By Nicky Baldrian
An
interview with GERHARD PICHLER from
By Nicky
Baldrian
Melodica guitarist and founding member
Gerhard Pichler was born & raised in Vienna/Austria and
started playing guitart 20 years ago. 'I had my own band from
1988 - 1993 in Vienna and after that I decided right away not to
do another band in Austria since the whole thing became too much
of a hassle for me'
The problem for Gerhard was finding the right singer to suit his
songs, 'I started working on some songs ( which finally became
the "Long Way From Home" album ) in the following years
always having in mind that eventually somebody would sing on them
one day.'
Gerhard then started visiting the US and finally left Austria in
January 1999 to move to New York City 'I'm the head instructor at
the SAE institute in Manhattan .SAE is the world's largest
recording school with over 30 colleges over the whole planet.
Before I left Austria I was already in contact with some other
celebrated singers such as David Readman (Pink Cream 69), Bob
Harris (Axe), Kip Winger & Joe Lynn Turner.'
They all heard and loved Gerhard's material but their schedules
didn't allow them the time to work him. Then Gerhard came acrosss
ex Danger Danger/Bone Machine frontman Ted Poley by accident 'I
found Ted's email address in an American magazine, and since I
always was a big fan of his voice I thought I'd give it a shot'
Ted responded but was a little hesitant in the beginning. 'I sent
him a cdr' continues Gerhard 'with the songs that I recorded in
Vienna and his first response was that he basically liked it but
needed more time to come up with a decision and commitment. I
thought that he might be the one I was looking for because what
he did in Danger Danger was pretty much what I was looking for...
a singer with a very melodic style and a bright voice. on the
other hand, the idea was never and will never be to mimic Danger
Danger even if I always was a big fan of them.'
It took Gerhard a few months to finally set up a meeting with Ted
'I met with him at his home and as soon as I walked into his
basement I knew that this was gonna be lots of fun ! his cd
collection looks exactly like mine ... so he started singing me
the first song which was " It's Not Enough " thru a
cheesy plastic microphone with built-in reverb that he got in
Japan. I heard right away that this is the singer I've always
been looking for.'
It was from here that everything started to fall into place 'we
became really good friends over the next few months. Ted came up
with the name Melodica and I liked it right away since it's
representing our music perfectly. After Ted did the song
"Long Way From Home" I thought this is the perfect
title for my first album in the United States.
It's really a long way from Vienna to New
York... the way the "Acoustica" album happened was more
kind of an accident because we were preparing for an acoustic
performance at "WDHA" (New Jersey's #1 rock radio
station) in February 2000 even before we started recording
"LWFH" in the studio. we already demoed more or less
the whole album before with Ted's vocals, but just on a little 4
track recorder. anyway after rehearsing and recording the first 3
songs just with Ted's voice and my acoustic guitar the idea was
born to do a whole album in this style because we were really
really happy the way we sounded. I always compose my songs on the
acoustic guitar anyway so I was pretty sure that it's gonna work
just with Ted & myself.
For me that's the easiest way to do it and the upcoming
"Lovemetal" album happened exactly the same way. I have
the whole song on the acoustic guitar and then I'm going to the
recording studio and track the whole song. I do all the
production in the studio by myself and that was my idea from the
very beginning when I started writing my own songs... to be in
the recording studio one day and doing the stuff all by myself.
since I know exactly what i want in terms of sound it's more
about finding the right musicians to play the songs the way
they're supposed to sound. by finding Jonathan Mover here in New
York who's one of the top league drummers the songs became even
better and also more inspirational for Ted to come up with his
part... so basically I finished all the music first and the cdr
then goes to Ted who finishes up all the rest which is all the
lyrics & the melodies. not even with one song we had to
change a thing in the past which is the best proof for our
relationship. we're totally on the same page and this makes
everything so much easier. we're also gonna have Paul Morris
(Rainbow + Joe Lynn Turner) playing keyboards who I met thru
Jonathan mover and Terry brock ( who I met at the gods ) + Joe
Lynn Turner doing backing vocals for the upcoming
"Lovemetal" album. the album is already demoed with
Ted's vocals and we gonna enter the recording studio right after
my return from Christmas vacation in Vienna by beginning of
January 2001'.
Fast
forward to November 2000 and Meldocia made their debut UK
appearance at the legendary Gods festival in England, I couldn't
get to the shows because of the damn flooding that caused
problems with the trains, much to my fustration as I also miised
the Iron Maiden and Halford gig the night before in Manchester,
anyway my friends Nancy White, Peter Peeters and Graham Hatton
went along to The Gods and they all agreed that Melodica were
excellent. Nancy in particular was overwhelmed as this was the
first time she had seen Ted Poley in concert, and having been a
long term Danger Danger and Prophet fan she found herself totally
starstruck at meeting both Ted and Gerhard for the first time,
unfortuantley though, some stinking rat stole Ted's jacket and
spoilt the day for him, 'Ted didn't get his jacket back' explains
Gerhard 'He was a little pissed off to be honest.'
Even so the good news is that Melodica are planning a return to
these shores next year, 'The response from the crowd was such
overwhelming.' says Gerhard 'But as you know this all depends on
money decisions... if we get the right offer which covers the
basic expenses we`re on the next plane to England.'
In the meantime a new album called "Love Metal" is in
the works as well as various other projects. As Gerhard explains
it's Ted who is the guilty one of coming up with the title
"Love Metal", 'This time it was Ted`s idea and we both
agreed that it describes the vibe of the album best.good time
cruising music !!! I wrote most of the songs in the US and the
rest are songs which I already had from the past. The response
has been great so far everywhere and we have already sold a few
thousand copies over in Japan.
Actually Ted & I are working on the idea to go over there for
some acoustic shows like Coverdale & Vandenberg did with
"Starkers In Tokyo" ...'My long term goal is to
establish Melodica & myself in the melodic rock scene. My
ideas come from all strange places, I'm inspired alot though by
from listening to other people's records. I would never say that
I invented this thing by myself because I know that this is not
true... I'm trying to write songs to have a good time, which is
the great thing which I always liked about melodic rock .
My ultimate goal is to create a network consisting of all the
great musicians who are living in the New York area where
everybody helps each other. I had dinner last week with Terry
Brock and I approached him with the idea to make a record with
all the great singers like him, Ted, Joe Lynn Turner, ...he is
totally into it and told me that Mark Mangold already approached
him with the same idea. For me to come out of nowhere and now
work with all those great guys is like a dream finally coming
true! That`s exactly the reason why I left Austria - to pursue my
vision.. thanks to all the fans who bought our two Melodica
records & to all those great people who showed me the right
way in the past and who gave me a chance to make my dream come
true !!!'
As we draw close to the end of the first year of the new
millenium, may I take this opportunity to say, that it's now
christmas eve, and Gerhard is taking time out from his mince pies
to do this interview with me, so respect where respect is due,
'I'm spending xmas and the New Year in Vienna with a few good
friends of mine some of them who I haven't seen for the last two
years.' says Gerhard.
I also learned that Gerhard is a big big Journey fan, 'Journey
were always my heroes and always will be! I also love all the
great bands from the eighties like Survivor, Night Ranger,
Whitesnake, Honeymoon Suite, Bad English ... way too many to
mention. If I could play live with one band on New Years eve,
then it would defintley be Journey!' I feel that were going to
hear alot more from this guy in the future....check Melodica out
@ http://www.tedpoley.com