Your brand new release,“The sky is the limit” is out right now. The…”evidence one” on this record seems to be the presence of a new guitarplayer, Joerg "Warthy" Wartmann. How would you describe the band’ s soundstyle evolution, in comparison to your previous albums?
Well, I’d say, we definitely started as a Hard Rock band, a harder version of the FRONTLINE sound, if you want. With our live shows and tours we somehow evolved to a full Metal act. This we wanted to show with the “Tattooed Heart” release. With the new album now, it’s time to establish our own sound. Hope, we do succeed on that.

The artwork somehow recalls your music production so far. Seems like this third chapter is meant to be a fundamental step for the band. Am I wrong?
You’re definitely right! For us it’s a natural progression from “Criticize The Truth” to “Tattooed Heart” to “The Sky Is The Limit”, but it indeed has elements of the first two still featuring. It was pretty important to show, that though we had some line up changes and, once again, a new label, nothing really has changed musically.

Are you fully satisfied with the result, or had Evidence One to accept any compromise during the recording process of “The sky is the limit”?
Absolutely! Exactly the album we wanted to do!!!

Besides the great performance of Warthy on this album, Robby Bobel has probably been the band’s main attraction over the last years, because of his Frontline fame. As far as I know, he’s given his contribution on this album as well, both as songwriter and as producer. So why this decision to change his role? Will he go on working with Evidence One in the future?
You know, when we started E1 we didn’t intend to play live. See, even FRONTLINE don’t do live shows. That’s Robby’s business. He’s a wizard in his cellar, trying out this and that and is not used to stepping out in the limelight. In fact, he’s still the most impartant part of the band – but not on stage out in the public. Honestly, for us, nothing has changed! Robby and me, we wrote all the tracks, Robby produced and mixed the album as usual, played all keyboard parts and even some solo tracks. Nothing has changed indeed! He’s like our Chris von Rohr, who’s controlling the strings in the dark! And we definitely won’t change this in the future! It’s still his band, too!

Such a long time since your previous release, “Tattooed heart”. Why?
We weren’t in a hurry. You know, Robby, Rami & Hutch did another FRONTLINE album, I did my final DOMAIN CD and did two tours with the guys. Also, after the “Tattooed Heart” album, we surely knew, we wanted to live with the songs for a while. We’re not a band, that needs to release an album each year. We start writing, when we feel like that and when new ideas are coming up naturally, know what I mean?!

Each of your three records has been released under a different Label. One might suppose you’ ve been facing some trouble in the past…Is that true? Furthermore, the scheduled re-release under your actual Label AFM of your first album, “Criticize the truth”, makes me think that your great debut didn’ t probably get the exposure and results that it deserves, at the time of its original release…
Well, again, natural progression. Changing from Point Music, where our debut originally had been released, to Nuclear Blast was a change, no one would refuse! Definitely! Unfortunately, over the years, most people that supported us and stood for our sound at NB simply left the company. At first our good friend Mat Sinner of PRIMAL FEAR, who had been A&R at NB, he was the man, that offered the deal to us, left the company, and later Markus Wosgien, our promoter, went to become A&R at AFM records – well, after that it was perfectly clear, though we could have released another album on Nuclear Blast, to which we would sign!
As for the debut, it’s been out of print for years, and we received so many emails of fans eagerly trying to buy it somewhere, that we were pretty happy, when AFM offered to re-release it.

I noticed that various Evidence One members (I mean you, Carsten, the drummer Rami Ali and the same new guitarplayer Joerg "Warthy" Wartmann) are featured in other bands regular lineup as well. This is a very common status among rock musicians, at the days being, and just to stay within Germany i could mention Henning Wanner, Axel Kruse, Michael Voss, Tommy Heart, and even Robby Bobel himself…Why does this happen, in your opinion, and which advantages/issues might derive from this status?
The reason is quite simple, whereas in the 80s a label went to build up a band and paid them regularly, nowadays only a few labels do and mainly for established acts – and simply not for bands of our style! So, you gotta make a living somehow. Also, as I see it, it’s only strange for musicians in Metal bands. You know, in Jazz, Blues, Reggae or even in Rap Music it’s pretty common, that you do projects with other musicians – and the fans love that! In Metal people sometimes doubt that you can work in several projects and still know, what your home base is!

Focusing on some Evidence One members’ own situations, seems that they’ re regular bandmates in acts playing some too much different music styles, as the range goes from power melodic rock (Evidence One) up to thrash/grind (Justice). Don’ t you think this would make your fans a bit confused about their own musical attitude?
Hell no! It shows, that good music is good music, no matter what the style might be. You know, in my personal opinion these days Metal fans are way more open minded, than they might have been in the eighties. We have AOR, Metal, Prog and even Gothic freaks amongst our fans – and that is so damn cool!

Is there any priority among the bands you play in and, if so, is Evidence One to be considered as your main project, or is it just a filler in your artistic plans?
Evidence One is my band, my family, my home!!!

I noticed that Evidence One shot a few videoclips over the years, a choice which has become quite rare among hard-rock acts lately. Was that decision due to your actual Label’ s policy, or do the band itself still believe in the potential of promo videos?
We’re very fortunate, that it’s always been the wish of our labels, to shoot videos! Great, isn’t it!?

I’ ve recently read that a forthcoming tour with Saxon is scheduled. But what about your past onstage activity?
As far as i know, Robby Bobel wasn’ t much interested on live appearances…
As I said earlier on, he isn’t the man to stand out in the limelight, so last year we at first had Warthy in as his live spare, so to say. But hey, nevertheless, we did some wonderful tours, played with the SCORPIONS and ALICE COOPER, and this is gonna be, by the way, our second tour with the mighty SAXON!

Much curious about a rumor concerning your side activity in the porno business. Would seem like Tommy Lee is not the only…”lucky one”???
HAHA! First of all, I’m not an actor – an my, well… you know, is not as huge as Tommy’s by the way! ;) I work as an online editor for Germany biggest internet provider in their video-on-demand departement. Well, I do the so called adult content ?

What’s your artistic dream yet to come true?
Simply to be able to the music, I love and nothing else!!!

In conclusion, all the best to Evidence One from the Slam! team. Would be cool to see the band come and play here in Italy!!!
Thank you, my friend, and I do wish, too, for sure!!