Interview Sabina Classen Holy Moses

Lineup: Sabina Classen - Vocals Michael Hankel - Guitars Ozzy - Bass Guido "Atomic Steif" Richter - Drums

2/4/07 Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

"I do still the music I love, I still do the typical Holy Moses sound and it’s not better and not worse for us – we are just looking into the future to release in 2007 the best Holy Moses album we ever done".

In 1989 when most of us were regurgitating the Grunge Movement, Sabrina Classen took her position as lead screamer of Germany’s trash metal-act Holy Moses at the request of now past HM guitarist/ex-husband/producer Andy Classen. This smart and innovative woman co-founded West Virginia Records in 1990 as well as opening Stage-One-Studio out of their home, engineering some of Northern Europe’s most brutal exports. A touring staple in Europe, this band has been around since the very early 80’s with a few member changes nonetheless but the music has consistently remained steadfast in their brutal assault. Holy Moses laid in stalemate since 1994 but reemerged in 2005 with Strength, Power, Will, Passion.

With the re-release of most of Holy Moses’ catalogs including their first full-length album Queen of Siam and the Walpurgisnight Demo, Holy Moses couldn’t have rejuvenated themselves at a finer time. With fundamental old-school metal getting a faced lift, this may be a fair time to strike. Sabrina, the Princess of Hell herself was gracious enough to check in with FourteenG for an up to date account of the whereabouts of HM and what lays ahead for the band in 2007. Read on…

Karma: I would personally like to thank you for taking time out to interview with us Sabina. We are definitely honored to add your legacy to the site and to share your story with our audience as well. What are you most looking forward to in this New Year? Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? 

Sabina: I got you email interview only a few days ago – and the New Year’s celebrations are already now 7 weeks ago…but – I was in Helsinki / Finland last weekend and on that date, from the 16th, February to the 17th, February – we celebrate the Chinese New Year’s eve into to year of the golden pics – and the Chinese are saying, that the next year, so 2007 will be really great – so I good sign to work on a new album for us….

Karma: The industry has changed a lot since the inception of the band in 1980, what are your thoughts on how it has changed on a whole…for better or worse?

Sabina: This is always a hard question to answer and I am getting it nearly from every journalist.  - hahahahaha – but I can’t answer it really – yeah there are a lot of changes with computers, internet etc. – but in my heart and my soul – I didn’t changed, I do still the music I love, I still do the typical Holy Moses sound and it’s not better and not worse for us – we are just looking into the future to release in 2007 the best Holy Moses album we ever done.

Karma: In that period over the years, what have you learned about yourself, your bandmates?

Sabina: this is a great question. I could talk like a whole novel about it – but I try to make it short – most important I learned: to believe in my soul and my character, and not to believe into people which I thought they are bandmates – and to find real bandmates part by part….

Karma: How is it that you have remained virtually underground in the thrash world all of these years? Ultimately, would you like to change that status?

Sabina: it’s a great feeling to be in this kind of underground in the US – in Europe we are very known, ‘cause we toured a lot …’ It would be great to come to the states and we are getting right now more and more offers. I am not thinking so much about status, it’s great to sell the music we are doing and I like to do this over the next years also, I like to play a lot live shows all over the world – and this is the status we like to enlarge.

Karma: How did you start listen to metal and come to want to be a thrash vocalist in the first place? Did you want to do this professionally when you were younger?

Sabina: In never planed to be a thrash/death vocalist, ‘cause when we started even not the word metal was born in this way. I was listening to Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and also to some kind of Punk Music – and I founded with by boyfriend Andy our first band, only for our own fun. I was the bass player….I never planned to be a vocalist, but when Andy joined our school band Holy Moses, I was hanging around in their rehearsal room. One day, Holy Moses was searching for a new vocalist – and they ask me, by hanging around. I did a deep growl, to show them that I can’t sing….and the rest is a story you know….

Karma: With a vocal delivery like yours, you put tons of men to shame! You sound like you’re being ejected from the very bowels of hell; I love it!! Have you ever received any classic vocal training?

Sabina: no, I never did a classic vocal training. It comes deep from my inner soul …and I never had a kind of idol, ‘cause was knowing nobody doing it like me, when I started up….

Karma: Congrats on the re-release of Queen of Siam / Walpurgisnight Demo, some 20-years later. What are you hoping to accomplish this go round?

Sabina: we are releasing the whole story of the band, so it’s start with the Queen Of Siam album…it’s a part of a long long story….this only will show the evolution of the band….to the one the band is nowadays….

Karma: Which is your favorite song off the album and why?

Sabina: I don’t have a favorite on the album….all songs are a great history, ‘cause all the songs are written in 1981 – and recorded in 1985 and released first time officially in ‘86…it’s real funny for me to listen to the songs, ‘cause because of that my whole life came in a direction I never thought it will be….sometimes we are playing a song live from this album…the fans always like to listen to Devils Dancer…and sometimes….if we are drunk enough…we play it, hahahahahahaha

Karma: Seeing that you have worked with a plethora or artists already, is there anyone in particular that you’d like to work with in the future?

Sabina: No, I have nobody in my mind…we will see what will be in the future….now I am happy to nice people around me. I have a new drummer for 2007 – and it’s my old drummer Atomic Steiff (ex-Living Death, ex-Sodom) and I hope with him, it’s great to start 2007….and with Michael (ex-Erosion) on guitars and Olli (Reckless Tide) on bass – I feel very good right now….

Karma: How is life on Locomotive Records?

Sabina: I don’t know, hahahahaha – ‘cause it’s the first time I am working with them and it’s all starting right now, I hope they will do a good job for us and that we can start to sell albums in the US. We got a lot of fans from the US, I can see it on our www.myspace.com/holymosesgermany site - a lot of fans from the US are visiting the site and I hope this will be a good start for the next chapter in the US for us.

Karma: At this point, I have a series of Women in the Industry questions for you that I am anxious to get your take on. Being a female, do you feel your position in the Industry automatically places you in an iconic status? Meaning every woman in the Industry already is making a stance, no matter how good, bad or indifferent they are as artists. What is your position on this?

Sabina: I never was thinking about that….and when I am now thinking about that I don’t think so…’cause only a few women in the metal world are getting a kind of iconic status. I know a lot of bands with females in the band, which have no kind of iconic status. I mean the industry of metal is now such huge, that you need as a band not only a female on instruments or on vocals…it needs some more, to get success.

Karma: Do you believe the double standards have increased over the years now that more women are taking on what used to be more prominent, male dominated roles in the Industry? Do you believe more is expected out of us now than ever before?

Sabina: Puuh, that is also a hard question about something I never think about…when I started up doing metal, I was also not thinking about, that I am now in a “males world” – I saw that on our first shows, that only a few girls went to the shows. But more and more girls where coming to Holy Moses shows, and I think together with my friend Doro, we started something up in Europe…and now it’s normal that also females are coming to shows and also being in a band. But it’s not important to think about…it will be like it will be….I know since years so many females in the metal industry that I don’t think from my site it’s a male dominated industry….

Karma: For as long as you have been in the genre, have you come to embrace the ones that cannot seem to balance brutality and beauty all within the same sitting? Meaning does it bother you for people to herald you for the brutality you wickedly convey in your vocal delivery then turn around and say something like they cannot believe such a “nice woman” can be so “brutal” or something condescending on that order as if it is shocking something so monstrous can come from a woman?

 
Sabina: I don’t know…but also about this I never thought about….I think I never discuss with people about things like that, ‘cause the people know that I have strength power will and passion and that I am doing the thing I want to do…It’s good that I am not looking like a monster face – it’s me – the person with the character and the face/body like I am – I have something to say with my music and my lyrics…why not from a women can come this kind of music….I really never thought about it, why it cannot come from a girl – for me it is such normal, ‘cause I am doing it since 25 years….

Karma: What is one thing you would say you have in common with your female contemporaries?

Sabina: Do you mean with my female contemporaries in metal …..like my friend Doro Pesch….I will say – strength power will and passion….

Karma: On A Personal Note… Describe yourself in three words.

Sabina: Strength, Will, Power.

Karma: If not music then what? What do you think the rest of your bandmates would do if it were not for Holy Moses/music in general?

Sabina: Teacher, Writer, Doctor, Painter….Mother… 

Karma: What do you think the rest of your bandmates would do if it were not for Holy Moses/music in general?
 
Sabina: They would me musicians in another band….

Karma: Creation or evolution?

Sabina: Evolution.

Karma: What’s a common misconception that surrounds you that you'd like to dispel or debunk?

Sabina: Lying, ignorance, stupidity

Karma: Favorite band t-shirt.

Sabina: Skulls on black….

Karma: Who has served as the most influential person in your life?

Sabina: Myself.

Karma: Who do you think is most underrated musician/band in the genre today, asides from yourselves?

Sabina: Too much to mention… 

Karma: In your opinion, which album was the best in 2006?

Sabina: I didn’t found one….

Karma: Name a CD/album/tape you played until it disintegrated.

Sabina: All of my more than 5000 CD’s, vinyl’s are still working….

Karma: First music you remember hearing in your house.

Sabina: my mum – singing very out of tune something to get me sleep….

Karma: Asides from the languages you currently speak, if you could learn another language which one would you choose and why.

Sabina: Spanish / Español, ‘cause we have so many fans and friends speaking this language – I would like to know a lot languages more, like Japan, Chinese…..the best would be all of the world…..but until that, my music speaks the language to understand all my fans and friends…

Karma: Being a frontwoman yourself who in your opinion best embodies the role?

Sabina: Ozzy Osbourne, ‘cause even if he would be do a barbecue on stage…people would cry  OZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, hahahahahahaha

Karma: It's now role reversal time. If your job were to interview bands, name one that you would want to interview and something you would definitely want to know about them.

Sabina: I am/did this often times, cause I had my own TV-Show in Germany on a major channel…..and I should get some lessons from you…..perhaps I will pass those hard questions in my next interviews, hahahahahahaha

Karma: haha Wow, I am deeply honoured by your comment! Last role reversal question, do you have any questions for me?

Sabina: How coached you, to find all this questions…????

Karma: I've made up questions as I've gone along (for the past 3 years officially with the site) that spark my interest and the interest of our fanbase. I have come to find out that artist enjoy being asked unconventional and quirky questions as much as serious ones. Do you have any final comments or special messages for our fans?

Sabina: take a chance to jump on our MySpace site – thanks for supporting us, and I hope to see you one day, during we are playing live in the US.

I'd like to thank the mighty Sabina for being an awesome sport in doing this interview and to her camp for making it a possibility. Check out other awesome strong women in the metal scene in our tribute to them...Brutal Beauties.