SCORPIONS Frontman: 'We Don't Want To Be An Artist Of Yesterday'

Marko Syrjälä of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with SCORPIONS frontman Klaus Meine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal-Rules.com: Here we are again talking about the new SCORPIONS album which is titled "Humanity - Hour 1". After a few listen I would say that this album presents something what you haven't done before. I mean, there are lots of modern elements and different songwriting on this album. You now had a lot of outside composers like Desmond Child and Marti Fredriksen working with you, what's the reason for such big changes this time?

Meine: We wanted to make an album that was up to date, with a more modern sound to it without losing the SCORPIONS signature and I think it's still there. A lot of people feel it's a very good connection between the typical SCORPIONS sound but in a new way. It wasn't so much that we were trying to experiment; we still wanted a SCORPIONS record but not so much a classic rock album like going back to the old days, the '80s. We really wanted a record that would sound like 2007. I think in the end, we have something very powerful between the music and the lyrics and everything. This is because it's a musical collaboration not only with Desmond Child as producer/songwriter but also with some of the best writers in rock music like Eric Bazilian, Marti Frederiksen and some more. People that we have worked with before; we're back in the old family in a way. But this time, it's not so much, "This is my song, this is your song," this album is much more of collaboration, a huge pool of creativity where we all had the same goal. We wanted to make a powerful record and not only focus on a cheap hit single. This was much more in the old-fashioned way; let's hope in the end we have this nice body of work with no weak parts. And that's a tough goal to achieve, but that's what we wanted to do.

Metal-Rules.com: After all these years was it difficult to a record that way, with so many people around?

Meine: Yes, but I think after so many years it's good to get some fresh blood. We've been doing that the last couple of years but nothing like this. We started to open up and having other people work with us and we thought it was a really good philosophy to open up. It's also important that you see how people see the band from the outside and with Desmond, he wanted us on the next level in our career because we've been doing this for so long. We can't write songs any more like "Bad Boys Running Wild", you know? It's stupid now. We used to put these fun songs out there and rock them like crazy, and it's fun. But to be serious and write songs about boys chasing girls…there's a new generation of musicians and they should do that. We should find something else, what we want to say and how people listen to us. Since we're not changed we're in a way that people expect we build a bridge with our music and make a connection. We don't want to send a message with a finger up in the air, this is not what it's about. We want to entertain the audience and make a kickass rock album, but at the same time we try to avoid stupid lyrics and try to bring something in that has a deep meaning and it will grow when people listen to it and bring their own interpretations about the songs and their meanings.

Metal-Rules.com: This album sounds almost opposite to "Unbreakable 2" which was kind of "back-to-the-roots" album?

Meine: You see, was "Unbreakable" really like that? It was successful in many ways because we gave a lot of respect back and a lot street-credit back from the old fans. Some people had thought SCORPIONS turned into a ballad band. We had some very powerful and successful ballads but we are not a ballad band, we are a rock band. This album was to show that the stinger is still sharp. We like to rock and what we want to do is rock the audience so in that respect the album was a success. For every rock band on this planet in days of downloading and the Internet, the whole record industry is going through a big change. So you have to do something that is more than just a couple songs you throw in there. You try something with humanity with a global theme; we're really trying to make something with more depth, it's much more powerful that way. When you look at what's going on and with traveling the world…we've played some concerts in the Middle East and we see when we play in front of the pyramids in Cairo that these people aren't any different that the people in Israel. In the world of emotions and music people act very much the same. We try to make this connection and connect people with the SCORPIONS sound.

Metal-Rules.com: Like you just said you won a lot of respect back from your old fans with "Unbreakable". Wasn't it a kind of risk to change the direction again when you remember what happened in the past with album "Eye II Eye"?

Meine: Yes, but this isn't "Eye II Eye" and we've learned our lesson from that album. It's not a bad album but it's not what SCORPIONS are about. There might be people out there who cannot find the SCORPIONS they want to hear in this new album. That may be true, I don't know. But what we want to do is to move on with our career, we don't want to be an artist of yesterday, because it would be the easiest thing to keep touring, keep playing the good old hits and play from the '70s, '80s and '90s without playing new records. That would be easy. We would save a lot of money, energy and time. This kind of production takes us about 6 months to a year to make a new record like this when you make a real professional and good record. This isn't some home production recorded in the basement. It would be very easy to not do new albums and just live with the old hits. The difference is we want to still be in this kind of circle of touring and recording and just being artists. You want to be taken seriously for what you are doing and not become a caricature of yourself. So you want to be taken seriously as an artist and that's why are trying to move ahead. We had some great albums in the '80s and the fans can listen to those but we cannot simply come out with another "Blackout" or "Dynamite" so we move on. This is not about finding a new audience it's about following the road from what we did with "Unbreakable" along with something that has a new approach and a powerful, up-to-date sound with songs that are simply great!

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.