RYCHUS SYN  - Interview with Hard N Heavy, Metal Magazine-Italy
http://www.hardnheavy.org

Hard-N-Heavy: Somewhere out in time, the myth behind the chronicle of Rychus Syn from Long Island, bring back us to the glorious eighty's, where the band have recorded only a mini lp, produced from Azra records, that is become an appreciated piece for many international collectors, both for a limited circulation, as for the musical level of the band, and their characteristic kind US power metal.

But as the story said, although many good promises harvests, and some gig shoulder to some other promising act as Pantera, Rondinelli and TT Quick, the band of the Maniscalco brothers, had a brief life and, at the beginning of the ninety’s, split up for many reason, first of all for the dawn of new musical proposal as the alternative and grunge.
But not too bad, because after all these years, the band’s name has survived, and thanks to the new album called simply “Rebirth”, Rychus Syn it takes back with the older lien up, to carry on the speech broken up many time ago. Now, thanks to the availability of the drummer Greg, we have the chance to discover some dark stings about the story’s band and legend of four good musicians, so…….

Hi Greg, and welcome on the Hard and Heavy pages, well I know that is hard, but you would try to introduce Rychus Syn to our readers with a brief history?
Drew & I formed Rychus Syn in 1983 with members A.D. Babcock and Mike Perdue. We played the club scenes mixing originals in with covers and released our E.P. License to Kill in 1989. Creative differences caused us to split up in 1991. After a 15 year hiatus, Drew & I decided to reform with new members Dan Reid and Damone. The chemistry was awesome from the start and after hearing of the interest in our original E.P. and a pirated version, we decided to re-record the old songs and some new ones. Rebirth was released in January 2007.

Well, to the music level, what you have combined after the split of the band until now? Why in the last years are circulate few news about your band? Don’t you have not worried that your fans can they forgotten?
Well, to be honest, after we disbanded in ’91, we didn’t expect to resurrect Rychus Syn. It was the fans around the world that kept the Syn legacy alive and convinced me, my brother and Dan to start the machine again.

A lot of Time the name of your band is correlated with your first ep, a five song effort which included all future album’s tracks. Can you give us some details on the recording, the time spent on this? And… at time what were your influences when the songs was recorded?
The E.P. is actually our 4 song demo. We didn’t have any kind of budget for recording so it was put together very quickly and we were never really satisfied with the results. Azra signed us and we added the song Air Raid and they pressed the master into the License to Kill E.P. Our influences then and now remain Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, Megadeth and Metallica to name a few.

Did you guys get a decent budget to record the ep? And were there any demos/rehearsals made of that material?
Zero budget. We paid for everything ourselves and as I said before, the demo is the E.P.

Do you know that, some time ago, the ep was re-printed like an unofficial release from an underground label from Germany? What do you think about that?
Yes, I am aware of H & H rarities. We were not too happy that the E.P. was pirated, but we were flattered that it was included with that collection of great bands from the 80’s in the series. The sound quality of the Syn E.P. on H & H is horrible, so we weren’t very happy with that.

Were you friends with other traditional acts like Virgin Steele, Majesty (pre-Dream Theater), Strider or Zero Tolerance and so forth what can you tell us about those bands, your memories and favourite shows of those glorious 1980's days?
Yes, as a matter of fact, Drew went to high school with Virgin Steele’s guitarist, Edward Pursino and my first drum kit was purchased from Edward’s younger brother, Fred. So, we have a little history with some of the 80’s greats.

Well my friend coming to the present, how and when is born the idea to publish the new cd that including the old material of the band and some new compositions?
The interest in Rychus Syn was very surprising to me and gave me the itch to rev up the Syn machine. My brother Drew and singer Dan Reid jumped right on board. Drew and I were never really satisfied with the original E.P. and wanted to hear the tunes re-recorded, mixed and mastered with a larger budget and with Dan on vocals. We also had quite a few tunes on the back burner from back in the day, so we re-wrote the 5 new tunes with Dan Reid and included them on Rebirth.

Yes I know, Photon Records have do a great job with this cd, the package is very fantastic and the booklet many expansive, I think that you can be satisfied with this statement, right?
Oh, absolutely. Our longtime producer Steve Amend of Photon Records, Media Manager and Publicist Robert Fischer of Robert Henry Media and engineers and co-producers Joe and Jack Napoli did an incredible job.

The music on "Rebirth" was much mature than your good first release, classic/US metal with a touch of thrash metal ‘80ies style, neither nu or gothic metal, the two types of music that, in the last years, reigned supreme inside the American top charts, do you think that your album can be change this strange statement?
We sure hope so. We respect all forms of music, but we don’t see why old-school metal should be in the back seat. Rychus Syn are not big fans of following trends and we feel our brand of metal may help bring it back to the forefront.

Well Greg, can you tell us what have been your emotions, after having record again the old tracks of your band's history?
It was a great experience and made us feel alive again, especially with Dan Reid and Damone joining the fray. My brother Drew and I always wanted to work on the Rychus Syn project with them and the chemistry was more magical than we could have imagined.

But how many week have you spent in the studio to record this great song? And during the record sessions have you used some programs as Q-base or Nuendo? And generally do you think that for a musician as you, the technology can be a useful thing or no?
We spent the better part of the Summer 2006, May to August in the recording studio Cloud 9 and September mastering at The Vault in Manhattan with Nathan James at the helm. Love the technology, we used Pro Tools, although to me, nothing beats the sound of analog recordings.

What are the difficult you have faced until the release of your cd? And what the satisfactions are instead?
Not difficult at all. We opted to not sign a record contract (from a company who will remain nameless) and do it all ourselves. That way we could keep the cost of the CD down for our fans and remain in control of our destiny.

Well the album is been going out for a little time on the metal market, which has the reception reserved been from the specialized magazines and of your fans, in particular way in your countries where classic metal is become an underground movement?
I would have to say mostly positive in foreign countries. Over here in the US, we are just beginning a major radio campaign with famed radio promoter Munsey Ricci who has worked with Judas Priest, Metallica and many others over the years.

Have you had the chance to propose your new compositions in the new live set? and if yes, what was the reaction of your public?
Yes, and it has gotten a great response. We also have two thirds of the next album written and have been testing the waters with them also.

Do you think that also the European public can be have the chance to see you on the stage next year?
Absolutely. It is the number 1 goal of Rychus Syn to play in Europe and Asia. That is where our fan base is largest.

Where do you see Metal heading in the next millennium and are you happy that people are rediscovering cult/underground acts worldwide that didn't gain attention back in their activity?
Hopefully it is heading to the forefront of the industry again, this time here to stay with the new control the bands are having over their careers.

Before the end, what do you do when you’re not involved in the band’s activity? What does Heavy Metal mean to you?
Spend time with my wife and 4 month old daughter, Jaedyn Rose. Metal is and always will be my passion til the day I die.

Now is really the end, thanx for your patience and for the time that you have spend asking to our question, you would do a special greetings in Italian to our readers, considering that two guy of the band are Italian too?
Actually all 4 members are of Italian descent and our Italian isn’t the best, but here goes. Grazie per tutto il sostegno e la vedremo in tour e’ l’anno prossimo. Keep it Metallo! Greg from the Heavy Metal Wrecking Crew, Rychus Syn.