As you have already seen, I love strong screaming voices, I am in constant search for new and old ones. Also, I am looking for anything new that I can find out and even, at one point, I imposed to myself that each and everyday to find something I didn’t know(in most of the cases this means to find out about a rock band I didn’t know about).

One of those days I was looking on YouTube for some music and I have found about a great voice that, to my shame, I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT!!! When I have started to listen it I felt shivering down my spine: how could I not know about this band? How could I not know about Steelheart when they play since so many years and when Mike Matijevic has such a great voice that is just made for electric guitars?

I was looking for more and more and I can only say that for 3-4 days I played on and on “She’s gone” and “Can’t stop me loving you”. Steelheart’s “She’s gone” is one great power ballad that shows the voice of Mike Matijevic in it’s full power and shows his easiness to get those high notes. I was just amazed, really! She’s gone is great but the voice of Mike Matijevic gives it the real value. When I have found Can’t stop me loving you I thought that these guys just needed to be great, they had such a great music, but just unknown here in Romania, at least from what I know.

Looking for more information, I have found their website, www.steelheart.com. What I have read there turned me upside down and to be honest I have perfectly understood why they didn’t make it big even if they had what it takes and most of all, they were on the wave at one point: life is what that hit them, fate, call it however you want. I am not going to get into details but Mike Matijevic, or Miljenko Matijevic by his real name had an very ugly accident in the beginning of their career and that was what cut them from the start. Despite the difficulties he faced, he seems to recover after some time. I have found some songs after Steelheart came back on stage, about 4 years later, losing the exact period when the musical style they play lost ground before other musical genders. Anyway, Today, Steelheart goes on tour constantly, which can only make me happy and Mike Matijevic seems to have the same love for live performances that I have seen in his early days videos, which is great. However, seems that,even if the electric guitars remain somehow the same,the musical style changed a bit to match today’s musical taste, which is not quite good from my point of view, but I guess everybody’s got to eat.

I can only say that at this moment, my favorite videos list on YouTube contains Steelheart and I am trying to get some recorded materials on CD for my car CD player since I became somehow of a fan. Steelheart rules!!!

I couldn’t stop myself thinking what would have Miljenko Matijevic been if it wasn’t that stupid accident he had on stage, where would he be today? Maybe next to Ozzy? Maybe next to Dave Coverdale? Steven Taylor? Anyway, Steelheart became one of my favorite bands of that great period which was ruled by hair metal, heavy metal, hard rock and electric guitars!

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14 years ago I have started to play the guitar (acoustic guitar,I mean), looking up to all those cool bands that I liked at that time. I remember that the dream I had it was to start a band that would play the same way my idols did. Of course I was fascinated by electric guitars and stuff…Of course, my idols of that time was Manowar, I was a fan of this band, which, by the way, I still am! Manowar rules or as they say, other bands play, Manowar kills…whatever…

Charmed by electric guitars

I remember it was this band in my city, a band that was already 8 years old at that time, I think, that played kind of a progressive, fusion metal, they said, hard rock in my opinion. So, it was this band, Kapela, which had a really good visibility in my city, 8 years of activity and really good musicians. I remember that when they were 8 years old, they had a concert in a local club where you had to pay to enter. I wanted that much to be there and I did my best to be there but I didn’t succeed. I remember I was fascinated by this band at that time, I was fascinated by the image of the solo guitar player, with his hard rock image, with long hair, boots, chains, leather jacket and a lovely Yamaha electric guitar that it was kind of an icon among us, local rock fans.

I didn’t know the guys back then; I was only going to their concerts (I told you about the one I couldn’t get to). I remember that at that time they just returned from a professional recording studio here in Romania with 2 songs they recorded and I managed to get the recordings, I don’t know how I did, but I got them. I was playing these 2 songs on and on on my cassette player, they sound so damn good, with heavy electric guitars, loud drums, bass guitar, etc. It was cool!

Then, something happened; the solo guitar player had a misunderstanding of some sort with the rhythm guitar player, the rhythm guitar player also started a media career, didn’t have time for the band anymore and they split (today he is one of the famous journalists and TV icon in my country).

Also, before this, the bass player immigrated to Canada to also start a career in media, he used to work in television while in the band, he also filmed and produced the first clip ever in my city, with real rock look and feel, he was good at this. The bass player was also the lead singer so the band was in need of a lead singer. They found one and he also took the job as bass player, they went back in a 3 people formula. This guy had a really beautiful voice, fan of David Coverdale but also Take That…I know, I know, something sounds wrong, but that was the truth! He didn’t quite match a Megadeth-like band, which Kapela was before he joined the band, but he didn’t have a band and they didn’t have a lead singer, so…And you know what? When I have first seen them at a concert in this new formula it sounds really good in my opinion, I said yes, they are there!

Italian rock evenings (or meeting the public)

So, there were those concerts in my city, in an Italian pub, where once a week the owner used to organize rock evenings where the ones who dare could play. The guitar player of this rock band I was telling you about was a usual guest at this rock evenings, I was also going there each time, to look and after a few session, to play the guitar with a few friends of mine.
And you know what? Today, out of those people coming to play there, 3 are professional musicians with great success here nationwide, so I can really say that it was a prolific bunch of musicians. See the keyboard player of this band here, Voltaj is the name, and a successful composer, producer and sound engineer, the guitar player of Parlament, and the guitar player of Spin. This is the guitar player I was telling you about a bit earlier.

Joining the band

Soon a common friend introduced me to this guy, the guitar player I was speaking about,Bogdan. We went along fine, he invited me to the rehearsal room, we started to jam together, and without knowing he asked me if I would like to join the band as a rhythm guitar player. Well, what do you think I did? I joined the band!!! Doh! It was one of those great moments in my life, a moment that I will always remember since it was a dream come true at that moment. So now the band had again 2 electric guitars, bass and drums, we were a classic rock band, don’t you think?

To that time I was already wearing long hair, boots and leather jackets with chains and spikes. Of course, every rocker who respects himself should wear this, right?
By the way, if you put electric guitars over spiked leather jackets which one do you think will suffer? Trust me, the electric guitars lose the fight all the time, spikes don’t come easy on guitar’s wood. Take this as a tip!

So, after a few weeks of rehearsals, 2 I think, we had a concert, the first one, open air, with a few thousand people, man, I was nervous.But, everything went fine, my friends told me that I fit in there just fine, it all sounded great so…rock on, man!

I played in that band a little over a year, a year when I learned a lot about electric guitars, about acoustic guitars, about playing together as a band, about rehearsals, about recording, by the way, we recorder 3 tracks together, we were planning an album, the second, they had a first one released a few years ago, we were on TV on a national channel, etc. But the story went wrong, issues between me and the lead guitar player started to appear, mostly during long nights, after the shows, he likes to party, drink, meet girls, I have never been quite the drugs, sex and rock and roll type, to be honest.

However after one year I decided to leave the band and follow my initial dream, with some old friends of mine. I was already playing in a parallel band, an other style, a more commercial one. So I decided to leave the band and go on with this other band I joined.

Soon, the lead singer of Kapela joined me, happy with the fact that he will not play the bass anymore and focus on his voice. Also, shortly after leaving the first band, the drummer also joined us since we were short of a drummer, and left Kapela, even if he was the founder of it.

What can I say, it was a beautiful period, I will speak in an other post about it, about how we evolved, how we grew together, how we learned together to form a band and act as one.

But more about it, next time, until then, long live rock and electric guitars!!

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