WIZARD
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 29th March 2011.
German metal band Wizard have a new album "...Of Wariwulfs And Bluotvarwes" out (and recently reviewed on these pages). It's a genuinely good release and a big improvement on their last effort, so we thought it only fair to have a little chat with 'em.
Drummer Snoppi very kindly answers questions...
Hi Snoppi, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Snoppi: Yes, tired, but very well :-)
Wizard has been around for over twenty years now. Did you think when you started you'd still be going strong and producing great albums in 2011?
Snoppi: Good question. I don't know ... When we recorded our first album I knew that we would not sell very much from that because we were very unknown. But I was proud to own my own CD at home. 1995 was the time when CDs came up and vinyl disappeared. People could hardly record an album at home on their own. You had to go in a studio to record something. Nowadays everybody can do a CD with a computer and the right software so when we started recording it was a very special moment for me. And I expected to record album after album also if we would never get a deal or if nobody would buy our albums. Just for me, for my kids to show them what I did when I was young, hahaha. And this is still working today. I hope to continue with that till I cannot hold a drumstick any more!
How would you describe your sound to somebody who hadn't heard you before? You seem to have quite a varied style.
Snoppi: We play Heavy metal. Nothing less and nothing more. Some people call it true metal (what's that?), power metal, speed metal, teutonic metal .... I don't care about such things very much. These are only words for people who have to review albums, I guess. We play fast songs with double bass, but also slow songs and also ballads. The tempo varies a lot and our singer Sven can sing aggressive but also very melodic. Some people (like me) like thrash metal and some people like Kiss and softer kind of metal so we play a mixture between that all.
New album "...Of Wariwulfs And Bluotvarwes" is out now. How do you feel it compares to your older work in terms of style and quality?
Snoppi: The style stayed the same over all the years. We cannot play other stuff, we can only heavy metal, hahaha. The quality has raised during the years, of course. But if you compare "Thor" to ...of wariwulfs... than the difference is not very big. If you buy a Wizard CD you know what you get, and that's OK in my eyes.
Was the creation and recording of the album fun, hard work, or a combination of both?
Snoppi: For me it was fun. We have been doing rehearsals in a studio for over 1 year now so we have had a lot of time for recording. We did not have this pressure to be ready in a short time because we have to pay for the studio. That was very great. And in the end, Achim Köhler made "the sound", so everything is good. He has magic hands which know the right switches to press :-)
The lyrics are based on the fantasy work of Andre Wiesler. Where did that connection come from?
Snoppi: Volker (bass) reads a lot of fantasy stuff. He read the three books from Andre about Hagen von Stein and was fascinated by the story. So he phoned him and they did the concept on the album together. Andre is a very kind guy and he really had fun doing this also for the first time.
How do you go about writing your songs? Talk us through the construction of a typical track...
Snoppi: Dano (guitar) or Volker (bass) try out something at home and bring it into the studio. So then we listen to it and try to make a Wizard song out of it. Everybody gives a little part to the song. Or we discuss how to play it in another way (faster, slower, how much refrains, middle theme and so on and so on). In most cases it does not take very long for a new song. The more time we need for a song the worse it gets :-)
Do you do anything special or unusual in the studio to get your sound?
Snoppi: Hmmm, I don't really know. I think not. Sometimes Dano plays with a 7 string guitar, but I guess that's all. The rest is done by Achim Köhler. He has the secret key to a good sound, I don't know how he does it, but I like his work very very much and I hope that he will also mix and master our next album.
Are there any particular tracks you rate highly, or is it all brilliant?
Snoppi: I love the whole album very much, especially Heart eater (sounds so brilliant evil, hard and psycho ...) and Taste of fear (I like the thrash-like singing from Sven where he sounds a bit like Mille Petrozza).
What is one of your live shows like? What should fans expect from one of your performances?
Snoppi: On live shows it is important for us to have a big party with all the people. So we don't play for us on stage, but together with everybody (who wants to). So we want the fans to be involved in our party, you know what I mean? We try not only to play our songs and between the songs Sven tells you the name of the next song, but we want the people to move, to shout, to cry, to laugh, to enjoy and to be active with us.
Till now this works very very good.
Talk us through your existing touring/gigging plans...
Snoppi: We just came back from Ireland where we played in Cork and Dublin. The people were very great and kind in Ireland (and also very crazy :-)).
Next gigs are in Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Slovenia. We were just offered a big European tour but we could not make it because we got no holidays on our normal jobs to leave for 4 weeks :-( But perhaps there will be some more concerts to come.
What have been the highlights and lowlights of your musical lives so far?
Snoppi: Highlights were of course the gigs in Wacken and Bang your head and also the European tour with Grave Digger and Symphorce. But most concerts we play are important and fun so it would take too long to tell you all the great concerts.
A thing that was not very good was when Maassi (guitar) decided to make a break for a few years (for him we recorded "Don't say goodbye" on the Magic circle album), but luckily he is back with us now and I enjoy that very much.
Any question you love being asked that I've missed? If so, what's the answer?
Snoppi: Hey, an interview without asking me anything about Manowar?
That's great and so I will not ask this question on my own, hahahaha.
What are you up to once you've finished answering these questions?
Snoppi: I am at work at the moment so on five o'clock I will drive home and go to sleep (I got no sleep in Ireland so I am very very tired ...) :-)
Anything else you would like to mention?
Snoppi: Would be great if everybody gives our album a chance, listen to it and enjoy it! On our website you will find a lot more stuff (e.g. you can download our first two albums completely for free). Thanx for your time and thank's very much for the interview!
Thanks again to Snoppi for his time. You can check out the Rock Realms review of Wizard's latest album "...Of Wariwulfs And Bluotvarwes" by clicking here.
Label: Massacre Records
Artist's website(s): Wizard | MySpace
