Interview with Olli, Twyster  (April 21, 2005)

Hi, first off I just want to congratulate you on your new album. To new fans could your please fill us in on the history behind it all?
Olli - Thank you very much. We are Twyster - that means german melodic metal with a nice frontlady.
Twyster was founded in 1995 and is since 2002 in that line-up again. We started like thousands of other metal bands with playing live wherever they gave us a stage. We produced our first two albums ("Zipper Jaws",1997 and "Eclypse Of The Iris,1999) by ourselves, before we in 2000 met our producer team: 'The Midas Twins' Haan Hartmann and Andy Brings (The Traceelords, Powergod). They produce all of our music and connected us to our label MASSACRE RECORDS, where we signed our deal in 2001. Under that flag our debut album "Lunatic Siren" was released in July 2002. After that our guitar player Chris left the band, but his place was filled with Ralf Jahnel. By that personal changing our musically face turned a bit and I think we've made a big step forward. From my point of view this is the reason why "Xplode" sounds more powerful, emotional and fresh.

How has your new album been received by the media?
Olli - The reactions on "Xplode" were very, very good 'till now. Most magazines ranked Coco's voice in a top class and gave us strength to carry on our way of song writing. Except for a few reviewers, most of them understand the way we like to rock and entertain the audience. We don't give much on point rankings, but surely it feels better to read something positive. When you give your heart and soul, you feel good, when the people give you that feeling, that it is worth it.

I know artists are not happy to categorize their music, but how would you describe your music to an outsider?
Olli - Uhh ... I don't know. It’s definitely a sort of hard rock with adoptions from the powermetal scene. We hold up high the flag of the 80's metal, that is sometimes a little bit Warlock, sometimes a little bit Helloween, but every minute it is a 100% melodic and emotional thunderstorm. It's a Twyster!

Where does your inspiration come from, both musically and lyrically?
Olli - There are many things, that inspires me to write a good song. Mostly there are fast pictures like short cuts in my head, that need to come out. Then I try to construct a little story about that little clip. I like the foggy, misty fields of dark romantic, so that every story should be an emotional or sad story. When that is done, the music find it's way on itself and in a perfect case both will fit like two shoes. Inspirations you can find everywhere. And when your brain is mad enough there will grow a good song out of it.

What topics do you deal with in your lyrics and why?
Olli - For example the song “Push Me Down” is the result of a short take by the film “Cliffhanger”, or “Dying Eyes” belongs a little bit to “First Knight”. “Under The Elms” is the story about a Jane Doe, who I saw in Las Vegas . All in all
"Xplode" is a medley about love and hate, demons and angels, fire and storm. When you are ready to dive in you will find yourself in every one of our songs.

Who has produced and mixed the album, and are you pleased with the end result?
Olli - Our producers are “The Midas Twins” - Haan Hartmann and Andy Brings. They have been the very important work of recording and mixing for us ever since our debut album “Lunatic Siren”. Back in those days I thought, that there was nothing a man could do better!. But when I heard
"Xplode" the first time, I knew, that we had taken e a big step forward and opened the door to another world of presenting our music. The production is unbelievable powerful and fresh and so we give a very, very big hand to those two guys.

Who has done the artwork? And how important do you feel it is to have a great cover?
Olli - The artwork is done by me, except the front cover. It took me nearly one year to collect the photos and place them right to finish the booklet. The titel picture is the work of a young woman from Brazil . She’s an art student and we found her gallery in the internet. I was so happy, when she allowed us to use her picture ‘Magma’ for our CD. Because it is a fantastic picture. It is warm, but dangerous. And from my point of view there could be no better cover to symbolize our music.

Do you have any touring plans?
Olli - Sure. We have made some plans to play live in the near future. Maybe a tour through Europe . But there is nothing fixed ‘till today. We will inform you all on our homepage www.twyster.de. Stay tuned ...

How do you feel about the co-operation with your label, and are you satisfied?
Olli - Oh, yeah it’s a good one. The important thing is that they let us go the way we like to go. There is no musically influence from the label. Not one single time have they said: “Uhh, boy that song stinks” or “Let Coco sing like Tarja from Nightwish” or things like that.
They trust in us and we trust in them. And I think with "Xplode" we pay them a little bit back.

The internet is a very important source for many music fans? How do you use the internet and how important is it for you and other bands?
Olli - I use the internet only for information and some fun sites. But it is very important for bands like us to find a platform to present us and our music all over the world in a few seconds.

How do you see the metal scene at the moment?
Olli - I think that there are two big streams in the new metal scene today. First, the new death- and trash metal scene. Those bands grow like weed. And most of them sound like a thousand of other bands. The other stream is in my opinion the girl fronted Nightwish bands. But there are a few niches with enough free space for Twyster to step in and to present the old spirit of the 80's heavy metal in a new robe. And believe me, the true steel and the heart made music will survive everything. Business was hard, is hard and will be hard in the future.

To finish things off - could you pls. make an all-time Top 5 or sort of the 5 most important albums in your opinion?
Olli - The  most important albums for me are definitely:

  • Iron Maiden - “The Number Of The Beast”

  • Helloween - “Keepers Of The Seven Keys, Part I+II”

  • Queensryche - “Operation: Mindcrime”

  • Skid Row - “Slave To The Grind”

  • Thin Lizzy - “Live And Dangerous”

But to add the most important albums, I think we have to obey to all the music of AC/DC and Kiss. Without them the modern hard rock and metal would be different and a poor one.

Twyster - Xplode

Album out on Massacre Records.

Click on the album cover to see more info on Twyster.