Tell us about:

Your latest single you have released:

Our latest release is called “Proud to Love You.”, a collection of ballades and soft rock songs, and the single is called “Caterpillar”. The tracks on this album were inspired by different emotions around love – from ecstasy to agony, from serenity to heartache, but with a clear bias on the pleasant aspects, inspired by personal experiences with romantic love, all derived from different emotional states. The (probably) most famous type of love song where you are longing for and dreaming about someone. This can be purely joyful as in our single “Caterpillar”, and some other songs on that album. 

Your first single and how you felt when it was released:

The first real album (not demo) that we released was “just blood” in 1998, and the single on that album was “sweet little witch”, our first blues. I felt ecstatic when the CDs arrived, and back then, I went to every music store in town (which was, back then, Graz, Austria) and convinced most of them to take a few CDs under commission and put them in their shop window – I was so proud!

Your favourite song that you have created that is an album track:

My favourite track changes from album to album, and it is normally one from the latest album, since I always try to improve upon myself as musician. If I have to exclude Caterpillar (which is my favourite track), I would go for “Proud to Love You.”, the title track of our latest album. It is positive, warm, energetic – I still like listening to it after literally listening a thousand times during composing, recording, mixing and mastering…

Your favourite song to play live:

That is, certainly, Caterpillar – it is soft, tender, comes directly from the heart, and is just a joy for me to perform – also and especially “unplugged”, me alone with my acoustic guitar.

Your most emotional track:

Again, that would be Caterpillar, for the same reasons. Perhaps it is so emotional because it is so simple – as a wise man once said: if it is simple, it comes from the heart. The mind is usually the reason for things becoming complicated.

The best lyric you have ever written:

That is difficult to answer. The song “the fly” from our album “The Art of Loving” is arguably the most funny one (or the lyrics from “Chocolate Covered Bear”, which were not written by me, though, but a former member). I personally like the lyrics of “Apostles, Traitors and Messiahs”, since they are intended to be sung by a personification of Earth – and, of course, “Caterpillar”, because it is a beautiful story with many different levels of meaning.

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show:

Excitation, happiness, joy – a flash of “whow”, and then being 100% present in the moment, in the now. Sometimes a bit nervous – but in general, mostly positive and difficult to describe.

The hardest track to play live:

There are many tracks that cannot be performed live, since one of our original singers does not live any longer, unfortunately, and his voice was so unique that I doubt it can ever by adequately replaced. And there are some songs with choir or orchestral arrangements that were recorded with one or two singers and digital orchestras – that is also difficult to do live.

Essential items you always take on tour with you?

We have not toured as a band in the current constellation. However, everyone in our band also plays in other bands, and they do play live regularly. The last time I played live was a short solo concert with piano improvisations – and I had no essential items with me for that one. 

Describe your fans in three words:

Fantastic, enthusiastic, great!

A song by another artist or band you wish you had written:

None. I respect the works of other artists and admire them for that, thus I do not wish any of their accomplishments to be my own.

What we can look forward to from your band this year:

We are working on a hard rock album about the different aspects of pain and how to deal with it. In contrast to our latest album which was mainly about love and the positive aspects of being in love, this new album will be faster, darker – and heavy.