• Oh no! I think everything that happened during the last 20 years are part of the history of Running Wild, because it helps you see what the band is today, so I don't think I would really like to miss anything, even the bad things, because they are part of what we are today!

• Yes! Absolutely , cause when I was starting out I had the dream to do what I did in my free time for fun, play music and to do it as a professional msuican and leave from that and that's what i reached now and I live from that for 20 years and I am really lucky that I can do that, because it's not normal that people are really able to live on msuic. That's not the normal way...

• Absolutely! It's what I always wanted to do and it's a dream to do what you like as a profession, because most people have to do a job that they really don't want to do. 

• There are 4 tracks that are newly recorded, which are 2 bonus tracks, previously unreleased tracks, "Prowling Warewolf", which is a song taken from the 1983 live program and was never recorded for a record and the second one is "Apocalyptic Horsemen", which is a song we have written back when we did "Gates To Purgatory" album, we did it for the demo that we did for the record but we never did it for the record, so that's why we included new versions of them, to show that we have material we never used and then the songs from "Branded And Exiled" are also re-recorded with the same members than this other songs, which are the same guys that are still in the band. Matthias Liebetruth on the drums and Peter Pichl on the bass. The other songs...I just took the old productions and I reworked them. This means that I did a lot of work in the studio for them and I played all the rhythm guitars again and I double a lot of the melody guitars and the solo guitars to keep the original version, the original production but to give it a fresher sound. That's what I intended because I don't think it would make any sense just to record all the songs and make new versions of them, because back then I had done this with the 3 first albums for "10 Years Of Piracy" and it wouldn't make sense to do it again, so that's why we decided to do it that way.

• You know we just played one show for the album and we did the headlining plot in Wacken Open Air the previous month and it's the only show we could play this year, because the problem is I immediately started with the last album "The Brotherhood" and then I did the tour and after that I had to rework all the live material for the live DVD, we did the live DVD and you know the live CD and after that I immediately started with the new one "20 Years In Hisotry" what we are talking about and even when I finished all that I had to do the Wacken Open Air, which is the only show we played this year and after that I immediately had  to start what I do now, I am down to the promotion for this one and I am writing material for the next studio album, which is considered to come out next spring. So, I am pretty much busy and I have a lot of work, so this doesn't leave me any space to do more shows this year, so that's why we have plans to do the German dates in the spring of next year and we have about 5 offers for festivals in the next summer so we will just tour there very, very long.

• We never changed anything. When we first started out with the first album what we did with the lyrics it hadn't anything to do with religion.

• No! we never had that and that's what I want to declare! When we first started out with the album "Gates To Purgatory" we used the devil in hell as a political symbol of rebellion and had nothing to do with religion itslef or satanism or whatever. When we figured out with the second album that the people misunderstood what we were saying and they said that we were black metal and into satanism and stuff like that we said no we are not and we have nothing to do with that. We are just using them as a symbol and if you don't understand that we cut that out and if you have a look at "Branded And Exiled" we cut it out totally! No more hell, no more devil, no more anything which has anything to do with that kind of stuff. That's why we changed it and the same basic ideas which you can find in the lyrics now are same all these 20 years and you can find the same things in "Gates To Purgatory" if you cut these words out and just see it as a symbol. Nothing in between. What I wanted to say with the lyrics is the same, just the surroundings changed, the story that I was putting around the ideas. This is what has changed! 

• Not so far! I think it opened up yesterday in Germany! Hahaha... and I don't have the time...I am doing interviews and stuff. Maybe in the next week? I don't know when I will find the time to see the movie! Hahaha!

• Oh yeah!Hahahaha!Ok!!!!

• Ohh that is pretty hard to say! Pretty hard to say because there are so many great stuff you know! I think it's the "Red Corsair" and old movie with Bart Lancaster. I don't knwo the exact English title and bart Lancaster is wearing those white and red stripe trousers, it's a funny and great movie! A classic I think!

• Yes you know, because their behavior to life and what they did...

• Yes they were rebels right! They tried to find another way to live and to live free together. They had laws and they helped  each other in every way and if someone between their group betrayed another guy he was found dead and so they really lived like that...

• Hmm..I don't know! If I have talent to do it! I think it would be fun, but I really can't promise that it would be good! Hahahahaha...!

7.CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH SONGS WILL BE INCLUDED IN THIS 20 YEARS OF RUNNING WILD'S HISTORY CD? 

• Ohh there's a lot of stuff! In the first place it's 2 cd's set and what we didn't want was to do a best of or something like that and I just took 2 songs from each record and I tried to keep the songs which I think are really standing for the whole record and that have a absic idea of what that album was all about and we put it in chronological order. The first cd starts with 1983 and goes straight ahead to the last songs which are from "Brotherhood" 2003 and we just put it in a raw. There are a lot of things, "Bad To the Bone" included and also songs like "Blazon Stone" included and stuff like 'Treasure Island", which nobody would really expect to see...

• Right, right!!!! That's what I did! I necessarily picked out the really classic songs that we play live and I put 2 songs from each record which I think stand for the style of the record... 

• No!It was planned! In the beginning we planned to have this 2 cd's set and one of the cd's was supposed to become a DVD plus with some backstage material, which I have done on my camera and songs from all the records we did and then all the rehearsal stuff but the thing is that it took us so much longer to finish this set that I had immediately to start with the new album, otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep the deal with my label now GUN records.  That's why we had to leave this plan. I know that the last time I did the interviews I said we would do it, but it was just a time problem. It doesn't mean that we will never do it, but we just can't do it now. Maybe in the future we will do a DVD with all the stuff. That's why on this double cd set there's missing one song everybody would expect me to do, "Chains And Leathers". We had a plan to do a real clip of that from the material we had recorded throughout the "Blazon Stone" tour, but we couldn't find the time to do it, because it needs so much time to do all the cutting sna d stuff and put it on a cd and we had to leave it off otherwise I would have a serious time problem!

• It was the only chance to do it, because you see we have 2 different record companies involved, which are 2 major companies, on one hand Sanctuary, which is the former record label and on the other hand GUN records, my record company now. The problem was that GUN records told me that they wanted to do a live DVD and they had to include a lot of the old tracks whose rights belong to Sanctuary, so normally Sanctuary said we won't do it, cause the songs belong to us and the good thing on that was that we had these 2 projects because Sanctuary now could do this history cd, like a best of cd and they could include the GUN records stuff as well. So everybody had the share of it and could sit down on the same table discuss it and do these 2 projects. Otherwise we would be in serious trouble and it would be very very difficult to do it! 

• No, not really!

• No, I don't think so, because in the first place I always try to write the song and to put it in the way Running Wild is all about, concerning the arrangements and stuff and I don't think it would make sense to put it in a classical version on a cd or something like that cause everything else is doing it after all and besides that these songs were never written for something like that. The songs I did are rock songs, heavy metal songs and  think they belong to what they are done for!

• Yeah you know it depends on what you will do and what you feel about your music.Surely there are some melodies you could just take from my songs and make them sound like a movie soundtrack. It wouldn't be a problem if you take a song like "Treasure Island", you could do it with that stuff, but if you take a song like "Bad To The Bone", it wouldn't work!

• In the first place because I don't like these stuff...

• Everybody else is doing it and I never did it, because I know there are a lot of musicians out there that could do it in a much better way than I can, because I don't feel these stuff and even when I was listening to the records like a simple fan I would listen to the whole record and leave aside the ballads...

• Hahahahahaha! So, that's the reason why I never did it, not a technical reason or anything else, but there are people who can do it better!

• Yes!Everybody's doing it!!! It's nothing special anymore and I think it would make more sense to do different stuff from the rest. That's what I tried when i did the cover version on "Victory" album for the song of he Beatles, because no one else did it before. Everyone else said you can't do it, it's a Beatles song and I said I don't give a fuck because it's a great song! So, I can show to people how the song would sound if Running Wild played it! It turned out great and people liked it!

• I also listen to many styles of music, not only heavy metal. I listen to all the stuff that is out there and you are influenced by that even if it's not necessarilu shown in the song. If I am listening to a guy like Robbie Williams, he is great in what he is doing, but I could never see the point of writing songs like his!Hahahaha! It wouldn't make sense and he can do it better than I could! Hahahaha! And it wouldn't also make sense for him to write songs like Running Wild! Hahaha! But you are influecned by all these even if you just listen to it, you can get an idea from it and create your own song.

• Oh, it just came around 1982-1983, when we were really starting out and when we did the first posters for the shows we had to do, I just came out with this kind of figure because we needed something to be on the poster and not only ourselves, to announce the shows we had to play and I just came up with this head and it turned out great for the band, because it was so different from the other stuff and it wasn't something that looked very mad in a furious way or something like that. We saw it more like a maskot.

• Yes! I draw it myself you are right!

• Oh!!!! Hahahahaha! he stands for everything that Running Wild stands for, he has the power. He is the guy with a rebelious attitude, but also he is good at heart!!!

• Right! That's what keeps his enemies off! Hahahahaha! He is sooo ugly! Hahaha! But he is also very beautiful in a certain way, becuase he has a very odd look and he has personality!

• Yes, I am still writing! I have just started with my real writing process. I have some ideas, which I have collected throughout the last years. I immediately started when I finished with the Wacken Open Air at the end of July, so it's been only a month more or less that I am writing the material and there are three songs that I am working right now and there are many stuff, bits and pieces that I just put in a tape, but it's ptretty much too early to say what the new album will end up or something like that, cause when I write songs I just write them from the heart. I just write what I feel and I don't think about it too much. This means I don't think it has to sound like this or write faster songs. I just write what comes out and I am still in the first period of the writing process to put the bits and pieces I have into songs. I have new ideas and a song might turned out totally different in the end! I have them in my mind and just record them, so I am pretty much at the beginning of that!

• I have some ideas, but also it would be too early to talk about it! There's always the possibility that it will change. I am working on that stuff and you know I can change the title of the record even the last 2 songs I am writing, so it's pretty much to early to say anything about it...

• No, not so far, but you know the drummer has some ideas lying there which he has recorded on his own and he will hand it over to me on a later period when I am through with the first of my main ideas which I am working on now.

• I can't talk about that! In the first place when we staretd out with that kind of stuff I said to Jens, the guy who responsible for our page on the net, he told me about it and that the fans liked the idea of something like that and I said Ok, I can make the contacts. There are a lot of songs collected to have material you need for a record. He will handed to me and I can give it to the record company, but I can't make any promises if they will release it after all. I am just doing the contacts and I can help you out if the redord label says alright we're gonna do it! I can say ok I can do the mastering, collect all the things and stuff like that, but I can't do the record! I think the fans in the first place should come out with which songs should end up on the record. it's not up to me to decide this one, but it's up to the fans. So, I really can't tell you where is this process stopping. I am really busy with my own stuff right now and so I taled to Jens one month ago and he said he is still in contact with the record company, but I really can't tell you if they really wanna do it or not. This is the problem, because if they say no we won't do it because this is not the kind of stuff they like or it's not good enough...I don't know!!!! Then we have to think of another possibility to put it out for the fans because it belongs to the fans! Altogether, it means that I can't give you any promise about it, but this is  exactly what I was saying from the first point when I was talking to Jens about that stuff!

• Like I said before I just have the plans to put out the new record...

• Oh, next year...So, we won't play any shows this year like I said before because we don't have any time. We are at the writing process and after we finish the record we don't have time to do any kind of that stuff, so when I finish the record I have to do the promotion for it. We want to put it out next spring, so the first time when we can do more shows is after spring next year, this means we will first play the German dates and after that we will do a lot of shows around Europe. we have alrwady 5 offers as far as I know, one from Poland, one from Hungary. we had contacts with Greece for the previous festival, but the whole festival just fell off, because of the goverment because they didn't give permission to do it and we were last year in the rehearsal room getting ready for the show in Athens and my touring agent phoned me in the rehearsal room and he told me ok you can go home, because the whole festival fell off and we couldn't do anything about that...

• We are still in contact with the Greek agency and I am really looking forward that we can make it for a festival show in the next summer to show to all the fans what Running wild is all about. I think the last time we played there as far as I remember was in 1991...

• Right, right, right! That's why I want to do it and come again! 

• Ohhh!!! That's pretty hard to say, pretty hard to say!!!! Hmm...the movie I mentioned before you know the "Red Corsair" with Bart Lancaster, has a very great music and if you could "translate" it into a Running Wild song it could become a great pirate song! 

• I can't imagine that! Hahahaha! I don't think that question can be asked to me, because I could never think about it. I think music is a very big part of life and it can help you out if you are in a bad situation or something like that. It can bring you up again, it's so natural like drinking and eating and it's a necessary thing to do!

• I don't know!!!! It's hard to say and I don' t think you could find the answer for it. Perhaps it's because the music it's to hard or to aggressive or to strong or what else you could call it. I think most of the girls are more into the pop stuff!hahahaha! Even if most of these guys are gays!!! Hahahahahaha! So there's no chance for them to grab on them! Hahahahahahahaha! I really don't know! I can't find a solution about that!

• You know I just write what I feel and I never think about it too much even if the music around me changes and becomes more aggressive. I don't care for that, because I do what I feel and if I feel I am in an aggressive mood the song will turn out like this, but you know Running Wild has a certain sound, not that I think about that, but it's because the Running Wild style is like that and just comes naturally when I write the songs!!!

• Yeah! What I said before, that we are really looking forward to coming next summer to Greece and play a show there, even if it's not a big festival show and to show all the Greek fans what Running Wild is all about!