Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 941 - Axel Rudi Pell Talks "Ghost Town" and the Power Metal Legacy

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 941 - Axel Rudi Pell Talks "Ghost Town" and the Power Metal Legacy · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  I love it, you know, I can't think of anything different.
• 0:02
  If somebody will tell me you, you are not allowed to play the
• 0:04
  guitar anymore, I will give a middle finger, you know.
• 0:06
  So I, that's my passion, you know, it's not only my job.
• 0:09
  I really love what I do, you know, I can't stop as long as I
• 0:13
  have good ideas. I hope I will have it for the
• 0:15
  rest of my life. Well, thanks for taking the time
• 0:24
  to talk today, Axe. I appreciate.
• 0:26
  It my pleasure, Don, my pleasure.
• 0:28
  So I got to ask. So yeah, how, how, how is your
• 0:32
  2025? Now we're going into 2026.
• 0:35
  How are you feeling about going into the new year with a new
• 0:38
  album and everything? I love it.
• 0:40
  I mean, you know you when we finished the recording last
• 0:44
  year, 25, I think it was end of October sometime.
• 0:46
  And you know, So what never happened when Johnny recorded my
• 0:50
  single Johnny Giarelli, you know, he gave me a call, but he
• 0:53
  never did before. And he said excellent.
• 0:55
  I think this might be the best. I when we did together and he's
• 0:59
  there for 28 years already. I said maybe Johnny, I think
• 1:02
  you're right. Yes.
• 1:03
  So I was very proud of it and I listened to it all over
• 1:06
  Christmas, New Year's Eve or whatever.
• 1:08
  And and I played it to some friends saying, wow, this is
• 1:10
  really cool. Love it.
• 1:11
  Hey, I love you too. What do I say?
• 1:14
  Look, I'm not going to lie. So the first time we got
• 1:16
  introduced and the first time I actually ever heard your music
• 1:19
  was for The Crest. Obviously I'd never heard you
• 1:22
  before, but the first time I heard you I was like, I feel
• 1:26
  like like I've known this music for so long that do you know,
• 1:30
  it's almost like when you meet someone and you're like, have I
• 1:33
  met you before? You.
• 1:34
  Know and it was and it was like meeting a new friend.
• 1:37
  And I'm not going to lie. Yeah, Johnny was right on.
• 1:40
  Because, you know, I've been following your albums ever since
• 1:42
  then and even back before. This album is my favorite, at
• 1:47
  least since The Crest. I too mine too, yes.
• 1:49
  And So what was it? Because, Because one of the
• 1:53
  things I didn't want to talk about was that you have been
• 1:56
  consistent. Like consistency is your key,
• 1:59
  but you're consistent without ever being boring, if that makes
• 2:03
  sense. So when you've, I mean, we're
• 2:06
  talking over 30 albums at this point, how have you maintained
• 2:11
  that consistency but managed to not make it boring?
• 2:15
  Like, is that something you go into when you're writing every
• 2:18
  album? Yes, you know, I don't know
• 2:20
  where it comes from. Maybe the magic has to be right
• 2:22
  in the air and someone puts strings from the top and say you
• 2:25
  have to write this song now this whiff is cool.
• 2:27
  You know, I don't know. I don't, I don't have any clue
• 2:30
  because you know, I'm always trying with, you know, I'm
• 2:32
  always writing when I when I'm when I'm not recording the
• 2:35
  album, you know, at the moment I'm recently I'm I'm already
• 2:38
  writing a small little bits of pieces for the next album, which
• 2:41
  will be out probably in two years.
• 2:43
  You know what I mean? So I'm always writing.
• 2:44
  I'm collecting this little snippets, bits, whatever guitar
• 2:48
  riffs, melodies, and then I sit down and make the real songs out
• 2:51
  of it. But the flaming side, it's still
• 2:53
  burning. You know, it's, it's not my job.
• 2:56
  Of course it's a job, but it's my passion.
• 2:58
  I can't, I can't think when somebody said, no, you're not
• 3:01
  allowed to play guitar anymore. And you, you don't have to write
• 3:04
  new songs. No, no, no, no, quit it or
• 3:05
  whatever. I said no, fuck you,
• 3:07
  motherfucker, because that's my passion.
• 3:09
  You know, I want to do it. You know, I, I love it.
• 3:12
  You know, I, I can't do anything else.
• 3:13
  I can't even think about doing something different or create
• 3:16
  music or whatever. No, no, no.
• 3:18
  Well, I mean, because again, like it's, it's it's hard to
• 3:20
  explain, but like your output, you know, like, for instance,
• 3:24
  take a band like ACDC, right? Yeah, they've they've put out
• 3:28
  the same album like 20 something times, right.
• 3:30
  But it's consistent. But for you, the the sound is
• 3:34
  consistent, but I feel like it's the way it's the songs that are
• 3:38
  being written that while musically it's consistent, but
• 3:42
  lyrically it continues to go on another.
• 3:45
  It's like every album is another journey towards that, right?
• 3:48
  That that majestic thing that you've been looking for since
• 3:51
  that first album, You know what I mean?
• 3:53
  Like. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 3:55
  You're right. No, I always try to write this
• 3:57
  album, which I just wrote. I I tried to write it 20 or 30
• 4:00
  years ago. You know, it never happened that
• 4:02
  that that was so good because I'm a genius.
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  I can't do it now. Hey, you know what credit where
• 4:09
  credit's due, man, right? That's right.
• 4:11
  That's right. No, I'm kidding.
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  No, you know. But like I said, the magic is in
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  here. I can't stop.
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  The flame inside, inside me is burning.
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  Still burning. And that's my passion, you know?
• 4:21
  Yeah. Well.
• 4:22
  So what was it though, that brought that intensity?
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  Because like everything on this album, seems like the band, not
• 4:30
  just yourself, but the band has been pushed past a limit that
• 4:35
  that I've heard you. And I think that's where that
• 4:36
  consistency comes is that every album, in my opinion, is, is
• 4:41
  amazing. Like I've I've loved, I've loved
• 4:43
  everyone since the Crest and then before.
• 4:45
  Thank you. But for some reason this is the
• 4:47
  first album I heard where I felt like Johnny, like pushed past
• 4:51
  what he's ever pushed past. And then when he was doing it,
• 4:54
  you were behind him, pushing behind him.
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  Like how did that fall into play in the studio and in the writing
• 5:02
  process? You know, the writing process,
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  just like I said, it came all the songs, all this little
• 5:07
  melodies which came to my mind naturally.
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  You know, I don't even thought about it.
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  It was just there and then. The magic was right.
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  Probably that was a reason. But on the other hand, I'm not
• 5:17
  only a musician, a guitar player, I'm also producing the
• 5:19
  album for myself. So I've pushed the others to the
• 5:21
  limit. You know where?
• 5:22
  Especially when the studio said and Bobby, you know Bobby, he's
• 5:26
  Bobby Roning. And you know, this guy, he's a
• 5:28
  he's a way he's he's a top drummer.
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  You know, when he's sitting there and he came over, he went
• 5:34
  to the doors to the head. So I want to hear the first
• 5:36
  wave, the first song, you know, set that.
• 5:39
  I know exactly what you want me to play that baby.
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  And he's starting with the lungs.
• 5:43
  People say, yeah, baby, yes, because we are the same length.
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  You know, he has the same exact, the same music taste that I
• 5:48
  have. So he grew up in the 70s too,
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  and even the 60s with all the bands like Led Zeppelin, John
• 5:53
  Barnum. This is one of his eye, you
• 5:55
  know, I love it. You know, it's so easy to work
• 5:57
  with the other guys, so I have to push them some time, but not
• 6:01
  every time. Yeah, just a little bit,
• 6:03
  sometimes a bit more. Do you think it do you think it
• 6:06
  also helped that you guys? Because here's the other thing
• 6:09
  too, is that is that everybody in the band also seems to come
• 6:12
  from a different set of influences, right?
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  So like instead of everybody playing like instead of everyone
• 6:19
  saying like, oh, we were all Dio fans or we were all like, I
• 6:23
  mean, like you had Bobby comes from obviously like that Black
• 6:27
  Sabbath school, you know where it's that kind of hard hitting
• 6:30
  push. But then you've got more of the
• 6:32
  classic sounded that isn't Black Sabbath.
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  But then you've got Johnny who is more of like the power metal
• 6:40
  vocalist. Like what was your decision?
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  Instead of saying I could play this safe and just have
• 6:45
  everybody like the same thing versus I'm going to pull the
• 6:49
  deep purple priest, you know what I mean?
• 6:52
  Like, yeah. I think yeah, I think I
• 6:55
  definitely, we found our own style couple of years ago, you
• 6:58
  know, a long time ago and all this little influences there
• 7:01
  naturally in my mind somewhere. I love Sabbath, especially the
• 7:05
  Dio period. You know, Heaven and Death is
• 7:07
  one of my the top albums of all time.
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  Whatever. Rainbow Rising is good, but all
• 7:11
  the others I love DO 2, for example, everybody comes from a
• 7:14
  different corner. And and thirdly, he's always,
• 7:17
  he's playing trumpet if you want can you know what I mean?
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  He's playing accordion. He can if he want, but he's
• 7:22
  never doing it. Not in my band, you know, but
• 7:25
  they're all, they're all coming from different kind of genres or
• 7:29
  whatever you call it. But as a, as a, as a unit, we
• 7:32
  both lovely, love everything, which I love too.
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  They all love the same music, definitely.
• 7:37
  Yeah, but. Again, like, I love the fact
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  that while you guys all love the same music and you have a lot of
• 7:42
  the same influences, that nobody seems to put too much focus on
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  just one aspect, you know, like. That's right.
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  Absolutely. Yeah, like.
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  It's not going to be all Sabbath or all dio, but like, there's so
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  many. Yeah, it's a.
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  Combination of, of everything which comes to the mind at the
• 7:58
  moment when we're recording it, you know, or when I'm writing
• 8:00
  it, yeah. You know, and it's funny because
• 8:02
  I remember, I think it was back in 2015, you put out the the
• 8:06
  magic moments, the 25th anniversary.
• 8:09
  Yeah. Live album and the video, right.
• 8:11
  Yeah. Like, like we've, like, I've
• 8:14
  told you the few times that we talked before, it's like, like
• 8:16
  one of the, you're like one of the artists like I'm the most
• 8:19
  mad at because I never get to see you live.
• 8:22
  I'm over here in the States, but when I saw that live show, that
• 8:26
  was one of those shows that it was not Even so much how it was
• 8:29
  captured, but that it made me feel like I was there, like, you
• 8:34
  know, and you harnessed so much of that.
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  And of course, I'm watching all the guests and everything.
• 8:38
  Who have you yet to share a stage with that You're like, I
• 8:41
  want to be on a stage with the people before I leave this
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  planet, you know? You know, I always have in mind
• 8:47
  a couple of years ago, like 15 years ago, that at some point I
• 8:50
  would like to record a record with 10 different singers, for
• 8:53
  example, all my favorite singers.
• 8:54
  Yes. But then I stopped thinking
• 8:56
  about it because Ronnie James Steele passed away way too
• 8:59
  early. And he was the main thing.
• 9:00
  He was the only guy. I said Ronnie must be on him,
• 9:03
  you know, and. And.
• 9:04
  Yeah, but now, now it's too late, You know, I so I stopped
• 9:08
  the the idea of having guest singers, whatever.
• 9:11
  Excuse me, I'm smoking too much Anyway, what was the part of
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  the. So the question.
• 9:17
  So. Yeah.
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  So I think there will be no chance that at some point I will
• 9:23
  do this. No, no.
• 9:26
  You know, because it's such a great concept, you know,
• 9:28
  especially because you've been in the game for so long and
• 9:31
  you've got such a huge catalog. Like I'd almost love to see 2026
• 9:37
  be like, I don't know, magic moments too, where you're like,
• 9:40
  you know, Dio can't be present, whatever.
• 9:43
  But like again, 30 out 30 plus records, like the bands that I
• 9:48
  love that even the loud are lucky to have half of that, you
• 9:52
  know? And so like, do you ever run out
• 9:55
  of riffs? That's the only thing I could
• 9:58
  ask. You know I love it.
• 10:01
  You know, I can't think of anything different.
• 10:02
  If somebody would tell me you, you are not allowed to the
• 10:05
  guitar anymore, I will give a middle finger, you know.
• 10:07
  So that's my passion, you know, it's not only my job.
• 10:10
  I really love what I do, you know, I can't stop as long as I
• 10:13
  have good ideas. I hope I will have it for the
• 10:15
  rest of my life. I feel like it was starting with
• 10:19
  2018 with A Night's Call. Conceptually, it kind of felt
• 10:23
  like, you know, even though your albums have never really been
• 10:27
  fully conceptual, I feel like that they're thematic, like they
• 10:31
  have themes, right? And then, yeah.
• 10:34
  And then, you know, call had its theme, you know, with the kind
• 10:37
  of that I don't like the Templar kind of thing.
• 10:39
  And but like Ghost town was a little harder for me to identify
• 10:44
  like what the theme kind of was. Was there much of A theme for
• 10:49
  this one that I'm missing or okay, no you.
• 10:51
  Know on the last album before wasn't similar this kind of
• 10:54
  very, very Arabic, Arabic musical scales, scales and
• 10:58
  whatever Eastern scales. And you know that that was the
• 11:01
  reason I covered Led Zeppelin Immigrant song two years ago
• 11:06
  because I think that was a great song doing it more oriental
• 11:10
  style, whatever, editing guitars or whatever.
• 11:12
  But on this album there's no concept at all.
• 11:15
  You know, I have to I have the album artwork I had first and
• 11:18
  then I looked and he said, oh, looks a little bit like a ghost.
• 11:21
  So it's not like like the Western movies, you know, the
• 11:24
  Cowboys are shooting whatever and the hayboards are flying
• 11:26
  around. No, no, no, it's a it's a castle
• 11:29
  and that there's a small village in front of the castle.
• 11:31
  You know the album art look, nobody's in there as part of the
• 11:34
  ghost in the middle. What to the people?
• 11:36
  I don't know, I don't have a clue.
• 11:38
  But it's not a concept album. Not all the rules around this
• 11:41
  theme or whatever. No.
• 11:42
  Yeah. Because that's.
• 11:43
  What I was thinking, because as I was listening to the album, my
• 11:45
  first thought was like it, it didn't have that, that that
• 11:48
  theme run to it. So but with that being said,
• 11:51
  like you had to listen to each song individually as its own
• 11:55
  entity as opposed to like, OK, where is it going to go from
• 11:57
  here? Is that a little harder
• 11:59
  sometimes to do? Because I feel like you've done
• 12:01
  the thematic thing, like, very easily, yeah.
• 12:04
  Yeah, yeah, like, no, no, no, it's not harder.
• 12:06
  It is the same, same, same amount of work or whatever you
• 12:10
  put into it. So not not really.
• 12:12
  No festival. Season is upon us.
• 12:14
  Like, you're going to be a very busy kid starting very soon,
• 12:17
  right? Yes.
• 12:19
  We're starting with a tour actually in I think 20.
• 12:22
  I think. The album will release on the
• 12:24
  20th of March and the tour starts one day later on the
• 12:27
  21st. We're starting in in London in
• 12:29
  the UK, then in Manchester in the UK and then we go all over
• 12:32
  Europe. I don't know, Sweden, free
• 12:34
  shows, Germany, of course a lot of shows, Switzerland, Bulgaria,
• 12:39
  No. Bulgaria, No.
• 12:40
  Was it Hungary? In Budapest?
• 12:42
  We play whatever and then we have a short break in the summer
• 12:46
  and then we will continue with a second leg of the tour, which
• 12:49
  leads us to other parts of the world, other parts of Europe.
• 12:52
  Let me say that we, Yeah, where we haven't been before on the
• 12:57
  first leg. So other cities, other
• 12:58
  territories, whatever, yeah. So with again, I love that you
• 13:02
  said that about ghost town because especially being
• 13:05
  American, like when you hear ghost town, you think of like
• 13:08
  woo, woo, Bah, Bah, Bah, you know what I mean?
• 13:11
  But like the the concept of the ghost town again, what I love
• 13:16
  was that you kind of break that image, right?
• 13:19
  Because now I'm going, oh, well, I'm looking at the album Mart
• 13:23
  and I'm going. Well, yeah, I mean, that's a
• 13:25
  town. It's a village.
• 13:26
  It's deserted. So it really takes your
• 13:30
  attention to a whole new way of. Exactly.
• 13:34
  Of thinking imagery. Yeah, exactly.
• 13:37
  I have the same. Yes, yeah, absolutely.
• 13:39
  You're right. So how?
• 13:40
  Did the writing concept for this one go?
• 13:42
  Because I know, I know you and Johnny have always had this
• 13:44
  same, like the same process like you, you have the riffs you send
• 13:49
  him the riffs he. Yeah, and the lyrics he works on
• 13:51
  him and him. Like, has that changed at all?
• 13:54
  Or is that just kind of a formula that you're like this
• 13:56
  works they? Haven't changed anything because
• 13:58
  that really works. Because you're not.
• 14:00
  When I write the lyrics all by myself, I write the melody lines
• 14:03
  of the vocals and I'm doing with my own fucking bad voice, thin
• 14:07
  voice. Sometimes I hit the right key
• 14:09
  and sometimes not. Anyway, who cares?
• 14:10
  So just to get the info for Johnny, right, you know, all
• 14:13
  this little syllabus or whatever, and I send it to
• 14:17
  Johnny. But my Tony, my engineer send it
• 14:20
  to Johnny and he listens to it. And then he starts in his own
• 14:23
  studio. He's even not there in Germany
• 14:25
  when when he's recording his vocals, he's in own studio.
• 14:28
  Listen to my guiding vocals. And then he starts singing.
• 14:30
  And when he's done with the song, he sent it MP3 or, or he
• 14:33
  gives me call. Excellent.
• 14:34
  Listen to it very quick. What do you think so far?
• 14:36
  And I say, yeah, that's cool. And not the end of this line
• 14:39
  much behind several or whatever. So we're working on that
• 14:41
  together. And it always works.
• 14:42
  You know, the outcome was fantastic.
• 14:44
  I always love it. Yeah.
• 14:45
  Because I remember talking to Johnny a while ago and he was
• 14:48
  talking about that concept and he said that like, and maybe
• 14:52
  even back then, because it was still kind of new, that was kind
• 14:55
  of a weird way because I was like, how, how do you have that
• 14:58
  that connection? Because like the way he sings
• 15:02
  those songs and the wave, like he sounds like he's standing
• 15:05
  right next to you is so like, but he's managing to capture the
• 15:09
  energy of what you're putting forward.
• 15:12
  So I would guess after all these years, he just knows how to do
• 15:15
  it right. I mean, I mean.
• 15:17
  He's in the band since 28 years right now.
• 15:19
  You know, the first time I remember that we he came to
• 15:21
  Germany first in 98. We did oceans of time together.
• 15:24
  He was like, okay, oh, this is Germany.
• 15:26
  Okay in the studio. What you want me to sing?
• 15:30
  I said just start and I let you know.
• 15:32
  And as soon as he started to say what the fuck, Jesus, the Holy
• 15:35
  Ghost, that's great, you know, that's awesome.
• 15:37
  And the problem is he knows that is good.
• 15:41
  I'm kidding. You got to, you got to humble
• 15:43
  him because you know, he, you got to knock him down a little
• 15:48
  bit to remind him, you know. So again, I guess with all the
• 15:53
  shows coming up, with the festivals coming up and one
• 15:56
  night, and again, with such a large catalog of music at this
• 16:01
  point, how are you even making set lists?
• 16:06
  It won't ask me, you know? It's always, every year it's the
• 16:08
  same, you know, the band is asking me, the crew is asking.
• 16:12
  We can't play them all the ultra.
• 16:15
  I said of course we cannot, but we have to do some of the ARP
• 16:18
  classics, you know, we can't play a show without the oceans
• 16:21
  of Time, without the masquerade board, whatever.
• 16:23
  Not without reactionation. If we're not doing them, they're
• 16:25
  killing us, you know. So we have to do it.
• 16:27
  But some of the tracks are a little longer.
• 16:29
  But we can't play for three or four hours.
• 16:31
  It wouldn't be unfair to join his voice, you know.
• 16:33
  I mean, I can play for six hours, but then I'm kidding.
• 16:36
  But you know. But then of course we're they're
• 16:38
  doing a few new songs. I think 3 or 4 will be the set
• 16:41
  from the Ghost on album. Definitely.
• 16:42
  At least the three singles were playing.
• 16:44
  Yes, and I have to find the right combination.
• 16:47
  So I think there's another one, an old track for us.
• 16:50
  We'll be back and then set and whatever.
• 16:52
  I don't know, haven't thought about it much.
• 16:55
  You better get started, dude, because you have so many songs.
• 16:59
  Yeah, you know, I mean, I'll write it up for you if you want.
• 17:04
  OK? Yeah, write.
• 17:04
  It for me. Because it's so funny, because I
• 17:07
  know, like Mystica, for instance, is one of those songs
• 17:10
  that like, I, you know, if I flew out to, if I flew out to
• 17:14
  Europe and saw you play and you didn't play Mystica, like I'd
• 17:18
  have, we'd have to have a conversation, you know, like
• 17:20
  that's, you know, that's one of those songs, like, have you ever
• 17:24
  kind of toyed with the idea of like alternating your set list?
• 17:28
  Like saying like, let's do like 3 different set lists.
• 17:31
  We'll kind of bounce back and forth between them because I
• 17:34
  mean, there's got to be songs in there that like, not only do the
• 17:37
  fans want to hear, but that you want to play.
• 17:39
  Yeah. But that's a different because,
• 17:41
  you know, we have three days for rehearsal, you know, three days.
• 17:44
  So for one day it's like 556 hours for Universal Room and
• 17:49
  then the next day and then another day.
• 17:51
  We can't do it in that short time period.
• 17:53
  We can't do 3 setlists. You know, On the other hand, it
• 17:56
  would be unfair to the audience because we know what they love
• 17:59
  and we know what they don't love.
• 18:00
  You know what they don't want to hear.
• 18:02
  But anyway, it's very tough. I mean, so many songs, but the,
• 18:06
  the, the combination, we always did it right in the last couple
• 18:08
  of years, you know, there was not a few people are always
• 18:11
  complaining, oh, why didn't you play this song?
• 18:13
  Why didn't you play that song? I mean, who cares?
• 18:15
  Most of them loved it. They're all so I think be on the
• 18:17
  right on a good way. So and of course Mystic guys in
• 18:21
  the set, definitely. Okay, well now I might have to
• 18:24
  consider flying out to you might have to help me out though
• 18:29
  'cause I won't know where I'm going.
• 18:32
  So you actually worked with Tommy Geiger again for like when
• 18:37
  you're working with someone in the studio and you know, I know
• 18:40
  you're very involved with the production aspect of it.
• 18:44
  At what point do you look to your producer or look to the
• 18:47
  person who's mixing and say, yeah, I, I need I'm going to
• 18:50
  step back and let you kind of do do something as soon when he.
• 18:54
  Starts the mixing because he's doing it only on his own.
• 18:56
  He's then in Berlin in his own studio.
• 18:59
  He's not in the in the recording studio.
• 19:00
  He moved on to his own place and I can't disturb him during the
• 19:04
  first 5 or six days when he starts to mix.
• 19:06
  Otherwise it would be much complicated.
• 19:08
  Whatever. When he's done, he said,
• 19:09
  actually, you know, I can listen to it on the Internet, you know,
• 19:12
  we're connecting source live, whatever, blah, blah, blah,
• 19:15
  blah. And I can listen to it
• 19:16
  simultaneously when he's working, I say no, no, no, no,
• 19:19
  no, whatever. Stop, stop, stop time.
• 19:21
  He stop. He say what you want.
• 19:23
  I say the drumstick to have mob whatever and he's doing here
• 19:26
  this way or that way. He said that way.
• 19:28
  That's fantastic, you know, and and then it gets very quick.
• 19:31
  I mean when, when the when the basic sound is done, the rest is
• 19:35
  by very easy. Yeah, so.
• 19:37
  The other thing like almost kind of going backwards a little bit
• 19:40
  when we were talking about like guests, like people on breaking
• 19:43
  Seals, yes, I wanted my mouth was on the floor because I was
• 19:47
  like, Udo is not one known to do duets or like even guest spots
• 19:52
  on that. How?
• 19:54
  Is that working with UDO? Because this was your first time
• 19:57
  I think right working with UDO? First time working with Udo
• 20:00
  right? You know, since more than 40
• 20:03
  years. You know when he started out
• 20:04
  with except. The thing except was I saw them
• 20:07
  first life in 1981 when they opened up for Julius Priest, you
• 20:10
  know, close to my hometown. They were great.
• 20:12
  So I always met Udo at shows, at festivals when they're playing.
• 20:15
  They were saying, hey, how are you, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 20:18
  And and then when after I wrote that track, I said, hmm, could
• 20:21
  be a good song because it started a little bit, except
• 20:23
  like, except in the beginnings, you know, with the riff and then
• 20:26
  saying maybe it's a good idea. If I ask, I ask the other guys
• 20:29
  in the band, what do you think? And they all they love the idea.
• 20:31
  And I so I called Udo and Udo said, yeah, I want to hear the
• 20:35
  track before I before I say definitely I can't do it because
• 20:39
  he doesn't know the song, if it fits his voice or not, whatever.
• 20:42
  Not saying I love the trick. I love the trick.
• 20:44
  I do it And it was very easy. Quick and quick and easy done.
• 20:48
  But it was such a great addition because again, it kind of goes
• 20:52
  back to what we were talking about was that it it it had that
• 20:55
  consistency of the of what you've done, but the added
• 21:00
  element of Udo just it's like another level of that, you know,
• 21:05
  that makes it still exciting to listen to.
• 21:08
  When I heard Sanity off the new album, that was a very different
• 21:12
  type of single that you've really then what you've released
• 21:15
  in the past, because not that it was a ballad, but it was
• 21:18
  definitely more of like an emotive kind of right.
• 21:21
  It was. Moody.
• 21:22
  It was a Moody kind of song, you know?
• 21:24
  Right? Yes.
• 21:25
  What made you decide to go with Go in such a different direction
• 21:28
  as far as releasing a single? The my record company, the
• 21:36
  record company said this must be the first single because as the
• 21:39
  second single because they love the track and I love the track
• 21:42
  too. My girlfriend, she said, wow,
• 21:43
  that's my my favorite track from the album.
• 21:46
  Do it as a single. I said, I don't know, I have to
• 21:47
  ask a record company. Record company.
• 21:49
  Yeah, yeah, we love it too. So they put it out.
• 21:51
  I love it. Yeah, it's great.
• 21:52
  I think it's a great track. It.
• 21:54
  It had a scorpions element to it that I that I hadn't heard that
• 21:58
  like that, you know, that kind of it's like it's hard to like
• 22:01
  that change kind of like in in the do you know what I'm talking
• 22:05
  about in that beginning, like almost that kind of like like a
• 22:08
  rhythm of love kind of vibe. Do you know what I mean?
• 22:10
  It's a very kind of like, yeah. Because, you know, I grew up
• 22:13
  listening to the scorpions love drug is one of my also in my top
• 22:17
  20s. He's a all time favorite.
• 22:18
  I'm I think he was somewhere in the head.
• 22:20
  Maybe it could be. Yeah, but you're right.
• 22:22
  No, never. Nobody said it so far.
• 22:24
  The ranching of scorpions. That's a good point.
• 22:27
  Yeah. Oh good.
• 22:28
  Well, I hope, I hope, I hope I, I hope I won.
• 22:31
  Yeah, you won. Well, so I guess go so.
• 22:34
  So the album is coming out on the When Did We Say the 20?
• 22:39
  20th of March. 20th of March, yes.
• 22:42
  Don't one very quick. I have to check when I have the
• 22:44
  next interview. I'm so sorry.
• 22:45
  Oh. Sure.
• 22:46
  I have it on, just let me see. Yes, in 5 minutes 5.
• 22:51
  Minutes. OK, Yeah, that's what I thought.
• 22:54
  So like I said, so you know, we've got the two singles
• 22:56
  released. Are we are, are we gonna get
• 22:58
  another single before the album comes out?
• 23:01
  And okay. The next single will be the the
• 23:04
  the first song after the intro, The Guillotine War and we shot a
• 23:07
  real video of this time. So you see us perform
• 23:11
  everybody's on the instrument on the vocals or whatever.
• 23:13
  That's not only a lyric video. You'll see us there.
• 23:16
  I love the track too. I think it's a great, great
• 23:18
  track. I just.
• 23:19
  Think that this album is so solid and like it.
• 23:21
  It made me very excited. It's one of those things that
• 23:24
  when you get when you get reminded of why you're a fan of
• 23:28
  a certain artist, you know and you get you know, it's easy to
• 23:31
  get comfortable when you when you really like an artist and
• 23:34
  then you're listening to it. But then all of a sudden
• 23:37
  something happens that it pops and you're going, oh, This is
• 23:41
  why I love this artist and this kind of, not that I ever lost
• 23:46
  it, but this really rekindled that excitement of like when I
• 23:49
  first heard you and I was going. I see.
• 23:51
  Oh. This is this is Axel Rudy Pell,
• 23:55
  right, Right. Thank you so much.
• 23:56
  Yes, yeah, I love it. So I guess one more thing moving
• 24:00
  forward is that with the you got the album, you got the video
• 24:03
  coming out. Obviously we have the festival
• 24:05
  thing and like I said, sparse. Festival, not this year,
• 24:08
  Festival Now we're concentrating on next year, I mean.
• 24:11
  The tour, I'm sorry, I said the festival, yeah, yeah, with the
• 24:14
  tour coming up and then so looking at this album, what is
• 24:17
  what are a particular song that you're looking at going?
• 24:20
  I cannot wait to play that live. Definitely, definitely the first
• 24:24
  song. Guillotine War.
• 24:26
  OK. I think that's the opening,
• 24:28
  opening thing of of the life thing.
• 24:29
  I hope so. If it works during the reverse,
• 24:32
  we have to find out. What is the song that you look
• 24:35
  down at the set list every night you go?
• 24:37
  I'm a little bored with that one, but.
• 24:40
  I won't tell you right now because the people will kill me
• 24:42
  then. Look, as long as it's not
• 24:46
  Mystic, I don't care. Well, Axel, thank you so much
• 24:52
  for taking the time to do this. And.
• 24:55
  For your time, I really appreciate it.
• 24:56
  Thank you. Thank you, and thanks for the
• 24:57
  nice words. Yeah, well.
• 24:59
  No, no, I'm not worthy, you know.
• 25:01
  But no, like I said, it's a fantastic album.
• 25:04
  You knocked it out of the park, You know, don't tell Johnny I
• 25:07
  liked it this much because it'll make his head get bigger.
• 25:10
  That's right. Just say, hey, I talked to Don
• 25:14
  and he said you could have done better.
• 25:16
  That's. Right.
• 25:16
  I will do it, yeah. Well look well, thank.
• 25:19
  Well, thanks again man and have a great interview day and the
• 25:23
  album is fantastic and I can't wait for everybody to hear it.
• 25:26
  Thank you SO. Much.
• 25:26
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 25:28
  Well. Have a good one my friend.
• 25:29
  OK, you. Too.
• 25:31
  Bye bye.