustic
and unplugged tunes. Götz and Frank are also collaborating with
many other musicians. I´m also the drummer of „Strange world"
a melodic rock band with certain potential, but suffering of the bad
booking situation in live clubs in Germany.
7. What current bands do you like or respect?
Gerald
Kloos: As mentioned above. Well, as I understand your question
there´s room to name some more...here they are: I love the music
of John Sykes, Dream Theater, The Johansson Brothers (Anders and Jens),
Talisman, Billy Squier (he is a genius, blame on Capitol records for
dropping him!) and the german band ZENO.
8. How many demos/albums
do you have? Tell me about them!!
Gerald Kloos:
Hundreds of Lps and Cds.Only a few demos. I´m more into bootleg
videos as long as they feature the earlier mentioned bands.
9. What demo/album do you like the best?
Gerald
Kloos: Goddamn you tear me to pieces. I´m unable to give
a fair answer. 3 Albums are the milestones of rock music to me. Strange,
all of them were recorded in the first half of the eighties: Dio´s
"Holy Diver," Malmsteens "Marching out," and Rush with "Moving pictures."
These records can never be beaten!!!
10. What is the meaning
behind the songs?
Gerald Kloos: Music in general
can be amusement or entertainment or the extreme opposite. To me and
fortunately for many others it means much more. It allows to express
any kind of feeling, especially those hard to express via language.
It´s a very complex topic... there´s so much more to say
about the emotional and mental processes invoked by music, the lyrics,
the combination of both etc. but don´t let us get too intelectual:
Music has to come from the heart- hopefully it reaches the hearts
of others.
11. What are the bands favorite songs?
Gerald Kloos: We recorded a very powerful melodic hardrock
tune a few days ago, called "You and I."
The title sounds a bit naive. But it´s definetly no foolin´
around with romantic attitudes. It offers an unbelievable hookline
and it´s really worth listening to. All of us love this song!!!
Speaking ´bout the musical influences I love the tracks "It´s
getting dangerous" from Thin Lizzy and "I´ll see the light tonight"
from Yngwie.
12. What does the future hold for the band?
Gerald Kloos: We´re actually very busy.
We are recording our first full length CD. We are very optimistic
in finding a label to distribute the final record. But there´s
still a lot of work to do.
13. If you could play with
any band who would it be and why?
Gerald Kloos:
We would play support for any band that gives us the opportunity to,
as long as they don´t stand for political extremes.
Asked ´bout my "dream-team" I have to say that it would be great
to work with any musician of my favorite bands. Especially Yngwie,
Ronnie James and if he wasn´t gone Phil Lynott.
14.
Who writes the majority of the music?
Gerald Kloos:
Rolf.
15. Who has been the favorite band you’ve played
with and why?
Gerald Kloos: The Rolf Munkes Band.
16. Where did you get the band name from?
Gerald
Kloos: I wish I knew... It´s somehow associated with the
Guitarplayer in the Band I guess...hahaha
17. Describe
what the band is like live?
Gerald Kloos: We
are heading for the first gigs in a few weeks. Still writing and rewriting
new material.
But all of us can be seen from time to time with the sideprojects,
´cause all bands are active in the live-club scene.
18. If you are gonna do any kind of video what would be in it?
Gerald Kloos: Sandra Bullock and Britney Spears little
or less dressed!
Just kidding! I guess we would try to capture a real setting. For
example video footage from the studio work or live sequences because
we are not into videos which have nothing in common with the musicians
who stand behind the compositions. We love to see the artists composing,
working, playing whatever...
19. Are there any touring
plans made; if so tell me about them?
Gerald Kloos:
It´s too early yet. Sorry. But if there´s a call, we will
be there! Definitely.
20. Where do you think the band
will be 20 years from now?
Gerald Kloos: We should
have asked Nostradamus. We love music for many years and still there´s
no end of the road to see... |
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