|
|
|
Interview with Jens Ludwig of Edguy
February 1, 2006 By: James Young
|
|
|
On a current World Tour and with new album ‘Rocket Ride’ recently released, the sky is literally the limit for German power metallers Edguy. A few hours before the Newcastle show, I was fortunate enough to leave the freezing weather behind for a short while as I chatted to guitarist Jens on the tourbus about everything from Dragonforce to Disney…
Thanks for agreeing to do this for Live4Metal. How’s the tour going?
So far, pretty well. Dragonforce are pretty well known here in the UK so all the places have been almost sold out so far and we have got a very good response from the crowds so far. It’s a good chance for us to present our music to a lot of English heavy metal fans which is quite good. Of course, because we are supporting, we have much less space on stage which makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable but we try to make the best of it and hope that people like it.
What kind of time slots are you getting?
Forty-five minutes. Better than fifteen minutes which Sabaton are allowed to play.
Later on in the tour, I’ve noticed that headline and support slots switch and Edguy become the headliners. Why is this?
Because Dragonforce are better known in England than we are and we wouldn’t play that many shows if we were playing on our own here. In Europe it is the other way around because we can pull more people with an average attendance of between one and two thousand people. When they asked us if we wanted to join them on the UK tour it was a great opportunity. Actually I’m looking forward to the rest of Europe because we’ll have our big stage setting, big production and all that stuff. This is a kind of warm-up for us.
Are there any tour stories yet that we must know?
Actually, not yet. We had a little party the second night – a little hard party. Apart from that, everything’s running smoothly, except sometimes it’s really uncomfortable playing with less space.
What’s the response been like to your new album ‘Rocket Ride’?
Pretty good. I’m really surprised because it’s a little different to Hellfire Club and of course there are always some moaners that say that the old stuff’s better and all that shit, but overall the reaction’s been quite positive. We entered at number eight in the German album chart which is very good so I think the people like it. There are already places sold out in Europe for the tour so everything looks pretty great.
You say it’s ‘different’, in what way?
It’s just the next step I would say. One of the biggest differences compared to the last album is the way of production. It was the first time we have worked with an external producer, Sascha Paeth. Due to that we changed the place where we recorded and mixed the album. Also due to Sascha we changed the way of recording. The first change was that we recorded the basic tracks of the album live. That means drums, bass guitar and rhythm guitars all together in one room – like playing in the rehearsing room which gives a great live feeling. Besides that, we recorded on analogue tapes again, not to make it vintage, but to give a warm edge to the sound. I think it sounds much better than if you only do it on digital and makes me proud a little bit because not many bands nowadays are able to go into the studio and record songs live in one room which shows that we seem to know how to play our instruments! [Laughs]
Do you personally have a favourite song on the album?
Yes – it changes from time to time! During the recording process you listen to some songs hundreds of times but my personal favourite would be ‘Sacrifice’ I think, because it’s got all the elements that feature on the album.
|
| |
|
 |
| |
Will the set-list for the current World Tour be based mainly on the new album or will there be any of the old material to please the ‘moaners’ as you put it?
Of course we will play some older stuff. The more albums you release, the more difficult it is to make the set-list. Of course we’re on the road to promote the Rocket Ride album. That’s why we’ll have maybe five songs from the new record and the rest is going to be a mixture of old records but it’s hard to please everybody. There will always be people after the show asking ‘Why didn’t you play this song instead of this one?’, so we try to make a good mixture and make a smooth set-list with fast and slow songs and a ballad of course. But not here in England because it’s only forty-five minutes.
No ballad?! [stares in horror]
No. No ballad! [Laughs]
Comedy has always been an important element with Edguy. What comes first, the sense of humour or the music?
The music I think. It really depends. Tobias [Sammet – vocals, song-writer] says that song-writing’s like writing a diary, and we really enjoy what we are doing. We enjoy playing the music, going on the road and being in the studio and we have a lot of fun when we are together and we don’t want to hide this. And if we have a stupid idea, it’s part of our characters and personalities and we put that to the music and as I said, it’s like writing a diary – nobody’s always serious or always funny, so whatever comes to your mind you have to capture and that’s what we’re doing.
Trinidad springs to mind…
That’s totally a fun track.
Have you ever considered writing a soundtrack to a Disney film?
Er…no! [Laughs] When you are writing a soundtrack you always have to follow a certain theme or topic so when Tobias came up with Trinidad it was totally out of any theme and that’s why it’s good.
Helloween have that same kind of comedy edge. Are they an inspiration for you?
I think they were definitely when we started as a band fourteen years ago – there was a lot of Helloween influence. But I think as time goes by we developed our own style so nowadays Helloween is not really a big inspiration anymore. It was at the beginning, but now a lot of the band listen to seventies rock like Deep Purple and Rainbow. We like modern music as well. Anything that you listen to can influence you in a certain way.
|
| |
|
 |
| |
|
Are you still essentially a power metal band?
I would call ourselves a rock ‘n’ roll heavy metal band because it’s really difficult. I don’t get all these descriptions – there’s power metal, speed power metal, melodic speed metal, epic Hollywood metal [Laughs]; there are millions of descriptions for bands so we just say ‘okay, we’re a rock ‘n’ roll band’ and we can do whatever we want.
On the Superheroes EP, you worked with Michael Kiske on the track ‘Judas at the Opera’. What was that like?
Actually I never met him. It was just that Tobias asked him if he wanted to participate in the song because we thought Michael’s voice would fit perfectly to this kind of music, and he agreed because he liked the lyrics and the song so much. So we sent him the material, he recorded it at his house and sent it back to us. He did the same with all the EPs Tobias is doing so none of the band ever met him personally.
You chose to put that song on the EP and not the album. Was there a reason for this?
The songs were done first! [Laughs] Superheroes was always going to be on the EP and we just wanted to make it a good mixture of tracks like you do in a set-list. Usually we do not write B-side songs – all the songs are written for the album. It was only due to the fact that we had written so much material, and we had done it previously for the King Of Fools EP; we sold the EP for the price of a single and the fans liked it and since we had enough we said ‘let’s do it again’. It’s a value-for-money thing, especially nowadays with all these illegal downloads. We think that good quality and value for money is the best copy protection you can have!
Now it’s a bit early to ask, but do you have any plans for a further headlining tour of the UK later this year?
This year would be great; I really don’t know. It looks like the people like the music and if they write that on message-boards maybe the promoters will bring us headlining here. I would play immediately here again but so far there are no plans. Maybe we’ll play at Bloodstock Open Air. We met the promoter a couple of days ago but there is nothing confirmed yet but there are plans.
And perhaps another EP or album?
We just released the album! [Laughs] No, I think we’re busy the whole year touring. The first leg of the European Tour ends in the beginning of March. Then we have a week break where we go over to Asia until the end of March. And I think during the year we’ll play in the States again, and some shows in South America, Russia, Greece and all over the world again. I guess this year we’ll be quite busy with touring but after that we’ll sit down to arrange some new songs again!
Thanks for your time. Finally, do you have any words for the readers of Live4Metal?
Yes – always wash your hands after you’ve been to the toilet. Thanks for the support so far and go out, buy our records, buy our t-shirts, make us filthy rich and hopefully we can come back here as a headliner soon!
www.edguy.nu
|
|
|
