{"id":14575,"date":"2018-05-15T05:30:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T09:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=14575"},"modified":"2018-05-14T07:07:34","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T11:07:34","slug":"michael-schenker-takes-it-to-the-next-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/15\/michael-schenker-takes-it-to-the-next-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Schenker Takes it to the Next Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Schenker is quite likely the most famous and acclaimed German-born guitarist in the history of rock. Picking up the guitar early, by his teens Schenker joined older brother Rudolf in Scorpions, playing on that band\u2019s debut album. His long and winding career subsequently found him handling lead guitar duties for UFO, and then as leader of a number of bands bearing his name.<\/span><\/p>\n

His bands\u2014all of which have been popular in the U.S. and Europe\u2014have featured a succession of excellent lead singers. And Schenker\u2019s latest project brings all of them together under the banner of Michael Schenker Fest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vocalists Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet, Robin McAuley and Doogie White all have extensive experience working with Schenker, both live and in the studio. And despite the fact that the first three each parted ways with the guitarist\u2014sometimes more than once\u2014Schenker says that they\u2019re all on good terms today. White was already lead singer of Schenker\u2019s current band when the guitarist approached his three former singers about reuniting. \u201cIt was like they were waiting, as if it was meant to be,\u201d Schenker says. \u201cThey were ready to do it, each one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schenker explains away the numerous personnel changes that characterized his former groups: \u201cI could not keep people on retainer, because in my middle years my energy was scattered all over the place.\u201d He believes he\u2019s much more focused now.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s suggested that mounting a concert tour with four lead vocalists seems a difficult task, Schenker laughs heartily. \u201cYes! Theoretically impossible!\u201d Now at age 62, Schenker views the present as the \u201cthird part\u201d of his life. He says he told himself, \u201cit\u2019s a celebration, a time to perform your most popular music with the original singers; this is what needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Michael Schenker Fest began as a live project; Schenker says that a 2017 concert DVD was well-received and attracted the attention of a number of labels\u2014all of them interested in a studio album. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018Wow, Michael Schenker Fest in the studio\u2026that would be a fantastic idea.\u2019\u201d He signed with German label Nuclear Blast, and Resurrection<\/i> was released March 2.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s title might be seen as a signal that after years of ups and downs, Schenker is staging a comeback of sorts. He neither directly addresses nor refutes that suggestion; instead he jokes that it\u2019s \u201ca little Bible thing. I wanted to call it Michael Schenker Fest in the Studio<\/i>,\u201d he says, describing the sessions as \u201chaving a party, with drink and feast and the control room.\u201d But after recording songs like \u201cTake Me to the Church\u201d\u2014and coming up with cover art based on Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s The Last Supper<\/i>\u2014Schenker needed a new title. \u201cAnd so because it\u2019s about everybody coming back together, I decided to call it Resurrection<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasional religious references aside, at its heart, Resurrection<\/i> is very much in line with the hard rock and metal that has characterized Schenker\u2019s career. His work in the 1970s with Scorpions and UFO is widely praised; by the 1980s, he was leading his own band. But in general, Schenker sees the \u201980s as a decade in which hard rock\u2019s paradigm shifted. \u201cThat was when the money-making machine commercialized it,\u201d he says. For better or worse, the sound and style of much of 1980s rock led many listeners to think, \u201cMan, it sounds like I can do that too!\u201d Schenker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to withdraw and do my part, do my learning period, use it as my learning period in life,\u201d Schenker says. \u201cI could experiment with music and get things out of my system while they were doing their thing, making money and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, with those so-called experimental years behind him, Schenker is ready to just plain rock. After decades as a reluctant live performer, he says that suddenly one day, \u201cSomehow, boom, I wanted to be on stage! And I took that as a sign: \u2018Michael, you should carry on where you stopped when you were 23 years old. Take it to the next level and complete your journey.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Schenker is quite likely the most famous and acclaimed German-born guitarist in the history of rock. Picking up the guitar early, by his teens Schenker joined older brother Rudolf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,46,49,62],"tags":[3424],"class_list":["post-14575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-metal","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-michael-schenker","cat-41-id","cat-46-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14577,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions\/14577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}