WARRANT (GERMANY) INTERVIEW WITH JÖRG JURASCHEK

Well, around the mid 80’s the German metal scene became quickly oversaturated. A lot of bands were popping up from every part of the country, whose goal was to make a name for themselves. One of them was Warrant from Düsseldorf, one of the best and most talented outfits. Their debut record The Enforcer is a classic and former bassist/singer Jörg Juraschek told his views regarding that album and era. - Jörg, do you still remember how you got into the hard rock/heavy metal scene? What did you find so fascinating about this music? - My sister, who is 10 years older than me, already had a very impressive record collection back then and it contained quite some treasures. Some of them were less good, but others I found very interesting, such as Pink Floyd. I often listened to them - almost secretly. She didn't like it so much since I was the little brother, but one day she gave me two records. There was a record shop at our place with an exchange for second-hand records and I went there with these two and exchanged them for Sweet's "Desolation Boulevard" from their hard rock phase. It had songs like "Fox On The run" and "The Six Teens" on it. And that's when I realized that this was the starting point of my love for hard rock, and later on for heavy metal. It's because the guitar was very sharp, very hard. That has somehow accompanied me through all my life. Although I have always heard and loved other things as well. But this sharp guitar really inspired me. Back then - that was something. And with regard to drums, it was the bombastic drumming of Mick Tucker from Sweet - I thought it was mega cool. - Were you more interested in known/established acts or did you prefer underground bands? - It was somehow a mixture of both worlds since I loved bands such as "Saxon", which used to be very hip, or "Judas Priest". I worshipped "Rainbow" tremendously, "Black Sabbath" and the like. They had already been established bands at that time. But I also found "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" awesome. At that time, it was still possible to acquire much of what was new on the market. There wasn't as much then as there is now. That's why we listened to a lot of stuff from both worlds. "Iron Maiden" had already been mega acts for me back then. Of course, I also listened a lot to the established ones, because they were mega cool and they also had great songs. As I said, the underground acts also had a lot of good stuff, like "Witchfinder General" or "Helloween" from Hamburg who had started like us. - How did you end up becoming a musician? Why did your choice fall on vocals/bass? - Yes, Thomas Klein and I were best friends in school and founded a kind of school band - practically the direct predecessor of "Warrant". We used to rehearse in my basement at home. We annoyed my parents and my sister's boyfriend because we weren’t good at anything at that time. What we already could and also wanted to do was to play our own songs. But we also covered one song from the band "Demon", from New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I loved "Night of the Demon". That’s what we covered and something else. We had a drummer, Thomas was the guitarist and I also played guitar and, of course, someone had to sing. As I have always been: I just tried and succeeded in playing the guitar and singing. At some point Lothar joined us - also a friend of us. He had already played in a band as a drummer and thought that something was missing "down below" in the sound. The bass. What's the bass? Well, the thing with four strings (laughs). OK. No sooner said than done. Again, it was something I was predestined for and so I agreed to take over the bass. I already enjoyed singing a lot and so I took the bass and I finally realized that it worked. I got it coordinated and it suited me. And with that the predecessor of "Warrant" was born. Jörg Juraschek on bass and vocals, Thomas Klein on guitar and Lothar Wieners on drums - all not very skilled yet at their instruments, but the beginning was made. - Which musicians influenced your style? By the way, did you teach yourself or …. - In terms of hard rock/heavy metal, I, especially as a singer, have been strongly influenced by Brian Connolly from "Sweet" and later by the early years of Aerosmith. It may sound strange, but he could scream so beautifully; which he still does today. Steven Tyler was cool; then Rob Halford - for me he was absolutely fantastic and one of my absolute heroes. Furthermore, there was Ossy Osbourne and later David Lee Roth. I liked his bluesy voice and the first album was incredibly good. There were quite a few, but, as I said, I liked these high screams and they were mainly from Stephen Tyler, who still uses short high screams. The bass ran a bit on its own. Although I did both, I saw myself more and more as a singer. Nonetheless, I also found "Police" and their combination of bass and vocals extremely cool. They have also inspired me, although they are not really heavy metal. But it doesn't always have to be. Not to forget "AC/DC". We also listened to them endlessly, or to "KISS". I could list quite a few more bands here; I probably forgot half of them. We were very broad in our style at that time and the influences that resulted from that. "Ronni James Dio" by Rainbow might be mentioned, Deep Purple with "Smoke on the Water" and "Made in Japan". We listened to it up and down. With regard to my bass playing or "jingling", I taught myself everything I know. I took a few hours of singing lessons, which also helped me with the technique. Beyond that, we have learned everything by ourselves autodidactically. - Do you play other instruments as well? - Unfortunately, I don't play any other instrument except bass and, well, singing is also an instrument for me. In school I once had a lesson in chimes. But that didn't inspire me at all in primary school and so I kept my hands off it. But that was it. - At the early/mid-80s many new heavy/speed metal bands were popping up in every part of Germany, such as "Grave Digger", "Helloween", "Running Wild", "Avenger/Rage", "Atlain", "Warlock", "Stormwind", "Stormwitch", "Vampyr", "Axe Victims", "Brainfever", "Steeler" etc. All started making a name for themselves. Did you keep an eye on what was going on in the German underground scene at that time? Were you familiar with these bands at all? - Sure, we followed the scene. It wasn't that big a scene. As I already mentioned in the beginning, you could buy a lot of things at that time and also follow the development of bands. At that time, we were one of those bands on Ronsdorfer Street in Düsseldorf. We rehearsed together with "Warlock" and "Stormwind". Stormwind were our direct neighbours, whom we unfortunately often annoyed because we were already a bit faster and harder at that time. They were still playing regular heavy metal. We were already more the speed fraction; with normal mid-tempo songs, but also speed songs. And I know that this was something new for the Stormwind colleagues. They were very interested, but we, being the younger, crazier "chickens", were a bit rougher for them. But it was always very funny. We had parties together. "Stormwind", "Warlock", "Warrant", later also "Assassin" - we were often together in this clique and that was definitely a great time. We also heard from other bands again and again; we met once with "Kreator", because they wanted to know from us how it went with the record company since there had been a little problem. Thus, there was always something to tell each other or we had a beer together after the rehearsals. It was a lot of fun. - With this large quantity of bands that started their careers at this point, was the situation in Germany the same as in Britain with its N.W.O.B.H.M. movement? Did you like N.W.O.B.H.M. groups? - I think the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement was a bit earlier in the UK than in Germany and this metal movement also took us along. We are talking about a period of 1-2 years. When I started with "Warrant" I already listened to some bands from that phase, such as "Witchfinder General" or “Saxon" or the early "Maiden". It all went quickly hand in hand and thus a scene quickly built up in Germany as well. Of course, I like many bands from that genre, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, such as the already mentioned "Witchfinder General". I thought they were absolutely fantastic and they also had a great and interesting cover. There had been a lot of bands, even very unknown bands, who are still making music today and are also on the rise again. On both sides there were excellent, outstanding bands that still exist today. - Were Hamburg and Düsseldorf the most important places for German heavy metal at that time? It was way before the Ruhr trash scene, wasn't it? - I don't know if these two cities were the most important places for heavy metal, but they were definitely very important. For Düsseldorf I can say that they all came from there: "Warlock", "Warrant", "Assassin", "Deathrow", "Stormwind". In Hamburg there were also a lot of bands, such as “Helloween” with whom we also had a great gig in Hamburg once; we played a great show in the Hamburg Logo. I still know Kai Hansen. He is also a big fan of us, especially of one particular song: "Scavenger's Daughter”. I know it's one of his favourite songs. At this point I say a word of thanks to Kai. Anyway, we had a lot of fun at that time in Düsseldorf and the same, I think, can be said of Hamburg. - Warlock, Stormwind, Assassin, Deathrow – all of them came from Düsseldorf. Would you say that there was a healthy club scene? - Yes, of course, as already mentioned, I would say that the scene in Düsseldorf was very productive and healthy, and very creative. As you can see, some bands that accompanied heavy metal in Germany came from Düsseldorf and are still around. Today, for example, I just talked to the drummer from "Assassin". We might do a "Back to the Roots" show in Düsseldorf - this year or next year. It's gonna be fun.