Gamma Ray
Across Heavy Metal Universe

11.12.2007

Old power metal fans always have a smile on their face when they hear or speak about Gamma Ray. In the early and mid-1990s this was one of the most optimistic bands in the genre, but as the new century dawned, singer/guitarist Kai Hansen and his four-piece started drifting away towards a rawer, heavier and darker sound, which was demonstrated on such albums as “No World Order” (2001) and especially “Majestic” (2005). However, the name of the new Gamma Ray album says all you need to know about it. The title is “Land Of The Free II”, which means that Kai and the boys abandoned dark experiments of their past couple of records and returned to their own decade-old traditions. Moreover, to the joy of old power metal fans, they teamed up with Helloween for the first time ever to do a European tour. Such intriguing developments cannot be passed unnoticed, so we made contact with Dirk Schlachter, Gamma Ray bassist and one of the longest members, to speak about the reasons that made the band alter its musical course so significantly…

The new album is called “Land Of The Free II”, and musically it’s also a kind of return to the style you had in the mid-1990s. How did you come up with the concept of such an album? What came first – the idea to bring back positive power, or the idea to continue the story of “Land Of The Free” lyrically?

First of all, this is not a real concept album. There is a kind of red line or thought that goes through the song, and anyway, the theme “Land Of The Free” gives you a lot of space to write songs. Musically-wise, it basically just happened. When we write music, it’s all about how everybody feels, and the situation around us a big influence. That’s maybe why, for example, the “Majestic” album (2005) is rougher or even darker that usually. This time when we had the first ideas of songs, it was an obvious thought that somebody came up with, “This sounds a little bit like the “Land Of The Free” feeling.” The original idea was to give the album a name and the subtitle “Land Of The Free II”, but as the songs grew, as we went into production, it was pretty clear that this was more “Land Of The Free II” than we expected. So we kept it like this, and we’re very happy with the result. We’re not planning things, they grow during the production.

The world around us didn’t get much better since the release of your previous CD. Where did you find optimism to play positive power again?

We feel like that! (everybody laughs) When I compare the work on the new album with the recording process of “Majestic” (2005), this time there was much less stress. The previous time we already knew that we would have to quit the studio place, and in our private lives everybody had stressing situations. The production was not so relaxed, there was pressure on us to finish it, and so on. This time we changed the place, we built a new studio, and everybody was really relaxed. That’s how it came out.

What does being free mean for you personally? Is freedom possible in the present-day world?

It’s very important for me to be able to do what I want. I’m a worker, I like to work, and being free means to me that I’m able to do things that I like to do. Musically-wise, nobody should tell me what to do either, it’s enough when Gamma Ray discusses things internally. (laughs) We already have fights inside the band, and if a record company starts telling us, “You next album needs to be rougher, harder or more melodic,” I would tell the guys, “Hey men, you gotta sell this fucking shit, and let us do our own job!” (laughs) Nobody has ever told Gamma Ray what to do except for ourselves and our close persons, we’re actually free to play what we want, and this is a very good feeling.

For the new album you finally contributed your own song “Opportunity”, which you didn’t do for the previous two records. Why was the break in your songwriting so long? And what inspired you to write “Opportunity”?

(laughs) That was also because my life was a little bit different in the past few years. For more than two years, I lived at the Island of Tenerife at the Canaries, I was always going there and back to Germany, and my life was very stressing on the private side. There was no space for composing. Now I have the patience and time to get back into composing, and I have been writing a lot recently. The chorus of “Opportunity” is very old, I had this chorus already three years ago during the “Majestic” time. But back then it was only the chorus. (laughs) When we built a new studio, I was sitting there alone some day, and suddenly I got the basic things of “Opportunity” – the melodies, the arrangements, etc. Maybe I had some kick in mind, I knew that I was no longer going here, there and everywhere, not switching between the house of my father in Hamburg and the Canary Islands. That was the mistake I did in the past, and that was the reason why I got out of composing. I was just too busy with bullshit! (cracks) Now everything is a bit more stable, and I’m pretty sure that if this goes on after this long tour, I’m really looking forward to have a normal life – going to the studio every day and working on new songs. I hope this works out. If I make a little money on this tour, I can spend some time on composing. (laughs)

Since the new album is a kind of return to positive power, what do you now think of your previous album “Majestic”, which was a much darker record? Do you still like those experiments, or do you think you went a bit too far with them?

I still like the songs. I was a little bit die-hard when my ideas wouldn’t fit into those songs, and the rest of the guys told me about that, so I got quite pissed off. But as I told you before, the whole production was not that peaceful and positive. Most of my bad memories about “Majestic” are connected with the production. As to the music, when I listen to it now, it’s much better than this feeling that I had during the production. I still like all the songs and I don’t even think that “Majestic” sounds too dark, too mean or whatever. It’s even more basic, it’s not so overproduced, and maybe because there are not so many nice keyboards and choirs in the sound, you get the impression that the album is a bit darker.

You and Kai are credited as producers on all Gamma Ray albums. How do you share duties in the studio? Who is responsible for which part of the job?

This time we wanted to be more of musicians, and not take too much care about the technical side of the production, which is mainly my job. We said, “We’re gonna have somebody to set up the drums and give us help in the drum recordings,” so we invited Tommy Newton, who mixed the first Gamma Ray album (“Heading For Tomorrow”, 1990) and produced the second one (“Sigh No More”, 1991). We asked him if he could join us for recording the drums and also give his opinion of the songs and the arrangements. We also wanted him to mix the album, because we always take a lot of time for mixing. When you mix your own stuff, you hear a flea’s cough when somebody else doesn’t even see the flea. So this time we said, “This is too stressing, let’s just play and let somebody else do the mixing job.” And we’re quite happy with the result, even though it took some time in the beginning until Tommy understood what we wanted. We needed this break from being responsible for everything. Maybe next time it will be different again, I don’t know. We don’t plan this, we start writing new songs, and after four or six new songs, we see the direction, and this direction goes on for the rest of the material. We’re free, and if we decide to take care of the technical side again, it’s fine, and if we say that we’ll do it with Tommy or somebody else, it’s not a problem either.

For the new album you signed a record deal with SPV Records. Why did you choose SPV, when we guess you had many other proposals? And how much have they been different from Sanctuary and Noise so far?

Sanctuary was bought by Universal, that was the main reason. As far as I understand, Universal bought the whole Sanctuary package not for the Metal-Is label or Mayan Records, they were more interested in the merchandise unit called Bravado and some other labels more focused on pop music. They were not really interested in having a hard rock or heavy metal label, so they said, “If somebody is paying the money we have already paid for “Land Of The Free II”, you are free to make a new deal with anybody.” Of course, many companies were interested, nearly every metal record company in Germany was interested. But yet before we had a new deal, it was clear that we’re gonna do this “Hellish Rock” tour together with Helloween, and we needed somebody who was able to bring out the album in November. And all those who couldn’t do it were out of the game. Finally we had only two really serious offers – SPV and another company, whose name I have forgotten… Fuck, I’m not too much into this record company shit! (laughs) I’m a studio guy, that’s the problem… (pause) Hell, what’s the name? That’s when you recognize that you’re getting old! (everybody laughs) You don’t remember easy things…

No problem, don’t worry!

OK, we needed someone who was able to pay this money back to Sanctuary, and we needed somebody who had the manpower to bring out the album in November. On the other side, we didn’t want to sign any stupid contract. The first contract offer we got from the company whose name I still can’t recall (laughs), was a kind of a contract under which you sell your soul. (laughs) Luckily, we got a help from somebody in checking the contract and doing some talking for us. Finally, through some contacts and the Helloween management we came to talking with SPV. They offered a really good contract, and they said they could put out the album on time. Also, they are located in Hannover, Germany, and this makes communication much easier. When you’re in Germany, it’s good to have a deal with a German company. We had bad experience in communication with Sanctuary when their office in Berlin closed down, and communication with their head office in London was really bad. You had nobody to call when you needed some promo materials for a show or whatever, you didn’t know who was responsible for you… I’m really happy that now can have meetings directly and easily with partners from your record company. That’s why it came to be SPV, and SPV is a very good record company, they’re doing a hell of a job in promotion now, and we’re really happy.
 
By the way, who will now release your DVD “Hell Yeah”? Will it be Sanctuary or SPV?

The DVD was the thing that was half-financed by ourselves, and Sanctuary provided the rest of the funds, that was the deal. Now SPV is gonna bring out the DVD. The problem is that it was not possible to promote both the DVD and the new album, so we needed to decide what to release first. Because of this fixed and signed tour, we needed to do the album, and after the tour we will finally release the DVD. I know that many fans everywhere in the world are really angry and pissed off because all the time we say something like, “Yeah, it will come out,” or “It will be out in September,” and now we need to say again, “It’s delayed.” But it’s just not possible to release the album and the DVD simultaneously. The DVD is finished, everything is finished, and it will be released very soon, after the tour, I think, when everything is done with the new album. I’m not going to name any dates. (laughs) But I think it will be out before the summer.

What will this DVD contain apart from the live show? Shall we expect videoclips, backstage footage or anything else?

There is a complete second DVD full of stuff such as a little road movie from the tour in the States and Canada, all the old videoclips, a section called “HistoRay” covering the history of Gamma Ray, where we’re covering everything since the very beginning, every album, all the old members, studio stuff, rehearsals, backstage footage, everything…

Who came up with such an extraordinary long title for this DVD (the full title reads like this: “Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn’t Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume) Live In Montreal” – ed.)? It’s very difficult to memorize, we must say…

You mean “the Finnish keyboarder” thing? (laughs) I don’t know who came up with it, but that’s his figure, one day he (session keyboardist Eero Kaukomies – ed.) was looking like Donald Duck. If we’re not going to be too polite, I would say that his ass is a little bit fat. (laughs) So one day we looked at him and said, “Hey Eero, you just need to have a real costume, and you will look like Donald Duck on stage!” That’s how the joke came out. And the title is intended to make the whole thing not so serious.

You will have a new keyboard player for the upcoming tour, Alesio Gori from Italy. How did you find him, and what happened to his predecessor?

We got an offer to produce two bands in our studio. As you know, we’re running our own studio – me, Kai and an old friend of ours who was also with us in the previous studio, his name is Arne Lakenmacher. One day he came to us and said, “We have two bands who are really interested in recording their albums in our studio.” One was a band from Ecuador called Black Sun, and the other one from Italy called Flashback of Anger. First we said we’re gonna do both, share the jobs and whatever, and then due to time schedule circumstances it came out that Arne was going to do Black Sun and I said, “OK, I’m gonna do these Italian guys.” I recorded the vocals, and it took me some time to realize that the keyboard player and the main songwriter is also the lead vocalist. (laughs) Right when I was recording Flashback of Anger, it became pretty clear that Eero couldn’t do the tour, and I was complaining all the time, “Oh, it’s so difficult to find a keyboarder who can also sing choirs! I know many keyboards but they all don’t sing.” And one day it struck my mind that I’m recording such a guy! (laughs) I asked him and finally convinced him to do the tour, he’s a great singer and a great keyboard player. He’s very young, he’s never been on tour, but he’s very talented, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna do a good job.

More about videoclips – you recently shot a video for “Into The Storm”, which is the first time in many years that you did a video. What shall we expect from it?

The filming needed to be very quick. We shot this video in Nuremburg, there was no other chance to do it, because Daniel was on tour with Freedom Call, and on that day they had a show in Nuremburg. During that day we shot this clip in a very old train station, which is not used nowadays. The idea to do a video for “Into The Storm” came up, because this song is very short. (laughs) It’s actually the record company that wanted to do it. The problem with clips is that they always… Of course, we would love to do a clip for every album, but a clip costs a lot of money, and you don’t get anything back. Metal videos are not really played on television, and it’s better to spend the money on some more effective promotional things. But this time, well, the record company wanted to do it, and we were like like, “The budget is like this, we’re gonna do it with this guy, there, right now.” There was no big thinking about it, we just did it. And it’s a good video, it follows the story in the lyrics of “Into The Storm” a little bit. Actually, it follows the story as long as you can explain the story behind the song in a three-minute clip, given that you also want to see some of the band in it.

Where will it be possible to see this video, apart from the Internet?

I don’t know, ask the record company! (laughs) I think some programs on Viva might show it, but if not, it will only be seen on Internet channels.

You are of course going to tour in support of the new album. And the first tour to come up is Hellish Rock, which you will play together with Helloween and Axxis. Who came up with the idea of such a tour?

We played the Masters Of Rock festival together on the same day, and we did a jam session during the Helloween set. After that we were sitting together outside the hotel, having a drink and talking, and finally we came up with this idea – “If time schedules of both band allow, why not go on tour together?” The idea grew that day and that night, and three months ago, when the idea was still in my head, I finally called Andi Deris and asked him if they still wanted to do it. The first idea was different, we wanted to do a mixed show in all ways, a big spectacle, but it was impossible to realize. Nevertheless, their management and the band themselves were very interested in doing this, and after some contract fucking (laughs) going back and forth, we said, “Yes, we’re gonna do it!”

And how did you get Axxis to open for this tour?

That’s the thing of Bottom Row, they are Helloween’s management and tour promoters. They are taking care of Axxis as well, so it’s very obvious how it came out.

It’s of course a pleasure for fans to see Kai and the Helloween guys back together, but how do you and the rest of Gamma Ray react to the fact that most of the attention during that tour will be paid to the old songs from the 1980s, not the new Gamma Ray material?

I don’t think it will be like this. We have a 70-minute set, then Helloween will do their thing, and finally there will be a little party at the end with everybody involved. So I’m not so sure that this jam session will be the main thing, it’s just a little final party, and I don’t think that all the fans are only waiting for only this. We’ll see, I’m very curious how it’s gonna be.

There were reports that you and Helloween will continue playing together even after this tour and that there are negotiations about performing in America as well. Are there any chances that the tour will also reach Russia?

The first European block is fixed, and Japan is fixed right now. Our idea is to bring this Hellish Rock thing all over the world, but that’s the matter of Bottom Row Promotion, All Access Promotion and all the promoters worldwide. That’s not my job! (laughs) We’re interested in bringing the tour everywhere, this is possible, but there are, of course, logistics and money issues that need to be alright. It’s a big thing, we want to have the stage set-up with us, and it’s not easy to bring it somewhere. You need to find good reliable promoters in every country to do it. I’m pretty sure that the tour will continue next year, maybe it will involve summer festivals. Right the European part and the Japanese part are fixed. After Japan we will definitely go to South America, it’s gonna be big, but it’s not fixed yet, because it’s too early. We already have offers to go to North America, but we’ll see.

How did you like your very first visit to Russia in January 2006? Was there anything about the country or about the fans that surprised you?

When we did those two shows, it was a great feeling. The show in St. Petersburg was really special, there were not many people in the audience, but they were so nice and such great fans that I had real fun playing there. And what I still remember is a crazy train trip (from Moscow to St. Petersburg - ed.). It was really weird. (laughs) Apart from it, we didn’t have much time to go sightseeing. On the first day we also had to do some promo stuff, so there was no time to take a look at the city and the land. We want to come back, and I’m pretty sure it will happen.

Gamma Ray on the Internet: http://www.gamma-ray.com

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

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
November 1, 2007
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