Interview: Kurdt Vanderhoof (Metal Church)

Interview: 30th March 2026

Ahead of the release of their new album - Dead To Rights (review here) - on 10th April, Hotel Hobbies spent some time in the company of Metal Church's guitarist and founding member Kurdt Vanderhoof.

Hotel Hobbies: Metal Church has been an almost constant presence in your life. Being the longest-standing member and founding member has it sometimes seemed like something you are responsible for, rather than just part of?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes, a constant presence, even when I have tried to not make it so. There is a responsibility factor for sure. It's like you get all the credit or you get all of the blame. It just comes with the territory but I'm just more grateful that I'm still in the business after all these years. It may not be the super rock stardom that you think you want when you're a kid but I get to make music all the time. You know, that's awesome. People all over the world want to talk to me when I put a record out. That's pretty darn cool. I'm very grateful for that.

Hotel Hobbies: A couple of years ago the band actually stopped and you said no more; how did you feel at that point?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes, I did say that was it. I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. Shut the band down. I didn't announce anything because I don't like that. It was more a case of letting it go to sleep. Bye-bye. I had no intention of doing it anymore. We'd already had a bazillion line-up changes and I wasn’t interested. Now, a couple of years later Metal Church is resurrected without any effort on my part (smiling).

Hotel Hobbies: Out of the blue, Brian Allen sent you some recordings of him singing some old Metal Church songs!

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes! They were just randomly sent to me. There was no band; there were no auditions happening. He was pushed by Todd La Torre, our mutual friend.

Hotel Hobbies: When you received them was there a feeling of excitement, hesitation or curiosity?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: There was certainly some curiosity but I wasn’t thinking about the band reforming at that point. However, I did think that if I ever decided to put Metal Church back together that he would be a great singer. I didn’t know what to make of it all because there was no name attached. I wouldn't have known the name Brian Allen until after the fact when I found out who he was. He was also from Portland. He was in a Judas Priest tribute band. So it turned out, oh, I do know who you are. That was the first inkling of anything going on but I still had no intention of it myself.

Then because Rat Pack Records had worked on the Ellefson Soto project, Dave had said to the guys at the label that if I had any intention of putting the band back together, that he would be interested. I thought, wow – that is extremely cool. Dave and I have known each other for an awfully long time since back in the day, right? And I was like, wow, that's really cool. After that, Jeff Plate said he would be interested if I ever put the band back together. So here I was, sitting with a band that I didn’t even try to put back together. I took that as a sign that maybe I should keep going. So I started writing songs and we started moving in that direction. And then Jeff couldn't stay involved because of the Savatage reunion which is great. I'm so happy for them. Within a matter of days, I was in touch with Ken Mary who is a Seattle refugee like me and we have known each other since the beginning!

Hotel Hobbies: What was it in those initial songs from Brian that really piqued your interest?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Well, he did Start The Fire and In Mourning – a David Wayne song and a Mike Howe song. When I heard Start The Fire, I wondered if this was something unreleased or somebody had got hold of some tapes or something. It was just crazily similar. And as it turns out, David and Mike were both very big influences on him growing up and being a singer. He just nailed it.

Hotel Hobbies: The rhythm section of Ken and Dave is formidable.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Oh boy, yes. I didn’t have to think about it for long. There certainly wasn't any need for any auditions or anything like that. When you have people with that pedigree and of that calibre saying they want to play, we don't need to jam to find out if it's going to work. It's pretty monstrous.

Hotel Hobbies: How did it work when it came to writing songs for the new album?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: I wrote the songs, technically, and made the demos of everything, but then sent them to everybody and I was very adamant about the fact that everybody should do what they want with their parts. I wanted them to put their stamp on the music. It doesn’t sound like something that’s just out of my head.

Hotel Hobbies: Brian’s performance across the album is something special. He sounds like he’s possessed by something in every song!

Kurdt Vanderhoof: He did a great job. Everyone is excited by it. I think that excitement has really contributed to the notion of continuing to do this because there is a revitalisation. It’s flattering that people such as Dave and Ken want to come into the fold. Some people have been calling Metal Church a supergroup now! I guess it was just meant to happen.

Hotel Hobbies: Thinking about some of the songs on Dead To Rights. Brainwash Game and F.A.F.O – the two opening songs – are a real statement of intent, with F.A.F.O. leaning a little more towards thrash.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: We knew the opening track would be one of those two because we wanted impact right out of the gate. Brian is influenced by David Wayne so that kind of guided the direction of the songs. Metal Church wasn’t always a thrash band. We were always falling through the cracks between heavy metal and thrash. There's a little bit of everything. When I sit down to write metal, I definitely don’t want to overthink it. It just comes out the way it does. I write a lot of songs and have some I like and hopefully everybody else will too. Some don’t make the cut.

Hotel Hobbies: Songs such as Feet To The Fire have some more brooding elements. Across the album, there is some nice variety to enjoy.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Cool! Glad you thought that. Metal Church has always encompassed those different elements. I like to draw from the influences I had growing up. There are a lot of elements to the early seventies hard rock stuff – Sabbath and Zeppelin and that kind of stuff. I love that. I like to incorporate some of those musical things: changing moods and changing arrangements. Music needs a balance.

Hotel Hobbies: It changes but at the moment my favourite track on the album is Heaven Knows. Lyrically, it's quite an emotional track.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Oh wow, that is interesting. With some lyrics I like to be as creative as possible without being direct. Heaven Knows was kind of about putting the band back together and how you never really know and sometimes you have to walk in life by faith and trust.

Hotel Hobbies: Ending the album with My Wrath means you have two really powerful bookends when paired with Brainwash Game.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Exactly. When you look back on your favourite records, they usually take you on a journey. There are peaks and valleys. I am not a big fan of one-dimensional albums. I like musicality and different dynamics.

Hotel Hobbies: With the way albums are made these days, how much time did you spend together as a band?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: It was mostly done remotely. Dave and Brian came here. That is one benefit of the digital age. You can have a world class studio at home without needing to pay half a million dollars for equipment.

Hotel Hobbies: Aside from the new members, you obviously also have Rick Van Zandt by your side again who has been with Metal Church for many years now. He must be as excited as you about the new line-up.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Oh, absolutely. We thought we were done as a band but he and I remained great friends and we are going to work together on some other projects too. He was thrilled that we had this killer line-up out of nowhere. I'm glad to have him along.

Hotel Hobbies: You also have some tour dates lined up. You must be looking forward to going out on the road with this incarnation?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes, it is going to be fun and I think people will be impressed.

Hotel Hobbies: With Brian being able to sing a range of songs from different eras, it must make the choice of what to play even harder?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Yes (laughing)! We are trying to figure out the set right now. We need to play some classics and I totally get that. When I see a band from the seventies, I want to hear their old stuff even if they have a new record out and I want to hear some of that too. We are going to lean on the classic stuff and incorporate some new songs too. When you have to fit forty years of music into an hour for a festival or ninety minutes for a headline show, it is tough trying to figure out a set for sure. Last time around we also did some deep cuts. We want to have that philosophy this time too.

Hotel Hobbies: Do you think we will see you in the UK at some point?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: We don't have anything right now booked but I always love playing there because everything I've ever loved has always come from the UK. Every band that I ever wanted to be and emulate is from there. I really do hope that we get a chance to. I'm sure we will eventually. I think a lot of that will change once the album's out and people see that we're actually out playing.

Hotel Hobbies: If someone had drifted away from Metal Church and then heard Dead To Rights what would you hope they hear within it?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: I would hope they would hear very little lost time from those early albums. Like it might be the third David Wayne era album. I would hope that they would hear a continuation and still think it sounds like Metal Church. That would be a bonus. You can't ask for much more than that after all these years.

Hotel Hobbies: Looking back over all that time, what do you think is the most valuable lesson you have learned as a musician?

Kurdt Vanderhoof: You've got to do it for the love of music and for no other reason. And if good things happen, that's a wonderful bonus. You have to do it because you love music and that is especially true with the way the business is now. Don’t do it to be cool. Don’t do it to make money and be a rock star. Do it because you love music. Then you'll never be let down.

Hotel Hobbies: You must be genuinely pleased by the longevity of Metal Church but probably never thought in the 1980s that you would be doing this forty years later.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: No way (laughing)! I come from the generation of rock bands and musicians where if you're over thirty, you're done. That’s the era I kind of grew up in. So the fact that now there's a whole bunch of people out there in their seventies and eighties still doing it is pretty incredible. That's another good thing about the new music business. There's no expiration date on us anymore as long as you're still doing good work.

Hotel Hobbies: Thank you so much for speaking with me today. I have enjoyed writing about the new album and wish you all the best with it when it is released and with the tour too.

Kurdt Vanderhoof: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hopefully, we'll see you in the UK this year.

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