Interview: DORO

by Jorge Patacas

The legendary Doro recently performed at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, Norway, and after the concert we were able to sit down with her and talk about her latest album “Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud”, which features duets with Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and Sammy Amara (Broilers). The Queen of Metal also talked about the importance of her fan base and the secret of delivering great performances after more than forty years since she started her career.

RISE!: – This was such an amazing show. You got to play some great classics and some from the latest album including “Children of the Dawn” which is my personal favorite.

Doro Pesch: It’s my favorite song too. That’s the reason why it’s the opener.

R!: – Oh nice! Let’s start talking about that song. What was the inspiration behind it?

DP: You know? I love anthems! The fans are my life, and I wanted to write a song which connects everybody again, similar to “All We Are”, but maybe in a more viking way. I did it with our bass player Stefan Herkenhoff. We just got together and were jamming a little bit, and the most important things like the melody and the lyrics came immediately. Then we got together again, I wrote some more lyrics. Stefan was doing the choir all by himself for the record. Then we said “let’s have the whole band”. He’s a good engineer as well, it sounded so great. We wrote many more songs for this album, and somehow I thought this one has a great opening song vibe, there’s many parts and stuff, and I like the combination between the guys rough vocals and my vocals. That’s an anthem for the people to fight the good fight.

R!: – Our webzine is called Rise! and you have a song called “Rise” on the album… reading the lyrics it seems like it comes from the same place. One of the reasons I chose that name for the webzine was because I had gone through a difficult period of my life and ended up learning how it is possible to rise from the ashes. The lyrics for this song are “cause we’ll rise, rise above and strive. Rising from the ashes”. Is this a personal song that has to do with a particular situation or more of a motivational message?

DP: I always want a motivational message for the fans and try to make them feel powerful. I know every person, including myself, sometimes we go through dark times. I think there’s so much chaos and turmoil in this day and age, so I wanted to write something really positive to say that despite all the chaotic and dark stuff, we can rise above the ashes. Even when you have no one to turn to, you can always turn to music and feel the power of music too. I have a song called “Above the Ashes” released many years ago, and I wanted to write another song in the same vein, same kind of lyrics, but much heavier and faster song. “Above the Ashes” is a beautiful ballad, I love it, but “Rise” is faster and uplifting.

R!: – There are also guest vocalists on the album, Sammy Amara (Broilers) and Rob Halford (Judas Priest). How did the collaboration with Rob come about?

DP: My very first tour was with Judas Priest in 1986 and we always stayed friends. So we met at Hellfest in France and were talking backstage. He was asking me what I was doing, so I told him that I was doing the festivals and working on a new album that was almost done. Then we both looked at each other and thought it would be great to do something together, it was about time. Then he asked if I had any idea of what I’d like to do. And I said that I was born and raised with the “British Steel” album, I love it, and would love to do “Living After Midnight”. He thought it was a great choice and said that he also wanted to do a song with me for a long time, and that song was “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. “Let’s make a metal version of that song”, he said. So we did both. Then Rob loved the song so much and said “let’s do the video for this song”. For “Living After Midnight” we did the lyric video, but for “Total Eclipse of the Heart” we were in the video. He was filming it in America and we were filming it in Germany, then the video producer who did “Time For Justice” and “Children of the Dawn” mixed it together and it was beautiful. It almost looks like we’re in the same room. It would have been great to be in the same room, but when you’re touring so much, it’s sometimes impossible to find time to meet, you know?

R!: – Was it the same situation for the studio recordings?

DP: Yeah, we sent tracks. And you know? Andy Sneap (Judas Priest guitarist / producer) was giving his two cents about the mixing too, and then Andreas Bruhn (producer / ex Sisters of Mercy) who is the guy I always like to work with in Hamburg, he was then mixing it, but everybody said “I would like this or that”, so it was a team effort. It worked out great. And in this day and age, you can definitely do it great by sending stuff, having Zoom calls, etc. But we did the rest of the record with everybody in the studio. With Sammy Amara, the other guest, we actually did it in his studio. He’s from Düsseldorf, my former hometown, so we wrote the song in one night, recorded it and somebody mixed it. We became great friends. He’s more punk rock and I’m more metal. They (Broilers) are pretty big in Germany and they invited me to be a guest on their show. It was really interesting. They have a totally different and very young fan base, but they loved it, so we agreed on doing something together. That’s how it came about.

R!: – You have sung songs in different languages throughout the years. French, Spanish and Portuguese even. What language did you find most challenging?

DP: Portuguese was very challenging. It was very tricky, but I loved it. There was a girl who was helping me. I love to sing in every language. People feel like “she tries to be one of us”. I think it shows respect and appreciation. I did a song in Japanese once, that was very difficult. It was kind of an anthem, a very important song, and it was on live TV! (laughs). Then they said that I did pretty good, I don’t know if it’s true, but that was very difficult (laughs)

R!: – You’re very dedicated to your fans. I remember seeing you doing a meet and greet at Wacken and it was the longest meet and greet of all. What’s some unforgettable story told by a fan?

DP: Yes, I remember many! But I’ll tell you one story from the meet and greet at Wacken. The fans were these really cool metal guys with the denim jacket and said “Hey Doro, this is so awesome here, why can’t you come to Australia?”. And I said that I’d never been to Australia because I have no connections or promoters there. And these guys said they were from Australia and that they were going to do it. I was surprised that the fans themselves wanted to do the tour, but first I thought they were saying that because they were excited being at the festival and so on. But then they really did it! They did the tour for us and I went to Australia. It was awesome! The name of the guy is Steve Ravic, he’s a film guy as well. His parents had to sleep at some friends place, and we got the whole house and took it from there. We went to different clubs and he even filmed something. All of that was just because of the Wacken signing session. That was my first time in Australia. Then, on the way from Australia, we went to Thailand because we had a stop there. And then somebody said “Hey, do you want to play in Thailand?”, so we asked if there was a metal scene there. They said yes and we played in Bangkok. Then the club owner asked if we wanted to stay a little bit longer because he had an uncle at this island called Ko Samui and asked if we wanted to play there. I wasn’t sure if people would come because it was just one day. Then we flew to Ko Samui and at 6 AM, there was some noise, and it was a truck with a big P.A. playing the song “All We Are”, it was going around the island and talking about the show. At night we did this show and it was sold out! The truck was going around the island every twenty minutes, you know? (laughs). So metal can definitely take you around the world. There are always people who do something for you, who supports you and your music, and that’s how we started actually. We got our first record deal because we had a little fanclub and they were sending out cassettes. We didn’t even know about it. Suddenly we had four record deals with independent record labels on the table. We had no idea how they found out. Then we signed with Mausoleum because we thought the logo looked really metal with two drops of blood on each M. That’s how it started and I must say it was all because of the die-hard fans, and I’m still here doing shows and tours and it’s awesome.

R!: – You’ve been doing this for more than 40 years now, and you’re still strong and passionate, delivering great performances. What’s the secret? Any particular warm up exercises or lifestyle?

DP: That’s so simple to answer. It’s the fans. I love the fans! I loved them from day one. We’ve always had a deep connection. From my first show I felt like there was something special and that’s the reason why I’ve never gotten married or anything. I’m totally dedicated to metal and to the fans, and that’s why I can still go full force. I always get motivated by the fans. They’re still my life and that will never ever change. That’s the most important thing to me. I’m grateful that we can go on stage. Every concert is the most important concert to me, doesn’t matter if it’s small or big club show or a festival.

R!: – What advice about the music industry and life in general would you give to your younger self if you could talk to her?

DP: I think I try to make the best out of every situation. It’s good to stay true to your heart, true to yourself and to the fans. If I could give an advice… you know? When we were young, we were very trusting, we were totally blind to some people who weren’t doing stuff in our best interest. So I would give an advice to young bands or to my younger self: Before you sign a contract, just take legal advice, hire a lawyer to look over, because we signed our lives many times and that happened because we were too enthuasiastic and excited. We should have gotten a lawyer to check it out, because sometimes people were on our side, but then when it became a little bit successful, many people lost their fucking minds. So I would say get somebody who knows about the legal stuff.

R!: – Thank you so much for the interview Doro!

DP: Thank you!

DORO DISCOGRAPHY

with Warlock:

Burning the Witches – 1984
Hellbound – 1985
True as Steel – 1986
Triumph and Agony – 1987

as Doro:

Force Majeure – 1989
Doro – 1990
True at Heart – 1991
Angels Never Die – 1993
Doro Live – 1993 (Live Album)
Machine II Machine – 1995
Love Me in Black – 1998
Calling the Wild – 2000
Fight – 2002
Classic Diamonds – 2004
Warrior Soul – 2006
Fear No Evil – 2009
25 Years in Rock… and Still Going Strong – 2010 (Live Album)
Raise Your Fist – 2012
Strong and Proud – 2016 (Live Album)
Forever Warriors, Forever United – 2018
Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud – 2023