A NIGHT WITH: BOB KATSIONIS (OUTLOUD, FIREWIND)

OUTLOUD ARE BACK TO KICK YOUR ASS WITH A BRAND NEW ALBUM WHICH WILL BE RELEASED ON MAY 23rd VIA AOR HEAVEN, HERE I AM HAVING A LITTLE TALK WITH BOB KATSIONIS (FIREWIND) AXEMAN OF THE BAND TO KNOW MUCH SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THIS GREAT LET'S GET SERIOUS.

Hi Bob, thanks to be here on The Bible of Metal, what a great pleasure to me to make this interview with you! What a busy period for you, before a new live album with Firewind and than this new - and great - one with Outloud!
BOB: My pleasure too! "Busy"? That's not quite a word for it… I would say Busy As Fuck!

I guess you've worked pretty harder to realise Let's Get Serious, haven't you? 
BOB: Yeah… that's a good guess! Actually this time I had in mind that I have to produce an album that I will personally be very proud of, make no mistakes, have my best songs available and work them to the last detail.Of course we had problems, since we had 2 changes in the line up and we also didn't have a plan on how to do this album. I mean, we were thinking of doing a "kikcstarter" or "Indiegogo" type of fund raising campaign, and other ideas. Then we decided to go with AOR Heaven again cause we were pretty happy working with them. Then, I had to find a REALLY GOOD drummer, after Mark Cross moved to England, and we were lucky enough to have one of the best ones in the world, my friend George Kollias. Then I had to make decisions on the sound of the guitars, so I used Telecaster type of guitars for the first time in my life, and I also recorded them 3 times,until I found their final sound. Thank God, our singer Chandler was there once again to make the things better with his great vocals and melody lines, and then everything was sent once again to Tommy Hansen for mixing. He did eleven (!!!) mixes until we got the final result which now we are all really proud of. Actually I can't stop listening to the album. It's one of the best I have ever done!

Let's Get Serious start with the powerful riffing of Death Rock, could you  tell me much more about this song?
BOB: I'm really happy you mention this one! The idea of a song like this came right after I had this meeting with George Kollias (NILE) and he offered to record the drums for the album. I went straight to my studio and wrote a song that could highlight his drumming and I think we managed to make a song which is a strange combination of pure guitar driven Hard Rock with extreme drumming! That's why I also gave this title to it: so people (fans and press) don't have to think a lot, and quickly understand what is all about! Chandler then worked on this title and based a whole song around it, just by having to work on a title! And then, I had this risky decision of putting it first in the album track list. You know this was tricky! Some reviewers didn't quite like the idea of the death metal drumming on an AOR song, but we didn't care. That's an extra reason we are proud of!

Is there a song that you're more in love with on Let's Get Serious?
BOB: That's tough to say, cause really every song has it's story, it's not only chords and notes for me…For example "I Was So Blind" was written on my iPad during a long flight from USA, "Like A Dream" was written for Place Vendome's latest album, the ballad was written one dark night with my acoustic guitar and my cellphone recording and stuff like that but I have to say that my personal favorite is "A While To Go". And it's also one of the first we did for this album back in 2012. It's a perfect blend of the things I love to listen to, like Dream Theater, Mr Big, Annihilator and stuff like that. I wanted it to be the opener of the album but then came.."Death Rock!"

What are your projects in your nearest future?
BOB: Hmm… I don't have. Firewind are on a hiatus at this moment so I don't know what the future will bring. It's up to Gus who is up to Ozzy who is up to Iommi,hahaha! Or something like that..! 
But I have a 90% ready solo album which is gonna be very different and perhaps I will have to make a big decision sooner or later of where I will put my power and invest my time in to.

Will we se you here on stage? :)
BOB: No,hahaha! Touring is REALLY hard if you are a new band with member from around the world but we are working on it!

Would you like to leave a message to the readers?
BOB: Please support OUTLOUD and all the bands you love to listen to their music.The fan's power and contribution is vital if we want to get this music going. Enjoy our album and drop by our page to say "hi" @ www.facebook.com/outloudtheband