Interview с Helloween : DARKSIDE.ru

It’s probably trivial, but let’s start with your visit to Russia about two years ago. How was it like playing in Moscow for the second time? How much was your stay in our country different from the first time?

It was a very stressing thing to go to Moscow for the second time, because I was coming directly from Korea. I remember I was landing in Moscow, and my only wish was to go to a hotel and sleep. But there was a lot of traffic in Moscow, and it took about two hours until I was finally in the hotel, and I was totally fucked up. But the concert itself was great, so that was a rewarding thing. I remember there was a great stage with three big screens, it was fantastic.

What was your reaction when you found out that Masterplan will be playing with you in Moscow?

Well, honestly, it was not the first time. They’d been opening for us at one or two festivals before that. Sometimes they played the day before. Sure, they have a great band, and it’s quite natural that we meet somewhen and somewhere.

You know, many fans here viewed the concert as a sort of competition between the two parts of the former Helloween line-up…

Oh, that’s rather stupid. Why? It’s a typical thing for Internet message boards – it’s always the same 100-150 people, they are always complaining about this and that, they want to have a war here and a war there. The best example is that for years they have been thinking that Gamma Ray and Helloween wouldn’t like each other. But the truth is that for years we have had rehearsal rooms 200 meters away from each other in Hamburg and we meet so often in an Italian restaurant nearby or in an ice coffee shop nearby and have a lot of laugh and talks about all these stupid idiots who may have the ideas that we would have wars against each other. At the end of the day they would look like complete idiots if they saw us at one table having a good time.

We also saw you at the Wacken festival in August 2004, and what surprised us is that you played only one song from your then-latest album “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy” (2003). Moreover, in Moscow in the fall of 2003, you performed no songs from that album at all. What is the reason?

That’s always a matter of how the band feels. We sometimes sit down and say, “OK, we have an hour of playing time, so what would we like to play?” We pick up some songs, and that’s the setlist for the evening. I don’t think it was on purpose – sometimes we played an hour with four or five “Rabbit…” songs, sometimes we played an hour without them, and when we had a full program, we definitely played five or six songs from the “Rabbit…” album.

For the last tour you brought back a lot of old songs to the set. How was it like for you to perform the old stuff you never sang before?

Well, most of the songs I already performed during the “Master Of The Rings” tour. It’s always good to see that people still appreciate all these great long old songs after all this time. I think the next time we will go one step further and play all the long song in one ‘Halloween hour’ – it will start with “Halloween” and “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” and then go through “King For 1,000 Years” and “Occasion Avenue”, so we will bring it even a bit further now. And after that we will play another 1.5 hours of all the hits – “I Want Out”, “Future World”, “Dr. Stein”, “Eagle Fly Free” and all this stuff.

Wow, cool! An interesting idea! Speaking more about Wacken - last year you brought back Kai Hansen onstage for two songs. Whose idea was that? And have you considered bringing Kai or Michael Kiske as guests for the recording of “Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy”?

Speaking about Kai, we would like to have Kai on the album, if it had been clear from the beginning on that the album is called “Keeper Of The Seven Keys”. But we didn’t feel confident about the title until three weeks before the final mix. When we listened to the whole album for the first time, that was actually the day when we went out of the studio, we were very proud and realized that we’d done a great thing. But it was too late for calling Kai, because everything had already been recorded. Speaking about Kai, there will never be a problem to make some things together with him in the studio. That’s something that will definitely happen in the future. But with Michael Kiske, Markus (Grosskopf, bass) mainly has a problem, because Michael has said that he hates metal music and all metal fans are stupid. Markus has a big problem with that. I remember that during the days of recording “Light The Universe”, for example, which was eventually recorded with Candice Night, the first idea was that it’s a great song to sing along with Michael. It’s a ballad kind of song, it’s a song that Michael would like, it’s not metal. But after this, when he said that metal fans are stupid, we said, “No, we don’t wanna have him on the album.”

Speaking about the album title, don’t you think that it puts you in a very comfortable position for criticism? Everybody will compare it to the first two “Keepers…”, but it doesn’t really sound that much like them…

Well, that always depends. There are two CDs, and I think CD1 is very compatible to “Keeper 1” and “Keeper 2”, except for a more modern sound, sound-wise it’s definitely not compatible. But then again, the main actor is the Keeper, so it would have been a “Keeper…” album anyway, but we decided to call it “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” when we finally knew it’s a great album. We have a double guitar team now which hasn’t been in place for the last 10 years, because when Roland (Grapow) was in the band, Michael (Weikath) and Roland really hated each other. But this time we have two guitarists who really like to sit down privately and play guitar. For the first time it was possible to think about this. And the great headline “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” will make a lot of people listen to the album, which is great.

Why did you decide to release the album as a double CD? It is only 78 minutes long and could easily fit on one CD…

It would fit on one CD, if you said yes to data reduction. That would mean that the quality of the CD would not be 16 bits, but will go down to 14 bits, thus, the quality would suffer. That would be alright for a live album, I think a live album still sounds great with 14 bits, but on a studio recording, where you took a lot of time to make a good sound, it would be a shame to crash it down to 14 bits. Then again, even if you push it on one CD, first-generation CD players would not play it. And honestly, I think it’s a great mixture now – you have “Keeper 3” and “Keeper 4”, which I really love.

You said that the atmosphere in the band is now different. But at the same time, why do band members still write their songs separately?

No, we don’t write songs separately, the one who gets the credit is the main idea bringer. Everything was being rehearsed for four months in the rehearsal room, so this is giving and taking. The main idea bringer is the one who’s mentioned there, but it doesn’t mean that the songs are written separately.

Let’s speak in more detail about some tracks from the album. The opener “King For 1,000 Years” is very intriguing, and it’s the first time in years that Helloween created something that long. How did you write this one? Was it your intention to write something as epic as the famous 13-minute tracks from the first two “Keepers…”?

I think it’s the only shape this song could take. When something happens in the Keeper’s world, there’s always something parallel to it in the real world. I remember we already had 3.5 pages of lyrics on the table, and only half of it had a real musical counterpart. We spent a minimum of two weeks in the rehearsal room, jamming left and right and trying to put certain parts into music. When the devil speaks, it has to sound like this, when the mankind speaks, it has to sound like this, and blah blah blah. At the end of the day, you end up with 14 minutes, because you want to include everything that is written on your sheet of paper. When there are certain thoughts behind it, it would be a shame not to bring them musically to the people. The song is also the opener of the whole story, it says why the Keeper stands up again, why he has to fight for the mankind again, it explains that the key of greed has been lost because a handful of stupid people betrayed the mankind by believing the devil’s sweet promises that they would be kings for 1,000 years, and so on and so forth. It’s a very important story, because it’s not only taking place in the Keeper’s world, it has to be clear for everybody.

Another very interesting song is “Occasion Avenue”. Can you tell us more about it? And why did you put fragments of songs from the first two “Keepers…” in the intro?

Well, it’s because “Occasion Avenue” is about reincarnation. Occasion Avenue is just a synonym for life, it’s a kind of street with millions of millions of little or bigger occasions. If you leave the avenue, you may get lost. Sometimes you find your way back to the avenue, but sometimes you don’t and that means that you didn’t fulfill your life and have to begin another life, so you go back to the start on Occasion Avenue. And then you go again, and again, and again. That’s why we had the idea of that little intro – going back to the past times, to “Keeper 1” and “Keeper 2”, reminds the people of what went on there. Life is always a repetition, there’s always a second chance and a third chance, but if you do it wrong again and again, you will definitely find yourself back where you once started. That’s how it goes in life, that’s how it goes in music and in every sphere that concerns you, you could probably find this order.

The song “Mrs. God” was chosen as the first singe, though the original intention was to release “Come Alive” in the single format. Why did you eventually choose “Mrs. God”? Don’t you think that this is the most untypical track on the whole album?

That’s pretty much the same vibe as “Dr. Stein” was. “Dr. Stein” was mega-untypical, and it was very important to show the people that it’s not only thrash and it’s not only dark. The same goes here – it we had gone out with “King Of 1,000 Years”, the impression would have been, “Oh, it’s 14 minutes of darkness, gothic and devil.” And it’s not the case, there’s still a lot of “happy happy Helloween” on the new album. I think the decision in the favor of “Mrs. God” was made because “Mrs. God” is more stupid than “Come Alive”. (everybody laughs)

You have very interesting reasons for choosing single tracks!

No, honestly! Otherwise, people would really go for the 14-minute-long “King For 1,000 Years”, and they would say, “Wow, very dark!” But that would be wrong, the album has positive stupid things to offer as always, there’s “happy happy Helloween”, which is, I think, a very important part of the band and a very very important part of “Keeper 1” and “Keeper 2”. We strongly felt that the legacy of “Keeper 1” and “Keeper 2” has to have “happy happy Helloween,” otherwise it would not be a legacy, it would be something different. And “Mrs. God” is quite perfect to show the people that in between serious scenes there’s still a lot of space for “happy happy Helloween”, for the stupid part of the band.

On the one hand, you have written such songs as “Mrs. God”, “Why?” (“Master Of The Rings”, 1994) and “Hey Lord” (“Better Than Raw”, 1998), and on the other hand, you are also the author of such dark lyrics as “I Don’t Believe In The Good” (“Done With Mirrors”, Andi’s second solo album, 1999). Could you tell us your opinion about religion?

Well, “I Don’t Believe In The Good” is just a metaphor, that’s something I would say when I’m really angry. It’s the darkest minute when you say, “Whatever I do is wrong anyway, whatever good I do, it doesn’t come back, so I’d rather be evil, because I don’t believe in the good.” You would say that in your saddest minute, that’s all about it. Then again, the very last sentence of the song is “I don’t believe in the good in you”, so the whole thing should be clear with the last sentence. “I don’t believe in the good” is not what I’m saying, at the end of the song it becomes clear that “I don’t believe in t

he good in you.” I definitely believe in the good in myself.

Now let’s go back to the new album – how was it like working with Candice Night on the song “Light The Universe”? Did you work in the same studio, or did you just send the song to her and then she recorded her part separately?

It’s a bit of both. We had some parts working out fine, and we had some parts that had to be re-done in New York, and she did it in a New York studio. It was a very easy thing, though in the beginning there were quite a few names being mentioned. As I told you before, it would have been so easy to sing it with Michael, but then again, we didn’t want to have Michael on the album after the stupid things he said. So the decision was made to bring in a lady singer. One of the first names was Candice, and the guys from the record company SPV told us that would be easy, because she’s on the same label that we are. That contact was done very easily, and she was very easy-going – she said, “Send me the song, and if I love it, I’ll sing it, and if I don’t love it, I won’t sing it.” (laughs) So she obviously liked it.

You have been living on Tenerife for a long time, and you do a lot of work for the band there – for this album you rehearsed and did most of the recordings there. Is it easy or difficult for you to put yourself in a working mood in such a resort place as Tenerife?

Well, it’s quite easy over here, because Tenerife has two sides – one is romantic tourist surroundings, with a lot of palms and a lot of beaches, but then again, it’s a volcanic island, so it can be hard as a rock. It can be very dark, it can be very thrashy, very metal. A lot of people ask me, “Do you actually want to do reggae music over there?” (everybody laughs) I say, “No no no, you have a wrong impression of the island.” This is a little continent, every place on earth you can remember or you can imagine you will definitely find on this island as well. It’s not all about reggae over here.

The song “Could I Leave Forever” from your first solo album “Come In From The Rain” (1997) – was it about your desire to leave Germany and move to a warmer country?

Yes, absolutely.

So now you have fulfilled your dream, right?

Yes, absolutely! (laughs) As a matter of fact, it was very frustrating when I would come back from a world tour four or five times, and it was always in wintertime. I hadn’t seen summer for years! Occasionally you play in other countries in the summer time, but as you know, when you’re touring, you don’t have the time to go to a beach and enjoy it. Touring is hard work, you travel on, and the next day you’re somewhere else. I really missed this summer feeling when you wake up in the sun, you go out in the sun, and you go to the beach to swim or just have some leisure time. I really was missing it, I’m more of a sun child, I like the sun and I need it. If I only see it, I’m already happy. So my biggest wish was to move away from Germany because of that. Whenever I come back from a tour now, it’s warm over here!

On your first solo album there’s another great song “1000 Years Away”. It’s about child abuse, and as far as we understand, it is based on real events, but what kind of events? Was it an article in a newspaper that inspired you to write it, or was it happening somewhere in your neighborhood?

We had three of these occasions in our neighborhood. In the surrounding 50 kilometers there was a guy who was abusing, raping and even killing children. I remember there was also a big scene of this kind in Belgium – a lot of people were standing up and saying that this guy is a child abuser. It was unbelievable, you would never come up with the idea that people, just like that Belgian guy, would rape 18 girls and kill 19, I think. They found dead bodies in his cellar, in his garden, and wherever. These days it was horrible, you wouldn’t believe what happened there. A lot of people don’t stand up and say that something like that has happened because of shame or because it is happening in your own family, and you keep your mouth shut. I think that’s the wrongest thing you can do, that’s why I actually wanted to write that song.

In general, how much autobiographic are your songs? Do you mostly write about yourself, or do you more often use your imagination?

So-so. I write down my thoughts, and I never say that my thoughts are right, it’s just my thoughts, and because I consider myself a very normal person, I think I have the thoughts of millions of people out there. I’m as stupid or ignorant or as uneducated as anybody else out there, so my thoughts may be wrong, but may be also right, I don’t know. It’s just my thoughts, my philosophy. Sometimes I just feel good when I write something down, when I read it - it’s a relief for my brain, let’s put it that way.

Yet another question about the lyrics – what is the song “I Live For Your Pain” from the album “Dark Ride” (2000) about?

That’s a typical relationship thing, when two people actually love each other, but love and hate are so nearby. You can have the biggest love in your life, and the next day you have the biggest war with that person. I think you can only have such a war when you really hate yourself, because honestly you love yourself. It’s such a big feeling that goes on in a negative and positive way between two persons. My question in this song is – how can it be that the person you love the most could be your biggest enemy when you have trouble. And an hour later, you fall in each other’s arms and have the greatest sex on earth. Why is that? How does that work? This is something I’ve witnessed for myself, and I think everybody else knows exactly what I’m talking about. You love each other desperately, but you can have the biggest war for an hour or for days, you don’t even speak to each other, and later on when it’s all done, you love each other again. It’s very strange, I don’t understand it.

We have talked quite a lot about the lyrics, but now let’s talk about videos. We heard that you are planning to release a DVD with all Helloween videoclips soon…

The Japanese have already put together a kind of video collection, so it was just a matter of time when the Europeans would come up with the same thing. But when I saw the DVD for “High Live” (originally released on VHS in 1996 – ed.), I was so disappointed. The whole band was disappointed, we thought it was a shitty release. They just put the videotape in the DVD format and sell it, and that’s it - there’s no menu, there are no specials, there’s no fun for the fans, there’s nothing in it. I personally thought I’d rather do it myself the way it should be done, otherwise the European video collection would be as boring as the “High Live” DVD. As a matter of fact, we just wanted to have something for the people out there to enjoy – little hidden things, hidden fun. You can go through the DVD not only once, there are always some new little things, there is always something to conquer and to discover, and I think that’s what makes it great for the people.

And what about a new live DVD? Are there any plans for that?

Yes, I think we’re gonna record four or five shows, but I really don’t know where. There are some suggestions for doing such crazy things as “Live In Peru” or I don’t know. (laughs) But I guess at the end of the day we will have a live DVD from the Keeper Legacy tour.

We’ve always wanted to know who came up with the script for the video for “Where The Rain Grows” (from the album “Master Of The Rings”, 1994), where this guy in a business suit turns into an Indian and dances throughout the night in an Indian outfit…

That’s the whole point of the video – he tries to escape the modern world. We shot the video in Hamburg, you see him making a fire and putting on the Indian’s clothes in the middle of Hamburg next to the harbor. He’s trying to go away from the typical modern world, going away from where the rain grows, out of the rain and into the sun in a philosophical way. Leave your sadness behind, throw your suit away and be yourself again. That was the idea of the band, the whole video is a stupid collection of the band’s ideas. (laughs)

What memories do you have about the shooting of the video for “Perfect Gentlemen” (also from “Master Of The Rings”)? How much time did it take you to put the make-up of the ‘perfect gentleman’ on?

I’m glad that you even recognized me! In the beginning everybody was complaining, “What does this stupid pimp do in the video?” (everybody cracks) We had to tell them – I remember we had an interview on VIVA or MTV and told the guys, “That’s ME!” Putting the make-up on didn’t take that long, it was a cheap video, it was fun to do, and we didn’t want to do a high-class thing. Again, it should be stupid, it’s something to laugh about – that’s what we wanted to achieve. But typically VIVAs and MTVs around the world took it very serious, there were a lot of people saying, “Oh, a great song, but that stupid guy – who is that?” People didn’t realize that it’s me. If you know that it’s me, you have to laugh, but we didn’t realize in the first place that the people would not recognize me. I think the whole video doesn’t make sense if you don’t recognize me.

Is it true that you nearly drowned in the sea during the shooting of the video for “I Can” (from the album “Better Than Raw”, 1998)?

Yes, yes, yes! They flew me out to the Atlantic Ocean, a kilometer away from the beach. It was hard to swim, because I had by boots on and I was wearing tons of clothes, so I was nearly dying there. I’m not the most courageous guy, so I was really afraid in the middle of the sea, because we have big white sharks out three and everything. I thought, “Please! Put me back of the boat!” (everybody laughs)

You have recently signed a management contract with Bottom Row Promotion, which means that you have re-established good relations with Jan Bayati and Kosta Zafiriou. Was it difficult to do? As far as we understood from interviews with Pink Cream 69, you did not maintain any contact for about 10 years…

Yeah, it was nine years actually. The guys, Jan especially, were one of my best friends, and we didn’t talk since that, because I felt that he very much disappointed me, and he thought the same of me. So we simply didn’t talk. But the funny thing is our ladies have been best friends since forever, they have always stayed in contact, and our sons are best friends as well since forever. Jan always sent his son to the island, I picked him up at the airport, but I didn’t speak with Jan. (laughs) I just picked his son at the airport, he was spending his holidays here in Tenerife, and later I brought both his and my son to the airport to fly to Germany, and Jan picked them up in Germany. But still we didn’t talk. (laughs) It was a very stupid situation, which changed drastically when Jan’s son was suffering of blood cancer. It was a very hard thing, and we both thought, “Look, we have to talk now for the sake of our sons.” There were a lot of tears shared, and it didn’t look good in the first place, it really looked like he would die, and that’s when we first made contact again. Now it’s like nothing has happened. (laughs)

At your first concerts with Helloween you played one Pink Cream 69 song, “Where The Eagle Learns To Fly”. Why this particular song? Does it have some special meaning for you?

First of all, it was one of my favorite songs, because there is so much of Andi’s heart in it and in the lyrics as well. Then again, it was a quite interesting thing to do – to sit down, to have just Andi with an acoustic guitar. It was something like a 15-minute remembrance or dedication to Pink Cream. I was aware that I brought so many great Pink Cream fans to Helloween with my change, so I thought it’s a nice thing to do. And I think the people appreciated it very much, it was a very good fleshy goose-bump thing going on there.

With Pink Cream 69 you did a song called “Keep Your Eye On The Twisted”, which slams neo-Nazis. How has the situation in Germany changed since that time?

During the days of “Keep Your Eye O

n The Twisted”, there was a lot of Nazi shit going on there, but not only in Germany. More of that happened in, for example, England, where there’s a lot of Nazis. There has been a lot of Nazism in the U.S. as well, they even have training camps there, soldier Nazi camps with a lot of weapons. It’s unbelievable. But I think it’s gotten better now, it’s not as bad as it used to be 12 years ago.

Now it’s getting worse in Russia in that sense…

(in a surprised voice) Jesus Christ, why that? That’s stupid. Look in the history book, you don’t change anything with that stupid ideology.

Speaking about your time with Pink Cream 69, do you think that the breakup of that line-up in 1993 was inevitable? Or was it possible to do anything to keep the band going?

No, honestly no. I remember that we had a lot of discussions and wars going on concerning the direction of music. I personally didn’t like the idea to change the Pink Cream style in the direction of Alice In Chains simply because Alice In Chains were successful these days. I thought we had a successful band going on, why would I change the music? This was the main problem we had. I didn’t see any other solution than to throw out all the people that are bringing new blood, or, that’s an easier way, listen to the call of Michael Weikath and join Helloween. That was much easier for me, because I had known Michael Weikath for years. It’s not that I would join a band that I wouldn’t know or something like that.

Speaking about changing the music styles, on your second single from the first solo album there’s a very experimental track called “We’re Riding The Light”. How did you come up with such an experiment? Don’t you think that you could have been very successful on MTV if you continued doing music like that?

I was a bit ahead of time. (laughs) I have always been a fan of all the technical stuff, I like to play around with new stuff coming out, and sometimes it really kicks or gives me an idea. I liked to play around with this song, and then I just put in on the CD. Maybe the people didn’t like it, but then again, it’s a solo album, so it’s something very personal. I didn’t actually care if people would like it or not, I just brought it on the track to give people something new. It’s funny that a lot of people now understand my solo stuff better than a few years ago, because nowadays all the effects and the playing around that I had on the albums are used more often in nu metal and experimental metal. People go, “Oh, do you remember this Andi Deris guy? He used to have pretty much the same stuff on his album a couple of years ago!”

Your two solo albums are quite different from each other. On the second album there are much more heavy guitars, and the sound is a bit alternative. Were you interested in the grunge and alternative scenes at that time?

No, it was more of the experimental stuff I was interested in. Just to play around, do some shit and have fun with it – that was my main concern. I don’t think the sound is alternative – I didn’t even listen to alternative bands these days. The funny thing is that the sound and all the effects that you can hear on the “Done With Mirrors” album appeared on the market some two years later. I had the advantage to check out all the new stuff over here because I worked for equipment trading companies, and I was the first guy who had all the effects. When it’s only a solo album by the singer of a popular band, there are not enough people who would listen to it, there’s not enough budget to make a world-class album as far as the mixing is concerned. That’s the reason why it went a bit, how they say it, through strange channels. People tried to like the album, but some of them really didn’t understand all the effects. Three or four years later it would have been much easier, because all the effects had been heard two or three times from other great bands, and it would have been easier to come up with something like that. But being the first to use all that crazy stuff is always very hard.

And what kind of music do you listen to now? Are there any young metal bands that really impress you?

I have just recorded a metal band which is really great, but nobody knows it, because they don’t even have a record contract at the moment. They are called Meridian Zero, that’s the band that supported us in Spain on our last tour. That’s just one of a ton of great bands out there. It depends on which direction you think. If you talk about classic metal, there’s nothing new actually, it’s the same boring shit going on. There could be a bit more work in the classical sector, because it’s getting boring in my eyes. The people involved in classic metal don’t seem to have great ideas anymore or don’t want to work hard on an album, I don’t know. But when I listen to the new stuff from the classic metal sector, most of the times it’s very boring. I hope it will change in the future. But speaking about nu metal, I have to say that there’s a lot of great stuff out there, but they already begin to repeat themselves as well. The times are hard at the moment – nu metal is killing itself, which is a shame, but it seems Korn and Linkin Park are being copied all over the world again and again. We have seen Evanescence having a lot of success, and now we’ll probably see a lot of bands where a girl is singing, and it’s nothing new. If they would come up with any new music or with a new vibe, that would be OK, but copying a band simply because they have sold a few millions of albums is the same stupid story that we’ve seen before. You know, one band is successful, and there come another 20 and do a miserable job.

Have you heard a project called Place Vendome – where your former bandmates Dennis Ward and Kosta Zafiriou are playing with Michael Kiske?

Yes, I’ve listened to one song. It’s OK, it’s good rock music, and I just hope that Michael will not find the guitars too loud. (laughs)

It’s very interesting – after you left Pink Cream you joined Helloween, and now the Pink Cream guys are doing a project with the Helloween singer that you replaced…

Yeah, that’s how the circle closes. (cracks) But that’s OK, everybody has to have ideas, everybody has to look forward, and if they have an idea that could be great to do, they should go for it. They certainly did go for it, and from what I’ve listened to, it’s OK.

Who are the guys that played with you on the solo records? We only know a few things about the drummer, Ralph Mason – he played with you yet before Pink Cream 69…

Ralph is still my best friend. We were going to school together from the fifth year until the main exam, and even studied in the same university for a while. We always stuck together, we did music together, we found our own band together. Nowadays he’s having one of the biggest music schools in Germany in Karlsruhe, it’s called InTact, and he’s very successful. The funny thing is that he went to the university, studied to be a teacher but never worked as a teacher, instead, he opened his own school. (laughs) The other boys have been friends as well, the Gisi guy (Gisbert Royder, bass) is a good friend, and Don Pupillo (guitar) too, but they are still in Germany, so we only have contact when I need their help or they need my help. But overall, it’s a bunch of friends.

Who is singing in the song “Do You Really Wanna Know”, the Japanese bonus track on “Done With Mirrors”?

That’s Ralph. It’s his song which I loved very much, and I told him, “If you like, you can put it on the album.” So we decided to sing a kind of duet, he as the main singer, and me as the second voice. For me it was no problem, because I had to play everything on that track anyway, all the instruments were played by Andi and Ralph, it was just a two-guy production.

Do you have any plans to release another solo album? You must be writing much more songs than you use for Helloween…

As a matter of fact, a lot of hot blood is going to Helloween, and there are not that many songs left to think about a new solo record? I have to feel desperate for some songs that lie around since years to put them on an album. Honestly there are not so many songs lying around yet. That would not mean that I won’t have the possibility to do so in a few years, but at the very moment definitely not.

And speaking about line-ups, why did you choose Dani Loeble from Rawhead Rexx as the new Helloween drummer? Were there any other possible candidates?

There were quite a few candidates, but Dani was the one we thought closest to Ingo’s playing style. Dani recorded with Rawhead Rexx in my studio, three or four months later he left the band, and so for us he was a guy who had no band so we were not destroying any band. We remembered him being a great drummer in the Ingo Schwichtenberg style, so we asked him to check it out. I remember him on the first day in the studio beating the shit out of the drums, and it was unbelievable. Accidentally we had the same drums over here, the Sonor drums which Ingo used to play, and the sound was reminding Markus and Weiki of Ingo so much - just close your eyes and it seems like Ingo is playing.

You now have a new record deal with SPV. Do they give you freedom to do whatever you want to do, or do they express some suggestions or wishes?

I think they really like us to do exactly what we do now. The funniest thing is that “Keeper 1” and “Keeper 2” were released on SPV as well (they were actually distributed by SPV, the original record label was Noise Records – ed.), and for “Keeper Of The Seven Keys: The Legacy” we are back to SPV, which is coincidental and really funny. There’s no one trying to tell us what to do, the past few years proved that whenever a record company or the management tries to tell the band what to do, it’s not the best thing. Honestly, “The Dark Ride” was the album that could have worked. It was mainly done for the U.S., we followed the wishes of the record company and the management, but because of politics, the management fucked it up by not releasing the record in the U.S. on time. Imagine that an album done for the U.S. is released in the U.S. a year after Europe and Asia! That’s a very stupid thing on which the band can actually break its neck, simply because they have their stupid inner politics going on. Bands sometimes go through very strange situations. What we learned is: don’t listen to them, just do what we want, because they at the end of the day fuck it up anyway.

OK, now the final question – is there any chance that you will one day do another “Keeper”, or is the “Keepers” saga now closed?

Eeeh, that’s a hard question. If there’s gonna be another “Keeper” album, it would mean that in the real world there’s more war and more shit happening which would make the Keeper stand up and go fighting again. But I personally would not like to see it. I definitely would not like to see another “Keeper” album, because that would mean that there’s another big shit happening in the real world. But from the musical point of view, we can go on with the Keeper without doing a “Keeper” album.

Well, Andi, it was a great pleasure talking to you! Sorry for taking so much of your time!

Thank you guys for your time!

We do hope to see you back in Russia soon.

We’ll definitely play in Moscow, that’s what I’ve seen on the European tour sheet. I think there’s Moscow and St. Petersburg, but I hope to play a few more cities. I met with Udo Dirkschneider in Spain recently, and he told me there’s such a lot of great cities to play in Russia, and we have only played Moscow twice and St. Petersburg once, so we gotta go to other cities too. This is something we are very much looking forward to.

Andi, do you happen to remember for which dates this tour sheet sets the Moscow and St. Petersburg gigs?

I think it’s in January, but that’s something you should not nail me for, because the second European part of the tour is not confirmed yet. 90 percent of the dates are OK, but 10 more percent are still being added and have to be confirmed. But I know there’s definitely Moscow and probably St. Petersburg on the tour sheet.

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview and providing photos.

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalie Khorina
Questions also provided by Blindman
September 28, 2005
3 ноя 2005 the End

Helloween

Sun Child