Iron Savior
An Exclusive Interview
(from "Burrn!" Magazine, August 1997)

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P - Piet Sielck
K - Kai Hansen
T - Thomen Stauch

N: At first Piet can you explain us your connections with Kai and Thomen and
 your whole carrier?
P: OK. Kai is one of my very best long-time friends. We first met at the age
 of 11 in winter. We began good friends, played guitars together and as soon
 as understood our heavy metal likes gathered the band Gentry. Some years
 later Ingo (Schwichtenberg - ex-Helloween drummer, R. I. P.) and Markus
 (Grosskopf - Helloween bassist) became the members of the band which
 finally was called Helloween. But due to being in an unsigned band I've
 left a year or two before the debut album was released. I was tired of it
 all. (laughs) I hated even the playing itself. (laughs)
K: Nevertheless I continued playing. (laughs)
P: That was probably the reason why I made my own carrier in a lit bit
 different way than Kai. I could imagine playing guitar from time to time.
 But after a while I decided to return to this kind of music as a sound
 engineer and began studying. My will to return was too strong. Since the
 day we went different musical ways I didn't meet Kai very often. But when
 it came to studio recordings he told me that he was going to produce a
 band's demo tape.
K: I asked Piet to co-produce the band Alleycat together.
P: You're right. We had a great time producing this demo tape. Those were
 the times I decided to play hard rock again and this style appealed to me
 very much! (laughs) But I wanted to be a professional engineer and went to
 LA for a year to study engineering and producing. On coming back I took
 part in the recordings of "Heading For Tomorrow". So that was the start of
 my work with German music scene. Later Kai introduced me to his friend
 Kalle Trapp. He produced the early albums of Blind Guardian and had a
 perfect studio here in Hamburg. It's very convinient because me and Kai
 live in Hamburg. So Kalle asked me to do some engineering at that studio
 when he was going to record a new Blind Guardian album there. That's how I
 participated in "Tales From The Twilight World".
T: That's the absolute truth.
P: I enjoyed my work very much. Also we established great relations and our
 chemistry mixed together. Actually I'm also a guitar player so we played
 together with Andre (Olbrisch - Blind Guardian) on that record. From that
 day on I took part on every Blind Guardian album and our relations became
 even better. Several times I've been to Japan with them as their live
 engineer. At the same time I worked a lot at different studios with Saxon,
 Grave Digger, Uriah Heep...
K: Deep Purple, Metallica...
P: No, no, not true! (laughs) But in fact I took part in the albums of
 good-selling bands and it wasn't good for me because I only did my work on
 those albums. The worst thing for me was playing guitar for almost everyone
 of them. It happened with every band. That's how I came to the idea of my
 own project Iron Savior. I could also produce my own album myself.
K: It all started with the song "Iron Savior". In fact it's a very old song
 which we composed together playing in Second Hell. But the only words left
 in it from those times are just 'Iron savior!' in the chorus. The rest is
 very different.
P: I played this song to Kai saying, "Remember "Iron Savior"? I guess it
 sounds great! I'd like to play it." (laughs) That's how it all started.

N: Was the idea of you singing here from the very beginning?
P: Yes, it was. There's nothing strange about it because I've always done
 backing vocals during the recording process with Blind Guardian and other
 bands. At first I didn't think about singing but later I realized that it's
 a kind of relaxation for me.
K: Well, it happened because we had two vocalists in the times of Gentry and
 Second Hell. By the way, we changed the band's name from Gentry to Second
 Hell and then again to Iron Fist. (laughs) The thing that Ingo always liked
 to mention. One day we came to the rehearsals and found a small note from
 him, "Sorry guys but I can't come today. And don't forget our band's new
 name is Iron Fist!" (laughs)

N: Wow!.. (laughs) Piet, when did you decide to start the Iron Savior
 project and record an album?
P: Right in the beginning of the last year after finishing the production of
 the Blind Guardian "The Forgotten Tales" album. That's when I thought that
 if I want to play it why not try doing it now. I immediately started
 writing songs and recording the album. When Thomen agreed to play drums on
 the album we rehearsed all the songs again. In fact, I have a small studio
 and most of the guitar solos were produced there. In spring of 1996 me and
 Kai started the recording of our lead vocal parts. You know, I produced the
 album myself and wanted someone elso to listen to the original tape and
 hear his opinion. Kai had many interesting ideas and then we sang the lead
 vocals together. That's how we managed to create the basis of the album and
 in January this year Thomen came to Hansen Studios from Kreffeld to record
 his drums.
K: The recording of all the drum parts took us only 2 weeks.
T: Oh, it was so long... At first I thought of completing the recordings
 within several days... (laughs)
P: In fact, when Thomen came to the studio the rest of the instruments were
 already recorded.
K: You know, usually all the recordings for any album start with drums and
 then go the rest of the instruments but originally we used the drum
 computer and mixed it with guitars and bass. That's why Thomen had to
 'copy' the drum computer sounds. OK, the drum computer itself always sounds
 straight and clear and no human being can use his drumming abilities while
 'copying' such sound. That was the main problem for Thomen.
T: He's right. I didn't like that at all. (laughs)

N: Tell us about the rest of the songs besides "Iron Savior".
P: "Atlantis Falling" was originally titled "Flames Of Fury" and the wasn't
 as old as "Iron Savior". It turned out great in the studio. I used the drum
 computer and programming while composing this song. And though it was a
 really occasional thing it happened sound really great.
T: Really? So occasional?.. (laughs)
P: OK, it was planned to be! (laughs) But, you know, the drumming really
 made big changes in the entire song. I felt that the chorus became much
 more powerful due to that new drum sound and had to change it. That's why
 "Atlantis Falling" is the oldest and also the newest song of the whole
 album. "Brave New World" is quite an old song. Concerning "Riding On Fire",
 I wanted to make it really fast. It's a very fast, catchy and 'firing'
 track.
K: Yeah, 'firing' is the best word for it. (laughs)
P: Well, I wanted to create something like "Burn". (laughs)
K: With double 'R' in the middle, right? (laughs)
P: Just like that. The double marked 'R'. (laughs)

N: ... it could be really interesting. (laughs)
P: The next song is a ballad, "Break It Up". Kai, tell us the story behind
 it.
K: Well, originally... I don't know how it happened but we wrote that song
 while thinking of how it could be great to let somebody listen to the
 ballad of ours. About the lyrics... we wanted to write something about the
 Ingo's death. You know, we were friends for a long time and that's the main
 reason why me and Piet parted the vocals.
P: We sing the chorus line together with Kai. Further, I guess that
 "Assailant" is the traditional heavy metal song. Well, about "Children Of
 The Wasteland"...
 (right at that time Kai and Thomen start laughing)

N: Now what about that song?
K: Piet remains the same every time he speaks about it.
T: He doen't like that song at all.
P: ... Right you are. (laughs)
K: But everyone else really enjoyed that song. That was the first song
 picked from the entire album by various radio stations. But I guess that
 the guitar solo there isn't so bad at all. (laughs)

N: You know, I liked it very much, I mean that guitar solo. (laughs)
K: Really? Thanks a lot. It was me who played it. (laughs)
P: Yes, his solo was the only thing that saved the song from falling. In the
 beginning of the Iron Savior project Kai played me an amazing solo and I
 wanted to use it somewhere on this album. So the song is quite old but the
 first version differed too much from the album one.

N: You also parted the vocal harmony there, didn't you?
K: When me and Piet did the quire part of that song it turned out brilliant.
 For example, the same thing happened with Gamma Ray during the recordings
 of "Valley Of The Kings" and "Somewhere Out In Space" where we all sang the
 chorus together. Above that, I think that Piet's voice is very idividual on
 the whole music scene.
P: You know, it's really great that our vocals fit each other very well. I
 also don't think that I could express my feelings when singing lines with
 any other person. If I sing it a bit lower my voice could dominate over the
 other singer's one. But my and Kai's voices are of the same range.
K: We both face the same problem. My voice also always prevails over the
 other singer's one all the time.
T: It sounds really high.
K: Yeah, too high. That's why our voices fit each other perfect. We have the
 same vocal range. Piet is good at singing the middle notes and I sound
 quite wierd while singing them. So it's really difficult for me to sing the
 same way that Ralf Scheepers or Michael Kiske used to do. And that's my
 main problem while Piet can do it really good and you can say that we
 perfectly fulfill each other.

N: OK. Tell us about "Protect The Law".
P: This song took us too much time to be completed.
K: I wrote it in my mother's house's basement like it used to be before...
 (laughs) Oh, I forgot to include my name in the song credits!
P: Yeah, you did! (laughs) You know, it was a wonderful experience. All
 modern equipment is quite easy to use and you can record any song with the
 8-track console and the microphone imput. "This Flight Tonight" was also
 recorded in that basement. They all sounded so nice...
K: Right you are. That's our basic sound.

N: Seems like "Watcher In The Sky" appeared on the Gamma Ray "Valley Of The
 Kings" single as well.
K: Yeah, we wrote the song together and its main riff is based on the very
 old song "Overkill"...
P: No, no! It was "Running Riot"...
K: Really? I guess "Overkill"...
P: No way! It's "Running Riot"!
T: Oh no, not again! (starts laughing)
K: Anyway Piet, you're wrong. I tell you, it's "Overkill". At first that
 song was titled "Overkill" and then its name changed to "Running Riot".
 When we gathered to record some solos in the Piet's studio we felt like we
 wanted to write something together. That's when we remembered that old riff
 and it was really interesting to recall some things from the past. We said,
 "Oh, this riff! Remember it? We used to play it very often before!" And
 that's how the song was written. We both were captured by it and spent the
 whole day to complete it.
P: Well, it took us about 3 hours to create the basic part of it.

N: What about "For The World"?
P: Hansi Kursch (of Blind Guardian) sang some verses there. When the song
 was ready to be recorded we still didn't know how to sing it. We didn't
 have any idea about the chorus and sang it together with Kai and Thomen.
 But when we came to the verses it all went wrong and Thomen said, "What do
 you think of Hansi singing those verses?" The idea was brilliant and we
 planned it for Hansi so I was cut from the original tape. (laughs)

N: Now we come to some cover-versions...
P: The first of them is Johnny Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight" originally
 performed by Nazareth. That was the first heavy metal song I ever heard so
 I always wanted to play it myself and Nazareth was one of my favorite bands
 back in the childhood days. Also we recorded the demo version of Judas
 Priest's "The Rage" which sounds too rough and there's the drum computer
 there.

N: Dirk Schlachter also participated in the project, didn't he?
K: Oh yeah, he could've played in all the songs of that album. He's a great
 bassist but his playing style could transform all the Iron Savior music
 into the Gamma Ray one. That's why he played only some of the bass parts
 and many of them were really hard to play even for him.
P: We didn't care too much about the production this time. (laughs) Also we
 had the limited time so we recorded 3 or 4 songs every day.

N: What're the possibilities of the Iron Savior live concerts?
K: At first we need to find a bassist. There's no such man neither in Blind
 Guardian nor in Gamma Ray. (laughs) Probably Markus could help us... He
 played with us before and he's quite an open person to stick to us. So we
 still don't know what's gonna be with this all.
P: Like with politics, you don't know what will happen next... But Markus's
 participation could be really great... and it's very interesting to play
 with him after all these years. He's the best 'wanted' man in this project.

N: Sounds like the reunion thing.
P: Yeah, that's what the reunion is. And Markus is the man to fit here.
K: Right you are, Piet. He really is.

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