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ROADKILL

Keeping alive the legacy that once made Holland the centre of the metalverse - Dutch band ROADKILL play it the way it should be - pure heavy fuckin metal!! Shan Siva gets the Dutch connection (and a lesson in metal history) from drummer Gary Verwey!

Hi Gary, its the first time I've heard about Roadkill so for our readers in the US, can you tell us about the band pls and how it started etc.
My brother Bardo founded the band as a project to train his bass guitar techniques. Their drummer quit the band the same time my former band fell apart so the switch was easily made...

What’s the heavy metal scene like in The Netherlands nowadays - I'm not sure how old you guys are but I remember going to the dynamo festival in the mid 90s and it was no problem to be pulling 70-100,000 - all die hard heavy metal fans!!! And during the 80s the metal underground was in holland - you had great magazines like Aardschok that inspired the world but since these glory days then nothing so what's up with holland these days?
The scene in Holland isn’t too great although the true headbanger in Holland is definately the best. Our fans here are very faithful and we wouldn’t be where we are without them !! The Aardschok is still around but they’ve become pretty commercial and have hardly anything to do with the underground scene.

You guys seem to play classic heavy metal almost in the days of NWOBHM in terms of both your sound and look so is that something that is coming back into fashion or just you guys guys saying "fuck off" to the mainstream and doing your own thing?
You’re right man. We give mainstream the big finger and we do just what we want to do. Too bad that we have to suffer the consequences as well for our “fuck off” attitude. A lot of websites only want to hear nu metal, black metal, gothic or whatever and they’ve forgotten their roots. We just don’t want to give you guys anything innovative, we want to give you Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and more Heavy Metal. If you like it, that’s great !! If you don’t.... too bad for you !!

I was really impressed with the songs on 'dark side' so can you tell me a bit more about the inspiration and what roadkill's attitude to songwriting is - is it something you do in the studio in one go or do you do it progressively?
The songwriting is done collectively. Most of the time one of us comes up with a riff or some other part of a song, sometimes even a complete song. What we do then is taking the idea and put it in the Roadkill blender... shake it, stir it, taste it.... shake it some more, maybe spice it up a little, taste it again and when we all think it tastes great, we’ll serve it to you, my friends. We got the inspiration for Dark Side from everyday stuff like breaking up a relationship up to a Playstation 2 game in “God of War” or our epic side in “King of Swords” We recorded the album in the Excess studios in Rotterdam and we played all of the songs with the complete band but just recorded the drums. After that we did all of the other tracks seperate with the guidetrack from the recorded drums. This way of recording was the best way for Roadkill.... We’re glad you like it !!

The album cover looks interesting...is it one of the band members (not the skull!)?
The face you see on the cover of “Dark Side” is a combination of facial parts of all of the Roadkill bandmembers! The eye is Mac Blade’s, the mouth is mine, the cheek is Bardo’s, the nose is Jack’s and the chin is Ricky’s. So we didn’t have to fight who would be on the cover..... nah, just kidding... It was Jack’s idea to morph our faces together and he did a great job !! The skull obiviously is our, but also your, “Dark Side”

Actually you guys lost your original vocalist Marco quite recently so what happened?
Marco was diagnosed with cancer somewhere in May 2005, we had just released our first full length album “Merlin” in January that year. He was treated for this terrible illness and things were looking great although he was too weak to perform on stage with Roadkill. We were touring with another band at that time, Wastelands, and their singer Marc mac Blade offered to fill in temporary. Sadly Marco didn’t get better and died in August 2005. Mac Blade decided to quit Wastelands and to take care of the vocals within Roadkill indefinately. We’re very happy with Marc as vocalist and as great friend but we’ll never forget Marco and he’ll be with us forever in spirit.

Where did you find Jack?
Our former guitarist Mario had been with Roadkill for quite a few years but he decided he didn’t want to spend as much time on Roadkill as he was doing and wanted to join a band where he had less responsibilities, so he left Roadkill. We found, after many auditions, a guy willing to help us get our Metal engine back on track. He is a very driven guy with great ambitions and also a true metal heart.

Who is the female vocalist on 'Lost' and why did you decide to do a dual vocal style (I think it works so I really hope you do it again) cos like I said before its very ambitious.
I personally am very happy you like “Lost” because I also think it’s a great song. The female part is my girlfriend “Christine Roetert” and she gladly took the part. The song is about a guy and a girl who broke up and look back at their past relationship. It’s a very emotional song and sadly we’ve got some reviews from people who think a metalband can’t do a ballad like this one. I mean, open your eyes and ears... this song is full of emotion, excellent accoustic guitars and a surprising Heavy Metal ending... Thanx for your support !!

How did you guys get this good musically because this does not sound like its your first (or even second) bands...
Well, Bardo (bass guitar) started Roadkill and this actually is his first band. Ricky and I have been with Roadkill for a long time so for the both of us, Roadkill is our second band ever. Mac Blade had been playing with Wastelands for about 15 years so Roadkill is his second band also. Only Jack played in quite a few bands. This is the best lineup we’ve ever had and I hope it will last forever....

Lastly, is 'Dark Side' a compilation EP of old and new releases and why did you decide to release a promo at this stage (and not a full album instead)?
Dark Side was intended only to get us a record deal. After recording we thought we had created a great EP and decided to release it to the public. Our fans were waiting for something new so that also was a reason to go public. We wanted to create an album with both our older and newer material. The older songs are actually kind of new because mac Blade has a totally different voice than Marco had and Jack’s style of playing differs a lot from Mario....

Ok, thanks Gary!
Thank you for this opportunity to introduce ourself to all of the metalfans that haven’t heard from us yet. We hope you’ll all check us out on www.roadkill.nl or www.myspace.com/roadkillheavymetal . And don’t forget to visit our Dark Side E-Card, where you can also listen to samples from all songs : www.roadkill.nl/darkside . We’ll be on tour with the Dutch Hardrocklegends “Vengeance” at the end of this year so please come check us out and we’ll make sure you won’t regret it !! SEE HEAR BELIEVE !!