In 2020 ‘Metal Commando’ came out. Of course that was in the middle of the covid-19 crisis, so what actually happened with that album? What could you do?
Nothing (laughs). No, that was the sad thing, we could not tour. With ‘Metal Commando’ we had never had the chance to play one song live after the album came out, but now we did last year the Metal Hammer Paradise in November and last weekend in Spain. We played ‘Hear Me Calling’ and it was working fine, but of course we need to play and rehearse these songs in the rehearsal studio to check out how we are going combining new songs from the new album ‘Code Red’ and from ‘Metal Commando’ and of course from the older albums. It is not so easy to pick a setlist now; but we are always finding it out in the rehearsal studio how things are working, because sometimes songs work when playing them live and sometimes they don’t. It really depends. Some songs we have to adapt a little bit in the rehearsal studio and that is what we are going to find out soon before we are going to do a tour in September.

The album is compared with a phoenix, rising from the ashes. How do you see that?
From the ashes of the pandemic maybe yes. I mean, we are positive people. Musicians are let’s say 90% positive persons. Whatever something happens, we only think about the good things. Making the best thing out of it and that is what happened. I can speak for myself. In the pandemic I said: ‘well, what can I do? I have two options. I can sit there and being depressive or be creative and write stuff.’ So first of all I bought new studio gear and this was anyway inspiring for me. I got brand new stuff with brand new saddles, it is really kicking my butt to ride and that is what I did. So coincidentally that happened during the pandemic and I was very creative. I still have many songs from that era. I am happy that I really bought the stuff and I am so creative now since I have it. And I had the time during the pandemic, so that was what I made out of that time.

I guess sometimes it made you think about things and you could do things you never did before because it was always a rollercoaster… Now it was time I think to be a little bit reflective…
Yes absolutely. It is a struggle anyway. With or without the pandemic, you always have to be very positive about the future, because you don’t have a regular income. You are struggling always, in the end that keeps you going. I mean, because if you make a living out of your passion, sometimes people think all of a sudden the passion is changing into a must. Luckily it did not happen to me. I still have that very hungry person in me to create music from my inner conviction without having the feeling that I have to do it. No, it is always there, because I love to do it.

I think ‘Code Red’ is more than ever about the situation in the world today. Can you go a bit deeper into that?
Absolutely, yes. ‘Code Red’ is somehow a condition we are not happy with, so we are of course being critic on this album here and there, but we also have some positive sparks here and there, because we want… like I said, we are positive people, but we don’t want to lift our fingers and make the world a better place. We count on that anyway, but maybe we have the chance to kick some people’s minds and make them think about what is happening. If you listen to ‘Cancel Culture’ for instance, the entire way of discussing with each other is without respect nowadays. The world does not accept another opinion without cancelling it out somebody being rude or aggressive and that is pretty much what came up since these social media world was born. People are somehow writing things anonymous and think they can really pour out their darkest soul bashing other people, which is… I think we have to learn to be respectful with each other again. Like I said, I don’t want to be a teacher or somebody who is knowing everything, I will never say that I am a person without mistakes, and that is exactly what I miss from other persons too, to admit that I could be a person who wasn’t right and I apologize and that is what I am missing nowadays. We are talking a bit about that on the album, especially in ‘Cancel Culture’. Same shit in ‘Another Hero’. This song – and also ‘Cancel Culture’ – those songs were written in the pandemic time and got nothing to do with actual situation with Russia, just to make sure and clear that it is not somehow written down for one person. It is really common situation. We don’t blame or we don’t want to point our fingers to one person or one side or one country, whatever… it has been critical thinking about what’s happening all around the globe now. It is really condition code red. We are really close to a big bang and that is difficult, right?