Michael Weikath Interview: 7-21-98

This is the interview with Weikath I did right after I interviewed Andi. Michael Weikath was a very talkative guy and did not mind answering some of the harder questions I asked. He was very good about answering controversial stuff as well and gave great details on everything. He really was a very nice guy with a lot to give and I enjoyed talking to him as I did Andi. This interview was done on 7/21/98. Check it out below (I'm Tony Webster BTW).

Tony Webster: I had already talked to Andi about this when I interviewed him right before you, and he said it was your idea so can you give me some background on LAUDATE DOMINUM?

Michael Weikath: Yeah well its very simple and its because we have so many latin fans Italy, and Spain and Portugal, and Brazil and Argentina....that's at least the countries we've covered. There's more people in the Honduras, and Peru and Chile obviously, but we haven't visited these countries yet, and since the reception has been extraordinary from these countries I decided to do a sort of thank you track to these people. There has already been so many songs written for the Japanese fans of this sort for example the Scorpions have done it and Accept have done tracks in Japanese for Japanese fans and we didn't want to repeat that and that doesn't mean that the Japanese fans are any less special, I just wanted to create something strange and in a different language and I thought Latin would be more suitable. I mean at first I wanted to do something in Latin but I just didn't know what. So I went over my mom's during Christmas and she played me two Laudate Dominum tracks off of Schubert and of Mozart and so I thought "Yeah that's it!". After that I sat there with my old Latin teacher and we just conceived the lyrics. Apart from that I tried to bring some Hayden quality because I'm quite a Hayden fan which is to say I didn't rip off any structures of any music he has done but I tried to create the feel that it could have been done by him so it could give you a hint about what Hayden sounds like or whatever because I don't rip off stuff and whenever I do something I try to be as creative as I can and do it my own way other than just taking a structure that's already there. So I put in a lot of the things I thought would be Hayden and the same thing went for Falling Higher and the other stuff you know... I intend to do so in the future because you can take some sort of measure you know to be original because people are being influenced by Bach or whatever and Hayden is a completely different direction. I like that very much personally and I try to put something of that quality in my future songs.

TW: How is the tour with Iron Maiden going? 

MW: It was good and its being continued in the middle of September on a second leg of Europe as for South America we have to wait and see as I think someone gave me confirmation of some gigs down there, but its been a reporter and he says he knows a promoter that has set up gigs for us down there. I have no confirmation on that though. 

TW: I already posted the ones for Europe on my page. 

MW: Really? Great! We also have done some shows with Black Sabbath and they were really good, in fact they were DAMN good! They played large stadiums and we were on the bill as well and it was just very good very good outcome, and in Poland and we even played before them and it was just marvelous.

TW: What do you think of Maiden and their new sound...do you like it? What's your opinion.

MW: Lets not say "sound" because I could never understand what they did on the recent records and I think I would never understand and if someone did tell me I would understand but nobody tells me and uhm well apart from that Maiden is still a very good live band but they cut and hit on the point and theres nothing you can say against them except sometimes there is a little insecurity of their new singer. Even though there's been days that I can count that I think he delivered quite a good performance, but he's obviously insecure about what he's doing. Apart from that they bring the stuff across. When you stand there and watch it day by day there's not a lot for you to complain about actually. You sense that there is something just not quite right there
when watching them though.....

TW: I was wondering what has happened to Roland and why he hasn't written anything lately?

MW: It was because he had just finished his solo record by that time and he was kind of confused by that stuff very much. Entering the studio for Better Than Raw in studio rehearsals he has been helpful in guitar parts I couldn't do and we were actually sitting there with 25 tracks and we did a quick look through of what we were going to put on the record and we had the record finished basically....all the tracks were there.. Roland didn't see why he should put out anything extra since everything was already there, and he wouldn't have known where to add or change anything in the album concept we already had. So there was really no necessity for him to do something....he offered one track and that was a midtempo track but we couldn't use it for the
album so we just left it the way it was.

TW: Where did you guys get the idea for the album cover? 

MW: Well its the smurf story I told you about. See Andi and myself hang out at a small little pub that's called "The Backstage" that's a rock cafe type of thing that's very private and very small and we hang out there for coffee and mineral water and its where we try to get rid of our usual thoughts so then you drink coffee, mineral water and the occasional martini, and you just think and talk a load of crap there. We know the shop owner and we know the bar ladies and its a very private place for us, and that's where we usually develop our stupid cover ideas. We had the idea about the smurfs and gargamel and the characters were replaced by the sexy witch and the pumpkins.

TW: Yeah.....Andi said he wanted an ugly witch and you wanted a sexy one. 

MW: *laughs* I wanted a sexy one because it would have been too obvious with an old ugly witch *laugh* and it would have been like uhhhh Angel Witch or whatever like damn like cliché and nothing new. So like I try and create a new riff I created a new witch because its more obvious its a witch then the idea was to take a sexy one so it looks more modern and I like it a bit more.

TW: Yeah so do I

MW: Yeah....its just to optimize the impact, that's what I'm always after.

TW: You guys had the Pumpkin Box come out in Japan and are you guys going to come out with a second one from the Andi Deris era?

MW: Yes....there will be a second part of it, but I don't know what tracks will be on it but this will be chosen by the Japanese and they will come up with the track list. They will give it to us and we will decide if these are the tracks that we want there and if there are any other tracks that we think should be on there. It was done the same way with the current Pumpkin Box out now so that will be the part two then. Yeah there will be something in the future then. Im eager to see what its going to look like. You gotta understand that in Japan there were people that grew up and they were not so concerned about Helloween and JVC had tried to get these people to make'em aware that Helloween is around and what its all about, and for them its great to have a best of Helloween record set or so to say that the way they did the Pumpkin Box may be the best way to do a "best Of" of "Greatest Hits" of something. So a lot of younger people got aware of what we are and who we are and they have to connect us to the ongoing career. Since they now have the Pumpkin Box they now know where to continue on with the actual records we are doing now. It may not be worthwhile for everyone else in the world who already have all of the Helloween records out there, but it was good for these people.

TW: You know....I like the Pumpkin Box....I imported it, and I really liked the way it was set up.

MW: That's good.....its just that the booklet falls apart too easily...

TW: You know metal in the USA obviously isn't as big as it is over in Japan and Germany or anything like that, and thats due largely due to MTV saying that "Metal Sucks", "Metal Is Dead", Blah blah blah blah. They told a lot of bands that, like Dave Mustaine for example and told him that "Metal is dead, we wont play metal videos anymore. 

MW: I haven't heard about it but I just saw a quote on paper, and that's because one of the reviews for Better Than Raw includes that quote and so I was suprised. Anyways we don't need MTV for this and I think its good that Headbanger's Ball went off the air because its so opinionated and it was going the wrong direction. There's lots of people here in America that want to listen to proper hard rock and they are very aware of what they want. They just aren't being directed the way they used to be so right now they will have to find a different channel to communicate with each other to create a forum again and to have a scene again. I'm pretty confident and very positive that it will happen very soon.....its just like everybody's quite mixed up right now nobody knows what's going on. This is quite understandable since a lot of bands that you would expect to come out with good records didn't come out with one. That doesn't help the situation either......anyways I think there will be stuff and it will go on and it will end up starting a renaissance of the whole thing and that's the way I look upon the whole thing, because everything goes in circles. If people were pissed off with what was going down so they want to
have another one and there will be one I'm pretty sure.

TW: I wanted to ask you a question about one of your B-sides.....One of the Chameleon singles..."Step Out Of Hell". What was the whole idea behind the tracks "Intruduction" and "Get Me Out Of Here"?

MW: Well with the Introduction I actually wanted to create some kind of Spianl Tappish impact like a German rock star who has lost track of reality and also I wanted to take some shit out on some people I knew. Which is more or less a private way to take it out on them, so it was basically fun. During that time I was so unhappy with many things and I was not behind the whole Helloween thing because I thought we were going in the wrong direction, and well being in that situation I just wanted to have some fun. There's some bootleg videos you can watch from shows in Japan where I behave very odd, and still I played my stuff but it was quite obvious that I wasn't with the thing or with the game and this was merely aggression in between Michael Kiske and me with fronts being built up inside the band with different camps that made the whole time very hard for everyone. Especially for me in particular and Michael Kiske as well. Then I tended to do a lot of stupid stuff to irritate him or anyone else. and that's how the "Introduction" came about and the whole song [Get Me Out Of Here]. Funny thing is that Michael Kiske liked "Get Me Out Of Here" so much that he said I should always write stuff like it.....even for albums. And I said "Yeah well that's taking it a little bit to far maybe" and he said "Why?" , and I said " Cuz we simply cant do it...so lets close the subject please". I mean he may have had a point but on the other hand I'm quite happy that its on the b-side. I also took a lot of shit because of the song "Heavy Metal Hamsters" which was intended on being a b-side for the Pink Bubbles album and instead it ended up being an album track. About Step Out of Hell.....it was one of the older tracks Roland had done with his old band Rampage. Which was released originally as a track called "Victims Of Rock". So he changed the lyrics and he remade it as a song with Helloween. The lyrics obviously dealt with Ingo.....

TW: So that's what it was about?

MW: Part wise.....I mean in general views and general thinking......but focused on Ingo maybe...

TW: Speaking of Ingo......what disease did he have?

MW: He was Schizophrenic...ever since his birth. They found out during the drug treatment he had to undergo and so it was like has had some cocaine, and some dope....and some alcohol and that had a final effect on his brain so to speak. That doesn't go well with while you're being Schizophrenic. The thing is with alcohol you can postpone the main effects of being Schizophrenic for quite some time but it will always show up again around your 30s, so you need treatment and proper treatment because its a very serious illness......very complicated and heavy one and hard to cure if at all.....some people say its not curable. That's actually what happened to him so life must have become such burden to him so I told him that the situation was he wasn't going to play with the band anymore if I couldn't make the choice and the others merely sat there and thought the same stuff. I merely had to sit it out with him for about 5 or 6 hours. I kept saying no and he wanted to get back in and I still had to say no because it would have killed him anyways. He wasn't as sane as he wanted to make us think and because he didn't realize his own serious situation. he didn't take his medication either which he should've. Then one day he jumped in front of s subway train....

TW: That's a sad story.....

MW: Yeah....

TW: Do you guys have any friendly relations with Michael Kiske?

MW: Not yet.....although Roland saw him in a music store awhile back and they talked for about a half an hour. Other than that we have had really no contact with him since he left.

TW: You know there's been a lot of stuff going around....a lot of bullshit people have been saying about you....

MW: You know its like outside people.....they always have to say quite a bit...well they should have been in the band at that time...otherwise they should just shut the fuck up.

TW: I remember there was a guy on the your turn board accusing you of stuff....remember him?

MW: Yeah....I do.....that guy was a fucking idiot.

TW: You know....I get a lot of people asking me shit about it and I'm always like look..."You weren't there Weikath and Kiske couldn't work together so just leave it at that you know what I'm saying?"

MW: Yes....I actually remember your comments on that on the board if I'm not mistaken......

TW: So you're coming out of the Chameleon era....how good of an addition was Andi to the band. How crucial was his role in the band at first?

MW: Oh well he kind of put the whole thing back in order as well because he was the sole one we wanted in the band. We certainly weren't going out to place adds that Helloween was looking for a new singer cuz we wouldn't trust anyone. The thing that happened in the misunderstanding that went down with Michael Kiske, me and the rest of the band was so heavy that we really didn't feel like inviting someone we don't know into the band to sing. We thought we would've laid us another koo koo's act if you know that term.....and so if not for Andi joining Helloween we would have dissolved the band probably. We would've done something else....and we would have waited the whole thing out, but anyways we would have dissolved the whole thing if he hadn't have come in. Anyways it was plain clear to everyone in the band we didn't want to go off with Michael Kiske for the next record. The main issue......thoughts were going quite far you know?

TW: How did you get Andi into the band....I mean where did you find him at?

MW: Well I called him up....but ive already known him for 7 years. I already had permission to approach him during the Pink Bubbles Go Ape era and I  already called him by that time. because the situation in the band had become so unbearable. Ingo was the one who actually wanted to stay with Michael Kiske and Andi for himself actually wanted to stay with "Pink Cream 69" because he saoud there was no reason why I should leave the guys because they are behaving well, they are nice guys and we have a nice band here. Andi is a very social guy....we all knew at the time he was the perfect choice for Helloween. He also said there was no way out because of the situation in his band was going similar...so we had a parallel thing going. Helloween was going down and Pink Cream was as well. I think I placed the call at just the perfect point in time, but still I thought I sounded pretty stupid because I was like "If you're not going to sing for us we're going to end the whole Helloween thing....so think about it. However if we go out there with you as our singer we can go out there and put this stuff into people's faces and just kill. You know?? Think of it? So we had 2 or 3 more meeting to convince him or convince him further and he just didn't want to say anything that particular year because it was a shitty year and he wants to make his decision next year, and that was like new years eve. So 3 minutes after 12 new years eve the next year he calls up and says "Alright....I'm in". So and that's when we gave Michael Kiske a call and said we wanted a meeting and he said "A meeting again? What for?!" and I said well its "Something important" and he said "We have so many meetings we don't need that, just do your meeting and tell me what its about". Our personal manager said "Well its about you Michael" and so that meeting didn't even take place because then it was plain clear.

TW: Can you tell me the whole situation with Noise Records? About breaking the contract and everything?

MW: Well that was a complete mess up but this didn't inflict the trouble onto the band it was just like the different characters we have and they wouldn't fit. Well the other thing with Noise records came to me as a natural thing because my parents were always at court ever since I could think. So some people in the band were afraid because they didn't like the thought of being in court with anyone and for me it was natural and I just wanted to get out of the contract you know.....

TW: Do you think that after the whole situation after not being able to release anything for 2 years kind of hurt your fan base in the USA? 

MW: Well I don't know and I don't want to think like that.....If it did Im not aware of it. It was more or less Kai Hansen and me....we reached double as much people cuz there's a polarity between him and me because he's a different guy and I'm a different. So when you put the Gamma Ray fans and the Helloween fans together you have the contingency of what Helloween used to be. I think "Somewhere Out In Space" is a very good record

TW: I do too.

MW: It has a really good groove and the feel is just right and I think Daniel is responsible for that partly and Henjo as well and so Kai Hansen came to think of something else because the setup in Gamma Ray before wasn't that healthy really with the old bass player and the drummer....they weren't exactly convinced of the whole project they were just merely playing there. They were taking the money and doing their jobs but they weren't really convinced of Gamma Ray and so Daniel he's just a very heartfelt guy and he's very behind the whole thing because he has a heart, and he's like a Gamma Ray fan. The other ones weren't believe it or not....and then there were like situations in dealing with Kai Hansen and with the way he is there are always reasons that they don't get along with each other too well its not to say that its Hansen's fault...its like different types of people just not getting along....you know? It wasn't the most lucky lineup they had before with "Insanity & Genius" and all of that. They are great records but the setup in the band wasn't perfect, it wasn't natural and it wasn't exactly well....it didn't fit....the characters in the band didn't match perfectly. 

TW: Ok....I'm sure you have heard of this.....there was an article in terrorizer which has you guys being badmouthed about Max Cavalera....

MW: Oh yah....that right....what's the ground for what he says you know? I dont understand what he says....I mean there was two different camps in metal and hard rock ever since it was born its like the good and the evil or the black and the white and so Sepultura and he have a total different understanding of it. It reminds me of some trouble I had with some guys from Kreator some 10 years ago and I dont get it. I mean what we are doing is what we and this band as heavy metal have created....and if Cavalera thinks different he stands for a different field right? I mean I wouldn't go and say Sepultura are worsening the metal situation because they are not melodic or because they are so antisocial or something or because they are so aggressive....who am I to say that? I try to find something positive about Sepultura and Soulfly and all of this and why am I to judge what they do? I think Cavalera should be quite happy because you know he has done some good work and has had a lot of success. I mean...I don't understand his reaction. He must be very fixed on certain things and he's not exactly cool with it.....I don't know what he's all about.....I have no idea....

TW: A friend of mine has interviewed a few German bands and they basically say its "Ignorant".

MW: Well I think its very narrow minded, and I think its like maybe he didn't earn as much as he was supposed to....I don't know because I know what he means. Metal has always been commercial and there's nothing with writing nice melodies....then he should slack UFO, Rainbow or Judas Priest and everyone.....maybe he wants to do that...I don't know.

TW: Speaking of Priest......what do you think of the new singer?

MW: Well I don't know.....I mean I don't like the record, but then I heard the concerts went down pretty well and that Ripper Owens is just like the perfect replacement for Rob Halford and I don't know because I haven't witnessed a show yet. I didn't feel like that because on that particular evening when they were in Hamburg because I had a chance to be out with a girl I like so Id rather do that. I've been told later on that Ripper sang perfectly. What I have to criticize is on the record he doesn't use any vibrato or anything and this is just like clinical that comes across, and he sounds just like any other American shouter and he sang for whoever so what he actually lacks on the record is profile personality because he doesn't sound like anyone special......so actually I haven't witnessed any shows and if I see a show and like it then I will withdraw from anything I've said.....but up to this point I can say that I don't like the record.

TW: One of your B-Sides.....the song Rain.....who originally did that song?

MW: Oh! That was done by Status Quo! They had an album called "Blue For You"...I think it was 1975 and 1976 and it was quite a hit in Germany and Japan because Status Quo was the band by that time and AC/DC hadn't gotten big yet and so to say they were the big rocking blues band at that time so to speak. Like Metallica....like everyone who would play guitar then would start playing Status Quo riffs and we just wanted to play that and everybody thought it was going to be fun. You know you cant copy Status Quo.....it doesn't sound the least like status quo it sounds like some White Lion version so we used the same amps and the same guitars and we rehearsed the whole shit and still it didn't sound like Status Quo and usually we succeed in doing
something that say "Cold Sweat" for example....I really liked that and Electric Eye went damn well but Rain doesn't sound like Status Quo I don't think still.

TW: I wanted to ask....the instrumental "Magnetic Fields" what band did that?

MW: That's a French synthesizer guy named Jean MichelJarre who did that one....

TW: Do you get along with all the other German bands? 

MW: Oh yeah we're happy enough now that there is no more envy towards us that was around about 10 years before. See theres no reason to talk bad about anyone because right now nobody feels like the other is stealing anyone else's ground which is good.. and if that happens then obviously we sort it out.

TW: I have a few emails from people in Portugal asking if you guys will come back since you were hit by something a person in the crowd threw at you.

MW: Sure...I mean we played there before and nobody had thrown anything at me before and so this time someone threw something at me. I mean maybe this person thought I was acting too lazy or arrogant or whatever....at least he didn't like me or thought I caused Ingo's death...I don't know what the person thought....anyways he didn't like the way I was. For the money you spend to get into concerts....you come to see us the way we are so I'm not going to bow to people like that....I'm just the way I am and these people are getting the possibility to witness it by paying the money for it. Im not going to change my behavior in anyway because thats what he wanted...you know?

TW: A lot of people emailed me asking why you guys don't do more older stuff and that they wanted to hear Andi's renditions of them. 

MW: Yeah.....that's true but wed end up playing for like 3 hours and everything left aside from what we're doing right now at the concert is a nice setup of tracks....if we do older stuff...someone would complain about something else. The problem here is that if we play older songs the only guy who gets the money for it is Karl Walterbach...and we don't want to support that guy anymore because he's already earned enough money from us. Roland is not the least affiliated with that stuff because he hasn't been around. When I say "I want to play "Starlight", "Murderer". Roland would go like "Oh god I have to play all of this" and I cant blame him because you would inflict stress on himself. It would give Roland a hard time.....not Andi a hard time....he can sing old tracks but then Roland would be faced to some heavy guitar work and for what? 

TW: Why did Kai leave the band? 

MW: Well there were several reasons....I think he felt he had no ground left in Helloween that Kiske and myself had different opinions and that was stressful to Kai. He also said that all the promo stuff we had to do really pissed him off because he would like to have a less stressful go at things in general. You can follow that in the Gamma Ray history....you know they don't tour that much and do a huge amount of promotion because that's exactly his aim....he doesnt want to do as much as he had to with Helloween he also had some trouble with all the band....because he mentioned that topic right when we did Walls Of Jericho and he said "You know....cant we just tour a little less" and was told by management "Why don't you just go play for another band!" He took the burden for it...but in time he said well....We had so many different opinions going on I was actually quite happy when he left even though you know we said we may as well become friends even though we're not in a band together anymore, but then its always a heavy thing and he has his point of view and he has to follow his career and I have to follow mine. When we sat together at one UFO concert and I can tell you that were some real big question marks on a lot of faces of the fans and it was like to them "Wow, what's going on here?". Its just normal and you just talk to each other....

TW: Have you yourself ever thought of making a solo album? 

MW: Well I've already gotten the money to do a solo record so I have to do a solo record.

TW: One last thing...are you guys going to record or make a documentary type video with videos from the band and a history etc....

MW: We did something sort of like that its called the pumpkin video...

TW: Yeah...I have it.

MW: Good....because its a good collection of videos being done up to the point of time when it was released. I think it ends with "Where The Rain Grows" or something....

TW: Yeah it does.

MW: Well if that's in the making in the future it would have to be a major thing. I mean we don't have as many videos as we did then and the Pumpkin Video already covers most of the videos...so well have to wait a little more. I'm not too keen on covering the old lineup...we're actually living now and we have something to create for us...and Uli and Roland and for Helloween the way we are right now. If a video of us and a documentary is going to be done then id rather put it into two parts to be fair....fair to the old Helloween and fair to the new Helloween you know?

TW: Well thanks for calling, I appreciate it! Hope to see you in the states sometime!

MW: Where are you again?

TW: Cleveland.

MW: Oh yah....I remember it....I knew a few people there way back. It was great talking to you....hope you have a nice day. By the way.....tell all the fans that even though I do not answer all my email.....I still read them.

This interview done by Officer Metal aka Tony Webster DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION (C)1998 M.A.P.A.R.

Michael Weikath Interview: 5-12-1999

Well yes this is the first ever interview done since the page has gone official and who better to do the interview with than Weiki himself. There's info about some past stuff as well as a lot of information about the up and coming covers album. All in all you guys should have no trouble with this one and I hope you all enjoy it. In the past few months I've been talking to weiki a lot being on the net and the phone. with him and he's a pretty down to earth guy and you'll be able to tell that on this interview as well.

Tony Webster: How is everything going in the studio for the covers album? Is it done?

Michael Weikath: Well its like in Rolandıs private studio and he has a recording system there and everything and Uli and Markus they both prepared the basic tracks like the drums and bass and they would bring ADAT machines and we would feed them into Rolandıs studio equipment and we started doing the rhythm guitars and the solo guitars in our own homes and ever since then I think it is in the mixing process since 2 or 3 days now. Our engineer he went to Holland to see this Oscar guy who did that Ayeron album I think its called. I never get that name but he is supposed to be very very good and we are all very confident it may sound very good. The basic recordings are okay but they were all done in a rush and done for fun and it was supposed to be an easy album but on the other hand I still spend a lot of time in doing what we do. We also spent a lot of time editing shit as well, so if there was any unstable stuff we would get rid of it since this album was recorded in such a rush we kind of relied on the studio equipment a lot as well.

Tony Webster: Where did you guys come up with an idea of doing an album of covers?

Michael Weikath: It was basically an idea by the management and on the other hand we always felt like doing something like that and so now people come up and approach us and say shit like -eeww you are doing a fucking cover album?- any point in time you do a cover album, or at least when we did this one we changed everything about most of these tracks with the exception of the Something by the Beatles, or Rat Bat Blue by Deep Purple or Space Oddity.

Tony Webster: Who produced the album?

Michael Weikath: Well we did basically, for example Abbaıs Lay All Your Love On me cannot be put out as the disco track that it was and that was not our intention. Its more like a heavy hardcore feel basically and you get into the melody and everything changes again. The verse is very hardcore.

Tony Webster: Are you going to play any of these songs live like say on a tour?

Michael Weikath: Ehhhhhh nah please not! *laughs* We did everything so complicated basically that we said to ourselves that we hope we do not have to play any of this shit live. This record was done for fun like I said, but we put a lot of work into it, like guitar work. Kind of like Rhapsody out of Italy....its too complicated and I would not want to play it live everyday. Really though we did a lot of complex stuff to create some impact and not make this album your typical bullshit cover album. It may be a cover album but it also sounds like another Helloween album you know?

Tony Webster: Now you guys have been with Tommy Hansen for awhile as your producer and are you going to change producers and how did you end up meeting him?

Michael Weikath: I dunno it is like we did the Better Than Raw with him and there were like voices and opinions in the band about whether or not we should change or not. I am personally against it so to say, but other people would like to change or try another producer. Actually it is too early to say something conclusive about what is going to happen and where we will go with the next producer for the next record. It is even possible that we do the record at Andiıs home, we do not know yet.

Tony Webster: When do you plan on going into the studio for the next album?

Michael Weikath: Well we hope October or November but this can always change as well. Right now I have some time off and in the next couple of weeks I have to get into the songwriting process again. This fits me well because I have to create ideas for my solo album I have to do in the next year sometime. I think when I do something for Helloween there will be a lot of tracks falling off and leftover for my solo album.

Tony Webster: Have you found any musicians for the solo album yet?

Michael Weikath: well I already have the musicians I want in mind. The singer I want to have so far is named ³Fummel² and he sang the backing vocals on the Metal Jukebox, Better Than Raw and both of the Andi Deris solo albums so I will let him give it a go first and if he does not work out then I will have to find someone else who wants to try, because he is a brilliant singer and sometimes reminds me of Freddy Mercury. It is just like stuff I write does not have to be fit for someone like Freddy Mercury so if it does not work we will have to check out a different singer. The other musicians are local except I will have Ferdy Doernberg as the keyboardist and Uli on the drums.

Tony Webster: You do not plan on doing a tour for a solo album do you?

Michael Weikath: Not really because I do not have the time to do it really. My main devotion is to Helloween and that will not change and plus I want to spend some time at home, it is like I am more than busy enough all the time anyway.

Tony Webster: Did you play on Uli Πs Rainbow tribute at all?

Michael Weikath: Yeah I played on Eyes Of The World. So I did all of the guitar work on it. Uli told me that he did not expect me to have the guitar work as close to the original song as I had it. Well that honors me in a way but what did I start off playing anyway? It was this exact kind of stuff, Rainbowish Deep Purplish stuff. Also I always wanted to play that track because it impressed me very much when it first came out in 1979. It is the track that made me buy that album since I was very critical about Rainbow at this time because they had a brand new singer, and new musicians and all of this stuff and everyone told me that it was fucking shit and too commercial and when I bought the album I liked it. If anyone told me how easy it was to play this song back then I would not have done it but it is a fun song to do and the riffing and guitar playing is very straightforward anyway.

Tony Webster: I want to dig in the past a bit and I am wondering where you came up with the whole Keeper of The Seven Keys Concept?

Michael Weikath: Actually, I once went to a bar here where a lot of freaks were hanging out....long haired guys, etc. We called them freaks over here during the 70s. I was one of them! hahahaha. There was this guy behind the bar who had a huge record collection of stuff during the 70s we did not exactly know. So we had these purses at school that we would put our pencils in and everything and usually the kids would write the names of their favorite bands on these purses. One day I kept noticing that one of the bandnames I saw the most on there was a band called Nektar and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden is even a big Nektar fan still after all these years. Anyway, I went to that guy at the bar and said -I see you have a lot of Nektar records back there so could I borrow them at all?- and he said -Well I do not know you at all- and I said -Well I do not know you either and still I ask you- and after I scratched some pieces of pizza off of these records since he served food he spilled food on various things. I could listen to these records and I heard the album Recycle by Nektar which has a very very long track on it and actually the album itself is one song so I thought it would be cool to do something super long like Still Iım Sad by Rainbow or Stranglehold by Ted Nugent and all of these epic concept songs from the 70s. So we came up with this Keeper concept and I told Kai Hansen I wanted to do a long song and so he said he wanted to do a long track too. So we both knew if we did this we would have around a half hour of music so we had thought about doing a double album but that was not liked by Noise records so we did 2 records. It was good it happened this way anyway because we were not prepared to do a double album anyway by that time.

Tony Webster: How did you first meet Kai before you got into Helloween and how did you get into the band Helloween?

Michael Weikath: Uhm he was hanging out here in Hamburg and we had some clubs here for amateur and semi professional musicians and both of us were members because by that time it was the best thing you could do as an amateur musician. So this club had equipment and helped you get gigs, etc. So we eventually met each other there at a show one time so he was there with this Ironfist band with Markus and Ingo. Piet Sielck by that time was not in the band and had already left to do something else. I found the band impressive because it was some of the heaviest stuff I have ever heard and sometimes it was so badass and they played Gorgar in a different version and I could never forget that version of Gorgar because it was so badass sounding at that time and just so aggressive and such. Eventually we got into contact and I asked Hansen if he would like to team up with me and my band at the time called Powerfool because the keyboardist went away and I was sick of trying shit with keyboardists since they wanted mostly to do nothing but Jazz and Funk but no hard rock. I thought that I could have another guitarist and do it well like Accept or a band like that like a twin guitar attack team. So that band did not work well and in the end I joined Kaiıs band. It all started from there and Ingo then was watching that movie -HALLOWEEN- and we could not think of any other name because we have been around as other names and we did not think ironfist or any other name was good enough to start our career off with. We wanted something racey and fast and that looked and sounded good. So we came up with Helloween.

Tony Webster: How did you get Michael Kiske into Helloween?

Michael Weikath: Well I have a female co-worker that I worked with in this record store where we did mailorder and stuff like that. It was my job before I got into Helloween. She told me there was this guy named Michael Kiske who could sing like a young god. So I asked for his phone number because we were looking for a new singer. Also Markus had gotten the number from someone else and went to have a listen to his voice and the band Michael had which was Ill-Prophecy and tried to convince him to join the band. Michael did not take him seriously at first and never gave Markus an answer. So then I called up the number and Kiske was actually in the bathtub when I called him. The basic thing was that we do not know each other but we needed a good singer and he was one. He was sitting in the bathtub talking about it and I invited him to have a look at our song material and if he would want to have him singing with us. It took a long time for him to decide to do it and for us to actually take him into the band because we were not quite sure if he would fit or not. I remember at first Hansen thought that his voice was too weak and it could have been quite heavier and there you go. Well that became a topic later on and each person took their own approach when writing songs for his voice. However in the end he fit perfectly and he did a great job for the band and his voice turned out to be heavy enough for us and you know how it developed from there.....

Tony Webster: What is your opinion on the whole 3 guitar player deal in Iron Maiden

Michael Weikath: I dunno it may as well workout because I was always a fan of Leatherwolf and they had 3 guitarists and I saw them live once and they played very well and played perfect. The singer would take a 3rd guitar and add things on stage and in the studio and they had an interesting sound which was excellent so why should Maiden not be excellent with 3 guitar players as well. By that time Leatherwolf was also compared to Maiden as well. I like Leatherwolf very much but they sadly dissolved awhile ago.

Tony Webster: I have always wondered this for a long time, but where on Earth did you come up with the name Pink Bubbles Go Ape?

Michael Weikath: Heheheheh well Michael Kiske and myself were on the phone once and we thought the the next record at the time should be utter crap and something that nobody would expect...maybe Pink Bubbles Kiske said and I said, -Yeah and maybe the pink bubbles will go ape!- Then we had the album title.....stupid sounding I know but that is how we came up with it.

Tony Webster: So you have not written anything yet for Helloween?

Michael Weikath: Not yet but I do in 2 weeks, Uli I know has two tracks finished and Roland has a bunch of ideas down as well, like every record we want to make this a band approach thing like we did with Better Than Raw. I personally do not have any material apart from one track that I offered last time around but we did not take it for the last album since we had a ballad like Time and this song I have was also a ballad.

Tony Webster: So what is the name for the new covers album going to be? Also will there be a single?

Michael Weikath: Dream Concert is the name we have so far. As for a single I do not know, Andi thinks we should have Space Oddity be the single. It also depends on the mix and how each and every track will turn out.

Tony Webster: Do you guys have any leftover tracks say like a b-side never released on an album or single that you may use?

Michael Weikath: No not really, we used them all up because anytime we did a b-side it was because we needed to. The only thing we have left is a track called City Cries which is an old track I wanted to do on the Pink Bubbles album which was recorded fully with Ingo and Kiske and they are laying around somewhere and it was not finished completely. I do not know if we will publish it one day or not.

Tony Webster: So for your upcoming tour plans are you hoping to get a deal in the USA again and an album and come tour?

Michael Weikath: I mean well heheheheh its about time eh?

Tony Webster: Do you know how well Better Than Raw did here in the USA?

Michael Weikath: I have no idea and it is too bad that Vel Vel went out of business because the record I know had just started to sell very well and suddenly the company was out of business so we got fucked. Well there we are again without a label in America.

Tony Webster:So you still talk to Kai Hansen right?

Michael Weikath: If I see him I do, for example I go to see Gamma Ray when they play in Hamburg. However we didn't talk much because he was so busy and then had to talk to Piet Sielck about Iron Savior stuff as well and we had many difficulties in between before anyway. However when I do see him I am always glad to see Kai, we want to get together more often just to do some crap, like to hang out, get drunk, or watch concerts but both of us are extremely busy, especially him.

Tony Webster: You had a lot of hard times and Helloween did as well from 1990-1993 and I am wondering why you did not just quit the band and why the band did not breakup?

Michael Weikath: Because it was all we had, I mean one can always go out and say that -I am doing a solo project now- and everyone would have laughed. Thats crap because we spent too much time and put too much work into Helloween and to stop it by that time because of the obvious reasons of why it was so shitty. We needed to make changes and when we did we came back with Master Of The Rings, and so there was no good reason to skip the whole thing because in my mind I have a whole view and a picture of what Helloween is supposed to be and there are other people people in this world who had a whole clear view of it as well, even the fans. So why destroy the whole thing then and take the easy way out and quit. Why do that you know?

Tony Webster: So everyone in the band pretty much has a solo project. Does this help when someone wants to do something totally different from Helloween and they now have an outlet for stuff like this?

Michael Weikath: Well before if we wanted to have weird stuff we wrote we could not really use it for Helloween, but now you have a way of publishing it. That was kind of a bitter situation before.

Tony Webster: My last question to ask you is what do you have to say to the fans?

Michael Weikath: Well its like we are all trying to recreate what we all like meaning we the band or the fans. We want to recreate what metal or hard rock or anything rock the way it was meant to be. Like a lot of people may not like the idea and we all must stick together to make it public again because there really is not anything against it. Its like there are a lot of interest groups in this world that may not want us to do this but who cares. We have to do this properly and the bands have to make great albums they cant just sit back and say -Great we have a record contract so lets make something funny in order to sell it- They have to be aware that this needs to be something out of quality if it wants to survive and I think it will survive, and the fans also need to know that they should be careful about what they say is great and what they say is crap. Sometimes the fans will say something is crap when it really isn't so we should all be careful and we shouldn't slag or destroy something that is good and praise something that sucks. Bear in mind that what we are doing in the whole metal community and we ourselves are being watched by all of the outside people and you should aware of that. I hope that the record companies do not do the same mistake that they did in the 80s where they destroyed the market by singing a bunch of shit bands that played something they thought would sell.

Michael Weikath Interview: 6-15-2000

Well it was 2am over in Tenerife and Weiki had just gotten off from the studio. He was surfing the web when I called him and was actually pretty tired at the time, however he was cool with doing the interview and giving all of you guys the latest scoop on what's going on with the next Helloween album.

Tony Webster: How is the new album going and how do you like working with Roy Z  Michael Weikath Its all very interesting and all very new. We are getting very much into detail....a bit like the Keeper 1 production which is comparable and so everything is very direct and he came up with his certain style of ideas like using a low tuned 6 string guitar on some songs.....we are all very surprised at what he can do and Charlie Bauerfeind is like a real freak sound wise and they make a great team. After all what can one say about how a record is going anyway? Its doing fine I think.....we have 15 tracks we are recording, and there are going to be 12 tracks for the record with the rest being b-sides and bonus tracks and all that...so we haven't decided on which ones are going to go on the album and which one is going to be a b-side and stuff like that. We have some album title ideas but we have not decided on one yet.....So everything has been going great and I am happy with everything so far, same with the rest of the guys.

Tony Webster: So how many of these songs have you written for the album?

Michael Weikath: I have only come up with 3 tracks....but I am doing a lot of stuff....for instance Markus has come up with quite a good track and so that may as well sound like one I could have come up with later on. We are doing lots of other interesting shit actually whereas if Andi comes up with two tracks that could have been written by anyone else in the Helloween style...it doesn't really matter how many tracks I do. I have done two extraordinary tracks that have not been taken and one of my three tracks is a bit different from what I am known for. Kind of more in a different Weiki direction but still recognizable. Andi is strongest as far as songwriting goes so far....

Tony Webster: I heard one of those two tracks that weren't taken was a track in German, are you going to use this for your solo album in the future?

Michael Weikath: I mean yeah, its cool actually, its pretty heavy and I like it...its not that different really. Roy was the guy who helped us decide what gets recorded and that song he didn't think would fit on the record. We told him he was the master of the production so we simply decided to do what he thinks is best you know? We actually like his choice of what tracks are going to be recorded. Everything that was a bit weird or not as understandable or acceptable was taken off of the recording list. He is trying to place the stakes right.

Tony Webster: Why did you decide to go from Tommy Hansen to Roy Z and Charlie Bauerfeind?

Michael Weikath: Because there were were people in the band not happy with how Tommy did things.....Roland said that each time he wanted to record guitars Tommy wasn't around and there were other things....I was actually told that I shouldn't judge since nothing bad really got to me so I couldn't know. There were other things man and the majority said that we should change. The main aspect was to get a more modern approach towards the whole thing. Modern in the sense of a killer production you know? Charlie Bauerfeind for example has mixed albums for some Helloween clone bands out there, or whereever and he did most of the recent Gamma Ray stuff too. So everyone knows what he sounds like and is capable of so I mean that was more or lessa direction we thought would be possible because we think that if some of our copied bands sound a bit better than us at times then its weird you know? So we thought we would approach him after all because we have been offered Roy Z from Sanctuary Management since they manage him and we had both guys on the island to check them out and we liked them both because they both had their advantages and disadvantages...Roy came up with the idea to team up and obviously they have a lot of respect for each other and they are working together great, and they had never even met before but if you were to look at them they look like a pair of old friends. 

Tony Webster: How does this album differ from Better than Raw?

Michael Weikath: Well I mean some tracks are going into a darker and heavier direction and you can compare it to maybe....uhm other American acts that would come up with more direct stuff. I seem to recognize some old Megadeth....some dark themes like Megadeth or old Metallica. We are not sounding like these bands but they had some darker themes around some of their songs in the old days and this is how we are similar. Uli of course had some strange rhythms again and so it makes up for a heavy mixture. It differs in every respect...I mean....its the same musicians, and I am writing some songs on it. We are right in the middle of making this album and I have not heard the final result yet, I do know that Roland has improved in everything or almost everything. So...any way you take it....whatever his fans liked about him they will like his stuff even more and what people may have hated about him they will not find it on this record. I mean he played a lot of material on Better Than Raw.....we did not rehearse for this record and we put our song ideas on our Macintosh powerbook and we put them together and had a good idea of what the songs should be and the final result will be cool you know? We did the same thing with Metal Jukebox but on this album all the tracks were known before and weren't ours.

Tony Webster: If you could pick another instrument to play besides the guitar what would you pick?

Michael Weikath: Uhm......computer editor and websurfer...hahahahahaha

Tony Webster: I had a ton of people from Brazil asking me a question about the song "First Time" off of the Chameleon record....what inspired that?

Michael Weikath: Well I was 19 when I wrote it. A nice blonde chick inspired it hahahahaha she was my girlfriend by that time....when I first wrote it the lyrics were entirely different and they were pretty stupid, very naive and very dumb. Well I wanted to do something like Rainbow at that time because like the Rainbow "On Stage" came out and I was looking for musicians in Hamburg and we had a nice February and had so much sunny weather by that time and we were looking for rehearsal room and I could have found a nice one with a stage in there and I had been contacting a few guys cuz I wanted to have another new band basically and that took some time to make it up. Well this happened when I was 19 and we played that in my old band too and it was the opening track for most of our concerts and when people heard it for the first and only time they wouldn't understand it heheheheheh, it was good enough to be the opening track on Chameleon you know? 

Tony Webster: Now with the rare MP3 on the website...Sea Of Fears....a lot of people liked it and what do you think of the reactions to it?

Michael Weikath Basically when we had the idea to put it on the Helloween page I simply wanted to know what people thought of it and I liked reading people's reactions to it. Its actually quite annoying though when people get it from somewhere else and email me asking me info about it and keep asking how the recording came about and its all written on out website heheheheheh: )

Tony Webster: When do you plan on having the album finished? 

Michael Weikath: Well the plan is July 16th but I am not sure because the mixing is being done here too and we have had a few delays because of the detailed work we have been doing and plus we have been having fun here and we do not want to rush the album either we want it to be the best it can be.

Tony Webster: Why did you decide to record in Andi's studio?

Michael Weikath: Because it was the cheapest way and also it was because Andi was nice to do it and his studio isn't extensive as some studios but its very well built and even Mr. Bruce Dickinson would like to record some stuff here. Everyone wanted to be out in the sun and this album is not the worst of all islands so it was an obvious decision after doing so many records in Hamburg....which is very expensive because the studio owner changed and there is not a lot left so you would have to rent the stuff in and they only offer the rooms but no equipment and we would have to rent it, and before we
never had to rent equipment so we did it at Andi's place. 

Tony Webster: Do you plan on releasing this album worldwide at the same time?

Michael Weikath: Well with different record companies shit happens when organizing the whole shit and this causes time differences. Its usually like this....the Japanese get some leeway a week in advance in order not to be killed by the import CDS....and a week later its usually a worldwide release.

Tony Webster: What kind of response did you get from Metal Jukebox?

Michael Weikath: I don't have any idea, because I didn't get much of a response. Weird enough though people who do not normally buy our albums or metal albums bought Metal Jukebox...maybe because they know the tracks and they can let it sink in or what do I know.....apart from that it was played often at a few clubs because it had a bunch of known tracks on it. We had a lot of weird remarks about it, not negative ones, but just weird you know? heheheheheh.

Tony Webster: Who tried to experiment with the songwriting on the album a bit more?

Michael Weikath: Well Uli and Andi and everyone does...and Roland did a lot of different stuff. On some tracks we have some low tuned heavy guitar sounds sort of like the Chemical Wedding sound. We did not follow the old school path where bands do something different and lose track of their actual sound and we have no intention to repeat ourselves all the time either. So we are supposed to evolve and that what we do, and we try to keep and we actually do keep the basic line of what's called "Helloween" to not piss anyone off. The times of Chameleon are over and there is not much experimental stuff anymore but we realize also there are many fans that do not want anything to change......but we will still evolve though.

Tony Webster: Are the lyrics done for the album?

Michael Weikath: We are far from being finished....

Tony Webster: Why did you sign with nuclear blast?

Michael Weikath: Well this company really wanted us bad and they also offered a great deal of money and promised us great marketing and other record companies didn't do that for us with offering great marketing and could not offer a guarantee money wise too. They did not really convince us with a strong marketing belief or concept. To those other companies we were no better than any other act even if we worked closely with them, well Nuclear Blast has wanted us for the last 5 years and they said we do not care....tell us what you want and we'll give you what you want so how can one deny that and not go with them?

Tony Webster: Iron Maiden's new album is number 39 in the US charts....do you think this can help boost the metal scene in America?

Michael Weikath: Well I have just heard from Rod Smallwood that he is very positive about the development in the states and that even for radio heavier songs and singles are being required and that seems to go a certain direction and people are used to Metallica and heavy or not, they created an impact on the scene. Its not like people dislike electric guitars and it is getting back to the normal approach to rock music and back in the 70s there were always heavy tracks being played on the radio, and there were shitty discussions a few years back saying that there shouldn't be heavy guitars on the radio. If Rod is pointing things like that out...then its probably true.

Tony Webster: Now you played on Ferdy Doernberg's "Storyteller" album and its odd stuff but actually good.

Michael Weikath: I haven't listened much to it, I have not had the time, just the stuff I played. I do not even remeber what i had recorded at the time and he called me asking if he could use what I recorded and even though I did not know what I recorded I told him he could use it anyway, hahahahahah.

Tony Webster: My last question is....will you guys headline on your next tour? A lot of people write me saying they wished you weren't an opening band. 

Michael Weikath: Well it was easier and cheaper to open at the time.....as we did not get supported really well by our record company. A lot of the people did not think anything would go well since there were a lot of difficulties in the rock field and they could not front as much money to support us on tour even though its always been said that we were looking good and the scene was good when the scene wasn't. So the company wanted to save money and was very cautious because they did not have any confidence we would do well....usually when record companies, promoters, etc are all looking positively at something the money flow is better and that was not the case this time around....we merely reacted and said ok....since nobody trusts us we will play the safe side then. We were quite pissed off because we did a great record and I mean....what do they want? People love it and so since they decided to be cautious...we decided to be cautious too. 

Michael Weikath Interview: 10-09-2000

This interview was done on 10/03/2000 but I had some computer problems which delayed it until today, enjoy!

Tony Webster: So where did you guys come up with the title "The Dark Ride"?

Michael Weikath: Well actually Rod Smallwood proposed it, because after he came to the studio for about a month after the recordings and he listened to the music....and it was appearing quite dark so he wanted a dark album title.....and as you can hear my voice is very dark because I just woke up, hahahahaha....well anyway we had a title called "The Last Testament" but he said Dark Ride was a better title and it took me another week or so to understand what the dark ride is because it sounds quite harmless in a way....I thought "What is so heavy about the dark ride" so after awhile I thought about it....about it being the death ride or something....with spooky creatures or something....then I thought it was a different thing....for example......it can actually be on a roller coaster that is derailing and crashing down a hear or like the Space Shuttle Challenger incident back in 1986....these can be called a Dark Ride.....and I finally understood why this is a heavier and darker title.

Tony Webster: Between you and Roland.....which one of you decides who plays what guitar parts?

Michael Weikath: Well its actually who plays which part the best....and usually its like this.....the composer of the song whether its Andi or Roland or Uli or Markus or Me........whoever plays it the best we have play it so if Markus could play a part better than us they would surely play it....and so it always happened like that. Its to be expected that if I come up with a riff or a particular thing that needs to be played its going to be played by the person who plays it best.

Tony Webster: Now do you guys always write the lyrics during the recording sessions or do you do this beforehand?

Michael Weikath: Well it always takes you a long time to write lyrics and unless you get struck by lightning or get touched by a fairy which suddenly would tell you what lyrics to write.....it takes awhile......I usually wait till the last minute and try to postpone the finishing of the lyrics.....the worst case that ever happened to me was during the Walls Of Jericho album....the lyrics for Guardians were tough......and on the last album.......the lyrics for Falling Higher took a long time because I couldn't find a chorus........I couldn't find a chorus and the chorus is damn good now in Falling Higher.....and it took me til about the very last day in fact the day the recordings were to take place.....I got the idea of how the chorus of this song was going to sound and what lyrics are going to be on there and I was quite under a lot of pressure....you can change it to the good or to the bad.....and you kind of develop a certain feel that if its good or bad and we were out of lyrics for this album for a long time....and Roy Z was pressing that this album the Dark Ride the lyrics would be understandable by native English speaking people so nobody got them confused. So this in effect didn't come across and it took a long time for the lyrics for this album to be appreciated and accepted.

Tony Webster: What kind of guitars and effects do you use?

Michael Weikath: Well, its various setups of various amps.....usually its around 8......8 sound lines getting into the recording system .......and it was marshalls....sans amps, boogie rectifiers....big cabinets.....or anything that produces a sound of a guitar or that has density so you could always equalize out what you want to have for any track or anything you possibly need.

Tony Webster: What did you write the two songs "All Over The Nations" and "Salvation" about?

Michael Weikath: Well all over the nations is actually a thing that says to not be too depressed and rather that you believe in our music and that we all feel good.....that's the basic idea. And Salvation is a song about someone that doesn't have anyone to talk to or doesn't have any friends but in the end when that person does they live in paradise and find salvation......I wanted to change the lyrics before we changed the album title to Dark Ride.....I wanted to make them really negative.......All Over The Nations would have been revolutionary and been about established groups and shit. Salvation would have been about a political party that tells its people not to worry about anything that they will take care of it and the people shouldn't give a shit.......and so Roy didn't like these thoughts too much so he wanted me to go in the direction of my original demo and original lyrics which are the current concepts with these songs. 

Tony Webster: What is the basic reason that helps you guys keep your material fresh and write good songs?

Michael Weikath: Hmmmm talent maybe? I dunno actually....because we actually do care for what's being done......I mean like everyone in the band is pretty talented.....and we have experience......sometimes with bands I hear the record and think "Is this all they have done over the year or two years or however long its been since they released an album"? Well that's a bit little I think so with us, its always at least some impact to whatever track we do and every track is always important in a certain way. You can do without a certain track say for example we don't like a song very much so we just don't include it and we keep writing till we find what we like and every song on every Helloween track is there because we think its good enough to be there and that it has a good reason to be there. Its always in the eye of the beholder or the ear of the beholder and whoever came up with tracks here....its going through the net of anticipation and everyone has to want the song to be on the album......its a kind of democratical process so what can one do? So basically for us its usually talent!

Tony Webster: How would you compare this album or rate this album to past albums with Andi Deris?

Michael Weikath: I don't know, I mean one can't compare it because its all different. I'm not going to rate it because I never rated any previous records we have done....and I always get asked this question "What is your favorite track on this album" and I always say that I have no favorite track.......and so its always like how would you rate this record to the ones we have done before and I always say that each record we have done on our own has a right to be the way it is so I'm not going to rate it or say anything.

Tony Webster: What did you write the song Midnight Sun about?

Michael Weikath: Its unreal.....its not about a Midnight Sun in Finland or Norway......but its about a bad personal time I had with someone because its about a relationship and a relationship that's gone bad.....and lingering on and giving you a hard time and I couldn't sleep during this at times and poor Weiki.....he sometimes woke up in the middle of the night.....and to me its like I saw the midnight sun again because it seemed that everything was reversed and turned around....and that's why I thought Midnight Sun.....  

Tony Webster: How do you choose which guitar to use on certain songs?

Michael Weikath: Basically its been the flying V and Les Paul's for me and usually its been the ESP guitar that everything is doubled up with. Its not a big deal.....you usually take the one that sounds the best for the speed and groove a track will have. Also.....Roland bought back his flying V that he sold to his friend awhile back....and Roy Z thought Roland had this thought with Humbucker guitars and Roy would not let him use the Stratocasters for the most part.

Tony Webster: Do you still plan on recording a solo album?

Michael Weikath: Nope....not that I know of......I do spend some time thinking about it but that's the problem......time thinking about it, because we are expected to do so much more than before and I do not have anymore time and we have to do more interviews, more promotion, presentations, a tour and its not like I keep myself busy with this stuff 24/7 but I mean I need time for my private life because many friends of mine have been complaining about me not being around, not calling them, not calling them back and these people are also important to me. So I'm not making my private life any worse than it is.....and I don't feel like organizing anything to make a solo album and go through a bunch of bullshit......also it would mean I would have to come up with 3 or 4 more songs just to be on a record that would consist of songs rejected by Helloween.....so for right now....no.

Tony Webster: So how has promotion been going?

Michael Weikath: It went well......a promo tour that would have taken 3 weeks by Andi and myself was done in three days because the entire band did it. And there is going to be more interviews.....like this crappy interview for instance hahahahahahahahaha.......nah I'm just joking.....but we have a lot more promotion we will be able to get accomplished since everyone is doing it now.

Tony Webster: Many people want to know why Deliver Us From Temptation was not on the album?

Michael Weikath I don't know.....the management and record company picked the track list......I mean there were a few discussions on which tracks which should be on there and which ones shouldn't be on there.....and I like Deliver Us From Temptation a lot because I helped write the lyrics with Markus and Roy Z and we all felt it was a very Priestish track and Markus in the end came up with the lyrics and Andi had lyrics for it etc. This was one of the first songs we recorded or even wrote and this song actually helped give us a feel of what Roy thought good lyrics were....and so that's coming out of that process.....it doesn't mean the song is bad because its not on the record.....the record company and management picked it.

Tony Webster: How do you like the end result of the album's sound?

Michael Weikath: I like it a lot......one knows that it can always be better if you had more time, control and more resources....but whatever....this time around its the way it is and Charlie is a very good producer and mixer and I am very happy with what he did......this is the final result and you dont gave to bear with it because its really good.

Tony Webster: SO what is the b-side Livin Aint No Crime abour?

Michael Weikath: Thats basically.......simply.....uhm.....damn I wasn't expecting this question.........you are trying to make me go around in my head aren't you....make me go crazy?! hahahahahaha Living Aint No Crime is a little revolutionary thing like Robin Hood for instance.....come hither to the slaves....so imagine they are in the woods and they are having all of the guys together and just go about certain things like killing the Sheriff of Nottingham or whatever. It has a revolutionary feel like the old eastern block. It was a party song that was a party song during our shows back in the Keeper 2 days. I wanted to do it as a single and that's why it ended up being a b-side.....because its like this.....every time I want to do a B-side.....it ends up on the A-side like Dr.Stein which was intended to be a b-side. So each time I write a single it ends up being a b-side it seems.

Tony Webster: What's the meaning behind Star Invasion?

Michael Weikath: Nothing at all.....it means nothing we just made up some lyrics. We wanted to have some fun since it was a b-side and it even stayed a b-side and that's about the only track that was conceived as a b-side that became a b-side......so we didn't know what to write so we wrote about a guy in some capsule around Earth trying to protect it and tell Earth that something is wrong when Aliens approach him and he gets hypnotized and doesn't even know what to do and he has to push this button and say this because he's mixed up and he sits up there so long he forgot the commands he needs to give and suddenly some outer space aliens puke and shit all over his control board and they don't seem to like what they see and they fly away as far as possible from Earth and they are gone and nobody knows it happened...hahahaha

Tony Webster: What did you write the song Revolution Now?

Michael Weikath: Oh....I was merely complaining about how things are going down in the modern society we have right now. You can take going down anyway you want to take it and the life quality goes down and senses and feedback etc. How people communicate etc....its all going down and is worse than the decade before.....and I want a revolution and want to renew what I had in the past.

Tony Webster: Where did the idea for the album cover come from?

Michael Weikath: That came from Gisbert Royder.....who played bass on Andi's solo albums......and he did the video of If I Could Fly because he has this new multimedia video equipment so Rod wanted the guy who did the video to do the album sleeve and Gisbert didn't ask for that job but he offered a lot of album covers and ideas...so you see that dark pumpkin by the earth and stuff with that evil beam that looks like it missed earth and its inconclusive because you don't know if that evil beam hits earth or if it does damage and stuff like that.

Tony Webster: So any last words on what fans can expect from this new album then?

Michael Weikath: Well....hmmmm you can expect that it will be standing in stores and its very likely you can buy it when you find it there! hahahahahaha apart from that I dont know if its going to say anything but you can go there and buy it, listen to it, and use it, because its a CD and it usually makes a lot of sound if you put it into a CD player......but probably doesn't work if you put it into a toaster.....hahahahahaha.

Michael Weikath Interview: 2-20-02

Tony Webster: Why did you guys decide to release a best-of?

Michael Weikath; Well it was the idea of the management. They have bought Castle records and Noise records so they own all of the songs under one roof. So what's the most natural thing? Well to do a best of. They wanted us to come up with some new tracks so we could release a new single but this wasn't going to happen since the situation in the band was critical and we had just got back from the tour. Even though they asked us before, it was clear that nobody wanted to go into the studio to record some brilliant new tracks that you could possibly publish as a single. So the idea came up to do an A's and B's, and they said no, they wanted to do a best of. At first they wanted to put it on one CD and we said we wanted two CDs God Damnit, so we wanted to take two long play CDs which would be 80 minutes each so we had 160 minutes for music. So I made up a track listing and I have it to Andi and Markus to see if they wanted to change it a bit and find their own list, but what actually happened is we had to take more tracks off of the list since they still wouldn't fit on one CD. Then another idea was to take the Treasure Chest, the name of the best of by the way which is another glorious idea of mine, to add a third CD of b-sides which would have been the older tracks with Michael Kiske, except for Blue Suede Shoes and Red Socks and The Smell of Trees since these songs wouldn't be interesting on a compilation, but the offer was taken away since Sanctuary didn't have time to get the best-of released and get a hold of all the b-side recordings at the same time.

Tony Webster: So the track listing on the best-of is the final track listing then?

Michael Weikath: Yes but due to time pressure yet again we wanted to put the live version of How Many Tears from Live In The UK on the compliation instead of the studio version. Well what happened was the studio version is on there. We don't regard it to be as good as the Live in The UK version. I have been informed that many of the Treasure Chest Cds have been pressed so its a little too late to change it. I saw it in the press when we were doing all of the interviews, they list the songs from the Treasure Chest and what album they are from, and when I saw that How Many Tears was listed as being from Walls of Jericho, and I said "Wait a moment?!". So its the studio version.

Tony Webster: What label will it be released on?

Michael Weikath: April 1st on Metal-Is, kind of like an April Fools joke eh? Metal-Is has all the rights to all of the songs except the tracks from The Dark Ride. Nuclear Blast will be our record company of the future except for this Best-Of.

Tony Webster: Will the Dark Ride be released in the USA.

Michael Weikath: Soon hopefully, I have heard that they are giving the rights to release it in the states to Nuclear Blast as was intended from the beginning and I still don't know whatever went wrong from the start and I probably don't want to know right now.

Tony Webster: Why didn't you like The Dark Ride?

Michael Weikath: Well I wasn't really in the process of creating it. I could have played a lot more, I could have been asked a lot more about what I think one could do. Basically many many recordings took place without my consent or without asking me if I liked it or if I had any additional ideas to do something. Roy Z is like the producer of this thing and I was more or less expecting him to get me into the process a lot more and that didn't happen. I don't regard the album a true Helloween album in a sense and the music on there I said right from the start I don't really cherish much. The majority regarded the track listing to be the right thing, but this doesn't matter to me anymore. All I know is that the tracks were selected by the management. Everybody who knows the b-sides, like Temptation by Markus, knows it could have come across a different way but it was decided the Dark Ride was to go the way it did. I don't consider it to be a true Helloween album because I had not been asked about anything, if I liked it, if I had any input, etc. For me you can imagine that I feel like I was put aside in a way and this is not the way things need to be run in Helloween. So we made a decision, and talked it over, and had arguments and everything. Markus and I made the decision to ask Roland and Uli to leave, so in the future we will be doing something different, it is not going to be like The Dark Ride. I wasn't born for doing dark music. If you look at the lyrics, many people have written me that Helloween music and its lyrics saved their lives because some people intended to commit suicide. It may be funny, pathetic or whatever, people have wanted to end their lives and when they came across some Helloween music they said it saved their lives. On the Dark Ride there is nothing that would ever save someone's life. No lyrics indicate that you should go on except for Salvation and All Over The Nations. Apart from that the rest would not give anyone the impact to please go on with their lives. If I were a weak minded person and never wanted to commit suicide before, if my favorite band Helloween were to release something like The Dark Ride, I surely would commit suicide because my complete and entire world has changed. We are not going to do anything like the Dark Ride, we are going to do what Helloween is known for which includes thrilling material that the fans love as well as the band.

Tony Webster: Who is doing the cover for the best-of?

Michael Weikath: A guy at the Sanctuary officer who did the High Live record and other stuff on the Castle label.

Tony Webster: You always told me that the song Windmill was never recorded properly, will you ever re-record it?

Michael Weikath: Well we thought about it and we wanted to see how much will we had to do it. Markus, Mark, and Andi thought it would be pressing it a little too much for the release of the best-of so we didn't do it. It would have been a hardship to record it. I'm not too keen on doing Windmill except for the the best of and it would have been cool to have Andi sing it.

Tony Webster: Why wasn't it recorded properly?

Michael Weikath: Well it has that country touch and that is not the way I wanted it to sound. I wanted some orchestrations in it, I wanted it to sound like a Long and Winding Road from the Beatles or something, a bit more evergreenlike and this version is more country like so you can imagine Michael Kiske loved the idea. I played the Eric Claptonlike guitars on there but its not what I wanted to do with that song. So later he was coming up with this Longing track on the Chameleon record and it was obviously he wanted to use all of the orchestra people we invited to record in the studio which was expensive and someone has to write the orchestrations, it also seemed like Michael wanted to keep all of those people for his productions because I had no chance to come up with the idea to use some of those people in Windmill. On the other hand I didn't think we needed it since the sounds could have been made by a synthesizer. Just for that track we got a hold of an old selena or strings instrument and not a sampler. It was the real instrument and it was used just for Windmill. We had to force Ingo to play it because he hated it. We did a recording of Windmill during Pink Bubbles. Many people hate it but I think its a nice ballad to be honest.

Tony Webster: What advice would you give to someone who is starting a band?

Michael Weikath: Naaaaaaah KILL EVERYONE AND DO IT YOURSELF! hahahahahahahha No....I'll be serious now....everyone who starts a band, you should make sure you do it with people you are friends with and that you can play with as a band, because I must tell you that I know many people who cant play with someone else. They can play their guitar properly, bass or drums. They seem to study in their rooms and they seem to work at their instrument and they become real pros......but they cant interact with other people. This happens with so many talents recently, and back when we started Helloween there weren't many great musicians around you know? Meanwhile you have guitar universities, there are videos and tabs and people can become a super instrumentalist but these people cannot interact with other people if those people are the same way that they are. That happens very often. You are faced with a lot of soloist specialists and these people don't know how to deal with other people. I mean what can you do? You have to work on your social surrounding as well, and social abilities to deal with others if you want to form a band. Or then you can do it alone with your computer and you publish brilliant records that nobody wants to play with you on. Everybody has a free choice I guess.... 

Tony Webster: When do you plan on recording the next album?

Michael Weikath: It depends a little who is the new guitarist. We intend to start recordings in July. I don't want to risk not doing a good record if we take that date......if its postponed for a month I don't care because it depends on who the new guitarist is. Henjo Richter of Gamma Ray and I had a meeting and we discussed about him joining Helloween and leaving Gamma Ray. Now I don't know what will become of that actually because I had to leave Hamburg and come back to Tenerife. Right now I am going to create some new tracks and eventually await his decision.