Helloween KAI HANSEN Interview" Solo Album "Born With A Hammer" New Helloween Album? & Reunion

Are you guys ready? Busy day. >> Yeah, not so busy. I'm actually in in Lima. We have two days off now before the next show and um I'm just chilling and doing interviews. >> All right. Well, I got a cold, so excuse the uh the broken voice. [clears throat] >> I hope it gets better. >> I hope so, too. I hope it's so, too. >> Feel the power. Feel the boss. Feel the metal noise. Turn it up on the metal. The boys. [music] [screaming] All right. First time on the show. Kai Hansen. uh guitarist, songwriter, singer for Halloween, as well as solo artist and gammaray of course and a list of other projects as we all know. New album's going to be released September 18th on your music and it's called Born with a Hammer. Kai, I was kind of surprised. I was kind of surprised you went with a new solo album after all the W was it did you feel that you didn't put enough material on the last Halloween album that you needed to express yourself to come out with a or maybe this music was supposed to be for the Halloween album. >> Things progressed um during Corona times. I got bored and there was not much to do. So I sat down in my studio, locked myself up and started songwriting just for me myself and I without any purpose and the outcome was nothing that was not nothing that was really Halloween or gam. I was not in the mood for power metal or stuff like that. So um I just did whatever I felt like and after a while I had a few songs together and uh I was like okay yeah well where's this going to go? what I'm going to do with it. >> Um, because it was just for my personal entertainment at first, but then I say, "Okay, this is too too good to to just put on the in the trash can or something like that." Of course, the the the obvious thought was then, okay, let's put this on a solo album. So, I um called the boys, AA and Alex and Dan and so and Tim. I was like, are you guys in? Let's can we are you in to do an album? and they were absolutely yeah sure absolutely let's do this. So um we had my basics of the songs and uh then we did a pre-production we added two songs that were left over from the last production Wait and See and Wonderland finished them finalized them. Tim came up with uh Triple Trouble and so things and I with Feeding the Beast. So things um started to fall in place and we worked on it on a very relaxed basis. So there was no time pressure. There was you know nobody forcing us. Um which was good. So we could just took all the time in the world to just get to the point when this album was finally finished. And um now bam, it's going to come out in September. >> Why not? Like I mean I'm listening to the album. It's very Kai Hansenanish in terms of songwriting. It always is. You know, you hear elements of Halloween there. You hear elements of Gammaray there. You hear elements of just Kai Hansen in general. Why not just say, you know what, I'm going to put it out as Gamarray. No, because I I don't think it would have gone down well as a Gamay album. Um, I could have done that, but if I if I want to do a Gamay album, I really want to have Gamay in mind while songwriting. And that was not the case. And uh, I think, okay, Gamay has always been a band. We always had a lot of diversity on our albums if you look back into the history, but this one didn't feel like a Gamay album. To me, it didn't feel like a game. Even there is songs like Invaders. Okay, this could have been on a Gamay album. Absolutely agree. Sure, no problem. Um, but still even born with a hammer, it reminds me a bit of the silence from the first heading for tomorrow and in structure and and type. Um, but still to me, this was neither Halloween nor gamay. >> All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. I mean, tell me about the influences on this album. I'm hearing punk rock. I'm hearing Queen. I'm hearing little sex pistols at the end of the song. I can't remember which one it was. >> It's I don't care. Right at the end. It's got a little nuance of of Sex Pistls right there. >> Oh, I love punk. You know, I I when I, you know, was when I was a kid when when Sex Pistols and Ramones and and all these punk bands came out, I was a big fan. I I love I still love it. I I still play it in my car and everywhere. And um you know, I have a lot of influences and I I like Euro Dance if it's heavy. So you see some influences here, you see some influences there. Reggie uh comes from, you know, me hanging out on a hammock in Thailand, which the atmosphere doesn't fit doesn't fit heavy metal. So I listen to Bob Marley. I like it. I love it. So um all everything I I consume in terms of music, I I I chew down. I process this and now I spit it out my own way. You know, I notice your songwriting always has a little bit of sense of humor. Well, not all of it, but a lot of the times there's always a little bit and even that spilled over into the Halloween sort of culture over the years, right? I mean, is that mostly you or is it mostly the other guys? I think it's mostly you that had that humor of Halloween and as well as your other musical projects. I mean um I am very much in terms of with Viky who who has this kind of twisted and and funny view on things and and but the whole band Halloween we all have this kind of humor. We we don't take ourselves and things too serious. I mean we take the music serious but in on the other hand we don't Yeah. We're not the type that oh you got to look mean and we have to be evil and you know whatever. That's not our type, you know. So, so I always saw things with a wink of an eye and um that that transfers in the music. Of course, >> a song like Born with a Hammer, you know, that is like, you know, it's metal meets Queen, right? It's obvious there's your Queen influence there. Even in Halloween, you could find part parts of songwriting of songs that have a Queen influence. But tell me how important Queen was to you. First thing I heard was like um the son of of a couple of friends of my parents. He was like we were visiting and then he was like ah you got to listen to something and he played sheer heart attack to me and I was blown away. I was just like what the [ __ ] is that? You know this is so good. And since then I mean I've been following Queen. I'm a big fan. I'm I really have a lot of respect. uh the their craftsmanship is amazing that their voices everything. I mean take take whatever. And uh it was the most amazing thing is that Queen always managed to jump into musical genres and do them as if they were born with it or if they were you know even if they played metal it yeah it was credible. Uh if they play jazz it was credible rockabilly credible. So um that's what I always admired about Queen as well as other things. So they were always a big influence on me. I mean Brian May's guitar play the tone. Um so in Born with a Hammer I I started the song on the piano and I was just jamming around and then I came up with this who am I and you know the the intro. I was like okay okay this um this got this Queen vibe and this is going to be a more long song I guess. and I worked in that direction and internally I called it my little humble Bohemian raps city and um that's how it turned out to be. >> But even songs like Skyfall, Majestic songs off of the first, you know, two uh Halloween first actually second and third Halloween albums, you've always had those big large compositions that have always been speed metal mixed in with some sort of rock opera-ish or power metal in that vein, right? You've always been there. You always had that influence. >> Yeah, sure. Of course. I mean if you take the the first heading for tomorrow gamay album uh the silence or heading for tomorrow itself u I always liked those longer longer songs like more operetic with twists and turns because the thing is I grew up in the 70s and in the 70s um there was a lot I mean if you listen to old Deep Purple there was a lot of songs with many parts a lot of improvising endless solos and and stuff like that. I always liked that and I pursued that. I I put that into my music too. >> Yeah. But then you have Invaders, right? Now you're back to like the Judas Priest brutality, right? Then again, maybe or maybe walls of Jerichoish, right? That sort of style. >> I It's in my blood. I I I can't just blend it out, you know? So it's it's always as I said every everything I like I chew down and um process it and spit it out my way. Um so that's that's how it came about. >> You're pretty much a prolific songwriter. I mean you're always writing for Gamma Ray or this solo project or Halloween. Do you like to write a song a month or a song a week? Are you're always writing and thinking and what are you doing? >> Oh I I have Oops. I have phases. Um, you know that there's times I do nothing. I I just I need to re refresh my batteries. >> Just wait a minute. Just got to put my phone on the cable because the battery is running low. >> Um >> I I always take my time off because um you know the creative pool has to fill up by itself. You cannot force it. And then after some time I feel the need to to write to to create to compose and then I go and do it. >> Do you get like are you getting knocks on the door now saying okay we just got to start thinking about new Halloween material for the next album? Are you at that phase yet? >> Yeah. Normally it works for me like um I don't when I start songwriting I don't really think so much about who it is for or something. Um I just write a song because I feel the need. It's a it's a very selfish thing actually. Um it's not for the fans. It's not for Halloween or for Gamay or something like that. It's just basically for me. >> Okay. When Okay. Go ahead. I mean, when you look back at an album like this, the first and the second Keeper albums. >> Yeah. >> How do you view them today versus what you felt like when you when you first recorded them? >> When we did Keeper One, I mean, it was a big step from the wildness of all of Jericho to something more commercial, more controlled, still heavy. And uh I've learned a lot in this production. I mean, basically, thanks to Tommy Newton and Tommy Hansen, our producers. I mean they they guided us through the whole process and um that was that was eyeopening for me in in many in many ways. >> Um looking back uh we still when when we did this when we did keeper one at some point it was just oh my god this will be a good album. This is great. We're doing something really cool here without actually knowing that it would become such a big classic one day, you know. I I didn't speculate about that. I just felt it it just felt right. It felt good. And um well it turned out to be and uh then okay the follow-up Keeper 2 same thing you know >> you know as a young metal head at the time when I bought those albums I go [clears throat] this is like something between Iron Maiden and Queens Reich it was just you couldn't describe it right it was just who would have thought like we're talking about this album to this day right I mean that's how influential and and cemented in the metal head sort of culture of that album is. I mean, I'm sure everywhere you go, people just go gaga over that album or those two albums. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, it it it it became those albums became massive classics and um Well, I'm thankful and I'm happy about that. >> So, yeah. >> Well, we we did something right, I guess. [laughter] >> You don't know at the time, do you? Right. You just do your best job and whatever happens happens. Uh how's how's the tour going? >> Yeah. in Lima, Peru, right? >> Oh, amazing. >> Yeah. Yeah, we're in Peru now. We have two days off and then we play Lima and then we still got a few more like Argentina and um Brazil. Uh the tour has been going great. I mean, we we play arenas like 10,000 plus people and uh the response is amazing. People go absolutely nuts. I mean I I'm sometimes posting something on some on my social media where you can see the enthusiasm and and the passion of the people which is really overwhelmingly great. Uh so um we're very happy. >> I was there in Montreal, Canada when you played not even [clears throat] a year ago and it was a great show in Montreal. >> Oh that was fun too. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. No, I really enjoyed the US tour. US Canada was great. I mean you know I remember the times when you really had a hard time too in the US and and Canada was like small fry, you know, and um so compared to to what it is now and uh and we cannot be much more happy, >> you know, >> we're not at arena level in the US, >> but hey, maybe maybe we have a chance to get higher. >> Yeah. You know, what was it like? You know, you're these young German guys going off to the North America, the excitement. What was it like when you first went on American or North American soil for the first time? >> It was super exciting. I mean, my God, no man, there was times I I remember Jesus. When you wanted to call home, you had to you had to gather quarters and go to a pay phone and you know, or Jesus, that was a drag. Thanks to modern technology, this is over. But, uh, it was super exciting. I mean, we were feeling like, you know, I've been reading Donald Duck comics when I was a kid and um and I felt like I I was in Donald Duckland [laughter] because everything looked like it, the houses, the streets, and and and you know, those wide spaces, the big shopping malls, everything. It was just mind-blowing. >> Air conditioning, right? Air conditioning everywhere. [laughter] >> Oh, air conditioning. Yeah. Well, we had to get used to that. I mean, it was so easy to catch a cold call. You're sweating your ass off outside and then you walk inside a building and it's instant freeze. >> So, yeah. Well, not the best for singers. >> Oh, we had a great time. >> And the and the and the language barrier. Did you quickly develop a better, you know, use of English? I mean, is it frustrating being like you're you're all Germans talking with each other, but suddenly the world is English? Oh, that that was no problem because I was used to English anyways. I I had it in in high school as a power class. So, um I graduated uh with with you know having this as a a priority uh class. So, um I was used to English. Of course, I was not so much used to American expressions and slang, but we adapted quickly. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, tell me about your your relationship today with the Halloween guys and you know what all the bands like Van Halen and let's say Iron Maiden they can't get all their singers together but somehow you have that magical formula in Halloween to somehow get along. What is it? Is it a German cultural thing? Is it just >> No, I don't think so. It's it's just like I don't it's very hard to describe and and I would even call it a miracle. I mean, when we started off and we decided, okay, let's do this reunion tour, we were like, okay, let's see how this goes. Because I mean, we have two alpha singers in the front there. >> We have alphas on guitar and you know, so um let's see how that goes. And um >> Andy and and KisK, they harmonized from the start that there was no no competition in in a bad form in any way. They were really playing pingpong and they even went out for coffee together and you every day [laughter] it was really almost ridiculous and and we as guitar players I mean me and Viky um you know we're old dinosaurs. I mean we have made our piece with any any thing we had in the past. We we had some clashes in the past but this was immediately gone with Sasha. I had to get adapted to him and him being him and he had to get adapted to me being me and um that was sometimes a bit of a rocky road. Uh but basically it worked out and now we're we're just we're just one happy family. >> It's almost it's almost ridiculous. Then I look at other bands, you know, like that that have separated and they cannot get back together because they have these severe issues and so God, guys, grow up. Just put all this [ __ ] aside. It doesn't matter. And you want to take that [ __ ] to the grave. >> No, have fun. >> Yeah. >> You know, overcome this. And we did. We we did overcome everything that was >> in the past. And uh we're just really doing very very great. I'm so happy about this, >> you know. I'm also happy about your new album. I really like it. I I think it's a it's it's it's you've done a great job. I can't believe for me, you just it just you do Gamay, you do Halloween, you're always writing and you're always writing great material. You're a great songwriter and this is another example of of you know, Kai Hansen at his best. And I love how you integrated all the different styles. I love the reggae part, by the way. >> Thank you. [laughter] Me, too. >> Maybe cuz I like reggae. I don't know. But I love how you Oh, hey, look. I sometimes go on holidays on a nice beach, you know, whatever, Thailand or whatever, and uh you lie in your hammock and uh heavy metal doesn't fit there, you know, so you you put on some Bob Marley and say, "Oh, yeah, vibration. Yeah, you know, um I like that." And um that that's cool. >> All right, so it's going coming out September 18th on your music. I'm excited about that. Congratulations. Are you guys also working on a new Halloween studio album or is there any work in progress? >> Oh, there is a lot of work in progress. There's actually a lot already in the um in the box. We have already songs that are mixed and um yeah, the album is pretty much >> pretty much already uh let's say 80% is done. >> Okay. >> Ready to release. and Gamarray. Anything going on there? It's been a while. >> Well, of course I want to do something with Gamay. I want to make a new album. Um, so next year it's going to be a little more quiet with Halloween. There's only going to be some summer festivals. So the first half year or the first uh year until summer I'm free. Uh when this tour is over and uh then in autumn I'm free too. So, my plan is basically, no promises here, okay? My my my game plan is to get onto songwriting and get the boys together and work on a gamay album in the first half of the year. And then I want to take my Hansen project on tour in the second, like after after the summer festival, some sometime in autumn, >> do not an extensive world tour, but do a few nice and great shows. And uh that's going to be fun, I guess. >> Yeah, I think it's a great idea. Actually, that was my next question. Are you going to tour with Hansen Kai Hansen group? But yeah, it's good. >> I guess I'm going to tour with myself. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> All right. Born with a hammer September 18th again on your music. Thank you for jumping on the Metal Voice. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks, guys. Uh Nick. >> Okay. Yeah, that was dessert.