Interview с Rhapsody of Fire : DARKSIDE.ru

The first question is really obvious – what kind of legal problems did you have with your old band name? What made you change the name from Rhapsody to Rhapsody Of Fire?

Of course, we were constricted to do this. There is a kind of legal fight going on for a long time, I think the first documents of the lawyers came in 2001. Back then we already had problems, but not as big as now. In fact, after making a U.S. tour and having more success on that continent, and also thanks to the release of the CD “Live In Canada” (2006), our name started spreading. So this guy – I will not disclose his name, I don’t want to make free advertisement for him – who is the owner of the trademark “Rhapsody”, started calling and doing his best so that we would not be able to sell our CDs under this name. This became a big thing, we had a legal fight some months ago, and in the end we reached a kind of agreement: we decided to end this “Of Fire” to our name, but reserved the right to use the old logo, because it really represents a symbol of Rhapsody, I would say. We reached a kind of compromise, and in the end we are happy, because we know that our fans will always call us “Rhapsody” anyway. On stage we will hear, “Rhap-so-dy!”, and that’s it! (everybody laughs) In the end, it’s not a big deal for us, really. We thought that the biggest problem would be with the record company SPV, but it turned out that they really don’t care. (laughs) The album and the band are successful, they just care about this, and they don’t think that this addition to the name will change something regarding sales or anything else. We had to do something like that, and we chose the addition that we liked, because it constitutes a kind of contrast: “rhapsody” is a kind of soft word, and “fire” represents the metal side of the band. In the end, it’s fine for us like it is.

A lot of people believe that the name of a person or a band somehow predetermines his nature. What has changed inside the band and in your music with the adoption of a new name?

No, because the new album was already recorded! (laughs) The change of the name has nothing to do with the artistic side, it was just something legal that we had to do if we wanted to go on selling CDs in some countries.

As far as we understand, lyrically-wise the new album “Triumph Or Agony” is the continuation of the Dark Secret Saga. Can you tell us briefly what is happening in the lyrics this time?

You are right, “Symphony Of Enchanted Lands Part 2” (2004) was the introduction to this new saga. If we want to be scrupulous, there was an EP (“The Dark Secret”, 2004) that was really an introduction, and the album that followed was very descriptive and symphonic, because we wanted to represent in music this mystery, these secrets connected to Seven Black Books. In our story, everything is revolving around these books, especially the last one, the seventh, written by Necron, the demonknight. Some secrets contained in this book could be a real danger for all the known world – we speak about this in the “Symphony Of Enchanted Lands Part 2” album. Now with “Triumph Or Agony” we really enter into the action. We are in the moment when our heroes led by Dargor and Iras Algor are trying to search for this book and discover the secrets contained in it. They are moving through subterranean caves of Dar-Kunor, the mystical place. It is an album full of action, in contrary to the previous one.

A lot of your fans love fast songs from old albums very much – stuff like “Emerald Sword” or “Dawn Of Victory”. But the new album doesn’t contain many songs like that, mostly it’s mid-tempo stuff. What is the reason?

There is not a particular reason. It depends on the moment of the saga – we always want to make an album that is different from the previous, so the next one that we will start composing soon will be totally different from “Triumph Or Agony”. And “Triumph Or Agony” is anyway different from “Symphony…”, just like “Symphony…” was totally different from “Power Of The Dragonflame” (2002). We like to change album after album. In addition, we composed this album thinking that immediately after that we will start the Triumph Or Agony worldwide tour, so we knew that we will play some of the new songs onstage and we specifically composed them so that they would work great live. Probably that’s why some songs are more mid-tempo. But this doesn’t mean that Rhapsody stopped composing ultra-fast songs (laughs), it’s just our ch

oice for one album. The next album can be totally fast or totally aggressive… or totally slow. (cracks)

Can you say a few words about the recording process of “Triumph Or Agony”? How was the recording going this time?

The composition process was basically the same as for the others albums. Usually I come in with some ideas on the guitar, I propose them to Alex Staropoli (keyboards) and we work together on the basic arrangements. We put down the songs in the computer, and then, of course, I take care of the saga, so that music reflects in the best way the moment of the saga we are speaking about. For us the link between what happens in the story and the music is very important, I would say it’s fundamental. And then, in the last moment, it’s Alex who designs orchestral arrangements. Usually it takes us no more than two or three months to compose an entire Rhapsody album. It’s like work – at a certain moment we start doing something, and we are lucky because we never miss inspiration.

In the past you often released a mini-album or an EP before the release of a full-length CD. But why didn’t you do anything like that this time?

It was not our decision, but the managerial decision, I would say. It did not depend on us, we just gave them the master CD, and then these kinds of things are decided by the record company in connection with the management. I think there was not enough time to release a single or an EP before the album, because this album just had to come out in the end of September, before we go on tour. We will have to do the second part of the support tour for Manowar, and then next year we will leave for a big Triumph Or Agony headliner tour. Everything is really well-planned, so we cannot take a risk to release the CD one or two months later. I think some single will follow after the release of the album, this is a new strategy designed by the management in accordance with the record company. We will do the opposite of what other bands usually do! (laughs)

All your albums have excellent cover artwork, and “Triumph Or Agony” is no exception. Who comes up with ideas for your covers – you or the artist?

The basic idea is usually given by me, because, as I told you, I write the saga, so I know exactly what should be represented graphically to underline a particular moment of the saga. In the end, I give this idea, usually I speak a lot with the designer. This time we have a new designer, his name is Jeff Easley, he was already famous back in the 1980s, because he designed great cover artworks for the “Dungeons & Dragons” books. He’s totally into fantasy, so it was very easy to speak with him and explain him what we would like to be represented on our cover. We like to change artists to add a new flavor to the graphical impact, we don’t want to have the same style all the time.

Earlier this year Rhapsody released the first live album – “Live In Canada”. But your official website contains very little information on it – it’s not even included in the discography section. What is the reason for it?

This is a special album. In the beginning this album wasn’t even meant to be recorded! (laughs) We see it as a kind of appetizer, because the first real headliner tour of Rhapsody will be represented on a DVD or a double DVD, something very big. We released this album just because of that special fantastic evening in Canada that really surprised us in an incredible way. We were treated really like headliners, but you know, we were just supporting Manowar. Of course, we never would have imagined to release a live product from a support tour. (laughs) But this evening is always in our memory because of the incredible audience and how great everything sounded, because the hall had fantastic acoustics. When we finished the tour, we listened to that recording, and it was so great that after just one week of production in Germany we were able to release this album.

When can we expect this big live release to be recorded?

Until the end of the year we will go on supporting Manowar, we will play in Germany a lot, as well as in other parts of Europe – the Czech Republic, Greece, etc. In the beginning of next year we will finish in South America, always supporting Manowar. Then, after the typical summer festivals that we usually play, we will start the Triumph Or Agony worldwide headliner tour that we are really looking forward to, because it’s

been a lot of time since we played as headliners. (laughs)

As you said, the live album was recorded during your American tour with Manowar. How was it like touring with such a big band?

I was always a big fan of Manowar. Before starting to compose Rhapsody’s music, when I was 15 or 16, I started discovering metal with Manowar, Helloween, and King Diamond. They were one of my favorite bands, together with Yngwie Malmsteen, another great artist of that time. So when Joey DeMaio proposed to become our manager and take care of us as a record company, it was a great thing for us. But it’s not that they signed us because we are fans, it’s also because he proposed us a great plan of how to make the band grow. We are having greater budgets than we had in the past, and also thanks to Joey we have a possibility to have a person like Christopher Lee on our album. There is a great connection between Rhapsody and Manowar after some years of working together. Rhapsody is now collecting some fruit of this great relationship, also because Joey is a great businessman. On tour it was the same, because he arranged it in the way that everything is perfect. You know, sometimes touring is very hard, especially for people like me and Alex – we are the ones who control the live situation, so from the early morning we have to take care that in the venue there are the right things, that everything that we asked for is there, so it’s a bit stressing to tour for us. Unlike the other members of Rhapsody, we never have time to go sightseeing in the various cities around the world where we get to play. But thanks to Joey, everything is smoother now, because there is better organization. Of course, there are always problems, and big bands have them too, I know it from other bands, not only Manowar. And Manowar, too, sometimes have problems with their technicians. But in general, it was a great experience, we spent a lot of weeks touring the USA and Canada, and now we will go on, so it’s really fun to be with them. Though our backstages are very different, because Rhapsody members, regarding their personalities, are very different from the guys of Manowar. You know the legends around Manowar, how they like to entertain themselves with this extreme rock’n’roll attitude, but Rhapsody have totally different lyrics, a totally different message, and different personalities, we propose ourselves like we are, not faking at all. So the backstage of Rhapsody can be very very boring, it’s not like the backstage of Manowar. But on the other end, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are very nice guys, and there is a kind of friendship between us.

You always said that Manowar was one of the biggest influences on the music of Rhapsody. When you got to know Joey DeMaio and the rest of the band in person, how much were they different from what you expected to see? And how much is Joey different onstage and in everyday life?

Oh, well… I don’t know really, because Joey DeMaio has this double personality – he is able to switch perfectly between being an incredible businessman that always gets what he wants because he has a lot of charisma, and a stage animal for which everybody knows him. I would not say he’s faking, he’s just a double personality. He can be extremely serious when it comes to business, and business people have a lot of respect for him. Some people even hate him because he’s such a great businessman and he’s always able to get what he wants. And what you see on stage and in interviews is his second personality. In the end, I was not surprised by anything because I imagined them just like they are in reality.

Did you like the response that you had from Manowar fans? Was it easy or difficult to “conquer” them, so to say?

Not really, because we always select some more direct songs for our concerts. We don’t insist on the songs with a lot of orchestral parts that usually sound better in the studio environment. What we select for live shows fits very well with the audience of Manowar. I don’t see such a big difference between hearing songs like “Kings Of Metal” and “March Of The Swordmaster”, the mid-tempo impact is the same, the epic impact is the same, so I think that it was a very successful tour for us. And that’s why we want to go on, we feel that the audience of Manowar loves Rhapsody in most of the cases. And in Canada everything changes – we are treated like headliners more than Manowar. In Canada people really love Rhapsody, it’s fantastic. (laughs)

Have you ever heard of the Italian band called Nanowar?

(cracks) You are not the only journalists who ask me about this! (everybody laughs) We had a lot of laugh about this band! But we didn’t let Joey DeMaio listen to this (everybody is on the floor laughing), because he wouldn’t like when they say “Manowar gay!” This band is a lot of fun, we had a big laugh when me, Alex and Fabio Leone (vocals) were in the studio in Germany with Sascha Paeth and listened to their music.

At the Earthshaker festival in Germany famous actor Christopher Lee was supposed to perform with you onstage. Unfortunately, his appearance was cancelled in the last minute. What was the reason for it?

Christopher was close to performing, but in the last minute he made a great surprise for us by not appearing. We used his video image, so when Fabio was singing the song “The Magic Of The Wizard’s Dream”, there was a kind of duet, but a virtual duet. Fabio was performing onstage, and Christopher Lee was appearing on the video screen behind Fabio. At that moment he was starring in the movie “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory”, directed by Tim Burton. You know, sometimes he says, “Yes, OK, I will be with you in six months,” but then it becomes impossible, because he’s an actor and he’s always busy. In the last moment it turned out that he had to work on this movie, so we were unlucky.

When Rhapsody first appeared on the metal scene, a combination of heavy metal and symphonic elements was a really rare thing. But nowadays a lot of bands are playing with orchestras and using classical instruments in their music. What do you think of bands like Therion or Haggard, and did you like what Metallica or Kiss did with orchestras?

I love what Metallica did, because it’s a particular style of metal connected with a particular style of soundtrack music. This is also thanks to the work of Michael Kamen, the director of the orchestra and a great soundtrack composer, who unluckily is dead now. I like it because the music of Metallica is very particular, very rhythmical. The music of Rhapsody is more melodic, and it’s easier to connect it with an orchestra in some way. But Metallica has a more American style, and to connect it with an orchestra was not very easy in terms of arrangement. But Michael Kamen did a fantastic job, and I like this double CD (“S&M”, 1999) very much. As to the fact that many bands followed Rhapsody inserting orchestra here and there, at first you could think this is not good for our band, because the music composed and arranged this way is overloading the market, and Rhapsody loses important in this chaos of bands playing in the same style. But until now this hasn’t affected our sales in any way - a lot of bands came, a lot of bands disappeared after some years, but Rhapsody stays the same. Even if the market is going down, Rhapsody has the same sales figures. We get new fans every year, we lose some of the old fans, but we are always one of the best selling bands at SPV. We are very proud of this, we are very proud that our music survived the CD market crisis, so we continue going in this direction and not caring about what other bands do. The fact that is important to sell our music is that the orchestra parts that you can find in our music are composed and arranged totally by me and Alex. Usually, like in the case of Metallica, bands take the money, pay an arranger or a director, and the guy composes parts for them. This is a bit strange, because you can’t be so proud of yourself. Yes, you have beautiful sounds, but you know that you didn’t compose the parts.

We know that you are a big fan of Russian classical music, Skryabin in particular. What makes Russian classical music so interesting for you? What do Russian composers have and composers from other countries do not have?

I’m not influenced only by Russian classical composers, because when I compose solos for Rhapsody I am even more influenced by Russian folk music. I love Russian folk dances because usually they are very sad. I love this Eastern European sad and tragic music, I love these big folk choirs that you have, Cossack choirs, for me this music is really fantastic. They transmit a kind of melancholy and nostalgia, and this hits my sensitivity as a composer and artist a lot. I like to take some melodies from Russian folk dances, get inspired and compose solos, and I get a lot of satisfaction when I play them onstage, because there you transmit this kind of sad nostalgic flavor

to the people. It’s a really particular thing.

Now we have a few questions about your activity outside Rhapsody, primarily about your third solo album “The Infinite Wonders Of Creation”. Your previous solo CDs were about science fiction, and the second one (“Prophet Of The Last Eclipse”, 2002) even had a sort of futuristic sound, but this new album tells us about the beauty of nature. What are the reasons behind such a dramatic change of topic?

(laughs) It was something decided between me and Alex, because he didn’t like so much that my solo albums sound too much like Rhapsody. But this is not the main reason why I made this change in my direction. It’s also because I wanted to offer more things to myself and also to get the possibility to win over more fans from other styles of music. Moreover, I love the bands that are very different from Rhapsody, I listen to bands like Nightwish and Within Temptation, so I have always been attracted by the idea of having female vocals in one of my bands. That’s why I created a new band called Dreamquest. I also love modern strange bands like Rammstein that sound very particular. Now it’s great for me, because I have three bands at the same time – Rhapsody, Luca Turilli and this Dreamquest, which is a totally opposite side of Rhapsody, because it contains elements of electronic music, and I compose most of the parts on the piano, because in Dreamquest I’m only the keyboard player. This is a very particular thing – in Rhapsody Luca Turilli is the guitar player, while in Dreamquest I play keyboards. I have three possibilities to express my soul, and for an artist this freedom is pure oxygen, so now I’m living one of the best moments as far as composing is concerned. When I compose, I know exactly whether this will be for Rhapsody, Luca Turilli or Dreamquest, so no matter what kind of song I want to compose, it will surely find a space on one of my next albums. It’s a great thing. If I had only Rhapsody, I would feel totally limited. I listen to so much music in my life, and it’s of all different styles, from folk music to modern metal and pop, so I like to incorporate different things in my own works. As I see myself as a composer and absolutely not a guitar player, you can understand my reasons for coming out with three different bands even better. I try to evolve my musical message, not make it always the same.

Olaf Hayer was the singer on your previous solo CDs, but now he shares vocal duties with Bridget Fogle. When and how did you get to know Bridget? And how did she get the job to sing your songs?

This was not something planned in the beginning. The Dreamquest album (“Lost Horizons”) was of course supposed to be sung by a girl, because danger has always been the main characteristic of this new band. But as to my solo album, Olaf Hayer was supposed to sing it completely. However, there was a big problem during the production, because Olaf was not able to sing some songs that I composed. I composed these songs basing on my experience with the second album “Prophet Of The Last Eclipse”, and I knew perfectly Olaf Hayer’s voice and his range. The fact was that he was very ill, so we had to postpone all the production for three weeks. Then he came back, but he was not able to sing the higher vocal lines. Thus, I had a big problem during the production, I was risking not to see the album released at all, and this would not have been acceptable for me. I had just finished a period of four years of contractual problems between the new record company and the old one, and I was looking for a place in between Rhapsody releases to be able to come out with a solo album. I couldn’t take the risk of not having it ready on time, so an idea came to me to split vocal parts. Bridget Fogle was singing choirs for the Luca Turilli album anyway, so I asked her to try singing “Mother Nature”, the first song after the intro, and I was so happy about the result that I decided to go on with this idea for the whole album. The album is dedicated to Mother Nature, there are spiritual, positive and romantic lyrics on it, and the voice of Bridget fit very well to the message that I wanted to spread among my fans via this album. In the end, I’m very proud of the result. The duet was not planned, but this was a good solution to a big problem.

Bridget is not a big name on the metal stage at the moment. Have you considered inviting somebody more famous, for instance, Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil or Tarja Turunen of Nightwish, to do the vocals?

Y

ou know, I found myself in the studio, and I was supposed to give the master in a month, so I had to complete everything in a very limited period of time. There was absolutely no time for me to even think about other possibilities. Bridget was there in the studio, I stopped her and told her, “Please, save my album!” (laughs) So she stayed there and recorded everything, doing me a great favor. She was very happy, too, because prior to that nobody had asked her to be the lead singer, everybody used her just as a chorist. In the end we were all happy about the final result, it was worth the effort.

What happened to your long-time partner Michael “Miro” Rodeberg? Why wasn’t he involved in the recording this time?

At the moment I like playing keyboards much more, so I wanted to play everything by myself – from the first note on the keyboard until the last note of orchestral arrangements. We collaborated with Miro to create this kind of futuristic sound on “Prophet Of The Last Eclipse”, because he had a sort of futuristic sound library and I didn’t have it. But now I really have everything, I found a good endorsement for keyboards and computer sounds, and I wanted to compose everything by myself. In addition, “Infinite Wonders Of Creation” is a very personal album, because it is a declaration of love to Mother Nature, and if you record everything by yourself, you feel that the album is totally yours. You live it differently than if you share composition duties with other band members. In Rhapsody me and Alex share composition duties equally, so I needed to express only myself on my solo album. The only thing I gave to another person was bass, it was arranged and played by Sascha, and the result was fantastic. I think he’s better as a bass player than a guitar player. As to the keyboards, I was able to play them all by myself, I have a lot of samplers and keyboards, more than guitars at the moment. It was a lot of fun, but also a great challenge for me to propose myself as a keyboard player. The challenge is even bigger in Dreamquest, where I’m only the keyboard player.

What does Alex Staropoli think of your keyboard playing?

(cracks) Luckily, I have never asked him! We always think of solo albums as something totally private and personal. He never judges my solo albums, I don’t know if he likes them or not, and it’s really not important. He knows that I make the music that I like apart from Rhapsody, and that I need to express myself in different ways. It’s really not interesting for me to know whether he likes it or not. (laughs) And now he’s working on his first solo album, but that’s not really important. He’s not a guy who lets me listen to the songs and so on. We see solo albums as a private way of expressing our souls, and we need them, because in Rhapsody, when we are composing together, we sometimes have to reach a compromise – he likes something but I don’t like it, and vice versa, but on the solo albums we have total freedom.

Do you plan to master any more musical instruments in the future? How about violin or drums?

No, my life is so short! (everybody laughs) Not my life, life in general is short. There are some talents, some exceptions, they just touch an instrument, and it plays automatically. But after sacrificing so many years to the guitar, staying at home, playing for hours and hours, I don’t want to repeat that again. Now I’m playing keyboards and piano, and I have fun doing it, but I don’t spend more than two or three hours a day on it, because I no longer have the same energy that I had when I was a young boy. I really can’t imagine starting to practice on a new instrument! And I think that when you master the guitar or the keyboards in a good way, you are able to compose everything that’s in your mind and put it into music. I think it’s really more than enough.

How do you imagine the audiences for your new solo album and for Dreamquest?

I would say that Dreamquest is gaining incredible success. I would have never imagined that the record would be in the charts already a month after its release. For instance, in Germany the record has been in the charts for eight weeks, which means that it hit the charts one week after the release. It’s fantastic to be played in this kind of rock discos in Germany, and when the DJs that make the charts put your record in them, this means that people like to listen to it. You know, it’s always difficult for a new band to find an audien

ce, especially at the current moment of market crisis. But what is happening with Dreamquest is something amazing. I’m already working on the second album, and I want to be onstage with it already next year in between various Rhapsody shows. I really believe a lot in this band which, I think, brings together normal typical Rhapsody and Luca Turilli fans that also like bands like Nightwish and Within Temptation, and fans of other styles that like more aggressive music. There are always people who say that metal should be sung only by male singers, and they don’t like it so much when girls are singing metal, even if they are good. But I love this lyrical opera impact, I love Tarja, and I really wanted to create a band in this way. But, as I did with Rhapsody in the beginning, I wanted to find my particular trademark. I call this music “symphonic electro metal”. For me it was important to add this electronic component that you can find in modern movie soundtracks such as “Matrix”, “Resident Evil” or “Underworld”, these Hollywood action movies where the typical soundtrack symphonic style is connected with modern electronic sounds, synthesizers, heavy guitars. I think Dreamquest is the result of this fusion.

This year you have released four albums. How do you manage to keep working so intensively? Do you ever have some free time from music?

You know, music is my life. When you find a way to express your soul and to spread the message that you want, this means that you’ve reached the goal of your life. And when you also have the possibility to live off this - thanks to God that gave me this gift – it’s even better because you have more time. As I told you before, I don’t consider myself a musician – a guitar player or a keyboard player – but a composer. This means that every time I see a landscape, every time there is a bad moment, a war or violence on television, I always like to underline these different states of mind and soul with music. I feel the need to express myself a lot and in different ways. I consider this a real job, because sometimes it can be also very stressing, sometimes you work more than normal people that finish at five, go home and have a free evening. But I sometimes find myself working until five o’clock in the morning, for two months consequently there was total stress, so sometimes it’s very hard. You live your life in a particular way, because there is a creative process, and when there is creativity, you love your job, and you love to compose and spread your message more and more. But there is still free time to dedicate to your girlfriend and stuff like this.

Does your cooperation with Magic Circle Music give you complete artistic freedom? Or are there still some plans or projects that you cannot realize because of limited budgets or contractual obligations?

When we were negotiating with Joey DeMaio, one of the first things we spoke was that artistically we don’t want any involvement from Joey’s side. I have to say that until now our relationship has been fantastic exactly because of this. We are lucky because when me and Alex have composed Rhapsody albums and we forwarded the demo to the label, and everybody always liked it. We never had any problems, we were never forced to change a single song.

We know that Rhapsody were supposed to play in Moscow with Manowar this spring, but these plans were never realized. Do you know what the problem was?

I don’t know really. We are just supporting Manowar, so I don’t know if there were economical problems or anything else of that kind. I know that Joey really wanted to play over there. When we asked him about Russia, he said, “Oh yes, really, this is a must!” It really seemed that it would happen, there was a moment when we were 100 percent sure that we would play there. But then not only Russia was cancelled, but many other countries, too.

OK, and finally, what shall we expect from you in the future? And is there any chance of finally seeing you live in Moscow one day?

For sure! I don’t know when, but this is one of the goals, because we consider Russia a very important country, it can be a new great growing market for us. We will see if it’s possible during the Triumph Or Agony worldwide tour. Of course, you shall expect a great performance during this headliner tour, because we finally found a great sound engineer, and working with him is really a pleasure, not like in the beginning, when the sound of Rhapsody was much worse than we wanted. It

was very difficult for us to play onstage, because we were not able to hear ourselves, the acoustics of halls was terrible, and Rhapsody’s music is kind of complicated to perform live. Finally we have found the right people, and we are having fun onstage, and we are able to transmit that to the people. That is why people now really consider Rhapsody a live band, and everybody has to wait for us to do a headliner tour, we are really looking forward to it.

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Ksenia “Wolfin” Khorina
Questions also composed by Blindman
August 15, 2006
18 окт 2006 the End


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Rhapsody of Fire

March Of The Swordmaster

Van Taig