LOUDNESS Vocalist MINORU NIIHARA -

LOUDNESS Vocalist MINORU NIIHARA - "I Never Thought We Would Last This Long; It's A Nice Surprise"

BW&BK scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with LOUDNESS frontman Minoru Niihara to discuss their new album, Metal Mad, and the band's longevity. The following is an excerpt from the interview, with Niihara discussing his second go-round with the band since their 2001 reunion. Niihara was initially fired in the late '80s and replaced by Michael Vescera (OBSESSION) in the mistaken belief it would give Loudness a stronger foothold in North America.

"Yes, I realize it's been seven years already and that's how long I had been with Loudness for the first time around," says Niihara. "Time flies and I never thought we would last this long. It's a nice surprise. Especially after we got back together, we've tried to do new things and also have done some experiments with our music, which made some original fans not very happy, to tell you the truth. However, I believe that trying to do something new was one of the reasons that Loudness have been around for so long. If we had done all the same things over and over, we probably would have gotten bored and gone separate ways. When I think back, we have changed a lot over the years; the depth of our musical knowledge, our technical abilities,experience as musicians, and of course now we all are older. For that we probably have a different approach to the band, but one thing which has never changed is our passion for rock music. We also understand more about business part of this industry and that helps us enjoy the making music part more."

On being in the business for over 25 years...

Niihara: "I never thought I would be doing this for this long when I started 25 years ago, but 25 years went by very quickly!"

Watch for the complete interview in BW&BK #111.

'Metal Mad' (2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjt3W3u1UKk&eurl=http://www.bravewords.com/news/86442


'Crazy Night' (1984)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIScXJt3I&eurl=http://www.bravewords.com/news/86442


Metal Mad features the following tracklist: 'Fire Of Spirit' (instrumental), 'Metal Mad', 'High Flyer', 'Spellbound #9', 'Crimson Paradox', 'Black And White', 'Whatsoever', 'Call Of The Reaper', 'Can't Find My Way', 'Gravity', 'Transformation'. Audio samples are available at this location.