1) First I'd like to know how is the band's process of composition. What's done first, instrumental or lyrics? And how do you feel being in a studio recording new songs to an album?

We normally start individually to write songs or song ideas at home. Everybody has their own little recording machines. Once the ideas are getting clearer we usually sit together and present them to each other and decide if we like the idea and that we wanna keep on working on them or put them in the closet. The more the song is getting finished the more the whole band is getting involved. So far, the lyrics are written by Steve once the music is done. In some cases the music and the lyrics are written by one person, like on the last album the song Falling, which was written all by Leo Leoni himself.

The recording of a song is the final process and everything still can happen. Favourite songs can turn into b-songs and b-songs can become great tunes. Everything is actually still moving till the mix is done. So it is a very fascinating thing to watch and hear the song grow until it is done.

2) Every band has its difficulties to start a musical career. Which were the main obstacles in Gotthard's inception? And how difficult was to have your songs recongnized outside Switzerland?

Switzerland has positive and negative sides to start a band. The good thing is that it is very small, so a lot can be done and controlled by the band in the beginning. The bad thing is that other countries don’t consider Switzerland to be an important market with important bands, which means it is difficult (but not impossible, as we showed) to get attention out of Switzerland. Since Gotthard started a lot has changed in the music industry. Internet and sites like Myspace are today almost more important than the record companies. The best of course is if you have them both to start with. When Gotthard started, 17years ago, it would have been almost impossible to reach the fans without a record company. Today bands like Arctic Monkees showed that record companies are not necessarily needed in the beginning.

3) Which are the most significant differences you note in the evolution of the band since the first album 'Gotthard' till the 'Domino Effect'? In all aspects: relationship with record labels, band partners and producers, lyrics and musically etc…

Well of course a lot happened in 17years. The main aspect is probably that working with a record company like Nuclear Blast, which has a distribution in about 45 countries opened a lot of doors. The former record label concentrated on 4-5 countries, which made it impossible to play concerts in countries like Brazil, Spain, Sweden, etc.

Also a main factor is that since the album Lipservice, Leo Leoni took over the job as a producer, which means that Gotthard has no people around anymore, who try to change our sound ideas.

4) How the new technologies of musical production benefit a band as Gotthard? What your opinion about the use of these technologies (new softwares, emulators of instruments) in the process of composition and recording?

The main factor is that recording in our days goes way faster than 20 years ago and allows to fake all kind of vintage sounds without spending millions. You don’t need to ask the preacher if you can use the church to record the drums anymore. There are simpler ways of doing that today.

In the case of Gotthard it didn’t change the writing process at all but it is a big help that we have our own recording studio here in Lugano.

5) You launched the D-Frosted, acoustic, in 1997 and since then did some presentations in the same format. Do you have plans

to record something unplugged in next years including songs released after the D-Frosted??

Yes there are plans to do another acoustic album. But this will not take place before 2009/2010 and we are still checking in what kind of way. We first concentrate on our next regular album which should be released next year.

6) Where in the world are concentrated the greatests rock n’ roll lovers?

Rock n’ Roll fans are everywhere. This we definitely discovered on our last 2 tours. If there are countries that impressed us more than others it would probably be Spain and Brazil. Every time we played there we got such warm-hearted reactions. Thanks!

7) You came to Brazil for two presentations during the Made In Switzerland's tour. Please, tell me about the first contact  with brazilian fans. The Domino Effect's tour will come to the country?

We are still checking on possibilities to come to Brazil, but nothing is confirmed yet. We would love to come to Brazil but, as you know, it is not around the corner from Switzerland so it is unfortunately a bit more complicated.

8) Domino Effect was launched recently, how was the acceptance of the Domino Effect by the fans? And I'd like to know if you

have plans for a next release and  if you're already composing new musics.

We are already in the writing process although our Domino Effect tour will last till late summer this year. In all the countries we played so far on this tour, we got almost double as many fans on the shows as we had on our Lipservice tour. I guess that means that people love the Domino Effect album.

9) I want to thank you very much for the attention and as a big fan I want to see you soon (and often) here in Brazil.

We hope to see you very soon. Meanwhile check the news on our website www.gotthard.com  and keep on listening to good old rock n roll!

By Oswaldo Botrel

www.estudioaovivo.blogspot.com

estudioaovivo@yahoo.com.br