By Andrew Bansal
Having contributed a great deal to the world of classic hard rock through the past four decades with his efforts in UFO, Scorpions, MSG and other projects, guitar legend Michael Schenker has been working under the moniker Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock for the past few years, with Doogie White (vocals), Wayne Findlay (guitar/keyboards), and his old Scorpions band mates Francis Buchholz (bass) and Herman Rarebell (drums). The quintet is all set to release a new album called ‘Spirit On A Mission’ on March 20th in Europe and on March 24th in the US via In-Akustik, and will tour the States immediately after. This album comes as a follow-up to the stellar late 2013/early 2014 release ‘Bridge The Gap’, and sees Michael Schenker in fine form. A few weeks ago, I spoke to him in detail about this band, the new album and lots more. Enjoy the conversation below.
Michael, it’s a pleasure to have you on Metal Assault. First of all, I wanted to ask you about the change from MSG to Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock. The MSG name has been associated with you for such a long time. What was the thinking behind starting again under a different name?
Well, MSG was basically the middle part of my career. It was more of the Gary Barden period and stuff like that. But if I look back at my career and my life in general, I can clearly see three stages. The first stage was my development as a guitarist and my contribution to the world in the 70s and 80s with UFO, and then I went to play with my brother in the Scorpions which opened the door to America for them. And then I withdrew and started Michael Schenker Group, which was basically to do things at my own pace, experiment, do electric instrumentals and acoustic instrumentals. So, this whole middle section was more based on experimental development on a musical and personal level. In 2007-08, I had this strong urge to go back to my roots of rock ‘n roll and it was time for me to celebrate the incredible era of my generation of rock, that started off with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and so on. Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock is like a summit. It’s going back to the past and embracing it all. This is the third stage of my career and it’s different from the popular music of my past.
Would you say that the biggest difference between this band and MSG is the fact that there’s more of a group effort? Dougie White and Wayne Findley have co-written a lot of the songs, isn’t it?
Yeah, it seems like during the first stage of my career I was always part of a group. My brother wanted to focus on having a famous band, so it was more of a group thing. In my middle life in MSG, I have dealt with all my experimentation and got it out of my system. For Temple Of Rock, it seems like everything happened step by step. The lineup came together, I reconnected with the drummer and bass player of the Scorpions, the guys with whom I recorded the album ‘Lovedrive’. When we were starting in 2012, we put together a DVD to make sure that just in case anything happens, at least I have a memory of it. But it was getting stronger and stronger, and we had great audiences and happy people. And I thought, why don’t we make an album together? So we started writing together and I was happy with the first album ‘Bridge The Gap’, but after that album I knew I wanted to add some more seven-string guitar parts, which was Wayne’s input, an additional chemistry between Wayne and myself. So, that’s how it all developed, and I started to realize, wait a minute, this is turning into a real band. So, we’re using the Michael Schenker platform to get somewhere with this.
Right, exactly. So, is this lineup also going to be the touring lineup for this band?
Yeah, that’s what I tried last year but it was a little bit too hectic, but now we are ready and we’re going to tour together very soon. Herman and Francis have not been on stage for a long, long time, and of course the three of us have never played on a stage together. So this is going to be exciting!
Yeah, when you did a tour of the US last year, Herman and Francis were not in the lineup. I think a lot of people were expecting that. But we’ll get it this time though.
Yes, this time it will happen. The time has finally arrived (laughs).
Would you say that the ‘Spirit On A Mission’ album came together quickly for you, looking at the time from when ‘Bridge The Gap’ was released?
No, it’s a bit upside down. The ‘Bridge The Gap’ album was made but not released for over seven months. We had to wait a really long time to release it. The album was made in March of 2013. So, it’s much further back than you think when you look at the release dates, specially with the gap between the European release and the release in America which was more than two months. So now, it’s actually been two years since that album.
And for ‘Spirit On A Mission’, I read that you actually lost a good part of the recordings and had to redo them. What was that like?
It was really upsetting, but we just had to deal with it. I got four guitars stolen, and some music, but luckily it wasn’t any compositions and just performances, so we just had to get ourselves together and work twice as hard.
You mentioned the seven-string guitars that you included a lot more of on this album. Seven-string guitar is not something associated with classic hard rock. Did you ever have any doubts about doing it?
I was not even thinking like that, but you make a good point here. I guess I’m not really a trendy person and I just do things as they come. What I’m doing is connecting the past to the present. So, therefore the seven-string is part of it, as it adds an extra dimension and represents what we’ve discovered between Wayne Findley, Dougie White and myself. Temple Of Rock will become a band that combines the old with the new, and that’s what it will be known for. All the emotion and all the experiences that I have been involved in over the years, all combined as one and expressed. That’s how I feel about it.
Listening to the music on this new album and the previous one, it’s interesting to note that even though it involves Herman, Francis and you, three members of the Scorpions lineup from all those years back, I think the music resembles more of the UFO side. Do you agree with that?
Well, there are definitely a couple of songs where the writing is more like my early UFO days, which is the mid-tempo stuff. Then I wanted to put a lot of fast and energetic songs in there, and for contrast, I asked Wayne to come with some riffs and he did. I added my ideas to it. Of course it has a bit of everything in terms of my songwriting style over the years, but because I was the main songwriter in UFO, may be it sounds like that, and it would be the only way I would think that you would hear a UFO resemblance in Temple Of Rock. But also, the other interesting thing is, with this band I’m definitely revisiting my youth, and the sound has something to do with that as well.
In terms of the live shows, when you have to go out there and select songs for a set list, people expect you to capture your whole career. I’m sure that’s a challenge, but it must also be fun because you can pretty much play whatever you want and people are probably going to like it because every band that you’ve been in has its own set of fans.
Yeah definitely, but I have to be careful not to repeat myself too much, and of course now with it being the first time Francis and Herman will come together with us on stage, there will be a particular way of doing the shows that will be different from what we did so far without them. At some point, when Temple Of Rock has enough material of its own and becomes popular enough, we won’t need to play that many other songs. This is the ‘bridge the gap’ period, where we are basically bridging the gap using Michael Schenker as the platform to make Temple Of Rock its own thing. I think after the third album we are much further towards being an accomplished, established band.
Right, the aim should be to rely on songs of this new band alone. But in the past, aside from being in bands, you’ve also sometimes done tours with other guitarists, like the G3 tour you did many years back. At this point do you have any desire to work with other guitarists on anything like that or are you just focussing on Temple Of Rock?
Right now I’m focussing just on Temple Of Rock. I’ve done all kinds of different things in the past, and we’ll wait and see what happens if anything comes up, but now, Temple Of Rock is the mission at large and we want to play wherever we can to promote the album.
I have one more question for you. In terms of your guitar playing, you’ve done so much over the years. At this age, how do you keep it interesting for yourself?
Since I was around 17 years old, I knew that I had to stay away from consuming. Consuming not only takes energy but it also inputs other people’s music. I knew instinctively and compulsively from the very beginning that I needed to express myself, so my focus was to be as pure as possible, focus on my musical own self-expression, not to consume but to create. And I love to create. That’s what my passion is. Of course, you can’t stay completely away from all music, but music is like chocolate. You don’t want to overexpose and spoil yourself. You just want to keep it fresh and exciting. Because it’s based on pure self-expression, you create your own style. Nobody can expose your true colors but yourself. That’s how you bring fresh colors to life, for everybody to enjoy. It’s like an infinite ocean of creativity, like a kaleidoscope. It’s endless. That’s the difference it makes to focus on self-expression. It takes an artist to self-express. The great thing about it is, you don’t score. There is no competition. That’s the approach I’ve always adopted, and it has worked for me.
Michael Schenker/Temple Of Rock links: website | facebook
US Tour Dates:
MAR 25 2015 @ Rockbar Theater in San Jose, CA
MAR 27 2015 @ Tonic in Portland, OR
MAR 28 2015 @ Studio Seven in Seattle, WA
APR 01 2015 @ Boardwalk in Orangevale, CA
APR 02 2015 @ Yoshi’s in Oakland, CA
APR 03 2015 @ Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood, CA
APR 04 2015 @ M-15 Concert Hall in Corona, CA
APR 07 2015 @ Vamp’d in Las Vegas, NV
APR 08 2015 @ Livewire Concert Hall in Scottsdale, AZ
APR 10 2015 @ Trees in Dallas, TX
APR 11 2015 @ 210 Kapones Live in San Antonio, TX
APR 12 2015 @ 18th Street in San Leon, TX
APR 15 2015 @ Gramercy Theatre in New York, NY
APR 16 2015 @ Eclipse in Binghamton, NY
APR 17 2015 @ Newton Theatre in Newton, NJ
APR 18 2015 @ The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ
APR 20 2015 @ Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA
APR 22 2015 @ Rockpile West in Toronto, Ontario Canada
APR 23 2015 @ Concord Music Hall in Chicago, IL (Enuff Z Nuff guests on this performance)
APR 24 2015 @ Harpos Concert Hall in Detroit, MI
APR 25 2015 @ Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, IL (Enuff Z Nuff guests on this performance)
APR 26 2015 @ Freaksters in Pontiac, IL
APR 28 2015 @ Buffalo Rose in Golden, CO
APR 30 2015 @ Ramona Mainstage in Ramona, CA
MAY 01 2015 @ Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA
MAY 02 2015 @ Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA (Special Guest Don Dokken)