Tobias Sammet – Avantasia

Avantasia hold a very special place in my heart as a fan of metal music. For me, it was this band that introduced me to power metal; a subgenre of metal which has since become one of my favourites, and one I return to often. The mastermind behind this project is none other than genius composer Tobias Sammet, someone who I hold a great deal of respect and admiration for. This man is such a multi-talented individual and one of the hardest working, most charismatic people in the metal world. Between his main band Edguy and his metal/rock opera side-project in Avantasia, alongside an incredible amount of touring, very rarely does he get a spare moment to breathe. In getting the opportunity to speak with him, I got to see how he honestly doesn’t take any of it for granted. He is genuinely happy to work his fingers to the bone to continue to do what he loves, make music. It was such an amazing honour to speak with this man in the lead up to the release of Avantasia’s much anticipated seventh studio album, ‘Ghostlights’ (which is officially out today). He had a great deal to say about it, so let’s get to it!

After exchanging pleasantries, he and I shared a few laughs [that’s another thing about Tobias, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which I love!], and got into the thick of, with myself asking him what the main motivation behind ‘Ghostlights’ was? “Well, the motivation behind it was simply having fun and doing what fills me with joy — which is creating music. Working on an Avantasia album is very rewarding because you never know where it drags you. You never really know what’s coming next; what is possible and what is not possible; and, which twist the journey’s going to take.”

“You start with an idea and you can say, ‘Oh well, they should be played by Bruce Kulick and that should be done by [Jørn] Lande’, and you can do pretty much anything. You’re putting together a little world of its own and we never really know what the outcome is going to be like. That’s something that is really exciting. I just started to compose this album because I wanted to compose the sequel to ‘The Mystery of Time’. I didn’t try to break a record or try to do it faster, louder or more bombastic than last time. None of that, because I think that would be cheap and dishonest, and I give my very best to every album. So it would be a wrong or weird goal to outdo what I have done. Although these two albums are great next to each other and sometimes they hit the nerve of my audience — sometimes a little more, sometimes not — you can just do whatever you believe in and try to be honest. And that’s what I did, that’s the whole goal. That’s why I started. In the beginning that you do an album, it’s all a big mess. You have a vague idea of the topic and you have a vague idea of the guests and you have a vague idea of the music (which just comes up, hammering up on a piano or a keyboard). Everything comes together piece-by-piece and there is no real drawing board or no real rule or recipe. It’s just all trial and error, and trying to have a good time while doing it!” [laughs]

I prodded a little further, saying it sounds as if the process comes quite organically or naturally then? “Absolutely! I’m very chaotic. I’m way too chaotic to not let things come together organically!” [laughs]

I posed the question to Tobias whether it was difficult bringing these types of guest artists onboard (individuals who are traditionally rock-focused), or whether it did prove a little easier to convince them because of how open he is? “Well, you know, incorporating these kinds of voices is not at all to me unnatural. Because I have never really distinguished between heavy metal and hard rock. I’m not the type of person to label music like that. For me personally, I label music as ‘do I like it?’ or ‘do I not like it?’ And that’s the only way I label the music. To me, Twisted Sister alone has been way more rock ’n’ roll and metal than, you know, some of the speed metal nerds out there [laughs] The type of music that uses more “science”. There is nothing scientific about Twisted Sister. It was just plugging in, being loud, flashy and annoying. That was the spirit of rock ’n’ roll and metal to me.

‘Ghostlights’, out now via Nuclear Blast Records

“I’m asking singers that had an influence on me, that inspired me, and that could possibly add something to the music that is unique. And that’s why I wanted to have Dee Snider and Geoff Tate, and Marco Hietala, and Bob Catley. They have distinct voices, and they have great characters and great personalities. So that’s why I approached them. I mean, obviously, aside from those people that I got, I also offered to get Meat Loaf, but could not get him. For some reason he was never informed about my request. At first the management was really interested in it and then were like, ‘No, we have different plans’. So that didn’t work out, unfortunately. But with Dee Snider and Geoff Tate, it was not too difficult. It was just asking the management and they were checking if they like the track. They liked the track and so they did it. Bob Catley, Jørn Lande, Michael Kiske, and those guys, they have been my friends for ever! So, of course, it was not different to get them on board.”

As vocalists such as Michael Kiske and Bob Catley have been regulars on Avantasia’s albums since the beginning, I asked Tobias whether these particular people ever approached him first to do the new record, or to say they wished to be on it? “I’ve never had that, I think. No one ever came to me and said, ‘Hey, I want to be on the album!’ I don’t think so. No, I have to ask. I’m not that famous yet!” [laughs]

With Avantasia’s current single, “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose”, Tobias had noted to other press that that one song took more than 40 hours to arrange and record. I asked if this was similarly the case for the other songs on the album, or if it was purely for that song alone? “I mean, I just wanted to point out how sophisticated the choir arrangements of that song are. Because that’s not what you would assume by listening to it. It’s a three-and-a-half minute song – almost four minutes – straight rock song with pretty much only four chords. But the song’s so sophisticated by the way it’s put together. The choirs are so layered and people would not assume that. Some people would say, ‘Oh, it’s a four minute track. It’s a rock song. There cannot be much effort in that’. And I just wanted to make an open statement, a loud statement, about how much effort and detailed work went into arranging that work. That’s it not only about the length of the song.

“Nobody would argue that a song like “Let the Storm Descend Upon You” took hours and days, because it’s a twelve minute song, and it’s kind of reminiscent of if Richard Wagner had had guitars, maybe that’s what it would have sounded like. Because it’s building up over the course of four minutes before it bursts into the first chorus. But it’s not so obvious for a song like “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose”. The choirs for all the songs really took some time to record because it’s usually the third or the second voice. Usually, more voices means not just doing a third or a very obvious harmony, but some choirs do complete opposite things in the background. And together it melds into the sound picture that you finally hear. We’ve always put a lot of detail in the backing vocals. Only we don’t want to make it serve another purpose than sounding great. We don’t want to arrange them so flashy. No, we want to do it as it’s just serving the song, not the other way around. That’s valid for everything we do.”

Do you have a song on ‘Ghostlights’ you feel to be the centre-piece of the album, or the one that best resonates with you what the album is really about? “That’s hard to say because what makes Avantasia stand out is the sum of it, the total. The fact that we have managed to come up with seventy minutes of material is insane. Usually seventy-two minute albums bore the hell out of people, but this album is so exciting from start to finish, as far as I can tell, because it’s so colourful. So you cannot just pick one song and say this is the quintessence of Avantasia, because the quintessence is the sum of it. The quintessence is the fact that on the first song, you have me singing; on the second song, Jørn Lande, Robert Mason, and Ronnie Atkins join in; on the third song, Dee Snider; on the fourth song, Geoff Tate joins in. Still, if you would say, which song would you play to me to give me an idea about Avantasia, I would probably pick “Let the Storm Descend Upon You” because there’s already four singers and it’s a twelve minute track. So the song is a little rock opera itself.

“If you consider an Avantasia show, it’s the whole thing. What is astonishing is that we can play for three hours and nobody really gets bored. And that’s the same with the album. I mean, I would not want to listen to an album that I’m singing myself that is seventy-two minutes long. I couldn’t stand it!” [laughs]

‘Ghostlights’ is out today. You can purchase your copy now in a variety of formats via Nuclear Blast Records.

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