Rough Silk will play at the "Building A Force" Festival in Bad Rappenau (Germany) on the 10th April 2010. The following bands are confirmed: Brainstorm, Fleschcrawl, Lanfear, Serenity, The Prophecy23, Thy Bleeding Skies, Icon Clan & The Past Alive.

Click here for more informations.

ROUGH SILK GOES HARDCORE AND RELEASES A SONG THAT FEATURES HANOVER´S OLD-SCHOOL-HARDCORE/STREETPUNK-VETERANS SUBCULTURE SQUAD

Rough Silk-singer & guitarplayer Ferdy Doernberg about "We´ve got a file on you", the collaboration with Subculture squad, that is featured on the band´s new album "A NEW BEGINNING" :

"..........."We´ve got a file on you " is a cool punk rock tune about goverments and conspiracy-theories. My first band "The Wabbles" was a punk rock band. I was a huge Ramones-fan as a kid. I really love this song. The lyrics are very funny and it was great to work together on this with the guys from "Subculture Squad" - a hardcore-band from Hanover, who are friends of ours. Rough Silk always had many Thrash-Metal and Hardcore-Influences especially in the guitar-riffs. You can hear that already on the "WALLS OF NEVER"-album ( H8 what u want, Toxical Roses ) but especially on albums like "MEPHISTO" and "BEYOND THE SUNDOWN" - so the collaboration with a hardcore-band is not so special for us - but we never did such an oldschool-streetpunk-song before - it reminds me a lot of the later Agnostic Front-stuff or even more of Roger Miret´s solo-stuff but also a lot of Social Distortion as well.
But it wouldn´t be a Rough Silk-song if there wouldn´t be that strange break-section with just piano and vocals in between. And here we are again ! Always a bit weird - always a bit strange !!!........"
Apart from that one we have several other songs with hardcore-Influences on the new album - especially the titletrack, "A new beginning", which contains many New York-hardcore-influences and also some jiddisch (jewish) language (I´m half-english with jewish roots).
The song was written in New York City. I was there to do some studio work and really love this city. It´s a meltingpoint of cultures and the people there have a very special kind of humor. Many Jewish and also many Arabian people live there peacefully together with Russians, Irish, Chinese, Italians, African and people from all over the world - and they all fell like "New Yorkers" but still try to keep their original culture as well. It´s a very interesting city. Not to forget that many of my musical heroes from The Ramones to Billy Joel to Agnostic Front are from NYC.

We got a few requests to tell you more about the lyrics of our new album "A NEW BEGINNING" - so here it comes :

Ferdy Doernberg ( Rough Silk ) about the lyrics of "A NEW BEGINNING"

"Temple of evil" is about misused religion and all the fanatism that comes with it.

"Home is where the pain is" is about child abuse - a very sad thing !

"Reborn to wait" is a very sarcastic statement about the whole "New Age" and "Spirituality"-thing that´s going on at the moment. I´m half English and my lyrics have always contained a lot of dark british humor !!!

"The Roll of the dice" is a mini-opera about life and the way things change the older you get. I really love the lyrics to this song.

"When the circus is coming to town" is the true story of a tragic loveaffair between a drumtechnician ( roadie ) and a groupie - it´s a true story - but I changed the names !!!

"Sierra Madre" is musically a mixture of Italo-Western-music and Thrash metal - but the lyrics are about a person who has been diagnosted with cancer.

"A new beginning" is a funny but also cynical Bob Dylan-like metapher-story that contains some jiddisch ( jewish ) language ( I´m half-English with jewish roots ) and was written in New York City. I was there to do some studio work and really love this city. It´s a meltingpoint of cultures and the people there have a very special kind of humor.
Many Jewish and also many Arabian people live there peacefully together with Russians, Irish, Chinese, Italians, African and people from all over the world - and they all fell like "New Yorkers" but still try to keep their original culture as well. It´s a very interesting city.

"Warpaint" is about the situation of the native americans that was written after I had a conversation about this topic with Chuck Billy from Testament who is a native american. And a great guy as well. I´m really happy that he is that healthy again.

"Black leather" of course is also a persiflage - or did anyone really think that these lyrics were serious, ha ha ?

"We´ve got a file on you" is a cool punk rock tune about goverments and conspiracy-theories that features our friends from "Subculture Squad" an oldschool-hardcore/streetpunk-band from Hanover

"Deadline" is about the music business and some critics who write bad reviews without even listening to the album they write about.

"We all need something to hold on to this live" is a very spiritual song - I think the lyrics don´t need to be explained - they speak for themselves !

"A song for Hilmer" is a very sad song.
I wrote and performed it right away in L.A. the day I got the news, that our original guitarplayer, Hilmer Staacke, had died the day before. I was in L.A. playing with Uli Jon Roth and Robbie Krieger ( The Doors ).
Hilmer and I went to school and had founded Rough Silk together, and after he had left the band we still were getting along very well, even though we didn´t have so much contact anymore, which is something I regret a lot now.
Musically Hilmer was an underrated guitarplayer , who had a great tone and was more into melodies than the "shredding"-thing.
Besides Jeff Beck one of his favorite guitarplayers was Warren de Martini from Ratt.
As I was now playing with Warren in L.A. I thought of Hilmer and told Warren, that I had a friend who was a big fan of his playing. The next day Warren brought a poster to the show that he had signed for Hilmer. I wanted to give it to him on his birthday on the 5th of June. But 10 minutes later my cellphone rang and Ralf ( the original bassplayer of Rough Silk ) told me that Hilmer had died.
Of course I was totally shocked.
Hilmer and me grew up together and shared so many things.
For Rough Silk he was very importand and he definitely left his mark on the songs of the first albums. In the first years we rehearsed 6 times a week for 8 hours and all songs got worked out together in the rehearsal room. The basic ideas were always by Hilmer, Jan and myself.
Hilmer´s songs ( like for example. "Don´t leave me now" und "Ups and downs" ) had a very strong seventies-touch ( way before the Seventies-revival ) and were very different from the typical riff-orientated songwriting-style of the end of the eighties.
His always present disease was one reason for him to leave the band in 1995 but also he was very shy person wo didn´t like to be in the spotlight and also hated the business-part of being a professional musician a lot.
On the very long European tour with Helloween ( 3 months ) he already had problems with asthma and allergies.
Hilmer was a very sensitive and intelligent person and after he had left the band the "innocence" was gone. Even though all the people that played in Rough Silk later were great or at least good musicians this special "us against the world"-feeling of the original lineup was gone. ( I don´t mean the new line-up - I´m talking about the line-ups in between !!!! )
After leavng the band he worked as a sessionplayer ( for a local radiostation, for example ) and gave guitar lessons.
He married and got a now 8 years old daughter who became the main focus of the last years of his life.Hilmer only got 38 years old but his music will survive him.
The recordings to this song were done in the backstage area in L.A. with the help of a good friend of mine, Roy Z. The recordings are far from perfect. We used drum-microfones for the piano and if you listen carefully you can hear Uli Jon Roth rehearse Vivaldi with his students in the background. But they are authentic - so I didn´t want to record it again in the studio.
I like it a lot even though I can´t listen to it very often obiously.

Only some days left until the new Rough Silk album will be in the stores!!!

If you want to shorten the time waiting for it you can check the first review of the new album "A New Beginning" from the "Metal Underground Webzine".
And check out the latest interview with Ferdy Doernberg at "Metal-Temple" about the new era of Rough Silk and his new bandmembers. Enjoy! For more interviews and reviews (old/new) check out the links section!

"New label, new album... what has been missing so far?

Yes, a new website for Rough Silk!!!

We are glad that we could get Harald from the Dockyard1-team to support us with this brand new website. Ferdy knew him from the past and just one phonecall and some days later it's been done.
We hope, that you all will like this page! Come back soon, there are still some things to be done and there will be some more updates during this time!"

It's the 20th band anniversary and the time is right to bring ROUGH SILK back to life – how can you do this better but with a new album! Mastermind Ferdy Doernberg teamed up with André Hort (bass), Mike Mandel (guitars) and Alex Wenn (drums), who are young and hungry musicians from the Hanover-area to bring fresh blood and enthusiasm into the band and most important to bring back more Metal into ROUGH SILK's sound again! So with the anniversary the new album will start a new era for the band and you can´t name it better then with the album title: A New Beginning! But that´s not all: all ROUGH SILK albums will be re-released with bonus tracks remixed and remastered this summer!

Check out the new era and listen to tracks like the straight forward pushing "Reborn To Wait" and the heavy but yet melodic "Temple Of Evil" on the band's Myspace!

"A New Beginning" will be released on March 23rd!

Ferdy Doernberg about the song "a song for hilmer", that will be featured on the new Rough Silk - album "a new beginning":

"....The last song on the album is dedicated to Hilmer Staacke, the former guitarplayer of Rough Silk and was written, performed & recorded May, 26th–2006 in the dressingroom of “Ralph Freud´s Theatre”, Los Angeles, California/USA one day after I got the news that Hilmer had died the day before. Two friends of mine, Roy Z & Warren de Martini, helped me recording it right away on an old piano in the dressingroom.
The piano was a little out of tune, I made a few mistakes and if you listen car efully you can hear Uli Jon Roth soundcheck in the background but we kept it the way it was because it´s authentic. It wouldn´t be the same if we would recut it in the studio.
We combined it with a guitar-solo performed by Hilmer Staacke himself in 1995 so you have the chance to listen to a great guitarplayer one more time. What a shame!!!!
The new Rough Silk-Album "a new beginning" is dedicated to Hilmer. Hilmer and I went to school and had founded Rough Silk together, and after he had left the band we still were getting along very well, even though we didn´t have so much contact anymore, which is something I regret a lot now. Because Hilmer was only 5 days older than me we always put our birthday-parties together.
At one of these events I got drunk for the first time (at the second last time as well!) in my life. At another party I kissed a girl for the first time, and so on............
Until 1995 we saw each other nearly every day because of the band but also as kids we were making movies on "Super 8" (westerns, etc.) together, which we forced the whole school to watch. Later we even were kind of "family", because we dated two sisters at the same time. Misically Hilmer was an underrated guitarplayer , who had a great tone and was more into melodies than the "shredding"-thing. Besides Jeff Beck one of his favorite guitarplayers was Warren de Martini from Ratt.
As I was now playing with Warren in L.A. I thought of Hilmer and told Warren, that I had a friend who was a big fan of his playing. The next day Warren brought a poster to the show that he had signed for Hilmer. I wanted to give it to him on his birthday on the 5th of June. But 10 minutes later my cellphone rang and Ralf (the original bassplayer of Rough Silk) told me that Hilmer had died. Of course I was totally shocked. Instead of playing my keyboardsolo I played Bob Dylan´s "knockin´on heaven´s door", that I dedicaded to Hilmer and the audience sang with me.
2 days after I got back I went to Hilmer´s funeral and that was really tough. People I knew had died before (like a few month ago Peter Wells) but nobody so close. Hilmer and me grew up together and shared so many things.
For Rough Silk he was very importand and he definitely left his mark on the songs of the first albums. In the first years we rehearsed 6 times a week for 8 hours and all songs got worked out together in the rehearsal room. The basic ideas were always by Hilmer, Jan and myself. Hilmer´s songs (like for example. "Don´t leave me now" und "Ups and downs") had a very strong seventies-touch (way before the Seventies-revival) and were very different from the typical riff-orientated songwriting-style of the end of the eighties. His always present disease was one reason for him to leave the band in 1995 but also he was very shy person wo didn´t like to be in the spotlight and also hated the business-part of being a professional musician a lot.
On the very long European tour with Helloween (3 months) he already had problems with asthma and allergies. Hilmer was a very sensitive and intelligent person who later recorded an instrumental-Solo-CD called "wild desert" (I played keyboards on that one, too) and he also played a solo on my "Storyteller´s Rain"-CD.
After leavng the band he worked as a sessionplayer (for a local radiostation, for example) and gave guitar lessons. He married and got a now 8 years old daughter who became the main focus of the last years of his life. Hilmer only got 38 years old but his music will survive him.

I will never forget him and from now on when ever I´ll play songs like "walls of never" on a stage somewhere out there in this strange world I will think of him.

Rest in Peace, "Halma"!
- Ferdy..........."

The new Rough Silk album, "A New Beginning" will be released March, the 20th, 2009 via Dockyard1 Records. Here´s the tracklist:

1. Temple Of Evil
2. Home Is Where The Pain Is
3. Reborn To Wait
4. The Roll Of The Dice
5. When The Circus Is Coming To Town
6. Sierra Madre
7. A New Beginning
8. Warpaint
9. Black Leather
10. We´ve Got A File On You (feat. Subculture Squad)
11. Deadline
12. We All Need Something To Hold On To In This Life
13. A Song For Hilmer

Track number 10 is a collaboration with the german Hardcore-Punk Band Subculture Squad. The album was produced by Ferdy Doernberg the Droehnwerk-Studios, Bad Nenndorf/Germany with the exception of Track #13, which was written and right away recorded in Los Angeles one day after Ferdy got the news, that the original guitarplayer of Rough Silk had died the day before.

Rough Silk have just signed a new deal with the Hamburg-based Label Dockyard1. The new album will be titled : "A New Beginning".

2008

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2006