When a discussion turns to old-school metal it’s never long before bands such as Ratt, Poison and Krokus are being mentioned, but one band that is glaringly over-looked is Helloween, surprising considering these stalwarts have been thrashing away since the early 1980s.
This German band’s history sounds like it could have been lifted straight from a Hollywood script, over the years there have been multiple band line-ups (some would say the band is a revolving door for members), law suits, the suicide of original band member Ingo Schwichtenberg and a massive fan walk-out when the band changed their sound on their ill-fated ‘Pink Bubbles Go Ape’ and ‘Chameleon’ albums.
Even chasing down Helloween’s guitarist Michael Weikath for an interview has all the makings of a short film. A phone call to the Spanish hotel they are staying at sees me get onto a receptionist who ‘speaks no English’ but speaks enough to yell at me ‘It’s not Halloween here’ after I try to get through to her who I wish to talk to you. After some frantic calls to the tour manager I finally get onto Michael whom despite just waking up and desperately looking for a cup of coffee is up for a friendly chat rather than an interview.
I ask him if his tiredness is as a result of a tiring tour schedule with Gamma Ray and Axxis but Michael laughs, ‘No this one is self-inflicted. Just got to bed late and kept on waking up.’ Despite the fact he is tired it is easy to tell that Weikath is the most relaxed he has been for in years. He tells me that most of that is due to his surroundings, the very beautiful Spain, ‘I love the way the Spanish live,’ he tells me. ‘They smoke and have the attitude that they won’t do anything today that they can’t do tomorrow… which can be annoying if you want anything done…but it’s nice.’
Weikath is also very pleased with the Spanish metal scene, ‘It’s a very conservative metal scene but at the same time I love the young fans here. They take risks with what they listen to, back in Germany kids can’t wipe their arses without being told to. There is a lot of rap and crap played here in Spain, but it’s not the people’s fault, people can only listen to what’s on the radio…something they don’t choose.’
Talk soon turns to Helloween’s latest album, ‘Gambling With The Devil’. Weikath quickly tells me that he wants the fans to know ‘That this album has nothing to do with our last album, ‘The Legacy’. This is also nothing to do with our history… the 80s, this is a modern Helloween album and it’s not as commercial as some would expect. People have also said that this album has more keyboards that we have ever used before… not so… It’s the same but perhaps they are a little louder this time. We like keyboards; we aren’t one of those fundamentalist bands that only use guitar and drums… no way. We have also embraced the age of digital manipulation, it’s so important how you treat the process. You have to play better; you can’t give people the original of what we did. You need perfection.’
With the mention of digital I ask Michael why Helloween decided to have their first single of this album available as download only. ‘We’re new to it but our label isn’t. They are very much at the forefront of digital downloading.’ So is Michael a fan of downloading music? ‘I do download… yes. I downloaded an album from iTunes the other day. I love the album but the miss the booklet to go through… not just the little CD booklet I miss the great big ones that came with vinyl.’
At this point I learn that Michael and I share a love for Muse, ‘I love that band, I hope they never go away.’ We realize we both love Muse’s video clip for ‘Sing For Absolution’ and Michael quickly adds that Muse are terrific live. That brings us to talking about Helloween’s current tour and I bite the bullet and ask how the tour has been seeing one member of Gamma Ray is Kai Hanson, an ex-member of Helloween that Michael has many run-ins with over the years. Michael answers straight away ‘There was an odd feeling at first but Kai and I have realized that our fight was made worse by the media. The media made up a lot of things that weren’t said and we believed it, which caused the fights and sparring. We’ve decided it wasn’t healthy and we are getting on fine.’
The good news for Aussie fans of Helloween is that the tour will be coming here, the first time Helloween have been to Australia. ‘I don’t even know much about Australia,’ Michael admits. ‘Don’t you have timetables there for when you can use beaches or something?’ I assure him we don’t and Michael jokes he’ll have to talk to a few more Aussie Helloween fans on line and to his good friend John from Pegasus.
Michael finishes the interview by saying ‘I’m tired to know at the moment but please Aussie fans check for our tour dates online.’
This is a tour all Helloween fans should be looking forward to and don’t forget to try and crack the riddle on their new album ‘Gambling With The Devil’ if you want to win some cool prizes.