Intervju med Gotthards nya sångare Nic Maeder

Jag bestämde mig för att ta ett snack med Nic Maeder nu när han ändå var i Sverige på besök. Samtalet gick i en rasande fart och vi hann med att både prata om AC/DC och hur han överhuvudtaget gick med i Gotthard. Givetvis hann vi med att prata lite om den nya plattan "Firebirth" som släpps den 1 juni också.

How did you get involved with Gotthard? 

- It was a friend of mine that knew the band, They had announced that they wanted to continue, my friend told me to try out for them.
So I did an audituon just like everybody else. I was living in Australia at the time. They had three old songs with no vocals on so we recorded together to see how it sounded. And I just did that, just recorded my voice on there, and send it threw to them. A few months later I met the guys, and we kicked it off. The audition was a long process. I litterally flew from Australia to Swizserland three times that year. A lot of back and forth.

June 1th your new album "Firebirth" will be released, tell me about the album?

- It's great, you'll have to hear it, haha.

The band has been around for twenty years, are you talking about some sort of 20th anniversary tour?

- It's more a new beginning now more than anything, It's a lot to do, a lot of work and a lot of albums to make. Keep going it's a longterm plan.

So you will still be here in another 20 years?

- Yeah, thats the plan. Haha.

Do you feel some pressure coming in replacing Steve?

- The support from the fans has been absolutely amazing, you never know whats gonna happen when you do these things, It's a very delicate thing. And really we just did the best that we could, It felt right to do it the way that we did it. And response has been amazing.

Ive gotten tons of messages, they are really behind us. I moved back to Switzerland in august.

You guys are pretty big in Sweden but you are enormous in Switzerland how was that for you to step into?

- They had to keep it a secret at first when I came into the band, while we were already working together and writing. We wanted to have everything really prepared before we announced it. So we had to do things secretly sort of under cover for a while. I was the producer from Australia when people asked. Then we ended up having the relese, from one day until the next I was all over the papers, on the news tv and so on. It really hasn't stopped since. It's sort of funny waking up one moring, and you can't walk down to the supermarket unanounced anymore.

You are from Switzerland but you grew up in Australia. Have Gotthard been to Australia yet?

- No but the chances has increased a bit more now since im in. We were talking abot it last night actually, we were toying with the idea. Because we got som dates coming up in Japan in september, so we thought thats close enough.

Tell me about the upcoming tour. When is it kicking off?

- 12th of may it starts in Buenos Aires so we start with South America, and then start the festival season in Europe. After that we start the really heavy touring in september when we go to Japan. We talk about 50 or 60 gigs already.

How is it to tour with people that inspired you as a kid, going on tour with your own idols so to speak?

- Well Gotthard played with Whitesnake and Deep Purple before, for me until I ever tour with AC/DC if that will ever happen, that would be it. I've never been that lucky yet.

Speaking of AC/DC do you think people will refer to you and Steve as they do with Brian Johnsson and Bon Scott?

- Absolutely, this is something that always happen, and will keep on happening. If you look at AC/DC, people still talk about it now.

When you got in the band, did you contribute to the songwriting process from the start?

- Yes very much, the first single "Remember its me" was a song that I brought in for instance, I mean Ive been used to write on my own, Ive always had my own bands but im used to write on my own. I wasn't sure how it would go, writing with other people, I wasn,t really used to do it that way. As part of the audition procsess as well we actually spent two weeks together just writing. We got along straight away and clicked. It was fun straght away, and I actually find it a better way to do it.

What were you up to at the time when you got into the audition process?

- Haha at the time I was playing covers, acoustic covers with one drummer, a friend of mine we just played pubs in Melbourne. Playing Beatles and old Rolling Stones stuff like that. I stopped my band about a year before that, I was wondering if I either were going solo or starting a new band. I was not sure about what I wanted to do. And then this came along, sort of perfect timing really. And also I had wanted to move back to Switzerland for a while. I used to bring my old band over to Switzerland over the summers to do some gigs and things over the last couple of years.

Do you see yourself ever moving back to Australia again sometime in the future?

- No not really,  this is a band you really need to be here for. The guys have been together for over 20 years and its the same guys, who founded the band and they all are still there, Its a really really tight family. Big part of this means that everybody needs to be together. It has to work that way, we cant be one of those bands with members spread all over the world. Its just not one of those bands at all. Its amazing after so long, the guys get along like brothers.

How is it to come into that sort of "family"?

- That was a very attractive thing to me, it's always the idea. When youre younger you start a band with your friends and you wanna keep that team as long as you can and it's very rare that they stay together and that happens. It's hard to keep it going. For me that was just perfect. 

Rocksverige tackar Nic för pratstunden och önskar honom lycka till med skivsläppet och den kommande turné. Du ser dom som sagt på Sweden Rock Festival i juni. Glöm inte att slänga några slantar på plattan "Firebirth" den 1 juni.

Intervju Av Emil Klinta 17 apr 2012 14:21