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Shred Talk !
(12 Aug 02)
The Present
EV: OK, to start off, the recordings for the newest Demon-Drive album just have been finished. Iīd like to know what people are to expect from that new album.
An early draft of the artwork for the new album. Go to the Demon Drive site for an MP3-excerpt
TK: The newest album goes a step further into the direction DD was heading to with the last album.
The music of the band has gone through several changes, a slow development. The first album still was very much influenced by Hard Rock / Metal, the second one combined rather traditional Hard Rock-stuff with a rather rockier sound.
Its tough to put our music into just one category. Usually, when someone asks me for a category or an overall style, I simply say "Itīs Demon Drive-music". You might give away hints such as "Melodic Rock" or "AOR", but itīs not really easy to fit the band into just one category. Itīs like with Ozzy Osbourne or Van Halen... theyīre making "Ozzy-music" and "Van Halen-music". You just canīt put that into categories.
EV: Well, what I meant exactly was "How would you say the bandīs changed between the last and this upcoming album ?", are there any changes or new components, such as more acoustic stuff etc.
TK: Now, there are a lot of acoustic guitars on this album.
First of all, this time I played all guitar-parts, and that was a lot of fun. The album could be described as even more influenced by pop-music, mixed with rock, midtemp-songs mixed with ballads and even a few
uptempo-rockers. There also is a song that was completely written by me, lyrics and music...
EV: ...so youīre now an equal part of the band, involved into the songwriting and everything ?
TK: Definitely, even more than it was the case on the other albums. Back when I joined the band, most of the songs for the album they were working on back then had already been written, and all I contributed were some rhythm-tracks and a few leads. Michael ( Voss, singer of DD ) handled most of the guitar parts on "Rock N Roll Star", while on this album, I had a chance to add some of my facets and play my own parts.
EV: Now, I have learned myself that you usually adjust a bit to the musical situation youīre currently in. I mean, I, like you, am a "shredder", but when I work with someone like country singer-Wolfgang Malende, or Andrea, I definitely hold back a bit and focus on other things but fast licks etc.
Do you feel like you have to hold back as the guitarist for DD, and does that bother you ?
TK: Well, you and me both are from the shred-era, we kinda grew up with all that hardcore-stuff that today, not many people care for anymore ( chuckles ). Now, itīs a bit of understatement that I do when working with Demon Drive.
Itīs a bit like "We could, but we donīt", meaning that we try to focus on what and who we are today. I donīt mean looking at whatīs hip, in or out today. Itīs just that weīre not teenagers anymore, and we donīt feel as if we have to prove anything anymore.
We still enjoy to do that from time to time, but the most important thing with DD is the song, good songs, good melodies... thatīs one of our strengths.
EV: But you donīt feel as if you have to hold back or limit yourself ?
TK: No, not at all. As a musician, you can develop in many different ways. It does not only mean to become faster or play faster. I learned a lot during my first year as the guitarist for DD, like i.e. about songwriting: Michael Voss is a great songwriter, and I learned from him. I also learned to play something that really fits the song.
Of course there were occasions where I played some solo-ideas to him, and he was like "Now, hold on..." ( laughs ). Like "Less is more". You gotta really use your ears and play what suits the song.
EV: What about playing live ?
TK: Playing live is a different topic. With many bands, it always was like this: there was the studio-album, which had a certain sound, mainly focussing on accuracy and a good production, and live it was a different story... it was more about the attitude, energy and the live-feel.
Our songs will certainly change a bit once we play them live. We leave ourselves some freedom, some space to improvise, eg. regarding the solos.
EV: Would you say that the band is rocking more live, a bit more agressive ?
TK: Oh yeah, you could say that. During the live shows last year, the songs were a bit harder, more energetic. One reason for that sure was that we donīt use a lot of acoustic guitars live, although many songs were based or written on acoustic guitars. Michael usually says "A good song can be played on acoustic guitar and still is a great song", meaning that if you strip away everything and just play the song on an acoustic guitar, the song still should be there and be good.
Some songs are faster live, which usually is due to the adrenaline and the atmosphere of the live-show, you know, when youīre playing for a crowd. That depends on the mood, too.
EV: How about the promotion for the upcoming album ? Are you guys gonna tour after the release, or are you just gonna play some showcase-gigs...
TK: Now, currently weīre in the process of changing the label weīre on. Iīm not gonna tell you which one weīre gonna go with, but weīll have more support from them than we had from the one we just left. And that lack of support was the reason for our live-hiatus this year... we didnīt play live a lot, there was no real live-support for "Rock N Roll Star". There were some other reasons too, though, like Michael becoming a daddy etc.
But it is certain that the new album will be released in early 2003, and it also is certain that weīre gonna tour to support it, play some festivals etc.
EV: During itīs existance, DD has gone through a few line up changes, and you joined the band just like a year and a half ago. Would you say that the band now is completely "played in", a solid line-up, with the musicians used to each other ?
TK: Yeah, the band is "played in", we played a few live shows, wrote and recorded songs together, so weīre really a band and also a bunch of friends.
EV: I always wondered how you guys approach the songwriting. There are many different approaches to it, like exchanging tapes full of demos and riffs, sitting together in the rehearsal room with acoustic guitars, jamming on ideas... how does Demon Drive approach it ?
TK: Well, this album really is a band-effort, many of the songs were written by the whole band. Sure, Michael brings in a lot of ideas. Heīs a brilliant songwriter, and the demos he records are often sounding better than many albums released by other artists. ( laughs )
So with those demos, you often just say "Ok, weīll record it exactly like that, because the arrangements and parts are great". I wrote about 4-5 songs for the album, and although we all liked them, we just picked one of those for the album, just because we had so much material already. We tried to create an album which just seemed balanced, with one song fitting to the other.
EV: One thing I do like about DD a lot is that, compared to other bands you used to play in such as ATTACK, I can perfectly picture DD performing all their songs in an unplugged setting...
TK: Yes ! DD was derived from CASANOVA, and Casanova did unplugged-performances already back then ( late 80īs / early 90īs- EV ), proving again that a good song can be played in any setting, even just with a few acoustic guitars.
DD would have no problem to perform the whole album unplugged. Well, ok, maybe except my song, that would be tough ( chuckles )
EV: Why ? What about that one ?
TK: That one is uptempo-rock...
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