Interview | Chris Bay – Lead Vocalist of Freedom Call

“Authenticity is number one, particularly important for Freedom Call.”

Tonight, the German power metal band Freedom Call will be playing a gig with Rhapsody Of Fire in my hometown and before their last gig of this tour, I have a talk with band leader and original member, lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter Chris Bay. This year the band released the album `Silver Romance’ as Freedom Call celebrates their 25th anniversary. Chris Bay is a “smooth” and fast talker, but he prefers to do the interview in German – no problem for me of course – which means I have to translate the interview into English later on; however, without further ado, here we go.

THE PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS

25 years of Freedom Call, what were your personal highlights?

,,Everything was a highlight, when we started in 1999, releasing our first album `Taragon’, everything was exciting, the first gigs, the first reviews, on tour with Edguy, Angra and then with Saxon, which was really impressive. We had played in bands before but with a real tour bus that was something different and then we were rock stars, ha ha…. We had some great moments in those 25 years, great tours and of course the first time that we entered the charts with an album.”

When was that actually?

,,That was 2001 when we were on tour with Hammerfall as we got the message that we entered the chart top one hundred and at that time that was something special. Nowadays that is not something you would talk about anymore. In fact, that rock star feeling was great, to live that life of being in a band and touring, you know what I mean, right? We enjoyed that, we had lots of parties, you know, ha ha…”

Nowadays as well, or…?

,,Yeah, kind of, if you compare us to other bands that are really settled and stay away from alcohol and other stuff, we are still a rock and roll band. Think of Lemmy, he showed us how to do it till the bitter end, right?”

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS

Disappointments?

,,Of course, my friend, our shows/gigs always were okay, as we never had problems with illness or other serious things to cancel our shows, but there were disappointments of course when the crowd was rather small or when an album did not do as well as we thought it would do; but that was mainly in the beginning of our career. Now, we see this all in perspective and we think/say: it is what it is; but we always do our utmost with every gig, and it is still a challenge, but we do not take it that seriously any more…”

How do you mean?

,,You do not have to be afraid anymore that you play something wrong, but the greatest challenge still is to reach the audience you are playing for, I want them all and that is a true challenge, every night and with every gig we play.”

HAPPY METAL

Freedom Call is lots of times criticised because the music is always the same, it is just simple happy metal, how do you “deal” with that?

,,I know, I hear that a lot of course, but we are not an act, our music is real and our happy attitude is also real, I do not put on a clown’s mask before I go on stage; what you see/hear is what you get, right? Authenticity is number one, particularly important for Freedom Call, in everything, so, in short, we are not fake.”

Freedom Call has released a lot of albums now, how difficult it is to make a setlist?

,,Difficult indeed as we have lots of good tracks to choose from, we sometimes do this together, but if four persons argue about which songs to play that does not work, so. However, after 25 years there some tracks that we really have to play like ,,Metal Is For Everyone” or ,,Warriors” or ,,Land Of Light” and if we do not play those songs the crowd will not approve as they are real crowd pleasers.”

SILVER ROMANCE

The ”new” album is called Silver Romance, how were the reviews and the reactions of the fans?

,,Very good, but that is no surprise as there have not been many changes, you know: Freedom Call is Freedom Call. Of course, there are lots of critics saying that if you have heard one Freedom Call album then you have heard them all; it is all the same. However, if we would change our style then we would lose our trademark and Freedom Call would not be Freedom Call anymore.”

But there are lots of bands who always sound the same and do the same thing, music-wise, right? AC/DC is always AC/DC!

,,Yeah, for sure, or Motörhead is also always the same, but it is their style, their musical trademark.”

What is your favourite Freedom Call album?

,,That’s tough, `Silver Romance’ is our 11<sup>th</sup> studio album, and we are really pleased with it, but I think that with `Eternity’ we showed the world what Freedom Call is about, happy metal full force indeed!”

Ambitions?

,,We are on tour now a lot, and then a new album.”

Ideas already for new songs?

,,No, not yet, I cannot write songs when I am on tour.”

GREAT MEMORIES

What is the best thing about being a member of Freedom Call?

,,I am the founder of Freedom Call, and I really love playing our songs on stage. I remember when we signed our first record deal that was something huge and then being a musician became a real job, a job that I still like although it is still extremely challenging work.”

So, it is sometimes not nice to be a member of Freedom Call?

,,Of course, but that is something that does not have to do with Freedom Call, those are mostly personal things…”

The current line-up of Freedom Call is the best one so far, or….?

,,We had lots of great line-ups, but sure our current line-up is a great team, Ramy (Ali, drums, MK) has returned and I kind of knew that he would return to the fold.”

Last question, if I were Chris and you would be the journalist what would be your last question?

,,Ok, so I could ask that question to you, right? I really would not know, that is really too difficult for me as I am not a journalist, and I think that it is a tough job….”

Thanks for your time, Chris.

,,Thank you, very welcome.”