tintin.ch

tintin.ch: how did killer originate? what kind of music did you make before killer?

crown: i started playing guitar rather late, that is to say with 24 years of age. previously i was a roadie for several bands, for late krokus guitarist tommy kiefer, who also was part of the band kaktus in early 70’s, amongst others. from 1976 – 1979 mark bromann me and also played in this band, it was kind of a swiss dialect rockband at that time. we had a rock-waltz called "bombe-multi-spitze-irre-wahnsinns-hit" which has been played on the radio daily and it was short before entering the billboard charts. unfortunately at the same time elvis presley faded away, the top ten single charts were taken and our single totally drowned due to the hype about the greasy curl from memphis. as the wave of dialect rock music was stagnating an i wanted to make a harder kind of rock music anyway, i founded killer together with mark in 1979. first he didn’t want to sing in a hardrock band, but i was able to convince him to try this in the end. my 44 magnum in his back slightly made a contribution to his decision ;-)

tintin.ch: chris von rohr (bassist of krokus) seemed not to be completely unculpable..?

many: thereby we grew up with krokus in the city of solothurn, we had access to the rehearsals and were able to talk to these guys and ask silly questions. it was amazing how this band did rock the planet and we were eager to sound as awesome as they did! at this time we were light-years far away from that. it was also important to impress the girls from our school with stories from the krokus camp. we were succeeding in that perfectly. anyway the impressions of this band was always a huge influence to all of us. i was able to afford guitar lessons with tommy kiefer for 8.- sfr. per hour twice a month. my pocket-money was spent after that but who cares - man i did study guitar with a krokus guitarist!! chris von rohr brought us out of our school bands to killer then. killer still was a swiss dialect rock band at this time and they were looking for a guitarist and a bass. the band was pretty well known in our neighborhood and they had a pretty large following yet. shortly after we joined the band, the arrangement of killer drastically changed and we began to play "real" hardrock with english lyrics. the know-how of the older band members was very useful to us. as well chris and krokus was pathbreaking and very important to us for a long time.

tintin.ch: killer did achieve cometlike with the very popular debut album "ladykiller". how did you experience this great success?

many: beat and me were just 17 years old at this time and we just left school. that was the ultimate thrill to us. to access the "real" music business after working with our schools bands for many years - suddenly there were some gigs, interviews and tv appearances… wow! welcome to rock n roll! at this time the release of an album was something special in our neighborhood. people did appear at the local record shop to celebrate the release. in our naivety we thought that we could take the world by storm. the success of the album opened some doors inland and abroad to us indeed, but we still had to learn a lot and hadle some impressions during the subsequent years. the fast success brought a lot of motivation and confidence to the band which was very useful to us in the ensuing years.

crown: i wouldn’t call it cometlike. we were neglected that much for a longer time, played some gigs in half-empty concert halls and the record didn’t sell that well. we also were criticized to be a knock-off of ac/dc and some reviewers constantly picked on our lead singer (rightly or not). but when our record company did send us on tour with motorhead, we were taken seriously. after everybody put oil on troubled waters because of our distasteful record sleeve, we had adequate airplay in the radio and in tv shows they broadcasted our live-gigs and videos. with immediate effect we were in a higher league. some people were completely confused. switzerland suddenly had 2 bands, which both did cause a furor internationally at the same time and both even came from the city of solothurn..! the guys from zurich went berserk because their most important bands (black angels, bitch, steve whitney band) didn’t achieve. because of that they regarded us with envy and named us "farmers from solothurn"… but we didn’t care a pap for that: krokus pushed their thing in the usa and we did ours in germany. at that time i asked heinz meier of free & virgin concert agency several times to organize a concert in zurich volkshaus but he strictly opposed this idea. as a support act of motorhead he definitely had to allocate the stage to us… i’m still amused about this even today.

tintin.ch: what about the reputed provoking record sleeve? who’s idea was it? has it really been the decisive factor for the success of "ladykiller"?

crown: yeah.. today nobody would care two hoots about it, but back then that’s why we got in trouble quite a bit, certainly proposed truth be told. it was me who had the idea of the "killed lady" on front cover. first i was named a wacko but the manic germans did like this theme. if a bands name is killer you can’t show a cavy on the record sleeve, right? an international scandal has been created, organizations of women’s libber ran riot, press and radio pleasurably ran us down. that was great free promotion to us and we suddenly resounded throughout the land, even if radio DRS3 crossed us off the airplay list and swiss tv channel disinvited us short before a tv-show. the german newspaper "bild" gave half a page over to us, because any organic-food-birkenstock-bitch tried to take us to court. we would cause murder of women they suggested… what a bullshit..! every crime thriller could be laid-out as incitement to murder. but it piques people’s curiosity if a product gets banned and thereby it gets even more interesting to the fans. unfortunately our distributor in switzerland got cold feet and they exchanged the artwork with a live picture. i’m still angry about so much spinelessness even today....

tintin.ch: some other bands like iron maiden, venom and even scorpions (virgin killer 1976) were not much more acceptable that much in this regard..

many: that’s right! but we have to differentiate between drawings or unrealistic image presentations and lifelike images. our artwork was all-out and in your face…! and it’s also a slight difference if you’re an established international act or a small band from switzerland launching out with such a provocation. we didn’t care about our image and marketing strategy, beat and me as the rookies of the band not at all anyway. it was our expression of "up yours!".. and we also lived that way. the fact that the negative propaganda was more supporting than constraining us of course was liked by all of us. the idea about the convict costumes and chains were developed during the following tours and before releasing the second album "thriller".

tintin.ch: what are your most important influences and which bands did you relate to most?

crown: my musical ideals definitely were jethro tull and i saw many live shows of this band. ian anderson was the ne plus ultra as a musician and a showman at this time and my guitar playing was pretty much influenced by martin barre. but in october 1979 i saw ac/dc live on stage for the fist time with judas priest as a support act. after this show my whole live had changed…!! i knew that this was the music i wanted to make. of course i couldn’t do that with a swiss dialect pop group, thus something more hand-tight had to be made. it was the right time to found killer. thankfully chris von rohr placed these two young super talents beat and many in our band and even produced our first single "crazy daisy". at that time we started to rock n roll…

many: the whole heavy metal stuff was hip then. saxon, iron maiden, motorhead, judas priest and many others… this list could be indefinitely expanded. but the top of the mountain and pathbreaking timeless flat footed hardrock certainly was ac/dc. we noticed that the girls were crazy about this dirty rock stuff at any reason. today i know why but it was kind of mysterious at that time. we decided to follow suit and composed sounds which went more and more in this direction. on stage we noticed that there's more action in the crowd with these great clear guitar riffs. but in fact we were not far enough to see the reasons for this and to adapt our songwriting accordingly. we just did whatever we could do and had some better and some worse outputs. we didn’t have a definite concept sometimes.

tintin.ch: in 1982 you’ve been on european tour with motörhead. how was it, what did you experience?

crown: well, to specify all highlights of this tour would go beyond the scope of this interview. therefore you may better take a look at my tour diary on our official homepage (www.killermetal.ch). everything that can happen if a provincial rock band from solothurn suddenly plays in the major league is listet there. it's comparable to football, if a team from third division directly goes up to champions league. instantly you work together with absolute professionals, you get the passes and score a goal. it was so impressive that those headbangers were able to sing the choruses of all our songs, even if our lp was recently released since 3 weeks in europe. the fact that motorhead wasn't able to hold a candle to us on 2 concerts is also worth mentioning. it's not a joke, the crowd was shouting "killer killer!!!" after 2 lemmy songs… well, funnily enough on the next day we had less lighting and our monitor systems were shut down at mysterious reason ;-)

many: well, what an experience if you wait backstage before your fist gig in krone circus hall munich, you prepare for the show and you hear a few thousand fans making noise as they want to see a rock band on stage. in fact we were a support act, but we never felt not to be accepted by the fans. far from it! they did welcome us as newcomers with open arms and cans of beer and liquors (which was still allowed at concerts at that time). but aside of this.. if lemmy suddenly appears in the door and wishes you all the best for your show, you think the time is standing still. you hardly find any words to describe what you feel in such a moment as a newcomer, who indeed didn’t see a lot of this world yet and know most stuff out of some magazines only. in this case we couldn't care less about to drive through germany for 3 weeks in a small car. it was poky and smelly and withal we had nothing to eat for 3 days, i can’t remember why. maybe we didn't have the heart to sit with the crew on the same table.. shy swiss guys. however on the fourth day we even had some food and the rest of the 3 weeks passed as they had been seconds. for beat and me the show in zurich was the most exciting one as some of our lovely fellows from school, who always smiled at us during schooldays, came to see the show in the sold-out volkshaus. not necessary to mention that we had a lot of "new old friends" the day after.

tintin.ch: what else did happen on tour with killer in the 80’s?

crown: our shows grew bigger and more interesting, patrick allenbach from swiss tv channel brought 3 broadcasting vans with his complete live-equipment to servion (geneva) to record a live show and horror movie director paul grau did shoot a video clip to "sell your soul". that was something really special and most bands only could dream of it then. well, maybe most bands excepting krokus. in 1983 killer were on tour with motorhead again, but before the first show started the whole tour had been cancelled due to health issues of guitarist "robbo". maybe lemmy didn't brook anymore that this guy did stand on stage in ballet shoes. of course this was a very though blow and a huge frustration for killer. after that we had some shows with girlschool and the teens (sort of "tokio hotel" of that time) as well as some festival gigs with accept, but it was hard going at any reason.. there were kind of bad vibes….

many: it's the same many bands face sooner or later. there were disputes between the generations, tales about girls, all kind of friction, for example about our musical style. furthermore beat and me felt like needing to make something by our own. we wanted to assume responsibility, to stand at the front of the stage.. i needed an ego-boost and wanted to play the lead guitar, but i couldn't do this with killer. actually i was not able to do the job as a lead guitarist seriously at this point. i was not a bit practiced enough, my solo parts sounded like cackling chicken, but i totally disavowed this fact. about our music we made more or less a classic kind of heavy metal music. bands like iron maiden and judas priest replaced our ac/dc-like hardrock. in our opinion it was still cool, but we changed to sounds like dio made them more and more.

tintin.ch: in 1985 the former band split. what happend?

crown: well, the story of a rock band is comparable to a marriage. just with the difference that 5 individual persons have to be on good terms instead of 2. after the second album "thriller", which sold a bit less than the first, we were under heavy pressure to release an absolute big thing. in my opinion we had to get back to our roots and the hard and straight sound of "ladykiller". in other band members opinions we had to develop our music further, to step forward and to create more extensive compositions, like iron maiden did at that time. our lead singer did't want to sing with such a high voice anymore and the drummer definitely threw in the sponge to attend to his technical education. it was a menace of total chaos for the band and i had to settle things very quickly and to issue an ultimatum: either we go back to the ac/dc sound or i’m gone…! as the third lp had been recorded with another guitarist, everyone can see how the other band members decided. but this interview also shows that i survived this decision…

tintin.ch: many, in the same year the netz lp "headhunter" with lead vocalist peter tanner known from the band bloody six had been released. it’s very hard to find today. did you ever think about a re-release? are you still in touch with tanner? at last you met again in 1990 for the krokus album "stampede"..

many: no way!! we don't always have to rehash everything. there are more than enough bands which present another new issue of their bleak stuff again and again. the album was ok in our times as absolute posers. it helped us to achieve personal growth as musicians and we were finally able to make our own thing. i saw peter after a gig on the "to rock or not to be"-tour for the last time. otherwise i didn't keep in touch with him. unfortunately i even don't know where he is and if he's still living in switzerland or not.

tintin.ch: in 2002 there was a reunion-gig by killer. how came?

crown: in 2002 all founding members of killer met at a wedding ceremony and were enthused about the former times, because this band was very important for the career of each band member. any guy had the idea to play the old songs from our 1982 tour together just for fun once again. shortly after this conversation we met in a rehearsal room and plugged in again after 20 years. what should i say… it was all happening here like it used to be earlier and we were surprised how great we still got together. as the 20th anniversary of the release of our first album was coming soon, we thought it was a good idea to celebrate it with a „hurray-we're-still-alive-gig“. pippo, the manager of the kulturfabrik kofmehl club in solothurn was very excited about this too and he organized an awesome event with a sold-out hall and many true fans. some of them even have come specifically from germany. of course all of us tasted blood, after this unbelievable gig at kofmehl. we felt hungry for more and our producer christoph berger already had shiny eyes and was talking about a new cd. but we decided better to end our joint career with an awesome gig than to tempt fate and to go down when nobody wants to hear us anymore. i was very happy at that time. rock n' roll still did owe something to me and that night it was pay-day…!!

tintin.ch: so it was scheduled as one single killer-gig?

many: exactly that's how it was scheduled. maybe crown would rather do more than this, but i'm not sure. but by all means this one reunion show was great pleasure. crown organized this event very professionally. everybody was in good mood, we had much old stuff to twaddle and to laugh about. a successful and excellent end, which was very harmonious to me.

tintin.ch: as a pick collector website we are wondering if there exist custom made killer guitar picks. what kind of picks did you use on stage?

crown: hmmm… during our better times we even didn't have enough cash to buy new strings for my guitar, not to mention to order custom made guitar picks. once i even had to play enforcedly a whole gig with a coin..! apart from that i mostly played with picks i got for free from our sponsors. these were dunlop99 and gibson heavy picks. today i have a definite favourite: stagg classic 0.84mm. believe it or not: i even was able to buy a package of 500 these days. there also exists a very small bunch of yellow and black custom picks with imprinted killer band logo and "crown" a guy made for me once.

many: to my knowledge there were no killer custom picks at all. i used to play with heavy guitar picks in the past. since i know that glenn tipton of judas priest uses softer picks due to less waste of strings, i also changed to softer ones years ago. the metal sound booms out of the speakers in the same way with them! in the studio i use several sizes, depending on the type of sound.

tintin.ch: do exist many maurer guitar picks from the times with krokus und ain’t dead yet?

many: i hand you one of my actual picks! ;-) i don’t have any from that times.

tintin.ch: what are you doing today? what kind of projects are you working at? any news from killer?

crown: in 2006 i couldn’t withstand and i did reassemble a new killer formation. the crucial test as a support act for tesla in z7 club was very successful. i finally found the ultimate performer for a re-start with lead singer andy lickford. but i had to note that my proceeding age takes its toll and to make music with excessive loudness and without any ear protection over the years begins to avenge. two acute hearing losses with subsequent damages like tinnitus and headache hedge about a new killer project as well as the fact that the actual band members life in the eastern part of switzerland. this is quite far away from my hometown and that makes it a bit complicated. moreover we have limited chances to perform in switzerland and nobody is buying cd's anymore (with some exceptions indeed…). i don't have any promising request from a record company by all means about a new killer album. in 2008 i produced the new cd of my former band kaktus together with my old fellow duco aeschbach. we were able to sell a few hundred items at our concerts but we didn't find neither a distribution company nor any radio stations which are willing to play our music… well this proves again that it's very hard to succeed without a record company in the background. however i'm very happy with this cd as we finally could release our old songs from early times on cd without an overambitious producer trying to enforce his ideas. there are some songs which were developed together with tommy kiefer (former guitarist of krokus, passed away in 1986). about our future of killer i quote james bond: "never say never".

many: i mostly work as a producer / engineer and songwriter with several artists in my studio. my personal project is a way of instrumental music – electronics mixed with conventional instruments. guitars, loops and real drums and whetever matches to the song. this can be anything, even a jaw's harp. it's not easy to include the songwriting. there's a huge lot of sequenced music. unfortunately you mostly search the song and the significant melody to no purpose. about the future we will see. the main thing is still to make a lot of music!

tintin.ch: thank you very much!

many: thanks for your interest. good luck to you as well!

crown: you're welcome and... rock on!!!

line up:

ladykiller (1981)	mark broman crown kocher many maurer beat kofmehl ali allemann	- - - - -	lead vocals lead guitar rhythm guitar bass drums



thriller (1982)	mark broman crown kocher many maurer beat kofmehl ali allemann	- - - - -	lead vocals lead guitar rhythm guitar bass drums



stronger than ever (1984)	mark broman jan van crow many maurer beat kofmehl danny crivelli	- - - - -	lead vocals lead guitar rhythm guitar bass drums



young blood (1986)	mark b. lay jan van crow martin morelli ronny woolf	- - - -	lead vocals guitars bass drums



back in action (live 2006-2007)	andy lickford crown kocher beat iselin dave gugelot dan hammer	- - - - -	vocals guitars guitars bass drums

official website: www.killermetal.ch/