The world’s biggest Metal opera – Avantasia is finally coming to Australia! 20 years after the release of the original Metal Operas, musical mastermind Tobias Sammet will bring the full Avantasia stage show to Australia with a star studded cast of musicians including Jorn Lande, Eric Martin (Mr Big), Geoff Tate (ex-Queensryche), Bob Catley (Magnum) and more. With a new album “Moonglow” set for release on February 15th there was much to talk about as we had a lengthy chat with the mastermind himself, Tobias Sammet to discuss the shows, the guests both on the new album and on tour and what to expect on tour.
Andrew: It’s good to connect again, you probably won’t remember but we last spoke about 3 years ago when you were promoting at the time your last album “Ghostlights” so how have things been during that 3 year period?
Tobias: Calm I would say, I mean relatively calm. I’ve done a world tour with “Ghostlights” and the album and then we did the “Monuments” album with Edguy and we done some shows through out Europe but in general if you look at the pace I had in my earlier days, it was relatively calm and it was a conscious decision. Because I felt I should take things a little more easy and initially I didn’t want to do an album, not an Avantasia album or not anything in particular, I didn’t have a record contract or nothing. It came together and all fell into place, it was an accident, coincidently! All of a sudden I realized, ‘Wow there’s a new Avantasia album in the making, Jesus I shouldn’t stop it! It’s good for me!’ [laughs].
Andrew: It’s good to be busy I guess! And from what I read in the press release you had a bit of extra downtime I suppose and that’s where the album came into play I guess.
Tobias: Yeah that’s what I had. I made the decision to build myself a studio and to not do anything anytime soon because I felt also I was living up to expectations. When I was a young kid I was an artist, that was my profession but I felt sub-consciously it was my own fault because I had set the pace at such an early age. I had realized my job had slightly changed, my job had become living up to expectations or what I perceived as expectations from outside and I really had to interupt that pattern and that’s when I said, ‘Ok I’m going to take some time off’. But it didn’t really happen, it wasn’t really a time off but I perceived it as that. I just wrote music and I built myself a studio and I worked on my own. Initially I thought maybe I’m going to do a solo record, something that nobody is going to expect and when nobody expects something all you do as work is a bonus and that is psychologically very clever because then you don’t rush to live up to a schedule when you do something that nobody expects as a bonus and you work maybe at the same pace but you work with less stress. And maybe that’s when I thought maybe I would do a solo record but the solo record sounded like Avantasia and I thought, ‘Well why not call it Avantasia, Avantasia is my solo project anyway’. So here I am with “Moonglow”.
Andrew: There you go and like in the past you have some really spectacular guests on here including, who I am a huge fan of, Mille Petrozza from Kreator. I would like to ask how that came about, you guys know each other? How did that happen?
Tobias: Yeah we’ve known each other for a very long [time] and we’re friends. He’s a very nice guy and while his musical background…well the backgrounds are not so different because we both appreciate the same type of music. Mille is very open minded, I am very open minded and we both like the old classics but also on a personal level we get along very well. More than 20 years we’ve known each other, or approximately 20 years and we’ve spoken about it a long time ago. We spoke about him being a part of Avantasia at one point but of course you have to have the right sound because musically it’s quite different so you have to have a certain spot for that type of voice and I really like his musical attitude, his work ethic and he’s authentic. He didn’t act, he didn’t change his voice to act, he sings the way he sings, he’s the real deal. It’s completely different to a lot of other bands that do those growling stuff and the screaming things. There’s nothing artificial about it, he just does it. I had that song and I thought, ‘Ok Mille this is the time, finally I got the right song.’ He did it and he liked it.
Andrew: Great stuff. I’ve chatted to him a number of times over the years and like you say he’s a really nice guy. But it may come as a surprise to some fans as the music he creates and the music you create are obviously quite different but there must be an underlying theme that connects you two together.
Tobias: We have a lot of respect for each other I think. I know we both make fun of each other every time we meet and he always calls me that Dungeons & Dragons [sings operatic voice]! Whenever we meet like at a festival backstage he laughs about my stage costumes, which they are not costumes! But that’s what he considers them, ‘Haha you look like a fucking magician, you’re a wizard! Haha don’t go on stage like that, people are going to point and laugh at you’. In a nice way, he has a great sense of humour and I think that people that have really watched our careers, they know that we’re friends. So I think most people in the Avantasia cosmos, it may not be such a huge surprise to them.
Andrew: The other big news of course, and it’s something we actually touched on 3 years ago, is you are making your first ever appearance in Australia for Avantasia which is good to see!
Tobias: Absolutely and I didn’t expect that to happen. I don’t know what I told you 3 years ago, I probably said, ‘Oh it would be great, it would be a dream of mine but it would be difficult to make it feasible’.
Andrew: Yeah it was something like that!
Tobias: Yeah that’s probably what I said all the time because that was the truth and that still is the truth but we found a promoter who really believed in it. Whereas a normal band can go anywhere on the planet if you have a decent amount of fans anywhere, you can make it happen with a few people in the band and can have a basic crew. Now with Avantasia it’s a different thing, we’re going to come with a full cast that we’re going to have on the road everywhere in the world. So there will be Geoff Tate and there will be Jorn Lande, Ronnie Atkins, Eric Martin from Mr Big, Bob Catley from Magnum, Miro, Sascha, Felix, everybody will be there and that’s really difficult to come to the other side of the world. That’s what you say about us but I think we’re both right in a way and it’s really difficult to make that happen. It’s very expensive but I wanted to make it, I wanted to bring it over because I wanted it to be an international band and everybody is very excited. We’re not going to strip down the show, we’re going to bring the full thing. We’re going to have our big crew and we’re going to play 3 hours every night, everybody is really excited. Even in the band many people have never been to Australia yet and that’s why everybody is like, ‘Woah we’re going to Australia’. It seems like a miraculous wonderland, everybody you talk to wants to go to Australia probably because you’re so far away from us. And of course I’ve been over there 3 times and I can understand it, knowing what they’re in for I can understand it. I love Australia, I’ve always loved it, I’ve always been vocal about it and yeah, it’s exciting I can tell you!
Andrew: Yeah absolutely and especially for the fans who have been waiting a long time to see you guys live. So because of that and because it’s going to be the first time for many people, will you be catering a setlist or a special kind of setlist for the fans here or will you be continuing the kind of tour that you have already been planning for the world tour?
Tobias: Well the good thing about Avantasia is on those 8 records we have just amazing songs [laughs], so whatever we pick is…No seriously there is nothing worse than putting on a special thing for a special show because it will be especially weird then when you finally do it because you should be well prepared and there should be a certain working routine in what you do. I mean I hate routine when it comes to creativity but when you go on stage everybody should know what to do and that’s why we will play I would say 7 or 8 songs, 9 songs maybe off of “Moonglow” and then we’re going to play 15 or 16 or whatever songs off of our entire career. So we’re going to play for almost 3 hours or approximately 3 hours as we did last time.
Andrew: Wow that is a big show, 3 hours is a long time for any band to play. How do you work out the logistics of that kind of a production?
Tobias: I surround myself with people who know what they are doing [laughs]. That’s the secret, I really have a great staff and a great production management and great creative…we did the creative stuff ourselves but the company that put all these things into [the] live [show] and of course there’s a lot of experience from what we have done in the past, it’s the fifth Avantasia tour I believe if I counted right so we know what to do and we know how the dynamics of a show work and how a flow of a show should work and how there should an arch of suspense within the show. Of course with all the people involved you have to juggle individual schedules a little bit because of course there’s Eric Martin and he’s in Mr Big and they’re still touring the world and are very active every now and then. There’s Geoff tate who’s constantly on tour with Operation: Mindcrime, Bob Catley is doing a Magnum tour. So of course that is why Avantasia is still fragile and precious at the same time because we all know we have those 8 to 10 weeks to squeeze in as many shows in the world as possible and that’s going to be it. We may come together again for a couple of festivals but you cannot say, ‘Ok if you don’t come in May, Ok we will come in October again’ or something like that, that’s not possible. So everything that happens is in a way very unique and that’s why I think everybody embraces every minute of it, everybody involved and you can sense that mood. It’s an escape for everybody from their routine as well, it’s an escape from my routine. So yeah being on tour with Avantasia is highly recommendable [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] I’m sure it is! It’s exciting to see that you are finally making it to Australia after all these years. Good luck with the tour and we hope it turns out for you and congratulations on the new album and maybe in the future we can come see you again.
Tobias: Yeah I really hope so! We work hard, we’re going to be well prepared and if I was an Australian metalhead, I wouldn’t want to miss this.
TOUR DATES
Sunday, May 12: Metro Theatre, Sydney | Event Page
Tuesday, May 14: The Forum, Melbourne | Event Page
Tickets on sale now via avantasia.net
For the die-hard Avantasia fans, a limited release of super-rare VIP Packages are available!
Your Avantasia VIP Experience includes:
– One(1) General Admission ticket to see AVANTASIA live in concert!
– Early entry to the venue & first access to merchandise
– One(1) A3 Avantasia ‘Moonglow’ Australian tour poster signed by Tobias Sammet!
– VIP Exclusive Avantasia Tour Shirt
