[情報] Helloween:他們光榮重逢背後的故事
網路上看到Metal Hammer雜誌作者Chris Chantler一篇文章，簡略說到樂團從開始
、人員出走到重新歸隊組成7人隊伍。
標題
Helloween: the story behind their glorious reunion
出處
https://www.loudersound.com/features/helloween-the-story-behind-their-
glorious-reunion
How Germany's power metal legends Helloween reconciled their warring factions
Bursting out of Hamburg in 1984 - originally a quartet, fronted by
singer/guitarist Kai Hansen - Helloween quickly commanded plaudits
on the mid-80s underground for their hyper-energised take on epic,
melodic heavy metal. After Kai decided to concentrate on guitar,
the two Keeper Of The Seven Keys LPs (1987, 1988) introduced the
heroic pipes of Michael Kiske, helping to make the would-be double-album
an essential cornerstone in power metal history. In 1988, these
West German Wunderkinder were opening the Monsters Of Rock festival
at Castle Donington, and embarking on a world tour with Iron Maiden;
by 1989 Kai was gone, and the band were soon embroiled in energy-sapping
legal proceedings against their label.
With momentum fatally stalled, exacerbated by changing 90s trends,
Helloween's star waned. Michael Kiske left in 1993, replaced by
Pink Cream 69 frontman Andi Deris, whose firm hand steadied the ship
and guided the band back to greatness. As both men settle warmly
into a three-way video chat with Hammer, each is keen to address
the anxieties that went unresolved between them for decades.
“There was this tension that was created out of this situation,”
recalls Michael. “Whenever I saw his face in a magazine it was
always, ‘The guy took my job’, it was something painful. And it
was the same the other way around; Andi was singing in Helloween,
but he was also getting fire from the Kiske fans, so I guess when
he saw my face it was like that also!” Andi smiles. “But the
thing is, we never talked,” continues Michael. “It was just a
feeling created out of the situation.”
For countless years, it was a Helloween fan’s dream to see Michael,
Andi and Kai together onstage. When a seven-piece, double-frontman
Pumpkins United tour was mooted in 2017, band management were quick
to identify the bridges that needed to be rebuilt, and Andi and
Michael never had one to start with. Nearly 25 years after one brief,
awkward introduction, Michael was on a plane to Andi’s home studio
in Tenerife on a bonding mission.
“Our managers said, ‘If you two don't get along we don't need to
talk any further, because this is not going to work'. So I flew to
Andi's place for two weeks, and we spent time together every day.
He brought me to the places he knows, and we talked about everything.
It was almost like I knew him from a previous life, we connected
right away. And it shows onstage - we're not playing games, we
really like each other, and that was beautiful. That was the essence
of everything. Only life can write stories like that!”
Michael - who spent the 90s, 00s and 10s keeping busy with diverse
solo albums, smaller-scale bands and Avantasia guest spots - is
clearly relishing being back on the Helloween promo trail. While
he bubbles over with expressive, eloquent enthusiasm, sometimes
hitting emotive high notes to rival his singing voice, Andi sits
nonchalantly puffing on a cigar and smiling placidly, happy to cede
airspace to Michael’s garrulous intensity after 12 albums’ worth
of press interviews, occasionally chipping in with concise profundities.
Asked his perspective on the singers' Canary Island bromance,
Andi replies simply: “After two or three hours, it was like he'd
been in my life forever.”
On the face of it, these two have most in common in Helloween's
seven-piece line-up; both men joined an established, successful band,
replacing a popular singer. In a separate, later conversation,
we asked the band's founding frontman, Kai Hansen, to shine a light
on some of the interpersonal dynamics behind these BFF co-vocalists.
“They are very similar but different,” Kai ponders. “Andi is
resting in himself. He is a master and mentor, he is pragmatic and
always calm on the outside. I am sure he could be very angry as
well but he would never show it, and is always nice and never loud.
He is a great, super human being. Michi got more relaxed in his
desire to be perfect; he is very focused on his voice and performing
at an all-time high. He is an emotional person with a very sensible
core inside. I just love him.”
Kai's sweet words underline the genuine accord of respect and
affection between these pivotal bandmates; it feels like the x factor
behind the profound emotional power of the Pumpkins United tour
and the exuberant rush of their new album, Helloween. The eponymous
title is appropriate, as the debut of this extraordinary, definitive
line-up; if Andi, Michael and Kai together onstage was the pumpkinhead's
dream come true, hearing them push each other to greater heights on
the LP was surely beyond our wildest dreams.
The experience of making the album was perhaps strangest for Kai.
Helloween was originally his baby, and after his departure he
masterminded to glory another great German power metal institution,
Gamma Ray. Assimilating into this new, expanded iteration of the band
he started in his teens, full of assertive personalities and
competitive songwriters, must have been tricky?
“It was a rather stupid feeling in the beginning - once you were a
leader and the chief executive…” ruminates Kai. “But I am flexible,
multi-tasking and able to adapt. Funnily enough, after a very short
time I was happy about the set-up, it is a great thing not to be the
helmsman anymore and to be a normal sailor, or even a pirate. My
colleagues are all great, everything worked out wonderful and there is
no problem whatsoever.”
What's changed the most? “Maturity is the biggest difference,”
Kai affirms. “None of us is a whippersnapper anymore, nobody has
the need to pee down a tree, none of us have to bark too much anymore.
All of us are much more relaxed and everyone is a team player.
We are one unit and we’ve learned to be subordinate if necessary.
We all have a lot of respect and trust in one another.”
For Kai and Michael, re-joining Helloween also meant healing some
wounds with the band’s stalwart co-founding guitarist, Michael ‘Weiky’
Weikath, whose younger self had a notoriously fiery streak.
“I ran into Weiky in 2013 when I was on tour with Avantasia,”
begins Michael, “and he said the perfect thing: ‘What have I
done that you can’t forgive me for?’ That was his line! I was
holding my breath and I noticed: there is no anger anymore. There have
been years when I probably would have…” Michael clenches a fist,
“but there was nothing like that. I said, ‘I think I’ve forgiven
you a long time ago.’ And that was 2013, we weren’t talking about
Pumpkins United or anything like that, but that’s when I noticed
the anger had gone. From a life perspective, from a personal evolution
of myself, I knew I needed to go through all that.”
Andi seems to have got the best out of Weiky: “Fortunately he was
always a fan of my songs, so I had a good standing early on.
If [Andi’s 1995 Helloween debut] Master Of The Rings hadn't been
a success, I would have been proven wrong with the songs I brought
in, but fortunately the people were probably rather happy that the
band was back to metal, and anything else was not so important!”
“It was the right thing for the band in those years,” asserts Michael.
“I honestly think that you saved the band, because we were not
functioning anymore after Kai left. Not so much because Kai is the band,
but because the chemistry, the whole balance of the band, worked because
Kai was there. That’s why I think my departure was necessary, because
when you joined, you were exactly what this band needed. You were focused,
you had songs, you didn’t want to fool around. I refused for years
to listen to any of their stuff, but when I heard Master Of The Rings
I understood why it was successful. I think the secret of why Helloween
is still here today is because they created a different sound, but it
sounded like Helloween - in a new way.”
This is a trick they’ve pulled off yet again with the Helloween LP.
After an initial session in April 2019 to share new material, Andi says,
“everybody was relieved that there were already enough ideas, so it
looked like, ‘OK, this album’s going to be definitely good, if not
great.’” After another three months of writing and honing, the septet
were ready to enter the studio - but still without any songs by their
two new/old boys. “I didn’t have anything,” admits Michael.
“Next time you will!” insists Andi. “I didn't even try to write
a song,” continues Michael, sidestepping Andi's insistence. “I
thought there were more important songwriters, like Weiky, Kai, Andi…
they're more connected with the main sound of the band. In the 80s
I was contributing some stuff that made it more diverse maybe, added
some colour, but I never wrote Eagle Fly Free or anything like that,
so I stepped out and let them do the stuff.”
For Kai, the process was more fraught. “I had so many ideas, but I
had a hard time being confident,” he confesses. “I wanted everything
to be super-special. I didn’t want painting-by-numbers, so I was so
super-critical of my own ideas. If you go by the rulebook you end up
with something OK, but I didn't want something OK, I wanted something
great.”
Kai achieved this in dazzlingly epic style with the album's 12-minute
closer - and audacious advance single, Skyfall. “With Skyfall, I was
100% sure that this was gonna be a good one, so I put all my efforts
in there, and it was exciting to get into this kind of songwriting,”
he notes. “Next album, it will be easier. Helloween have gone through
so many phases, everything is possible, but I was very happy that the
others were very creative and came up with a lot of good stuff. The
album has a lot of diversity, but it barely has a calm moment. This
is on 11 from front to back!”
Kiske在這篇訪問中談到當初Kai離開樂團後，少了Kai這個緩衝的化學元素，樂團
陷入了停擺，而Weiky的爆造脾氣導致Kiske離開，直到2013年兩人在Avantasia巡迴
演出碰頭，Weiky問了Kiske"他做了什麼讓Kiske不能原諒他的事?"，才劃開心解吧。
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