{"id":27052,"date":"2015-05-31T14:19:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T04:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=27052"},"modified":"2015-05-31T14:19:26","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T04:19:26","slug":"markus-grosskopf-of-helloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/05\/markus-grosskopf-of-helloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Markus Grosskopf of Helloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201c\u2026but in general Helloween sounds like Helloween sounds and you cannot go any other way you know, so it was clear from the beginning that it might be slightly different sound from record to record, but in general you have a very Helloween-y sound which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: When you think of Power Metal, one of the first bands that come to your mind is the German Legends HELLOWEEN! It\u2019s not just a coincidence \u2013 they\u2019ve played countless festivals all over the globe to a massive audience, and furthermore, they have taken their enthralling live performances as headline tours all over the world as well. With the 15 albums they have released so far, they have sold well over 8 million copies, and have achieved several Gold and Platinum awards. The band shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, and after over 100 sold out shows in support of their previous album, the band is on a mission to break their own records in support of their latest offering ‘My God-Given Right’. Three decades into their career, the band is on their absolute top form \u2013 creatively, as well as on the live show front. Hailed as one of the inventors of the power\/speed metal genre,\u00a0HELLOWEEN\u00a0continue to break records and get better and better as the years continue. Not too many bands in the world can say that they\u2019ve been getting better with age, but Helloween is a band than has mastered and continues to break ground in one of the most thrilling sub-genres of metal.<\/p>\n

We chatted to Helloween bass player Markus about the band\u2019s newest album \u2018My God Given Right\u2019 and its creation, a look back over their career, touring Australia, and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

Your forthcoming album is titled \u2018My God-Given Right\u2019, can you tell us a bit about why this was chosen for the title?<\/strong>
\nWell we had all those songs and we were listening to that track and listening to that name and I thought it was a killer statement to give you know\u2026 It\u2019s just not the concept behind it but just a nice name for the record just the statement for itself says it all, so we thought it was cool to have not a concept kind of thing but having the great statement and we thought it was just very cool.<\/p>\n

The cover goes along with the title perfectly too\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, we wanted to have something very different from what we did before on the cover and I guess we got it.<\/p>\n

Was there a set idea of how you wanted this album to sound or come together or did it essentially evolve into what it became?<\/strong>
\nI think the songs are telling you what they wanted to sound like and if Charlie works on it he does it always in the right way so there\u2019s no worries about it, we come up with a couple of tracks and he can say guitar on here or this or that but in general Helloween sounds like Helloween sounds and you cannot go any other way you know, so it was clear from the beginning that it might be slightly different sound from record to record, but in general you have a very Helloween-y sound which is great.<\/p>\n

I love the driving melodies and hooks all the way through it, was there an intentional somewhat throwback to this sound?<\/strong>
\nWell we always have a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies, using choirs and using keyboards and twin guitars, it\u2019s always been a big part of Helloween doing all this harmonic stuff, even when we started off doing speed metal and it was a lot of harmonies and you can always expect this listening to Helloween record, or expect in a Helloween record that\u2019s not our yet, but it\u2019s still there you know? We just love it we just take some harmonies to create a special sound and this is just the Helloween kind of style, you know?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the biggest difference in the way you make new music now compared to earlier releases?<\/strong>
\nWell nowadays we\u2019re all living around Spain, Germany, south of Germany, north of Germany, the middle of Germany, so we\u2019re not hooking up once, twice or three times a week in the rehearsal room in Hamburg rehearsing songs or writing songs, that would be very complicated now with flying and using trains and all that. It\u2019s like after a long tour we go home and write our songs very individual, each member and silence where you can be in your own environment rather than being in some place hanging out of home for another half of a year or something. This seems to be working for us very, very well, everybody is at home in their own private little corners writing songs and once you think you have enough you can all get together and see what songs are there, it\u2019s just working for us, it\u2019s just the best way to do it.<\/p>\n

So you still get together to record?<\/strong>
\nWell in the studio we start with the drums, they put on the guitars and I actually don\u2019t need to be there when they do the solo and rhythm stuff, I can when the rhythm guitars and drums are done and I put my bass to it. Then I kind of stay there for a couple of days having some fun, having some good times and then I go back home, I don\u2019t need to sit there mixing for two weeks or watching guitars for weeks, it\u2019s very, very different. I go home and have some time off and do some promotional activities or whatever, they don\u2019t want me to be there when they\u2019re doing their guitars, it\u2019s rather disturbing than helping *laughs* when I\u2019m bored it\u2019s beer talk and bull crap and that\u2019s definitely what they don\u2019t want before the guitars or vocals *laughs*.<\/p>\n

Looking back to 1985 with \u2018Walls of Jericho\u2019 in starting out, did you guys have any idea of the longevity your band was about to embark on?<\/strong>
\nWell we were hoping that it\u2019s all going to be a long, long journey and we were actually trying to create some music that lasts longer than ten years or a couple of years and then going back to work because the band is not working anymore. It could\u2019ve easily done some normal hard rock which was popular at the time, but that wouldn\u2019t really be our thing, we thought about something extreme, that\u2019s why we worked on those twin guitars, on the fast songs and with that melody still coming in because we love that as well. We were actually trying to create something that\u2019s kind of everlasting or something and as you can see it\u2019s working\u2026<\/p>\n

Looking back over the thirty years you\u2019ve been in this band,\u00a0what would you sight as the biggest point of evolution that has taken place thus far?<\/strong>
\nWell, well, I guess there\u2019s a lot of points in a career like this, for example the very first record was very, very emotional for all of us with a record contract and doing the \u2018Keeper 1\u2019 that brought us to America for the first time, big European and American and Asian tours we did, getting all the gold record and platinum records and all that stuff, that was kind of we\u2019ve been eaten by you know? Then was a turning point, there was another member problem\u00a0 and all that, then Andy come into the band doing \u2018Master Of The Rings\u2019 showing people we can do it again after they thought Helloween was dead. Then bringing out an album like \u2018Master Of The Rings\u2019 was kind of a big evolution for us, just like coming back with a big boom, I kind of like that you know, those are moments that you will never forget and that is all the evolution of Helloween just goes on in a way.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s no chance of slowing down at the moment?<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 well we slow down on tours because all we do is festival shows this year, but then we do a lot of festivals, takes us busy from now until September \/ October, then we\u2019re giving it a break and doing the actual Helloween tour in the next year. So doing the tour of Helloween of our own and then sliding back into the festivals again, it\u2019s a little air in between those festival shows, you\u2019ll have a couple of days at home during the week and when everybody is out having fun at the festivals, we go there and work. I mean it\u2019s my life it\u2019s not really work, but go there to entertain\u2026<\/p>\n

Being to Australia before, what are some of your best memories of playing in Australia?<\/strong>
\nVery, very, very hot, I had some of the hottest shows I ever did, you know? *laughs* I\u2019m not used to that heat. But you\u2019ve got nice beer, nice food, very nice people, I kind of liked it a lot, it was just a week or ten days and this is what it will be the next time as well. I kind of like playing the chance of playing at the same bars where maybe AC\/DC, Rose Tattoo and people like that started off, Jimmy Barnes and all those people, maybe there was a club which they were playing in when they were starting their career, and I find it very romantic seeing it and playing there.<\/p>\n

In the thirty years, what stands out above all the rest as the biggest highlight of your career thus far?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know, when we played Castle Donington, that was one highlight that was great to play with Iron Maiden on a festival like this was definitely a highlight, I would say Rock in Rio was a highlight, but still it\u2019s not always only the big shows, there\u2019s still highlights on shows that are very small and just emotional with people singing along the whole time and it\u2019s just great you know? It\u2019s that very moment you\u2019re on stage and looking people in the eye and shaking their hands, that\u2019s it in that very second it happens.<\/p>\n

Other side of that question, is there something that you still want to do with this band that you haven\u2019t yet had the opportunity to?<\/strong>
\nWell making a movie maybe *laughs* I\u2019d like to be a dead man in a movie with the band, I don\u2019t know *laughs* we could headline some festivals, I would like to do that someday.<\/p>\n

What do you still enjoy about being a part of Helloween?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s the respect that people are giving us nowadays being there for thirty years, there\u2019s a lot of bands being there for twenty, twenty five, thirty years but they had a break in between for like fifteen years and then reunion themselves, but Helloween was just there for thirty years constantly doing touring, doing all those records and we got a lot of respect from people wherever we go and I kind of like that you know? That was what we were working on and hoping to get because I respect people being around for a long time always doing shows, always doing tours and records constantly, I like that a lot. You\u2019ve also got to go through hard times, when there was different music going on like the beginning to the end of the nineties, it was a rough time, different styles of music and whatever they called that new style of music, suddenly heavy metal and long hair was like embarrassing for a lot of people, and we still go out and play, you\u2019re not going to stop and come back when it got cool again, you\u2019ve got to go through all those up and downs.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s look ahead to the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015, Helloween will\u2026<\/strong>
\nWill do another tour, another show, another festival show and maybe even start writing new songs\u2026 I don\u2019t know, but maybe who knows *laughs*<\/p>\n

HELLOWEEN AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wednesday 14th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0Melbourne<\/strong>, 170 Russell<\/p>\n

Friday 16th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0Sydney,<\/strong>\u00a0Metro Theatre<\/p>\n

Saturday 17th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0Brisbane,<\/strong>\u00a0Max Watt\u2019s<\/p>\n

Monday 19th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0Adelaide,<\/strong>\u00a0The Gov<\/p>\n

Tuesday 20th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0Perth<\/strong>, Capitol<\/p>\n

TICKETS ON SALE 9.00am Monday 1st<\/sup>\u00a0June from\u00a0HERE<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Hamburg, Germany<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Andi Deris, Michael Weikath, Sascha Gerstner, Markus Grosskopf, Dani L\u00f6ble<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> www.helloween.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> My God-Given Right (Nuclear Blast)<\/p>\n\n

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