[kj] Noise founder would prefer to have not signed KJ:

[Rheinhold Squeegee]

http://www.bravewords.com/news/215476Noise Records Founder Karl Walterbach Talks Label Beginnings, 
Contract Dispute With HELLOWEEN, Wishing He Never Signed KILLING JOKE In
 New Interview


Which musicians have been the most difficult to deal with, because of their weird personality?
#1 Tom Warrior (strictly nutty)
#2 Michael Weikath (megalomaniac)
# 3 Jazz Coleman (shizophrenic)
#4 Martin Walkier (crybaby)
#5 Mr. Boltendahl (backstabber)


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Rockhard.gr has posted an interview with Noise Records founder Karl Walterbach. A portion of the chat below:



Rockhard.gr: In the late '80’s and '90’s, some of your artists left 
the company with many complaints. What could have gone different from 
your side? 



Walterbach: “You are joking here right! On one end we were the most 
successful European metal label and on the other end our bands where 
complaining? What about? None of these bands complaint when they were 
under contract, that's for sure. I tell you a little secret here: rock 
'n’ roll is not much liked in Germany by society and rock bands are 
usually outcasts. The family, the parents usually like to see their kids
 take serious jobs. As 80% all rock musicians from Germany are usually 
coming from middle class families they go to university to learn a 
well-paid job. So in every case there was this conflict between 
education and music. 





Sooner or later every single musician had to make this decision. I 
knew this and I felt threatened. So I decided the moment a bands sales 
picked up to pay regular monthly’s to all key musicians in that band to 
just make sure they were leaning towards the music end. At the end of 
the '80s I had always five-six bands supported this way. And this was 
not a contractual obligation! I did this out of my free will! And that's
 the reason why so many bands from the original Noise roster are still 
around. These regular payments enabled my bands to make a commitment for
 the music. There is probably no label from the '80s with such a high 
survival quote of bands as Noise records!”



Rockhard.gr: The biggest battle was between Noise and HELLOWEEN. How
 much did this influence the future of your company? It is widely said, 
that the contract signed by Helloween, is the “strangest” in heavy metal
 history, with the band taking way too little money even for great 
sales…



Walterbach: “Come on you can't take this nonsense for face-value ! 
How many bands did Noise sign 150 – 200? Every time we used the same 
contract as blueprint we had worked out with professional music biz 
lawyers at the start of Noise. Most of the time a band had a lawyer 
appointed when they negotiated a deal with us. This blueprint 
structurally survived all these negotiations. It was the base for 
Sanctuary later purchasing all of Noise, not Inside Out, which they also
 intended to buy but due to shitty contracts didn't. When Helloween's 
Maiden Management challenged our contracts in court over two years the 
band and their management lost on all counts! Read the court decisions, 
you can find them on the Internet at Wikipedia, because they were 
exemplary! We had even overpaid the band by nearly 350.000 marks. These 
Noise contracts where later examined by various US Majors because they 
needed to be sure that we had industry standard contracts if they 
started doing business with us. This was a matter of securing their 
advance payments as they knew full well that some indie labels had 
bizarre contracts. Not us! By the way: the original contract we did with
 Helloween already was renegotiated by their original manager Limb 
Schnoor (later shamelessly fired by Helloween) to very fair terms!”



Rockhard.gr: What bands are you most proud of signing? Which ones do
 you think you had the best working relationship with? Which ones you 
wish you have never signed?



Walterbach: “KREATOR and Helloween. The first because they have 
proven that persistence is so important in this genre of music and the 
latter because I have proven that you can do single marketing without 
selling out. What came after this huge success is a different story, 
which I like to call ‘the story of greed’.



Never Signed: KILLING JOKE – a hot potato, no label, big nor small, 
was willing to work with in the UK. And I was teased into working with a
 trio of madmen: Jazz Coleman, Paul Atkins, Paul Raven (deceased).”



To read the rest of the interview visit Rockhard.gr.
 		 	   		  
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