Featuring Dan Zimmerman,  the other half of Gamma Ray's epic song writing sword, Freedom Call has two albums under their belts Stairway to Fairyland and Crystal Empire feature fun, easy to memorize epic songs made especially for cruising the highway and singing your head off-well that's what I do! Shan, that lucky brit got a chance to see a concert which apparentyly from his description of events was full of audience members raising open palmed Christian hands instead of the usual fists of heavy metal fury.  He also got a chance to sit down with Dan and have a chat about Freedom Call - enjoy!

Your're a relatively new band outside Germany, so please give us a brief history
    "We came together in Jan 98. Chris (Bay - vocals) and myself knew each other from when we were 13 years old and we'd already played together in a number of cover bands. We talked on many occasions of having our own band and at the beginning of '98 we got the opportunity. We made a demo and sent it to Charlie Bauerfeind (famed producer in the melodic metal scene), a good friend of ours also from the Nuremberg area. He liked it and as we're just musicians he did the business for us with the labels and out came 'Stairway to Fairyland'.

There's something very uplifting about your music
    "Freedom Call's music is very positive, there's a lot of fast songs and its a very youthful sound. Sure, a lot of people compare us to Gamma Ray and Helloween and there is undoubtedly an influence but still there's a lot of space for us to develop as a band and input our own creativity. Everybody in the band thinks positive."

Are you guys Christians? I notice many here and I can't believe they're here to see Hammerfall ha ha!
    "No ha ha! We're not Christians but we grew up in traditional families which in Bavaria means that we are close to religion, but its not like we go to church every Sunday. I do believe in Life and that God is a part of our future. We live in a spirit world where there's a good and a bad side. We believe in the good side and thats why we think positive, and that's what you hear in the music. I have to say that positivity has solved all the problems that I've faced in life."

Yeah, but its more than being positive, your songs are really catchy
    "I think you're right. Its very powerful and expressive - speed combined with really nice melodies - and that came about with Helloween. Quite different from other German bands like Accept. It was totally new. I grew up with Iron Maiden and NWOBHM but I was heavily inspired by Helloween. Their music expressed my feelings as a drummer when I played and when I write songs its those same child-like melodies that come out from inside me. (Thinking) Sorry, I can't go any deeper into this ha ha!"

Besides the high level of musicianship, FC's songs are very well structured and they play almost like mini-symphonies
    "I think the structure you talk about is indeed a typical German thing - its that organisation that Germans have ha ha! Again, this is something that comes from inside us. We are Germans and we sound like this. Even if we tried, we couldn't sound like an American or British band, its just how we are and its not something I'm ashamed about. Saying that we don't sing in German, and have no plans to, at least not with our style. There are bands that sing good in German, like you mentioned Totenmond, but its a distinct style and very different to us."

As for the fairy tale theme is that also influenced by Bavaria? I fail to see how not given its natural beauty and all those damn castles ha ha!
    "How could you not be ha ha! Yes, we are very much influenced by our environment. I can say this, maybe nobody cares about Nuremberg because it is a small town. But it is a nice and also open-minded town that's rich in culture - not just only German - and has a long history. I grew up in this town and that positivity influenced me."

Do you find it difficult drumming for 2 major bands?
    "No, Kai (Hansen) gives me a lot of freedom and well, he does (or rather did - SS) Iron Saviour so when he's off from Gamma Ray the rest of the band have different projects. I can't survive on just what I get from Gamma Ray. Also, although Gamma Ray is very open to input - in fact I've contributed 2 songs for the next album - all four of us write, especially Kai, so there's no that much room left after that for all my stuff."

I understand that Chris is a Mozart in the making!
    "Yes ha ha, he is a pretty good musician and thats not suprising cos both Chris's grandfather and mother were well known opera singers in Germany. He also learned piano and guitar but he is, like you say, a really good musician with the way that he writes songs and his ideas. I don't know if you're aware that he was in Moon Doc with (former Accept guitarist) Herman Frank but the vocal style was not suited to him as Herman wanted him to sound like Victory's vocalist Fernando. In Freedom Call we give each other the freedom to do what each of us wants to do and luckily it all fits together. A lot of bands today are standard in terms of the way they sound, they are um...how do you say it...monotonous. The musicianship is high but the music is standard, whereas we go for something different. We like to play in clubs because you can get closer to the audience and feel the intensity whereas in a 3,000 seater you can't even see the first row! Theres just no contact "

I can't wait for the new album, can you give us any early indications?
    "We have lots of ideas for a new album but we don't want to rush things and be limited to schedules as it can upset our creativity. We want our new album to top this album so we want to let the songs grow. When we get off this tour we'll go back and make some demos and then relax and think about things. There's still room to develop the Freedom Call sound, although there will always be the trademark characteristics like big choirs and fast double bass, but we need to develop like Metallica did and get our own unique sound. But it will have to come naturally, we won't force it. If you listen to Crystal Empire there are a couple of aggressive almost dark songs which we didn't do at all on our first album Stairway to Fairyland which was just metal hymns and really happy ha ha ha! It doesn't mean that we now sound like a Black Metal band but that we've just developed into a slightly different area."

Any other plans?
    "We've got an offer to go to Russia and Moscow is a town I 've always wanted to visit, despite being a dangerous place, because the fans are crazy for metal out there!"