HELLOWEEN –

HELLOWEEN

En prat med Andi Deris
2003-05-03
Av Sverre

---

Sverre tok en lengre prat med Helloween's vokalist Andi Deris p� telefon i April 2003.

ET: Hi, how are you?
A: Oh well, a bit tired now actually. I think I am ready for a pot of coffee or something.
ET: Do you have a lot of interviews going on?
A: The interviews are great actually, but it�s a bit tiering. We started like twelve this afternoon, and I still have four to go. And then when you�re done with them, you understand that it is very very brain-consuming. You know it�s not like work, you just sit here. But it nearly kills you after ten hours.
ET: Could you just tell a little bit about the title "Rabbit don�t come easy"?
A: That�s from an old English saying. Which is taken from pulling rabbit�s out of a hat. Which is very very easy, without any problems. And Markus picked up the saying. And after all this drummer-shit, with poor Mark catching this virus which is knocking him down for years. This rabbit didn�t come so easy. hehe.
And Weiki picked it up and translated it into Spanish. And he got: "Pussy doesn�t come easy". Hehehe. And that was it then.
ET: How will the cover artwork be like?
A: It will be kind of a Japanese new comic style. 3D computer graphics. It�s pretty cute, and pretty nice actually. And it�s very modern on the other hand. But it is still comic, showing everyone happy happy Helloween. Not a dark thing, or something like that. There was a lot concerns from other people from all over the world, if we would go on with dark ride stuff, or if we would go back to happy happy Helloween. And, well. We decided to go back to Happy happy Helloween. I mean the last record was great. I still like to listen to it, but nobody felt like doing a second dark ride. You have to find back your hobby, and what is fun to play. Doing dark music is a "sect-thing", like some psycho-shit, you know. hehe. And suddenly you are dark. And we never felt like a dark band. We always felt like "the White guys of heavy metal".
ET: Musically, how would you describe this album?
A: Very subjectively.. I can�t be objective can i.. But I would say a hard version of "The master of the rings". Something like that.
ET: Song description: (tror han misforstod sp�rsm�let mitt..hehe)
A: "Just a little sign" is mainly my song.
"Open your life" is mainly Sascha`s song.
Then you have "The tune" which is hearable Weiki`s.
"Never be a star" was a song I wrote during "The perfect gentlemen" days. That I out on this one now. Typical Andi-song.
And "Liar", that is Marcus going crazy. hehe. Marcus came up with these very hard riffings, and Sascha had some even more hard stuff to add. And I followed with the vocals, and thought I would have fun and do some real doomy shit. And then I also have this refrain which perfectly fit into Marcus` song.
"Sun for the world" is Sascha`s song.
"Don�t stop being crazy", is Andi`s song mainly.
"Do you feel good" is Weiki going experimental. Loving KISS, The Sweet and Helloween. hehe.
"Hell was made in heaven" is a strong Marcus-tune. It was fun to sing along actually.
"Back against the wall" is Andi from the dark ride. It was on "The dark ride", but the refrain was not even nearly finished, so we did not have the time on the dark ride, to finish it. I�m actually happy that we didn�t do it, because I�ve now had the opportunity to find this double bass shuffle-refrain. Which is very much Helloween. It�s not a dark Helloween, but it�s a furious part of Helloween.
"Listen to the fly", that is mainly Sascha`s song.
And "Nothing to say", that is Weiki totally going weird. This time he said, I should definitely try to show all the young fans bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Whitesnake. And we actually were a bit frustrated, because we said: "You like metal music? You like hardrock, and you don�t know these bands? OK, you are very young, but actually it�s a shame that you don�t know them." So Weiki said, I�m gonna do a cocktail. Put everything from the old great bands into one song. Even with a reggae-refrain. And, he did.
ET: When did Sascha join the band?
A: Well he joined the band half a year before the production.
ET: You were wondering of putting Henjo Richter in the band.
Why didn�t it work out?
A: Well Henjo is Weiki`s best friend actually, playing in Gamma Ray.
But he never said yes or no. It�s just Henjo, he is the way he is. He never said yes, and he never said no. He only talked about it, but sooner or later we ran into kind of a time pressure, and we had to decide. That�s why we said we had to check out that or this guitarist. And, Sascha was a recommendation from Charlie. He said: "Great guy, and he�s a genius hell of a guitar-player so you should check this guy out." So we invited him out to Tenerife, where we live . And hang out for ten days, playing around and jamming around. And we simply said. "Hey, if you would like to join. You�re the man for us."
ET: Could you tell about the B-side and bonus-tracks?
A: Oh, yeah B-sides. The little tradition..hehe.
We still record those B-sides and bonus tracks. The fun part was, fast as a shark from Accept. Weiki always wanted it, and this time we said. "Hey. Lets record it". As well as "Sheer heart attack" from Queen. And a song called "Far away" from Marcus. But through "Fast as a shark", we found a bridge to Stefan Schwartsmann, who used to play drums in Accept. So we gave him a call, and asked if he would like to play on the drums. And he said, "Yeah, sure I�ll do". And during that session in Marcus little home-studio, Marcus found out that Stefan is not even having a band at the moment. So that was actually that was like.. "Huh??? Maybe you should visit the boys on the Island" Then they both flew out to Tenerife, and we hang out with Stefan for quite a few days. And we jammed and felt really great. So suddenly we had a band again.
ET: Where will these B-sides and Bonus-tracks appear?
A: I think it�s only Marcus song that is only on the Japanese version.
ET: Why did you choose just a little sign for the single?
A: Well I�m strongly aware that this is a good mixture of like speed metal, hi pitch metal, and typical Helloween. And I think the company thought this is great credibility for the fans outside. To show them "here they are". It�s for the fans to show them we are here, stronger than ever, harder than ever. And it�s happy happy. It is the white guys of metal back on track..hehe
ET: What do you think of Charlie Bauerfeind has done with the production?
A: Well, on the dark ride album, he was more or less engineering. The responsible man for "The dark ride", was Roy Z. He did a great job. He was told to do a great job, so he did. But Charlie is growing up with all these Helloween-sounding bands, so he should be the man for this job. And, what shall I say. He�s the man. He is really great.
ET: Why did you record in your studio?
A: Because it�s the best. It�s the best studio in the world actually. Because we know what we need. Because we are metal-musicians. And it�s a metal guy who owns the studio, so I technically could add everything so that it makes 100 per cent sense. Which makes it very much more comfortable. I don�t add a lot of gear that you don�t use in the metal-world. So this studio is equipped with exactly with the stuff that we need. Well, actually it�s my stuff and Charlie`s stuff put together in a studio. Because Charlie is living on the Island. He is constantly producing bands there.
ET: Tell about the "frog-sounds" on the record.
A: Well that was Weiki. Some night I saw him standing outside on the street, in the middle of the night actually. And his face was like shining blue. And he looked like a vampire or something like that when he stood there. And I said, "What the fuck are you doing there?" And he was like, "Shhh, I�m recording the frogs." hehe.
Because he felt he needed the frogs on the end of the fun song, of his "Nothing to say"-song. Because it would be a very important part of the studio. You know we had a rainy week there. And you know when it rains here we get a lot of frogs. And he wanted to add that in the end of the album. And then again he felt it was very important to record the bathroom door of the studio. Which i was not allowed to oil. hehe. So he recorded that one as well.
ET: Why did Mark Cross leave during the recordings?
A: He caught a virus, which actually knocks him down for years. He could not play drums anymore. He could not even walk. It really brought him into the rolling chair.
ET: How was it to work with Mickey Dee from Motorhead?
Well, we all know Mickey, from all the touring from all over the world.
So he was first choice actually. You need a great drummer, you need drummer who is like fun to listen to, and fun to play with. You definitely have to call Mickey. The again it was clear that when Mickey did the drums, nobody would come up with the idea that this is the new drummer from Helloween. That would have been stupid. Cause we still thought Mark would recover, you know. So it was important to have a man there who was a friend. But not as the new drummer of Helloween. And Mickey was definitely first choice.
ET: Tour plans? Songs and places to play.
A: Well, there will be some surprises, which I don�t wanna tell you now. But we definitely would like to have a good mixture that will be much harder that the last tour. So there will be some more speed metalish things. And on the other hand I would imagine we also could go down to only Andi and one guitar. Which would take like three minutes, with the fans singing along with me. Then more speed metal. But I don�t know. It looks like we�ll do a two hour show with a lot of hard stuff. Actually that�s what everybody feels like.
ET: Coming to Norway?
A: I hope so. We didn�t play there on the last tour, for whatever reason. Maybe there was no time, I don�t know. But this time there shouldn�t be any arguments for us not to go to Norway.
ET: Why did you choose to release the best of CD. (Treasure chest)
A: Well that�s a good question, you should ask the management again.
Well there were many reasons, and this was probably one of them, why we leave the management now. So this had to stop. These people were doing to much business. And you know, it�s a shame to say, but for us it looks like it goes way beyond what we think is a good management. For other bands it may be great, but for us it didn�t work out.
ET: So it wasn�t your decision to release the best of CD?
A: We had to. I mean. It kills us. It have already killed two people who had to leave the band. Which i think a big part of the mistake was with the management. Not only with the band.
ET: Whose decision was it when Uli and Roland had to leave the band?
A: That was mainly Marcus and Weiki`s decision. There was a bit of arguing, which reached a top in Mexico after the last show. Which was the day the decision fell. That was the day when even Marcus said he didn�t want to go on with those two guys. There�s no common understanding anymore, there�s no common basement. And Weiki and Marcus then decided to ask them to leave the band.
ET: Are there any Solo-projects going on?
A: No, there are song but I don�t look forward to another solo-thing now. Maybe sometime, but not now. I�m to lazy, first of all. Besides my laziness, there is still a lot of good, but time-consuming work for Helloween. And this is the main part, and when this is over. Maybe I�ll sit down and decide to take holiday, or make solo. hehe.
ET: What do you think of downloading music from the internet?
A: It�s very simple. I love to download stuff. Because I wanna listen to that stuff, and find out if I like it. The bad guys are not the fans downloading. The bad guys are not responsible, they are not really able to be responsible. Idiots like Napster, who actually don�t realize that there are indeed a lot of fans who, when they realize that they listen to that stuff over and over again. And they realize that they would actually like to pay something for it. But they can�t. So I have for example 50 downloads, and I listen to the stuff. And 48 I trash again, because I don�t like it. But two, I keep and put onto my I-pod. And I listen to it over and over again. And I strongly feel that I would like to pay for it and say thank you. But where should I pay for these two songs? I didn�t buy the whole record, because simply I didn�t want to buy the whole record because I only like these two songs from it. And I love these two songs and I listen to it every day. But I will not buy the whole record because I know I don�t like the other songs. So why is it not possible to pay for these two songs, that�s what I�m asking.
ET: Top 3 CD�s of 2002.
A: -Spiritual beggars.
-And there are four songs of the new Linkin Park-album that I really like.
Me, a classic metal guy..hehe. But this is for me one of the only bands in this Nu-metal style, who is actually when they don�t go into that rap shit, having great music. They have great melodies in the refrains. Sometimes I have problem with the rap-parts you know. Somebody told me that on the new record it�s already getting a little bit less of that rap-shit. Because they have some great metal entrances.
-And number three is Helloween. That is counting isn�t it? hehe.
In my all time favorites I have to say Ozzy Osbourne and KISS. I never changes those bands you know.
ET: What do you think of the metal-scene around the world?
A: Overall, I think it�s positive, and we have more going on than for a few years ago. The only complain is that we are metal-fans, so we don�t understand why metal-people give other metal-people shit. Just because that guy is more into doom, and that guy is more into power-metal and that one is more into nu-metal. And somebody should explain me that. I don�t understand it.
ET: Where do you get most response when your playing live?
A: Besides Spain and Scandinavia, it�s definitely South-America, Middle-America and Asia.
ET: Any last comments?
A: Well, thank you for waiting and staying tuned for the white guys again. So it�s no black stuff anymore. hehe. I hope you�ll enjoy it, you�ll definitely enjoy it. I KNOW YOU�LL ENJOY IT. Harder than ever, and we are very proud of the album, and I�m quite sure that everyone out there would be a little bit proud of us. Cause we really love the album, so this is something I didn�t say for the other albums. Glad to be back on track, and for my part I would like to promise that we come to Norway. I strongly feel that we should, and I will do everything for that we do.
ET: Thanks for the interview then.
A: Pleasure. Thanks.