Just off the boat from the 12th edition of the 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise, Hansi Kürsch took time to check in with The Rockpit just before they set off for Australia and their ‘God Machine Tour’ Downunder. If you love Power Metal there’s only one band to catch this year and that’s Blind Guardian…
Mark: Hi Hansi, thank you for talking to The Rockpit just before boarding the plane, how was the Cruise?
Hansi: It was amazing, great bands, great people, and everyone enjoyed it! Everyone who played was top notch. We had a great time and people seemed to enjoy the set, we were in a great mood and it all went down very well.
Mark: There’s a lot pf people looking forward to you coming Down Under this week . You’ve sold out a Melbourne show and added a second and also added a Perth show too.
Hansi: It’s great to have Perth and to have a second Melbourne show. In preparation we discussed it before the tour and the promoter decided to extend the tour but that was always what we wanted to do, play as much as possible.
Mark: It’s looking good a lot of people are very excited. Your last album ‘God Machine’ I think was one of my favourites. At the time you described it as a ‘new beginning’ for the band: what did you mean by that?
Hansi: Yeah, well we have seasons of albums that are slightly different, we have the old school season, and then we had the classical season with records like ‘Nightfall…’ then there is the more progressive and orchestrated up to ‘Legacy of the Dark Lands’. So the God Machine record was a chance for a new direction, but that direction of course can just be to take the qualities of what we have done before. But there’s a different direction and intensity in the way we are producing and performing this new material. If you really dig into and explore an album like ‘Beyond the Red Mirror’ that has the same direction, we brought in more orchestration like there used to be. And I think listening to the songs that was the right decision. Because that album has it’s tenth anniversary in 2025 and it’s refreshing to present it that way.
Mark: Is there more new music on the way? It was a while between releases?
Hansi: You’re right especially because of corona, we had the songs ready but there was no need to put them out because we couldn’t play. We’re not a band that really gets into songwriting whilst on the road. We were off the road for two years, but we will resume song-writing this year towards the end of the year when we stop touring. When we had that time to kill we did a re-recording of ‘Something Far Beyond’ and we are going to celebrate that at some point even though we missed its anniversary. We rerecorded it the old school way that you don’t find being done too often these days. So there are differences but they are not as big as one would expect. For us the main difference was between Hansi 2024 and the 26-year-old Hansi that recorded it, and the same for the other guys. It was fun. In that time between shows we also worked on acoustic stuff for ‘Middle Earth…’ and if everything goes well we would also love to release an acoustic version of ‘Nightfall in Middle Earth’ but for some of those songs it is really difficult to translate it.
Mark: I think that still is my favourite record of yours, so I hope that happens.
Hansi: I hope so too.
Mark: As a band that has really created its own genre – the Fantasy Metal style who were the bands that got you excited when you started out that I guess in a way led you to this place?
Hansi: That is always so easy to answer and not so easy at the same time. What we did from the beginning was to allow ourselves to be individual. Of course, we had our heroes that make their way into the music but for most of the part we made our own direction but it is recognisable that Helloween and Maiden have been influences for us as well as bands like Metallica and Queensryche. So all of that was mingles in and sometimes it turns out a little more obvious to people than others. People used to call us a Helloween clone in the beginning, but they soon started changing their minds after ‘Battalions of Fear’ it was far more Punkish and harsher. But we also have heroes like Purple, Queen and Genesis, so it’s all in there somewhere even if we don’t know it. And we all have our own individual tastes. So, when you put all of that together as musicians and songwriters the next step is to invent something new. So, we were not really thinking about a ‘Genre’ it was all about featuring the individuals in the band as much as possible, but there’s no Rockstars in the band, we stayed humble and I guess that’s part of our nature. For us the music has always been the only thing that is important.
Mark: How do you keep your voice in shape? You’ve sounded wonderful for so many years now, is there a secret for you?
Hansi: (Laughs) I think it’s just about staying healthy really and things do change as you get older but if you keep in shape as a vocalist, I think you can sing to a very high level to a very high age. Maybe with other bands touring schedules may be a factor, but at the moment we’re on the road I have a cold but there’s no way we are missing any of the shows. But I have my techniques and if you push too much it can be a problem. But so far, I’ve been privileged that my voice has stayed but rest is always the key and sometimes it might just be a question of three weeks or three months not singing and just living your life. I have a very satisfying life I’ve been with my wife since I was 19, 20 so if I sing great or sing embarrassingly bad when I come home no one tells me! So that helps e relax, but you do need to work on physical therapies with regards to your vocal cords and your lungs and breathing – the whole system – to allow you to sing. So, for me it’s always been fine, but it is easy to overreach.
Mark: I’ll let you get on that flight but before you go just a couple of quick questions. The first is: if you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ in the studio for the recording of any great Rock album just to see how the magic happened what would you like to have seen being created?
Hansi: The first thing that came into my mind was ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ but thinking about it I would say ‘Operation Mindcrime’ because that is a very impressive album and whilst Geoff Tate might not have my style of singing in terms of how he sounds, his voice attracts me in so many ways I would say he is definitely one of my Top 10 vocalists and he has the quality to keep himself at that very high level for years to come. He’s a top-notch vocalist. But seeing what they did to create that and knowing the history of the band and how they fight against each other, and how impolite they were to each other, that would be interesting to watch!
Mark: Let’s leave you with any easy one: what is the meaning of life?
Hansi: (Laughs) The meaning of life, you know, is having fun. Asking the right questions, and trying to do something positive as you travel through life. And that can be almost anything. I believe in a higher force and I believe that nothing is predestined.
Mark: That’s a wonderful answer thank you for taking the time to catch up. You must be tired after the high seas!
Hansi: I can tell you! (Laughs) We hope to see you in Perth for the last one! Come and say hi!
Mark: I will. Before we go one last question, will you be playing ‘The Voice?’
Hansi: That’s not a song we just play, it’s not a chance, not al all. I would be very surprised even for Perth if we changed our minds. I cannot see it. I now I break hearts, I do that a lot of times but I have no other words than that song is a m*therfucker! It is really difficult and we always want to do it justice and I don’t want to go out and embarrass myself and the rest of the band by disrespecting one of the anthems! Which is what it is.
Mark: It is. Thank you so much, safe trip.
Hansi: Thank you Mark, take care. Bye bye.
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