Matthias Mader Interview

German writer Matthias Mader is a leading expert on all things HEAVY METAL. He is the author of books on Iron Maiden, Motörhead and most recently Judas Priest. He is also the co-owner of the German publishing company Iron Pages. Visit www.iron-pages.de.

 

First of all, tell me about your writing career. What made you want to write about rock and heavy metal in the first place?

Well, that goes back a long time. When I bought the first Maiden album back in 1980 at the tender age of 14, the HM bug had bitten me, there was no way back. Heavy Metal for life. In 1986, I formed a fanzine called Iron Pages, which ran for decades. In 1995, we published our first book because the magazine had its limitations with only a fixed number of pages reserved for band histories. This first book was N.W.O.B.H.M. - The Glory Days and believe me: in 1995 nobody in the whole world cared about Dragonfly, Jaguar or the Lightning Raiders. We were responsible (at least indirectly) for the revival of the N.W.O.B.H.M. The next big step came when we licensed Lemmy's White Line Fever (a really badly written “autobiography,” by the way.) We had commercial success selling + 8,000 copies (and sold on the paperback sublicense to Heyne in Germany.) So, coming back to your original question, nothing “made me write about HM,” it was just a natural progression from being a teenage fan to contributing something to the scene.” 

How many books have you written?

I will have to count them actually; I will leave out the ones I have co-written because that would be too many. The ones I wrote on my own are: Oi! The Book Vol.1, New York City Hardcore, Boston Hardcore, one on Motörhead (not only focussing on Lemmy,) one on Iron Maiden and one on Judas Priest. I am currently working on the second volume of New York City Hardcore. 

Of all your books, which one has been the hardest to write in terms of research and getting the whole manuscript together?

Well, when I am looking for a topic, I already take into account what would be possible and what not. So this narrows down the list of acts a bit. For example, I only write about bands I have done interviews with. I don't like books only citing secondary sources at all. I fear this kind of journalism has been getting a bit out of hand. Maybe the Priest one was the hardest to write as the wealth of material was so huge and the band goes back to the late '60's. Also, there has never been an official or unofficial German Priest book before, so I went away from the “fan book approach” of my Motörhead and Maiden books.

Your latest book is on Judas Priest. Why did you choose to write about them?

This ties in with the last question. I did Maiden and Motörhead before and I figure I conducted about a dozen or so interviews with different Priest members over a period of 15 or 20 years. So I had a wealth or original data. It just made sense. Saxon would have made sense also but as we put out the official autobiography of Biff Byford (both in English and German,) there was no real need of an “independent” Saxon book, especially taking into account that their fanbase is pretty limited (and not really a book-reading kind of following, I am afraid to say.) 

Did you approach their management about your book?

Ha, I would not have dared, no, no way. I never do that, unless I set out to write an officially authorized book, which then does not reflect my opinion on a band but the management's decision of how they would like to portray their client in the public. No, my books are not written according to a certain party line. I am sure Priest would not have liked to have Dave Holland included with an interview as you did in your own excellent Priest book Defenders Of The Faith. Priest did not have an official book out since 1984, so give me a break, they had 24 years time to put one out and now they are complaining about “unofficial” books (from you, Martin Popoff, and me?) A bit silly, really... 

What do you think about the current state of rock journalism? Is it as good as it was in the eighties?

To be honest, I think the quality is far superior today. Sure, Kerrang! was my bible back then but I was a teenager and could not really grasp the difference between a good and a bad article (same goes for Metal Forces et al.) If you read some of the early Kerrang! issues today, it is shocking how bad those interviews and reviews were. Just opinion, no infos, badly researched, pure big-headed yellow press journalism. Same goes for early books on HM. Take Tony Jasper's Encyclopaedia of Hard Rock and HM, boy, five sentences on Iron Maiden and thousand of mistakes in this book. Okay, it was the early '80's and the information flow was not as huge as it is today (too big, actually) but this was just bad, lazy journalism. So, HM music might have been better in the '80's but rock journalism certainly wasn’t...

Is there a secret ingredient that makes a good rock book?

Hmm, if it is secret, I won't tell you! No, in earnest, good writing, intense research, character, humour, style. That depends on the author; you need to find your own trademark. For example, Martin Popoff's books are always very detailed; he is obsessed with recording techniques, extra tracks, different covers etc. I love him for that. Gavin Baddeley is a writer I rate very highly, very knowledgeable guy, very serious, almost scholarly. As an author, you need to find your own style, your own way of presenting, without fiddling too much with your formula. I also dig Garry Bushell; he is unique, I loved his book co-written with Stinky Turner of the Cockney Rejects and his early Iron Maiden biography Running Free is a classic, ha, he even included some Cockney rhyming slang in there, which probably only Steve Harris understood. Compare that with Mick Wall's Run To The Hills - two different animals. Those writers are exceptional in what they do; they have formed their own not so little niche. They are exceptions though, most authors today are “writers on demand” and that shows in the (lack of) quality of their output. I mean, how can you write about say Saxon one day, Rage Against The Machine the next and Amy Winehouse tomorrow? You may call it “professional journalism,” I call insincere. That's the downside of the so-called “internet revolution,” people can't even figure out any more what's good and what's bad because they are fed so much crap every day ...

What are your favourite rock biographies?

I touched upon that topic in the last question already. Classic rock biographies? Hmm, the standard answer would possibly be Hammer Of The Gods but to be honest, I grew up with Iron Maiden, Holocaust, J.J.'s Powerhouse and Toad The Wet Sprocket, so Zep was before my time and I can't really judge. You should have asked for my least favourite rock biography ... I am still waiting for someone like Greg Graffin of Bad Religion to write his memoirs that would be mind-bending. If encyclopaedias count, then Malc Macmillan's 800 pages long tome The N.W.O.B.H.M. Encyclopaedia is a classic. I am proud I.P. Publishing was chosen to publish that one... 

Do you have any favourite writers of both fiction and non-fiction?

Hard question again! Yes, while going to university I grew upon such classic Utopian or anti-Utopian writers such as Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells, George Orwell and Anthony Burgess as well as slightly obscurer novelists like Ward Moore, Philip K. Dick (The Man In The High Castle) and Robert Harris (Fatherland.) So those will always have a special place in my heart. More contemporary fiction I dig is from Hanif Kureishi, of course Nick Hornby (I like Fever Pitch less than nearly all his other books, by the way,) Irvine Welsh (Filth is my favourite, where the police inspector listens to MSG on his car radio.) Bill Bryson counts as what? Travel literature? Still fiction, I suppose. He is the guru of travel literature, I've got all of his books, he deserves his immense success. Regarding non-fiction? The only non-fiction I read are indeed rock biographies and football books. So Simon Inglis's works on stadium architecture might qualify...

Do you make a living from writing?

Yes, although it is not only writing (I am writing for EMP Magazine also, Europe’s leading metal mail order) but also thanks to my position as co-owner of I.P. Publishing.

What are you reading at the moment?

I have just finished off Dream Theater's official biography. That was a drag, to be honest. I do love Dream Theater but the book was just so drab. How many times is it interesting to read that “the guys did not stand the producer?” You clearly see that the book started out as an “unofficial” biog, was then sanctioned and enriched by further interview segments, quite a patchwork it turned out to be. Before that I read John Joseph's autobiography, he was the singer for the Cro-Mags. Boy, this book reads like a film script and has everything in it: tragedy and triumph, abuse, misuse, religious aspects, violence. A fantastic book which lives and breathes New York...

What are your future projects?

As I mentioned briefly earlier, I am writing the follow-up to New York City Hardcore – The Way It Was. The projected title is New York City Hardcore – The Sound Of the Big Apple. As I.P. Publishing goes, we have loads of German translations coming up, like Al Atkins' autobio, Nikki Sixx, Korn, Cradle Of Filth, Cockney Rejects, Martin Popoff is writing a book on Purple for us...

 

Interview by Neil Daniels 2008