Matthias Jabs

TheMetalVoice-MatthiasJabs

Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to SCORPIONS Guitarist Matthias Jabs about details on their 50 year anniversary North American tour, the Scorpions deluxe edition Return to Forever, his first audition with the Scorpions and unleashed material from the late 70’s and 80’s that will surface soon

On the Scorpions’ 50 year anniversary

“Rudolph is the one to blame he founded the band on 1965 when he was still going to school and called it the Scorpions. Rudolph said I found a piece of paper from my mother that proves that the band exists since 1965. Obviously the members have changed over the years. Klaus joined 45 years ago and I joined a little more than 37 years ago”

On the new Scorpions’ album Return to Forever

“It’s like 50% new material and 50% older material re-recorded so we never used anything from the 80’s we just took the ideas and re-recorded them.”

On his first Audition with the Scorpions during Lovedrive era

“I knew Uli Jon Roth long before he ever got to meet the Scorpions . So Uli already gave me the hint that he would be leaving the band and like everybody in our area here said ok you’re going to be the next guy with the Scorpions. But the Scorpions went to audition 130-140 guitar players in London, Germany didn’t have that many guitarist to offer yet I didn’t know that at the time. Rudolph called me and said if I would like have a jam session with them. Rudolph didn’t call it audition and so I went to the rehearsal room and we played a couple of Scorpions songs and a couple of days later I got the call and they said ok you’re the new guy, I didn’t even know it was about that, in June 1978.”

On whether there are any demos with Don Dokken singing on the Black out album or any other unreleased material.

“I think so, there must be (Don Dokken Singing ) because we are just looking at the back catalogue, we are looking at the unreleased tracks, we are looking at demos we are looking at sessions. Dieter Dierks our producer he had the rights to all our back catalogue from the late 70’s to Savage amusement late 80’s. Now we got rights for the whole catalogue and now they want to re-release and enhance it by releasing stuff that no one has ever heard before some interesting stuff. We didn’t really look in particular for Don Dokken’s voice but they have everything there must be something he was singing vocals on You give me all I need on The Blackout album and he was helping out so we had a vocal on the tape because Klaus was gone for 6 months.”

On what the set list will look like on the North American tour

“We have a pretty new set list, we obviously have songs from the new album, and obviously we have to play all the hits. We have lots of stuff from Lovedrive, Animal magnetism, Blackout, Love at first sting and Crazy World. We also do a medley, 4-5 songs of all the 70’ music when Uli Jon Roth Played.”

Watch the interview here:

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German hard rock veterans SCORPIONS spent the first three months of this year in the studio with producers Mikael “Nord” Andersson and Martin Hansen resurrecting a dozen unfinished songs from what some people believe was the band’s best and most creative period — leftovers from the albums “Blackout” (1982), “Love At First Sting” (1984), “Savage Amusement” (1988) and “Crazy World” (1990) — for an album that is tentatively scheduled for release in 2013.

“We will dig in again and maybe have a selection of 16 to 18 songs and pick the best 12 from those,” Jabs tells Billboard.com. “It’s actually very good material.” He adds, “We’re doing it the way we are recording albums today, but the basic ideas, the riffs, the feel, the way they were written and arranged, we try to keep as much from the old recordings as possible. Thirty years later no one would come up with these ideas we came up with when we were younger, so we want to keep that spirit in there.”

According to Jabs, the idea for the project “came from the fans. They were the ones saying, ‘There must be some extra material from those days,’ and they were right,” he says.

The guitarist recently told ArizonaRepublic.com about the project, “There’s so much strong material, but it hasn’t ever been finished, especially the lyrics. They’re like ‘Blah blah blah blah blah.’ It was recorded like you would record a demo, no click track, anything. But the vibe is great because it’s from the time when we were starting out. Everything I played back then, I remember when I found a new riff, I would get excited. It’s slightly different today because I know it all. I’ve heard it all. So it’s much harder to get excited about the simplest or sometimes half-genius riff. But there was a definite spark in those old recordings and the idea is to redo them with today’s technology and take it further as a tribute to the fans.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lcMw5laLPA&feature=player_embedded