Before starting this interview, I'd like to express my personal admiration to you for your overall work all these years. Welcome to Metal Perspective, Oliver.

Hi, Stefanos. Thank you very much for these nice words!

It all began with a guitar at a very young age, as your bio says. What do you recall from those days of Merlin and Heat?

Yeah, I joined the hardrock/metal band Merlin when I was 17 years old and it was the first band I played with that had professional ambitions. Since we had a great singer named Goetz Mohr it definitely helped me to develop my singing, too. We still work together sometimes here and there since he's now singing for Iron Mask, a well known metal band of Belgium. Although it was a real good band we didn't have any idea of the whole music business and half of the band wasn't really keen on joining a career as professional musicians. In the end we split up after 2 years so me and the bass player joined the band HEAT. During this time I learned a lot about songwriting and arrangement since we were also working a lot in the studio to get a record deal. Besides the fact that we won a few prices at German newcomer festivals we unfortunately never got one, haha ;-)

All in all I can say that it was a real good time and it was the right way to make important experiences for my own career.

Everybody knows you for being a melodic hard rock/metal singer and composer, but you were part of a progressive rock/metal band namely Centers, along with Olaf Lenk. Would you like to share some info about this project with us?

I knew Olaf Lenk from my days with HEAT when I was around 19. Like me he was addicted to guitar playing so we sometimes met and did our first guitar shredding contests...which he has always won, haha ;-) A few years later in 1995 he asked me to sing on 2 progressive metal tracks that he recorded. Then we started to write more and more songs and sent the tape to SHARK RECORDS who had already worked with Stratovarius and others. They liked our music and finally offered us a record deal. With CENTERS we did 2 records wich were including some pretty good tracks but unfortunately it didn't sell very well so we stopped it in 1998.

Then came At Vance. That band established you as a first class musician and singer and brought you international acclaim. After four albums you left, headed to a solo career. Why's that? Did you feel limited at the time?

The first albums of AT VANCE were really successful but over the years we had more and more personal problems with each other. Besides that I didn't feel well anymore since I had very less influence on the songwriting although I had lots of ideas. In the end I had to recognize that this situation will never change so I decided to quit the band after our tour for the album "Only Human" and started to concentrate on the songwriting for my own project which was the one and only right decision.

Several years had to pass before you released your first personal album. During that time you were involved in many quality acts, such as Edguy, Empty Tremor, Avantasia, Genius Rock Opera and Aina among many others. Surprisingly enough, you have already participated in three metal operas. Did this happen accidentally or the specific genre attracts you?

For sure it's both of that since one thing always leads to another. My participation in most of the upper mentioned bands and projects came along with the first release and international success of At Vance where people really recognized me as a singer. It first started with my participation on Avantasia in 1999 where noone of us all -i ncluding Tobias Sammet himself- could imagine or foresee how successful this metal opera will grow. Since we really enjoyed to work together Tobias also offered me to sing some choirs for Edguy, too. During the same time I got the request of Daniele Liverani to sing on Genius Rock Opera, first as lead vocalist on part 1 and later as singer and arranger of the whole choirs for part 2 and 3. Daniele was also keyboard player in Empty Tremor so he was asking me to do the vocals for their album "The alien inside", which I really liked. Regarding Aina I was contacted by Sascha Paeth who I knew since he did the mix and production for "Only Human" in 2001. Since then we often worked together for Hartmann, Avantasia, Edguy and many other things. He is really a great producer and also a very good friend.

"Out In The Cold" was released in 2005 and reviews all over the Net were raving about it. Personally, I love this album. Did you expect that wave of applause? Which were the ingredients of such an artistic triumph?

It's quite natural that every musician is hoping to have success with what he's doing but I didn't expect it in that kind of way with Hartmann because with "Out in the cold" I was aware that it's a lot different to what I've done so far and what the fans knew me for. But for Hartmann I was the main songwriter for the first time and I wanted to do something that is just good music without limitations and 100% me. Maybe that's the main reason for it's success because I think that people recognize if music is honest and done by heart, no matter if it's Pop, Rock, Metal or something else.

Now, let us come to the present. 2009 finds you with a new album (3), your first DVD (Handmade) and its CD version. First things first, could you share with us some background info on the very good "3" album?

After the release of "Handmade" in early 2008 and a couple of live shows in that same line up I went on world wide tour with Avantasia and during that time I started to write new songs for Hartmann, too. After a few months we had enough good material to release a new Hartmann album and since our deal with Frontiers Records had expired we got in contact with a other labels, too. In the end we weren't satisfied with what they offered us and due to many other reasons I finally decided to found my own label Sonic 11 and to release the album in cooperation with H'ART as a world wide distribution partner. Which I think was the right step...except maybe tons of more work, haha ;-)

We recorded the album during summer and it is co-produced again by Sascha Paeth. I'm really happy with the production and the whole record it's a bit heavier than "Out in the cold" and "Home". But it's a typical Hartmann record again and for me personally it's the best one we did so far.

There's a duet of you and Tobias Sammet singing "Brothers" available on your third solo album. Does the title have a symbolic meaning to some degree?

No, he just had to pay his dues for 10 years of Avantasia!! Just kidding ;-)

We know each other for nearly ten years now and I can say that we have a real friendship. It's always great to work with him. When I started to write the lyrics for that song the whole theme and scenery developped more and more for me so I was sure that it would be great to have it as a duet. When thinking about a fitting singer for the role of the younger brother Tobias came into my mind straight away. I think he's the perfect singer for that part and he really made a great job on "Brothers".

You lean to a bit more modern sound approach than you did in your preview solo albums. What made you decide to take this slightly different turn?

The overall sound and arrangement is a bit more modern, that's right. But in the end it's not so different to what we've done on the other albums. Due to the fact that we released the album on our own label maybe gave us a little more freedom and space than we would have had with a normal record company. While writing a new song I always try to give it an arrangement that makes the song work as good as possible and that fits perfect to the songs' theme. So on one hand you have tracks like "I won't get fooled again" or "Suddenly" with a quite modern heavy arrangement and on the other hand there are songs like "Brothers" or "Don't give up your dream" with big orchestral arrangements and more melodic hardrock roots.

But in the end it's all Hartmann an that's what we like!

Your voice is one of the most soulful around. Emotions also overflow through your songwriting. In fact, almost every song keeps increasing in intensity as time progresses. A unique characteristic I have to admit, but very common in old school soul artists. May I dare to ask if there's any connection at all?

Yes, that could be right. Besides all the rock and metal bands of the 70s and 80s I'm definitely influenced a lot by blues and soul music of that time since I always loved this special and unique intensity. Many of the rock singers that influenced me had these roots, too, like David Coverdale, Paul Rodgers, Glenn Hughes and many others.

"Handmade" is a brilliant acoustic live set supported by three background singers, something quite uncommon in hard rock terms, but it definitely provides that extra touch of elegance. Where did this live performance take place and why it took you two years to get it released officially?

We love to be uncommon, haha ;-)

While touring as support for The Hooters in summer 2007 we did our first unplugged concerts in our normal line-up. The fans absolutely liked it and we felt totally comfortable with it so that we simply had to do more with it than just for a couple of live shows. Both studio albums had loads of choir arrangements so to have more freedom on or instruments we decided to add three background singers to the line up.

And they all really did an amazing and outstanding job! We recorded this concert in September 2007 and already released the DVD in May/June 2008 last year. Only the CD was released a little later in November last year. But I think that until now it wasn't available everywhere and maybe hard to get in some countries here and there.

You have toured with Toto, House Of Lords and Hooters. How was it for you to acquaintance these legendary musicians and, furthermore, is there a tour scheduled and Greece included?

It was something very special to be on tour with these guys and most of all Toto is a band that I was listening to a lot when I was a kid. So we all really felt honoured to do their support in 2006. At the moment there's nothing scheduled for live shows in Greece but we are working on getting a tour together for next year, hopefully with some shows in Greece too.

Tell us a little about your future plans, because a hard working man like yourself certainly has a few!

First of all we are looking forward to some live shows and festivals in the forthcoming year and we really want to play more live shows with Hartmann than we did in the past. Maybe we also have the chance again to do the support for a bigger act, let's see.

Unfortunately this interview came to an end. I would like to thank you for talking to our webzine and wish you the very best for your future endeavors.

Thank you very much. I also want to say "Hi" to all your readers and Hartmann fans and we hope to have the chance to come to Greece as soon as possible!