(Original on www.kaizers.no, Text backup here)
In connection with the Norway part of the Maestro Tour, Kaizers Orchestra release a "special edition" version of their Maestro album. It includes three new previously unreleased songs.The critical journalists of Kaizernews heard of mixed reactions regarding the fact that Kaizers are now giving out a bonus record and run TV commercials on TV3 for it, so what do the guys themselves say? We asked Geir Hellraizer Kaizer.
- Well, there's several factors that come into play here. For us it's of course the best thing to have a current album out when we are on tour, and with so many releases and strong competition like it is at the moment, it is necessary once in a while to take measures that "blood-fans" don't necessarily regard as perfect, to have some more buzz around the album. Additionally, we had some songs lying around after the studio recordings in February/March that we wanted to use for something, and also we didn't get to use Action by Jokke for anything, so that fit pretty well together, actually. It seems that the fans are really happy with the songs, and this is what is most important. We will just take the fact that everybody is a know-it-all and has a strong opinion as market-consultant as a sign of the engagement and agility among our highly intelligent fans.
- So you understand that some react to that?
- Sure, of course, but there are some more things we have to take into consideration. We think that this album is so good that more people should get in touch with it.
- What about the media player that is on the CD. Many don't get that one to work.
- Really? That was stupid. To be honest, I don't have any idea about things like that. This solution is something Universal Germany came up with. The idea is that it should work, of course, so if it doesn't, I can understand that people are stressed, but as I said, I don't have a clue, and it's the same for all of the others. Janove took part in a computer course at high school in 1992. This was before the internet. But he's damned quick at typing.
- Say something about the new songs.
- Kalifornia is probably a little poppy Kaizer style. It's a song in which we had great expectations, but we found out it didn't fit completely into the album. It is a Zahl composition, by the way, and it's me who sings at the beginning and the end. Tokyo Ice was a song we worked on a lot, we had many different arrangements for that one, and in the end we decided that this western saloon comicstrip version was the one we liked best. A little too happy and animated for the album, but a funny song in my ears. It was this Ottesen guy who wrote it, by the way.