Talking with . . .   Winters Bane

Interview with guitarist Lou St. Paul
Winter Bane is finally back. The band which is famous for the involvement of Iced Earth singer and former Judas Priest frontman Ripper Owens, has returned after nine years for their third full length, Redivivus. Heart of a Killer was released in 1993 and they returned with Girth four years later, with guitarist Lou St. Paul taking over the vocals. Lou has kept busy with various projects, including L.S.P. and Throttle O.H., before deciding to resurrect Winters Bane with vocalist Alex Koch (Spiral Tower, Scenes, Powergod) and drummer Mark Cross (Firewind, ex-Helloween). Here is the friendly and talkative Lou for an interview.

How does it feel to finally get this record out?
Between Eric, my manager, and I, we consider this the album that was cursed. I was writing this about six months before my son was born and he's four now. I'm really happy to get it done. I've listened to it about three thousand times, and I love Alex's voice. I get tired of hearing the same guitar parts because I've heard it a million times. Some of the songs are easy to sing along to. I know Eric said he couldn't listen to it anymore. We had the album finished in the studio at the end of last year. We had to get it out there. We were shopping it. We talked to everybody. It's a tough business. Everyone's got a band.

What's up with L.S.P. and Throttle O.H.?
I still have plans for that, but it's on hold now. I have so many pieces of iron in the fire, that it's tough to have the time. All this recording takes money. I can do a decent job in my own studio, but to get it mastered and burned would take a lot of money. I was also working on an instrumental. I play a lot of blues and jazz. I wanted to do a Clapton like album. I've been itching to do that, I've done the metal thing for so many years. It's hard when you have so many different types of influences you want to record.

It's surprising that you haven't signed with a label yet.
I'm trying to promote and self promotion is stressful. I just got another new website ready to go when the album comes out. When we did Heart of a Killer we did two demos. They weren't the best recording but we were able to get it to zines through snailmail. Back then it would take three to six months to get feedback and reviews. There are so many bands out there now. You're gonna have some good bands and some really good bands and the rest is crap. I can write stuff that will rise to the top, but it takes time to write it. I wanna be patient. I'm enjoying the album. It's starting to get some good reviews and that's how we got signed last time. I tried to mix European vocal sound with American metal and that scares people. In America it's got to have heavy screaming and melodic singing on the chorus. Over in Europe it has to be really melodic musically. What happened in the old days with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Nevermore. I always try to have songs on each album and each song can stand on its own. There isn't one song on here that's great. Maybe because I try to make each song the best I can, there's no filler. If you listen to Heart of a Killer, each song sounds like it could've been a different band. It had different type of riffs. Girth is doing quite well. I've been giving it away for free on the website to download. People have been comparing it to Metallica.

Is there an unreleased album that never came out?
That is Season of Brutality. It was recorded in late 1994, early 1995. That got me a lot of cool things happening. That's when I met Eric. That album was written while I was on tour with Tim doing the Heart of the Killer stuff. When Tim left the band I was stuck without a singer and I decided to lay the vocals down as a guideline, when I put it out there for Massacre wanted to give me five thousand dollars for it. It cost me five thousand dollars just to go over there and record the album. I got pissed and said no. The contacts I had with other labels fell through, so I contacted them and they said they'll give me two thousand for it. That was it. I just started singing. It was very raw. I like to have a little more polished vocals. I had some good vocal lines, but it was very deep. There was maybe five hundred cassette copies of Season of Brutality printed. Only a few true fans who followed me after Tim left have a copy. When you mix Girth and Heart of a Killer, that's what you get with Season of Brutality. Eric still thinks it's my best work. I did a four song demo for Redivivus a few years ago, it was Powergod minus their guitarist that recorded the album with me. I think we have changed things for the better and for the worse. Japan has these four songs.

It's amazing how Ripper's career took off with his Judas Priest gig.
Tim and I remain on good terms. I've done some logo work for him, I got him a guitar endorsement. He's got his new album coming out now and because of his name he's able to get stuff done himself. We still talk. Because of Heart of a Killer we'll be forever engraved in stone. When I have to give him his royalties, I call him up. It was a fantasy come true. The Judas Priest thing launched him into superstardom. He's able to put out his own thing now and people will eat it up.

How did you hook up with Alex?
I was done with the Girth tour and the band had inner turmoil. We tried three hard years to get something going. There were changes going on, when I came off the tour I took a break. I was getting sued because of the re-release of Heart of a Killer and the live disc. Eric's been pushing for a new singer since 1998. Four years went by and we got a lot of demo tapes. We had some guys who could really scream, there were guys who sang really good but didn't have that spark, guys who could sing in key but would scream out of key. We got all kinds. That's when I did the L.S.P. stuff. Then he called me up about a demo with three songs with Alex Koch from Spiral Tower singing on it. It was a cassette tape and he sang over it on a four track and sent it back. Now it's being played over the phone from San Francisco to Akron, Ohio, and I'm listening to it. I was blown away and decided I would write an album for this guy. I never met him until he arrived in America to do the album. Alex and Eric did all the correspondence. Eric got him over here. Me and Curran layed down all the guitars, Curran and I looked at each other and we didn't even know what this guy looked like. We had a picture of him from a website, but he had cut his hair. He was here two weeks and he's a great guy, we had a blast. I want to do another album with him so bad. I'm actually writing Heart of a Killer Part Two. I've already got the story written. I've finished the first song. I want to do another album with Alex because he's a great guy, but we have a big pond in front of us. It's so difficult to plan anything. We have to plan months in advance. He also sings in Scenes and they're a really good band. They're entirely different. I don't know what's going on with him, I'm hoping that he will be willing to do another album with me. I had a few years when I was so down. I thought getting signed was the beginning of my career, not the end of it. I signed away all my publishing. We were in Germany and if we didn't sign it they would shelve it. We got back in 1998 and in 2000 the reissue came out and we saw a little bit of money. We didn't sell that many according to them, although every place I've ever looked had it. We did get Heart of a Killer back so we can sell it on our website. It's studio magic watching Alex sing.

What about the lyrics?
On the previous stuff, I've done most of the lyric writing. With Season of Brutality I did all of it, Heart of a Killer I did about seventy five percent of it. I knew what I wanted to do lyrically. For example, "Dead Faith," was part of this book about how there was three different types of faith. There's dead faith which the person who knows but his heart isn't really there, then there's the evil person who totally knows there's the existence of God but chooses the opposite, and then there's the final faith, which is the belief in Christ. When I brought it to Curran he thought it was a great idea but he wanted to keep it open to any religion so everybody could relate to it. I didn't have too much lyric writing, we did a lot of collaboration. I gotta give credit where credit it due. I'm happy to have this album out and I'm glad people like it.

Discography:
2006... Redivivus (D.C.A.)
1997... Girth
1993... Heart Of A Killer (Massacre)

Current line-up:
Alexander Koch... vocals
Lou St. Paul... guitars
Mike Miller... guitars
Jeff Welch... bass
Mark Cross... drums

Winters Bane

TTM reviews of albums by Winters Bane:
	2006 - 'Redivivus'