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by Jeb Wright
In the 1980's, Krokus
found world-wide platinum success with the albums Headhunter and
Midnight Maniac. While these recordings have become essential metal
offerings, they would have not been possible without the album that came
before them. One Vice at a Time, released in 1982 on Artista
Records, went gold in the United States and paved the way for Krokus future
success.
Krokus struggled to
find their identity early on in their career resulting in much frustration
and little success. Little did they know that one simple line up change
would change their sound, their image and their future forever. The band
adopted a metal sound and found a vocalist from their homeland of
Switzerland. The only problem was that he was lived in England. Vocalist
Marc Storace recalls, “When I joined Krokus I had been living in London,
England. Since that kept me apart from the rest of the band, we used every
opportunity to try and write songs whilst being on the road. This is not a
simple task since one lacks the physical time and energy most of the time.
Back home in London, and off the road, I undertook several commuting
journeys by train and plane to Switzerland in order to gel and intensify my
creative work with the band. The initial commuting started in 1979 before
our very first European tour prior to the recording of Metal Rendez-Vous,
my debut album with the band. For the Hardware album, the band
collected a reasonable amount of musical and lyrical ideas before my arrival
and we took it from there. In actual fact, for both Metal Rendez-Vous
and Hardware I contributed far more than I am credited for.
However, things eventually changed for the better with One Vice at a Time.
My efforts had not been in vain.”
One Vice at a Time
was not only a pivotal album
musically for the band, it was also very important in the business aspects
of their career. “We had engaged Butch Stone, who previously managed Black
Oak Arkansas, to manage us in the USA. Things started working out fine with
Butch and the band simply saw no reason to continue working with a European
based management too. Butch was a master at acquiring and renewing deals
and we found a great ally in his old friend Mike Bone, who, at the time, was
A&R for Arista Records in New York City. Mike had been a fan of Krokus since
Metal Rendez-Vous.”
Artista Records was
founded by Clive Davis, one of the most powerful men in the music industry.
If Clive thought a band could be successful then he was not afraid to lay
money on the table. Storace remembers Davis’ initial financial contribution
to Krokus, “We received a huge seven-digit advance from the great Clive
Davis, who discovered Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin,
Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana and many others. We invested most of it
back into Krokus for recording and touring in order to establish ourselves
firmly in the USA. We also increased our salaries.
We met Clive Davis on
several occasions. I was more excited than nervous to meet him since I felt
confident to know that he loved the band as well as my singing. On one
occasion we were summoned to his office in New York in order to discuss the
song repertoire before recording One Vice at a Time. There were more
occasions when we were honored by Clive`s visits and invitations. For
example, he turned up backstage at the Ritz Theater before that particular
gig in New York. Another time he invited us to lunch at the Beverley Hills
Hotel prior to one of our concerts in L.A. He also wined and dined Fernando
and me before our Gold & Platinum Record presentations where we took
pictures for the industry media like Billboard.”
Davis and the rest of
the Artista team had high expectations for the band’s next release. Krokus
took the pressure in stride and delivered the best album of their careers to
that point. The band recorded the album at the famous Battery Studios in
London with veteran producer Tony Platt manning the controls. Storace
fondly recalls working at the legendary studio, “This was the second album
we recorded in London, England. The other album we recorded there was
Hardware, which we had recorded in the Roundhouse in Camden Town. It was
particularly great for me to be recording on home ground again. I drove up
from South London everyday and joined in the flow of things. LD, or "Little
Dave" Glover, our US tour manager and our manager Butch Stone`s right hand
man, flew in and stayed with the band during the whole recording period. As
usual, we started the recordings by laying down the rhythm section
foundations to all the songs. When the rhythm guitars were done we started
with my lead vocals, even before any guitar solos were finished. Tony
Platt, our producer, engaged Bruce Dickinson to do some backing vocals to
add color, and in order to cover up the heavy Swiss accent from the
Swiss/German boys, which at that early stage was slightly too overpowering.
Mutt Lange also happened to be mixing AC/DC`s For Those About to Rock
in Battery Studios at that time and often popped in for a listening break
with his old assistant Tony while I was singing.”
Storace recounts his
time with Dickinson in the studio, “Bruce was cool. Unfortunately, we only
got to chat for a while. He was stressed to leave right after the session
but we met some time later on a flight to New York. Surprisingly, Bruce
boarded the plane dressed in a Sherlock Holmes outfit and came and sat next
to me for the whole flight – strange but true. Later on, Iron Maiden and
Krokus met up on the road and we even played some big venues together.”
Krokus were lucky enough to bump into AC/DC while at Battery Studios. “They
were sitting upstairs in the Green Room one evening quietly watching
television. We kept our conversation short but we toured together later on
in the USA.”
On the production
front Platt proved he had paid attention during his time working with Mutt
Lange. He left nothing to chance and helped the band create the musical
vision they desired. “Tony was very experienced having previously worked
with Mutt Lange as an engineer. We got on very well and I remember how he
occasionally coached me along the same lines as Mutt. He would drop in
individual words wherever necessary if there was a good vocal line he did
not wish to totally erase. Not that this was his favorite approach,
naturally, he was happiest whenever I got whole verse down spontaneously in
one go with the required attitude. He was great at bringing across the mood
of what he envisioned from the lyrics. He even inspired me with some great
on-the-spot writing during the song "Playin’ the Outlaw.”
When the band were
finished with recording it came time to concentrate on the album art.
Storace confesses that the album almost had a totally different and
embarrassing look, “We experienced the weirdest incident regarding our album
cover artwork and that of AC/DC. AC/DC were already in the mixing stages
for their album For Those About To Rock whilst we were still putting
down lead vocals, guitar solos and backing vocals for our album. At that
early stage, we were thinking of calling our album Longstick Goes Boom.
I was involved with the artistic aspects of the band and had delivered
sketches of my ideas in order to get them across. I had done some sketches
depicting a cannon for our album cover so you can imagine our amazement when
AC/DC came out with For Those About to Rock depicting a cannon on the
front cover. Luckily, we still had plenty of time before our release to
switch to One Vice at a Time and use the Portcullis idea instead,
which, in all respect, turned out even better. It was really spooky at the
time but I guess great minds think alike.”
Krokus had used the
image on Once Vice at a Time on their previous tour and quickly made
the change. “We had been using this Rock`n`Roll production company from
Birmingham, England, called Light & Sound which was run by Steve Dawkes.
They had built our Castle and Portcullis production. It had been done very
professionally and had even survived the whole World Hardware Tour.
We decided to immortalize it by using it as our album cover. With a few red
lights and loads of artificial smoke the Portcullis looked as mystical and
powerful as the real thing. A good photographer captured it on camera and
the rest is history.”
When asked how he
feels One Vice at a Time holds up over the years, Storace quickly
states, “Oh I think very strongly indeed. Over the years we have always
played a minimum of three or more songs from that album in concert. Just to
give you an example, "Longstick Goes Boom," "Bad Boys Rag Dolls" and
"American Woman" are in the present live set-list and hold up very
strongly. It is one of my four all-time favorite Krokus albums next to
Metal Rendez-Vous, Headhunter and our latest killer Hellraiser.
THE SONGS
Long Stick Goes
Boom
Chris, Fern and myself were the main songwriters for the album One Vice
at a Time. This song title originated from the Indian Chief Sitting Bull
who said, “White man come with long stick that goes boom.” These lyrics
were written during a jam in a motel room one afternoon before soundcheck
somewhere on tour in the good old US of A. The music and arrangement was
pretty much fixed by the end of the tour. A rough demo for the producer was
done in Solothurn.
Bad Boys, Rag Dolls
I had been flirting with this song title and chorus to describe my
appreciation towards the loyalty of our fans for quite a while. Then I heard
the high energy music from the band and it all fell in place almost
automatically. We finished the lyrics in some other US motel room between
lunchtime and soundcheck. Again, the music and arrangement were more or less
set before the end of tour. A rough demo for the producer was also recorded
in Solothurn.
Playin' the Outlaw
The lyrics to this song are a very special example of what becomes possible
when creative harmony reigns in a studio. Tony Platt was very instrumental
for his inspiration. This song went through a whole lyrical overhaul during
my vocal sessions in the studio.
To The Top
Every once in a while a drummer contributes to songwriting. Freddie came
up with this song title. I finished the whole lyric whilst putting down a
rough demo in Solothurn.
Down the Drain
Our bass player had an uncle who sent him these lyrics. This song deals with
a sad case of social disease.
American Woman
This is a cover version of a Guess Who song, which was also recently covered
by Lenny Kravitz. Clive Davis suggested we do a cover version and he found
it to be a great idea when we said we wanted to re-record "American Woman."
I avoided listening to the original version again after copying the lyrics
in order to develop my own individual interpretation of the song.
I'm on the Run
I wrote these words on one of my commuting journeys to meet the band.
Save Me
A song about a rising musicians facing small town gossip after a successful
world tour.
Rock n' Roll
These words describe the dark side, the abuse and decadence of Rock`n`Roll. |
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