After the last Dragony concert in Budapest, I had the opportunity to exchange a few words with Siegfried, the singer of Dragony. There wasn't much time, and other people wanted to talk to him, so I thought I'd find him on Facebook and ask him for a longer interview.
Luckily he replied quickly that he was okay with it, but due to touring, a new single, and other commitments, it was about a month before he was ready to reply...but it was worth the wait.
Others might be curious about other things, but I found these questions interesting, and I hope you like them.
KiB: Hello Siegfried! I appreciate you taking the time for this little interview. First and most important question: where did your hair go?:)
Siegfried: Well I got older ;) It just happens that way haha!
KiB: How long have you been singing and what brought you into metal?
Siegfried: I started listening to metal in my teenage days... first learned about bands like Metallica, but then soon got into Power Metal through Hammerfall, Stratovarius, Rhapsody and those kinds of bands, and that just got me absolutely hooked!
I always wanted to sing and be in a band, but I started pretty late, so I would say in my late teenage days/early twenties.
KiB: Which bands (musicians) have been your biggest influences ?
Siegfried: As previously mentioned, Hammerfall have been a huge influence, but I also have to say Avantasia and Edguy, as I'm a really big fan of Tobias Sammet's songwriting. I also love Virgin Steele, and also enjoy a bunch of newer bands right now, like Battle Beast, Beast in Black or Induction.
KiB: You had projects before. How did you end up founding Dragony?
Siegfried: I really only had one band project before, that lasted only about 2 years. It was a band called "Eleftheria", and it was a case of, you know, just taking your first steps in a band environment, with no real clue about how to approach things professionally haha. So it was a bit of a rough experience, but with Dragony (or Dragonslayer Project, as it was originally called), we wanted to try again and go about things a bit more professionally, and we just learned that over the years I would say.
KiB: So far there have been few member changes, that too early on, how did you find the others ?
Siegfried: The first lineup really got together through an ad on an internet forum for musicians in Vienna, Austria! I met our original guitarist there, who also had a studio/rehearsal room, and successively we then found the other musicians as well. We wanted to start a studio project at first, but it soon turned into a "real" band. That lineup remained until the production of our first album "Legends", and after that was released, our current guitarist Simon and keyboarder Manuel joined the band, and have been with us since.
That lineup remained the same until 2021, so almost 10 years, when our longtime guitarist Andi left the band to focus on his private life and new job, and most recently, also our drummer Frederic stepped down due to personal reasons, and Chris Auckenthaler became our new drummer. He's a really young dude, only 23 years old right now, but highly motivated and did a great job as a replacement drummer on some recent tours of ours in Mexico and Germany, so it was a natural choice to keep him as our new permanent drummer. He brings a lot of fresh energy to the band, so that's really great!
KiB: How does writing an album work? Do you come up with the basics or do you work together?
Siegfried: Usually one bandmember will come up with a basic concept that's sometimes more, sometimes less fleshed out. Then we usually meet with our producer Frank Pitters in his studio, and work out all the details there. Frank has been with us from day one, and he's essentially the seventh band member, who is just working in the background, haha. But without him, there would be no Dragony today. He not only works with us on arrangements, but he also contributes a lot to our songwriting process as well.
KiB: If you invite a guest, do you have the song first and look for a candidate based on that, or do you write a song for someone personally?
Siegfried: I usually have an idea for a song that could feature a guest, and then we'd think about a suitable candidate. We don't really "write for" someone else, as that might be tough to do, and sometimes collaborations also might not work out for various reasons, and then you don't have "that" singer to record the song... so it would be a bit too risky to do it that way I think!
KiB: You've done guest appearances in the past. How does the recording process work then?
Siegfried: Pretty much the same as recording our own stuff for me, to be honest! If I'm guesting somewhere, the producer of that song would usually just send me a demo track of the song with lyrics and a guide vocal track recorded, so I know the melodies they want me to sing, and then I just record that in the studio with our producer as well.
KiB: Is there any symphonic recording on the albums (maybe a choir) or do you do everything "at home"?
Siegfried: Well we use a lot of orchestra elements on our albums, but those are all samples - we can't really afford to have a "real" orchestra recording, as that can be quite expensive!
Some choirs are also samples, but most backing vocals and choruses feature "real" recorded voices, but usually not a full choir recorded at once, but rather smaller ensembles of 4-6 people recorded several times.
KiB: When you cover a song, how do you choose which one to cover?
Siegfried: Oh, just on personal preference really! We like to do covers of songs that are not super popular, but may have a bit of a cult fan base, to keep things interesting.
KiB: On average you come out with a new album every 3 years. How long does it take to turn an idea into a finished song? Are there any ideas that "end up in the bin"?
Siegfried: Yeah we have a pretty long recording cycle, but it's less the songwriting process and more a money issue that sometimes delay things, haha! And yes, it sometimes happens that song ideas end up in the bin if at the end we decide that they are not quite on the level we want them for a Dragony album - but usually we realize this pretty quickly, and instead focus on the good song ideas we have ;)
KiB: What is your favourite Dragony album/song?
Siegfried: Uh that's hard to tell of course! I think in terms of albums so far I'd go with "Viribus Unitis", as it's our best-written and best-sounding album so far. But we're working hard behind the scenes right now to make our new album even better, so I guess by October this year, I'll say it's the new one, haha!
As a favorite Dragony song... there's a lot of fun ones to choose from for sure! I'd go either with "Wolves of the North", as it was really the song that first got us some serious attention in the scene, or maybe even "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It", since we were able to make a really funny video for that one!
And I of course also love our latest single "The Untold Story", as we produced this song as an official tie-in song for a video game, Albion Online, and making a song for a video has always been a "bucket list" item for me for sure. So that was a really great experience!
KiB: The next album is planned for October this year, can you tell us anything about it?
Siegfried: Haha, it's a bit too early for that unfortunately... but I can say that it will once again be a "mashup" concept album, mixing real history with fiction - but it will have a very different setting in a very different time period than "Viribus Unitis" had! But it will certainly have the same typical Dragony humor and approach to things for sure!
KiB: How is a tour organised? What does it take to make a headlining tour happen?
Siegfried: Well there's different types of touring. A lot of times a "smaller" band like us will go on tour as a support act for bigger acts, but that can also be tricky to pull off as you need to find a suitable band that's going on the road at an opportune time, and is willing to take you along. So a lot of factors play into that, and all touring also comes with a lot of costs, as you will need to pay your share of costs for tour buses, sound and light crew, merchandise crew etc.
That also goes for headlining tours, and these are even more difficult to pull off, especially as a smaller band - it really only makes sense to do a headlining tour yourself if you can regularly pull at least 200-300 people no matter where you go. Anything below that will make it very difficult for a band to do a headlining tour, as it will simply not cover all the costs associated with doing such a tour.
KiB: You said after the last show in Budapest that Chris, your drummer, has a Hungarian mother. Do you learn Hungarian from her besides the basic words?
Siegfried: Yes, Chris' mom is Hungarian - I think he speaks it pretty well actually!
And actually I'm also from the same part of Austria as Chris, and Hungarian is spoken there a lot... my own grandparents also spoke it! But I only know a few words really, unfortunately!
KiB: Have you thought about a concept album about the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy?:)
Siegfried: Well "Virbius Unitis" basically is that - the album starts with the song "Gods of War", which is literally about the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.
KiB: The song Fallen Star sounds a lot like the one inspired by the game Diablo...is that right?:) do you play the game?
Siegfried: That's absolutely correct, the intro to the song is very closely inspired by the soundtrack to the first game, as are some of the lyrics if you stay while and listen closely ;) Yes of course I played all the Diablo games, but Diablo 2 is still my favorite for sure!
KiB: If so, do you plan to do more? A whole album like this would appeal to a lot of people.
Siegfried: Well we already did that as well, as our third album "Masters of the Multiverse" is basically an album dedicated to a lot of pop culture icons - not only video games, but also books and movies. Most of the songs on that album are inspired by a game, a TV show, a movie or literature. For example, "Flame of Tar Valon" is based on the "Wheel of Time" book series by Robert Jordan, "The Iron Price" based on Game of Thrones, "Angels on Neon Wings" based on Neon Genesis Evangelion and "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It" on the "Predator" movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
KiB: Do you make a living just from playing music or do you have to work as well as gigging?
Siegfried: No, the music is really just a hobby, especially in a niche genre like Power Metal. There's very, very few bands who can make a full living just touring and playing their stuff. Most musicians, even those in bigger bands, will still work on the side, e.g. as studio/sound engineers or as music teachers for example. In Dragony, we all have different jobs - I'm a lawyer for example, working in the music industry ;)
KiB: Do you go to Hungary outside of concerts (holidays etc.) What kind of memories do you have?
Siegfried: As a child I went quite frequently with my grandparents, as they had some friends in Hungary! Nowadays I don't go that often anymore, except for concerts (not just playing myself, but also attending). Last year for example I went to see Kamelot, Myrath and Elaine at Barba Negra :) Hungary is always worth a trip, the fans are cool and the food is excellent, haha!
KiB: Thank you very much for your availability and we look forward to seeing you back in Budapest, hopefully as a headliner.
Siegfried: Hopefully we'll be back soon! You can look forward to our new album - it's gonna be great!
KiB
