Right after the press conference of Scorpions and Alice Cooper at Public, two days after the show in OAKA all TV channels squeeze in a room to do video interviews. We follow a circle with the TV crews moving from one band member to the next. There is no time for a lot of questions. On the other hand, since most of the channels here are focusing on lifestyle shows we make Rudolf, Klaus and Pavel smile with our… music related questions! And… Go! Interview/Camera: Yiannis Dolas, Editing/Post Production: OneManArmy
Rockpages.gr: Back to Greece for another show, last time you were here you played before the biggest crowd ever at Kallimarmaro…
Rudolf Schenker: We love to play here. I have a picture here… the last photo from that show that shows… the Greek situation. Here (turns his phone to show the photo)…from last time.
Rockpages.gr: I was there!
Rudolf Schenker: See? And we had a fantastic time. It was a great concert, a great atmosphere, and we enjoyed it very much. And then when the pandemic was over, we said to our management: “as soon as possible we want to go to Athens again”, which was not so easy because in these days, the stages and everything, what you need for building up a show is not so easy to get anymore and very expensive.
But we made it happen. We have a great special guest Alice Cooper, which is our friends, we did many shows, America and in Russia together… and he’d like a friend of ours.
Rockpages.gr: How did you decide to change the lyrics of “Wind Of Change”?
Klaus Meine: Well, I just thought, when we started the tour in Las Vegas in March, that it’s not the time to romanticize Russia with lyrics like: “I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park” and I want to make a statement that we support Ukraine. And when you see this terrible war raging on in the heart of Europe, you know, it breaks your heart. It’s hard to believe this is happening in 2022. So, it was something to underline the feelings we have towards Ukraine, in support of Ukraine in this very difficult time.
Rockpages.gr: The song that opens “Rock Believer” is “Gas In The Tank”. How much more gas is there in the Scorpions’ tank?
Pawel Maciwoda: I have to tell you that the boys are much older than me, but they have lots of gas in the tank. I have to really work hard to keep up with it. So it’s a great challenge. Absolutely!
Klaus Meine: I mean, we played almost 30 shows now this year after two years break because of the pandemic. And I think there’s still a lot of gas in the tank. When you imagine that we went through the shows, we did in the US and all over Europe and all, it looks like there’s plenty of gas in the tank. Feels good.
Rockpages.gr: You’ve released several good albums in a row. What is your secret to achieve that?
Klaus Meine: You just follow your heart. You try to write a song that hopefully has the DNA of the Scorpions. That’s what we tried to achieve. And with “Rock Believer” I think it worked out very well.
Pawel Maciwoda: Well, we are all serious musicians and we do care about all the details. You know, that the good quality of music is within the details. When it comes to your sound, when it comes to your amplification, production and all this. So, from a technical point of view, it’s fun, but it’s also transferring the message through the lyrics. So, since the instrumental music connects with the lyrics… That’s what makes powerful songs. And Scorpions are masters of it. That’s why it’s a pleasure. And we are so creative, you know, like Alice mentioned, we never stop. We haven’t written our best song yet, so that’s what keeps us going. When it comes to the organic feeling of creation, it’s kind of the same. Look at AC/DC. Their songs didn’t change it’s the same all the time, the same with the Scorpions. It’s just evolving with a different configuration and different guitars maybe, or whatever. But the essence is the same and the core stays the same, which is great.
Rockpages.gr: What are the biggest threats for rock music nowadays?
Klaus Meine: Rock and roll and hard rock music survived so many threats. From punk to alternative, rap and hip hop. There’s a huge, hard and heavy community out there. And like we used to say, there are many rock believers around the world. They love hard rock, hard and heavy music. And we are proud that we’re part of that hard and heavy community.
We just played the Hellfest in France in front of 60-70 thousand die hard metal fans. So, that proves rock is not dead at all. And there’s a whole young generation that we see every other night in front of the stage and that’s great. You are rock believers, like we are.
