Rockezine.com interview with Rebellion on Jun 03, 2003

with Uwe Lulis on Jun 03, 2003


		First of all congratulations with your truly excellent new album “Born A Rebel”! How have the reactions to the album been so far? Thanks: Yeah, we’ve gotten a lot of very good response from magazines and fans. It seems that we made the right album at the right time.
		“Born A Rebel” is your second album to date and unfortunately I must admit that I haven’t heard your debut album. Can you tell us a bit more about the background of the band and how the music has developed since your debut album “Shakespeare’s Macbeth”? Well, with the “Shakespeare’s MacBeth” album we created a masterpiece in concept albums. We worked over a year on that one; the story, the music and everything around it, fits the album perfectly. We got really good response all around the world. That, of course, makes us proud. The band became a real band during this recording session and with “Born A Rebel” we continue our way of Heavy Metal. The album is a mirror of everything that’s going on inside of us.
		Rebellion is clearly old school classic heavy metal, so I was wondering what bands have been your biggest influences and how would you describe your music in your own words? Sure it is. You know, I’m 37 years old and I’m an old fan of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Accept. These are my main Influences.
The album is a mirror of everything that’s going on inside of us.		When I first saw the cover artwork of “Born A Rebel” I thought it slightly corny. Do you think the artwork is overdone or do you think it fits very well with your music and your philosophy? Yes it fits perfectly. Basically it’s a symbol for the music and the feeling of this album.
		Who is responsible for the song writing within the band or is it a process that involves the band as a whole? I created all the music, except “Iron Flames”, that song is written by Bjoern while Tomi wrote all the Lyrics, except “Iron Flames” and “Through the Fire”; those lyrics were written by Michael.
		I read somewhere that when the production was already under way half of the writing of material still had to be done. What exactly was the reason for this and did it work out like you intended? Yeah, that’s right. All the time, when I’m doing demo/song-writing recordings, they sound better than the production later. And I wanted to keep that ‘freshness’ in the production this time. It worked out very well. For Example, I wrote “Queen Of Spades” on my Birthday on the 6th of December last year. I started to write the song in the night of the 5th, and on the evening of the 6th, it was recorded. I went into the studio room with the words “now I’m going to write my Birthday song!”
Bands are coming and going but the metal underground is still big after all these years.		Is there any favourite song on “Born A Rebel”? I like the whole album. But I have some favourites on it: “Born A Rebel”, “Adrenalin”, “One for All”, “Dragons Fly”, “Through The Fire” and “Iron Flames”.
		The European Heavy Metal scene is really blossoming at the moment and one after another new band sees the light of the day. What do you think of this situation and do you think that the Heavy Metal scene will befall the same fate as in the nineties? I don’t think so. Bands are coming and going but the metal underground is still big after all these years. The whole scene is like a big family and that’s what I like. We have a lot of young people in the audience all the time and that gives me a good feeling.
		Coming back to the previous question; in your opinion what bands at this moment are really paving the way for the rest? Well, I think, Iron Maiden will keep the Way and I wish that Rob would go back to Judas Priest. My friends from Helloween, Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian and Udo will exist for years from now. I also like Lost Horizon, especially the first album: good music and crazy guys.
		Rebellion already has made fame with live performances; having said that, will we see Rebellion on a European tour this year and what countries can we expect to be visited? We’ll be going on tour with Overkill in July! All over Europe; for more details, check out our website: http://www.rebellion.st.
		Any future plans? Making good music, stay healthy and live our Heavy Metal lifestyle!!!!
		Thank you very much for this interview and good luck with your new album “Born A Rebel”! Is there anything you want to add? Thank you and I want to say thanks to all the fans for their support. We are (Heavy Metal) family. Cheers! Uwe and the guys.
(Frank van de Voorde)