You guys have released “Straight Out of Hell” at the beginning of this year. How have the fans been receiving the songs when you play them live?
Good. I mean, exemplary good I would say. That stuff got in really quick after we released the record and people seem to like it a lot. That’s good!So, we chose to pick a few more tracks from that one [album: Straight Out of Hell] for this tour and kept switching those things.

Yeah, the reviews have been really good for this album and a lot of people have been describing it as a “happier” album when comparing to your few latest releases…
With the typical Helloween trademarks... It’s been the intent of Charlie [Bauerfeind], it’s what we’ve said beforehand and also the direction that it steered to. So, that’s what it is. I appreciate it a lot more than any kind of experiment or whatever. I would say do it this way all the time if possible…

How hard is it to put a set list together that includes both the new and the classic songs? Especially here in North America where you don’t tour as often and people are probably expecting to see you guys playing all of the classics…
It is very hard but we’ve done that. I mean, when they said “play more classics” we did play more classics and then they came back and said “please don’t play that many classics anymore”. So, whatever you do, it’s a no win situation in a way. But, we enjoy whatever we play at any point in time… usually. You know? There’s always something to it.

It’s not easy to make those things [set list]. Not at all. We actually usually rely on Dany [Löble] or Sasha [Gerstner] because they are the “newest” members. They have been in the band for 10 years but they’ve got a hang on to what they think it should be done or whatever.

I mean: me, as an old fart who has been doing this stuff for 27 years or 28 years now… I have other expectations anyways. And that doesn’t really count. What counts it’s what people want to see, what they want to hear and if you can do it everyday. If you want to reproduce just fast stuff, we are going to be dead after a week or so. It always got to be a good mix so it’s doable for the band. We can’t possibly play 160 bits per minute numbers only because then Dany would be dead and we would have to employ rental drummers that would vary every three days. We can’t possibly do that. I have no interest in him destroying his legs by playing that fast stuff all the time.

You know, when there are so many bands, extreme bands, that suddenly you don’t hear anything about them anymore… these are those little things. And we want to exist a little bit more [makes a funny face].

Of course! About this tour: you haven’t been here

in North America for a while. Have the fans being very excited at the concerts? How have they been reacting?
Good! I mean… they are fans right? The typical Helloween fan is different from the general public I would say. The fans we have are still young and old at the same time. I think they… they are not the typical Slayer fans. They are somehow different. It’s an old breed of melodic rock fans.

This year you guys played in Rock in Rio. How was that?
It was very well organized; it was very clean and sorted out. The technology was very good, up to modern standards! I imagined that slightly different when I heard: “Rock in Rio, 800 000 people”. I was expecting something different but it was very modern, very clean and very ordered. Everything compartmentalized, with different stages and areas. Care was also taken for little details.

You guys are one of the big names, pioneers of power metal. Is this a hard “title” to carry?
I think that it’s rather something that you want. When they say you were a pioneer for something that means that you had a different idea. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you are the most famous one with that.

Looking at your entire discography, how would you describe it? Your journey?
Well, there have been a few trials in order to improve our music or whatever. There are fans who are mainly interested in power metal or melodic metal. So, if I take a look at “other things” that people at amazon bought, for instance, it is always the same: Helloween, Hammerfall, etc. They don’t seem to step out of their own boundaries. They just want to hear that and nothing else probably. So, our efforts to widen the musical thing inside what we do, was maybe not necessary.

So, we stick on doing what people maybe expect… I prefer actually nowadays to do something that is straight and clear for the fan and that is accessible rather than launching strange experiments that people don’t understand or don’t want to hear.

And we had that a few times, you know? And it is a suffering process: when something that you thought it was actually a “service” to the fans or whatever, it’s not being appreciated. But then you’ve got to learn that maybe you should just stick to what people want to hear of you. That ain’t bad…What’s bad about that? You could have a worse job.

With that in mind… after all these years, how do you manage to always release new albums that are not repetitive and always have a unique sound?
That’s because we have 4 song writers. And each of them really knows his business, you know? More or less automatically you’ve got a variety in your songs.

You could also write only 10 fast songs and that’s what you

have. Then you’ve got a collection of only fast songs and then you are back to “Walls of Jericho”.

The thing is: how far can you do mid-tempo songs, or whatever, that people will still appreciate? When you have a band like Dragonforce for instance: they are really fast then people say: “Ok, that’s very interesting but we don’t want to play that stuff everyday”, you know? And then: Who is going to be the next band and what tempo will they have? And how limiting will that be for them in the future? That’s always the question.

And another question is: what is a healthy tempo? And what is a tempo after all? Because, I mean, things are going clearer and in more high frequencies. Nowadays HD has those high frequencies and before things used to be smoother, rounder. So, I mean: Where will all that go? Like, in 30 years what you are going to hear is [makes this awful sound with his mouth] and maybe that’s what people will like, I don’t know?

Hopefully not! So, ok…. After this US tour, what are you guys going to be doing? Any plans to come back here sooner than last time (5 years)?
Or 3 years or whatever… I don’t want to promise anything because it is always a matter of what the promoter would offer and if that offer is good. At the time of the “7 Sinners”, what he was offering wasn’t really good. So, that’s actually why we stayed home. As I said before (don’t take that wrong): if we stay home and don’t come is just because we don’t want to “butcher” ourselves with tour costs and other things.

And also, I think, that there’s an amount of fans that come to the shows and we appreciate every people who are there. I’m not going to say anything about the people who are not coming. So, for the people who are there, we play for them, we have a good time but I don’t know if we came every two years, if people would get too tired: “Ohh they come every year so I will go another time”. I don’t know… I really don’t know… But luckily enough, we don’t get enough good offers so we can stay home sometimes (laughs).

What are the plans for Helloween now?
We are going to do more festivals next year and we are going to do a Mid-November / Mid-December Latin American tour… then we are going to start the new album production probably around April – July next year. Don’t quote me on anything, don’t expect too much of what I’ve just said. But there will be a new record. We don’t know yet how it’s going to be called.

Any messages to the SOM viewers?
For you out there, thank you for having read this. I expect you to speak good about me afterwards… or else…what could I possibly do to them? I can do whatever they wish (laughs). Have a good time, stay healthy and keep up the metal!