Transcript of an interview I recorded with MICHAEL SCHENKER - 20190913. Full article here. MAL-
Right, very great privilege on the line. Mr. Michael Schenker, Michael, thanks for taking my call. MICHAEL- Thank you for having me. MAL- It's a great pleasure to have you on. We're going to be talking about the new MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST album very shortly, but just tell us where the idea for MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST came from, with all these extra vocalists tell me how you got that idea? MICHAEL- Well, basically, at some point, I realized that I have been playing the most popular music of Michael Schenker all this time, but for so many years, without the original singer, who composed that particular song with me, you know, so, I kind of went like, wait a minute, you know, this is something that needs to be done that, you know, and I looked at it as, you know, closing the cycle, you know, and so, I thought of, you know, Phil Mogg, Klaus Meine maybe a little far fetched, but maybe from the 80s something maybe they would be open to that. So because there is a lot of music I created in the 80s, you know, with three different singers that was still pretty popular. And, you know, and because I also spent my energy, you know, I had so many different lineups and different singers. I also realized, you know, if I have all of my original, you know, the most popular from the 80s and sung by the original singer, that would be like, having all that (?) energy. You know, they're presenting, especially for my hardcore fans, the way it used to be and then also realizing that you know that well anyway, that was the first step. Everything happens step by step, it was not really a master plan, it was just a realization that I hadn't used. I hadn't played the most popular music of Michael Schenker with the original singer. So that was really the starting point. And, but when I decided to approach the singers, it was like they were waiting for the phone call. It was really weird. You know they were all ready and the same with the musicians, you know, it's like almost like that was the next step in life and that's what had to happen and, and it was kind of also make sense because like, you know, I divide my life in three stages. You know, the first stage when just being a kid in the sandbox, just having fun, not expecting anything, not competing with anybody and not looking for fame or looking for success, just having fun. playing my guitar, and then the one day around 'Strangers In The Night' and people start saying 'Michael Schenker is God', I went, 'What?' and then in 81 Rudolph called me up and said, "Hey Michael, they're all playing your guitar style here in the States'. 'What?' So I kind of really unconsciously created something, I had no clue what I did there because I was not focusing on that, you know, I was not focusing on getting anything or accomplishing anything, I was just kind of having fun with the, you know, with the putting single notes together and create chemistry reaction. That's what I love to do. That was the first part of my life. And then I was also very grateful that I was granted to experience fame so early in my life to be able to make a decision that early if I wanted to stay in the in the same, you know, the, in the lane of fame or if I wanted to move on, and, you know, I because I actually wrote, you know, first hit for U.F.O. in '76 when I was 21, which was 'Lights Out' became the first hit in America and I ran away because all of a sudden I thought it's all gonna be (?) and become pressure and you know, I was expected to do that kind of stuff and you know so my kind of joy without pressure kind of started to become threatened and but I carried on until 'Strangers In The Night' happened and then you know, I started my own band, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, and I decided that I didn't need to stay in the in the lane of fame. I wanted to experiment with music. I wanted a singer that was unknown and just have fun experimenting because I was bubbling with creativity. By the way, if I would have gone with Ozzy Osbourne, he would have been very frustrated with me because the second part of my life was all about experimenting. He wouldn't have made any money with me you know, and so he should be happy that I never actually ended up with him. And so basically the middle years was, you know, I was getting stuff out of my system that I couldn't have done with any other bands because they were all more in a commercial style vein. And so, you know, I kind of carried on with my own vision, I ended up getting everything out of my system and learning about life, you know, it was all about learn all about to overcome to break through, I was thirsty and hungry for learning, understanding who I was, etc, etc. And I was always stage fright in my first part of my life, and also in the middle years, of course, but the learning and all of that overcoming and all of this processing and so on, you know, and experimenting with music, getting everything out of my system. 2008 something said to me, I want to be on stage. I went, 'What? Where's that coming from?' So I realized that you know, the middle years did make me ready you know for for the the third chapter of my life you know with basically you know I can carry on in the third part of my life consciously what I unconsciously created in the first part of my life, you know, with Ozzy I may have gotten a lot of icing but no cake you know, because the cake is what I created in the middle years, you know, that made me a three dimensional person and and I'm getting the icing now in the third part of my life so I put the icing on the cake I created I have a great cake you know, that is balanced and who knows if I would have been still sitting here today if I would have joined Ozzy you know, or any of the other bands that asked me. But anyway, stay true to myself, I didn't sell out and there's a saying if you stay true to yourself more will be added unto you and more and that's exactly what's happening. You know, the MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST somehow is part of my life design. You know it you know I got everything out of my system I've done everything that I wanted to do and so I can now and and i'm not stage fright anymore so I can enjoy the third part of my life so fully because it's something worth celebrating you know, and it's just peculiar that at the same time I'm creating a MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST. MAL- Right, well let's talk about the latest cake as it were, that's the 'Revelation' album, which is just about to come out. Four vocalists as you had on the last one but then you've got Ronnie Romero singing a song as well. How have you gone mixing all these vocalists? And did they all come up with their own vocal melodies because they have some, a couple of them especially have some very signature styles. MICHAEL- Yeah, it's like this. The co-producer, Michael Voss, he is a Michael Schenker fan, (?) 80s fan, a Robin McAuley fan, Graham Bonnet fan, he is a fan you know and so he is the best man for the job. We worked with him for nine years, so we created, built up to this point. And when we did the 'Resurrection', I always come up with, you know, 12 songs ready, 12 music pieces, not lyrics or melodies for vocal stuff, just music. I come in, I tell Michael the tempo and I put down my first piece of music and then I went back to my hotel room and I came back into the studio the next day, Michael said to me, 'Michael, this is what I did for this song, that music you put down yesterday', and he played me 'Warrior', I went like 'This is unbelievable. This is so fantastic'. And he It was really, really, really good. And so I was so happy that it happened so early. Because it really became a fantastic song. Especially once you know, he started to delegate the lines, the different lines to the different singers. I was fascinated. I was absolutely fascinated how each singer sounded like they owned the line. It was unbelievable. And then he did the same with 'Last Supper', and I love that song too. So I realized that man, that must be incredible for the hardcore fans, you know, to guess who is singing without even seeing it on the video, you know, 'That must be Robin'. I had fun guessing, you know. And so I thought for the, for the 'Revelation' album, I wanted to have more of that you know. And so basically, the principle is I write all the music by the time I get to 12 this time I had 13 in case one didn't make it. And so, but in general, I do 12 songs, and then we sent them out to the singers and because Michael Voss did so well on 'Last Supper' and the 'Warrior' song I said to him, 'Look, Michael, I want four songs for all singers to sing, I make you in charge to be the one that writes the lyrics and the melodies and then delegate the lines to each singer because it's work too well on the last album', and you can't actually do it any differently because he cannot have four singers work on one song, it's impossible you know, so the one cook theory comes in very handy there. When we came to the fourth song, which was the double bass drum song, we went we looked at each other Oh shit, we, you know, it's like we haven't done that yet to a fast song, you know, because usually where everybody's singing is usually mid tempo. And because Ted McKenna died. You know I started in the studio, the beginning of November, beginning of November, and then Ted McKenna died on the 19th of January and on the 24th of February, he was scheduled in in Frankfort to do his drums. And so halfway through the recording, Ted passed away, you know, and it was so hard to actually even carry on, you know, but I told everybody that, you know, Ted is watching he is going to say let's you know, get this going, you know, and we had to be positive to keep going. I had kind of planned for guests to be on the album. But guests take a lot of time. And it's very, it's a lot of work to have guests on the album. So I said to Mike, let's forget about the guests. You know, we need to focus on drummers, you know, and so, we have, like we committed for a second leg of a 'Resurrection' tour for 2019 for America, which we started in 2018. So we had, you know, already committed for the 15th of April 2019 to do a tour. And so that our show is two and a half to three hours long, you know, so let's say around 32 songs, plus the 13 songs of the album, 45 songs, how are we going to do that? And so, the first idea was Simon Phillips, you know, fantastic drummer, JEFF BECK, TOTO, THE WHO. I mean, you name it. He was the first drummer of the MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, and so he's a family member and we asked him and he was more than happy to do it. Michael Voss had a great idea he said like instead of getting a confused about the song 'We are the voice' which was a double bass drum song that I worked with this guy who is a singer of Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie Romero, maybe he would like to help us out here. And Ronnie, he jumped in, he was happy to do this and they went right to work and he did a fantastic job to an unusual song with an unusual voice you know, compared to all the other vocalists and it just added another, a third dimension and we had an unexpected guest, you know, that was a very pleasant surprise. And so every spare moment, I took Bodo Schop, he also offered his help. He is also a family member from the MCAULEY SCHENKER days. And so I took Bodo every spare moment with me to the UK and we rehearsed the heck out of the set. It's a long set 32, it's not so much, it's to remember the beginnings and endings and the arrangements and stuff like that is a lot of stuff to learn. And so it's just bothering me in the studio, you know, everyday playing, playing. And you now, but we managed with everything, everything worked out by the time for the 28th we were supposed to deliver the master, we were ready to give the master, by the 31st we had arranged a listening party, international press by Mike in Michael Voss's studio. The press was happy. One guy said well 'Resurrection' makes him happy, when you listen to 'Revelation' he wants to party', you know, which was, which was an interesting comment. And then we ended up in America on the 11th/12th, made the video and we we were on stage on the 15th as planned, you know, and so that whole thing took six, seven months, but we managed, you know, with a big smack in the head, in the face, you know? But, you know, it seems like every time you make an album, we have to deal with some challenges. With the 'Resurrection album I had a swollen face throughout the whole bloody record, believe it or not. MAL- It's about time you came to Australia, isn't it, Michael? What do you think? MICHAEL- Yeah, I absolutely agree. You know, and everybody says that and I have to say to everybody, you know, we play everywhere where people can afford us. And the point is, you know, the, we come from all over the world, you know, from Bangkok, from Scotland, from Italy, from Germany, from England, from Los Angeles, you know, we are all over the place so expensive to get this, you know, together and the budget is so big, you know, and so, we hope that this album, we have been together for four years now almost, that this album brings everything to the next level. I said you know, to my management not to accept any offers, until the album has been out for a year, for a month. I mean, so that people (?) especially the promoters understand what the shirt looks like, you know, they're investing in. So, so I want to make sure you know and maybe, you know check chart position to give promoters the confidence, you know, to agree with the budget, you know that we have to have in order to do this. So, you know, I tell you, I'm ready for Australia, I've been ready for a long time, you know, but when, when the student is ready, the master will come. MAL- All right. Michael Schenker. Absolutely great talking to you. Best of luck with the new album, 'Revelation'. I really like it. And hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll see you down here soon. MICHAEL- Great. Thank you very much. Take care. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |