Edguy will soon release their brand new album, Rocket Ride. After listening to the album several times and did my review of it, I decided I had way too many questions to let this one go without interrogating a member of the band. Tobias Eggi Exxel was the unlucky one and let's see what he had to say…

So, the first and most important question I have. Did you manage to make love to all the bunnies from the Superheroes video?

\[5-minute Laughter] We tried to but we did not. Not even with a couple of them. We worked tons of hours for this video so in the end all we wanted was to get some sleep. But if you think it will look good, can you please write that I slept with more than the other members did?

Hey I am an honest reporter. How many did you say? 16 of them?

(Laughs) Yeah, I think the number is good. Pretty close to my daily schedule \[More Laughs].

Let’s get down to business. The new albums… tell me: when you started this band, did you ever dream of making it this far?

To be honest with you I strongly believe that this is actually the reason most people start a band. I mean, you are not doing it just to kill time. Did we dream of getting rich and famous? Well, not this much and so fast (Laughs)… but from the first day we dreamed of recording albums and touring around the world. This is a good way to stay motivated and focused. After all if you believe in your dreams, you can make them real, at least to some level. And I don’t consider ourselves any lucky at all. We worked and still work hard. The first years nothing really happened.

Listening to the album several times I came to the conclusion that this is the Edguy album that it is closer to Rock than Metal. Do you agree on this?

Partially yes. If you compare it to albums like Theater Of Salvation (1999), there is a big difference but I think most people say this because of the way we did the production. We used analog equipment and we recorded almost under live circumstances. This way is really hard and much more expensive than the digital recording process but definitely offers a much different sound and adds a lot of feeling to your sound. There aren’t that many fast songs in the album like our first albums used to have but all our recent releases also include slower songs.

Do you think that Rocket Ride contains your more diverse material so far?

Absolutely. We didn’t try to do that. Don’t ask me why it happened. These songs just happened (Laughs). I know it is a bit tricky for the fans but on the other hand it is good to show all your abilities and faces in an album. All your musical range. I think that sometimes it gets boring if you play only one style for a big period of time. Not just for the fans but also for the musicians. This doesn’t make sense to me.

What can you tell us about the recording sessions of the album.

We started the recordings for the new album in the beginning of 2005. We used Sascha Paeth’s studio. We did some test recordings and we decided to do the way of production I just mentioned above. This is the first time we used a different studio. All our previous albums were recorded in our hometown and then mixed in Finland at the Finvox Studio. We liked the way our collaboration with Sascha worked out and it was nice to see one guy do the entire production. He did everything so he knew perfectly what to do.

Your decision to do an analog production… Wasn’t that a bit dangerous?

Yes it was and I know what you mean. Of course an analog production doesn’t offer the privileges of pro-tools for example. But nowadays everyone is doing these digital productions. How many times have you heard the exact same sound on the drums from different bands? Too many I say and I think this kills the music.

Yes, if you screw your riffs, you have to do it again and it is too expensive. After we recorded our live album, we started realizing that the live sound had a special feeling to it. That was the start for the decision we took for this new album.

The song Catch Of The Century has a hilarious ending. How close are you to achieving all these things you say you will?

(Laughs) We are working hard to achieve all these of course. The hundreds of women… well, we see them at our live shows but that’s all we do (Laughs). The seven Ferrari? Not close yet. The helicopter… no comments (Laughs). Apart all that I hate those people who are successful and spend all their time now just for all the world to know about their money. It’s like all those actors who stalk magazines for promotion and when they become big they buy bodyguards to keep the same magazines away from them (Laughs).

Will there be any limited editions of the new album?

Germany will have a limited edition that will be very funny. There’s going to be an Edguy history with shitty photos from our early days. It will be really cool. You are going to see me in my puberty! (Laughs)

Will you shoot more videos for the album?

…probably yes? (Laughs) Nothing is planned but I hope to.

What song would you like to do a video for?

I would love to do a video for Trinidad (Laughs), it sounds like a cool song for a video clip.

Can you describe a normal day of your life?

Well, Edguy most of the time are my priority and I really don’t have time for anything else. There’s always something we can do. I started studying a few years ago and I want to finish it but I don’t see this working out.

Do you recall the first Metal album you ever purchased?

Yes, Europe’s Final Countdown. My dad had some Rock records but this was the first Metal album I got.

Do you remember the most ridiculous rumor about the band?

At the moment there are a lot of rumors. I like the one where our singer died on a crash accident but as far as he can say he is alright (Laughs). Well, one of the classics is people calling us Edgay… oh I admit it’s a bit funny (Laughs) and I can live with this since this doesn’t offend anyone anymore (Laughs).

I want to thank you for your time and I ask you to close this interview with a message to all our readers.

We are not gay! (Laughs) Thank you for your time. I hope all the readers of Metal Temple will like our new album and I really hope to come again to Greece very soon.