Chad Bowar: Why was this the right time to revisit Land Of The Free?
Dirk Schlächter: It wasn’t really planned when we started recording the first songs. When we were doing pre-production of the first few songs, we had a feeling that reminded us of the time we had during Land Of The Free. The idea came up to keep this in mind when we were recording the album to call it something and subtitle it Land Of The Free Part II. But during the production of the other songs the “something” never took place, so we decided to use Land Of The Free II as the title. So it wasn’t really a plan, it just took place during the production.
Gamma Ray has done most of its own production recently. How come you decided to work with Tommy Newton, who had also worked with starting in the early ‘90s?
He came in during Heading For Tommorow (Gamma Ray’s first album in 1990) and took over the job of mixing and recording. He produced the second album Sigh No More (1991) as well. Then we started doing the job ourselves. But this time we thought it might be helpful to be more musicians during the production and not taking care of all the technical stuff. So we invited Tommy in to record the drums and do the final mix, which helped lighten our load.
Gamma Ray seems to be a democracy with all members writing songs for each album instead of having one or two main songwriters. Is that something you’ve consciously tried to do?
It depends. For example I didn’t take part in the songwriting for two albums because I was too busy with my chaotic life. Whenever there are enough songs to do a new album, we do it. Of course there sometimes that don’t fit into the concept or guidelines of an album. The song “To Mother Earth” was written for the Majestic album by Kai, but at that time it didn’t fit into the feeling of that album. This time, it fit very well. Things like this happen. But not too many songs are left over on a production.
Land Of The Free II has been out in Europe for a while now. What has the response been like so far?
I don’t know much about the sales, but there haven’t been any bad reviews. In general everybody is really happy with this album. We’ll know more when we get sales numbers. We’re doing a tour now with Helloween, and it has been fantastic. People are really happy to hear the new stuff. I have nothing to complain about.
The last time Gamma Ray played in the U.S. was during the summer of 2006. Any plans to come over here again?
Maybe. There is talk about bringing Helloween and Gamma Ray over there together, but we don’t know when. It might happen in the summer of 2008. In February we are going to Japan and Korea and Australia. Then in April we’re going to South America and doing a lot of shows. Then we’ll do some summer festivals. After that we may come over there together.
Now that you have 9 studio albums, is it getting difficult to put together a setlist for a tour?
Yes, it’s really difficult. On this tour we’re only playing for 70 minutes, so the set is really short. We want to play the new stuff, but of course the fans want to hear some older songs as well.. We ended up playing two songs and a mix of the old stuff. We also change the set during the tour here and there to try out different things.
The new album has a lot of overdubs and things like that. Does that make it more difficult to recreate the songs live?
Yes, of course. If there are a lot of guitars it’s not so easy. But as all the songs went through the rehearsal rooms, we checked out how it sounds with just two guitar players. If a song doesn’t work like that, there’s something wrong. You can put a lot of overdubs in production like painting a picture, but if a song doesn’t work with just the four of us, there’s something wrong.
You used to play guitar for the band, and then switched to bass. Do you still play any guitars on the album?
Yes. I do most of the acoustic stuff, and a few other parts here and there. I’ve done some overdubs and things like that.
You’ve been with Gamma Ray for almost 20 years now. What have been some of the big changes you’ve seen in the music industry during that time?
The biggest change is that you see young bands coming up and you are their idols. That is strange and makes me feel old. Bands were fans when they were young and we were influences on them. That’s a good feeling, but also makes you feel old. My son is playing guitar now and is listening to some different kinds of bands. So I’m getting in touch with some of this metalcore stuff that I wouldn’t normally listen to. We talk about music and guitar playing and play together. I listen to the music he wants to play to help him learn it.
Power metal has always been strong in Europe, but it seems to be having a resurgence in North America. Do you think that’s the case?
Yes, that is the case. There are a lot of young people doing this stuff. I heard Avenged Sevenfold, and it sounds pretty fresh and young. It’s good. I like it.
