Genre-Defying Heavy Rocker, VOLKER, to Release New Album, Dead Doll, on May 26, 2017
Ulrich Wegrich speaks with Ace Sims about the making of the album
Pre-Order in Digital and CD Formats via Amazon
Blending rock, grunge, horror punk and metal influences to concoct a unique, engaging sound…
VOLKER are new to the North American heavy metal scene but are destined to break out in a big way with the release of their upcoming melodic assault, Dead Doll, hitting North American retailers on May 26, 2017, via Overpowered Records/AISA/RED distribution. North American pre-orders for Dead Doll are available now via Amazon in digital and CD formats.
Building upon the diverse musical background of the French four-piece, Dead Doll blends assorted heavy music influences such as 90’s grunge rock, retro power metal, classic rock and even horror punk to create an accessible, engaging sound that has yet to be matched by any current artist of late.
Check out a teaser for VOLKER’s upcoming music video for the single “Obey!” The North American version of Dead Doll also features a bonus remix of the track, remixed by Strugg.
Whether soaring at the top of her impressive range above striking guitar harmonies, or deftly growling amidst pummeling double bass and searing solos, frontwoman Jen Nyx more than proves her equally-diverse skills on Dead Doll. Conjuring visions of the macabre, Nyx leads with a seductive aggression, flanked by seasoned French musicians John Aupeix on drums, Emmanuel Pliszke on bass, and lead composer Ulrich Wegrich on guitars.
VOLKER came together in 2014, comprised of a group of friends forged by the French metal scene. Nyx – whose lyrical works have always been inspired by themes of horror, sorcery, dark romance and death – formerly fronted the local metalcore group, Noein. When musicians Aupeix, Pliszke and Wegrich formed VOLKER as a side project (all three are currently members of extreme black/death group Otargos, and Wegrich is also the former vocalist of Regarde Les Hommes Tomber), they brought in Nyx with the intention of highlighting her clean vocal abilities. As a band, their ultimate goal was to break out of the extreme metal scene and delve into a heavy, dark rock sound. Thus, VOLKER was born.
After releasing their debut EP to positive reviews and touring with major metal artists such as Moonspell, VOLKER caught the eyes and ears of representatives at Overpowered Records. The label was also impressed with the band’s extreme metal origins and how these talents transformed skillfully into to a brilliant heavy rock project.
Overpowered Records label representative Arnaud Bondelu says: “The origins of our partnership with VOLKER were a little bit unexpected, but welcome. Nicolas, the director of a truly great label based in the same town as us (Lille, France) called Kaotoxin Records, introduced us to a black metal band called Otargos. We later found that the members of that band founded another group, VOLKER, and performed in a totally different style. The music was just as amazing, but in a completely different way. Kaotoxin had already signed VOLKER and we thought our chance at working with them had passed, but when the label suddenly had to cease operations, the partnership between VOLKER and Overpowered Records picked right up where they left off. We’re really proud to work with VOLKER because we believe they are truly one of the greatest rising bands to come out right now, and will make an impact in the coming years. We’re very motivated to push them out there internationally.”
Our Ace Sims had the pleasure of speaking with Ulrich on the making of Dead Doll
You guys have your new album Dead Doll releasing May 26th in the U.S.
Yes, in fact this is the first release of the band
You, yourself come from a black metal background, and with Volker you want to changer it up a little. Why was that?
Volker is an odd project for us; we wanted to play something a little less extreme. We have been playing black and death metal for the past 10-15 years. We wanted to play something a little more rock and roll. So we talked about it, and we decided to create Volker.
With you composing all of the music, what is the biggest difference in writing black metal over something less extreme?
It was very hard at the beginning, I have been composing black metal for 15 years. It’s like I had to start all over. It was very difficult at the start, but after a bit the ideas started to come and it became easier. I tried to eliminate all extreme influences and black metal riffs. When I would play and it would sound too much like black metal, I would throw it away and start over. I would only keep the things that felt more like what we wanted to do. It was so hard.
I could only imagine how tough it would be to go from what you are used to, to trying to change everything completely. So with this album you wrote all the music, and your vocalist Jen Nyx wrote all of the lyrics. Was that hard to do or did you work a lot together?
We actually did not work a lot together because we do not live in the same cities. I live in Paris, and the rest of the band lives in the south of France. We are about seven hours apart. We get together when its time to put all of the ideas together and of course when we get ready for playing shows. I compose all of the music alone, and when I have a new track I send it to the rest of the band and that say yes or no, but they don’t have a lot of choice they have to say yes (laughing while saying this.) When I send them the music it is something I have been working on for a long time, and I send them different versions. Generally, the last version I send turns out to be the best. After that, Jen takes care of the vocals; we let her be the inspiration for them and have free reign. And she sends them to us, and we say yes or no.
So it works both ways then, you don’t really have a choice on her vocals either (laughing). So when you send her the tracks, are they already named or is the naming of the tracks completed with the vocals?
It is done with the vocals since she is writing the lyrics.
I assumed as much but did not know if you had any influence since you had composed the tracks…
Sometimes the tracks will have a certain feel to them, a certain theme like vampires or zombies, so I will just put a name on them like “Vampire,” and Jen will pick up on that and put some lyrics on the tracks pertaining to the theme or the feel that I had with the song. But, mostly Jen has the final say about all the lyrics and the naming of the songs.
Was there one track that she put lyrics too that just blew you away?
On our original EP, when I received “Pavor Noctumus” I was very impressed with what she had written for that.
So, will we see any touring behind this album?
We are working on scheduling, but it will not be until after the summer. We actually had to delay our release due to we were working with a different label manager at the time, and he had to stop working with us due to a severe illness. So, that has set back our plans a little bit and caused some delay. We plan on getting things going at the end of the summer around September
Well hopefully once everything is up and running we can see you over on this side of the pond. Any message you would like to give to the fans?
We really hope that everyone will enjoy the album and that we will get a chance to meet everyone in person. We really want to get to America; we have played a lot in Europe and really want to come over the ocean and see all of you.
Stay tuned for more tracks and other exclusive material to be premiered prior to the release of Dead Doll.
Dead Doll track listing: Stay tuned for more tracks and other exclusive material….
- Freaky Bride
- Obey!
- Negative Waves
- Suicide Love Addict
- Black Sunday
- Yell
- Voodoo Baby
- In Black And White
- Would You Play With Me
- It Summons Me To Follow
- Raven
- Yell (CNX Remix)
- Obey! (Strugg Remix – North American exclusive bonus track
VOLKER is:
John Aupeix: Drums
Jen Nyx: Vocals and Lyrics
Emmanuel Pliszke: Bass
Ulrich Wegrich: All guitars, Composer
