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Hi, first off I just want to congratulate you on your new album.
To new fans could your please fill us in on the history behind it
all?
Olli -
Thank you very much. We are
Twyster - that means german melodic metal with a nice frontlady. Twyster
was founded in 1995 and is since
2002 in
that line-up again. We started like thousands of other metal bands
with playing live wherever they gave us a stage. We
produced our first two albums ("Zipper Jaws",1997 and
"Eclypse Of The Iris,1999) by ourselves, before we in 2000
met our producer team: 'The Midas Twins' Haan Hartmann and Andy
Brings (The Traceelords, Powergod). They produce all of our music
and connected us to our label MASSACRE RECORDS, where we signed
our deal in 2001. Under that flag our debut album "Lunatic Siren"
was released in July 2002. After that our guitar player Chris left
the band, but his place was filled with Ralf Jahnel.
By that personal changing our musically face turned a bit
and I think we've made a big step forward. From my point of view
this is the reason why "Xplode" sounds more powerful,
emotional and fresh.
How has your new album been received by the media?
Olli
- The
reactions on "Xplode"
were very, very good 'till now. Most magazines ranked Coco's voice
in a top class and gave us strength to carry on our way of song
writing.
Except for a few reviewers, most of them understand the way we
like to rock and entertain the audience. We don't give much on
point rankings, but surely it feels better to read something
positive. When you give your heart and soul, you feel good, when
the people give you that feeling, that it is worth it.
I know artists are not happy to categorize their music, but how
would you describe your music to an outsider?
Olli -
Uhh
... I don't know. It’s definitely a sort of hard rock with
adoptions from the powermetal scene. We hold up high the flag of
the 80's metal, that is sometimes a little bit Warlock, sometimes
a little bit Helloween, but every minute it is a 100% melodic and
emotional thunderstorm. It's a Twyster!
Where does your inspiration come from, both musically and
lyrically?
Olli
- There
are many things, that inspires me to write a good song. Mostly
there are fast pictures like short cuts in my head, that need to
come out. Then I try to construct a little story about that little
clip. I like the foggy, misty fields of dark romantic, so that
every story should be an emotional or sad story. When that is
done, the music find it's way on itself and in a perfect case both
will fit like two shoes. Inspirations you can find everywhere. And
when your brain is mad enough there will grow a good song out of
it.
What topics do you deal with in your lyrics and why?
Olli -
For
example the song “Push Me Down” is the result of a short take
by the film “Cliffhanger”, or “Dying Eyes” belongs a
little bit to “First Knight”. “Under The Elms” is the
story about a Jane Doe, who I saw in
Las Vegas
. All in all "Xplode"
is a medley about love and hate, demons and angels, fire and
storm. When you are ready to dive in you will find yourself in
every one of our songs.
Who has produced and mixed the album, and are you pleased with the
end result?
Olli -
Our
producers are “The Midas Twins” - Haan Hartmann and Andy
Brings. They have been the very important work of recording and
mixing for us ever since our debut album “Lunatic Siren”. Back
in those days I thought, that there was nothing a man could do
better!. But when I heard "Xplode"
the first time, I knew, that we had taken e a big step forward and
opened the door to another world of presenting our music. The
production is unbelievable powerful and fresh and so we give a
very, very big hand to those two guys.
Who has done the artwork? And how important do you feel it is to
have a great cover?
Olli -
The
artwork is done by me, except the front cover. It took me nearly
one year to collect the photos and place them right to finish the
booklet. The titel picture is the work of a young woman from
Brazil
. She’s an art student and we found her gallery in the internet.
I was so happy, when she allowed us to use her picture ‘Magma’
for our CD. Because it is a fantastic picture. It is warm, but
dangerous. And from my point of view there could be no better
cover to symbolize our music.
Do you have any touring plans?
Olli -
Sure.
We have made some plans to play live in the near future. Maybe a
tour through
Europe
. But there is nothing fixed ‘till today. We will inform you all
on our homepage www.twyster.de.
Stay tuned ...
How do you feel about the co-operation with your label, and are
you satisfied?
Olli -
Oh, yeah it’s a good one.
The important thing is that they let us go the way we like to go.
There is no musically influence from the label. Not one single
time have they said: “Uhh, boy that song stinks” or “Let
Coco sing like Tarja from Nightwish” or things like that.
They trust in us and we trust in them. And I think with "Xplode"
we pay them a little bit back.
The internet is a very important source for many music fans? How
do you use the internet and how important is it for you and other
bands?
Olli -
I
use the internet only for information and some fun sites. But it
is very important for bands like us to find a platform to present
us and our music all over the world in a few seconds.
How do you see the metal scene at the moment?
Olli -
I
think that there are two big streams in the new metal scene today.
First, the new death- and trash metal scene. Those bands grow like
weed. And most of them sound like a thousand of other bands. The
other stream is in my opinion the girl fronted Nightwish bands.
But there are a few niches with enough free space for Twyster to
step in and to present the old spirit of the 80's heavy metal in a
new robe. And believe me, the true steel and the heart made music
will survive everything. Business was hard, is hard and will be
hard in the future.
To finish things off - could you pls. make an all-time Top 5 or
sort of the 5 most important albums in your opinion?
Olli -
The
most important albums for me are definitely:
-
Iron
Maiden - “The Number Of The Beast”
-
Helloween
- “Keepers Of The Seven Keys, Part I+II”
-
Queensryche
- “Operation: Mindcrime”
-
Skid
Row - “Slave To The Grind”
-
Thin
Lizzy - “Live And Dangerous”
But
to add the most important albums, I think we have to obey to all
the music of AC/DC and Kiss. Without them the modern hard rock and
metal would be different and a poor one.
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