Edguy // Interview with Tobias Sammet
Interview by: Mary Evans Date: 09 January 2009 Venue: JB's, Dudley, UK
First of all how are you?
Welcome you back to the UK… it sure seems like a while ago since you were here! The tour started last night, how did the first show go?
Well, it was an obvious tour start! So we’ve had some surprising moments and, of course, it was a good show but still we have to get into the groove of the whole thing again after such a long time and that’s always exciting when you go on for the first time and play the first night, but I think it was pretty cool. I think the people liked it although I forgot some of the stuff!
The new stuff?
Yeah, of course! The old stuff too! (laughs)
You recently released your latest album, Tinnitus Sanctus. I’ve read many interviews where you’ve said that you realise you can’t make everyone happy when you release an album, but what has the reaction been like so far?
Well, you know, it’s a little bit like every time. There are a lot of people who obviously like the album and some people that don’t, and there are a few people, well I hope it’s just a few, that complain about everything we do!
You can go forward and you can move on and progress and there are some people who’ll not like it anymore. You could go back to the roots and they would complain as well so it didn’t really make a difference. For me the most important thing is that I am happy with what I have recorded and it doesn’t really matter to me if some press people say ‘Ah, that’s shit’ or ‘That’s crap’. You have to ignore it!
On first listen of the album I found myself being a little unsure about some of the tracks, but soon came to realise that Tinnitus Sanctus is indeed one of the best albums you’ve released as a band…
Thank you!
Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind this album?
Oh well, the inspiration, I don’t know where the inspiration comes from because whatever you do is inspired by something. It’s not like you’re in a glass bubble (laughs) and so you don’t get any influence from outside. Every musician says ‘Oh I wasn’t inspired by anything’! That’s a lie, but I can’t really tell what I’ve been inspired by or what we’ve been inspired by.
It’s whatever you listen to and as soon as you’ve got the feeling that a melody or song is good, it’s good and it will turn out to be an Edguy song. Whatever we do, it’s just that some people might have a slightly different opinion about what could be understood as an Edguy song and whatnot but it’s like classic rock music, it’s hard rock and it’s heavy metal and it’s got all those things in there and as soon as a melody in a song is good it’s good and it doesn’t really… to me, I’m listening to way more stuff than just heavy metal. Most of the stuff I listen to is rock music and it can also be… I prefer a good pop song over a crappy metal song you know! (laughs).
Going on from that my favourite track probably changes each time I listen to the album… there’s something in each song…
So you’re listening and you think ‘Ah no that’s not my favourite track!’?
No, I just find different reasons to like a different song… but for you, what’s your favourite song at the moment?
Oh, I can’t say! Um, at the moment it’s maybe Speedhoven but that changes a lot. With us it’s the opposite after you’ve listened to the stuff like ten million times throughout the production. It’s like you’ve got eleven least favourite tracks you know because you’ve over heard it! But, Speedhoven, I think it’s a pretty good song because it has got all the Edguy elements that we’ve had in the past but still it doesn’t stick in the past. It’s something fresh and new and something I think we haven’t done before although it’s got all the classic trademarks of us!
What made you decide to include Aren’t You A Little Pervert Too?
Oh, well, what made us decide? I think we were sitting in the studio and I just wrote down the lyrics and had a ball writing them and it reminded me a little bit of Frank Zappa and usually when we have those kinds of ideas… it’s a good thing being part of this band because we can do basically whatever we want to do because we know we will get flack anyway (laughs). It’s not that we don’t get flack for anything it’s just we get flack for everything…
So you might as well do it?
Yeah, our second name is flack! (laughs) and that’s why I said ‘Ok, let’s do it! It’s funny’, but I think most people like it. I’m not sure about America though! (laughs).
For Rocket Ride you all recorded the album at the same time, did you carry this on for Tinnitus Sanctus?
No, no! We just weren’t in the mood to do it. You know, you have some advantages when you record at the same time but you have disadvantages as well because you can focus on totally different things when everybody is recording on their own.
I think for Rocket Ride the mood was right. We were in the studio and Sascha [Paeth] the producer said ‘Let’s do it, we can do that’ and we did it and it was a very, I don’t want to say a sloppy way of playing because sloppy is a negative word, but it was very, very loose and easy going and this time I think some of the stuff like Speedhoven is more demanding. You really have to be in time playing wise so it made more sense to record the old way.
It must be getting more and more difficult for you to choose your setlists as you go along…
Oh yeah!
That being said which songs from Tinnitus Sanctus can people expect to hear on this tour?
Ah from the new album, we’re going to play five or six tracks. We’re going to play Dead or Rock, Speedhoven, Nine Lives… what else is on the new album? Pride of Creation and there’s one more but I can’t recall it right now! Ah, Ministry of Saints of course!
And are there any songs that you’ll never drop from the setlist?
Oh, well you’ll have to ask again like in 25 years! But at the moment you know it’s like, very obvious we’re going to have King of Fools in there. We were thinking of dropping Lavatory Love Machine but you know it’s always a song that people really dig!
You can’t do that!!
No, that’s why we didn’t do it! (laughs) And maybe you know, we dared to drop Vain Glory Opera for this tour but let’s see. Maybe in one week it will be back. We don’t know yet. We rehearsed a bunch of songs, maybe thirty, so we’re going to see what works best. Maybe we’ll vary a little bit.
It’s good and it’s good to see that people really seem to be interested in us. In the past it’s always been somebody else who is responsible for drawing the audience and this time it’s really, it was, I mean we could have had a turn out of seven people! That would not be very likely and we didn’t expect it, but you never know what to expect and I’m really excited to see that those two shows will, I don’t know if they will be sold out but they probably will be, London and Dudley so it’s great. You know I think we’ve headlined one or two shows here before?
Ah, maybe the Christmas show?
Yeah!
But like a proper tour?
Proper tour!? Two shows!? (laughs)
Well, you know, it’s better than one!
Yeah, two shows is a tour! (laughs)
It is over here! Can we expect more UK shows / festival appearances this year?
I hope so, I hope so! I’ve just been talking to a friend of mine who’s going to show up tonight as well, from a band called Tribe. I don’t know if you know them. It’s a very good English band. They’ve recorded with Sascha as well. We were discussing during Christmas, he was visiting Sascha and I was there too, and we were discussing that it would be worth doing another tour here because I think it’s been, in the past we’ve always just done London, and London, and London! We did that support tour with Dragonforce which was very good for us in terms of audiences but we’ve played Dudley and London… and Derby… and I think there are so many people living here there have to be a few more who are into heavy metal and Edguy in all those cities like Manchester and you know, I think it’s worth doing and I hope we’ll come back in Summer.
You’ve previously released some live footage (Superheroes DVD)… can we expect a full length live DVD any time soon?
Yeah!! In April! We’re just editing it right now. It’s a show that we recorded on the South American tour three years ago, the Rocket Ride Tour, and we’re going to release it in April I think. [note: this was announced via Nuclear Blast on 09.01.09]
Speaking of the Superheroes DVD you did a fun little advertisement about yourself… did this result in you finding any prospective Mrs Tobi’s!?
(laughs) Well, you know, I’ve got a girlfriend but I think it was not because of that Superheroes DVD. I think if she would have watched that DVD she…
Might have run away?
Yeah!! (laughs)
What is next for Edguy?
Ahh Paris! No, London!
No, in the grand scheme of things?
Well we’re going to do this tour which lasts for eight weeks and then a short or a long break, I don’t know how long it’s going to be. We’ll do some festival appearances and another US tour towards the end of the year, maybe September, and we’ll see. We have released and album and done the homework and now it’s doing the fun thing, travelling around the world playing!
Ok, moving onto Avantasia… I remember asking you once if you’d ever tour…
I said no?
You did! Absolutely not!
Ah, that makes all my other statements I’m telling you now invalid right? (laughs)
So, I’m wondering after having such a successful tour last year what was it like to finally get that show on the road so to speak when you thought it wasn’t going to be possible?
I was just remembering today, or yesterday, the first show, or let’s say the hour prior to the first show. In that hour I was as nervous as never and I thought ‘Why the f*** would you agree to something like that?’ and I had been getting good offers to do it so that was a good reason to do it (laughs).
I’m honest, everybody says ‘Ah, it’s a dream of mine’. No! It was just very, very good offers! No, of course it was a dream to do that, like I said, prior to the first show the closer we got to the show I was like ‘No, no, no money in the world can really, could be a good reason to do this’. But then, after a while, maybe ten minutes into the set I thought this really seems to work and then the whole thing going on, I don’t know the word now… how dramatic everything appeared on stage and then playing Wacken!
It was officially 80 000 people but it was more than 100 000. I don’t know how many more, but there were more! I mean headlining the show, I think it was Iron Maiden and Nightwish and Avantasia! So, it was just as far as it can get and I was standing there and there were just people as far as the eye can see. I was astonished by it, it was surreal!
Not many bands can say that about their first tour can they!?
No, no! (laughs)
Are there any plans to tour again or was it a one off?
There are no plans, but if I would say no you wouldn’t believe me! I was lying to you the first time! (laughs) No, I was not lying, it was my truth at that time but I don’t plan it. There are definitely no plans.
It depends, maybe in two or three years. The mood on the road was pretty good and everybody really loved it. Bob [Catley] is here tonight! Everybody was really into it and said ‘Oh we have to do this again!’ and I said ‘We should do it again!’ but there are no plans.
It must have been a logistical nightmare to get everyone together?
But that was the agency doing most of that. Of course, I had to make phone calls to the musicians and ask them ‘Do you have a little time for me? From May to August!?’ (laughs).
Alice Cooper, Eric Singer, Jorn Lande, Bob Catley and Rudolf Schenker, amongst others, all appeared alongside you on The Scarecrow… what was it like working with such a talented group of people?
Talented is not the right word for those people!
I can’t think of the right word! (laughs). Legends!?
(laughs) It’s good talent, they are really famous! (laughs more). No it’s a dream come true. I was friends with Eric [Singer] before, I mean I am still!! (laughs).
It was really cool when I asked him and I said we should ask Alice Cooper and he said ‘Yeah sure, I’ll ask him’. And he asked him and when I got an email from his manager saying ‘Yeah, Alice likes the song and wants to do it’. I was like ‘Are we talking about the same person!?’ Of course it’s a dream, I’ve met some of my idols and the more successful they are… I mean all the people that were involved were really nice, but in general the more successful somebody is the less of an attitude they have.
I met Alice Cooper just two months ago when he was touring Germany and he’s the nicest guy you can imagine. Rudolf Schenker, he’s very, very nice. We played with the Scorpions and he watched the whole show from the side of the stage. It’s just cool. It makes me proud and of course they are legends and they are idols.
Sascha Paeth recently received an award from the German Association of Sound Engineers for Best Production of the Year 2008 (Rock)…
[We then had some trouble with the tape recorder!]
The tape recorder has a tinnitus!?
So what was the question again? The good thing about it was that his, you know, I think the productions he does are way more mature. I don’t want to badmouth the Finnvox Studios where we produced before we worked with Sascha but I think the whole way of hearing among heavy metal fans is a little bit distorted because really it has a more natural, more powerful sound but it hasn’t got those clinic bass drums, those plastic bass drums.
Do you think you’ll be able to afford his services for much longer?
(laughs) I think he’ll still work with us… he might do it for mate’s rates!
I believe some live Avantasia footage has been recorded, does this mean there will be a live DVD in the near future?
It will, but I don’t know when. We haven’t even started looking at it properly. I’ve seen some raw shots from the Wacken show and that’s amazing even with a crappy live desk sound it gets you goosebumps and it will be good but I don’t know when it’s going to be out!
Ok back to Edguy now… most of you guys have been playing together since the early 90s and you all still seem to be enjoying yourselves. Is there a secret to keeping a band together for so long?
Yeah, we can’t do anything else because we have never worked anywhere else, so we don’t have any other talents! The best way to not starve is to stay together no matter how much you hate the other assholes in the band! (laughs).
So you just pretend!? Leading on from that, can you describe the other guys in a few words?
Dirk – Dirk the jerk! We’ll, he is very dark blonde! (laughs). He’s the most dark blonde guy I’ve ever met! No, he’s pretty funny and we’ve been friends for a long time and no matter if we are on tour or not we have to chat every day on the phone. It’s like, sometimes it’s calling to just talk bullshit. You don’t know why you have made that call afterwards! We catch up every week at least once.
That’s quite amusing because that’s pretty much exactly what Dirk said about you, besides the dark blonde bit!
Jens – Jens, he has black hair and I think I saw a red streak last night, but I’m not sure if it was his hair or if it was just my imagination because I was a bit drunk last night! (laughs).
Jens is very, very, I would say silent. Whenever he says something its got value. He is probably the most relaxed person you can imagine. He’ s a good guitar player, that’s Dirk too! But there’s nothing that can really get him in an angry mood… it’s like he’s very self secure I think and that’s why he never gets mad about anything. You know, even if fans come and tell him right in the face that he’s an asshole, the new record sucks and they wish that he breaks all his fingers he’d probably say ‘Oh, that’s not very nice but if you think so!’ (laughs).
Eggi – I think he is probably the best musician in the band. Eggi is a guitar player as well and whenever there are discussions in the band and arguments, I’m not talking about fist fights!!, it’s always between Eggi and me, but we like each other, that’s why we’re in one band! (laughs). He’s funny too. He can drink a lot and he’s an old fart! (laughs)
Ok, and Felix – Felix is not as old as Eggi, but pretty old too! (laughs). Felix is loud, he’s always loud. He’s loud full stop! He’s really, really loud. Very, very loud and it’s like we once said that if there would be a measuring scale for bad behaviour it would be measured in ‘Felix’ because he can get really, really loud and really annoying and to a certain point we really enjoy that and we don’t stop him. It’s very entertaining for everybody! (laughs) Oh that sounds like I don’t like him!! I like him!
And finally, yourself – Well I’m obviously the best looking and the most talented! Well I’m the shortest guy in the band but I don’t know, others have to judge!
When I asked Dirk this question he said that you talked a lot (admittedly he said you talked a lot to him) but this leads me to another question as you know Jorn Lande quite well… who talks more, you or Jorn?!
(without pausing) Jorn!! Definitely because when you’re next to Jorn you don’t have a chance to talk at all! It’s nothing, he doesn’t… I know a few people that really talk a lot. Michael Kiske really talks a lot, but no, Eric Singer, he talks a lot!
Going back to touring you never seem to stop moving when you’re on stage, where do you get all your energy from, I mean you are getting older now afterall!!
(laughs) Yeah that’s right! Well yeah, I hope! I don’t know, I just do it. It’s the music, whenever there is music I have to move and then it’s the crowd reaction I get back. You can get addicted to that. Sometimes you get a feeling like you should do a little more to get the crowd going. David Lee Roth once said ‘You wait for the audience to ignite a spark, but I go on with a flame thrower’ and that’s pretty much what it has to be like. There has to be no way that anybody could miss the sparks coming from the stage and then you get a reaction and it goes back and forth. That’s the best thing, that gets you addicted.
You’re also a bit of a dare devil and climb a lot when there is an opportunity… have you ever scared yourself?
No!! Because usually when I do it I’m drunk! (laughs) No, I haven’t done that in a long time. Sometimes I do it and some things are really ridiculous and stupid, like in Wacken for example it was maybe twelve metres and I was on top and it was raining cats and dogs. There was nothing proper to hold onto, it was just basically very tiny little platforms and that was stupid, but I just did it.
But again, that’s getting addicted because when you do that nobody will have a photo of the bands after you in the same report, they will have a photo of you standing up there and that’s what you get addicted to and you do those stupid things! (laughs more)
What’s the best thing about being you?
About being me!? I don’t know, I can’t compare to being someone else. I am free to do whatever I want to do, that’s what I enjoy! That’s a good thing about having success. Some people say as soon as success sets in people change and they don’t follow their heart anymore and they get addicted to commercial values, but I think it’s completely the opposite because when we do a record, I mean of course we are not set, we can’t settle and retire but we’re not starving and that’s why we don’t have to do anything to get stuff in our fridge. That’s something I really enjoy, I wake up and I do something that I like. I’ve spent my whole life, so far, doing something that I love and I am making my living with it. I would do it even if I wouldn’t make any money from it so there is nothing better than that.
Have you ever experienced any sort of extreme / bizarre fan behaviour? If so, can you tell us about it?
(thinks) Well, not really stalking. There have been, I would say, stalking sounds too negative, there have been incidents where people have really invaded my privacy so that really scares you. When girls that you’ve never met in your entire life start to contact your inner circle and start doing those things, like emailing people around me and knowing things about me, I felt really scared that somebody knows people around me and knows things about me…
That they shouldn’t really know?
Well it was nothing specific but that was weird. We’re not famous enough to have real bad stalkers though!
Who, or what, inspires you the most?
That’s hard to say. I don’t know where inspiration comes from but maybe AC/DC or Kiss because they have been the bands when I decided I wanted to become a musician, so it’s probably Kiss.
What is the strangest gig you’ve ever played?
We’ve played in a castle in front of a dining audience, sitting at their tables. It was like a wedding and we stood on stage. It was pretty funny! It was in Australia and it was our fans but it was just like, you don’t play metal shows to people that are sitting their dining! You feel like a court jester! (laughs).
Have you had any embarrassing moments on stage?
Well, besides the typical things of splitting pants and things. I don’t know, nothing really embarrassing. I think you decide whether something is embarrassing or not. Like, forgetting lyrics, I do it all the time! I mean, I make my own sport of it! We screw up sometimes and sometimes we stop and say ‘That was really crappy, let’s start it again’ and people love it so it’s just if you make a fool out of yourself, there’s nothing that can be really embarrassing in this band! (laughs).
If you were writing your own interview, what is one question you’d like to be asked?
I don’t know! I have been asked everything!
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
That’s, I think the whole thing that went on with the last Avantasia record. The tour, the Wacken live show I think!
You can only listen to five albums ever again, which would they be?
Kiss – Crazy Nights
What have you been listening to most lately?
I think it’s probably the H.E.A.T. album.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear these word -(these come from things I’ve heard you talk about before:
Bloodstock – Ah, Bloodstock! A really great festival, really I love Vince. But I think he’s not involved in it anymore?
No, no… but he’s here tonight!
Ahhhhh, cool! That’s good!
England – Cool, cozy. It is, it is! I enjoy it every time. I like it when you go to your hotel room and you’ve got a set of instant coffee there. In Germany you don’t get it, you have to call reception and even the cozy hotels don’t even have a phone to call reception which I found out today (laughs). But it’s really, I think even the food situation has gotten better!
Really?
Well I’ve had a great dinner tonight!
Maybe you were just really lucky!?
(laughs) Well it was just salad! They couldn’t do something wrong with a salad. It was just salad and vinegar dressing. I really like it and I like English football.
Queen / Freddie Mercury – Great band and probably, definitely one of the greatest front men ever.
Bunnies – Which ones?
Any…
Cute little animals. Taste very delicious as well!
Ducks – Don’t taste so delicious!! (laughs). Dogs?
No, ducks! This is coming from you singing that little song on the DVD.
Ahhhh, ducks, well they taste good too! (laughs)
If you met someone and they’d never heard of Edguy before how would you describe your sound?
You can’t describe it. I’d say it’s great music, it’s great music with good melodies. It’s guitar driven music. I’ve just been asked if we would consider doing an acoustic album and I said it’s like asking Ronnie James Dio if he’d consider doing an instrumental album!! It’s something you just don’t do as a rock band (laughs), doing an acoustic album!
So, you know, I would probably say ‘Go and have a listen to it’. You can’t describe music with words, that’s why I think journalists are invalid (laughs). I think it’s like, you can’t really describe it. No matter what you do, music is something where the sound effects your whole body, you can’t just describe it. It’s like describing food, ok you can say it’s a little bit salty but you have to say ‘It tastes like that in my opinion’ and someone else comes along and says ‘No, it doesn’t taste like that, it tastes like that’. You can’t really describe it!
And finally, do you have a message for your UK fans?
Yes, I hope we will meet more often in the future and well I think we should do something to come here more often.
I think so!
I just want to thank people for supporting us! We’ve got two almost sold out shows, that’s not a bad sign!
It’s pretty packed in there, I’ve not seen it that full for a while, so you’re doing well today!
What, in one week? (laughs)
No, really! Thank you for your time!
Thank you!
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