Interview with Torsten Ihlenfeld (guitar)

Hi Torsten. Brainstorm gains a real popularity through the years in Germany, I think. However, how could you introduce the band to those who still don’t know you, here in France ?
Torsten Ilhenfeld : Brainstorm was founded back in 1989 by me, Milan and Dieter. Andreas joined the band in 1991, Andy in 1999. Since the beginning we play Power Metal in all its varieties.We released 4 Demotapes and had been huge in the underground and played many, many liveshows. Our 1st CD « Hungry » was released 1997, followed by 2 tours with (Morgana) Lefay and Solitude Aeturnus, a few weeks later with Skyclad and (Wicked) Maraya. 1998, « Unholy » saw the light of day. With that CD we toured all over Europe together with Iced Earth and Sentenced and in 1999 through Greece with Labyrinth. 2000 we signed to Metal Blade Records and released « Ambiguity » followed by a tour with labelmates Armored Saint and support- act Jacobs Dream. 2001 we released « Metus mortis », the most succesful Brainstorm CD so far. We got amazing reviews, toured nearly everywhere together with Grave Digger, played many festivals such as Wacken Open Air, Bang Your Head Festival, Summer Breeze festival, Rockmachina Festival, Bospop, … just to name a few. And now, we have « Soul temptation » coming out on June 30th 2003.

Both last albums were critically acclaimed. How would you describe Soul Temptation in comparison with your previous releases ?
I think « Soul Temptation » is the most international, or grown up album so far. The album is very various and shows all musical faces of Brainstorm in a very impressiv way, I think. As the last album « Metus Mortis » was very direct and powerful, and the « Ambiguity » album kind of dark, monumental and epic, I guess « Soul Temptation » is a perfect mixture between both previous albums. But as Brainstorm should sound in 2003.

This is your third album with singer Andy. Does Andy’s part in the creative process has changed since the time Andy joined the band ?
No. Brainstorm songs have always been written the same way. It’s me or Milan that bring a riff or a basic song idea into the rehearsing room and we finish the songbasics together with Andreas and Dieter. After that, Andy gets involved and does vocal lines and lyrics.
When he is done, we meet together again to arrange the complete song alltogether and finish it.

Did Andy wrote the lyrics all alone again, like he did on the previous albums ?
Yes, he did. Never change a winning team.

Who produced Soul Temptation ?
We totally produced « Soul Temptation » on our own, but had a great engineer in Achim Köhler, who engineered Drums and Vocals and did the final mix.

The last album with Andy’s other band Symphorce came out just a few months ago. Isn’t it a problem for your timing ?
No, no problem. As you can read above, Andy gets involved in the songs not from the first beginning, when the rest of us starts writing the music.

On the band official website, Andy mentioned Bruce Dickinson as an influence. Nothing surprising so far. But he also talked about Huey Lewis ! Did he just kidding ?!
No. Speaking for Andy and I also think that he is a great vocalist. Especially when you had the chance to see him life.

You’re gonna play at the Bang Your Head festival this summer where you will share the stage with various bands from metal to melodic hard rock. What do you think about this kind of music ?
We all have been growing up with bands like for example Twisted Sister and Dio anmd still like bands like Dokken or Y&T, so nothing better than playing this great festival. Of course, we love that kind of music as much as we love nearly all kinds of metal music.

What kind of music are you usually listening to ?
All kinds of music. From Metal to Classic, you can find good music everywhere.

Have you planned any tour in support of the new album ?
We are right now planning to go on tour in fall, around September or October. We are still in the negotiations, so we have to wait 3 more weeks to get the final decicions. Stay tuned on our website www.brainstormweb.com and we will keep you updated.

Finally, we could hear you (as well as Andy) talking in Spanish, Italian, French and more at the end of the promotional cd. Great accent, by the way ;) Are you really polyglot ? ;op
Haha, of course. This was something for the use of the radio stations, but we are very interested in other languages and cultures.

Thanks a lot, Torsten, and all the best !
Merci beaucoup et a votre sante !

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