Andy B.Franck (Brainstorm)
December 2007
You released a DVD in June under a really funny title. Who came up with that?
I just had this idea one evening while I was sitting on the toilet. No bullshit but true. We were always talking about it with Todde that how can we call the DVD and we had tons of different ideas for it. One evening I started playing with the words BS as we have that as our symbol for Brainstorm. And when I sat on the toilet I just had that BS like bees with honey and when I came back from the toilet I picked up the phone and called Todde and said, “What do you think, can we do something with honey and bees?” He said, “What? Honey and bees? Huh?” Then I explained it to him if he says it in English and blah blah blah and finally he got it and said, “You’re fucking stupid. Just call me back when you have something cool and something heavy.” But a few hours later he called me back and said, “Now I know what you’re talking about.”
How did you compile the songs for the DVD?
As we haven’t re-recorded anything for the DVD so we just chose the songs that we thought that sounded the best. We haven’t touched the songs, everything is natural. This is how we played it on stage. This is actually 100% live, there are no overdubs, it’s just been produced. Some songs of the shows on the second DVD we skipped a few songs as they didn’t sound that good. We just went for the best sounding ones. But the Hungarian show has all the songs we performed, we didn’t skip any of those.
And how about the Sziget appearance? How did you pick those songs?
As far as I remember they didn’t record the whole show so we have just a few songs of that show and we just chose the best sounding ones as we did with the other tracks.
So what about all the other unreleased material. Will you ever release them?
To be honest with you we had a lot of stress just to release this double DVD and now we know what it means to release a DVD. We always wanted to give our very best and I think so far we released everything good and if we do another DVD release we’d like to release a concert that is being shot during one of the new tours. We will record some shows on the new tour so maybe we can release another DVD in the future. I think everything that was good quality had been released by now. We have released some very old stuff too, my second and third show with Brainstorm and that was really important for us. But the next time we do a DVD we want to shoot some new stuff with an entire show.
You said that you didn’t change anything from the original recordings... do you always prefer raw sounding records rather than a polished one when it comes to live recordings?
Yes. When I grew up I listened to live albums like for example World Wide Live by the Scorpions and Unleashed from the East by Judas Priest where you can actually hear that these albums were overdubbed, so that is not really live. When I was just about 14-15 years old I collected a lot of bootlegs myself because that brought me the live atmosphere. This is exactly how I heard it and this made me to feel like I’m in the crowd and this is what I’ve heard in that moment. I think it’s much better to release the real thing. I’m not afraid if there’s a mistake on the album.
Is there any future for live CDs now that we have DVDs around?
I don’t think so. There’s not a big difference in recording a live CD and a live DVD. It’s not that more expensive to record a DVD. It’s probably the same budget you need so it doesn’t make really sense to release a live CD. For example in Germany Rammstein have released their live album as a DVD and also as a live CD and nobody really ever bought the live CD. You can listen to the DVD as well, just turn off your TV and you get a CD.
That’s what I usually do. I rarely have the time to watch a DVD so I just put in and turn off the TV and listen to the music in DTS or something...
Yeah, exactly. Also another thing... on the DVDs you can have Dolby Surround or DTS while on the CD it’s just stereo and that’s it. When you sit in the middle and hear the music all around you is much much better. That’s one of the main reasons I prefer DVDs too. But as I said I see no future for live CDs, maybe as a bonus as part of a DVD package but not on its own.
2007 saw the reissues of the first two Brainstorm albums that you weren’t singing on. What do you think about those two albums?
The funny thing is... it must have been in 1997 when Hungry came out Brainstorm and my former band Ivanhoe had the same booking agent and this guy came up to me and said, “Here’s a present to you Andy, listen to this, this band will become successful sooner or later. They’ll become huge.” Maybe I thought to myself, “Okay. They should become huge but not with this singer.” (Laughs) But anyway, I still like those albums very much and a lot of people asked me after they heard that Brainstorm will rerelease these two albums, they asked me if I’d like to sing the songs on those albums. I think those albums are a document of time, this is what happened in 1997 and 1998 and this is how they recorded it, so I think they shouldn’t change anything. They recorded those albums with Marcus and they done an amazing job at that time. It was a great start for the band. Hungry was the reason why Brainstorm were able to sing a deal with Metal Blade Records. They’ve been on four tours and it was a big step for them. It was amazing at that time. I think it was time to re-release the albums as both of them were unavailable since years and people always came to us after the shows and asked us if the albums were still available. It was time to do that. It’s good for them and not good for me because I do not earn anything with that. (Laughs)
Which songs of those albums would you see as the biggest challenge to sing?
We always played songs from the first two albums. We played The Healer, Voices, Here Comes The Pain, Holy War... we also played Don’t Stop Believing last December for a very special show. We played in front of only fan club members in Bochum. I always wanted to sing Into The Fire from Unholy but the rest of the guys never wanted to play that anymore. (Laughs) That could have been a big challenge for me but it’s not only up to me. But we played a lot of songs from the first two albums. It’s not too easy when you play a tour and most of the fans down there know you only because of the last two or three albums and when you play a very old track and you see the die hard fans noticing the song and the rest of the guys just stand there asking, “What is that?”
Maybe a new song... (Laughs)
(Laughs) Maybe a new song. I just put out my handy and just record it and put it on YouTube. (Laughs)
A reissues of the first two albums were released with some bonus material. What is that?
It was very important for the guys to release those album not just as a remastered version but they wanted to give something special to the fans. Both discs are double CDs where on the first disc you can find the remastered version of the album and CD two has the original version of the albums. And then you also have demo recordings from 93-94. I think it’s still not everything they recorded. (Laughs) I still have some demo tapes in my cellar as well with the very first demo tape ever they’ve recorded. In my ears it sounds horrible but I think my first recordings sound horrible as well. (Laughs) But it’s okay, it’s not a really big thing. They re-released those albums on midprice just to bring it back to the kids, so if someone wants to have it here it is and then they get value for money.
Let’s see the new album then. There was a bigger gap between the albums this time. It’s usually around two years...
Well, the thing with Liquid Monster was that we wrote most of the songs for that album while we were on tour and at that point it was amazing and we said, “It’s great, we can keep this live atmosphere, this feeling on the record.” But then at some point we thought that between Metus Mortis and Soul Temptation, and between Soul Temptation and Liquid Monster there is not such a big difference in musical style. Some of the songs could have been on the album before or on the next album. So, we felt that it was time to have some sort of a break from the usual “album release - then tour - then album again in one and half years” routine. Also we just wanted to spend a lot of time with writing and recording the new songs and not just only write them somewhere on the road between this show and that show. So we decided after the festivals in 2006 that we’ll sit down and we’ll start working on the new album and we didn’t want to work near our hometown as we always done. We wanted to change something and I think it was time for us not to copy ourselves. I think that was the biggest problem we’ve seen. It was very important for us.
How long did it take to compose all the songs this way?
I think we started rehearsing in October last year. Then we stopped for a few weeks and then we started again in February 2007 and it was actually also the point when we started arranging the songs. Then in May we started involving Miro and Sascha, the producers of the album. We sent them some MP3 files to check out so they had enough time to bring in their input. It was very important for us to have them not just to record the album but they are also the producers of the album. We wanted them to know the songs as much as possible. We started arranging the songs again and writing new parts when we’ve been to Wolfsburg and recording the entire album at Sascha’s studio.
How did you share the songwriting credits this time?
Milan and Torsten always do write the first riffs. Then it comes up to the last members of the band like Dieter and me. (Laughs) Then we do arrange everything together and this is where it ended for the last 2-3 albums but this time we went further. We said ourselves, “Okay, this is how we sound in 2007 but let Miro and Sascha hear it and see what they think.” Then they started rearranging and writing new parts here and there. Okay, the basics are always written by Milan and Torsten and then everything else comes from everywhere. (Laughs)
You mentioned that you wanted to do things differently this time. Did you also sit down and talk about the musical direction you wanted to take?
Most of the time it just happens but we had a closer look on our last three albums as I already said. Metus Mortis was something like our breakthrough. Then Soul Temptation came out and some parts of that album sounds like Metus Mortis. Then Liquid Monster came out and also it sounds like Soul Temptation or Metus Mortis in some parts. This was the typical Brainstorm sound, so we said ourselves, “Okay, forget about everything what we’ve done over the last few years. Just start writing new songs without thinking that we have to sound like this and that.” This is the main thing because we wanted to sound different. The step between Ambiguity and Metus Mortis for me is the same step as we just headed this time.
So how would you musically compare this new album to the previous ones, let’s say Liquid Monster?
I think Downburst... well... (Laughs) How to describe, how to describe? Why do you love your wife?
I don’t.
Yeah, okay. (Laughs) Liquid Monster was an album for the European standard and now I think with Downburst we reached something what we can mess up with bands from all over the world. With the production and the songs we do not have to fear bands from the US or wherever. I think personally that Downburst sounds much more international than a Brainstorm album has ever sounded.
How do you see the fans reaction to these changes in your musical style since you started?
It’s always the same. The die-hard fans are with you since the very first day and they always say with the first chart entry, “Ah, that’s commercial. It’s a sell-out. You became arrogant. Now you’re an asshole, 10 years before you’ve been so friendly and so cool. Now you don’t say hello anymore.” Just because 10 years ago there was about 50 people in a club and now there are 500 or even a thousand or two. You don’t see them, that’s the simple answer of why you haven’t said hello. (Laughs) Some fans always say that you changed in the wrong direction but I think most of the fans like the way we changed. We’re still heavy, we’re still Brainstorm and we’re still hanging out with the kids, we do like doing what we do and we don’t care about trends and hypes so we are still honest to ourselves and I think this is what people like in Brainstorm. And at the end we are nothing without the fans, they made us what we are, they helped us in so many ways and this pushes you up to another level. But you cannot do anything right for anybody... there’s always people complaining about the band and the music. There are always people running around saying Paul Di’Anno was the better singer for Iron Maiden but I discovered Iron Maiden with Number of the Beast so for me Bruce Dickinson is Iron Maiden.
To me it’s Di’Anno...
Thank god you haven’t said Blaze Bailey. Paul Di’Anno was okay for me as well but I prefer Dickinson as I discovered Maiden with him. Die-hard fans that discovered the band on the very first day will always say it’s Di’Anno and if it’s Brainstorm then it’s Marcus. But much more fans discovered Brainstorm with me in the band. It’s okay with me. The cool thing is that this shows you that we are the same Brainstorm that started in 1998 as we can play songs from the very first album right after a brand new song. You’ll hear the difference but not such a big difference as Metallica would play The Fourth Horsemen and something from St.Anger.
Well, I wouldn’t say Di’Anno is a better singer than Dickinson but to me Killers is THE Maiden album.
Yeah, it has a lot of amazing songs! This is also the reason why I haven’t re-recorded the first two Brainstorm albums. At that time Steve Harris just wrote the songs for his singer, Paul Di’Anno. If you do listen to songs from the Killers album with Bruce Dickinson on vocals he always tries to imitate Paul Di’Anno. And of course those songs were never written for Bruce Dickinson’s voice. This is also the reason why Ambiguity was kind of a strange album for Brainstorm because most of the songs were written just before I joined the band and then we went into the studio and then I had to sing on an album that was never written for me. So to me the first important Brainstorm album with me on vocals was Metus Mortis because those songs were meant for me. If Iron Maiden would have recorded Number of the Beast with Paul Di’Anno on vocals it could have been a disaster but on the other hand the same way around: having written everything for Killers, fire Di’Anno, and let Bruce Dickinson to sing the album could have been a disaster as well.
I think it’s time to go back to Brainstorm...
Yeah. It’s not a big difference, just a few million copies. (Laughs)
And one less singer...
Yeah. (Laughs) I’ll cross my fingers for that to stay that way. (Laughs)
You went for “Fire Walk With Me” as the first single. Do you think it represents the new album the most?
Yeah, I think so. It’s a very headbanging track... I’m always talking about big bands tonight, that’s pretty cool. (Laughs) I think it has the same kind of feeling as songs like Enter Sandman or Symphony of Destruction. So, here we go: Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, wow! Cool neighbours. (Laughs) We asked ourselves of what the next single should be and I think it was very important for us not to release another track sounding like All Those Words because a few fans said, “Well, it’s very commercial. Will it be the future of Brainstorm? Will they try to be the German Nightwish with this opera singer or whatever?” I think it was very important to release a song that is totally different. I think Fire Walk With Me expresses exactly of what Brainstorm is all about in 2007. It does sound different, it’s a brand new song but also it’s a typical Brainstorm song. I’m very happy with this track and I’m pretty sure it’ll work very good live.
Do you believe this song has any radio potential?
Do I believe in that? I do believe in whatever but not in that. (Laughs) The record company and me, we’ve got two different point of views. The record company always thinks it’s important to put everything out to the media and they’ll do the promotion. But I do believe that it’s also very important to do promotion on the fan. The fan is the most important part of the game. He decides if it’s good or not and not someone that gives you ten points out of ten. The record company asked me if I’m stupid enough to release another single and I said that it’s not only up to the single. We will not earn a lot of money with a single but it’s just important for us to bring out something in 2007 before the album comes out 3-4 months later to show the kids that we are alive and that we changed a little bit as well. They can decide themselves if the song is cool and they’re interested in the new album... or not. They will decide themselves.
Did you also shoot a video for this song?
Yep, this will be released in January. We’ve done everything. It’s nothing special, nothing really breathtaking. It’s just a funny thing just to put it on YouTube. I don’t really believe in metal video clips on TV either. I do believe in Santa Claus but not metal videos on TV. (Laughs)
What would be your favourite song on the new album?
That’s not easy. All Alone is a very important track for me because it features a lot of emotions and a lot of personal experiences that happened to me in 2005. I went through some bad times and this was also the reason I had to cancel a few shows back then. I spent a lot of time at home in the dark. Everything was just too much for me and I had a lot of problems with my normal dayjob. I just felt really alone when I tried to talk about my problems with good old friends. I found out that you got friends since years but when you start talking about problems nobody is really interested in that. They know me for years and it’s great when it comes to talking about fun stuff and partying and they got really upset when I started talking about my problems. Even my doctor said that I should talk about my problems. I was told to tell my friends about my problems. I always tried to do that but I always felt really alone with my problems. Now I can say that the funny thing was that in the first place they looked at me like an alien and nobody really said anything to me. I tried to explain the whole situation and after a while a few persons started to opening up admitting they have some sort of problems as well. At one evening I had three friends of mine sitting in my living room and we started a discussion about all the things going on and the medicine I had to take. Even with three friends surrending me I felt extremely alone that night. The others told me a few months later that they also felt alone sitting there with their own problems. This is why I think All Alone is special for me.
What was the idea behind the album’s title „Downburst”?
We actually thought about the perfect album title and after we listened to the new tracks we thought that this album and especially these songs will come over like a hurricane and will leave such a big impact on the listeners that “Downburst” expresses it the best as this is what we felt when we started writing and recording the songs.
And how about the cover artwork? Did you give free hand to the artist?
I just had the idea of a warrior/fighter, who fights for his rights and for what he believes in... like we do. We always had to fight as we never had the luck like some other bands when they became stars “over night”. So I explained Tom Thiel, the designer my intentions and this is what he sent me some weeks after. He´s a very famous painter, but not in the music business as he´s doing always covers for computer games also. I personally think, that this is the most intense and probably best Brainstorm cover as it shows power... just pure power and strength.
How were things in the studio? Did everything go smooth?
It was actually the first time for us since many years that we haven’t recorded an album near our hometown. So it was quite different, not to sleep at home, bringing down the thrash in the morning and drive to the studio again. No, this time we’ve been hundreds of miles away from home and spent nearly 24 hours in the studio. So music has been around us all the time. It was quite funny when we arrived as we expected a huge and enormous building, but what we´ve seen was just a farmers’ home... with tons of cats around. Very metal indeed! So doors were always wide open everywhere and after two days, when we tried to start recording drums again one morning, Dieter sat behind his drum kit and right after he kicked the bass drum for the first time, a huge rat jumped out of the bass drum, ran over his feet straight into his bag. It took us at least 15 minutes to make the rat leave the bag and leave the studio. Dieter was really shocked and his face was just “white” as he is extremely afraid of rats... and after all it took us hours and many, many good words to bring him back behind the kit. (Laughs)
You were supposed to go out on tour with Evergrey but they withdrew. What happened?
I had this idea to go out with them as they are really cool and this could have been an amazing package and so the first reactions and the response of the clubs was overwhelming. But then they just sent us an email that they are not able to be ready with their new album in time for the tour and they do not have a record label and they had some other problems as well, so they decided themselves to not to go on this tour and just wait and see what will happen with the record deal and the new album. It’s okay, it’s up to them. I think it could have been an amazing package but we have to accept that. I think in Pagan’s Mind we found a good substitute. The pre-sales are good so far, so it seems to be okay. (Laughs)
You’re coming back to Hungary again. It’s like your second country...
Yeah, seems like. (Laughs) We always played the Petőfi Hall our tours and we did the Sziget Festival and this other festival this year. That was our first show with our new bass guitarist. As far as I know we’ll play a new venue on the upcoming tour. The funny thing is that Budapest is going to be the last show of the tour in March and we’ll do something really special for that gig.
What is special about Hungary for Brainstorm?
Hm... I don´t really know. You know, we played many countries for many times, but it took us years to be accepted and / or famous. In Hungary it was quite unbelievable as we played just one show together with Edguy in 2004 I think, but just a few hours later, our guestbook exploded and we received tons of emails from fans. I think that we´ve been at the right place at the right time but the “welcome”, the Hungarian fans gave us was extremely special and something we never expected! So I think, from the very first moment on we felt like home and the people have seen that we are not as bad as we look like. (Laughs)
With all these successful albums how can you compile the setlist for a tour?
Oh, I think we´ll start “brainstorming” within the next weeks... also we will ask the fans on our website what songs they wanna hear. I guess we will play up to 4 or 5 songs from the new album, some classics and maybe one or two special songs we haven´t played since years.
What are the songs you like to play live the most?
Oh, I like “Blind suffering” as this is a really headbanging track and was also one of the tracks they made us well known. Also “All Those Words” because wherever we are people start singing the chorus for minutes while and after the song. So I hope, that “Fire Walk With Me” or “How do You Feel” will become a classic too.
What’s the meaning of life?
Live and let die. (Laughs) No,no... I think family, kids, staying healthy and don´t waste too much time with senseless or worthless things. It´s always some kind of a split to me, to be there, whenever my family needs me... and on the other hand, spend as much time as possible with the band. But okay... I´m very proud of what we reached and it’s and honour to me to see that we’re famous for something we like the most: our kind of music!