HELLOWEEN vocalist Andi Deris spoke to Canada’s The Metal Voice about how he takes care of his singing voice, particularly as he and his bandmates prepare to release their new album, “Giants & Monsters”. Andi said: “Well, I consider myself not living unhealthy except my cigar consumption. But one death you have to die. (Laughs) Put it that way: it’s less destructive than chainsmoking normal cigarettes, because (when you smoke cigarettes) you inhale, it’s ending up in your lungs, whereas a cigar, you don’t take in unhealthy fumes. So, for me, it’s got the big advantage that certainly my vocal cords are not as stressed as they used to be, because, sure, when you come offstage after a two-hour or three-hour show and then you smoke another 10 cigarettes, we all know what happens with your vocal cords. I mean, they don’t really celebrate this. (Laughs) So now it’s much cooler. I mean, I’ve got, like, two and a half, maybe even three halftones easier to sing up there without being scared each and every night if I still can do it — because of smoking. So it was a stupid habit. But loving cigars or loving tobacco, I’m fine with cigars now. I don’t miss cigarettes. That’s cool.”

When interviewer Alan Dixon noted that Deris‘s voice on “Giants & Monsters” sounds like it did “20 years ago”, Andi — who lives in Tenerife, the largest of the Spanish Canary Islands — said: “Well, when you record here on the island, you’ve got the salt water. I don’t smoke anymore, so this gave me immediately, as I told you, two and a half, three tones. That makes a lot of difference. And in another 15 years from now, I’m probably using A.I. (Laughs)”