Interviews

Interview mit Klaus Meine:

Monday, 23. June 2003

Klaus Meine explains how the SCORPIONS tackled the obstacles on their way to recording their album with the Berlin Philharmonics. Klaus clears up any false beliefs that the SCORPIONS were following in the steps of another world class metal band METALLICA. Indeed, it might be the other way around.

One of the last places one would expect to encounter Scorpions’ singer Klaus Meine is in a plush boardroom at EMI Classics. After all, this is the band that revelled in hugely politically incorrect albums such as ‘Animal Magnetism’, ‘Virgin Killer’ and ‘Love Drive’ - remember those dubious album sleeves? But then having just released ‘Moment Of Glory’, a splendidly ostentatious symphonic effort in collaboration with the world-renowned Berliner Philharmoniker, perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Meine is looking extremely keen and more than ready to tackle all kind of accusations that the Scorpions appear to be following the string-laden lead of another certain world-class metal band. And then there’s the small matter of the much-hyped, but rather disappointing, rock album from last year, the over-produced ‘Eye To Eye’...

How was the recent Expo 2000 show that the Scorpions played with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Hanover?

Klaus: It was a totally different crowd for this kind of show since this was an Expo event for the world exhibition in Germany, which is a huge event in itself; this concert was described as one of the highlights of Expo 2000, so there was a huge spotlight on it. After recording the album in Vienna - we started in January and the Berliners put their parts on the album in March and April in Berlin - we said we’ve done the album, which is great, but the real challenge is to go up on stage and play together. So the Expo concert was the main focus, and that took place on 22nd June in front of 10,000 people. Since the show sold out so quick, we did a dress rehearsal the night before for the general public, which was sold out as well, so we really did two nights. It was a very special experience and it was indeed a different crowd, because of Expo, but it was also our hometown of Hanover, with lots of friends - it ranged from diehard Scorpions fans to the German Chancellor.

How did you chose the songs and create the arrangements?

The most important issue in this project was the arranger Christian Kolonovits, who wrote the arrangements for the songs and conducted the orchestra in the recording sessions and live concerts. With him we picked the Scorpions classics like ‘Wind Of Change’, ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’... and then we had an area which was wide open. We said to Christian Kolonovits, “We want you to pick the songs. Listen to our back catalogue and you pick the songs where you think you can get the most out of the arrangements for the orchestra.” You know, they never wanted to be our backing group, they wanted a real musical challenge! The pressure was we had to do this musically right and hopefully, it will match their expectations. Apart from having the hits, we needed an area where they could have a challenge, and so ‘Crossfire’ and the ‘Deadly Sting Suite’ were picked by Christian. He said, “These songs might be popular with the metal freaks - ‘Dynamite’ and the others - but they’re not as popular as ‘Still Loving You’ or ‘Wind Of Change’.” We wanted to have this balance on the album, not to be on the safe side too much.

The cynical might say that this is the Scorpions trying to get credibility with a different audience. To what extent is this an attempt to draw in a classical audience?

Not really. What we wanted to do was fulfil this challenge, because they came to us. We would have had too much respect to say (knocking on the table top), “It’s the Scorpions of Hanover, we would like to record with you!” No way! No way! So they came to us and said, “You know, guys, we don’t wanna do it with Pink Floyd, we wanna do it with the Scorpions”, for whatever reason. That was in 1994. We felt honoured, but at the same time, we felt the heavy load of a huge challenge: it was “How can we please this orchestra? If they wanna play our music, what can we do? Are we really good enough? Are we strong enough? Can we pull it off?” That was the main motivation, not so much thinking about audiences and charts.

How did you feel when METALLICA pre-empted you by coming out with ‘S&M’?

The fact is that the Berliners wanted to do it back in ’94. We said, “This needs time and the right people, this needs lots of things to get it right”, and they had their touring schedule and we had our schedule. In between 1994 and 2000, we met a few people and Michael Kamen was one of them. He was top of the list, because we liked what he did with AEROSMITH on ‘Dream On’ and stuff? In a way, it was like, “Man, they’re doing our project!” Funnily enough, when we met with Michael Kamen - it was maybe half a year before this Metallica record came out - we even wrote a song with Michael for the Berliner concept. We went back into the studio, he went back to America - and the next thing we heard, he was doing it with Metallica. So that was the situation, but we don’t blame him - it’s all about business. The song was called ‘Guilty Dreams’, but we didn’t record it. We did this song together and it could have been a great song on this project, but he went to Metallica, because they were available and they were ready, and I don’t blame him - we weren’t ready to go.
But on the other side, we thought it’s OK, because it’s a different concept, it’s a live record with Metallica at their best. They’re on top of the world in their career now, and that’s fine. It’s totally different from the concept we had in mind.

You could argue that your record is more successful, because you can actually hear the orchestra?

Yes (tentatively), but I don’t wanna compare it, and we didn’t feel bad about it...

But people will compare it...

They will, of course, but it’s a totally different concept... but we felt sorry that we lost Michael Kamen. That was a moment when we said “Shit!” But it’s all about business and money, and they did it with him - fine.
We were lucky we found Christian Kolonovits in ’99, when we played with this man (points to a large poster on the wall). Rostopovich - he’s a legend. I don’t know if you’ve heard about him? If the Berliner Philharmoniker are here, he’s up here - a god. I didn’t know this either, so don’t feel bad! But now I can call him my friend.
We had the opportunity to perform ‘Wind Of Change’ in Berlin for the tenth anniversary of the coming down of the Wall and Christian Kolonovits - who is an arranger and composer who is very much at home in both classical and rock worlds - wrote the arrangement. There we were on 9th November in Berlin, next to the Brandenberg Gate in front of 50,000 people, and this man Rostopovich, the legend, conducted 160 cellists from around the world, and they played ‘Wind Of Change’ with us. At this moment, we knew, with Christian at our side, we were ready for the Berliners. And we were very happy that we found him - there were no tears cried any more for Michael Kamen! So this saw everything coming together. I think Michael Kamen is a great guy and I still respect him very much, and when we meet, I will go, “Man, well done.” And we’ve known Metallica for so long - I think they did the right thing, but I would hate it if the fans out there think that the Scorpions’ career is maybe taking a little dive and they thought, ‘Oh, Metallica, this idea’s great - let’s do the same thing’. This is not true, because this is on a whole different level and a whole different challenge...

Last year’s rock album ‘Eye To Eye’ took ages to record, featured a modern sound, and the video for the single ‘To Be Number One’ was a take on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, yet people were very disappointed with it all. How did that reaction make you feel?

I know, but that’s the way it is, what you go through when you have a long term career - you have your share of mistakes. You have moments when you are on top of the world and moments when you fall flat on your face!

In retrospect, do you think recording that album was a mistake?

(Thinks carefully) You know, I don’t know if it was a mistake... if I were sitting here with my good friend Rudolf (Schenker, Scorpions’ guitarist), we would have a big discussion now! He was the motivation behind whatever we changed in the sound, because he didn’t want to stand still. He wanted to prove that we were not dead, that we were ready for the new millennium, ready to do something new, to involve different instruments and elements in our music, which is a good point to start. But, from my point of view, there were many moments - and also that is one of the reasons why this bloody record took so long! - where I was not very happy during the recording sessions, where it was not so easy for me. But when you are a team player, well...
And I respect Rudolf very much. He is my best friend and we have been together for 30 years now, and I know it was his desire, and I said, “OK, maybe I’m wrong. I’ll go with you, my friend, all the way.” So that’s what I did.
Looking back, the whole chemistry, working together with Peter Wolf, was, specially for myself, not the best experience. He’s a great guy, very experienced, coming from Frank Zappa and everything - musically, he is on top. But at the end of the day, it has to do with chemistry, specially when it comes to music and emotions, and it just didn’t work out for many reasons.
Here in London, doing the Lewinsky video, the excitement level was amazing, but in the world of music, the timing couldn’t have been worse, you know. Nobody wanted to hear from this bloody story, and the whole thing, the image change and whatever came along with it, was not one of the greatest moments in our career. It’s fine, I can live with it. It’s just an experience you have in a long career - it goes up and down... When I speak for myself about this record (‘Moment Of Glory’), the chemistry was great with the team we worked with, and I had a lot of fun doing it. This wasn’t work, whereas the album before it was a lot of hard work - that’s why I am pleased. We went back to what the Scorpions are at their best, what we can offer in the future, if we stick to what we fucking are.

Will ‘Moment Of Glory’ open up a new direction - more huge symphonic rock projects in the future?

Nononononono! This is a project which is very special and cannot be topped in any way. Someone might come along and say, “You can make a Part 2 with all your classics” - could be, but I don’t think so now. But I would say right now, from our point of view, it’s hard to top. That means we have to come back to the rock field. Last weekend, we played a show near Stuttgart, the Bang Your Head festival, in front of nearly 10,000 headbangers. I don’t think there are many bands who can play with the Berlin Philharmoniker one week and then headline a metal festival the next. The audience went totally nuts - they were great. This tells the rock audience we have not forgotten where we came from - that’s why we did it.

You toured with MOTLEY CRUE last year, didn’t you?

Yeah, we played 50 shows all over the US - it was a double headline package, which was fantastic.

How did it compare with when both bands were touring in the Eighties?

The crowd is getting older and even the Mötley crowd is getting more mainstream. I expected the crowd I saw last weekend in Germany - a total metalhead audience tattooed to the bone - but it wasn’t at all. I couldn’t tell the difference between the Mötley Crüe and Scorpions audience; it was overall more mainstream, like kids and people who want to hang out and have a good time, shout it out loud and go crazy!

What comes next for the Scorpions?

To tell you the truth, there will be an unplugged album out - we have to! We are getting offers from American orchestras, and it looks like for the American release, we play Los Angeles and San Francisco at the end of September - we also have the Malaysian State Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur in October, so we have a lot of things to do, but at the same time, since our record deal is originally with Eastwest, they are like (drums fingers on table top), “Where is our unplugged album?” There will be an unplugged album before we go on to the next rock record - no symphonics and no acoustic guitars, a straight rock one. Realistically, the rock record will not be out before 2002. Because next summer, we will go out to America, and there will be lots of places in the world where we will play this symphonic thing, because it’s such a great concept, but this unplugged thing is something we never wanted to do. Our music is designed for an unplugged album, so many of the songs are fantastic for an unplugged record, but we never wanted to be the last in line with an unplugged CD. That’s why we always said, “No, no, no!” But to make a very long story short, since this is on two different labels, we have to do it! There will be a few songs that may cross over with this, where you will say, “They’re selling out. They give us a symphonic, now an unplugged!”, but we hate that too. But there’s no way round it.
However, there will be a rock record as soon as we’re through with all this - if you think we’re softening out and we’re boring old farts, we’ll be there to kick your fucking ass and tell you we’re still here, we still care, we still have a heart for the metal audience, and we don’t forget where we come from.

This interview originally written by: Essi Berelian