Andy Rocks on Rock Attitude

Germans Andy Rocks will release their new album, and Rock Attitude took the opportunity to have a little chat with them, for this interview.

Usually when we listen to hard rock, we think about the other side of Atlantic. Instead you come from Germany. How much of your cultural heritage is in your own music project and how much comes from the rest of the world?

- To be honest we mostly listen to American Music.Most of our favorite bands come from America so I must admit that there's barely any influence from German bands in our music.

Your upcoming album will be out soon. Where did you choose to record and mix this? After listening to your great new single “Look At What We’ve Done” seems that you selected some analog way, right? Emotional or technical choices?

- We recorded in our home studios. Everybody has gathered some home recording equipment during the years.We use both, analog and digital stuff, to record. We recorded the guitars for some songs with a Kemper, others with an normal amp.The same with the drums. Most of them are recorded analog, some with an electronic set. That had to do with the pandemic, we had no other choice. In general I prefer doing it the analog way but of course the digital tools have the advantage that you can work faster. The album was mixed and mastered by Markus Plietsch (otent-audio.de).

Speaking about hard rock, this is easy to fall in many clichés. In your opinion, are you bringing something new in the scene?

- I don't think it's something revolutionary what we do. We try to write cool songs with good tunes and stick to the classic rock line up. Some tell me they find my voice unusual for that style. I don't know, maybe this is something special if you wanna see it that way.

Changes in the line-up are never easy for a band. Do you think it's easy to regain a balance, not only in the band but also towards the audience?

– Well, we could not yet play many live gigs unfortunately because our project started preparing for that during the Corona crisis.Now everything is closed. But I think the audience will like the current lineup of Andy Rocks, they do not even know the old one.

Line up changes are also a normal thing. You can't expect a band staying together for eternity. We all know that many bands have lineup changes during their career. Growing together as a band is much easier if you can have regular rehearsals.We are not allowed to have them with four people right now.Of course that makes it harder to grow together as a band…

The artwork of the album is really important. Can you tell us something about it? In which measure the band has the final word about the artwork?

- Since I take care of creating a layout for the album myself of course we have the final word about it. For this one I didn't want to have a fantasy like artwork. It doesn’t fit the style of songs and topics on the record, so we decided for a classic one with our faces on it.

Speaking of the creative process: can you tell us something about the "birth" of a new song?

– Some of the songs on our upcoming record are already some years old but I never started recording them. I was always occupied with Black Daffodils (my former Band) and with my job. I wrote most of the basic songs with the acoustic guitar and the lyrics and put them into a structure. Markus started creating a drum arrangement for them, Michael contributed bass lines then I looked for guitar players. I asked Stoney D and Andreas for their support and they contributed their guitar ideas.

Which famous musicians have you learned from?

– I have been making music for a long time and I have sung covers of very different songs- from Hard Rock to country or oldies, Americana music and I also was in a melodic metal band for a long time.The symphonic metal genre has also influenced me, but I always find my roots back in rock. My favorite band is still Bon Jovi and my favorite female singer and musician Sheryl Crow.

How has your work changed since you began?

- It has become more difficult not to think about what the song should sound like right from the start.When I was younger and started writing my own songs I wasn't very minded about it. I just started for example writing some lyrics and then turning it into a melody. This has changed.

What plans do you have to promote the album? Maybe a release label will help you this time?

– We work with the Greek promotion agency Angels PR and now we are looking for a fitting label.We will check all the options that we have. As it looks like now we will have to do the promotion online because we cannot plan any concerts or touring until the Corona restrictions are taken back.Nobody knows how this will all go on. This is frustrating.

Do you want to say something to our readers?

– I wanna thank everybody who's interested in our music and in our band Andy Rocks. We hope to see you soon at live concerts again. Keep on supporting underground bands and new bands, check them out, give them a chance.KeepRock and Roll alive!

Thank you very much for the interview.