ANDI DERIS Is The MVP Of HELLOWEEN's Historic Reunion: 'It's Incredible What We've Achieved By Sticking Together'

By David E. Gehlke

HELLOWEEN's expanded North American itinerary this spring is emblematic of how well their reunion with Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske is going. Sure, the septet is now an arena act in Asia, Europe and South America, territories that are far more generous toward their brand of power metal, but it's not quite the same story in North America. After abandoning the continent for nearly all of the '90s and parts of the '00s, HELLOWEEN's approach to live shows over here was the definition of "selective." It's hard to find fault with the Germans for such an approach. Touring North America, for European bands accustomed to playing in front of far larger crowds on their home turf, has rarely been an appealing or financially sound prospect. HELLOWEEN simply followed what the market dictated, focusing mainly on US major markets: Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

Now, in 2026, HELLOWEEN is arguably bigger than they were at their "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" peak in the late 1980s and continue to ride the wave of goodwill from not only the Hansen and Kiske reunion, but also 2021's sterling "Helloween" LP and last year's just-as-sterling "Giants & Monsters". None of this would be possible, though, without co-lead singer Andi Deris, whose 1994 entrance into the band (in place of Kiske) brought HELLOWEEN back to life at its lowest point. Deris continues to receive heaps of praise for his role in the reunion as the ego-less frontman willing to make room for his predecessor. He also has a unique perspective on HELLOWEEN's long, winding journey, which was top-of-mind when BLABBERMOUTH.NET caught up with him from his Tenerife, Spain homebase.

Blabbermouth: Do you recall the first time you played in the U.S.?

Andi: "My first time was the New Music Seminar in New York in 1991. I was with PINK CREAM 69. They had all the up-and-coming or interesting bands from all over the world, and we went there with DIE TOTEN HOSEN. [Laughs] From German to English, it means 'The dead pants' or 'dead trousers.' [Laughs] They are super-big in Germany. Last year, they got their seventh number one album in Germany."

Blabbermouth: Okay, then, your first HELLOWEEN show here had to be in 1998, right? That was at Coney Island High in New York City.

Andi: "You may be right! I thought we were here for 'The Time Of The Oath' album, but I think you're right since the first time we played in Latin America was 1996 for the Monsters Of Rock in São Paulo. Some ban, I think it was MEGADETH, they couldn't play, so they gave us a call three days before: 'Would you like to play the Monsters Of Rock? It will be four or five shows.' 'Okay. Yeah, let's do it!' We went to the rehearsal room since we were off the stage for three weeks and were working on a new album. We went over there, and it was fantastic. No one knew what to expect when we hit the stage — it was our first time in the country. We started with 'We Burn', which is the opening song from 'The Time Of The Oath'. I remember us looking at each other, going, 'What the fuck!' We couldn't hear ourselves because of the people. It was super-amazing."

Blabbermouth: Do you remember those first U.S. shows with HELLOWEEN?

Andi: "It was very stressful. We played little clubs. I do remember this one club, it's called The Tree, and in the middle of the stage, there was a big tree. [Laughs] It's exactly where I'm positioned. I took it with a lot of humor. I thought, 'Okay, you have to build it in the show.' Yeah, I remember back in the days, there were 200 or sometimes 700 people if we were lucky. The great exception was L.A. at the House Of Blues on the Sunset Strip. That was packed, and I was super-grateful. I thought, 'Okay, maybe we have a future there and should say hello more often.' Which we then did."

Blabbermouth: Thinking about all of the work that went into rebuilding the band when "Master Of The Rings" came out, was the United States even a consideration when you joined in 1994?

Andi: "Honestly, no. We were completely preoccupied with the rest of the world. 'Master Of The Rings' went platinum in Japan and Korea. Asia was big for us. Suddenly, we were touring there for a month, then you played for a few months in Europe. Back then, we had been 'successful,' yes, but we still played the big clubs and mid-sized concert halls. We had 150 shows in Europe and Asia. We now play 30 shows in Europe, and the smallest concert hall has a capacity of 10,000. You have many fewer concerts and much bigger stages, which, for all old farts as we are, is the way to go. [Laughs] I still feel young. We would not like to go through that treadmill."

Blabbermouth: But you did it.

Andi: "I'm saying it now in retrospect because I'm a lazy fuck now. I'm super-spoiled by touring and the big concert halls everywhere. The U.S. and Canada — Canada is here and there — there are good concert halls, but nothing in comparison with the rest of the world. Michael Kiske goes into the concert hall and looks at the size and everything, 'Oh, but that's not as big as yesterday. How big is this?' 'It's got 10,000 tickets sold, Michael.' 'Oh, really. We had 15,000 or whatever.' I'm like, 'You little fuck!' [Laughs] Honestly, it's much more luxurious. It's much bigger than we started. That's why I'm saying it. I think if you're not used to it, we'd come anyway. If we only played clubs for 500 people, we would come because our fans want us. That's what we understand. Back then, we played for those crowds, and you fought your way up. That's part of the game. If I had not lived through the last seven, eight years where we are touring the big halls and in the five-star bullshit hotels, which I don't actually like, but that's the way it goes, then I would not know it, and I would not miss it. I loved the way it was before. I never had a problem with touring. The only downside is that if you have a family and you're gone for three months, it's super heavy for everyone staying at home. Sometimes you're a little bit sad when on tour, but most of the time you have so much stress, positive and negative, you don't have time to think about it."

Blabbermouth: Your son is older now. Has that made it easier?

Andi: "He's in his 30s. Last year, he had more touring than I did because he's the tour manager for PALEFACE SWISS. They've been doing what we did back in the day, going through all the clubs, mid-sized concert halls. Yeah, they live it."

Blabbermouth: Does he like it?

Andi: "I'm not sure if he's happy because he's artistic. He jumped into management, my management, and got a chance to earn some bucks there. Sooner or later, he was good enough to do the tour managing thing. Honestly, I think this is a love / hate thing. Yes, he loves being out there and doing the tour management stuff, but at the same time, he misses being in the studio writing and onstage. He's too much of a musician."

Blabbermouth: For this year's North American tour, are you using the same setlist as the European dates?

Andi: "Basically, it's the same set, with 20 minutes over, which, so to speak, if we are happy, we will change some songs. I don't know if we have double and triple shows as we had in Europe. When you play three nights the same show, or two nights the same show, you should give the people something different."

Blabbermouth: How does it all work now in terms of getting songs into the set? Do you choose them and bring them to the guys? Does everyone bring in their ideas?

Andi: "We decide as a band. We have a band list, a management list and a fan list. [Laughs] It's always 50 percent the same."

Blabbermouth: What made you dig "Hey Lord!" back out?

Andi: "I loved that song from the beginning. We played it a lot. It was a single, and everything was fine with that song, unless you overdo it and have to play it over three world tours. It was too much then. At the end of the day, we broke at four with the song. Then we were surprised that, after all these new albums, after 'Better Than Raw', the fans put it on the A-list. Here we go again."

Blabbermouth: I brought "Hey Lord!" up because you've talked extensively about how great it has been to have Kiske singing his songs, so you don't have to do them. "Hey Lord!" sounds like it's one of the harder songs to sing from your era. Is that true?

Andi: "I can do it now easily because Michael is singing all of his super-demanding stuff. [Laughs] I know what I'm talking about because I had to sing it! My voice is more relaxed and there for my own stuff. A singer has one or two main techniques. Switching techniques during a song or concert is the most demanding bullshit for every singer. There are those singers with a big, breathy voice who can do everything, which is great, and they can do it. The problem is when you push everything with the breast voice, your technique will be gone, and you need a day or two to relax until your technique voice is back. I'm a mediocre, average guy. I have the same problem as everyone out there. I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to find a way to sing my stuff differently to be capable of serving sufficiently for Michael's songs. It was always a mix of enjoying myself and not enjoying myself too much, because I had to think about the technique. At heart, I'm a rock and roller; I want to sing and have fun. For years, it was hard work. When Michael came back to the band, I was relieved. Now I could have fun again and concentrate on my songs. I'm super happy that he's there. Honestly, he's happy that I'm there. He's got his breaks too!"

Blabbermouth: One of the overlooked aspects of the reunion is that Kai is playing all of your songs. Did you have to teach him how to play your songs on the guitar? What's that been like?

Andi: "I'm one of those experimental guitarists. I've always been that way. Back in the day, the first song I wrote for PINK CREAM 69 was the opener from the debut, 'Take Those Tears'. Everyone gave me shit in the musical community: 'You cannot do that. It's a tritone! It's not doable.' When I distorted it, bent it and added some vibrato, it sounded fantastic. I remember back in the day, I had arguments with my own guitarist. I showed him the riff. I was completely, 'What the fuck are you talking about?' It sounded great. He goes, 'I can't do that. It's not allowed.' 'What is not allowed?' Even more when it's not allowed, I'm going to do it. Nowadays, bands like DEFTONES live off of it. These certain things you have to show people. They wouldn't realize how it was supposed to be. It only sounds right when you bend it with lots of vibrato. George Lynch [DOKKEN] made a lot of money with that."

Blabbermouth: Kai seems to really get into playing your songs, like "Perfect Gentleman".

Andi: "Yeah, that's a really funny song. He was a super-fan from the beginning of 'Perfect Gentleman'. I met him when I was with Weiki [guitarist Michael Weikath] at a club in Hamburg. Kai was walking in, and for the first time, I had a chance to say hello to Kai Hansen. Weiki was still not comfortable because they had this stupid trouble going on. Nevertheless, we were sitting at the table, and no one knew what to say. [Laughs] But there we were, and sooner or later, we talked about music, and Kai said, 'By the way, I like the new album very much. I love 'Perfect Gentleman'. I thought, 'Wow, okay, cool.' And a few decades later, he's standing onstage next to me playing that song."

Blabbermouth: You didn't meet Kai beforehand?

Andi: "No. I had seen him lots of times because I was always hanging out with Weiki each and every night because we were the 'nocturnal animals.' We never went to bed before five o'clock in the morning. I drove him home and drove back to my apartment. The next day, when he was having his coffee at two or three in the afternoon, he was showing up in the studio again: 'Yeah, okay, what are we doing tonight?' He was my best buddy and still is. Back in the day, he was my lifesaver. I was super-bored. As a nocturnal animal, with a band that liked to get up at 6 or 7 in the morning, I was the lonesome rider. When I got to know Weiki back in the day, I thought, 'Finally, an idiot like me!' And he's a Leo like me. When he faces me, I look in the mirror and see myself. It was a funny time. That's why I always hung out with Weiki. I saw Kai Hansen many times, and I also saw Michael Kiske, but I never had a conversation with either of them. It was just, 'Hi.' When I would pick Weiki up from the rehearsal room or the studio, I knew the guys only by recognizing them, but I never had a word with them, which has changed a lot. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: You mentioned before that you hate rules in music. That sounds applicable to Weiki as well if you listen to his songs. Is that part of why you two are such a good fit?

Andi: "When we're together, and occasionally we'll write a song here and there, it's always a good match. The great thing is that even though we are in the same ballpark, he is far left and I'm far right. No politics here! But we are far away from each other, but in the same ballpark. It's very important; otherwise, you would have that typical band with one or two great songs, and the rest is boring. There are these one or two song wonders, and if you really hope for a career, you should be capable of diversifying a little bit here and there. Sometimes even more. When times changed, for example, when grunge hit, I said, 'Okay, we're not going to jump onto the train, but there will be one or two songs where we say hello to grunge.' When the nu metal time began, I said, 'We don't jump on the train, but we have our two songs saying hello.' It was the right decision. You don't piss off your fans, and you have new listeners. It worked. Back to the theme: It only works when enough people are connecting to certain styles of music. If there's only one songwriter in the band, the longevity will be three albums max, history says."

Blabbermouth: The reunion with Kai and Kiske has gone better than imagined. As any other band, musician, or manager pulled you aside and asked, "Hey, Andi, how did you get it to work with HELLOWEEN? What's your secret?"

Andi: "Not that directly. In little conversations here and there, they always come up with, 'Ah, this is something we could also do, but I think it's not possible."

Blabbermouth: You knew as well as anyone that it appeared for a long time that there was too much between Weiki and Kiske for this ever to work.

Andi: "The funny thing is that I know both sides. I stand in the middle. I heard the stories from Weiki. After the first world tour with Kiske, I sat down with Weiki in our favorite bar here in Tenerife, and sooner or later, I told him, 'Look, I know your story. Now I've listened to Michael several times as well. Where's the truth?' And Weiki looked at me, 'You know you're old enough to know that we are sometimes little idiots.' [Laughs] Funnily, that was pretty much what Kiske told me, in a sense. The record company [Noise Records] stuff was the initial bullshit. When a record company was suing you, as it happened to them, and everyone was looking for the guilty party or the responsible one, I think sometimes they thought, 'Weiki is the responsible one.' Then it was Michael or even Kai. I think a band breaks apart because of that. That's sort of what happened. The first guy who pulled the plug was Kai. When I talked to Kai, it was pretty clear that it was unbearable for him. He wanted to get out. It wasn't the touring or the music: it was the inability to be together and have that 'ghost' over you, that big, black cloud, and it was unbearable. Nobody was actually responsible."

Blabbermouth: It will be interesting to see if other bands with a career like yours try to do something similar. Maybe it only works for HELLOWEEN.

Andi: "Maybe it's because we're old enough to do it. That's what I think. Honestly, I was an asshole compared to who I am now. I'm a small asshole now, but back then, I was a big one. This is for everyone. In our younger years, we were probably worse in everything negative. We've been much worse than we are now. We're a bit older now, and things have leveled out. There's more balance, more focus on what matters. Okay, some people never learn, but I hope normal people are heading in that direction: Who am I? What do I want? What should I focus on? Not on 20 different parties, but on this and that, and be content with what you have now. Don't go crazy with your thoughts like, 'I want to conquer the world' or own a skyscraper or 20 Ferraris. That's all so unimportant, but we've all learned that as we've gotten older. I think that's what's happened to everyone. Luckily, everyone stayed in the game. I guess that's the conclusion. Everyone went through roughly the same lessons, and when you finally get a chance to start as strongly as we did, you probably feel grateful and look at each other with big smiles, saying, 'It's incredible what we've achieved by sticking together.'"

Photo credit: Mathias Bothor