Wow!!!!!
The danish metal magazine METALIZED featured us in their latest issue (DEC 2023), with an interview, and a cool review of MONEY SLAVES. Something to be proud of, isn’t it? Interview and review are printed in danish language. So there you go with the translation:
Interview with Cpt. Falo Faltu from the Pirates In Black from Germany
Who is Pirates In Black, what is the story behind the band?
The Pirates In Black are four musicians from Germany, Captain Falo Faltu – guitars and lead vocals, Quartermaster Accu Becher – guitars and vocals, Gunner JayJay – bass and vocals, Powder Monkey Hans Heringer – drums. We were formed in 2017. At that time I (Captain Falo Faltu) had already written a few songs under the working title ‘Pirates In Black’ and thought it should be time to get those songs beeing played live. Searching for bandmates amongst some of my fellow musicians in the local scene of Wuppertal I found three guys ready, able, and willing, to make this project coming alive.
Since these days the band performed many live gigs in the western part of Germany. The Pirates In Black even took part in a Germany wide newcomer contest (the SPH Music Masters) and made it after several gigs finally to the second place amongst about 1500 participating bands. Unfortunately our founding member on the bass, the Gunner Carl Clover, had to quit in 2022 because of health issues. But we are more than happy with his successor, the new Gunner JayJay, who really fitted in perfect, as a brilliant musician, and as a great person. So the Pirates are continuing to plunder and to devastate the stages in Germany and our neighbour countries.
What makes Pirates In Black stand out as a band, whats your force?
The Pirates In Black are a hard and heavy rock band. Playing solid heavy guitar rock. That’s actually not very special so far. We are wearing pirate clothes on stage. And even some songs are dealing with piracy or more generally with the life on sea. But we are not really part of the so called ‘pirate rock genre’ (like eg. Running Wild or Orden Ogan). Beeing pirates is more a kind of a metaphor for us. We just DO AS WE PLEASE! We play what we LIKE! That’s what drives us in the end. We don’t follow written or unwritten rules of the music business. We are even stealing riffs ocassionally. To put them together in a new way. Like pirates do.
Your album ‘Money Slaves’ is out now, what can new listeners expect to hear?
‘Money Slaves’ is our second album. Most of the songs have already been played on stage by us before we recorded them. Actually two of them had already been written by me before the Pirates In Black were founded. But we felt the time is right now to put those tracks on an album.
The vibe of ‘Money Slaves’ is a little bit harder than the vibe of our first album ‘Pirates In Black’. I think we made some progress. And our sound is a little bit more … defined … I don’t know if that’s the right word for it? Our aim was to put the guitars in front! And I think we did that quite well.
Beginning with the opening song ‘Backseat Ride’. Just pure rock – AC/DC style! Even the lyrics remind me of Bon Scott. Making love on the backseat of a car. I think he would have liked that (and used to do it probably more than once). The next number ‘Blood And Rain’ sounds much more modern and has a touch of Black Label Society with pinch harmonics and a heavy riff in e minor. A great song to be played live! And completely different to the first song. I think that holds true for the whole album. There are no two songs that sound the same. The ghost of Black Sabbath followed by the touch of a cowboy campfire song. You may like the album, or not. But whatever you may think about it, the album is definetly really far away from beeing boring.
It is not only the music which makes the album special to me. Some of the songs have a deeper meaning. ‘Shipwrecked’ for example is a song about the loss of my mother. She passed away by the end of 2018. A sad tragedy for my whole family. It took me about two years to cope with it and to write a song about it. This song is on the album in two versions. The first version is a rock ballad. This is how we perform the song live on stage. The second version is an acoustic one. I play a twelve-string western guitar on it. And a small greece instrument called Baglamas (a little Bouzuki). My mother loved the sea, and southern Europe.
Another song, ‘The Servant And The God (Of The Metal Nation)’, was written by me just a day after Lemmy Kilmister died. Lemmy was much more than just a singer and a bass player in a rock band. Not only for me, but for so many of us. A guy who really lived rock and roll. Straightforward.With no excuses. And without any compromises. He was funny, too. And by the same time he was a gentleman. I mean a gentle (!) man. Not such a dick head like some of the self proclaimed pseudo rock stars whose names will be forgotten by the moment the CD player spits out the disk.
So all in all ‘Money Slaves’ is a very diversified album, with great rock riffs, a large fun factor, and some songs with a deeper meaning.
How does ‘Money Slaves’ differ from your debut?
‘Money Slaves’ is harder than our first album ‘Pirates In Black’. The guitars are more present. And the vocals are a little bit rougher. The sound is a little bit more ‘straight into the face’. Despite that it is still an album of the Pirates In Black. Completely written by me, as the first album, too. You could possibly mix songs of both albums in a Spotify playlist without recognizing too many differences between them in terms of sound and feeling.
How have you developed as a band since the beginning?
Well I think it took a little time for us to really find, and form out how we would like to sound, how the songs should feel. And although we knew each other before, from various band projects, we grew together more and more with every gig and every new song. As mentioned before our songs are quite diverse but we do have our own style now, and our sound is quite distinctive, not only because of my vocals, but because of the way we play, and harmonize together. And even though it is still the case that I am writing all the songs the development of new songs from my first idea to the final song now is very much a group process with every band member beeing involved.
Where is Pirates In Black, in 5-10 years?
That is in fact very difficult to answer. Of course we are hopeful to play more and more gigs, not only in Germany, but also in other countries, like Denmark, Sweden, or Poland. May be we have a chance to play one or even a few of the major heavy metal open airs like Wacken or Roskilde in the future? Who knows? Strange things happen… On the other hand we are quite aware of the fact that we are not teenagers anymore. Well, deep in our hearts we still are!! But I am turning 57 in december and I am the youngest member of the band … So we will stay heavy – at least as long as we stay healthy! Arrrr!!!!
Will we be lucky to see you play a show in Denmark anytime soon?
I hope so! We really hope so! There is nothing scheduled in DK in the near future. But we are open for invitations. We have time slots left! And our cannons are loaded!!!!
Thank you for your time, stay metal…. AAARRRR!!
Momme
Review of MONEY SLAVES by Momme
After their self entitled debut, the four men from Pirates In Black have polished their telescope and sharpened their peg legs with their latest release Money Slaves. Even though it’s rock and roll and about having fun with what you do, this release is much more serious and thorough than their debut. Strong riffs and generally strong numbers supported by a solid rhythm section in the best AC/DC style are the backbone of what the Pirates do here.
They’re not trying to reinvent anything here, but you can clearly hear the years of experience behind the music. The name might suggest that this is pure pirate metal like Alestorm and Running Wild, but that’s not entirely the case… not that that’s a bad thing. It’s just more pure heavy rock with seriousness and substance, touching on topics like the profit-hungry bankers in the title track. But also the sensitive ballad Shipwrecked, in which the singer and guitarist deals with the grief over the death of his mother. Definitely a record worth listening to and it gets better and better with every listen.
