Mille Petrozza Interview

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Hey all,

I just read an interview with Kreator's leader in a french mag (Rock Hard) and thought it might be nice to share some bits with you, so here's a quick translation. I can't wait to see them next month here, they are touring with Dark Tranquillity, Ektomorf and Hatesphere ! Nice evening it will be !

"RH : Andy Sneap (Nevermore, Machine Head, Fozzy...) has mixed Live Kreation, but also produced your new album, Enemy Of God, and the one before, Violent Revolution. You seem very bounded to him.
MP : Yes, we had, over the years, bound a very strong relationship. He's the perfect link between the computers and us. He's a real producer, to the very first sense of the word : he knows how to obtain the best from each of us and pushes us to outperform. Why does he success doing it ? The answer is simple : he's a metal head ! He grew up listening to the same music than us. When Kreator played for the first time in the UK with Celtic Frost, he was at one of our show on the first row. And he was a member of Sabbat, a band we've played with too. All in all, we've known Andy for years now. We have the same sense of humour : in the studio, when one of our songs sounds like Priest or Maiden, he speaks his mind and have fun out of us ! (laugh) We can say that he's a friend today. Working with him is very comfortable, very pleasant. There's no confrontation, we really have fun. Even if he has a critical eye on everything. When he discovers our demos, our new songs, he's not the kind to be on fire easily. His judgement is very neutral : it's never "very good", at best, it's "good" (laugh). He helps me a lot with vocal harmonies, but guitars solos too. I'm not the best lead guitar player ever, but he manages to make me seem better than I am (laugh).

RH : He has recently declared that you were ready this time when entering the studio, because you finally learned how to use a 8 track recorder
MP : (laugh) Hahaha ! Thanks a lot Andy ! (...)

RH : You have spent 6 weeks in his studio in Nottingham. How is it to have to move to England to record ?
I've learn to love this country. The first album we did with Andy, Violent Revolution, was done in his first studio. It was not very "glamour". His father was leading a talkie-walkie company and, in the offices, was Sabbat old rehearsing spot, that Andy has transformed into a studio. We were working there all day, then drove one hour every evening to go back to sleep at Andy's home. It was pretty stressful... Today, he has a 16th century farm when we could record and sleep : we were living in the studio. The surroundings is very rural, cows and meadows..."

 

[Andy Sneap]

Hey Brett, thanks for that, nice to know what the Germans are saying for once haha

 

[ChaosFragment]

Mille is not that german,he has south italian origin!

 

[Andy Sneap]

He's german enough!

 

[ChaosFragment]

Lol!

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

You're always too much german actually ;-)

 

[ChaosFragment]

Well,to tell you the truth my mom grandparents were germans...

 

[Andy Sneap]

I'm actually learning German at night school at the moment, I feel it will make me that 1% more metal being able to converse with Manowar fans!

 

[ChaosFragment]

I'd like to learn it so I would understand Onkle Tom songs while drinkin!

 

[Forbiddenevil]

I'm actually learning German at night school at the moment, I feel it will make me that 1% more metal being able to converse with Manowar fans!

Then I can sent you, your interview about mixing the new KREATOR in the german Rock Hard. In school you can translate it.

Greetings

 

[Andy Sneap]

hey scan it in and send it over if poss, I'd like to see that

 

[noisefan]

Thanks for the post. Lately I'm in love with Kreator. Can't get enough. Old and new. They're coming to my town in the middle of April. Can't wait.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

Here it is:

Found in: http://www.metal-inside.de/frame.php?url=http://www.metal-inside.de/mi/interview/708

Andy Sneap

"A band has to be focused and know where it´s going, have a direction", Andy Sneap once said in an interview, and this seems to be his motto for working with a different bunch of bands. Andy has been twisting the knobs for TESTAMENT´s "The Gathering", BENEDICTION"s "Grind Bastard" and NEVERMORE´s "Dead Heart in A Dead World" among others. The first time KREATOR worked together with him was for "Violent Revolution", and a short time ago they went to Derbyshire again to record "Enemy Of God". Start the questioning in medias res:

Did you mix it all alone or was one of the band members coming over?

No, I did the original mix after we finished recording. And then I came over here to Hamburg to work with MASTERPLAN and I wasn´t happy with it. I was so burnt out with the recording by the time of the mix - we were working long hours. So I gave me a couple of weeks off and then I went back in July and re-did it. Mille trusts me and so I did the mix myself and sent the mix to the band to listen to it. It´s the easiest way to do it.

Why have you been so burnt out?

Every time I do an album, it gets me on. You know, you start at 10 a.m. in the morning, and you finish ´round 1 a.m. in the morning. As a producer you´re concentrating, you´re certainly trying to work things out. Your mind doesn´t wonder because you´re paying attention all the time, it´s like relentless. And when you sit between the paravan extends and you´re listening to KREATOR all day it´s - it fucking hurts, I tell you.

Ok, ok. It´s fucking intense, I guess.

Yeah, it is. Six weeks of that. That´s the worst German torture that´s happening in the past 50 years, put it that way. (laughing and watching the torture chamber in the Hamburg Dungeon). So, it is hard work. It is. I enjoy it, else I won´t do it. But I do find it very hard work, and I can say to everyone, to mix an album after six weeks of that, it´s the worst time to do it. Whenever I do a project I really try and take at least two weeks off before I get into the mix. And to get away from it, I don´t even listen to it. Then I´ll come back to it with fresh ears.

Did you have such a tight schedule this time?

Things are really running back to back usually and then certain people have got deadlines so I have to go elsewhere. This time I came over here to work here in Hamburg and then went back and just re-did the mixes. So it worked out for better in the end. But you always got labels, and you know they want to put it out in the fall because all tours are happening ´round then.

So, are you satisfied with "Enemy Of God"?

Yeah, I am very satisfied with it.

Ok. What do you think, what is your new turn to KREATOR?

Sorry?

Don´t you think that you influenced KREATOR in a certain way during the recording, or were they very strict with what they wanted to sound like?

I think, me and Mille work well together. We both were playing in bands back in the late eighties. I think we both understand this style of music very well. And I think the band´s idea is about this thrash. And while working we try hardly on this bitten, try this arrangement. And we both understand this style of music, so I think that´s why we work well together.

What was your approach to it? Did you want to have basic thrash idea to that?

Yeah, to me, KREATOR is a thrash band. From what I´m seeing and how I know the band. It wants to be fucking down-picking, it wants to be double-kicks, it wants to be screaming solos, it wants to be aggressive vocals, and to me that´s what people love about the band. Obviously they went for a more melodic sound for a little while, but I think this is where the band feels most comfortable, I think it´s what suits the band better, as well. Especially with this line-up, I think - the guys who are in the band, especially Ventor, I think his style is top when the heavier thrash is, that suits him better. To me, I think this is the direction they should go in. And as a producer that´s what I try to force them to do it.

Yes of course. The same time they have two guitar players who have such a wide range of music they are able to play. And on this album they both play this strict thrash thing and limit themselves.

Yeah I know. But that is what people want to hear.

Well.

Yeah. Totally. It would really damage a band if they start to go in another direction this sudden. I tell you this right: I first came to Germany in 1987. The fucking scene over here hasn´t changed one bit since then. I´ve done tours round Germany for years. And every time I come back here it´s the same old faces, same people in the crowd, same haircut, same jackets you see, same patches on the jackets. This is the way German metal is. I´m not criticising it. I love it, because it keeps me in business. It´s the way you Germans are, and I mean it´s great, because you haven´t followed any trends.

And it´s not like in England.

Oh, England... Everything, the scene is the Kerrang magazine: England, it´s so influenced by what´s in the media. Well you know, if you play metal, you´re always safe when you go to Germany.That´s good, it´s great. Apparently, KREATOR - what album is this, is it eleven? Twelve? Whatever. Why should they invent new sounds now?

They did.

Yes they did. And I don´t think it was successful for them. You know, a few people liked it, you´re one, another one is over there (pointing at one of the tortured figures behind him).
But people want fucking down-picking guitars, they want double-bass jolts and screaming solos and they want Mille. That´s what people want at this band. You´re not gonna break any new band with this style of music anymore. There is a sort of thrash thing coming back, and it´ll never gonna be as big as it was back in the days, but there is a resurgence in it. We haven´t made a thrash album for the sake of that, it´s just gone where the bands heart is. It´s what Mille understands. That´s what I understand. And it´s what we wanted to do. We wanted to take what we´ve got with the last album "Violent Revolution", sort of one step further with the thrash stuff. Screaming solos, you know? Screaming vocals, double-kicks. You can´t get wrong.

That´s what this album is about.

I think this is the right thing to do. You might disagree, but I think it´s the right thing to do.

I totally agree. Last question, which artist did you like most to work with in general?

I had some good times in the states actually. The STUCK MOJO guys are always good fun to work with. Rich, the guitar player, you´ve got the best mate in him. I was the best man at his wedding. I did a PISSING RAZORS album in El Paso, Texas. And EXODUS, well, Gary Holt is off the hook, he is so funny. He´s mad. He lives in a cartoon. When you´re going on an EXODUS album, you don´t know if you´re coming back from it. Well, EXODUS I would say, that was good fun.



(laetti) am 01.01.2005

 

[Matt Smith]

Awesome, thanks for posting that.

 

[Andy Sneap]

that reads like I translated it haha, thanks for that.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

"And when you sit between the paravan extends and you´re listening to KREATOR all day it´s - it fucking hurts, I tell you."

Do you often get headaches in the studio ? On a regular basis ? Is it normal or just me being "sissy" ?

 

[Andy Sneap]

No I used to suffer really bad, I ended up having a MRI scan and even accupuncture when I was working in Japan, it was driving me mad. The thing thats helped the most is the 21" mac monitor.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

Hehehe, you SISSY!
I dont know how long you stay in studio but when I get some headaches after 12 hours of consumating music at high volumes, I think its quite normal.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

The post above goes to Brett, Andy you typing faster then me, LOL.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

Yeah, a bigger monitor with a higher repeating frequency helps alot against headache.
Next time I go to a double screen solution.