Interview with Georg Neuhauser, Fabio D'Amore & Natascha Koch
Part II (English version)
Translated by Marie-Kristin Kannler, proofread by Clemens WinklmaierFind the German version here: German version
Find Part I here: Interview Part I
Tefls, 21. März 2015
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| Foto: Serenity Germany Official - Telfs, 21. März 2015 |
I would like to welcome
Tasha (Natasch Koch from the band "Tasha") for our second part of the interview with Georg and Fabio.
Tasha: Well, my absolute favorite song is "The Chevalier" (Death & Legacy), I really think it's very, very great as well as "Royal Pain" (War of Ages). Those are my highlights. Of course, there's something on every album. "Velatum" (Fallen Sanctuary) is right up there in the top group.
Georg: My favorite songs ... in the meanwhile "Legacy of Tudors" (War of Ages) worked its way up to the top. It's a really great song in my opinion and meets my liking. "Velatum" (Fallen Sanctuary) will be high up on the list and some faster stuff like "Reduced To Nothingness" (Words Untold & Dreams Unlived) as well as "Far From Home" (Death & Legacy), or from the latest album "Symphony For The Quiet" (War of Ages). Yes, those are my favorite songs at the moment. Although this can change a bit from time to time.
Fabio: At the moment my favorite songs are, even though we never have played them live (Georg laughs!!!) first "Tannenberg" (War of Ages) which is my absolute favorite song since the existence of "War Of Ages", plus "Symphony For The Quiet" (War of Ages). Both of them are very powerful and melodic songs. Let's see what the future holds, I don't know yet.
Georg: We had a vote for the setlist for the last two tours 2013 and 2014 and songs like "Legacy Of Tudors" was voted for the most and then we are going to play them.
SGO: So, I have to vote for "Tannenberg" a lot, in order for you to play it. ;) Have you never played "Tannenberg" live?
Georg: No, in the rehearsal room yes, but never live on stage.
SGO: Then it's about time, isn't it?
Georg: Next tour, new set list. ;)
SGO: “War Of Ages“ is my favorite album and it is hard to pick one song, because I like them all, nevertheless "Tannenberg" is my favorite. So, I have to let myself be surprised, maybe you are going to play it sometime.
Georg: Tom is going to be happy about this, because it is one of his songs. Tom had the basic idea for "Tannenberg", the vocal lines came from me and Clemi wrote the final text.
SGO: If you have the chance, you give your fans the opportunity to meet you personally at the merch after the show, signing CDs and taking pictures with the fans, I think that's great. I believe, it means a lot to you, to get close to your fans, right?
Tasha: (spontaneous) YES! (everyone's laughing) Yes, of course, it's something completely new to me. My own solo-career, isn't as advanced as Serenity yet and of course it's amazing seeing this when coming out for the first time. Especially for me it's really amazing, because the fans are all very sweet, and I was a bit scared, that they’re watching me a bit too closely with what I'm doing, but that wasn't the case. They all welcomed me warmheartedly and wanted to take pictures with me as well and everything ... so that's very nice. I think, that's only because the band had an eye on their fans and cares for them.
Georg: I understand, that it's difficult for a band with a certain magnitude to go to the merch booth after the show, because as real superstars you almost have to fear for your life, but were we are right now it is part of our job and in principal we're just doing the whole schmear for the fans. So, I can only speak for myself - for me the stage is what counts. Studio work, I'm not a big fan of. That's the thing that has to be done and when a song develops, getting better and bigger, that's great, but I'm not a freak who locks himself in the studio for 35 nights and works on one beat, that's too exhausting for me. But when you're on stage and the spark jumps across, either from the audience to the stage, or, mostly it's the other way around - hopefully - then you go, okay, everything paid off and that's why the fans have a right to exchange some words with us after the show. It's just important for us, that you have to draw a certain line, clearly, because there simply are fans who approach you "more aggressively", not violent or anything, but simply more offensive, so to speak. And there are the fans who are more reserved, and they want to get a picture, and should get their autographs and should be able to talk 2, 3 sentences with us and that's why you have to tell the others "Okay, sorry, now it's the turn of the guys back there, they have been waiting for 10 minutes, maybe 20 minutes or even half an hour to take a photo." and the others can't take that amiss. And what's also very important - and it's good to mentioned that in an interview from time to time, I think - it has be to clear to everyone, that there are times for the bands, when the band is knackered. Like when you had a tough day, when the show was exhausting, because you had technical problems and so forth and you really had only stress, stress, stress, then the fan shouldn't get the wrong end of the stick, when you're are a bit gruff and you simply say: "So, I'm off, I have to cool down." Of course at the beginning this is hard to understand for many fans, because they don't have the background information. I believe, it's often an issue with women, that especially male fans don't know their limits. It isn't that big of a deal with bands as renown as we are, but if you take for example Delain or even Nightwish, or other big bands like Within Temptation, where the fans go crazy from time to time, even get physical, or putting their hand in places, where they surely have no business - if that's the case, then the fan has to expect, that it poscht!
SGO: That what???
(laughing)
Georg: Well, when he thinks he can see the female vocalist as an object of desire and grope her or whatever, then it may well be, that it backfires in his face. Either from the female vocalist herself or from another band member, because what the heck?
SGO: Ah, okay – I do understand! *grinning* I think it's totally justified.
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| Foto: Serenity Germany Official - Telfs, 21. März 2015 |
SGO: I think, that should be understandable for everyone and most fans will accept it. I think it’s really nice of you , that you always find time for your fans. The personal contact with a band is very important to me as well. There are people, for whom primarily the music counts. They come to the concerts to see their band live and they leave right after the show. But there are also many fans, who like to exchange some words with the band members and I think you notice if the band likes to do that or if it is merely a chore to them. You are always affectionate towards your fans and I think that’s really great.
Georg: Super, we’re happy to hear that.
SGO: My next question refers to your future tours once more. With which bands, wether as a headliner or support act, would you like to be on stage with or doing a tour? Is there someone, where you say, doing a tour with them would be great?
Fabio: I would like to be a support on a Dream Theater tour, because they’re one of my favorite bands …
Georg: Really? What a surprise … ;) (Georg smiles)
Fabio: …, but I thought last years tour package with Beyond The Bridge and Midriff was the best we ever had as a headliner. A perfect combination and I think, that would be my favorite combination for future tours as headliner and our support acts. Or even with Souldrinker and Visions Of Atlantis like two years ago, because we had a lot of fun during both tours and all bands were absolutely down-to-earth. If you don’t look solemnly at the financial aspect, it is an important argument, that you have fun together on tour, to a certain degree. Because if you only do it for the money and you have to argue with the support act each day, it makes no sense.
Tasha: I would kill two birds with one stone and would like to support Serenity with my own band and after that singing during the headliner gig. That would be really, really great. (everyone smiles)
Georg: From my point of view - I would like to go on tour with those 80s heroes to some extent, like the Scorpions. Or of course Queen, where I’ve just been to a concert in Vienna. It also would be really cool to be on tour with Toto as support act. And if you stay within the genre, Nightwish of course, because I know exactly, that there is a potential fan base, which could be attracted to our sound. We had the honor to play with Within Temptation two times and I have to clearly say, even though they belong to the big ones, they are extremely nice and pleasant to be around. Especially Sharon, she is totally down-to-earth and after she realized that we - as a band - are very uncomplicated, everything fit in and we could get everything from them. That was simply great and I would do it again anytime. And of course it would be logically, as Tasha has said, that we take Tasha as a band on the upcoming tour and that she would take the female guest part as well. That would be a great combination, because you know in advance what you are up to.
SGO: Naturally that would be great, but it could possible be very exhausting for Tasha, I believe. As a support and then as guest vocalist. Such a small and petite person … (Georg smiled). Well, after all you give everything up there and Serenity has some songs, where your female guest vocalist is facing quite a challenge – next to you she isn’t "just“ a guest vocalist.
Tasha: That’s really sweet of you. Of course it’s trying, but all the more fun – it becomes less exhausting. If you’re on the road with your own band and then being on stage with those guys, the fun factor is that high, that the effort doesn’t stress you out.
Georg: It’s the same with sports, you have to practice and then you accomplish the marathon. It’s the same with us. Whereat it’s depending on the day, of course. Sure, when you have a cold, maybe even a fever, then it’s no fun anymore.
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| Foto: Bernhard Schösser - freizeit-tirol.at - Telfs, 21. März 2015 |
Georg: Yes, that’s right. My mother comes from the folk music scene, not folksly, not the very superficial stuff, but rather the traditional tyrollean folk music scene. She really recorded albums, meaning LPs and stuff, and you can still hear them on local radio stations every now and then. She took me with her at a relatively young age, really even with 4 years old. That's what she keeps telling me, when I did my first performance, and as a four year old you don’t think about it, you just coo along somehow, but because of that you loose this extreme respect or the fear of the stage pretty quickly. Because many people ask frequently, how can you do it, going out there in front of 500, 1.000 up to 20.000 people, like at the Master Of Rock, when you have to stand on stage in front of 22.000 people. Yes, you’re nervous, and hopefully it stays that way till the end of your life, since everyone tells you, if that isn’t the case anymore, you should stop doing it, but of course, that’s the reason why you started it. And I think, it’s the same with all of us. I think it was similar with Tasha and with Fabio … when did you start playing music, Fabio?
Fabio: That was 1990 for me, I was 3 1/2 years old then.
Georg: Yes … we’re all coming from musical families, more or less. (smiles)
SGO: It says on the internet, that your parents gave you an Iron Maiden album for your 6th birthday…
Georg: Not my parents, that was my sister.
SGO: Your sister? Did you already rock as small munchkin, or how did she come up with that idea? That is a totally different direction than your mother’s.
Georg: Yes of course, but my sister is 12 years older and she was a metal fan! She was a huge fan of Iron Maiden, Accept, Scorpions … and gave me Iron Maiden’s „Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son“ for my 6th birthday. And as a six-year-old I had no idea what that really was, but when your older sister thinks it’s great, the six-year-old likes it as well. (smiles)
SGO (smiling): So, she manipulated you in away, to push you in the desired direction, so you wouldn’t get stuck in the folk music scene. ;)
Georg: Yes, although she’s listening to absolute gooey stuff by now and got stuck there. She switched to the Schlagermusik genre. (Georg laughs) Semino Rossi & Co …. ! ;)
SGO: Than we better stick with your direction. ;) Did you actually have a real singing education or did you teach yourself as a result of experience?
Georg: I didn’t have a real singing education in a literal sense, but I went to middle schooling and high school, both with an emphasis on music, where we had choir and singing. But real singing lesson in a sense, that I could say I was coached over years or something, no! That was learning by doing with the cover bands.
SGO: Tasha?
Tasha: I only have a classical piano education, never a singing education, but I come from a musical family as well. I founded my first band when I was 12, because I really wanted to play the drums. I took drum lessons for half a year and played my first gigs when I was 12 - as a drummer in a band. When the female vocalist was kicked out, my band members thought that I could sing, too - so I became the vocalist! I taught myself to play the guitar and when I was 14 I had my first solo appearance (guitar and vocals).
SGO: Not bad! And you Fabio, do you have a musical education or took singing lessons?
Fabio: No, not singing lessons, never. Piano, guitar, drums. Piano for 5 years, guitar for 2 years. And even though I play bass and teach it, I never had bass lessons myself. I have my own studio, where I teach.
Georg: And while we’re at it, Chris teaches guitar and actually lives off it and Andy has an every day job. I have my regular job teaching at the university and high school and Franz-Josef is surely the most professional of us, because he is senior lecturer for piano at the University for Music in Vienna.
SGO: WOW! And you are postdoc for history at the university of Innsbruck, Georg?
Georg: Exactly!
SGO: That means, you are really teaching. If I started studying history there I would…
Georg: Then you could come and see me.
SGO: Okay, history isn’t my thing, though. Too many dates to memorize (smiles). We already spoke about it briefly: You are sweaty after a show and you have to go out in the cold - how do you avoid getting sick? Especially a female or male singer can’t afford catching a cold. A guitar or bass player can play - should it be necessary - with such, but a singer can hardly sing with a raspy voice. Have you ever been in such a situation?
Tasha: Well, a voice is in principal a muscle and when you warm it up, it works pretty well. And most of the time it’s like this: If I’m sick, then I always think before a show, oh my god, that’s not working, and as soon as you’re on stage, you’re getting warm, the body gets warm, you enter and then it’s working better. The voice is very closely connected to the head, thus it’s a matter of the mind. Only when you’re really having a fever and so on, it’s going to get tough, then it’s better you cancel the show, or you have a really nice vocalist, who bails you out.
Georg: Well, we had such situations in the past and we had to abandon a tour once, because I really had a inflammation of the middle ear and the voice was simply and totally gone, then you’re physically not capable to utter a sound, hence it makes no sense. You’re right, a drummer or a bass player or a guitar player can somehow manage to play a show with a fever, a cold or without a voice, “no problem”, but for them it’s tough as well. Even for us there’s a point, where you definitely can’t go on, if you can’t hit a note, you can’t hit one - period.
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| Foto: Bernhard Schösser - freizeit-tirol.at - Telfs, 21. März 2015 |
Georg: I have to say, I try to scrounge an apple from time to time from somewhere or a lemon - and be careful like not going outside with sweaty clothes after the show, and putting a head on, change immediately, if possible and trying not to stand right under the air conditioning, IF possible. And like Tasha already said, it’s an extreme mental thing.
Fabio: I take homeopathic agents from time to time, vitamin c pills and the likes, try eating a lot of salad or other halfway healthy foods, if possible. Even though that’s difficult on tour, because it’s easier to get a pizza from somewhere, bread is easy to get by, and when you’re arriving somewhere, the catering often prepared bread, cheese, ham etc. and not necessarily a fresh salad because it’s harder to preserve and prepare. The biggest problem should be, that you often stuff unnecessary things into you, because they are there like chocolate, crisps and beer.
SGO: How do you manage private life, full-time job and the bands? Especially you, Georg, as a teacher, you are mainly bound to schedules, which has it that Serenity can only be on tour during vacation time? Or can you adapt your work to the band?
Georg: Well of course, I have to juggle, no doubt. I have to see that I manage everything in school and at the university and that’s why I can’t be on tour for 8 weeks straight. Unfortunately that’s how it is. And it’s similar with Tasha. Even though she „only“ has singing as her job, it is a regular full time job for her, just the same, because she has other jobs/dates, which she often plans a year ahead.
Tasha: It’s been 80 shows in 2015 so far, usually that would be a six day week and it will be a total just short of 300 appearances this year again.
SGO: There’s little time for private life.
Tasha: Little.
SGO: And there’s more to it then „just“ the appearances, song writing, recordings, rehearsals - is there any space and time for family? From that angle, it is very difficult for a musician to have a family. Do you basically have to choose, family or music? If so we would be back to the problem, that Thomas has.
Georg: Yes, it is difficult. But I believe, you can combine both to a certain degree. But just to that certain degree. Or you have a very understanding partner.
SGO: Or the band is big enough and you can make enough money.
Georg: Yes, as a full-time job. Then you may take your family along from time to time. But even for the big bands it’s a problem. Look at Within Temptation, Robert doesn’t go on tour anymore, he stays home with the kids.
SGO: Difficult topic. At the end just a a few short questions. First one is for you, Georg. Can you ride? I mean really horseback riding! In „The Chevalier“ and „Wings of Madness“ we can see you on a horse!
Georg: Hmmm… well, I can stay on a horse, but really riding, in a sense of a professional, I surely can’t. So going with high speed across the prairie, that won’t work with me.
SGO: So we will never see you riding gallop in a video!
Georg: No …no, surely not. It can trot somewhere, or walk, but not more.
SGO: And how about skiing? For the most part you all live in regions, where you actually expect that everyone can do that perfectly - can you, I mean really well?
Georg: Really quick answer - YES!
Fabio: As a kid I was very good at skiing, haven’t done it in over 10 years though.
Tasha: Well, I grew up in different mountains in Tyrol and was standing on skis when I was three years old for the first time. We basically lived on a slope, so right next to a lift.
SGO: With other words, all three of you can do it - I can’t do it at all.
Georg: Yes, - whereas, not being able to ski as a Tyrollean, that would be embarrassing (smiling)
SGO: One question for you, Fabio. Who’s idea was it, to cut of your hair, and why?
Fabio: Mine, my own of course! Two reasons. First, I wanted to have a practical haircut, especially for this job. Because while you are on tour, you don’t always have the time to tend to it, to wash them or to blow-dry them afterwards and it’s not good to go out with wet hair. And secondly I donated my hair to a charity for children suffering from cancer. It’s an Italian organization, because there aren’t that many of them and especially with foreign ones like America or Canada it’s really complicated and you have to fulfill a lot of stipulations. I had the idea for two years, when I saw that mainly families with kids don’t have enough money to buy their sons and daughters a wig, when they get sick and loose their hair and by donating my hair, I saw a way to help those children.
SGO: I think that's really, really nice of you! And apart from that, I think your new haircut is very nice and suits you. It’s not that the long hair didn’t suit you, but it doesn’t always have to be long hair in your job and I think your new haircut looks very good on you.
Fabio: Thank you, I hope so. I love my new haircut, it’s practical and I’m very happy about donating my hair to a good organization.
SGO: I can understand that very well. A really nice gesture of you.
Okay, there are probably a lot more interesting questions - we will save them for the next time. You have to prepare for the concert tonight and I wish you a lot of fun and a successful show. And I like to thank you all very much for this great interview and I hope your fans will have a lot of fun reading it.
Georg: We have to thank...
Serenity germany would like to thank everyone for the really great group pic.
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| Serenity fan pic - Telfs, 21. März 2015 |
