Interview With Tobias – Edguy Vocalist

Edguy are one of the few power metal acts that stayed true to their music all the way from their beginning. Now, after their latest release Hellfire Club unleashed upon the world, it seems the band managed to get even more foolish then before with many cheesy songs, including some devil voices, or even a plane crash. No matter what they do, the one to blame is always Tobias Sammet, one of the talented young musicians there is in his genre, but also, one of the craziest persons in the metal world. Therefore, I was honored to speak with him for almost an hour and a half about everything there is to know about "Hellfire Club", and of course about the band.

Hello, Tobie. I'm Ofir and I'm doing this interview for Metalist Magazine.

Sorry I was late. The reputation of Germans is that they are always on time and arrogant. You know, I'm only arrogant…

How are you? And what are you doing these days?

I'm fine, fine. It's very hot in here, very hot in Germany at this time of the year. I just got up in the morning. Doing some texting. Basically, just some business stuff. And now, I was out of the office for one hour. And I just had lunch. But not too much work. Actually there is work and I got up very early this morning. But it's not like I don't work myself to death at all. I was just composing stuff this morning on the keyboard, writing some new material. These days we have few days off our tour. We have played the two festivals, "Rock am' Ring" and "Rock in Park", two mainstream festivals here in Germany last weekend. And now we are gonna have a break of 10 days until we go to Sweden again for a festival. Then we'll be departing to Australia and Japan in 12 days or something.

"Hellfire Club" got great reviews worldwide, including one of mine. Did you expect such great responses on that album?

It's always hard to say. When you work you just always give your best. Sure, I knew that when we finished the album and when we listened we had ears ourselves so we thought "Oh, that's really great." And of course you always try not to expect something. To be honest, when we finished the material and even during the production, not even when it was finished, even in the middle of the production, we knew that we were doing something special and something really good. Of course you can never say how great the reviews will be in the end. It's always a matter of taste. But we were proud of ourselves. At least I can say that we would give it 7 out of 7 points ourselves. So we were happy from the very start with it. But you can never say what to expect exactly.

Do you know how many copies you sold by now?

I can't say at all. We didn't have a sales statement so far from Nuclear Blast. It should be out the middle of June. And I think we will be able to say something about it like in three months. I think it's selling very well. We have been on the charts and we were quite good for a long time which means that it's out in a very constant way. But in numbers, I can't say. I know that we sold more than the last album. And the shows we've played so far have had much bigger attendance so it seems like it's going very well. But I can't say at figures at the moment.

When your first album came out you were merely teenagers. How can you explain Edguy's huge success since then?

Well, I guess the key of it all was just that we were naive enough to reach for the stars. I think that was the key because nowadays, now that I know this business, now that I know so many bands that sound great, much better then we are, who don't even get a record deal, now I know how much luck you need as well. But as well, you can force your luck on the other side a little bit and I think that's what we did. We were naive enough to believe in that dream and to just go for it without looking to the left and to the right. I think that was maybe the most important thing, just to really go for it and fight for it and not let anything come in our way. Even that in the way there were a lot of people laughing at us, especially with that kind of music at the beginning of the 90s when grunge and Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and all that stuff was real entertainment, traditional power metal was almost dead. I mean when we started playing this kind of music there was no Hammerfall, there was no Rhapsody, generally we just had fired Michel Kiske who wasn't doing this kind of music anymore with Helloween and so there was almost no band playing that kind of music. And that was our thing.

When we came and played that kind of music everybody was laughing at us, and it was luck. We really had to fight hard for it. It just proves that if you really believe in what you do and if you really have a dream, then you should just go for it and I dunno, maybe I sound arrogant now if I said I was guessing it, I expected it. But somehow back on my mind I must have expected it because I never learned anything officially besides playing music. I went out of school, I did my civil service and then I was a professional musician, even with a very, very little income at the beginning. But I knew that it would grow and it would get bigger and so continuously I might have been quite sure that we would make it to this point. Of course it is very optimistic, you know being a young musician, saying "Oh, I'm not gonna learn anything, I'm gonna become a musician," and it worked.

And now you are laughing back at them?

I don't laugh back, you know, but it's just really funny because when you meet all those people that were laughing at us at the beginning, now they all come and they all pretend and claim "Oh, I've always known" and they don't remember how they were. Even my classmates. When we have a reunion with our school-mates it's really funny because sometimes they watch Edguy or me on TV, which is quite funny, and then you meet them and they're like "Oh, I remember this little idiot who was always listening to Iron Maiden and now I see you on TV and it's quite funny." I don't really laugh back but everybody has grown. I think back then I was such a little idiot that everybody must have laughed at us. Nowadays somebody would come and say "Oh, in ten years I'm gonna have a record deal and 5 albums out and I'm gonna make money with my music and play all around the world," probably everybody should have the right to think that the guy is stupid or at least a bit crazy.

Can we expect to see a change in your style now that you are older physically and musically? Or will you always stay "Children of Steel"?

I don't think so. You always change but not necessarily change; it's just 'develop,' you go on. New influences are coming, new elements are coming, you become a better musician. This time we worked with an orchestra, last time we didn't do that. Last time we couldn't afford it and it's a new aspect for us. Obviously you always want to move on. You don't want to be a retro band and always wanna do what you always did on your first album. If we would have done that I think "Hellfire Club" wouldn't have come out (the way it did) at the end. So there is always a progression I think, but I don't necessarily want to push it to a change. I'm very happy with playing this kind of heavy metal and this is the music that I wanna play, and this is the music that I love personally. So I think that it doesn't really make a stand to change it on purpose. Maybe if it would be something that I don't like anymore.

What influences your lyrics? Cause on every album it seems you go more and more crazy with them.

It depends you know, it's totally different. I can't say that it's a thing that influences us or a certain thing that I sing about, it's just that sometimes it's philosophical stuff, I read a lot, make up my mind about the meaning of life and all that crap (hehe.. I don't think I should call it crap), thinking about it is just so nice, for spending time, or wasting time, whatever you call it. But it never leads you to any result. But some of those songs are not about the quest for the meaning of life or the purpose or about philosophic things about my philosophical ideals and sounds like the songs "We Don't Need a Hero" or "The Navigator." You have so many things you can write about. It should be more color. Many people really, or some people really had a problem when we came with a song called "Lavatory Love Machine" that is actually just about where I like to go if I would crash now, and then you know this idea would develop on the back of my mind and I thought it was so stupid it should be a topic for a song from Motley Crue or Poison, because it's actually about having sex with the stewardess and crashing the airplane, which really doesn't make sense. It's just that kind of humor.

I think we have always had this humor aspect. We are a serious band and we take our music very serious, but we always have some strange ideas and I think we should let them out and its just good for having a color into that kind of music. I just don't wanna be the guy that just stands there and sings like a teacher or like some professor who wants to teach the listeners something, I don't wanna teach anybody, I do the music only basically for myself, when I have this stupid idea, its a stupid joke that I laugh about myself, and if I have serious ideas, it's just something that I really wanna write, but it was never meant to be something to teach someone else. On a song like "Rise of the Morning Glory" we just had fun doing it, and I was laughing about myself and about the stupid idea. And I really like to entertain with the lyrics like for example Bon Scott or Van Halen, they are intelligent and they are poetry but you still get a good laugh.

I noticed there is a pattern in most of your lyrics with words related to Clowns\Jokers\Fools, Why do you often sing about that?

I don't really know. That was not on purpose, I mean if you have like 60 songs written or 80 songs written, it's very obvious that you have those titles, some things are of one topic. And more in general. Maybe its just because I think not on the "King of Fools", but "All the Clowns" and I dunno if we did something with "Jester" yet, oh we should have a song with Jester on the next album or a joker. But still, I just see ourselves as jokers. We are being paid to entertain people. And we have really lot of fun to entertain people and everybody who has seen the band live knows that I really don't miss a chance to tell a stupid joke and most of the time I'm the only one laughing about it… ok, that doesn't matter (hehe)… but I really don't know, it was not on purpose. We have songs like "Hellfire Club" and "Down To the Devil" as well and there is "Sacred Hell Wars" at one album. So basically there are a few things turning in circle and a few things coming back every now and then.

What was your idea behind "Lucifer in Love"? I know many people (including myself) that got scared hearing a voice of a moaning devil.

Well, that was another joke in the studio. It was, our engineer Norman, he just had bought a CD with sound samples and there was one sound obviously of woman noise… we said it would be a funny thing to put some really stupid music under it, some really cheese keyboard keys and then we took just for fun the beginning of "Down to the Devil" and it sounded like a really stupid 80s or 70s, Late 70s, early 80s soft sex movie soundtrack or something like that. The keyboard riff and this woman making those noises and then we said "Ok, that's really funny, but its not Metal, lets just switch it down or lets to transpose it downwards" and that's what we did, then it was like a bit slower and it was like 5 half-tons lower and then it was really sound like a monster and it was so stupid because it was sex noises so we said "Ok, lets put it in the album and call it 'Lucifer In Love', that's Metal!", it's a stupid joke, it didn't make sense but it was a good laugh at the studio. The good thing about this band is that we are allowed to put things like that on an album, I think Hammerfall or Rhapsody couldn't do that, we Can! Cause nobody takes us for too serious anyway. People expect some shit like that.

On "Kingdom of Madness" you had Chris from Grave Digger as a guest on backing vocals, on "Vain Glory Opera" you had Hans Kirsch of Blind Guardian doing that, and on the next albums you had other guest appearances until now with Mile Petrozza. Do you have international guests as part of your routine or does it just kind of happen that way? How did you manage to bring Chris to record with you when you just started?

Well, it just happens because for the backing vocals, I mean at the beginning of course it wasn't our purpose. With Hans, for example I just met him, and we didn't meet actually back then, we met a couple of time afterwards. He was helping us with the choir arrangements and backing vocals arrangements and then we said "OK, Why don't you just hop into the studio and sing a few tunes with us?" That's what we did and then we recorded some backing vocal lines, and some lead vocal lines as well and that was it. You know, now, we just wanted to turn out a good backing vocalist, and a good orchestra, if we would have find some great studio backing vocalist we would not hire them, and if would have an orchestra in the band or people who could play the orchestra instrument we wouldn't hire them as well. But, unfortunately there are no such in the band, so we try to find a female singer for example (Amanda) and a couple of male singers who really have totally different kind of characters to really make it big backing vocal sounds or really powerful backing vocal sounds with all different kinds of voices. That's just the whole thing. Nothing really special.

How was working with Mile Petrozza?

With Mile we had a different thing, we had this one HEAVY song and we just thought that – that would be the thing that would fit least to Edguy, would not fit at all, and people would think. But I thought "Mysteria" was a very Thrashy song, it was Thrash metal, and it had some Thrash metal influences, so we said why not just ask Mile because he is a good friend of the band – Kreator, and Mile in general. And Mile is as well a very good friend of Felix, they even live in the same city, they are sharing the same rehearsing room, our Felix the drummer, and Kreator. And so we said "Hey, Mile, why don't you just come and sing a few tunes?" and that's what we did. And it was just fun, it was nothing that was done for a big commercial thing or whatever. We didn't even announce it. It was only on the limited edition, that version of "Mysteria", but we thought it would be a good idea just to do it. And it was just great working with him. We know him for a longer time, we had played with Kreator, and Kreator supported us, we supported Kreator on other territories, the bands are good friends and so it was just. It shows that Thrash and Traditional Power Metal can go together. Because sometimes people really think this song doesn't fit and it's not a true metal song, bullshit, it fits quite well.

What inspired the song "The Spirit Will Remain"? Its intro sounds like it came off of the "Braveheart" soundtrack or something.

Hehe, it's not really after the "Braveheart" soundtrack but it have this Highlander feeling. That's why we have the Flute and this Water-pipe, it's just to transport that Highlander feeling. The lyrics as well are very close to be cheesy, but still I think it's very majestic and very powerful because it's just as whatever you do to me, or whatever you do to a person, you can never really control the mind, it's just freedom of thought and freedom of the inner soul to whatever, the inner … freedom of the attention of a person. You can always force a person to do something but you can't really own someone's character and someone's soul and that what's the song is about. And I just, and you know, I'm very much into that highland Folk music.

Are you a fan of Folk\Celtic music?

Yeah, depends, there are really good things, things that I don't like but things that I like really much as well. Like Michel Flately "Lord of the Dance", "Blackmore Night", I like some Irish tunes and this is a strong music. I really like that and that's what I wanted to push in that direction, of course it reminds of "Braveheart" because that's this kind of Highland music as well. But it was not meant to be a tribute to this movie.

Speaking of your EP, nowadays there is a thing going on where most of the bands release an EP 2 months before a full-length release. Edguy were the first to do that this year as I recall, but now more and more bands are doing it. What do you think about this Trend?

I can't say it's quite easy but I think that everybody realizes the fans really appreciated it, bought it, and we got high in the single charts with that EP. And I think that's the purpose now with the bands, everybody tries to release an EP now, everybody tries to say "Oh, this is not another normal Single, it's an EP". We just came cause we had so much material and we just said "OK, why not putting it out as an EP cause everybody gonna buy it then" and then you don't have like 15 tracks on the original album, + single that the Die-hard fans will buy, but nobody really needs, so that's why we said "Ok, lets do it that way, then you can really give the Die-hard fans something special, and the fans can buy this rest of the music for a very little price on top." But I dunno.

This is now a trend? It is good for the fans … most of the tracks on the full length album have like ten songs usually in average, 50 minutes or something, but if you get an EP for the price of a single, that contains four bonus tracks, not only bonus tracks, but in my opinion, real first class tracks + a 15 minutes studio report as a multimedia track and that whole stuff for like 5 dollars, I think that's really more than fair. It costs half of a full length album and actually it has more than a half-album in it. It would be stupid for the band as well because on a single, band and label hardly make money, they make no money, it's just a few cents that's you get cuz the production expenses are almost the same as for a normal CD, and for this single you had very little money for it. That's why in the commercial point of view it really doesn't make any sense economically for the label and band. It was just I wanted to give the fans something that they can have in advance instead of putting out just one song.

Edguy's line-up has almost remained unchanged since your first days. How can you explain that strong bond with your co-members? How do you keep it?

Just nobody really wants to leave… hehe… that would probably be the simplest explanation. I think we are quite good friends and nobody sees the reason why to leave the band that is going so well. That is doing so well. Playing all over the world, playing the music that we all like, having a very great job and lot of fun so I think we are quite intelligent enough to not throw that away or break it up. And I think everybody thinks the same so that's why it works so well I think.

Did you have any fights on Edguy?

No fights, but of course discussions, you always have discussions like in every family or every marriage, you have discussion between … well I wouldn't say mature people because I think we are not mature really … but you have discussion between normal people who have different opinions and you sit down and have a conversation and then you solve the problem if there is one. But there were no fights. Not at all.

Your latest single and album came out on Nuclear Blast Records. What made you leave AFM records?

There were certain things. First of all, Nuclear Blast is offering us better perspective for the future because they are a much bigger company. They have much different ways of distribution and promotion especially in North America and South America, and some European territories as well. And due to that they were quite convinced that they could sell more records of Edguy and they of course made us a better offer as well. Besides that we were not totally happy with AFM.

All in all, AFM is a nice company and they do no bad job at all because we have stayed with them for quite long. We were successful but still I wouldn't call them the most professional company or the biggest company in the world. So that's why we thought its a good chance with Nuclear Blast, they just leave us all the freedom that we need for our music and our art so there's nothing better that can actually happen to a band I think. And they're a very strong financially and economically label with very good options and possibilities that believes in you and in your music and leaves all the music stuff up to you. I think that's a very good thing.

What made you develop your side-project – Avantasia while you already had such a great success with Edguy?

I don't know. I didn't actually think so much about it. I was just having that idea in the back of my mind. If I remember right, like 5 years ago, I just had to scream of working with so many musicians that I admire and that I look up to and I have this great story on the back of my mind. With Edguy we were just about to re-record "The Savage Poetry" album, so it was just the right time. Life is too short to leave out an idea or to leave an idea and not fulfill it, to make it become reality. So I said "Why not do it?" and I did it. No big deal. Of course I was successful with Edguy but it was something different and that's why I went for it. I just said "Ok, let me do it, there is a scream, I wanna fulfill it, now I go for it."

I read that you won't make a third part of Avantasia until you would feel like it's the right time. Well, when is it?

Hehe… Well, when is it? I dunno when it will ever be. I'm really honest when I say I have never wasted a single minute thinking about doing a third part, I just don't wanna be one of those musicians who say "I'm never gonna play Heavy metal again" and then one year later or two, you see "Maybe, I was a bit wrong and now, I was in a bad situation personally, now I'm gonna go back to metal." Like so many people did it in the past, so I just don't want to say something and then do a different thing, I just want to say that if I will have the idea and the desire to do it in 20 years or 15 years or 10 years, I can't say how it's gonna be in 10 years, then I will do it but I don't believe it would never happen. When you are 26 who knows what you will be like at 48.

But do you plan to work on a new project soon other than working with Edguy?

No, no. Nothing at the moment. I'm just really happy with Edguy, that's really a lot of work with Edguy and it's still going out and there is no reason at the moment to waste time for anything else.

What are your next projects with Edguy after releasing your next single? Is there any Edguy DVD release in the works?

We are thinking about it. But we don't know really at the moment what will be the next step, I already got some new song ideas, now we are doing this tour and we're gonna finish this tour and it's gonna take some more time, we're gonna do Australia and Japan, another round and Sweden. Then we will be some more stuff that we probably don't know ourselves yet, South America, whatever. I dunno yet what will come but we will play some more shows and then we will see what will happen if there is gonna be a DVD or not. I dunno yet.

I saw you are involved with the Brazilian power metal band – Shaman, how did you get your German ass all the way to Brazil?

With a plane… hehehehe… that's why I wrote "Lavatory Love Machine" in that plane actually. That was the flight when I went there with Sascha Paeth to record it. Since 1999, when we played with Angra in France, I was friends with Andre Matros, and he was just asking me if I would like to come over and join him doing that. And I didn't had anything else to do at the moment, so I said of course so Sacha and me were going over and hoping on stage and playing with them, which was great fun, they are very nice guys, very good band. They released this concert on a DVD, I've seen it once and it's a quite impressive audience. It was like a couple of thousand and they were very loud. You can see it's a good impression. You get the whole thing while watching the DVD.

What are the musical influences of the band members, and yourself?

I dunno, basically most of them listen to classic hard rock and metal. I think so. It's really hard to say because it's so many different things, basically 80% of traditional hard rock and metal, some AC\DC, Dio, Rainbow, Kiss, Van Halen, Queen, all that stuff. Helloween. But of course there are good pop songs and good rock songs as well. Like Ultravox, who have some great songs. So I can listen to different things. It's not a problem for me. But still mostly I listen to classic hard rock and metal stuff.

Are there any types of Metal that you like other than what you play? For example, extreme metal like Death or Black metal.

No death and black and extreme metal, but classic hard rock or blues rock, I like that kind. AC\DC. But not in the heavier direction. I don't like those Black Metal and Death Metal things. It's not my cup
of tea.

What are the rest of the band members doing when they are not working with Edguy? I heard Felix and Tobias Exxel are in an all-star metal band called "Taraxacum", what about the rest?

All professional musicians. Felix I know, I think he is studying. Not Felix, its Eggie, but I don't know if it still exists. I dunno what's up with them. At the moment I think it's not really there, this band. I can't say, cause I dunno, we haven't talked about it lately.

How the hell did you manage to jump so high doing a split (with open legs) for Hellfire Club's main picture?

You can see that In the "Lavatory Love Machine" video, that I can really do it. I dunno, its just training and jumping. Jumping a split is no special technique. It's just stretching, a lot of stretching, practicing and jumping practicing actually. It doesn't hurt much as it looks like.

Was there any country in which you thought you wouldn't really be recognized where you had an amazing crowd?

Not yet, not on this tour. On this tour we have played many countries in Europe that we have played before. So maybe Austria, because in Austria there was in the past a good heavy metal crowd, we have a good heavy metal crowd there, so that was a little surprise. With nowhere, we said "Oh, we didn't know that people are really living here, and you go there and you have metal fans," that didn't happen, it was a big surprise. We were just amazed by the masses over there. But not by there were people in the country that we didn't expect.

What do you have to say about being the first band from abroad to be printed by a metal label in Israel?

I didn't know that. Is it true? We have license there? I guess I should be honored, shouldn't I? I didn't know, you where the first one to tell me. I think I should call Nuclear Blast more often. but it sounds like its a good thing. That's how the people will like it, so they have to print a lot of CDs in Israel. You know, it was great to visit Israel. The crowd was crazy because there were so many people. It was 4000 and some hundred. It was close to 5000 people. Of course it was an Open-Air for free but people really seemed to enjoy it. People were really screaming and singing along. It was great, great. Metal fans everywhere. So I think it was a very good experience.

I wish I could have been there. But if we already speaking about Israel, How was your visit in Jerusalem (The city which I live in)?

It was interesting. When you see all those buildings, I don't know if they are famous buildings but those buildings had that look, quite interesting and oriental, you know what I mean. It's just the different type of architecture, and it has something magical. I really liked it. It was a bit scary, we were told it was quite dangerous because we went there at night. In Israel there are some people who don't like other people, and some other people don't like those people. I don't understand that kind of problem. I think young and intelligent people may be too stupid to understand it. I don't know if it's intelligent or not, but I can't understand it why somebody don't like someone else. For me, it's just hard to believe. We were told that you can't go to that region… "Why not?" "Yeah, it's just not good that they will find out you are German, and I'm from Israel"… why not just go there and have a beer there… "Oh, no, you cant have a beer there" and then they find out that I'm from Tel Aviv, and you are from Germany, HELL! Why the fuck? Let's have a beer together and talk about women or music or whatever. I just couldn't get that.

How is the situation at the moment in Jerusalem? Is it a bit more peaceful then it was in the past? Cause seeing stuff on TV, you don't know whether it's true in this. It's the media. They need big things to happen. They would really find something if it's just a killer shark in Australia that has eaten like 27 bones. They always come up with something and will not show how dangerous things are really. We were actually thinking about going back to Israel and I think we still are. We don't know yet if it's gonna happen on this tour or not, it's just we still want to watch a little bit how things are gonna develop, if it's peaceful. It's a very great place to go, I just liked it. The food was great, the city of Tel Aviv was great. Jerusalem I just saw by night, it was looking impressive, so there is no reason not to go there. The only that I would require is a nice hotel and a little bit of peace.

As one who was here before with his band, what can you tell to bands from abroad that are afraid to play in Israel?

I don't know, I don't know if I'm not afraid myself at the moment. You know, if it's peaceful, go there and have a great time. That's what I would say. We were there, and of course you see a couple of helicopters and a couple of military people, just basically there for safety. It was no big deal when we where there. There were no riots and everything was ok. But I can't judge the situation at the moment because I haven't been there for four years. But if there are no problems, peace-wise, I would say to everybody that it's a great place to go. Well… maybe not the cockroaches. Apart from the cockroaches it's a nice place to go.

That's it for the interview, you have any last words?

Well I just wanna thank everybody who supported us, and maybe a few people will bump into this interview, who have been there when we played 4 years ago. I just wanna thank everybody for supporting the band. And we'll hope to see each-and-everybody pretty soon.

Thank you, it's been a great honor for me to speak with one of my favorite musicians.

Thank you very much, thank you. Im honored, I gotta thank you. Have a nice day!

** Thanks to Aviva from MetalIsrael.com for the help with this Interview **