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Herman Rarebell
a été le batteur des Scorps de 1977 à
1996, et si il a depuis été remplacé
avec brio par James Kottak il n’en reste pas moins pour
beaucoup de fans de « véritable »
batteur du groupe. La sortie de son nouvel album au printemps
prochain, avec un nom évocateur, I’m back, et
sa récente apparition avec les scorps lors du Wacken
en août dernier sont l’occasion de s’entretenir
avec le très sympathique Herman « Ze »
German !
Interview
réalisée par Gegers.
Entretiens téléphoniques réalisés
les 30 novembre et 11 décembre 2006.
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You’re going to release a new album next spring.
- Yes. People
can already hear some songs on my Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/HermanRarebell)
.I’ve had a lot of fun doing this new album and what
is happening is that I will release this album in spring next
year, maybe in march. I’m talking right now to some major
record companies, but at the same time the album will be available
through my website (http://www.hermanrarebell.com).
The album will be completed after Christmas, and some songs
will be posted on my website before the album is released,
so that people will be able to listen to the album before
they buy it.
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With all your projects (Art meets music, Drum Legends…),
why did you find the need to compose a new solo album ?
- First of
all I did not write all the songs of the album. I produced
everything but I worked with different writers and composers.
I asked some people I knew in the music business if they had
songs to propose me, and then I worked on the production,
on the arrangements in order to make a good up-to-date modern
rock album. You know I’ve been a rocker all my love,
hard rock is what I do best, and I hope I did it well on this
album. I didn’t want to make an album with that typical
80’s sound, I really wanted to have something modern.
- This album
is really good ! How did you manage to have the « old »
Herman and the « new » Herman fit together ?
-Well
I think a song like Heya heya perfectly shows that evolution :
a good heavy rock track with a modern sound, this is really
what I like to do now. What is your favourite song of the
album ?
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The whole album is really good, but I would say that my favourite
is Backattack, or I’m back. |
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- I’m
really happy because for the moment all the people who listened
to the album liked it very much, it’s really great !
-What are the
songs you wrote for that album ?
- I wrote one
song 6 or 7 months ago called I’m back, cause I felt
it was the time for me to come back in the music business.
There’s also Wipeout, which I wrote in the 80’s
but which didn’t appear on my solo albums at the time
and which will be a bonus track on my new CD. And then I decided
to search for songs and I met several really good songwriters
, that’s why my main function on the album is producer
and drummer, and also singer, on 3 songs of the album (Take
it as it comes, Heya Heya and Rock you like a hurricane).
The other singer is Stefan Erz.
- Your wife
plays saxophone on 6 songs of the album , which is not
a « typical » hardrock instrument. Was
it easy to integrate it in the songs ?
- Yeah that was a real great challenge but I thought saxophone
would really bring something to the songs. It gives a special
vibe and atmosphere to the songs, it’s really great to
have it ! We did a great achievement with the saxophone
on Rock you like a hurricane, you now it calms down the song
before the stormy chorus break through.
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How did you have that idea to make that rap version of Rock
you like a hurricane ?
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- I looked at it and I said
to myself « What can I do with this song ? »
I really wanted to give a modern touch to it. That’s
why I decided to speak it, to rap it, to give it a modern
touch, and only the chorus remain the same that in the original
version. I also integrated lyrics from Blackout, Now and Dynamite
in that song, because all those lyrics really fit together.
I really had a lot of fun doing it. I am really looking forward
the reaction of the Scorpions fans on my album, cause you
know their opinion really mean something to me.
- You were
scheduled to play some shows in France last summer, which
were cancelled later on. What happened ?
- Yes I had
contacts with a promoter who wanted me to play some shows
in France. I was okay but I asked him to give me half of the
money before the tour so that I could pay my musicians and
stuff. No money ever came, I never had confirmation about
the shows, and when my lawyer tried to contact this company,
it did not exist anymore ! That’s the reason why
I didn’t come to France. But when the album is released
I will try to see if there is any possibility to come, but
I need to have offers from promoters so I don’t know
for the moment how will things turn out.
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- What about touring with the Scorpions, because they are
also going to release an album next year ?
- It might be fun right.
The idea we have for the moment is to make a few « Wacken »
next year in America, and I would join them on stage. Another
possibility would be that I could support them on some dates
wih my own band, I could play before them or with them.
We got to discuss about that, but as you know they are quite
busy for the moment.
- What can
you tell me about your autobiography ?
- For the moment you can
only have the book in German. In the bok I tell my complete
life from the beginning until the day I joined the Scorpions,
I describe of course my 20 years with the Scorpions how
we became big in America and stuff, and then I tell of course
about my life after the Scorpions. I think it’s a very
good biography of my life so far.
- You just
said « my life so far ». Does it mean
that you have a lot of plans for the future ?
- For the moment I just have
one plan, which is to finish this album, and then to go
on tour again, because music is all my life ! Writing
music, composing music, recording music and touring music,
this is what I do best !
- Touring
seems really important for you.
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- You know, after 20 years with the Scorpions, with tours
which sometimes were two years long, like the Crazy world
tour, I didn’t want to go touring anymore. I was really
fed up with touring. And now, after being ten years off the
road, it’s time to go back on the road and play for people
again. My philosophy has always been very simple : If
you have nothing to say just stay home and say nothing !
If you have something to say, just go out, open your mouth
and say it ! And I really feel like now I got something
to say again.
-Maybe we could talk now about your
Scorpions period. You didn’t play on the album Pure instinct,
but do you remember that French TV show called Taratata, in
which you played two songs from Pure instinct ?
- Ah Taratata ! It was
a great show, and it was my last show with the Scorpions.
My contract with the Scorpions was not running at the time
anymore, and I was not the studio drummer on the album, but
it was a favour of mine to play with them, cause the album
needed to be promoted. So I said to the guys that I would
really like to play my last show with them in this French
TV show. We didn’t want to separate in a bad feeling
you know, cause then you meet the people again and you have
to look in their eyes. But they understood that for me it
was time to do something else. But at the time I lived in
France as you know so I was really happy to play my really
last show there.
- What do you
think of that album ?
- I think it’s a terrible
album. It’s definitely not real Scorpions. They chose
another direction and it made a big flop.
- The main
reason why you left the band was that you were fed up with
touring right ?
- Well yes I didn’t want
to tour anymore. At the time when we approached Face the heat
it was clear for me that the band needed to make a break instead
of releasing album after album, and I really needed to make
a change. And you know, some months before we had already
stopped writing songs together, Klaus and Rudolf were writing
on their own, so I said to myself that if nobody missed my
creativity in the band why should I stay ? Let’s
go and do something new.
- Why didn’t
you take part in the songwriting process of the Face the heat
album ?
- Well it might be hard to
believe but nobody asked me anymore if I would participate
in writing songs and lyrics, it looked like Klaus and Rudolf
didn’t need me anymore.
- Before that,
there were 3 major songwriters in the band : Klaus, Rudolf
and you. How was the songwriting process organized at the
time ?
- Well as you know I brought
many songs to the band and also album names such as Animal
magnetism or Blackout, all the lyrics simply came out of my
brain like that you know. Lyrics of Loving you Sunday morning,
Rock you like a hurricane were really a combination of the
team Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine and Herman Rarebell. We
were a really creative team and suddenly after 1992 nobody
asked me to participate again, I was simply left out. I was
really surprised you know, but well we are still really good
friends today, which is the most important thing.
- What is according
to you the best song you wrote while you were in the Scorpions ?
- Rock you like a hurricane.
These are definitely the best lyrics I wrote.
- Most lyrics
you wrote in the Scorps were about sex. Was your Scorpions
time an embodiement of the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll
motto ?
- Well, I didn’t leave
anything out you know. I had a great rock life and I enjoyed
every second of it. But the drugs were not as strong as nowadays,
and there were a lot of people around which never cheated
me so yes, it was a good time !
- In what bands
did you play before you joined the Scorpions ?
- In fact I
was living in England before I joined them, I was working
as a studio musician, and one day I met Michael Schenker who
told me that his brother’s band was looking for a drummer.
So I went to do an audition, we played several times together,
and after a couple of days they just told me they would be
happy to have me in the band. And so less than a week after
the audition I flew to Germany. I joined the band on the 18th
May 1977.
- Do you remember
the first concert you played with them ?
- The first concert I played
with them was in Germany I remember. The concert was not so
good because there were a lot of technical problems and everybody
was nervous. The first real big shows we played were in ’78
in Japan.
- How did you
feel before going on stage and playing in front of so many
people ?
- I really had a funny feeling,
and a big pain in the stomach ! And then you get used
to that because after all this is all I wanted, to play in
front of many people ! And then it became more and more
people over the years.
- Do you remember
the concert you played in Paris Bercy in 1984, during which
Klaus lost his voice while singing Always somewhere ?
- It was an unbelievable feeling
to see and hear the crowd singing the song so loud, I think
I cried on stage that night. It really touched me. It was
really a unique moment which you can never forget, it was
so amazing !
- What is the
strangest thing which happened to you while you were in the
Scorps ?
- Well I remember
when once in a hotel a guy put a gun on my head, made me sit
down on my knees, then he made me listen to his music on a
tape recorder and ordered me to produce it, it was really
a horrible moment. This is a story I won’t forget.
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- In an interview from 2004, Klaus said
that you were a really good songwriter and that it might not
be impossible that you wrote new songs together. What do you
think ?
- Well yeah, it would be really
good to do something together again, but they have to ask
me.
- What was
the feeling during the Wacken concert ?
- It was a really good feeling,
after all these years for me it was really like coming back
to your family. I think we should do concerts like that more
often, cause it was real good fun, and you know the feeling
was also good with James and Pawel. We just came on stage
and had fun all together. It really motivated us I think to
do other shows like that in the future, and maybe even to
write and record songs together. And then maybe we could let
the fans decide, wether they prefer the old Scorpions or the
new Scorpions. It’s very simple to find out. But the
Scorps are in a good form now, they’re recording with
Desmond Child who’s a really talented guy, and I hope
they will be able to write the next hit together.
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©
Scorpions / Wacken |
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- What did you think of Unbreakable ?
- I listened to it, and I think
that finally it was an album in the good direction again, because
as you know I didn’t like Pure Instinct, and I didn’t
like at all Eye to eye, I can’t even listen to that album
till the end, and then came out Unbreakable which is in the
good direction but still, where is Dynamite, where is Rock you
like a hurricane, where is Blackout ?
- Still about
the Wacken concert, was it a long time you hadn’t seen
Michael and Uli ?
- It was 8 or 9 years I hadn’t
seen Michael, but he played in Munich just before the Wacken,
so we met there and had a couple of beers, and he told me that
he was looking forward seeing me again in Wacken, and so we
met the day before the Wacken for a rehearsal.
- How was the
mood during that rehearsal ?
- Incredibly good ! We were
all happy to see each other after all these years, everybody
got drunk in the hotel, it was really good. I hope that in 2007
the management from the Scorpions and although the record company
will organize another event like that, because it would be really
good for the fans.
- You seem to
be in good relations with James Kottak, who replaced you in
the scorps.
- I really like James Kottak,
I put him into the band. It was my suggestion to Rudolf to hire
James, cause I had seen him on the Kingdom Come tour 1988. I
told Rudolf that James would be a good drummer for them, cause
he could do everything I was doing. In fact I needed somebody
who could copy me, and who could play very heavy, and he was
the closest one to my style, cause the band wanted to have someone
who played the song like I played them before. In fact James
had to listen to my stuff, in order to copy me, and then he
put his own style in the songs as well. And it was also me who
had put Ralph Rieckermann in the band in 1992,
- To conclude,
what would you say to your French fans ?
- I look very much forward to
meet all of you on the road, and to rock you like a hurricane
again. Please check out my website and my music, I really look
forward to play in your country again !
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