Super-groups come and go, but none have made a big a splash in recent times as Alex Beyrodt’s awesomely fun Voodoo Circle, a band treading the boards once walked by legendary heroes such as Rainbow, Deep Purple, and Yngwie Malmsteen, and featuring some of European metal’s most prestigious players including Primal Fear mastermind Mat Sinner, Pink Cream 69 and former Adagio vocalist David Readman, drummer extraordinaire Mel Gaynor, renowned keyboard wizard Jimmy Kresic, and of course Silent Force axeslinger Alex Beyrodt. Bruce Turnbull collared the eminent guitarist across still waters to find out just how his latest project was born.

“Actually, I don’t think of it as a project; I call it a band,” he states emphatically. “The whole thing was a long process, but on the other hand it was a very natural one. I started getting bored with all these new bands just releasing the same albums over and over, and so I went back and started listening to my old records that I bought when I was just a kid. I went back in time to my old Deep Purple records, my Rainbow records, and it was kind of like a journey back to my roots. I enjoyed it, actually, because it was unbelievable how much this music has influenced me over the years, and to just hear it again with my attention fully attuned to it was just fantastic. This music has influenced my career down to the smallest detail, and after all this time I was able to listen to it with new ears. It is a different experience listening to Deep Purple when you are over forty then when you are fifteen. And I just got so excited about it, because this is where I came from. So I went back and bought all the albums again, and just listened to Deep Purple and only Deep Purple related music for months. Then I started to write songs without having anything in mind, no vehicle to use them. I just wrote, without thinking about the next Silent Force album or anything. And now, that material is on this new record. But this all started four or five years ago. At that time I was asked to play a session tour with Mel Gaynor on drums, David Readman on vocals, and a session bassist from the area where I live, and of course we all knew each other, but had never played together as musicians. So when we did, ten minutes before we went on stage, we discussed songs that we could play. Ten minutes to curtain, you know,” he laughs. “We had never played a single note together. So we wrote a set list consisting of loads of classics, stuff that every musician can play. We hit the stage and played for two hours. Funny thing is, we only played six songs. The whole thing just exploded on stage, and we just improvised this crazy stuff during the solos. After the show, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I had had on stage. I told myself that this was what I really wanted to do. This is what was exciting in music. I understood how it was for bands like Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix when they went on stage and played one song for half an hour, making the crowd crazy. I understood that picture. And this is what I wanted to do. I wanted a band that was able to jam.”

It is certainly a long story, but it looks like it paid off, and with an album as fresh and vivacious as their self-titled debut, Alex has something he can really be proud of. Mat Sinner, of course, wanted in on the action.

“Well, I played in Sinner for about twelve years, and I’ve known the guy for more than twenty,” he admits. “So when it was time to find a bass player I just asked him because more than anything he is a good friend of mine, but also I knew that he would love the music. And he immediately said yes after listening to the material. He was chomping at the bit to get involved! And after playing our first few shows together on this tour, it just feels right to have him there. There is something really special about him and me. We click instantly. It’s great to have him in the band.”

Voodoo Circle, and their self-titled construction, have been flying off the shelves worldwide for a few months now. Alex is, believe it or not, rather pleased with the reactions.

“They have been absolutely amazing,” he says. “The digipack is completely sold out. In England, the guys at our label had to order three times the amount of albums they normally would because we have sold so many. And now they have been sold, so we are just running on backorders right now. It’s going really well, sales wise. The critics have been 90% positive, and the other 10% have been crap, but that’s the internet for you. It has been absolutely great. Writing the songs I thought that this material was special. But I put it on the side, and after four or five years, I just knew the time would come to unleash they music I had made. And after the final product was done, I was pretty sure the reviews would be good. But I had some doubts. I was scared about what people would say about the change in my style on the album, going back to my roots. Because to go back and play music in the style of Deep Purple and Yngwie Malmsteen is not really a new idea,” he chuckles. “But on the other hand, there aren’t many bands playing that style in the same quality, so we just sucked it up, released it, and the reactions have been better than I ever expected. I am ecstatic about it. The label is already on our back about releasing the second album. And we have about thirty songs ready for it, too!”

Rather surprising, considering their initial inspiration for this whole endeavour, Voodoo Circle seem to embody everything about the heroes of yore except the in-house bickering and dissolution. They have the opposite arrangement, where they get on like a house burning up to the rafters. Alex agrees, hoping the conflagration won’t consume them.

“I think you have to admit Deep Purple were very young, and during that time they played around 200 shows a year, and travelling back then was pretty exhausting and not as convenient as today. Doing that every year would make it pretty easy to get on everybody’s nerves after a while. Especially if you have musicians like Ritchie Blackmore in the band. I think with Voodoo Circle, we are all great friends, and we are doing this for fun more than anything, so it is easy to say we will never argue or disagree about some things, but we’ll see what happens,” he says. “I hope nothing will change in our arrangement. Our live shows have been very good so far. We have been on the Marshall Roadshow and it has been working out amazingly well. People liked it a lot, and there have been loads of people showing up. In fact, one guy came up to me and told me that he had just seen Whitesnake and said that we were better, so that’s one hell of a compliment! We might find a way to get over to the UK later on in the year, but the heavy metal business isn’t doing so well right now, and the rules have changed quite a lot. The promoters are seeing us as a newcomer, rather than a super-group or something. But I hate the way stuff is being thrown at us right now. We should be able to get on any stage we want, but we have to work hard to get our name out there. We have to accept it, but it sucks.”

And according to our esteemed guitarist, it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier.

“There are too many bands out there these days, too many young bands that shouldn’t release albums,” he admits cynically. “And with the technical possibilities given to these bands with the rise of home recording equipment and so on just makes it a lost cause. The golden age of heavy metal is over. There will be even more low quality bands in the future because of the easiness of recording and the whole downloading thing. It has killed the glory in this music. When I started playing in bands, record deals lasted much longer. Ten years at least. They invested from day one and didn’t expect any success until the third album. From then onwards, they started to make money. But not a moment before. This gave bands time to flourish and explore their sound. Today, if you get a deal, then you get one album and one option. If the album sells, you make another. And if it doesn’t, bye bye. Next. They think that is the only way to make money, because they are afraid to invest. Honestly, I believe in five years there will not be record companies any more. There will only be internet platforms where you download music, and that’s it. All the small labels will die.”

So what about Silent Force? Are we going to see another album in the future?

“You see, the thing is,” he says, under furrowing brows. “With every Silent Force album, the reviews just got better and better and better, and it was always like, they have made a better album than the last one. So what I’m trying to say, in my weak English, is that there is a lot of pressure. With the next album, we want to make sure it is better than ‘Walk the Earth’. That’s not easy. And it would be very easy for us to get together and record twelve songs and release them under the Silent Force name. No problem. But that’s not what we want. We want to make another album that is great and as monstrous as ‘Walk the Earth’. DC Cooper, our singer, is very busy right now working on his next solo record, and to be honest, I have no idea when he will be free. So we’ll just have to see. But watch this space. It ain’t over yet!”

Make sure you catch Alex playing guitar in the new Glenn Hughes band, or on tour with Voodoo Circle. Believe me; you don’t want to miss it.