ENGLISH
Hello Bill.It"s great honour for me and our site being here and welcome to Rockoverdose.gr
1.Let"s get back in early "80s.How did the legend named "WARLORD" began;
Well, as is widely known, Warlord began when Mark Zonder and I got together in Los Angeles and started looking for other musicians. I had the name Warlord since I was in high school and I had written many songs before Mark, for instance, "Black Mass" and "Child of the Damned," but when Mark and I played together things seemed to jel really well. We were just one of thousands of bands in the LA scene and we always had probelms finding a formidable lineup. We went through many bass players, auditioned many singers, etc. Eventually Jack Rucker was interested, but he was 5 years older than me (he was 25 and I was 20) and he was married, so he was looking for a paying gig. He liked us, and he liked recording with us but he needed a solid income. So, we needed to find someone who was dedicated and willing to go through the hardships. Enter Rick Cunningham. Rick didn"t work out . . . we persisted in trying to put together a line-up, but we became weary of the whole thing. Times became very very difficult and we went in our own directions.
2.What was the reason that the group came to an end;
The most important thing for the band"s demise was the inability to obtain a sure-fire vocalist. The LA metal scene had become totally pop and there didn"t seem room for a Euro-metal band. Remember, we had no idea that the European metal scene would take off just a few years later. So we were very discouraged, that led to some inner tensions (nothing significan), but just despair . . . so we went our different ways.
3.After WARLORD you continued firstly with LORDIAN WINDS and then with LORDIAN GUARD.What were your expectations for these projects;
Well, LORDIAN WINDS was basically supposed to be a 75 minute thematic composition that could be put to film. I had some producers interested but nothing ever materialized. The LORDIAN WINDS tracks are just rough cuts. I had actually written the entire epic for vocals, orchestra, choirs, etc. In the early 1990s I really started exploring the piano and I taught myself how to play Baroque pieces. Of course, I had a couple synthesizers as well, and those were somewhat easy to play and program. So I recorded a cassette called "Sea of Tranquility" (see Willima J. Tsamis Sea of Tranquility on YouTube, those songs have recently been uploaded by someone). Those compositions express melancholy and all kinds of deep feelings; they really take the listener on a journey. I didn"t know how to classify that music. It wasn"t classical . . . it was very melodic and interesting keyboard compositions. So I decided to send my tapes to various New Age music labels (which were in vogue then) and every response I received said, "We are not acceptign unsolicited material at this time." Then, I was contacted by Juergen Hegewald from Hellion Records in Germany, asking me if I would want to do something on the indpendent level. I took some motifs and some old Warlord material that was never recorded (I changed and updated that material) and the conclusion was LORDIAN GUARD.
4.Although WARLORD and LORDIAN GUARD had a great respect and appliance in the underground metal scene and fans,they hadn"t the same commercial success.Is that something that disappointed you;
With WARLORD it was disappointing because in the early days of Warlord (Deliver Us) we had a lot of radio play and good commercial success. It"s just that Metal Blade Records was a small company at the time and they couldn"t afford to promote us. With LORDIAN GUARD I didn"t expect any commercial success. I didn"t even know if people would like it. I really didn"t care. I liked it and that was all that mattered.
5.In 2002 WARLORD reformed with Joacim Cans of HAMMERFALL in vocals.It was only for the first ever live show that you did in Wacken or you had plans for a record also;
Yes, we were planning on doing another album after "Rising Out of the Ashes" (2002) but in March of 2003 I was severely injured in a very bad car accident and that delayed everything. Mark and Joacim went back to their own respective musical ventures and I went back to teaching philosophy on the college level. I am only now reconsidering putting some new music out -- in which form I am uncertain.
6.What are your memories and impressions of all that happened these past years;
Well that is a hard question because there are a lot of memories and impressions. I guess my best memories were of playing with Mark in rehearsals and just jamming. We both understood each other very well and we would practice 10 hours a day, even if we didn"t have a bass player or a vocalist. We would just play and play and that made us both better musicians. The GREATEST impression that I have is that there are people who even bother to listen to WARLORD today. I have heard from fans all over the world and I am deeply honored. The music has stood the test of time.
7.Are you still composing music and what kind of;
I am just getting back into composing and it"s mostly an epic medieval style, a little bit heavier than Lordian Guard, but definitely in that style. I don"t know how much creativity there is left in me, so I am just taking a journey into the wilderness of my sould to see if there are any treasures there. I hope so, because I would definitely love to put some music out. I am building a website with the entire history of everything that I ever did and I might just upload the songs to this website so people can download them. I"m not interested in money and dealing with labels, etc., though there are a few labels that would be interested in releasing any material I put out. I"m just taking it step by step because I am recovering from a year long illness and my wife has been in the hospital for six months due to a massive spinal infection. She just came home and is receiving nursing care on a daily basis . . . so the past year or so have been very difficult for our family.
8.What is your opinion for nowadays music,are you a listener;
I don"t really know anything about the current metal scene so I can"t really answer that quesiton. I listen to some contemporary metal bands like Kamelot, Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Nightwish, Within Temptation and others . . . but I really listen to anything "melodic," be it metal, folk music, classical music, ethnic music, or whatever (for example, "Blackmore"s Night or Loreena McKennitt). As long as the song has a beautiful melody I will listen to it. And of course I still listen to my favorite metal bands whether it is Judas Priest, Scorpions, old UFO, Rainbow (with Dio), Sabbath, Angelwitch, some Iron Maiden, etc.
9.You know that there is a great demand from WARLORD fans for a reunion of the group.It"s a dream for many people,including me of course,to see you again alive.Have you ever think of that again since 2002;
We have been offered to play overseas at festivals numerous times. However, it just wasn"t practical for us to do all that work to play just a few shows. I don"t think it will ever happen.
10.Greek fans of WARLORD are of the most loyal and fanatic around the world.Have you any message for them;
I have great appreciation for the Greek fans because they seem to be the fans that love epic metal the most. And I"m proud of my heritage and I have many friendships with Greek fans . . . God bless all of you.
Thank you again for the honour and i wish you the best!!!
Thank you. As I said, I don"t do "Interviews" anymore, but because of your love for Warlord I decided to do it. Again, thank you very much.
