Pink Bubbles...No Troubles
(from Kerrang, February 1991)

Hairy Hamburg Heavies are with a new album and more ridiculous titles than you can shake a Fraulein Hardluckstory hairnet at.  What are we talking about?  Well, an album called `Pink Bubbles Go Ape' and a track called `Heavy Metal Hampsters' for a start...  So what does it all mean, if anyhting?  Buggered if we know - and neither does Dave Reynolds, who went all the way to a `small and cramped rock drinking den lit by thousands of tiny light bulbs of the type you normally decorate a Christmas tree with.'Cofused?  Singer Michael Kiske and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg will reveal all in due course.

     The view from my room in the SAS Plaza hotel would be considered a wet dream by train spotters.  At ground level, 20 floors below, lie the platforms of Hamburg's Dammtor station.  Express and suburban trains snake through this site every 15 to 20 seconds, it seems.
     But today Hamburg's skyline looks bleak.  It's slightly overcast and rain threathens.  Photo snapper Ray Palmer and I watch Madonna's cleavage vogueing its way across MTV before sometime Kerrang! and now Sanctuary (Helloween, Jagged Edge and, er... Iron Maiden management) man Howard Johnson summons us to meet Helloween down in the bar.  At the precise moment we arrive the four of the five band members present (Michael Weiketh is in London) are geting a real sob story from a middle aged woman who claims to have lost her baggage at Dammtor and needs 60 Marks to get wherever she's going.
     The gang of four (vocalist Michael Kiske, drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg, bassist Markus Grosskopf, and guitarist Roland Grapow) think about her situation for a few seconds before asking HoJo to hand her the required money when she promises to send every Pfennig of it back.  Something tells me, however, that Helloween, Mr. J, Sanctuary and (most disastrously) Rod Smallwood will never see the money again...
     Ray and I are in Hamburg because it is, of course, Helloween's home town, and more importantly, because the quintet are getting ready to unleash a brand new album - their first for EMI - curiously titled `Pink Bubbles Go Ape.'
     After watching Fraulein Hardluckstory wander off into the murk, we all pile into matching cream Mercedes cabs and head towards this little place Helloween know and love called Backstage, which turns out to be a bit of a rock drinking den decorated with picture discs and backstage passes, situated, by my reckoning, somewhere between the home of Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli.
     Backstage is small and cramped and lit by thousands of tiny light bulbs you normally decorate a Christmas tree with.  Ray doesn't seem too happy about the photo oppurtunities available but wisely says nothing and gets on with the job of setting up his equipment.  Kiske, Schwichtenberg and myself take seats in a dark corner and the tape begins to roll...

     Helloween's last vinyl excursion was the `Live in the UK' album recorded with former guitarist Kai Hansen and released in 1988.  Why has it taken Helloween so long to come up with a new studio album?
     Michael Kiske: "Basically because we didn't have any ideas..."
     "And because so many pink bubbles went ape!" adds Ingo cryptically.
     "Well, there were a number of very good reasons," continues Michael, laughing at Ingo's outburst.  "We got Roland in the band to replace Kai and it also took us quite some time to get Chris Tsangarides to produce the album. Chris was working with Judas Priest and they were traking longer and longer to finish their record."
     Ingo: "We were originally supposed to start recording in October 1989 but we actually didn't start until June last year (1990 -Chris).  It turned out to be worth the wait because Chris was a great guy to work with and we shared the same crazy sense of humour for a start."
     Michael: "We are very pleased at the way the album turned out.  I'd say it's the best sounding LP we've done. It's very real in sound.  Previous albums I've felt have been over-produced with all our energy taken away in the mix.  I like those albums but I'm much more happy with this one.  It's very raw but warm with it."
     I notice that this new release isn't a concept album like `Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I' and `...II.'
     Ingo: "Not at all..."
     Are you sick of concept albums?
     Michael: "Yes, but I'm also sick of listening to this new album in a way!  I've heard it so often I must have listened to it a million times now.  I much prefer to perform the songs live.  We passed the point long ago when we needed to go out and play them, so it's a frustrating time for us to all sit around waiting for the album to be released and the touring to start."
     Since `Live In The UK' was released you've made the move from Noise to EMI...
     "...which is another reason why things took so long with the management and record company dealings going on..."
     But it's a step in the right direction.
     "Oh yeah, and we're really looking forward to what happens.
     "I know with this record there won't be any distribution problems anywhere.  With `Keeper...Part II' we found ourselves playing in Italy and Spain to kids who didn't know any of the new songs in our set because they found it difficult to obtain the album, because Noise's distribution wasn't up to the same standard it was in Germany."
     On the plane coming over, Howard and myself read this ridiculous article in the Daily Mail about the current state of Heavy Metal and all the different subdivisions there are supposed to be within the genre (Guns N'Roses were described as Silver Needle Metal, for example!)  Just for fun how would the pair of you describe Helloween?
     "Jazz Hardcore Hip-Hop Funky Blues Thrashy Classical Neo Modern Futuristic Rock!" the duo scream in unison!
     Don't you think it's all a load of nonsense?
     Michael: "Sure, all a band does is start with a good idea and write songs with that idea or attitude in mind and it becomes succesfull.  Other people listen to what you're doing or, at least, they think you're doing.
     "You can either ignore them and not care about anything that's said - or you can listen to them and try to fulfill the expectations they have of you and go down hill.  And I know what I choose to do."
     Not so long ago Helloween were a band lumped in with the Thrash/Speed Metal brigade.  You've surely done your best to get out of that situation?
     "I don't think we've ever been there.  When I joined the band in 1986 I felt that the `Walls Of Jericho' album was a little too fast for me, but looking back, it's not that much faster then some of Deep Purple's stuff, and nobody calls Deep Purple a Speed Metal band.  We were just put into that corner.  The last tour we did in America with Anthrax and Exodus wasn't really the best way to present us, to be honest.  The previous your we did over there with Armored Saint and Grim Reaper was, though.
     "But I think that the new album is much harder than the `Keeper...' albums because there are some very up-tempo songs, and Roland has brought a heavy vibe into the band with his writing on a song like `Somebody's Crying' which is a fucking fast song."
     I have to admit that some parts of the album remind me of Queensryche - the lengthy `Mankind' for instance.
     Ingo: "Sure, I'd agree with you on that because a lot of other people have said that before now."
     Michael: "I think it's like Queensryche because it comes across all heavy and dark with a similar rhythm, but, overall I find the album to be pretty colorful... after all, there's some pink in the title!"
     What inspired such a odd choice for a title?  It's very abstract.  "I know.  It happened as a result of a phone call I made to Michael Weiketh.  We were fooling around trying to think of titles.
     "We didn't want a typically cliched Heavy Metal album title,  We didn't want anything that sounded strong or important so we decided to go for something really stupid. How about `Pink Bubbles?'  `Pink Bubbles Go Wild?'  `Pink Bubbles Go Nuts?'  `Pink Bubbles Go Ape?'  That was the one!
     "The odd thing is that it's not really as stupid when you really think about it, because it almost describes what's been happening to uswhen all our illusions have been shattered or our rose tinted spectacleshave been broken. Wake up!  This is reality!  It's like a part of growing up."
     Calling a song `Heavy Metal Hampsters' is pushing it a bit though!
     "Ah! But that's the story of the band!  Sure it was only written as a B-side to a future single just for fun. We just fooled around but the vibe was so cool and fresh."
     Ingo: "The thing about that song is that it was written during a time when things were a little uncertain for us. There's a line that says, `Where's the field to run for the Heavy Metal Hampsters?'  Where was the field for us to run to then...?"
     With `Pink Bubbles Go Ape' I can't help but feel that the band has just evolved from just being a German Metal band into more of an international band.  Helloween have reached that higher plateau.  Are you proud of that?
     "Why do you say that?"
     I just see it from the aspect that some kids in the UK and the States are bothered by the fact taht a band may come from Germany or Spain or someplace.  There's always been a somewhat cooler reception to many European bands.
     Michael: "I know what you mean.  I don't want to name names but there are some German bands I can't listen to. And as much as I love the Scorpions, you can still hear Klaus Meini's German accent in his singing which does bother some people.
     "I've been very lucky in so much as people don't really notice my accent in my singing although when I spoke to the crowd on the live album you could hear it pretty clearly!
     "I was born in Germany and I'm proud of it but I could've been born anywhere.  I've always liked British and American bands to German ones I must admit.
     "Maiden, Priest, and Aerosmith are my kind of bands. I'm influenced by international groups so perhaps it comes through in what we do."
     Helloween start their UK campaign this month with the release of `Kids of the Century' as the first single from the forthcoming album.  Why that particular track?
     Ingo: "We could've taken a different one but we really wanted to start with a very hard song because I think people were expecting us to put out the wimpiest, most commercial thing we could have come up with!"
     Michael: "It's heavy enough to get our energy across but it's not a real fast song.  It's somewhere in the middle with a groove."
     Will it widen your audience?
     Ingo: "Probably not - but the desire is there!"
     Helloween plan to tour Europe from the beginning of May which, of course, includes UK dates, before departing for the States and Japan.
     Oh, and if you were wondering, the legendary Helloween pumpkins remain although old band mascot Fangface is definetly dead as Ingo is only too willing to tell me.
     "I saw Fangface in the cellar of our old offices the other day.  I kicked the shit out of him!  Dush!  Bastard! He's dead.  I saw to it."
     There will, however, be no pumpkins on the cover of `Pink Bubbles Go Ape.'
     Michael: "It's the first photographed album cover we've had.  It depicts, amoungst other things, a beautiful woman,pink bubbles, a man, and a fish."
     Sounds meaningless as Ratt's `Reach For The Sky' artwork to me boys!  What does it mean?
     "I don't know!" Michael grins.  "It's just weird.  Just look at it and think what you like.  It's fun.  It's art..."

From Kerrang! #328 February 16, 1991.
Reprinted Without Permission (of course)
Typed in (painstakingly) by: Chris Skaryd

Back To Main Page