Markus Grosskopf
Helloween
•
June 17, 2021
![HELLOWEEN's Markus Grosskopf: "It gives you a real](https://metal-temple.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2021-Helloween-Interview.webp)
Markus Grosskopf – That must have been on the "Hell On Wheels" Tour or something.
MG – Yeah, could well be, the one tour was called the "Hell On Wheels" Tour.
MG – Was that with ARMORED SAINT or GRIM REAPER?
MG – I can't remember the name (of the venues), but I remember the tour. (Laughs)
MG – Alright! That was a couple of years ago, about two and a half years ago.
MG – Yes, that was nice. That's where we decided it was working very well. Understanding is great, we could back into the studio and work on some cool stuff.
MG – It's like you need traffic lights on stage sometimes (laughs). You got to get used to it because there are two more people running around, and then you got to be a little bit more careful, but then we had bigger stages, so it kind of evened out.
MG – (Laughs) Yes, I liked it and it came across very, very good. There was so much energy from the people, you know? It was amazing.
MG – It has been a very, very big surprise to me as well because we started jamming in the studio for a month, getting the songs together, getting the arrangements together and trying to put it all down, but then this horrible virus came and kind of split it all up. You know, we weren't allowed to go into the studio with like 10 people anymore and stuff like this. But then we separated it to each other and some people were working over there and I was working in Hamburg (Germany). Some people were working in Berlin, so we were kind of sending files back and forth, working in different studios, which we have done before. It was working so it's nothing new for us., but this way, I was not involved in the decision which singer is going to sing what part and all that, you know? Listening to the record for the very, very first time to me, was like "Wow", a very big surprise. Like you just heard it for the first time, Because I wasn't there when they made the decisions who is going to sing what part and all that stuff. To me it was like, "Great"
MG – I mean, just like musically, I have to admit I'm not through with all of the lyrics at the moment. I'm still finding something here or there, and with the music, it was just like we're having a lot of song writers in the band, and also a lot of song writers from the time we started doing music, you know. Like Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske, and you know, it's just kind of like going back to where we once came from, stuff like that. Also, stuff from the present time. Right now, because the sound is a bit more modern, the sound is really solid. There is Sascha (Gerstner) doing his thing, writing progressive kind of stuff in between, which is very good with many, many song writers, and so I see the album as like, it has something at least from the beginning, from the start, from the past, through the past and into the future. That's the way I see it, because there's a lot more ideas to come, because there are so many song writers. We couldn't really record all the ideas we had, because it was just simply too many. So, I see it as a bridge from the past to the present and the present to the future.
MG – Yeah, we kind of really, really strong, you know. When the idea first came up about a reunion without letting the other two guys (Sascha and Andi) that were in the band go, that was the most fantastic idea ever, because why change a very good guitar player and singer for another very good guitar player and singer? It would have been very stupid, but that gave us all strength. It made us even stronger just to keep the two guys and extend the whole thing with two old, new members, or new, old members, whatever you like to say. It gives you a big strength live, you can share the vocals live, and even having Kai Hansen being there and still singing and playing guitar, it you really, really strong. It gives you a real, real strong feeling, that all about it, and that makes the feeling "Indestructible". And right after I finished that lyric, that fucking virus came along, you know (laughs).
MG – But, even the pandemic couldn't kill HELLOWEEN. We're back (laughs)!
MG – Alright! Thank you! It's been so much fun in the studio, writing it and composing it and arranging the whole thing. It was actually a very intense process, because in the studio, you have that more creative part of the arranging and composing, you have two more people coming in and it's a total process than you had before, because there's two more guys coming out with loads of ideas that you have to check out, so your head is exploding from the beginning (laughs), but after all of it, listening to the album, each and every second was worth it, you know.
MG – (laughs) Thank you! I mean, it makes you proud, of course, and it gives you the strength if you get that feedback, you definitely know you are on the right track, and that gives you the power to carry on like this, the power to go in this direction even more. And now we've created something more. There's a couple of anthems on this record, you know, just extended with different voices. Those voices combined, it's even stronger than doing it with only one singer. It's very, very nice, it feels very fine… it just feels right.
MG – It's funny, because we didn't really plan to do something like this direction, we didn't have a direction in our head. We thought, let's start with getting some cool tracks together, see how that sounds if we're going to play it together, and then Kai came up with that epic song, you know. We didn't really plan on doing something like this, but he had all these cool ideas, and we thought "all right", this is cool enough to be on a HELLOWEEN album. Why not give it another shot? And then Michi (Michael Kiske) comes up with all that anthem stuff, and it fits. You have loads of songwriters, and you have a big variety of song material on one record, glued together by the sound, glued together by those voices. It wasn't planned to sound like this, but it came out like this, and it has its' own life in a way.
MG – Yeah, and we have so many songs like this, I tell you what, it's not going to be easy to choose which songs go into a live set. There's going to be some discussions we'll have in the future. Of course, we're going to try some of it, but you cannot make one hour of the show only four songs or something like that. It's not easy to choose from, but in the end, that's a luxury problem we have. Having all this stuff makes us sitting down together a tough discussion about what we are going to play and what is best for the show. But on the other hand, if you're talking about the future, hopefully, there's more shows and more tours to come, where we can change the setlist all the time.
MG – Next time, I don't think we are going to try to do the three hours or something. It's cool and we've done it for the first time being back, but we also had those little movies in between, and we had that very, very emotional Ingo/Dani drum battle in there, you know. That also ate up time, but then, this time, we're thinking about a package with another cool band called HAMMERFALL, because they were out there and we decided to do this tour together, and they are not just a support act. We give them one hour and fifteen minutes stage time, and that makes them a very special guest. And then you have a HELLOWEEN show for like two hours and fifteen minutes or something, but you don't have all that movie stuff. We just thought it was a cool package, we wanted to give the people a real cool package this time. A real cool Heavy Metal/Power Metal package, and therefore I think this HELLOWEEN/HAMMERFALL package is very nice.
MG – All of this because of that cruel pandemic.
MG – Yeah, well, we got over it. You can't get rid of HELLOWEEN. Even that pandemic can't kill heavy metal or rock n roll.
MG – It's not going to be easy. We re-booked the whole tour three times. When management gets bored, they take the whole tour and re-book it (laughs), but I think it's not going to be easy going out there. There's going to be many, many shows starting at the same time. We will see who's going to survive it, but we are trying to give our best and we thought the package with HAMMERFALL is a very, very cool package for the kids (fans) to come and visit the show, because I think everyone just goes out at the same time.
MG – They're all coming at you (laughs).
MG – I hope we're going to do that tour in North America, too. We just can't wait to go out there. It's just been a very, very long time not touring. Actually, I would be on tour now somewhere in the world touring and doing what we do best, but we have to wait a little longer. Maybe the people are getting hotter since they didn't see a show for like almost two years. Maybe you will explode.
MG – Yeah, I know what you mean, it's always like we were hooking up when there was a live show coming to town. Hooking up with friends, drinking a couple of beers, listening to the albums from the band we were going to, you know, and warming up and going to that very show. I miss that of course.
MG – (laughs) I was talking about me (going to a concert).
MG – Yeah, and that never really changes. The whole business changes and the media changes a lot, the technique changes a lot, but that very moment on stage, that is never changing, and that's very, very good. It's kind of the same, you know, although there's a lot of new technology involved like in-ear systems, but still, there's the audience reacting at that very second, It's as emotional as 40 years ago, and that's good. I like that a lot.
MG – (laughs) There you go.
MG – Thank you! I mean if Michi writes some of his material, he also wants it to be very interesting, as interesting as it can be. That's also because we wanted to stick out a bit from the masses, doing straight-forward music that has been there forever, for all time. Which is cool. I really do love music from JUDAS PRIEST and AC/DC and stuff like this, it's there and it's standing and it's really cool, but we wanted to make it very different, so we started fooling around with all that, you know, trying to make a heavy metal circus, trying to get new ideas into our music. Also, we love it and just want to stick out a little more from the masses. That's what we were trying to do to make it as interesting as can be. We needed our arrangements to be different and that is what we were trying, and it's working! The whole concept is kind of working. I like it a lot. I can remember listening to the very first IRON MAIDEN album, and I was falling off my chair listening to it for the very first time.
MG – Yeah, he's great. It's not trying to copy; it's trying to make things interesting.
MG – And I like it, it's very different from what you can hear. It's just the way we do it. And if you have ideas, or melodies or riffs being played by HELLOWEEN, at the end of the day it, it probably sounds like a HELLOWEEN track because we're so into that looking for a little extra bit, you know.
MG – (laughs) That was like Michi's first song where he told me, "Come on, let's create something really cool on the bass lines", and stuff like this. And I kind of like it, you know.
MG – It makes a big variety of very different feelings and different emotions on the record, because there are a lot of different song writers on the album and they are all coming from a different background. And all of that combined together is kind of interesting. I actually started off doing punk music and then going into heavy metal, and now still celebrating the rock n roll. And if Michi writes a song, it's most of the time more of an anthem and stuff like this. You have the progressive side and straight-ahead stuff from Andi and it still all fits together, being played by HELLOWEEN.
MG – (laughs) Thank you. I was amazed when I heard it for the very first time, and there's still so much you didn't hear. Every time you listen to it, you hear something different still.
MG – Yeah, nice. I like it a lot.
MG – My pleasure.
MG – All right, see you there, hopefully. North America is on the list now, we're going to be there, definitely.
MG – All right, my pleasure. Cheers!
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