September 2003
Interview mit Rob Holliday
Rob mit Sulpher in Dresden 14.06.2003 - Foto: Baerchen
Q & A with Rob Holliday - September 2003
The Mission live guitarist September 2001 - August 2004
By Tanja Godisch & Petra Sümnicht
First of all thanks for the short update about what you are up to
Q: How are you doing at the moment?
A: I'm good - a little tired- as I just did some Gary Numan UK shows playing guitar and bass - it was a bit of a stressful week as we ended up only rehearsing 3 days and for 20 songs it's a little hard on the brain - the last day Gary's wife Gemma ended up being rushed to hospital to have their baby girl so the full set rehearsal kind of went out the window - but the shows went really well - and Sulpher are working on some new material, hopefully have something out early 2004 - now its almost time for mission rehearsals to start - I think I need some serious sleep.
Q: You're just back from two gigs with Gary Numan. Is it true that you wanted to play bass AND guitar on a few songs? Was it difficult to rehearse / to play?
A: Well Gary asked me to play bass once again as I have done before - but he also wanted to free himself up from being stuck at the mic playing guitar-free himself up to move around a bit more, so I played a few songs on guitar also and David (keyboards) played bass on those tracks - it was tough trying to remember all the songs in a few short days.
Q: So how was the atmosphere at the weekend because of the arrival of Gary`s baby girl?
A: Gary was pretty stressed out and we got home really late after Manchester and Gary went straight to the hospital again at like 7 am - so he didn't really get much sleep, then off to the Astoria show- he was pretty tired but the atmosphere in general was great - he was elated at the birth of RAVEN
Q: In June Sulpher played as one of the opener for Marilyn Manson in front of a huge audience in Dresden. What was it like?
A: That was great for Sulpher, the perfect audience - we hope to possibly do some more shows with Mr. Manson in the future, well have to wait and see - when we arrived I was surprised to see a lot of kids wearing Sulpher t-shirts - it was a good feeling, so I stopped and talked to a few of them - the show was great, the crowd were fantastic and very supportive.
Q: Tell us a bit about the forthcoming Sulpher album. When will it be released?
A: At the moment we may have an EP out at the start of 2004 and then hopefully have the album ready around march - it all depends on whether were happy with the record - if were not happy we wont put it out.
Q: Is there any chance to see Sulpher playing some live dates this year?
A: No plans at the moment as we must get the new record finished which is our priority - if a support tour that is worthwhile doing comes up, we may do that - you'll have to keep checking the Sulpher news page for any updates.
Q: This summer you played a few festivals with "Flint". Are there any plans to join them for a tour when the album is released next year?
A: Yeah - if all schedules work out they want me to play bass live once they start doing shows again- and I would love to do it - They are cool guys to work with and Keith is such an energetic front man - I look forward to doing that again.
Q: In October you are touring again with The Mission. Do you look forward to it? Or is it difficult because of your album plans with Supher?
A: I look forward to it, but like you say, all these things take time away from Sulpher which is a bit of a drag - Monti is really busy in the studio and we kind of work our schedules round each other - so at the moment it works out well - but we really wanna concentrate on the new Sulpher album right after this mission tour is over.
Q: Is there a difference between touring with Sulpher and touring with The Mission?
A: Yeah, no one in Sulpher can drink as much wine as Wayne!!! - with Sulpher it's a different feeling altogether actually - since Sulpher is our own music and it's a really cool feeling to have someone appreciate what your doing - with other bands I work with, I'm playing someone else's stuff so its just a different feeling altogether.
Q: Do you have to rehearse the Mission songs again?
A: Errrr….Yeah, its been about a year since we played together and even longer for Scott, so I'm sure there will be a few cobwebs to brush away - but the whole band are great musicians so it should come together pretty quickly - I hung out with Scott in the summer in L.A. and then he came to London for a week - he's a good friend and a fucking amazing drummer so it will be great to play with him again - and Richard on bass who I haven't seen for a few months - its gonna be a blast.
Q: Do you know anything about some new songs?
A: I believe Wayne has been working on some new stuff, so maybe we will try to do a few of those at rehearsal???
Q: What do you think of the special show in London? You are going to play next to the electric part an acoustic set as well. Do you like to play acoustic or do you prefer electric sets?
A: I prefer electric set as its always more powerful when it's a full band - we did an acoustic/ electric show in brazil last year, I guess it seems a bit more intimate or campfire like, the songs are all stripped down to the basic, and you can actually hear what a good songwriter and guitarist Wayne is - I guess the fans like the stripped down acoustic versions, it gives a different perspective.
Q: Is there any song you would like to see The Mission perform?
A: Yeah, Sacrilege - Grip of Disease, Deliverance of course and Naked and Savage are a few of my favourites.
Q: Can you imagine to play a Sulpher song live with Wayne, Richie & Scotty?
A: Hahaha I don't know whether they would want to? It would be interesting to hear it - I think Wayne would have to eat broken glass and razorblades to get his voice to sound like mine - actually Wayne has a really good shouting raspy voice- I would like to hear him use that style more often.
(Would be fun, please try "Unknown" for a start :-))
Q: Anything else you would like to tell the people?
A: See u in October for a few drinks and a good evening, I'm off to bed now.
Cheers Rob - See you on tour...
Links
Viel mehr über Rob und seine Projekte findet ihr auf Tanja`s Sulpher-Archive Webseite sulpherous, auf der deutschen Sulpher Webseite und natürlich auf der englischen offiziellen Webseite.
Jegliche Wiederverwendung, auch ausschnittweise oder in übersetzter Form, nur mit schriftlicher Genehmigung der Verfasser.
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