RockTimes hatte das Vergnügen, ein Gespräch mit Jim Crichton und Jim Gilmour zu führen, um etwas über die Zukunftspläne der Band nach dem Ausstieg von Michael Sadler zu erfahren.

Interview vom 18.12.2007
Michelle Karayilan

After the show in Kaiserslautern I had the pleasure to talk to Jim Crichton and Jim Gilmour of Saga.

RockTimes: Thank you very much for taking your time for this interview and I have to admit that I'm pretty nervous, because this is my first 'face to face' interview.

Jim C.: There is nothing to be nervous about, you will be okay.

RockTimes: The show was really great. How does it feel to perform this Farewell Tour?

Jim C.: This is not really a Farewell Show, it is for Michael and we've been talking about this for about three years, but we are planning to play more shows the next couple of years. Michael wants to go and he has decided that thirty years are enough, which I understand and he wants to go home to take care of his family. He is having his first son, I think in February and that is what he wants to do. But we are not going to stop.

RockTimes: The mood at this show wasn't sad either.

Jim G.: There was nothing to be sad about.

RockTimes: So Saga will continue?

Jim C.: Yes, Saga's do that (laughs).

RockTimes: Do you already know how you will continue? Do you have a new singer in mind?

Jim C.: Well, it might not be the same kind of set-up and it might not be just one person, we have not decided yet and have to talk about that.

RockTimes: On your new album "10.000 Days" there is this instrumental song. Is there a possibility that you will continue as an instrumental band?

Jim C.: People have asked us that before and it would be a silly thing to do, since Jim is singing too and has a very good voice. There are a lot of ideas what we could do, like having 10 more keyboard players in front of us and we would be on stage with one or more vocalists.

RockTimes: Is the song "More Than I Deserve" a way for Michael to say thank you to the Fans?

Jim C.: I don't know. That's not the way I read that, I won't comment on that. I think it might be to his wife, but I'm not sure and I have never asked him that.
We had to make this album real fast. It took us half a year to rehearse it, 8 weeks to record it, so all together it took us about 8 month. Now with the illegal downloading and the record company all are collapsing….. We have to make records real fast and make it sounds like it would cost half a million of dollars, for 8 weeks in the studio there is a lot of work and no sleep.

RockTimes: Is the illegal downloading a problem for Saga too?

Jim C.: Yes, for the whole world. There are record companies in Los Angeles that are closing and the only way any musician can make some money is by touring and forget making a CD, that's a joke. As soon you have one copy of it, it goes on the internet and everybody goes downloading it. You spend 9 month making this record and your family is waiting for food, but there will be no food, because not enough people are buying this record. There are young musicians that have only enough money for one day to make the drum recordings in the studio and record the rest in somebody's living room. They would be better of never to make a CD.

RockTimes: Could it be that there are just too many bands?

Jim C.: Well, the world is waiting for a young band with great ideas, but the young bands just copy, copy……., it's so boring.
For us, we started to be different than the others by using more keyboards on stage to make people talk about us.

RockTimes: Are you more famous here than in Canada?

Jim C.: In parts, but Canada has more population.

RockTimes: On this show here in Kaiserslautern there weren't as many people as in 2004.

Jim C.: This tour has been more sold out than the last ten years.

Jim G.: Maybe not here.

Jim C.: We had more sold out shows this time and the roadies where complaining that they can't get to the equipments, because of so many people waiting.

Jim G.: We will play in some days in Mainz, which isn't far away.

Jim C.: In North-America, when you play in one City the next City has to be 200 to 300 km away and you can't play in that part for about two month, because the venue owners wants to have a save territory to make sure that the places are going to be crowded. Anyway, I would say this tour was about 75 % sold out.

Jim G.: Even more.

RockTimes: The song "Book of Lies" is about touring, isn't it?

Jim C.: It's about a sort of book, which tells you everything what's going to happen during the tour, like in which hotel you are staying and which numbers you should call, things like that.

RockTimes: Did you make any bad experience in that matter?

Jim C.: No, not really. Nobody is able to plan a tour that is 100 % correct and that's why we call it "The Book Of Lies", but the song about this book is more a funny song.

Jim G.: This book is more then 80 % correct though (laughs).

RockTimes: After the tour you are going to take a break?

Jim C.: Yes, because it's pretty close to Christmas.

Jim G.: We did some recordings before the sound check and we are going to put it up in the Internet as a contest, like who wants to be the next singer of Saga. I'm sure we will be getting tons of video tapes with people singing and trying to sing, this should be really entertaining. (laughs) Maybe we are going to find someone. If you find a way to surprise people, then they talk about us.

RockTimes: Some posing of Michael during the Show reminds me of Freddy Mercury. Is Michael a Fan of him?

Jim G.: Oh yes, he is a big fan and he was really upset when he died. As a matter of fact we all are fans of him and we knew him personally. All guys of Queen are very good friends of us.

RockTimes: Okay, again I have to thank you for answering my questions and I wish you good luck for the future.

Jim C.: Your welcome and we wish you good luck for the magazine RockTimes.

Thanks to Nasrin from 'Pirate Smile' for arranging this interview.

Quelle: http://www.rocktimes.de/gesamt/s/saga/interview07.html#english