"You can call Nuclear Blast anytime and you'll always get an answer, as they really take care about musicians and music."

Known as the guitar player for Germany's metal masters Rage, the Belarus-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Victor Smolski gets in Tangra Mega Rock's spotlight because of the brilliant work he did for "Into the Light" - a compilation album released from the name of the so-calledВ Nuclear Blast Allstars and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the German label just mentioned. What gets the listener's attention at once is the impressive list of the allstars, namely the prominent vocalist singing on the ten songs on this CD - Tobias Sammet of Edguy, Peavy Wagner of Rage, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, Mats Leven of Therion, Schmier of Destruction, Hansi Kuersch of Blind Guardian, Andi Deris of Helloween, Oddleif Stensland of Communic, Marco Hietala of Tarot & Nightwish, and former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen...

Vassil Varbanov: Hey, Victor, how are you?

Victor Smolski: Thank you, very good, although I'm a little bit tired, because I just came back from a tour with Rage and Lingua Mortis Orchestra in Russia. It was crazy!

V. V.: The idea to put you live on the radio now is this Nuclear Blast Allstars release, "Into the Light". The boys and girls from the label said you are the mastermind behind this project. Why you?

V. S.: No idea, ha-ha-ha! It was easy, because I have my own studio and I can compose, make arrangements and record all the stuff there. Then I invited all the singers who are now part of this CD there, where I also produce a lot of stuff for other bands, so Nuclear Blast could be pretty sure that I can do this project.

V. V.: Did you choose the singers for the record, or it was the label?

V. S.: We chose them together. Andy Siry (head of A&R) and Markus Staiger (label boss and founder) from Nuclear Blast asked me which vocalists I want to invite, and then we decided together. Normally I want to have more gays like HammerFall, but this time, when we booked the studio, we got some trouble with the vocalist's voice, so we had to cancel it. Then there are bands like Grave Digger, but they were in studio and didn't have time. As a whole, I wanted to have more bands, but that was not possible.

V. V.: At the end of the day, are you happy with the final result?

V. S.: Yes, I'm really satisfied. This was hard work for me - I spent more than four months in the studio, nearly every day, to compose and record the whole stuff. I also play bass guitar and keyboards on the songs, and I did all the arrangements, so it really was a lot of work for me. It was not easy to find the perfect compromise for mixing, because I wanted to show every singer's special colour, but on the other hand, this CD should sound like a concept one, so I had to have the same sound. However, as a whole I'm satisfied with the result.

V. V.: Who is your favourite Nuclear Blast Allstars singer?

V. S.: There are a lot of great singers on this CD, so it's difficult to say which one's the best. Most of them are my friends and we had fun in the studio, because we improvised a lot... It was like an old-school rock'n'roll jam, not just work. For example, when Hansi from Blind Guardian was with me in the studio we made a lot of different arrangements and decided what to use later. It was the same with Schmier from Destruction - we had a lot of fun - and I also really like Mats Leven from Therion, because I did some really crazy arrangements for him and he did a perfect job.

V. V.: Well, the idea for releasing this CD is the 20th anniversary of Nuclear Blast. Honestly, what do you think of the label?

V. S.: Its history is unbelievable - it all began as a small label run by real music fans, without just pushing huge money from somewhere... These fans grew up together with the metal scene in Germany and became one of the biggest local record companies. I think it's the best label for metal music at the moment. Besides, they haven't lost contact with the fans and the musicians. I've been in a lot of labels and I can compare them, and I can say that communicating with Nuclear Blast has always been the easiest and most pleasant. You can call them anytime and you'll always get an answer, and they really take care about musicians and music. If you check the whole concept of "Into the Light", as well as the one of the next CD, "Out of the Dark", which will come out later in the year, you can see that Nuclear Blast really have the entire spectrum of metal music.

V. V.: Let's finally talk a bit about Rage. Was it a big blow for you when drummer Mike Terrana left?

V. S.: No, we were prepared for this, because Peavy Wagner (vocals and bass) wasn't really a big fan of working together with Mike anymore, and at the end of 2006 he had enough and just fired him. What's more interesting is that while IВ was working on the Nuclear Blast Allstars CD, we had already started looking for a new drummer. I had Andre Hilgers playing the drums for the compilation and recorded this song with Peavy on vocals, "Terrified", and we liked it so much, so we invited Andre in Rage. You can say that "Terrified" is actually the first new Rage song recorded in the new line-up.

V. V.: By the way, I believe that last year you celebrated the 20th anniversary of Rage, which means you're one year older than Nuclear Blast.

V. S.: Actually, in two years, in 2009, we'll be already 25. As for now, this year we'll celebrate with a tour the tenth anniversary of Lingua Mortis Orchestra. We'll play Monsters of Rock, Wacken and all these big festivals with the orchestra.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock