Twelve years ago, Axxis were a breath of fresh air for me. Yeah, okay, the lyrics were rather questionable and Bernhard Weiss' nasally high-pitched tones definitely an acquired taste, but the sheer exhuberence and charm the band displayed endeared them to me greatly. 'Axxis II' still remains one of my all-time favourite CDs, but after that album the band seemed to deviate from the formula, and I gave up on them after listening to 'Matters of Survival' in-store. With the departure of guitarist Walter Pietsch, vocalist Weiss successfully brought the sound back to those early days with 2000's 'Back to the Kingdom', and late last year saw the release follow up 'Eyes of Darkness'.

I contact Bernhard on the phone, and tell him that I actually interviewed him and Walter a full 12 years ago on the UK Black Sabbath tour. Bernhard laughs in amazement at how things seem to have come round full circle. I begin by asking him what he remembers about that tour in '88.

"Oh, a lot of things. It was our first European tour and 'Kingdom of the Night' was one of the most important Axxis albums because it was a ticket into the new music business and Black Sabbath...before we stared the tour I had a lot of imagination about what would happen on it because they had the image of this dark, English, bloody drinking people, you know (laughs). And then I got to know them a little bit and they are five wonderful English gentlemen and I was very surprised at their kindness. For me, it was unblievable that we were on tour with these guys and it was a wonderful experience."

But Axxis never returned to the UK after that tour. Wasn't this a much wasted opportunity to capitalise on the press and momentum achieved?

"The problem was with the English promoters, because we did ask them after the Black Sabbath tour to play again in England, and maybe they could see we were building up a following in this country, but that never happened because we couldn't find a promoter who liked the band - that was a big problem for Axxis. So we have no standing and no support in your country. The money was not the problem, the only problem was the organisation, the help and the support from England."

And the albums were never released in the UK, were they?

"Exactly. Another problem that we have. Axxis is a very special thing...you cannot compare Axxis with a normal German band because all the German bands have a big success, for example, in Japan, or in Spain or Italy. But we never did...we were like a bird in a golden cage; we got this wonderful world-wide deal with EMI and as greenhorns we thought that was wonderful, but it was only released in Germany, and EMI in all the other countries never supported us. And that was the major problem, because we didn't have the chance to go to another company. I know there was a company in England that were interested in the band, but we didn't have the right to go out off the [EMI] deal, so we were totally a prisoner in Germany. So I would say to all the newcomer bands, 'Hey, go to a smaller company. Build up your career very, very slowly.' For us it was very, very fast. With the first album, everyone only expected 10-20,000 sales, but 'Kingdom of the Night' sold 150,000 copies sold and that was wonderful for the band, but too much for the career. We didn't have the chance to build our career on a solid basement."

On that tour with Black Sabbath, you did a song called 'Some Stars are Falling'. Was that song ever recorded?

'Exactly. You can remember that?! 'Some Stars are Falling' was never recorded. You must remember, 'Kindom of the Night' was released and then we did the Black Sabbath tour, and on this tour we checked out some songs for the Axxis II CD, and that's why we played that song."

Moving onto Axxis II, that's one of my favourite albums ever.

"For me that's a total surprise, and I'm very proud if British people say they like this kind of music because all the time I thought there was no market and no fans in Britain, and after the Black Sabbath tour I was very proud of the Bristol fan club that was set up for us. And then everything was quiet, and nothing happened any more, and that's why I must laugh when someone from England says I like this CD very much. For me, it's really cool! In Germany we have the same problem. Everyone told me before we started to record the 'Back to the Kingdom' album, don't record this CD because rock music is dead. To be honest with you, I never expected such a success with that album because of what the industry people told me, but then we had a sold out tour and the album was selling very, very well in Germany. So I think the rock music is still there, but the media don't push this scene too much. That is why it is important that the fanzines and rock magazine write about this kind of music, because that's the only support rock music has got in this time."

I was reading your website, and I was having a little laugh to myself because I am one of these fans who loved your first two albums then got the third album and thought 'What the fuck....?' Listened to the fourth album in the record shop and thought 'I'm not even buying that!' So...what the hell happened and why?

"That was very interesting. You must imagine that Scorpions had gone from EMI during this time and Axxis should have been the next band for EMI to get into the market. For me, I was shocked about what everone was talking about [for the next Axxis album]...a big producer, working in America. I was the only guy in the band who said I didn't want to go to Amnerica. I love America, to go there for my holidays or something like that, but not to produce an album with an American producer because I can't imagine the he would understand our fun, rock, melodic stuff that we were doing during the first CDs. But EMI wanted to push the band into the international market and take it to a higher level...that's what they told us. This was the time we were working with Joey Balin in New York and it was a wonderful time for me because I had the opportunity to see how the American people produce an album, how they work with the music...it gave me another point of view. It was very interesting from a production point of view, but from a musical point of view we trusted these producers a little too much, and if I look back now I think it was very important to do these CDs because now we know how it works, from a production point of view, but musically it was an experiment. 'The Big Thrill' was a wonderful CD in my mind, but it was not Axxis anymore from the sound. The songs have never changed...on every CD they are the same but the sound...the clothes over the music were different, and that changes for the fans a lot things."

As you said, the debut album sold 150,000. How well did the following albums sell?

"It was 90,000 for Axxis II and 80,000 for 'The Big Thrill'. So it was very interesting. We were selling a lot of CDs but the curve was going down, so it didn't make sense for EMI to continue to work together with us because they expected more. Which is what I meant before when I said it is better to build up a band than to start with a big success, because it looks unsuccessful if you are selling less CDs, even though other bands are selling less but they were on an upward curve."

So whose idea was it to return to the old style with 'Back to the Kingdom'?

"It was a very easy thing, because now we are able to produce our CDs by ourselves. And you must remember the first and second albums were produced by Walter and me, along with Rolf Hanekamp. 'The Big Thrill', 'Matters of Survival' and 'Voodoo Vibes' are the only three albums that big names, such as Joey Balin and Keith Olsen, have produced. As I said before, it was a great learning experience, but at the end of the day, we have learned that the Axxis sound works only when we produce it. Maybe we are not the best from the technical side but the feeling and the style is definitely better."

There must be a little bit more to it than that surely, because yes, the production can make the songs sound slightly different but the songs on 'Voodoo Vibes' were totally different sounding.

"Yes, but you must compare all those CDs with the time, and you must imagine during the time of the 'Voodoo Vibes' or 'Matters of Survival', all these grunge and cross-over bands were coming up, and bands like Axxis who have a major deal must ask 'What should we do?' We want to transport our music into this new time and another thing, from the musical side of things it's very interesting to work with different styles, for example drum loops. So as a musician, it's wonderful to work with this stuff, but if you see the Axxis logo on a CD, you expect Axxis inside...that is the most important thing. So I understand these feelings, I'm a fan too. If I bought a KISS album and got pop music, I'd have a problem too!"

So why did Walter leave the band?

"That's very easy. Twelve years with Axxis is a very long time. He likes Axxis, but he was just saying 'Hey, now I'm 35 years old and I want to go on the other side of the business.' He wants to get another chance with another kind of challenge, a different job. He is also a producer in a rock/pop business, and a manager of a band here in Germany, so he has other successes on the other side of the business. We are still good friends."

So is it just coincidence that when Walter leaves you go back to the old sound?

'[laughs] That is very interesting. That's a good question, because after Walter left the band I was....you must realise, Walter was a very modern guy, he was very fashionable, all the time wearing the modern clothes, and he likes the modern music style, and that's the reason why we were very open for foreign producers. That changed after Walter left the band. Now I'm the boss, with Harry together and we are the traditional rock musicians, and that's the reason it works better now."

When I interviewed you 12 years ago, Harry was just doing live keyboards, he wasn't even part of the band. Now he's playing guitar. How does this affect the current live sound? Does he play guitar and keyboards?

"Not anymore, I stopped that after 'Axxis II'. Ahh, you must see Axxis now, it is totally different. If you have us in your mind from the Black Sabbath tour it's the totally wrong point of view. Now the comedy stuff is very important, now I'm playing with the fans. Now I'm more spontaneous on stage, I'm not so frightened anymore...because I was totally frightened in the beginning. And with Black Sabbath, who are one of my favourite bands, it was unbelievable for me. Now I'm a little bit cooler, and I've had a lot of ups and downs in the business, I've learned a lot of things. So things are very different live now, and you'll get a chance to see us during the next tour, at the Camden Underworld in February. We're supporting Kamelot. They're a little better known in England than we are, so we are helping them in Germany and they are giving us the chance to support them in other countries. I hope it happens because I love England and Scotland. My girlfriend was Scottish, so it was wonderful for me to tell her that I've played in Edinburgh a very long time ago!"

You've now changed your record label from EMI to Massacre. What difference do you think this will make for Axxis?

"For me EMI was wonderful. They supported us in Germany... I only speak for Germany. Without EMI we would never be in the position we are in today but with Massacre we have a lot of freedom, for instance this world-wide stuff that we talked about earlier... we are able now to get contracts with all the countries world-wide. Now we build up our career step by step. We are totally a newcomer band in Spain, for example, and now we are playing in two festivals and the people are flipping out now, and everything works wonderfully. The same in Italy. That's what I told everyone in the business before; just give us the chance to play even once in one small city in a country, but we never got the chance or the support and we are not able to go to those countries. With Massacre we are now able to do this. It's a small company, but it's a very, very big step for us."

There's a great video clip of 'Shadowman' on the new album. Is there a possibility of a live Axxis video in the near future?

'That's very interesting because we have a lot of video material at home now but it's a very bad quality, that's the problem. We try to make it a little more like art, but the problem is the investment is very, very expensive... to rent a studio, to edit everything. But with PC, it is now very easy to produce it at home and if we have the money we will do this, or a home video. So we are working on this plan, which is why we included this clip. It was recorded by ourselves and is bad quality, but you can see how Axxis will work."

Okay, the new album. As a fan my only criticism is that the songs, even more so than the last album 'Back to the Kingdom', are very similar sounding to a lot of the old stuff...the melodies and the riffs. I like it, but I keep finding myself thinking 'Oh, this sounds familiar'. Have you ever thought of writing with outside writers at all?

"I know what you mean. It's very interesting because sometimes we had this problem during the song-writing session....we'd be like 'Fucking hell, this sounds very familiar. Did we record it before?' Then we checked it out and it's totally different, but it feels the same. If we are using this style that we were using years before then it sounds a little bit similar, and it's not the same. Maybe it happened accidentally here or there but you cannot compare the songs, just the styles maybe."

My favourite song on 'Back to the Kingdom' was 'My Little Princess'. That was very bouncy and very melodic. I'd like to hear more of that kind of stuff.

"[laughs] You'll get that on the next CD! You see, the problem was that we had to record the CD very, very fast and we had a lot of material on this album that was recorded before or during the 'Back to the Kingdom' sessions. For example, 'Battlefield of Life', 'One Million Faces' and 'Keep Flying', these are all songs recorded during the 'Back to the Kingdom' session. We didn't use them because they didn't fit to the atmosphere of that CD. That CD was more a wake-up call for the fans and 'Eyes of Darkness' is more emotional... a lot of ballads and some experiments with longer songs, like 'Eyes of Darkness', which is the longest song we've written. So it's different. And I can criticise my own CD because what I miss is a song like'Heaven in Black', this typical hymn... that's what I miss. But hey, you can't urge yourself to write such songs, and if I have to wait for such a song, for me it is a hit. What I hate is to copy myself again and again and again, and I hate to copy the 'Back to the Kingdom' CD again, and that's why when we started writing, we tried to write from another point of view."

So you wouldn't consider writing with outside writers?

"Nobody has asked me before. If someone asks me, I think it is a cool thing. For example, on the 'Back to the Kingdom' album and on 'Eyes of Darkness', for the first time in our career we did cover versions. We just interpreted the songs in our style and I think it's a wonderful thing to work with songs from other bands or other songwriters, and if someone were to ask me, I have no problem. A good song is a good song, it doesn't matter who wrote it."

So apart from the tour with Kamelot, what are your plans for this year?

"The most important thing for me is to make Axxis a little more known outside Germany. I've got to know every face of every fan in Germany, it's unbelievable [laughs]. It's wonderful, it's like a family but outside of Germany we have a lot to do. I am sure it can work, but we have to get the chance."