{"id":39473,"date":"2014-04-19T20:02:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T01:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=39473"},"modified":"2014-05-24T07:33:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T12:33:03","slug":"interview-with-nic-maeder-of-gotthard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/interview-with-nic-maeder-of-gotthard\/","title":{"rendered":"Nic Maeder of Gotthard"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two years after the album Firebirth<\/em> marked the start of a new chapter in Gotthard\u2019s history after the tragic death of the band\u2019s lead singer Steve Lee in 2010, the Swiss hard rock act is back with its follow-up, Bang<\/em>. The album \u2014 preceded by a catchy single \u201cFeel What I Feel\u201d \u2014 and its release were mainly what Nic Maeder, Gotthard\u2019s current lead singer, talked in his recent short interview for Hardrock Haven. <\/p>\n

\"Gotthard<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Gotthard\u2019s new and largely anticipated album Bang has just seen the light of day. Can you tell us what are your personal highlights of this record?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: For us this is a very fresh-sounding album and one of the most varied Gotthard albums. Some of the highlights include \u201cThank You,\u201d an 11-minute song with an orchestra, \u201cMaybe,\u201d which is a duo with a female singer, \u201cC\u2019est La Vie,\u201d a ballad with an accordion, a great straight-up-in-your-face rock song \u201cGet Up \u2018N\u2019Move On\u201d … just to name a few.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: A mid-tempo rocker \u201cFeel What I Feel\u201d was chosen to be the first single from Bang<\/em>. Are there any reasons for such a choice?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: It was quite hard to decide which song should come out as first, as there isn\u2019t really one song that defines the album. With \u201cFeel What I Feel\u201d we felt that it had a good mix of rock and ballad, and also the low vocals in the verse were something different that the band had never done before.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Some reviewers are eager to compare Bang<\/em> with Lipservice<\/em>. How accurate do you think such comparisons are?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: I\u2019m not sure … maybe because of Ronald Prent\u2019s involvement some reviewers feel this. Personally, I don\u2019t really see it, but it\u2019s not a bad comparison, since Lipservice<\/em> was such a great album of the band.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What were the songs on Bang inspired by lyric-and-music-wise?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: Musically, it\u2019s hard to say as there are three main songwriters (me, Leo and Freddy) and the three of us bring in our ideas and mix them up until we\u2019re happy and then usually I will go and write the lyrics. This album is inspired by life, topics go from love to death.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: \u201cI Won\u2019t Look Down\u201d bears a resemblance to Zeppelin\u2019s \u201cKashmir.\u201d Is it deliberate or not?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: Not at all! But it\u2019s a funny, because a lot of people say that about that song because of the main riff \u2026 but in fact, if you listen to these two riffs side by side, they\u2019re nothing alike.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: There is one male\/female duo on the record, this with the American vocalist Melody Tibbits on \u201cMaybe.\u201d How did you hook up with Melody and can you tell us more about her?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: A friend of the bands suggested we try her out for some backing vocals and harmonies etc. And when she was recording her parts in \u201cMaybe,\u201d she accidentally sang on a part she was not supposed to and it sounded great! And so we thought we should try a duo, as her voice was mixing so well with mine. After hearing the finished version we all agreed that we should keep it that way. It was just a happy accident really as we never planned to make this song into a duo in the first place.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Bang<\/em> was co-produced by Leo Leoni and Charlie Bauerfeind (who worked previously with Blind Guardian, Helloween, HammerFall and Saxon \u2013 to name a few) and mastered by Ronald Prent (Scorpions, Def Leppard, Within Temptation etc.) How do you think these outward influences affected the sound on the album?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: I think they were all contributing factors. Leo is a bit more on the rock side and Charlie a bit more on the metal side, so the collaboration there really worked well. And then, mixing the album with Ronald really gave the album another dimension again. For us, the mix of all three people really had a great effect on this album. We\u2019re really happy with the result.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: The previous album Firebirth<\/em> was the first one to feature you on vocals, starting a whole new chapter in the band\u2019s history. What was the fans\u2019 initial reaction to the band\u2019s decision to continue after Steve Lee\u2019s tragic and premature death and what is their general approach to your new works now?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: We are very close to our fans and spend quite a lot of time talking to them. Most of the fans wanted the band to continue and are really happy that the band was able to go on. The support was incredible and we are very lucky to have this \u201cGotthard\u201d family behind us. Also the fans understood that nobody was ever trying to replace Steve, nobody ever could. This was a new chapter in the band\u2026 or sort of like a new book.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What are Gotthard\u2019s current plans?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: Now we\u2019ll be playing some festivals throughout the summer and start our big tour in mid-September through most of Europe, Japan and South America. <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n

Nic Maeder: Just that we\u2019re looking forward to seeing everyone on tour this year!<\/p>\n

Visit GOTTHARD online: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Gotthard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — Two years after the album Firebirth marked the start of a new chapter in Gotthard\u2019s history after the tragic death of the band\u2019s lead singer Steve Lee in 2010, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10850],"tags":[8941,9152,3495,203,9135],"class_list":{"0":"post-39473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcint2014","8":"tag-bang","9":"tag-firebirth","10":"tag-gotthard","11":"tag-interview","12":"tag-nic-maeder"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}