1. Well, the usual beginning... What about the beginning of the band, changes in line-up, etc.

Christoph: Well, Logar started his quest in 1997/98. Steven and I met during our civilian service in a hospital and for we shared the same passion for Metal and Fantasy we decided to fulfil our dream of an own band. Shortly after Micha, who was also doing his civilian service with us and Felix and Hagen - playing together in one band these days - joined; and we started to work out the concept and write songs. The only problem was to find a drummer, cause the Power Metal scene in Berlin is not the biggest ;-)

Then we released our demo-CD in April 2001 and got pretty much attention worldwide. Now we signed a deal with MFE, a Swedish label. Let´s look how the story will go on…

2. Why do you play Power/Speed Metal? I think there are so many bands in Germany which play this type of music.

Christoph: The explanation is simple. We don´t look what style the other bands have, we just do what we want, and that´s this kind of Power/Speed Metal. It´s good to know that we´re not the only band playing this style, but we would never change our style, jut because some other bands are trying the same or a similar thing. That´s the most important thing in music business: Be true to yourself! And I think you can hear that in our music.

Stefan: Actually there are hundreds of bands all over Europe which play this kind of style - but we’ re better....hahaha. No, serious: we all simply like Power/Speed Metal , although we have an enormous range of musical taste within the band. Most of us started with bands like this, be it Helloween, Running Wild, Manowar…so it feels a bit like “the good old days” when we play our songs, besides that we want to make them sound better, than most of the other bands….

We don’t give a damn about how many bands play this music, we like it and we have much fun doing it, besides the trend to play Power/Speed Metal slowly decreases….but we will play on until we are the last Power/Speed Metal band on this planet - maybe when we reach book twenty and Logar is about 2754 years old, who knows.

3. Where had you recorded your debut album? In a home studio? And question of using drum-machine...:)))

Stefan: Our bass-player Felix recorded the whole thing in his “home studio”… I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you what his home studio is…haha. Concerning the drum machine it’s a quite simple answer: they couldn’t find a drummer who could play this music on the speed they wanted to have it, and I bought their debut CD in a local shop - stupid me, now I have fifteen of ‘em for free…..

Christoph: Please let me explain the use of the drum-machine. We were looking for a drummer for a long time and the songs were finished. So one day we had to make the decision whether to wait for a drummer, to rent one, or to record with a computer. Renting was too expensive for us and so we decided to program the drums. But we used real drum sounds in order to make it sound more natural and also we tried very hard to program an exciting drum, not only the standard one many bands do…

But happily we found a drummer at last with our demo, who´s able to play all the fast and complicated rhythms, so the next CD will be a real Metal-output with original drums!

4. Who is painter of the cover? Is it part of your conception? How many books (albums) you are planing to release?:))) When can we wait for part 2?

Christoph: As far as our plans look like, we will release the next book at the end of the year 2002. The number of books we will release we don´t know. That depends on how much the fans like our music and we enjoy what we are doing. Logar is the role-playing character of Steven, our rhythm guitarist, so the adventures of Logar depend on how much Steven plays him… And I really hope he will keep him alive - Imagine one bloody master would kill him one day… a tragedy!!!

5. What will you do if any label (AFM or Limb Music) send you a contract? Sign it or will you be releasing your albums by yourself?

Christoph: I don´t really see the point of refusing a contract offer. Just to be underground? No, the benefits of an offer are obviously! In fact we now signed to a small Swedish record label called Metal Fortress Entertainment trying to reach more fans with this. But we refused some offers from bigger labels, because we didn´t like the contracts very much.

6. Euro will be in Europe from 1 January 2002. What is your opinion about the new currency?

Christoph: As everything: Two sides of a coin! Personally I like the idea of one common currency, because it simplifies many things. Especially for band payments (the fans buying CDs directly from us) it is a great thing! What I don´t like is the shops/banks making profit out of this. I realised all prices rising in the last weeks enormously!

Stefan: It’ll get a definitive mess for the first couple of weeks I guess…..but anyway: as long as the beer-prices are stable I’m just fine… What really bothers me is that all over Germany there is a lack of money for important things like schools, public service etc. The change from German Mark to Euro costs a fucking lot of money, due to printing new banknotes, but did you know that about ten years ago we got new German Mark-banknotes?!? Everything was renewed, money was wasted and now, a few years later we get new money again…it feels so stupid!

7. What can you say about the last albums of Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray and Running Wild? Do you think that these bands are repeating themselves?

Christoph: Definitely no!!! Just because one band has its own style and keeps it all the years, I never blame it for repeating itself. But let me answer separately: Blind Guardian I really adore for developing within a style, without losing the roots. If you listen closely to much riffs and choruses on “Nightfall…” you can still find the Metal roots they have. And live they still play “Vallhalla” and stuff like this and it fits to the newer songs. Nevertheless I like more the songs from “Tales…” and “Somewhere…”!

Gamma Ray had their best phase with “Land of the free” and “Somewhere out in space”. “Powerplant” had some good moments, but didn´t reach the former level. The new one I don´t like so much, cause I miss the speedy songs, hymns and choirs a lot! Nevertheless it´s still a good CD, only losing points if you compare it to the former classics!

Running Wild had also their best times between “Port Royal” and “Black Hand Inn”. The latest CD had some really brilliant (“Tsar”, “Victory”) and some really frightening (“When time runs out”, “Revolution”) moments. So it was an average CD from a unique band with their own style. But what really pissed me off where the use of a drum computer: It was programmed so fucking bad that every monkey could hear it and Rock´N´Rolf even didn´t had the guts to admit it…

Stefan: Having listened to the new Blind Guardian single “…and then there was silence” I have to admit: no, they are not copying themselves, as they progress from album to album, which is good. Gamma Ray and Running Wild are kind of local heroes in Germany and I think that their music is still just fine, although they’re not showing to much variety in songwriting, but a good song is a good song, and they definitely know how to write them !

8. Your opinion about the Metal-press. How often are you buying the magazines? Best magazine is......

Stefan: I’m buying both Hammer and Rock Hard, but I don’t care about what they write. For me it is important to get the latest news, and a hint what band is coming up with a new album. I always listen to the stuff myself, I don’t pay attention to what somebody writes about an album, as taste cannot be discussed… it’s like it or don’t like it !

Christoph: I read many zines due to informational reasons. As I also write for a German Power Metal fanzine called FAME OF METAL http://www.fameofmetal.de, I like the independent zines more than the big ones, but they are also interesting. Also the internet is a great thing to discover yet unknown bands. I´d say the best magazine was the “Eternal Flame” from Germany or the “Singing Swords” from Greece, both Power Metal fanzines, cause they covered more themes than just bands and music! And they still had this enthusiasm I love so much!

9. Your opinion about Italian, Sweden and German schools of Power/Speed metal, what the best?

Christoph: Hmm, difficult question. I don´t like comparing so much, because every scene has its own advantages and disadvantages. I really love the epic and classical feeling of many Italian bands, the fresh sounding riffs and mighty choirs from German bands and the huge passion from Swedish bands. My favourite bands come from these three lands, among them Crystal Eyes, Freternia (Sweden), Domine, Rhapsody, Elvenking (Italy), Freedom Call, Custard, Blind Guardian (Germany) and thousands more…

10. Hm...I looked on the map of Berlin. Is it true that near your house is situated crematory? What do you think about it?;)))

Christoph: Crematory are no Berlin people, sorry. They come from far more south of Germany, but I don´t know the city. And even if they would be “Berliner”, I wouldn´t care about that. By the way, R.I.P. ;-)

11. How much did Berlin change during the last years? What like/unlike for you as a citizen?

Christoph: Well, Berlin is always developing. It´s a fast city, where you are able to do everything you want. I love this city and regarding the fact that I´m a part of this town I have difficulties in describing the development. There are so many places where the state is building new buildings, train stations and public places. Especially the east is catching up…

12. The union of Germany in 1990. What is for you? For Berlin (2 Zoo, 2 Fernseeturns,2 Airports, 2 Bahnhofs in city is good or no;))))))? For Germany?

Stefan: The union itself is just great. There are great places to be in former east-Berlin. For sure the whole thing brought up certain problems (money again, which was hardly needed in the eastern part of Germany) and unfortunately there are still thousands of people who think this union wasn’t any good - both east- and west-Berliners which I can’t understand, but nevertheless I don’t care about it. By the way: my new girl-friend is from former east-Berlin, so there you see one big advantage of this union…*biglaugh*

Christoph: From good things you should always have two or more… In fact we have three airports, but they debate about closing two of them. This city is so big and has so many inhabitants, even two zoos are not enough. Concerning the people from east and west, it´s hard to grow together, what was divided so many years, it will take far more time for the reunion to happen in the minds of the people.

13. What do you think about your Kanzler?

Christoph: Difficult question. My personal opinion is: The beginning was very good, but the opposition and some bad “high politicians in the cabinett” got him into serious trouble. And now he´s supporting the war and I can´t support him anymore…

14. You have a very cool web-site! Who is author of it? What do you think about Internet - is it great or not?

Christoph: Thank you very much. This page was programmed by a friend of us. The ideas and the updates are in our own hands. We think it´s very important to have a good internet presence, cause it´s definitely the media of the future. Who knows how long CDs/DVDs will be at their place? When will the MP3s or different types take over? Always have a look into the future, otherwise you will be overtaken by others.

15. Something for Ukrainian fans of Power/Speed Metal...Auf deutsch bitte!!! :)))

Christoph: Ein metallisches „hail“ geht in die Ukraine! Ein super Gefühl zu wissen, dass auch Metal-Fans von so weit weg unsere Musik mögen. Musik verbindet, dass macht mich stolz! Laßt Euch von uns in Logar´s Reich entführen und nehmt an seinen Abenteuern teil!

Interview by Froster

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