Werno, Günter (Vanden Plas) (March 2002)

What Lies Beyond Daylight - An Interview With Vanden Plas' Günter Werno

It seems that recently the prog universe has been awakened by some sort of divine intervention, as there are almost too many great albums to mention that have been released. However, among the mist, we can't forget the record made by Vanden Plas, a new chapter that will probably propel the band into the stratosphere. We were able to catch keyboard player Günter Werno for a brief talk by phone just a few days after the official release of Beyond Daylight, so what better time to hear some insights about this up-and-coming band?

Günter Werno: Hi, Günter Werno from Vanden Plas here.

II: Hi Günter, I'm Igor. How are you doin'?

GW: Good!

II: OK, Günter. So I think that Beyond Daylight is an amazing album, a sort of synopsis between your past ones, especially The God Thing and Far Off Grace. How do you view Beyond Daylight?

GW: Yes, I think almost the same. It's like a mixture of the past albums, but with the new one I think we have spread a little more in different directions from a music standpoint, too. For example we have straight rock songs, but we have ballads, too; prog songs and also heavy ones. Maybe in the past we would do more compromises regarding the whole picture, or direction, of the album, but this time we didn't do that. If there was a rock song, we kept it that way; the same for prog songs and so on.

II: Well, talking about the new songs, is there one that you, or the band, prefer?

GW: Well, I don't know. We didn't play them live so I don't know. We only talked about the songs when we played them in the studio, and obviously much of the talking was about changing things or keep some ideas in a certain way. Now that the songs are finally recorded we have another view of them and maybe we will see if there is one that is more fun than the others to play.

II: For example I love "Phoenix" and the title-track, too. Can you tell me something else about those two?

GW: The title-track, "Beyond Daylight," is a special song. Lyrics-wise this is more or less a concept album, because "Beyond Daylight" is the solution of every song before. The songs are all describing some events, some people and things that happen maybe in different periods but all linked somewhat together. "Beyond Daylight" is the solution, it has always been the same guy in these stories before, and in the title-track we have the unavoidable ending. With "Phoenix" we have just another story of that one person we describe on the title-track. Musically the idea started from Stephan [Lill] and me, we wrote the song together and it soon turned out to be a good song.

II: Among the songs there's also the powerful one called "Free The Fire." Do you think it will be a staple of your future live shows?

GW: I don't know. Maybe we play that or we play "Judas." In fact "Free The Fire" was written in the tradition of the song "Judas," and obviously we want to keep this tradition to show also the heavy side of Vanden Plas, but at the moment I don't know which of the two songs we will play live.

II: Talking about live shows, when will you go on tour?

GW: The 28th of April we have a special concert in France, and around that date we will book other shows. In September we wanna go co-headline with, maybe Symphony X. The others I think will be in Europe. We will probably come to Italy around that time.

II: Talking about Italy, what do you remember about your first Italian gig supporting Dream Theater?

GW: Oh, it was a nightmare!

II: Really?

GW: I tell you why. For me it was great to see 8,000 people, and I never played on that stage, and it was '97, right? Well, we had been on a headliner tour around Europe before, and we came to Italy. But we had a shitty bus driver, he had the window in the back [of the tour bus] opened and a lot of gas [fumes from automobiles] came in, so that night we were poisoned with that stuff. You know, that hurts your voice, and we couldn't talk or sing. Andy [Kuntz (vocals)] was totally poisoned and he couldn't sing, but we wanted to do the show no matter what, because the audience was big and it was great. I love the Italian fans of progressive music.

II: If I remember well, your bass player, Torsten [Reichert], had also a broken foot?

GW: He had a broken foot and he was also poisoned, imagine that!!!

II: But I can tell you that the audience really appreciated your gesture. I was there and I still recall a lot of fans saying it was a good thing [to not cancel your show], even if we were only told about the broken foot!

GW: Ah, that's real nice to hear.

II: OK, always speaking about Italian things. On the covers of your first two albums there are sculptures by Cesare Marcotto, an Italian artist. How did you come in contact with him?

GW: Well, we still have contact with him. The friendship started a while ago. There was this sculpture that was standing in the office of the chief of the theatre in Kaiserslautern, he had it standing there. We said: "This is nice, can we take a picture, we would like to use the sculpture for the cover of our album." He answered that we could take a picture but we should have asked the artist for permission to use it. So we came in contact with Cesare and he said that there was no problem at all to use it. So, when The God Thing was almost ready he said that he had another version of the sculpture and we said: "Great, we can go on with sculptures."

II: Günter, can you explain why you have a lot of success in France?

GW: Yeah, I know it sounds a little strange. Well, first of all we have a good promoter in France, and we also have good reviews in the magazines. Our promoter had a big budget to make advertisements from the early days, too, and so we have also played some special things only for the French audience. We sang some songs in the French language, too. So it's a sum of everything I've said, but it all started with a good promotion of Colour Temple, our first album. In other countries good advertisements came only with The God Thing, so it's easily said why the French guys have some advantage.

II: Now, I'm a big Kansas fan, so you'll probably imagine what will be my next question?

GW: Yeah, how we chose "Point Of Know Return" as the bonus track of the album! OK, plain and simple we had 4 or 5 pieces to cover, and we choose this because Kansas is one of the first progressive bands, and a great band. On their German tour of last year they played in Kaiserslautern, and when they played that song it was so powerful, it made such impression on us when all the crowd was singing it, that we looked at each other and said: "OK, that's a song."

II: Switching to other things. Can you tell me something more about the second Consortium Project album, a CD I really enjoyed? Do you think you'll be able to tour with CP, too?

GW: Well, it depends on Ian Parry, who is the main man behind the project. But I think it's true what you said, the CD is great also in my opinion, and not because I co-wrote some of the songs. I would love to go on tour with this project, but I don't know if time will permit it.

II: Günter, can you also share some information about the "secret project" Andreas Kuntz and Andreas Lill are recording with Stephan Glass, a project comprising also André Matos?

GW: I don't really know more about it. I know it will be a concept album, like a rock opera. There will be certain main characters, and Andy Kuntz will sing the lead role along with André Matos. Ian Parry will take part of that, too. I think it will be released at the end of the year, because they are working at it right now.

II: Günter, what was the band reaction when you learned that Stephan had carpal tunnel syndrome?

GW: Ouch, it was like shit. We were in the practice room and he said: "Well, I have to stop." Well, what can I say. We were really hurt and everybody hoped he could get better soon, that he could recover. So it took a few months but in the end he finally improved and now he is OK. However this forced pause enabled the other members of the band to work on their collateral projects, so the time was not entirely wasted.

II: Günter, it was you or Stephan that had the idea of writing the rock musical Missa Mercuria ?

GW: No, it was neither me nor Stephan. It was an idea of our management, especially of a woman linked to it. She had the idea of writing a rock opera, and she came up to our management, and it was our management that choose composers to fit the idea. We had to deliver 4 compositions and she was choosing them. The compositions were made by Stephan, me, Alex Beyrodt (of Silent Force). But the idea wasn't ours, it came from Bottom Row. We were just working on it. Actually I heard that the opera is being mixed, but I don't know when it will be released. [It was released in late 2002 -ed.]

II: Last two questions. Inside Out is the best prog label out there for the moment. How is it to work with them?

GW: Oh, it's nice. We have been working with them since The God Thing and they grew steadily the same as we did, and they are doing a great work. They have a lot of taste, they don't have too many bands and so we can be a main thing for them, and that's a very crucial aspect. We are very satisfied.

II: Final one. With Spirit Of Live you managed to do a wonderful 70 minute CD and you released it as a mid-price CD, that was really cool. So what's your opinion on things such as the normal CD prices (which are considered way too high by a lot of people) and the major labels crying out loud against illegal mp3s, then spending a big sum of money on flops (things like the Mariah Carey episode)?

GW: Well, I always say: "Hey people, make our CDs less expensive," because they are way too expensive, and we wouldn't earn more or less if the price was lower. I always hope that we can have cheaper CDs but in the end the things remain the same, they don't listen. Maybe it's the market. Considering major labels, I don't know. The market is in a deep crisis but the major labels still possess a big economic power, so I don't know what the future holds for us. We have to wait and see.

II: OK, I think that's all. Do you wish to say something to the Italian fans?

GW: Yes. Hi fans of Vanden Plas, stay open minded, and listen to every kind of music! See you on tour soon!

Discography:
Colour Temple (1994)
Accult (1996)
The God Thing (1997)
Far Off Grace (1999)
Spirit Of Live (2000)
Beyond Daylight (2002)
Colour Temple/AcCult (special edition) (2002)
Christ.0 (2006)
The Seraphic Clockwork (2010)
Chronicles Of The Immortals - Netherworld (Path One) (2014)
Chronicles of the Immortals - Netherworld (Path Two) (2015)