Dennis Ward

Dennis Ward, born in Texas, USA, came to Germany because of his father who have been served for US military service. When his father's service in Germany came to an end, Dennis was just finishing school. He decided not to return with his family to the United States and stay in Germany. To earn some money for living, he has created Tusk band with two of his friends, where Ward played bass and sang. The band played covers of the Top-40 songs and performed in clubs and discos of US military bases in Germany. The ways of Dennis and PC69 crossed through an announcement in the magazine "Guitar Player", which Ward published in early 1988. Due to lack of money it was very brief: "Rock bass player looking for a band", and The Pinkies were the only who answered to him. Andi Deris remembered their first meeting few years later: "We agreed to meet at a cafe at a gas station on the autobahn Bruchsal. Going to the place we saw a shaggy creature in torn jeans, just getting out from under the hood of his car. He was grubbing in the engine and looked like a real boozer, and although we never met before, we all at once realized that this was he! We immediately told him that we need a bass player, not a mechanic, but after a half-hour conversation we all realize that this is our guy. We just talked on the same wave, and in that moment Pink Cream 69 began ". Dennis was first and last bass player, who was auditioned by Andi, Kosta and Alfred.
Even at early years of his career, Dennis realized that his strong point is the work with musical material written by other people, and at the same time he was fascinated of the process of recording in the studio. Also Dennis had very negative attitude to the producers, believing that they spoil the beautiful music written by The Pinkies. All these had led Dennis to the solution to become a producer. The first attempts to produce Ward made on the third album of PC69 in 1993.
In 1994 Dennis produced local bands in the rehearsal room with 8-track multirecorder, then in 1995 his friend permissed him to use his small studio. Dennis used the opportunity and began doing a demo for everyone already on the professional equipment. He has managed to work at the console in this big studio during the recording of Pink Cream's "Food For Thought" in 1996. Then Ward mixed the album with Gert W?lfe at "Horus Sound Studios" in Hannover, Germany. Combining the playing in the band with a producing, Dennis has worked in several small studios throughout Germany, and in 1997 he produced and mixed PC69 live album by his own. In 1998 Dennis began working in one of the largest studios in Southern Germany "House Of Audio", which is located in Karlsdorf near Karlsruhe. "House Of Music" studio in Winterbach near Stuttgart also provided to Dennis. But despite all his dislike to traveling Dennis agrees to work around the world though he has a possibility to use "House Of Music".

Since 1998 Dennis held his personal responsibility for recording, producing and mixing albums of PC69. Besides doing it for free, The Pinkies have a unique opportunity to spend plenty of time in a well-equipped studio and to work with a highly professional producer. On the other, Dennis takes up an option to use a band for testing his innovative ideas, because their supernatural sense of each other allows him to make the most daring experiments. This was very useful for The Pinkies when Alfred suffered from focal dystonia. Here's how Kosta described recording of "Thunderdome": "We all have very good home studios, which allows to record high quality demos. When the material was ready, I recorded the parts of electronic drums. Having it as a basis for the rhythm section, we have sent ready-made tracks in the MIDI files to Alfred, who at home has recorded all guitars. When we came into the studio, we set up microphones and amplifiers Marshall, through which lost Alfred's guitar. Then we started to record live drums, bass, and, in the end, recorded the vocals. Such an approach may seem odd because none of the musicians did not record the drums after the guitars parts, and Dennis himself admitted that he would not have to experiment this way with other groups, but we are together since 1988, we know very well capabilities of each other, and therefore we decided to make it. The main objective was to preserve the live sound and we did."

Dennis also is a sound engineer of PC69 albums. While tuning David's microphone on mids he achieves the best sounding vocals by Readman.
In addition to producing and bass playing Dennis composes music and writes lyrics and also performs backing vocals in PC69.
The list of bands and artists, which is produced by Ward, is impressive: Adagio, Angra, Axxis, David Readman, Daniel Liverani, DC Cooper, Debauchery, Desperadoz, Edenbridge, Eden's Curse, Godiva, James Christian, Krokus, Michael Klein, Robin Beck, Silent Force, Tommy Ermolli, Vanden Plas, Wizard and many others.
Despite the intensive work in the studio, Dennis participated in several musical projects. As a vocalist he can be heard on two Khymera albums, which were released in 2005 and 2007. Together with David Readman Dennis created the rock opera "Missa Mercuria" (2002). Ward played bass in Dezperadoz. In 2005, Serafino Perugino (the boss of Frontiers Records) suggested to Dennis to work together with Michael Kiske. Thus Place Vendome project was born. Dennis prepared the material, which Michael sang in his studio, then Dennis asked Kosta and Uwe to record drums and guitars parts, that took a couple of days. Dennis himself played bass. Self-titled album "Place Vendome" (2005) was received very well by audience and critics, and the project was revived in 2008, when guys recorded no less successful second album "Streets Of Fire" (February 20, 2009).
Currently, Dennis Ward - one of the most talented producers as well as a key figure in Frontiers Records.

Article written by Tanya 'ivanna' Valchishena