Carsten "Lizard" Schulz is one of today's finest performers. He is recognisable by his tough, still melodic, voice and his works as a lead singer for bands such as DOMAIN, MIDNITE CLUB and EVIDENCE ONE are all samples of a great performer.
2011 and a new band/project is on the way with Carsten on lead vocals. PARADISE INC. is a band that plays Melodic Hard Rock and it's going to blow you away with their melodies, their great songs and Carsten performanes!
So, below you are going to read a very interesting interview that Carsten "Lizard" Schulz gave to Heavy Paradise and talked about PARADISE INC., EVIDENCE ONE, DOMAIN but, also, some other really interesting stuff!
Enjoy!
Vassilis (Heavy Paradise)
HeavyParadise : Hallo Carsten! Thank you for accepting my invitation for this interview.
Carsten : No problem at all, Vas!
HeavyParadise : Firstly, let me start with your new band, PARADISE INC. Can you tell me some words for the creation of the band?
Carsten : It all started in early 2009, when my buddy Paul Logue from EDEN'S CURSE called me. He was to produce an album for this Brazilian band, but they needed a singer. I kinda liked the music, so I agreed in doing the album. I finished my parts in late 2009, and over the last year, the collaboration grew stronger and stronger.
HeavyParadise : From the samples that I've heard, it sounds very melodic. Can you give us a taste of what are we going to hear?
Carsten : Classic AOR, eighties style! The kind, I like the most. Very melodic with a lot of great hooks.
HeavyParadise : Is the songwriting a team work result?
Carsten : Not really. Most songs were written before I joined in. I contributed one track, which I write with Robby Boebel back in 2002 for the first EVIDENCE ONE album. Unfortunately, the track turned out to be too much AOR for E1, but I always loved it. Paul Logue also wrot/co-wrote two tracks for the record.
Carsten : It is very difficult these day, because many labels seem to always sign the same people, it's all based on connections. AOA is the perfect label for the band, because Gregor Klee, founder of AOA does everything he does, by heart. He strongly believes in each release, and that is very important for a young band.
(PARADISE INC. )
HeavyParadise : So, PARADISE INC. is a 'real' band or just a project?
Carsten : It's as much of a band as it can be living on both sides of the globe ;) This is way more than a project, but we don't rehearse weekly, if this is what you mean.
HeavyParadise : With EVIDENCE ONE you have released some really great albums! Are we going to hear more music from this band in the near future?
Carsten : Unfortunately, I don't think so. It's indeed pretty frustrating for all of us. We've nearly finished album number four, entitled "Sinsation", when Robby had a terrible system crash and, except for my vocals, which I got stored in my own studio, simply everything was gone.
Maybe, we'll be re-recording again one day, but right now, we're all focussing on different things. Sad, sad story indeed.
HeavyParadise : DOMAIN is another chapter in your career. Is this chapter officially closed?
Carsten : Yes, definetely. Tough decision to make, but I never ever did regret it.
HeavyParadise: Which is your favourite DOMAIN release?
Carsten : I'd say it's two "Last Days Of Utopia" and "Stardawn", because they stand for, how I always saw DOMAIN. Still to date, I love to listen to these albums, and we had the fortune to do a couple really great tours with those records.
HeavyParadise : Tell me the first thing that comes in your mind for these words:
- RELIGION: helps a lot of people, but was misused to justify the killings of even more
- GOOD: Ying
- EVIL: Yang
- EVIDENCE ONE: great opportunities, great songs, great tours, great mistakes
- DOMAIN: good times, bad times
- ROBBY BOEBEL: One of the best songwriters, I ever had the fortune to work with
- PARADISE INC.: German-Brazilian kickstart!
- SUCCESS: the freedom to do, what's in your heart
(EVIDENCE ONE )
HeavyParadise: What are your inspirations when you are writing a song?
Carsten : Difficult question. Basically, I write spontaneously. I have this doc file, where I collect possible song titles, not full ideas or finished lyrics, simply titles. I usually start with choosing from one of those titles to write the whole track from there. Most of my songs are about things, I personally experienced.
It's difficulat for me, to write about, what I don't know or feel. Besides that, I love writing these full story driven works, like I did with DOMAINs "Last Days Of Utopia" or "Shadowhall" from the "Stardawn" album.
HeavyParadise: More and more 'new' melodic bands are releasing some excellent albums! Do you think that the Melodic Hard Rock/ AOR scene has a lot more to offer?
Carsten : Oh yes, I'm absolutely sure! It's pretty easy these days to record and produce good quality albums even at home. The major problems I see in many of the established Melodic Rock labels. As I said earlier, they seem to sign the same guys over and over again or prefer certain countries. For example, one of the representatives of some of those labels once asked my buddies from EDEN'S CURSE, why they didn't sign with them. The answer was simple: The label didn't want the album - but had soon forgotten, they ever received it. This happens all the time.
I'm happy to work with Avenue Of Allies a lot these days, because Gregor still is fresh and and entusiastic about music in general, and that's what's sadly missed a lot these days.
The thing is, I know, most labels are unable to pay a band regular wages or got the money for a decent tour support - that's why musicians like me are doing a lot of studio jobs, which in fact is not the worst thing indeed - but even some of the smaller labels don't even listen to the material, that's been sent to them. They don't hear potential or quality. Most of them listen to names, listen to production and sound, not songs!
HeavyParadise: What are your future plans Carsten?
Carsten : Well, there's a lot of productions coming out, I was singing on, for example the brillant CRYLORD album. A neo classical masterpiece by Polish shredder Boguslaw Balcerak, on which I had the honour to share vocal duties with Goran Edman and Mark Boals. ...and there's even more to come later this year ;)
HeavyParadise: At this point I have to thank you agian for this interview and to wish you all the best for the future.
Carsten : Thank you my friend, take care.
A really, really, really, really, really GREAT interview !!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanx a lot my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteVassilis (Heavy Paradise)