Shred Talk 2 - Code Of Perfection
(24 Jun 06)
Interview continued
EV: Talking about keyboards... there's a really cool keyboard solo on "evil:FEX", which reminded me a whole lot of the keyboard tracks on the old Shrapnel records, like Tony MacAlpine's solos on the first Vinnie Moore-album.
Did you have the other guys listen to some of those albums, songs that inspired you etc.?
TK: I am pretty sure that all of them were familiar with those albums anyway. Ferdy is a fan of all those 80s records. He grew up with them, and he knows a lot of them, like i.e. the "Project Driver" album. He recorded quite similar stuff when he was working with (german guitarist) Axel Rudi Pell, too.
We were planning on recording one of those old school keyboard-guitar-duels, that's what's going on in "evil:FEX". However, that song is another example for songs where we cut out certain things to make it more listener-friendly. I still have some of the demos, and there were way more guitar solos on those. We just had to cut those down a bit, it would have been way too much otherwise. And of course, we actually wanted to feature the guest-musicians, that's why we gave Ferdy a bigger solo-spot in that song.
EV: Let's get back to the collaboration with Keisuke. How did that work? You mentioned sending him powertabs of the basslines you had in mind. Did he record those and send you the results of that, or did he change them a lot, or did he just play what he thought what would be appropiate, and gave you the option to request changes?
TK: He actually recorded several different versions of each song, playing different basslines. He then mailed those recordings to me, and we picked what we liked the most. If we made suggestions to change stuff, he re-recorded his track and sent it.
EV: Can we consider the lineup on the CD a solid one? Will this be the lineup on the next release as well?
TK: Definitely. I'd love to work with Carsten ("Lizard" Schulz, vocals). He was supposed to provide a few vocal tracks, but by now he is supporting the band very much, putting in a lot of work. He even was the one responsible for us getting the deal.
EV: What direction do you wanna move the band into for the next album? Will it be a similar ratio of vocal-songs vs. Instrumentals, or are you interested in having more vocal-tracks on the next CD?
TK: Well, we did get some really great reviews for LEFTL. And a lot of the reviewers did comment quite positively on the concept of the album, which is to not have only instrumental songs, but also some vocal tracks in between to "loosen things up".
They commented along the lines of "The instrumental tracks are really cool and fun to listen to, but it's a nice change to have some vocals in between, too". And that was our intention
EV: Was there some time-pressure throughout the production, regarding any deadlines? Or did you have all the time you needed to fully work out everything?
TK: There really wasn't any pressure at all, mainly because we didn't have a deal yet back then. The only deadline was the one I set, as I figured that this album should be done at some point (laughs).
It was about 3-4 months of quite focussed work, and that's the way I like to work. I wouldn't like to work on something for too long, or only work on it for a little bit and then take a break.
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