It's been a while since we last talked to Crystal Ball, but as a band close to my heart - I flew over to Munich to see them play live in 2000 - I thought it was about time we caught up again. For me, their new album 'Time Walker' is their best since 'Hard Impact', so a quick call to guitarist Scott Leach was in order.

'Timewalker' is the fifth studio album from Crystal Ball. How do you feel the band has progressed since 'In the Beginning'?

Quite a lot. Musically, technically and also business wise. We've learned what to do and how to do it. Even though this process never ends, we feel that we've grown up and know what to expect from certain situations.

There seems to me to be a more epic feel to many of these songs, almost like telling the story of a movie. Was there a deliberate move to have such more intricate and interesting lyrics this time around?

Yes, we planed to write a concept album this time. Not a story that goes from A-Z, but all songs are connected to the main theme. And maybe for that reason the music is more epic - even though this was not a planed thing. There are also some tunes that are typical Hardrock like: Eye of the storm, Tear down the wall and Powerflight.

Was there a specific concept based around the track 'Walk Through Time' and the album title Timewalker?

Yes. The song 'Walk through time' was the starting point that gave us the idea for the whole concept. I kind of pictured by myself the booklet, the photos, just everything when I thought about the title and the concept of 'Time' and walking through different eras of time. So we choose to take bits and pieces out of the world's history that were interesting for us and suited the music and wrote the lyrics around it - because we mostly write the music first. Later on in the studio we decided to chance the working title 'Walk Through Time' to 'TimeWalker'.

It was a surprise when you moved to Nuclear Blast, who are widely regarded as a label for heavier music. After three albums, how do you feel the relationship is working?

The style of music is no problem at all. Meanwhile bands like Nightwish and Gotthard, even Liquido - a German Pop-Punk - are signed to Nuclear Blast. They give us good promotion and distribution. That is what we were looking for and the guys are all really nice to us. As with any label though, it's mostly the sales figures that count. Business is Business.

When the label then went and signed Gotthard, also a melodic rock band from your native Switzerland, did you guys see that as a good thing or do you worry that more emphasis and care will be given to Gotthard, and Crystal Ball will suffer as a result?

We felt this is a good thing for us. Of course Gotthard will get more attention, because they sell a lot more than we do. There's no doubt about this. Nevertheless we thought that this could be a benefit for us because this kind of music gets more attention. And we were able to play an opening slot for Gotthard this summer because we are in contact with their booking agent too.

After more than 6 years, you are finally getting out on a headlining tour. Are you excited about this, and are there any surprises the fans can expect?

Yes, we are, Even though in Switzerland we played as headliner most of the time. But now it's the first time on tour in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. One can expect that we will give all we've got, and we'll have a lot of fun on stage. The ones that have seen us before will know what I am talking about. We'll be playing through all of our 5 records, with some emphasis on the new album TimeWalker. We also have a nice stage deco with Clocks, Sidedrops etc, fitting the TimeWalker theme.

You've already played a few dates in Switzerland. What is the reaction of the fans to the new songs? Any particular favourites?

The reactions were very positive. The new songs work very well in the live situation. Actually they were written to work in a live situation as well as on the record. 'Powerfight' is a great live song and also 'He Came to Change the World'.

There still doesn't seem to be any live shows outside Switzerland and Germany. Is this something the band still feels frustrated about? Especially when both Gotthard and Shakra have recently played in the UK.

Well, Gotthard is just another league when it comes to money and the possibilities to play somewhere. I didn't know about Shakra, but that's cool for them. We would come the U.K. immediately if there is an offer where we don't have to sell our houses to make it happen!

You recently played the Deep Impact festival in Munich, in front of a crowd that would not really be mainly Crystal Ball fans. How did you find that experience, and how did the audience react to the band?

We have a lot of experience playing in front of a crowd that doesn't know Crystal Ball, and we hardly ever had a problem in getting them convinced. In fact we had quite a lot of fans in the crowd in the reactions were good. Even the ones who liked heavier stuff said that they enjoyed the show very much. Because they could see that we enjoyed ourselves and we didn't need to play "the bad guys" to make an impression.

Can you tell us in a little more detail why Tom Graber had to leave the band, and how you found his replacement Connie Andreszka?

Tom had problems with his health. That's the Truth. The touring, the rehearsals, the business stuff... it became to much for him, since we still have to work in day jobs to make a living. So it is a constant 150% job, and that is very hard sometimes. So I can understand that he had to make a decision before he suffers some breakdown one day. We managed to convince Tom to stay with us for a while, especially to finish the last record as a kind of a goodbye present for the band and himself.

Conny answered to our ad where we were looking for a replacement for Tom. He is a multi-talent like Tom. He can play guitar, keyboard, sing and he has also a small recording Studio where he produces other bands. He fits the band very well, even though it is hard to have such a chance after playing with the same guys for 10 years now. But the show must go on.

And now our longtime bass player Dany seams to follow Tom as he recently announced. But he played all of our Swiss shows with us. For the German tour we have found a replacement for him, because he can't do it for family reasons. We don't know exactly if we want to look for a new guy immediately. We'll just see how it feels on tour and take our time!

Are all the members still putting all their creative talents into Crystal Ball, or has there been any outside projects? Hey, you guys have talent, why not spread it around?

Mark is currently working on some solo stuff and he also produced the Swiss band Tempesta" together with Michael Bormann. I might do some producing as well in the near future and/or play some other project now and then, but it's too early to talk about it yet. By the way: Tom appears with some piano stuff on the new Majesty record.

Finally, any message to all your UK fans, who have not been able to see you guys yet!!

Thank you very much for your support over the years. Especially the ones who were crazy enough to fly over just to see us play. Who knows, maybe we'll make it to the U.K. in the future. We're looking forward to it. Cheers.