Vocalist Dave Niederberger and guitarist Marco Troxler of ‘Fighter V’ met by chance on a Saturday night in a bar in the middle of the old town of Lucerne, Switzerland and hatched their plans for a band right there. As the bio says: “That place was far and wide known as one of the last bastions of rock music. It is tight, confusing, cigarette smoke from all corners, the alcohol flows in streams and the volume of the music is at the peak – But as I said, they play rock music there!” – sounds good to us! If you love the classic sounds of Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Journey, Survivor, and Def Leppard then you’ll love ‘Fighter V’. The is is Stadium Rock for the 20’s that you would have loved in the 80’s…
Mark: Hi Dave thank you so much for talking to The Rockpit today, We love to feature up and coming bands and let people know about them just as much as we love covering the bigger bands.
Dave: Thank you, and thank you for your review.
Mark: No problem – I was tipped off by a fan of the band from Melbourne so I’m just sorry I didn’t get to it sooner. So for those not in ‘the know’ tell us all about the band ‘Fighter V’.
Dave: Well basically Marco and I met in a local bar a couple of years ago I guess and we listened to those 80’s records that our parents had, it was the only bar around that was playing that kind of 80’s Rock and classic rock and as a joke we said “Why don’t we try and do something like that as well? I can sing a bit and maybe you could pick up the guitar?” But at first it was only a joke but a month later we started a band together and gathered some more people around us.
Mark: So how long did it take from that initial meeting to getting the album released?
Dave: We actually had another project before we changed our name to Fighter V, which was I guess last summer. In the early days we started playing only covers, then we became a party project called ‘Hairdryer’ that did a mix of our own songs and cover songs and we got to tour a bit but people didn’t really take us seriously. We took the music seriously always but people didn’t take the image seriously I guess. They didn’t get it so after a while we tried to change the band name and shed the image of a parody act and get serious, so that people would take us seriously as musicians. Then we tried to write the songs for the record.
Mark: So how long did you have some of the songs on the record? Do any date back to that previous band?
Dave: No they’re all new songs because the first project we had was more Glam Metal oriented and with Fighter V we’ve gone more to AOR and Melodic Rock. We started writing I remember in January 2018 and I think the writing process took nine to ten months and during that time we also found our producer Jona Tee from H.E.A.T. And by October, November we decided to hit the studio within three months and we had a few concerts again, but that’s pretty much how it all came together.
Mark: It’s a small world, I was talking to Jona just before the new H.E.A.T. album came out.
Dave: That’s cool.
Mark: We don’t hear enough about Swiss Rock Downunder but there is some great stuff about and has been for years. I was introduced to a few of those bands many years ago by a series of compilations on K-Tel Switzerland called ‘The Finest of Hard Rock’ I think I have four volumes of it – they has some great international bands on there but also a lot of local bands! And that was really my introduction to bands like China, Gotthard, Paganini, Mud Slick and Sic Vicki – we all of course knew of Krokus already.
Dave: I think I had one of those once from a friend, was it like a black cover?
Mark: I think the first one was then there was a white one, a blue one and a red one that came in a tin.
Dave: (laughs) I remember.
Mark: One thing I always wonder when I speak to bands especially in Europe is how much local bands influence you as well as the big internationals like Whitesnake, Journey and Bon Jovi for example?
Dave: It’s hard to say. Personally I’m influenced by all kinds of music as I like a wide range of different styles of music but of course I can’t deny that the 80’s and bands like Survivor, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi I guess were the main influence for the record, I can’t really say that bands like Gotthard or China were a main influence. Of course I like their music, and I really dig the debut from Gotthard but I think the main influences were American and British bands from the 80’s.
Mark: It’s a great album, not a bad track on there but to pick a few favourites I love that riff to the opening song ‘Dangerous’ – was that a song you wrote pretty early on?
Dave: Some people say that if you want to write a good song it shouldn’t take you too long, but in the case of ‘Dangerous’ it actually took us eight months (laughs). The song originally sounded very different at the beginning. We had some chords and a melody and we worked on the chorus and the structure, then Marco came up with that guitar riff and that was it! It took a long time ‘till the song sounded like it does on the record.
Mark: And of course the single ‘City of Sinners’ is a great track, and interesting that it comes so late on in the album. But I think there are a few others I might have picked ahead of that for a single?
Dave: That’s a good question (laughs). To be completely honest with you it was never one of my favourite songs on the record but all the other guys said that song should be released as the first single so I jumped on that boat with them. If it was up to me maybe it wouldn’t have been, but I was wrong and people liked it. I was wrong! (laughs)
Mark: It’s still a great song and one of many on the album. I must admit it’s not often for me that a ballad threatens to be my favourite track on an album but ‘Save Your Love For Me’ is an absolute gem! How did that one come about?
Dave: That one came from some chords from Marco our guitar player had, we were sat in the rehearsal room and I heard him play and said “Hey it’s not 4:4 it’s 3:4 let’s try it as a ballad.” So he tried it and I started to sing along. It’s one of my favourites (now), I thought it was too poppy but the other guys said ‘No it’s a great song’. They were right again!
Mark: I guess the big question now is what happens next? Are you guys touring? What’s happening with Fighter V?
Dave: We toured last autumn in Germany with The New Roses and Switzerland on our own. That all went on till January then we had a break and tried to write some new material, and on the 5th of March the next tour starts with The New Roses – this time in Germany again, Czech Republic and Austria. They’re weekend tours – Friday, Saturday and Sunday or Thursday, Friday and Saturday, no full week tours but it’s great we love it and the New Roses sell a lot of tickets. Especially in Germany where we get to play to 1000 people every night! I’ve never seen so many people (laughs). I come from a small town up in the mountains – I’ve never seen anything like it!
Mark: (laughs) You better get used to it! Great band The New Roses and that sounds like a killer bill!
Dave: Timmy’s great, the whole band are very cool people and great to hang out with. And they even share their back-line at a few of the gigs where there’s not been enough space, so they’re very cool guys.
Mark: Now we get to that time in the interview when we start the searching questions –if you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great Rock album, what would you have liked to have seen being put together in the studio?
Dave: Wow so many albums! But I guess that’s what everyone says! To cut it short I think I’d go for ‘Metal Health’ by Quiet Riot.
Mark: An interesting choice, a pivotal album for Rock in the 80’s. What is it about that album that makes it stand out for you?
Dave: I think it probably is my favourite album of all time, that song ‘C’mon Feel the Noise’ it got me into 80’s rock when I was like 13 or 14. I always loved the sound and the production on ‘Metal Health’ and I loved the songs. I think they have a certain kind of energy which is hard to capture, even harder these days! I think it was also the vibe I got from it – it really talks to me and cheers me up. I just love that record.
Mark: If we were going to book you a table at a restaurant and let you invite four musicians from the whole history of Rock music to spend the evening with – who would you invite?
Dave: Well first would be Bruce Dickinson I guess, probably Jon Bon Jovi… Do they have to be musicians?
Mark: No let’s give you free reign.
Dave: In that case let’s scratch Bon Jovi, I’ll go for Sylvester Stallone, to show me some kicks, Ghandi to show me something about life, and Samantha Fox for some other reasons.
Mark: (laughs) Wow that’s a name that really takes me back to the 80’s. I interviewed Samantha many years ago, never Ghandi though I’m not that old!
Dave: (laughs)
Mark: And we always end with a really easy question- what is the meaning of life?
Dave: Wow! I was expecting something easy! Probably the meaning of life is to be able to get to the end of the road and be able to say to yourself that maybe you made things a little bit better. To make a positive difference.
Mark: That’s a great answer. Thank you so much for your time today Dave, take care and I can’t wait to hear that new music! In the meantime of course everyone should go out and get that wonderful debut now. Thanks mate!
Dave: Thanks Mark I just wanted to say thank you very much for taking the time to have a little chat with me. We really appreciate that. Thank you, bye Mark.
Buy the album here : https://www.shop.fighter-v.com/https://www.shop.fighter-v.com/