Gared: Welcome to another Eye to Eye episode, this time with my lovable keyboard colleague Corvin Bahn.

Corvin: Hi!

Gared: I’m guessing, since you will be watching this after the tour, I don’t really need to introduce him. For those who don’t know: Corvin has always been our invisible sixth band member, very active in the background, will now finally be made visible on the tour. Helped write and arrange a lot of the songs. A great achievement. Thanks for that. Thank you Corvin.

Corvin: Gladly!

Gared: You understand the principle so far?

Corvin: Yeah, we ask each other questions about…

Gared: Everything.

Corvin: Got it. 

Gared: About God and the world, and a bit of nerd talk. Whatever you can think of. May I let you lead? Is there something you always wanted to not know?

(laughter)

 

(Intro)

 

[1:07]

Corvin: When did you actually start playing the piano? How did you get to the piano, or rather, how did you get to the path of electronics? After all, you’re not just a pianist, you’re a keyboarder.

Gared: Yes.

Corvin: So there must have been a step, or a point, where you said ooh(shrug).

Gared: There was a point…oh god…I guess when I was around 12..And for quite a long time I avoided calling myself a keyboarder, cause I always wallowed myself in the fact that: “No, I’m a pianist. To me keyboarders are people who stand on the stage, go like this (hands on keyboard and bows head) and pretend to play. Over the years I realized that this is not true, that keyboarders can also have a very small coolness factor. But I was around 12. I started playing the piano at age f…actually as early as possible. There was always a piano at our house, and as soon as I knew what you can do with these ten little devices on my hands, I checked what sounds I could get out of the instrument. And of course it was all refined with instructions; classic, jazz, rock, pop, everything that fell to me, and at age 12 I figured I’d get myself a keyboard and see what I can do with this “midi” story and this “sequencer program” on the computer.

Corvin: Which one was that?

Gared: You’ll laugh. And I’m not mispronouncing it. It was “Q-Basis”. Not “Q-Base”, but “Q basis”. It was a watered-down version of Q base.

Corvin: I actually even know that.

Gared: Q basis VST. It was the beginning of that whole plugin VST story.

Corvin: For me it was Q base VST 32. That was a great program.

Gared: Oh! The fine gentleman. I think mine could only do midi. It wasn’t an audio sequencer but really just a little midi-sequencer if I’m not mistaken.

Corvin: Ok.

Gared: And then I did in fact, --a funny info on the side—buy a Roland keyboard.

Corvin: Really? Your first keyboard, what was that?

Gared: That was...that was still one with built-in loudspeakers, i.e. a home keyboard. With a hundred thousand general midi sounds.

(Corvin imitates the beatboxing noises)

Gared: Roland…yeah, also with accompanying automatic sounds. And one-finger-cord. I thought that was totally awesome. Roland E-68. That doesn’t exist anymore since forever. 

Corvin: I even still know the E-series. I still remember “Keyboards Entertainer”. 

Gared: Exactly!

Corvin: I only know them from the catalogue.

Gared: Exactly and…that just sort of fell to us. Then just checked out all the awesome things you can do with it and how you can put music together. With more than just one’s two fingers but also arrange and record etc. Those were the beginnings.

 

[3:46]

Corvin: Did you also get stuck with the technology and go to the SAE?

Gared: That’s right…

Corvin: Via the studio technics. SAE is about studio technics.

Gared: That’s right, audio engineering. And in the end I actually first considered studying music. Then I dismissed that and stayed in the context, to illuminate it more from the technical side and then just did the audio engineering education. Under Chris, in fact, who then became my mentor and my lecturer, where we met, where the whole Lord of the Lost story came together.

Corvin: I see.

Gared: That was interesting.

 

[4:23]

Corvin: And the whole group is from the SAE, isn’t it. Benny, Bengt, Kristof…

Gared: The only one who’s not from the SAE is Class, our bassist. 

Corvin: Well he practically lives underneath the SAE.

Gared: At Just Music, yeah. 

Corvin: So it’s an SAE bunker connection.

Gared: Exactly. We’re all SAE cadres. So you know that appropriate skill is around. 

Corvin: Let’s put it this way: technically speaking there are no problems here. That works well.

Gared: No. That works with us.

Corvin: That’s right.

 

[4:48]

Gared: What’s it like to be a Kurzweiler in a town? (Maybe that refers to the music company Kurzweil) (laugh) No..

Corvin: Yeah, great. I can’t complain. 

Gared: You can’t complain?

Corvin: Nah...I actually wasn’t any different from you. I started with the piano. But in the meantime I also tried to (laugh)…play the trumpet..

Gared: Really?

Corvin: Yeah, but not so trombone-choir-style…It was, okay…It was [5:13]???...I also played the violin. But my fingers were too clumsy. So I switched to the viola cause I figured “okay, there’s more space”. Yeah but, I then never really seriously followed that.

Gared: Successful with the contrabass or subcontrabass with 5 strings?

Corvin: Nah, nah…And of course the focus was always on the piano. And of course just like you I got to synthesizers via CDs and first band projects. Of course I also went through a couple of brands and all that stuff. And of course I play the Kurzweil brand. And like you favour the Roland --great devices, no question—I favour the Kurzweil-devices. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

Gared: All of them do.

Corvin: Here also thanks a lot to Sound Service for the endorsement. That just had to be said.

Gared: Absolutely. Of course. 

Corvin: The cool thing is of course, you’ve got a Meinl keyboardstand. Those are those keyboard stands that go like this (makes a V-motion with his hands), the V-stands, exactly.

Gared: That one’s originally from you, isn’t it? I bought it off you.

Corvin: Exactly. I had three of them.

Gared: Oh, the fine gentleman. Now one.

Corvin: Two of them broke.

Gared: Mine too, my first one.

Corvin: I already had one before.

Gared: Oh.

Corvin: It costs a lot of money and breaks easily. It doesn’t last long.

Gared: But they’ve made it more stable now.

Corvin: Really?

Gared: Yeah.

 

[6:37]

Gared: No but that one (points offscreen), funny story, you lent me that cause mine was broken. You lent it to me cause I totally swear by those things, cause the higher you make it the more surface you have.

Corvin: Also you have the pedals here.

Gared: Unlike the X. For X-stands, the higher you make them the smaller the surface becomes. 

Corvin: Exactly. With those column stands you otherwise see on the stage you have a column and then you have pedals. And where the pedals are you have this column, and then you don’t know…ugh…(mimes balancing)

 

[7:00]

Gared: On the other hand you have the ones by König & Meyer, the Spider. That has legs. But it just looks crap. (laugh)

Corvin: Sorry König & Meyer but, nah.

Gared: Nah but, funny information about that one (points off camera) you gave me that, and in a show in the Czech Republic I completely forgot it. 

Corvin: You lost it?

Gared: Yeah I forgot it! And on the next day we played a showin Mühlheim at the Castle Rock and I was like “shit!” Since then we made our packing list, the Lord of the List, we got into that habit.

Corvin: Seriously, Gared stands next to the hanger every night and makes a List.

Gared: I was SO embarrassed…Very!

Corvin: “Yeah…yeah…where is…X, X, X…”

Gared: Very bureaucratic. I was so embarrassed: I thought: I borrowed a stand from you and then I also forgot it. Oh dear.

Corvin: You guys probably laughed.

Gared: I only got it back 2-3 months later on the Wacken festival, from the photographer who had been on the Czech festival. I organized that over the organizer cause he knew about that and knew that something had been left behind. Then we, over the language barrier, somehow phoned each other at the Wacken festival, ugh, so he could give me the thing back. Then I wanted to give it back to you, and you said “You can keep it. Give me…” I think I gave you five bucks for it.

Corvin: No idea.

Gared: In the meantime you probably bought five more of those.

Corvin: I don’t know.

Gared: Cause you’re totally, you’re all badass music guy and stuff..

Corvin: I mean…

 

[8:12]

Gared: That reminds me of something. In this ensemble, you’re the only one of us who’s actually a real international rock star. 

Corvin: Uh no I’m…not even close.

Gared: But you get around..!

Corvin: I have the fortune that I get around relatively a lot, by coincidence. 

Gared: Do you see yourself as a fixed band member?

Corvin: With what?

Gared: In all these things. You play with Uli John Roth, Gamma Ray, occasionally. Do you see yourself as a fixed band member? Do they see you as a fixed band member? Or are you a session member? Or are you just sort of a…excuse the expression…a whore for everyone, who just goes from band to band?

Corvin: With Uli it’s like this that, there’s a more or less fixed lineup, a sort of A-cast. And um…that means when something comes up, you’re asked: “Do you have time, or not?”

Gared: And when you don’t have time, the B-cast, the next person is asked. 

Corvin: It all has a degree of flexibility. For many things I’m then sort of the musician that’s cast in addition. 

Gared: But you do get around quite a bit, don’t you. I gotta say. You’ve got quite a bit to show on your portfolio. 

Corvin: Yeah that all looks a bit more important than it is. It’s definitely fun. And every year you meet new people. Just being onstage with you guys again. That’s fun.

 

[10:02]

Gared: Last time you were on stage with us ..not yet with me, cause that was before my time..was the CD release show of the first album. You performed “Sooner or Later” with Chris. I wasn’t in that show yet. I was totally drunk in the end.

Corvin: That’s how I know you.

Gared: Shit. (Covers face)

Corvin: No, wait, wait, that’s right.

Gared: Yeah, Corvin Bahn, thank you! (laugh)

Corvin: No but in any case it’s fun to be onstage with two keyboarders. Or rather, in this case I do the keyboard things and Gared plays the piano. Every evening I look at him, and we’ve divided it up quite nicely actually. Gared is playing and going (gestures wild keyboarding) and playing all the difficult piano passages. And I on the other side have actually quite a relaxing job.

Gared: You always throw apathic looks at me.

Corvin: Yeah, and he does quite…it’s definitely not little what he has to do.

(Gared mimes tipping his hat)

Gared: But…

Corvin: Quite wretched stuff.

 

[10:54]

Gared: I also would like to give that back. Concerning the arrangements and Swan Songs we’ve 

really swarmed around it. Great teamwork. I really liked it. It was refreshing and I also learned a lot from you through this. It was very useful for me autodidactically, to grow into this classical arrangement thing, and the stuff I got back from you after I passed it on to you, that was all: “That’s right.” (snaps fingers) “Great idea, great input.” And I just mentally annexed it. Totally cool. It was a lot of fun.

Corvin: Yeah, definitely. And it was also sort of Chris’ word: “Just go ahead and do it.” 

Gared: Exactly. That was quite a few freedoms we enjoyed there. That was very refreshing for once.

 

[11:38]

Corvin: Star Trek or Star Wars?

Gared: Originally Star Wars. But not as a total fan like for example Bengt or Class, and also Bo and Benny a bit. They really swarm around it massively. But really follow it across the years.

Corvin: You’re more Doctor Who actually.

Gared: Absolutely.

Corvin: Which doctor?

Gared: Um…difficult. I haven’t looked at the old ones enough yet. If then only the new ones.

Corvin: It’s also kinda trashy, the old ones.

Gared: (nods) It’s still a bit too cute and too much family entertainment. I do think the new stuff from 2005 are on a better scale. I’m rocking back and forth massively between David Tennant and Matt Smith. Capaldi is still “too new” to me. I think he’s great, but he’s still too new to judge if he’s a favourite doctor or not or yes. So I sway back and forth between Smith and Tennant, who just both cool crazy, funny mood…from a completely heterosexual point of view very sexy….I think. 

(slight laughs from both)

 

[12:46]

Gared: How about you? After all you also have a bit of…

Corvin: Yeah I’m a total Sci-fi fan. I have a bit of a faible for that. Which makes sense, cause if you…as a keyboarder, classically speaking, you of course have a faible for things who turn on and off, who blink and shine, be it computers, be it synthesizers, of course then a sci-fi with blink blink spaceship is totally…

Gared: Totally awesome. What’s funny: in various sci-fi movies, space stories, if you take a closer look and understand a bit about studio equipment –-Chris told me this once—If you watch a movie and you see devices in the background, you see a lot of 19 inch effect devices…It’s so cute actually.

Corvin: Not even in all Sci-fi movies. What was it called again? With Matt Damon. Was it the Bourne…

Gared: (mockingly low) Matt Damon!

Corvin: Bourne… Bourne identity?

Gared: One of the Bourne things. 

Corvin: In that movie the “CIA” have a secret camp behind the hotel. And in the background you really see these 19 inch devices by ??? (some brand I guess).

(Gared laughs)

Corvin: And the compressor and equalizer…all that matters is it blinks and looks sort of important. 

Gared: And important is the wire where they can filter out who is talking where. 

Corvin: Not even only in Sci-fi movies. It’s also…

Gared: Awesome. That’s actually so adorable.

Corvin: And you’re like: “huh??”

 

[14:18]

Gared: But Star Trek is your thing right?

Corvin: Yeah.

Gared: I’ll probably make enemies now when I say I like the new ones a lot, cause they were just in the cinema and I figured let’s look at them, thought they were nicely done for the eye, but…

Corvin: Really good cinema movies by Star Trek actually don’t exist. It’s really more the series.

Gared: Which series, which “Generation” is it for you?

Corvin: Well…

Gared: I’m guessing Picard, for you.

Corvin: I think they are all great. Apart from Voyager. Voyager is sort of…it’s also classic Star Trek kind of, but they’ve got a really hard time with me, cause they sometimes have really bad stories. They got lost in the delta quadrant. There was one episode where I said “Okay that’s enough.” Namely, they ran into a race of “dinosaur people”, and at the end of the episode it turned out that even the dinosaurs, millions of years ago –on earth, mind you—built spaceships and flew into the delta quadrant.

Gared: Oh gee, who would have thought that.

Corvin: So I kind of figured: Nah. That’s a bit too far-fetched. Since then Voyager kind of has a really hard standing.

Gared: Just keep talking. I’m listening. I’ll be right back. (pretends to get up and leave, laughs and sits back down.)

 

[15:26]

Corvin: And Star Wars of course also. 

Gared: But rather a trekkie. 

Corvin: Yeah. Of course Star Wars is more fairytale than sci-fi. 

Gared: Yeah, romance.

Corvin: Nah…yeah…

Gared: The new ones are so nastily romantic, which I kinda hated.

Corvin: Episode 2.

Gared: The second one was a bit…

Corvin: Yeah it was kinda bad.

Gared: I guess with that I speak for quite a few. 

Corvin: Absolutely. (Mockingly) Jar Jar Binks

Gared: Annoying thing…thank you Mr. Lukas. Jesus.

Corvin: Star wars is more like…you have the princess, you have the knight, you have swords, light sabres, you have the force, magic. 

Gared: Of course. And the pod racers, are they the horses or what? Nah. (laugh) I got something mixed up. 

Corvin: It’s less Sci-Fi. After all, Sci-Fi is more…

Gared: More action, more…

Corvin: Nah, just more crazy nerd talk. When they talk about why the protective shields are somehow frequency-modulated and some Klingon phasers can’t penetrate or…

Gared: Frequency-modulated? Phaser? I just keep hearing some kind of synthesizer tech talk.

Corvin: Star Trek Fans are more like the people who say: “Okay, the space ship is this long, the class is this long, and in this and that angle they made a one percent error.”

Gared: Boah all those searches for movie mistakes! I think they’re horrible too.

Corvin: Story-mistakes. My Hobby. I like doing it a lot.

Gared: Really? I didn’t want to offend you. I just think all this “Here a movie mistake, there a movie mistake…” Why don’t you just enjoy the movie.

Corvin: I do enjoy movies. But Star Trek you have to…

Gared: Then you’re one of the good guys.

 Corvin: Absolutely.

 

 

Translation: Manuela Lütolf