1. Hi Paul, how's it going over there, everything ok? How is your album overall reviewed worldwide and are you satisfied with the reactions so far? (Little early 20 days after release I know, but it came out in Japan earlier)
Hi Georg! Everything is going great over here and I've been very pleased with the reviews I've received thus far. Having "Date With Destiny" reach #11 in Japan and stay in the top 20 for five weeks far exceeded my expectations. I never imagined something like that would happen with my first CD!


2. Singer David Hendricks has really an outstanding voice, how did you find him, in my opinion he reminds me a lot on Kelly Keeling (ex-BATON ROUGE / MSG / Heaven & Earth etc) on some songs, am I the only one to say this yet?
Dave answered an ad I had placed searching for a lead vocalist who could sing like Steve Perry, Lou Gramm, or Brad Delp. I received exactly one demo in my PO Box and that was Dave's. It was a demo he recorded back in the 80's but I was very impressed with his vocal range. I believe one other person may have made the Kelly Keeling comparison but more people have commented that he sounds like Lou Gramm.

3. Is BONRUD now more or less a session project and not a band as drummer Paul Higgins like yourself is also mentioned as a session musician. (and of course live you can not play bass and guitar at the same time ;-) And can you name some musicians you guys have done work for so far (maybe some better-known artists)?
So far it has definitely been a project but if CD sales are strong enough, we would love to go out and play some shows! I already have a bass player and keyboard player lined up for live shows so I can just concentrate on playing guitar live. Paul Higgins and I played together in the modern rock band Battery Kate. In addition, we've done other recording sessions for local Seattle artists like Jim Evans.

4. Can you tell a little more about yourself, can you live from making music or do you have to do a day job?
It's really hard to make a good living from making music so I still have to supplement my income through additional work. I'm hoping that will change since music is my passion!


5. Congratulations to the "Ballad of the year" - (I don't care if it sounds like I am kissing your ass ...), but this song is just GREAT - should be more known and should have some major airplay, how do you think are the chances? - would have been a huge hit in the 80ies ... oh, well, same old story again ... (Are releases from Frontiers available in the States at all?!?)
Thank you so much! I have received an incredible response for my song "Desperate Heart" and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This is a song I had for a long time but I was saving it … partially because I was afraid that someone would steal it before I could release it and also because I was worried it wouldn't turn out as well as I had imagined. However, it turned out fantastic! It was the last song recorded for the CD and I actually was offered the deal before Frontiers Records had even heard that song. I personally don't have any control over radio airplay and I was surprised when "Date With Destiny" was released in Japan and subsequently went to #11. I would have expected the record company to release "Desperate Heart". Perhaps they still will. I know it's getting great airplay in Europe so hopefully it will grow from there. I appreciate every radio station that has been playing my music. It's a dream come true! Frontiers Records releases are available in the US through online retailers.

6. On the other hand you asked me, which two songs I meant in my review are the fillers - I meant "Live Your Dreams" and "Give Me A Chance" but as you said yourself, sometimes people write to you the least favourite of yours they liked the most!
I have learned that art is completely subjective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Both of the songs you mentioned as fillers have been other people's favourites. In fact, I received an email from a DJ in the UK who declared "Live Your Dreams" an all time classic! That was his favourite track. I've learned to graciously thank people for their kind words but realize that everyone's opinion is unique. However, there are a few songs (like "Desperate Heart") that most people seem to agree are among the very best on the CD.

7. Talking about deals on record-labels, when older people like myself (oops, now its out ...) talking about Metal bands from Seattle, we mean (obviously besides Queensryche and Metal Church) groups such as HEIR APPARENT, CULPRIT, TKO, MISTRUST, KIL D'KOR, ROTTWEILER and stuff like that, not the crap that came later from that city. Funny is, for example an excellent band like HEIR APPARENT had first only a deal on a French record label back in 1986 for their "Graceful Inheritance" LP and very few people/bands in the US knew them, which to find out was pretty strange back in the 80ies. So how are your connections to the local music scene in the city Seattle you now live in or did you just recently moved from Minnesota to there? Is anything left from that so-called "Grunge trend" (I remember magazines / TV stations just travelling to this city reporting about the bad weather and every band that sang out of tune and tuned their guitars low ...)
You know, I think I actually auditioned the vocalist from Culprit quite a few years ago if I recall correctly. That's a band name I haven't heard in ages! None of the less well known bands you mentioned are on the Seattle radar anymore but that shouldn't be too surprising since so many years have passed since they were popular. Queensryche are still well known of course but they achieved a very high level of success. They just played a show here at the Moore Theatre a week ago where they enacted the entire Operation Mindcrime story. In regard to my connections to the local scene, I'm fairly well connected but there are still quite a few people I don't know. Grunge certainly left its mark on the city but we've moved past that along with the rest of the world. Punk seems to be fairly popular here in Seattle at the moment.

8. Preparing this interview I found a cool website called http://www.seattlemetal.com - would you consider listing yourself there, or do you find the kind of music you do - which is most definitely AOR / Melodic Rock - out of place there! Hey - maybe you can attend the http://www.seattlemetalfest.com which is coming soon to your town and say "Hi" to the nice guys in HIRAX!
I actually never knew that site existed until now. My music isn't metal so I'd be a little out of place listing myself on that website. However, I know there are people that enjoy both metal and melodic rock so it wouldn't hurt to add myself to their listings. I noticed a few friends listed on that web site. :-)

9. In this very same connection - What do you think of the latest (from Seattle as well ...) HEART CD "Jupiter's Darling"? (and the impression it gives, at least that's what the press release indicates, that their most successful phase is supposed to be not cool anymore ...)
I was a big fan of Heart many years ago but I haven't listened to them in ages and I haven't heard the new studio album. I heard a few of the cuts live but they didn't rock enough for me. Ann Wilson has an amazing voice and I've always been a fan of Nancy Wilson too so I'll probably buy the CD. I know they recorded some of the CD about a mile from where I live in a very small studio. In fact, it's a practice space that I've used in the past. I was amazed to hear that they were recording there. Ann and Nancy used to own Bad Animals Studio in Seattle but they sold that quite a few years ago. I personally became a Heart fan when I heard the song "What About Love" so I definitely enjoyed their 80's phase. Still, I understand why Ann and Nancy aren't interested in reliving that period. They were predominantly singing other people's songs and they were selling sexuality as much as they were the music. Of course being the young boy I was at that time, I bought into the show in a big way. I had a poster of Nancy Wilson all dolled up with her big 80's hair and her Dean guitar. She looked hot! A few years ago I met Nancy and while I just wanted to talk guitars, my girlfriend mentioned that poster just to embarrass me in front of Nancy. Nancy handled it well and knew I didn't want to talk about it anymore than she wanted to hear about it! LOL!!! J Ann and Nancy are both really cool, nice ladies and I wish them much happiness and success in whatever they choose to pursue.


10. How did you get in touch with Keith Olsen and what did you learn from him, and how much did he cost a day?
Keith and I were introduced by a mutual friend while at a recording studio. I gave Keith a CD containing a few songs and he gave me a few suggestions on how to improve them. So, I went back to work on the CD and when I was nearly completed, I gave Keith a call to see if he'd be willing to mentor me a bit in the studio. He was kind enough to come out to listen to "Hollywood Movie Star" and he gave me a few suggestions for last minute changes. I implemented his suggestions and then we got together a week later to mix it. He had so much fun he wanted to mix the rest of the CD too! We became very good friends in the process and I learned an incredible amount from him. It's really difficult to summarize everything I learned from him because I was learning constantly. He's an excellent teacher and a brilliant individual. We both studied Electrical Engineering at the University Of Minnesota so we have similar backgrounds which made it very easy for us to get along and understand each other. Keith can go from telling a cool rock and roll story, to discussing musical theory, to discussing physics and electronics at a drop of the hat.

11. One review here really critisized your album cover totally as being terrible, for me its ok, I have seen worse, did you want to draw some relation to SAXON ;-) or maybe JOURNEY :-) and did you also draw the cover yourself?
The cover art was done by Dave Williams who did all of the artwork on Deen Castronovo's drum kit for the current Journey tour. The artist is also a big fan of Journey so it's not too surprising that there are some similarities in artistic style. The inspiration for the cover came from my song "The Phoenix" which is one of the cooler tracks on the CD. In fact, if this was my second CD and not self-titled, I would have called the CD "Bonrud - The Phoenix"! I'm actually very pleased with the artwork and think the artist did a great job. Once again, art is completely subjective so while one person may like something, another person won't. It's impossible to please everyone.

12. What do you think must a newcomer have in theses days to have success in the music business and in this relation what happens if your album doesn't sell enough copies, are you able to do another one for Frontiers or is this only a deal for one record?
Success is hard to come by in the current industry climate where illegal downloads are running rampant. Someone who received a promo copy of my CD ripped it and posted it on the net a whole month before it was released. I couldn't believe it ... I'm a really small artist and they were ripping me off before I was even well known! This really devastates small artists like me who are already working in a very small niche market where every CD sale is important. People need to realize that they aren't just hurting some big record company, they are really hurting the artists who spent a lot of money producing the CD and a lot of time creating the music. If you enjoy this style of music and want to hear more new music in the future, you need to support the scene by purchasing the CDs. I have a two CD deal with Frontiers.

13. What was your "Date With Destiny" (story behind this song?)
This was a fictitious story I wrote about a bad girl named Destiny who leads a guy down the wrong path, gets him involved in a life of crime, and destroys his life as a result. In this case, I envisioned the story as a movie playing in my head when I wrote the lyrics. I wrote all of the music for this song and had the title "Date With Destiny" from the moment I first created the musical riffs. My friend Dieter Rehrl (from Germany) came up with most of the chorus lyrics and then I wrote the rest of the lyrics. Dieter and I wrote and demo'd quite a few songs before he went back to Germany and a couple of them made it onto the CD.


14. What was the most stupid / embarrassing thing happening to you while on stage?
Most of the really funny stories happened when I was younger and almost always at the expense of another band member. I have some crazy stories from my past! As I get older and become more experienced I rarely run into as many embarrassing situations. However, I'd say the last embarrassing situation I experienced may have been when I screwed up the beginning of a song I knew inside and out. This particular song started with just me on guitar playing the riffs before the band would join in. I had played this song so many times that it was truly second nature for me to play it (besides, I wrote the riffs!!!) but something just went wrong between my brain and my fingers. It was frustrating for me because my fingers weren't doing what my brain wanted and it was like I was suddenly playing with gloves on. The singer laughed when he saw the frustration in my eyes. I'm a perfectionist and don't like making mistakes and this was one of those things where I had a brain fart and suddenly forgot how to play a song I knew so well! The struggle only lasted about 5 seconds or so and then suddenly I began playing it right and all was right with the world. However, I'll never forget that experience. We're all human and sooner or later we all screw up. The key is to never give up and know that you are never more than one fret away from the right note. ;-)

15. Can you name 5 rock-bands from Germany (without google ...) besides SCORPIONS and ACCEPT (No, RAMMSTEIN and KRAFTWERK don't count!)
I'm sorry to say I can't do it but don't feel bad ... I can't name 5 French bands either! :-) The bands I would have mentioned off the top of my head would have been Scorpions, Frontline, and Rammstein. From there I would have been hard pressed to come up with an additional two.

16. Which band are most overrated in your opinion, and what record is selling too much in your opinion?
There are some pretty terrible bands out there that are popular right now (I'm thinking the return of the garage band type records) but as much as I think they are over-rated and are horrible musicians, I don't really want to call them out because they are actually writing their own songs and playing their own instruments. They may suck to my ears but I admire the fact that they are genuine to their craft. The CD's that really bug me are the ones where they take a cute young actress who already has a following with kids and send her into the studio to record a CD even though she really isn't a musician and doesn't write her own songs. Now, I understand that this is the music BUSINESS and it's all about selling product. Indeed, these CD's are guaranteed best sellers but that doesn't make for good art. The musicians, producers, and engineers who play on these records are excellent but everything is very contrived. Still, if people like it enough to buy it, who am I to complain? This isn't a new trend. This has been done for decades. I do have to say that I admire the people behind the scenes like the guys who produced the Avril Lavigne CD's. (remark by gl: There you go again: Butch Walker - one of the most talented guys) There are some brilliant people writing and producing these songs and they put out a smoking product. I was very impressed with her first CD but I understand that very little of that credit belongs to her. It belongs to the people who developed the product. However due to their efforts, I felt this was a product that deserved to sell the way it did. Great producers can really make a difference. Just look at what Mutt Lang did for Def Leppard. I'm a HUGE Leppard fan but I'm convinced they would never have amounted to much without Mutt. He took some raw talent and molded it into a highly marketable vision. In the process he developed a product that deserved to sell like hot cakes! :-)

17. And your 3 nominees / picks for "Album of the year 2004"?
I know most of these were released in 2003 but I'd say Nickelback - "The Long Road", The Darkness - "Permission To Land", Velvet Revolver - "Contraband", and Mickey Thomas - "Over The Edge". I didn't really like The Darkness at first but once I got past the crazy vocals, I started to enjoy the music as being funny and then finally just as being fun. There's nothing wrong with making music that is light hearted and fun. It helps balance out the heavier messages that are often conveyed in more modern music like on the Nickelback CD's.

18. Anything you wanna add here, lets go.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us by purchasing a copy of our CD. You are the ones that are making our dreams come true and I deeply appreciate your support. I'd also like to thank everyone for their kind words and encouragement and to all of the radio stations who have been playing our songs and to all of the web sites and rock magazines who have been kind enough to interview me and promote the CD. Everyone can keep up to date with all things Bonrud by checking out our web site at www.bonrud.com
Thank you so much Georg!

Thank you for your time for this interview! Good luck!!!

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