GAMMA RAY - Kai Hansen

\r\n Last Wednesday we had the chance to talk with one of the most\r\ngifted men in the metal scene, writer, guitarist and singer of Gamma\r\nRay, Kai Hansen. Kai talks about their latest release Majestic, their\r\ntour, their upcoming visit to Greece , the chances of releasing a DVD\r\nand his past with Helloween. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Hello Kai, this is metalzone calling. How are you?
\r\n Kai Hansen: Alright I’m fine. I am directly after sound check and I am ok.
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\r\n Metlazone: It’s the 19 th of October and we have located you in Oberhaufen in Germany.
\r\n Kai Hansen: Yes right, the pronunciation was really good.
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\r\n Metalzone: I am doing my best. It’s an honor for us to be talking with you. We admire your talent
\r\n Kai Hansen: Thank you very much, my pleasure too.
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\r\n Metalzone: You’re on tour supporting your latest release Majesty. Right ? Do you want to tell us a few things about your latest album?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nYeap. It’s coming on a cd... it’s been four years since we released a\r\nstudio album. Since that time we’ve done many things. That was touring\r\nthe No world order, and we have done the Skeleton in the Closet tour,\r\nproducing the album the double live, and we played a lot of festivals,\r\nan Iron Maiden support tour, a South America tour, I had produced twist\r\non warrior album in between, and so we’ve been kept very busy. Of\r\ncourse in between, after the No world order tour I already started\r\nwriting new material and collecting new ideas and stuff, and in July\r\nlast year we got together in the rehearsal room and started playing the\r\nfirst ideas that were there. Finally, the production started in\r\nDecember, and lasted until May, this year, so that included as well\r\nrehearsing and song writing cause the way we worked this time was not\r\nto do finished preproduction which means like demo tapes which I kind\r\nof totally produced. Sometimes in the past we did that, the songwriter,\r\none of us came up with a totally produced demo tape then in the end\r\nDaniel just played his drums on the demo tape and then we reproduced\r\neverything in the studio so this time we said we wanted, that was an\r\nexperience from Skeletons In The Closet, live thing. When we played\r\nlively we sound pretty good and it gives the whole thing more, it’s\r\nmore alive of course. We said we want to transfer this to the studio\r\nalbum, and we said every song will be played in the rehearsal room as a\r\nfour peace band and the demos will be kept very rough. And that’s where\r\nwe took it from. And so we worked song by song, worked it out on the\r\nrehearsal room and when it was ready to record, we recorded it in the\r\nrehearsal room, Daniel playing drums, and the drums were recorded but\r\nwe were playing at the same time to tang along together with it. Which\r\nis for nowadays different, because normally it’s done with clip tracks.\r\nWe wanted it without clip tracks. Just keep it more lively. That was\r\none very important thing for this album.
\r\nOf course songwriting\r\nwise compared to Autumn, Autumn was more straight album, more related\r\nto the eighties kind of heavy metal, not so bombastic and stuff, we\r\nalways like work against trends, so when the trend was something\r\ncompletely different in 95, and classic metal was said to be dead, we\r\nreleased Land Of The Free, which was kind of totally against the trend,\r\nbecause it was a melodic power metal album. With no World Order we had\r\nto do this cause at that time was out of an overture orchestra and too\r\nyou know bombastic kind of things in metal and it was time for us to\r\nrelate back to the eighties, to the straightness, to the not so much\r\nproduced things. So with this album again, we changed a bit and while\r\nsongwriting, we said we write songs that have more variety, more\r\nintricate arrangements, a bit more progressive, fooling around and well\r\nwhat people told me about Majestic is that it kind of sums up the best\r\nthings about Gamma Ray in one album. It’s like a best of Gamma Ray with\r\nnew songs.
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\r\n Metalzone: That is really inspiring for me. I don’t know about you. Are you satisfied with the outcome of the album?
\r\n Kai Hansen: Absolutely yes.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel it’s your best album up to date?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\noh, well, I never rate albums as the best or the worst or stuff like\r\nthat because I think we always done an album at a time when we did it\r\nwith however the best we could do. So I don’t like to look back and\r\nrate the albums as the best or the worst and stuff like that, I like\r\nthem all, each one for me is another great Gamma Ray album.
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\r\n Metalzone: I was wondering what inspired you the title of the album?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nMagestic, it came from a song that I wrote, for this album, but it was\r\nnever finished. So it’s still lying around, it has to be finished but\r\nwe kept the title. So Majestic has nothing to do with the song Majesty\r\nthat is on the album Majestic. So in a later album you’ll find a song\r\ncalled Majestic and you’ll know where it comes from. We just kept the\r\ntitle for this album because we liked it, it’s simple and straight and\r\nit has a connection to lyrics which are a bit darker in a way. Because\r\nwe are, we have a common sense in the band about the world situation,\r\nwe are concerned about it, so for us it was time to kind of get rid off\r\nour feelings, of our anger, of our desperation, about what’s going on\r\nin this world. So in a way, the lyrics of this album are in a way about\r\nthe majestic over and ever presence of evil in this world. But still,\r\nwe try not to get ourselves depressed. We want to push on and move\r\nforward to something more optimistic and better.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nNice way of looking at it. We saw on your web page visitors have voted\r\nFight as their favorite song of your latest album. Do you have a\r\npersonal favorite on this album?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nNot really. Because the songs are so different from each other and I\r\nsee the album as a whole thing so I can’t point out one song as the one\r\nI like most or one I don’t like the most. It’s the same for albums for\r\nme. I like them all. And the voting on the web site is maybe a bit\r\nirritating. We’re thinking about changing it, cause people can actually\r\nonly vote for one song which they think that is the one that is best.\r\nKind of discredits the other songs always. We’ll probably change it so\r\nthat you can give from one up to ten points so that it will be more\r\naccurate cause then you can end up with every song on the album has\r\neight, nine points or something like that, will be more kind of\r\naverage.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you satisfied with the course of Majesty on the charts around the world?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nWell, so far we are. There’s a time of many releases and the metal\r\nscene is kind of over…There’s many bands around, a lot of releases, and\r\nthey have to deside which one they buy cause they can’t buy them all.\r\nSo far we are very happy. We have got very good charts positions in\r\nevery country. You can always say it could be better. We could go\r\naround and blame it on the record company, for promotion, and blame it\r\non anything else, or maybe blaming it on ourselves for not having a\r\nsmashing single. But what the fuck! We did the best we can and so far\r\nwhat we got from the fans as feedback is really great and that’s what\r\ncounts.
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\r\n Metalzone: How are the fans reacting to the album on your live shows?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nSo far, we kept the number of tracks that we played live very much to a\r\nminimum. We wanted to play like 7 or 8 songs from the new album but\r\nthen again we had to face reality, cause when we started the tour the\r\nalbum was very fresh so the people didn’t know the songs that well, and\r\nfor a concert that is always kind of strange if people don’t know the\r\nsong so good and they won’t sing along. So we had to keep down our\r\nambitions and play more old classics, and it didn’t hurt. It didn’t\r\nhurt the hole performance or anything. So the reactions to the new\r\nsongs were so great and the longer the tour lasts the better it is.\r\nBecause more and more people are there that know the songs.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you planning to add songs on your upcoming setlists?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nThe fist part of the tour will be finished in four days and the next\r\npart will start with South America and then japan and then Greece will\r\nbe next year?
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\r\n Metalzone: That’s the greatest news I’ve heard for a long time.
\r\n Kai Hansen: Well our agency are very hard working on it. I don’t see any reason why we can’t play there.
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\r\n Metalzone: I was looking at the tour dates and when I saw you were in italy last week and you didn’t come in Greece I was disappointed.
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nit’s not like…you just don’t go over to Greece , like this, and we had\r\nthe decision on going on a tour bus which is kind of a drag, for it’s a\r\nlong way and not really a safe kind of way. Or you go on a plane but\r\nthat comes back with cost and stuff, we’ll find some way. We ‘ll be\r\nthere. We are coming.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you coming on a summer festival?
\r\n Kai Hansen: I don’t want to say anything definite yet. So I just know that we’re gonna come.
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\r\n Metalzone: Ok I’ll keep your word about that, I am not going to pressure you anymore.
\r\n Kai Hansen: I don’t wanna say something now that will be wrong then. So I just say we will be there.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you going to film any of the footage on your tour for an upcoming DVD ?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nWe have a plan of filming something on this tour and producing on DVD.\r\nThe thing is we still have to deal this out with the record company\r\nbefore the DVD is released because we have to see what the situation\r\nwill be in the future. There’s some things happening so I don’t want to\r\ntalk about it too much. So that’s one thing that we’re gonna need to\r\ndecide if we do the DVD now or if we postpone it for later on.
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\r\nMetalzone: But can’t you record the footage now? Or will it be a problem if you used it later on under a different label?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nif we record the footage, if want to do it properly, you have to hire a\r\nreal good company to do the filming and the songs, and that costs a lot\r\nof money. And that’s gonna be paid by the record company. So if we do\r\nit now then it might be a change in the future, and then we’ll be stuck\r\nusing it with what we have now and that maybe not a good move. So we\r\nkeep that open and we are going to negotiate some things.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nOf all of the shows that you’ve done so far, do you see any differences\r\nin today’s audience than it was in the past? You’re in the metal scene\r\nfor a long time and surely the audiences have changed. Do you see\r\nchanges?
\r\n Kai Hansen: it depends on\r\ncountries. For instance I think when we got to Italy or we go to Spain\r\nor something like that, people are pretty mush the same. Of course many\r\npeople have short hair now, and wear a bit different clothes. Coming to\r\nGermany and coming to all the Northern countries, it seems like that\r\npeople are changing. It’s not like metal community, so much anymore.\r\nPeople like metal but they don’t look like metal heads.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nDo you feel that’s because the audience has a broadened base now, and\r\npeople who don’t listen to metal exclusively come to listen to metal,\r\nor just a change of culture?
\r\n Kai Hansen: Maybe just a change of culture.
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\r\n Metalzone: How about the number of fans coming to the shows?
\r\n Kai Hansen: It varies from country to country. \r\nIt’s always changing. One time we have a lot of people, then we have a little less so it’s changing.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nYou told me before that you want to stay true to your metal roots,\r\nmetal the way it was in the eighties. Do you feel the metal scene has\r\nchanged its style and has become more of a mainstream and lost its\r\ncourse?
\r\n Kai Hansen: Well, of course\r\nits different there’s more kinds of metal, its ore kind of hard music\r\naround. From classical music , inspire in like stuff like Nightwish,\r\nand there’s grudgy stuff, like American alternative, and there’s funk,\r\nthere’s all kinds of things black metal, death metal whatever. And\r\nheavy metal is not heavy metal anymore. It’s divided to a thousand\r\nsubgroups and so of course that makes it less a union thing.
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\r\n Metalzone: What is heavy metal to you? How would you define it?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nOf course it’s a kind of music, it’s hard music definitely and for me\r\nof course it’s whatever I grew up with in the 70s 80s and the 90s so\r\nit’s like that’s one thing. But what’s behind it is a kind music where\r\nyou can get your feelings out. Where you can give out your emotions,\r\nyour dreams, where you can escape from reality, or deal with reality.\r\nAnd that it was for me. When I had troubles at home then I put on some\r\nmusic even on my bicycle on a walk man I felt good, I felt free, a lot\r\nof energy given to me while listening to this music, and that make me\r\ncarry on and go where I was going with a good feeling. And for me\r\nthat’s heavy metal.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel that the many genres of metal are confusing the fans? Making them loose their course?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nIt makes it even harder to know everything and sometimes we feel\r\ncompelled to decide for one or the other. So it divides the thing a\r\nbit. Sometimes it seems like a death metal fan, can’t accept power\r\nmetal or a melodic power metal fan for him it might be just impossible\r\nfor him to accept some American kind of metal. And sometimes you have\r\nto see that, in all kinds of metal there’s something good. You just\r\nhave to find out what is good and what is not. There are ????? that you\r\nlisten to that are great and are fun to listen to and there’s others\r\nthat are not fun
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\r\n Metalzone: So what you’re saying is that funs should just trust their ears and not what is being promoted by the media.
\r\n Kai Hansen: Absolutely!
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\r\n Metalzone: Besides Gamma Ray, what else do you listen to?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nObviously a lot of classic metal, stuff that I grew up with, but as\r\nwell I am keeping my eyes and ears open and sometimes I listen to other\r\nstuff. I even have some Marilynn Manson in my collection, or Pink\r\nFloyd, all kinds of stuff.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nThat’s because you are touring with Nocturnal Rites which are a young\r\nrising band in metal, they are following the power metal path and I was\r\nwondering if you have any new artists that you like.
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nThere’s one band that I really particularly like, this is Dragonforce.\r\nThey are a great band I really like what they are doing and I think\r\nPowerwolf , the other band that’s touring with us a new upcoming band,\r\nI actually like their style a lot.
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\r\n Metalzone: Is there an artist in the metal scene or outside it that you would like to cooperate with?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nThere’s to many to mention. There’s so many good musicians around. So\r\nmany artists that it would be fun to do something together, that I\r\ndon’t think about it too much.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nMetal fans worship the albums you did with Helloween. The Keepers of\r\nthe Seven Keys, and The Walls Of Jerico are haunting the metal scene.\r\nUpdate, there have not been albums that have come close to being equal\r\nto those albums. How do you feel about that?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nWe did some albums without knowing how big it would be one day. It’s\r\nlike we just did what we like and it felt like, didn’t think about it\r\ntoo much. It’s a great thing and honor for us. But of course I don’t\r\nknow if it would be possible to do something like this in these times.\r\nBecause at that time we did these albums the metal scene was kind of\r\nsmall. And there was not to many German bands. So it was circumstancal.\r\n
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\r\n Metalzone: Helloween are releasing a Keeper of the seven keys, the legacy. How do you feel about that?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nWell you know whatever they want to do it’s fine with me. I got no\r\nproblem with that. They can do whatever they want. My first thought was\r\nthat I just wouldn’t do it because it just puts on a basis to be\r\ncompared to the old Keepers. And that can… cause many fans are very\r\nnostalgic and maybe I am too, when I hear the title Keepers, I want to\r\nhear Michael Kiske singing. If he doesn’t sing it isn’t Keepers.\r\nWhatever the songs are like. That is a brave move sort of say. Cause it\r\nmight be not so easy to accept.
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\r\n Metalzone: Its always difficult to repeat a success as big as the Keepers in my opinion
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nRight, that’s why I wouldn’t do it. Because it was an era, it was a\r\nbasis and I would prefer to do something new, something different.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nWe’ve heard the Keeper, and we feel it’s nothing compared to the old\r\nones. I don’t know if it’s the era, I don’t know if its your absence,\r\nor Michael’s absence, fact is that they are not equal and it’s much\r\nless. Very much less of their legacy. And that is not only my opinion,\r\nthat is our listener’s opinion as well, as they had the chance of\r\nlistening to it over the show.
\r\n Kai Hansen: I just want to keep myself out of judging it. It wouldn’t be fair to the others. So I don’t give any opinion about it.
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\r\n Metalzone: Would you consider reunioning with Helloween?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nRe- union with Helloween, who’s Helloween? It would be a re union if\r\nyou talk about Michael and Markus I would do a tour with them. And play\r\nthe old stuff. That would be something I would really like to do. That\r\nwould be very nice and of course we would have to find a drummer, that\r\ncould carry the spirit of Ingo somehow to the stage. But it would be a\r\nnice thing cause I think before we are getting too old we should do it.\r\nIt’s not up to me. And of course I am happy with Gamma Ray, and there’s\r\nno problem. That depends, it really depends on the other.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nMichael left Helloween to follow a different course outside metal. He\r\nsays that now he wants to do AOR music. Would you do something like\r\nthat yourself?
\r\n Kai Hansen: No, you see so far I didn’t. It’s his opinion fair enough. Whatever he says and means he just has to live with that.
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\r\n Metalzone: Tell me your expectations for the future.
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nI am expecting to carry on making this kind of music for more and more\r\nyears, at least ten. I can hold up for another ten that will be really\r\ngood. Continue making good albums, continue going on tours. And still\r\nbe on the leve where I am or aybe go a steep further reach a higher\r\nlevel as well. But so far I am really happy with where I am. It’s very\r\nuncommon. Given fact that somebody gets out of a well known band starts\r\na new project and that transfers into a band that has worldwide success\r\nand is on the scene for so many years and still has a good success. So\r\nI am happy and thankful and I hope I can keep this up for many years\r\nmore.
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\r\n Metalzone: I believe that only happens to people who are gifted and you’re gifted.
\r\n Kai Hansen: Thank you very much.
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\r\n Metalzone: We are all looking forward to seeing you live in Greece . Would you like to give a message out to the Greek Funs?
\r\n Kai Hansen:\r\nI hope that nobody is mad about us for taking four years for anew album\r\nand thena still having to wait for us to come over to play. So please\r\nbe very patient we are trying our best to come to Greece and we are\r\nhoping to see every body there. \r\n

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\r\nΕλένη "Blackie" Μιχαηλίδου\r\n

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