I see there's a discussion about Hellroadie. I'd like to add something that should clarify the reasons behind Mark's decision to get him to sing in the band (in my opinion: a GREAT choice and from the newer albums I personally prefer the one with Hellroadie, that is "Gates Of Fire" - he added more versatility to the songs... "The Voyager" was too quiet/acoustic - I yet have to hear "Playground...", but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it more). And yeah, there would be NO live shows of Manilla Road if not for Hellroadie! He's a great frontman (and a person too).
So... in 2004 (my first travel to KIT) I got the honour to
interview Mark and Hellroadie, before the warm-up show. The interview turned into a 90-minutes long (!) talk which oftentimes went astray, well, at least there were plenty of totally unexpected funny moments. I think it's still one of the most in-depth interviews with MR. And fantastic memories indeed! Here's what Mark said about the start of his vocal problems:
J: (...) If I hadn't read about it on your website I'd have never guessed you had an infection when you were recording the vocals for "Open The Gates" - still one of the very best albums to me. Or that during the recording sessions of your other masterpiece - "Courts Of Chaos" - Randy and Scott were at each others' throats...
M:
Very much, yeah. As a matter of fact... Well, first about what we did in 1984 and "Open The Gates"... I was really sick when we recorded the album and unfortunately the studio was booked up for several months... I'd recorded all my guitar parts, the band parts and I was really sick which you can't tell when you're playing guitar, you know, being sick doesn't matter. But when it came to the vocals, I didn't have my normal voice, because of how sick I was. And really had to sing the whole album in one night and I walked out of the studio with no voice at all that night and the next day I still had no voice... J: Laryngitis or something?
M:
Well, from that point on I've always had a little bit of trouble with my vocals, I contract what they call laryngitis very easily. And I went to this vocal specialist at the University in Wichita and they decided I'd really tortured my vocal cords by doing what I'd done at that time. They said I probably have chronic laryngitis, which meant that I used my voice just a little too much and any given time I can have the laryngitic problems again. And they put me on some steroid treatments and stuff like that and I did all the treatments and my voice came back to me pretty good. And as a matter of fact, the time that I actually really went into the heavy vocal treatments with them was right before we did the "Out Of The Abyss" album. The treatments helped give me a voice that I'd never had before which maybe sounds like Rob Halford or King Diamond, so I decided what the hell, if I've got that right now, I'm gonna use it. And that continued on through "Courts Of Chaos" as well, but unfortunately at that time I pushed a little too hard again, I actually ripped my vocal cords... J: During the "Courts Of Chaos" sessions?
M:
No, actually it was at a concert, I did one of those really high screams and my throat hurt really bad, I realized I had injured myself. I went back to the vocal specialists, they told me I'd ripped my vocal cords and they made me shut up for... not say a word, not even whisper for ten days straight until it healed...B:
That's hard. M:
Yeah, he was right (laughter). People called me on the phone with no idea and then I'd go "tap, tap, tap, tap" on the phone or snap all my fingers... (Bryan cracks up with laughter again). B:
He's a mute! M:
Yes, I was. Anyway, I still deal with the problem, because, you know, when we go on tour, I can't use my voice like I used to and that's another reason why Bryan's on board with us, because he's the closest person we've ever seen and heard that sounds like me... And as far as "Courts Of Chaos" Scott and Randy (...)I transcribed the
complete conversation - if someone's interested in reading it (and has a LOT of time

), you can find it on my website (
http://www.jowita-kaminska.com), under INTERVIEWS (menu on the right).
