I N T E R V I E W

Interview answered by André Andersen
Hello André, and thank you for answering a few questions from the French webzine AuxPortesDuMetal.com. Collision Course was reviewed on the site and has received great feedback (16/20 and 17/20). Great piece of work!
Collision Course is a concept album, can you tell us a bit about the subject of it?

For me the essence of paradox – as we’re talking about the main issue of our release from 1997 - is the fact that whatever (unjust or flat out monstrous) acts people were/are “committing” (I’m generalizing here) they’re always finding a way to include “God’s will” of some sort to justify their actions. It is definitely a paradox than a “Holy Book”(whatever it might be - Bible, Koran… you name it) which is all about “the good” and “divine” and showing “the right and merciful way”: written BY MEN and FOR MEN and than historically used BY MEN as an excuse (or a reason in some cases) for a majority of the most horrifying crimes of our time. And yet…Any “radical” movement – especially involving some kind of religious flavour – is a blatant display of contradiction in terms… absurd. Too much is just what it is – too much.
Christians made their mistakes centuries ago (crusades and any equivalent (“missions”) and even succeeded to bring some of the same stupidity along into the 20th century (Ireland, while not being of exactly the same kind, but nevertheless).
And now, after all these historical de-tours some people from the Middle East are just became deranged enough to re-vitalize this disgracefully aged agenda and introduce the world to the “Islamic topic”.
So lyrically I went back to the very beginning of the story, but back then (on the first album) the main theme was a description of “what did actually happen”: on the new one it will be “why did it all happen and why is it all happening”.
You see, when that very first rock - which was put down to create a physical frame to our concept of religion - it gave birth to a very first conflict which can – simply put – be described as “my God is bigger than your God, ergo – I/we and our way of living are superior compared to yours”. And while this problem seems to be rapidly declining in the West, it became almost “the main issue” in some parts of the East… resulting in a row of horrific conflict situations which we’ve been – and still do - witness today and get affected by.

10 years after Paradox, tell us why you did call it Paradox II?

When I first started gathering some musical ideas for this new release I noticed that the general atmosphere of the whole thing reminded me of "Paradox" – soundscapes appeared to be larger than those on our later albums… it’s hard to describe music in words but there was something “conceptual” over this thing from day one and it harked back strongly to that “Paradox vibe”. So, in a way, I didn’t come up with this idea – it actually found me. And yes, some people will compare these two albums –people have their nostalgic memories connected to “Paradox” (mind you, back in 1997 people didn’t have hundreds and hundreds of albums on their hard drives, they actually BOUGHT albums – which made albums much more “special”) and it
COULD work against you. But at the same time – if I feel strongly about an idea (as with writing “Paradox 2) – I just couldn’t care less.
And hey, there’s 10 years between the two – which makes the new one 10 times better.

You have some new band members; can you tell us how you guys met?

We were looking for a guy who had: an ability to sing any song from RH`s vast catalogue, dedication, professionalism… well, a singing talent wouldn’t hurt. And – equally important – a kinder spirit. We’re spending quite a lot time together, so you want to have another friend by your side, somebody you can hang out with. Mark Boals mailed us his stuff and it was quite obvious that he have all those abovementioned qualities we were looking for: excellent singer, nice guy to be around, dedicated, easy to work with – what else could one wish for?

How did you organize for the recording of this album?

A lot of preplanning is absolutely crucial. So it was very busy time. I’m glad it’s over…

Are the band members recording all the backing vocals?

No, we had a bunch of guests: Maria McTurk, Soma Allpass, Michelle Raitzin,
Doogie White, Ian Parry, Henrik Brockmann and Kenny Lubcke.

How did you record this album? The sound is absolutely great!

Well, it took almost a year… Everything has been recorded in my studio - NorthPoint Productions and mixed at Medley/EMI studio.

What would you think are Royal Hunt most important musical influences?

Classical music, classic hard rock as Deep Purple and prog giants – Pink Floyd,
Rush, Genesis...

Are you planning any tour for this album in Europe? In France?

We´re starting our tour in May (check out dates on www.royalhunt.com), which will bring us to a lot of places – hopefully somewhere close to you as well, J As of now South West France can enjoy
Barcelona, Spain - La Nau, May 20th , South East France can enjoy Pratteln (Basel), CH – Z7, May 13th and North of France can join us at Vosselaar, Belgium - Biebob, May 16th or Weert, Holland – De Bosuil, May 18th. We hope to see you there…

Thanks for your time Andre.

Cheers