Andi Deris - Helloween 'Don't Forget Where You Come From'

Ahead of the release of the second reunited album Giants & Monsters, Wall Of Sound had the privilege of sitting down (over Zoom) with Helloween vocalist Andi Deris.

We talked about important things like the weather, but also managed to chat about the album, songwriting process, how he has gone from being “the new guy” to “the guy” and welcoming back “the new old guys”.

We started off by asking if he enjoyed sitting through hours and hours of interviews promoting the album. 

“It's like socialising, you just have a guy you just get to know... And it could be a great conversation unless you have a weird guy, which so far I haven't, at least not on this promotion, but for me it's a conversation. I always compare it with a cocktail party. You go like from one group to another. You talk yourself through. It does not necessarily need to be small talk all over the place sometimes, or 10 or 15 or maybe even 30 minutes of a good intensive subject discussion, whatever. But you have to go to the next group because they, they want to get to know you as well, or you want to get them blah, blah, blah. So at the, at the end of the day, after five or six hours cocktail party, your head is going to explode, not only from alcohol, but from the talking. So that’s how I describe it.” 

When I interviewed bass player Marcus Grosskoph he referred to Kai Hansen and Micheal Kiske as “the new old guys” so I asked Andi if they were still “new old”. 

“Yes! They will always be the new old guys. I think when we drop dead on stage in 20 years, they still will be it. I mean that's how you come in and that's how you stay.  I was always the new guy and I’ll always be and they will always be the new old guys…” 

It’s all very confusing, but how many bands have reunited with former members while keeping the current ones. Moving on, Andi has always been gracious with his time with fans, both before and after gigs so I asked him if it comes naturally to him or is it a bit of a chore. 

“Oh, no, definitely not (a chore). Everybody started out in school bands.

We had all our little dreams and when you see your dream fulfilled, I think you should actually worship it. So don't forget where you come from.

It's really not the most normal thing in the world to stand there being in a crowd of fans. People who are used to that should actually make a big break for a year or so and get used to normal life again… So I'm very grateful and thankful for whenever have a chance to like really relaxed standing there with my friends and fans and talk and laugh and that's cool, really nice. Sometimes you're under pressure because maybe after the concert you have to really go in directly into the hotel and catch the next plane town wherever. But if possible, I love to do that, have a talk with my people around me.”

With Helloween now having three vocalists I wanted to know if Andi had changed his approach when writing for Giants & Monsters.

“99% no but there's the one famous percent where I go like, okay, it seems to be an okay, let's say verse. But then I always play with the mind game. What about Michael singing with me? Like for example, This is Tokyo. When you sing just the words in the first voice, it's okay but nothing special. But then when you put Michael's voice over it, it's got that harmony singing and suddenly it's great, I loved it. And I said, okay, there you go.

So it's definitely not Helloween at all. It's something like completely strange out of the ballpark, but it sounds great. And together with Michael, it's Helloween again”

Helloween have always had a sense of humour, going right back to the Keeper albums and I wanted Andi’s take on that.

“That’s rock and roll. Taking the piss of it a bit. A little bit here and there, you know?  And I personally think it's very important… If you really dig into the lyrics, you can have a smile, gives you a better mood. And then you can be attacked by a speed male anthem.”

Andi goes on to recount the story of how while he was in his first band Pink Room 69 he first met Helloween founding member and guitarist Micheal Weikath

“…he actually picked me up in Hamburg at the train station. I did not know him. He was with a common friend and he just said, Hey, I'm Michael and I love your songs. This was back in the days when I played in Pink Room 69. I thought, okay, who's Michael he's decent. And we went into Tomatoes ,which was pizzeria in Hamburg and talked about bullshit left and right, and music up and down. And he never told me that he's playing in Halloween until four days later. We met up in his favourite club called the Backstage in Saint Pauli in Hamburg, it’s closed, unfortunately. But then Stefan, our friend said Michael just received a golden record for his new album. I said who the fuck are you?! He's, he's praising me, a demo singer, for my songwriting and everything without a word of who he was. This guy who just received a golden record and I thought, what a fucking humble guy. And that's how our friendship started.”

It was after seven years of friendship between the two musicians when both their bands had come to a crossroads of creative differences, personality clashes etc. But Micheal Weikath has a sixth sense about these things, or as Andi puts it:

“It's like those truffle pigs. He knows exactly when something is wrong, when something stinks … Something he could not know. I had lots of trouble, nearly war in the rehearsal room. We were in South Germany with my band Pink Cream 69, and we had war going on because they told me they would not like to play my songs anymore. They want to go more Alice in Chains. We already had two very successful albums with the style we had, and I was the main songwriter. 94% of the albums were written by me and I was like, struck by lightning. I said, why? What do you mean you want to go Alice in Chains? We have a number one in Japan, why would you throw that all in the garbage?

I love Alice in Chains as well, but that doesn't mean I jump on the train and leave my own successful identity. I left rehearsal room without saying word” … “and believe it or not a day later, Weiki (Michael Weikath) called me and told me he doesn't want to go on with their singer. They have a lot of trouble whenever he comes into the rehearsal room and he'd rather split up Helloween and I should come now and sing” … “I'm coming up to Hamburg, and for me the initial moment was when Marcus the bass player and Weiki were sitting together with me in the Backstage Club in Hamburg. I was making them listen to my demos, which my own band didn't want to play. And I saw both were listening  and their eyes were shining. It was like, wow fucking great songs!” … “And I was like, okay, where’s my band?” 

Back to the album, I asked about the first single and video 'This Is Tokyo', which is a love letter to Japan, a thank you for all the support the fans there have given Andi and Helloween over the years.

“Yeah, it is definitely (a love letter) I wanted to do forever and ever. I was telling them that I will write a song, a thank you song, and I never did. But this time somehow it happened. There was this initial idea and then I finally said okay  you've gotta finish that. And it turned out to be a good song. It's not a typical speed metal Helloween it's one of those easy listeners. Michael Kiske, he loved it and said may I sing there? And I said there's a second voice for you to sing there.

The other song 'A Little Is A Little Too Much' gave me an earworm from the first time I heard it, as it turns out it got stuck in Andi’s head first. 

“Yeah that fucker. I was actually coming up with that stupid idea on the way down to the beach. I was on my way down there. It's a beautiful, natural and and in the middle of the walk I realised I can't enjoy the walk anymore because I always got this a little, little, just too much stuck in my head … And when I came down there, sat down at my favourite little bar at the beach. I had it a little, a little too much, so I just took my iPhone because sometimes if there's an idea, I just want to keep because something pops up.

I didn't even know does it exist, is it understandable? And for me, being German, I always have to take care not to Germanize things. I thought in German it works, so I gave Dennis Ward, my old bass player from Pink Room 69, a call. I have to ask a frigging Texan guy, does a little is a little too much work in English!"

Expanding on how he writes these days, Andi remembers back before technology was your friend and so many ideas went by the wayside.

"Like back in the day when I had an idea I had nothing with me. Arriving back home, went up to my little four track studio and wanted to record the idea that it was gone. I was like, I hate myself. I remember when the first Sony recording tape player, Walkman could record .For me it was a revelation finally, I had this thing with me forever and now it's the iPhone." 

On the subject of songs, I asked if the longer 8 minute tracks such as 'Universe (Gravity for Hearts)' and 'Majestic' would make the live setlist.

"Well, it's always, there's always a chance to shorten them for live, which we're gonna do here and there. If you play three or four of the of the big ones it's already over an hour then, so how to bore people to death! But Kai does his medley from 'The Walls of Jericho' so we will do something like that maybe."

Time was getting away from us so it was time to wrap up. A huge thank you to Andi Deris for taking the time to have a chat to us from the literal other side of the world.

Interview by Gareth Williams @notgareth

Giants & Monsters is out now. Get it here

Helloween – Giants & Monsters tracklisting

1. Giants On The Run
2. Savior Of The World
3. A Little Is A Little Too Much
4. We Can Be Gods
5. Into The Sun
6. This Is Tokyo
7. Universe (Gravity For Hearts)
8. Hand Of God
9. Under The Moonlight
10. Majestic