No Tunes For Amoebas
(from Rockhard)

(Interview by Jan Michael Dix [Rockhard], translated by Robert Michl (MUCH Thanks Robert), grammar cleaned up a bit by Chris Skaryd)

It reads like a tale of 1001 nights - although these guys were not from Arabia, but from Hamburg. The success of Helloween was nevertheless like a fairy-tale: pure metal brought many fans worldwide for the pumpkin heads. But after a while, cracks appeared in the foundation. The biggest was surely the demission of singer Michael Kiske (nothing to be said against his successor Andi Deris), and there was an extraordinary silence about him since. For more than a year, it's the first time he turns towards the public in an interview.

First of all, of course, let's illuminate the situation of Michael's exit (kickout) from Helloween.

"This developed for a rather long time, especially because I didn't notice some things that happened behind my back until much later. "Above all, it was a personal thing between me and Weiki, but I can't hardly determine the point in time when it escalated. It must have been around the middle of '93, when I just couldn't stand this everlasting fight between Helloween and Gamma Ray any longer. Especially, Weiki had to make sneering remarks publically. He and Kai swung this higher and higher in public. That was enough to make me sick! "Oneday, I went to Kai and told him that all this was bullshit. Which was exactly his opinion. You know, Weiki is a bit difficult to get along with. He likes to have people around him that he can direct. He was the one who got me into the band at the age of 18. He's a cool speaker - and he filled me with enthusiasm in those days. I was a big Weiki fan at the beginning. "When Kai left, I distanced from Weiki a bit because I realized that not everything looked that rosy - particularly because he used me to strengthen his position towards Kai. He was just jealous to death of him, you see. He had success using me for a while, because I simply didn't see things correctly as they happened. I was a greenhorn after all. As soon as Roland got into the band, suddenly the asshole was me."

Why that all at once?

"I couldn't explain it to myself at that time either. Roland joined the band and was poled against me immediately. The worst of it was that everything happened behind my back - no open discussion. The first album with Roland ("Pink Bubbles Go Ape") was an absolute catastrophy from the beginning. It almost led to a seperation then."

From Michael's point of view?

"On both sides. The fact is that it went permanently against me. When Ingo (Schwitchtenberg, drums) got ill and Weiki piloted a colleague of his into the band, he fed him a fixed image of me. These intrigues against me grew worse and worse, until I finally said to Roland carelessly that I couldn't stand it anymore - the atmosphere was simply fucked up. I hinted at my hoping for Ingo's comeback too, and an improvement in the climate of the band because of it. "The whole shit just made me sick. I considered seriously not to participate in the next record and asked Roland to keep this conversation to himself - I didn't want to demotivate anyone. Unfortunately, he made it clear to everyone else - and then it really got going."

What remains enigmatic, even at a closer look, is the cause for Weiki's change in policy against Micheal Kiske.

"It started from the moment I began to distance myself from him. I realized that 'be and appearance' are a different pair of shoes for him. When I joined the band, he lead me in a particular direction. And it was: 'Hansen is an ass, thinks he's the greatest, but actually, he sucks.' At this time, I believed it more or less. But after a while I didn't think of Kai as an ass at all. That is to say that Weiki plants his images absolutely perfectly - I didn't see through it myself for years and ask myself today how it could have happened. Briefly: the separation was simply inevitable - it just didn't work anymore, neither artistic nor on the human side. I just have very different ideals. "I always had a bit different thing in mind compared to Kai or Weiki - that brought a bit of variety to it. But to be precise: the split had nothing to do with musical differences. The peak was when Weiki described me to the press as an idiot who opressed everybody. Now they can finally do their honest work... in the meantime this comes to me via one ear and leaves the other - because I just don't respect Weiki anymore; nor artistically and humanly even less."

The human aspect has been illuminated sufficiently, but the artistic one seems to need more explanation.

"He wears his putative idealism as a mask in front of his face. But that's not his point. It's all about money - that's just absolutely sick! He rotates in a circle and turns to a point where the wind blows best in his ass."

Despite the internal agreement not to wash one's dirty laundry in public, we've read some less than friendly statements from Weiki about Michael after the split - anything but fair, which isn't only Kiske's opinion. Nevertheless, he did not participate in this game. Why not?

"Because it would have made me sick. If you're going through the band mobbing for four years, it just wears you down. It hurt me incredibly to suddenly be the butthead from one day to another. I went on vacation then and tried to switch off, to gain distance - that's the reason there were no interviews. Besides, I was not keen on pouring oil onto the fire - Weiki will never shut up anyway. He hasn't stopped to talk siller about Hansen. I guess he can't do differently. But I'd like to keep in the background as far as that stuff is concerned."

Easy to understand on one side, but on the other a good reputation can be quickly destroyed that way.

"This was clear to me, of course, but I thought the people would notice things themselves. Indeed many came to me and could not believe what they've read there. Some things were dragged in by the head and shoulders so much that I felt it was not absolutely necessary to justify myself. I did not need to.

Could it be that Weiki has a kind of songwriter-complex? If he asked someone about their favorite song on the new album and got an answer which was not written by him, he did not react very happy...

"See! You noticed it yourself already. I'm glad people get it. He really has a solid image neurosis. You can't imagine how he hated Hansen because he was a respected guitarist. I find it dreadful how someone can be this way towards a man who does not want to harm you. At least I am in good shape again, as it surely won't take too long till my record is finished - I wrote tons of material already. But I'm sorry for Weiki - even when he gets rich with it."

Was it clear from the beginning that Kiske would go on after his end with Helloween anyway?

"Not really - I'm idealistic and put all my effort into music. But if you invest so much in it and the thing ends that shabby,it does get on you. First, I no longer felt like it. But in the bottom of my heart it was clear to me that there was more to come, since I wrote many songs as well."

Was only a solo thing put up for discussion or were there thoughts of taking the place of the vacant Maiden position? There were plenty of speculations even when Mr. Kiske was still in Helloween.

"That was just a rumor. Never lost a thought about it myself. Maiden always was terrific for me - since I was a teenie - and nothing has changed until this day. But I don't fit in there musically. I could surely sing the songs and I have the long fair hair, but it's simply different from being me."

How did Kiske get the solo record contract? There was gossip a time ago that Michael has made a lucrative deal with the Japanese.

"First, the deal on the Helloween track rolled on. JVC had not only one with the band, but every single musician was under contract with them. Plus, they were hot for my stuff as well. After some to and fro I tried to contact Brian May from some work together. Unfortunately, he was too busy with the production of old Queen things. Someday I had the idea to do something with Adrian Smith, because I admired him very much both as Iron Maiden guitarist and songwriter. So we jammed together and it worked out form the start. He's writing some songs with me now and will be heard on the record. As well as Kai, by the way - some things became clear to us at the Helloween-story already, we have told each other entire books. But don't think I'll join Gamma Ray now."

Nevertheless a funny overlap. When I coincidentlt met Ralf Sheepers in a pub the night he got fired from Gamma Ray, and he drunkenly poured poured out his sorrows to me, I just thought of Michael Kiske as an alternative.

"Nope, I couldn't join any band right now. What I want to do at the moment is to work with many different people. If something develops out of it - okay. But then I really have to catch fire! Fact is that Kai will directly participate on 2 or 3 tracks off my record."

Will that project be named after Michael Kiske - an who will be playing on it?

"Hmm, maybe there will be a bandname for the whole thing, we'll see. The drummer is relatively unknown and the brother of my girlfriend, by the way. On bass we take maybe the one from Adrian's band. And the guitar parts are shared between Adrian and Kai."

What is to be expected in the soundtechnical terms?

"I don't want to fix it much. The songs I wrote together with Adrian Smith are somewhere between Maiden and Helloween, logically. It will not be only heavy metal on this album. I just love variety - Queen were always the thing for me. They always made everything, and cool! Today's mentality goes into the direction of doing one and the same record several times - only in a different packaging each time. But I don't do something for monocellulars. It's possible that there will be some poppy stuff, too. But don't panic! I don't have any musical inspirations now to do something totally new which you wouldn't recognize anymore."

Is it true that a fat check was sent from Tokyo to Hamburg to guarantee the musician all imaginable leisure for his work.

"Err, Ron (Smallwood) dealt there," Michael confesses with a mischievous grin and does not move a muscle as I mention a respectable amount in dollars wirh six digits, which was allegedly transferred. Well, in any case, it'll be enough to allow Michael Kiske to pursue his musical affections with all the calm he needs. And that's what it is about for him; money only plays an unusually subordinate role, as he emphasizes several times in the conversation. We can really believe him, especially since he allowed some insights into his philosophy, which is everything else than the usual blah blah. I'm afriad it would definetly break the frame of this article to give one's time and attention to this in more detail. But one thing is for sure: this man stands on ground with both feet more firmly than the vast majority of his colleagues. Not at least therefore I wish him all imaginable success, which he hopefully will have in the future. If one carefully checks which Helloween songs Kiske had input to, we can be quite reassured about that. It's only a pity we have to wait until at least the end of '95 to hear it.

(Printed without permission)

Helloween songs written by Kiske
A Little Time
You Always Walk Alone
We Got The Right
Savage
Don't Run For Cover
Pink Bubbles Go Ape
Kids Of The Century
Back On The Streets (Lyrics)
Heavy Metal Hampsters (Lyrics, with Weiketh)
Goin' Home
Mankind I'm Doin' Fine, CRAZY Man (Lyrics)
Your Turn
When The Sinner
In The Night
I Believe
Longing

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