Thomas Buchberger: Right now we are under negotiations with some bands and tour managers. But nothing is fixed yet. Hopefully we'll hit the road in early 2009.
Have you ever played in the US?
No. We were booked for Progpower US 2008 but several difficult circumstances led to the decision not to go there. That was really bad for us and of course our fans. We will see what future holds.
What are your van/tour bus essentials?
MP3 player, magazines, toothbrush and cards (for hours and hours of card games)!
What are the largest and smallest crowds you've played in front of?
With Serenity I would guess something about 1500 people. The smallest audience I think was 15 people. The "crowd" included two other bands, who were also playing this "festival".
What was the first concert you attended as a fan?
My father is professional musician and so I attended a lot of concerts from my very beginning on. My first concert that I attended as an absolute fan was a Steve Lukather gig in my home village in 1995 with his "Luke" tour. I even got to speak to him the day before in a bar. That was something very special to me, at that time a 15 year old boy.
Any tour horror stories?
Looking back on our first tour with Morgana Lefay there have been some happenings that are quite funny right now. But at the time it was absolute horror for us.. Two weeks before the tour we were been skiing with Lanvall. Mario only had his shorties (very small skis) and had a lot of crashes that day. Crash number seven ended at the local doctor with a broken finger and a plaster cast on his left hand, which made it impossible to play with it.
We then cancelled the songs with difficult piano parts so Mario could play only right handed without the bass parts on his keys. At the tour gig in Munich Mario wanted to enter the stage 20 minutes before show start and had gone upstairs. Those stairs were in the middle of the stage in the evening, but now they were on the outside of the stage floor, leading into a black hole about five feet deep. You can imagine what happened next. Mario played the gig with a cast and a hurt shoulder. He went to the clinic afterwards and came back with a bandage on his right arm. However he was able to play the last three gigs. Charles from Morgana told this story to the German Rock Hard magazine, which was funny for us, but not for Mario when he read it. During our last gig in Berlin the complete crew and Sacred Steel came up on stage with toilet paper bandages around their arms... crazy guys...
How did you get started in music?
As I already said, my father is a professional country-rock musician and so it was obvious for me to learn playing the guitar, which I started at the age of 9. 5 years of basics with the classical guitar (I hardly ever rehearsed at that time) led to the decision to switch over to the electric guitar. I spenet a year in our local music school and my self teaching started. I left my teacher, discovered Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, Iron Maiden, and began playing their songs. I joined several bands and now I'm here with Serenity and still playing covers with different cover bands and my father.
Was there a song or album that inspired you to want to perform music?
Metallica's Black Album and Dio’s Lock Up The Wolves were something absolutely special for me when I came across them. I wanted to learn how to get these sounds out of a guitar.
Who are some current artists you admire?
There are too many of them to name all. In metal music I really like Nils Norberg's playing (Ex Nocturnal Rites) or the Evergrey guys. But I also like Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, Richie Blackmore (the acoustic stuff) and hundreds more...
What is your all time favorite metal album?
Everything from Evergrey I would guess, led by In Search Of Truth. Great guitar work!
What’s the metal scene like in Austria?
Small but fine. Disappointingly for most people it's not important if melodies are good or the music is well performed. They only want to hear growls and shouting. Black and death rules Austria in metal music. But we have some really good melodic bands too.
