Dirk: Very good. It was about time we came back here since it had been a long time since our last concert. We only took the decision that we could play on Monday (14/06/04), instead of Running Wild and we were all yeah! We need to go to Greece again, we need to do this!. I felt we needed to come back to Greece and show the people that we're still alive!

Henjo: So it was really great to be back! [Laughs]

Dirk: Nope, nothing! We just said we'll go up on stage and play a set-list since three weeks ago we had this Rock Hard festival and we already had all these songs in mind. It's not that hard, I mean, you just go on stage and play some songs you and your fans love for an hour! Well, it's also funny if you think that we hadn't been playing together for one month.

Henjo: Yeah, I was in Hamburg, alone I guess! [Laughs]

Dirk: I was away helping my father with his house, doing the carpenter, the electrician, everything. Look at my hands, they're all swollen! [Laughs]

Henjo: A beautiful response!

Dirk: Except for the boiling heat! It was so hot!

Henjo: Yeah, I couldn't see because the sun was blinding and the sweat in my eyes was hurting [Laughs]! I was seeing white things all around me and I was getting dizzy. So I stuck to my microphone and kept my eyes closed! [Laughs]

Dirk: Yes, of course, that's actually the thing we have to do right now.

Henjo: We were going to start that today but we simply had to come to Greece [Laughs].

Dirk: I think so, if we manage to finish it first! [Laughs]

Dirk: We've already started doing some pre-productions, rehearsing some of the new songs together. We don't know how it's going to be yet and I can't tell you anything more about it! [We all laugh]

Henjo: I think we're trying to do something different, like with No World Order, we're trying to do it like we did it back when we were younger. We really rehearse and try to build the songs in the rehearsing room.

Dirk: It's always been lots of overdubs during the production process and continuous additions [during other albums] but this time we wanted to go in the rehearsing room, just the four of us and make these songs stand the test; then we'll continue on with the recording process.

Dirk: Well, not exactly a problem. It's always kind of expensive to come over here, we always have to fly all this stuff in. Wow, I remember the first Gamma Ray tour – we came here on a bus! [Laughs] It's expensive though, to bring all the gear, the technicians and then...Athens is a big city but there aren't many venues for Heavy Metal concerts! For example, there was this...

Henjo: Rodon Club!

Dirk: Yes, Rodon Club...They reduced the amount of people they can have at a concert. That's exactly the problem for the promoters because how can they pay us when their income is short because of the venue?

Henjo: Our message board? Great!

Dirk: That's silly rumor.

Henjo: Yep, silly rumor!

Dirk: If something like this was going to happen, I would know it. I can assure you that it's just rumor, it's not true.

Dirk: Yeah, Kai did it on their first album and he also did it on their new album too!

Henjo: Yeah, there was a release party in Hamburg, for the new StormWarrior album and Kai was supposed to mix the album but he couldn't do it because we had to be here.

Dirk: StormWarrior's mainman, Lars is a lot into that Helloween era and that's why he wanted Kai to produce his first album. The second album, I popped in a couple of times and did a couple of things together but he [Kai] did it on his own this time.

Dirk: We always do that. That's a thing we always have discussions about in the band [Laughs]. But you see, the people love these songs, Future World, I Want Out etc. We live playing those songs from time to time and the people really seem to love it! We're just doing it for the fans because I don't really need to play any Helloween songs...these are Kai Hansen songs, therefore I don't care.

Henjo: Hey, I like playing these songs! [We all laugh]

Dirk: It's just a fun thing for us; they like it [the fans] so we do it!

Henjo: Yup!

Dirk: Exactly.

Henjo: It's all about chemistry, yup! [Laughs]

Dirk: It's great you know because in the past there have been changes but now...we're four completely different guys and it simple works out! And we sometimes wonder how can this really work out? but it does. We fight each other sometimes, we shout at each other but we also love each other...it's really great!

Henjo: It's good that everyone plays a different instrument [Dirk and Henjo burst into laughter]!

Dirk: By the way, in the end of this year it's going to be 15 years of Gamma Ray!

Dirk: I don't know yet. I just told Kai a week ago. I told him Kai it's going to be 15 years of Gamma Ray by the end of this year! and he said What? 15 years I've been dealing with you? [We all laugh]

Henjo: Why not? The audience here has always been beautiful. I remember a show together with Hammerfall...wow, that was a long time ago! It was fantastic, we still have the videos from that show.

Dirk: Yeah, Kai was jumping all around the stage like crazy! [Laughs]. We've got plans of making a live DVD on our next tour.

Dirk: I think so.

Henjo: Maybe, because we have so much material!

Dirk: The plan is to do a really big show, one show with extra lights, a huge stage and six cameras...

Dirk: We're talking about it. We don't know yet. We also have to talk with the record company [Sanctuary Records] because they have their own stuff that they'll maybe want to do. Many, many things have to be decided about this because it's always about money...you know...Most of the shows anyway we'll do on our own. We have a guy on tour with us always with a camera shooting some really nasty stuff. [Laughs] You know...explicit stuff! [Laughs even more] Drug addiction, alcohol, raping...[We all laugh].

Henjo: We also have the whole Wacken show. We can use it on the DVD too! It'll be our bonus feature!

Dirk: Yes, I played bass on a couple of songs of the first Iron Savior album, Watcher In The Sky and another one. That was all and I was never really into Iron Savior. I just did this song because we also put it on the Gamma Ray album.

Dirk: Ay ay ay! [Laughs]

Henjo: I have to say I'm a lot into the Skeletons because it's a live album and it really shows how we are! It's Gamma Rau and that's why I really like listening to it. Usually I think it was always Powerplant for me...

Dirk: There really are too many songs and albums to pick only one...

Henjo: Oh come on, only one! [Laughs]

Dirk: Well, normally every band says our last album was the best etc etc but our last studio album was something like 3 years ago.

Henjo: Three already? Wow! [Laughs]

Dirk: The No World Order album was a great album of course but when it really comes to the past, I always liked a lot of songs off the Insanity & Genius album. It was a great time back then and also a very creative process and production; we were like doing many things, probably overdoing but we were so much alive!

Dirk: I did know him, indeed. I never thought about this, I think it's a very nice idea.

Dirk: No really, it's a good idea, a nice idea but it's really difficult to bring all these guys together with the time schedules everybody has. It's not too easy to do a thing like this. We'd have to organize it first. The idea though is nice and we honestly should keep it in mind!

Dirk: Oh, always these messages [Laughs]! Henjo.

Henjo: Oh sorry, I was somewhere else [Orpheus: he was drawing the Metal Temple autograph]! What was the question again? [Laughs]

Henjo: Ah! So, after yesterday we all thought we have to come back again really early [to Greece] because it's always great to play here, the people always seem to love us.

Dirk: Make love, not war!

Henjo: Yeah!