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Interviews:

Pablo Caballero (www.metalmexico.com - RIP)

Interview realized by: Pablo Caballero

To: Rolf Lura

Messiah:  Hi!

Rolf:  Buenas dias senor

Messiah:  hahahahaha, nice!

Messiah:  buenos días ;)

Rolf:  Let`s go to english

Messiah:  :P

Messiah:  ok, it's ok for me

Messiah:  it's very early there isn't it?

Rolf:  No it`s 5 o clock in the evening, I`ve just had my dinner

Messiah:  yes hehehe, i remember now

Rolf:  There is 22 degrees and sun here in Stavanger Norway and that`s hot in this country. Two days ago it was 32 and that`s the warmest day this summer. I`m ready to some Toxic questions now!

Rolf:  Happy birthday!!!

Messiah:  Thank's! jerjer.... i'll start celebrating very soon

Messiah:  well... that's normal here in méxico (the temperature) here in the city we can have 35ºC at shadow... but the real hot is in the north of México, there now is 50º at shadow

Messiah:  :S

Messiah:  well... let's began the toxic questions ;)

Rolf:  ok

Messiah:  First of all, thank's for the interview, and I'm talking to?

Rolf:  I`m Rolf Lura, bassplayer in the Norwegian Hard Rock band, Toxic.

Messiah:  what's the kind of rock you wanna play, and what's the reason about it?

Rolf:  We`re playing Melodic Hard Rock, because when we came together starting the band, that was the kind of music that all the bandmembers grew up with and liked most of all.

Messiah:  what are your influences, and likes (can be different obviously)

Rolf:  Were all quite fond of Les Zeppelin. We alsolike Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Accept. We also listen a lot to never bands like System of a Down, Tool, Korn, Rage against the Machine and many more.

Messiah:  when and/or where, the band get together for the first time?

Rolf:  We started started in may 2003. Two of us were workmates, and two of us are the brothers of another workmate, and the singer did we get by a advert in the local newspaper. We started playing coversong on the attic of my garrage in the Stavanger area. 

Messiah:  since 2003 to 2006, what can you tell us about the progress of your band? is it the goals you wanted to achieve? are you feelling well about your work?, have you ever had a problem?

Rolf:  We started up playing coversongs for about 4 monts, then our guitarist, Bernhoff came up with some songs that he had made on his own. We all liked the songs, and since then he have made a lot of songs, and their getting even better and better. When we had played together for about a year we went to a local homestudio and did two promo-cd`s. We started some gigging. 

Rolf:  after a while I sent our promoes to some recordlabels, and we got a recorddeal with a one man company called Downbeach Music who is situated somewere else in the westcoast of Norway. After we had recorded our album "Intoxicated" we had to do all the promotion ourselves. The recordlabel have to many artist and to little time. We have received quite a few good reviews onour album, escecially in the 

Rolf:  soth of America and in California. Norway is a very small country with only 4 million people, so we have to go abroud to get more attention. We also made a video "Chronos". The video have received very good feedback and have won a gold medal in a Norwegian Film Competition. This video have been sent on several TV stations and are also included on many websites around the world. There are so many 

Rolf:  bands around the world, so it`s hard to get attention, but we`re quite satisfied with our progress.

Rolf:  It`s almost impossible to make a living out of music in a small country like Norway, so we`re all working beside our playing. We would rather be playing and make more music.

Rolf:  The most important thing is that we are still looking forward to every rehearsal night, and we have become good mates.

Messiah:  that sounds nice

Messiah:  well... i can't see a country with 4 million people living in the biggest city of the world and with 19 million people (only in the city) but, hehehe, i'm making an effort :P

Rolf:  We`re working on new songs. These are a bit heavier than the one`s on our album "Intoxicated" We have already released two songs "Live On" and "Fear" as internet singles. They are now included on many webpages and webradios around the world. We have received quite good feedback on tehm too, especially "Live On" 

Rolf:  If we could sell one CD to each person in Mexico City, then we could make a quite good living.

Messiah:  hahahahaha exactly... 95 million people (H) :P we don't see many tv, instead that we fuck a lot hahahahaha

Messiah:  about the interest of playing music? when did you get that feeling of: "Man i have to play, i need to play" because even if the step between being a listener and being a musician is very short, you need to have some guts in it.

Rolf:  I started playing tuba in the local schoolband when I was about 9 years old, I soon got tired of that kind of music. A few years later I was dragging my father into a music shop to buy a Les Paul copy guitar. When we started our first band I was about 15 years old. The we could`t stop playing. We started about 1200 aon a sutuday and didn`t stop intill 2300. I had som years of and when we started 

Rolf:  playing in Toxic everything was working, and when I drive home from our rehearsals,`I can`t almost wait till next time we are gathered. It`s almost like being a alcoholic.

Messiah:  hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha, well, Sköl then! (B)

Rolf:  And another important mather. We have to make good rock music and is always hoping to beat the plastic music call Disco, Hip Hop and Rap. Synthesizers and talking ain`t real music. The music have to come from the heart, not from a machine.

Messiah:  that's nice to read... now, I can't hear you entire disc yet until you send it to me, but i can talk about the video

Messiah:  the theme is nice hehehe, i liked it alot, (even the pseudo elvis-god) tell me, the lyrics are from the vocal?

Messiah:  the idea of the video came from all in the band or there's one masterhead?

Rolf:  When we recorde the album, our tecnician picked out the song "Chronos" to be the best song for a video. It\s more strait forward than the others. We went to a local filmcomany and played the song for then. Then I went home. After an hour or two, they rang me up and asked me to come back again. Then the two guys in the filmcompany had almost the hole story ready for the video. 

Messiah:  :-O 

Rolf:  The band mambers all liked the idea, and all that we had done according to that it to find the right people for the priests, MC-gang and so on. It`s all freinds of us, not any professional actors.

Messiah:  well, nice job then it looks very well... ;)

Messiah:  well... the ganeral questions are done, let's talk about other things. Tell me, have you ever been in a funny situation with the band, i don't know, something weird in all your history?

Rolf:  We brought a video camera when we were in the record studios for a week. We filmed around 5 hours on that trip.When we were not working in the studio we sat outside our Cottage and play acoustic guitars. We also hade quite a few beers on that trip. The last night we bought 3 whole cases of bears, thats 72 botles. And we started to sing our songs in Russian.

Rolf:  When we woke up the next day there were only 1 bottle left. Toxic private movie from taht week is madness.

Messiah:  hahahahah i imagine

Rolf:  P.S we`re only 5 members in the band.

Rolf:  We`re going to do some gigs in Norway soon. And we hope to go abroud someday to do conserts in Mexico and other countrie, that would be nice.

Messiah:  yes, the people here are very nice at gigs

Messiah:  many bands from europe says that México it's the best place to do gigs because people get crazy

Messiah:  about the tour plans.... when do you expect to be on tour?

Rolf:  We`re also working on new songs for our next album, and I will ashure you that that album will really kick arse. We`have a website on MySpace, and have made many friends there.We`re invited to the USA by several bands and some record labels, but it`s along way to travel for just one consert, so we have to plan a tour because it costs a lot of money to travel. We have had som contact with a

Rolf:  booking agent in Noreay and I think he can fix us some local concerts. If your doing a good job on your website, then we will maybe get som international gigs!!

Messiah:  ;) sure, Metal México is very recognized, and believeme... we'll promote you

Messiah:  about, your parents, friends and brothers does they supports you? or you have any critic about Toxic?

Rolf:  We`re done some local shows in the Stavanger region, and a lot of our friends have turned up, some of them not even like Rock music at all. Sometimes our girlfriend are a bit sceptical, but we`ll show them that someday it will be worth wile. My father gave me about 2000$ to by me a bass amplifier, that`s what I call SUPPORTING!!!

Rolf:  PS!! My siter bought our CD although she is a Disco-Dude.

Rolf:  Headbanging!!

Messiah:  well man! i think it's everything, i have to move on, but before finishing tell me

Messiah:  wht's your oppinion of countries like mexico and its scene (if you know something about it)

Rolf:  I`m not so very familiar with that, but from what I have seen on Televison,the countries in the South America looks very nice. Smiling peole, nice chicks. We would love to visit your country som day.

Messiah:  you'll see ;)

Messiah:  well man, thank's for the interview

Messiah:  any comment to our visitors?

Rolf:  Please visit Toxic`s homepage www.toxic-rock.com and watch our video Chronos and listen to our free internet singles "Live On" and "Fear". Toxic will soon be back with more cool stuff. Stay tunded to MetalMexico and Toxic.

Messiah:  jua!

Messiah:  well man, gotta go, please if you send me the CD write something nice for me :P

Messiah:  i'll upload the interview later, now i really gotta go... :S

Rolf:  Have a nice birthday celebration and take a few "servecas" for me too, I`m driving tonight. I will send you a letter including our debute -CD "Intoxicated" on monday. Keep in touch. Bye, bye

Messiah:  ;) bye bye, i'll drink a lot of Cervezas (we call it "chelas") for you, and many tequila!!!! hehehehe

Messiah:  have a nice day!... bye bye and see you later

By: Pablo Caballero www.metalmexico.org