Judas Priest  were  once more the headliners of the biggest festival in Greece, the Rockwave Festival 2008, and with the occasion of the new album "Nostradamus" Solid Rock grabbed the opportunity and talked to Mr. Ian Hill who revealed to us "the secrets of the mysterious prophet.."

Interview: John Satolias

De-recording: Jason Kaldis, Nikos Syracos

Solid Rock: I would first of all like to congratulate you for your new album “Nostradamus”.

Ian Hill: Thank you very much.

Solid Rock: But why Nostradamus? Why not someone else?

Ian Hill: Nostradamus was a very interesting chap and when we started researching we found out about his trial and his ordeals and he just seemed a great subject to do. He wasn’t just a fortune teller, he was many other things as well. Mainly he was a physician, a very well respected physician, but he also had his ordeals. He was labeled as a heretic because of his gift. He was expelled from France, he lived through the Black Death although he lost his wife and his children and in the end of his life, when he lived in Italy, he was a very well respected man. So through all the adversity he came out good at the end and he made something of himself and he died in comfortable circumstances.

Solid Rock: Nostradamus is an album that requires the full attention of the listener, in order to absorb it. It also reminds us that in an album songs can stand as a unity if songs as well as individually. Do you think that Judas Priest’s fans are ready to accept the variety of Nostradamus?

Ian Hill: I think so, in fact I’m sure they are. There’s nothing there to disappoint really. There are 13-14 stand-alone Judas Priest tracks, which are recognizably Judas Priest heavy metal tracks, with orchestration obviously. And they’re stand-alone. Υou can listen to them one at a time as individual tracks and although they’re part of a whole, they’re part of a complete story, they’re listenable on their own, you don’t have to listen to it all the way through, though lyrically and musically it makes sense to do so. It’s up to the individual’s choice.

Solid Rock: I think that Judas Priest make albums that transport their fan to times past.

Ian Hill: You do have to concentrate, it’s not something you can put on and have it playing in the background, sort of thing. You need to concentrate on it and it needs to sink in so it takes some time for people to get familiar with it all because it’s so long and because it’s so involved. Even I discover things about the album that I forgot [laughs]. There’s a lot there. And that’s the main difference; it’s not a traditional, typical, predictable sort of thing.

Solid Rock: For an experienced band like Judas Priest was there any stress during the procedure of making the Nostradamus? What was – if there was any- the most difficult moment in making this album?

Ian Hill: The part of it being new it was very challenging obviously, because there are a lot of new aspects that you delve into, but nothing really difficult. There were a few blind alleys we went off on. We used different recording techniques and a lot of the orchestration was put down before we had the major guitars and bass and drums, just to make sure everything would fit together. We tried to get the orchestration to fit around the guitars rather than the other way around, which is pretty much what everybody says it’s easier to do. We did it the other way around but it worked. It was a lot of work, though. It took nearly two years. Ken and Glen produced the album and they did a tremendous amount of work. It was a very fulfilling process at the end.

Solid Rock: Do you think that taking 2 years to record an album is a long time?

Ian Hill: It’s quite a long time to record an album is 2 years. We generally take about a year and that’s really ‘cause we’re going at a leisurely pace. But this was work all the time, something was happening everyday for over 2 years.

Solid Rock: Do you think that a double concept album is rather dangerous or risky during the days of downloading?

Ian Hill: Everything is a risk during the days of downloading. If it’s downloaded legally that’s fine. But illegal downloads are the problem. It sounds like a good idea, music for nothing, but unfortunately it doesn’t cost nothing to produce, it costs a f…ing fortune to produce. And it’s not really bands like ourselves who lose out because we’ve got a huge back catalogue and we’ve got a lot of fans who will go out and buy the album anyway. But the up and coming bands, they don’t get a chance, they have no option but to give their music away. Record companies aren’t giving out many contracts anymore, simply because they’re not making any money. It’s as simple as that.

Solid Rock: I believe that “Nostradamus” is probably the way  to the new age of metal. It’s bold, experimenting and creative without losing necessarily the identity of the band. I would like your opinion on this and also your opinion on the situation of the modern metal scene.

Ian Hill: I think the modern metal scene is very healthy. There’s a lot of up and coming bands at the moment that seem to be playing or seem to be interested in traditional metal rather than a single aspect of it. Cause for 15-20 years bands concentrated on one thing. You heard,  “Oh, you’re a death band” or “Oh, you’re a goth band” or “Oh, you’re a grunge band” and that’s all they’ve done, so later on they became predictable. I think people are getting a little bit tired of it now and people a looking for a little bit more versatility and variety. I’ve seen it in a few of the newer bands coming through, that they’re not afraid to try something tougher passages or even acoustic passages, which is all part of heavy metal. I mean we’ve done everything from slow acoustic love songs all the way through to stuff that will make you mess yourself and everything in between. And that’s all metal.

Solid Rock: Does Judas Priest like to try new things?

Ian Hill: Yeah we do. We always try to embrace new technologies, new gadgets, and new recording techniques. If it’s there we’ll try it, if it’s good we’ll use it, if it doesn’t we don’t and we just move on. But I think that it’s always been there, it’s something that we’ve always done. Some bands get a certain formula and they stick to it and people love them for it, but we’ve never done that. We’d stagnate if we did and become predictable and we’ve always liked to try and be a little bit different and move on and push the envelope a little bit, musically. We’ve always tried to do that.

Solid Rock: Do you think that there will be future if bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kiss, AC/DC, Motorhead, Black Sabbath quit someday?

Ian Hill: Yes! I think, like I said, that there’s a lot of interest in traditional metal. I mean just look at the people here today. There’s thousands of people here to see these little traditional heavy metal bands like ourselves and we’re headlining the bill and glad to do it. As I said, you often come to find bands that are getting a bit more versatile. Even when the day comes that we can’t carry on, for one reason or another, either it’s us or Maiden or Kiss or Black Sabbath or many other bands, I think it will carry on. There’s another couple of generations there already, waiting in the wings.

Solid Rock: After the tour what will be the next step for Judas Priest?

Ian Hill: This tour will go round the world with us now with a similar setlist to what we have now. We’re playing 2 from the new record, Prophecy and Messenger Of Death. And then, when we’ve done that, we are planning to try and do Nostradamus in its entirety, go out and do a tour and just play whole album. It’ll be interesting. It’s something that we’re looking forward to and it’s a lot of work. It’s in the future; so we don’t have any timeslots yet. We’re still at the beginning of this tour, but towards the end we can start to make plans.

Solid Rock: Ian, the last words belong to you. Anything you’d like to say, or a message  to the Judas Priest fans?

Ian Hill: It’s great to be back, we really love playing in Greece. You’re a great bunch of crazy fans and we can’t wait to get on stage and enjoy it.