Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Vienna / Gasometer / Austria
Interview date: November 14, 2014
In 2004, Freddy Scherer jumped ship from the Swiss hard rock outfit China to his far more popular countrymen in Gotthard, filling the second guitar slot after Mandy Meyer (Unisonic, Krokus) left Gotthard. Before Gotthard’s show in Vienna on November 14, 2014, Freddy took a few minutes for RockLine too and chatted with us about his musical path and Gotthard’s studio album “Bang!”. The conversation also turned to new singer Nico Maeder and the impact he’s had in the spot once held by the unforgettable Steve Lee,…
RockLine: How happy are you with how the current tour is going, and how are your fans reacting in different corners of the world?
Freddy: Gotthard enjoy different levels of popularity in different parts of the world. Our biggest fan base is in Germany, at home in Switzerland and in Spain. In Finland, say, and in Scandinavia in general, our fan base isn’t that big anymore. So touring can be pretty tough at times, because you have to adapt individual shows. It happens that we play smaller venues for smaller crowds. That obviously can’t happen in Germany or Switzerland, and it won’t happen tonight either, when we play here in Vienna, Austria. Anyway, we don’t stress about where we play and where we don’t. We love playing everywhere, wherever they invite us, even if it’s the last godforsaken place somewhere in Russia. We’ll get there too, as long as the costs are covered. We’d love to play everywhere, but that’s impossible because of financial limits. Still, we’ve covered even South America, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Japan…
RockLine: What can you tell us about the new album »Bang!«? What was the writing and recording process like, and how have the critics received it?
Freddy: The reviews have been very positive, way better than for its predecessor »Firebirth«. Even in the United Kingdom, where they’re always super critical and picky and where it’s always tough to break through, we got very good reviews. That’s proof we’re on the right track and doing things the right way. It opens doors to stages, new tours and winning new fans. All of that drives us forward and keeps our hearts full of momentum, positive vibes and good spirits.
RockLine: Does Nic Maeder, your newest member and singer, also get involved in writing the new material for »Bang«?
Freddy: Yes, yes, absolutely. The whole »Bang!« album was written by the three of us. Leo (Leo Leoni, guitarist, ed. note), Nick Maeder, vocals, ed. note) and me. In perfect balance. Each of us contributed roughly a third of the new songs to the album.
RockLine: With so many albums under your belt, I assume putting together the live set gives you quite a few headaches?
Freddy: Yes, that’s true. It can often be a problem for us. Our goal is to showcase our new studio album as much as possible with Nic in the lineup, but on the other side there are our fans, who always want to hear our old classics. A compromise between the two, the best of both worlds. Songs like Anytime, Anywhere, all the signature ballads of our career, etc…
RockLine: I’m curious how it came about that Gotthard, who were already a big name by then, approached you and asked you to join. When and how did that happen?
Freddy: I’ve known the guys in the band personally for a very long time, since the band’s earliest days. Twenty-three years ago we already played together at a New Year’s party. That was in 1991, at some rock club in Switzerland. But we only shared a stage. Nothing more. After that I played in other bands and worked on other projects. Among others, I played in China, that’s my previous band. Then came 2004, when I was completely idle musically. And right that year the phone rang and it was the Gotthard guys calling me. They decided to do that after Mandy (Armand “Mandy” Meyer, otherwise guitarist of Krokus and Unisonic, ed. note) left their ranks. From my home in Zurich to Lugano, where Gotthard rehearse, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive. I went down there on the band’s invitation. Totally relaxed, no expectations. I jumped into a jam and the guys liked what they heard. That was it. Except on my first Gotthard album, »Lipservice«, I didn’t contribute any writing ideas, and then on every album after that more and more. More and more of my ideas came to life and ended up on the albums that followed. With us it works like this: when we write, there’s no set rule. It doesn’t matter who brings a musical idea that we then build songs on. If it’s good, we use it, otherwise we don’t. We try out every single idea that Leo, Nick or I bring in. It’s not hard to feel when something is going to catch fire.
RockLine: How do you and Leo decide who plays which guitar parts in each song?
Freddy: Half of it between us just happens naturally, on a spontaneous pattern. The rest we sort out depending on who comes up with a certain motif, a transition, or who gets the idea for it. That person usually ends up playing it. Same goes for the solos. But it’s never like one of us dominates. We split the work. When it comes to playing the songs, the guitar work is balanced.
RockLine: So there’s some creative energy flowing between you and Leo, some kind of chemistry, a sixth sense… How would you explain it?
Freddy: Yes. For example, I played with my band at Leo’s 30th birthday party. We jammed together. It’s not like we’re constantly seeing each other and playing together at jams. Things like that happen two or three times a year. And then it just flows. It flows freely and new songs and ideas start to emerge.
RockLine: How seriously did you in Gotthard think about calling it a day after your previous singer Steve Lee tragically passed away in 2010?
Freddy: First, all of us asked ourselves whether we still love playing music. The answer was yes. And considering how much effort had gone into everything Gotthard had done and achieved over the years, and after many conversations among the four of us who were left, we decided to carry on. Also, given how well we know and understand each other, it would have been a shame to stop. But everything depended on whether we could find the right singer to sing in Steve Lee’s place.
RockLine: Where did you look for singers? Just in Switzerland?
Freddy: Everywhere.
RockLine: Nic Maeder has an incredibly similar voice to Steve Lee’s, and it’s unbelievable that you found such a fitting replacement right at home in Switzerland.
Freddy: We didn’t want to get a new Steve Lee, but we did want him to be Swiss. So, the best rock singer Switzerland has to offer right now. Nic is an outstanding singer and a great character too. Sometimes he really does sound incredibly like Steve Lee, but his vocal approach definitely has its own charisma, its own character. The main thing was that we all agreed on the choice. We all liked Nic as a vocalist right away. At moments he sounds similar to Steve Lee, but by no means too much. But he was definitely the closest to Lee out of everyone invited to the audition.
RockLine: And what’s next, after this tour?
Freddy: We play the last show on December 21, 2014 in Germany. Then there’s a month off, we get together at the end of January and figure out where to go from there. I know we’ve already confirmed a slot at the Masters of Rock festival in the Czech Republic, and we’re also planning to hit the summer festivals in Europe. But we have to sit down together over a couple of dinners and thoroughly work out what we in Gotthard will be doing next year. After New Year’s, of course.
RockLine: On December 21, 2014, your last show, in the German city of Karlsruhe, there’s an interesting festival coming up, since you’re playing alongside Edguy, among others?
Freddy: True. It’s going to be an interesting weekend. Metal-flavored. On top of that, Leo and I have a gig lined up the very same day as an acoustic duo on a Swiss national radio show. It’s a charity performance, the money is being raised for good causes. We’ll play three or four songs for Swiss national radio.
RockLine: Do you keep up with what’s happening on the rock scene these days?
Freddy: Yes. Not exactly every day, but I’m curious. I’m well informed through the internet, music magazines, rock radio. There are lots of promising young bands, and when you hear them on the radio, you wish you could hear them live one day too. What’s especially interesting is chatting with those young musicians, say eighteen or nineteen years old, particularly about how they themselves perceive music, how they understand and translate the rock heritage. Whether they sound more retro, like some Led Zeppelin, or they’re more metal-charged, etc….
RockLine: When did it hit you, back as a teenager, to grab a guitar and start playing rock’n’roll?
Freddy: It all started with AC/DC, which is why I bought my first guitar. But of course, here in Switzerland everybody plays football, and I was at a crossroads. Football or music. And I chose the latter, of course. Soon we had our first band together. We were still finding our way, so the bassist switched to drums and stuff like that. You’re still discovering and exploring your talents when you’re at the start of your career. But soon we were playing all over Switzerland. I was fifteen when we already released our first single.
RockLine: Freddy, thanks a lot for your precious time and a really interesting chat. Have a blast at tonight’s show here in Vienna!
Freddy: Thanks to you guys too, and I hope you enjoy our show!
You can read how the Gottthard show on November 14, 2014 in Vienna (Gasometer) went HERE!
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