Szapy: “Straight Out Of Hell” has just hit #4 in Germany and
scored the highest position in band history! And became 2nd in Japan. What
could you tell about this, or how you feel?
M.Weikath:
Yes, on the international charts, but eleven on the national Japanese charts,
which isn’t bad either. That’s a great result, that’s a great outcome. Actually
it makes you excited of think about it
of what’s going to happen next and after
that. But it already shows, that it has
a really great impact that shows that ’s nobody will ’worse’ expecting it. And
it’s looking very good., and you get a feeling of pride. And then you think,
you’gotta do some extra efforts, to do things good.
Szapy: As I saw, Andy had this sentence: „We will all
survive the year 2012 and face an even more positive and energetic future.”
Well, you made it.
M. Weikath: Yeah, yeah, depends on when he said that :) But
for right now, it’s looking good now, we just ’need to ecexute everything
properly and then things could be running quite good. But, ’ you know’ there’s been so many
situatuons in the past, when you were thinking that you had everything in your
hand and then everything changed. And it
wasn’t as you would it expected and so on. We’re always on the careful side.
Being a bit cautios about predictioncs
of what’s going to happen. But what’s just happening right now is a
very-very interesting time.
Yosha: This is the third record with the same group, without
any changes, seems to me that the band has been complete for these years.
M.Weikath: It could… maybe even be more, if you count the
’Unarmed’ and the other things, the Life Record that has been the
collaboration. Anyway, it’s been almost ten years now. And that’s a very good
impact also for the fan, for the listener. This new album have been done by
people who have been working like this for ten years already, and who seem to
get along quite well. And that’s another positive impact, you know. It’s the
manifestation of how many in between the band members or that they’re having a
good time or the things are working out in between them. And that’s really good
that something I would really like to keep, everybody would like to keep.
Anything else just would be another nightmare. But this aspect I think it’s
also adding to the general positive impact and effects that you get listening
to the new album. And the other one that has been done, have been done by the
same people and it’s really great and retrospect.
Yosha:
We heard about plans like a Reunion Tour, but in this case, maybe it wouldn’t
be so great for the current band.
M.Weikath:
No, not at all. And that’s what I say. Michael Kiske recently posted some
things on his website and his forum, where he said like ’he will not do anything like a reunion, but somebody is dreaming about
in the open interviews’. And I must correct that I wasn’t dreaming about
anything, just answering questions that people ask me. I either reunion as
little as anyone else. Or him. And that’s something that maybe he didn’t understand.
Maybe it was put forward to him in a different way, not like this. Not like
somebody said: ’Ah, that you know, Mike
was dreaming about a reunion again, what you say about that?’ If it was
brought to him that way, it’s understandable what he said on his page. And I
can only answer, if a management wants to do particular things at all, it
depends on him, if he would be willing to do things like that. People asked,
because you know the rumour of reunion in 2014 or whatever. And these have only
been the questions that I answered when that came up in other interviews
before. And there are possibilities, because we have a great management. A
great management could organize a reunion like that. And it wouldn’t be much of
a problem, they would do it. And it’s quite possible, it’s just dependig on all
the people who would be involved. And if he doesn’t wanna do anything like
that, well, I also don’t wanna do anything like that. I have no time for stuff
like that actually. We have lots of good things to do with this Helloween
line-up. That’s always like kind of a sad point, and the daily conversation
when you find that there are so much ’entire position’ and they’re still a bit
of misunderstanding. And everything that goes with it. So like maybe he
misunderstood my position or the other way around or people have read it, heard
it… Lot’s of misunderstandings. And we had so much of that in the past.
Sometimes you want to have sincerity and you want to know what you’re doing.
That odds to a good feel. And with this album we have a great chance to have
something like that. And we actually have the Hellish Rock part II with Gamma
Ray. And so that’s a bit of that thing, where there shouldn’t be any
difficulties actually because it’s been proven that the first tour went on
quite well and we all had a great and funny time. It was quite entertaining.
And you know, when you all have those things, uhhh, problems, misunderstanding.
I never liked that.
Szapy: By introducing
the new album, you mentioned, that it’s a consequent development of the two
earlier ones (7 sinners and Gambling with the devil). What do you mean under
this?
M.Weikath: Well, they’re combined, because they were done by
the same band and also they were done with the same fashion of producing.
Beacuse we sent demos on the internet server, where everybody could download it,
so we could say, all done the same way.
Which you couldn’t possibly say about the Keeper’s Legacy, where we spent time
int he rehersal room and exchanged ideas live between the members. It takes a
lot of time and whatever. Sometimes it not even as effect if someone sits down
and does a proper demo for everyone to listen to with all the supposed ideas in
there already. Then you can easily go and do a great records, provide that you
have a good stuff. And that’s what I meant. These albums are not so different
from each other. They’re kind on interchangeable, that’s what I would say. You
can put 7 Sinners, you can put the Gambling with the devil, and Straight out of
hell, you can make a big sampler out of it. And you would sense, ok, these’re
the same people. You would have a big ball of all the tracks on these albums
collected, and you could shuffle them actually. And then you have your dislikes
and your preferences naturally.
Szapy: As I checked the lyrics, is there maybe a little bit
of criticising on people/society in the song Asshole and Nabatea?
M.Weikath: Asshole is just directed, towards who are people,
who are actually assholes, who steal your energy, who give you bad time, who you
don’t enjoy being with beacuse they give you some negative tension. And they
steal your energy as I said before, which is never good. And there’s nobody
in particular or being addressed by that song. By the way Sascha said in a few interviews - when I heard what he said- was also a
sing along song if you’re like in a bad situation and somebody really pissed
you off a few minutes ago and you can at least hum that melody ’He’s an
asshole…tadada, tadada’ and maybe it
makes that situation a little bit better . So I also see that in really
positive way. Nabatea is not entirely criticising society, whatever, but
actually in a way, well when conquerors come and want to destroy things and
they want to assert something , then that’s the criticism about things the
Nabateans for themselves. I think they
had a flourishing society, and they were kind of rich and wealthy. Strange
thing about it, somehow they were banished. As the Maya. There’s no way of
telling where they possibly went.
Szapy: And how did you find the story of Nabatea?
M.Weikath: Well, it was Andy, wathced Indiana Jones, and in
that movie the portal of Cathedral or something of the town Petra, the capital
is shown in the movie. And that’s the original from Petra. That area is
somewhere between Israel and Palestine, where it’s now (and also Jordan - ed.), and that’s kind of
strange because it was built in to rocks.
You couldn’t find acces from outside easily and it took until 1901 or
something ’till a swiss went there and found it, where it was. (History: the swiss explorer found it in 1812, and 100 years later, Lawrence of Arabia was there during the first world war - ed.) I think it must
have been quite some effort to uncover all that. Strange. It took so long.
People had aeroplanes before they had expeditions, and archeological people and
whatever. Before, it was just a legend, and people assumed that it’s just like
another legend like Atlantis, something you can’t prove. And then they actually
found it. Incredible.
Szapy: Another interesting thing I read about, that you
don’t like using social networks, and it’s about privacy. But on the other
side, nowadays it’s necessary tu use it for the band.
M.Weikath: Yes, that’s what we’re doing too, and there’s an
official Helloween Facebook or Twitter, whatever, but that’s not my world.
Maybe in the past I’ve been exposed too much ignorance. That I know, could
possibly happen if I expose myself to that. And let people say, whatever they
think, just can’t be a good thing for me, if I did that. Everybody has my
email, it’s kind of public, so what’s wrong with writing me stuff? Unfriendly
mails I delete or I tell the people please shut up, or I block them, and that’s
the kind of control I’d like to have. All those things. On Facebook there’s no
control at all. Actually the people who think, they can use it like that, They
are actually mistaken, maybe they’re also a little bit naive. I think in the
future it will be shown what is
wrong on facebook and things like that.
Because you don’t have the security instruments that you need, and you being
sold as the customer that you are. Because all FB is interested in your
personal data. Because they want to sell it to somebody and want to send you
advertising. If people won’t ignore that, it’s ok, but I think it’s very
ignorant. And very dangerous. Everyone I talk to, they usually say ’yeah, I
know, somehow right, uhum’ and that’s what it is. Don’t think that will be nothing
after you used at all. I have one idea just that there are some real idea
behind it but I didn’t put anything on there, and I actually stayed on there. I
think it says fuck FB or something, like the main comment on there it is. They
can delete me if they don’t like my comment, but I made one idea. And actually
even with that I only have trouble, people think they have to write me there. I
blocked all the things that coud possibly be shown to the public and all I get
is messages, the only thing I permitted. And then I usually write back that
’please use my email’. It’s also written int he profile. So if they still
writing on FB expecting me to get it, the only thing I get is a notification to
my email that somebody wrote me yet again, and I don’t get into my head. I
don’t see what’s good about that.
Yosha: Last year,when you’ve been to Hungary, didn’t play so
much from the album 7 Sinners. Could you tell me, what was the reason?
M.Weikath: Well, there were voices of people they wanted
this kind of material and that kind of material and then we ended up with the
setlist that we had. And we actually thought it was a good one. And some people
also thought it was good, or we had great concerts, people were cheering, we
had super T-shirt sales and stuff. So that’s always an indicator for that the
people liked the concert and that’s criticisim. We took the thing that’s
possible and could to do, and this time around we’re coming with a few more
tracks from Straight out of hell. And the overall setlist will be different,
there will be many tracks we actually never played before or the stuff from the
new record. The public opinion is changing sometimes. There was a time when
they wanted us to play more classical songs of the Keeper-era, and when we did
that, they were quickly satisfied and saturated with that. And then asking for
other things. So this time around we only try to play what has been said
recently. We try to make it that way.
Szapy: And there’s one more thing, I found. As you like many
kind of music and bands, there’s an old one, which is only well known in
Germany, Extrabreit. How did that one came to you?
M.Weikath: Well, there are tracks, like ’Flieger grüß mir
die sonne’ and ’Rote Rosen’ that collaboration with Hildegard Knef. They’ve got
a few great melodies, they were doing that in ’82 and there’s a bit of
Helloween in there already. Namely you take some standed melodies, and make
some rock song out of it. That’s what I like about it. That’s also happening
with the stuff like the Sex Pistol’s My
Way. That’s kinda ’Helloweenish’ already. Becasue you’re taking great melodies,
and you put them into heavy rock. All the other way around: you take some heavy
stuff and you make great melodic sounding stuff out of it. It’s also possible.
And that stuff I was like. Extrabreit has done about two numbers that were
really like quite extraordinary. The other stuff ws kind of regular.
Szapy: Well, that’s it, thank you for the answers!
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