You know, I've never examined this from this point of view, but let's take what you say as an augury. This is for sure the most important disc we've ever made, the reward for our efforts. Nightfall in Middle Earth is the disc that BLIND GUARDIAN always wanted to do.

Actually, the decision to use the Silmarillion as a base concept of such proportions (the album will be sided by an EP with the same concept) was not a fast choice after the huge success of Imaginations from the Other Side.

I have toyed a bit with the idea of using the Nibelungen saga, another of my passions. I was always amazed by the historical connections to that series of legends...

...so highly distorted by Wagner...

Right! I am especially interested in the figure of Theodoricus, that barbarian king both ally and enemy with Attila, who fought against the Church even being himself a Christian. Theodoricus belonged to the Arian sect, which has nothing to do with the Arian race, so he denied the holyness of Christ, believing that he was like "possessed" by the divine spirit but not God himself. For this reason he was obstacled by the Church. A strange carachter, like almost every other character of the Nibelungen saga. When I said to Andrè "Should we do an album about the Nibelungen or about Tolkien?" he replied "Are you mad? About Tolkien, of course!" Andrè is almost as fanatic as I am!

Hansi, how do you feel to put that myth in the musical form, knowing that millions of persons are out there ready to find all the mistakes in your work just because you touched their beloved writer?

How do I feel? Not really nervous. At first, because it's like an act of love, something I always wanted to do. And then because the band you'll hear on the disc is a band at the peak of its possibilities. You better expect something incredible!

We're asking exactly for this! Let's start from the beginning... what did you do in all that time since the end of the tour for Imaginations from the Oher Side?

We worked! At least I have been working a lot. Since Imaginations from the Other Side became that success I realized we had to work hard in order to not fall down with the next release. I am sure that these kind of things can be felt only sometime, but I actually never doubted that the next BLIND GUARDIAN release would be better than Imaginations from the Other Side at all costs...

What do you mean by "better"?

From the musical quality point of view, Nightfall in Middle Earth is a big step ahead. I know this may sound impossible for you, but we finally made this disc even more complex and baroque than the previous... This is an extreme satisfaction for me, because it was a very hard challenge to win. The compositive system we used helped me a lot on this.

That is?

BLIND GUARDIAN always worked as a team, even if the big part of the composition is held by me and Andrè. As Imaginations from the Other Side, Nightfall in Middle Earth would never see the light if it wasn't for the help of the backing vocalists, which are not considered full members of BLIND GUARDIAN by our fans, but they are! You know, each one of the backing vocalists we had in our last two albums could have sung the track by himself alone without any problem. Can you imagine a track like The Script for My Requiem without any choruses?

No, actually not...

Well, so you know what I mean. In addition, from the instrumental point of view, we did everything possible to achieve an energic yet calculated approach. I mean nothing happens at random, but at the same time nothing is artificial. For example, Marcus knew the songs, but he never had the occasion to hear them in the definitive form, so when he came in the studio to record his tracks, he was very surprised!

Do you mean that you threw him into the disc?

Yes, (laughs) yes... but this doesn't mean he wasn't prepared!

If I correctly understand, you tried everything to mantain an high tension while you were recording.

That's why we chose to not have any pre-production!

A punk-like approach, if you allow me to say this...

As you know, we record in our studio, with a 42-channel mixer and so on. What we have done is taking all our separate ideas on tape, then meet and poof... make the disc. This means that the first version of the disc was pretty rough. The big part of the work came after. For example, there is a ton of drums arrangement, the we have actually done AFTER having entered the studio, compressing the work to obtain a technically perfect but yet direct. Andrè has done a huge work with the guitar orchestration, and I did the same for the vocals, so after all this work we ended up with a second version, totally clearer and easier to listen to, not just a collection of solos, something which I often heard in discs with the same ambitions as ours. In a few words, we let the album grow from a tape with little sounds to an entire orchestra, with the most powerful and exciting sound you can imagine of!

Are you trying to tell me that Nightfall in Middle Earth is technically a big step ahead from Imaginations from the Other Side?

Yes, but not only for the production matter! Even before entering the studio we all knew well that this album would cost us a fortune in money and a lot of time to realize it, to realize our dream...

Sorry if I interrupt you, but I think that Imaginations from the Other Side has earned you a lot of money...

Of course! Anyway, we always re-invested all of the money we earned with our music. Now I don't want to say that I live my life betwen the kitchen and the bedroom, this is not true, but the level of personal investment that all of the band members do, even touching their salary, is really high. For example, we don't have rich cars or live in royal palaces... we are not satisfied by or interested in those things. For us, re-investing everything in the band is to invest spiritually, monetary and physically in the music. Of course, an effect of this effort is that, when BLIND GUARDIAN will explode...

But didn't they already "explode" with the previous disc?  

I think that this one can do even more, but I am not expecting that, from what it concerns the sales, our moment has already arrived. I was saying that, when BLIND GUARDIAN will explode, the (also economical) comeback will be adequate... I like money, but we don't spend our nights thinking about things like "Wow! We'll become rich!". It is an attitude which in my opinion only leads to troubles. What we really care for is to realize all of our ideas and our dreams, and this is a big advantage for BLIND GUARDIAN if compared to other bands, and also the reason why I always expect a big progression between an album and another one.

Hansi, is there something that was present in Imaginations from the Other Side that the listener won't hear anymore in Nightfall in Middle Earth? Like a certain type of sound or arrangement... something that you think it is not relevant anymore with the new disc.

Urgh, great question... it is hard to tell, because we are of course different than the BLIND GUARDIAN who recorded Imaginations from the Other Side... a lot of time passed since then!

We noticed that!

Our primary objective is to go ahead and progress, to improve, but still inside the rule that the BLIND GUARDIAN "roots" (this means the folk approach, the irony, the love for the melodies, etc.) must be always present, anyway nothing remains the same. We don't play as in the first album for sure, but now I can't think of anything that was present in Imaginations from the Other Side and now it's gone... in Imaginations from the Other Side we had a smaller attention for the crescendo, building the songs from point A to point B is a thing that you will hear in this album. If I have to be precise, I think Nightfall in Middle Earth is much more... elaborate?

Maybe baroque?

Yes, baroque, but also more pretentious! Somebody could say we have become less immediate, but the subject we're dealing with needs a much more meditative approach. Nightfall in Middle Earth won't certainly be aggressive as the previous album...

Ouch! Again!

Nooooooo, wait, don't misunderstand me! There are at least two tracks which are hard at least as much as anything else you've heard in Imaginations from the Other Side... for example the song on which we're working now is a lot heavier than Born in a Mourning Hall! But there's also another track that is still titled The Eldar which is arranged for piano. I am sure this one will touch everyone, even our most aggressive fans...

I always tought that a typical carachteristic of your music is the irony for the subjects you're dealing with... for example I know you're a big lover of classic musicals...

Yes, right!

...and that you seem to be more interested to talk about the spiritual and funnier aspect of fantasy literature than about massacres, bloodsheds, monsters and so on...

Right.

The question is, will we have the same approach in Nightfall on Middle Earth?

Yes, of course: as I was saying before, I think this album is an exhibition of all the emotions that the Silmarillion can give you. Something that we like is to manipulate every sentiment or emotion that the music can give us, without focusing on only one of them and especially with things such as the devil, blood and so on. We tried to put everything inside, to have the biggest group of feelings, not only in the music but also in the lyrics... expect the unexpected is our new saying! There will be things that will hit the people right in the face, and other things that will caress them... a bit of everything!

We are very curious.

In the lyrics, for example, the basic approach is fantasy-like, but there will be some excursus in reality, as it happened in Imaginations from the Other Side. It is like I am saying "Ok, this is the music, these are the lyrics, but we're not taking the whole thing too seriously...

How can you not take Tolkien seriously?

No, wait, let me finish. I mean the most important thing is that the music should create an emotion, the rest is a lot relative.

In fact the feeling is that you have a lot of fun when doing what you do. Even when the music expresses something sad, it seems like in the end you always think that everything will end up good...

Yes, I am sure about this!

Let's talk about something else... what do you think about the crisis in which Metal is now?

I know that there are many bands which are denying their roots, I can't say which ones, but I think this is 90% an american problem, not european, and honestly the United States are not a priority for us. Of course there are many american bands who are an example for us...

Are you talking about people who walk around with plushy slips?

What?

Don't worry, go on...

Old METALLICA are among these bands, and even if they now play something else, their past can't be erased. But I think that in Europe things work differently, here you have room enough to play Metal without being under pressure, also because the discs keep selling. We are proud of being Metal. But of course Metal is not the only element of our music, there are also other styles, but we're proud to be labelled in such way. We don't have that "No, our music is not A, it is B" attitude. We aren't a mainstream band, we don't aim to the charts. I think the most important thing in music is to have fun, enjoying what you're listening to. Think about RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: they didn't play my kind of music, but I used to respect them because I think they were doing something with a meaning, a soul. Now they jumped on trendy things and I find them detestable.

About the recording of the disc, I see you're back to Flemming Rasmussen's Sweet Silence studios... is this a reply to METALLICA, which started here?

No, also because in these studios we only did the mixing and a little part of the recording. The rest has been done in our personal studio. Anyway there's still a relationship because the people we work with here are the same ones we work with down there. I think a big merit for BLIND GUARDIAN is having created a big circle of persons involved in a common aim, musicians, sound technicians, people involved in the music group... we were lucky for having worked with people with such enthusiasm and quality.

Don't you think that someone can think BLIND GUARDIAN is reducing a lot of the music to the technical aspect?

Now it is trendy to blame the big productions, but I'm convinced that every kind of music needs different types of production. A Black Metal or Hardcore band couldn't have any benefit from our way of working, and I think that an album like Nightfall in Middle Earth, if recorded in just ten days, wouldn't be the same thing...

It seems like you're underlining again the importance of the team work. don't you think that, atfer all, every masterpiece is a team work?

I think you're right, also because I think that is nice to see different people working for the same objective maintaining their individuality.

Hansi, let's talk about the lyrics and the concpet of Nightfall on Middle Earth...

Ahhh... I think you should sit back and listen, because we could talk until tomorrow...

I am ready...

We still have some things to evaluate for what the copyright matter is concerned, but as you know, the disc is based on the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is our intention to stay close to the original story, and we think the final product will contain about sixty minutes of music. It is hard to sum up a so complex story in a disc. So we focused on the part I like the most, and then we chose the single episodes that I felt more interesting and put them inside the songs and the booklet, together with all the pictures and so on, inspired by the Silmarillion. There is a kind of narrative line that holds all the pieces together, but not everyone will understand this... I think everyone should buy the book to really make all the things match together...

Can you be more specific?

The story is about the Noldors, which pursue the Dark Lord, Morgoth, in the Middle Earth because he has stolen the Silmarils, the three jewels which contain the light of the world. Basically this is the story, but the details are about the suffering and the tragedies of this struggle, throughout the centuries and the curses that will affect them. And then we'll talk about the races that inhabit the Middle Earth. The central point will be the curse of Feanor, who made the Silmarils, and the story of his seven sons. All this is seen through the point of view of one of them, Maglor, the bard.

A carachter which I think you find to be matching your sensibility the most...

Right, he is a musician, but he also a chronicler and a bard, so he has to keep himself a bit detached from the subject he deals with, but he is still one of Feanor's sons, so he is totally involved in his tragedy...

In addition he is the only son who survives...

Right, and this in fact is the starting point for the story. Maglor is still roaming the earth near the seashore, chanting the pain for the things he has seen, and the impossibility to leave this world to end his exile. In the prologue I imagine Maglor arriving in our era, in the form of a mendicant who can't clearly tell the stories of his past. Thinking about the past, he starts telling the story starting from the destruction of the Trees by Morgoth and Ungoliant, and then all the rest.

Did you read the Silmarillion in english or in german?

I have read it in both languages. The german translation is awesome, but the original is still another thing. This is also because Tolkien is for sure one of the few modern authors which can be labelled as a "master of the word"... it is really difficult to move his words in the lyrics without ruining them.

I don't know if you have included this is in the disc, but there is that passage after the tremendous fifth war, when the last human Dor-Lomin survivor fights alone against Morgoth's army to let the Eldar king to escape...

Wonderful! That is the end of the disc, when Hurin is captured by Morgoth and brought to his fortress... the story will continue in an EP which will be released later during the year...

This is curious, you practically end the disc with a sad atmosphere...

Of course! (laughs)

We agree on a thing: Tolkien is one of the few fiction authors that actually rended the Good attractive...

Absolutely right! This is a great truth. I find attractive and interesting all of the Tolkien carachters, but I could die for one of the good ones... I mean someone like Feanor could drag me in the most incredible of the experiences. I don't know what I could give to meet them, to be part of their life, part of their world. Those sad persons, those events, those creatures... awesome.

Somebody said that Tolkien's world can be very dangerous...

Somewhat yes, because it is so charming that it is difficult to get out from there. I personally think that it is impossible to escape from the things around you, to flee from reality... you can just take some vacations. Tolkien said something about this when comparing the warrior's desertion to the prisoner's escape.

It is also interesting to notice the way in which it is possible to compare certain carachteristics to actual events that are closer to us... Feanor, for example, is a great carachter in the Faustian tradition. The man who chooses to pursue his own obsessions against the will of the Gods... and at the opposite side of the story Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings is an humble man who is forced to make important decisions...

Oh my God, this is strange... (laughs) You see, if I had to choose two caracthers to represent the whole universe of sensations that Tolkien inspire me, I'd choose these two... and this is very strange, because you can often feel, especially in The Lord of the Rings, that Tolkien chooses to NOT describe some things, but he lets you see them through the eyes of carachters like Sam. For example there is no description of Sauron...

Or Barad-Dur, his fortress. The same narration of the Silmarillion is totally detached from the schemes of a novel... it is pure myth. The only real carachters are the Hobbits...

In fact.

And a big intuition was to let the reader's imagination work...

Right, it is something that you feel in the interviews that he gave, the fact that he respected a lot the personality and the will of the reader, letting it enter in his world...

Is the same with BLIND GUARDIAN?

Do you leave much space to the listener's imagination?

I think that there are no choices in music. I mean you can't describe EVERYTHING, rendering every detail. The listener always must put something of his own...

To conclude, is BLIND GUARDIAN and Tolkien an unavoidable team-up?

Yes, I can't deny this. I actually think that everything we've done was heading towards this direction. Tolkien is an obsession for me, something that is part of my life. In addition I'm thinking that I yet didn't see the artwork for the CD, the guy which drew it assured me it is ten thousand times better than the one he made for Imaginations from the Other Side... I wonder how?

You were saying something about an EP...

Yes, the story will continue with an EP that will be released in September, and will contain more songs on the same subject, and one about Turin Turambar and Mormegil

The Dark Sword... Elric.

Right, then we'll see... about videos, I have some ideas, but they would cost billions! And for the tour, we'll see... it's too early, but I can tell you that we'll play in Italy in june!

And then we'll meet there. One more thing: do you know that Hayao Miyazaki, the author of Nausicaa, Laputa and Conan has just announced the will of making a movie based on The Lord of the Rings?

I've heard something! Let's hope he'll let us make the soundtrack!

Miyazaki, BLIND GUARDIAN and The Lord of the Rings... Gods, don't give me more pleasures or I could die for them...