Europefans.de Interview with Mic Michaeli

Verfasst am: 11/5/2010, 20:34 Europefans.de Interview with Mic Michaeli

Interview with Mic Michaeli – Prague (February, 7th 2010)
(Kerstin Ohndorf and Stephanie Walter for [Dieser Link ist nur für registrierte Mitglieder sichtbar.])

Europefans.de: Last year in November you were touring together with the band Gotthard in Germany. What was your motivation to do this tour? Was it a decision of the band or management?

Mic: We got a question from our agents. We were interested in doing it. We thought it was a good idea because we felt somewhat that not that many people in Germany were aware of Europe being back together and doing tours. So we felt it was a good way for us to meet some new fans that we wouldn’t have met. We thought it was a good way for us to reach out, to broaden our German audience.

Europefans.de: How was your general feeling about it? (I know there were a lot of die-hard Gotthard fans in the audience to convince) Maybe it’s a bit different to play in front of people who might not be so excited to see you.

Mic: In a way it is. But still…you just have to work and win them over. I think we mangaged that in a few cases – in a lot of cases!

Europefans.de: The tour seems to be going very well for you. There were a couple of sold out shows and the other shows very nearly sold out. Since it’s the third tour after the reunion, do you notice a development in terms of more people coming to see your shows?

Mic: It’s slowly growing. With every tour we do attract more people. We’re sort of moving up also in the size of venues in some countries. It feels positive, it feels like we’re going in the right direction.

Europefans.de: What’s the most memorable event on this tour for you?

Mic: I think the most memorable events are what happens on stage usually and backstage, on the bus, in the hotels. And many of those things are unspeakable! (Laughs)

Europefans.de: So there are no secrets to reveal in front of us?

Mic: Uuuuum … (thinks, grinning all the time). I try to think of something later on!

Europefans.de: Until now your touring has been focused mainly on Europe and then later on you’re going to Japan and Taiwan. Are there any plans for a tour in North and South America or even Australia as some fans have been requesting on the official Europe forum?

Mic: We’re always open to look at possibilities to go to North and Sounth America and of course to Australia as well since we haven’t been there. That would really be a very cool thing to do.
In the United States the problem is – since they are so great – you have to spend lots of time there. Maybe a year of touring. That would affect our fans in Europe and the rest of the world. But we’re always looking for possibilities to do something there.

Europefans.de: Are you thinking of touring there together with some other artists?

Mic: That’s a possibility as well. But no concrete plans at the moment.

Europefans.de: One last question on touring: You’re going to play a whole bunch of festivals in Sweden this summer. Are you planning on playing any other festivals in Europe?

Mic: Yes, we are! I don’t remember right now where, but …

Europefans.de: Germany, maybe?

Mic: (Laughs) No, we haven’t confirmed anything, but it’s never too late! That’s also why we wanted to do this German tour to say »Hey, here we are! We’re a fantastic band. Bring us to your festivals!« ‘Cause that would be a really good thing to do. So we’re always looking for possibilities, but we also want to have a good enough slot to play. We’re always looking at it and hopefully something will come up.

Europefans.de: I got the impression that you prefer to work with people nowadays who really identify and put heart and soul in the band EUROPE. (e.g. your designer Dimitri Dimitriadis) Personally I think it’s a really good decision. So, what made you choose this way?

Mic: It’s just a thing that happens you know. We’ve been together for such a long time. We’ve worked with so many different people. And we feel that it’s so much nicer if you can have sort of a big, big, familiy. For example the crew. One of the crew members, the light guy, is with us since 1984. The rest of the guys also. More or less the same guys tour after tour. They are dedicated to the job and to this band as well. Which is fantastic! We really like to work with those people because we have the feeling they doing a better job, like each other and know the band. And Dimi – he was a fan from the beginning. So he’s done a tremendous job... working back and forth and... you know?

Europefans.de: It’s quite an an interesting cover.

Mic: Ah yeah? Interesting? Or….?

Europefans.de: Ah well, to be honest I didn’t like it to much at the beginning. But I liked the reactions it created.

Mic: Well…but we LOVED it! (Laughs)

Europefans.de: Since we are in Prague today and you’ve been working together with a Czech orchestra on Last Look at Eden: Can we expect to be seeing a live orchestra tonight?

Mic: No, no … (laughs) we can hardly fit our stuff on the stage! An orchestra would be out of the question. Unfortunately – but that would be a fun thing.

Europefans.de: Have you ever thought about doing a full show with a symphony orchestra? Maybe as a special show?

Mic: Well, we’ve been talking about it. But there are no real plans for it. We’ve been brainstorming about doing that, but it would definitely be a different thing than, for example, what Metallica have done and the Scorpions and lots of other bands. But I don’t think any of those projects have been any good. So we would do it slightly differently if we were to do it, but we’ll see about that. So many things to do and so little time!

Europefans.de: I read in an interview with you recently that you can’t read music and do everything by ear. Is that true?

Mic: Yes.

Europefans.de: So, considering, what was it like working with a full orchestra with a lot more and different instruments than in a rock band?

Mic: What I did was, I basically just recorded everything using a synthesizer, explaining »This is how it’s gonna sound there« (plays air-keyboard) and »Timpanis here« (plays air-timpanis) and all this different stuff. And then I’d send it to this guy -Tommy (Edit: Tommy Hansson) – who is a sort of mad genius – and he put all the notes down and everything. He would listen to what I did and came up with some ideas himself as well and he fixed the whole thing for the orchestra.

Europefans.de: And did you ever rehearse with the orchestra?

Mic: Actually not. Joey and I just went to Prague and Tommy was there, too, and he had a briefcase full of music. So they (Edit: the orchestra) just got the music, looked through it, tried a little bit, you know, and with every song they had to do it a few times before they logged them in. I mean, they are very good musicians so they can pick up all these things.

Europefans.de: Was this a kind of compensation for you since your keyboard-playing is a little more in the background on the rest of the album?

Mic: The idea from the start was to actually use keyboards for those parts. Then our producer (Edit: Tobias Lindell) had worked with an orchestra before, so he said »Why don’t we just take those arrangements and maybe do some more stuff with them and let a real orchestra play them instead.« So you could say that the orchestra took over my usual parts on those songs a little bit.

Europefans.de: What do you guys do with songs that don’t make it on an actual album? Are any of the songs on Last Look at Eden left overs maybe?

Mic: There was one of the songs that was a left over.

It hasn’t got a title. We have some tracks recorded, but not the vocals…that is not ready yet. So, we didn’t finish that one really.

Europefans.de: Maybe there is a chance that it will be on a future album then?

Mic: Maybe, maybe. We don’t know. But it’s a good track so we might do sth. with it. Maybe on the next album.

Europefans.de: Mic, are you involved in any other projects beside Europe at the moment? You did something with childrens music in the past if I remember correctly?

Mic: Yeah, I might do sth. similar to that. It’s a guy I know who writes books, he has been written childrens books. But know he is writing a novel for adults. And now he works on a huge trilogy about some guys, kids from school, forming a band together. With these books the idea is to maybe put out a CD with music. We might do it together, we have been talking about that. Well…. he is a good friend. So...it’s more like a, you know, a fun thing to do it together. Apart from that right now that is all the new work. Of course I am working on some songs for Europe.

Europefans.de: Well the novel sounds interesting…is it a novel about Europe? I mean…forming a band and tour….

Mic: Ah No, no (laughs) there is a girl in the band as well….girls and boys together....it has nothing to do with Europe.

Europefans.de: Where do you see the band in about 5 years?

Mic: Hmmm….I would say we are doing the same thing as we are doing now. Writing music, going to the studio, releasing a new album, go on tour….wirting music, new album, new tour....that’s what I see.

Europefans.de: Your fans are very passionate about the band. I’ve been reading a lot of posts on your official europetheband.com-forum and sometimes there are heated debates on certain matters and sometimes fans even harshly criticize you. Are you happy about the development of the internet, especially social communities, or are you sometimes fed up with it?

Mic: No! I think it’s a great thing, I really do. I think there should be room for all kinds of thoughts within the community of our forum. We respect the opinions of the persons (Edit: members?). If there’s someone just bugging people or just being nasty we just take him away, ‘cause that’s got nothing to do with it, but if there’s someone criticizing the band that’s fine, ‘cause there has to be room for critics.

Europefans.de: Do you check the forum frequently?

Mic: I think most of us do, actually. I mean we don’t get to throw in an answer that often, but sometimes we do.

Europefans.de: What do you think about the video clips from your live shows which can be found on Youtube and other websites? Do you see any problems in this or do you think it’s great when your fans share the experience of your shows online?

Mic: Yes, I think it’s great. We usually check those things ourselves! It’s always nice to see from the outside as well.

Europefans.de: Isn’t it weird for you that when you look at the audience nowadays all you see is cameras?

Mic: Yes, that is weird! In the old days it was lighters. When a slow song came on you raised a lighter – now you see the light from a camera or a mobile. It doesn’t look as cozy as in the old days! (Laughs)

But you know, most of the time this (Edit: the video clips) is really useless, because the sound is so bad. So, that’s a pity! And the boring thing is, it’s mainly The Final Countdown that’s recorded. That’s what everybody does. And it’s a boring thing to hear that song over and over again!

Europefans.de: Let’s stick with the internet for a while. There are a lot of possibilities for illegal music downloads on the web and some bands have tried to move against the tide of illegal downloading by either putting material on the web for their fans to download for free or asking them to pay as much as they felt like giving, e. g. Radiohead, who did that with an entire album (Edit: In Rainbows). Do you see yourself doing anything like this any time soon because you feel that record sales are going down in the wake of this »culture of sharing«?

Mic: Well, we’re looking into all these kinds of ways of getting people to hear our music. Still we so much like the idea of »having« ourselves, of having the real thing in our hand and looking through the cover and everything. We would probably still prefer to have vinyl, the real good old stuff, but we’re still gonna go for CDs. I think we’re just going to be stubborn and still release our stuff on CD, but we’re always thinking about different ways. Some of the songs we recorded live, we have on our website for people to download, but of course it costs money. Not a lot of money, though.
It’s an interesting thing what Radiohead did, I think, but nobody really knows if they actually made any money. (Edit: German magazine Stern (January 10th, 2008) reported
that 62 % of fans didn’t pay anything for the download. These figures have always been proclaimed as false by the band. No official sales figures have ever been released.)

Europefans.de: Do you have anything else to tell to your German fans on [Dieser Link ist nur für registrierte Mitglieder sichtbar.]

Mic: Alright! Hello! (Laughs) I like to say thanks to all our fans that joined us on our concerts in Germany last year. Hopefully we can come back and do some festivals. Or maybe come back and do a tour on our own next time. Hope to see you there. And spread the word! We are back! And we are….GOOD! !! ;-)