王者回归 - 英国Hard Rock / Heavy Metal乐队Salem UK专访

Volcano Magazine
Dec 8, 2024
14 min read

今天采访到的是一支来自英国非常重要的一支乐队Salem UK，这支乐队也是英国第一波新浪潮当中非常重要，经典的乐队，Salem UK于1979年底由Ethel the Frog的两位成员Paul Tognola（主唱/吉他）和 Paul Conyers（鼓）以及Adrian Jenkinson（贝斯）和Paul Macnamara（主音吉他）创立。经过一段时间的歌曲创作和排练后，Salem定期演出和凭借基于雷鸣般的节奏、飙升的双吉他和有力旋律的重摇滚建立了强大的追随者，建立了坚实的追随者。乐队1981录制了他们的第一个Demo。1983年Salem UK第一张Demo发行不久之后，Tognola离开了乐队，Simon Saxby成为新歌手，不久之后Mark Allison成为第二吉他手。凭借这个新阵容，Salem UK发行了单曲“Cold As Steel / Reach To Eternity”，1982年重新录制了这首单曲，这首单曲也成为了当时Salem UK最出色的的作品，享誉全球，这首单曲现在是极具收藏价值和价值的珍品，也被列入唱片收藏家的稀有唱片价格指南。随后乐队和新鼓手Paul Mendham在英国进行了一系列的演出之后，1983年录制了他们的最后一张Demo和最后一次演出之后宣布解散，2009年Pure Steel Records和High Roller Records两家厂牌联系到乐队的老成员Paul Macnamara，想重新发行Salem UK乐队1980年代所有的唱片。在得到乐队的许可之后，2010年发行了2 CD专辑“In the Beginning ...”并且乐队也在2009年宣传重新组建，消息公布之后引起很大的轰动，新专辑发行之后Salem UK乐队在27年之后进行了他们的首次演出，这次的演出不仅仅吸引了大量的歌迷观看，同时吸引了大量英国媒体的关注，可见Salem UK乐队的影响力，2011年乐队自己发行了一张三首歌曲的EP专辑“New Tricks”，同时12月份再次进行演出，2012年乐队参加了英国本地很多重要的演出以及参加了很多其他国家的音乐节，2013年乐队的最新EP专辑“X Rated”发行其中包含了1982年的经典单曲“Reach To Eternity”重新录制版本，2016 - 2019年期间乐队还发行了三张专辑，2018年加入了Saxby和Jenkinson加入了乐队，完成了乐队的最新阵容，作为一支经典的乐队，该乐队与Iron Maiden、Saxon等乐队一起被评为10大NWOBHM乐队之一！前不久杂志经过意大利Rude Awakening Records厂牌的协调为这支经典的乐队进行了一次专访！

（V: 代表笔者 A: 代表Adrian，J: 代表Jonny，S: 代表Simon）

Today's interview is with Salem UK, one of the most important bands from the UK, and one of the most important and classic bands of the first wave of the British New Wave. Salem UK was founded at the end of 1979 by two members of Ethel the Frog, Paul Tognola (vocals/guitar) and Paul Conyers (drums), and Adrian Jenkinson (bass) and Paul Macnamara (lead guitar). Jenkinson (bass) and Paul Macnamara (lead guitar). After a period of songwriting and rehearsals, Salem built a strong following by performing regularly and building a solid following with heavy rock based on thunderous rhythms, soaring twin guitars and powerful melodies. The band recorded their first demo in 1981, and shortly after the release of Salem UK's first demo in 1983, Tognola left the band, Simon Saxby became the new singer, and soon after Mark Allison became the second guitarist. With this new line-up, Salem UK released the single ‘Cold As Steel / Reach To Eternity’, which was re-recorded in 1982 and became Salem UK's best work at the time. The single is now a collector's item and is listed in record collector's price guides for rare records. After a series of UK shows with new drummer Paul Mendham, the band broke up in 1983 after recording their final demo and playing one last show, and in 2009 Pure Steel Records and High Roller Records contacted long-time band members Paul Pure Steel Records and High Roller Records contacted Paul Macnamara, a long-time member of the band, to reissue all of Salem UK's 1980s recordings. With the band's permission, the 2 CD album ‘In the Beginning...’ was released in 2010. After the release of the new album Salem UK played their first gig after 27 years, which attracted not only a lot of fans, but also a lot of attention from the UK media, showing the influence of Salem UK. In 2011 the band released their own three song EP ‘New Tricks’ and played again in December, in 2012 the band played a number of major gigs in the UK as well as festivals in other countries, in 2013 the band's latest EP ‘X Rated’ was released which contained a collection of songs from the 1920‘s and 1960’s. The band's first gig was in the UK and it attracted a lot of fans as well as a lot of attention from the UK press. 2013 saw the release of the band's latest EP ‘X Rated’ which included a re-recorded version of the classic 1982 single ‘Reach To Eternity’, three more albums were released between 2016 - 2019 and 2018 saw the addition of Saxby and Jenkinson to the band, completing the latest line-up of the band. Completing the latest line-up of the band, a classic band that has been recognised as one of the top 10 NWOBHM bands alongside the likes of Iron Maiden and Saxon! Not long ago the magazine conducted an interview with this classic band in co-ordination with the Italian Rude Awakening Records label!

(V: for the author A: for Adrian, J: for Jonny, S: for Simon)

采访对象：Adrian，Jonny，Simon（Salem UK乐队全体成员）

采访时间：2024.12.08

V: 你好Adrian很高兴见到你，非常感谢你接受我们的采访，我想这是你们第一次接受中国杂志的采访，首先向所有的中国歌迷问好，Salem UK是一支成立于2009年的老牌乐队，你们是如何组建乐队的？

Hello Adrian nice to meet you and thank you very much for participating in this interview, I think this is the first time you guys have been interviewed by a Chinese magazine, first of all say hello to all the Chinese fans, Salem UK is a veteran band formed in 2009, how did you guys form the band?

A: 1979年Ethel the Frog乐队解散时，两名前成员（Paul Tognola和Paul Conyers）组建了 Salem乐队。我被邀请加入乐队，担任贝斯手（尽管当时我弹吉他！）不久Simon也加入了乐队，担任主唱。

When Ethel the Frog split in 1979, two former members (Paul Tognola and Paul Conyers) went on to form Salem. I was invited to join on bass (even though I played guitar at the time!) and soon Simon joined on lead vocals.

V: 你们乐队换了很多成员，为什么第一代成员退出了乐队？新成员是如何加入乐队的？你对新成员满意吗？

Your band has changed a lot of members, why did the first generation members quit the band? How did new members join the band? Are you happy with the new members?

S: 我是1980年加入乐队的，当时原主唱Paul Tognola离开了乐队。鼓手Paul Conyers于1981年离开乐队组建家庭，于是Paul Mendham加入了乐队。第二位吉他手Mark Allison也加入了乐队，这个阵容一直保持到2020年，当时我们在一些问题上无法达成一致，所以我坚持和Adrian在一起，我们与鼓手Dave Megginson和吉他手Francis Gill一起录制了一张新专辑。他们不想长期演出，所以吉他手Jonny Hirons和鼓手Dan Ellis加入了我们，这样的阵容我们已经保持了四年，所以我觉得46年来并没有太多变化！"！

I joined in 1980 when the original singer, Paul Tognola left. Paul Conyers, the drummer left in 1981 to start a family so Paul Mendham joined. A second guitarist, Mark Allison, joined and that lineup remained unchanged until 2020 when we couldn’t agree on a few issues so I stuck with Adrian and we recorded a new album with drummer Dave Megginson and guitarist Francis Gill. They didn’t want a permanent gig so Jonny Hirons on guitar and Dan Ellis and drums joined, and we’ve been that line up for four years now so I don’t think it’s too many changes over 46 years really!!

V: 你们乐队的每位成员都是拥有丰富创作经验的音乐家，能谈谈你们的创作过程吗？我相信你们的创作经验会激励很多年轻的音乐家。

Each member of your band is a musician with a lot of songwriting experience, can you tell us a little bit about your creative process? I'm sure your creative experience will inspire many young musicians.

J: 我想说的是，我的大部分歌曲创作都是从脑海中的某个角落或某个单词开始的；也可能是从一个吉他旋律的想法开始，有时是两三个简单的和弦。也可能是一个鼓点激发了一个旋律。这张专辑中的许多旋律都是根据Ola Englund的一些旋律挑战发展而来的，过去四年来，我在他的YouTube节目中挑战这些旋律并因此广为人知。我们把它们发展成歌曲，在Adrian的专业帮助下，它们发展成了更大的东西，所以我建议在某些情况下，写一个吉他旋律，或许有一个你觉得可以轻松使用的鼓循环，看看你能从混乱中发挥出什么创造力。

I would say most of my songwriting begins with either a certain little hook that springs to mind or a single word; it can begin with a guitar riff idea or sometimes two-or-three simple chords. It can also be a drum beat that inspires a riff. A lot of the riffs for this album were developed versions of some of the Ola Englund riff challenges that I am quite well known for doing on his YouTube show over the past four years. We developed them into songs, and with the help of Adrian's expertise they developed into bigger things, so I would recommend in some instances to write a guitar riffs—maybe have a drum loop that you feel comfortable working with and see what creativity you can bring out of the chaos.

A: 这没有什么秘诀，但我想说的是，如果你想出了一些东西--比如一段旋律、一个和弦序列--不要急于否定它。你刚刚创造了全新的东西；给自己一点时间，看看它能走向何方，你能用它做些什么。

There’s no great secret but I would say if you come up with something–a riff, a chord sequence for example–don’t be quick to dismiss it. You just created something brand new; give yourself time to see where it could go and what you could do with it.

V: 你们乐队的专辑录音非常出色，你们是在哪个工作室录制的专辑？哪位制作人制作的你们专辑？

Your band's album recordings are excellent, what studio did you record the album at? Which producer produced your album?

J: Adrian是制作人，我想我们每个人都有自己的想法，但我们都相信Adrian的能力，所以他是主要人选。

Adrian was the man on the production side of things I guess we all had our little bit of input but we all trust in Adrian's abilities so he was the main man for the job.

A: 所有录音都是在我的工作室Hairy Monster Audio完成的。我负责专辑的制作、录音、混音和母带制作，所以我想如果你们不喜欢这张专辑，可以怪我！

All recordings were done in my studio, Hairy Monster Audio. I produced, recorded, mixed and mastered the album, so I guess if you don’t like it, you can blame me!

V: 你的Logo很美，是谁设计了你的Logo？你的专辑封面很美，是谁设计了你的封面？

Your logo is beautiful, who designed your logo and your album artwork is beautiful, who designed your artwork?

A: 我很想给出一个很好的答案，但是没有！Logo是标准的TT字体，设计是由三个自由职业者完成的--尽管设计概念来自乐队。

I’d like to give a great answer here, but there isn’t one! The logo is a standard TT font and the design was by three freelancers —although the concept for the design was from the band.

V: 你们的音乐主题是关于什么的，你们为什么选择这样的音乐主题，你们还创作了歌词部分，这些歌词都是谁创作的，他的灵感来自于什么？

What is the theme of your music about? Why did you choose such a musical theme, what did you want to express through such a musical theme, you also created a lyrics section, who wrote these lyrics and what was his inspiration?

J: 专辑的主题是我们的一个共同点：赫尔集市，每首歌都以那里的游乐设施命名，我们从小就去过那里。奇怪的是，我祖父家族的祖先Gallagher兄弟在一战前接管了这个集市。该集市自1279年获得第一份皇家宪章以来一直在运行，因此它可能是欧洲最古老的巡回集市，今年我们再次来到这里拍摄了一些照片。

The theme to the album was one obvious thing we all had in common: Hull Fair. Each of the songs are named after a ride there and it is a place we have visited since our childhood. Oddly enough my ancestors from my grandfather’s side of the family, the Gallagher brothers, took over the fair before WW1. The fair has been running since 1279 when it received its first Royal Charter so it’s probably the oldest travelling fair in Europe, and this year we revisited to have some photos taken.

S: 这张专辑的主题是赫尔集市，这是一个有着数百年悠久历史的传统集市，所以根据我们熟悉的一些游乐设施来写歌也很有趣。我们都来自赫尔，所以这样做很自然。Adrian和我共同创作歌词和旋律

On this album its theme is based on Hull Fair, a long-established tradition for hundreds of years so it was good fun to write songs based on some of the rides we know. We’re all from Hull so it was very natural to do. Adrian and myself collaborate on lyrics and melodies

V: 你们与许多优秀的唱片公司合作发行过专辑，你们是如何与这些唱片公司联系合作的？你对他们的工作满意吗？

You've released albums with a lot of great labels, how did you get in touch with these labels to collaborate? Are you happy with their work?

A: 与唱片公司发展关系没有捷径可走。这是一个数字游戏：发送数百封电子邮件，得到的回复却寥寥无几，几乎都是拒绝。我想我们都同意，Rude Awakening是迄今为止最适合我们的唱片公司：Gabriele不知疲倦地在全世界推广我们。

There is no shortcut to developing a relationship with a label. It’s a numbers game: send out hundreds of emails and get very few replies – almost always rejections. I think we all agree that Rude Awakening is the best label for us so far: tireless work by Gabriele in promoting Outer Limits.

V: 你们是一支出色的Hard Rock / Heavy Metal乐队，你们快速、连续的旋律、优美的旋律、整齐的鼓点给我留下了深刻印象，主唱的嗓音也非常迷人，唱腔清晰，你觉得你们的作品如何？

You are a great hard rock/heavy metal band, I was impressed by your fast, continuous riffs, beautiful melodies, neat drumming, and the singer's voice is very attractive and clear singing, what do you think of your work?

J: 我对专辑的工作很满意。我认为我们大家都做得很好，尤其是集体和声，因为我们做得非常快。hard rock/heavy metal和我都站在一个位置上，在一个麦克风周围取得音量上的平衡，每个声部我们最多拍了三次。这些集体和声都收录在专辑曲目中；这是录音室里最真实的声音--没有调整，没有自动音调，只有原始的人声，所以我为这些时刻以及每首歌发展过程中产生的想法感到骄傲。

I am happy with the work on the album. I think we all did a great job, especially on the group vocal harmonies as we did those very fast. hard rock/heavy metal and I were all standing in position to get the right balance in volume around a single microphone and we did three takes maximum for each part. Those group harmony takes are on the album tracks; it’s as real as it gets in a studio—no tweaking, no autotune, just raw vocals, so I am proud if those moments along with the ideas that all developed during each song's evolution.

A: 我们为这张专辑感到无比自豪。我们花了数百个小时进行创作、录音和混音，最终才有了这张专辑。我们很喜欢听这张已经完成的专辑，我想这是对我们最大的考验。如果我们喜欢，希望你们也会喜欢！

We are immensely proud of this album. We have worked hard get it right; it has taken literally hundreds of hours of writing, recording and mixing to produce the end result. We love listening to it now that it is finished–I guess that is the greatest test. If we love it, hopefully you will too!

V: 你们的乐队参加过很多音乐节，哪些音乐节给你留下了深刻印象？你能描述一下当时的氛围，以及你们在2025年有什么新的音乐节计划吗？

Your band has played a lot of festivals, what festivals have impressed you and can you describe the atmosphere and what new festivals do you have coming up in 2025?

A: 参加音乐节非常棒！这不仅仅是演出和人山人海，更重要的是有时间与乐迷交流、谈论音乐和签名。我们最好的几场演出都是在音乐节上进行的，这总是一次很棒的经历。

Playing festivals is brilliant! It’s not just the gig and the big crowd; it’s having the time to mix with the fans, talk about music, and some autographs. Some of our best gigs have been at festivals; it’s always a great experience.

V: 2025年即将到来，在新的一年里你们乐队有哪些新的计划，比如创作、录制新歌或者发行新专辑？能向大家透露一些信息吗？

With 2025 just around the corner, what are some of the new things your band is working on in the new year, such as writing, recording some new songs or releasing a new album? Can you reveal some information to everyone?

J: 我想说的是，现在的主要工作是让更多的人听到这张专辑并尽可能地进行市场推广。如果我们有机会开始创作新歌，我会把一些想法储存起来，作为新歌的起点，因为我花了很多业余时间来创造新想法。Simon和我也有一些过去创作过的点子，这些点子上都写着"Salem UK”。

I would say the main focus now is getting the album heard by as many people and marketed as much as possible. If we do get a chance to start work on something new I have ideas stored as starting points for new songs as I spend a lot of my spare time creating new ideas. Simon and I also have ideas we worked upon in the past that have Salem UK written all over them.

A: 对我来说，灵感是一波接一波的。我会有一个写作的“瓶颈期”，然后我会有几个月的时间什么都不创作。这就是为什么无论你创作了什么，都要紧紧抓住并加以发展--你永远不知道下一个想法什么时候会出现；可能是明天，也可能是明年！

For me it goes in waves. I’ll have a ‘purple patch’ of writing and then I’ll go months creating nothing. That’s why it’s important to latch on to whatever you do create and develop it – you never know when the next idea is coming; it could be tomorrow, or it could be next year!

V: 你们是一支伟大的Hard Rock / Heavy Metal 乐队，我会一直支持和关注你们，也希望通过这次采访能有更多的中国乐迷关注和支持你们的乐队，最后有什么想对中国乐迷说的吗？

You guys are a great hard rock/heavy metal band, I will always support and follow you, and I hope that through this interview more Chinese fans will pay attention to and support your band, do you have anything you want to say to your Chinese fans at the end?

J: 首先我要非常感谢你们的支持，我们一直都很感谢大家对我们的支持，这对我们所有人来说都意义重大，它激励着我们--不仅是我们个人，而是我们整个团队--所以我个人要感谢你们每一个人。我会一直把时间留给我们的粉丝，哪怕只是简单的握手和感谢。我们肯定会感谢每一位粉丝，因为没有粉丝，我们什么都不是！

Firstly I would like to thank you very much for your support as we are always grateful for all the support we have from everyone; it means a lot to all of us and it inspires us—not only in person but as a whole unit—so I personally would like to thank each in every one of you. I will always give time to our fans even if it is just a quick handshake and a thank you. Everyone is appreciated for sure, as without fans we are nothing!

S: 非常感谢你和你的所有读者--能从中国获得粉丝是非常了不起的，所以再次表示感谢！

A massive thank you to you and all your readers—and to gain fans from China is remarkable, so once again, many thanks!