SOUL DOCTOR
6 min read1. Do you feel that you live in the shadow of 80’s hard rock , are you afraid of comparison ?
It was not intended that we sound like we do, everything came very natural out of us and we’re just doing what we like. I mean we’re all influenced by all the classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Whitesnake – so why should we deny our roots? We’re definitely influenced from bands out of this era and have no problem being compared with them, for us it is a honor being named in the same breath with Whitesnake, Free, Bad Company etc., and hopefully someday the people will enumerate also Soul Doctor when talking about great Rock’n’Roll bands.
2. Do you feel like a “hair metal “band ?
Not at all, and we’re definitely not a metal, but a real Rock’n’Roll band and image isn’t that important for us. The most important thing for us we want to focus on is simply the music, we want to write great songs and not think about most of the time about our outfits. Isn’t music the main thing when you’re talking about a band?
3. It is said that 80’s bands used to care more about the hair than the music , what is your opinion ?
Well, I think this phrase is more meant in a very ironical way, as back than mostly all bands were wearing nice and tidy outfits and also had to look like the nice boys living next door. This was a characteristic thing for the 80ies Rockscene, where LA was the Mekka for every musician. But if you think about bands like Dokken, WASP, Motley Crue etc which are considered even nowadays as great bands from this period, you can see that they really were working hard for their success and created great records with all time classics, which still are “sacred” songs for some fans. But I admit that there have been for sure some exceptions, where the haircut was the central point, without telling any names here, of course.
4. Tell me about your new album ,the procedure from the label contact …. until the release day of the CD ?
Well, I’ve been quite unhappy with the whole situation in Fair Warning for quite a while, as I realized that we haven’t been a real band anymore. This feeling started already when our drummer CC Behrens quit the band, and when our guitar player Andy left the band last year, my illusion of a real band, which I have always been fighting for, had gone. In addition with some other circumstances, it made no sense for me to go on with Fair Warning, I mean we haven’t played live as much as I would have loved to, and that’s in my opinion essential for a rock band, and I also couldn’t bring in my own ideas into the songwriting. All these things together made me feel really sick and I had no other choice than to make my decision. And this was the best thing I did in my life, as I now feel happier than ever with Soul Doctor!!! Soul Doctor do exist already since two years, I started putting my song ideas together with our guitar player Chris Lyne, whom I have known for many, many years, I played with him in my first band Heartlyne before I joined V 2. I met Joerg Deisinger during the Victory, Bonfire, Fair Warning tour in 1993 and we became close friends, as he is like me addicted to movies. Joerg was not happy with Sabu, I was not happy with Fair Warning and some day we started talking about starting a new band, which we never did before when we met. We three started jamming some classic rock tunes and then worked out new songs – and we all were feeling absolutely great doing this and Soul Doctor was born! We recorded our debut album at the Monongo studio in Berlin and produced it by ourselves, than we’ve offered it to some record companies and Massacre were reacting very quickly offering us a deal.
5. This group includes known members of Bonfire and Fair Warning , is it positive or a trap , this music legacy ?
I don’t think that our history, and I’m sure I can also talk for Joerg in this point for his time in Bonfire, is a trap for us. It was great to play in this bands and to reach and affect people with our music, we both have had many good memories about these bands, learned a lot and had precious experiences. I think Joerg was one of the Rock pioneers with Bonfire making Hard Rock “made In Germany” popular all over the world, and I’m really glad to have the possibility playing with him in the band. But we don’t feel strictly bound to our musical past life and do what we want to do and play the music we like. We know that we’re a brand new band that has to start right from the beginning and it seems to me everybody is expecting that a new band has to sound exactly like the bands the members were playing before; as a musician you’re completely thrown into a special drawer which you’re not allowed to leave. But we’re creative human beings who can’t be bound to a special “sound”. Of course it is hard to establish the own sound of a band, as you’ll be always compared to lots of other bands. That’s abnormal thing, but we want to reach the point in the future the people say “It’s sounding like Soul Doctor” instead of Soul Doctor sound like band XY.
6. By the way , what the other members of Bonfire doing these days ?
Claus Lessmann and Hans Ziller are still releasing records and are touring under the name Bonfire, Edgar Patrick is running a drum school and Angel Schleifer is living since some years in the US.
7.Is there any feedback from the fans until now ?
The reactions all over record on our debut are simply overwhelming, we just get good reviews and the response from the fans in the guestbook of our website www.souldoctorrocks.com is outstanding. Many people are telling us that it’s quite refreshing that there is a german band not sounding like the typical melodic speed metal from Germany, but playing groovy Rock’n’Roll tunes. The bottom line is, that many of these German bands sound exactly the same way, you can’t make a difference is it band x or y, as they don’t have a own profile regarding their sound.
8. Any plans for touring ?
We’re definitely playing to hit the road again in some months to promote this record. We were already playing a tour with Kingdom Come and got the opening slot for the only Alice Cooper show in Berlin, in July we’re playing some dates in France and in August you can see us live at the Wacken Open air, at the moment we’re working to do a support tour or some Club shows later this year. Besides this we’re already writing new songs for our next record, which should be out next year during the summer.
9. What about Japan , which was known for a special interest in hard rock , any special edition or other promotional activities ?
We’ve been to Japan end of May doing some promotion for the album and also played a showcase in Tokyo, and the reactions were simply overwhelming. When we took the train from Tokyo to Nagoya, people were standing at the station giving us little presents, one girl manufactured for each of us the “t” of our Soul Doctor logo in sterling silver – it’s incredible. The album was released in Japan at the end of May, and we entered the international album charts on # 19, the domestic album charts on # 48, so all is going well for us and we’re all very happy being so well accepted in Japan. I really would like to take the chance to say a big “Thank you” to the Japanese fans!!! The Japanese record has with the ballad “Wild And On The Run” one bonus track.
10 . Are you satisfied with your label ?
So far Massacre Records are doing a great job, the guys there heard the songs and were quite enthusiastic about the album, so they offered us a deal – and we accepted. They got a very varied artist roster ranging from the melodic to the heavy and black metal style, but it’s all Rock’n’Roll and that’s the only thing that counts! I have to disappoint you, except for some little things there are no complaints about the label.
