 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. The Metal Voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice. Alan, we got, oh, we got the greatest. One of the greatest metal singers of them all. It's only been like 10 years I wanted to do this interview. Jimmy, you've had the occasion to interview Michael here for a few occasions, and this is my first. And this is monumental because this is officially the earliest interview we've ever done in the Metal Voice. I got my coffee here this morning because this is the earliest interview we've ever done. It's my fourth coffee right now. It's 8 in the morning here. What's your time right now? 8 in the morning. That's not early. On a day off. I always wake up. I mean, I suck the last five days. I don't know what happened. And it's gotten really hot here and I couldn't fall asleep for like two nights. And now my rhythm is screwed up. I slept till like 9.30, which I haven't done for years. Normally, without an alarm clock, I usually wake up around 5, 6 in the morning. And I just wake up, get a coffee. That's just my rhythm. And it's completely screwed up. But 8 o'clock to me, it's already a lost day. There you go. So we got, you know... I wake up early too, Michael. Just so you know, we wake up like 6. This is the earliest interview. Like our voices aren't actually working, you know, at this time. You know, with me. I wake up very often at 5. At 5. Because we're old. Without an alarm clock. Yeah. But now, the last couple of days, everything is screwed up. I think I got a set in an arm clock. I got to force myself to get back into the rhythm. All right. And you know what? Let's quickly, let's talk about... I don't know how much time we have, the Halloween self-titled album. It's been... Alan, I didn't do the math. How many years has it been since Michael's been in the band? Michael... Too long. Too long. Too long. I mean, it's the first time. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I was no longer part of the band in 94. So like from 94 on... January 94, I was out, you know. 35 years the band's been existed. And you know, back in the day, metal, we're buying the maidens, we're buying the priests. Oh, here's this little EP from Halloween before you joined the band. But then looking back now, the first, you know, the Keeper album, I couldn't believe it was like 88 when that was released. It seems to me it was a lot earlier in the 80s. You know, stuff was starting to change by then. So... Yeah, it was... I think 87 was Keeper 1 88 was Keeper 2. Wow. For me, I thought it was 84 or 85. I was very surprised looking back at it. It was really that late into the 80s that you guys are really, really taking off. I thought it happened a lot earlier for you. I mean, Halloween was there earlier. I mean, they started around 82. But just the four of them with a more punk kind of sound. All right, so let's... Tell us about, you know, what was the moment that you said, you know what, I want to do this? Not only do I want to tour with these guys, but I want to record an album with these guys. Something not too many bands have done, like reunite all most, at least most of the members, right? Tell us what was that defining moment? I think Van Halen tried it, but it didn't work out. How many times? No, with Hager and Diamond Dave. They were trying to do something together. It didn't work out. It doesn't work out. There wasn't one moment with everything, but there was one moment that changed my mind, in general, about an idea like that. Even that wasn't just a moment. To me, I mean, in the 90s, I wouldn't have rejected anything. It didn't matter. It didn't matter how much money you would have offered me. I would not want to do it. I was disappointed about the band. I was disappointed about the scene and everything, and I was pretty much on a crusade, to be honest with you. And it was good for me. It was a good time. It was important. It shaped my personality, and I don't want to miss it. But in those 90s, nothing like that would ever have been possible. And my kind of opening up to this type of music started with Avant Hager, actually, at the end of the 90s. I think it was 98 or 99 when he was working on the first Avant Hager album. He really talked me into it. I didn't want to do it at first, but I liked him right away, just the guy he is, you know? And he convinced me to do it. That's why I'm earning, because I wasn't 100% sure. But I enjoyed it. Later on, I make it short, okay? Later on, Seraphino showed up, offered me a deal for my solo stuff, and then he came with Plasphandone, which was great. I really enjoyed it, and it was getting into that direction a lot. And then I got in touch through that with Dennis Ward. Him, together with Costa, a few years later, offered the idea of making a real band, you know? Both getting nor with Pinky Cream 69. I was basically just on my own, doing some stuff here and there, and they thought it would be a good idea to make a real band, which it was. And then on the first Avant Hager tour, I didn't go with them. But on the second one, Costa told me because we were planning to tour with Unisonic, he said, you should go on that Avant Hager tour just to get a feel back. And it was a perfect situation. Not only because of the guys, you know, being very sweet guys and very easygoing and everything was pretty stress-free, but also because of how little you had to do. I always consider this as paid holidays. You just travel the world and you sing, I don't know, how many songs. I don't sing one complete song. You know, it's just bits and pieces here. And it was perfect to get comfortable again and stuff. And on that first tour, I did with them. I did more than one, but on the first one I did with them, Kai Hansen was part of it. So I was on stage with Kai again. And there was this old familiar way of feeling on stage. There was this chemistry going on. And we started talking. We should do something together. And I didn't want to join Gamma Ray. It's just not my cup of tea. So he joined Unisonic. So that was another step. But still, I wouldn't. I was actually getting a little pissed when I heard Andy say things like that. In an interview. I don't know when it was, but it was a friend of mine who has sent me a quote about something that Andy had said in an interview about that he's sure that in 2000, something, you know, I will be part of the team again. And we were going to make a big tour and stuff. I was like, what is he talking about? But it shows you how long they were planning that. It was especially Andy, which is funny because he he's the actor. And especially, of course, the management loves things like that. You know, but it was Andy and Kai Hansen. They were like the driving force behind it. And in 2013, I was on a tour with Alan Taser again in Europe. And one of the festivals we played, I ran into Michael Wycaff backstage. And he stood in front of me in a complete mood. With a cigarette? Beers. He doesn't breathe air. We found that out. We found that out. By breathing air. It's not happening. But he stood in front of me and he said, which was perfect. He said, what have I done that you can't forgive me? I mean, you can't be more hard straightforward. And I was I was holding my breath and I noticed there was no more anger. I wasn't angry anymore. I was lingering on in my head, because that was the situation for so many years. But in my soul, something had changed. Probably just by getting older. I don't know. So my answer was, I think I've forgiven you a long time ago. Because that's how it felt in that moment. I wasn't thinking about anything like that. But that was an inner game changer when it comes to changing my or realizing something has changed. And then like a year later, we played three shows in Spain with Unisonic. Great shows. The band was getting in shape. It was good concert. Really good show. Nothing big. Maybe up to 2,000 or something like that. And after one of those shows, Kai Hansen looked at me and said, well, we just got to do something with Halloween once more. Before it's too late. And that's when I said, you know what? I'm open. And Costa was playing drums for Unisonic, as you probably know. And he's part of the management bottom role. So he passed that information over to Jan Bayati, who's the manager of Halloween. And he called me up and wanted to check out how serious I was. And I must admit, at first, the only thing I really cared about because I did not know the market. I did not have any idea of how successful this could be or anything. I didn't think about anything like that. I was basically all about making peace, getting it out of my system. Making a tour with them and leaving as friends. If you can get rid of enemies and make them friends again, go for it. It heals you. It's something off your chest. So that was my main motivation in the beginning. Well, that changed going on tour with them in 2017 and getting feedback from the audience and the spirit that was always there every night among us. It's so intense that things changed. And after 2017 we all knew that this could last. This could continue longer. Because we only made contracts for this tour in 2017. Because if we didn't get along you don't want to be forced to do that. It makes you sick. We only made contracts for this tour. But when everything went down so well we started to think ahead. That's when the idea of an album came up. I'm sure that's something like that in his mind already. That's his job. As a manager you make your plans. But for us as musicians musicians are always like that. You just live in the moment. You make the best out of the moment. You just make decisions out of how it feels. So as you can tell there was not one moment where everything was clear. It was step by step. He was talking about that night he said he had two or three beers in his hand smoking with three or four cigarettes like he always does. We moved forward from that point on. So it's good to see that coming together. Of course after that Jan wanted me to have a long conversation with YT which we did. We talked for maybe like two or three hours. It was very interesting because you realized there was nothing really going down. It was just bullshit. Typical ego kind of stuff. Everybody has a different story. Everybody has a different story. Like it always is. But when everything was settled with YT because he was actually the only one that I really had a problem with. I never had a problem with Kai. I didn't like it when he left. But I never had a problem with him. And I met him after that in a music store and we talked. A little bit on his gamma ray record and he with Adrian Smith were helping me out on my first solo record. You know. He was part of Unisonic later on. You can see that there was never a problem. And Marcus was basically sucked in by the situation. And the rest of the band I didn't know. They were a new guy. So it was basically a thing between me and Wike. And when that was settled he let me spend some time with Andy Daris because we didn't know each other. And he said very truthfully if you guys don't get along it doesn't make any sense. So I flew over to Tenerife and I spent about two weeks almost every day with him. He was taking me to various places. He was taking me to various places. Restaurants and he has a he has a favorite place very like completely next to the beach to the sea to the ocean where they have a little restaurant where you can get gambas like a special garlic roasted shrimps which are pretty amazing actually. To make a long long story a little short we got along perfectly. It was almost like I knew him which is the most beautiful part of it because it's like every time in the past centuries when I saw his face it was not connected with a good feeling it was that's the dude who got my job you know and the other way around especially in the early years when he joined the band he got a lot of fire from the fans who didn't agree with that you know it's always a very unthankful thing to do to the point of the band that has had I mean when Bruce Dickerson joined on Maiden he was interested in their beginnings and it really took off when he joined the band that's when I got interested into all I made it was when he joined the band because it was his vocals that kind of knocked me off my feet but it was with Andy it was much more difficult because he joined the band when we had like a lot of successes in the 80s you know so when he saw my face for the last centuries it was probably not connected so there was a situation created just out of the circumstances without us knowing each other which is a funny situation and it was interesting and we were nervous there was an element of insecurity but it was quickly gone and it was so interesting to see how good we get along it was really like an old mate of someone I knew and I'm sure I know him from somewhere you know but when that went down well that's when we started to make some real brainstorm sessions and plans about this you know so what would you recommend sorry Alan what would you in one sentence what would you tell those bands you know the Van Halen's you know all those bands who had so many members what would be the key to reuniting like Halloween did to them the basis has to be on a human level it has to be because you want to make peace if you're just in there for another ego reason or whatever it's not going to work it's not going it doesn't have any strength it doesn't have any legs you know I was really really happy it really moved me I love Sammy Hagger just the guy he is okay I love David Leroth too I think he's very misunderstood person like in the last number of years there was a lot of interviews like since the internet ages have become so dominant you can see you can get an impression about anyone when you look at the guy he's not that arrogant jerk that we always thought he was not at all he just has a certain style of entertainment that he thinks is right but he is very moral and he's very intelligent and he has depth I was surprised and Sammy Hagger to me is also like a great guy so it was not about you like that one better than the other one they tried to do something like that with the two singers but it didn't work out I was really happy Eddie died there was a video coming out I was not happy when Eddie died but I was happy to see a video from Sammy Hagger right after that saying that they actually talked like a couple of months before he died they talked and they made peace and all that it matters so much if you die and you take that with you you cannot fix it anymore it's there only in time and space when we're here we can make decisions and free choices as soon as you're out of your body I don't know if you're a spiritual person but as soon as you're out of your body that's it you've got to live with the fruits of your life and you've got to do with it whatever you can so I'm really happy that they sorted it out I think even Sammy Hagger and David B. Roth are fine now I think they're pretty cool I saw that tour of the Sammy and Dave tour a little disappointing that they didn't get together and try something it was a great show I enjoyed it but as you can tell there was that friction that was throughout the whole tour and it landed up with headlining problems and they just split at the end but again I think that's the way to go about it like you said when Sammy Hagger got back with Van Halen I saw that tour as well and I called that to take the money and run tour because it wasn't about the music at all yeah I don't know it felt like you mean when David was out but Sammy tried to get back with the brothers and Eddie was going through a bit of a dark period you mean the second time yeah the second time the first time was very real I thought it was just after yeah I know what you mean yeah that's why it is so it really moved me when I saw that video because I was asking myself a couple of days before when I heard that Eddie passed away I was thinking wow I hoped that I wish I could have made peace I wish they could have gotten back together and to hear that they actually did behind the scenes not talking about it leaving out the public just clearing making me really happy because those things matter more than anything else it's like from the outside point of view fans they have a different opinion about what they think is important when it comes to a band they like it when a band makes a good tour and it's entertaining or they make a great album obviously it's very understandable that's the point of view but there's a deeper meaning behind all this you know and I think the most important thing for this Halloween kind of thing is really the forgive and forget kind of thing to forgive and really be friends again it's much more important than anything else nope your dinner's ready I forgot my sending the SMS there you go stop talking about us we're getting embarrassed we're so great no but like you said it's the new age now the first album of what has been called the new age it's a great album you know what I take away from Halloween's career is the high consistency the high quality every album is interesting and they're not duplicating even chameleon had some interesting stuff on it for myself the secret for Halloween's longevity and their high quality of musicianship and songs we don't think that much when you make an album because it doesn't make any sense you should never try to fulfill any other expectations than trying to do your best but you cannot even also with this album we did not sit down and make some sort of a pre-draft where it should go it's just the way it sounds when the seven of us do something together you have the songwriters, you have Kai when he writes the song and I sing it it has a specific sound when Andy writes the song and he sings it it has a specific sound or when I sing a song of this there's this priority we can do so many things now in various ways but I honestly think I felt the same way by the way because I was rejecting listening to the records they had done afterwards the chameleon and pink bobble's phase was not a happy phase for the band we were like it was very difficult when Kai left the band the whole balance was distorted it was not working anymore somehow Wykey and Kai they had a competition going down that was very fruitful and as soon as he got replaced by Roland even though the musicians were good the spirit was not the same and we were just constantly fighting and then we also got talked into taking Chris Sangaridis as a producer instead of Tommy Hansen who was responsible for a lot of the funk stuff that went down on the keeper record it was a bad choice it was just not a good thing to do we did the best out of the situations we still wrote cool songs but we didn't work as a band anymore that's why I don't like pink bobble's go out we still did but it started to be difficult on chameleon it was just three guys making a solo record like everybody made a solo record under the name Halloween but we were not working together it was not a thing anymore and when Andy joined the band it was exactly what the band needed he brought the focus into the band and I was refusing listening to any of the stuff that they did because of disappointment and hurt feelings but now I can it's like when we started the pumpkins you know the thing I was listening to like the master of the rings when I understand why it worked because talking of on hailing I think they did the same thing in their type of music they did not copy the previous records they did not copy the people records but it sounded like Halloween it was kind of a reinvention of the band and that saved the band in my opinion I think we were not functioning anymore it was right or wrong it was a fact that we were just fighting and we were not really we didn't want to make music together anymore that was the situation that's why we shouldn't and when Andy came back the band was functioning again but it's so great that we get all the suckers together now in this band and do this together it's just a very Halloween like really really I remember Wiki said in an interview with me and maybe Alan that you know once the finances the money started becoming an issue back in the 80s and 90s that's when everything just sort of fell apart you know I mean it's typical it's just human nature right when everybody's not so much the band starting to think about money you know it was more the people around the band trying to get the biggest piece of the cake the band was like massively sucked into legal situations you know we were you shouldn't have to think about things like that we were like so screwed you couldn't imagine we saw millions of records we were selling out venues and we were in the debts because that's what everybody was taking away it's a typical situation musicians usually musicians are very naive and they should be because you should make music and that's what you have in mind and business is kind of trapping your mind if you don't free yourself from these traps like becoming a businessman instead of a musician you're done all the musicians that lose their inspirations and their creativity it's all because that part took over so you have to be in a constant you have to make your money that's the reality of our existence now fight that fight to free your mind your creative process needs to be free from that as much as you can and only as much as you are able to do that you will succeed and to finally answer your question the reason why the albums that they've done are always kind of strong and different is because I think this band the songwriters of this band Whitey for instance he can think financially he's not able to write anything else but whatever comes into his head he makes a song out of it it doesn't matter what it is that makes him special Kaihan is the same thing he likes money but he cannot write songs in a specific direction he just writes the songs he does it with such an authority or I don't know the English word for it for him it's so natural to do it like that that whatever he does it kind of works it has some kind of a strength because of the conviction he has about the things he does and I think that makes this band in every good band I believe functions that way everybody is different but it's always that fight of not letting the business side destroying the artist that's why you need managers to have someone who takes care of that and we do have that now the whole band situation is wonderful when Kai and I got back into that family we really needed to get used to a completely different situation than what it used to be in the 80's in the 80's we were surrounded by sharks yeah I bet they didn't care about you they didn't care about us the only thing they cared about was getting the biggest piece of the money that was coming and they did in this time now everything is completely different the management is on our side we're part of the team now and we really needed to get used to that when you have experiences like we did in the 80's you tend to be very suspicious you don't like other people like managers having too much to say we needed to sort of learn to trust in a new way again in a way that we never actually were able to trust because we have been fucked up so many times in the past it was a very difficult time but it's part of the school that's called life yeah and again I think this is classic every band that has a rod small word or Peter Grant that says guys you make the music I take care of the rest the success comes with it people that are just digging around by those bands that are unfortunately in debt by the time their careers are over if you don't have that you're going to go down it's going to destroy you because either way you either end up with nothing or you end up being torn apart by the base or your creativity dies so important to have jobs given to the people and they take care of that and musicians should not have to think about things like that so back to the album Andy Daris his voice has got so many textures and now you listen to fear of the falling where you guys are blending harmonizing it just blows my mind all these singers and the sounds the orchestration who's going to sing what how did that come about who decides hey I'll take that part you take this part it was easy it was actually very easy I was having the same thoughts as you just said that's going to be difficult probably to figure it out or might even be an ego problem coming up but it didn't at least not with me and Andy we had Dennis Ward being part of the creative organizer he was the creative organizer and co-producer with Charlie and Dennis knows my voice from Blasman Dolman and being with me in unisoning Andy's voice so we wanted to have someone outside of the band make a pre-draft who could maybe sing what it was not written in stone but just to have a guideline and that's what he did he was spreading the parts and that's how we started it but it was always when I did something one evening and I didn't feel 100% sure about it next day I would get to Andy you should give it a try see how that works I didn't think I nailed it I think it was neat and the other way around it was the same thing it happened that next morning it was always pretty much the same kind of routine I showed up at Andy's house and had to read something like maybe 12, 1 o'clock and noon and afternoon he's a very late sleeper he's the opposite to me when it comes to his sleeping rhythm he doesn't get out of the bed he's a night person and I'm an early bird completely so we found a place in the middle I usually showed up there at 12, 1 o'clock or something and then it happened that he came to me I was trying that song yesterday and Charlie and I we thought you should try that one or you should sing a harmony over that or Charlie thought that I should maybe try a harmony there it was just all about the song it was just all about getting the best out of the songs and that's the way it should be no egos the only little ego situation we had was with Kai it was when I did the vocals for Skyfall I thought it was clear that's the way it's supposed to be Dennis had actually given me pretty much the parts that I'm doing now on the song was how he thought it would happen and we had a great night we had a glass of wine and we did the vocals for the song and everybody was happy it sounded so cool it sounded like Keeper it was about one of the few songs that had Keeper spirit we were like cool that's so cool thank God he wrote that song because it's the only song Kai wrote and we send it out to the management everybody was like this is so cool and then Kai called it was like did you not hear it? yeah it was you're not listening you know the thing is we don't mind Kai singing you know he sounds cool and there are certain things that you can do and why not you know this is so crazy anyway it was the only song he did after centuries of not being part of the band we joined the band it's a killer song and it sounds like Keeper and I shouldn't sing it I was a bit hurt I was a bit hurt I agreed to it Kai was fine no problem he thought he would do the vocals it would have sounded like Gamma Ray then I was kind of giving in to it I said okay fine but I got really frustrated I didn't know what was going on after that I was miserable I was in a very bad state and I didn't know why I think it's because I'm hurt that he doesn't want me to sing a song and I told that to Yan Mayati and the manager and he said you know what you should open up your mouth you should talk about it speak it out and everybody in the band felt differently than Kai everybody was really happy with it to do it like that because sometimes Kai has a problem I love him to death but sometimes he has a problem seeing the big picture seeing the band and it's a matter of fact that Andy and I as the singers we do play a bigger role in terms of the career of his band when you just look at numbers you can tell that the majority of fans Kai has his fans the majority of halloween fans want to hear mainly me and Andy sing and he just felt like you know since he doesn't sing on other parts on the album which we offered him and he just didn't do it you know he just stuff sent to him and he just never did it so it ended up him having almost nothing to sing on the album which was not the plan in the beginning anyway but later on he wanted to be a singer too and it's fine but it was just not the right thing to do for this album and everybody felt like this the management, the producer and the whole band that was the only thing where we tried to convince him that that's not the right way of doing it and if he would have stick with the idea that he should do it he would have done it because we have this unwritten law the songwriter needs to be happy if that's the way he wants to do it that's the way it's going to happen but thankfully after a while now he totally agrees when the album when the singer got number one in England I got it recorded and I saved the audio files just as a proof he was sending me the sweetest message saying it's so exciting to see them in the bus that's going down and how people react to the song and I'm sure it has something to do with you singing on the song so it's like in the future I write the song and you sing and then we make great things together I love it because it shows that he does understand it matters when both do something together it's not just him and it was really really important for me and I think it is also necessary it's good that he can express that it was a very important statement because like I said earlier I was a little hurt I was a little hurt that he didn't want me to sing on his only freaking song on the album Michael I got to say Skyfall to me is probably one of the greatest Halloween songs ever written and I think because of I love the bridge when Kai comes in on the bridge and Andy and you it's like the perfect and I love that it was something like 12 minutes long it just blew my mind I wouldn't say it's like keeper but it's evolved from keeper but it's just a knockout a knockout and the way it is now that's the way we wanted to do it right away we didn't want Kai to sing nothing on it we had those parts we wanted him to do it because it sounds great you know the way he does it and it also this is Pumpkins United you know so it's fine when Kai also sings here and there it's not a problem but it was for the song the way it is now it just worked better the thing is I did the vocals and everybody was happy and then he his vocals and it wasn't better you know what I mean the verses are not so much his cup of tea it's a little high for him you know it was like he can only do the witch screen he can do the witch up there which is nice occasionally but it was just not having the power and it was again Andy Derris who was the game changer Andy was sticking out of the conversation the whole time he was not saying anything all out of arguments it was not a fight don't get me wrong we were just talking we were just trying to bring arguments across why that's the way to do it especially with this first United Record and stuff like that and Andy was sticking out of it the whole time he was not saying anything and we were out of arguments we were almost like okay that's the way we got to do it I'm afraid and then Andy said he was sending an email he was saying oh that's too bad I really thought the song was so powerful the way it was with Michael singing it but it's okay we got a lot of other great songs and with with that state but he just got Kai's ego okay we do it the way you gotta love Andy Derris you gotta love Andy Derris it's Halloween's Cashmere that song I mean you know it's epic but you know your experience with Aventasia and all the different singers we were talking earlier about the Quebec City show when you got eight lead singers in the band it's easy to cover up any of that experience kind of play into how you're orchestrating these songs and being up the vocal parts well at least I'm used to a situation like that you know that's definitely something that I learned from Aventasia that is cool to have various vocalists you know it's not an unusual thing in the type of music anyway I mean think about KISS KISS always had Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley as the main singers and it doesn't matter if I was made for loving you it's KISS or if you hear like the Creatures of the Night or I don't know I love it loud for instance from KISS it's Gene Simmons and it's KISS because you're used to those two singers or like Linkin Park you had the guy who was doing the rap stuff and the other one unfortunately killed himself who did the more melodic shouting kind of thing but Halloween is a new situation because we always used to have one and now both are in the gig or actually all three Kai started to sing then I joined a band and then Amy and now we all do it together it has massive benefits life because when you do a three hour show and with the material that we have it's difficult to play short you just have to it'll always be something like two hours at least normally we would have done a tour on our own probably with no support act or anything but since the pandemic was hitting and everybody is a little worried who knows how long it's going to take until people are not scared anymore and nobody knows nobody knows how many people are going to come up to the show and we teamed up with our friends from Hammerfall not as a support act they get the same stage size and everything they can have the whole set they're not a support act we play second but this is a team we do this together just to make sure that enough people come and when the pandemic is finally forgotten again then we can do tours on our own again but to come back to long shows like we did with Avantasia as well it's amazing when you don't have to do this on your own if you do a three hour concert with these type of songs on your own I'm sure you want to fuck yourself up but I only have to do I mean I share 50-50 with Andy anyway and we share a little with Kai who has a party in the middle and stuff like that it's perfect it's just one thing you've got to watch out it's like when you don't sing you don't have to watch out not to drink too much red wine backstage because that's what we all tend to do not necessarily everybody drinks red wine but I do and it's so easy to get drunk when you have this you just want to stay in the mood and you drink something and I had a situation you got to know that I was completely anti alcohol my entire life I didn't drink a drop of alcohol until 2009 2010 and when I was supposed to record the vocals for the first year of Sonny album I was so stiff that I needed something so I kind of bought a Desperado the Desperado stuff and it kind of loosened me up so that I was able to sing well and I kind of like that especially on stage not to be drunk but to have a bit of red wine it kind of gives that little extra kick to have a part of yourself because the most important thing for live concerts of that type of music especially is you have to enjoy it yourself if you are able to enjoy it yourself the audience can and sometimes that helps but like I said in those break faces when Andy is singing or Kyle is singing it's very dangerous because you just sit on the side Michael let me ask you you know so many people they looked at the song list, the track list and they go how come Michael hasn't contributed like you know song wise did you have songs ready did you uh maybe you didn't want to contribute maybe you thought there was just enough good material there I didn't want to I intentionally got myself I'm making a solo album right now an acoustic album you know that's my creative part at the moment when it comes to the songs for me I have written a few songs that were successful I know but still to me Kai YP later on Andy and also Sasha to me they're the main songwriters they write the songs that sort of define the main sound of the band and since we have six songwriters I thought it's enough you know maybe I do something for another record that we might do I think it has something to do with the album nuclear blast it's actually really after my solo record he's a really big fan which is always great I told him that I'm doing something like that I want to have it I'm going to release it next year and he wants me to continue and I think because I was complaining to Ute who is actually doing the promotion that I'm completely off the recording on the album because I'm just doing interviews and I think that must have made its way to Mr. Steiger I guess because yesterday she said yeah next week on you'll be free is your solo album completed is it done? I have all the material it's not going to be it's going to be 50-50 it's going to be like a few of my own songs that I have all just acoustic I also record some of my favorite songs non-metal tubes stuff from various bands that I do my own take on you know sometimes even from the 70s just songs that I love and I feel like I can sing them in an interesting way and do my own thing it's going to be 50-50 but it's going to be very simple very acoustic in my place and again you'll be very generous with your time so anything else you want to promote your solo album out I guess we're all waiting for a tour yeah all that but I want to say something else people should really overcome the fear part of the pandemic I'm not saying it's a hoax I'm not saying it's a lie I'm not one of those you got to take care of each other you got to follow the rules to protect others and whatever but don't be afraid the more you are afraid the easier you get it because that's going to weaken your immune system there are certain laws moral laws that are much higher than the forces of nature when it comes to egotistic fear because fear is always just the ego just look at it someone who is fearless and selfless selfless this makes you fearless and to overcome a situation like that you have to develop you know some kind of heroic spirit you know you got to be fearless but of course caring about others but the selfish fear people always just oh I could get infected and looking at everybody it's like the evil ages it's like someone who is possessed by the devil or has whatever they have the diseases in those years and those centuries it is very weak it is very small we got to be bigger than that I think it's part of the lesson of this pandemic it's usually the opposite to what most of us do I think it has a lot to do with getting closer together this affects the whole world it has nothing to do with nations every country deals with it in a slightly different way but things like that can only be overcome by being fearless and caring about each other and actually understanding that we're one this thing it's a lesson for becoming for getting closer to each other and to actually overcome demons of the past you can see out of this situation so many ugly things things are coming to the forefront politically the media is ridiculous you can see the so-called news they're just feeding fear it's all they do it's so weak it's so lame one of the main things we got to learn out of that we got to be bigger than that we have to be it's so little most of the people that you actually see in public are living it's like but then again you only see the bad stuff if someone does something very brave or something very beautiful usually you don't see that because the negative thing is the better headline that's what I was going to say you get about three minutes of that on a one hour newscast and the bad news for 57 minutes it all starts this new age with pumpkins united check out Michael that's what he wants that's what he's promoting and hey man this is a great album I think everybody should rush out and get it you will not be disappointed if you're a halloween fan so Michael also you're so lame you mean my album when is that going to be ready or released I want to take the time but he wants to release it when we do start the tour next year which is planned around April, March April, May March, April end of March something like that I don't know if that's going to happen because I'm certainly going to take my time it's all about catching the right moment the songs are there I'm recording sometimes I'm recording a song with one acoustic guitar live and I want to have that moment if I feel like that's a cool take that's what I'm after really but it's going to be released next year for sure one thing at the end I would like to say we will all probably appreciate a lot of things in a very different way when this is finally over just to be able to get together with others may that be a concert or wherever it is how many ever to be able to get together with other people without having to think about things and to be able to go to concerts again without worrying and restrictions and all that I think when that's back we will appreciate a lot I think so too those are great words of wisdom thank you so much Michael for being on the show sure any time it was great fun a real pleasure thank you for your time and again what a fantastic album I'm looking forward to many more in the future and it's going great I tell you I'm not allowed to say it and I won't but we have a position over here that we never had before you're allowed to say that why can't you say that that's a good thing to say it's not official yet okay alright it's coming alright well thank you again Michael it's been great and yeah we should do this more often