Andi Deris says guitar technology has let Helloween restore the original tunings they abandoned for live shows in the early 2000s.
Helloween spent years playing their catalogue a semitone below where it was written. Andi Deris says that has stopped.
The singer, who joined in 1994 as Michael Kiske‘s replacement and debuted on Master Of The Rings that year, explained the reasoning on Mr. Music‘s “Meet My Guest” podcast.
Deris said (via Blabbermouth): “Well, the majority of the songs we decided to detune half a tone down. I think from [2000’s] The Dark Ride on, we had these low tunes, like a half tone or even a full tone down. Back in the days it was not so easy technically. You would have to change the guitars again and again and again and again. So we said, ‘Okay, the compromise is we don’t play The Dark Ride drop D, but we find a middle way,’ and we just dropped down half a tone and we played everything half tone D. So The Dark Ride itself on stage was higher performed. But nowadays it’s much easier. Nowadays with the [technology], we go back to the normal tunings again. Because it’s just a push of a button and you are half tone lower, half tone higher. So now we are capable of playing everything in its original [tuning] again.”
The Dark Ride, released in 2000 and produced by Roy Z, remains the heaviest record in the band’s catalogue and the one that pushed them into lower tunings in the first place.
Asked whether he ever uses that button on a night when his voice is not cooperating, Deris ruled it out.
“Oh, no. You shouldn’t do that,” he replied. “Because during a, a tour, you are completely used to change your technique in between the songs. So when you suddenly push it down a half a tone, then the bridge to switch is lower as well, so you’re not doing yourself a favor. So it’s even worse, actually, because your routine is completely f**ked up then. So, no, we would never do that. If you would realize that, let’s say in front, a few weeks before the tour, that something is not fine with me or [current Helloween co-vocalist] Michael [Kiske], then you could decide to put everything one tone down and rehearse like that to get the routine to do that. But so far, thank to God, we never had to do that.”
The band have carried two lead singers since Kiske returned in 2016, with founder Kai Hansen, who sang on the first two releases before Kiske arrived, also taking parts.
“[Having more than one singer] helps a lot, because sharing means more luxury. Sharing means a little bit more breaks to calm down, so let Michael sing his song and I’m fine after five minutes again and can perform much better than if I would have to go on without a break. This is the luxury of two singers. Well, Michael always says we have two and a half singers. Yeah, but that’s pure luxury, actually. That’s pure luxury. And that probably gives us a free ticket to go on another 10 or 15 years even without pissing off the people because we can share. And in the rehearsal room you check it out, and you say, ‘Maybe the running order is not working because I need a break here. Otherwise, my voice is f**ked up,’ blah, blah, blah. All that s**t you can do because you have two singers [or] three singers,” Deris explained.
Helloween‘s most recent album, Giants & Monsters, arrived on August 29 last year through Reigning Phoenix Music. It is their seventeenth studio record, the second made by the current seven-piece and their first for the label. Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward produced it across studios in Fürth, Tenerife, Košice, Hamburg and Berlin, and it was mixed at Wisseloord in Hilversum, the Dutch facility used by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Def Leppard. Three singles preceded it: “This Is Tokyo” in June, “Universe (Gravity For Hearts)” in July and “A Little Is A Little Too Much” on release day.
The album launched a 40th anniversary world tour, with the European leg starting in mid-October.
The 2021 self-titled album was the first to feature the expanded lineup and reached the top ten in more than ten countries, including Germany, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. The band also released Live At Budokan on December 13, 2024, taken from their performance at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on September 16, 2023.
Helloween are Deris and Kiske on vocals, Kai Hansen on guitar and vocals, Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner on guitars, Markus Grosskopf on bass and Daniel Löble on drums.
