In the last year we had a big heavy metal turn, which especially benefited the veterans bands. And when we talk about melodic heavy metal, there is rarely a time Helloween isn't quoted. The band crossed the 80's as one of the most well-known German bands, in spite of roughing through internal problems (see full story below) and burst in to the 90's reformulated with the long waited double-live album, "High Live".

Between their internal problems, the biggest one was, without a doubt, to find another vocalist to replace Michael Kiske - one of the most brilliant voices in rock history. They found Andi Deris, who gave them a good impression with his last band, "Pink Cream 69." In spite of singing mostly hard rock songs, Andi convinced the fans of his talent, by not imitating Kiske and through his charisma on stage.

And so in January, we had a conversation with Andi Deris. It wasn't an interview easily arranged, 'cause the band is on holidays and they didn't want to give new interviews until after the new year. But Andi made an exception to ROCK BRIGADE, by request of their manager Rod Smallwood (an old friend of ours). Andi is talking about the "new" Helloween, his side project and the future. Thanks to Smallwood for it!

RB - One year after "The Time of the Oath", can you say Helloween is finally back to the top?
AD - The first thing we realized was this album had a better repercussion when compared to "Master of the Rings." It has sold 300.000 copies more. I think this shows that people prefer "The Time of the Oath."

RB - Maybe it was the result of this "back to the roots" sound?
AD - Without a doubt, 'cause since I joined the band, my intention was to do what Helloween used to do some years ago. I just adore their first albums; everything was fantastic, and I think it worked.

RB - Yes, seems like the fans were waiting for this album for a long time...
AD - Honestly, most Helloween fans like just "Walls of Jericho" and the Keepers era. Obviously, they were disappointed with "Chameleon", which is more of a pop album. I believe I would be disappointed if my favorite band changed as much as they did.

RB - Do you think "Chameleon" is a bad album?
AD - No, in fact, it isn't a bad album, it just seems like it’s not a Helloween album.

RB - With "High Live" you finally released the much waited double-live album. Now, some months after it’s release, are you still satisfied with it?
AD - Let me put this way: I listen this album every day and I still like it. Usually, some weeks after a CD's release, you realize a lot of defects on it, you start to complain about some of the things you should have done and things you shouldn't have done. But this is a live album, you can't bring the record back to the studio and re-do things. Surely if I could, I would re-do a lot of things which I don’t like. But if we did this, we would be lying to our fans. And we would never betray them that way.

RB - You have a side project besides Helloween. What is it?
AD - Before I joined Helloween, I sang with Pink Cream 69. I took advantage of some things I did at that time and mixed with some heavy and modern stuff. But it's still crude, and the recordings need to be polished.

RB - Are there plans of releasing this new album this year?
AD - I think it will be released by the beginning of April in Japan, and a few weeks later in Europe and possibly South America.

RB - How did you find time to compose, to rehearse and to record with your side project, with Helloween occupying you all the time?
AD - It wasn't hard, 'cause I have my own studio with all equipment and computers I need. We did an eight month tour in 1996, so we didn’t have time to do anything else. But after this tour we took a holiday, and I finally had time to work on my project.

RB - Did you spend Christmas and New Year with your family?
AD - Yes, but I kept working! [laughs] I needed to finish my work and I'm using my holidays for it.

RB - Do you have plans of touring with your project?
AD - If the public likes it, it will be worth it to do some shows. Otherwise, we would never dare doing it. But we're ready to get in the road.

RB - Have you thought up the album title already?
AD - Yes, it will be "Coming in From the Rain".

RB - And with Helloween? Do you have new material?
AD - Yes, lots of it! [laughs] When I stopped to compose, I had a lot of ideas, and immediately we separated what we would record for the Helloween album and what I should record with the side project. We have about 7 songs almost ready for the Helloween album.

RB - When will the band begin to record for the new album?
AD - We will begin by the end of August and we intend to finish it by September. We're planning to release it at the end of this year.

RB - Do you have already a title?
AD - We haven’t decided on it yet. If I told you a title now, we could change it afterwards and your readers would say you're liars! [laughs]

RB - Will you use the same formula you used on "The Time of the Oath"?
AD - Yes, but it will be heavier, more "punch".

RB - You used old equipment to record the last album, and this resulted in a "dirtier", heavier sound. Do you intend to use the same equipment?
AD - Surely - yes. We used some 60's equipment, which gave some distortion to the sound. The result satisfied us completely, so we'll keep using the same equipment.

RB - Helloween is a very famous band in Europe, Asia and South America. Why aren't you ever getting popularity on USA?
AD - We started to get a good following there with "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" and "Chameleon," so the American people met us in a bad era. But we spent almost three years without talking to the media there when we released these albums in the USA. So, since we weren’t in the magazines, obviously the public forgot us quickly. Now we're trying to get our space back, step by step. "The Time of the Oath" got a good position on the chart, for example. And it's still selling copies there, a year after its release.

RB - Has the fact of never playing there contributed to that?
AD - Without a doubt. That's why we've already planned a tour with some shows in the USA. We know this will help in selling more albums there.

RB - The American musical market is characterized by fashion oscillations. Will Helloween overcome this obstacle?
AD - Helloween has his own style, which can be adapted to fashion music. I'm sure when we'll play in the USA we'll attract heavy metal fans as well as the fashion public. Our intention is to embrace everybody. Helloween has never been a fashion band, but it's something different and surely this will attract the American people. Before I joined Helloween, I saw this band like a group which would never surrender to fashion styles to get success. I know most of our fans have this vision too and we must preserve it.

RB - Helloween had a lot of problems with Noise and EMI, and now seems you're having problems with Castle too. Is it hard for you to work with them or is it the other way around?
AD - [long pause] It's a question of territories. See, a label can do a great job in Japan, for example, but it's American affiliate can be very bad. We can't control these things, 'cause it changes according to the place. If a big boss from an affiliate doesn't like our music then surely he won't push for us in his country. I don't think there's a label which can makes an album or band work in all countries. There’s a lot of countries and a lot of people working out there. It's impossible to control.

RB - Are you satisfied with your label (Castle Communication)?
AD - [pause] Castle is a great label. There are more countries where they're doing a good job than countries where their performance isn't good.

RB - So the rumors about Helloween will be exiting Castle are unfounded?
AD - Yes. The most we could do is stop working with some affiliates, like the Brazilian one, for example.

RB - Aren't you satisfied with their work here in Brazil?
AD - When we were there in 1996, we talked with a lot of people in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and our fans told us how hard it is to obtain a CD from Helloween in your country, 'cause the label just imported so few in quantity to distribute. We want to find a label which is really interested in the Brazilian market. South America is a big market for us and we don't dare lose it. So I don't think we'll keep working with the Brazilian Castle.

RB - Some years ago, when somebody thought about melodic heavy metal, the first thing they thought of was the German scene. Nowadays, Finland and other Scandinavian countries are becoming the nucleus of the new scene, with bands like Morgana LeFay, Memento Mori, Stratovarius, etc. How do you see this?
AD - We're in contact with a lot of Scandinavian countries, 'cause our producer, Tommy Hansen, comes from that area. I know a lot of great Scandinavian bands, and some of them even have some Helloween influences.

RB - Is there a particular band you might consider mentioning?
AD - Yeah, there's a great band, one of the best I've ever heard. They're a quintet from Copenhagen [Denmark]. But they're signing their first contract and they'll change their name soon, so I prefer not to say who they are. Next time I'll tell you their name, OK? [laughs]

RB - We're not hearing about new bands on the German scene lately. How is the heavy scene going?
AD - It's sleeping! [laughs] In fact, things aren't doing well here at all. The German musical market actually is full of techno and dance bullshit. I hope this is just happening here in Germany.

RB - Apparently yes, 'cause heavy metal is doing fine in Japan, South America and part of Europe. Don't you think this is a fashion, like the California punk rock, alternative rock, and grunge fashion?
AD - Wanna know the truth? I hope so! It would be funny seeing people telling us that Helloween is doing fashion music, when in fact we're doing the same thing we’ve done all our lives. [Note: Green Day and Offspring have had the same problem. They're doing the same music they did 10 years ago, but unfortunately their music is on the top of the charts and now they're referred to as fashion bands.] In fact, we don't care about what's on top. But if this does happen to us, there would be some good things, like more tours, gigs and so...

RB - People still compare you to Michael Kiske. How do you deal with this comparison?
AD - Michael Kiske is an exceptional vocalist, and everybody knows that. He put all his heart in to his songs and the results were fantastic. So, it's not easy to sing the songs they did with him. But I don't have the pretense of singing like him. I have my own style. I try to adjust old Helloween songs without disfiguring them, while the new songs are sung my own way. That's why there are fans which prefer Michi's era and fans which prefer my style, which is more aggressive. It's a matter of taste and nobody can change another person's taste. Besides, now we're selling more albums than in the Keepers era. So, I think our fans are satisfied with my job.

RB - Helloween's career has always been characterized for a lot of problems, like Hansen's departure, Kiske's religious conflicts, Ingo's suicide, discussions with labels, etc. How did the band overcome all these problems and keep doing its job?
AD - [laughs] It's simple: we're Germans! Life here is very hard. It's even worse for us, 'cause here in Germany being a musician isn't considered a profession. If you live in England and somebody asks your job, you can say "I'm a musician" and there's no problem. But that doesn't happen here in Germany, where to be a musician is synonymous with being a dreamer. A German's life philosophy is "to live for their work", while mine is "to work for your life". When a German decides to be a musician, he has to be prepared for a life full of troubles and obstacles. For us, it was natural to keep Helloween alive.

RB - Don't you have another job besides the band?
AD - No. Ever since six years ago, when Pink Cream 69 started to get successful, I've just working with music.

RB - Helloween played for the first time here in Brazil last year. What memories you have from our country?
AD - [very excited] The best possible! I had already been in Brazil five years ago, when I was on vacation in Recife (Pernambuco) to visit a friend. And I visited some other places too. But when I went back in 1996, it was amazing, an unforgettable experience. We talked with our fans, other musicians and a lot of people who really like and care about rock. I have a lot of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese friends, but Brazilian people were the most welcome people I've ever seen. Besides, it's amazing how much pride you have of your roots. It fascinates me a lot, 'cause it's hard to find something like that in other countries.

RB - In the "Monsters of Rock" Festival, you played before a Brazilian band, Raimundos. In other words, you played without 100% of the sound and lights you're used to. A lot of Helloween fans wrote us complaining about this, 'cos it was the first time you played here, while Raimundos plays here every week. How did you deal with this?
AD - We're proud of knowing that a lot of the fans were worried about it, and wrote to you complaining. Besides, we'd like to apologize to our Brazilians fans, but it was the first time we played there and we had no idea of how many fans we would playing to. It surprised us, and we talked about that show for many days afterwards. So, there's no complaining about that show...

(Fernando Souza Filho - Rock Brigade Magazine #127- 02/97)

Few bands get to the top and drop out so fast as Helloween. Their career is characterized by ups, downs, disappearances, new members and name changes.

The band started in end of ‘70's (1978 to be precise), when Kai Hansen and Peter Sielck formed a band named Gentry, with some guest musicians. Two years later, they decide to invite two new members in the band: Markus Grosskopf on bassist and Ingo Schwichtenberg on drums. And with the new members they changed their name to Second Hell.

The band still wasn't satisfied with their new name, so in ‘82 they changed it again to Iron Fist. At that time, Kai Hansen was trying to bring a new guitarist to his project. It was Michael Weikath, who came from an unknown band named Powerfool. They then changed their name again and finally to Helloween.

After two years full of rehearsals and a few gigs, they were finally invited to record two songs for a collection named "Death Metal", which in spite of the name it had nothing to do with the style. They recorded "Metal Invaders" (their first hit) and "Oernst of Life". The second one was in fact an old composition from Weikath's last band. Recently this music was re-released in a double CD named "12 years in Noise", from their first label, Noise Records.

In their self-named first mini-LP, released in ‘85, the vocals were done by Kai Hansen, who also sang in their first album, "Walls of Jericho", But Hansen couldn't sing and play guitar at the same time, and they invited Michael Kiske to join the band. As everybody knows, this was the perfect decision, 'cause Michi's amazing voice and charisma got Helloween to the top.

With this formation, the band released their masterpieces, "Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. I and II". But in the beginning of the ‘90's, they ran in to some serious problems. First, guitarist/vocalist/mentor Kai Hansen left the band, alleging tours fatigue. Kai formed another band some months later, Gamma Ray. Then, Michael Kiske got involved with an obscure religion, and started a lot of misunderstanding with the other members.

But surely the worst episode happened with drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, who had some schizophrenic hereditary problems. Before a show in Japan, he dropped on the floor and started to cry compulsively. While touring, he used to become very depressed, and then this was compounded by euphoric moments caused by cocaine use. Everybody knows how this story ended: Ingo commit suicide.

With all these problems, it becomes obvious why the next few albums didn’t have a good repercussion. The band started a fight with labels, and according to Weikath, Noise didn't paid then what they should have (See interview with Weikath in the April ‘96 issue), EMI fired them, and even nowadays they are rumors they’re having problems with Castle.

After overcoming all these problems, they invited Andi Deris to replace Michi's place and Uli Kusch (ex-Gamma Ray) to the play the drums. And so, with the current formation (Deris, Kusch, Weikath, Grosskopf and Roland Grapow) they released "Master of the Rings" and tried to get back to the top. In the last year, they released "The Time of the Oath", a double-live album named "High Live" and came to Brazil for the first time.

Now, in 1997, they have plans of releasing a new studio album. And it seems like this German pumpkin story has no date to end (and we hope so!)

(FSF)