interview Mojo Blizzard
MOJO BLIZZARD is a Stoner-Metal band from Germany that formed in 2018. The band consists of Nicolaj Ruhnow (vocals), Denis Keller (guitar), Nino Hofmann (bass), Frank Hallok (guitar), and Mauro Welfens (drums). The musical background of each band member couldn't be more different: Nicolaj Ruhnow first appeared with metal bands like TOKYO BLADE, DOMAIN, IRONY, and NICK HELLFORT over two decades ago and made a name for himself on both large and small stages with his vocals. His longtime friend Denis Keller has always felt at home in the stoner genre and has significantly shaped MOJO BLIZZARD's sound with his distinctive style and love for guitar sounds.
Completing the band are Nino Hofmann, who is forced to play bass after proving his skills as a guitarist in several punk and metal bands, Frank Hallok, who appropriately supports the influential C tuning on the 7-string, and Mauro Welfens on drums, who tops off the songs with his versatile drumming.
After MOJO BLIZZARD was born in 2018 from an idea during a shared Flammkuchen meal, the band locked themselves in the rehearsal room for a whole year to write songs and release them into the world. Almost all of the songs were written collectively during rehearsals, with a focus on C tuning, fuzz sounds, space flange effects, pumping bass without excessive frills, and powerful drumming with plenty of room to breathe. The result is an entertaining mix that blends 70s PRIEST with 70s SABBATH and 90s KYUSS, but also HEEP and PURPLE with CANDLEMASS and IRON MAIDEN.
Their debut album "Lost in Space II" and their first performances quickly spread, leading to their first record deal. Nominated at the London Video Awards 2020 and supported by many gigs, including the Radio Regenbogen2 Festival 2021, even Covid couldn't stop their momentum.
In the winter of 2022/23, MOJO BLIZZARD released their second album "The Evil Crown", which was highly praised by several metal magazines. The band is now performing "The Evil Crown" live with a third guitarist, David Rapp (from the band Stellar Saint), making them a six-piece. It remains exciting to see where the journey will take the stoner metal band MOJO BLIZZARD next.
Alan - Hey happy to see you.
Nick - Nice to see you too, mate! Thanx for having us, Alan!
Alan – A lot is written in the header of the interview, so just to add. You have one mini-album released in 2020 and one full-length in 2023?
Nick - Yes that’s absolutely right. Funny ways led us to the point, first playing Gigs, (requested by venues) and then started recording our first Ep “Lost In Space II”. As mentioned above we took the time writing these first tracks within a year at our rehearsal room and put the tracks down in a couple of weeks. The way trickier part was, to write the successor by puttin in something new.
Alan – Your musical focus on the band itself? Although this is also written above, after all, clarify it a little.
Nick - Well, the thing is, back then we’ve been 5 individuals (which we’re still, don’t get me wrong) with completely different music directions and backgrounds, but instead of discussing things to the bloody end, we just started. It’s like: you got your condiments for different meals and start cooking without any plan and while you’re cooking you simply realize: wow, this can’t go wrong! Me for example I’m more rooted in classic singing and some 80s metal style, our bassplayer Nino is more into Punkmusic and Thrash, Mauro on drums comes from a modern metalbackground, Denis our Guitarist its totally into Stonerrock (which we all like) and Frank the second guitarplayer is into FrankZappa but also into classic Metal. So everybody put in what they experienced the most and so we clinked into each other and created MOJO BLIZZARD. We all love Stoner Rock but the Metal Elements are obvious, so you get what we are.
Alan – I also mention your towns where you come from. Have you lived there since birth? Or have you moved?
Nick - We all come the same area (exept David the 3rd Guitarplayer he’s from Freiburg) around Baden-Baden, Bühl which is in the southwestern of Germany near to French border. We haven’t move since we started the Band.
Alan - Just let's not get ahead of ourselves. Will an LP/CD with new work be released in 2025? And will it be recorded with six people? Or again with five?
Nick - We are going to record our 3rd Album this year and probably we’re releasing it in 2025. We started with 5 people, but we’re going to move on as a 6 piece, as 3 Guitars for a StonerMetal band sounds very massive. We’re writing on new material at the moment, there are a lot of ideas, a lot of input aand we think, we got a lot more stories to tell.
Alan – We are conducting this interview rather so that our readers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia can learn more about you. Have you ever been to these two countries? Did they play with previous bands? Or just on a trip - vacation?
Nick - I can’t speak for my mates, but I have been several times in the Czech Republic, but it was just for vacation. Been at the Tatra Mountains, Praha, Bratislava, and many other countries I loved it very much, and it would fantastic playing in that beautiful country one day.
Alan – The Czech Republic and Slovakia, when you were here, what interested you the most? And don't say beer. Haha
Nick - The Landscape, the people, the culture, the history and the music scene! And czech smoked chees.
Alan – Have you only played Mojo Blizzard in Germany? Or did you get elsewhere? For example to Switzerland etc...
Nick - Since now, we haven‘t played anywhere else than Germany, but we would love to play simply everywhere as long as we can afford it and most important the people wanna see us. Which is very intense and funny at the same time, you’ll get it when you got the chance to see us live.
Alan – what year did you first perform in concert and where? Did you have stage fright?
Nick - First Show ever was in October 2019 in a lil club called “Kneiple” in Bühl, and for some strange reason (keep in mind, no one has ever heard from us before) the place was sold out. We weren’t that frighten, as each bandmember is experienced playing live. Some of us more and others less. Being a lil bit shaky until we start the Show is always helpful to keep yourself grounded but it’s not what we define as stage fright.
Alan – To make light of this conversation. Have you had any funny experiences while playing? Which are publishable of course.
Nick - It’s always funny. But that first gig was a real funny one, as some girl in the frontrow was extremely drunken and crashed with her beer into the monitor and hit the ground. No one was hurt, but the funny bit was: she said sorry turned and get herself a new beer. Which was scary funny and cool at the same time.
Alan – Similar question but slightly different. What were the most interesting concerts, festivals where you played and why?
Nick - There are many, we played a couple of Festivals. “Umsonst & Draussen” in Bisingen as a mainly unknown band as a co-headliner and it was a very successful show. We played at a festival for a radio station called Radio Regenbogen2, at a place we’ve never been before as a kinda underground band, and it was successful as well. We like the challenge to win the crowd over. Or for example, we played in very very small clubs where none of us could move an inch to the left or right. Plus we played at some Biker meetings alongside with some tribute bands,.. which is always fun!
Alan – Apart from the success of releasing albums. They also wrote about you in various metal zines and magazines. Share these successes with our readers.
Nick - We received a lot of very good critics from magazines from day one, I’d say. Even some british magazines had some crush on us. You can read these if you like at our website.
Alan – We have summer in full swing and lots of festivals. do you have a full music schedule? And just by the way, which are the most interesting festivals you will play this year? Again - why these festivals are interesting to you.
Nick - This year we do not have a tight schedule, as we’re focused on writing and recording new songs this year. But we would love to play any festival. The big ones as well,.. who else would not?! As long as we get a stage, as long as there people interested in Stoner-Metal in this case MOJO BLIZZARD, as long there is something to eat and a place to sleep, contact us. We like Festivals because we love to play in front of many people, because of the Atmosphere, because we like to get in touch with the people and the scene, no matter if it’s a local scene or an international scene. But we also love playing clubs,.. as they are special in a different meaning. But a total different thing: as u cant cope a Festival show into a Live club, that doesn’t work.
Alan - I think you have introduced yourself enough so far. We will create another interview immediately after the release of the new work. Thanks for the interview.
Nick - Thanx for your time, and for your lovely interview, Hopefully we’re going to meet in person
Cheers Nick
https://www.mojo-blizzard.com
https://www.facebook.com/mojoblizzard
