Tobias Sammet is a man without much free time. The Edguy frontman is also the mastermind behind the ambitious Avantasia project, and between writing, recording and touring, he keeps extremely busy. In 2008 Edguy released the studio CD Tinnitus Sanctus, Avantasia's The Scarecrow was also released in 2008, and this year Edguy issued a live CD/DVD. Edguy is currently touring North America, and Sammet took a few minutes to fill us in on the tour, timetables for new Edguy and Avantasia albums, his musical beginnings and many other subjects.
Chad Bowar: How has your North American tour been going so far?
Tobias Sammet: It's had its ups and downs, competition is quite stiff over here and word hasn't got out yet that we are actually the best band of all! (laughs) We have a lot of fun, the band is tight, the audience loves it. Of course the crowds are bigger in Europe, but we have toured Europe for about 12 years now, whereas we started playing the U.S. on a coast-to-coast basis just a few years ago. A lot of work has to be done here, and that's what we are doing right now. It feels great to play a club, no distractions, no big stage production. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love our big stages in Europe, but here it's more about the music and how good my jokes work, or not.
What have been some of the most memorable moments?
Whaling in Boston! You can read about that one on my website, tobiassammet.com. Except for that it's just the usual road madness. In the life of a touring musician, basically everything is memorable. Ee laugh more in one day than most people do in half a year, so wait for my book one day.
Does the setlist have a lot of songs from Tinnitus Sanctus, or is it more equally distributed amongst your discography?
Although this is the Tinnitus Sanctus tour, we play a kind of best of set. We play four new songs, the rest is pretty much a best-of set. When you go out on the road in America once a year, I understand that people are eager to hear some of the new stuff, but unless you play there every three months I guess people aren't really fed up on the band classics either. So you just gotta find a good balance.
What do you like the most and least about touring in North America?
I like that most people are very friendly. Everybody is “How-ya-doing” you, if you know them or not. That makes everyday life a little more joyful. On the other hand, I don't like some of the backstage areas. If you are playing clubs you really have to endure a lot of “discomfort.” Maybe I perceive this because in Europe and South America we play bigger venues. But no problem, if it was easy, everybody would do it. Life on the road is like life in the jungle. The strongest dare and survive. In addition, I really love the landscape, nature and the nutrition fact sticker on the bottle of my mineral water: now that makes sense, doesn't it? (laughs)
Where haven’t you played live that you would still to get to?
Las Vegas, Texas, New Zealand and Africa. We've been playing all weird kinds of places, but haven't made it to those places yet.
What are the largest and smallest crowds you've played in front of?
The largest was probably Wacken 2008 with Avantasia. Officially it was just 80,000, but there are rumors that the true number was well over 120,000. That looked amazing. Again, you can see a video of that on my website. On the other hand, we played a lot of festivals in front of 20,000 to 40,000 people and the difference is not that significant anymore. You can't count them. The smallest crowd, in the beginning playing to 50 people kind of happened. Hold on, I remember on our first tour in early 1998 we played in a club in Eastern Germany, supporting the U.S. prog metal band Eternity X in front of nine people. That was really weird.
What was the first concert you attended as a fan?
It was Running Wild, a German metal band, in 1993. The funny thing is, by that time I had already played my own concerts with Edguy, because we started out so early at age 14. We were not allowed to attend most concerts agewise, whereas when we were playing ourselves, nobody was asking for ids or anything, Weird, isn't it? At least nobody could blame us for stealing anyone's stage behavior.
What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you on the road?
A lot of things happened throughout the years. I remember this summer we played a show with Mötley Crüe, the Scorpions and Blind Guardian. We were in a tiny plane, just the bands, and after our arrival in Bulgaria down at the Black Sea in the middle of nowhere we were separately shuttled to the city where the concert was supposed to happen. Beautiful landscapes, curves and broken streets all the way, not to forget the vans that were almost falling apart by looking at them.
On our way we saw one van parked on the side of the road with the hazard lights on, so we pulled over, because except for us nobody would pass by on that road to nowhere. We wanted to help. The other van's driver waved his hands seemingly in panic, so we pulled up and there he stood: Tommy of Mötley Crüe with his dick out taking a piss! Obviously all that their driver wanted to tell us was “Don’t stop! No problem!” He wanted to spare both sides the encounter. He failed.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve been asked to autograph?
A publishing deal! I didn't do it, they all want your money, and they don't do (crap) for you!