Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear)
July 2007
There's been quite a few changes happened to Primal Fear since the previous album. First of all you left your previous label Nuclear Blast. Why?
Well, we've been together with Nuclear Blast for almost ten years and it was about time to change because when you work together with a company for many many years somehow you get this strange feeling that things are just normal and not really interesting anymore even to the label. We felt maybe for our last record for example could have happened more. We were not really satisfied with the work of the A&R anymore. In our opinion they didn't do a good job for us, that's also the reason why we changed our destination and found a new record company in the end.
Did you get many offers from other labels?
Yeah, there were quite a lot. We were really surprised that still how many labels are interested.
So how did you end up signing for Frontiers?
They had a good offer. (Laughs) And of course the backcatalogue they have is pretty good. They sign a lot of bands and showed us that they are really interested in doing the metal stuff. In the end of course it's a business thing and they offered a lot for producing the album and so on.
Until these days Frontiers was more like a hard rock label and now they started signing some metal acts...
Yes, that's true and it's fine. At Nuclear Blast we had so many black metal and death metal bands on the label, so it didn't fit 100% for us either but they did a good job for us in the beginning, so we thought it might be no difference either. And as you said they are signing a lot of metal bands these weeks and months, so there's no difference anymore. I mean you can even sign to a major record company that also makes classical music, it's only the matter of what the A&R does for us. And it's up the guy who is responsible for us at the company and not about the music the label produces.
Actually, the new Primal Fear album fits the Frontiers category more than ever before. Your music became a lot more melodic, catchy...
Yeah, I know what you mean. We have a lot of changing going on but still keep to the metal thing. But yes, it's more catchy, a little bit more hooklines and that's exactly what we wanted. We wanted to continue the path we stared with "Seven Seals". That's our goal at the moment.
So, was it a decision you made or just a natural development?
It's also natural. I mean everybody from the band is listening to music with melody, so why not making music with more melody. We've always had melody in our music of course but to be a little bit more listenable without forgetting about being metal. We still like heavy metal of course but we also like melody in there.
Don't you afraid that some fans will turn away from the band?
There's always people bitching about everything. If we would make a death metal album now everybody would bitch around that it's not Primal Fear anymore and of course now we have people saying " They are lame." But we compose music that we have to like first and of course we don't forget about our own fans but our fans also like to listen to melodies, so I think we're gonna please a lot of people with this album. But it's the same with every album, you also gain and lose fans.
Btw, how do you feel if you look back your previous albums? Are you pleased with all of them?
The thing is that you are always satisfied with the brand new stuff you do. It's the same for us, "New Religion" is the best album for us so far because every next album is the best for the band because it's another step for the band and there's always things that you can do better. You go step by step, so I think "New Religion" is the best we did so far and maybe next time we're gonna do even better, who knows. (Laughs) You always want to somehow improve yourself and as a musician you are never really 100% satisfied. That's what keeps you going.
One of the high point on your album is your singing. It's a lot more varied than ever before.
Exactly, yes. I know what you mean. I was working a lot here at home on my vocals this time and we were not under so much time pressure like we were before. I could easily finish my vocals at home as we had more time this time. I have my own system running here in my own small studio like every musicians have them these days. Things are getting more cheaper and better and it's a big advantage having these stuff at home.
You have Henny Wolter back in the band. How come?
He's just a very positive guy. We were thinking about him when things weren't working for us in the studio. Without just blaming it on one person but Tom really was somehow disappointing us. We don't wanna speak out so much in public of what happened but he really let us down in the studio, so we had to do something. Then we thought about the time when Henny was in the band when everything was good and positive. He left the band because of his own decision because he had personal problems going on but these things were solved by now, so we asked him if he wanted to come back. He was very much into it and now he's in the band for two months again and everything is very very positive again.
As far as I know the early stuff was played by Maguns Karlsson...
Yeah, exactly. When things in studio went wrong and we couldn't continue with our guitarist, we thought about having different guest appearing on the album. Magnus Karlsson is a fabulous guitarist and he's also a fan of Primal Fear, so he came and recorded some solos for us. Also Henny did a lot of things and 80% was done by Stefan in the end because he jumped in to do the parts that Tom was supposed to do. We also invited Kai Hansen again but he's also very busy with his own stuff these days, so that's the reason why it didn't happen.
Are you keeping in touch all the time?
Yeah, we talk to each other many many times. When he's down here playing I visit them and when we are in Hamburg he's visiting us as well. And we are also keeping in contact with email and handy. We're still good friends.
You mentioned about guest musicians... you have Simone from Epica on the album. How did you get the idea to do this duet?
First of all we thought about composing a song for a duet and that's what happened with "Everytime it Rains". The idea actually came from a festival we did it in Brazil together with After Forever. We thought that it would be nice to have a female voice to make a duet with me. We talked to Floor Jansen to see if she would do it and she was interested. But then in the end timing again was so unlucky that it didn't happen with Floor. And I was listening to some Epica stuff and really liked the voice of Simone and we all agreed that she would be perfect for the duet. So I sent her the song and she loved it, so she came in and sung it for us. It was really good. She's really professional.
"Fighting the Darkness" is a long, epic piece, which is quite unusual from Primal Fear...
It was actually Mat who had the idea to have an instrumental section as an extra piece adding to the original "Fighting the Darkness", which is only 3:38. And I think it was a really good idea to add this instrumental thing behind the basic song. I think it's also another step in the career of Primal Fear to make some things like this.
Yeah, it's one of the best songs on the album. Would this be your favourite?
Yes, this is definitely one of my favourites. Also "Everytime it Rains"... it's so hard to tell. I like every songs. You worked so many hours, days, weeks and months on the songs and you get used to it and in the end you cannot judge. You have to bring it to the people and get opinions from the outside. I also like "The Man (that I don't know)", "Psycho", "Screaming"... a really like all the songs.
Did you record any bonus tracks for different territories?
We didn't want that. Japan always wants to have an extra track for them but we said no this time. We just want to have all the songs on the available everywhere in the world. I think the only bonuses on the CDs would be the video clips we did for "Sign of Fear" and "Fighting the Darkness".
What are you singing about in your lyrics this time?
In general we always have things going on about telling fantasy stuff and stories. Not being too serious all the time but sometimes writing about real issues. "Blood on your hands" is about president George W.Bush and Iraq. "Too much time" is about something that happened in Germany. It's about some crazy kids playing a lot of shooting games that went killing for real.
If you were Iron Maiden the song title "Curse of Sharon" wouldn't ask for explanation... (Laughs)
(Laughs) A lot of people reacted like that connecting it to Sharon Osbourne when they heard the title. But actually it's a theme out of the Bible and the lyrics are from Mat again. And since "Seven Seals" he's very touched by the Bible.
You already mentioned about the video clips. How did you decide on which ones to pick?
It was very easy. We wanted to have some extreme things going on like "Sign of Fear". And the other extreme was "Fighting the Darkness". We wanted to show people that we still make what we did before and also to show them our new kind of way. I think "Fighting the Darkness" could be commercial and maybe it's gonna be played on VIVA or some other television. It's pretty hard to be shown on television anyway, so we'll see what happens.
Are you also planning to release a single?
I think it's not on the schedule so far, but we'll have to see what Frontiers think about this. Singles are not that usual anymore. If we'd ever release a single off the new album that would be "Everytime it rains" I think.
What can we expect from Primal Fear as far as touring this year?
It's very early to speak about everything but some shows are already confirmed. We're gonna be doing many many shows this time. We'll be on tour for two months. We're gonna start with festivals in Europe and then we're gonna start our world tour in the US at the ProgPower Festival. Then we come back to Europe to continue touring. We're gonna play together with U.D.O. and it's gonna be a double headliner tour and we'll have some special guests. Then we'll do some gigs in Japan in December and then we'll finish the whole thing with a huge tour in Germany.