1. So how has the Hellish Rock Tour been going with Gamma Ray?

MARCUS: O its been going great. We are coming to the end of it now, its been almost a year and we have pretty much taken this thing all around the world.

2. You are only doing these dates in the States?

DANIEL: Yes we are. This is our second show.. I think for North America. We did Worcester Massachusetts the other night which went well and two in Canada.

3. How is the latest album “Gambling with the Devil” being received by the American fans?

MARCUS: Well when it comes to playing the States it’s a little different getting the tour together as opposed to in Europe and Asia. We need the help to come over here to play especially because you never know what the market is going to be like for our type of music. But we have a really strong U.S. fan base especially in recent years for the last few albums and that’s why we have been able to tour more.

4. How about the setlist. Has that changed much or is it pretty much the same as the one you played over seas?

DANIEL: We changed it a bit. For both Europe and America we play the first single “As Long As I Fall” from the new album “Gambling With The Devil”, took out “Seven Bells of Hell” and put in “Paint a New World” cause it was released kind of as a single and we did a video clip for it. And we also put in “Mr. Torture” from the “Dark Ride”. But in the American market “Paint” actually is the most wanted song and that’s why we did a video for it.

5. Is there a rhyme or reason to the songs you pick?

MARCUS: Well there are songs that we always have to play like “I Want Out” and “Future World”, “Eagle Fly Free”. But we always try to liven up the setlist for each tour. Like “Halloween” currently is in and has since we did it on the “Keeper of the Seven Keys Part.3” tour over seas a few years ago.

6. Well I have seen Helloween three times in recent years since you started playing shows again in the States and after the one off you did in New York City for the “Better Than Raw” album. In 1998 you played “How Many Tears” from “Walls of Jericho” and on the “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy” tour “Starlight” and “Murderer” were included from the first E.p. Why didn’t you include anything from “Walls of Jericho” for this tour?

MARCUS: Well the song ”Halloween” was not in our set for many years and then when we did the DVD “Live on Three Continents” it was my idea to include all our long songs like “Halloween”, “Keeper of the Seven Keys”, “Occasion Ave”, and “King of a Thousand Years” to make that recording special. But from tour to tour we do like to take out and add songs so there was no real reason why we didn’t include anything from “Jericho” this time around. When you are preparing for a tour and you have like thirteen albums to go through its hard to hit upon all of them. Sometimes one or two get left out. But I’m happy we did “Starlight” and “Murderer” on the “Rabbit” tour. Before that tour we did “Heavy Metal (Is The Law) and then you know after doing the two for the “Rabbit” tour we thought that was enough, for now, from that period lets throw in something else. So for this “Hellish Rock” tour you get “March of Time”.

7. Do you plan on coming back to the States sooner than later? Is that something you would like to do more often?

MARCUS: Yeah if we are asked Haha. First we have to go home and start working on the next record. We have ideas but that’s it.

8. Any other releases coming out from Helloween, like another DVD?

MARCUS: Not right now. We just did that DVD from the last tour (”Keeper of the Seven Keys Part3”). We don’t want to release like a DVD after every tour. We want to make something like a DVD interesting and skipping a couple years between recording, changing the setlist makes it more special then when you release a live concert.

9. I also asked Kai (Hansen from Gamma Ray) this question today. Are there any old concerts with the classic 80’s lineup of Helloween in the vaults that could see release on DVD?

MARCUS: I think there is some material from the “Live in the UK” album which was called “I Want Out Live” in the U.S. and “Keepers Live” in Japan. I know that was recorded but unfortunately only like six songs were put out on that album.

But I really don’t know what the story is with that show. I would like to see it come out.

10. What do you think of the remasters that Sanctuary released out a few years ago which went from “Walls of Jericho” up through “Better Than Raw”?

MARCUS: Well those came out under Sanctuary and its under the rights of the company. But at least we were kind of working with them approving the artwork, we got to include some bonus tracks, unreleased ones. So that was good. We wanted to make them interesting for the fans.

11. Were those remastered also?

DANIEL: Yeah those were.

12. Involved in any side projects?

MARCUS: Well I just did something called Bassinvaders where I had some friends of mine, different bass players from different bands, contribute their styles you could say to a bunch of songs I wrote. I was actually trying to right songs around a bass line. It was kind of tough I don’t know if people really got what I was doing with that. I also have this cool rock n roll band called Kick Hunter and its kinda like this biker rock n roll. Something we do when we get together and have a barbeque, a few beers, we kick around some chords which is fun.

DANIEL: I haven’t any time and usually when I am back home I work on my side project called family, Haha. Well I do some clinics for Pearl and the endorsement companies who support Helloween which is very important.

13. Do you have a favorite Helloween song?

MARCUS: Well “Eagle Fly Free” is always fun and a favorite, I like “Halloween” back in there. “March of Time”. But I also like “As Long As I Fall” because that’s something different and has a great melody line.

DANIEL: I like those faster songs like “Eagle”, “March of Time”, but all of them really I enjoy. I like this setlist.

14. Helloween’s plans for the rest of 08 into 09?

DANIEL: We already mentioned before, we will go back home and start working on some ideas for the next album.

MARCUS: I think next year will consist of us really composing new songs, maybe doing some appearances at festivals. But no plans to like return to the States yet.

DANIEL: I mean we did a couple world tours, two cds and a live DVD within the past few years so to go on tour again next year would be too much.

15. Any plans to release another “Best Of” like “Treasure Chest”?

MARCUS: Well we do have a plan sometime soon to record an album of songs performed either acoustically or with an orchestra. That’s something Helloween hasn’t done yet and I think that would make for an interesting release. It can add another color to the songs. I mean the melodies are already there, its different for us. It will be done before the next album.

DANIEL: Yes, that’s something that will be done before the next album.

Official websites:
www.helloween.org
www.myspace.com/helloween