Rockezine.com interview with Pegazus on Mar 13, 2002

with Johnny Stoj on Mar 13, 2002

Australian heavy metalists Pegazus have just released The Headless Horseman; their fourth album, and the first one they recorded with their new singer Rob Thompson. Their heaviest up to now, it got a very positive review in Rockezine and other magazines. Since their start in 1993 the band has not strayed from their path of true heavy metal, reaching more and more people and convincing them that heavy metal has never been dead. So Rockezine got on the phone with songwriter, guitarist and even part-time vocalist Johnny Stoj, to see what he thinks of the new album and all the personnel changes that have befallen his band. The poor man calls at 20.30; which means it’s 6.30 am for him and he hasn’t been to bed after a night filled with interviews. But he says he doesn’t mind, usually doesn’t go to sleep before 7; and starts cheerfully to answer my questions.
		First of all, congratulations on your new album. I wrote a very positive review on it for Rockezine. Do you know Rockezine? I`ve heard the name, but I`m not yet familiar with it. But I`m definitely going to check it out. I think it`s a great idea, Internet rock and metal magazines, because it keeps the metal fans united. Printed magazines sometimes come out so late in countries, and the Internet keeps people up to date. I`m addicted to it. Our own website (www.pegazus.net) is going to get reformatted soon, some very cool things are going to happen there.
		I loved The Headless Horseman, gave it 9 out of 10 points. What do you yourselves think of it? Well, I would have given it 10 out of 10, ha ha. This album has so far got much more positive reactions than any of our former albums. We felt this album was very special when we were recording it. We had the feeling that we really were creating probably the best Pegazus album so far. I think that shows on the final product. There is so much passion in it from all of us, it really felt right. I don`t know why. Maybe because of the new singer, or maybe because we felt we had to prove something to certain people.
		Here in Australia there are people who are not very big fans of classic heavy metal and who criticised us from day one. There`s a lot of people out there who would probably like to see Pegazus crash and burn. Maybe we decided to show them what we are made of.
		Nowadays heavy metal is more accepted than when you first started in 1993. Do you notice that in Australia too; are there more people listening to your kind of music now? We were definitely the pioneers of the return of heavy metal in Australia. When we first started playing live, in 1994, we were doing this against trance music and the grunge scene, and the more extreme metal like Machine Head and Fear Factory. What we were doing was really not acceptable at the time, people looked really strange at us for playing old school metal and wearing leathers and stuff. But the way we saw it is: we were four heavy metal fans and we still are, and all we did was play the music that we liked and would have liked to hear from other bands. That`s all that Pegazus is: a band of heavy metal fans playing the music that we enjoy, and obviously the fans enjoy it, too.
		When I listen to you r music it reminds me of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden… Have those bands influenced you a lot? They were definitely a big influence. Iron Maiden is my all-time favourite band, and Judas Priest is right up there too. My top five bands have always been Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and the Sweet. So those bands have always been an inspiration for the sound of Pegazus. We are not a clone band at all, those influences are just helping us to become us. It`s very hard to become a totally original band. Everything goes around in circles, music comes in and out of fashion.
		Once the wheel`s been created it`s been created, it`s not going to be reinvented again. All you can hope for is for metal to be revived again and still keep it fresh- sounding. We certainly feel positive about the way we`ve been playing our form of metal and we know there are a lot of people appreciating it. And that`s all that matters to us.
		The last song on your new album is Ballad Of A Thin Man; a tribute to Phil Lynnott. What does he mean to you? For me, personally, a lot. He is a very big inspiration to me, not just as a musician, but as a songwriter. He is very talented, the diversity in Thin Lizzy’s songs shows that. It is one thing to just choose one kind of music and play it all the time, but it’s a lot harder to be creative and keep your music new and fresh. That is certainly a special quality and I think Phil Lynott did that so well.
		And how does the song writing take place in your band? You’re the songwriter; do you present the song all finished to the band or do you just create the first idea and the lyrics? Usually I write the whole song, guitars, rhythm, melodies and lyrics. I present it to the band and then we work on it together and everyone has their own input. Of course sometimes we have differences about the way it should sound, but usually the rest of the band really dig my ideas, they generally feel that the way I put a song together is the best way.
		A good thing about this new album, too, is that there are some new writers on it. I have been the major writer, but Rob Thompson has written Dragon Slayer and Victim, and co-wrote the lyrics on The Patriot and Neon Angel with me; and our previous bass player Cory Betts wrote Look To The Stars. So there’s been a lot more input from the other guys on this album than there was on any former album. I have always tried to encourage it, but thus far it never happened.
		So it’s not that you didn’t want anyone to interfere with your song writing, they were just lazy? Well, my brother (drummer Robbie Stoj) is! He just wants to play drums. But I’m trying to get even him to get involved in the song writing. In the future he will be involved a lot more than now.
		Where do you get the inspiration for your lyrics? Your lyrics are all about fantasy themes, do you read a lot of fantasy; watch a lot of movies? I think it’s just a lot of imagination. And, besides music, movies are my next passion. I go to the cinema two to three times a week. A lot of our songs have been inspired by movies, like The Headless Horseman. I’ve seen Sleepy Hollow for about five times. And I grew up with the seventies-series Nightstalker that I thought was great. And also songs like Braveheart and The Patriot are inspired by movies. I just think up a story with it. Other songs are just based on ideas that come from within, like Forever Chasing Rainbow. I have no idea where they come from, but they come out. They seem right at the time of writing. I have some pretty dark images too, but I don’t focus too much on that. Heavy metal is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, not dark and negative.
		I know it’s a long time ago, about two years, but I never heard why Danny Cecati, the old singer, left the band? There was a very bad split-up between us. He started to get a bit of an attitude after we came back from our European tour, which was uncomfortable to work with. It followed for many months while we were recording the Breaking The Chains-album, and it got to the point where he started playing in another band behind our backs. He started doing a lot of things secretly. There were too many bad things that we couldn’t stomach and it got to the point that we had to say: “See you later.” It was a very hard decision, but it was something we had to do.
		From day one we had this idea that our band is like a band of brothers. It’s not being cliché, but that is really what it feels like. And you have to be open and honest with one another; if you can’t do that, it’s not gonna work. Breaking up with Danny was like breaking up with a girlfriend, but we had to do it and we decided to move on with a new singer.
		The break-up with Cory has been less difficult… Cory has another band. As long as I’ve known him he’s been playing another kind of metal, more like Fates Warning and Crimson Glory and that kind of stuff. For him to play in Pegazus was a real honour and he really enjoyed his time in the band, but he always had this driving passion to play his kind of music. He was doing this other band on the side, we knew about it, but it started to take up too much of his responsibility. It was really hard to keep both bands happy, so we had to tell him he had to choose.
		And we knew what he would choose, but we didn’t have a problem with that; we don’t want to stand in his way. We are still friends, we see each other from time to time. It was a month or two before we started recording our new album that he actually left. But he still recorded the album with us, because we asked him to; and he wanted to. We had a couple of bassists that would have been able to fill in for him, but he knew the songs and had been a part of the creating process, so we all agreed it was a good idea to have him record with us one last time.
		Have you found a new bass player yet? We have, actually. His name’s Hanny Mohamed; he has an Egyptian background. He’s a great guy; he’s been a fan since he was sixteen. When he was in school he once got in trouble for painting the name Pegazus on the wall at school. So it’s pretty ironic that now he is a member of the band. He’s been coming to all our shows, even when he was sixteen and actually not allowed to get into a club. So we’ve known each other for about eight years now. When we asked him to fill in, he immediately said yes. He’s actually a guitar player, but he’s played the bass in other bands too. We’ve been rehearsing with him for the last two months and everything has been fantastic. He is so proud, he keeps on saying “Thank you so much,” I’m gonna have to hit him to get him to shut up, ha ha.
		We still don’t know if he will become a permanent member, we’ll have to see how things will work out between him and the band in the next twelve months.
		Have you got any plans to go on tour in Europe? We’d love to be there tomorrow. But we can’t make that decision, it’s up to the record label. We’ve been talking with our promoter about touring in Europe; and it is possible if the album sales are high enough.. So far it’s looking good, so we’ll keep our eyes open and see what can happen. Countries like Germany and Spain have been very positive up to now, maybe the Netherlands can get up there as well. We’d love to come back, we’ve done two shows in Holland and it was great. I remember coming to Amsterdam. It was raining, really pissing down.
		Well, of course it was;) But I loved it, I would have liked to see it during the day. Europe is fantastic, we did a five-week tour with Hammerfall in ’98 and we had a great time. We played in seven countries and we’d love to play in more. It’s amazing how different Europeans are from country to country. Down in the southern parts, especially in Italy, people are really crazy. They’ll attack you and kiss your bus! Whereas in the Netherlands and Belgium they are very civilised and friendly. But as long as people love the music, it doesn’t matter how fans behave. Whether they act like maniacs or just stand there having a drink, as long as they enjoy the heavy metal we play.
		How is the metal scene down under, anyway? It has been picking up in the last few years. A lot of it had to do with Pegazus having the success we had; it gave other bands the idea that it was maybe not so bad to play heavy metal. We have been the pioneers, when we started we were the only ones playing heavy metal, now there’s a trend spreading, which I think is great.
		Do you have any famous last words for our readers? We’re really itching to go on tour with our new album and party with the metal fans all over the world!
(Tressy Arts)