Dragon Slayer All Star Project

Interview by Ali Blackdiamond

Richard Ofsoski is a musician from Brisbane, Australia. He is the founder of the METAL FOR CANCER project, an organisation devoted to raising funds for cancer research on behalf of the metal community.

In 2011, Richard decided to invite many different artists from the world of metal to unite together, going by the name of the Dragon Slayer All Star Project, creating a very special song, “Let’s Unite In Rock”. I had a chat with Richard about the project, read what he had to say below:

Hi Richard and welcome to Metal Shock Finland, how are you today?

Very good thank you hope you are well yourself !

The whole Metal For Cancer project was conceived by you, can you tell our readers about how it all started?

MFC started as a result of losing my wife to cancer and wanting to contribute towards the battle against this nasty disease. It was a different approach to raising funds and is still developing somewhat.

What are your thoughts on the whole process of the project, from its inception to getting all the musicians on board and releasing the Dragon Slayer All Star Project single?

It was great ! A fantastic all star song written by Mr Henrik Flyman of the band Evil Masquerade and a great contingent of metal musicians from all over the world contributing their services for free. Also the graphic artists and webmasters who contributed.

The Metal For Cancer single “Let’s Unite In Rock,” which was written by Henrik Flyman, and you were also one of the artists on the recording, is very anthemic with a great metal sound. Can you tell me how you feel about the finished product and what it means to you?

Great song with great lyrics only available to MFC. Fantastic job by Mr Flyman and a the other musicians. Just wish it could get more exposure somehow but we are working on that.

Do you keep in touch with any of the musicians involved and would you make a song in this way again?

Of course I keep in touch with quite a few through Facebook mainly .Have developed some good cyberspace friendships. Ive been thinking of perhaps doing an All Star version of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water and have had some musicians keen on the idea.

As well as “Let’s Unite In Rock”, there are also several other songs available to buy on the Metal For Cancer website, from bands such as Empires Of Eden and Eclipse Hunter. What are the next plans for Metal For Cancer?

A compilation CD is something Ive been thinking about and making it available as a physical CD as well as digitally. But we need to work out a marketing plan first perhaps setting up a stand at festivals could be an option plus available from the website. T Shirts would be cool also as we have had some great graphic artists contribute some cool designs. All these things would be great but we need to be able to sell them and that’s the main area we have to look at.

Last year, you attended the opening of two world class research laboratories and also met Professor Ian Frazer (creator of the cervical cancer vaccine). How was that experience and what did you gain from seeing the work being done?

It was an absolute honour to meet him. People speak of their heroes, idols etc but this was a real true hero. A nice caring down to earth man who dedicates his life to fighting this disease. Not only did he create the cervical cancer vaccine but hes on the verge of a breakthrough with melanoma as well and its up to us to help him continue this great work !!

You also have your own band Sedition, can you tell me more about that and what’s happening at the moment, or any other projects you are involved in?

Sedition are no longer active due to the founding member and main songwriter being sick and unable to continue. I do my solo albums and also have a new side project I am currently recording with.

What are views on the metal scene in Australia today?

Its not huge but there is an underground scene. It’s strange because there are some world class bands who are more well known in Europe than here. There are some festivals starting up so hopefully that may help.

As your final words, please feel free to leave a message for the Metal Shock Finland audience.

Please support this great cause we need as many people as possible to help spread the word and purchase the music available. Cancer is a disease that affects everyone in some way and needs to be stopped and this is one way the metal community can unite and do its part in helping defeat this disease

Thanks for your time Richard!

Thank you!
Check out the video for “Let’s Unite In Rock” below:

Check out the METAL FOR CANCER website at this location

Also Blackdiamond had an interview for Part One of this project with Henrik Flyman from EVIL MASQUERADE about his role in the METAL FOR CANCER project You can find the interview at this location.

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As October is the main focus for Cancer Awareness campaigns, though of course we are all aware all of the time, I wanted to conduct a series of interviews, focusing on the Metal For Cancer Dragon Slayer All Star Project.

The project is the brainchild of Australian musician Richard Ofsoski. Last year, Richard decided to get together an all star cast including such metal artists as Henrik Flyman (EVIL MASQUERADE), Mats Leven (THERION, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN), Snowy Shaw (THERION, MERCYFUL FATE), Tonny Kakko (SONATA ARCTICA, NORTHERN KINGS), Glenn Drover (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT), Stu Marshall (EMPIRES OF EDEN), Apollo Papathanasio (FIREWIND, EVIL MASQUERADE) plus many more. The aim is for as many music lovers as possible to buy the song from the Metal For Cancer website with 100% of the proceeds going to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

My first interview for this project was with Henrik Flyman, guitarist with Scandinavian metallers EVIL MASQUERADE. You can read a couple of excerpts below, followed by the full interview on the player:
When asked about how the song “Let’s Unite In Rock” was recorded, Henrik said: “We were trying to raise money not spend money, so we had to do it via the internet and sending demos to each other. The most difficult part for me as producer of the song was to gather all the parts from the musicians and put them together, so it sounded like we worked together. As you can imagine, you have a vocalist in the USA, then someone in Australia or wherever. Of course, even though the quality of the recordings were good, to be able to mix it I really had to do some work to do a normal mix. But looking back, it sounded really good. the song didn’t take much time to write, as I knew where I wanted to go with it. From starting to pre-production it was something like 3 days, but the difficult part was getting the material as people were busy or on tour. But that’s the good thing about going into a project like this, because you don’t know how it will work, but I really liked the idea so I went for it, which is often the best way.”

Discussing the style of the song, Henrik had the following to say: “Basically I wanted to make a song that would cross some borders, for example if you take the old songs from bands like Black Sabbath and Dio, most people into metal like those bands, despite what type of metal they are playing now. Most of the musicians involved grew up with that kind of ’80’s music. I wanted to make the chorus a melodic anthem style, but not too cliche. So I chose to make it as it is, it’s still people uniting, but not that cheesy. As for the lyrics, I didn’t want to make it sad, as it’s such a sensitive issue and it could still be a good rock song. If you read the lyrics it’s still 100% about the issue of dealing with cancer. I think people appreciate that and it would make it easier for people to buy it, as it’s just a rock and roll song.”

Listen to the full interview here: