Michael Kiske feels ‘Chameleon’ album was like three guys making solo records under Helloween name
Michael Kiske feels ‘Chameleon’ album was like three guys making solo records under Helloween name
Helloween frontman Michael Kiske was recently interviewed by Eamon O’Neill for eonmusic. Kiske was promoting Helloween‘s new self-titled album, which was released earlier this month via Nuclear Blast Records and reached the #1 position on the German music charts.
Prior to rejoining Helloween in 2017, Kiske was in the band from 1986 to 1993 during which time he handled the lead vocals on the following studio albums: Keeper of The Seven Keys: Part I (1987), Keeper of The Seven Keys: Part II (1988), Pink Bubbles Go Ape (1991) and Chameleon (1993).
Kiske was asked about the intro to Pink Bubbles Go Ape to which he replied (with slight edits): “Ah, you mean the intro, ‘Pink Bubbles’?! I haven’t heard the record for ages. Now you mention it, it pops up in my mind what you’re talking about! I forgot about that! Yeah, it was a very crazy time, to be honest with you. The record has this title because that’s how we felt. When Kai [Hansen] left the band, the whole balance was gone. As a band, we were just not functioning really anymore. I won’t say that we wrote bad songs – not at all – even on ‘Chameleon’ there were good songs, but we were not a band anymore like we used to be, working together. I mean, on ‘Pink Bubbles’ we still did; on ‘Chameleon’, nothing like that anymore. It was like three guys making solo records under the name ‘Helloween’.”
In terms of his thoughts on the album Chameleon, Kiske indicated: “‘I Believe’ and ‘Longing’; those are my favourites on the album. It’s not a bad record, and it was very cool recorded. We had the NDR [Elbphilharmonie Orchestra], we had twenty-five people who were playing strings on ‘Longing’, and we had horns; it was not keyboards, it was really played.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Michael Kiske at eonmusic‘s website.
Helloween‘s “When The Sinner” video (from Chameleon album):