Interview с Helloween : DARKSIDE.ru

llo, it’s Michael! Good day!

Glad to hear you, Michael! Let us start the interview?

Yeah!

First of all I would like to say thank you for your latest album, it was really good, I can say it was one of the best CDs that were released lately.

Thanks, the pleasure is on our side.

Let’s discuss this album. It is well balanced, who decided on the order of the songs?

Mostly it was our producer, Charlie Bauerfeind in conjunction with the management. We had a Skype meeting that didn’t go so well because the audio delays were terrible. But we were trying and during that conference, by the way, it was not the paid one, it was free one, we sorted out the tracks that we wanted to do. But basically Charlie had a very strong impact on what it would be, because he would know what he wanted to do and how things would be in the end, and certainly he had a few ideas right from the start on how to do all that stuff and how to arrange things. He wanted it to be more bright, more positive rather than the typical dark approach. Many bands want to do dark and melancholic things, we do that too, at times, but he wanted some variety. That’s actually what took place.

You know, the Japanese edition of the CD is a little bit different and it kind of influences the atmosphere of the album in the whole. Well, there may be some bonus tracks or special edition tracks. Usually the song order is the same. Supposedly some tracks has been omitted and it did that job. I’ll check it if I don’t forget (laughs). When someone wants to get a copy autographed and say “Look, it’s different here, why is it so?” I’ll just say “I really don’t know why”

The opening track is entitled Nabataea. Why have you decided to write a song about it?

That’s because Andy was watching “Indiana Jones” and in one of those movies they actually show the very place where it is. At least he said so and I tend to believe him. And then he was checking because he saw that place and said it was an incredible place, some cathedral, I mean, that was carved in a stone somewhere. And I mean what place was that? Then he found out

if that really existed, it was found by some German archeologist in 1910 or 1912 or whatever, so if you look it up online you can check when it was and who the archeologist was, I don’t know I should actually have it in my head, but I don’t know. He knows, Andy has it all. That used to be only a mythical place, people were talking about it but there was no proof but recently in 1910 or so it was found out it really existed. But on that time there was no proof, and it’s all there, you know, only accessible by huge entrances that are carved into the rock, and everything there is inside, well hidden. When there was a plane that looked for it from above you would probably not find it and that is why it took so long to discover that, but people were talking about it for ages. Nobody knows much about it and the thing is it’s vanished. I mean, there was found a settlement with old buildings but nobody knows why these people were gone, as with the Maya, nobody knows where they actually went.

This track is quite lengthy. Wasn’t it risky to put it into the beginning of the record?

That’s what I also don’t know, it’s probably some kind of spontaneous move. There was some decision on that, because, well, our management and Charlie, they had to well decide on what would be the running order. Actually I remember that the running order of Charlie that he came up with first, had Nabataea on the first place. I suppose they had a talk in between with the management and they played the album to two people they know, so to say, specialists. Then the result was that the majority said: “Oh, Nabataea!”, you know, so they liked that song best or got most interested in it or whatever. That’s why it ended up there, because we do that on purpose, you know, you could take “Live Now!” or whatever as the first track, the most commercial, open or easy track to listen to for international housewives or stand-alone house guys who work their house on their own, who maybe have a dog or a cat or 2 dogs and 2 cats. They would probably recognize “Live Now!” like an easy digestible song. So, it doesn’t matter with a heavy metal band that we are to actually put on them, we could create some wanted artificial success, you know, by having people listening to

an easier track on the first and everybody would say “Oh I never thought of heavy metal, this is heavy metal isn’t it, could be so…uhm, I like it!”. Or you put Nabataea there, which really doesn’t matter much what you put there, because people do with you and with your band what they please anyways. And you can never foretell what’s going to happen, so you may call it a risk or you may call it a strange decision or whatever but that’s exactly why you ask, people would like to know why we put that long track in there. Why not? It’s kind of different, it’s always like you could move.

Well, that’s a very detailed answer.

Yeah, I thought so(laughs). Well, I’m not really awake yet, so I’m fishing for words, you know.

In one of your earlier interviews it was mentioned that music videos are a kind of waste of time and money, but this time you have chosen the longest track for the video.

Even though it’s a cut version, I think it’s still something like 4.15 that still is too long. Then, here you go, have some epic stuff you can marvel at and then you can go why is it so long, why didn’t they make an even shorter version, some kind of 2.30 version out of it. Yeah, one never knows. When you’re going to have a look at it and compare it to a “Bohemian Rhapsody” of Queen – I don’t know how long that is, it’s longer than the usual video, I think – maybe it’s just the same thing. You may not get it right, but whatever. It won’t get played on MTV officially anyways, maybe just by coincidence, there’s another interest group and other artists are played, maybe Pink, or some rap or hip-hop. So whatever you do it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully this video will be sent to channels on the web and everyone will be able to see it, that’s the means of modern video transportation. It’s okay, it can be cherished, you can be happy about it, because then you don’t need all those classical distribution channels. If you’re not on MTV you’re not getting seen – nowadays everyone can actually access whatever they want, if necessary. Even if you’re not a hacker you can get some data you’re really interested in. And we are not talking about piracy, that video obviously has been done for the people who w

ant to see it, for them to pass it to the other people. So, that’s the principle, and generally yes, when the thinking, making of the video may cost a lot of money, it’s a waste of money, but it always depends on how much you set for it, how much the video producer wants to do. If one doesn’t do the video then the fans whine like “Uugh they don’t do videos for this track and for that track, why?” and sometimes we think “Oh, we should’ve done this and we should’ve done that”, and that’s okay. At least you have the video and it’s one of the better videos, you can’t say it’s absolutely idiotic and bad, I’m aware. You must know that I was repeatedly told “Take off that watch, it doesn’t belong to the heavy metal surrounding or whatever” because maybe it’s not mythical enough or something. But you are there with modern electric guitars and a lot of smoke and fire, you’re playing in some columns, some fantasy country, how that always fits in videos I never understand anyways because that goes completely against fantasy thing. We would have to play on genetically engineered instruments – that would be more along the lines of being in a fantasy world.

You have mentioned in the press-release that the record will follow the series of 7 Sinners and Gambling With the Devil but actually it sounds more like Better Than Raw or The Time of the Oath. Why have you decided to make such a, so to say, positive record?

Well, there’s so much variety on this record, I always say so. If you listen to the other interviews I tend to say the same. That’s just because it’s so. There are some typical things you’ll find on Gambling With the Devil but I put that conjunction because we did it the same way, more or less, because Better Than Raw and The Time of the Oath were rehearsed, completely different, there was a different approach to doing things, kind of the old-fashioned way when you met with the band and you have rehearsal room sessions, then you go into the studio and play the stuff that you have rehearsed. And the production process ever since The Dark Ride, Gambling With the Devil and 7 Sinners was the same: namely no rehearsals took place, the demo sessions and multi track sessions and rehearse the respective tracks that everyone had to do a

nd we didn’t actually meet at the studio and recorded things separately, and then you got a record. If you think that it sounds more like The Time of the Oath and Better Than Raw – that’s good for some people when they hear that – because it’s exactly what they want. To me it even reminds me sometimes of Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 with a fresher and more modern sound. That’s certainly that kind of magic that’s oozing out there. And I think exactly what Charlie wanted because that’s what he talked about at the beginning. He said he wants to put back the big orchestration and the classic Helloween effects and characteristics – he wanted that back along with the modern impacts that we were able to create a part of the newer Helloween ever since. So, it depends on each person’s opinion. When you’re inside the production process, when you do those things it takes you some time to be able to watch your own product from the outside. For me it’s always interesting when you say things like that and other people say that. Some people said it’s even harder than 7 Sinners, some people say this and some people say that. For me it’s always interesting because it creates different impacts on different people that means the record might be interesting. Whatever it is, you could tale 3 or 5 people that would discuss it all evening: “New Helloween record Straight Out of Hell is something like this” and one goes like “No no no, I completely disagree, it’s like this!” and you know that’s what you want to achieve, that’s really good.

What about the song that is entitled Live Now!? Was it somehow connected with the widespread rumour about the apocalypse?

That too, and the actual album title Straight Out of Hell supposedly had quotation marks “We survived 2012”. That’s actually why we took that track title because right from the start everybody thought “Imagine there’s no end of the world because nothing is going to happen” then say “We came straight out of hell, we survived”. So, it’s a positive thing, if nothing happens on that day life goes on, that’s wonderful because you can keep your job, you don’t have to hunt for animals and eat them, because somebody else does it for you. On the modern circumstances you are gotten used to, that

means you can take the bus or your own car, go to your heavy work, be exploited by your boss and it’s all still the same as before, but you’re alive and that’s good, I think. Maybe some other people would rather die, they might say “It’s been put for a worldwide community that we all would die on the same day, so none more of all that exploiting of interest groups and the poor masses.”Well, if nothing happens – nothing happens, but all the humans have to reflect, they have to think “What would have been if there was the end of the world and what would we change, would we change something or would we not, would we try to make this a better world now in case there’s an end of the world that we can avert or maybe not, if there’s nothing to be done about it”. I get all these thoughts always and I think I should sleep more.

The release of the album possibly adds some ten or more tracks to the setlist of your upcoming tour with Gamma Ray, doesn’t it? What should the fans expect from it?

Well, I don’t know what they actually expect. Our manager has just mentioned recently that there were many people asking if there would be a second part of that. Because of that the management can also book different occasions or you have a different club to play because there is Helloween and Gamma Ray and a possible collaboration between Kai Hansen and the original members – that’s what people want to see. It’s to be expected that we when we play a twin solo in I Want Out or some other track that there will be some certain magic that you know from the old Helloween days, that always took place when we played something somewhere, usually all the people went ape shit and there must be something about it. Even though I’m such a bad guitarist and such a lousy ass – there’s a lot of people who don’t like me - and so there are some people who hate Kai Hansen, but when we do something together it cannot be denied that there’s something going on. I think that’s what the people vote for because it’s some kind of historic event – it wasn’t always so clear that we would ever do a tour of Helloween and Gama Ray . It was special, to begin with, when it happened, because it’s very hard to organize a thing like that, given that you know that the bands would fit well along each other, but it’s still not easy to organize a tour like that. So, that’s all like a special thing and the way it came about: at first people were not so sure that one should do something like that at all. Even I was thinking maybe it’s not the best idea but so far as you can remember Kai Hansen has always been the one who initiated this idea. Maybe I would have said it’s not so good and that it’s got to be organized properly. So, I don’t know what the fans expect but there’s a lot of room for fantasizing and dreaming about what it would be and when it takes place. Sometimes you ask yourself:”Okay, what was so special about the concert tonight”, maybe people were just standing and nobody was reacting and they maybe fell asleep, or maybe they were cheering and flipping out - you can only tell that after the show. There are going to be a few ones but when remembering the first time we did that you can say that was probably good, so that’s why it’s being done again, which is also not quite normal.

Have you thought about the recording of a special CD with Gamma Ray before the tour?

I don’t know but that’s stuff that one can do because these are ideas and if you say it that means there are people who say: “Why don’t they record something together?”. That means that studio work and time would be involved. These are ideas we can possibly do in the future and when someone would say:”Hey, why don’t you record something together?” and then you say: “Yeah, but we need time to organize it.” The only reason it hasn’t been done yet is only been matter of time and if we had time, money and resources it would have been done.

In some of your previous interviews you mentioned the recording of the song entitled Come Rain Or Shine for the latest album but it’s not there. Did it get another title or was left in stock for better times?

It was left in stock for better times because then when we were doing the selection I was thinking of rearranging it or leaving it the way it is. Somehow I lost the direct connection to that track, there has been another track as well that I was not sure if I do it, if I finish it, if I rearrange it or leave it the way it is. At that point it was a little bit too much for me, I was interested in working with stuff that has already be done properly. So I kept it and actually I think I will rework those leftovers completely, change them completely and not keep anything the way it was. It would have been okay right then if it would have been finished and it would have been as it was, but I think it will be entirely different then. You can always optimize things and that’s strange because times change and your feelings towards certain things change. Sometimes they don’t change and you look back and think you should keep it that way.

Questions by Blindman
Interview by Екатерина Kiseki
27 янв 2013 the End


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