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Post by Admin on Jan 14, 2021 19:27:50 GMT
Michael Schenker doesn’t live to play, he plays to live, and there’s no better way of summing up his relationship to his music than this – now for half a century and counting. The most emblematic representation of this relationship is the monumental closing track “In Search Of The Peace Of Mind”, a new recording of the very first song he ever wrote. “I composed this track in my mother’s kitchen back when I was 15,” he looks back half a century and smiles broadly: “The solo is just so perfect, I wouldn’t change a single note even today. This is the most important song of the last 50 years for me. It’s what started it all.”  When it finally got released in 1972 on the Scorpions’ debut Lonesome Crow, Schenker had already moved on to UFO. What followed were several decades of pure hard rock ecstasy on and off stage, featuring a rotating cast of stellar players, always pressing the pedal to the metal. Now, in 2020, he reaps what he sowed. Alongside many of his peers, friends and contemporaries, he is celebrating 50 years of hard rock – fittingly with an album that is something like a zeitgeisty reminiscence of everything he’s ever done. The massive midtempo smasher “Don’t Die On Me Now” sees Joe Lynn Turner going all in, Ronnie Romero works his magic in “Knight Of The Dead” while Michael Voss cuts a grand figure before the microphone as well as behind the mixing desk on the furious second single “After The Rain”. Towering above them all, Michael Schenker and his guitar prove they’re truly and utterly invincible. The celebrated icon pulls out all the stops – including his legendary “howler”, the fabled magnet he’s used on his fingerboard for a while now. And here’s yet another thing that’s just so archetypically Schenker, when bringing up his fiery and dedicated performance on “Immortal” he nonchalantly shrugs it off: “I simply played from the heart, as always.” This, dear Michael, is the understatement of the year – all the more so for a record that is already one of the top contenders for hard rock/metal album of the year. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 15, 2021 22:38:44 GMT
MICHAEL SCHENKER: 'Without People Like Me, The Rock And Roll Trend Would Have Died A Long Time Ago' In a new interview with Bloodstream Radio, legendary German guitarist Michael Schenker was asked what keeps him motivated to write and play music after 50 years in the business. He responded (hear audio below): "I never take from trends; if anything, I created a trend. In the '80s, people were copying my guitar style, and they actually overexposed it to the point when I was playing my guitar style, it was already heard over and over. "I discovered very early in my life the infinite inner spring of creativity — being yourself, being Michael Schenker. Everybody can do this, but it's just a matter of choice. Do you wanna [follow] a commercial trend that will guarantee you commercial success and make you money and [get you] fame and [put you] in the limelight, et cetera, et cetera, or do you wanna self-express? "As long as I can go back, being a kid, even at five years old, it was always in my expression," he continued. "I found, or I may have always had the connection to, the inner infinite spring of creativity. And that's where I go. I don't see any point in taking from the trend or taking from other people. They're already doing it. Why should I do it? "By going to the inner spring and injecting freshness to the trend, which, basically, the '80s were a watered down '70s, and commercialized, and made everybody rich, I didn't see any point in doing something somebody else was already doing. He's already doing that; why should I do it? So I was always attracted to pure self-expression and inject something to the world and to the trend that comes from a fresh place.  "Without people like me — I'm sure there are some [others] — the trend as we know it, the rock and roll trend, would have died a long time ago," Schenker added. "I mean, Markus Staiger, the boss of [Schenker's record label] Nuclear Blast in Germany, said to me one day, 'Michael, if you wouldn't have been, Nuclear Blast would have never been,' and he would have never started thrash metal. I [was, like], 'What?' "I never knew about any of these things. Because I was never looking for expectations of having an impact like that. I was just happy with music. "There was a couple of [Australian interviewers], they said, 'Michael, if you would have not been, there would have not been thrash metal or death metal or any of the other metals.' I said, 'What?' "It's unbelievable. You don't expect anything. I never really look at critics or any write-ups or anything. Usually, I'm just happy being a musician and focusing on the music and just enjoying that." Schenker will release a new MSG (MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP) album "Immortal", on January 29 via Nuclear Blast. "Immortal" was predominantly recorded at the Kidroom Studio in Germany, with Michael's long time partner Michael Voss, who co-produced the album and also sings on two tracks. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2021 5:42:53 GMT
In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, legendary German guitarist Michael Schenker was asked if he would ever consider playing with UFO or the SCORPIONS again. He responded (hear audio below): "No. I think it's all done. I don't wanna open another can of worms. Phil [Mogg, UFO singer] is happy having the name UFO back, which I owned 50 percent. I gave it back to him for free. The SCORPIONS have the SCORPIONS, and Michael Schenker has Michael Schenker. I think we are all happy; we are all doing our thing. And there's no need to get back into being controlled, like it used to be in the past."
He continued: "Eventually, it all trickles down. There was always a little bit of a possibility as time went on, but eventually, I really don't wanna open the can of worms and re-experience discomfort. We all do our thing, and we should just be happy with what we have. Getting back together, it would just create turbulence for me."
Schenker first joined UFO in 1973 and last played with the band in 2003,
Mogg, who has been the only constant member of UFO throughout the band's existence, announced his plans to retire from the group in 2018.
The singer, who will turn 73 in April, released a statement confirming that he will leave the band after UFO completes a farewell 50th-anniversary tour.
Michael gave a number of interviews in the last few years in which he questioned the integrity of his brother, SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolf Schenker, going so far as to call Rudolf "a con artist" who "completely adopted [Michael's] image" as his own. He also denounced the SCORPIONS for "distorting" the story of his brief tenure with the band and criticized what he saw as ongoing efforts to minimize the contributions of the group's former drummer Herman Rarebell and ex-bassist Francis Buchholz, as well as SCORPIONS' long-running creative complacency.
Schenker first appeared on SCORPIONS' 1972 album "Lonesome Crow", earned acclaim in the 1970s on classic UFO albums such as "Phenomenon" and "Lights Out" before rejoining SCORPIONS for 1979's "Lovedrive". He departed soon thereafter to launch MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP. And while his sometimes-erratic behavior have derailed parts of his career, Schenker remains one of hard rock and metal's most influential axemen.
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Post by Admin on Jan 30, 2021 6:32:00 GMT
Michael Schenker has just released a new MSG (MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP) album, "Immortal", via Nuclear Blast. The effort contains Michael's version of the SCORPIONS song "In Search Of The Peace Of Mind", which originally appeared on the band's 1972 album "Lonesome Crow".
The official music video for MSG's version of "In Search Of The Peace Of Mind" can be seen below.
Says Michael: "'In Search Of The Peace Of Mind' had to be my 50th-anniversary celebration song. It means so much to me, because it was my very first musical composition I wrote at the age of 15. And it was also the first song I had ever put on a record, also at the age of 15. In addition, this song from the original 'Lonesome Crow' SCORPIONS album, the very first album the SCORPIONS had ever recorded, has a solo on it that that was so perfect I would never change a note in 1000 years. I have no idea where it came from, alongside the other solos on 'Lonesome Crow', where you can hear that I am an amateur, young and developing as a kid. But this lead break came from somewhere else. I have no idea how it happened.
"I wanted to re-record this song for 'Immortal', making it an epic, and put an additional long solo on the end of the song, which turned out so amazing. The sound describes my 50-year journey expressed on lead guitar. Again, it ended up so amazing, like an inner conversation throughout my life — questions and answers; making choices expressed on lead guitar.
"With Gary Barden, Ronnie Romero, Robin McAuley and Doogie White making a contribution to my 50th anniversary, it turned out complete. Not to forget the amazing contribution of Simon Phillips on drums, Barry Sparks on bass, as well as Steve Mann on keyboards. Fantastic.
"This is the fourth single for 'Immortal' — 50th anniversary of Michael Schenker."
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Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2021 19:38:34 GMT
Michael Schenker has detailed events which led to his final exit from UFO in 2002, saying that "the natural flow of the chemistry was destroyed" by the time he left the band. Schenker made his comments while talking to Eonmusic about MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP's "Immortal" album, which has just been released via Nuclear Blast.
Schenker, whose original tenure with the British rock institution lasted from 1973 to 1978, rejoined UFO in 1993, recording the "Walk On Water" (1995) album with the classic lineup of the band that also included lead singer Phil Mogg, bassist Pete Way, drummer Andy Parker, and guitarist/keyboardist Paul Raymond.
Explaining how the reunion came about, Michael said: "Phil Mogg came to Los Angeles in '93, begging me to refuel UFO because he completely had destroyed it. I said, 'I have a few conditions. One is, you have to give me 50 percent of the UFO name so you don't destroy it again, especially if I put my energy into it."
The onetime SCORPIONS man went on to say that initially, things were great within the camp, and that he noticed a change in the formerly dejected Mogg almost immediately. "I tell you, when I saw Phil the next time when we started recording, he looked like an one hundred and eighty degree different person," Schenker said. "He was happy, healthy. He was unbelievably fit."
But it was a harmony that wasn't to last. "'Walk On Water' was a blessing after 17 years," Michael said. "It was such a beautiful record that famously carried on from 'Strangers In The Night' [1979]. And then, of course, we went on the road, and then Phil lost it, and wanted control again and destroyed everything."
Despite going on to record two further albums with the band — 2000's "Covenant" and 2002's "Sharks", Michael said that it was further lineup changes (the ousting of both Parker and Raymond) which ultimately destroyed the band.
"I always said to him, 'Never do a reunion with UFO unless it's the original setup, including the producer,'" Michael said. "Because if you take one piece out, the chemistry is finished."
Bringing in producer Mike Varney for "Sharks" in place of Ron Nevinson, the man behind their greatest '70s triumphs, for Michael, the end was nigh. "I said to Phil, 'Don't do this. It will backfire. It will not succeed.' And it did not. The natural flow of the chemistry was destroyed, and basically, we were just limping towards the end."
Despite this, Michael made one final gesture of good will toward Mogg. "I'd had enough of UFO at that point, and in 2002, Phil Mogg asked me, 'Michael, I need the name UFO back.' I said to Phil, 'You know what? God bless you. I'll give you the name back for free. Enjoy your life.' And then that was it. That was the end of it."
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