PRIMAL FEAR - Ralf Scheepers

\r\n Recently we had the chance to interview ex- Gamma Ray, and\r\nPrimal Fear’s Ralf Scheepers about their latest release Seven Seals,\r\nthe inspiration of the new album, their tour supporting Helloween, what\r\nreally happened with the show they were going to give here in Greece\r\nand his passion for Formula 1.
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\r\nMetalzone: Kalispera Ralf (means good evening when we talked with the singer we found out he can speak Greek quite well)
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Kalispera kala eisai (Good evening, how are you)?
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\r\n Metalzone: I am very well, how are you?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: I am ok. I like your accent.
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\r\n Metalzone: Coming from you is a real compliment. Where do we reach you? Where are you?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: I’m in, close to Stuttgart actually.
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\r\n Metalzone: So tell me a few things about what are you doing these days.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nActually I am doing a lot of interviews, and we just released the new\r\ncd Seven Seals, and we’re really happy that the album is out after\r\nwe’ve done so many efforts, and put so much work into it. I think it’s\r\na good thing that we have the time to advertise the CD. We ’ve also\r\nbeen pretty busy doing the summer shows, the summer festivals, so it\r\nwas a good time that we had to wait for the new album and everybody was\r\njust really happy that, in the end we got really good reviews from the\r\npress, so we’re really happy about it.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell me a few things about The Seven Seals?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nActually we wanted to do it a little bit different from the others, so\r\nwe just want to increase the kind of the songwriting, push it to\r\nanother level, adding some more orchestral stuff in to it and being a\r\nlittle bit more bombastic. You know it’s the first time for Primal Fear\r\nthat we have three songs over seven minutes, which is nothing special\r\nto other bands but for Primal Fear it is, that’s the reason why this\r\ntime everything is a little bit different. Also the team who worked\r\nwith us, the recording guy, and the producer we worked together with\r\nnow was Charlie Bauerfeind actually, we know him since many years and\r\nhe became a friend of the band. We wanted to have a great mix on the\r\nalbum, and that’s the reason why in the pre time, before the recording,\r\nwe chose to work with a very good guy from Vancouver, is Mike Frazer l,\r\nhe did a lot of work for Mettalica. This time we wanted to have a\r\nlittle bit more professional team to work with us, without saying that\r\nthe guys we worked with in the past weren’t professionals, it was just\r\nsomething different.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nWe have the Champions, Champions League of the metal scene. That, gives\r\nan outcome that’s better than before, a higher echelon from the others\r\nright?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Exactly yes.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nI feel that you are a progressing band, I think that with each album\r\nyou go a step higher, especially the last two albums, do you feel so\r\ntoo?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: I feel so\r\ntoo, because you can hear in Devil’s Ground a song called the Healer,\r\nthe direction we have now a little bit. A little bit more orchestral,\r\nnot so high vocals anymore, but still some times showing what we can\r\ndo. Just a little more healable for everybody and showing how we can\r\nstill do songs like Demons and Angels, keep our style, without\r\ndisappointing the fans we have. We’re still heavy metal musicians, but\r\nwe like to be a little bit more hearable to a wider range and crowd.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel that can be possible? A black metal fan listening to Primal Fear?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nWhy not? If you listen to Seven Seals for example, the title track and\r\nwatching the video, I think the most important thing in it is the\r\nmelody ultimately for black metallers. They can of course bang their\r\nhead into the heavy stuff, but on the other hand you love some songs\r\nwith a melody. I am speaking for myself, now but I think a lot of\r\npeople feel the same thing as I do.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell me a few things about the theme Seven Seals has? It’s really original using a biblical theme.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nIt is coming from the Revelation part of the bible, without saying that\r\nwe get Christian now. You can get a lot of inspiration if you read the\r\nbible, without saying that we read the Bible all the day. But you can\r\nalso find a lot of things in the internet with the searching machines;\r\nyou can find a lot of inspiration there. The revelation is just written\r\ndown with the Seven Seals, brought us some how the title track.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to give your own version of the Apocalypse, or do you approach it from a religious point of view.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nIt is a mirror of what is written down in the Bible. Without cocking\r\nit, one to one. It’s not how we see it, it’s kind of the story out f\r\nit.
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\r\n Metalzone: it’s really hard for me talking with you.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Giati? (Why?)
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\r\n Metalzone: . because I was really exited about you coming to Greece.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Me too I would love to come down there.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell us why was the show postponed?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nYeah, well Royal Hunt just cancelled the whole tour. The promoter\r\ndidn’t want to have just one band down there, that’s the reason why we\r\npostponed it, but I’m very happy that we’ll still do the shows, without\r\nknowing when it will be, it might be after the tour with Helloween,\r\ncause we’re doing a tour with Helloween.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nThat, was my next question. Helloween are coming to Greece this\r\nFebruary, and we know you are joining forces over Europe, so I was\r\nwondering whether there’s any chance of coming here together?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nThe thing is that, we have so many things to do that we can’t do all\r\nthe tour, and that’s the reason why we wanted to have the advance show,\r\nwith Royal Hunt, but I am pretty sure that we’ll be very soon in Greece\r\nagain, and everybody’s looking forward.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nWhen you fist appeared in the metal scene, they used to compare you lot\r\nto Judas Priest. Do you feel you’ve surpassed that point? Is Primal\r\nFear now Primal Fear?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nThey’ve always been compared because of me, and my vocals that sound\r\nlike Rob Halford’s but that’s the way I am singing always. I am not get\r\nbehind the microphone and think about Rob Halford all the time. I think\r\nwe’ve developed our own style. Just listen to Seven Seals now and\r\nlisten t songs like the Healer in our previous album so you can say\r\nthat this is our own kind of thing, without saying that before these\r\nsongs, we tried to copy Judas Priest. We are five musicians coming from\r\n5 different backgrounds, and of course we grew up in the 80s where,\r\nthere was a lot of British Heavy Metal with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden,\r\nand all these other bands like Black Sabbath and so on. You can’t deny\r\nthis. They brought us into the music, but as I said five musicians have\r\ntheir own way of composing, and it’s very unique what we do because, we\r\nare five people who bring in their style, in to one and mix it and make\r\nour kind of music out of it.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nI have two opposing views over one song in your previous album. A song\r\nthat’s like a hymn in our radio show. Metal is forever. One view says\r\nthat such songs should exist in order to help the fans they focused to\r\nwhat the music represents. On the other hand the other point of view\r\nsays that such songs are old fashioned and used to be happening just\r\nbecause metal needed to define itself at the beginning of the scene.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI just can tell you one thing. That’s the reason why I can’t really\r\nspeak for it. We come out of the 80s of heavy metal and were fans and\r\nwe were in the shows and banged our heads, to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden\r\nACDC and so on. The ear is learning a lot and we found out that we have\r\nour own talent and that we can compose some songs and we found out that\r\nstill we love this heavy metal stuff so much and somehow we will\r\ndeliver it to the next generation. So that’s the reason why there’s\r\nmetal forever. Sounds very much cliche like but we’re pretty convinced\r\nthat there is always going be metal because there’s always this true\r\nbase of fans that will be at the heavy metal shows, who will buy CD’s\r\nand so on. You can’t compare it to pop music, only if you’re a teen you\r\ncan listen to that kind of music, but if you’re a true heavy metal fan\r\nyou can listen to it from 14 to 40 or whatever. And it’s pretty hard to\r\nexpress what I want to say but I think you get me.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nI get you, it’s my favorite song. You’re doing an extensive tour,\r\nsupporting the Seven Seals. Is there going to be any cameras on board?\r\nAre you going to record any footage for a DVD?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nIt’s always interesting if somebody brings his camera along. Nowadays\r\nit’s no problem because now cameras are small and can record everything\r\neverywhere that’s what happened with the DVD before. I don’t want to\r\nsay no but I don’t want to say yes because I am not sure... I have my\r\nown camera now, maybe I’ll take it with me but other than that.
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\r\n Metalzone: So you haven’t scheduled for any particular show to be recorded
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nNot at all. These things are totally coincidental, and that’s the good\r\nthing about it. That fans catch scenes which are not planned to be, so\r\nsometimes it’s really funny.
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\r\n Metalzone: What are your goals for the future?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: A goal for the future is to stay healthy and to have peace on earth. Heheh, but I know what you intended to go to.
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\r\n Metalzone: I intended for Primal Fear but world peace works fine.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nStill writing songs, producing CDs , and going on tour it think, so\r\nthat’s basically what a heavy metal fan does, and hopefully we can do\r\nit as long as possible. Because we love what we do
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\r\n Metalzone: There’s this common practice that says you should quit while you’re ahead. Do you feel your circle is closed?
\r\nRalf Scheepers:\r\nI don’t think so that we should quit it now. Now that we’ve got such a\r\nstrong thing going on I think that even we can have some progress, we\r\nare a progressing band, and everybody’s curious about the next thing.\r\nSo now the baby is out and maybe we can have a lot of babies.
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\r\n Metalzone: I hope you make a huge family. How do you feel about the metal fans today, how would you describe them?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI remember doing festivals in Spain where we some day before we were\r\ndoing the show, and one day after we were doing the festival, and we\r\nwent out to heavy metal clubs, and it was really amazing. Because, we\r\nremember it from the years we were going out on clubs and nowadays in\r\nSpain, the people got totally crazy. They banged their heads for more\r\nthan ten hours or whatever.
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\r\n Metalzone: That’s a sore neck!!!
\r\nRalf Scheepers:\r\nlike I said before, if you get a heavy metal fan and you will stick\r\nmaybe by it forever. That’s the thing that I love about these people\r\nout there.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel they’ve changed?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI can’t compare o how they changed, they’re still too. Many young\r\npeople return to the scene again and we get people growing into the\r\nscene again. Pretty hard.
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\r\n Metalzone: What kind of music do you listen to?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI listen to a lot of average stuff, such as Nickel back which I love\r\npretty much. I have to listen to a lot of things of what I am doing\r\nbecause I have to learn the lyrics these days, I don’t want to go on\r\nstage with a tinny puncher, I have to get everything in my mind so I\r\nhave to listen to many songs from Primal Fear now. And also we do a\r\nBrazilian show in two weeks from now (the interview was in October 27)\r\nso I have to learn the lyrics for a guy called Tribuzy, Renatto Tribuzy\r\nhe’s released an album with Bruce Dickinson, and there are so many\r\nmusicians on it, makes two shows in San Paolo and Rio, and me and Mat\r\nare invited so we have to do a song for Bruce Dickinson together and\r\nalso some songs from the album so I have to learn a lot of lyrics but\r\nthere’s no time to listen to many other things, you know.
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\r\n Metalzone: Don’t you feel Nickel back are .. I wouldn’t call them metal.
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nYeah it’s rock music of course but you know, I don’t listen only to\r\nheavy metal anymore, I listen of course to heavy metal but not only.\r\nBecause like I said before, music is melody and a lot of good songs are\r\nthere without being heavy metal songs.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you get influenced by the diverse things you listen to?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Sometimes yes
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you use elements from other types of music?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nNo that would be somehow stolen. Maybe sometimes it’s not obvious\r\nthat.when you are composing something and you get to a part and you\r\nthink afterwards hey I know that from somewhere. And then you hear the\r\nsongs and you say oh I can’t use that.It’s not intended to be it’s not\r\non purpose that you use. It’s hard sometimes because you got something\r\nin your head and you don’t know that it’s there already, so you don’t\r\nuse it in the end it’s too obvious.
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\r\n Metalzone: How do you feel about the new champion in formula 1?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Very good. There has to be different champions because it would be boring if always Michael Schumacher wins.
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\r\n Metalzone: Who do you support?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nOh, Michael. He brought me to Folmula 1. I was there in Monaco once in\r\n1996 when he was the world champion, for the first time with Benetton\r\nRenault, and it is just amazing, thunderstorm, formula1 cars in the\r\ncity, racing like hell in the city. It is something you really should\r\nsee and hear of course, it’s just amazing. And I support Michael\r\nSchumacher because; he did a lot to the formula 1 scene in Germany.\r\nHe’s just great.
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\r\n Metalzone: Would you consider driving a formula 1 car in a video or, so?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: I maybe too big but it would be great.
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\r\n Metalzone: You mean big as in your body type? You’re too tall?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI am getting older and fat!! (laughs) You can’t deny the truth I eat a\r\nlot of sweets and chocolate and drink a lot of frappe (Greek cold\r\ninstant coffee shaken). I would love to drive a formula one car, if I\r\nfit in there. It would be a great challenge somehow.
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\r\n Metalzone: Would you like to add something?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers: Ego agapao tous ellines (I Love the Greeks)
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel the metal scene is rising?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI can feel a little bit of a peak now. A little bit, yeah. I can feel\r\nthat there’s something going on now, that might help metal bands to be\r\nfamous again very famous again. Yes.
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\r\n Metalzone: A message for the Metalzone fans?
\r\n Ralf Scheepers:\r\nI have a good feeling about Greece. When we make shows down in Greece\r\nwe always have good shows and the people were great. We get a great\r\nresponse and I just want to say Efxaristo poli (Thank you a lot) \r\n

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\r\nΕλένη "Blackie" Μιχαηλίδου\r\n