M-E: So the first question is about the world tour with Gamma Ray. Did the tour worked as expected? since the fans really wanted to watch Helloween and Gamma Ray together. And what was your first impression?
M: The fans were really really lucky because Helloween and Gamma Ray were on tour together. And the shows were really good . We had many shows that were sold out and we often played in front of 5000 people which are really big crowds, you know. And for me it was really good as well because the guys from Gamma Ray as well as Helloween are really cool guys. So these months where we were on tour went over so fast, and this is always a good sign.

M-E : Okay. And did you guys (Gamma Ray) write ‘’Master Of Confusion’’ to be prepared before the tour, or was that done for another reason?
M: No, it was a different reason. As we got the offer, last year, to play this tour, we were in the middle of our songwriting of the new album. We knew we couldn’t finish the whole album before the beginning of the Tour because time was too short. So we thought : well maybe it’d be better to prepare the EP containing new tracks and Live tracks , and I think it was a good idea because people can get an idea of the new album.

M-E : So these two songs are a kind of summary of the new album?
M: Well, I wouldn’t say a summary. It was just to show the people,who were afraid of changes in the band, that although I’m the new guy, nothing changed. it’s like telling them : don’t worry, Gamma Ray will be the same forever.

M-E: yeah but you don’t have to worry, the fans had a really positive attitude, I noticed that while reading comments on the internet
M: really? that’s cool! You know I’m always a bit curious about what people say, but I’d rather don’t find forums on the internet that talk about it (laughs)

M-E: You’re too scared of people’s reactions? (laughs)
M: well you grew up with the internet, and you know that everybody can write anything, and everybody can read it. That’s a bit different of the old world we had before the internet, like magazines such as metalhammer, where you had to wait months to get news. So now you have these massive informations on the internet, that can be charged with negative thoughts and all these things, and if you take it too seriously, you drive yourself mad, so I prefer to talk to people like you now

M-E : Yeah thanks for the privilege (laughs)
M-E: I have a question about your world tour. Actually I bought my tickets for Helloween, and as you know I live in Quebec, I thought you guys were going to tour with them in north America, and when I saw you didn’t, I was disappointed. So why is Helloween touring alone in north America?
M: Yeah, I know, but it was not our fault. And as far as I know, the promoters in America didn’t want us, and it was probably a matter of money. I think this is the reason. Because there were too many things to pay for the tour. But was the show good?

M-E : no no (laughs) they’re coming in few months not now
M: Oh! okay sorry I misunderstood that, I’m still sleeping (laughs)

M-E : How do you compare your style with previous Gamma Ray drummer, Dan Zimmerman?
M: Well I prefer not to compare you know, but to be honest, I watched a Gamma Ray shows with Dan on drums, a couple of times but I didn’t really focus on the drums, really. Of course, focusing on the drums is good, but what’s more important is the sound of the band in general. But anyway, what I heard from the fans is that I’m more like a rock n roll drummer, with that kind of spirit. Not like a Machine gun you know. This is not disrespectful, because sometimes in Heavy Metal you should sound like a machine gun. But my idols in drums are people like Tommy Lee or Ian paice. And this is more that kind of..uhmm .. I don’t know how to say it in English.. wait

M-E : you can say it in german but I wont understand anything
M: (Laughs) yeah! So I will not say anything then.

So yeah , I think I’m more like an old school drummer rather than a machine gun.

M-E : Honestly I prefer old school drumming, it’s more raw, and I’m saying that because I’m talking to you right now. And that’s because of people like you, or Ian Paice like you said before
M : Oh thanks!

M-E : I was listening to Deep Purple songs the whole day you know, and I thought about it.
M: Yeah that’s cool!

M-E: I once read Nicko mcBrain (Iron maiden) refused to play double bass pedal on 3where eagles dare3 because he said it was undrummerish. What do you think of that statement?
M: Well I wouldn’t say it’s undrummerish. Why? I mean you have two legs, and you already use two hands and everything, I don’t understand him. And some drummers do backing vocals, so you can use whatever you have! And I’ll tell you a little story, maybe you’ll find it funny, but it was long time ago, I was around 19 years old, I played with a band, and they told me to play double bass. I said : No! I want to play drums like Ian Paice, because he just used one pedal, and that was my goal, to be as good as Ian Paice

M-E: You know, I have a pretty similar story. I play the guitar, and when I first started playing I was a huge fan of the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards. But Richards didn’t play fast or complicated songs. And at that time I knew Steve Vai, Satriani, Yngwie and those guys very well, but I didn’t want to hear about speed and hard technical playing at all! All I wanted to do was to copy Keith Richards. But later, I changed as I
M: Yeah that’s good ! You know what? The best thing is to be open minded. I know a lot of people who always wanted to play trash and speed metal, but who couldn’t play slow music! And that’s not good at all. If you play in just one direction, you castrate the music. Music is more than that

M-E: Yeah I guess Ritchie Blackmore said something like that. I think he said that many guitarists nowadays fall into that "Speed trap"
M: Yeah that’s verty true. And there are lots of players who just want to impress people and that’s not my own definition of music.

M-E: Yeah same here. I was wondering, were you a Gamma Ray fan before joining the band?
M: Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t a Freak (laughs). When was I younger I was a huge Helloween and Gamma Ray fan, but that changed a little bit as I got older.

M-E : Yeah, I get it. And you worked with Uli Jon Roth for a short period of time.
M: Yeah, but it wasn’t that short, I started working with him in 2005, and I hope we’ll continue someday. We

got along very well and he’s know as one of the best guitar players in the world and as one of the founders of the combination rock and classical music. And on the other hand, he’s an absolutely nice person. I don’t know if you know that but he’s also german.

M-E: Yeah of course I know that
M: He has a lot of spiritual thoughts too. But anyway, I hope I will join him again on stage. To be honest he asked me to play with him in October in France. But It always depends on Gamma Ray, It’s my priority now. But I’m lucky to be one of his stage musicians.

M-E: He’s lucky to have you as a drummer too!
M: Yeah..well that’s what he always says! (laughs)

M-E : And how did all this story start with Uli?
M: This is funny you know. I have a friend who writes articles for metal magazines like metalhammer. But he’s also a guitar player. He told me that Uli jon Roth was looking for a new band and drummer. I said okay, and sent my documents, demos and everything. But I didn’t get a reply. Few week later, I read in the news that Uli had formed his own band, and I wasn’t part of it obviously. I said to myself, Okay that’s fine, but would’ve been better if they gave me an answer at least. Then time went by and few weeks later, I got a phone call from the management of Uli, and I remember that well because it was in the morning and I was taking a bath (laughs). The management called me and told me that Uli had his first rehearsal and that he wasn’t happy with his new drummer. So they asked me if I could come over. I told them to give me 10 minutes because I had to call my wife, I can’t decide everything on my own you know. I can’t tell her : You know what, I’m going on tour for months, Bye !

M-E : Yeah, or I’m not coming back home !
M: Yeah, I’m not going back home! exactly! (laughs).

M : So I drove to Hannover and went to the rehearsal, Uli was happy and asked me if I could tour with him for the whole week. So I said yeah okay. And that’s how it happened. I think we had 3 days of rehearsal before the tour started and it was a hard time. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the music of Uli.

M-E: Yes, very familiar of course
M: Yes. I mean the songs by the Scorpions that we played are quite easy compared to the music he did on his own.

M-E: You mean songs like Sails of Charon?
M: Yes, right, and other songs by the Scorpions. And Uli likes to jam a lot on stage too, which was new for me since I was that typical metal guy. And usually on tour, every minute is well planned but with Uli it was the complete opposite. With Uli, there’s no plan at all. We go on stage without a setlist. But this was a really good school to me and Uli was a really a great teacher for me.

M-E: What about the name of your band "Love Might Kill". Why did you choose that name? Was that a bad experience you had or what?
M: You know what, it’s always difficult a band time. Actually it’s not that difficult until you type the name you have in mind on Google (laughs). You know what happens. All of the band names I thought about were already taken. I Had in mind the name "Sindicate" (with an "I" ) for the band. I googled this name and found tons of bands with that name. But once I was watching TV and there was a trailer of a German movie. And it had this "Love Might Kill" idea, but in german. Besides, I thought that all of the 3 words were powerful. I know some people may have found it a bit cheesy, but in the end it’s just what all life is about. It’s about Loving, and unfortunately Killing (laughs)

M-E: I hope it will never happen to you!
M: (laughs) Yeah!! But I don’t think so, no. Anyway no one had this band name before, and it’s name that sticks into your brain when you hear it, you know. At least it gets your attention because it’s different.

M-E: You know, sometimes it’s annoying for bands such as Helloween because when you want to search stuff about them, it’s very likely to get "Halloween" instead of "Helloween"
M: Yes I know what you mean, that’s true. And you know what, I didn’t want to use typical Metal band names with words like steel, fire or whatever, because for me, Love Might Kill isn’t really heavy metal. It’s more like a mixture between hard rock and heavy metal. And I chose that because few years ago, with "Metalium", we played during 10 years those typical Heavy Metal songs with double pedal and everything. It was rare to have ballads and stuff. And as I told you before I like to use many genres in music. With Love Might Kill, I wanted to have, slow songs, ballads, hard songs with double bass, mid tempo songs, quite everything. I wanted to go back to the roots since I’m a fan of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Whitesnake.

M-E: Maybe you were more open minded than the rest of the band.
M: Yeah, I think this is the main reason. A lot of people are not as open minded as they should be.

M-E: Yeah, It’s a typical Metal thing. I mean Metalheads are often more narrow minded.
M: This is not good. I think that if you stay too much in one direction you get bored in the end.

M-E: And some fans even start hating certain bands who try to change their musical style, if let’s say they choose to play softer songs, or ballads. And for me that’s really narrow minded.
M: It’s pretty difficult because on one hand you have to be satisfied by your own music, and on the other hand you have to please the fans you know. In the end you want to make your fans enjoy the music and buying it. When you do music for living, you have to think well about where you get your money from. Nowadays with the Internet, music in almost free, and that makes living very hard for musicians. You shouldn’t loose the sense of what fans like. But at the same time, you can’t sell anything that you’re not convinced of. So that’s it.

M-E: I fully agree with you. And by the way, are you (Love Might Kill) joining Masterplan on tour?
M: Yeah

M-E: How did it all started? Did Roland (Grapow) asked you to do so or what?
M: No it was a little bit different. I met the Masterplan guys after a show. Actually it was a cruise, on a boat. It was in Europe. It was with Gamma Ray. We played with Masterplan and we had the same booking agency. We and Masterplan drove back home from France. We started a talk about having Love might kill on Masterplan’s tour, and that’s how it all happened.

M-E: Have you heard the new album of Masterplan?
M: Yeah sure!

M-E: I really liked it!
M: I nearly liked everything they did! Except the

latest record with Jorn (Lande).

M-E: Time to be King?
M: Yeah, they always did really great albums, but that one was just fine. It wasn’t as good as the others. Again, It’s just my opinion and I’m really happy to see their new singer!

M-E: I’m really interested to hear your opinion! What do you think of Straight out of Hell?
M: From Helloween?

M-E: Yeah
M: This is hard to say. I didn’t listen to the album before the tour. It was a busy time, we had to finish the EP (with Gamma Ray), to start the tour and everything. But what happened is that we were on tour with Helloween for a really long time and we got familiar to the music. So when I drive with my car and Listen to the Album I love it because it reminds me of the tour. And there actually lots of good songs on the album. So well done.

M-E: Thanks for your opinion. By the way, you play the guitar as well right?
M: yeah that’s right

M-E: I was wondering if it was possible to see you on the guitar with Gamma Ray someday!
M: No no no. I don’t know. I played the guitar with Metalium in the past, as well as the first album on Love Might kKill. It was completely done by myself you know, because it all started as a project back then, and it wasn’t a real band. But for Gamma Ray I don’t think it’s necessary because we have 2 world class guitar players so I don’t think that could happen. I started to write songs with Gamma Ray, I played some ideas to the guys. They said they liked it and maybe I’ll have a song on the new record. But for the guitar parts, that’s their job! (laughs)

M-E: And is there a "Best" musician you’ve worked with during you career?
M: I think Uli Jon Roth was my favorite as well as the most important musician during my career. And when you play with Uli Jon Roth, you automatically get respect from other musicians. We were touring in the United States and I met many musicians like Roy Z (Bruce Dickinson, Halford). I even played with Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen). I met a lot of people and got respect. When you play the drums for Uli Jon Roth, you need a certain quality level you know. So yeah, Uli was the most important musician in my life. He opened a lot doors for me.

M-E: For me, He’s a living legend.
M: That’s true.

M-E: And is there any musician you dream working with?
M: Hard to say. A lot of Dreams came true. When I was young, I listened to Helloween. And that’s a story I told Kai about, the last time we had a radio interview in Japan : When I was around 15, I went to a local store in my hometown and bought the second keeper album along with a piece of chocolate! (laughs) It was a vinyl record back then. So I went back to my room, and played the album. I sat on my bed and looked at the big album cover. Back then there wasn’t small album covers like nowadays. There were big pictures of the band and everything. I was listening to the keeper album and eating chocolate. And last year we were playing in Wacken. My family was there, they watched us playing. Anyway we played I want out and I Immediately remembered myself sitting in my room and listening to the song. It was a real dream that came true!

M-E: especially that Kai wrote the song!
M: yeah, right

M-E: Do you know the song "Into the Arena" by Michael Schenker?
M: Yeah sure!

M-E: because the last time I heard Michael Schenker live, there was that song, and in the end of it he plays a long solo. And I said to myself: wait, shit! it reminds me of the "I want out" solo!
M: Oh! Really? (laughs) I didn’t know that! I should pick up that old record and listen to it carefully then!

M-E: yeah you should (laughs)
M: I think Michael Schenker wrote his song first (laughs)

M-E: Yeah, obviously! (laughs)
M: I will listen to the live in Budokan again and tell you about it after

M-E: Yeah we’ll see then in few weeks. Okay now before ending the interview, had some personal questions. Of course not that personal, but anyway: What’s you favorite band?
M: That’s difficult. If you asked me a couple of weeks ago I would’ve said Judas Priest.

M-E: And now it’s Justin Bieber.
M: What?

M-E: Nothing I said Justin Bieber, I was kidding
M: Oh Justin Bieber! Yeah I like him! Well, no no. I really don’t like him. This is not my kind of music (laughs)

M-E: Me neither obviously (laughs)
M: I think you know my favorite bands, Black Sabbath, Deep purple, Judas Priest and so on

M-E: Okay so mainly the 70's
M: Yeah that’s right 70's an 80's. And I really like it when there are new bands who bring that style back. That’s exactly what we wanted to achieve with love might kill, you know

M-E: Okay, and who’s your biggest inspiration? Could be outside music
M: It depends, when I was younger, I worked in the cinema and my boss was my biggest inspiration, he had a really great attitude and everything.

M-E: Do you have a favorite country?
M: well, no. I mean every country has its own positive and negative sides. What I really like in Japan for example is that everything is very well organized.

M-E: Is Gamma ray more popular in Japan than anywhere else? People recognize more on the streets for example?
M: yeah, for example the day we had to leave, it was during the week, there was a lot of people waiting for us, carrying presents and everything. They took a day off just to see us and say goodbye, and this is different from other countries! But we also have great experiences everything else.

M-E: Okay thank you very much Michael! I think I don’t have other questions.
M: That was really cool! And by the way, let me ask you a question

M-E: Yeah sure
M: How late is it in Canada now?

M-E: It’s like 3 AM
M: fuck! You know what, I didn’t think about that, It was my fault. You could’ve suggested another time!

M-E: Don’t worry about it! I’m like that
M: Okay that’s cool (laughs). It was really nice talking to you! Hope to see you in Quebec!

M-E : Sure! Thank you again, and good luck with everything Michael!
M: Thank you very much! Bye bye!

r>

Interview done by Marc-Elie

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TheLastWarrior34 - 04 April 2014: Ok euh .... why is it not in french ??? xD

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