Congratulations with the second album with KK’s Priest, but let us start with a question of the past. Of course you have been singing in a lot of bands, like Judas Priest, Iced Earth and Beyond Fear, how did you end up being the singer in KK’s Priest? How did that happen?
Well, KK did once a show with Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson under the moniker MegaPriest in 2019 and I think after that show, KK realized that he just wanted to do a record. Three months later he called me, I listened to the new material and I said yes, this is great stuff, absolutely. It would be awesome to be back with KK and do it. So that was the start in 2019, the show was in 2020 in January, when he finally thought: let us do something and that’s when we started hang out together.

Then the first album ‘Sermons Of The Sinner’ came out, but it was in the middle of the pandemic, so I guess you had to wait for a while before going on stage…
Yeah when we recorded it, we had dates planned and doing a lot around it, but then covid-19 came and we had to delay everything, but the time that we thought to do some shows, we thought it would be better if we made another record, so we have two records out.

That’s true, because this year you have headlined several festivals in Europe, like Alcatraz in Belgium…
Yeah they were great, so it was really a challenge. Festivals are different and harder to play than your own shows, because it is a different crowd there, but the festivals have been just amazing.

Several things a different on this second album ‘The Sinner Strikes Again’, because not only KK has written the material, but second guitarist AJ Mills also contributed to two songs during the writing process…
AJ has been friends with KK for a long time and he was in a band Hostile and Ken always helped him out and kept him going. He had a lot of song ideas and different parts and ideas for songs. He got together with Ken, they are neighbours, so they started writing songs together. He is just an outstanding person and guitar player, so it is really great that he is in for the writing process.

Where does your artistic view come in sight? Are you only performing the vocals or do you have any input on the rest as well?
Ken is handling the melodies. He sends the melody ideas and the lyrics and this record I recorded in my studio at my house here. I was able to add a lot of different dimensions. Since I was recording here, I was able to change some parts or I tried to and send them some different ideas that I might have had. So I was able to approach it a little bit different than the first one.

Yes, I like this one better than the first album. It is tricky to say from a band with veterans, but you have grown on this song material…
Yes I think I was able to sing a bit more aggressive this time and I like to sing like that. I think I was able to add more character to the record, more light and shade as I like to say and I think sitting here at my house recording let me do that.

Then you are more at ease and relaxed of course…
Yeah if I sent an idea and KK did not like it, I just redo it.

It is also a very epic sounding record in my opinion…
I think it is too. The sound of the record, all the instruments, they are sounding so good and the last three songs on the record are so epic. Although ‘One More Shot At Glory’ is also very epic. That is one of my favourites.

And that song should refer to a Judas Priest song on ‘Painkiller’?
The title has a connection, but I think the song really doesn’t, but the title does. Ken is connected with these songs in his career. He likes to stay connected with what he has done and that was his life, doing that. I love that he stays back in action.

One of the songs that stand out is ‘Hymn 66’. Can you tell a bit more about that?
It is a great song indeed. We just released the video, so if anyone wants to check our videos out, they are on YouTube. You can check out four videos released for the record now, and they are all a little bit different. Each song is a bit different.

There is a kind of creepy atmosphere in the seventh song ‘Keeper Of The Graves’.
It is. It has got that great kind of slow beginning, straight forward vocals, a lot of feelings, the verse has got real heaviness. Yeah it definitely has an atmosphere to it. A bit doom-like atmosphere too.

On the other hand, the next song ‘Pledge Your Souls’ has a kind of big arena feel… correct me if I am wrong…
I agree. It really has that feel, with some extra epicness. And then right after that is I think the most epic song on the record: ‘Wash Away Your Sins’. I think that is my real favourite on this record. It’s got a little bit of everything, like impressive choirs and acoustic parts. I love the beginning, but then I really like the verses because they are heavy and chuggy and catchy.

Did you already play one of the songs live or is that strictly why you are going to rehearse now?
We played two new songs we already had delivered on video before: ‘One More Shot At Glory’ and ‘Reap The Whirlwind’. We only play the songs that people could have heard and now we are going to play ‘Strike Of The Viper’. That will be in the set list because the video is out, it has got over 600000 views, so people have heard it. ‘Hymn 66’ is just out, it will probably be played on the next tour.