Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Edguy

Germany's Edguy is stronger than ever. In the past year, the band has had several new releases—a new studio album, Tinnitus Sanctus, a DVD and live album called Fucking with Fire, and a compilation of singles and past EPs simply called The Singles. If that wasn't enough, charismatic frontman Tobias Sammet also has another band named Avantasia—sort of an ongoing rock opera. Yes, he's been to the opera, he's a "Superhero," a member of the "Hellfire Club," and most importantly, he's now been "fucking with fire" for parts of two decades, but now is the time for Tobias Sammet and Edguy.

Edguy is currently on a North American tour supporting Tinnitus Sanctus as the touring cycle draws towards a close for the album. Sammet checked in with Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki while out on the road to discuss the album, the flurry of new Edguy releases, life on tour and more.

With the new album, The Singles compilation, and the live DVD, Edguy has had a lot of different formats released recently and a lot going on. Does the band, your label and everyone involved feel that now, more than ever, the time is right for Edguy? If so, then why?

Tobias Sammet: I guess a lot of it is coincidence. We had that album out late last year, that's when Nuclear Blast decided on putting all our B-sides and EPs on one album. And then, half a year later our new DVD got released. I am happy that all this happens, but I don't think that the timing was part of a big marketing strategy, it's rather we got so much output, that the label needs to rack the brains about release schedules, even more so when they come up with an additional compilation. Nevertheless, I can't complain about lack of features and buzz about Edguy these days.

With Tinnitus Sanctus, you guys seemed to take on a more serious approach, both musically and lyrically. Were you getting the feeling that Edguy wasn't being taken seriously as a band? Was it a conscious effort to make it a more serious album?

No it was not really a plan to become more serious. You know, we always did what we believed in, be it serious, goofy or even silly. There is no such a word as “NO” in the dictionary of art. We rather believe we HAVE to do what we do even if it's a no-go for some people. With Rocket Ride we may have sounded or seemed a bit like forcing it into that goofy we-don't-give-a-shit direction, which would be another extreme I wouldn't like. So I guess this album is not as colourful and a bit more structured maybe, not better or worse, or yes—maybe a bit better. [laughs] But I think our sick humor is still there. Listen to “Little Pervert” or “Dragonfly” ... There ARE weird and crazy elements in there. I just think the humor may just be a bit more subtle and Frank Zappa style.

Musically, on Tinnitus Sanctus, you haven't completely abandoned the power metal aspect of your sound, but much of it seems to be gone in favor of a more hard rock sound. Why the shifting in styles?

I don't think there was a real shifting in styles at all, I think we just did what we always did, but we broke out of the run-of-the-mill producing process. Usually there are more dos and DON'Ts in metal than in a Roman Catholic boarding school of the 19th century. Everything is supposed to sound a certain way, most importantly the drums have to sound very artificial like a machine gun. Following those rules is not very metal in my opinion. You should give the song what it needs. We have songs like "Pride of Creation" or "Speedhoven," "Ministry of Saints," "Wake Up Dreaming Black," "Dragonfly" ... They are all classic metal tracks. And by the way, I personally never made a big difference between metal and rock. As long as it sounds good and has energy, it's fine for me. I was a big AC/DC fan—that didn't stop me from listening to Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi at the same time. A good song is a good song is a good song! Period!

I don't like the term "power metal," 'cause that implies that any other form doesn't have power or what? I think there is some good stuff in today's music—I love Masterplan. But many bands don't dare anything and do the same thing over and over again, just to live up to their audience's expectations. That's un-metal to me. And by the way, if every musician would have followed the blueprint of their music and not dared to explore new territory, there wouldn't be metal today.

I did an interview with Jens earlier in the year and he couldn't really answer this, but is there an underlying religious theme on the album? Just from a quick glance or listen it would seem as such.

No, there isn't. There are some slight philosophic hints at religion, but I wouldn't call it a religious theme in general. I mean, "Pride of Creation" actually treats the general question, "If we are allowed to laugh about god?" Well, of course we are, he laughs about us all the time, so we are even. Good friends can have a laugh about each other, don't they?!

Being the main lyricist, what is your starting point for writing lyrics for a song? How does it fall into place?

Mostly, I have a song and I have some moods and I have some lyrical ideas fitting to the moods, something pisses me off or something I find extremely funny or weird or crazy. And if that fits the musical spirit and direction of the song, I start rhyming onto the music. But of course there have been all different kinds of working processes. Sometimes I get an idea and start building music around it— there is no general rule.

Edguy is well into the world tour supporting the new album and the U.S. leg has just begun. How has everything gone up until this point? In other words, is everything good in the life of touring?

It's up and down all the time. Competition out on the road is stiff and crowds are way smaller than in Europe. I think we have to work more and more over here to make people realize that we are the best band in the world, especially onstage. That being said, the band is super tight and we all have a lot of fun, the fans are great and the mood is terrific. Life is pretty good.

Your band is well known for its humor, so I'm sure there must be at least one funny story from the road that you can share with us, right?

I just told that story in another interview. Earlier this year we played a show with the Scorpions, Mötley Crüe and Blind Guardian. It was in Bulgaria, down somewhere at the Black Sea. Blind Guardian, the Scorps and us on that tiny plane. After our arrival, the Mötley guys arrived as well and all bands were shuttled separately with those pre-World War I buses. It was a nice ride, over mountains, through tiny little curves, miles and miles through east bumfuck. After a while we saw one of the other shuttle buses standing on the side of the road with its hazard lights on.. Our driver slowed down, 'cause if somebody's got a problem here, it might take hours till another car will pull up. Plus their driver waved with his hands and looking pretty much as if he had a lot of panic. So we slowed down and he waved even more, so we went by the bus and there stood Tommy Lee, cock out, taking a piss ... I guess all the driver of their car wanted to bring across was “Don't stop! PLEASE DON'T STOP!!!” He wanted to spare both sides the encounter. He miserably failed!

Are the crowds taking to the new material well? What new songs have you been debuting live? How about a sample set list for us to see?

We play a kind of best-of set list with four or so new songs. They work pretty well and the fans seem to really dig the new stuff. I won't give you a sample set list as we tend to change it slightly every now and then. And apart from that, then it's not a surprise for those who read our interview and wanna attend some show these days. Okay, I can tell you, new songs we have played are "Dead or Rock" and "Speedhoven," that's what we start the show with. But I won't tell you anymore, ha!

Now that Tinnitus Sanctus has been released for some time, looking back, is there anything you would have done differently? Were there any surprises with the finished product?

No, I would have done it exactly the same. Seriously, I think it is by far our best album to date, and I still think this way. It is nearly perfect, of course not 100 percent, but it comes fucking close. There were no surprises with the final product, but we had a surprise with the finished product of our DVD that just came out. I got it from our record company and the age-control sticker saying what age the DVD is suited for was not a sticker but an UGLY green 2x2” print!!!!!! Poison green! I immediately called the label and yelled at them and I invented a lot of bad words 'cause I knew they had done that instead of a sticker because the sticker would cost them two cents more per disc, or so ... Turns out it is a new regulation in German law, you must not put a sticker but print it on the real physical cover! That sucks, but it is the way it is ...

Fans already know this, but you have another band, Avantasia. Tell us how that came to be and what is currently going on in the world of Avantasia. You're recording a new album, right?

A long time ago, I started writing a fantasy story, and for some reason I said it would be cool to record a musical having all my heroes, idols and friends of the music scene portraying different roles as singers, or play the instruments—my favourite all star team. And I just did it. You gotta note, back then it was quite rare to do something like that, there were just a few projects like that. [Ronnie James] Dio had it done in the '80s with his Hear'n Aid project, but just for one song. Then there was Ayreon, who had done one or two albums and that was about it. There was Jesus Christ Superstar featuring Alice Cooper and one version featuring Ian Gillan of Deep Purple. But I thought, "Why not a little German?" So I started it, I did it, nobody believed in it except from my record label and me, and it was a huge success. That's why I did it again two years ago and I am right now working on a new Avantasia album: On the last one, Alice Cooper was singing one role, on this forthcoming one I have Klaus Meine of the Scorpions, Eric Singer of KISS is one of the drummers, Tim "Ripper" Owens [formerly] of Judas Priest sings a role, Michael Kiske of ex-Helloween does, Jorn Lande, Bob Catley of Magnum and some more. The album will come out early next year and it will be absolutely a giant epic.

A little break, then a tour of Australia and Tasmania in December and January and then we'll slowly but surely start working on new stuff!