Wizard

World saved by ‘Goochan’

Interview with drummer “Snoppi” van Heek of Wizard by Vera in May 2007.

A few months ago I was positively surprised by ‘Goochan’, the seventh album of German metal band Wizard. Strangely enough I did not get any answers back until now to publish an interview. As usual this was a misunderstanding and when I mailed the band itself about it, I got my answers the same evening. Thanks to drummer Snoppi who was so friendly to help me out. At last we are able to relish the excellent ‘Goochan’ (an album with a concept, the world saved by a witch called ‘Goochan’) with a bit more details. Fans of heavy power metal should check this out for sure!

Where are you from in Germany and can you tell a bit more about the time you got in touch with metal. Who were your favourite bands?

Snoppi: I come from Borken, that’s in the West of Germany near the Dutch border. I got into metal at the age of 15 via the brother of Maassi (our guitarist). He heard Iron Maiden, Accept, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and so on and that impressed me. Also I liked the covers very much (from Iron Maiden). So I started to listen to metal (that time you called it Hardrock …). My favourite bands are Slayer, Testament, Anthrax, Sepultura, Iced Earth, Virgin Steele ….

Wizard was founded in 1989. By who and can you resume a short history of the band?

Snoppi: I founded the band. I bought a drumkit and told Maassi (my friend) to buy a guitar. So he did and we started playing metal. After a time we got to know the other guys and I founded Wizard. In 1991 we recorded a demo cassette and in 1995 our first album on CD. From then on we published every two years a CD.

Though many bands are labelled as power metal these days, you cannot be compared with bands as Hammerfall or Helloween or Blind Guardian I find. You are more speed metal and heavier. How do you look at this yourself? Maybe other influences?

Snoppi: Puh, I don’t know. From Hammerfall I only now the first album which is great and which came out when our second album came out. It was nearly the same stuff in my opinion. But Hammerfall got more lucky with their label. Helloween … no, I don’t think so and also Blind Guardian not. I think that our older songs are influenced by Manowar. The last albums are pure Wizard. Compare it to what you want. Everybody sees this in a different way, so I don’t care about that. But I don’t think that we are heavier or faster than Blind Guardian or Hammerfall.

I may be one of the only ones but I liked the former record ‘Magic Circle’ as well. I have heard you were not that happy with it. What went wrong?

Snoppi: Everything. The recordings, the sound, the cover, the advertising, the concerts. The songs are really, really great but it does not bang you away because of the fucking shit sound. I am really angry about that.

This time you went to House of Music studio and the album was mixed by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) Can you tell a bit more about the recording process?

Snoppi: Yes, because of the disaster with the ‘Magic Circle’ album, we had to do a very good sound now, and to reach that we went to the House of Music. I never heard a CD coming from that studio that had a bad sound. First I thought we could record with Achim Köhler, but he was not available any more for recordings. So we worked with Dennis Ward. The sessions were very short, I had to play the drums in one and a half day. That was very hard, but it worked out. There is nothing more to say about the work in the studio. It’s always hard work and also very boring.

‘Goochan’ has a self-written concept. Who are the main composers? Can you tell us everything about it?

Snoppi: Volker had the core ideas and he wrote it together with William Nuke. There is a planet which is lead by the pale rider. This planet needs to destroy other planets to survive. For this they send black worms on the other planets so that they can get Material from them. After exploiting a planet they destroy it. So also mother earth should be exploited and nobody sees that. Except a witch (Goochan) who lives in a forest and wants to save the earth (with the help of a dragon e.g.). That’s the rough story.

There is a book coming out as well. When and what can we expect?

Snoppi: Yes, the whole story is too long to be put into these short song lyrics. So the songs on the albums are the chapters of the book. As I said it was written by William Nuke and you can order it soon with the ISBN-Number: 978-3-8334-7775-1 Also have a look on www.williamnuke.de I am very keen on getting the book.

Great news for you is that guitarist Michael Maass returns to the band this summer. Can you tell a bit more about his leaving and come back?

Snoppi: He started studying beside his job and his family, so he had no time to practise with us any more. But since last week he is back in Wizard and we will be with 5 guys in future. We will not kick Dano out of the band; he plays great, has great ideas and is a good friend of us. I am very looking forward about our new songs and what is possible to play with two guitars.

I guess that will have an influence on future albums to write?

Snoppi: We will see. I hope so.

But his replacement guitarist Dano Boland will stay as well. Was he involved in the writing process of ‘Goochan’ as well?

Snoppi: Yes, I think he is responsible for the ‘modern’ touch on ‘Goochan’. Also a few thrash-riffs are from him.

I see you have done some gigs in March. Can you tell us about your tour plans?

Snoppi: We had a little Germany tour in March. We and the fans had very much fun, but there were not very much people on the concerts (between 30 and 300). But what will you do? The people like it more to spend 60 euro for Manowar instead of 10 euro for Wizard. That’s the way it goes. But the people who celebrated the metal with us together had very much fun; that was great! In summer we have also some gigs, but no very big metal festivals. Wacken and Bang your Head or Rockhard festival don’t want us to play. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. Too unimportant maybe.

You have played many times in Germany and the Netherlands, but never in Belgium. How come?

Snoppi: We were never invited in Belgium. I don’t think that we have fans there (I never heard about that). But maybe I am totally false? In most cases we do not organise our concerts but we are asked if we can play. And from Belgium there was never any interest.

Are there plans to change this?

Snoppi: As I said, I don’t know … For me it doesn’t matter if I play in the Netherlands or in Germany or in Austria or somewhere else as long as the fans are great.

In 2004 you toured with Grave Digger. Any fine memories on that tour?

Snoppi: Yes, the whole tour was very impressing. One of the greatest times in our lives. We also loved to play with Symphorce, very nice guys. I can’t explain everything, that would take hours. The tour was very successful for us. We should repeat that, but that’s not planned in the near future L

You made a videoclip for ‘Return Of The Thunder Warriors’. Can you tell us about the making of this video and where fans can watch it?

Snoppi: You can see that on the limited edition of ‘Goochan’. The making of is not very interesting. We played in an empty room. That was it. Sorry, nothing to tell about ;-)

A great service on your website www.legion-of-doom.de (named after your first demo) is that we can find all the lyrics. Any fine comments of you on this?

Snoppi: Perhaps Sven (our singer) should read that site more often, hahaha. I don’t care about the lyrics very much. For me the music is much more interesting.

One of the songs that struck me on the album is the slightly different ‘Lonely In Desert Land’. Can you tell a bit more about this track?

Snoppi: Hmm. No. What do you want to know? It’s a Wizard song. Is something special with this song? I don’t know. Just another song …

The artwork of Wizard albums has always been very beautiful. This time it is not different. Please some details about it and who painted it?

Snoppi: It was painted by the man who also painted the last Blind Guardian album. I don’t remember the name at the moment. After the not very optimal cover from the ‘Magic Circle’ album we wanted to have a better one now. The style is not my favourite, but the cover is fine. It shows the important things from the story, ‘Goochan’, the pale rider, the black worms, the dragon …

Will there be species of the artwork in the book you are going to release?

Snoppi: I don’t know. I also look forward for the book. I don’t know what it will look like. I guess that the cover from the CD will also be the cover from the book. I don’t know if there will be more pictures in the book.

‘Goochan’ is the first album for a new label Massacre. Why did you change from Limb to Massacre?

Snoppi: Limb did not want to pay the money which was fixed in our contracts. So there were two ways: We accepted that and record an album for less money (impossible) or we left Limb. We decided to do the second step.

Is anyone of you involved in other bands or side projects? This is the moment to tell about this…

Snoppi: Yes, Sven does some other project with a friend of him. But it’s not very metal. Volker also did a solo project which he already has recorded. There were a lot of people from the German underground involved. But I don’t know what he will do with it now.

What are the plans for the near future?

Snoppi: We will write new songs with Maassi (he has to learn guitar again), play some gigs in Germany (perhaps also in Greece) and in the beginning of next year I hope to record a new album which will have Thor as theme.


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