Last spring season's Heavy Metal opera Klytemnestra by VIRGIN STEELE's mastermind David DeFeis turned out as a big success: usually every night was sold out in advance. Now with its first act, "The House Of Atreus" being released under the VIRGIN STEELE banner, hopefully success is going to stay But there are other exciting facts that might cause sleepless nights to VIRGIN STEELE fans due to anticipated joy...
First of all,
what's the new album like -
I know it's still VIRGIN STEELE but where do you see the difference to old VIRGIN STEELE
stuff?
"Okay, you hit the nail on the head. It is
still VIRGIN STEELE. A lot of people were worried that it was gonna be some totally
classic thing like the London Symphonic Orchestra or something like this. It's not: I am
the orchestra as usual, I play all the keyboard orchestrations, I am the choir and I am
every character on the CD. I did it this way because I wanted to achieve several things.
One: I wanted to keep the continuity that it's a Metal opera done by a Metal band, okay?
The idea is in my brain, this is how it comes out. No guests to interpret anything - it's
just a direct personal experience from us to the listener. And the third thing I wanted to
achieve was I knew it was gonna be a very big ambitious work and I wanted it to succeed or
fail on the strains of the band. So that's why there are no guests. What's it like? It's
the next step in a gradual evolution of things, you know. It's probably the most mature,
the most sophisticated VIRGIN STEELE album thus far. The "Invictus" style
aggression is still there but there is also some very very tender moments and very very
full blown symphonic types of things happening."
When will the
second act be released?
"The second act is written, the second act
is about 60 or 70% recorded. When I finish this promo trip I will return to the studio and
go back and finish - any time between January and perhaps midsummer. I don't know, itī
depends on the record company when I finish it and when they feel the time is right to
release it. As you may know or may not know, I wanted it to come out as a double album but
they thought differently and I understand their point of view and it's actually easier for
me to do it this way but it would have been kind of fun to kind of have done this huge
thing, you know, it's 23 songs on act 2 so it would be 46 songs to digest at once."
What about a
tour - when will you hit the road?
Will you wait until act 2 is released?
"It's quite possible that we will wait
till act 2 will come out to do it. If act 2 is gonna come out much later than I
anticipated - much later than January / February then we may come sooner and possibly
re-release "Guardians Of The Flame" and perhaps do some other kind of tour and
then present the entire work at a later date when the second act comes out - I'm not sure.
It's a little up in the air. I'm still in like the work mode, you know, cause I'm thinking
about what I have to record.
I'm still like in the studio."
But it would
be "normal" gigs, not like the whole
"Atreus" opera and afterwards all the classics?
(Would be pretty long but very cool gigs)
"Well that's the thing, you know, you
reach your point and we already reached that point with the last album. There is so much
material, so what do you play, what do you not play? We tried to address that situation by
playing different songs each night, not doing the exact same set. So if you saw the band a
couple of times, possibly your favorite songs might appear. But every band has this
problem after like a certain number of albums."
So no rumors
about a support act because nothing's planned right now. What about Jack Starr, does he
have a record deal at last?
"I do not think he has a record deal right
now. I spoke to him maybe 4 weeks ago and at that time he didn't mention having a record
deal. I know he did some new recordings, Blues stuff - with him singing! He did - I
don't know how many songs he did but he did several songs with another singer
singing and then with him singing. I didn't hear any of this but he told me that the
people he played it to liked his vocals better, so I'm curious to hear it. I remember him
singing when we did "Guardians Of The Flame", we were just screwing around in
the studio and we did "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" by the BEATLES with him singing
and by heavens, it was pretty hilarious."
I'm asking
because if VIRGIN STEELE would go on tour with Jack Starr (as support act, of course),
many of today's nostalgians would feel like a little child if you played a few songs with
him at the end of a gig, I bet.
"Well, we still do it, like "The
Redeemer" and do some old songs like "Don't Say Goodbye", "A Cry In
The Night"... we still do some of these tracks, "Guardians Of The Flame" is
part of like a medley that we do with "The Angel Of Light", "I Am The
One", we did it once or twice on the last tour, not so often but, yeah, it would be
fun, I think, to do some gigs and bring Jack out again. We did some new recordings in late
'97, I call them the sacred demos. They will probably be bonus tracks on what will
eventually come out as "Guardians Of The Flame" or "The Book Of
Burning". Whatever it is, like a box thing when we re-release the "Guardians Of
The Flame"."
And what about
a live record?
"Once the second "Atreus" act
comes out and we do tour, at that point of time then I'll start compiling different songs
for a live album. Yeah, I think it's time to revisit now cause there's so much music, revisit
the catalogue, cause we play some of the older things completely different. "A Cry In
The Night" is just me and Edward on stage. It's not on acoustic guitar, we use the
electric but, you know. "Don't Close Your Eyes" from "Noble Savage",
it's a lot of things that have changed quite a bit, even the "Marriage..." stuff
is different than the studio versions because one is always improvising, you know, that
whole improvisation quality that comes from our studies in the Blues and bands like LED
ZEPPELIN and even QUEEN and of course GUNS'N'ROSES, you know, they took these philosophies
as well, they play the songs differently, but you know, we're really learning from... I
saw QUEEN many times and LED ZEPPELIN and they didn't play strict note for note renditions
of the studio things and "Dazed & Confused" (Led Zeppelin) is like 20
minutes long on stage some nights. So we're stretching out or shortening as well."
So I guess it
would have to be a double
or a triple album, then...
"Yeah, maybe then I'll get my double
or triple album - we'll see.
" Well,
I've heard some rumors that the "Marriage..." trilogy is going to be performed
in Memmingen...
"You have heard correctly, brother. 2001,
spring season, we will present the "Marriage Of Heaven And Hell" trilogy opera
in Memmingen, same place. Good town.So what else can I tell you? I'm thinking about video
filming the entire "Atreus" act 1 and act 2, presenting some kind of a weird
type of movie at some point."
Cool! By the
way: is the "Tale Of The Snakeskin Voodoo Man" video already sold out?
"No, we still have copies of that.
It's not in the European system, though..."
Yeah, I
know... cause the only place I saw the video
it was really expensive...
"Well, anything that one needs, one can
contact VIRGIN STEELE - P.O. Box 2431 - North Babylon, NY, 11703 - 0431, U.S.A. - and it's
the video there, it's T- Shirts, it's necklaces... . I guess, it's about 30 minutes, that
video. It's 4 tracks. It's the "Life Among The Ruins" era, so it's
"Invitation", "I Dress In Black", "Cage Of Angels",
"Never Believed in Good-Bye", "Love Is Pain", "Snakeskin Voodoo
Man" which is a bonus track on the US version, US pressing and some other sort of
audiovisual stuff. At some point I may take those videos and merge them with a more the
ancient history and current and future history of film that I have cause I have stuff from
the very first days up to now. So maybe I can compile a documentary on the band at some
point. I can't tell you when but... these are products on the backburner. Okay, any
further questions?"
No, not at
this point. Maybe when I'm back home.
Thanks a lot!
"Thank you. By the gods!"
Interview & David DeFeis color
pic: Ramon Claassen
all b/w pics: Michelle Francis