BLIND
GUARDIAN
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BLIND GUARDIAN is a huge name
in the power metal genre and this I think is natural and they deserve it.
So, now after their latest release, which goes amazingly in the market
we decided to do an interview with the guitarist of the band Marcus.
1.FIRST OF ALL IF I ASKED YOU TO DO
A REVIEW OF YOUR CAREER, WHICH DO YOU THINK ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS? IS THERE
ANYTHING YOU ARE DISPLEASED WITH OR YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE OR EVEN FORGET?
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To me every step of our career was
a highlight for itself, every album, every tour we did, erverything became
bigger and bigger. I definitely don´t want to forget anything but
of course there are some things I would do different today concerning recordings
or mixes of some songs, concerning our carrer itself I wouldn´t want
to change anything.
2.TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE NEW
ALBUM (MUSIC,RECORDINGS,ETC). WHY DID YOU MAKE IT LOOK LIKE QUEEN SO MUCH?
HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THIS TITLE? AREN'T YOU AFRAID OF BEEN ACCUSED THAT YOU
DID THAT TO WIN SOME
MORE FANS OR THAT YOU ARE TRYING
TO FORGET YOUR "WILD" PAST AND ESTABLISH THE TAG OF THE "PROGRESSIVE BAND"?
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We didn´t make it look like Queen,
at least not more that the previous albums. We always had Queen influences
in our music and I guess they will always stay, so that isn´t realy
new. The only thing pointing a bit more in that direction is the title,
but we didn´t choose it because Queen had an album of the same name,
we were just looking for something different, not the typical BG-albumtitle.
Hansi one night came up with the idea to call it “A night at the opera”
and all of us loved it, it fits to the music, it fits to the cover, it
was totally different compared to the titles we had before, it was perfect.
And by the way, Queen stole the title themselves, it was taken from a movie
by the Marx Brothers…(that movie has a sequel called A day at the races…ooops
J ) Concerning the music, it has all our trademarks, like the big choirs
or all those harmonie guitars, but it also has a lot of new influences
like all the percussive stuff in the drums or the rhythmguitars for example.
It is a lot heavier and more aggressive compared to the previous albums
and it sounds more fresh and modern, it is the 2002 version of Blind Guardian.
And no, we are definitely not afraid of being accused anything, we just
do what we like to do and don´t realy care what anybody else thinks
of that. As I said before this album is much heavier than Nightfall for
example so we definitely don´t try to forget about our “wild past”,
Punishment divine is one of the fastest and most aggressive songs we have
ever written but we just don´t want to be limited to this one style.
If all the songs would be like that the album would be very boring to us,
we prefer to have a bigger variety of songs.
3.WHAT ARE THE LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
WHICH ARE YOUR MOST BELOVED BLIND GUARDIAN LYRICS? WHY ALL THESE PERSUASION
IN J.R.R. TOLKIEN? DO YOU LIKE BEING CALLED TOLKIENS METALLERS? DOESN'T
THIS SHORTEN YOUR
HORIZONS?
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No, we don´t want to be limited
to Tolkien, that´s why not a single song on the new album deals with
tolkien stuff J Instead of that we used stuff like the Iliad (the trojan
war), the song of Hildebrandt, Tristan & Isolde, or the person Jesus
Christ this time. That doesn´t mean that there won´t be anymore
songs from us based on tolkien, we just gave him a break this time after
we had him all over Nightfall.
4.WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE "LORD OF THE
RINGS" SOUNDTRACK?RUMORS SAY THAT YOU HAD RECORDED SOME SONGS.IF SO, ARE
YOU THINKING OF RELEASING THEM IN A CD - SINGLE FORM?
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No, we didn´t write a single
song for that soundtrack, that is just a rumor. We have been in contact
with Peter Jackson and were asked to send in demos but at that time we
already were stuck in the middle of work for the new album so we didn´t
do it. Our fans had to wait for almost 4 years to get this new album and
we didn´t want to keep them waiting any longer so we focused on our
own new studioalbum instead on that movie stuff. It would have been great
to write something for that movie but the band Blind Guardian is just more
important to us.
5.DID YOU EXPECT BACK THEN WHEN YOU
FIRST STARTED THE BAND, THIS GREAT SUCCESS?HAVE YOU GOT USED TO IT? WHAT'S
THE PRICE YOU PAID?
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Of course we dreamed about being succesful
and big like every new band does but besides that we just wanted to play
our music and we didn´t think about success too much. Since we grew
constantly from album to album it was no real problem for us to handle
our success, it would have been more difficult if we would have been an
overnight success J The price we have to pay is being away from our families
for a long time for example. My 6 year old son for example doesn´t
realy like the idea of his father being on tour for the next 12-15 months.
6.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION WHAT
WOULD THAT BE?
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That depends on the song, we have so
many different stuff, these emotions would cover anything from love to
hate, anger, sorrow, happiness…
7.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T
ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?
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I have no idea, it would be something
in the music business or something with computers.
8.NAME A BELOVED BOOK OF YOURS THAT
YOU'D TAKE AND MAKE A MOVIE OUT OF IT (A BOOK THAT YET HASN'T BECOME A
MOVIE).
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“The Pillars of the Earth” from Ken
Follet
9.WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE
POLITICAL SITUATION DEVELOPED NOW AFTER THOSE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE
U.S.A.?
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Those attacks have been a horrible
thing but attacking Afganistan doesn´t realy help to solve the problem,
a lot of innocent people were killed during those attacks also and Bin
Laden wasn´t cought so they have been rather useless to me. It just
created a lot of worldwide tension and aggression, one should try to get
those terrorists in a different way, though I have to admit that I don´t
know in what way…
10.WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ON THE SATANIST
CASE OF THAT GERMAN COUPLE? DO YOU THINK THIS WILL AFFECT METAL AND HUNTINGS
WILL START ALL OVER AGAIN?
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I guess there is only one opinion one
can have about people like those two, they dumb fucking idiots with a sick
disturbed mind. I don´t think a new wichhunt will start though, they
had a lot of media attention in the beginning but now nobody talks about
them anymore, they will be forgotten soon enough.
11.IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO CHANGE
ONE THING IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
12.WHAT QUESTIONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO
BE ASKED AND NO ONE HAS EVER DONE IT TO YOU? NAME IT AND ANSWER IT AS WELL.
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Question: What is the question you
hate most? Answer: the one above ;-)
13.THANK YOU!YOUR MESSAGE...
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Thanx for all your support, thanks
for making us # 1, hope to see you all on tour and may the force be with
you…
Christine
Parastatidou