Artist:   Marco Wriedt (Axxis)

Date: 20 July 2011   

Bands that are able to stand the test of time are few and far between these days, however, rock legends Axxis are indeed one such band and with the recent release of their 20th Anniversary DVD, we caught up with guitarist Marco Wriedt to find out more ... 

MM - Hi Marco, great to catch up with you again, how are you today?
MW - I´m good. Thank you. I´m looking forward to some holidays in a few days.  I´m definitely in the mood for that.

MM - This year saw the release of the ‘20 Years Of Axxis’ anniversary DVD.  These days it’s quite some achievement for a band to reach their 10 year anniversary, let alone their 20th!
MW - Yeah. It´s really amazing to be part of a band with so much history in the Rock-Genre.  I´m almost five years now in the band and it actually feels longer but yes Bernhard and Harry can be really proud of this achievement.

MM - What do you think has been the secret to Axxis success in the world of metal?
MW - Well, first of all I think the style of AXXIS is very hard to describe.  Many people have a problem to “label” us. In the early days, Axxis was more of an Melodic Rock/Hard Rock Band. Later in the 90´s, they combined it with more alternative Rock elements. Then the Band went “Back to the roots” in the early 2000´s a bit (“Back to the Kingdom & Eyes Of Darkness“) and after that Axxis became more or less a Power Metal Band.  Especially when I joined the Band, we sounded more heavy than in the past.  (Doom of Destiny) It was too heavy and too dark for some of the older fans but we tried to combine everything and got more progressive with the latest Album “Utopia” which I like very much because it sounds quite brave and diverse.  So I think that´s one of the secrets of our success.  “Diversity” and the voice of our singer “Bernhard Weiss”.

MM - Tell us a bit about the DVD, where was it shot and can you remember how you felt that night at the show? MW - It was shot at Bochum Zeche/Germany in December 2009 on the Utopia-European Tour.  It was a special show indeed.  We played more than three hours with 32 songs or something like that.  Some rare songs we haven´t played for a long time mixed with the classics and some current material.  I have to admit that I was quite nervous before the show.  It was a sold out concert with fans and family from everywhere.  So yes, it was quite intense but we played a good show. I think especially the older songs sounded fresh and tight. MM - Did you shoot just that one show for DVD or were there any others to choose from? MW - Well, We did have some other material.  Especially some footage from the “Masters of Rock Festival" and "Wacken” but it was pretty obvious that we wanted to play a special and long set somewhere close at home with our own lighting and video screens and so forth.

MM - I believe the DVD package is crammed full of great material and some added extras, tell us what the full package includes. 
MW - There is the complete version with the two DVD´s and two CD´s with the whole three hour show.  So, four discs and a nice booklet.  That´s the deluxe version but of course there´s also a “DVD-Only” and “CD-Only” version.  The booklet includes many pictures from that night.  Quite nice to look at.

MM - When did the band first come up with the idea of shooting the anniversary DVD and how did you decide what to include and what to leave out?
MW - Well, at first we didn´t want to record a DVD but so many fans asked for it so we decided that this was a great opportunity. Our goal was to leave it the way it exactly was that night. So, we mixed all the fan-camera footage together to get a nice Bootleg vibe and didn´t re-record or edited anything. There really is no editing at all on this DVD. I´m quite proud to mention that because there is so much fake these days.

MM - How hard was it to decide the final setlist for the anniversary show?  With so many albums to choose from I imagine it must have been difficult to choose between them all? MW - It is really difficult indeed. Of course you have to play the songs people wanna hear like “Living in a World, Kingdom of the Night, Stay don´t leave Me etc..” but as mentioned before we played songs of our whole history.  Well almost.  We didn´t play any song out off the “Voodoo vibes” album.  Somehow we forgot it.   It was a nice mix of all the different styles.  We played a long acoustic set in the middle which was a lot of fun.

MM - I believe the band have also embraced the new technology available and have released the double CD in digital download format as well?
MW - It is really important to be available everywhere.  On every platform you know. “Itunes” is the biggest Music retailer in the world these days so it´s a must to be on there.  “Amazon” and other major online stores as well.  I still love vinyl and CD´s but the days for the CD-format is over.  It´s actually dead already.  It´s only a matter of time when everybody is downloading music.  As long as the people still pay for it, it´s all good but the Internet basically destroyed the whole market but that´s a different story.  

MM - The tag-line for this release is ‘The Official Bootleg’, where does that reference come from?
MW - Quite simple. It´s not recorded by professional “HD-Cameras”.  The footage is good quality fan video footage.  That´s why we called it a “official bootleg” but most of the critics already said that it sounds and looks way too good to call it a “bootleg”. I like the package a lot.  It shows how the Band works and plays on stage.  The live feeling is coming along perfect in my opinion and everybody agreed so far.

MM - Earlier this year the band set up their own label Phonotraxx, how did this come about and why now after all these years decide to go it alone? MW - Bernhard and Harry decided to do it because in these days it makes sense to do it if you have a big Fan base already.  So this DVD is the first product on “Phonotraxx”.  The business has changed completely and you have to react, especially as a professional band.  Everything is much more driven by the artist itself.   All the labels are going downhill because of the illegal download situation on the Internet.  They can´t pay the big budgets anymore so it´s the right time to try it on our own. So far everything looks very promising.

MM - The band will be hitting the road later this year to celebrate this new release, where can your fans catch up with you on tour?
MW - So far, Spain, Germany and Switzerland but there is much more planned for early 2012.

MM - You’ve also got some festivals coming up as well?
 MW - Well the only Festival we´re doing this year will be Spain.  We played on almost every Festival the last couple of years so we don´t want to be too active in that area 2011.  But yes, we´re really looking forward to the Spanish open air in Barcelona.

MM - Some people call Axxis a Power Metal band, others a Hard Rock band, and others a Heavy Metal band … how would you sum the music of Axxis up?
MW - It´s a mix of everything really.  I think the maincore of the band is classic-Rock with strong and unique melodies.  We have a lot of ballads as well but on the other hand we can sound really heavy too.  For me AXXIS is a very colorful European Rock band not Metal Band.    

MM - Thank you for taking the time out to chat with us today, we really appreciate it.  Hope to see you back in the UK before too long. 
MW - Thank you for the interview. Was a pleasure.

We'd like to wish Marco and the rest of the band every success with the new DVD and their forthcoming shows and will keep our fingers crossed it's not too long before the band return to the UK shores to play again.

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