How many songs are usually written and recorded for each album?
190 but they are all bad ;) . No usually there are around 20 songs. After all these years now we know what songs that are not fitting.
We try alot different ideas and sometimes the idea you had while writing it and has become kind of dead or another band have done something like that song.
Except sometimes a producer comes in and says Hey I really like that song try to do it like this or that and it will sound much different. And sometimes that works out very well.

How come you picked Need To Believe as the album title?
Need To Believe was for us a good statement. First of all for what's happening in the world with the economy, the rich making the game and the poor have to pay for it.
There are not only bad guys in the world so Need To Believe is for like the working people to keep their jobs, feed their families and so on.
And the second thing is that we after 20 years that we still believe in making strong records, like right now touring and that we still have alot to gain.
That we can go to many countries cause there are still many people out there that still haven't discovered Gotthard yet.
And we still believe, Need To Believe that touring and all that stuff there is still something for us to gain.
So this is a little bit of a double sense.

Ok...I have to ask about a song that for me is a favorite and I'm sure would have been a live favorite as well-

Why didn't "Ain't Enough" make the standard version of Need To Believe?
This is funny because this is a song that we added as a bonus track on the limited edition only.
When you write an album we have a certain standard.
Let's say you have your road in the middle and let's say it's 20 m long and a certain song is at the 21m line and then you're not sure if you should put it in or not.
Because you have a certain style and you wanna keep a certain shape of the album and this song was for us basically based on the 2-3 first Gotthard albums even from the songwriting and we wanted more.
And that is why it didn't make it. It's not one of the strongest songs in our opinion. It was a band decision to leave it out. It doesn't mean that we don't like the song, maybe we just didn't work hard enough on it?
And we don't even play that song live, not even tonight ;). I'm sorry about.

What is your favorite Gotthard album?
Every band member says the last album. At it's time every album is fantastic.
The first one (Gotthard-1992) for me is magic because it has this special sound on it.
The third album (G.-1996) I like because it's the first time we reached a point where we were really happy about an album. It sounded great,it was powerful.
Then the acoustic live album DeFrosted (1997) this was a fantastic playing album. Not only rock because we rearranged the songs and there's alot of melodies on it.
Homerun (2001) was a special level because the people really loved it. The "Heaven" song was huge song especially for the large audience.
Then comes my personal favorite Lipservice (2005) I like that one really alot.You can crank it up loud and everytime it sounds harder.
And the new one Need To Believe (2009) there's alot of melodies and interesting arrangements on it which we never have done before. Alot of that came from the producer.
I have to say we have a few good albums :)

What bands or/and artists are/were the biggest influences on Gotthard?
When you grow up and you're around 10-11 years old then you really start discover alot of music. You get a little bit more money from your parents so you can buy your first records.
And in the time we were in that age it was the 70's and band like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and
then later on it started with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-Iron Maiden, Motörhead & Judas Priest.
And then even later on with Bon Jovi and those other great bands.
My old vinyl albums have those songs with like 10 minute solos in the middle of a 12 minute track and today it's different you know.
It's 3 minute songs and a 10 seconds solo and this you have to cut out for the radio stations.
But good times come back you can hear it on the radio and see it on tv and that is great.
Because I like rock and rock is something positive.
Other bands I really like is The Sweet and Wishbone Ash. The classical way of rock from like Rainbow to whatever :)

Any plans to make a "DeFrosted-Part II" album of various recorded acoustic sets during the tour?
Steve & Leo have prepared about 20 songs to play in the acoustic set and have people call out what they wanna hear. So that part of the show changes every night.
We are planning something like Defrosted II because it was many years ago we did the first one (1997) and now we have many more songs to choice from for it.
Songs that we can rearrange and play differently. But we don't know when this will be happening. We do want to do one for sure but we don't know for sure in what way yet.
It should be different than the last one, maybe with a big orchestra, I don't know?

Will there be a live DVD recorded on this tour?
On this tour no. The big production is over and our last dvd Made In Switzerland is still very active out there.
Such a dvd costs alot of money and you can not afford it these days to spend that much money on a thing like that.
Made In Switzerland was made because after such a long time we really wanted to make something very professional so we recorded that in a very big hall with 14 cameras all moving around.
And then we gave it away almost for free to the people because they got with the live album as a cd/dvd package for the price of one.
For us it wasn't really big business for release it like that but we wanted to give our fans something extra.
We will do another one for sure but it has to be special maybe something like DeFrosted part II kind of dvd?

Any plans to play a whole album live from start to finish?
Yes,no problems for us to do that but no plans to do that now at least.
We are recording some shows on this tour in Germany, Switzerland and the last gig of the Scandinavian leg of the tour which is Copenhagen.
To have some material for some bonus stuff in the future.

Any plans for a box setwith unreleased tracks and b-sides?
No not really. But right now you can buy through our website http://www.gotthard.com/ a special edition of the Need To Believe album. An only 500 pieces limited LP box set with song book
and the bonus track "Speed Of Light", which was only released in Japan until now. And it's hand-signed and hand-numbered. It's been out for 3 weeks and the first 180 are gone.
It's a little big expensive cost the weight of it, but it's something very special. I think we will do more special things like this in the future too.

What is the proudest moment so far in your music life?
Still to be here after 20 years with so many same band members and still having success. And still have the world open because there's still people to discover us.
Having great concerts still and having fun doing this. Still touring, still discovering, still working and making plans for the future.

How does the rest of 2010 look like for the band?
We're planning to play Russia, Switzerland and we hope to do some open air shows in Europe this summer. We have been put on every festival as available but we have no response yet.
The year is still young so the festivals look for the top bands first so we are waiting and are looking forward & hope that we will have a great summer season as well.
We might do some December/Christmas shows too. Steve & me will go on a 3 week long bike trip in America. We need a little break and it's gonna be fun riding our Harley's :)
We also might start writing new songs within this year too. I think we still have many great records within us.

Thank you Marc & nothing but the best.
Thanks, See you at the shows.

http://www.gotthard.com/

Interview by Andy Flash 23/2-2010