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Throughout the last forty years numerous people have been involved in metal music. Fans, bands, journalists, producers, designers, engineers, roadies, labels, the list is endless. Most of them only though for a few years, but there are people around for whom metal became a lifetime addiction. I am one of those happy few, and so are Manfred and Remco, who have recently founded the brand new Dutch record label Rusty Cage Records. Both got hooked to metal in the early 80’s and since then have seen it all. They started out as fans, but pretty soon they learned to play themselves and years of recording and touring followed. In the meantime they gradually got involved in more technical aspects of the trade, and nowadays selling the stuff has also become one of their skills. Their newly found label recently put out five Dutch metal gems from an age long gone (but not forgotten), so logically I caught up with my old friends to let them explain to our readers who they are, where they come from and above all; what there plans for the present and future are…
Text: Horst
You guys are both active in the Dutch metal scene since the early 80’s, and I presume that – just like with us all – there was a certain point in time that you got hooked to the metal virus. When did this happen, and what bands are to blame (and why)?
Manfred: I discovered metal music for the first time around 1979/1980. At that time I listened to bands like Motörhead, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Kiss. I worked as a paper-boy delivering newspapers and as soon as I received my paycheck I took the train to Amsterdam to spend every penny on new records at Boudisque, the best record shop in town.
Remco: For me around the same time as Manfred, at the end of the seventies and it all started with Kiss. I thought they were very cool, and as a teenager I wanted to be the same. So I bought my first guitar and tried to make it scream, which didn’t work for. I didn’t know the existence of ‘gain’ and ‘distortion’ at that time hahaha.
Now lots of metal fans do pick up some instruments in an attempt to become as great as their heroes. You guys did exactly the same, so I wonder, who were your musical heroes, and did you ever achieved in becoming as good as they were?
Manfred: My first steps in playing the bass guitar started soon after this, around 1981/1982. Together with some friends we started the band Whiplash, with the subtitle “the Warriors of Metal”. Because we had two guitarists and a drummer, but no lead singer and no bass / guitar player - and singing was not my thing- I picked up the bass guitar and I have never put it down again. Musical heroes: Kiss and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, the guy who kicked my butt to learn to play the bass guitar.
 Remco: As I told you I started out with guitar and played for around two years in a cover-band called ‘Prowler’. After a while I didn’t like to play covers anymore and also realised I was a bad guitar player (fingers too small and brain to slow hahaha), so I picked up drumming. This was something I enjoyed a lot and every day after school I sat behind my kit, put on my headphones and listened to songs like “Queen Of The Reich”, “Phantom Of The Opera” and others, which were hard to play. My heroes during those years were Scott Rockenfield, Clive Burr and Kirk Arrington. I can’t really tell you if I ever became as good as they were, that’s for others to decide, bet I’ve learned a lot from them and created my own style.
In the end you both ended up in kinda successful bands. Remco was drummer in Defender, and Manfred was bass player in LWS Inc. Both bands enjoyed quite some success in The Netherlands the second half of the 80’s. How do you look back at these good old days?
Manfred: I still have a very good feeling about thgse days. We did some great shows, made a lot of friends and when I look at RCR right now I still have a lot of friends left from period. I miss venues like the old Scum in Katwijk and the metal concerts in Donkey Shot in Heemskerk.
Remco: Great time!!!! All members of all line-ups still see each other and I think that’s unique for a band. The special atmosphere of the eighties won’t come back, but I don’t really miss it either. Every period has got its ups and downs, now I’m enjoying this one!
Every band dreams of success in foreign countries, but only a few really achieve such. How did Defender and LWS Inc. do abroad?
Manfred: We did a good job in Germany and Belgium and we sold some records around Europe,
but I don’t know if you can say abroad.. We never ended up touring throughout Europe and further.
Remco: The same story for Defender. ‘City ad Mortis’ was only released in The Netherlands and Spain. Our only show abroad was Biebob in Belgium together with Toxik.
Manfred, you quit LWS Inc. because you could not combine it anymore with your day job. Later on however you did various projects with some musical friends and ended up in MAC-11, the band from ex-Jewel singer Rick Ambrose. I guess making music is in your blood?
Manfred: Yes, music is in my blood and I can’t live without it. I even think that making music is the best thing you can do. On the other hand you need people in your band who gives themselves a 100% otherwise it will never work. At this moment I am not in a band (I am busy enough hehe) but you never know..
Remco: Not only music in his blood hehehe.
Besides your normal job (still working at Corus?) you also own your own mail-order company. What can you tell the readers about that?
Manfred: As I mentioned before I am a busy person… I still work at Corus (shifts), which is still okay, but I think that RCR can become my normal day job. At least I hope so… My other thing is the mail order company called Happy Face Vinyl. I sell all kind of metal cd's and vinyls on record fairs and mail-order. I started that four years ago. The reason for that was that I collect records and cd's and if you buy and sell you can get them cheaper and your collection is building real fast!! If you want to sell or buy contact me at the website!!
Remco, after Defender broke up you quit drumming for eleven years, devoting all your time to your normal working career. What do you do for a living then, and did it all work out like you hoped it would?
Remco: At that time I was a graphics designer and a repro specialist for a printer who worked for the record industry (EMI, Sony, Universal etc.). All those years I invented repro and print workflows for our customers. For example if Iron Maiden approved a design for a new sleeve it had to be printed exactly the same at hundreds of printing houses over the world. This is very tough to do and my job was to accomplish that. At the end of that period I had a serious burn-out, slept for over three months and was out of the running for two years. After this period (three years ago) I decided to do what I really liked and started a recording studio (http://www.autumn-music.com). At the end of last year Manfred and I decided to start a record company. These are the two things I do know and enjoy them a lot. So, it worked out at the end, but it was a long road to achieve it!
You also have your own studio and do work as a sound engineer. Was this something you always wanted, or the second best option since becoming a genuine rock star proved to be impossible hehehe
Remco: Hehehe, as you probably already know all Defender-members weren’t really doing their thing to become genuine rock stars (well, Arwin maybe hahaha). Besides drumming in Defender I was the one always most involved in mixing and producing. After Defender I did the School of Audio Engineering and started engineering/producing some bands (L.W.S., Questionmark and others), but due to my daytime job I wasn’t able to develop it fully. The things I do I don’t rank as first or second best, just doing what I like.
Eventually in 2000 you ran into Manfred again and you played for a while together in MAC-11. How did it feel to be part of a band again and doing some tours? Was it something you missed all those years?
Remco: Yeah, I really missed playing and enjoyed the tour we did a lot, but as I told you before at that time Remco wasn’t Remco anymore and didn’t enjoy things like I enjoy them now. Most of all I liked playing and arranging things with Manfred. That’s the main reason we’re working together now!
MAC-11 was called a day back in 2002, but you are still active in music. What can you tell us about the project you are working on with former Defender guitarist Stef?
Remco: During all the years I didn’t play drums, but every one or two years Stef asked me to play with him again. At the end of MAC-11 I also joined his band November (http://www.november-songs.com) and made a 5-track demo last year. At this moment we are recording a double album at my studio, that one will be released next year. November is a mix of a lot of styles: metal, progressive, alternative and seventies. It will probably stay a project-band, which will be releasing an album every three years as long as we like to do it. For hard-rock and metal fans we’ve recorded “Diary Of A Madman” from Ozzy as a tribute to Ozzy and Randy. This was something Stef and I wanted to do for a long time.
Guys, it is 2006 now, and you joined forces to set a brand new label, Rusty Cage Records. The obvious question of course is: why did you feel the need to start a label when there are so many around already?
Manfred: There are many labels around, but we want to be the Metal label that will be there for their bands. We know a lot about playing in a band, bad contracts, life on the road etc. etc... We want to give new talent a good chance and we think that a lot of labels can’t offer that to the bands. We will see what will happen with Rusty Cage, but at this moment I have a very good feeling about it.
Remco: Most labels want to make money fast and are only interested in bands if they have the feeling they can sell over 100.000 copies. This is not our goal. We don’t mind it if we do, but it’s not the main goal. We want to sign bands that have the qualities to become a very good band and deserve the support they need. As you know it’s a difficult time for the entertainment industry, but we think that’s good for independent labels. We just like to do our thing and only want to make small profits and sell more. In this way everybody is happy: the ones that buy, our bands and RCR too. We hope to support bands in a way they feel happy about, and when the time comes we have the feeling that we’re too small to give them full support we’ll have to search for a good alternative. We don’t want to own them.
Why did you name your label Rusty Cage Records? Any symbolism here, or did you just think this was a cool name?
Remco: Symbolism for sure! These rusty sleeping bands had to be kissed awake (Manfred did this part hahaha). First we wanted to name the label Rusty Records and use the Rolls Roys logo, but then we came up with Rusty Cage Records. This change had to be done because another Rusty Records existed and there was no internet domain available for that name. We're really happy with this name now!
 The first five albums have been put out this summer under the moniker ‘Dutch Metal Cult Series’, and all five are more or less legendary names from the Dutch metal past. Jewel, Mysto Dysto, Hammerhawk, LWS Inc. and Defender, from whom all you re-released their first EP or LP they ever put to vinyl. Now there were lots of other cool Dutch bands around in the 80’s, why did you specifically choose to re-release the debuts of these five bands then?
Manfred: Because I think that those five bands never got the success they needed back in the 80’s at the other hand those EP's and LP's are still hard to find.
When looking at the bands I must say that Mysto Dysto was somewhat of a surprise. I mean, the other four bands are all connected in one way or the other (coming from the same area, shared a couple of musicians and so on and so forth), but Mysto Dysto hailed from the other side of the country. What made you decide to put them back on to the map?
Manfred: Mysto Dysto is a very obscure masterpiece and a very good band. By the way: I was connected with them hahaha. In the beginning we played a lot with Mysto Dysto and that was the
reason that LWS where invited to their LP presentation. A few years ago I contacted Luit for my mailorder to get some copies of their LP! I also was connected with Marcel Verdurmen also for the mailorder but that connection ended...
All the re-releases are stuffed with bonus track (live stuff, demo tracks etc). Was it hard to get hold of these extras, or was there enough lying around on some dusty shelves?
Manfred: For the first five releases we had enough bonus stuff. Every band was glad that we re-released their music so they all corporate with us to get the best stuff on the cd’s. We still have a lot left from all bands.
Usually the sound of the old stuff is cleaned up before a re-release happens. What did you do with the old recordings to make it sound a bit better (remastering and stuff like that)? Could you also explain how this process works?
Remco: Some recordings we almost didn’t do anything at all, because they sounded good enough. The master tapes of the ‘The Rules Have Been Disturbed’ and ‘La Morta’ are gone, so we had to convert the tracks form vinyl into digital tracks. We EQ-ed them so all tracks have tighter bass and less aggressive high frequencies. After that we compressed the albums a bit and lifted the overall level (vinyl from the eighties is more dynamic and levels are lower than CD’s right now). We didn’t do anything more, because we wanted the albums and bonus tracks to be as original as being possible for 2006 standards.
You made cool use of the original cover artwork, but I think all releases really miss a nice booklet with band information, liner notes from old band members and pictures from the old days. People who want to know more about a band are now forced to check the biographies on the Rusty Cage Site. Why did you choose for the minimal approach?
Manfred: Yes, we’ve heard it a few times and maybe you’re right, but it was a choice we had to make. That’s all, but when the series is complete we’ll have a surprise hehehe.
Remco: Horst, do you really think fans are being forced to go to the RCR site for info? I think we’re giving metal fans a very nice CD with loads of bonus tracks and good artwork for an eighties price! We think that internet is now available for everyone and you have to use this medium as a CD extension. In the near future everybody will also be able to download video etc. from the RCR site.
Are you guys planning to re-release some more stuff in the ‘Dutch Metal Cult Series’? And if so, can you reveal anything yet?
Manfred: Yes we do, but we can’t give you names at this moment because a lot of people are thinking about our idea and we want to surprise them for the 2nd time hehehe.
The success of this series depends of course on the interest of the consumers, for they have to buy it all. How are the reactions so far?
Manfred: We expected good sales and I have to say it goes beyond that!!! The reactions are really cool and a lot of bands get in touch with us to re-release their stuff. We are selling in Japan, Greece, Germany and Holland.
Remco: Besides direct sales from our site there are a lot of mail order companies buying all CD’s.. The reactions are great!!!
Will your label also be putting out stuff from non Dutch metal bands from the 80’s?
Manfred: Not at this moment! Besides the Dutch re-releases we also want to contract new talent.
Rusty Cage is also a label for new talent so we are really busy with that!
Talking about re-releases and the 80’s, would it also be possible that you will re-release stuff from a more recent date?
Manfred: It’s always possible, but RCR isn’t doing that at the moment.
According to your website, Rusty Cage Records will not only doing re-releases from the old shit, but also will put out new material from new bands. Can you already reveal some names?
Manfred: At this moment we can’t do that. We’re talking with bands, but we have no signed contract so far... Keep an eye on the news at Lords of Metal !!
If bands are interested in working with Rusty Cage Records for re-releasing their old stuff, what should they do to get noticed by you?
Manfred: They should send in their stuff and/or contact us through phone or email.
And what do you seek for in new bands? What makes you sign and put out stuff from a new band?
Manfred: First of all they have to be good and talented musicians. We are looking for metal bands in all kind of metal.
Remco: Besides the fact that they have to be good musicians, they also must have a plan made up. A lot of bands are spending some time writing and rehearsing some songs, put it on a poorly made demo and have the illusion that a label will spend loads of time and money to develop their band from ground up. Wake up and smell the coffee!!! Bands have to think about production, logos, graphics, public relation etc. As a label we’re not able to develop everything for a band, but want to do it together with them. They have to see us as an extra band member who takes care of distribution and promotion and combine our plans and visions with the ones the band made.
All the CD’s Rusty Cage Records that are put out are available through your website, and will be distributed in the Benelux through Bertus. For the benefit of our foreign readers, can you tell with what companies you have a distribution deal in the rest of Europe and the world?
Remco: Besides Bertus for the Benelux we’ve just signed a deal with Code7 / Plastichead for the UK and LSP company will take care for distribution in their metalzone shops in Belgium. Displeased Records is helping us out with worldwide distribution and doing a great job! A lot of CD’s are being shipped directly to shops and mail-order companies in Italy, Japan, Germany, Greece and US. You have to keep in mind that we’ve just started one month ago and have to expand our distribution network. At this moment we’re talking to a lot of distributors and almost every week one is added to our list. Next month all releases will also be available as digital download at all major Digital Music Stores worldwide (Itunes, eMusic, Sony connect etc).
Well, I guess we covered it all by now. If you want to add anything or just say hello to our readers, the space below is yours…
Manfred: Thanx for the interview... And to all the readers around: Spread our Name!!!
Remco: Thanks Horst for this well written interview!! It’s always a pleasure to answer your questions. I hope your readers liked this RCR special and will surf to our site to check it out. Keep in mind: We’re metal fans for metal fans, learning every day to make RCR even better as it is. If you have questions, want to say something or let us learn even more…..Contact us!!!!
http://www.rustycagerecords.com
info@rustycagerecords.com
http://www.rustycagerecords.com
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