For those about to rock at Sonisphere Festival 2011: Volbeat Interview

VOLBEAT Q&A

Q: Describe Volbeat's sound?
TB: The basic idea was to mix the melodies from the '50s rock'n'roll with various modern genres like metal, punkrock etc. Today we basically mix all genres we like into this cocktail of hardrock.

Q: What’s the story behind your stage name?
TB: Volbeat is short for volume and beat. It origins from the third album of Michael's old band Dominis. The album was called Vol.beat and we simply removed the dot.

Q: How did you all meet?
TB: We’re four guys in the band. The three others knew each other from the metalscene and some of them had already played together in other bands before. I got to know the guys when my old band (Gob Squad) supported them on a Denmark tour in 2006.

Q: What’s your current favourite song you like to perform live?
TB: Sad Mans Tounge always get the crowd going, so its one of my many favorite songs to play live.

Q: What on stage antics will the audience experience from you guys at this year’s Sonisphere Festival?
TB: We’re pretty traditional when it comes to live shows. We basically just go on stage and rock-out like it’s the first and the last show we ever played.

Q: Tell me about your fans, what are they like?

TB: They are a very diverse bunch of people. Everything from four-year-old kids to grandmoms attending our shows. We see every kind of people from punks and metalheads to regular people work in a bank.

Q: Do you have any bizarre fan moments you can share?
TB: Not really. But it's always fun when we run into fellow musicians who tells us they are fans; and we go: “but we are fans of your band as well!”

Q: Is there a musician who inspired you to become a musician?
TB: Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day inspired me a lot to form my first band, write my first songs and play my first shows.

Q: What inspires your music?
TB: Everything. As a musician I believe that all you do and experience – good or bad –inspires you…

Q: How do you write your songs?
TB: We normally start our music and melodies and then add lyrics later.

Q: What was your inspiration for writing 16 Dollars?
TB: Old-School Rockabilly.

Q: What do you think about the state of metal music at the moment?
TB: There are a lot of great bands out there… and a lot of shitty once as well – isn’t it always like that?

Q: What have you learnt most about being a musician?
TB: That it’s the doing of everything that gives you a kick… not the fulfilment of dreams or plans.

Q: When you were starting out what kind of job did you have to do to make ends meet?
TB: I used to work in a kindergarden and later teach at the university while I was studying there.

Q: Do you have a partner or family; has following you’re dream as a musician had an impact on them?
TB: Yeah, I’ve got a family and being a touring musician affects them a lot since I’m gone for a long time while touring. Anyway, we’re lucky to also be able to take some time of from touring every once in a while and spend time with families and friends.

Q: What's your hometown like that you grew up in?
TB: I was born and grew up in a pretty small town called Herning in the middle of the mainland of Denmark.

Q: Where do you like to “hang out”?
TB: I just like to hang at home, since we’re almost never home.

Q: What did you learn at school outside the classroom?
TB: All the fun stuff.

Q: How old are you and the rest of the band members?
TB: I'm 30. Jon our drummer is 40. And the two others are in between.

Q: What music did your parents listen to when you were growing up?
TB: My dad listened to a lot of music when I was a kid. Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Fairport Convention, Gratefull Dead. To name a few.
Im not sure how much it affected my style, but it gave me a huge interest in listening to music.

Q: Did you play any musical instruments growing up?
TB: My mum had a worn out acoustic guitar, which I actually played as an upright bass.

Q: Who were your music teachers and did they have any influence on your style?
TB: I learned more from jamming with friends than music teachers. But I remember how a guy taught me about chords in a youth club when I had just got my first electric guitar.

Q: What was the first metal album you ever bought?
TB: AC/DC Live

Q: What’s on Volbeat’s rider for Sonisphere Festival?
TB: Nothing fancy: food, beers, water, booze.

Q: What is the most rock'n'roll thing you’d like to buy or do?
TB: The most rock'n'roll thing you can do is being yourself and not try to live up to some fake idea of whats rock'n'roll – so that’s what I do.

Q: After Sonisphere Festival what’s next for Volbeat?
TB: We end our Europe festival run on Sonisphere in France and UK. Then we go to US to do another headliner tour, before we return to Europe to do another tour in the fall along with releasing a new DVD.