No, I did the original mix after we finished recording. And then I came over here to Hamburg to work with MASTERPLAN and I wasn´t happy with it. I was so burnt out with the recording by the time of the mix - we were working long hours. So I gave me a couple of weeks off and then I went back in July and re-did it. Mille trusts me and so I did the mix myself and sent the mix to the band to listen to it. It´s the easiest way to do it.
Why have you been so burnt out?
Every time I do an album, it gets me on. You know, you start at 10 a.m. in the morning, and you finish ´round 1 a.m. in the morning. As a producer you´re concentrating, you´re certainly trying to work things out. Your mind doesn´t wonder because you´re paying attention all the time, it´s like relentless. And when you sit between the paravan extends and you´re listening to KREATOR all day it´s - it fucking hurts, I tell you.
Ok, ok. It´s fucking intense, I guess.
Yeah, it is. Six weeks of that. That´s the worst German torture that´s happening in the past 50 years, put it that way. (laughing and watching the torture chamber in the Hamburg Dungeon). So, it is hard work. It is. I enjoy it, else I won´t do it. But I do find it very hard work, and I can say to everyone, to mix an album after six weeks of that, it´s the worst time to do it. Whenever I do a project I really try and take at least two weeks off before I get into the mix. And to get away from it, I don´t even listen to it. Then I´ll come back to it with fresh ears.
Did you have such a tight schedule this time?
Things are really running back to back usually and then certain people have got deadlines so I have to go elsewhere. This time I came over here to work here in Hamburg and then went back and just re-did the mixes. So it worked out for better in the end. But you always got labels, and you know they want to put it out in the fall because all tours are happening ´round then.
So, are you satisfied with "Enemy Of God"?
Yeah, I am very satisfied with it.
Ok. What do you think, what is your new turn to KREATOR?
Sorry?
Don´t you think that you influenced KREATOR in a certain way during the recording, or were they very strict with what they wanted to sound like?
I think, me and Mille work well together. We both were playing in bands back in the late eighties. I think we both understand this style of music very well. And I think the band´s idea is about this thrash. And while working we try hardly on this bitten, try this arrangement. And we both understand this style of music, so I think that´s why we work well together.
What was your approach to it? Did you want to have basic thrash idea to that?
Yeah, to me, KREATOR is a thrash band. From what I´m seeing and how I know the band. It wants to be fucking down-picking, it wants to be double-kicks, it wants to be screaming solos, it wants to be aggressive vocals, and to me that´s what people love about the band. Obviously they went for a more melodic sound for a little while, but I think this is where the band feels most comfortable, I think it´s what suits the band better, as well. Especially with this line-up, I think - the guys who are in the band, especially Ventor, I think his style is top when the heavier thrash is, that suits him better. To me, I think this is the direction they should go in. And as a producer that´s what I try to force them to do it.
Yes of course. The same time they have two guitar players who have such a wide range of music they are able to play. And on this album they both play this strict thrash thing and limit themselves.
Yeah I know. But that is what people want to hear.
Well.
Yeah. Totally. It would really damage a band if they start to go in another direction this sudden. I tell you this right: I first came to Germany in 1987. The fucking scene over here hasn´t changed one bit since then. I´ve done tours round Germany for years. And every time I come back here it´s the same old faces, same people in the crowd, same haircut, same jackets you see, same patches on the jackets. This is the way German metal is. I´m not criticising it. I love it, because it keeps me in business. It´s the way you Germans are, and I mean it´s great, because you haven´t followed any trends.
And it´s not like in England.
Oh, England... Everything, the scene is the Kerrang magazine: England, it´s so influenced by what´s in the media. Well you know, if you play metal, you´re always safe when you go to Germany.That´s good, it´s great. Apparently, KREATOR - what album is this, is it eleven? Twelve? Whatever. Why should they invent new sounds now?
They did.
Yes they did. And I don´t think it was successful for them. You know, a few people liked it, you´re one, another one is over there (pointing at one of the tortured figures behind him).
But people want fucking down-picking guitars, they want double-bass jolts and screaming solos and they want Mille. That´s what people want at this band. You´re not gonna break any new band with this style of music anymore. There is a sort of thrash thing coming back, and it´ll never gonna be as big as it was back in the days, but there is a resurgence in it. We haven´t made a thrash album for the sake of that, it´s just gone where the bands heart is. It´s what Mille understands. That´s what I understand. And it´s what we wanted to do. We wanted to take what we´ve got with the last album "Violent Revolution", sort of one step further with the thrash stuff. Screaming solos, you know? Screaming vocals, double-kicks. You can´t get wrong.
That´s what this album is about.
I think this is the right thing to do. You might disagree, but I think it´s the right thing to do.
I totally agree. Last question, which artist did you like most to work with in general?
I had some good times in the states actually. The STUCK MOJO guys are always good fun to work with. Rich, the guitar player, you´ve got the best mate in him. I was the best man at his wedding. I did a PISSING RAZORS album in El Paso, Texas. And EXODUS, well, Gary Holt is off the hook, he is so funny. He´s mad. He lives in a cartoon. When you´re going on an EXODUS album, you don´t know if you´re coming back from it. Well, EXODUS I would say, that was good fun.
