MASTERPLAN's ROLAND GRAPOW Talks To myRockworld (Audio)

December 29, 2013

On October 13, myRockworld conducted an interview with MASTERPLAN guitarist Roland Grapow. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

MASTERPLAN's new album, "Novum Initium", was released in Europe on June 14 and in North America on June 18 via AFM Records.

Joining guitarist Roland Grapow (ex-HELLOWEEN) in MASTERPLAN's new lineup are drummer Martin "Marthus" Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH),vocalist Rick Altzi (AT VANCE, SANDALINAS, THUNDERSTONE),who replaced Jorn Lande, and bassist Jari Kainulainen (STRATOVARIUS, SYMFONIA, DEVIL'S TRAIN).

In a recent interview with Metal Shock Finland, Grapow stated about the band's new CD: "We are not leaving the MASTERPLAN path too much, but everything we have — the melodic part and a little bit progressive — I would say we're a little bit more powerful and I'm also mixing the album this time. I want to get a little bit more modern, as the sound we have was created ten years ago. We're still having the typical sound with melodies, but the drummer is amazing and plays a lot of crazy shit!"

Speaking to Myglobalmind, Grapow said about MASTERPLAN's numerous personnel shuffles: "I think that it's basically hard to explain why we always had singer changes. When we started MASTERPLAN with Jorn [Lande], a lot of people had warned me to be careful saying that he was very difficult. That he was never happy or satisfied with things. I think that the only thing that he really was concentrated on was trading on a solo career called JORN. Everything else for him was just a side project; he never saw MASTERPLAN as his main band. It was especially bad for me as I had put so much love, work and so much feeling for this band. I had given everything to make the band big. Jorn never did anything for us for this band. He never even said anything great about MASTERPLAN. That is not nice; you need a really good team behind you which loves this work. It's the same as a company — if someone is not dedicated totally 100%, it doesn't matter what a great voice he has. You stay on the same level, but now with a totally different lineup, we have a really big chance of getting further now. We can play live again. That just wasn't happening for about six years, which was quite terrible, to be honest."

MASTERPLAN's new lineup:

Rick Altzi - vocals
Roland Grapow - guitars
Axel Mackenrott - keyboards
Jari Kainulainen - bass
Martin "Marthus" Skaroupka - drums

Professionally filmed video footage of MASTERPLAN performing the song "Soulburn" on July 13 at the Masters Of Rock festival in Vizovice, Czech Republic can be seen below.

Interview (audio):

"Soulburn" performance at Masters Of Rock festival:

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