As for influence – well I will tell you the songs off our first set ever and that will help to answer that – South of Heaven (Slayer) Invincible Force (destruction) The Jones (Flotsam and Jetsam) COTLOD (Testament) First Strike is Deadly (testament) Terrible Certainty (Kreator) Deny the Cross (Overkill) Predestined (Maelstrom) – first song we ever wrote – Postmortem / Raining Blood (Slayer) I still think it is an amazing set – we played at this local club called Feburarys in October so we were only together for about 3 weeks at that point.

As we progressed we took on more European flavors and were heavily influenced by Sabbat, Kreator, Destruction, Coroner, we also loved Death and plenty of other stuff. But Sabbat became my personal largest influence – Martin is still one of the greatest voices ever and is hands down the best lyrist who has ever lived.

Did the Maelstrom of the 80s sound different to what we are hearing today?
Interesting Question, Yes and No as far as the songs go what you are hearing now was written 20 years ago – the basic premise of the song is the same – most of the structures are the same the riffs themselves are pretty close,

but the melodies, harmonies bass lines and layering that is taking place now is definitely different – those songs were done by guys who were 17, 16, 16 and 14 years old so of course what you hear today will sound different. Lyrically it is almost exactly the same except for some verses that had to change in Arise because we did alter the song from its original.

As far as Production goes – and the actual “sound” it is light years ahead of where we were back then. We are using Tue Madsen to mix it so it Better! ;)

Our first demo (self titled) from ’88 was not so good – maybe for the time and maybe for our age it was ok and it showed people there was potential, it contained 5 songs including Arise and Predestined which are on this EP. It was the first time in the studio for any of us, and we really were kids. I sounded like someone trying desperately to sound like Mille. And we were all over the place. It was a different time then and considering all the basement tapes that came out then that people passed off as demos, It was pretty good. We learned from the experience, It got noticed and it got press and it helped us get to the second demo. Ad It put our name on the map.

Our second demo “this battle to make history…yet history never comes” was really good. I still love it to this day, that got a lot of press and really took us off at least in the underground tape trading circles. We grew so much with that demo and really started to create a sound for ourselves. I took on a more polished vocal style that was cleaner but still had bite, and we just improved so much as musicians and as studio players by then.

This Material revisits those songs but 20 years later and with a fresh look at it and with a real sense of capturing the vision we had for the tunes 20 years ago, but for one reason or another we could not pull off – be it skill or budget or not agreeing on something. Cause now it is just me and Joey and we only answer to each other, and we agree almost all of the time.

I can’t believe you charted in the Metal Forces chart - is that the 80s British zine (the one run by Bernard Doe) - that takes me back a few years friend ha ha! Seriously, did you get any press from them (say no, otherwise I’ll haveta dig out all my old copies) and how well was the band known during the 80s?
Yes we did chart in that mag – in fact I think we got as high as 4 out of 10

Cold Steel very good friends of our and a band we played with a lot was up there with us I think they got to number 2 possibly 1 with the demo dead by dawn and I am pretty sure demolition hammer was up there too ( we also played with them once or twice)

Sorry brother but it looks like you will have to pull out your old collection – better get to that box in mom and pops basement cause I have to say Yes we did get press in metal forces – in the demo section and unfortunately I have no Idea what they said, I just can’t remember – but it would have been for the second demo so probably a 1990 or 91 issue – if you find it let me know.

We got pretty well known in the ‘80s both locally and in the underground – we were pretty aggrsive about promoting ourselves, we had a thousand person local mailing list (yes real letters and real stamps, my tongue is still numb) We traded that list with Richard C. from wild rags records and he gave us a list of 2000 zines , we then sent info, bio letter , picture etc about us to all of them and said if they wanted to review the material to write us back – and that got a big response and we sent out a lot of the second demos because of that promotional blitz. I remember zine guys would sometimes just put in ads we sent with the letter or the entire Bio whole into their books, and that was before they ever heard us. It was really all about support back then, you just tried to help eachother out for the sake of pushing the scene.

Are the songs on “It Was Predestined” new songs or reworks of that early demo?
They are reworks of the earlier material that stretched over the two demos we released. as will be the rest of the album, though there are 2 songs that are completely new and on that will only have a version of its original intro riff.

One song is completely wiped out from the old material and will never be played again.

As you can see from our reviews, we were amazed by the power and sophistication of the songs, so why did Maelstrom fold?
Thank you very much for the compliment, the best answer I have is timing. In the sense that we might have been a little ahead of our time musically, and we were behind our time scene wise. When we really got our kicking legs going it was late 90 into 91 our second tape was out and doing well, but there was this thing happening in Seattle that you might remember, some called it grunge. And that did not help our cause, also as far as labels went most really wanted the extreme death metal right at that time – with the succses of morbid angel and then suffocation thrash and speed and its offshoots gave way to extreme death and grind as far as what was getting signed. So we missed the thrash wave signing blitz by about 2 years and were not in the sights of the A&R guys looking for the more Brutal stuff. So we kept going wrote some Great new Material that never got recorded and then John (Drums) decided this was no longer for him and he was moving to Atlanta.

That lost us about 6 months and then we found his replacement Elliot Hoffman, who was a monster behind the kit, but drove the band in a different direction. He really wanted to do all this polyrythmic sinchopated stuff, and it was just not Maelstrom. We wrote some material with him that was really removed from who we were and I was not into it. I could not even write lyrics to it. But Joey and Jon (bass) were digging the new feel and were getting into this type of playing – it challenged them in a new way , but for me it lost all semblence of song. So they asked me to leave and that was that , I was hurt but it was no longer Maelstrom as I knew it so it was the right thing if they wanted to continue in that direction. They went on to form spOOge with a new singer and that was really off time oddball stuff – like Mr Bungle or Zappa comedy kind of stuff with really amazing musicianship. Eventually that broke up and Jon played with Soilent Green for a little while. Then him and Elliot went on to form [CARBOMB] Relapse records, which is pretty new.

It seems that all the guys in the band have gone onto bigger and better things in their careers so why have you decided to ressurrect Maelstrom and how easy was it to get the guys back together again?
Well I am not sure if any of it is bigger or better, as far as actual careers, yes we all have our jobs and we all are fairly sucssefull at what we do.

The resurrection of Maelstrom was something that Joey and I needed to do, it was an unfinished part of our lives that we feel needed to be put out to the universe. It is only Joey and I who are a part of this from the original members. Our new Drummer is Daniel Kleffmann – who is awesome but he was not a part of the original band. So as far as it being easy – Joe and I need to do this so that drives us – but it is not all that easy for either of us.

Is the new Maelstrom a permanent band that will be a going concern or a case of ‘unfinished business’ and this a one off? Given the other aspects of your lives i.e. career, family etc I’m wondering just how much time (and energy - I’m an old rocker too) you have left to devote.
Well I don’t know, I would love to keep it going but we have to see how it all pans out. The Goal first and foremost is to finish the Album. I would love to play some good shows here in the states maybe some special gigs, and I would really want to do a few weeks in Europe based around some festivals. Once we finishe the alvbum – I guess we need to see what happens – I love to create and really enjoy the process of making something from nothing. And we do have some other songs which I feel was our best material that could get a second album started. Also if we get picked up that could change a lot of things for us as well.

I know that Joe and I will be friends forever, so there is a good chance we will continue to make music together in one project or another. We get along really well and have similar visions for things. And things he is really great with I might not be and visa versa - so we can play off each others strengths very well.

As far as the other parts of our lives yes there are demands on them – I am married and have 2 sons, I have a career in Advertising in NYC and Joey is a chiropractor and in school studying to advance his own carreer as well, and he is engaged. Daniel is in school and is studying to be a full time musician, he is much younger then all of us – you included HAHA!!

You’ve clearly put a lot of effort and finance into “It Was Predestined” so can you tell us how you managed to enlist ‘names’ such as Tue Madsen into working on the EP? Do you have to have a lot’ve industry connections or just losta money ha ha!
We got a huge bailout package from the US government specifically for struggling metal musicians with 20 year old material they want to put out again.

It is a little known subsection of the overall Bill – but it really worked out for us.

- Seriously, we got Tue Madsen after our original engineer Greg Marchak (Jon Olivias Pain, TSO, Nocturnus) died.

It was very sad and he was a great friend, he was the engineer of our second demo back in 1990 and I looked him up when we decided to do this project again. He was working out of Florida so when we were ready we went down there and cut Drums with him. We came back and got the tracks, cut some guitars and sent them down to him a few months later – just as we sent them down, he passed away due to a stroke – he was about 44 years old.

At that time I knew we could find someone to record the rest of the stuff and help me track and produce vocals and for that we enlisted vudu studios here on long island, and a friend of Joes named Steve Booke of porcelain God Studios tracked the solos and acoustics, but we were stuck for someone I trusted to mix the material. I looked around and decided that I wanted a name who really knew his shit. We sent an email to Tue and explained what happened to Greg, he asked if he could here the old material that this stuff was coming from, so I sent him one song, and he took on the project. Since then we have become friends and I think we will be working together for a long time.

As far as connections go – I had more back 20 years ago with the zine writers , but in the industry now I have some. Not a lot but some. Adrian Bromley was our PR guy and he was amazing – now he knew EVERYBODY, unfortunately and this is going to sound really weird after Greg, but Adrian died this past December. I am not over that and I miss him very much.

We are working with a brand new PR company who just started over the last month or so, they are called ClawHammerPR. I know they will do a kick ass job for us and I am glad we are working with some guys who are just starting out in the PR game – hopefully we can help get each other on the map and keep the momentum that Adrian built going. As far as money – we don’t have a lot we did put a bundh into this but at this point It is getting done one way or the other. I would entertain offers from labels if any came our way.

Did the old Maelstrom ever play live - any important shows or support slots that you can mention? And does the new Maelstrom have any plans to play live?
Yes we played a lot as the old Maelstrom, there were many shows, as far as important ones we opened for watchtower, and we played with Demolition Hammer, also as an interesting bit of history – the first show suffocation ever played they opened for us – at the sundance on long island

We played a lot of shows with cold steel and another local act Kroninalso apparition who later went on to become Sorrow who cut 2 albums for Roadrunner. And we played with Winter a few times.

My favorite show was this show at that local club I mentioned before, there was a night where a studio called “speed of sound” that many of us recorded and rehearsed at had put together an anniversary party and asked a bunch of us bands to play, we all got 3-4 songs and we all used the same equiptment – we were going on 2nd to last, we were a big draw at that club back then – top drawing band 2 years in a row. Well there were like 420 people in a club that only fit about 90, and we were really on and super tight that night and the place just went berserk – I loved that show.

I would love to play live but it has to make sense – the time is very valuable to us so some special show in the States and I would absolutely love to do some Euro festivals – help me set it up and we will be there – probably 2010 for the Euro thing though. But I really want to do it.

Lastly, given how complex Maelstrom are both musically and in terms of their history, I’m guessing that your songs offa “It Was Predestined” too must have themes or stories in them so can u tell us about them?
Of Course – The album was always written conceptually, what you are getting on the EP are chapters 1 Arise, 4 a Futile Crusade and chapter 9 Predestined

the overall story goes like this; there is a war between two gods, one malevelant and one divine and these gods are playing out their war on earth by manipulating the people and characters to tip the balance of power one way or the other – as the story unfolds the humans – specifically one human begins to realize that this was all a game of pupeteering and he embarks on his quest to ultimately face off against his parents who intended to sacrifice him at birth to honor their evil god Deamous. And also to face off against both God forces and reveal their true selves and their grand manipulation which has resulted in years of destruction and servitude.

Specifically ;

Arise - is the calling forth of a demigod by Greadon the “god” of good or light in this world to lead and amass an army of “good” followers

A Futile Crusade – is the clash between those two armies and the introduction of Deamous as the malevolent being of the world

Predestined - is the charge of the now grown avenger who is prohsized as the only person who can destroy the gods and end the wars.

There is of course a lot more and it was written 20 years ago – but hopefully some people will bother to read the lyrics and find it pretty cool. And the themes make for great artwork too.

Thanks again Gary and I really hope it isn’t the last we hear from the mighty Maelstrom!
Thank you too Shan it was my pleasure and This is not the last you will hear from us – I can assure you of that. Keep It Heavy