Sahara’s Liz Vandall talks about Uli John Roth, Lyraka and more Sahara
To call Liz Vandall (Uli Jon Roth/Sahara vocalist) anything less than a vocal leviathan would be an understatement. She possesses a vocal range that encompasses everything from the melodically euphonious to the raw and gritty. Todd Houston from the Rockford Rocked page caught up with her at her home in Germany just before recording vocals for Lyraka 2, a Wagnerian Metal Opera with Andy DiGelsomina Enjoy!
Legendary Rock Interviews:
You were born in Stockholm Sweden, how was it that your family ended up in Rhode Island?
Liz Vandall:
Well, my mom met who was to become my stepfather in Sweden. He is American and spent time there coaching a hockey team. They got married and we moved to RI when I was 3 1/2 years old. I grew up in Cranston and then moved to North Kingstown when I started Junior High. Later, in 1983, we moved to Los Angeles.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Your voice is truly amazing! At what age did you decide that you wanted to be the lead vocalist in a rock band?
Liz Vandall:
Thank you Todd! It was all a progression, really. I actually decided that I wanted to be a singer when I was 9 years old when I saw Cher on the Sonny and Cher show. I thought she was so beautiful and powerful, so I started singing to her records. This was all going on at the same time that I was pretending to be David Cassidy of the Partridge Family and singing into our upright vacuum cleaner, it was the perfect height, hahaha. I spent an awful lot of time picking up the needle to the record player and putting it back until I could copy the singing. Then I moved up to trying to tape myself. As I got older in Jr. High, I joined the chorus in school and got a trophy for Most Outstanding, that felt like it was my Grammy! By the time I was 16 or so, I was hanging out with the rockers at school which led to singing in bands.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Who were your musical influences?
Liz Vandall:
I had various influences, both vocal and musical. I liked a lot of the hard rock bands from mid ’70’s onward, of course what’s become Classic Rock today. I spent a lot of time singing along with records and loved Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, Bruce Dickenson, Kansas, early Sammy Hagar, etc., mainly male power-style vocalists. There really weren’t many females to draw from at that time, Pat Benetar and Ann Wilson come to mind, but they weren’t really doing the kind of music that I was interested because I was getting more into the heavier rock, like Scorpions, Rainbow, Schenker, early Aerosmith, etc. so my influences pretty much remained male. Also, Ann Wilson is phenomenal, but our ranges are completely different, I’m more of a contralto. I’ve also loved Kate Bush for many years now, and she resulted in influencing me musically. I love a lot of music, from Medieval-Renaissance and Celtic to progressive bands such as Dream Theater.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Were your parents supportive in your musical quest in the begining?
Liz Vandall:
Ha ha ha, this is a funny one. I think my parents basically just tried to cope with me singing along with the blasting stereo, eventually I drove them crazy by wearing headphones and singing, I would imagine totally out of key because I couldn’t hear myself. I think drummers and singers have it rough because we’re loud, I know I was.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Tell us how you ended up in Los Angeles fronting the band Sahara.
Liz Vandall:
My mom decided to move to LA first before me. I didn’t want to go because I was in my first gigging band in RI called Violation. But I blew out my voice and had to see a doctor and he told me to give myself six weeks of complete vocal rest. I knew I couldn’t be quiet that long if I was still hanging out at rehearsals, so I went out to LA in 1983 to visit my mom and I never ended up going back. I started taking voice lessons with Seth Riggs, one of the top coaches in LA and put ads out in Music Connection magazine and started auditioning for bands. Once I did that, I realized that I could stand up to the competition there and thought it didn’t really make any sense to go back. I played with a couple of bands until I met and joined Sahara, I think in 1986.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Sahara keyboardist Diane Kornarens was in the 80’s metal band WARLORD! Yngwie Malmsteen has been quoted as saying that Warlord was one of his favorite bands. Did any of Warloard’s music spill over into Sahara early on?
Liz Vandall:
I didn’t know that about Yngwie. I do know that Phil Woodward, Sahara’s guitarist, used to hang out with Yngwie in those days. I’m also not so familiar with Warlord, Diane had played me some stuff, but considering at that point that Sahara’s music was written then by Diane and Phil, I’m sure there was some type of influence.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
The 1992 Sahara album “Going Crazy” has some fantastic melodic rock stuff going on! How much influence did you have in the writing process of this album?
Liz Vandall:
Generally, Phil and Diane used to come up with most of the music and I would write the melodies and lyrics. But as the band evolved, all of us had some input in various songs. I also play keyboards enough to write, but not perform though, and many times, I would come up with a part and show it to Diane and it would be incorporated. I did have a few songs on both albums that I wrote by myself as well.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Some people might say that “Going Crazy” has some disturbing, nightmarish cover art! Not quite as disturbing as Black Sabbath’s “Born again” cover art but still! Who came up with the concept?
Liz Vandall:
I had found a brochure of a really way out there artist named Laurie Lipton and we contacted the gallery and got permission to use the picture for the cover. We thought it epitomized the story behind the song Going Crazy, with how the psychological effects of society and family shape people and begins in childhood. The name of the drawing was “When the Bough Breaks”. They didn’t let us alter or superimpose anything over the image, so it ended up looking pretty funky with the typeset by the time it was finished. A lot of her artwork is pretty disturbing, you can check out her website at http://www.laurielipton.com/
Legendary Rock Interviews:
The follow up album 1995’s “Seventh House” features the song “AQUARIUS”. I personally love the production! Your vocals are haunting as well as the the whole vibe of the song. Who’s idea was it to cover this song and make it your own?
Liz Vandall:
Aquarius came to me driving in my car. I heard the keyboard notes of the verse in my head and started singing the melody. When I got home, I recorded it and showed it to Diane. We worked it out in rehearsal and they came up with the rest of the music. We really put a lot into that song and although the production is dated today, I still remain very proud of it. For all intents and purposes, although it is technically a cover song, it truly became our own as it is so different from the original. It almost feels like we wrote it. At the very least, the creativity and effort that went into it was the same as writing our own anyway.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Let’s face it, 85% of hard rock/metal concert goers tend to be white males 18 to 35 years old! What was is like being a beautiful women fronting a hard rock band in the 80’s and 90’s? And did the guys in your band keep a close eye on you?
Liz Vandall:
Well…thanks for that complement Todd, but I never thought of myself as beautiful and I never had that problem with guys chasing me around after shows or anything like that! I think honestly, in some ways, we were intimidating or something. Also, you have to keep in mind that we played mostly in the LA area and when I’d look out, I’d see a bunch of musicians with their arms crossed trying to look cool. However, I do recall Blackie Lawless chasing me and Diane home in his car one night (lAUGHS!)
Legendary Rock Interviews:
In 1995 after 9 years in the band, Diane Kornarens decided to call it a day and split from the music bizz all together. Where did this leave you and the other members of Sahara?
Liz Vandall:
We were very disoriented after Diane quit. So much of our sound was from the combination of Diane, Phil and myself and it never crossed our minds really to carry on without her. She got completely disillusioned with the whole thing after getting burned a couple of times monetarily. When we were recording The Seventh House, we went over budget and the record company, Dreamcircle, which was basically Ole Bergfleth, wouldn’t pay and she had to put it on her credit card. Then, we shot a pro video of the song Aquarius. We had hours of footage, a pro crew and even had a stage set built. I think he had run out of money at this point and never paid to even get the film out of the lab. It still kills us to this day, we don’t even know what lab it was and if it still exists. All we ended up with was a few snapshots somebody took and a few minutes shot on a home camera. Very sad. I think it really would have been such a cool video, it still upsets me.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Tell us how you met your Boyfriend (former Scorpions guitarist) Uli Jon Roth.
Liz Vandall:
I met Uli in 1996. I was debating at that point if I would maybe go solo, but then I got the call from Uli and he flew me out to record vocals for his album, Requiem for an Angel. Diane’s brothers were great Uli fans from way back and one of them had a Sky Guitar that Uli let him hang onto for a while. Phil got permission to play the Sky Guitar in the song Aquarius. When the album got finished, her brother Anthony went out to visit Uli and played him the song and then the next thing I knew I was on my way to England to record. We hit it off professionally and personally and a year later, I moved to the UK and moved in with him.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
You’ve toured with Uli since the 1998’s G3 tour. Since then you have done many more including, Ledgends of Rock, Rock meets Renaissance and more recently for Uli’s “Under a Dark Sky” album. What were some of the highlights during this period?
Liz Vandall:
Doing the G3 tour was the first major tour I had ever done. The lineup was Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker and Uli. Obviously, it was fantastic and exciting, but at the same time stressful, because by the end of it, I was 5 months pregnant. It was a time of many firsts. Gary Barden was so much fun to be around, he was singing with Michael’s band and used to always tease me about my stomach. Uli’s band itself was fantastic to play with, we rehearsed in our house. Don Airey made me a really delicious Shepherd’s Pie (actually I think it’s called Cottage Pie when they make it with hamburger), anyway it was a dream come true for me to work with musicians of that calibre. We also had Clive Bunker on drums who was the original drummer of Jethro Tull. I took the next couple of years off to be a full-time mother, which inadvertently ended up being an unplanned retirement of sorts. I only made a few appearances here and there at shows on the tours you mentioned. I truly wanted to keep on with the music, but we lived way out in the boonies and Uli was the active one, so I had to take a back seat.
In 2001, Uli did The Legends of Rock at Castle Donnington with Jack Bruce and Michael Schenker. They all rehearsed at our house which was pretty cool. Phil Mogg and Pete Way played with Michael. I remember I had to sing one song with them because Phil was out of the room or something. All I remember is being really nervous. I couldn’t believe it, I mean I grew up listening to Michael Schenker! That show progressed into a Legends of Rock tour in 2002 with Frank Marino, Glenn Hughes and again Jack Bruce. I can’t remember now, but I know I did play with them at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London and a few others. One really great thing that came out of it was a very close friendship with Frank Marino. He spent a lot of time with me in between rehearsals trying to help me out with getting my material together. I needed technical help with my studio, as in engineering, in fact that’s been my main problem all along throughout the years and flew out to Canada to his studio. He recorded one of my songs for me, Falling from the Sky. I haven’t talked to him in a while now, but I know I could just pick up the phone and it would be like no time has gone by. He’s a great person. What I remember most of Rock Meets Renaissance was how unseasonably cold it was that October in Germany. It was an outdoor show and we could see our breath. It was hard on everyone, including the audience. We had a chamber orchestra and the girls were in Renaissance gowns and looked so beautiful, it was magical. Doro Pesch and I sang a duet of the song Angel by Jimi Hendrix and I did one of my own along with Uli’s songs. Victor Smolski also played with us.
In 2008, came the Under a Dark Sky Album and World Tour. We recorded it here at our house and brought it to a studio in Hamburg to mix. The highlight for me was singing with Mark Boals and the friendship that developed. We had so much fun together and got along really well. When he was here recording his vocals, it was so great for me to be right there and be able to study another singer close up like that because all I knew was myself! Most of the highlights for me were the learning experiences because we had classical musicians and a choir here. It was great for me to be around and taking it all in. Mixing it was a nightmare and very intense because the music was so intricate and big, we could have spent 6 months on it, but we only had a couple of weeks or so. Then we toured the USA, Europe, New Zealand and Japan. Loved it, but at times it was pretty chaotic. Like one morning, we stopped somewhere to get something to eat, I think it was after our show in PA and we were maybe in Maryland, I’m not sure, but I left my purse in the tour bus and just brought some money with me. When I came out, the bus was gone. I didn’t have a phone, didn’t know where we were going, my hair was sticking out all crazy because I had just woken up, so then some truck driver let me borrow his phone and I called my mom in PA and I thought that was the end of my tour. I knew everybody else was sleeping on the bus and they probably didn’t even know I was missing. Finally, I saw a police car and went over to them, but I must have looked like a nut because they told me to please step away from the car. Just at that moment though, I saw the bass player walking towards me, I was jumping up and down, I was so happy. Turns out they had just moved the bus and it was hidden!
Legendary Rock Interviews:
What is a typical day like at the Vandall/Roth household? Is it loud guitars and singing or more like making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and doing homework with your daughter Akashal
Liz Vandall:
Ha ha, very boring really! Musically, mostly, it’s pretty quiet actually, except for Akasha driving us crazy with her electronic hip hoppy music. I’ve got my home studio and usually have my headphones on. Uli always is playing his guitar, but it’s not plugged in. When he’s recording or testing out some equipment, is when the house starts shaking, but he’s been doing a lot of live stuff lately. Very very rarely will you hear him just listening to music for pleasure because he finds it to be too strenuous because he listens so deeply. Other than that, yes, we do all the normal stuff that everybody else does, but since living in Germany, Uli’s been the one to deal with the schoolwork because I can’t read anything.
Let’s have some fun! The last time Liz Vandall :
Had dinner with the Schenker’s =
At our house in 2001 during the Legends of Rock rehearsals. Don’t ask me what we ate cause I can’t remember.
Had to tell Uli to turn down his guitar because you couldn’t hear the Television =
We don’t watch TV, just DVD’s and videos, mainly old stuff like I Love Lucy, Lost in Space, Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch, some British shows like Fawlty Towers, etc. His guitar never bothers me though because he never plays loud late into the night anyway. The problem is usually the other way around when I do start blasting music sometimes because either I’m really quiet or it’s playing on 11. It’s a great way to get him to stop working anyway.
Listened to The Scorpions “Virgin Killers”album in it’s entirety =
Don’t think I have at one time…
Spoke to Tony Martin (former Black Sabbath singer) =
(Editors note: Tony is currently dodging an interview with us!)
This morning. Just tried out recording some vocals on a song of his that he sent me the tracks for. I’m in the process of moving to the UK soon and we’ve been talking about perhaps doing something, not sure what yet, maybe writing together when I get there. He’s become my favorite singer, I think he’s wonderful and a great songwriter as well!
Had to tell a male fan to quit stalking you =
No hardcore stalking, thank God, just maybe being poked on Facebook by a few habitual pokers! But it’s fun.
Had Mark Boals ( Yngwie Malmsteen singer) call you “Lizzy baby” =
He always calls me that, he’s my bud!
Shook hands with Joe Satriani =
Don’t think I ever did, I only met him for a minute, think he kept to himself mostly.
Had a cocktail with Doro Pesch =
No cocktails, but we shared our dressing room. In between doing our hair, we tried to figure out who would be singing what in the song Angel because there were no rehearsals. She was very sweet and nice to be around.
Sighned an autograph for one of your daughter’s friends parents =
Never!
Totally dismantled a trampoline all by yourself =
Recently tried to, but after getting attacked by stinging nettles and big scary spiders, I ran away!
Legendary Rock Interviews:
What’s next for Liz Vandall?
Liz Vandall:
Next up is recording vocals for Lyraka 2, a Wagnerian Metal Opera by Andy DiGelsomina and his fiance Jasmine. Rob Diaz Will be on also alongside Graham Bonnet, Mark Boals, Veronica Freeman and Allan Atkins! Should be coming out in 2012. Also hope to get my own songs together and perhaps collaborate with a few people and finally get them out there. There’s so much that can be done now via the internet and it sure helps to make the world a smaller place and more accessible. Have been approached for a few recording projects as well. All in all, things are looking good and it feels exciting and alive.
Legendary Rock Interviews:
Thanks for chatting with us Liz!
Liz Vandall:
Thank you Todd!
Category: Interviews
The thought of Uli watching Gilligan’s Island is so great, I can’t even stand it!!!
I think Uli could relate more to Greg Brady in his Johnny Bravo period!