Marc Storace: Wanting more
The name Marc Storace will forever be connected with the legendary Swiss Hard Rock band Krokus. However, the singer has been quite successful with his own project STORACE. So what’s coming up in 2025? Find out here in our interview.
What is STORACE working on now, Marc?
We have only just released our highly praised 2nd STORACE studio-album “CROSSFIRE”! We`re really happy that it shot up straight to Number 5 in the Official Swiss National Charts!
Our label Frontiers Music will next re-release “Live And Let Live”, the 1st STORACE studio-album. This was released back in 2021 during the difficult Covid Pandemic times so I`ll be very pleased to see these great songs finally reaching many more fans now! “Live And Let Live” will also contain a BONUS LIVE ALBUM.
What was it like in the early days for Krokus? Who did you open for?
With KROKUS I was lucky to be at the right place with the right album at the right time, and this was during the NEW WAVE OF HEAVY METAL invasion of 1980! We toured extensively in the USA and Canada with Top Rock Acts, and became Headliners after countless gigs as Special-Guests with Sammy Hagar, Rainbow, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Rush, Ozzy Ozbourne, KISS and others.
Who was the songwriter for Krokus?
The main songwriters for the majority of KROKUS songs have always been Von Rohr, Von Arb and Storace.
What was it like making the video for “Screaming in the Night”?
In the summer of 1982 we created the songs for our biggest album “HEADHUNTER” in this big hot warehouse somewhere in the Ozarks, USA. I remember writing the lyrics for the band`s most popular rock-ballad “Screaming In The Night” sitting outside on a rock under a hot sun whilst listening to the band working on the musical-arrangement. This turned out to be quite a unique metal ballad because it has a very nice mixture of soft and heavy musical parts which fit very well together. I found the music to be very inspiring and sang it with my whole heart and soul!. HEADHUNTER made it direct to Number 25 in the National American Billboard Charts and we were over the moon!! LOL
Before filming the video, the record company, Arista Records, sent the director to check out the band during our rehearsals for the Headhunter-Tour in Los Angeles. His name was Joe Dea and Joe sat down with me and asked me what the lyrics for “Screaming In The Night” were all about. Then he flew back to San Francisco to get things organized and we didn`t see him again until we all flew in to the Bay Area to shoot those 2 videos. Yes, “Screaming…” as well as “Eat The Rich” were filmed at the same location! It was hot and we were covered in sun-block during that 2 day shoot. The film-set looked like something after a holocaust and the main part was built on this huge old gun-emplacement from World War one! The location was an old fort overlooking the bay with the Golden-Gate Bridge in the distance, in fact one sees the bridge faraway in the distance during the hypnotic intro of this epic ballad!
Did you expect “Burning Up the Night” and “Screaming in the Night” to be metal classics?
One always gives his best and keeps their fingers crossed, then if a song becomes a Rock-Classic one can enjoy the feeling and think to himself: “we must have done something right!” LOL ? Both numbers deserve the praise they receive.
Who do you like in metal these days?
Having sadly experienced the downfall of Hard Rock and Metal towards the end of the eighties, I could harly believe it seeing the massive return of our good old passionate Metal genre! This grand return of Hard Rock is the best thing that could have happened! Unfortunately some of my favourite bands like Black Sabbath and Aerosmith had to call it a day, but it`s very heartwarming to see bands like Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper and AC/DC still out there flying the Hard Rock Flag!!
Any all-time favorite bands?
Apart from the ones mentioned above, I also will love forever what The Who. Free, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, The Beatles, Rollings Stones, Kinks, and many others contributed to our music over the past decades!
Any new releases from Krokus and Storace?
As mentioned, STORACE “CROSSFIRE” shot straight to Number 5 in the National Swiss Music Charts! It has been praised by all the journalists whom I did interviews with lately as being eligible for a Rock Album Of The Year Award. Well that`s a very nice thought! Tommy Henriksen (Alice Cooper, Hollywood Vampires, Crossbone Skully) not only produced this album but also played a strong part in the song-writing and recording of it! He is an old Krokus fan, so it was easy for him to push the music in the direction that best suits my trademark singing style! T is a very nice, fast and focused person to work with and all the time I could feel the mutual respect whilst we worked together. To add the cherry to the cake he hired legendary producer Mutt Lange`s very own studio-sound-engineer, Olle Romo, to mix the songs and the end results blew my mind LOL!! I feel grateful to Tommy for having made the time.
Coming from STORACE next will be a REISSUE of the first studio-album “LIVE AND LET LIVE” containing a Bonus “LIVE” Album from the past tours!!
What`s very special about this BONUS “LIVE” ALBUM is that it features THE BAND IN ACTION during our most intense gigs of the past couple of years, for example as Special Guests of the mighty KISS and the incredible SCORPIONS at the Hallenstadion Arena in Zürich! They are the HIGHLIGHTS and the “Live atmosphere” is full of Magic!!
Enjoy the solid rythym-section sounds of drummer Patrick Aeby (ex-Krokus) and our rythym guitarist Dom Favez (ex-Krokus), whilst hearing Emi Meyer slam her bass-guitar with utmost precision, together with Turi Wicki filling the air with solid guitar riffs and solos!! Singing with the boys (& girl) left me wanting more, so turn it up loud and hear those crowds roar!!!
More future plans?
I will thankfully be very busy in 2025 out on the road with KROKUS and STORACE again, as well as performing private gigs as Marc Storace!
We had been finishing off our 2024 tour with our new lead guitar-player Serge Christen until Christmas, and will announce new dates on our STORACE website very soon!
KROKUS recently reformed and we enjoyed a fun Festival-Season together!! 2025 will see KROKUS back on the `Monsters Of Rock Cruise` to the Bahamas and then onto the European summer festivals. We shall close 2025 with some great gigs together with Gotthard at the `Swiss Rock Monsters` bash!! KROKUS bandwebsite
What are the Storace live shows like? Do you play any Krokus classics at the Storace shows?
STORACE live shows are very exciting and energetic and we enjoy much audience participation! Our songs contain thundering rock riffs with party-rock elements based on an old school boogie and blues rock feel! It`s the kind of rock music that I`ve been doing since decades! The first Storace tours contained a couple of Classic Krokus songs which Krokus never plays, like “Midnite Maniac” and “To The Top”. We also played one song from my old London days called “Telephone Man”. The reason was because we only had 10 own songs from the “LIVE AND LET LIVE” album at the time, so we needed more songs to Headline longer concerts!! The crowds enjoyed them a lot of course!! After “Crossfire”, we immediately added the 3 most representative tracks “Rock This City”, “We All Need The Money” and “Screaming Demon”!!! This year, we will add more original material from “Crossfire” and I guarantee there`s gonna be one helluva big rock`n`roll party feeling happening at each one of our upcoming 2025 concerts!! Marcs FB page
I WISH YOU ALL A ROCKING NEW YEAR AND HOPE TO C U SOMEWHERE OUT THERE SOON!!
Marc Storace
Text: John Wisniewski
Photos: Storace, Krokus bandwebsites
