Recently, legendary Krokus vocalist Marc Storace, hot on the heels of the newly rejuvenated quintet’s much-celebrated European tour with Hammerfall, was kind enough to speak with us regarding, among many other things, the release of the group’s latest opus Hellraiser…

Todd: How did you originally become involved with Krokus?

Marc Storace: “…I had my own thing going in London after my time with Tea…which was my first professional band. After Tea, I returned to London, got Eazy Money going and then Krokus called me. I had know Krokus already because they had opened for Tea (laughs). …I had just done an audition with Rainbow with Ritchie (Blackmore), Roger Glover, Cozy Powell and Don Airey, so I was really at a kind of crossroads because I was slightly insecure about Eazy Money due to certain politics. I was searching to see if there was anything else that might grab me. It didn’t work out with Rainbow and when Krokus called me about a month later, I said I’d fly down to Switzerland so we could have a jam. It was nice for me to return to Switzerland, to have some typical Swiss food, drink some Swiss beer and speak Swiss German again (laughs). …That’s how it happened, ya know? A phone call because of an old relationship. I had also bumped into, coincidently, Harry Springer. Harry was Krokus’s manager at that time. Before that, he had been working with the same record company that had Tea. …I met him in London and took him to the great gear market because he wanted to find some stage clothes and surprise the band with some new t-shirts and stuff. I gave him my number and about three weeks later, I got a call from the band. Then they went and toured Hungary, which was still behind the Iron Curtain in those days. When they came back, they called again and said ‘…hey…our singer is leaving. He going to do a solo career. He wants to do Pop…’. So we decided to make a date for one weekend so we could see what would happen… It went fantastically and I came home to London with a great feeling and was really excited. They had played me a couple of demos of songs they wanted to put on Metal Rendez-vous…and they got me excited (laughs). We soon got a nice friendship going and the people around us were infected by our positive energy. Metal Rendez-vous immediately went straight to the top. It took off like a bushfire in Europe and a spark from that blew over to the United States. We were contacted by Mike Bone at Arista Records, who was A&R then. He arranged for us to fly over and we met at the Chicago Festival and he showed up with John Kalodner and Butch Stone was there, who later took over our management. From then on, it was history.”

Todd: What led to the group breaking up following the Heart Attack tour?

Marc: “Well, it was obvious. I mean, c’mon…let’s look at the human side. Take five guys, put them in a bus…whether it’s a luxury one or not, it’s still five guys…and add in all the hours and the parties. Plus, we did seven studio albums and plus one live album in eight years. This is above human…I guess it must be illegal. It goes into slavery, ya know? We were partying, getting up and doing sound checks and interviews and because I was the lead singer, I had to do all the interviews. The rest of the band was sitting by the pool, hangin’ out with blondes and smokin’ joints. …But it was my duty and I enjoyed talking with our fans, ya know? It was a nice way to connect with everyone… …From 1979 when we started out ‘till 1988 when Heart Attack came out, we went from recording in the studio, to promotions and touring and the tours increased over the years. Year in and year out, we had to write songs and also be creative, make demos, go back into the studio and in the meantime, we had a carousel of changing musicians, which was also very stressing…because you have to teach the new guys everything. Plus, with all of the record company and promotion people changing…we’re luck we always had the same tour manager and the same manager. …It was really to be expected. The band really should have been sent of holiday, ya know? Our manager should have come forward and said ‘…hey guys, you go take a break…’. In the end in 1988, we toured, we did our last show with Iron Maiden…and together we didn’t even fill the Superdome. …So it was really time and Grunge was coming, taking our territories, ya know? It was time for Metal and Hard Rock to take a break and go home, lick your wounds, build up energy and write new songs. It was time for that, but nobody told us to do it, so in the end, it just fell apart. We were swimming in a sea of intrigue and lies and mistrust. It was high time…it was really high time. …It was horrible. I can look back at it now and laugh, but it was a really depressing time…”

Todd: What was the main motivation behind reforming the group?

Marc: “…I had been preparing and writing for my second solo album and it was headed in the Rock direction…very melodic and stuff. “Midnite Fantasy” was actually going to be on my second solo album. …I was at a crossroads. I had enough songs ready to go in and look for a deal and go for it. And I knew that once I reached that decision, I would never look back and not consider Krokus. I had all the cards on my table and in the meantime, I felt that Hard Rock was kinda coming back. I was aware through the internet that there were all these revival bands coming back. I thought it could be a great time to reform Krokus because when we did To Rock Or Not To Be in 1995, that was wrong timing. We were successful on in Switzerland because the rest of the world was not ready for Hard Rock. So I thought maybe Fernando would go for the idea of a reunion and I…had nothing to loose by seeing where his mind was at. I called Fern and he sounded interested, but he said ‘…let me sleep on it and I’ll get back to you…’. It took a whole month (laughs), which is typical, but he got back to me… …He said ‘…let’s team up again and get the ball rolling…’. He had Tony Castell playing bass with him. Tony had played bass on the Stampede album, which was the first album recorded by Krokus after my departure in ‘88. …And this is how we recorded Rock The Block and it went to prove that we were very right when Rock The Block went straight to number one after one week. …It was a great decision and I’m glad I didn’t do the solo album. I’ll find another time to did it anyway (laughs). So things got rolling and things got happening and we started breaking new ground, ya know? It was the first ever number on by Krokus in Switzerland. …We recorded tons of shows on the 2003 tour and the next year, we released twenty Krokus classics on Fire And Gasoline and that went to number six. Usually live Hard Rock albums don’t go very far, ya know?

Todd: What ultimately led to Fernando leaving the group prior to the recording of Hellraiser?

Marc: “I guess he’d had enough and didn’t want to tour. The rest is…I don’t know (laughs). It’s up to him. It wasn’t so funny when he said he was gonna quit, but I quickly regained my balance and called (current lead guitarist) Mandy that night. He was an ex-member and a great guy…we were lucky that we could take him on at the time. …He turned up for the first rehearsal and everybody felt the energy. He was so positive…it was like day and night compared to Fernando’s attitude before leaving. …In the end, when we went on tour, we were able to return to the USA and did even more gigs than before. We started the pre-production for Hellraiser and everything came out good and the album is doing well. It sounds fantastic, so what more could you want?”

Todd: Prior to Mandy re-joining the group, did you have any doubt that you could continue without Fernando?

Marc: “Well, in the changeover phase, there’s always a little bit of doubt one has to chew on. You have to have the patience to see how things are going to work out in reality, ya know? …If you change your car for a new one, you don’t know if it’s gonna back out on you after a week. …Like everything else, you get used to a certain relationship, but as I’ve said, Mandy was no new boy to us. I had toured with Mandy for two years between ‘80 and ‘82 during a very successful world tour. And after that, we kept a great relationship. We met for barbeques by the lake and he knows my wife and got to know my son Lucka when he was only a few months old. He turned up backstage at concerts and we would drink beer and talk. …The last time he turned up was on the Rock The Block tour and again, we partied and had a good time. He had nothing but good things to say about the band and it was delightful, ya know? …Fern had some health problems and I always tried my best to help and stay positive, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles and one has to deal with reality. But reality was good to us, ya know? …I’ve learned to try and look forward because, honestly speaking, Fernando is not the only guy in Krokus. Krokus has been a carousel of musicians coming and going. I had to toughen up on the subject and learn how to handle my emotions regarding the human aspect of the band members. Some things hurt and some things make you happy, but there’s a balance. If we had taken on some greenhorn and the whole thing had flopped, we might not be talking right now. You might not even be interested (laughs).”

Todd: How well has the Hellraiser tour gone thus far? Has it been as successful as you’d hoped?

Marc: “…We toured Scandinavia for the first time ever. We played the Sweden Rock festival in front of thirty five thousand people…screaming fans singing along to Krokus songs…it was sensational. It’s one of the best festivals in Europe at the moment that’s happening every year. So we returned to start rebuilding our fan community in Scandinavia…to actually take care and meet and greet. Then we came down through Germany and went back through Switzerland and played a gig in Solothurn, which is like the birthplace of this band. The fans turned out and packed The Rock Palace, which is the new place in Solothurn. They received us very well and it’s so very important to be received well in the birthplace of the band, I think, so we ended that whole thing on a really great successful and happy note. It also proved that the people of Solothurn have nothing against the new formation of the band. On the contrary, they packed up the place and there were people standing outside with no room to come in. So we ended on a great note and now we have a little break so everyone can tend to some personal stuff. …We’re looking forward to hearing our American friend’s comments on the new album. A lot of them have been asking if we’re going to tour there again, and I’m sure we will before the end of 2007. We’re looking forward to that and we have people out there that are looking for a package tour for us so that we can reach the most amount of people in a shorter time. That means we’ll play bigger venues and also that we’ll play our strongholds and not just the East Coast alone. The East Coast has never been a stronghold of Krokus, but we took a dive in the cold water so we could shape up and that’s when we realized we needed to change our drummer. But we had a good time anyway…and life goes on. It’s great to see that Krokus is blooming and we’re looking forward…”

Todd: What type of set list have you been working with? Have you found it difficult to find a balance between the classic and the contemporary material?

Marc: “We’re trying our best…it’s a touchy subject. Of course there’s always gonna be fans…that when they see their favorite band are gonna be like ‘…shit…they didn’t play this song and they didn’t play that song…’, but we give and hour and a half of full pumping energy. …We open with “Hellraiser”, the title track from the new album, we go on with two more songs from the new album, one is “Too Wired To Sleep” and the other is “Hangman”. Then we go to “Long Stick Goes Boom” from One Vice At A Time and “Bad Boys, Rag Doll” and then another one from the new album called “Midnite Fantasy” and also “Fight On” from the new album. …“Screaming In The Night”, the old classic ballad and then “Spirit Of The Night” which is the follow up, and I think even slightly faster than “Headhunter”. …Then we go to our old classic cover that we took from The Guess Who, the Canadian band and pepped up in the ‘80’s. We go on to the single from Hellraiser “Angel Of My Dreams”, which everyone sings along with because it’s so catchy and then we go back to “Easy Rocker”…and then we go on with “Rock City” and then “Rock ‘n’ Roll Tonight”. Then we come out again and play…“Headhunter”, “Bedside Radio” and if they still want more, we have another one, the ending song on our new album called “Rocks Off!”. …It’s very tight and energetic. The band is pumping, we hit ’em hard and they love it (laughs). …It’s very rewarding after all these years and the slump that we had in the ‘90’s to have Hard Rock and Heavy Metal coming back, ya know? For me, that’s what the big wheel on our new album cover represents, ya know? …Hard Rock always reappears and right now, it’s heading towards the top of the wheel…”

Hellraiser (2006) **

Face-Off (2005) ******

Fire And Gasoline: Live! (2004) **

The Wars Of God And Men (2004) *****

Rock The Block (2003) **

The Definitive Collection (2000) **

Aguilar (1996) ****

To Rock Or Not To Be (1995) **

Amen (1994) ****

The Blue Album (1991) ***

Heart Attack (1988) **

Stayed Awake All Night (1987) **

Alive And Screamin’ (1986) **

Change Of Address (1986) **

The Blitz (1984) **

Headhunter (1983) **

One Vice At A Time (1982) **

Hardware (1981) **

Metal Rendez-vous (1980) **

Tax Exile (1976) *

The Ship (1974) *

Sprouts (1972) *

* as a member of Tea

** as a member of Krokus

*** as a solo artist

**** as a member of Amen

***** as a member of Warrior

****** as a member of Biss

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