MEDAZZAROCK INTERVIEW / 7TH HEAVEN / MAY 2005
Switzerland
(Richie Hofherr)
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Hi Richie! First of all, thanx for takin’ time answering our questions…

Congratulations for the bands latest release SILVER, a fantastic double cd release. How have the reactions on "Silver" been so far?
Richie/7th heaven: Incredible, we are very fortunate every review we've had so far on the CD is amazing and very positive.
We very happy that "Silver" is getting accepted everywhere around the world.

Originally how many songs have you written for the album? Have all ideas/songs been put on these two discs?
Richie/7th heaven: We had a shell of 150 songs to work from.
We focused on 100 of them and tracked/finished about 70-80 of them. "Silver" has the best 30.

It’s unusual for a band to release a 2 CD album containing 30 tracks. What was the idea behind releasing a 2CD album?
Richie/7th heaven: We wanted a CD that had value for the money. We are selling our double CD cheaper than most other bands
sell a single CD. We also open opportunites for film/tv placement, MTV already is using "Silver" on "Punk'd" and "Making the Video".
We also wanted to show some various styles of music.

How do your songs come to life? Do you just start jamming, contribute several individual ideas or do you
record demo versions to present your ideas to each other?
Richie/7th heaven: Typically I write the music in full, pretty close to how it ends up and then I give it to Andrew & the other writers
we write with to write lyrics. Sometimes I'll try to paint the picture of what I see in the song and other times I let them paint the picture
with words. Then the song comes back to me and we'll sit and match my ideas with theirs and we'll pick what's best for the song.
We'll then track the song's vocals and make a ruff mix and sit on it for a few days.
We discuss if we think the song is there or needs to improve in some fashion.
Sometimes it's the tempo or key, other times it's the words or melody and sometimes we'll start over.

Which topics do you process on "Silver"?
Richie/7th heaven: "Silver" is written around many of our lives and what we've been through.
The many small stories tell one big story.

What I like most on SILVER ist the HUGE style variation you guys have to offer.
From power pop to melodic rock to new rock with melodic industrial influences – with SILVER you got it all.
So what are the bands influences?

Richie/7th heaven: We LOVE music. Each of us listen to all different types of music and we're not afraid to
let that come thru our music. We listen to everything: Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Linkin Park,
Rage Against The Machine, Bee Gees, Incubus, Phil Collins, Police, Dan Reed Network, Bryan Adams, Billy Joel, Elton John,
Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, TLC, Queensryche, Queen, U2, Journey, Rob Zombie, NIN, Sting, Lionel Richie, Nelly,
Beatles, shall I go on???

How important is the world wide web for a band like 7th heaven?
Richie/7th heaven: VERY important! With a website like ours now we can communicate with fans around the world like you.
Our website lets the world see & hear the band 24 hours a day/7 days a week. You can purchase all our music
and other products on our website and we'll ship it to you worldwide. Our website has live info, news, a messageboard,
customized 7th heaven video games, icons, puzzles, a street team, store, music, video, bios, photos,
a college section and coming soon a international section for people around the world who can read about us in
their language and also a 7th heaven radio station/juxebox!!!

Do you care about the reviews in magazines and e-zines?
Richie/7th heaven: Yes, we care about everything we do. Would we do things differently? I don't know. Would we take to heart
what people have to say, yes. At the end of the day we would never release something we weren't proud of and love.

How does the future of 7th heaven look like? What are your plans?
Richie/7th heaven: Great, we're lucky to have a CD like "Silver". We're going to play as much as possible and try to move
over 10,000 CD's and then make a new goal after that. We plan on shooting music videos all summer long and release a
DVD of "Silver" in the winter. We'd like to tour Europe next year. We're hitting the midwest area of the America all summer long,
then in the fall expand thru various regions in America. Hopefully next year we can come to Europe to play.
We are going to start a radio promotion over the summer and hopefully that will open more gates for us to grow.

Is 7th heaven more kind of a studio band or is the main thing to play live on stage?
Richie/7th heaven: Both, we go into writing mode and all we do is write. Then after we're done with the CD all we do is play.
Both worlds are fun to be in. In the studio you feel the excitement of a new song coming to life and you hear it develop into
something you created. Live you get a chance to actually see the affect the music has on others emotions.
And the instant gratification you get from people cheering and singing along with your music. So both are great.

Any funny thing to tell us about something that happened live on stage?
Richie/7th heaven: So many things... Mark's zipper was down the other day and he had no boxer shorts on..
the girls in the front row were smiling from ear to ear. I have fun throwing my guitar picks into peoples drinks/cups.

Do we see you guys ever play here in Switzerland?
Richie/7th heaven: We're trying. If there's a crowd there that will see us, we'll come there and play.
We might need to land some radio play there first. Do you guys have a video music channel there?
Maybe they can play our music videos.

Your personal highlight in the career of 7th heaven?
Richie/7th heaven: I would have to say our CD "Silver". Being on MTV and Jenny Jones is cool. But "Silver" is a highlight to me.

Okay.. here’s your place to do some promotion for your record.
Why do our readers have to buy the actual 7th heaven album SILVER – why do they cannot live without?
Richie/7th heaven: Well in this day and age of music being force-fed to you and every CD sounds like one long song,
"Silver" is a breath of fresh air. We made"Silver" with a passion & love we all have for music. We took our time making sure
we hit the bulls-eye with what we set out to do. Many bands are limited by time to make a CD, we took our time and made sure
it was our masterpiece to ourselves. We think you will definitely find something that moves you on "Silver"

By the way… do you think rock is making a comeback? Have you heard of the Darkness?
Richie/7th heaven: I would like to think Rock is coming back. I heard the Darkness, cool rock sound.

How is the current situation in the United States? Does rock music got a better acceptance than some years ago?
Richie/7th heaven: The music industry needs to find music that can touch the masses and fill stadiums again.
There's not many new bands that can sell out a stadium for 3 nights. I think that really says something about the quality
of music being sold. Madonna, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, etc...THOSE bands can fill stadiums.
Other than U2 I can't think of many bands who can do that. The business has forced bands to write one song one way and
then re-create that song 9 more times on the same CD. None of those BIG bands I mentioned have CD's that sound like
one long song. Another reason why "Silver" is the way it is.

As usual we have a little game in stock for you – something we usually do in our interviews.
I give you a word you tell us what comes straight to your mind?

Switzerland - A place I wanna play as soon as possible.
Velvet Revolver - all star rock band
Talent Shows like Pop Idol / Star Search a.s.o. - some great talent
Politics - frustrating
Michael Moore - roger and me
Janet Jackson / Nipplegate - i love her
Doin’ Interviews - fun
Favorite Food - milk chocolate

Ok.. so we reach the end of this interview. Something you like to tell our readers?

Richie/7th heaven: Thanks for taking the time to check out "7th heaven".
Stop by our website (www.7thheavenband.com) and say hello.

Once again thanx for takin’ time and all the best for you and the band. Oh.. by the way?
don’t want to put you under pressure, but I do really hope that the next album will be again a double CD

Richie/7th heaven: I was discussing with the band a idea that would top "Silver", hopefully that idea will come to light.. stay tuned...
for now "Silver" is our world. Thanks for the interview Ralph.

Ralph
MEDAZZAROCK
www.medazzarock.com