Paradox
Against All Odds

15.05.2010

Thrash metal veterans keep on delighting their fans with new releases of excellent quality, and acknowledged titans are followed hot on their heels by less famous, but no less respected bands. For example, Germany’s Paradox in 2009 released their second album in two years, which is something even young bands can be envious of in terms of productivity. The band’s mastermind Charly Steinhauer spoke to us about his current works, the hardships he had to go through with Paradox, and his passion for Russia.
The interview was done yet late last year, when nothing indicated at the band’s upcoming split with one of its key members, guitarist Kai Pasemann. With typical German punctuality, Herr Steinhauer phoned us right on time and devoted quite a lot of his time to answering our questions…

Hi Charly, how are you doing?

Fine, thanks! By the way, where are you now? In Moscow or anywhere else in Russia?

Yes, it’s Moscow.

Oh, great, men! We have to play there!

Yes, we also think so – you should play in Russia one day!

Yeah! That will be first time and I hope will do this with new album. Maybe we’ll have a chance next year.

We will be looking forward to it. That will be really fantastic.

Yeah, I‘m ready! (laughs)

Well, then the next thing we have to do after this interview is to call a couple promoters and ask them if they are interested.

I hope so. We have no contacts to Russia, but I know we have a lot of fans there because many people write to our MySpace page or to my e-mail and ask me for playing concerts. That will be amazing for us. I have a lot of friends from Russia. In the company where I work, there are 1,600 employees, and I think 800 are Russians.

That’s really interesting and we do agree that there are a lot of fans of Paradox in Russia. And now let’s speak about new record a little bit. “Riot Squad” is the second Paradox album in the past two years. How did you work on this album and was it easy to write new songs after such short time after the previous album?

Yes, it was a little bit easier for me because the most important thing was I had no trouble with finding new band members and stuff like that – we recorded with the same line-up. And so I had much more time for the music. I knew when I had started the second come back with “Electrify” in 2008 that I would do it constantly. I wanted do one record after another without any breaks anymore, but for that you need a really good line up – just four friends, playing music together, and spending a lot of private time together. Then we will have a lot more chances and a lot more time. And then I had enough ideas for two records, so that’s why we recorded in 2008 and 2009.

The new album is the second one that you produced by yourself while on “Collision Course” (2000) you worked together with Andy Classen. Why did you decide not to work with another producer?

I think the way for me in the future is to produce albums. I have just got an offer from another band from Germany, and that would be my first record out of Paradox. I started to produce with “Electrify”, but I didn’t mix it, and I’m not really happy with the sound of the record. I’m happy with the sound of the new record though it’s not really perfect. But I think we’re on the right way and I’m on the right way with producing. Producing an album is not the same as mixing it, and this time Achim Kohler of Primal Fear and Edguy mixed this album. But I did the dynamics and I held a complete eye on production, so I’m the last man who decide if it is all right, whether I am happy with it or not. I think this production sounds better than the last one, but we could do it better.  

The new cover artwork depicts the same guy in the ugly mask that we already saw on the “Electrify” cover. Does it mean that “Riot Squad” is a kind of continuation of your previous release?

Yes, it could be possible. We already had this guy on the “Electrify” cover, which was also painted by Claudio Bergamin, and I like that. It’s a maybe a small mascot of ours, though nobody runs on stage at our shows like Eddie does for Iron Maiden. I think you will see him again on our covers, maybe it’s a good omen. I wanna see this guy a little bit bigger on the next one and maybe we will again write a concept album.

Looking at the song tittles I thought that “Riot Squad” has a kind of concept, too. Please, tell us about the lyrics of this CD.

We have many themes on that album, but the most important theme I think, is an anti-terror. Every day you see in the news that they throw bombs and just terror the whole planet. That’s why we have the song “Planet Terror” – we live on the planet of terror, every night is the same and I can’t see it anymore. The only thing we can do is just say “Stop that!”, because politicians sit down together and talk but it finds no end. It’s a real big theme, and it has a lot to do with all these religious problems. Everybody should believe in his personal God and have no problem with other religions. That’s the basis of two or three lyrics on the album. Take, for instance, the song “Hollow Peace”, in which we say that some countries that make war find a reason for this war, but in fact, it has more to do with internal political mistakes. Politicians claim that they need to stand for the people in their land, and that it’s a good thing, but everybody knows it’s bad. But we also have other themes like this, you know, reality show heroes, if you see every time in the TV. These persons are important for nothing just sitting down and talking that thing. Do you have this in Russia too?

Yes, of course!

(laughs) And you’re sitting there hour after hour watching this, and it’s not really good. There is yet another theme we have – if you’re not in the mainstream, if you do not do the same things that other people do – you’re not good, you’re a loser of the society. As you see, we have different themes.

In your opinion, what kind of influence do your music and your songs have on the people? Can they really change something in this world or is it just a very strong way to express your-self, so to say, and do it for your own satisfaction?

Music definitely plays the major role. As to the lyrics – every band has to write lyrics, and we don’t wanna write any stupid things, we write about the way we live and what we see, but we don’t wanna tell other people :“You should do that or you shouldn’t do that”. Our lyrics are just what we think at this moment or what we thought at that moment.  

One more question about lyrics - your song “Kill That Beast” from “Product Of Imagination” (1987) was directed against the USSR, right?

Oh, people have already asked me this question about “Kill That Beast”. I think it’s against the USA, but it’s not really against anybody, because the lyrics for our first record were written by Peter and Nigel Volt. We were 24 years old, we had no lyrics and they wrote them for us. We were young and stupid, we looked through the lyrics but we didn’t work them out really well. I was just happy to have lyrics, you know. I asked Peter, “What is the song “Kill That Beast” about?” “It’s against war.” “OK, then we take it!” (laughs). So this is how the decision to take these lyrics was made. Today writing such lyrics for us would be out of the question. But this song is already known, and I still have to sing it. We’re not against any country, we’re not against any foreigners, I’d say it’s just against the war in general. I know there are lines in the song which sound as if they are against Russia, but I’m not against Russia, no-no.

Ok, don’t worry!

I think that Russians and Germans are friends. Here in my town Würzburg in the middle of Germany we have 6,000 Russians. They live here, it’s an entire village. I stayed so much time there in their houses,. they’re very-very friendly and not really different to the Germans. I’ve been with two Russian girls at a discotheque and they said “C’mon, come with us to the Russian discotheque”, and there were no Germans, just Russians they. They were fighting each other if they had any problems, but they were not fighting me, they just gave me vodka in my hands (everybody laughs).  

Your singing style changed a little bit after Paradox came back – now your voice sounds softer than in the 1980s. What is the reason of these changes?

Well, I don’t know – maybe I’m going older (laughs). I think I try to sing more than most of the thrash bands – Kreator, Destruction, Tankard and Exodus. They all shout and not many thrash bands have a real singer, so maybe that’s why I sound clearer, I try to sing more in the songs. In the 80’s I just had lyrics in my hand and was going like: “Ok, shout-shout-shout”, but this is not right way. But I know there are many fans out there who wish I sing a little bit heavier next time. “Riot Squad” already sounds a little bit heavier – not the vocals, but the music – and there’s more speed in it. I asked the fans, “What do you wanna hear from Paradox?”, and when we were playing live in Europe, I asked fans on the streets, “Hey, c’mon what will you hear in the future from Paradox?” and they all said, “Something like ”Heresy! Be faster, be heavier!” That’s why “Riot Squad” sounds a lot heavier than “Electrify”, and with my vocals I think I’m also on the right way. But this time on “Riot Squad” the vocals stand a little bit alone, I know. I made the mistake during the recordings and that’s why maybe the vocals are too loud and not really in the music. I have to work on it and I’m sure that on the next records it will be better because I’m two years older and I have two years more of experience.

In our opinion, not only your voice but your music changed too – now you play powerful and simple riffing music while on your first two albums you played in a more progressive way. Would you agree with us in this case?

Yeah, songs like “No Place To Survive” or “Riptide” are very straight-forward. But I have to say that “No Place To Survive” is the song I composed at 1985, it’s a demo-tape song and I recorded it one to one, just with new lyrics. But if we speak about a song like “Riptide”, I agree with you – many riffs are little bit more straight-forward, it goes more in your face, because if you have too many progressive elements, you have not so many chances to talk to more people with your music. I think you remember a song better if its structure is a little bit easier to understand. That’s maybe the reason why we are not as progressive as some parts of “Heresy” or some parts of “Collision Course” were.  

After “Collision Course” you had an intestinal disease and many surgical operations. What happened to you? And how do you feel right now?

I’m feeling very well now. I had the last surgery last year when I was writing songs for “Riot Squad”, and it was actually quite small. Now I’m healthy, I’m fit, I can play shows, I have future with Paradox, I believe in the future with Paradox and I have no time to get sick anymore (laughs). I have no time for it – I have plans and goals.

Did this sickness change your attitude towards life?

Yes, really! Every day is a good day for me, if I live it and nothing hurts. I think more before I say anything. You know, I was two times quite close to death. At once instance a doctor told me, “I can’t do anymore. We have tried everything, and we have no idea what to do now. We have to talk about it, and you will have to wait”. I waited for three hours and I knew that I was going to die. If you still wake up after that you think different, that’s true. You think more about everything that you do. You don’t care if anybody says, “What you do is bad!” You just say, “Fuck off! I do what I wanna do, because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.” (laughs)

Was the song “Bridge To Silence” on “Electrify” inspired by your health problems?

To some extent, yes. I was lying in my bed and I told myself, “If I survive that, if I come out of this, I will do that what my life is meant to be.” And it was a bridge to silence - to thinking what your life is, what awaits you further on in life.

Let’s now speak about more recent matters. You said you will be playing a lot of concerts next year. Do you have anything confirmed? Do you plan a big tour? And why did you play only a few concerts in support of “Electrify”?

After “Electrify” we played a lot of shows but nobody knows that we played those shows. We played everywhere in Europe - not in Russia, which is sad, but we played in Finland, in Greece two times, we were five times in Italy, in Switzerland, in Germany we played the Chris Witchhunter tribute concert with Sodom and Destruction, and we played at the Headbangers Open Air festival. We didn’t do any real tours lasting several months, because when such a tour is over, nobody talks about you anymore. We try to play through the whole year, we do several concerts on weekends, because we have a lawyer in the band, and he works through the rest of the week. Two members of the band are working full time, and it’s not really easy for them to get days off. So we have logistic problems – well, maybe not problems, but we have to play live on weekends or maybe there is a week when we can do gigs every day. Another problem is that it’s not really easy to get good concerts here. Everybody wants to play at Wacken Open Air or Bang Your Head, more and more festivals are growing up. I don’t think people should expect more tours in the next few years, especially in Germany, just more festivals, there you can play in front of more people. As to next year, I heard we’ll play with Heathen, because they have a new record coming out in January. Also we’ll play in the USA for the first time, we’re booked for the Prog Power festival. We had very high first-week sales of our record in Japan, so I think in March or April we should play in Japan for first time as well. Then we’ll play at the “Thrash Assault” festival here in Germany but this will be in the end of the year. Now we’re looking for more concerts for the first quarter of 2010 together with our new concert agency.

What are your expectations from the upcoming trip to the USA and the ProgPower festival? What kind of public do you expect to see there?

We’ll play on September 11. For me it will be a surprise. I don’t know what I have to expect, I know nothing about how known we are in America. We get a lot of letters from the USA, but I don’t know what I should expect. I think it’s a little bit dangerous, but we have to play everywhere. Let this be a surprise for me. (laughs)

So we hope everything will be fine!

Yeah, me too! (laughs) We also have a contact with South America and maybe after that show at ProgPower we will play some concerts in Mexico, too. I don’t know if we eventually do that, but if we get a chance, then we’ll do it. This is my dream: once in my life to tour the whole world playing my music. This is a youth dream, but I still think it’s possible to realize it.

Why did you invite Kai Pasemann to reunite Paradox? Now he is a very important member of the band, but he never played on Paradox albums in the 1980s.

He played in another band called Cronos Titan. The first time I saw Kai when “Product Of Imagination” came out, which was sometime around 1988. I saw him for first time at a concert where we were both supposed to play. When we split with Markus Spyth after “Heresy”, I asked Kai  to join Paradox, but one year later – it was 1989 or 1990 – we split. Eight years after that split  I gave him a call and said, “Hey Kai, I plan a comeback. Do you wanna play with me again?” He said “Yeah” and from that time he was again a member of Paradox.

But why did you decide to invite Kai and nobody else of the old line-up?

Markus Spyth plays in a cover-band in our area. Here in our area we have some bands who just play covers of Iron Maiden and Metallica and get a lot of money for that, more money than those who play originals. He regards this as a  job, and he has no time to play music of his own. They are only playing on weekends - Friday and Saturday – and getting six thousands euros per show for the band.

Not bad!

Maybe it’s no fun for him to play with a professional band anymore. And we had no other guitar players in the 1980s. There was Dieter Roth, but he was just a studio player, he only recorded guitar solos on “Heresy”. He wanted to join the band, but he also plays with a cover-band, and it’s impossible. (laughs) And I wanna play only the originals, I need no money, and I want to have people in the band who play with their heart, you should want to play in the band because you like the music that you play. You need to be friends, it should not only be a job.

Do you know anything about Axel Blaha? What is he doing at the moment?

Axel Blaha was my best friend, he was like a brother to me from 1981 we started to play music together. After the split following “Heresy”, our friendship stayed a few years longer, but he was getting out of the whole music business, he wasn’t listening to any heavy music anymore, he was going to discotheques with girls instead, so he is different person now. He is not a bad person, he just lives another way. But for me was impossible to work with him on the “Collision Course” album. It’s sad, I know, he’s a friend of mine and he’s my brother, and we’re still in contact. I also have contacts to another other founder of the band. In 1981 we were a trio: Axel Blaha, Volker Hartmann and me. In the beginning we called ourselves Overkill, we took the name from Motorhead’s album. Then we were Warhead, Maniac and in February 1986 we chose Paradox as our name.

By the way, we saw your photos with Warhead, and you were dressed in leopard spandex! What kind of music did you play at that time?

(laughs) Oh, we already played original music. Four songs from “Product Of Imagination” were written in 1985, when the band was called Warhead. These songs were “Kill That Beast”, “Paradox”, “Death, Scream and Pain” and in January 1986 I wrote “Pray To The Godz of Wrath”. And “No Place To Survive” from the “Riot Squad” album was also written in the times of Warhead. At our live shows we also played covers – by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead and… yeah! Metallica, of course. In 1983-1985 we finished all our concerts with “Whiplash” (laughs) We were into fast music, but we also listened to the bands like Def Leppard but just until “Pyromania”.

Judging by the lyrics on the “Electrify” album, you are very critical of modern technology. But at the same time, on your website you mention PC among your interests. What do you really think of present-day developments in the sphere of technology? Do you think they are dangerous and should be taken more care of?

For everything there are two sides of the coin. I think that technology is a good thing, because it helps us do a lot of things much easier, but it’s also dangerous, because everybody can commit crimes and evade punishment. Time is running, it doesn’t stand still, and in the past 100 years we achieved more in terms of technology than we did over 2,000 years before that. Maybe it’s developing a little bit too fast, and I don’t know what happens at the end of this technology if anybody can build a bomb at home. You can buy all things you need via the Internet, and you can commit crimes much easier via the Internet. Anyway, I don’t think that we can do anything against it, it will only go faster and faster.

And what do you personally use the Internet for?  Do you maybe download some mp3s by other bands or check out their MySpace pages?

I have no problems with downloads, because the status of Paradox is not as big as Metallica or Megadeth, and we don’t lose a lot of money because people steal our music. I see it as promotion for Paradox in a way. Our MySpace site is also good for that purpose. For us it’s just good promotion, we have nothing against who download our albums and tell their friends, “Hey, listen to that band! The band is great!” Some of these friends then may tell another friend, “Hey, so you know Paradox?” – “No, I have never heard them” – Then listen to this!” So this is a good promotion for us, not more. But it’s bad for bigger bands, because they can’t live off music anymore. We sold hundreds of thousands of copies of “Heresy” and “Product Of Imagination”, but now we sell about 10,000 or 15,000 copies of our CDs.

You covered ABBA song “S.O.S” for their tribute-album. Was it your own idea? Do you really like ABBA’s music?

I like ABBA’s music, because ABBA is a big band. I also like Pink Floyd. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, I like good composers regardless of a music style. But this ABBA song… We did it for Nuclear Blast Records, they asked us if we wanted to cover Scorpions, Accept and ABBA, and we chose to do two of them - “Dynamite” by Scorpions and “S.O.S.” by ABBA. “S.O.S.” was actually just a joke in the studio. We were in the studio with Holzwarth brothers – staying all together, playing a little bit and jamming a little bit. Nobody knew this song really well, so we played a tape, we learned it and then played it ourselves. And after that we got the lyrics (everybody laughs) We did it over just one afternoon, it was basically a joke, and we didn’t even expect them to put this song on this compilation (laugh).

You know, actually it sounds like you’re having fun in the studio (everybody laughs)

At the end of the song you can hear me laughing and saying say, “Fuck! What shit is this? What’s going on here?” We had a lot of fun at that moment. That was really live!

Paradox has also recorded cover versions of Tankard and Blackfoot. Which cover version – among those that you have done – is your favorite one?

This Blackfoot cover wasn’t really good, because it was a wrong mix with regards to the vocals. I had no chance to change anything when I heard the final version, because this song was sent over to Denmark for the mix. When I heard it, I said, “Oh, we did some wrong shit! Oh no!” But it was just a bonus track. The one by Tankard was recorder because they are friends of ours, I am friends with Gerre and with Buffo, the manager of Tankard. They asked us to do a song for their 25th anniversary CD, so we did “Zombie Attack” (laughs). I recorded it at my home town, and it sounds a little bit like a demo tape. They were really happy with it.

Speaking about other German thrash metal bands - you participated in the benefit concert for Chris Witchhunter, which you already mentioned. And what kind of relation did you have to Chris Witchhunter?

I never saw him personally, but I was in the scene in the same time when he was in Sodom. I grew up with that music, and now I know Tom Angelripper personally, and I talked to Frank Blackfire, we played together at that concert. I remember when Chris’ mother came on stage and said thanks to all fans, and then everybody was looking at the stage and raised their fists high to his mother. That was a really great moment for me. It’s terrible to see that 20 years are gone, and people die because of alcohol and suicide, but it was a great gig and I’m proud that they asked us to play. I met a lot of friends from the early days, for instance, Schmier from Destruction, we have good old friendship. For us it was great to have a chance to play for Chris. His mother had no money for the funeral, and all that the bands earned we gave to his mother.    

When you started in the late 1980s you were considered a new hope of the German metal-scene, a new Metallica. And what were the reasons that didn’t let you become as popular as Kreator, for example?

We had not constant line up, like the one Blind Guardian have. We always had line-up changes and problems, and after the recording of “Heresy” the problems basically went over the top. Then grunge came over and in the beginning of the 1990s no one believed in thrash metal bands anymore. I was sick of that business, because music wasn’t speaking, it was the business that was speaking. I was bored by all of that, then Axel quit this music, I lost a lot of friends, it was generally a bad time. If we would stay together for all those years, I think Paradox would be a lot bigger.  

What do you feel now when Paradox is regarded as one of the most influential German thrash metal bands?

I’m very proud of it, and I hear it very often. Many bands from other countries tell me that they are inspired by Paradox, for example, Matt (Drake, guitar, vocals) from Evile told me that. I sent them my CD, they sent me their CD saying, “We wanna play some shows together”. I’m also friends with Darren Minter of Heathen. I’ve recently been on Wacken Open Air, I met Paul Bostaph and guys from Testament there, and they know Paradox, so it just makes me proud. I’m proud if anybody says he’s influenced by Paradox or by the German thrash metal scene, because we were there in the very beginning, in 1985-1987, and I’m not only musician but also a fan of heavy metal.

Well, Charlie, we wish the best of luck for Paradox and we wish you the recognition that you really deserved for your music. It was a great pleasure talking to you.

It’s me who has to say thank you. It’s a dream for me to play in Moscow or St. Petersburg, I’m really looking forward to it, because I wanna say to all my friends here in Wurzburg, “Hey, I’m playing in Moscow!” I know what I will see in their eyes. This is my wish to play in your country, and also see everything, the sightseeing stuff, and talk to the people. I hope we’ll get a chance. Also please let people know that they are welcome to write on our MySpace page, their comments are very important for me.

Paradox on the Internet: http://www.paradox-bangers.de
Paradox on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/paradoxbangers

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

Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin, Roman Patrashov
December 5, 2009
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