By Martin Popoff
You hear humanity, a band of merry music makers, culminating in an almost beatific piece of children's choir ending the album's masterpiece 'Eyes Of A Child'. Yet, as I say, Michael's headspace seems to be a lonely place. I find myself having to put aside the way the man does things, put aside the legends, to breathe in the many rewards of the man's frighteningly classic back catalogue. It's actually quite easy when you look at this album's metal joy, as well as the charms of its predecessor, as well as a dozen crucial, essential metal nuggets from the MSG catalogue and a dozen more from UFO.
"Music-wise, it's just me being myself," notes Michael, not as matter-of-factly as all that. "I'm just being myself. It's nothing new. It's just a reflection of my personality. I put it into music and there's really no tricks or anything. It's just being yourself." This comes up again and again in what was by far our best conversation to date, only an average interview by raconteur standards, but good for this enigma who stands alone and creates alone.
How alone? "I usually get my musicians from Mike Varney. Whenever I want to record an album, everybody isn't always available when I need them, so I usually call up Mike Varney or he calls me up and says I have a new singer, and then I listen to the tape, and in this case it was Chris Logan and I liked his voice. Then we had Jeff Martin, who was already with UFO, so it was a natural step for me to approach him to do the album, and then he also told me about this bass player he used to play with. So you know, it's that kind of step-by-step thing."
MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP - Behind Locked Doors Page 3