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CRYSTAL BALL by Bruce Mee Having witness a fantastic live show in Munich in February, when the band supported Pretty Maids, I got back on the phone to guitarist Scott Leach for an in depth look at one of the latest, and greatest, hard rock bands to come out of Switzerland. How did the band originally form? "We started in 1995, but with a different name. At that time we were called Cherry Pie, and we were originally a cover band. We played all kinds of 80's and 90's rock songs, but mostly in the style of the 80's, like Pink Cream 69, Whitesnake, Dokken, Malmsteen, Queensryche, Axel Rudi Pell... all that kind of music." Did you actually play any Warrant songs, or was the band name not connected? "Yeah, we did play that one Warrant song, 'Cherry Pie', and of course the name was taken from there. We thought as a cover band, it made it more obvious to name ourselves after a song." Did you actually have a glam image as the cover band, or was it still the same image you have now? "Actually, I would say it's the same. The press maybe would call it a 'poser image'... maybe it still is, I don't know, ha ha. At the time it was in the middle of the 90's, when grunge was big. Everyone that was not grey and sad was a poser, so I guess we were, but it was no different from now. We had the same hair and the same clothes." So how did Cherry Pie evolve into Crystal Ball? "We played for about three years, mostly just around Switzerland, some shows in Austria and Germany, but just a few. We started to get a little bored, because we realized you could only reach a certain point as a cover band. You can play all sorts of gigs, but you're never gonna release a CD, because who wants to hear songs already done by other bands, but not as good? We actually always wanted to have our own material and so we started writing in between gigs and it came along well. We had the chance to play on a German talk show, which was a big show with about a million people watching. It's just a talk show, but we had the chance to play for 2 or 3 minutes, so we wrote a song for that and took that chance." Which song was it you played? "The song was called 'Stand By Me' and is not on any of our albums. Then we got in contact with a Swiss record company called Artist Records and they had this idea... there's this Swiss boxing star called Stefan Angern, and he was looking for a song for when he was walking to the ring. We got a chance to write that song, because he wanted a rock tune and that was released as a single, called 'Eye to Eye'. It was released only in Switzerland and under the name of Cherry Pie, but still sell it at our concerts. We already recorded that single at Tommy Newton's place because we had already contacted him and planned to make the album, and it was the record company's idea to make the single, just to get the name a bit better known before we made the album. But then everything went different... the record company went bankrupt, and then we changed the name, but it still worked out good." Was there much bad feeling towards the original name? I know you approached Mark Ashton at Now & Then Records when you were still known as Cherry Pie. Were those the songs that were on the first Crystal Ball album? "Yeah, we recorded the first album, 'In The Beginning', completely and then started shopping. At that time we were still called Cherry Pie. The reasons for changing the name came mainly from Japan, even though we had thought about it earlier and I was quite happy that they had the same idea, because I was not really happy with the original name. I thought it was fine for a cover band but not for original material. The Japanese company didn't force us, but suggested strongly that we change the name, so we decided as a band to do it. We were not known outside of Switzerland [as Cherry Pie] so it wouldn't really matter for the record sales." You and Mark do all the writing in the band. So who are your main influences, and do you think any of the other band members will ever contribute to the writing? "Well they already do, in a way. Tom, the keyboard player is starting to get more involved in the writing. Not as much he comes up with completely new songs but he often does a lot of the arranging on the songs we write. My influences are Whitesnake, Dokken, early Def Leppard, early Scorpions, also Yngwie Malmsteen and all kinds of 80's bands... melodic, powerful... more hard rock, but less metal, although I still like some metal bands." Would you ever consider writing with outside writers, or are you happy keeping it within the band? "We haven't considered it yet, for the reason we haven't gotten to know any, ha ha. If we would do that, then it should be someone really famous, like Desmond Child. It would make sense to have the big name to get the attention, but so far we have had no contact with such people." Now Gotthard are a very successful Swiss band. Have you guys ever considered going in a lighter direction to try and have the same success or do they have no influence. "I'd say they have no influence but of course... they have an influence, in a way, ha ha. Not that we just do what they do, but you look at them, and you hear everything. Do you mean do we want to go to LA to record there?" Not so much that, as much as I know many people who are original Gotthard fans when they were harder, and are now a little disappointed because their albums are very light and acoustic. But at the same time they are getting #1 singles in Switzerland because they have the cross-over appeal, so have you guys ever thought maybe if you tried something lighter, or are you more focussed on what Crystal Ball are doing and would rather be true to yourselves? "That's actually right. We don't want to change to something we don't really like or want. But even if we came to that conclusion, it wouldn't work out if we played lighter music. We still wouldn't ever achieve the same success as Gotthard. There's just one Gotthard. There's a lot of bands now in Switzerland that try to copy that sound, and I think it's just boring. So as you said, we just try to be true to ourselves and do what we like, and do it as good as we can. That's the only way to achieve success." Talking about change, I know that some Crystal Ball fans were a bit disappointed because they felt 'Hard Impact' was a heavier sounding album than the original, which was more AOR. Was this a deliberate move to achieve a wider audience? "No, it actually happened naturally. We didn't plan that. We just wrote songs, and what I really think makes the difference is the production. I think the songs are quite similar but the production is not so much 80's sounding as the debut album was. Tommy thought the songs were somehow rougher and more mature than the first album, so thought they deserved a different sound - a rougher sound. So it was his decision. At first we were a bit sceptical - we didn't think the songs were too heavy - but when we heard the final result we thought it was good, and so far the reaction of the press and fans proved him right." One of the things I am surprised about is the lack of a true ballad on the album. Any reason for this? "No particular reason... it was one thing we didn't plan. We actually wrote ballads, and had about three ballads ready. But when we chose the songs for the album, from about 20 or 25, we just went through it and somehow there was no ballad that somehow convinced us completely. We had one in mind but we wanted to do it with an orchestral arrangement to lift it out of the ordinary, but that was just too expensive. So we thought maybe we just leave it, and the other songs were so full of energy, we just didn't feel like playing a ballad at the time. So it was no plan, just by accident." So the album title and cover were not deliberately meant to convey the sound of the album? "A little bit. We had no title when we were recording and we were looking for something that would fit the sound of the album - even though we had that title in mind before, but we didn't chose it. At the time, the working title was 'Deep Impact', like the movie. So we thought that was too obvious - that everyone would think of the movie, maybe they still will, ha ha. So we had to do something different and so we came up with 'Hard' because everyone was telling me the music was harder, so I wanted that ward in there. The cover was created after that title was chosen." Looking at some of the songs now. 'Queen of the Night', which is one of my favourites - whose idea was it to have the verses done in such a strange vocal style? "That was really Tommy Newton's idea. We had it different on the demo, it was more of a ballad style. I was playing more funky guitar on it, like the main riff you can hear in the background. I was playing that but with less distortion and more keyboards and clean guitars. Tommy thought it would suit the song better if it was heavier, more evil. So he tried that effect and we liked it." And as I told you in Munich, 'Passion' sounds very much like 'Keeper' era Helloween. Was this intentional? Are Helloween an influence? "I think it's mainly Mark's influence. As I said before, my influences are more 80's hard rock, whereas his are more from the German metal scene. He likes bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray, Stratovarius and so on. I like them too, but mot so much. So 'Passion' is more or less his song. So I wouldn't say it was purposely to sound like them but it's just that kind of style that he likes." So which are your favorite songs from the album? "My favorite songs are also 'Queen of the Night', then I like 'Shine On' a lot. 'Stare At the Sun' and the first two, 'Soul Mate' and 'Won't Bite'. Then it's getting harder. It depends on the mood." So how was it working with such a renowned producer as Tommy Newton? Did you learn much? "For sure, yes. Also, because it was actually the third time [after the single and debut] the working process was very relaxed. Everyone knew what was going to happen. The first time we were nervous and didn't know what we wanted, but this time we were relaxed and that helped a lot with the atmosphere for the album." Do you think this partnership will remain for the next album? "I guess so. We have no contract or no deal, but I think we will work again with Tommy Newton." So how has the reaction on the recent Pretty Maids tour been? "It has been really good. We were surprised ourselves." Have you played live much before in Switzerland and Germany? "In Switzerland we played a lot. With the cover band we played around 150 shows. As Crystal Ball we have done quite a lot also, but not so much with this new album yet. Maybe 5 or 6 shows before the Pretty Maids tour, but we will play some festivals in the summer and autumn." So how about other European countries? "I hope so. There's some festivals coming up... one in Austria with Gotthard, and some in Germany. As far as a real tour goes, we really hope it will happen but at the moment Germany is still the biggest and most important market for us. Maybe with the next album we will have better distribution [across Europe] which will make more sense, because if we tour and no-one can buy the album, that is not really helping us." Tell us about the two videos you've made - 'Me and You' and 'Queen of the Night'. "'Me and You' was the first video we ever made actually, and of course it was a low budget production, as was 'Queen of the Night', because we didn't have a lot of money and we know that videos are not really shown on TV a lot. In Switzerland we had a few shows that played it, so that was the reason we did it. The record company advised us not to invest in videos because MTV and Viva wouldn't show it because we're hard rock. So we did them mainly for Switzerland and a bit for ourselves, just because we wanted to have one, and it was fun. The first video 'Me and You' was also possible to order, but now it's sold out. We just did a few copies. We're thinking about doing a compilation later on with 'Me and You', 'Queen of the Night' and maybe some live footage, but at the moment it's not planned to do such a video." Yeah, I was going to suggest the possibility of including them on a future CD as a CD ROM kinda thing, or after what we've just talked about, do you still have things like the original demo version of 'Queen of the Night' and stuff like that, which is totally different. That is something the fans would love and you could put together yourselves - a CD with original demos and the videos as well and sell that through the internet or something. "Yeah, that's a possibility we've thought about. We were thinking about doing it after the tour but we still realized we don't have enough footage to make a really good video. I'm getting myself a computer program and everything I need to edit the footage myself, as that is much cheaper than going into an editing studio. So I'm learning how to use that, which will take a few months, but I hope to put something together with live and maybe some old stuff. That's the plan, but we have no definite time-table. Point Music also mentioned that they wanted to do a DVD with all different bands, but I don't know if they are going to do that, but that was another idea." So has there been any thoughts so far for the next album? "We already started writing, maybe have five songs almost finished." Any ballads? "Not yet, ha ha!! But I'm sure there will be some ballads on the next album." Is the style just continuing in the same direction? "Yes, I guess so. There's no plans for something else - we just write and see what comes out. I'm sure it won't be completely different, but it may get softer or may be harder." So finally Scott, tell me what would make you happy over the next two years? "I would say we would be very happy if we could get better known and sell as many CDs so we could make a living out of it, or only have to work part time. Just to have everything more intense, so we can put more emphasis on the music, and not worrying about getting the rent paid. And apart from that, making a European tour would be very cool." Let's hope the guys get that tour because they really are an excellent live band. Meantime, if you get the chance, check out their cool website, which is designed and maintained by bass player Dany Schällibaum, at www.crystal-ball.ch. This interview was reprinted with permission from Fireworks Magazine. "One mind, one hope, one love and one mission, but too blind to see much, but skylines and television"

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