Taraxacum
We All Search For Something

24.08.2014

***ARCHIVE ITEM - DATED 2003*** Contrary to the popular belief that nothing new can be invented in heavy metal, there are always some bands who just can't be compared to anybody else. Their music may not be absolutely revolutionary (in this case, it's unlikely to be rock or metal music anymore), but they are indeed doing something special and going their own way regardless of trends. Speaking about a German six-piece using the strange name of Taraxacum, the line-up would be enough to make you understand that they are unique. Just try to imagine what kind of music is done by a collective effort of such diverse individuals as guitarist/bassist Tobias Exxel (Edguy, ex-Squealer), keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg (Rough Silk), drummer Franky Wolf (ex-Squealer) and American singer Rick Mythiasin (ex-Steel Prophet). After Taraxacum put of the second album called "Rainmaker", we decided it was high time to learn more about the band from its members directly and got Tobias on the phone from Germany. The connection was horrible, Tobias called us back twice, but still we somehow managed to pull it through. 

(EDITOR'S NOTE - THE YEAR 2014: Our first anniversary year is now over, but we keep on putting up archive items that our authors penned before starting to write for HeadBanger.ru. We polled the visitors of our Vkontakte page, and poll results clearly show that these old interviews are still of interest to the readers and they want these texts to be available again to the general public. As to ourselves, this is a good opportunity to re-live some of the great moments of our careers as journalists, and we are naturally eager to share them with you...)

Hi Tobias, how are you doing?

I'm doing fine, I've just arrived from the rehearsal to do this interview. Later we will have some more discussion stuff, because we are already working on new songs for a new Taraxacum album. That's pretty fine at the moment. We're so surprised that we have so many new ideas, we are working and preparing to do the third album, and then maybe going on tour or something like that. So we are very busy at the moment! (laughs)

Where are you calling from? 

It's a small town between Fulda and Frankfurt, where I live, and where our drummer Franky also lives, we live very close nearby. Of course, all the other band members live far away, one in Munich in the very south of Germany, one more near Hamburg in the north of Germany, and it is very difficult and untypical for us to get everybody together in the rehearsal room. The major problem is, of course, Rick, because he lives in Los Angeles. (laughs) That's pretty far away. But sometimes he comes to Germany and we can work on stuff. Last year I was in America, too, and we met at his house to work on songs. That's sometimes difficult, but it makes a lot of fun and is very exciting, because it's so untypical, I like it very much.

Can you introduce new members of Taraxacum to us? How did you meet them? 

Danny Klupp is the new guitarist, he lives in Munich. He's a close friend of mine, I got to know him yet two or three years ago, and it was very interesting, because I didn't know he was such a good guitarist. We were just friends, we were meeting here and there sometimes, but 1.5 years ago we decided to work together in the band, and that was great, we had lots of fun with each other. So he finally joined the band, and I'm very happy about that. Our new bass player is Shaker Elmosa, he's from Ireland, but he has been living in Germany for a few years. We got to know him at a concert of his former band, we had been watching the band and said, "Hey, it's a great bass player!" We just asked him if he's interested in joining Taraxacum, and he said, "Hey, that's great, I've just bought the first album!" So he already knew Taraxacum, and that was great.

Do Danny and Shaker play in any other bands?

Not at the moment, everybody is concentrating on Taraxacum. Rick quit Steel Prophet 1.5 years ago, so the only two members who are working in other bands are me (Edguy) and Ferdy Doernberg (Axel Rudi Pell, Rough Silk).  

You now have a permanent bass player, but all the bass parts on the second album are still done by yourself. Why?

We had some problems with it. Shaker was too new in the band, and he said he would have problems with learning everything on time for the studio. So I played bass guitar myself once again. But when we played live shows in Germany this April, of course, we had a real bass player and he showed that he can do this stuff. (laughs) It just took him a little bit longer. I would say it was bad luck because of schedules and stuff. It was not long since he had joined the band, so he preferred not to be playing.  

Why isn't Felix Bohnke (Edguy) playing in Taraxacum anymore? 

Because it was just a fun thing last time. Of course, you can see that he's not a real member of Taraxacum, he just did two of the nine songs on "Spirit Of Freedom", and it was just a fun thing, because he is my friend, and Felix and Frankie are also very close friends. It was just a cool and interesting thing to have another drummer, especially on the song "Blast Off", because it features double bass, it's a little bit faster and so on. But this time we tried to show that we are a real band and decided not to have so many guest musicians. So many people have always been comparing Taraxacum to Edguy and have been asking, "Is it a side project or a real band?" For this reason we decided not to have guest musicians from other bands.

Why is the album called "Rainmaker"? There have been quite a few other albums with the same name… 

I think it started with the lyrics of the song "Rainmaker". If you have a look on the album cover, you can see what the lyrics of that song are about. Rick is talking about the American Indians, who were forced away from their lands by white men about 100 years ago. There is a shaman who's looking into the future, and he is praying to the gods. Rainmaker is an old musical instrument that Indians were using to pray for rain. In our case, he says, "Bring down the water to wash the sins away." Rick and all of us are very sad that there is more industry and less nature all over the world. Money makes the world go round, do you know what I mean? Everything is about money, and that's what the song is about.

Was the recording of the new album somehow different from the recording of "Spirit Of Freedom"?

Yeah, I think so, because on "Spirit Of Freedom" I was playing all the guitars and all the bass guitars. The songwriting process basically involved just Frankie, me and Rick, but the new album was a teamwork for the first time. I think you can hear this very easily, because the songs are much more going into your head and into your stomach. The first album was much more experimental, we had so much different stuff, and the new one is more compact. Maybe it happened because I had so many song ideas when I founded the band in 1999, and there was a much longer period of time when I was collecting the ideas. Now, of course, everything happened much more spontaneously, we just met with the band in the rehearsal room, and if I had just one tiny idea, we would built a whole song out of if. That is the reason why the new stuff is more straight-ahead and more straightforward. I think it's great music for headbanging live on stage, so I'm really looking forward to play those songs live.

How was it like working with Kai Hansen and Dirk Schlachter on mixing "Spirit Of Freedom"? Are you satisfied with their work?

It was great. In 1999, I showed them my first demo CD, where I had some rough mixes of what I would like to do. The songs included were "Spirit Of Freedom", "Circle Of Fools" and stuff like that. Kai and Dirk just said that they liked the music very much and they were very happy that somebody dares to be a little bit different from typical present-day metal. They just offered me to go to their studio and work on mixing the songs together. Of course, I was pretty happy and very excited with that offer, and I agreed. We worked for about one months on the sound, and we tried to be a little bit different and experimental as far as the sound is concerned as well. It was a lot of fun, I like it very much.

Whose idea was it to invite Henjo Richter from Gamma Ray for doing the artwork? 

It was my idea. In general, Gamma Ray and me or Gamma Ray and Edguy are pretty close friends. In 1999, Edguy, Gamma Ray and Steel Prophet did a tour together, and that's when we developed a great friendship with each other. I knew that Henjo is a great graphic designer, and he also offered me his services. He said, "I have a great idea about Indians that can be on the cover of the Taraxacum album." And as I liked the idea very much, he said, "OK, I will do that." And I liked the cover of the first Taraxacum album so much that I asked him to do the cover for the second one again.

On the new album there is a song in Spanish called "Lo Que Falto". What was the reason for doing it? Who wrote the Spanish lyrics?

Rick's native language is not only English, but Spanish too. He grew up on the border between Mexico and North America, and his parents are half Mexican and half English. Therefore he speaks perfect Spanish. However he said he had some problems with translating everything precisely and stuff like that. So there was a friend of Rick in Los Angeles, his name is Horacio Colmenares, who helped Rick with writing the lyrics and translating them from English. The original English version can also be heard on the album, it's called "If I Had Known". It was my idea, because, like I said, it's a great thing that Rick has two native languages, so it's very interesting to have one song in Spanish too, especially when it's a ballad with only the piano and Rick's voice in it. It sounds great in Spanish, in my opinion.  

In general, is Taraxacum popular in Spanish-speaking countries?

I think so. To be honest, putting a Spanish song on the album helped us very much. I mean, we didn't do this song just to sell more albums, but in the end, the idea helped us, because a lot of Spanish people enjoyed it very much to have a song in their own language on our CD. People have been very grateful, and I can see that because I've got a lot of e-mails and our record company has got a lot of e-mails from Spanish people who said, "Thank you very much," because they thought it's a great idea to do something in another language. Unfortunately, Rick is not speaking Italian, French or even German, that would have been very funny, I think. (everybody laughs) The only thing that Rick can say in German is "shit" and "fuck" (laughter continues), so it would not be a good idea to let him sing a song in German.

In your opinion, is it possible to understand the essence of Taraxacum's music without understanding the lyrics of your songs?

Oh yeah, I think so. To be honest, most of us in Taraxacum say that the most important thing is music itself. I like music which is a bit aggressive, which you can play at a party or at a concert - great straightforward heavy metal stuff that is great for headbanging. Of course, the lyrics are also important, especially on "Rainmaker", where Rick delivers a very important anti-war message. When we were working on the album in the studio, it was exactly the time when the Iraq war began. Rick is American, but he's not supporting the American government at all, he hates George W. Bush very much, because he thinks that this war has no sense. It's not only to free Iraq from Saddam Hussain, oil is also the reason, because Americans want to earn money from this oil. I think it's pretty sad. It began with the title song - once I said that there is too much industry and people only want to earn money, and he said, "I have the feeling that some people even dare to start a war just to earn money." So this time Rick decided to deliver a lot of anti-war messages, because we think this is very important.

Is Rick free to write whatever he wants in the lyrics, or do you have any influence on the subject of songs?

No, he is free with this. Every musician is free to have his own influence on Taraxacum. Of course, on this album I wrote most of the songs, so I had the basic ideas for everything, but everybody is free to make changes, they all can say, "Hey Tobias, I think we should change this and that," and I would say, "Yeah, why not?" It's a real teamwork, everybody has the right to speak out his opinion or maybe change something. I'm pretty happy that Danny Klupp wrote one song, it's the title song "Rainmaker", and I'm also very happy with Ferdy's song "Dark Sunglasses", and I'm most happy with "If I Had Known", because the piano in this track is played by Frankie, who's the drummer, so I learned that he's also a great piano player. The song was performed by Frankie and Ferdy together, Frankie was concentrating on the piano stuff, and Ferdy was playing all the orchestration on the keyboards.

Don't you think that because of Rick's lyrics to some of the songs, such as "Prayer In Unison", Taraxacum can be perceived as a political band?

Hmm, that's difficult to say. I think you should go and tell people your opinion, and if there is something like a war in this world, you should talk about that. But I would not say that we are a political band. The lyrics on the next album may be totally different, and "Spirit Of Freedom" was not political at all. On "Spirit Of Freedom" Rick was talking much more about personal experience - relationships or what he went through in his childhood. "Blast Off" is an anti-drug song. Rick was addicted to drugs for a long time, and he had a lot of bad experience with that. Thank God, he's been completely away from drugs for many years, but he said he wanted to talk about that, and the greatest way to do it is to write a song on this theme. Therefore, I would not say that Taraxacum is a kind of political band. But anyway, as I said before, I think it's always important to speak out your opinion about something.

Just like the first record, "Rainmaker" features a song written completely by Ferdy Doernberg. Did he write "Dark Sunglasses" especially for "Rainmaker" or was it originally written for some other projects?

Of course not. He first made a demo of "Dark Sunglasses" and then we were working on it, changing stuff here and there. It was especially written for the album, within the general songwriting process for "Rainmaker".

Are you satisfied working with MTM Music? Do you have any plans to search for a bigger label?

I think maybe in the near future. It was a great start with MTM, but to honest, sometimes I have a feeling that a little bit more could happen to us. We had great reviews in magazines everywhere, especially in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Unfortunately I have to say that I have no idea what happens in Russia…

You see, the first album was only imported here, there was no domestic release. "Rainmaker" was released here by Art Music Group, but it was done only three weeks ago, so there is not really much we can tell you about sales and reviews.

Oh, that is fine, OK. At the moment we are thinking about changing the labels, but this is the subject I will be able to discuss much more easily a few months later, maybe in April and May. We have just started planning a new album which will come out next year, but first I have to concentrate on Edguy once again, we have finished a new album and we have a lot of work for next year, and I'm really looking forward to playing live with Edguy again. To be honest, I'm not a very good businessman. (laughs) I always want to concentrate on music and I really hate the business stuff, it's not my cup of tea. (everybody laughs)

Speaking about labels, we have recently learned that Edguy got a record deal with Nuclear Blast. Why did you leave AFM Records? Earlier Tobias Sammet used to say that AFM is home for the band…

I would say that it's because Nuclear Blast is one of the biggest labels here in Germany, at least for heavy metal. I think there is always time when you have to make a change, to make the next big step. Of course, AFM did a really good job for us, and I think nobody would really complain about AFM and Edguy. But now we have made a big step with the "Mandrake" album, and Nuclear Blast will be able to put much more money in advertising and stuff like that. They have great connections in America, and we are sure that we will be able to do a really big tour there next year. That's very important for us. That was one of the reasons why we changed labels.

In Edguy you play bass, and in Taraxacum you also play guitar. What do you like better? Can you play any other instruments?

I mostly play bass and guitar. I've played guitar since my childhood, I grew up with guitar from the beginning, and later I started playing bass guitars. Of course, when the guys from Edguy asked me if I would play bass in Edguy, nobody in the audience knew that I play guitar, too. So I guess a lot of people were surprised when they heard that I play guitar in Taraxacum. In addition to that, I play drums. I don't think I play that good, but… (laughs) Anyway, I have a lot of experience because when I was younger I played a lot of jazz as a drummer in a big band. It is, of course, completely different from heavy metal, but I enjoyed it very much, because I could learn a lot about music from there.

Are there any touring plans for Taraxacum in the coming months?

Here I have to say that we have some problems with MTM at the moment because of money, because we have to invest a lot of money in touring. At the moment, it's not so easy, so I plan something for the beginning of next year. But I would really prefer doing the third album first because we have so many new ideas at the moment. I really want to finish the new album first and then go directly on tour, maybe by the end of next year or in 2005, I don't know. At the moment I would just go and take the chance, we have so many new ideas that I can't wait to go back into the studio and work again. Anyway, I think it's very important to play live and I'm looking forward for that. I'm sure that our time will come to finally embark on tour.

Is there any difference between performing with Edguy and Taraxacum?

I don't think so, to be honest. Everybody in Taraxacum and Edguy is very natural, I don't feel like an actor on stage, like somebody who has to change himself on stage as compared to his private life. Therefore, I am the same type of guy on stage with Edguy and Taraxacum, that's more or less being myself. It wouldn't make sense anyway to change myself just to be a completely different person when I go on stage with Taraxacum or when I go on stage with Edguy.

And what about fans? Are the people who come to see Taraxacum different from Edguy fans?

That's difficult for me to say, because the music is very different. But we have just played three or four shows this year in Germany with Taraxacum, so that's difficult to figure out. Maybe there are more musicians interested in what we're doing, because Taraxacum is very diverse stylewise. One song sounds very different from another, and we have a lot of surprises and a lot of changes in just one album. And Edguy is more easy-listening party music, something like that. But as far as I know, most heavy metal fans are very open minded and very interested in a lot of different heavy metal styles. Therefore, I think, it would be one big community which will like both Edguy and Taraxacum, though of course, there will be some people who like Edguy more than Taraxacum or even vice versa, you never know.

Who is Frank Tischer? We see his name on nearly all records of Edguy, Taraxacum and Avantasia…

He's a close friend of ours, he plays piano very good, and that's the reason why he plays piano sections in Edguy. He's also a great singer, he's especially good on low voices like bass in choir stuff. He's a very big guy (laughs), and therefore he's got a very deep voice, so that's very funny. So he helped us in Taraxacum with singing choirs in the background, especially in the chorus of the song "Rainmaker", where you hear some very low voices. (imitates the voice) It sounds like an Indian choir. I'm very grateful to him for his help.

Does he play in any other bands?

Normally he's not a typical heavy metal guy. He prefers a lot of blues stuff, and he has got a band called Tisherman's Friend. Here in Germany we have sweets called Fisherman's Friend, and because of his last name Tischer, this becomes Tischerman's Friend. (everybody laughs) But it's more blues and rock stuff.

It is known very well how you met Franky Wolf and Rick Mythiasin. But how did you first meet Ferdy Doernberg?

This was at a festival. He was playing in the band of Roland Grapow when Roland made his first solo album. A festival is always a great chance to meet and talk to other people and maybe start a new friendship. So I got to know Ferdy, and first I just wanted to ask him about some technical stuff concerning the keyboard sound, so we were talking about keyboards, and I casually told him, "Yeah, I want to do something with a band, maybe it will be called Taraxacum, we are working on a few songs." And he said, "Hey, I would be very interested!" At the time he was playing in so many different bands, and I was afraid that it would be too much for him, so now I'm happy that he just concentrates on Taraxacum, Axel Rudi Pell and Rough Silk. This makes things much easier. It's always very important to be real friends, not just fellow workers in the band, and I was very happy when that happened with Ferdy and me.

You write nearly all the music for Taraxacum. But why haven't you written anything for Edguy?

That's difficult to explain. When I joined Edguy, they already had their particular style, it's their kind of power metal. But when I write songs, they're a little bit different, it's more rock'n'roll stuff. To be honest, when I joined the band, I thought it would not be a good idea to change Edguy's style. It was already working fine when Tobi was writing songs, and I said, "OK, I would like to do a second band, because my songwriting is very different from Tobi's style."

By the way, how much did you contribute as a songwriter to Squealer albums?

In Squealer, almost everybody was writing songs - me the bassplayer, the two guitarists, and even our singer, and Frankie Wolf the drummer, when he was still in the band. Every song was a kind of teamwork, everybody was getting credits.

Let's go back to the very beginning of your career…

Oh, I can't remember that! (everybody laughs)

Are there any recordings (demos or anything else) featuring your playing from the times before Squealer?

Yes, I did some demo stuff when I played in a band called Heresy a long time ago. I think I started this band when I was 14 years old or something like that, I played there for about six years until I was 20. This music was already a little bit similar to what I do in Taraxacum now. Of course, everyone was very young. For example, I was very disappointed when our drummer, who was 18 at that time, sold his drumkit because he wanted to buy a car. This made me very disappointed, because music was always a very important part of my life. Unfortunately, looking back I must say that I'm the only active musician from this band. Everybody else sold his instruments and chose not to play music anymore. Maybe they were not ready to take the risk, because being a musician is always a big risk, you can never plan, and you cannot be sure that you will learn enough money to make your living. But I was always ready to take the risk concerning music. Anyway, I learned a lot. I lived in a small village, and I must be happy enough that I met those guys in that village, and it was a great time for me. After that I became a drummer in a big band, and I also liked it very much.

How did you like visiting Russia with Edguy?

Oh, it was great. It was also very exciting because it was the very first time for us in Russia, and it was a great chance to travel. Of course, we had a lot of vodka on the evening before the show. (everybody laughs) We had a great time live on stage, and the audience was also great. As soon as we had the chance, we talked to some Russian fans after the show, and it's always great to have some contact with people. We had a signing session in the afternoon, and it was also very exciting, because there was some photo shooting, talking to the fans and stuff like that, which is something we always enjoy when we're on tour. We have some very funny pictures from that singing session.

Is there a chance that Edguy will tour Russia again in the future?

For sure, I think. The most important goal for us at the moment is to release the next album and do even more touring than with the last album. I think it would be great if we get to play more than one show in Moscow, if we could tour some more places in Russia. I think you can be really sure that we will come back to Russia.

Taraxacum on the Internet: http://www.taraxacum.net