What is the style of your band?

Our band likes German heavy metal style. We characterise our music as Power Metal.

What does the name "HOLY DRAGONS" mean?

Dragons symbolise might, power, wisdom, honour and many other good qualities; and, besides, they live long. For many people dragons are evil creatures, but we think the other way - the word "holy" means juistice and protection.

When the band was organised?

We don't know exactly, because it's a long story, but approximately it was formed in the middle of 1997.

What tendencies in modern music do you like and dislike?

First, we've got sick and tired of those fucking young alternative bands with they hair not more than 1 inch long, who strum on their bullshit guitars. God knows why this suckers think that they play rock-n-roll. Many young musicians who playing not real Metal, think they can play, using only three chords and they don't try to improve their technical skills and develop their imagination. Those lazy bands destroy Heavy Metal from inside! It's very sad that in Britain, the motherland of heavy metal, there are no new interesting, vivid young bands at present (Hey,Britain! Anybody home? Let's return to the glory of British steel!!!). But the things are not so bad, after all: in Italy there appeared very good bands, IRON MAIDEN with Bruce D. and Adrian Smith, MANOWAR is still holding on and fighting for Metal, in Germany and Scandinavian countries Heavy Metal is on the rise, Brazil and Spain are rising for the fight for Heawy Metal!

Who has influenced you most?

Jurgen: "Richie Blackmore, Kai Hansen, of course, then Iron Maiden, German heavy metal bands (Helloween, Gamma Ray and others), from classical music: Johan Sebastian Bach, Vagner, Paganini, , celtic and scandinavian folklore. Daniel : " My personal preferences are : Eric Adams from Manowar (I'm the greatest fan of Manowar in the world), Deep Purple, Scorpions." Chris: " I used to like a lot of heavy metal stuff (like W.A.S.P, Alice Cooper, Ac/Dc and others) but at present I like Gamma Ray, Helloween, Rapsody, Hammerfall, Stratovarius, Manowar and Iron Maiden. When I was a child I was a Beatles fan for a long time." Steve : " I like all Steves, like : " Steve Harris, Steven King, Steven Spielberg." Bands, of course, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Queen, Helloween.

Equipment that you prefer to use in your work.

What concerns guitars, Jurgen likes any Stratocaster-like guitars, good quality made (he's very hard to please on that point) with singles. Guitar processor is "Boss ME", as it's very good in use, preferably the 5th model, as it's distortion (4) is the best suitable for the sound of our band.

Now, about your albums. How many do you have?

The first one was recorded in autumn in 1998 in 28 hours of studio time on the 28 channel digital studio in our home city Almaty, drums were recorded with the drum machine "Alesis SR-16", all the keyboards were recorded by Jurgen.The album contains 12 songs, though first they were 13. This song "Robin Hood", having the unlucky number, was spoiled by the staff of the studio. It was recorded later on the second album. The name to the album "Dragon Steel" was given by Chris. This album was released by the local company "Center Records". The second one was recorded already in our own studio, that we'd got by that time. The establishment of the studio and the recording went in one and the same time altogether. As we were no longer limited by the time, happy having the opportunity of doing whatever we wanted, we slightly overdid with electronics and special effects. Now we want to make a remixing of it. Since that time we've had changes in the line-up, so we've changed the style for the heavier, for the better. In particular we rejected the keyboards. With the new crew the band has recorded the 3d album "Rock Ballads", which was to be released by the contract with the local label "Fair Play" (now the band is not connected with any obligations and all copyright belongs to Holy Dragons). The 4th one "House of the Winds" is very aggressive by the texts because we've understood that our life is a fight for Heavy Metal. This album bears the spirit of the ancient warriors, the Scandinavian vikings, who were the first metallians, the album also has a touch of the beautiful ancient legends and a fantasy style. It reflects our thirst for victory and freedom! The next album "Thunder in the night" fully reflects the present musical concept of the band - Power Metal.

What bands were you before Holy Dragons?

Jurgen had the first band in 1989 (school band) "King Speed" (played the same style, but 200 times worse than now); In 1991-92 he formed another band "Axcess" (Black Sabbath style), then from 1993-1995 he joined the black metal band "Izverg"(Hellion). After that he formed "Holy Dragons" once and for all! Chris in 1991 together with her friends formed a heavy metal band "GB-5", playing the bass guitar; in 1993-95 changed bass for the guitar and joined another heavy metal band "Lamia" (female vampire). Steven and Daniel were together making a project and later joined "Holy Dragons". They were chosen among a great number of candidates.

Who is writing music and texts?

Well, we all compose songs, but the majority of songs were written by Jurgen, in all the songs the vocal melody is thoroughly worked out by Daniel; now we are working on the material for 2001 and we make songs together and on this album there will be presented individual compositions of everybody. Texts are written by Chris, but the are based on the ideas of everybody. Texts for "House of the Winds" were written by Chris together with Jurgen and Daniel.

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