Michael Schenker

(Photo by Laurence Harvey)

 

When it comes to the definition of Guitar Heroes, few names crop up in Bluebird Review's head and Michael Schenker is definitely one of those. Throughout his long and glorious career, Schenker has been at the forefront, through his unique style and guitar technique, of the success of bands such as Scorpions, UFO, Michael Schenker Group and, currently, with his latest project, Temple Of Rock.

Just before the starting of the Temple Of Rock Tour of the United Kingdom, we had the pleasure, at Bluebird Reviews, to meet Schenker and talk about live touring, his latest record Spirit On A Mission and his fabulous career.

BBR - The 2015 record Spirit On A Mission is the natural step on to that splendid album that is Bridge The Gap. Does your latest studio album, in your opinion, capture in full the vision you have of the sound of Temple Of Rock as a music project or will there be further musical developments on your next album?

MS - Spirit On A Mission is certainly a step on in that respect but I like to think that the album is just a natural progression of where we were with Bridge The Gap. The next album, which we hope to release in 2017, will move again the sound of the band to a new level and from that point on, I believe that we will be able to get what we want to achieve, a truly unique sound. Once we will get to the third or even fourth album, the shape of our music will reach what we want to achieve, in creating  a distinctive sound for Temple Of Rock. Once we have finished our Tour in February this year, we will also be looking for a new record deal. So, there will be few things happening this year but our fans will get adequately entertained due to the release of our live DVD. Hopefully they will not miss us too much (chuckles).  

BBR - What impresses me the most on Spirit On A Mission, besides the fabulous quality of the musicians within the band, is the growing chemistry between you, Wayne Findlay's artistry on the 7-strings' guitar, Doogie White's vocals and the roaring sound of your guitar. With such platform, to record the new album should not take too long, what do you think?

MS - I wouldn't be able to give you a precise timeline, right now. The way I tend to put an album together, is by doing what I like to call "treasure hunting" or "play and discover". Those words mean that I play my guitar and I come up with new melodies or riffs, I then collect them all together and use them as sketches or basis on which to build our new songs. At the moment, there is so much going on with us, between having our new album to promote and been out On The Road touring since February 2015 that I struggle even to remember when Spirit On A Mission was precisely released! Last album took about eight months in preparation, the next album may take longer or maybe not. Time will tell.

BBR - You will be starting the english portion of your European Tour in support of the Spirit On A Mission album on January 20th. How thrilled are you and the band to come back and perform in a country like England that loves and supports you enormously?

MS - Very thrilled. Touring the United Kingdom means a lot to me, on many levels. England was the country where I "escaped", at the time I was with the Scorpions. I remember, at the time, I think I was 17-18, I told the guys in the band "If ever any English band would ask me to join them, I would leave the band straight away anytime, I wouldn't care how famous our band would be". I always had an attraction for the Uk, because, to me, that was the place in the world where people would understand my music style. To go to England was like a dream come true for me. I remember coming there for the first time with the UFO in places like Sunderland, Newcastle, Glasgow etc. Wonderful times. We saw our fan base, back in those days, growing and growing, year after year and I feel like my contribution to music history started right there at that time. With this in mind, you can imagine how excited I am to come back and tour in England again. For me is like home. I have been living for so many years in the States and in England that Germany has become the least of my living places through all these years.

BBR - Bluebird Reviews is aware that a Temple Of Rock Live DVD, which you mentioned before and  recorded in Spain last year, is due to be released sometimes in 2016. Which are your immediate memories of that live recording and is there already a pre-planned release date for the DVD?

MS - The DVD will be released in April 2016. When we made the decision to record the DVD in Madrid, we had to focus on the stage size. The whole camera crew was almost squashed on the wall, when they were filming. Despite being a big three-storeys venue, size wise it was a challenging experience for the cameramen but they did really well. We were so close to the crowd that I barely remember, in my career, to have done so many high-fives in one night in a show as I did in Madrid! But we really wanted to capture the immediacy of the moment and the warmth coming from our devoted Spanish fans and I am happy about the way the DVD succeeded in showing so. Spain is always a special place for us, I love the way the Spanish people celebrate their joy through our music. They have got this inner happiness inside and they are truly fantastic. We would have loved to film a live DVD also in England but, due to budgetarian issues, we decided to postpone it. But a live recording in England is definitely on the agenda, in future!

BBR - Michael, you have been playing live since you were 11 years old. Which were your biggest musical influences at the time?

MS - Truth to be told, I started to have the real hang of it when I reached 14 years of age. I started to play at the age of 9 and my first gig was age 11, but on stage, I was just playing very plain kind of guitar music, purely charts stuff. When I started to dig deep into the late 60's music style of guitar players such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher and so on, that was the moment in which I understood what direction my music style was going to take. Then, when I joined forces with Klaus Meine from the Scorpions, I wrote my first song, In Search Of The Peace Of Mind, which ended up on the first Scorpion's album, Lonesome Crow. The song was attributed to all the member of the band, on the album but, in reality, I wrote it. That was very naive of me, at the time. They were a little but older than me at the time, so perhaps a bit more clever than I was at that age in convincing me to share the rights. I was so focused on playing my guitar that all I wanted was to play my music. I guess I was just misguided by my inexperience, back then. 

Michael Schenker2

(Photo by Steve Brinkman) 

 

BBR - What is the biggest lesson that you have learned, throughout your long and glorious career as a musician?

MS - I don't really think I had any lessons at all! (chuckles). I like to teach myself, not to take lessons. The best part of life, to me, consists in learning and discovering yourself entirely on your own. For instance, I wanted to go skiing but I did not want to use a Ski Instructor because I wanted to learn how to ski by myself, on my own pace, step by step. This aspect, about discovering yourself, also applies to my approach in playing guitar. It's like when you sit down, improvising and put two notes together and then you say to yourself "Wait a minute!". Then you put a third note to them and you go "Wow!" and so on. It's this thrilling, daily learning curve about things you find out by yourself that really excites me. Life for me is, essentially, to be able to do any sort of things on my own steam, knowing you have to do them because it is the only way to learn and understand them. And by doing so, as a result, you will be able to figure out what works best for you and adopt this philosophy of life in all that you do on a daily basis. Perhaps, without this attitude about pushing myself so much, I would have never be able to reach the position I hold in the music business today.

BBR - You are going to be part of a very special rock cruise, in February! Taking off from Miami, the Axes & Anchors line-up will include an outstanding cast of rock artists, which obviously includes you and people like Yngwie Malmsteen and Zakk Wylde, amongst many others. Have you prepared a special setlist for this very unique event?

MS - We were planning to go on this Rock Cruise but, at the moment, it's all in a limbo stage, due to the fact that David Van Landing, which was supposed to be our singer on this special occasion, passed tragically away in a car crash, last year. Due to this very sad circumstances, we are trying to work out now how we are going to deal with this special event. As it stands, we have not reached yet a decision whether to confirm our presence or not. We hope to give more precise news on the subject in the next weeks.

BBR - Are there any of your songs, coming from the songbook of your experiences with Scorpions, UFO, The Michael Schenker Group and Temple Of Rock that ultimately defines you as Michael Schenker, The Rock Meister?

MS - There are many songs I can think of. Live And Let Live is certainly one of those. It is one of those special tracks that, while on stage, gives me the chance to go off the wall with my guitar and let it loose. Sometimes, if I manage to come up with something magic when I let loose, it may work in my favour or sometimes it may not. But, hey, what a great feeling to hear the roar of the crowd, when that magic happens. Overall, I would say that any songs that allow me to get a lot of space to play guitar solos in the middle sections and show to the fans why I chose to play the guitar in my career get the thumb up from me. I remember fondly a song called Lonesome Crown, at the time I was with the Scorpions, which gave me plenty of opportunities to do guitar solos. And I love to do so not just on fast-tempo rock songs but also on more melodic ones or ballads, even, like Lipstick Traces, Try Me or Lights Out, for example. I can't help it, I just love to play guitar! As an artist, I see my whole music career as a constant development of my skills, always. I can still remember the incredible feeling of recording the first album with the Scorpions and hearing our songs played on the radio. The same radio that was playing songs from the Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix. Or the happiness in recording albums with an English band in England, which I thought of, at the time, as my Promised Land of music. I like to think that, every new album I record, it demonstrates how I move on, how I develop, artistically. From the Scorpions era, to UFO, then another new music ground for me with the Michael Schenker Group and now Temple Of Rock. To experiment new musical territories, to challenge myself, that is the real buzz for me. Every new album I release will be always different from the last one, because I have taken all the new skills learned to a new level, becoming, as a consequence, a different musician. One thing I can tell you for sure is that I like this new stage of my music life and I promise I shall play my songs until I have an ounce of strength into my body. Starting from next week in England.

 

Giovanni "Gio" Pilato

 

 

                                                                              

 

                                                               2016 Temple Of Rock UK Tour Dates:

 

BILSTON, ROBIN WEDNESDAY  20th JANUARY 2016 Box  Office: 01902 401211 Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com 20-28  Mt Pleasant, Bilston, West Midlands, WV14 7LJ www.therobin.co.uk

HOLMFIRTH,  PICTUREDROME   THURSDAY  21st JANUARY 2016 Box Office: 0844  478 0898   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   Market Walk,  Holmfirth. HD9 7DA www.picturedrome.net

EDINBURGH,  QUEEN’S HALL   FRIDAY 22nd JANUARY  2016 Box Office: 0131  668 2019   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   85-89 Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH8 9JG www.thequeenshall.net

INVERNESS, IRON  WORKS   SATURDAY  23rd JANUARY 2016 Box Office: 0871 7894173   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   122B Academy Street, Inverness,  Inverness-Shire IV1 1LX www.ironworksvenue.com

GATESHEAD, SAGE   MONDAY 25th JANUARY  2016 Box Office: 0191 443 4661   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   Saint Mary's Square, Gateshead  Quays, Gateshead NE8 2JR www.sagegateshead.com

LIVEPOOL,  ACADEMY   TUESDAY 26th JANUARY  2016 Box Office: 0844 477 2000   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   O2 Academy Liverpool, 11-13 Hotham Street, L3 5UF www.o2academyliverpool.co.uk

MANCHESTER,  ACADEMY 2   THURSDAY  28th JANUARY 2016 Box Office: 0161 275 2930   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PR www.manchester-academy.org

NOTTINGHAM, ROCK  CITY   FRIDAY 29th JANUARY  2016 Box Office: 0845 413 4444   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   8 Talbot Street, Nottingham NG1  5GG www.rock-city.co.uk

ISLINGTON,  ASSEMBLY HALL   SATURDAY  30th JANUARY 2016 Box Office: 0844 478 0898   Book  Online: www.thegigcartel.com   Upper Street, London N1 2UD www.islington.gov.uk/assemblyhall