Markus Grosskopf Interview: 3-12-99

This interview with Markus was pretty cool and I especially liked it because he was a nice guy and Markus interviews are rare....maybe they won't be as much anymore since his solo album Shock Machine is out now. Enjoy the interview!

Tony Webster: So what's the band up to?

Markus Well we are just about to start recording an album of covers. Some late 60s and early to mid 70s tracks, something like that. Just the stuff we grew up and listened to back then in bars and when we were a lot younger.

Tony Webster: So what songs are you covering?

Markus We are doing some Alex Harvey, an Abba track, some Beatles songs, Frank Marino......just some straight shooting songs. We have recorded 13 tracks already and they are doing the guitars now and the bass and drums are ready.

Tony Webster: So when is your side project going to be out?

Markus Oh it is coming out next week in Japan! Yup, first they bring it out in Japan and then we try and get a deal in Europe and America I hope.

Tony Webster: You guys did a cover of Ozzy¹s Steal Away The Night as a bonus track for your side project Shockmachine....why did you pick that song?

Markus Yeah this is just a song we felt would be fun to do and we needed a couple bonus tracks for Japan and doing one original song and one cover seemed the best. Remember this album is just for a quick hello and for in between since the next regular Helloween album comes out probably in 2000 sometime! We go in the studio for it around fall or winter and it takes awhile to record it then produce it, then promote it, and release it, and well I felt like it would be cool to have something in between ya know? It wont be supported by any tour or anything like this, its just a quick hello in between that we recorded ourselves in our home studios and it was just something in between you know?

Tony Webster: What did you write the b-side song Shit and Lobster about?

Markus Oh its got many themes in that song. You know some people are unfortunate and get shit all their life like not enough food, or enough of anything and some get everything and some of the people who get everything do not appreciate it you know? Its a little bit about that and a little bit about the man who told the people the truth and never harmed anyone but they still wanted to hang him on the cross you know and stuff like this done in a funny way. Sometimes you realize some people have to realize that they cannot eat a gun and stuff like this instead of wasting all their money to get more tanks and stuff while people are still starving.

Tony Webster: So how did you like playing in the USA for the first time in close to 10 years?

Markus Yes well I mean this was great we did not know what to expect when we came there back in 1987, we played in Washington DC and its all pretty big and we had this bus driver dressed totally in leather, he was a big fat guy. The distances were very great compared to Europe so we had to get used to this. When we came their first all this LA kind of hype and music was still going on, it was something different , it was rock n roll. That last show in New York had like a few hundred people in there and well they overfilled the place too. It was a great gig and great to know we still have fans in the USA.

Tony Webster: Did you guys get the equipment back from Brazil yet?

Markus No not really, its stuck in some damn border in Rio, and I hope I get it back soon for the next Helloween album!

Tony Webster: What kind of equipment do you like to use?

Markus Well I like Ampegs, and sometimes I use a little distortion pedal and that's basically it. I use Fender precision bass guitars and sometimes a Fender Jazz guitar which are very good bass guitars. Then I have a custom bass built by a guy in Hamburg, this is a special custom one in a Fender telecaster shape. I use this stuff live and in studio.

Tony Webster: So how has Better Than Raw done so far?

Markus We still sell the best in Japan, we went gold there by selling over 200,000 copies, maybe hard to say around 80,000 to 100,000 in Germany. Maybe another 100 to 200,000 in the rest of Europe. Its hard to say because we have different record companies in each country but its probably about what I just told you.

Tony Webster: You have not really written too much with Helloween except a song here and there and some b-sides and on this last album you did write a song, how did you come about doing that?

Markus Well I always write my songs and I just have these ideas and I play them to the guys and if you listen to them somehow well, it wont fit on a Helloween record so very often they end up as a b-side. I will never say that just because I am writing a song it has to be on the record, so I do not have a problem when a song turns out to be a b-side and this is the great thing about Helloween because we all have the freedom to do other things besides Helloween. Just like my Shockmachine album so we do not have to fight for tracks on the Helloween albums themselves and we can do our own thing as long as Helloween is still our priority. That's what I think too, it is very important for us to be able to do things besides Helloween because all of us are writing songs and you cannot put 5 songs from each member on an album, they would all never fit so we decided to do side projects. Just like Andi has his solo stuff, Uli has his Rainbow tribute album and Roland has a solo band as well.

Tony Webster: Now I have heard about the Michael Kiske situation from everyone else but I never heard you say anything about it, what happened with him?

Markus This is a long story so I can make it short. He is a strong character and he would not make any compromises and in the end we had loads of fights and discussions about little things and when you talk about things they get worse and worse and we could not go any further. You could not record any tracks, you just sit there discussing and arguing and fighting and stuff like that. He wanted to go a totally different direction anyway. If you listen to his last record or something he goes into this direction. he is going into the Chameleon direction with his solo stuff, it does not sound like it but that is the best thing to compare it to. We wanted to do more heavy stuff so we needed to make a change.

Tony Webster: Do you ever see him?

Markus Well we are not hanging on the phone talking to each other. I saw him just once and we had just some small talk, I was asking him what he was doing and he was asking me what I was doing, its not that we are beating each other but but we do not have a big friendship but I do wish him the best and he is a very good singer. 

Tony Webster: What do you think of the Maiden reunion and their three guitar lineup? 

Markus Well I think it is kind of funny, and I always liked Bruce I mean everyone liked Bruce and now they have Adrian back too for the next album and tour which is good.

Tony Webster: Where did you get a lot of the people you played with on your Shockmachine album?

Markus Well we have played together for over 10 years now and remember this break we had after Keeper 2 and the whole Noise situation? I just decided to make a band with a couple of friends and we played gigs and I did this so I would not get rusty or something like that. These songs on this album are the result of it and we wrote some tracks together to play live and the result of it is this Shockmachine album now. I always had it in my mind to go ahead with this thing when there was time and now I have it released soon!

Tony Webster: Speaking of the whole Noise situation, what happened with it?

Markus I don't know, it was about money of course. We never got the money we actually deserved or earned. Then suddenly we ended up in court and I do not think it was too much fun. Its a long long story. The situation was that everyone made money off of us and we got nothing.

Tony Webster: The video for Where The Rain Grows.....what was it about?

Markus I don't know, I think he came from where the rain grows hahahahaha. No it was a story from the producer of the video and actually none of us have any clue what that story was.

Tony Webster: Do you think you will play any shows in the states sometime?

Markus Well we would like to but we have to sell a few more records over there. To come over there it costs a lot of money and it all costs the same whether we play to 300 people or 50,000. It costs money for the roadies, to rent equipment, and trucks to carry it and to fly it over and our equipment could end up like the stuff we have stuck in Brazil right now! hahahaha Well it is all a question of people promoting us over there and for a promoter who is willing to bring us over there. It costs a lot of money and if we come over there we do not want to stay there for a week or something when we tour America
we are talking a month or two. I hope for the next record we get a little more support and it sells more. I would love to come over to the USA and tour for the next album, maybe try to get on a bill with Ozzy or someone cool like that!

Tony Webster: What is you opinion on the metal scene?

Markus Well I think the direction is going back to the traditional metal, at least over here where we have new bands like Hammerfall and Stratovarius and they are all selling pretty good and have good responses from magazines and people. Its going back to the more traditional way of metal Then on the other side you have Rammstein who just toured America and we have thousands of copies of this band as well. Its not really metal but more modern type of stuff really.

Tony Webster: How did you come up with the name Helloween?

Markus Well we needed a name and Ingo came up with it because he was inspired by the movie Halloween and we needed a proper name.

Tony Webster: How did you find Michael Kiske?

Markus Well he was going to this school nearby and I dropped in to hear him sing because at that time we needed a singer. Well I got his number and Weiki also got his number and called him but Michael never called back because he did not like really like the old Helloween but Weiki talked to him and then we had some auditions and then came Keeper part 1!

Tony Webster: After Kiske was out of the band how much better did things get when Andi and Uli came into the picture?

MarkusWell we were still confused by the past when Andi and Uli came in and it is sometimes hard to find the real way. They were two fresh people who were not so close to all of these problems we had at the time. They knew what to do and we went into the rehearsal room and it went great!

Tony Webster: What are some bands you are listening to now and what bands influenced you a lot? 

Markus Well I listen to Dream Theater and I really like Bad Religion a lot too, this is because I came from the punk scene once years ago and was in a punk band one time. Well the hard rock from the 70s like Deep Purple, Rainbow, UFO, and sometimes I listen to Blues as well. Thin Lizzy is my favorite band ever!

Tony Webster: You have not seen any camels lately in the winter have you?

Markus Ahhhh hahahahaha that's the story Weiki told you huh?!

Tony Webster: No Andi told me!

Markus Ahhh right hahahahahahaha well I was just thinking I cannot tell the other guys about that because they may think I am crazy!

Tony Webster: Now you are not on the internet right?

Markus No not really, i just have my music system on my computer and that's it!.

Tony Webster: It can be addicting sometimes....

Markus Yes I know because I see Weiki on there constantly and when he is not on the internet he tries to make a 3D image of his rubber duck or something hahahahahaha!

Tony Webster: Now why did you want to play bass?

Markus Well one day there was two guys in that punk band and they did not want to play bass and I was a lousy bassist at the time but they did not have a bass player and at this time I was singing too and it sounded even worse! hahahaha!

Tony Webster: So what does your solo project sound like compared to Helloween?

Markus Its a bit more straight ahead you know? No huge arrangements but more simple straight ahead hard rock. Not too many twin solos, no big orchestral arrangements. Just basic heavy rock.

Tony Webster: So who did the cover of the project?

Markus Oh!!! Henjo Richter from Gamma Ray did it, It was kind of therapy for him, I told him the name and he did what shocks him! hahahaha I think its pretty good.


Markus Grosskopf interview: 3-30-2000

This interview I did with Markus at 6am my time!!! Hahahahahaha well it was fun, I was half asleep but I still had to remember what to ask him and well, I did remember what to ask and this is an informative interview! Check it out as it gives yet more
information on the next upcoming Helloween album and tour!!!

Tony Webster: So what kind of songs did you write yourself for the next album.

Markus Grosskopf Well I ended up writing some Helloweenish type stuff like I have a couple of fast songs and I wrote a slower song that sounds very doomy in a way, almost sort of like a deep key, like a deep C, its a very down tuned song. I also wrote one ballad but I think we have enough ballads for the album. We have one good ballad from Uli. So far I have one track for the next album. 

Tony Webster: So, is this album do you think going to differ from Better Than Raw? Also who is producing it?

Markus Grosskopf Well yeah, I mean we always have like 5 or 6 tracks that many people would expect from Helloween. Like the typical twin guitar stuff, big choirs, huge chorus stuff and very big stuff like this. We also like to fool around and do some different stuff like we always have, messing around with different rhythms and stuff like this, to make it a bit more different to the other stuff, because we don't want to have a record from top to bottom sounding the same you know? So we fool around with different guitar stuff and different rhythms and stuff like this. Right now we have Roy Z here and he has different ideas for stuff than what we have, and I think its turning out so far very good. We have been with Roy now for a week and a half now helping us out and before that we did some pre-arranging of songs and he came in and kind of re-arranged some of the pre-arrangements. Roy is mainly helping produce the album, all of the songs and song ideas we wrote ourselves but he is helping to arrange the stuff with us. Its a different way of working because we have someone sitting there and he can have ideas and throw them in to help us. Its healthy for the whole process I think! Roy Z is more or less helping with the creative side, like he is helping to arrange stuff, giving us his opinion on what parts will fit what songs you know? Roy is doing some producing as well but we also have Charlie Bauerfeind and he is very good with the pro tools system that we have and familiar with all that technical stuff. He isn't just an engineer but he does more technical parts of the production plus we need two people, one for the day and one for the night because all of us have different time schedules and work better at different times of the day. Weiki and Andi like to record stuff later in the day or night. They both like to start around 6 or 7 O'clock. Roland, Uli and I like to work during the day mostly. Its a good way to work actually because its not stressful at all. 

Tony Webster: So find a title or concept for the album?

Markus Grosskopf Well we are still arranging right now and we keep changing the lyrics to the songs so we have not come up with a title yet for the next album and we do not have definite song names yet. We are still thinking about it. 

Tony Webster: Do you guys plan on having Rainer Laws draw the next cover?

Markus Grosskopf We haven't spoken to him yet and it all depends you know? Like it depends on what the concept of the album will be, what the title is, what we think will fit the next album. This is something we are not into much, we are into song arranging and when its done then we will think about the album cover process because your head is clear after recording and arranging is done.

Tony Webster: So any future plans for Shockmachine ?

Markus Grosskopf I don't really know, right now my head is full of Helloween! hahahahaha! I mean after this album we gotta start a tour, some festivals, some headline shows in Europe. Hopefully we will come to America as well, and we will visit Japan, Brazil, Europe, etc. This could last about a year and there probably may be another Helloween record to be done after tour so Shockmachine may not have another album for a few years, although I am still keeping this project going. I don't wanna mess it up too much really and if there is no time to do a Shockmachine album because of Helloween doing something right after the tour, then Helloween is the priority and I don't wanna rush a Shockmachine album anyway.

Tony Webster: So how did Metal Jukebox do?

Markus Grosskopf Metal Jukebox was weird. This album was more or less us having fun and messing around. I thought it turned out well although it was somewhere in the middle, because basically it was an album done in between albums for our 15th anniversary and many people are more interested in the next Helloween album of original material anyway. It wasn't meant to be the next big Helloween album and they wanted us to tour for this Metal Jukebox record but we did it mainly for fun and it wasn't all that serious, plus we want to get another album of our own material out anyway so we decided not to tour for it. 

Tony Webster: Have you ever thought of playing Metal Jukebox songs live?

Markus Grosskopf Well not really, I mean we have like 10 records out and selecting material from them is difficult because there are so many good songs on them. We will probably play some older Helloween songs we haven't played in awhile to freshen up the set a little bit instead of playing songs off of Metal Jukebox.

Tony Webster: Many people are emailing me asking me why Helloween doesn't play a full set.

Markus Grosskopf Well for the next tour we will be playing probably 1 and a half ours plus a 15 minute encore when we headline. We will talk about this when we start touring for real.

Tony Webster: Now you play in a blues band called Blues Control, how did you get into this?

Markus Grosskopf Well it is something I formed and that I do for fun, you know when I have time off from touring and such, myself a guitarist who sings and a drummer play in small clubs playing blues music. Its just something we do for fun here and there when we have free time. We do it for the hell of it! hahahaha.

Tony Webster: When do you guys plan on going on tour?

Markus Grosskopf We hope to play around June or July after we finish the record, like the Bang Your Head festival. We are planning the tour right now so of course you will be informed of our tour dates. We will also be doing a good amount of headlining shows. If we come to America we will probably open up for a bigger band because we have not been there in such a long time to do a full tour so we want to reach as many people as possible and if we get a nice package together or something then we will reach more people and maybe get more fans in the USA, but opening up for a band we usually can't play more than one hour.

Tony Webster: A lot of people email me asking about your b-side tracks from singles and bonus tracks.....have you ever thought of releasing any of these b-sides all on a CD?

Markus Grosskopf We have had an idea for years to release a sort of best-of album called "As and Bs" which would have all of the tracks we released on singles and all of the b-sides as well but this will be on hold for now because we just released Metal Jukebox and I do not think its good to release that and then release another album with stuff we already put out before. This type of thing would be best released after the next Helloween album or the album after it.

Tony Webster: Of all the Metal Jukebox songs, which was the most fun for you to play?

Markus Grosskopf I would pick Space Oddity because it was all jazzy and stuff and we did some different things in it and this made it really really fun to play actually, and well the Beatles tracks were fun too! The whole album was a lot of fun to do, we all recorded it in different places and we had no idea how it would sound in the end and well I think the record turned out good heheheheh. We also did this Abba track which was Weiki's idea, we had the melodies for it and we played a Helloween version of them and it was a lot of fun too!

Tony Webster: So what is your favorite part about playing live in front of a bunch of people?

Markus Grosskopf The bunch of people! hahahahaha because they are getting us up and it all comes from them and playing for people and having them raise their hands for you is great!

Tony Webster: So uhhh, how many tattoos do you have?

Markus Grosskopf Well I would say its just one big one hahahaha!, which is not finished yet! hahahahaha! They are all connected, there are single bits and pieces there but so far its all one big one. It took me some months and hours of pain......I hate the pain but I like the results of it!! You know how people collect memories from all over the world and put them in their house or a scrap book or something? Well I take all of my memories and put them on my skin so I will never forget them! hahahaha! 

Tony Webster: Well hopefully there aren't any bad memories eh?

Markus Grosskopf It depends, I mean, none of them are bad unless you tattooed your ex-girlfriend's name on there or something! hahahahaha

Tony Webster: So how is the Metal Scene now?

Markus Grosskopf Well its been going up and up!! We just signed to a label (Nuclear Blast) that has the guts to push this music up to the top again and you are beginning to see a lot of magazines around here covering this type of music. People are starting to listen to it again which is good. I just bought the new Armored Saint album and this album was great and there are a lot of good albums out there. Its like people care about it again where before, not many did care about it as much besides us and a few other bands.

Tony Webster: So when will the album be finished?

Markus Grosskopf I would say in July, but there are always delays however we are on schedule so it will be done on time and we have to be right on schedule because we will miss the festivals and stuff if we are not. 

Tony Webster: So what do you wanna say to fans on the next album?

Markus Grosskopf They will definitely be able to expect some new ideas mixed with some great Helloween type songs as well. I mean there will be tracks on it that many people would expect us to write anyway, but we like to keep our music sounding fresh so I would say there are some things they wont expect. We do this on every album.

Tony Webster: Well you guys are one of the few bands where all of the albums do not sound the same.

Markus Grosskopf Of course!! That is our goal! Its not an easy thing to do, we could easily fill albums up with typical Helloween old school songs that will sound the same but we do not like doing this, we like to do stuff different as well as stuff we have always written. Like on Better Than Raw we had really fast and heavy songs that you would expect and some songs like Time and Push which were not typical Helloween songs and some songs like Hey Lord as well, so we want to keep all of our material fresh. This is also why we do not rush our albums because we like to write a lot of material so we have a lot to choose from.

Markus Grosskopf Interview: 9-20-2000

Tony Webster: How did this album turn out and who decides what songs go on the album?

Markus Grosskopf We have like about 15 songs recorded.... We started the whole thing in Hamburg rehearsing and such and came up with like 25 or 27 tracks then we selected 15 which we would record and as you know it was planned to have two producers this time like Charlie who worked with Michael Kiske and Blind Guardian and Roy Z from the three Bruce Dickinson albums and his part was more of a creative part as he did some lyrics and some arrangements. So it started out in Hamburg in a rehearsal room and after 2 or 3 weeks we reduced the number to 16 songs and we ended up with 15 songs to record....during the process you can then determine which songs are bonus tracks for Japan and which ones will make the album and which ones will be B-Sides and stuff like this. We gave away tapes to Sanctuary and the production team has ideas....so at the end of the day we had 15 songs and we had to choose a single too and the song for it was obvious and we did the video and photo shots in Tenerife as well. it was a hard and tough decision to make in regards to what songs make the album so we gave our ideas to Sanctuary and they chose the tracks then we agreed with them.

Tony Webster: Have you guys came up with any tour plans?

Markus Grosskopf its quite weird....we are supposed to do some shows in Germany at the end of November and around Christmas time.....we actually think its good to do something like this but the final decision for the tour hasn't been decided....another idea is to start in mid-January but this time we would go out as a headliner. I heard we might go out with Stratovarius or something but they are trying to get an album done so this may not be possible....I think thats it so far.....we will start in Europe, Japan and then in South America and hopefully we can end up in America around the middle of next year sometime.....or in the 3rd quarter of the next year but its too early to say if we come and what the final plans are and if we can get a band to support so far....

Tony Webster: I don't know if anyone has told you but your B-Side has started a lot of conversation on the messageboard lately and many people like this song better than the actual single track.

Markus Grosskopf Wow!! Cool! Thats great to hear and I am actually surprised....it was close to be on the album. Its always important to have great tracks on a single too and its good to push a single with tracks that aren't on the album, because you have the single track, an extended version which isn't that different and the b-side which we put on to make the single worth buying....and it works well too!. 

Tony Webster: What was the song "Deliver Us From Temptation about?

Markus Grosskopf Well at first i came up with some lyrics which were sort of global....like the Chicken and the Yack or some weird direction...I don't know....so this was too global and Roy gave me the idea to write about life and gave me the idea of a priest under the red light.....and he threw me all these ideas so I picked this one. I made up a little story about a priest....he's horny and always going out and having sex with all these whores and then you have this kid who is around the corner from where the priest is getting hookers and he is shooting a drug dealer and then you have the question about who is going to get forgiven or not...will it be the guy who is shooting the drug dealer or will it be the drug dealer giving away drugs to people who might die from it.....it has a bunch of questions you have to answer for yourselves.....if some kid out of craziness shoots a guy like this because he got crazy about the drugs the guy was selling him.....who will be forgiven? Is it the guy with the gun or the guy who dealt him the drugs? Thats basically the whole subject in there!

Tony Webster: You played on Tobias Sammet's Metal Opera??

Markus Grosskopf I played on this yea!! We spent some days rehearsing in Hamburg in Kai Hansen's studio because its a good rehearsal place and we couldn't think of anything else to do.....and Tobias knew Kai from the tour they did together so when he was back he was trying to get this whole project together and got Henjo Richter to play the guitars then Henjo suggested I play as well since Henjo and we played in a Uriah Heep cover band called "Easy Living". So we did some rehearsals with Alex....drummer of Edguy and the basic band was Myself, Tobias, Alex and Henjo....it was fun and when we went into the studio it was seperately....because none of us had time to be in there together for a month so we went in....played our parts, and then we fucked off...hahahahaha. It was this kind of thing you know? Its different to work with Helloween because you are much more involved with it....we did some things here and there but the basic project was done by Tobias. He had the overall look done already. Its pretty good stuff and I would like to do more stuff like this. 

Tony Webster: How was it working with Roy Z and Charlie?

Markus Grosskopf I think its funny.....we had a great time you know? They are both pretty funny guys.....I would say Charlie is more the kind of guy who is the production wizard......technical things....etc. Roy's part was more on the creative side to make things more proper or different. Both of them pretty much liked working together and it was a great experience working with two guys. 

Tony Webster: How is the sound on this album?

Markus Grosskopf I think its unbelieveable...its clear yet it is dirty at the same time.....you can hear on a little shitty audio thing what's going on still and if you pump it up on a really good audio system it still sounds great! I love the production....its more modern and a bit more clearer. 

Tony Webster: What are some bass players you really like and what kind of Bass players really influenced you?

Markus Grosskopf Well when I first started out I had the first Iron Maiden album so Steve Harris was a big one for me.....Billy Sheehan was a great player......in a different way you know? On the other hand I like Geezer Butler.....he is always doing these deep dark basic bass lines and great things like this. John from the band "The Who" was a big influence as well. Geddy lee is a great bass player....Phil Lynott was good and he's not my influence on the bass playing side but he was a great songwriter and influenced me on songwriting and his songs and singing were great. Thin Lizzy if you were to ask
me what one of my favorite records is its the Live and Dangerous album.

Tony Webster: Your lineups in the past haven't stayed together all the time but this current lineup is on its fourth album now....how have you accomplished this?

Markus Grosskopf Well back in the old days as you know we had all these problems with different people doing this and that and all this record company bullshit...but this time we are older and wiser and can deal with many different situations....for example back in the old days Kai left because he didn't want to tour a lot.......and many people had too many different attitudes towards things. I always felt we should tour a lot......but now since we have the lineup now we aren't 19 and everything coming for a new record in the same direction and we know how to deal with any problems. When Roland, Andi and Uli came into the band they knew what it was all about so it was much easier to come and make the record you know? 

Tony Webster: How is your approach to making a new album different from the past?

Markus Grosskopf Its a tough question.....I mean we fit together and we have these songs and we usually have songs that don't fit the concept.....well we have 5 different people in this band so we all sit down and discuss which songs we want and which ones don't fit and you all have to explain to each other why certain ones don't fit, or because of this or that......and someone must understand we cant put 15 songs on one album. Its like the way you work or do things together you should work well and be involved and you must have respect for each other and we have a lot of fun working together. 

Tony Webster: Why did you have a different guy do the cover for the album?

Markus Grosskopf Andi and his wife have this company and a guy who works for him did the cover and helped with the video as well. I haven't seen the finished cover yet actually so I cant tell you much about it.

Tony Webster: What made you guys keep the band together through hard times?

Markus Grosskopf When you have all of these problems you cant freak out and you have to deal with it...I mean when you have fights and such and record company disputes you have to deal with it and move on. On this last production we had little arguments here and there but nothing serious because we all know how to deal with these things now and its never all sugar in the morning. We all know at the end of the day everyone's expectations and its not always easy to deal with things in an easy way and sometimes you are thinking if its going to be right or not....you know? You have to deal with it in a way that at the end you feel you did the best you can do and you did the best job you could do. This is it....you always got to try to keep things together so that
everyone is satisfied with the end product.

Tony Webster: As far as picking songs to play on tour...how do you do this?

Markus Grosskopf Well I go through each album again and listen to is and pick out which ones I think we should play live.....going through and finishing tracks we played before and tracks we haven't played before and the tracks you know people want to hear.....and what to play from the new album....the more songs we have the harder the solution. From my personal side I know what we have played a few times live and I try to find some new songs we haven't played yet on tour or songs we haven't played in awhile and songs people always want to hear, and we have to fit this all into two hours. That's how I do it and then I go and present it to the guys and they give out their ideas for songs and we decide from there.

Tony Webster Which song that you have written for Helloween has the most meaning to you?

Markus Grosskopf Well every song I wrote has a meaning for me but I like the one I just did! (deliver us from temptation) hahahaha. Well Weiki did a lot to this song....I had basic stuff but he did a lot of the leads, rhythms and stuff like this....because from, the beginning we thought we are doing an album version and Weiki made it really happen with all this guitar work on it.

Tony Webster After the tour is over do you plan on making another Shockmachine album?

Markus Grosskopf If we have time after the next tour and album.....then I will definitely....but it depends on what our schedule is and when we have to make another Helloween album and when our next tour will be.

Tony Webster So as my last question....what do you have to say to the fans about the next album?

Markus Grosskopf Well you can always expect typical Helloween stuff but we always do something different on our albums.....connecting old Helloween with new ideas and we kept it hard and in a heavy way and I don't think anyone will complain about it.....I think people will like it!

Markus Grosskopf Interview: 11-20-2001

In this interview Markus talks about the upcoming best-of album, the next album, Mark Cross, and rates bassists and singers. 

Tony Webster: So when is the best of album coming out and can you tell me a bit more about it?

Markus Grosskopf Well, we are working on it and a lot of tracks will be remixed and re-mastered by Charlie Bauerfeind. I think one older track will be sung by Andi. This will be a double album which will be out in January or the end of this year. There will be some cool artwork a nice booklet and cool stuff like that.

Tony Webster: What song are you going to re-record with Andi singing? 

Markus Grosskopf Well the original idea was to have him sing Windmill....maybe, but I am not quite sure since it was the first idea of a song for Andi to do. We will see.

Tony Webster: Will this best of album have any rare tracks/b-side tracks?

Markus Grosskopf Uhm no....we are concentrating on the album tracks. We want to wait to release the rare tracks for a b-side compilation later on.

Tony Webster: Are you writing any songs right now?

Markus Grosskopf Yes of course. I am at home right now with my computer and pro tools system writing stuff. Just the usual scenario where you are not on tour anymore and you are going home to write songs. Then we will meet again and put the stuff together and get some basic ideas. Then we will work on the solo bits and start to shape the tracks then we will choose which ideas we like. We need a little bit more time now. We actually start recording in June. We don't want to be rushed, you know?

Tony Webster: What made you guys pick Mark as your new drummer?

Markus Grosskopf Yeah....first of all we know that he is a proper drummer and that he is a very good drummer. He has the beat and the feeling for this kind of music. He will easily fit in the gap musically.....you know he was living in Hamburg for awhile then he moved to Athens and he is always coming to Germany when he does music so we knew him from hanging out and drinking beers and talking. I think he will fit in with us, its not only the fact that he plays drums well but that he is a nice guy and we wanted someone who is already connected with the Helloween family and this makes it easier for us to get along with someone because we know what he thinks and what he wants and we can have fun together. We want people who will fit into the Helloween family.

Tony Webster: How did you end up touring with Gamma Ray for 2 weeks?

Markus Grosskopf Yeah that was pretty cool. It just happened. We toured for 2 weeks in Germany. You know I just got home from this Helloween tour and its like wow I can relax a bit and get my songs done and get some sleep and I don't have to be at an airport etc. Then Kai is calling me up asking me if I would like to play on the Gamma Ray tour and I'm like "Ohhhhh another tour, just when I was all situated at home". So I told him to let me sleep on it for a day then I will give him an answer. And then I was thinking about it and I thought it was a cool idea and why not? It sounded like fun so I did it. Loads of people are expecting Kai Hansen to come back to Helloween and suddenly people are seeing me on stage with Gamma Ray and I had some wondering faces staring at me on stage. It was fun, i had to work my ass off since I had to learn an hour and a half set in one week. The best show was when Ralf Scheepers came on stage when we played with Primal Fear. It was a lot of fun.

Tony Webster: Starting out as a bass player, who were the bassists you really liked a lot?

Markus Grosskopf Well there was Steve Harris with his nasty distorted high end macho sounding bass playing. Later I started listening to Geddy Lee, Billy Sheehan, the bassist from The Who, and Geezer Butler is an awesome bassist. People like this I like a lot.

Tony Webster: How have the terrorist attacks on 9/11 affected you?

Markus Grosskopf Well I haven't been on a plane since the attacks happened but security is a lot tighter and there are more delays because of it. Its the old feeling after you saw the plane crash into the tower and then you saw the second plane crash into the other tower and you were scared because you are wondering what's going on and what is going to happen next and I was just scared and depressed since it was a strange feeling. And still....like....this Bin Laden guy he was already talking about doing some more terrorist acts and shit like this so you don't know what is coming next and its a weird
feeling. I never had a feeling like this in my lifetime so far.

Tony Webster: Are you continuing with the Shockmachine project in the future?

Markus Grosskopf I probably will but not before we finish the next album. I dont want to do a Helloween album then a Shockmachine then a Hellowen album then a Shockmachine. I'll only do one when I have enough tracks for it......I don't want to be rushed to do things. I'll think about it when there is enough time and enough material and when I have a couple of months to work easily on it. This would be after the next Helloween album or the one after. I dont know, right now what's important is the Helloween thing and if I have a chance where I have some free time then I may do another one. The next Shockmachine will be a bit more typical metal or classic styled metal if I do one.

Tony Webster: Do you have anything else you like to do besides music? Any hobbies?

Markus Grosskopf Well i like to produce some stuff, right now I am producing some stuff called kickhunter....I played the bass on it and I am helping to produce it....it isn't anything besides music but music is my entire life. I am a really good cook actually....sometimes I like to invite friends and cook some good food and drink some good wine and maybe some beers, then I sometimes forget about music while drinking beer hahahaha. Sometimes I like to go on holiday with a mountain bike. Music is my main hobby though and its my life whether its playing, recording, or touring.

Tony Webster: How did you like playing on the Avantasia album with Tobias Sammet.

Markus Grosskopf It was awesome. First of all this guy is fucking talented and he wrote 16 songs and I played on all 16. As you know a second one will be coming out in a couple of years which was already recorded. So this is a nice way to see how it can be different.....with Helloween we take a lot more time to arrange the songs.

Tony Webster: What types of songs have you been writing, is the next album going to be different than the Dark Ride?

Markus Grosskopf Its going to be more like the traditional stuff we have written before....but we don't really know yet. I haven't heard anything the other guys have written yet....when we all get together we will see what happens. This time we will not have anyone come in and arrange the songs, we would rather do it alone you know? 

Tony Webster: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being really shitty and 10 being awesome, I want you to rate the following bass players:

Markus Grosskopf 

Geezer Butler: 9 He's an awesome player Steve Harris: 10 He carried on the bass playing revolution.
Dirk Schlachter: 9 He can play many different styles which is what I like.
Phil Lynott: 7 I respect him more for his great songwriting and singing.
Jens Becker: 8 
Nikki Sixx: 6 More of a stage performer than a bassist really.
Dave Ellefson: I don't know him well enough, I'm not too into Megadeth.
Jan Eckert: 8 
Blackie Lawless (when he was a bassist): 6 
Mat Sinner: 8 He is great to watch sing and play.


Tony Webster: What are some of the favorite bands or crazy bands you have toured with?

Markus Grosskopf We did some Black Sabbath shows a couple years ago, that was a great experience. Any shows we have done with Iron Maiden. We had some tours with Vanishing Point, and they were nice guys. You meet many crazy people on tour. We toured with OverKill back in 1987, those guys were nuts. I met blitz when when we played at Wacken and he has really settled down since then. We sat down and we talked a bit and I met DD Verni and the rest of the band in South America and we had some beers. They are really cool, and we had a lot of fun back on our first tour when we played with Grave Digger, they were crazy. I have yet to get Grave Digger's new album, I think Manni Schmidt fits in perfectly as he is a very aggressive guitarist. I just heard one track from the new Grave Digger album off of a Metal Hammer compilation and it was amazing.

Tony Webster: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 sounding like a whiney cat, and 10 being awesome, rate the following singers:

Markus Grosskopf

Bruce Dickinson: 10
Michael Kiske: 10
Tobias Sammet: 9 I think he will eventually be a 10, he is very talented but can be a lot better. I hope he takes my 9 as a challenge.
Biff Byford: 9
Mark Boals: I don't even know who the hell he is
Piet Sielck: 8
Mat Sinner: 9
James Hetfield: 9
John Bush: 8
Peavy Wagner: 8
Chris Boltendhal: 8 He's good for what Grave Digger does.
Alice Cooper: 7
Jani Lane: I heard some tracks he has sung, but there was nothing really worth remembering...maybe a 6 or 7
Blaze Bailey: 7 but when he was with Maiden I would give him a 6
Hansi Kursch: 9
Russell Allen: I don't know much Symphony X....I am interested in what he will sound like on Roland and Uli's project
Blackie Lawless: 9 He has an interesting voice sometimes, good showman.
Kai Hansen: 8 he wasn't sounding so good on tour though since he was very sick
Rock n Rolf Kasparek: 6
Doro Pesch: 8
Rob Halford: 10 He's the metal God, what more is there to say?

Oh yeah and I will add my own guy to your list....Steven Tyler, he deserves a fucking 10