Interview with Emanuel knorr
Welcome ! Thanks for taking time to answer a few questions from our end. How are things in Majesty camp ?
Hey man ! Thank you for asking – things are going great at the moment! Our latest release „Rebels“ entered the german album charts on #16 which is our best chart entrance so far. Just a few months ago we played the longest tour of the bands history with over 40 days on the road across whole europe. Currently we are in the middle of the summer´s festival tour including some big festivals like Masters of Rock and many others. We are also planing a headliner tour taking place in early 2018. I am a permanent member for little over 2 years now. And since I joined we are constantly working and growing. So we are facing very inspiring times atm.
Can you present Majesty to our readers in a few words ? Give them reasons to check your work out. What will they find in it ?
Majesty is a must know for everyone who likes Heavy Metal in his most pure and intense form. Especially our latest release Rebels is something, that we are very proud of. We took some time to bring all the things we like about heavy metal to the next level. We wanted to create a sound that includes all the tradtional Majesty trademarks such as hymnic choruses , melodic vocal lines and chunky riffs but on a whole new level. Our new album .combines aggression and melodicness, speed and epicness and overall Heavy Metal power !
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeErlwa9-8U]
Which are the elements you are most proud of in your music and which are the things you think you need to work more on ?
Talking bout me specific I am very proud of my lead guitar work. Everyone has a certain functionality in our band and my job is to get the guitar work as intresting and fitting as possible while taking care that it still enhances the overall quality of our songs without beeing a “guitar jerk” and just shredding along. Tarek is our songwriter and he composed the base for all of our songs. I added tons of riffs and leads to every song that really helped creating our new sound. If you listen cloesly you gonna notice that there is lots of lead work going on almost all the time like melodies during choruses or extra riffs added to existing chord progressions. When it comes to the solos I encorporated several techniques like sweeps, fast alternate picking or legato and tapping runs to make them stick out. We really enjoy playing the new material live and the reactio of the audience is great! So we will work on our new style on our future albums and keep going the evolution of our sound.
Tell us how were your beginnings in the Heavy Metal music’s world. What catched your attention to dedicate yourself to it ? Did you study music in an academic or professional way, or are you self-taught ?
I started out playing acoustic guitar when I was twelve or thirteen. My sister gave me one as a present and then my mother was searching for a guitar teacher. When she found one I started taking lessons. After roundabout a year I was taught Nothing else matters by Metallica cause the intro riff is a very good finger picking exersice for beginners. I remember coming home and checking dat song out on YouTube. As you know there are always video suggestions based on the video your currently watching next to the video window. I didn´t know too much about Heavy Metal that time but I was intrested in the band cause Nothing else Matters totally got me. So I was randomly clicking on a video called “Master of Puppets Live at Seattle 1989” that I expected to be simular to Nothing Else Matters. What I saw then was a big suprise.. but a good suprise ! I was blown away by everything. Powerfull Riffs, big drums, intense performance… and from there on I wanted to play electric guitar. So I got one for birthday and my life changed. I used to to a lot of sports like football and Kung Fu but I quit everything. I actually had pretty good marks in school but from that day I didn´t to any homework or preps for tests. I justed played guitar all the time. I had to change my gutiar teachers all the time cause I was practicing so much so they couldn´t teach me any more about the Metal stuff. The first two years playing the electric guitar were dominated by bands that I consider Heavy Metal and Hard Rock classics such as Metallica, Guns n´Roses, Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera and many others. I really loved Slash as a guitar player back then and I still love him today, but later on I really got in heavier and faster stuff like Power Metal, Thrash Metal and Melodic Death Metal. These genres basically made me wanna be guitar “shredder”. Bands like Trivium do great lead guitar work and introduced me to the whole “more technical” guitar work”. That´s how I discovered guys like Steve Vai or Yngwie. And finally I got into something that I still consider my favorite band today: Dream Theater. I can understand a lot of guys that don´t like listening to this band because of their very demanding musical standard. But I have been (and actually still am) that 8 hours a day guitar playing guy. I was so fascinated by everything about them. Their way of composing, their overall musical versitality and their technicality are still mindblowing things for me. And this got me into the academic side of things. I knew that I wanted to be a full time musician since I had my first real gig with fifteen. So after I finished school I started studying music composition and producing. I studied to a Diploma degree and I am still studying aiming to become a doctor of music science one day. But since we are touring a lot that might still take a little while .
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SePUft6t_Yo]
In which ways does Majesty differ from your previous work , ” Generation Steel ” ? How and in which ways has the band’s sound evolved and progressed all these years? Why did it take you 2 years to release a new album” Rebels ” ?
Before rebels we released three albums in two years which was maybe a little too much. So now we wanted to take the time to create something special. Basically Rebels is still Majesty in it´s heart but as I said it´s on the next level. All the old qualities are still there but we made everything better than ever and added tons of new things like diffrent ways of riffing, new tunnings and more intense use of keyboards. We also wanted the mixing of the album to sound diffrent from our previous works. That´s why we cooperated with Fredrik Nordström who is probably one of this eras most legendary Metal producers. The result is simply great ! Do yourself a favour and listen to Generation Steel, take a 10 minutes break and then listen to Rebels. As I said, it´s just the next level from every point of view !
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_50-2GEkg]
What kind of procedure do you follow when you compose songs ? Do you have to be in a certain state of mind in order to perform the songs as you want ?
Actually we don´t have any set way of writing new material. It´s just a result of our inspiration. Touring is a big inspiration for everyone of us. You kinda breathe the freedom if your in the middle of a tour – beeing in another country everyday and getting in touch with all our crazy fans is a very big inspiration. And these experience are what we transform into music. I mostly feel like music is nothing else than telling a story or leading a conversation. And we are telling our stories about our lifes as free metal heads. Everything I write I do on the guitar. I have very little piano skills so I work out my ideas on the guitar and if I feel like having a melody or idea that fits to antoher instrument I use midi sounds. Tarek is a really good multi instrumentalist since he plays guitar ans Piano very well. So he also works out ideas on his Piano/Keyboards.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LINk8Bh_-hY]
Which are your sources of inspiration when it comes to the lyrics ? Which are the main topics you deal with ?
Well, I´m probablly the wrong one to ask about lyrics since I actually don´t write any of them. But talking about our topics it´s all about our desire for freedom. Freedom is the core element of metal. Give a shit on what the others want you to be, don´t care about what someone else thinks of you, just be yourself, just be free. Don´t fucking care If someone is old or young, wears suits or looks like Hagrid, is black or white, christian or muslim.. it´s all about the freedom of life and us all beeing united as metalheads. This is our main message: Be yourself, be free, be Metal !
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqBVnxgsiw]
Why did you name the album ” Rebels ” ?
To symbolize exactly that. If some part of you society, social enviroment or whatever doesn´t like you the way you are, then just fucking be a rebel. Don´t care and do your thing. Simple as that – just be a Rebel. This word perfectly sums up our message.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGL5w0ODSgw]
Back in time , you guys were in a very great line up in the MCF , can you tell us about this ?
Well, I´d like to but since I´m in the band for a little over 2 years now I haven´t experienced this great event. Sorry for that !
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EizVDkDBNSk]
That’s about all I have for you today, unless you have any last words for your fans over at Acier Doux ?
Was great fun to anwer your questions! I wanna thank every single one of our fans that supports us! We can live our dream only because of you guys. Everyone who likes epic, fast , melodic and shreddy Metal please check out our new album Rebels and come to catch us on the road! Alright, that´s it. Stay Metal guys !
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUK5jNWsLw]
Interviewer : Med Manef SlamaÂ
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