Fine thanks, though I am not a fan of the winter. I am more of a summer man. I prefer sweating my ass off...

Yes, of course. You have good food, beautiful women. Lots of metalheads down there [in Greece]. What more can a simple man want from life? And you have the Acropolis too. When will they fix this thing again? (Laughs)

How should I know? (Laughs) You should ask the ministry of tourism for such things! So, you already have a new EP out on the market. Why did you decide to release another EP?

Why not? (Laughs) Well, as with the King Of Fools EP, the fans really respected that. I mean it was not one of those rip-off releases with one song and five live songs or something. We don't actually make any money out of this since it is an EP and it is sold for the price of a single. Once you reach a level of success you have to release a single prior to the album. Something like a forerunner.

So, since the label [Nuclear Blast Records] wanted a single and we had a lot of material, we decided to do it the Edguy way. We decided to treat it like a full album. Ok, it's a bit stupid since no one makes any money out of such releases but it is a really good gift to the fans. Fans always remember such things. This EP comes off four and a half months before the album. The fans rewarded it since we entered the Swedish single chart in position No. 10 and in Germany in No. 25!

Yes and I don't want to brag but this was a very hard week since the new Helloween single came out and got in No. 16. The fans rewarded us. It was the right thing to be done.

Yeah, we tried to send a message out to the world... that we fuck like animals. (Laughs)

Yeah! (Laughs) We fuck like rabbits. We don't wanna get any message out to the people, we only like to entertain them. There are many bands doing this. I don't want to make statements about the war in Iraq or something, I leave that to George Bush. (Laughs) I can't do that. I only like to speak about the things I have in mind and hope that touch other people too. We had a good time recording it and playing it and if it makes other people smile and laugh then I know that I have succeeded in my goal. We don't want to improve the world. It's a really funny video, a parody of all those Hip Hop gangsta videos with all the booty and the huge cars.

Yeah so, serious videos where a guy sings about I am the best, I'm gonna fuck them all and I have a big car, and I gonna fuck my car and generally you get the picture. (Laughs) Fuck that shit! We are real superheroes, so we don't wait for ladies to come to us - we go and grab them and bring them to our planet and... oh you know what comes next.

I can assure everyone that Michael Kiske was not harmed during the recordings of this EP (Laughs). Wait a second [he talks on his cell phone with someone]... sorry, where was I? I just asked him. Lots of people might find it suspicious that Michael worked in a Heavy Metal album. I think this song brings in mind the material from Avantasia and Michael's voice fits like a glove on such things. Also this was an EP, there was no competition or something with other bands. We asked him, he liked the song and he did it. He was fine with it.

I'm so happy being myself so to be honest I don't know what super powers I would like to have. I would like to have a really stupid super power - something like Bicycle Repair Man(Laughs) (trivia: Bicycle Repair Man is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. In that episode we see the world being inhabited by supermen. Everyone is a superman! But when a bicycle brakes down, it is time for... Bicycle Repair Man to come to the rescue. You have to see it in order to believe it).

That was really cool. I just bought the DVD. I really don't know. it will be something really stupid. I would probably like to have the power to do stupid things all around the world at the same time. To do shit all day long. That would be nice...

First of all Pink Cream 69 is a cool band. Definitely, I agree. I hate these moaners as I call them. They're all saying earth is such a bad place to be - take a spaceship and go live on the moon. We are happy where we are. I don't like this shit. I like this world, it's very colorful and joyful. I live in a little Tobias world. I don't live on a pile of money.

Ok, I have a little pile of money. I guess it's a start. Life is beautiful. I laugh as much as I can. I don't like people saying life's so shitty. I don't like going to a show and seeing a guy painted white singing we will love each other in death, I am not into this necromancy shit (Laughs). That really doesn't make any sense to me.

When we do a concert, people come to have a great time. They give us their money and we play for two hours trying to entertain them, make them have a good time. People come to see you, not to make them depressive. Why do these bands complain all the time? They shouldn't, they make good money out of this. It's posing, they pretend being something they are not. People should enjoy it.

I have spoken with Bruce Dickinson about such things. You know, Iron Maiden have played in places where people are really poor and they save money for three months just to go to the their show. Nobody forces them to go and Bruce told me it was their obligation to make them have a great time. By the way Bruce makes a lot more money than I do (Laughs).

You've mentioned that the new Edguy album is coming out soon. What can you tell us about it?

The album is called Rocket Ride. Most of the songs are ready and recorded. We just interrupted the recordings for an American tour with Hammerfall. 85% is done, it will be ready by the end of January. I think it has a very fine title, lots of diversity in the songs. We have some really heavy tracks, it is very colorful. If you liked the Hellfire Club album, you won't be disappointed by the new one. We change our music all the time but not too much. It keeps the interest high.

First of all I would like to say that there was no chance in discovering such a thing since I don't watch such movies (Laughs). I guess I would be more surprised if I discovered myself playing in such a movie. It would be a compliment I guess.

I don't know. I've been doing this all my life and I can't think of anything else. Maybe a Metal journalist or something. But seriously Edguy is my life. We founded the band when I was 20 years old.

I want a Ferrari and some golden records on my wall. Maybe a Hip Hop album too (Laughs). I really appreciate the fact that our music is being heard all around the world. You know, there are bands here in Germany that have sold more than 100,000 records within the country, but nobody knows them outside. For me that doesn't mean a thing. I would like to have a No. 1 hit in America.

Younger than me? (Laughs) Make sure that what you do you enjoy doing it. No one has been successful in something he doesn't really like. Try to be original but such things can't be forced out of you easily. Take your time and build a name.

Buy the EP because I need the Ferrari (Laughs). I hope you like the EP and I am pretty sure you will enjoy the album as well. We can't wait to hit the road once again and meet you.