When it comes to the greatest voices in 80s hard rock and heavy metal, you can’t have that discussion without mentioning Marc Storace. It was his gritty and gutsy vocal delivery that propelled Krokus to superstardom, landing them a slew of rock radio hits along the way. “Long Stick Goes Boom”, “Eat the Rich”, “Screaming in the Night”, “Our Love”: By now, these songs are standards, staples of “The Great Old School Metal Songbook” if you will. In the time that has passed since those 80s glory days, Storace has remained relevant as ever, keeping himself busy in and out of Krokus. We sat down with Storace to discuss his latest album, Live and Let Live, his early influences, the life and times of Krokus, and more. Buckle up for a Metal Rendez-vous!
Greetings Marc and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing this tonight?
Marc Storace: I’m fine thank you! How are you Joe?
I’m doing fantastic. We have a lot to talk about. Of course there’s Krokus, but perhaps more importantly is your debut solo album, Live and Let Live, which I’d like to start by congratulating you on.
MS: Thanks a lot! Thanks for the nice review you gave me.
You earned it! What events led to the making of this album and why was now the right time to release it?
MS: Well I never had the time to get involved with something that needs so much time. The motivation was here, but I just didn’t have the time. Actually, I can go back over 20 years. That’s when I started collecting songs for a solo album whenever the time came. The title song, “Live and Let Live”, goes back 20 years. I wrote that with a guitar player who lives close by here in Basel, northwest of Switzerland, on the border with Germany and France. This guy Charly Preissell, a great guitar player. We spent two years writing songs before the big Krokus reunion and then boom. No time anymore.
Then I picked up again recently. I met this guy through the internet who lives in Newcastle. He’s a guitar player for a progressive rock band there. He asked me if he could throw some ideas my way in case I had the intention of doing a solo album when Krokus came to an end. I said, “Yeah! Go ahead!” He sent a whole load of ideas. I sifted through them. I decided during lockdown that it was time to start. Instead of sitting around and doing what we all do during lockdown, watch a lot of TV, listen to a lot of music, have a lot of beer *laughs* and all that stuff. I got creative.
Then there were these two other guys. The guys who produced it, Cyril and Massimo, are really nice guys who I met through this production for Swiss television. It was a series called Sing Meinen Song which involved seven singers. One of them stood up front and the others sat on the sofa while the singer sang songs from the other guys with a band behind them. So each singer would have six songs of their own sung by others and nobody knew what that singer was gonna sing that night, followed by one song of their own. For my song, I chose “Hellraiser” because I wrote that song when I was the only original member left in Krokus. There was an album of that name and I took part in a film and everything.
Basically, that’s the whole story. Cyril and Massimo were producing the music for that and rearranging. We got on so well. They’re so efficient and such nice guys, great musicians. It led to the rest, one thing after another. They rounded up this nice bunch of studio musicians. That was new for me because I’m used to being in a band. I’ve been a band type of singer all my life. I was working with session musicians and it’s a different ballgame, but they’re fast. Everything goes faster. They can switch from one thing to another real quick, so we got everything done quick with long spaces in between sessions. It was good for me to be objective each time I went back. That’s how it started and then how it ended.
We just did the Gläubigentaufe in German, the baptism of the CD with Prosecco, with my daughter and my son standing next to me in this legendary club close to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The whole atmosphere was great. The audience was wearing masks. That was strange *laughs*, but it was a great atmosphere. Following that, we did one more gig called the Baloise Session. We had done that with Krokus as well on the big stage. Here we did the Baloise Session also in December. Or was it January? I can’t remember now. This turned out really well. It’s on my Facebook site if anybody wants to watch the band live. www.Facebook.com/MarcStorace. You can scroll down and watch the whole thing. There we have the musicians and the whole process of what led to Live and Let Live, my solo album.
What are the biggest differences recording and performing as a solo artist as opposed to doing so as a part of Krokus?
MS: Well *laughs* it’s like as you say in America, “The shit hits the fan!” Things come flying from all over the place and they come flying at you. All the questions come to you, the responsibility and all that. You realize there’s so much to be done. Not only is it a solo project, but there’s no record company behind me, which is helping out. Luckily, my manager, who’s actually…alright, let’s go back now. The first ever professional band I joined was a Swiss progressive rock band called Tea. The drummer, Roli Eggli, after Tea disbanded, he made a career in a different sector of life. He came back to music and he started managing me after the last Krokus gig so to speak. I said about the solo thing, there’s this element of trust. I’ve known him for so long and I know he knows how the whole thing works, obviously being in the business so long. So he’s my partner in crime *laughs*. He has all the ropes.
Then there are these other people around us. One of them is, for example, Peter Waleti. He lives in Denver, Colorado. He was the first manager I ever worked with and he managed Tea. He grew up in the same town as Roli, my manager. It’s this trio. Roli’s in Zurich, I’m in Basel, and Peter’s in the USA taking care of business there, also for Krokus up to when Krokus existed. He does a lot of the internet stuff on my homepage, and lots of the posts on Facebook, together with my son Luca Storace. He’s an IT specialist.
Right now, Peter is involved with one of the first booking agents I ever worked with. The company was called, in those days, DNA, in Detroit for the USA. The accountant’s name is Mark Hyman. He’s got his own company running now. Together with Peter, they’re trying to set something up for this Fall of 2022. I hope it all comes together so I can rock in the USA one more time.
Fingers crossed! Shows are finally starting to come back here in the States. Tours are happening. It would be great if that comes to fruition.
MS: Yeah, it would be. The Monsters of Rock Cruise just shipped out with Alice Cooper onboard as headliner. There’s a relationship with Alice Cooper that goes back to the album Change of Address, when we covered “School’s Out”. We did a great video for that too. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure to accompany Alice onstage for that song. We were on tour with Rock Meets Classic, which is this huge orchestra with a rock band and backing vocalists, with top pick of internationally known singers going through Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It’s one hell of a tour. With my band Storace, I’ll be playing with Alice Cooper on the same night at this festival which happens yearly when there’s no COVID, called Rock the Ring. I’m looking forward to that.
Maybe there will be another duet of “School’s Out”.
MS: Who knows? That’s up to Alice *laughs*.
While there are a couple songs on this album reminiscent of Krokus, much of it stands on its own in the hard rock realm. Were you careful not to make an album that sounded exactly like Krokus?
MS: Yeah, there was no intention at all. I think when you’ve been with a band for so long, like I’ve been in Krokus for 40 years *laughs*, you don’t wanna do an album and write songs which sound like Krokus. You usually have other ideas which don’t fit for Krokus, which you have kept on the side. You wanna show other dimensions and get into other things. At the same time though, it was important that I keep my character of voice and my energy and still be myself. There’s a couple of tracks where there’s a little bit of keyboard in there, which was something from the Tea days. Progressive rock has a bunch of keyboards in it, but there isn’t much of that anyway.
There’s this ballad called “Don’t Wanna Go”, which is keyboard based, and also “Lady of the Night”, which is the second single of the album. It’s also the second video. It’s a song which is very current in that COVID seems to be on the way out, thank God. It’s a tribute to all the people, health workers especially, for the selflessness. Not thinking about their own safety only, but wanting to keep other people alive. I took this character who is the guy who is singing. He’s in there and he’s being taken care of. There’s this warmth and love which he is feeling. Then he gets better and he looks into the future. It’s the same situation we’re in now where things are getting better and hopefully nobody’s gonna forget what we just went through for these last couple of years.
My other takeaway from Live and Let Live is that I hear a strong 70s influence throughout. In fact, it was in the 70s that you got your start, singing for bands like Tea and Eazy Money. Who were your biggest influences during these formative years and what are your memories of this era?
MS: Well I grew up with the usual. If I go way back to when I started singing at the age of 14, I was singing The Kinks and The Stones and The Beatles and The Troggs. Before Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin existed, you know. Even before that age, I was very influenced by the jukebox on the corner. Five doors up the street from my house, there was a jukebox in there with a lot of rock n’ roll. Chuck Berry was one of my main influences, but there was also Little Richard and Fats Domino. People you wouldn’t even think I listened to. They were being played and the virus just goes in subconsciously. Those were my influences.
I grew up in a classically influenced family. My dad was a tenor. My mom was a piano player. My eldest sister was a piano player and teacher. She accompanied ballet and opera and stuff like that. It must’ve been me rebelling or just finding the new music more attractive. I just stayed on those lines and went along with it as it changed. From Chuck Berry came Elvis Presley and from Elvis came The Beatles and The Stones and 100 other bands. Then the flower power thing, and then Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream.
I was influenced by all that stuff. When I joined Tea, I was already living in London. I walked into this store and I heard Yes playing. The album was Fragile. I thought, “Wow. It’s incredible. What kind of rock music is this? It’s so intricate. There’s real artistry and musicianship in there.” The ideas were different. It wasn’t just like intro, verse, bridge, refrain, chorus, and then back to verse. It’s composed almost in a classical way, but it’s not classical. It has those influences, especially with Rick Wakeman in there and the dimensions they went into. The album Close to the Edge, for example, is so deep. It’s like part of the universe *laughs*.
Before that, I was into Pink Floyd, which took me into that dimension. A little smoke and a glass of red wine. Lie down and float away. Then, before joining Tea, I got into Genesis, with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins and the rest of the guys. I was listening to this progressive music, so when I met Tea, I was into that. I knew Deep Purple and Uriah Heep and all those bands by heart, like the tips of my fingers. I wanted new stuff, so that’s how I got into the progressive wave. Of course, it stays in you. It stays in your subconscious and there are things that come out when you start creating.
It wouldn’t have been good if maybe some ideas in that direction came out during a Krokus writing session. It wouldn’t fit for Krokus because it’s different stuff. There’s Zeppelin in there. There’s Deep Purple in there. (Fernando) von Arb and (Chris) von Rohr were influenced by AC/DC of course and they don’t hide it. “Long Stick Goes Boom” is the best song AC/DC never wrote, said one journalist *laughs*. I love that song. I take it for what it is.
That’s how these influences come out. You don’t know where they’re coming from really. I had about 30 demos to choose from, so I was pretty much in a safe way choosing the songs that matched. I didn’t wanna just have a bunch of songs that sounded the same. I wanted to have the variety. You have the heavy songs and the ballad-esque couple of tunes, and a bluesy one there as well. I like the blues too. Maybe the older I get, the more blues I’m gonna do.
It’s whatever gives you a tick, I think. I’m doing this for fun and the pleasure of being a musician and still having, thank God, a voice to sing with *laughs* because that’s the thing with singers. Guitar players have it there *moves fingers*. If the fingers slow down, or the message going from the mind to the fingers, then they’re in trouble *laughs*. With singers, it’s the power to hit those high notes. It takes a hell of a lot of power. When you’re doing a gig that’s like one and a half, two hours long, you really hope that your guitarist is into playing long guitar solos *laughs* so you can have a breather and go to the side of the stage. Just let your lungs relax for a minute, but it’s fun. I’ll do it as long as it stays fun.
It’s funny you mention the AC/DC influence. I think it was five years ago now that Brian Johnson had to take a hiatus and Axl Rose stepped in on vocals. There were a lot of people on social media saying that you should’ve been the man for the job. Had AC/DC approached you for that gig, would you have taken it?
MS: I would’ve tried the best. I told Krokus, “I know you guys would understand.” *laughs* I would’ve done the end of that tour and whatever. I would’ve if pigs could fly *laughs*. I think it was great. They took Axl and not only does he sing high, but he’s got the attitude and he’s got the fame. Guns N’ Roses sell out stadiums in the USA and everywhere, so economically, they made the right decision. But if they wanted to have someone that sounded a little bit more like Bon Scott, as people say, then so be it. Whichever way the cookie crumbles *laughs*.
You joined Krokus in 1979. How did you get connected with the band and eventually land the gig?
MS: I knew Krokus because with Tea, we did our final Swiss tour and took Krokus on the road with us as an opening act. I am the oldest guy in Krokus. There was this mutual respect. Plus, they were looking for somebody who could carry songs which are higher and more aggressive. They were writing songs for Metal Rendez-vous. They also knew that my background would even help because I would understand them being Swiss speaking a different language. At that point, they didn’t speak as good English as they do today.
For me, at that point, I was singing with Eazy Money, which I had worked hard to get up to that level with Jerry Kramskoy. We had a couple of variations of the band before we reached that point where we recorded “Telephone Man”, which was the only song that came out in public on the album Metal for Muthas II, at the start of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. We were at a good point, on a good way actually. We were having talks with Chrysalis, a guy named Chris Stone, and Alan Eskim of Rockin’ Cargo as our manager. But there was something within the band which bothered me.
Then there was this phone call from Switzerland, from Chris von Rohr. As I said, I had known Krokus because they toured with us in supporting Tea. I loved the guitar player Tommy Keifer, God rest his soul. I was tempted, you know. We agreed that I’d fly into Switzerland for a long weekend and do a couple of afternoons of jamming out. We played cover songs of Deep Purple and Free, some blues. And it worked. We got into a good atmosphere. There was a good vibe happening. I felt good being back in Switzerland.
I had to make a quick decision, so I flew back home and then I said, “Yeah, OK. I’ll do it for a year. We’ll see what happens, what we reach.” I had the demo of Metal Rendez-vous. We went in and recorded that and went up to Germany, right up to Hamburg. It started working. When Metal Rendez-vous was released, you couldn’t stop the ball rolling, which was great. We were almost not ready for it, especially Tommy Keifer, who we had to leave behind when we went touring in the USA. We took him along with us and then we had to leave him behind for the second part. Well, some stuff is sad and it’s a hard business, but we’re doing a tribute for Tommy for his 70th birthday next April. I’m gonna be on stage with a lot of old buddies here in Switzerland. I’m looking forward to that.
That will be great. You make an excellent point how Metal Rendez-vous hit and the ball just kept rolling. From there we got Hardware, and then this album which turns 40 this year, One Vice at a Time. This album really hit big on American radio, with “Long Stick Goes Boom” and a cover of “American Woman”. What memories stand out from making this album and what are your favorite songs?
MS: Well “Long Stick Goes Boom” is definitely one of my favorites on that. We recorded that in London, close to Swiss Cottage. That was the album before Headhunter and we recorded that with Tony Platt at Battery Studios. Tony Platt had been the engineer of AC/DC. One morning, I found out there was Mutt Lange in the studio next door in the same building mixing For Those About to Rock. That was an amazing time. He even came in when I was recording. I was singing my vocals and he came in to say hi to Tony and us. He stood there listening for a while and then went back in and carried on with his work. Malcolm Young was up in the green room as well smoking a lot because he had to go down and check the mix. It was amazing. There were stars all over the place.
As you mentioned, not long after that came my favorite Krokus album, Headhunter. It went gold here in the States and “Screaming in the Night” became an MTV hit. I’ve always felt this era from ’82 to ’83 was pivotal to metal, if only for the slew of European bands aiming for American success. Besides yourselves, there was Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Accept, and so on. It seemed it was a never ending race to the top. Would you agree with this assessment?
MS: It was, if you’d like to take it as a grand prix, yes *laughs*. We all had our pitstops and our engine trouble here and there. Some were running faster than the others and selling double platinum. Then you’re wondering what you can do to take the next step. We had been on the road with Judas Priest a couple of times. They really gave us the red carpet. They treated us well as far as space on stage went and the level of the PA. We didn’t feel like they were trying to sabotage us or anything. Why should they? They had their sound. We had our sound.
Then we met Tom Allom, their producer. I think the album was Screaming for Vengeance, which was really amazing, so we decided to work with him. He flew into Arkansas, because that’s where our manager came from. We were there because there was this guy Bob Ketchum, God rest his soul, who had this little studio and we could record demos there. Tom came to check the demos out. He broke his arm when he fell off a horse, so he was doing the whole production in plaster. We did it in December over New Year. We left home after Christmas to record the album in Orlando at the Bee Jay Studios.
This was all done old school. That’s actually how I did my album, Live and Let Live. It was almost the same way, with the drums in the big room and all the amps in a different studio so there’s no bleeding of the sound. I was behind the glass singing pilot vocals for the band, while everyone else was doing pilots. You keep what’s best. Everything’s on different tracks. At the end, nowadays, the only difference is it goes through Pro Tools, which makes life much easier and faster and cleaner. Otherwise, the whole process of recording is with tape, on the Swiss Studer tape machine *laughs*. It was great doing that again. You feel it in the vibe. You’ll hear it when we finally do the vinyl version, but we have to wait on that until the time is right.
The vinyl pressing situation has been rather tedious the last couple years.
MS: I’m not up to date with that. I just know vinyl sounds better *laughs*. It sounds the best!
Absolutely! I was referring to the current vinyl pressing wait time. I think there’s only one vinyl pressing plant left.
MS: In the USA?
In the world.
MS: In the world? No really?!
I have friends in bands who have been waiting 6 months to a year to get their vinyl pressed.
MS: Holy moly I believe you! We even had to wait to get the CD pressed here in Switzerland. We had a little bit of pressure on that. They said, “You gotta hurry up.” First, there was pressure to send everything to Los Angeles to get it mixed, and then to send it to Nashville to get it mastered, so it would come back to Europe in time to be pressed. It was this ballgame that I’m not really familiar with. In the olden days, I never cared about that stuff. That was for the producer, record company, business. I just wanted to party *laughs*. I did my thing in the studio. I did my thing writing. I enjoyed all the shows we did. Travelling in the tour bus, watching good movies. That was life on the road in the 80s. I guess it’ll never be the same. Compared to today, it was like luxury; the way it is when you dream *laughs*.
Which serves as a great segue into this next question. It’s been a little over two years since Krokus played their last show of the Adios Amigos Tour. There was an American leg planned, which was unfortunately scrapped due to COVID. Taking all this into consideration, what is the current status of Krokus?
MS: Krokus does not exist anymore. I had high hopes of finishing those dates. The way it looks now, I don’t know. Not in the near future. The band is all over the place because everyone started doing other stuff. Everyone’s doing their own thing. I don’t think that anything’s gonna happen. That’s the way I feel right now. If we’re still functioning in say five years time *laughs* I don’t know. Right now, (my solo career is) the way for me to get away from that pain, because it was emotional.
I had tears for that last gig at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. It was amazing. It’s thee rock temple of Switzerland. It was heavy. It was sweet and sour. It was sweet to be there doing the gig. Everyone was happy and rocking. It was sold out. Then, in the end, everyone saw, this was gonna be thee end. It’s not just, “We’re gonna walk out and see where they’re playing next.” It was thee end. And it was the same for me. We saw them out there wiping tears and stuff, even the guys. I just let myself go. Fernando came over and said, “Let’s go in the back.” He gave me a glass and a hug and said, “It’s OK. It was great. We got all these nice memories.” Then we went out and did the encores and hardly wanted to get off that stage *laughs*. December, 2019.
Can we expect subsequent touring and recording from you now as a solo artist?
MS: Yeah definitely. I’m starting off with a package tour here in Switzerland. The reaction from neighboring countries: Austria, south of Germany, to our west is France, and fans from Italy. They’ve been writing and saying that they’re gonna pop in and check out my band. They wanna hear me again, so it just makes me feel so good. The reviews for Live and Let Live have been great as well. I’m really happy to know I’m going in the right direction and that I didn’t let anybody down. We start rehearsals for the tour on the 18th of March. From there, we tour until May. Then there’s other dates and other headliners which are separate. I’ll do them on my own away from the package. Then, on the 21st of May, I’m in the Hallenstadion with Scorpions!
Wow!
MS: Yeah! It’s so nice. You know, I’ve known these guys forever. This goes back to the Tea days. We were produced by the same guy, Mr. Dieter Dierks, in Cologne. They were already internationally know. Tea had a nice round there. We toured all over Europe and we were a pioneer Swiss band. I’ll never forget, we met on the Autobahn at a highway restaurant on the way to London. Scorpions had just played there at the Marquee Club and we were heading to the Marquee Club to play there *laughs*. It was amazing. We had a coffee together like old buddies. Hi and bye. Then occasionally I met them again with Krokus because Krokus opened for them later on. Now it’s gonna be as a solo artist with my band. I’m looking forward to that. That’s the 21st of May.
Then on the 18th of June is Rock the Ring and I meet Alice Cooper again. Hopefully he’s not too busy. We’re playing that festival which is a great place to be. After that, Peter Waleti, together with Mark Hyman, is setting up a tour in the USA. I’m looking forward to getting on a night liner again. After that, we come back to Europe, get on a European night liner, and do some gigs before breaking up before Christmas. Then we’ll spend Christmas at home with the family unless something special comes in.
That’s the plan. It sounds exhausting when I talk about it, but there’s gaps in between. As I said, my manager, Roli Eggli, he’s got this other thing going called This is Rock. It’s the history of rock, so there’s about 15 musicians playing all these songs from the past, and this guy comes up and tells this audience these stories in between. There’s nice projections. This is also in a big tent, like a huge circus. Every gig is in a different city. It’s a spread out thing that I do in between other gigs. You don’t wanna see my itinerary! You’ll get dizzy *laughs*! That’s fine. I like it when things are happening. That’s how I’ve always been throughout my whole career. If something turns up and I’ve got nothing to do, then I’d rather be singing.
The new Storace album, Live and Let Live, is available now on streaming platforms and CD. For more information on Marc Storace, visit www.facebook.com/marcstorace. For more information on Krokus, visit www.krokusonline.com.