WARRANT PT. 3.

- Is the quality and consistency definitely here? - I would say: Yeah, sure, definitely. - Several tracks, such as The Ordeal of Death, The Enforcer, Torture In The Tower and Cowards or Martyrs, often have that evil tone and atmosphere to them, really adding to the aggression. How do you explain this? - Yeah, sure. I was very interested in gloomy lyrics back then; my visions were a bit gloomy and the mood of the time was such that we still had the Cold War. That influenced me in the lyrics and in the basic mood. Then we had a special experience in London; I went there together with Thomas. We went to the London Dungeon, a wax museum for torture instruments. That's where I got some of my song titles from and it fitted in wonderfully into the time. I was able to transfer that emotion, to connect my thoughts with it and to give the songs wonderful titles. And with regard to the aggression of these songs: by today’s standards the songs may no longer seem so aggressive, but at that time they were considered very aggressive and very innovative, and the song titles just carried that. - Did The Enforcer shine with a handful of speedy compositions and were all of them very coherently designed? - Hmm, I don't want to say it like that. Maybe in terms of the lyrics, but in terms of the music I don't know any more whether we composed them in one pass, that is one song after the other. It could also have been that on some days I was more in the mood to write more mid-tempo songs and three days later I created The Enforcer - its riff and the whole song. Sometimes it was just like that; you create the main riff and everything else follows closely after it. I didn't spend hours tinkering with the songs. And that's still the case today. If a song works, it's completed rather fast in most cases and the rest - little gimmicks or rearrangements – may still be made in the studio. But beyond that, I get my songs to the heart quite quickly when writing them. - All of the songs are catchy and memorable… - Yes, of course, that is one of my characteristics. I like recognizable and catchy songs, no matter how much filigree work is involved. I think it's really cool to integrate such things into a song, but the chorus and the hook line have to stay in your head right after listening to it and that still holds true today. No matter whether with "Warrant" or other bands I played with or composed songs for, it was always very important to me and I like that kind of music. One of my first bands was "The Sweet". They influenced me a lot and brought me to heavy metal or hard rock and their songs are extremely catchy; including during that phase when they wrote their own songs; songs like Action or Live For Today or Fox On The Run. Simply awesome. That was my time, my thing and you can also hear it on "Warrant", even if it was speed metal. - Even if it is mainly a speed metal record, some tracks show some interesting heavy metal variations. Is that correct? - Yes, you are right, like the song Ordeal of Death or the twists and turns in Nuns Have No Fun or Betrayer with a great riff - all mid-tempo songs. It shows that we weren't just into speed metal, but into great songs in general, and we also liked mid-tempo tracks. The only thing we did not do was a ballad. That was not quite our thing. Or Send 'Ya To Hell with a very interlaced riff. A mega cool song. Even today we are often asked why we don't play it anymore. We did play it again ... it's not that easy, but really very cool. - The vocals on this record are outstanding, unlike the evil sound of many other bands. Warrant opted for a cleaner voice with some harsh screams at times that perfectly fit into the aggressivity of the music. Do you agree with it? - Yes, I fully agree with you on that. My singing has always been designed to intersperse many high screams. Nowadays they come more from below, but I still integrate these high screams into my singing. This really distinguishes us from other bands, which often sound so gloomy in their basic mood and sound, while I preferred slightly clearer vocals with screams. You've got that absolutely right. - Soundwise, all the instruments are heard perfectly and well balanced too, aren't they? - In principle, I would say: Yes, that's what they were at that time. We had a truly great sound engineer at C.A.E.T. studio who really had a plan. He also worked with other bands like Running Wild or Grave Digger, our label comrades. He really had a plan and gave us a great broad sound - better than what he produced for many other bands. I don't know. When we were in the studio for those 2-3 weeks, maybe we were just there at the right time. Anyway, the sound was great. Maybe we could have played it a bit better here and there, but never mind. The mood was right; it was really catchy and rough, and I still really like it today. - The hooded man appearing on most of the band's covers is named the Enforcer. Was it a kind of symbol to you, like Eddie, Vic Rattlehead or Knarrenheinz etc.? - Yes, it has become our mascot; nowadays more than ever. Back then, when developing Enforcer we were thinking about what could become our figurehead. I had composed the song The Enforcer and the executioner just fit the bill. We had it drawn as an oil painting by the painter of the record company in Berlin. Looks or rather looked absolutely great. And thus, he became our mascot and we still have him with us at every show, on every stage. A friend of mine always plays him and it gives us an immediate recognition value. The original statement was pretty simple for me, but nevertheless effective: Bad people should be eliminated by the enforcer. Sounds a bit platitudinous and simple now, but in the end, who knows... In today's world, it would sometimes be good to have such an enforcer. Maybe you know what I mean… - After the record was released, you went on tour with "Warlock". On the whole, what can you tell us about it? Did the shows support the record? - I can only say that we never went on tour with Warlock. I don't know where that comes from. I've never said anything like that before. We played a show with them once, I think, and also two years ago in Dormagen. That had been a very nice experience. But nothing beyond it. I'm very sorry about that, but we were not on tour. We had played some shows on our own before - in youth clubs in Düsseldorf. And that had actually been our problem - that we never played much live. Later we played with "Destruction" or with "Angel Dust"; we were actually quite popular in Belgium. - Do you still mind that you didn't catch much attention in the German scene even though you were signed by the big label Noise Records? How much support/promotion did you get from the label back in the days? - Noise Records supported us within its possibilities, but we ourselves did not contribute as much to further demand this support, mainly because we didn't have a proper management. Therefore, I can't really blame them for the fact that not much more happened and that we didn't get as much attention as for example Helloween, which started at the same time as we did. We played shows together. But the fact that nothing else has come about is partly our fault, because you have to show a lot of own initiative, and somehow, we didn't quite realise that or maybe we didn't really want to or couldn't do it. We were young, very young, younger than the guys from Helloween, and one or two years can make a big difference. By then you are a little more mature in your head. But those were exactly the decisive years in which we missed that a bit. And Noise Records didn't support us so much afterwards, because they noticed that we changed our sound. That was no longer what they wanted. Weiterbach once mentioned that he thought we could become their biggest driving force, but well ... it only became apparent later when we finally spoke what was on our minds. In retrospect, everything is good; I am at peace with myself; everything is perfect. - Why and when did Warrant's story come to an end? - This question is difficult to answer because it is a very long story and I cannot go too deep into details here. I only know that after The Enforcer we played another show with an already different line-up on bass. All I wanted to do at this point was sing. That was already the case when Warrant performed together with Destruction in Belgium. We wanted to distance ourselves from this aggressive, brutal sound, which, however, became a complete flop, because the fans wanted to experience us as they knew us from The Enforcer or First Strike and not as a poser metal band. This sealed our fate and it was no longer what Noise Records wanted to have. Unfortunately, there were influences in the band that I allowed to happen. It actually already started with The Enforcer or shortly after that, which I let run. I should have voiced what constitutes Warrant and that it is my sound and that it must be retained - this speed metal with its melodic and dark undertone. I didn't do that. That's why we lost our way and then, 2-3 years later, we also changed our name. And when I put down the bass, the end was already sealed. But I didn't know that at that time, because Warrant only works with me as bass and vocalist, and as a trio or quartet, and that's the only way it worked and only in this way it fits to me. - You reunited in 1999 and released a cool record in 2014. What is the current situation? - Reunion took place in 1999 - a great gig in the Eifel. It didn't stop at the one reunion show. We got the offer to play in Wacken. That's something, of course, we could not refuse. In the meantime, I have played there three times. Then we did the metal bridge in 2014, which was a high risk for me. After 25 years, it's not so easy to continue with "The Enforcer". I think we succeeded quite well. Well, since Covid-19 I haven't had much time to take care of everything what you unfortunately experienced yourself with regard to the interview and how long it took. But I already started to write new songs two years ago, which – this much I can say - will definitely be again what "Warrant" used to be all about - 100% like "The Enforcer". And I am proud of it. You probably won't hear about it until the middle of next year at the earliest; it might even take a year longer until completion. In any case, we are working on a new Warrant CD, new songs, and there will also be a cover song. I am very much looking forward to it. - Jörg, thanks a lot for your answers. Is there anything you would like to add to this feature? - I can only say: Thank you very, very much, David, for your patience over the years with our interview and especially with regard to the second attempt. Many, many thanks for your support and interest in our band. I hope that you will enjoy the new songs. As soon as they are finished, I will send you a CD as soon as possible. And I can only say: Walk the metal bridge!