Q. - Hello Chris, so what can you
tell us about your musical beginnings in Heavy Metal particularly? Who were
your principal influences and what lead you to be a singer?
Chris - Olá Paulo! Tudo bom?
Muito obrigado por esta entrevista.
I started to listen to what was
called Hard Rock, at that time, in 1979 with French band Trust’s first album
and AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell”. When I was a teenager this new kind of music was
really popular in France. Then in 1980, I started my love affair with Iron
Maiden when their first album was released. I bought my first electric guitar
and started to play in local bands in 1981. People like Bruce Dickinson, Dee
Snider or, later on Axel Rose, where the ones who made me wanting to become a
singer and a frontman. I first started to sing in a band in 1988, simply because
we needed a singer and none of us could do the job; Classic story :) I was
still singing and playing guitar on stage, then. Finally in the early 90’s I
focalized exclusively on vocals.
Q. - Tell us a bit about
Dreamcatcher, how did the idea to form the band came up?
Chris - I’ve played in bands for
the best part of my adult live, but it’s only in 2001 that I felt it was the
right time to draw on past experience and to create Dreamcatcher, a band that
really suits my taste in music. From the start my ambition was to create a
music which would be a mix between Heavy and Thrash Metal. The name
Dreamcatcher was inspired by my interest in Native American Indian
culture.
Q. - Dreamcatcher recorded the
first demo tape in 2006, but only release the first album, "Emerging from
the Shadows", in 2012, was it hard to find a label?
Chris - The problem was not only
to find a label to release this album, but to find the right people to be part
of the band and record it. I needed people that I could trust and who shares
with me the same vision. I know that you have a great knowledge of the musical
scene, so, as you know, it’s the same old story. Musicians come and go in
bands. People tastes and mind changes as time passes by. That’s life. It’s
sometimes hard to built and keep a stable line up. That’s the main reason why
it took so much time between these two releases.
Q. – It’s been a while since the
edition of Blood on the Snow, are you happy with what you achieved so far with
this record?
Chris - Yes, absolutely. We got
some great reviews from the media and the fans love it. I’m so proud of what we
have done with this album which is more mature in term of global concept, lyrical
and musical content and sound production than the first one.
Q. - What about shows? Did you
tour supporting Blood on the Snow?
Chris - Yes, we toured in France
as headliners, played in festivals and also supported some great bands from UK:
Death Valley Knights, Seven Sisters or Toledo Steel.
Q. - Do you have any favourite
Dreamcatcher song to play live?
Chris - The song “Dreamcatcher”
is an obvious choice, but I also really enjoy the progressive vibrations of
“People Of Darkness” or “The Werewolf”.
Pure Heavy Metal songs like “Fly
Away” and “TRUSTN01” are great fun to sing and play live and, of course, the
thrashy one “I Will Spit On Your Grave” is one of my favourite.
Q. - What expectations do you
have for the future of Dreamcatcher? Are you working on a new album?
Chris - We’re about to re-release
“Blood On The Snow” on vinyl, this time, in the forthcoming months. Meanwhile, we’re
working on a new album to be released next year, in 2021, for Dreamcatcher’s
twentieth anniversary
Q. - In your opinion, were the
90's hard times for heavy metal bands?
Chris - Each decade brings new
bands and new trends, at that time grunge and neo metal were the new sensation.
Old bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon or Black Sabbath were
struggling to survive to the situation, but in the other hand some great bands
like Angra, HammerFall or Iced Earth were born in the 90’s. So, it wasn’t all
bad, finally. :-)
Q. - Hard n’ Heavy music does not
pay bills to many people, is It difficult to make this kind of music
now-a-days?
Chris - You have to believe in yourself
and in your music and hold on to your dreams. If you do it with passion, you will
always get some kind of reward in return. To be realistic, most of musicians from
the underground scene have daytime job. We are all more concerned about not
losing money than earning money from music. :)
Q. - Is Iron Maiden a musical
passion to you? How did it start? Do you usually follow them on tour?
Chris - As I told you, my passion
for Iron Maiden started in 1980. As many diehard fans, I collect as many of their
records as I can, I got Eddie’s tattoos on my shouders, I even sang in the
“Heaven Can Wait” choir on stage with them. The full monty! I don’t really
follow them on tour, but I went to more than 60 shows on through the years
since 1982 in France, Europe and United Kingdom. I had the chance to meet
present and past members several times. Dreamcatcher also did gigs with Paul
Di’anno and Blaze Bayley. Steve Harris is even the lucky owner of “Emerging
From The Shadows” and “Blood On The Snow” albums. Through Dreamcatcher’s career
we performed several live covers versions of Iron Maiden's songs: such as “Running
Free”, “The Number Of The Beast”, “Powerslave” or “Children Of The Damned”.
Q. - You were the webmaster for
the Eddie's Bar web page, how did that happen?
Chris - I used to go on holiday
in Algarve every year from 1998 to 2008 because of Eddie’s Bar. I just fell in
love with the place really and it soon became a
second home for me. At that time, there
were no Eddie's Bar web page so I decided to create one.
Q. - Did you first meet Manu da
Silva in France? Or was it at Eddie's Bar? How did you become friends with him?
Chris - I first met Manu at the
bar. I was one of the bar regular and we started to chat in French together.
Manu was feeling nostalgic about the time he was living in France, and he liked
to tell me stories about that period, that’s how we became friends. We found
out by chatting that we went to the same football game that Iron Maiden played
in 1984, in Paris, against a team made up of members of French metal bands.
Q. - Can we say that Manu was the
"life" of the bar? Was it hard to keep the bar open after his passing?
Chris - Manu was the soul of
Eddie’s Bar. After his passing a new team of Englishmen, old friends of Steve
Harris (First Iron Maiden’s roadie Jeff Daniels and two first Iron Maiden
guitarists Terry Rance & Dave
Sullivan), tried hard to reopen it, but
it was no longer the same and unfortunately it didn’t last long.
Q. - On your visits to Eddie's
Bar did you have the opportunity to meet personally members or former members
of Iron Maiden? Or even from other bands?
Chris - Yes, I met Jeff, Terry
and Dave, and also Steve Harris a couple of times at the bar, between 2006 and
2008. On August 26th 2006, Steve Harris, who was on holiday in Portugal with
his family, made an amazing present to the fistful of Iron Maiden’s fans who
were at the bar by taking off his short pocket the brand new album “A Matter Of
Life And Death” for a unexpected private pre-listening party on the bar sound
system speakers, a few days before the official release. I was part of the
lucky ones who went at the bar on this summer night.
Q. - Do you know the reasons why
Eddie's Bar had to close the doors?
Chris - It was not a profitable business
and when the Englishmen tried to take over from Manu, they had trouble with the
neighbourhood and Portuguese administration. Steve Harris was spending lesser
and lesser time in the villa he own in Santa Bárbara de Nexe, as he was already
living in Bahamas. In fact, I think that he
just lost interest in Eddie’s Bar.
Q. - Eddie's Bar brings good
memories to you? Is there any funny moment that you can share with us?
Chris - One particular night, in
1999, I was with some friends of mine at the bar, dressed in a white away French
national team shirt. We had already drank a lot of strong alcoholic beverages
when Manu said he had enough for the night and decided to close the bar and get
rid of all the other customers. He said he wanted to go to a bar in Faro to
have fun.
So Manu jumped on his motorcycle
with broken rear lights, wearing no helmet and we followed him in the dark of
the night on our rented car. Bear in mind that we were not in our normal state.
Then he stopped in front of a live music bar. When we entered the bar full of Portuguese
people, a live band was playing an Alanis Morissette’s song cover and as soon
as they saw Manu they started to play an AC/DC’s song cover. We quickly
understood that, for these guys, he seemed to be like the leader of the local
mafia. Manu knew I was a singer and ask
me to go on stage with the band to sing with them a Metallica’s song. Here I
was, totally drunk dressed in a French national team shirt, trying to do my
best to stand up and sing “Enter Sandman” in front of bemused Portuguese
audience. :D
Q. - Do you know why the Iron
Maiden convention in Faro only was organized one time?
Chris - I think, just because
Iron Maiden were back to fame and they didn’t need and/or couldn’t organize
this kind of event again, but I know Steve Harris played with British Lion for
the guys of Motoclube de Faro a few years ago which was a great gesture and
tribute to Manu’s memory.
Q. - Do you keep an eye to hard
rock and heavy metal music nowadays? Are there some bands that got your
attention?
Chris - Yes, there’s still so
many amazing bands around recording great albums! I advise you to listen to
“Ermite” the last album from French band, Irminsul, which is really good. Two
others great albums from the French metal scene are “Sinister Force” from Thrashback
and Hürlement’s “La Mort Sera Belle”. Apart from that, I really enjoyed last
British Lion’s album “The Burning”, Tygers Of Pan Tang’s “Ritual” and Angel
Witch’s “Angel Of Light”.
Q. - How do you want to end up
this interview? Anything more you want to say?
Chris - A big thank you and
congratulations for the great job you do with your blog "Phantom
Lord", Paulo.
Hopefully your readers will be
interested in listen to Dreamcatcher, and will buy our albums and other stuff
to support us. Take care. Stay Metal! Up the Irons!
Photos © Chloé Bazaud
Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!
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