Artist: Dreamtide  

Date:  25 September 2008 

Shortly after the release of their third album 'Dream And Deliver' we catch up with founding member Helge Engelke to find out more about how the band came to be and what drives his passion in making music. 

MM - Hi Helge, thank you for taking part in this interview. 
H - You're welcome. 

MM - Congratulations on yet another superb Dreamtide album.
H - Thank you
MM - Going back to the beginning of the Dreamtide, why did you feel the need to start the band when you were already in Fair Warning?
H - Well actually in the year 2000 the singer Tommy Heart of Fair Warning simply left. The second guitarist had left the year before so basically there was only Ule our bass player and me left. Then after talking to Ule he said ... "I don’t really feel like going one without Tommy and Andy so I prefer to have a break" ... so there was nothing left of Fair Warning.  It became quite obvious then that it was time to start something new. 

MM - Back to the new album, how did Francis Buchholz get involved with the band, firstly as a producer and secondly as a band member?
H - On the first two Dreamtide albums Ule played the bass, he went back to University and he didn’t have time to do both. There was no trouble or bad words we simply didn’t have a bass player.  When we first started working on the new album we didn’t give much thought towards a new bass player.

In 2007 I met Francis at a party, it was a birthday for Fair Warning's manager.  He'd just returned from touring with Uli Jon Roth.  Olaf had joined as well singing and Olaf played some of Dreamtide album.  He came up to me and said ... "Olaf made me listen to the Dreamtide album and I quite like that.  What is going on with you guys?  Are you planning another album?" ... I said .. "oh yes I had already starting working on it".

He said he really like the first album and if I was interested in his opinion, I should feel free to ask him.  I said thank you and sent him a CD of what we had done so far.  He came over to my place and right from the moment he came through the door, we were kind of in a working situation.

We were talking about a track on the album called 'The Vow' and he said ... "yes I like it, but what is wrong with it is the ending".  I asked "Why what’s wrong with the ending?".  He said ... "Well the vocals curve it the wrong way round".

I said that was quite interesting because in the original version it was the other way round and without him having heard the original version, this quite impressed me.   From that moment on we were in a working situation and I said we don’t really have a bass player would he be interested in taking on the bass parts.

On the record it says it was produced by Dreamtide, but it's also true Francis and I did a lot of work and he had a lot of input on that record. 

MM - What did his presence bring to the band?
H - When we were working.  I’ve played in some bands over the years and we get along really well, the work situation was very good.  This is different world where we're coming from.  Sometimes I think ... "Oh man, I knew of all the records he did when I was younger.  I used to buy the Scorpions" ... that was hard to imagine and sometimes it was quite funny thinking about that.

MM - Was there any time pressure throughout the production regarding any deadlines, or did you have all the time you needed to fully work through everything?
H - Firstly the record was released in Asia in May and then in Europe in August, so we had a deadline from our Japanese record company that at one point we thought we're not the first to delay a deadline.  We asked the record company and they said alright no problem, finish as soon as you can.

 The ordinary way is to deliver a record two or three months before the actual release, what the Japanese didn’t tell us was that every time we said ok we need another three weeks, they postponed the release date.  We said wow this is a really good record label and we thought they’d be really quick, in the end we were under a little pressure. 

MM - Back to the album itself, how would you compare this album to the bands previous albums?
H - Well I’m supposed to do some propaganda for this album of course this is the best thing we’ve ever done (laughs), everybody says that. 

MM - I think it’s the best think the band have done so far.
H - I think that at the moment as well.  I like most of the songs on the old album and I think they're good songs.  The band did some good performances on them and I think at the time they sounded good, but I think the second album could have maybe sounded a little better.

That’s a tough question, when you make a record you try to make a better record than the last time, sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don’t.  I hope we succeeded this time.

MM - Well I think you’ve gone beyond the previous two albums with this one.
H - So you think the previous two were crap?
MM - No!
H - That’s what your saying
MM - No! No!!
H - I know what you expect from us Germans! (laughs). 
MM - The earlier two albums are good but I think this one’s outstanding! 

MM - All the reviews I’ve read on the album have been very positive, I haven’t seen a bad one.
H - I can send you one, that one was from Finland.  We had this very, very good review and I sent to the record company and said what did you pay this guy?!? (laughs)

The guy from the record company said to stop me getting big-headed here was a review from Finland and I read it and I was very perplexed, but then I thought these people live in darkness for most of the year.  But I could not agree with him at all.

MM - How do you think the band slots into the Melodic Rock scene of today?
H - I don’t know, I’ve grown a little allergic to what people call Melodic Rock. I know we are labelled as Melodic Rock on the other hand, sometimes people play records from bands and say ... "Oh you should like this it's Melodic Rock" ... and sometimes it's not really us.

On the other hand it's clear we're not Slayer or Megadeth type Metal.  We will never have the Cookie Monster singing.  That is very clear as well.  I really don’t like all these labels.

When I started it was all the same thing, I listened to things like Led Zeppelin to Little Feat and everything was called rock.  That's what I liked about the 60's and 70’s, I don’t like this labelling thing we have now.  I like Deep Purple, I like Genesis and these days you can find compilations with old Deep Purple alongside 50 Cent and why not?, you don’t eat curry everyday, sometimes you eat vegetables. 

MM - Do the band have any tours planned?
H - We had plans with our second record, then something happened with the tour, which was in Asia and Europe.  The Asia leg was cancelled so we had to postpone the European leg as well. Sometimes you spend the money and sometimes you have to earn the money.

I don’t want that to happen again, before I announce any dates, however we are hoping to get out on tour before spring next year. 

MM - Did the sound that was going down on tape translate well from what you heard in your head for Dreamtide?
H - I was looking at it in a certain way, they were obvious, it's not because I’m a genius, it's because I do what I do.  There were obviously comparisons with Fair Warning because I wrote songs for Fair Warning. 

MM - What's the biggest challenge you have faced to date along your musical career?
H - Doing things differently, if it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense.  Coming from situations when you were used to writing songs where the singer had to be able to sing it and like it, and the band also had to like it.  Sometimes these situations get comfortable and you have that danger of repeating things and not being daring in anything.

So when I realised that if there was no danger and you can do what you want to do, then sometimes you pass yourself thinking, I shouldn't do this because it's too far away from the things I've done before, then the next day you think ... what’s the matter with you? Do you think the police will come if you use this chord or this mode?

So not excepting what people expect and saying ok, if I can convince myself that this is what I want and the band like then it's ok.

We had a situation with the second Dreamtide album where we got a lot of pressure from our record company who said that it was not Melodic Rock enough, this is probably were my allergy came from.

There’s a track on the new album called ‘Dancing When The Night Falls’ which is not too rocky, it’s a ballad but also little funky.  I’m sure our old record company would have said ... "you can't do that" ... and even though you hate being limited by record companies you start thinking ... "well, can I do that"? ... and you have to kick your own arse and say ... "yes I can!"

Maybe a weird answer.  

MM - As always the last question – What does music mean to you?
H - Music is like the life before.  I like music, I love music and I listen to music and I have my favourites, so whatever happens in your life, you will always have the music to come back to.  It's like a nice cosy warm bed and that’s what I like about music.

MM - We'd like to thank Helge for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us this evening and for being such entertaining company.  We look forward to catching up with Helge and the band when they tour and hope it won't be too long before we catch them live in action.

If you're not familiar with Dreamtide and their music be sure to check them out, we're confident you'll enjoy what you hear.

 

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