About the FIFA world cup, the vuvuzela and of course...the NEW ALBUM

The newВ studio album byВ BLIND GUARDIAN - 'At The Edge Of Time'В will be released on 30В JulyВ through Nuclear Blast/Wizard.

The German metallers were among the main acts at last year's Kavarna Rock FestivalВ - CHECK.

And it's time to talk with their frontman again...

an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov

HEY HANSI HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?

I’m fine, how are you? It’s good to talk to you again.

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THIS FORTHCOMING WORLD CUP GAME  GERMANY – ARGENTINA?

I do have my concerns, but I always do have them, so that doesn’t mean anything. I am a BIG SUPPORTER of the German team, of course, but if you ask me prior to this game, who will become World Champion, I would have said – Argentina.

I am sure the German team will do their best to beat Argentina, but this is a very tough one. Maybe the toughest one I could imagine at the moment.

YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY WATCHING THE WORLD CUP, PLEASE TELL US, WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT FOR YOU SO FAR, THOUGH YOUR TEAM IS DOING PRETTY WELL?

Well, the biggest disappointment of course was the game against Serbia. Even though Germany played OKВ  - it was not spectacular.

But I would pretty much say Italy was  the biggest disappointment,  because  usually I really like the way they play and the attitude they have. They are very clever usually, but somehow they’ve lost it.

It seems they have to reinvent themselves. I am sure they will come back in four years and will beat the shit out of everybody, but right at the moment they are in a terrible shape.
This has been my first big disappointment.

The second one, of course would be the referee situation.В They still discuss these natural matters like whether they should allow technology to come in into the world of World championship or not.

They explain it with the ideology and with the spirit of the game but that’s nonsense. I mean, England would have had a chance to be fair sportsmen if they got that goal, but with what happened was so demotivating, they  couldn’t win the game afterwards, it was obvious.   

В 

at Tangra Mega Rock studios in 2007

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLUB IN GERMANY?

Well, if it would be a First division – yes, Borussia Dortmund would be my most favorite team. But I am still into KFC Uerdingen a lot, but they are Fifth division nowadays. They once have won the German cup but that was a long long time ago.

LAST FOOTBALL QUESTION AND THEN WE GO STRAIGHT TO THE ALBUM…

He he he…

GERMANY HAS OBVIOUSLY STARTED THE WORLD CUP ON FIRE, BEATING THE UNDERDOGS OF AUSTRALIA 4-0… AND WE CAN SEE THAT IN THE SINGLE YOU ARE COVERING A VERY FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN ARTIST, JOHN FARNHAM….BUT I BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED MUCH AHEAD OF THE WORLD CUP, SO YOU COULDN’T KNOW, RIGHT?

No, we didn’t know, ha ha ha. We like Australia so much and I love John Farnham as a vocalist but I did have a good feeling for the German game as well and I did have a good feeling for ‘You’re The Voice’.

But I really did not expect Germany to win 4-0, neither did I expect that we would come up with such a great coverversion!

WOULD YOU LIKE A VUVUZELA PRESENT FOR CHRISTMAS?

Oh, most definitely not! I couldn’t even use it for a Blind Guardian album where we more or less can use everything. Make a little noise out of it which sounds nice, sweet..whatever…but there is no need for that. So thanks you very much – I won’t be home for Christmas!

NOW, LISTENING TO THE SINGLE VERSION OF THE BALLAD ‘WAR OF THE THRONES’, WE HAVE THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU HAVE INCORPORATED MANY INSTRUMENTS…IS IT A FAKE IMPRESSION?

In general it is a right impression,  so there will be a lot of different instruments on the whole album.  As for ‘War of the Thrones’ as you can hear it on the single – it contains a lot of vocalists and stuff like this. Backing vocalists of course!

And a lot of percussion stuff but the orchestral arrangements you hear would be keyboard playingВ  this time.
On the album there is a lot of orchestral stuff so basically everything you will here on the album has been performed by living creatures.

HOW MUCH TIME DID IT TAKE TO MAKE THIS AMBITIOUS NEW RECORD, I MEAN THE WHOLE PROCESS?

The whole processВ  including songwriting would be two and a half years. If we talk about recording than it would be something like eight months I would guess, maybe nine.

We did start songwriting when we were supposed to do the song ‘Sacred’ for the computer game. At that time we actually recorded the acoustic version of ‘War of The Thrones’ you just mentioned!

Then we’ve made a big break of course to do some songwriting first and we did some production stuff in between and we did some shows as you probably remember.

The main issue production wise we accomplished from October 2009 until April 2010. And we did some orchestral recordings in Prague then we went to some places in Bavaria and recorded tap dancers, so everything was recorded somewhere else.
В 
WHO ACTUALLY PRODUCED THE RECORD?

It has been produced, like ‘A Twist in the Myth’ and ‘A Night at The Opera’ by Charlie Bauerfeind. And we of course assisted him again because we are the driving force and the band has to make all the major decisions.

But he really did a great producer job -В  he came up with numerous amount ofВ  great suggestions and he really has driven the whole thing forward.В В 

THE FIRSTВ  SINGLE OF THE ALBUM ACTUALLY CONSISTS OF THREE SONGS, WHY THE HELL?

Well, ‘A Voice in The Dark’ is such a great song! And it delivers everything  diehard Blind Guardian fans would probably like to listen to. 

A first output after four years will be heard by the public, so this has been a sort of my choice because it is so intense and it’s a very impressive sign of life from the very beginning so everyone knows BLIND GUARDIAN’S BACK!

There are no questions open – we are still a speed thrash metal band and we did not consider it to become a radio mainstream hit, that’s for sure. But it should please all Blind Guardian fans!

‘You’re The Voice’ is a such a great song. And would have been a waste not to release it because it won’t be on the album in that way. The version on the album sounds slightly different and delivers some slightly different feelings.

And therefore we thought, well, let’s have three songs on the single so people have a real value when they purchase it.

YOU ARE NOT TOURING AT ALL THIS SUMMER AND WILL BE BACK ON THE ROAD ONLY IN SEPTEMBER, WHY? I MEAN, NIGHTWISH FOR INSTANCE DON’T TOUR BECAUSE THEIR SINGER IS PREGNANT, HOPE IS NOT THE CASE WITH YOUR SINGER TOO…

No, as far as I know, ha ha ha! And I worked for it for twenty years already, ha ha ha.

BUT, SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS THE THING?

Well, it’s quite simple. We didn’t know when the album would be exactly finished, so it was a sort of risk to announce any shows prior to the end of summer. So we did not even consider playing any festivals.

Plus, you know, whenever we do the major part of the European tour it’s such a higher form we have to accomplish, we need like two to three months to prepare everything properly.

So it was the earliest possible solution for us – starting at the end of September! I feel very comfortable with it, I’m sure we’ll come by almost everywhere  until the end of 2011, so all the festivals will be covered in 2011 for sure and a lot of other European countries as well, so I am pretty sure everyone will be pleased ones we reach 2012.
В В 

WE MET LAST YEAR AT THE KAVARNA ROCK FESTIVAL IN BULGARIA AND BESIDES THIS SUMMER OFF,  YOU’ VE BEEN CONSTANTLY ON THE ROAD...SO HONESTLY TELL US - HOW DO YOU RATE THIS FESTIVAL THAT WE HAVE?

I think it was outstanding ! Not only in terms of the seaside, but also in terms of preparation in general. The environment was just great, there was nothing to complain about. The people were really prepared, the audience was beautiful. But that was the same when we played Sofia in 2007.

There is a very passionate tribe of people in Bulgaria and that makes it very comfortable for a band to come by. Playing with the Scorpions and Edguy was a big honor and I felt that even the, let’s say, older Scorpions fans received us very well. So I have nothing but really great impressions about that one.  

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