In 1989, Roland Grapow replaced Kai Hansen in the legendary Power Metal band Helloween. For 12 years, his guitar work and writing helped shape several great albums including "The Dark Ride", "Better Than Raw", and "Master of Rings". In 2001, Roland and drummer Uli Kusch formed "Masterplan" with power vocalist Jorn Lande, and have since gone on to write their own chapter in the history of the great Metal bands. I had the pleasure of speaking to Roland from his studio in Slovakia. Here is the text version of the interview.
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LoudTrax.com Hi Roland, it’s a great pleasure to interview you having been a fan since the first listen of "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" all the way to the new "Time to be King" album.
Tell us about the new Masterplan album “Time To Be King”. From the early concepts of what the album would be, to the writing and then recording process.
Roland Grapow Well maybe let’s go a little bit back to the past when we had a different singer in the band, Mike DiMeo on the MK II album. I was getting a little bit frustrated on the tour supporting Saxon for 50 shows in Europe. So after a while, Mike found out that I wasn’t really happy and he left the band because he thought the magic was not there really, especially live. The album was pretty cool still though.
So I contacted Jorn again. It took quite a while to convince Jorn to come back to the band. He was somehow realizing something was missing in his career as well. A lot of people were going to his solo shows but were telling him “your great but why did you leave Masterplan?”. The same thing happened to us, fans were asking why Jorn left the band. We were looking at each other and there was still a lot of talking and agreements that we can continue together on the right level. Because we shouldn’t make the same mistakes as in the past. For example we had some disagreements about direction.
When we finally start working together, Christmas one and half years ago, there was fresh material written. Jorn had a couple of ideas and Axel the keyboard player had some as well. But I wrote everything fresh because I wanted to be inspired by the new situation. And so I was very happy and enthusiastic writing stuff and we had a great working and songwriting period for about 3-4 months. Then we found the material we liked and we had written 14 songs. At the end we had just recorded 12, so we had 2 songs cut out. The whole recording process was really 1 year honestly but with many many breaks because I am producing bands in my studio here. I’m getting quite famous here in the east part of Europe as a producer and a lot of people want the guitar and production sound of Masterplan, and saying they worked with the ex-Helloween guy . It’s quite exciting for these little bands. Making some extra cash and experience which is really nice and I’m happy to get into this producing, mixing and mastering business as well.
So that means we did not work for 1 year on the album because of the bands recording here and we worked around it. Finally the delay of the release was my mistake because on one side, the lyrics weren’t finished by Jorn, and on the other side I had bands booked in the studio for 6 months before. And we couldn’t finish the Masterplan album so everything was delayed. That’s why the album came out I would say 4-5 months later than expected.
So that’s more or less the recording and creation process of the album. Everything was recorded in Slovakia in my home studio. Everyone came here. Everything was really relaxed. I like to have many breaks during the recording cause normally you make an album in 2-3 months with no break. But it’s beautiful to come back you know after 6 weeks not listening to your own band and thinking “wow we did some good work a few months ago”.
LoudTrax.com You're able to get a fresh perspective….
Roland Grapow Yes. You get a new way of judging when you’re listening to your own new songs so many times and recording it and mixing it. I think you’re not honest to yourself and I think that ‘til the end I felt we had really strong material and I felt really good about the whole thing.
LoudTrax.com Did you guys jam as a band often throughout that time?
Roland Grapow No no no. that’s the old way, 70s style. It’s 20 years I don’t do that any more. I think the last time we rehearsed for an album was probably the "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" album honestly.
LoudTrax.com How important was it for the band to have vocalist Jorn Lande back in Masterplan?
Roland Grapow Like I said I was very inspired. I was feeling like the Masterplan camp was back. Not because of anything against Mike Di Meo. He’s a great signer and a nice guy but the chemistry between Jorn and us is special. The German power melodic writing with the Helloween influence and experience I have with Jorn from Norway. It’s quite an interesting kind of magical relationship. I think whatever we touch sounds great.
Even in Europe they have some younger bands that’s trying to copy our style, which I think is not possible. It sounds easy what we’re doing, it sounds so melodic, nothing spectacular, we didn’t make a new style. But I think how we’re doing it is pretty unique from my experience of the Helloween years and working with producers like Roy Z and Andy Sneap. I also take care of the whole thing. I am not the boss or anything, but let’s say the “engine of the band”. I don’t like when something is slipping away from the direction. You need some vision. Maybe it was coincidence that on the first album we made it right and I don’t want to change it anymore. I want to deliver quality. People can say you know what they want, but for me it’s quality what I am delivering. You hear one song of Masterplan and you’ll know it’s Masterplan. Thru the production and the vocals of Jorn.
LoudTrax.com Is he still working on his solo career after this Masterplan album?
Roland Grapow Yes I think he just released an album one month ago. It’s a bit sad with Dio passing and Jorn made a tribute album to him before it happened. He mixed it the end of January. He really wanted to make a tribute just for him. He wrote one song for him which is not a cover song. The lyrics are to say thanks to him because he was a huge influence on him. Jorn’s biggest idols are Dio, and Coverdale. It’s so sad that he just passed away and Jorn is coming out with this album.
LoudTrax.com You have been through numerous band member changes in your career. In your 12 ½ years with Helloween, there was a vocal and drummer change. In Masterplan, there have been several line up changes. How do you deal with that and what is the hardest part of that reality?
Roland Grapow The hardest part is always how to treat these situations and to find new people. In Helloween, I think to be honest no one could replace Michael Kiske. I don’t even think they searched for someone who tries to imitate his sound. That’s why they chose Andi Deris. Honestly I didn’t choose him, it was Michael Weitkah’s decision. But when Ingo was getting sick and we had to replace a drummer it was tough. Ingo had his amazing nice style for the band. He was a great drummer and a nice guy. He was very important for the band as well.
Later when Uli came, he was not a writer at the beginning, but later on the "Better than Raw" album he started writing and was getting really good with the help of the band of course. On "The Dark Ride" also he wrote one of the best songs (Mr. Torture). But I have to be honest, the band and the producer also helped him. And in Masterplan the same, Uli wrote one of the best songs with my help. “Soul Burn” was perfect he wrote the intro verses bridge, I wrote the solo parts and chorus. I think the team work was getting important for Masterplan. You know I don’t care anymore if I write the songs or how many I write or if I write it alone. I just want the best result. I think the quality is the main key and not the ego problem. The ego is just for yourself you can keep it home. Your fans want to hear good stuff and it’s possible when you get the help of the other guys in the band as well. Masterplan is so open minded now we also have outside writers. Since the last album we have one writer who wrote “Lost and Gone”.
On this album, I didn’t ask for help, but people sent us material. One guy was Carl Johan Grimmark from the band Narnia from Sweden. He wrote a great song for Masterplan, so why not take it? That’s all about teamwork and deciding what is good for the band, that’s how I see myself. I see myself a little bit as an outside person from a record label choosing the songs for the band.
So getting back to the question….When Uli left the band it was a kind of a difficult situation because he was not only the drummer, he was a good songwriter and it was very difficult. I am very happy that our keyboard player Axel Mackenrott is getting more and more involved with the writing. Axel is now totally filling the shoes of Uli and he has a very familiar style of writing that I love so much and it’s very important for the band. All the best songs on the new album are co-written by Axel ie: “Time to be King”, Blue Europa”, The melody on the top and the lyrics are from Jorn. Guitar works and solos are from me, so it’s all about the chemistry between the band.
LoudTrax.com Any plans for a Masterplan Tour? Is North America part of the plan?
Roland Grapow I hate this question honestly! The tour plans we have and are pretty real now. We had a meeting 3 weeks ago and we planned to have a tour in Europe in November for 25 shows. Would be a package tour from AFM Records bands. It’s quite difficult times at the moment and we want to be sure that we won’t be losing money and we want to be on the safer places getting a lot of people to the shows. It’s easier when you have some good bands together. Masterplan will headline and AFM is supporting and making a lot of efforts on the marketing end.
We have some dates and invitations from Japan already. North America would be just a dream. Masterplan never played in America. I have to be honest, there are just 2 continents I never played in, Australia and US/Canada. So I feel really ashamed about, I had big dreams about coming to Canada and I know there’s some great metal people there always telling me that there’s a great scene. It’s always about the financial problem to come there and the whole creating a tour in America is quite difficult for Masterplan.
The new album is very successful here. In Germany, reached the Top 20 and Sweden Top 15, and not the Metal charts, the pop charts which is quite amazing I think.
So it’s really nice to see this and if we can hit just a little fraction of that in America would be amazing to get a chance to play there would be a dream for me and for Jorn as well. Canada of course is quite high on my list of places to play.
LoudTrax.com I saw Gamma Ray open for Helloween a few years ago and during the final encore, Kai Hansen and both bands shared the stage and performed classics together. From a fan’s point, it was cool to see. Would you welcome a tour with Helloween or do you prefer to keep that as part of the past?
Roland Grapow I’m not sure it would be fitting honestly because Helloween fans and Gamma Ray fans are more or less the same. Masterplan, we have some elements which are of course very close to Helloween, more on the first album than now. I’m not searching for this kind of comparison anymore.
If the management of Helloween would say let’s try something, maybe Gamma Ray and Masterplan together. All the ex members somehow involved, then still Uli Kusch should be there… I wouldn’t say no depends on the kind of conditions. Depends if Jorn would like the idea cause I can’t arrange something without his approval. I think he wouldn’t like the idea so much.
I would more appreciate really the members of Helloween making togther something special. They have their 25 year anniversary, but that’s gone, maybe on the 30 years with Kai and Uli. That would be cool I wouldn’t mind.
LoudTrax.com You mentioned before about working with several young new bands. Are there any new artists that have caught your attention in the last few years?
Roland Grapow Many bands actually. Some of them are more Thrash bands. I’m a big fan of the production of Andy Sneap. Every band he’s doing, I check out! I’m really into his sound and his work. He just worked on the new Accept and Exodus album, and of course with Testament. But also a guy name Colin Richardson. This guy’s amazing, he worked with Bullet for my Valentine which I like.
Bands coming here always bring CDs and ask for a specific sound and so I get to check out many bands. There’s a band that I like which was mixed Caliban, that’s pretty cool.
I’m a big Rammstien fan. I love this band. The only band I am always buying CDs and getting all the DVDs. 5 weeks ago I went to Budapest to watch their show. I saw them in Hamburg as well and went backstage with them and was it amazing.
LoudTrax.com Did you get their special boxset with their unique “pieces”!?
Roland Grapow No no lol I heard about it. I’m more into the music. Lol.
LoudTrax.com We were speaking about producers before and one of my favorite producers is Roy Z. From the Bruce Dickinson albums to the Halford albums, to Helloween’s “The Dark Ride”. I noticed you still keep in touch with him. What was it like working with him?
Roland Grapow To be honest I had many many great experiences with all the producers. Just Tommy Hansen alone is great. I learned from everyone. From Michael Wagner who mixed the "Chameleon" and Chris Tsangarides producing the "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" album.
And everyone was great, but then fuckin’ Roy came into the picture… he changed my life man! This guy is incredible. He is not the “engineer” producer, he’s just the animator, he’s creating the songs, and makes the songs better. He forces you work on your pre-production again and again. He tells you “this is not finished, do it again”. He’s inspiring you all the time, and he’s also very critical. I remember Andi Deris had written all the lyrics and thought everything was done and Roy said “No, do everything again, not strong enough, English is not good enough, etc…”
"The Dark Ride" album changed my life totally. I think the sound of Masterplan is basically based on "The Dark Ride experience" I had with Roy Z. First, and then Andy Sneap taking it one step further because he was the producer of our first 2 albums and I still have a friendship with him. So he showed me many tricks about guitar and drum recording, mixing and mastering, editing.
The secret of Roy Z is to inspire people and to give them good feelings, give them examples, to talk about the music, to analyze the music. I think Roy has an incredible good ear on the Dark Ride. Especially on my sound, he changed my guitar technique. He said to me “go back to your own style before you were in Helloween”. He said “I liked your style when you were 22”. Then when I joined Helloween, I tried to be the clone of Yngwie Malmsteen and that was my biggest mistake. Some people still love what I did in Helloween. But basically I am more happy now with my own style and Roy was a big part of it and we’re still friends.
Before the album came out he heard it and he wrote me a nice email saying he liked it very much and thought it was a great job and wished me luck with the album. We’re still in contact but so close anymore.
LoudTrax.com It’s quite something to see someone who was relatively young change the sound of established artists. For example, when you listen to the Dickinson, Halford and Helloween albums that Roy Z produced, there’s one common sound which is the ROY Z sound and that’s quite impressive.
Roland Grapow Yes but like I said the band has to be open. Roy didn’t have an easy a time with the Judas Priest album I heard. The solo artists are always open, they want something more modern and Roy is the perfect man for it.
Helloween at that time with the management decided we wanted to try something new, something Dark. Then Roy came with the down tuning, I never heard about that done with our type of band. I heard about it with bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. At first I was worried about it, but now I’m a big fan of all these bands. He told us to be open that it’s our job. In the beginning, I did not like those type of bands because they are so far away from my style, and now I love them. I actually don’t listen to much Power metal at all! You never should get old and stay open minded.
When you incorporate that you get a kind of melodic power metal with the darker and heavier guitar sounds.
That’s what I wanted. Bands like Testatment have also achieved that with Andy Sneap and that’s why I called him. I like the work he did on the Blaze album and then I checked out some bands he did.
LoudTrax.com Thanks for taking the time to interview LoudTrax.com. The World’s first Rock, Metal, Punk download site.
Roland Grapow Thanks for the nice interview.
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