Hei dears again! I decided to do another interview..Interview with
Ferdy Doernberg..Ferdy is keyboards-player, singer, songwriter.. occurring in ROUGH SILK, AXEL RUDI PELL, EDEN´S CURSE..(and so much more) and what is importnat he also joined Anniversary tour of
THERION 
so I hope you will like it
*Ahoj Ferdy,
Thank you for your time!So, let´s start with first question: How did you got into Therion - how did you become one of Therion member on Anniversary Tour?
I first met Christofer, Kristian and Johann, when I played with Uli Jon Roth in Sala/Sweden. We talked a little bit and exchanged phone numbers.
½ a year later Christofer called me and asked me if I´d like to play on their tour. I said yes and that´s how it started. We stayed in contact via e-mail and I prepared all the songs. Then I flew to Sweden and we rehearsed for a few days and then we went on the road.
*How is your impressions now, when tour ended ?
It was really a great tour. Very good musicians and cool and nice guys as well.
Also all the guys in the crew were totally professional and nice. Most of the time you have at least one guy you don´t like on the bus - but not this time.
I knew Snowy and Messiah before but none of the other guys. Snowy and me really became real good friends - Thomas and me as well - but actually I like everybody a lot. Christofer and his girlfriend let me sleep in their appartment when I was in Sweden and were very nice to me as well.
Musically it was great anyway and I really hope that we can go on the road together again.
*Do you have some story from this tour, what you could tell to us - I mean something what´s happen absolutely unexpectedly?-Something funny..
For me as an old roots-rocker the most unusual and funny thing was probably wearing that monk-suit and the make up- thing. Before that tour I would have thought that "Mascara" was maybe some kind of spice or something else to eat. Normally I´m more a rock´n roll guy, who doesn´t dress up too much for a show. Because the whole crew was so professional actually so many surprises didn´t happen on stage. Also everyone was pretty mellow and down to earth so there was no excessive behavior on the bus as well. It was basicly a bunch of grown-up people playing good music and talking about life, history, philosophy and things like that. Especially Snowy and I sometimes talked the whole night through about very deep stuff. He´s a very intelligent guy and we the same opinions about many things. So for everybody who is into wild rock´n roll-stories he truth may sound a little boring but I prefer it like that to be honest. I personally don´t drink alcohol at all and don´t take drugs as well so I´m not the typical rock´n roll-guy.
*Do you plan continue with Therion for future time?
I´d like to work with them again but it´s up to Christofer, Kristian, Johann and Petter.
I would definitely say "yes", if they would ask me again.
*Did you start with music because of your father, because as I know he was violin-player, or it was your decision?
Probably both. I wanted to play as a child but of course my parents made me stick to it. And I´m happy that they did now, of course.
*Was you born in England?..Do you have some memories from your childhood there?
Actually I was born in Germany but I spend some time in the U.K. - in London and also at my auntie´s place on the Isle of Wright. And - yes - I do have memories about that. I like both countries. I´m not a patriotic guy. I feel more like a citizen of the world.
*You are also songwriter - where do you take inspiration for your music and lyrics?
Besides my work as a musician I always saw myself as a songwriter and lyricist. My soloalbums give me the chance to write all my crazy ideas down and record songs with 7 verses and no chorus , for example.
This is impossible in rock and metal-music. That´s why my solo-albums are in the snger/songwriter-style. Also this gives me the chance to work with many acoustic-instruments and experiment a lot with different slide-guitars and vintage-keybards.
The inspiration comes from……..life, actually. I travel a lot and see different things, meet different people and have a lot of free time in the bus . And because I don´t drink and don´t take drugs I have a much time to write lyrics on the road. Maybe that´s why there are so many "road-songs" on my albums. I have already finished writing the songs for the next album. Most of them were written while I was on tour with Therion.
I´ll start recording them after the Rough Silk-album, wich is a little delayed because I had a major computer-crash in my studio and we had to re-record a lot of stuff, is done. I think, it will be out in Autumn.
*Is there some concert on which you never forget? (not just with Therion..of course:))
Of course there are many - but here´s my top 20-list :
1. with Rough Silk - London, Marquee - supporting Helloween - 1994
2. with Axel Rudi Pell - Sweden Rock-Festival - 2004
3. with Rough Silk - supporting Savatage - ( and later playing my favourite Savatage-song "believe" together with Jon - a big honor for me !!! ) - Düsseldorf -1998
4. with the "Sky-Academy" all star-band ( Warren de Martini, Jeff Kollman, Don Dokken, David Paich, Robbie Krieger, Graham Bonnett, Chris Poland, ... ) - "Ralph Freud Theatre", Los Angeles - 2006
5. with Rough Silk - Bielefeld - "PC69" - supporting Saxon - 1989
6. with Uli Jon Roth - Chicago - "House of Blues" ( one of the greatest clubs in the whole world ! )
7. with Jeff Kollman - opening up for Thin Lizzy - Ingolstadt / Ohrakel - 2003
8. with Axel Rudi Pell - Wacken Open Air " 2006
9. with John Wesley Harding - Kniestedter Kirche/Salzgitter 2002
10. with Rough Silk - - supporting Helloween - Florence, Italy 1994
11. with the Roland-Grapow-Band & Gamma Ray - Sao Paulo, Brazil 10.6.1999 ( The greatest birthday I had so far - 5.000 Brazilians sang "Happy Birthday" for me - obrigado !!!! )
12. with Rough Silk - Pratteln Z 7, Switzerland - supporting Dio 1997
13. with Uli Jon Roth & the Lizzards - New York City, "B.B.King´s club" 2006
( playing and singing Billy Joel´s "New York state of mind" with Bobby
Rondinelli on drums directly in the heart of the Big Apple on 42nd street - that
was something ! )
14. supporting Bryan Adams ( one of my heroes ! ) with Thorsten Wingenfelder - Aurich / 2006
15. with Crimson Glory - St.Petersburg / Florida - 2001
16. with Therion - Belgrad / Serbia - 2008 ( what a great crowd ! )
17. solo at Udo Lindenberg´s "Rock & Pop-Museum / Gronau - 2007
18. with Max Weinberg ( Bruce Springsteen´s drummer ! ) - Frankfurt Music Fair
19. solo - Bad Nenndorf / Loc ( finally - after living there for a long time I played
a show in Bad Nenndorf - and - surprise !!! - it was very nice ! )
20. with Rough Silk - Hamburg / Headbanger´s Ballroom supporting Agent Steel
- 2005
But I´ve played so many cool shows in my life so of course this is just a little piece of the cake. That I picked the Serbia-Show doesn´t mean that all the other crowds were less great. All the shows with Therion were cool, for example !
*How about your plans to future with your other bands?
What plans do I have ?
Actually the usual thing : Recording albums ( Rough Silk, ARP, Solo, Eden´s Curse, Holy Moses - and whoever may call me ! Sometimes things happen very quick in the music business : You get a phonecall and 2 days later you sit in a plane to somewhere ! ), touring, writing and also -last but not least : live !!!!
I´velearned one thing : Most of the things in life you can´t plan anyway - we are oh so sure how things will turn out and then sudenly everything changes and all our carefully made plans are nothing but dust in the wind…
So maybe it´s better to talk about hopes : I hope to stay busy, healthy, lucky and maybe something / someone cool will come my way - who knows ?
I´m in the band of Axel Rudi Pell for 10 years now. We´ll release a new DVD next month and also start recording the new album this summer. Also we´ll tour in Autumn after playing a few festivals this summer.
Another important thing for me for 2008 is the new album of my old / new band Rough Silk.Rough Silk was my first professional band and is still my secret passion. We had a very unique style wich I still love. That´s the reason why I founded a new version of Rough Silk. We are recording a new album at the moment. After the band had finally split up in 2003 I originally thought to let it rest in peace.
But then I formed a new band with André Hort and Mike Mandel from a young thrash-band called "A.O.D." ( army of darkness ) , who had supported us a few times. We originally wanted to give the band a different name but after we had written the first tunes everbody who heard them said that they would sounda lot like Rough Silk - so I asked the other guys what they would think and so we decided to continue as Rough Silk. I have the right to use the name anyway and the other original guys stopped playing and live in a different world now as teachers, lawyers and family fathers - so why should we give it a different one ?
Rough Silk had many line-up-changes through the years anyway and I´m the only remaining guy but actually it was always more about the band´s style- the name already says it : "Rough" for - thrash-metal-influenced riffing - and "silk" for piano-parts and singer/songwriter-influences.
We played a few shows already - for example with Agent Steel, Demon, Sick Of It All - and so far it went very well. A year ago we found a great drummer, Alex Wenn - and herewe go again..
If you like, you may check out
www.rough-silk.com*and now some different questions.. : What´s your biggest musician dream?
To become rich and famous, ha ha - no, honestly I can say that many of my childhood dreams have come true already. Of course there is always a next step and I´m not Jon Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen but I can make a living by playing and that´s somethig, I would say. But of course I´d like to be a little bit more successful with my solo stuff, for example.
*and how about your dreams generally?
Ok - soap opera time ! This may sound a little cheesey now : I´d like to meet the "right person" to maybe found a family with or something like that. Of course it´s never easy to keep a relationship when you´re on the road as much as I am. That´s probably the reason for the end of most of my relationship. At some point you hear the sentence : "you can chose between me and the music !" ………… and that´s always the beginning of the end !!!! But who knows ? Maybe I´ll find somebody who can deal with this someday. Maybe not !
*Is there something what you want to say to our readers?
Well, what can I say ? Thank you for accepting me so nicely on the tour.
I hope to see you all soon again.
Also maybe you´d like to know what I´m listening to at the moment :
Matt Roer : "barra da tijuca"
Agnostic Front : "warriors"
Bruce Springsteen : "magic"
Steve Earle : "washington square serenade"
The Hooters : "time stand still"
Overkill : "immortalis"
Todd Snider : "peace love & anarchy"
Nile : "ithyphallic"
The Eagles : "long road out of eden"
Dickey Betts : "2006 north american tour - the official bootleg"
I know, that´s a lot of different stuff - but as I said : I´m a very open-minded person !
All the best, yours, Ferdy
Thank you very much for this interview Ferdy!..and hope to see you soon!
