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SPEED LIMIT: Hardrock, enthusiasm and hedonism from the blue Danube.By Marco Aimasso, www.metal.itLink: http://www.metal.it/interview.aspx/810/In his review of Speed Limit´s new CD “Moneyshot” Sergio kind of tore them to pieces, so it´s up to me now - the writer of these lines - to offer a second opinion and play the part of the avenger for musical injustice. (just imagine myself in the authentic tights … but now for something different..) A second opinion about a quite good record of a fine band, a second opinion that friends of the genre – those who really know about it – claimed for. Band as well as the album are worth a closer look at, especially when you are a fan of melodic hard and heavy music in the tradition of the 80ies.To rehabilate the band Speed Limit and their new CD “Moneyshot” talented, sympathetic, talkative and forcefull guitaris Chris Angerer will get the chance to speak and discuss the issue.It´s crystallclear that all was done consensual and guarded by our Ermo (not a case of disobedience), which shows the harmony in metal.it. Therefore I would like to point out the democratic and mature behavior of our “metallic” vice chiefeditor (and to be hopefully secured of all kinds of reprisals)All in the name of pluralism and freedome of opinion …Hello, firstly thanks for taking the time out to complete this interview, welcome to the Italian webzine metal.it and welcome back in the rock circus! Please, introduce to our readers the features of Speed Limit to the readers that don’t know your history! Okay then: SPEED LIMIT is an Austrian “melodic” hardrock band that has just released their first CD “Moneyshot” and it´s incredibly exiting that (and how) the hard & heavy-world takes notice of it. No, that’s just half the truth! But to be honest: this is how it feels for us. So we decided to see things like that. You know, the world – especially the music-business - has changed a lot over the last 15/20 years. But for those who are interested in “tales from the century before” we cut a long story short: SPEED LIMIT was founded back in the early 80ies – released two vinyl-records (Unchained/86 and The Prophecy/88) and a CD (Perfect Inspiration/92). In 1988 we had the kind opportunity to enter charts in 7 European countries with the single “Lady”. From 1994 to 2008 we had a kind of vacation - but all of us, as we know now, kept on writing songs just for ourselves. Nobody could imagine in this period that Speed Limit might reunite again. In 2008 we restarted the engine – toured with Nazareth, Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann´s Earthband (Germany/Austria). And at the moment we are thankful that the people of Pure-Rock/Pure-Steel gave us the chance to release the new album worldwide.Now, sorry, a question perhaps a little stale … What happened that brought Speed Limit to this return after this long break? Do you feel that the present music scene is particularly favorable for your music style?Okay for the first part of your question: We just bumped into on another and thought it would be fun to just play some songs for the good times. Having played the first song – I think it was “Dead eyes” the opener of the Prophecy-album – we looked at each other and everyone knew: “yes this is it – this really rocks!” After that things just happened: First gig (with Nazareth), first new song, first tour, next couple of songs – and for the most: a great deal of fun. Then we realized that we hadn´t lost the ability to on the one hand write fine songs and on the other hand develop real asskicking energy. So there was no long-prepared masterplan – just give it a shot (a moneyshot!)The next part of your question seems a little tricky but it´s not for us, because we can´t even think like that – this won´t come in our thoughts. We damn go for fine melodies, catchy hooks and choruses, “state of the art” -riffing and memorable leads. This is the only music we can do – it comes out of our hearts and souls. And I strongly believe that people who listen to hard & heavy metal music - no matter what kind of - aren´t silly. They know exactly what they want to hear. So either they like that kind of style or they don´t – that´s okay for us.Now let’s talk about the new "Moneyshot". Where did you record it? Was the creative process any different from the Speed Limit method beforehand? How long did it take to compose the material of the album?We are in the wonderful position that our drummer Wolf (Krug) runs a studio near Salzburg (Sägewerk 13). So we had probably more time to record and try everything we wanted than many others do. And as a matter of this the recording and the creative process was a little bit different. You know in the 80ies studios were expensive and no company could afford to have a band record more than let´s say 2 or 3 weeks. And so you had to have everything prepared well and be as fast as possible to lay down your tracks. This time we could experiment in the studio. Think we´ve tried every guitar, every amp or microphone we could grab. We added lines, voicings and as a very important part: we had to get known to each other once again. Some attitudes and even abilities have changed and improved over the years… In the end we worked nearly one year composing, rehearsing, recording and mixing. Hope we will be quicker next time…Why a title as "Moneyshot"? What about the meaning of this title, the Cd artwork and, more in general, about the album lyrics?That´simple! Not that we are in for the big money but we were at any time of this last year convinced that this will be THE album that brings us back to the world-map of metal music. The term “Moneyshot” is used in porn industry. It´s the moment when man does what he gets paid for – and everyone has to see it. And it works best when it´s just like our music: “in your face!” or like the first row in a Speed Limit concert: “mouth open!” (may the rest be up to your fantasy) The pics in the bookie show us relaxing with a drink or cigar or whatever. (Hope they don’t ban that in the USA!) You have to understand that we are a bunch of hedonists – we are no more the youngsters that stress through life every minute of the day – we take the time to enjoy what we do. Man, we survived the “hairy” 80ies, didn´t starve in the 90ies – now it´s about time to have REAL fun.About the lyrics: Hm, this could end up as a long story. You know, every song tells a story and we really try to tell exiting stories. Maybe we could put it that way: A lot of what Steven is singing about is written in kind of high spirits when we were back together and felt like we´re standing on top of the world and we are finally back to reach for the stars. But all the lyrics are printed in the bookie – so get out there, get the CD read and understand what we are talking about.I personally think that your new release is a good album, where the “noble" eighties approach (with also a pleasant touch of NWOBHM) is embellished with a right amount of creativity. Can you give a quick breakdown of the album and, even if I guess it’s not an easy question, tell us which tracks do you think are the strongest and the most representative on the new record and why? As you probably noticed the Moneyshot-album delivers a great variety of songs. So it´s depends a lot on what mood you´re in to say which song fits this particular mood best. One day it´s the opening rocker “Broken Mirror” some day the heavy but more mellow “Don´t fear the dark lanes”. Emotionally I guess it´s “On the TOP” with it´s anti-drug content and it´s dynamic ups and downs. The most representative song is probably “Done with dreamin´” because it´s “heavy” but also “catchy”, has killer-leads and Steven`s performance is superb. But I love “Lost & Found” for it´s more “commercial” approach (did I say that?) or the straight rock´n´roller “To old to dye young” which nearly everybody seems to like - just like for example the NWOBHM influenced “Fly like an eagle” but I can tell you a secret: This one was really written back then! But don´t let anybody know. The girls will probably like the romantic “Heartbreakin´ Valentine” (´cos their boyfriend will go for a beer meanwhile). A song you either love or hate is “I came, I saw…” – man it`s an odd fucking ballad, but we love odd fucking ballads, especially when it’s a good one like that, so what!Could you spend any additional words about the beautiful remake of your "old" hit single “Lady”? Are there any other material stemmed to your past that you feel right also for 2011 rock audience and are you going to propose in the near future?Oh yes! “Lady” This one I forgot! You like the 2010-version? Me too! To be honest – I´m very glad you know about the song. It sometimes happens that we play the song (especially younger audiences) and they don´t know about it. So that´s a reason why we put it on the album. “Lady” was a kind of firestarter for Speed Limit – it opened a lot of doors back then. It had a quite expensive promo-video you could see on nearly every tv-station in Europe in the late 80ies and it was released not only in Europe but on compilations all over the world. It´s always funny to discover that song on various “Best Of Rock”-sampler that we don´t know about. (“funny” doesn´t mean “too happy” for not earning any money for it!!!)About the 80ies material we can tell that our label is planning to re-release some of it in the near future. So when they believe that it´s worth to boost this treasures to rock the century being, we do too.In the live set – especially headliner shows – we used to play two more songs from “Prophecy” and another two of the “Unchained”-album and one song from “Perfect Inspiration”. If your readers are interested we issued a lot of live-videos on the video-channel at YouTube (www.youtube.com/speedlimitrocks ). The next live shows will focus more on the “Moneyshot”-album, but we intend to have at least two of the classics on board."Moneyshot" is the first offering from Pure Rock Records a subdivision of Pure Steel Records. How did you get in touch with them? Are you satisfied about their work, so far?They are doing an absolute awesome job – brilliant! We could not wish for more! Maybe you know that they have allied forces with Karthago Records recently. We got in touch with Stefan Riermayer from Karthago early 2010, who suggested the re-release of the 80ies records - Unchained & The Prophecy - which have turned into rare collectors` items over the years. At that point we were busy working on the “Moneyshot”-album. When we were ready to release all involved thought it to be a good idea to have this done on Pure-Rock Records. So we are now in the comfortable situation of being the first release of this newly formed and on high steam working label which we appreciate a lot.If you could change something from the past about the band, what would that be?Maybe the hairdressers?! No, but you kind of forget the so called bad situations – you tend to refer to the “glory days” you had. Especially when the periode is that long – we are talking about some 30 years now! We´d rather keep the eyes on that part of the road that lies in front of the Speed Limit caravan. Of course we made mistakes and had troubles, but finally our long way lead us to where we are now - and we are happy now. So why change anything? Do you know the movie "Butterfly Effect"?? A man is able to travel into the past and although he only changes little things with the intention to make life better for his friends and family the effects are expansive and completely different from what he wanted to achieve.Who knows where we would be if we would have made anything different in the past - maybe we would have hit the Austrian folk music charts and would be on tour with the "Kastelruther Spatzen" instead of playing real Rock Music. A terrible imagination!!What is your opinion about TV “talent” shows as “X-factor” and “American Idol”? Do you think that are useful to discover the real new music “Superstars”?In my opinion it´s a two sided coin. The positive aspect is that people concentrate on talents of their own country. Especially in smaller countries like Austria the music- industry rather imports a star or act that has already a career in let`s say Germany or USA. With these shows they are forced to take risks spending money on young talents in the home country. That also includes national radio.The other side is the extroardinary pressure those people have to stand. You need to be a very balanced person to bear that kind of popularity is such a short time. And that includes only those who are succesfull.But I only watch this from outside – it has nothing to do with our music – that´s a completely different planet …What about the Austrian scene of hard rock/melodic metal? Is there a Austrian band (or more than one) you feel particular close to your musical taste and you can suggest to Italian rock listeners? I think Austria isn´t any different to other European countries. We do have a lot of talented local bands and some that manage to play the national league. But I´m probably the wrong person for that question. We´re not too deeply involved in the local scene. You probably know those bands that step out of Salzburg or the region around such as: Belphegor, Stygma 4 (a shame they broke up), Crimson Cult, Mastic Scum, Juvaliant, Crystallion or some bands that are definitely on the jump like Peltskin, Norian, Cyring, Edgedown. Rock listeners that prefer bands like Deep Purple, “old” Whitesnake or Uriah Heep just check our the new CD of “Klaus Schubert´s Rock Bunnies” !!! He was guitarist in No Bros and formed a very talented (nearly) all-girl band, which features the breathtaking voice of Tici Westreicher .. so sweet!!!Are you going to tour to promote "Moneyshot"? If so, do you think you’re coming also to Italy?At the moment we are in a process of sorting out what steps to take next. We do have some shows in May and June and some smaller festivals. But we can´t confirm a tour or dates in Italy, but you never know. Watch out our homepage, we´ll let you know. We´d been playing shows with SKANNERS end of the 80ies (hello boyz - your new album “factory of steel” kicks ass a lot!!) So, we´ll see.Ok, this is the last one … Thank you so much again … Is there any private comment you have for our readers? Why should they pick out your new album?Nobody “should” buy our album. But if you like straight forward melodic hardrock-songs, with a strong clear voice and tastefull guitar-work please give it a try. That´s exactly what we are capable of - and we know that we are good at it. But attention, it might occur that one of our choruses never again leaves your head. Marco Aimassowww.metal.it
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