Nick Holleman, Vocalist from Vicious Rumors. The Interview…..

PART 1 Interview Nick Holleman, Vocals; Vicious Rumors. Part 2 Interview Geoff Thorpe, online: 17-07-2016 (Bonavox.nl) about the new album; Concussion Protocol…and the history of Geoff Thorpe and the band..

Hello Nick, how are you doing at the moment?

Pretty good, thanks for asking! It’s quite busy right now. A lot of things going on at the moment, a couple of tours coming up, the release of the upcoming Vicious Rumors album, recordings with Powerized, just to name a few things. But that’s a good thing of course, very cool stuff to look forward to!

How is it to live in Breda (city in the south of Holland). Please tell us something about this city you live in..? is there also somekind of hardrock scene in your erea?

I love living in Breda, it is a wonderful city with very nice people and a very nice city center, where I like to hang out every now and then, when there’s time. It’s a very nice place to return to when coming back from a tour, can’t imagine living somewhere else. Although I love to travel and to see so many different cultures. The scene unfortunately is not that big around here at the moment, although I see things build up again. There are some new studios and rehearsal rooms and the amount of events is rising again as well, so I see it will become better in the future. Last time when I played in the Mezz with Vicious Rumors we’ve had the venue nicely filled, so that’s a good sign to start off with!  

Please tell us briefly how you got to be the new vocalist of legendary US heavy metal band Vicious Rumors?

Well, I didn’t had to do much actually. The guys from Vicious Rumors were in the Netherlands when they visited friends of mine, Toine and Nancy. Geoff told them, he needed to find a singer who could join them on the upcoming American tour, cause their current singer couldn’t make it. They told him my name, Geoff checked it out on YouTube and that’s when I got a call if I wanted to join them on the road. Later, during the tour, it turned out Brian couldn’t combine family and touring anymore and they asked me if I wanted to fill the spot of lead vocalist permanently. On which I agreed of course hahaha. 

How you guys deal with the ‘problem’that not everybody living in the Netherlands or even in Europe?

We don’t really see it as a problem. Every person in the band prepares himself very well before we go on tour and when we come together on stage again, it works every time. I’ve been in Vicious Rumors for almost 3 years now and I believe we’ve had 3 or 4 rehearsals in total. So that’s not really an issue, everyone takes their job very seriously and that works out pretty good. And live there’s a good ear to each other. Recording the record and writing the material was something different. The American guys flew over to Europe to write some of the material and Tilen and I flew over to San Francisco to record the album. It might be a little bit more difficult, but that won’t stop us 😉

Please tell us something about the new album: “Concussion Protocol” that will see the light of day August 26 via SPV/Steamhammer?

It’s really a new part of the history, which is called Vicious Rumors. The five of us in the band right now; there’s so much energy. Which reflects in the album. It still has that sound that you’re looking for and the variety in the songs, but it definitely has got a new touch to it. It has the Vicious Rumors elements you want to hear, combined with new elements. There are a lot of different songs on “Concussion Protocol”, some are heavy, some very melodic, some aggressive and so on. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Where is the album all about..I mean lyrically?

The album features 11 songs and tells a chilling story of an armageddon by a global killer asteroid and how humanity unravels in the wake of the news. It’s the first concept album for the band. Everything around us is changing into something we are creating ourselves, in this digital age. This record is no longer a warning, it’s about the present/future 😉

Any plans to tour Europe after the release of the new album?

We definitely have a lot of plans in the near future; a first tour is scheduled in October/November for Europe. We’ll be seeing a lot of countries and I’m very much looking forward seeing everyone on the road again and bringing the new material to the stage as well!

Nick Holleman and Powerized:

You are involved in 2 other bands; Methusalem, a Dutch Hardrock/heavy metal band and Powerized. You also work as a session musician. How is it to live as a full time artist…?

Exhausting hahaha. Sometimes it is pretty hard, as your job is the same as your hobby. You can never stop. To find a moment to relax is almost impossible, as there’s always something to do, always something that must be done, or something I want to do. But I never want to trade it for anything in the world. Although it can be a bit stressful sometimes, it’s just so awesome to make music every day, whether it’s on the stage or in the studio or back at home. I love creating things and bringing that to the people. When we are on stage and we see people singing along to our songs; when we watch their faces and we see them having a good time, enjoying the thing what we love to do most, which is playing our music, that’s just the best thing there is! Thanks to everyone out there, we are able to do this every day because of you and we are very thankful that you all make it possible. To see we can do a little bit in return is just the greatest gift there is. I will never give up doing this.

Nick Holleman, live with Methusalem at: Dokk’em Open Air, 2016

Methusalem should release a new album soon, any news on that..? maybe some other news you want to share with us…?

I’m not sure where you’ve heard that, cause if that’s true, you know more about that than I do haha. We have recorded a single, which will be released soon, but currently we are writing the material for the new album. So that’s not going to be soon probably, as Vicious Rumors is going to do a big world tour, Powerized is recording right now and I will also hit the road with SinBreed. That’s already a bit time consuming :p

And Powerized, maybe a lot of readers don’t know so much about this band/project..? please tell us about it some more..?

No problem! Powerized is a band from my area, Breda, which plays symphonic prog. We wanted to bring something new to the stage, something you don’t see often nowadays. Create a little bit more than just music alone. Our songs are written in a way, to set an atmosphere, creating a certain vibe. The lyrics, symphonies and our melodic sound contribute to this and create songs that might be a little bit longer than you hear on an average radio station, but that’s all because it’s more than just songs, it’s all based on our theatrical concept of creating an atmosphere that fits the story we tell in that song, in what we call “The New Enlightenment”. The message: as long as you’re having a good time!  From full-on headbanging heavy songs or extensive epic symphonies to light-hearted compositions, there is a lot of variety in the music, which gives us room to do basically everything. No limits, whatever suites the song works. We try to enforce this atmosphere on stage with a live show and our enthusiasm. Our goal is having people saying after a concert: I’ve seen a show of Powerized instead of: they played those songs. Last year, we opened up for Helloween, which was a killer show. We love to be on stage, it gives us so much energy and it’s awesome to see the crowd appreciate that and enjoying it as well. Right now we are working on our first full-length concept album. Next week we will start the drum recordings, so let’s see if I still like everyone, after 10 days, locked in a studio hahaha.

You just played with Methusalem at the legendary Dokk’em Open Air in The Netherlands. Please tell us something about this festival and the gig/show you did there with Methusalem this year?

The festival is always a blast. Two years ago we headlined the festival with Vicious Rumors and it was great to be back again with Methusalem this time. The festival is run by people who love metal and that reflects on every aspect of the festival. Everyone is very kind and very helpful, everything is very well organized, and despite the weather this year, the people at Dokk’em still go crazy. That’s what metal is all about, no matter what happens, just enjoy the night and make sure you have a good time with everyone together. I love it.

When and why you decided to be a singer/vocalist?

Actually, I didn’t decide that. During a jam session I was forced to sing a song on stage because apparently I was the only one knowing the lyrics to it. There weren’t a lot of people out there, so I was like, I don’t care, whatever, let’s do this. I’d never sung before. But apparently it went okay, cause a couple of bands came up to me afterwards, asking if I wanted to be their singer. That was about 5 or 6 years ago.

Nick with the guys from German Power Metallers from Sinbreed:

You also helped the German Power Metal band, Sinbreed to be there vocalist for some shows..because Herbie Langhans is involved in Avantasia at the moment… How did you get in contact with these great guys..?

A great friend of mine Carl Frederick, from the United States, suggested me when Flo was talking with him about finding a singer for a couple of shows. Carl saw me on the 70000 tons of metal cruise in 2014 with Vicious Rumors and thought I could be a fit for SinBreed. It really is a very big pleasure to work with these guys, all highly professional and the most fun guys to hang out with. I’ve had a blast on the three shows we did and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming tour this Fall, where I will also help them out.

What are some of your own favorite bands/artists?

My favorites are not all well known unfortunately haha. I like a lot of music, black or death metal, prog, power, rock, blues, as long as it’s well executed, I’ll probably like it (except for a few exceptions haha). Flaming Row, Maladie, Pressure Points, Persefone, Beth Hart, Ne Obliviscaris, Solipsist are among my favorites, just to name a few (some I better not tell :p). The first two definitely being in my top 3.

Do you have any hobby’s beside being a vocalist…?

Sure, playing guitar or piano, composing, writing orchestrations, writing songs and lyrics, playing sports (waterpolo in particular, I’ve been playing that for 17 years), hanging out with friends, fans or family, having a good time and listening to music of course.

Do you have any last word or something that’s on you heart you want to share with the readers of Bonavox.nl?

I think I’ve said it already, but it’s worth mentioning again. I hope I will see everyone on one of the shows with one of the bands this year so we can all have a great time together. That’s what music is all about and I hope everyone will like it as must as I, or as we do, and thank you for making us living the lives of our dreams. Keep an eye out to the bands, cause a lot of stuff will happen in the near future, a lot of good things coming up and I want to share it with everyone who’s interested. Thank you Bonavox.nl for your time and your interest and I’m quite sure we will drink a beer together some place, some time again! Let’s make sure it will be soon!