HOLYHELL vocalist Maria Breon recently spoke with BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai about the band's humble beginnings and plans for the future. Following is an excerpt from the interview:

"This whole stigma that we’re a Manowar product, it’s absolutely not true," says Breon. "I set out as an aspiring vocalist who had studied and I wanted to put a band together, but I didn’t have any experience. I’d spent most of my time in school learning the proper ways to sing, performance and soforth, and I got very aggravated because I wasn’t able to express myself and do what I wanted to do… which was put a band together. I really wanted to learn from somebody that was successful in that regards, and by chance I met Joey DeMaio at a studio in Cleveland. I think he mixing the Hell On Stage live album – that was ’98 or ’99 – he listened to a demo tape of mine, and we just went forward from there. HolyHell went through a developmental phase where it’s always my ideas and my vision, and Joey really came into the picture as a big help by having so many connections to bring artists like Joe and Francisco into the picture."
"I had a vision for a band, the name, everything, but it was a long process putting it together because there were a lot of prospects in terms of songwriters and musicians, and in the beginning I wasn’t that confident in songwriting. I didn’t want to hold up the process so I was open to accepting different songwriters and musicians, and nothing fit. Just by chance Joe Stump (Reign Of Terror) was on the label, and he was perfect for the band. There were many guitar players that were considered but none of them were a perfect fit until Joe turned up."

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