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Can you introduce Denied to the readers?
Denied  is a heavy metal band from Upplands Väsby, right outside Stockholm/ Sweden and was formed in 2004 by guitarist Andreas Carlsson. If you’re a fan of classic heavy metal you will definitely love Denied. The band line-up is: new singer Johan Fahlberg (Jaded Heart), bass player Robert Stellmar, drummer Pete Dolls and myself (Andreas Carlsson on guitar).

I’ve heard the 3 demo songs with new Denied vocalist Johan Fahlberg (Jaded Heart). And it sounds really good. Can you tell some more about Johan joining the band?
When we released our second demo “The New Army For The Old Revolution” autumn 2008,  the band split with the former singer and we had a release party coming up, then our drummer Pete suggested we should call his old long time friend Johan Fahlberg, to be able to do the performance. The evening went out to be a huge success, and since then he is a full time band member.

Denied

Johan’s other band (Jaded Heart) is from Duisburg, Germany, isn’t it difficult to combine these two bands for him?
So far we had no issues that Johan also sings with Jaded Heart. But of course, if we are very unlucky our plans could collide. If it should happen we will find a solution for that. I feel that it is not a problem for him to be a part of the two bands.

In the past Denied already released some demo’s/CD’s. Can you tell me something more about the songs on it?
We released our first demo “Seven Times Your Sin” in May 2005, this album was more melodic and it actually included two ballads! I really love all the songs on this record, but today we only play the title track live. Because that song represents how we sound today. On album number two “The New Army For The Old Revolution” we took the sound to a darker and heavier direction. Actually, there was no plan to take the bands music to another direction. It just felt right at that time and I believe that we made a good “decision”.

Where do you find your experience to write songs?
I have been a metal fan all my life, I can really say that I have the music in my veins. I put the power on my Marshall amp and then the songs just comes to me. Yes, but of course my biggest influence comes from bands like Iced Earth, Fight, Halford had some impact on me.

Andreas Carlsson from Denied

Do you have any idea what the future plans are for Denied? What can we expect the next months/years?
For the moment, we are working very hard to get a record deal. That’s step number one. We also in the process of writing new songs that hopefully will be available within the next couple of months. I can tell you that the new tracks will definitely kills! Next year we are gonna focus on festivals and other shows. We will see what happens. But the future looks really really good for us.

Is there a tour or some shows in the planning? Will you then visit some other European countries besides Sweden?
A performance at  Ballroom/Hamburg later this year is planned, but the date has not been confirmed yet.

Do you play in other bands or do you have other projects next to Denied?
Actually, me and Pete Dolls play in a band called D`Revolt with a couple of friends, only for fun. The lyrics are in Swedish and the music is a mix of punk, rock and metal. We only play when we have some spare time.

What is your most favourite song ever from another band then Denied?
I could say a million songs, but if I have to pick one I would say “Raise Your Fist” from the album “Under Jolly Roger” with my favourite band of all time Running Wild.

Is there an artist with who you really would love to play a gig?
During the fact that Running Wild recently quit playing, then I say Iced Earth.

Is there anything you want to add to this interview or some last words??
Make sure to keep your eyes open for the next heavy metal sensation from Stockholm/Sweden - DENIED!

Thanks a lot for your time and keep up the good work!!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
25.08.2007 Interview with Niklas Isfeldt from Dream Evil

During the Elsrock festival I had the chance to interview Niklas Isfeldt from Dream Evil, one of my favourite bands. I talked to him about the latest CD, writing songs, the last two years, touring and the leaving of guitar player Mark Black.

How are you and the band doing? You had some serious voice problems, how is that going now?
Fine, really fine. Yes I had some voice problems and some family problems. But now it is okay. And I couldn’t stand leaving the band for another singer.

Congratulations with “United”, this great album was released October 2006. I’ve read some reviews and everyone is full of enthusiasm. How did you experience the release of this album and the shows you played with the release?
Well, the release party was fucked up really. We had the release party in HardRock Café in Gothenburg, the guy that should arrange this, didn’t understand a shit. So all the people that should come got thrown out. Because the place we should play in was actually a night club, so the guy outside said: “no no, you cannot come in here, because it is a nightclub and we are not open until eleven.” And everyone was saying: ”but we are here for the release party at 8 O’clock”. And that guy was saying: “no, no, no release party.”

But he didn’t know that we where coming and that we had our release party. So it was a nice fuckup. But in the end the show went good, we played three songs and ended up drinking beer together.  

                                            Niklas Isfeldt during the interview

You played 2 shows at “Sticky Fingers”, one for visitors underneath 20 years and for above? Why did you choose for this? Did you guys played different shows?
Yes we played one matinee show for the young ones and one show for the grownups. During both gigs we played the same show, same songs etc. because we where recording the gig for a DVD. So if you play the same show twice it is better for the different angles etc. The biggest difference is that the first show was without alcohol and the second show was with alcohol. We did the shows like this because we have so much young fans who want to see us. And sometimes that is a problem, because they are so young and we are playing at night so lots of clubs do not allow kids because of the time and the alcohol.   

The album “United” is a great album. Can you tell me something more about the songs on it? Are they based on personal experiences?
At first when we where making songs for the album, at that moment Snowy (Shaw) was still with us. He had like 5/6 quite strong songs. And the rest of us had like 10 songs, maybe. Together we had a strong album. Then Snowy suddenly left and took his songs with him and we had not that much songs left, so we had to start writing more songs. I did approx 75% of the song writing, I think I did like 75% of the lyrics as well.

Where do you find your experience to write songs?
I don’t know. Booze?? Hahaha, no no, I don’t know. I want to have strong words, put them together to songs. Some experiences are my own experiences like on the half ballad “Love is Blind”. That kinda shit, the pain full shit, that has to come out.

Mostly Dream Evil is not going that deep, it is more like Metal, Power, Fire, Fight, that kinda shit.

More like just having fun?
Yeah, yeah! We want to have fun, because if we don’t have fun it is no use. That is one the things that made me left the band because it wasn’t fun anymore. I spend too much time away from home, my family. I have a full time job as well. And my throat was fucked up and my ears where fucked up as well. So it wasn’t fun to play anymore. Me and Fredrik (Nordström) didn’t come along that well. But now it is okay, everything is okay.

It is fun to play again?
Yes, it fun to be around again.  

“The Number One” is a cover from the Greek vocaliste Helena Paparizou. Why did you guys choose this song to cover?
This is actually Snowy’s fault. Because he was sitting at home playing that riff, and he thought it was a great riff and was like, wait a minute I recognise that riff. Oh that song. So we decided to cover this song, but at our own way.  

                                

You are in the middle of a mini tour right now, yesterday you guys played in Stockholm, Sweden, today here and tomorrow in Belgium, how is that going?
And last Saturday we played on the Bloodstock festival in Great Britain. It has been great. On the Bloodstock festival there were like 6000 people and it was raining like hell, but it was really good. And last night was good as well. We played as the opening act for Hammerfall, everyone was full of enthusiasm, I saw a lot of DE t-shirts. Tonight will be great as well. I hope that this is our audience, I don’t know because it looks like a lot of hardcore people out there. But it doesn’t matter, because if only some people, maybe like 10 are very full of enthusiasm. The rest of them can laugh at us. I don’t mind. It is just for fun anyway.   

You toured Europe in 2004 with Saxon & Metalium. With this tour you also have visited the Netherlands. How is it to be back here again and how was touring with those guys?
It is really nice. I wanted to come back earlier, but… you know with all the shit…. But I really wanted to come back earlier because I love to come here. And it would be cool to come here with our own small tour. So, I’m thinking, we have a lot of fans here and in Belgium. Maybe we can arrange a tour like that sometime. It would be great, because then we are not an opening act but we are the final act. And I mean, that would be in smaller venues then where we played with Saxon. So if people will come then I know that they are really there for us. That would be great. Yesterday when we played in Gröna Lund in Stockholm, when we sound checked we had a small space on stages because all of the Hammerfall stuff was already on stage. And I always know that the headlining band has the best sound etc, but I think that everyone should have the same space on stage. But that’s the way it is. The big ones are pushing down the smaller ones. But it is okay. And Hammerfall is really nice people, they’re friends. But I was a little pissed off at the beginning because they had big bombs up on the stage and we were like: where can we put the drums?? There are bombs everywhere. So we asked them if they could the bombs away so we could place our drum kit, they took the bombs away. Nice guys.

 You are all very busy people. You and Peter have a normal fulltime job and your families and Fredrik  is a famous producer (u.a. Hammerfall) and he has five kids as well. So he is a really busy guy. Yes, but he is the one who wants to get on tour every time.

              Fredrik live @ Elsrock

How do you guys combine that with a heavy metal career?
Well, that is not a problem, because I don’t think that we will be that big that we have to tour like 8 months a year. If we have to tour 6 months a year, that wouldn’t be a problem as well because then we don’t need our jobs anymore. Then we can spend long periods home and then be away long periods. But I think if you live on the music it is getting bored after a while, I think that we are getting pissed on each other, sitting in a tour bus just looking at each other. I think it will bring trouble.

So this is the best way of having a metal career?
Yes absolutely, because you can have a home life with your family and your job and being a little rock star at the time and make those gigs. Doing little festival tours or venue tours for like two weeks and then going back home. That is the best way!

It is cool to hear you say this because I always hear from band that they want to make music every night and day.
Well, you know, I’m 41 you know. If I was like 21 then maybe I wanted to be a fulltime musician. For me this is okay. I can still make music at home. I like to release records but I don’t like to be on such long tours and I like small (festival) tours and recording videos. We don’t need more. Because I have another job hahaha. 

You have some beautiful songs, ballads on all albums. Very touchy, have you any idea what some song mean to other people, to your fans?
Yes of course. It is the same for me if I hear a song/ballad from another band, about a time in your life. Maybe a divorce or something. “The End” maybe…. Of course people keep those songs as their own songs. But I keep other bands songs as my songs when I hear them. And that’s the way it is. 

Do you play in other bands or do you have other projects next to DE?Well, I have a cover band, but we don’t play that much anymore, maybe like 2 times a year. And that is just for fun. We cover almost everything, from the Beatles to Motorhead, everything. And me and Peter have a gaymetalband named: PureX. It is the same band as the cover band, the same band members. We started it because when`someone was sick and we went rehearsing we made songs with foolish lyrics like about all dirty things. And we released like 4 albums. Not at a record company but just by ourselves and it is pretty big in Sweden. In the underground section. We released one album named “The Heavy Mental” and it contains cover songs from Motorhead, Judas Priest, bands like that. And the we changed that lyrics to Swedish crap. It quite big. First we made like 1000 copies and they going really fast, and then we made another 1000 copies and the same thing. And now it is all over the internet. But this was before DE, it was in 2000. We already recorded the “Dragonslayer” album, but we didn’t release it until 2002.

             Niklas live @ Elsrock

And I sang in another band, a Finnish band “Throne of Chaos”. They where in Fredriks studio recording and their singer was so drunk that the record company send him home. Fredrik asked me to listen to it and help them out. But it was a death metal band, and they had just a view clean vocals. I liked it and sang 7 till 9 songs for them but not death only clean vocals. So I totally destroyed their death metal songs… hahaha. The band really liked it. But the fans where like what is this shit?? Power Metal? Where is the death? It was great.

I understand that you guys are going to release a CD/DVD (Gold Medal in Metal) in November/December. Can you tell me something more about the songs that will appear on the album and about the recording of this DVD?
Yes, it will be the recording of the Sticky Fingers show, the one I told you about before. I don’t know about the release. I can tell you that we have 3 totally new songs. It were some leftovers from “United” which we now recorded. And we have one song that is a cover song on Arch Enemy, “Let the Killing Begin”. Arch Enemy did a cover song on “The Book of Heavy Metal” before. So in total we have like 14 songs, bonus tracks from the Japanese albums, some songs of the singles. It is a kind of compilation of very different songs. Songs most people probably don’t know yet. Leftover songs is not really the good word because it are pretty strong songs, but they didn’t fit on that album. The didn’t fit on the theme of the album.

Does “United” has a sort of theme?
No no, it are all different songs. The theme is just heavy metal. Metal, metal, metal, fire, battle….

 Do you have any idea what the future plans are for DE? What can we expect the next months/years?
No, I don’t know. Writing new songs at home. Everyone. And we have a new guitar player as well because Mark (Black) is not longer with us. Did you know that?
Really?? No I didn’t know.Yes, the new guitar player is Danne Demon. Today is his third gig with us. And we have been rehearsing two times. So he is so nervous.

                               

So, Mark quit for …
Well the problem with Mark is like family problems. He just had 3 little kids short after each other. And he was tired, he didn’t enjoy playing anymore. People were asking what is wrong with Mark? Because he just wanted to sleep and didn’t had fun anymore.  

That is a shame, because Mark is a very good guitar player.
Yes he is really, really good and I wished he had a better … life. No, not life. I wished he was still with us because he is really good. So life has to go on. Maybe in the future he can come back. Maybe we should get like 4 guitar players. Mark and Danne and Gus G. With Gus too, he is a great player but it was difficult with him living in Greece and the rest of us in Sweden. He couldn’t afford coming to Sweden every time and we couldn’t pay him. It is the same with Gus as with Snowy, they want to have the control. They want to have the control and Gus didn’t have the control when he was in Greece. Because we where planning stuff and making songs in Sweden and he didn’t know what was going on. He wanted to have full control, decide things. And he was only like 22. He has his own band in Greece (Firewind) and there he had full control. That is the same with Snowy, the one person band, he wanted to have the total control. He did the songs, the lyrics, the melodies. And then he wrote songs and came to me saying you have to sing it like this. And I said I can’t sing it like that. Then he said No, you sing it like this (singing like Snowy). And then he throw it away. I was like I can sing it another way. But Snowy was like no, no, I’ll throw it away. That is very difficult. So it was difficult to write “The Book of Heavy Metal” because of this. When we wrote “United” I was like Whow…. We made like 4 songs a day, because no one could tell me how to sing because I wrote it myself. Or they could say I don’t like it and I said well I can sing it like this and then everyone was happy. That worked better. Everyone should do it his own way. And I can’t sing like Rob Halford (Judas Priest), so you can’t write me a song like that like Snowy sometimes did. The same with Snowy as with Gus, I love him and he is like the best drummer in Europe, but it is hard to work with him. It is a nice guy, but hard to live with. With Snowy it is black or white, there is nothing in between. Only black or white. Angry or happy.

 What is your favourite DE album and DE song? And of course why?
It is hard to say. One favourite is “Evilized”. “The End” I really like. There are a lot of songs. And if I go to the albums I go to … I think … “The Book of Heavy Metal”, because that one has everything in it. I like them all, but I think I’ll go for “The Book of Heavy Metal”. 

What is your most favourite song ever from another band then DE?
“Ripper” from Judas Priest. And … “the Number of the Beast” from Iron Maiden. I like the old shit. I don’t know the new bands. Just the old shit. I like bands that have singers that really sing, I don’t like the screaming/death bands. I understand the power in it but only in one song, that is more then enough. I like people that sing with a melody. And that can be jazz, pop, rock or metal.  

Thank you very much for your time, have a great show tonight. Is there anything you want to add to this interview or some last words??
Thank you. I hope I will come back to this beautiful country, because it is a beautiful country.
              
                                       Niklas & me after the interview
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 19.04.2007 Interview with Mitch Stewart from Circle II Circle

Circle II Circle visited the Netherlands for 2 shows during their European “Burden of Truth” tour. Before the first Dutch gig in Den Bosch on April 19^th 2007,  I had the chance to sit down and talking to Mitch about the CD, the tour and everything else that came up. 

You guys have released you latest CD last October. It is a great album, why have you chosen
for this subject?
Actually it is something Zak (Stevens red.) and Dan (Campbell, manager) had come up with. They have been tossing around and I just kinda went with them on it. I just did the music and Zak and Dan come up with the concept part of it. And it was interesting you know, it was intriguing. That is pretty much it.

I think it is a special, well-spoken subject. So what does this mean for you personally?
Well, I read the book and have seen the movie. It just raised a lot of questions for me and to able to make this CD and see how well it is doing and how well everyone is taking it. It is special. Because it is for me the first time, the first CD with my name on it as a writer, you know I’m saying? No Jon (Oliva from Jon Oliva’s Pain) and no Chris (Caffery). This time it was just me and Zak. That was really cool. It is really neat.  

Can you tell me more about the album, about the songs, what the songs are about?
Well, I’ll tell you that influences wise “A Matter Of Time” is very special to me, because I had this dream and the only thing I can remember about it is that I saw Criss Oliva standing there and when I woke up the next day and I wrote the music for “A Matter Of Time” and forever that is always where I’ll think of is I listen to that song. I don’t know, but I think that Criss inspired that song a little bit.

The other ones are just for me the music is they all have something cool in it to me. Creating them, you I’ve put a lot of heart in it and soul in what I did. And to know that it came out to be after Dan mulled it and after Zak put its vocals on it. It is awesome and I’m very much mooted if I see every night people sing those songs, that is just really cool. 

      Circle II Circle @ Den Bosch

So “A Matter of Time” is one of you favourite songs on the album?
As far as favourite song “A Matter of Time”, I really like “Messiah”, I like all of them. I don’t have a least favourite song on the album, I love them all. I don’t want that to sound arrogant. But you know I don’t have a lot of CD’s that are like that. To me it is a incredible collection of music. And I’m real happy with it. I don’t have least favourites, I like them all. I like “Burden of Truth” with the vocals. I like “Live as One” because of the piano things and I love “Your Reality” because of the heaviness in the middle. It is just really cool.

And for playing?
Yes, I specially like them all for playing. They all have different feels if you play it in front of an audience. I don’t know, some songs come over better than others, but I like playing them all. You’ll see tonight during the show.

The album was released on Black Friday the 13^th, exact 699 after the Templar Execution, is that a coincidence?
No, no we did everything possible to do that on purpose. Because it goes with the CD. You know that there is al whole story that is blinks in together and we saw that it was coming and I mean it would be really, really, really cool to make 700 years exactly, but 699 is not bad, plus if you are in the metal all you have to do is turn the nines and you have … 666! YEAH! It was very much on purpose.

“Revelations” has been released as the first single, why do you guys have chosen this song?
Well, we think it had the right power and a good hook. And every time we started and you hear the opening riff *singing the riff*, and people right know what is coming and are like “YEAHYEAH!!” you know and it is getting great airplay in the States and we are doing pretty good over here. And of course this is our first trip over here with this album, so I don’t know exactly. But I’m learning as I go.

How was recording this album?
Well, there was a lot of drinking, and a lot of smoking, we had a lot of fun. We never had a dull moment, even when we had the time off, when we were out riding jet skis, fourwheelers, or chasing alligators in the swamp, all the stuff is on the DVD. We had a LOT of fun. A lot of great times. Hanging out with the guys, swimming in the ocean, it was a party!! It wasn’t work at all.

We recorded this album at the Morrisound studios in Tampa. With the same guy, Jim, who did all of the Savatage albums. We are all real happy about the way it came out.
  
     Mitch & Andy

Thomas Ewerhard created the artwork for BoT, Did you told him what you wanted or did he came with own ideas?
Dan kinda came up with that, he took care of that, he was the guy that talked to him, and told him: this is how we see it, and how we want this. He put in a lot of input.  And of course Thomas created a masterpiece, a fucking incredible album cover. We were blown away. If you are looking at it next to everyone’s album of the last year, it is pretty obvious that we were serious and if you listen to it the you are sure that we were serious!! * Laughing*

You guys are on tour for almost two weeks know, so how is touring so far?
It is been really fun, the bus drives are great and so are the other bands. The fans have been great. The towns are beautiful and we’ve seen some really great places like castles and shit. I’ve been drinking a lots of Jägermeisters and smoking a lot of weed. It is crazy, and so fun. We had 3 busses on this tour, cause this is our first headliner tour , the crowd has been absolutely awesome, and we do our best because don’t want let anybody down. So if we go on stage we’ll do everything we can to give everyone a great time. I love touring!

I’m wondering, you guys have released three albums now, so why are you still playing Savatage songs live?
Well, we separated writing songs with Jon and Chris and that is not because we don’t like them of we hate Savatage. We love them very much. The thing is, the fans want to hear the hits. We just try to please everybody. For example, Van Halen with Sammy Hagar singing, they still play songs of David Lee Roth, so we’re doing this for the fans. We actually thought of the option to play no Savatage songs at all. But then we didn’t wanted to let the fans down. So all the people who are reading this interview and you don’t want to hear the Savatage songs live, then just let us know. * Laughing*

Last year on ProgPower Atlanta you have recorded a DVD, when will it be released?
We’re still collecting video clips on this tour, we’re gonna use lot of stuff of this tour, we got some really good backstage things, and great photo’s. Just priceless moments. You get to see things that people normally don’t see. It is really awesome.

So you don’t know when it will be released?
No, I don’t really know. Not for sure, so I won’t say. We got a video for “Evermore” complete  and a video for “Revelations”, So I hope they’ll be released soon, but when it’ll come out, I can’t say. It will come! Just wait and see!

How was recording this DVD?
It was really cool, in the beginning it’s strange, but you get used to it real fast. It’s kind of weird with all the cameras, but after that, it’s cool and real fun. The crowd was great, a couple of thousand people or so. It was awesome. You’ll see it.  

You have some solo songs on you own website (www.paulmichaelstewart.com), are you going to do more with those songs?
Yeah, some day. Right now, things are really going well with Circle II Circle , maybe we take some time off, or something. I got surprises. I own a studio back home, and I’m always writing songs, and I’m going have more things on my website too. Just releasing some songs on the website. In think there will me some new stuff online within a view weeks.

I’ve listened to the songs that are already published on your website and I think that the songs are really good.
Well, Thank you! Those are old songs, really. That is why I need to put up new songs.

      Zak Stevens live @ Den Bosch

I like the song “One More Time”, that song is really good, so.....
 That song is kinda weird. I was about 16 and just shortly after my dad was diagnosed brain cancer, I was dating a girl, and she got killed in a car crash, and that’s what this song is about. That was a really sad moment. I wanted to write a song about it. That is the story behind that song.

You also have a song named “Reflections”, only piano. That also is a great song. I like you piano playing, that sounds really great.
 I think that I have an updated version of that song. Which I’ll put up soon. With some strings etc. on it, that is really cool.

I haven’t played it for a while, but when we were writing for the last album, Dan said that the piano was very important, and because of that, I really learned about playing the piano more, and it’s a great feeling. And I love to play it. There will be some really cool piano pieces in tonight’s show. Extra songs, that are not on the album. 

Are you playing more instruments besides the bass and the piano? And of course singing?
I did a lot of rhythms on the “Burden of Truth” album, but I play almost everything guitar, bass, piano.  

So are you making music since you are little?
Since I was 3 yeas old. I toured that Eastern states with my parents, and I was singing in church, until I was 16. At 6 I started playing bass, and on 7 my dad bought me a bass.  

You are from a very musical family?
Oh yeah, my brother Bobby sings great, he has an incredible voice, and I hope you hear more from him soon, but he’s more in RnB. He looks good and is good with the ladies.

And my mom, she sings incredible and beautiful, and above all she is an incredible woman. My parents of my parents are singers, and musicians, so yes, I’m from a very musical family.  

So you said you where singing in church? So are you religious?
I have what works for me, I believe in something  I’m not sure what it is,  I can’t explain it. I feel that I have to do the right things, that you do right, and treat people with kindness and respect. And that you get rewarded at the end. And what that is I don’t know, maybe you can call this religious.  

The reason I’m asking is because of the subject of the CD, based on the “Da Vince Code”, and I heared (very) religious people who think that a subject like this really out of the question.
I mean, you can look at it two ways, you can look at it  that  this could really be happening, or you look at this, as it’s just some other book or movie coming out . I cannot tell people whether this is true or not. Believe what you wanna believe.

Is there anything you would like to add, anything I forgot, anything you would like to say?
Thanks everybody for your support, I hope to meet a lot of people on our tour, from my website etc. and a … METAL FUCKIN’ TO YA!!!

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30.03.2007 Interview with Thomas Youngblood from Kamelot

The very first RockpicsReviews interview is with the great guiter player of Kamelot Thomas Youngblood. We talked with Thomas about the release of the a.o. the DVD, the tour and the forthcomings album “Ghost Opera”

How do you look back on “the Black Halo” tour? 
Great. The shows,  the level of sales that we had, it kinda flow by since it came out, but it’s over two years ago, and now we’re ready for the new album, and a new period.

Highlights?? 
The shows in Japan were always very special, also the show we did here in Helmond about a year ago, it really stood out, was very special, there was something magical that night. There were some fans that came in from the Middle East, we brought them on stage. My wife and daughter were here, so that was very special.

Would you ever have expected that “the Black Halo” would be your best album so far?
No, you just do what you can, writing the album, bringing it out. The record company did their jobs, the magazines did their jobs, and so it turned out very good.

     Thomas during the interview

I must congratulate you with the DVD. It looks great, the lay-out, the design, the whole package looks fantastic! And it is such fun to have finally something of you guys to watch instead of listen.
Thank you.

You must have paid and given so much attention to this DVD and the making of it.
Yeah, we’ve given this a lot of energy, time, and money, to make it to the standard that we feel,  it turned out really good, You always want to do a great job, and we’re very happy when it finally came out.

Who had the idea to make this DVD some sort of a play?
It is an idea of the whole band, we wanted to do some theatrical. We actually want to do  it every show, but we can’t do that right now, maybe in the future it is possible to do it this way.

Why did you choose for Oslo to record the DVD?
We’ve been thinking about several different venues, first was Sao Paulo, here in Holland or Oslo possibly, but in the end Oslo was the best choice, because the production company was right there  in Gothenburg, so we had a lot more control, so eventually it turned out to be Oslo.

           Roy Kahn & Casey Grillo

How was the recording of the DVD for you?
I didn’t think about it that much, I just played as I always do, I was just excited about it, that it finally happened. It was a very great feeling. My wife also played on the DVD, she has a theatrical performance, it just happened and I didn’t really worry about it.

Was it difficult to let the fans onto your house, I can imagine that you want to keep your home private.
A little bit, yes. We needed some bonus material for the DVD. The idea was to invite them to our mansion and show them around. But yes, it was a bit strange. 

Why is the song “On the Coldest Winter Night” not on this DVD?
We never played this song live, so that’s why it’s not on the DVD.

Can you tell me all about “Ghost Opera”, and how do you feel about this album? Laughs, well “Ghost Opera” will be our next album, it contains 11 songs. You can compare this new album a bit with the “Black Halo”, a bit darker bit  it has some of the same aspects. And, well, just wait and see. We’ll play a few songs of the new album live tonight and all the fans get a free single titled: “Ghost Opera” when they leave.

Are there ballads on this album?
Yes, there are a few ballads on the album. 

         Thomas live

How do you always make such touching songs?
It is  a part of the personality of the band, creating songs like that. And such songs are mostly created at special moments or at special places.

How do you get the inspiration to write new songs? Are they always based on personal experiences and views, or are there songs that are “made up”?
They are not always based on personal experiences, but a lot of them are.

Have you any idea how important your songs can be to people?
Sometimes yes, we receive email from fans and they write what  the songs mean to them etc, and that they are inspired by our songs and that is great to hear  that of course. So we don’t always know but we’ll hear it every know and then.

The band has such a characteristic sound, one and unique in it’s kind. That is very special nowadays, what do you think is the reason for that?
I have no idea really, we just play the music we like and we want.

Thanks a lot for you time and good luck during the rest of the European tour, but also in Japan, and the States.
Thank you, we are really looking forward to tonight’s gig and the rest of the tour and of course the releases of the album. And we’ll be back with a “Ghost Opera” European tour in September/October.

     Oliver, Thomas, me, my mom Marjon & Roy Kahn

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