Rocking Out and Loving Life with Rizon

Rocking Out and Loving Life with Rizon

Swiss Melodic Power Rock Band Rizon present Prime Time to the world via Pure Steel Records, and it’s sure to enrapture all types of music fans.  With standout tracks such as Love Your Life and Fuckin’ Rock It sending the listener into the stratosphere, Rizon’s brilliant compositions and vibrant musicianship are exhilarating to behold.  Here is a recent email interview Highwire Daze Online conducted with Rizon to find out more about this dynamic band and their just released Prime Time endeavor.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Rizon, and how long the band has been together.
The group’s origins date back to 1997. At that time we were playing cover songs while beginning to write our own music. The first songs were in the area of “Bon Jovi Rock”. With time our style has focused more and more towards melodic rock and metal. As a distinctive element, the male-female double vocals soon became established as well.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?
Rizon is based in Zürich Switzerland. But our band members come from Basel to St. Gallen, so all the way from the north to the very east of Switzerland. Also we do have three and a half nationalities in the band, Switzerland, Germany, Greece and a bit of Ireland.

Zurich is certainly known for electronic music, and hosts the “Street Parade“, one of the largest techno events. But there is also a small rock and metal scene, which is growing again compared to 20 years ago. With a few established clubs like the “Hall of Fame” and the “Metbar” we have a good cooperation for years.

How did you wind up signing with Pure Steel Records?
Back in 2007 we were looking for an international label for our new album “Sudden Life” and came across “Karthago Records“. Karthago merged with Pure Steel Records a few years later and we transferred with them.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title Prime Time?
Prime Time is not a concept album but we guess it has a certain “vibe”. We hope it transports overall positive feelings and motivation in a not so easy time.

Select two songs from Prime Time and what inspired the lyrics?
We are aware of how privileged we are to be able to live in Central Europe and to have the freedom to say and do what we want. Maybe we can spread a little optimism with our songs “Love Your Life” and “Fuckin’ Rock It“. Both songs are about getting back up after hard times.

Who did the cover art for Prime Time and how much input did you have on it?
The cover artwork was painted by Timo Würz. He has already painted our last two covers. Especially on our last album Power Plant he brought our “biting flower” to life so great that we really wanted to have it on the cover again. He did about 8 sketches for us with different ideas and then we chose the one we liked the best. He then worked these out into what you see before you now.

This is Anastasia’s first album with Rizon. How did she become involved with the band and what is her music background?
We found her on recommendation of a friend of our guitarist Reto. She was and still is much into acoustic music, pop and funk. We asked her anyway to come along for a casting and we found out that she wanted to be a metal girl all her life 😉 More seriously, it was a good fit for all of us from the beginning and we felt that the voices and vocal colors of our two singers complemented each other very well.

What could one expect from a live Rizon show?
A good time together! Passion and energy! Or how Ludwig van Beethoven said: “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

If Rizon could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Iron Maiden! A band that shaped our youth and opened the doors to the world of metal 🙂

Are you involved with any other bands or projects outside of Rizon?
Our female singer Anastasia is involved in several music projects, mostly acoustic performances. It’s how she earns her money. The rest of us are working on different daytime jobs outside of the music business. This has the huge advantage that we are not forced to earn money with Rizon, thus we can musically do what we want and what we love.

When you look back on your first album Evolution for 2005, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
It is certainly an album that lacks at some points and it is not an “industry standard” production. However, it was our first attempt to produce a full length album, and we recorded and mixed everything with old school equipment by ourselves. So it brought us further. Nevertheless, the first attemptions of our current songwriting already shines through. And it was good fun to record these tracks 🙂

What do you hope the rest of 2022 brings for you and Rizon?
A few cool gigs and a great time together.

Any final words of wisdom?
Love your life and fuckin’ rock it 😉

LINE-UP:
Matthias Götz – vocals, acoustic guitars
Anastasia Panagiotou – vocals
Christian Götz – guitars
Reto Hähnel – guitars
Marco Küderli – keyboards
Maik Kindermann – bass
Tom Lindegger – drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

http://www.rizon.ch/
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