CHARING CROSS - Andy Dormann

\r\nHow about some melodic Heavy Metal from Switzerland? Charing Cross have really come "Back For Attack" with their first full-length album "We are..Charing Cross". The riffs from Pascal and Andy, the voice of Peter and the last draw from Marcus and Tommy on drums and bass respectively, are the ingredients of this album. Metalzone.gr contacted with the guitarist Andy Dormann. Let’s see what he told us.
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\r\nMetalzone: First of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of metalzone.gr for giving us this interview. Well, you are dated back to 1993, you have taken part in about 100 live concerts or more and you have only released a 5-song CD. Didn’t come to your mind to release earlier a full-length album?
\r\nAndy: We recorded one demo tape and 3 demo cd’s before, but with an other singer. Unfortunately our former vocalist had to stop singing for health reasons (voice). We decided not to mention the old recordings because our „new“ singer sounds very different from the old one. However we have rerecorded a few of the old songs for the upcoming CD „We Are… Charing Cross“.
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\r\nMetalzone: I’ve heard some of your songs and I found them very good, with "catchy" refrain, like "Goin’ Down", and very good riffs, especially „Voices", I like this song, that’s why I mention it..Would you like to tell us a little bit more about your upcoming album?
\r\nAndy: For us the CD is some kind of Best Of, because we have recorded a lot of old material, that we wrote a long time ago, even some songs that were on the old demos. It reflects our variety of style influences. The songs you mentioned above, „Voices“ and „Goin’ down“ are two good examples for what Charing Cross stands for musically. We don’t try to fit any specific style, we just play and the songs we like, no matter if it’s sleaze rock, ballads, hard rock or heavy metal.
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\r\nMetalzone: What are your influences? And what about your inspirations when you write a new song? I mean, about the topics you choose to sing.
\r\nAndy: We are all also fans of a lot of bands, and go to concerts which gives a lot of inspiration and inputs. The topics for the lyrics can come from anywhere.. Situations in life, Movies, Books or even from an article in the newspaper. But we make a point in not writing about politics.
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\r\nMetalzone: Artists or bands that you admire?
\r\nAndy: Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Savatage, Iron Maiden, Helloween, Saxon, Ozzy, Van Halen, W.A.S.P., Queen, and many many many more.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Can you tell us about the metal scene in Switzerland? I have the impression that it’s not so well-known, in comparison for example with the german scene. How do you think people face bands from such countries?
\r\nAndy: First of all Switzerland is much smaller than Germany. Which automatically means that the Metal Scene is smaller. There are a lot of great bands in Switzerland and also a lot of great concerts. The music business is not really oriented towards Hardrock and Metal. It often happens that bands from Switzerland are known abroad but not really inside Switzerland. For example in Japan, US or Greece.
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\r\nMetalzone: Your next live performance? Any performance that you will remember forever and why?
\r\nAndy: Our next concert will be on May, 16th in Sursee (Switzerland). Our most memobrable concerts in our career were Supporting Nazareth in 2001, Soul SirkUs in 2003 and several concerts supporting Shakra and Krokus, it’s always great to play with them.
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\r\nMetalzone: Is there any possibility to see you in Greece?
\r\nAndy: The Greek Metalfans are known to be a great and crazy audience. Of course we would love to play in Greece! If you find somewone who books us and pays our travelling expenses we will play there anytime!!
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\r\nMetalzone: You know metalzone as a site, as well its online radio. What do you think about metal music in general today? About the metal magazines with a lot of reviews, about metal on internet and the fact that new bands come up everyday. Do you think that there is the danger for metal to lose its quality?
\r\nAndy: Metal rules, but unfortunately not the world!! I think it’s great that there is always new stuff coming up, i like discovering new bands on myspace. There’s a lot of good stuff out there and some crap. But in the end quality and what was created by blood sweat and tears will prevail.
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\r\nMetalzone: What advice would you give to a group of friends, who like the idea to create a metal band and become one day famous?
\r\nAndy: Never give up, believe in what you do, and don’t believe anyone who tells you that it’s not possible. And practice practice practice... But never forget to have fun doing what you do.
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\r\nMetalzone: Thanks a lot again for your time..I wish you the best with your next album. Anything you want to say to Metalzone and its fans?
\r\nAndy: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to do this interview. We hope to get a record deal soon so our CD will also be available in Greece. And of course, we hope to get the opportunity one day soon to rock the stages in Greece. Metal Cheerz from Switzerland!
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\r\nAliki Maxoutoglou
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\r\nLine-Up
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\r\nPeter Hochuli - lead vocals
\r\nPascal Zwyssig - guitars, backing vocals
\r\nAndy Dormann - guitars, backing vocals
\r\nMarkus Flury - bass, backing vocals
\r\nTommy Pfyffner - drums \r\n

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