By Andrew Bansal
German epic metal storytellers Blind Guardian have returned to grace the spotlight with the release of their tenth studio album ‘Beyond The Red Mirror’, put out in late January and early February worldwide by Nuclear Blast Records. The band’s first album since the 2010 effort ‘At The Edge Of Time’, this one has been in the making longer than any previous Blind Guardian release, and has been gleefully accepted by eagerly awaiting fans. With the band now planning to embark on a world tour, I spoke to vocalist and lyricist Hansi Kürsch to discuss the album and touring plans in detail. Check out the conversation below.
Hansi, it’s good to have you again on Metal Assault. Blind Guardian is in the news again after quite a while with the release of this new album. What did you go through in the last four-and-a-half years?
After the touring cycle for ‘At The Edge Of Time’ which lasted for quite a while, we switched to songwriting. That went extremely well but it was still a demanding time and it took us almost 24 months I would say, composing and producing the album.
That’s interesting. 24 months is a long time. Your thought process for the songwriting must have changed from the time you started writing till the time you were done with it. Do you feel that kind of flow in the album, and is it almost like a time capsule in that sense?
Yeah, it is! (laughs) For us the interesting thing is, at the very end, not only the songwriting but also the production turned out to be very fluent, even though it was a two-year process. We didn’t know where to end up when we started, obviously, but ever since we started working, we were going into the right direction. It doesn’t feel that long ago.
You’ve also collaborated with a lot of other musicians, orchestras and all those things. How did that go?
It was fairly easy as well. We’ve had some experience with regard to the orchestra because of the orchestral project and also the ‘At The Edge Of Time’ album, as the songs ‘Sacred Worlds’ and ‘Wheel Of Time’ are heavily busy in orchestration. So, this was our second experience with the orchestras, and we knew that the better we are prepared once we get to the recordings, the easier would be the job for them. So we were extremely well prepared when we went to track in Budapest, and they just rushed through the songs, since they had an exact idea of what to do. We’ve had really good scores, really good pre-production and scheduling what we would do later on with the orchestras. So, it was easier. The songs themselves in general, to compose them was a delicate mission because ideas were coming in constantly and we had to somehow mingle all the stuff together.
Right, those people in the orchestra are always good at what they do, and they get it done quickly. They are such professionals. As a rock ‘n roll / metal band, it must be inspiring to see them, because sometimes in our genre things can take longer than they should.
Yeah, that’s true. They really have an eye on the clock all the time because as you rightly said, they are totally professional. But on the other hand, it’s more like working with impolite people. They have a union, they are really picky in what they are doing and how long they are supposed to work, so everything has to be set up extremely well because otherwise when there’s time for a break, they are going to take the break. This is the other side of the coin, while the rock ‘n roller would go on forever for something he’s really into, no matter what the time is and no matter what he’s booked for. These classical musicians, they tend to play on the clock. That’s quite amusing to say, but the way they nail down the stuff, and the organic progression within the orchestra is a very impressive thing and this of course is very inspiring because it still tells us that we have to rehearse to get to that point. I would say we are fairly good at performing and being tight on stage, but in comparison to these guys, there’s still a lot to learn.
That’s some great insight, Hansi. But in terms of the lyrical content, for the sake of those that are unaware, is it more of a broader range of concepts or does it continue the story line from any of the previous albums?
Well, it is based on a concept related to what we did on the ‘Imaginations From The Other Side’ (1995) album, and actually the topic is very dystopian, so it has a very dark side without any doubt. We somehow figured that there were some disturbing elements in the music, so we decided to mingle that into the lyrical concept as well. All of a sudden, I was becoming aware that I never finished the story I told on ‘Imaginations From The Other Side’ when I finished that album with a song called ‘And The Story Ends’. There, it tells the story of the boy who is supposed to be the chosen one in a different universe, sort of a connecting piece between two universes and he is supposed to jump from one universe to the other to become the chosen one there. This should be maintained through a mirror which can be seen as the natural part in between these two universes. While standing there, he at the very end loses confidence and decides not to jump. This is more or less told on ‘And The Story Ends’, and so I started continuing the story and it turned out to be a sort of modern quest for the holy grail, one can say. This is a modern type of King Arthur storytelling.
That’s awesome. Obviously, I see that you already have some touring planned for the spring and early part of this year. But you haven’t been to the US in more than four years. The last we saw you here in Los Angeles was at the Fonda Theater in December 2010. So, it’s been quite a while.
Yeah, it has been! But we still have a touring policy which says that we come by with each album once. So make sure you see us once we’re on the road, and as I said before, it took a while for us to finish ‘Beyond The Red Mirror’ and we have scheduled North America for the end of this year. So I am pretty confident that we are going to be in the US, let’s say end of October and beginning of November.
So it’s deliberate on your part and you just don’t take up any offers. You are always set with that policy of touring only once per album.
Yeah, I mean, the period between albums has been extended, so when requests come in we just have to tell them that we are extending the gap. We might go back to a continent we have already been before on a touring cycle, but generally we have stuck to this policy and we feel it went for the better, at least in our case. I would say, considering the US and Canada it might make sense to do touring twice or thrice, but I still feel that the way things go for our band, specially when it comes to touring, it has always gone extremely well. So, there is no real need to adjust that.
You’re right, most bands that don’t tour the US every year or twice a year, people forget about them. I don’t think that’s ever been the case with you. Your shows will sell out whenever you tour.
This is my impression. We have been in the business for more than 30 years, so there is a constant development but we will not have overnight success anywhere on this planet, you know (laughs). It’s something we have to take under consideration and we have to live with. We are a slowly growing band, and it seems people appreciate the progress we are making with the music and they also appreciate that each and every album, no matter whether it fits their taste completely, differs from the one before. So, people somehow rely on this development within the band and I think they appreciate that more than seeing us on the road every year.
This album is already everywhere, and you said you’re touring North America at the end of this year. Do you think it’s better to have that gap after the release to let people absorb the album instead of touring straight after the release when people don’t really know the songs?
I don’t know, I think in terms of showing up of people, it’s better to connect things. So, having an album out in a country and being there immediately right after would definitely be supportive, but we have to face the fact that since we just release an album every four or five years, we are still always behind schedule and we have to set up touring just after the album has released, or just before. Obviously since Europe is our home market, this is the first territory we always hit usually. That’s what we’re doing time, and it’s a time-demanding territory because if you go through all the European countries you’re on the road for two-and-a-half months. That’s the case with Blind Guardian too, so there was no option to come to North America earlier. After we will have toured Europe, there will be a South American tour waiting, and then the North American tour will happen.
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