Púrpura Chess: Uli Jon Roth interview part II. Electric Sun.

Uli Jon Roth interview part II. Electric Sun.

“Electric Sun was a form of Progressive Rock if you want to say but really, it was a music adventure. It was not really a commercial band, but it was an unusual kind of project. I don’t really like the word “style”, I would call it language. I would say I’m multilingual. The music I do is a reflection of that".

“I remember my good friend Jack Bruce (R.I.P.). One day he gave me a phone call and he wanted to do a three piece band with Cozy Powell (R.I.P.) and myself. They wanted to do something like the new Cream if it was possible. But to me it seems impossible, because how can you do Cream without Eric Clapton?”.

“The three piece format was just the beginning. After the Scorpions I want to see how much I can do with three musicians. At least before there were two big three piece bands: Cream and Jimi Hendrix and they were past or in a transit”.

“I prefer my lead guitar when there’s a clear harmonic accompaniment that supports it like add keyboards or harmonies rhythm. In the beginning I could never do that. […] Later on I incorporated keyboards, harmony and other things. I thought that sounded so much better”.

“I wrote “Hiroshima” and that’s when I started writing new songs. I found in my life that sometimes the initial start isn’t all that great. You have to persevere and then it works, particularly when you try things that are off the beaten track, that are not mainstream.

“When I heard a song like “Kirie Eleison” the musical and spiritual power came out from that music I could only listen once. It was like an incredible thing for me. I couldn’t believe this kind of thing was possible. Mozart songs like “Confutatis” or “Lacrimosa” were the maximum you can do with music”.

“Monika Dannemann was an exceptional artist. When you compare her paintings the person looks exactly like on the photograph, but she managed to put more of the soul into it. They’re incredible alive and I can see the spirit of the person in those faces. She often managed to surpass the photo which is something ultra-special that only very few painters can do.”.

Second part of Uli Jon Roth’s interview. Uli talks widely about Electric Sun in this chapter. He also reveals some details unknown to the general public so far. A few days before the European leg of the 50^th Anniversary Tour begins, Uli invite us to travel back in time to recover that delicate jewel named Electric Sun.

-There´s a song called “Rock tell” that some references claims to be written by you. This song has a heavy melodic and disco influence. Is it true? In positive case could you tell us something about it?

That is actually true. Dieter asked me to contribute the solo that song. This was when I left Scorpions but in the same year. I didn’t think it was very good and really don’t think it was very special.

-Back then you saw clearly that you’ve got to leave Scorpions.

I wanted to produce my own albums and do my own music. The title track “Earthquake” was an instrumental epic with a kind of like a Beethoven intro and it would have been impossible to record it as a Scorpions disc or play it live with them so it was for me the only choice to leave the Scorpions although they were my friends and they were becoming very successful. I didn’t mind. I wanted to do my own thing and you know: “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”.

-“Earthquake” was the first Electric Sun album. The song “Earthquake” was dramatic and mystical and with a crescendo final. Was this song a kind of presentation of the Electric Sun music?

No. Just like with Scorpions every song was quite different material. “Lilac” was a spacey kind of song. The song “Electric Sun” was more of a Hendrix vibe. I wouldn’t choose any to say that was Electric Sun, but my favourites were not the commercial ones, like “Earthquake” for instance. That one was more like a symphony... In fact, the first title for that song was supposed to be “Instead of a symphony”. Electric Sun was a form of Progressive Rock if you want to say but really, it was a music adventure. It was not really a commercial band, but it was an unusual kind of project. I don’t really like the word “style”, I would call it language. I would say I’m not bilingual in that, I’m multilingual. The music I do is a reflection of that.

Electric Sun: "Earthquake".

-Why did you choose the name Electric Sun for the band?

You know the sun is the ultimate symbol of life, because it’s the generator of all life through atomic fusion, and without the sun we would not exist. Electricity is the same thing. It is the energy that makes everything go 'round. I’m not referring to the kind that comes out of a socket out of the wall, but in a wider sense it would be like the ultimate energy flow. You know sparking off life. It’s the ultimate positive creative force. I thought to give the band a kind of title to have a very positive thing for the band.

-You worked with Ule Ritgen and Clive Edwards. You choose the trio format for the band. Was in the beginning your only option for Electric Sun? Didn´t you think about a keyboard player or another vocalist?

The three musicians was just the beginning. After the Scorpions I want to see how much I can do with three musicians. At least before there were two big three piece bands: Cream and Jimi Hendrix and they were past or in a transit. I also have to say that was never happy with the three piece format. In the studio it was easy because I was playing all the guitars, meaning that in reality there weren’t just three musicians. You know, I created multiple guitars parts, and on some tracks there were three or four guitars, even more. Jimi Hendrix was doing the same. Maybe the first record had mainly the original three musicians, but “Electric Ladyland” was anything but three pieces. Cream was the real three pieces band! I found that my music was not reproduceable live by just a three piece band alone... I wanted to hear more harmonies and whenever we played the songs live I felt it was not my kind of thing, because I prefer my lead guitar when there’s a clear harmonic accompaniment that supports it with keyboards or electric guitars. In the beginning I could never do that. We were just three people on stage and I always thought that it sounded too empty. But although I thought this really didn’t suit my overall way of playing live, I still somehow stuck with that three piece live format until after the second album. But again, when it came to touring the “Firewind” album I was very unsatisfied thinking that the three musicians on stage were not really what I wanted. Later on, I incorporated keyboards, harmony and other things. I thought that sounded so much better.

-You released “Earthquake” early 1979. I´m in love with the delicate sound of “Winterdays” How was the inspiration to compose this song? Have you ever played “Winterdays” live on stage?

Actually remember this piece was done in Monika Dannemann’s flat in Dusseldorf. I wrote the piece while I was still with the Scorpions just before a concert and I recorded it on my tape recorder to listen to it while I was driving to the gig. It was winter. There was fresh snow everywhere and the music was perfect with that image. Then I thought that “Winterdays” would be the best title. It was a clear example why Electric Sun shouldn’t be three pieces because again it’s a tune that needs at least two guitars to do it justice and that’s why we never played it live.

Electric Sun: "Winterdays".

-The cover introduces a Monika painting. What do you think that she would like to express with this illustration?

The story of the cover is something special. It’s an unusual story. The story doesn’t start with what you see on the cover, it starts with what you see on the back cover. There you see a lady with very long dark brown hair holding the Earth in her hands. This was what started it because again this was while I was still in the Scorpions. Monika and I used to drive to the concerts together in her Alfa Romeo Spider and I used to drive most of the time. So we drove one night from Switzerland. It was a long road and we used to have the most amazing conversations. During one of those conversations she suddenly said: “I just saw a painting” and she saw it in her mind like in a vision. I asked her to tell me about it and she saw this woman holding the earth and her gown flowed into a spiral pattern. I said that’s a great idea and when we got home she drew it. I still have that drawing. Just like she saw it she drew it in pencil and then she started painting it. She used a model for this painting and she was no other than the fiancée of her brother, Klaus-Peter, who was also my manager at that time. Her name was Layla and she was from Tahiti. Unfortunately, that same year she died tragically in hospital because of a difficult illness and that was the last thing she did. Another thing Layla did she appeared on “Taken By Force”. There’s a song called “Born to touch your feelings” that has a lot of people talking at the end and there’s a lady that speaks French. This one lady that speaks the language of Tahiti and both were Layla, because she spoke perfect French so she did both voices. She was the lady on the back cover of “Earthquake”. Once Monika had completed the painting it was gorgeous and beautiful. It was one of the best paintings she’s ever done. I looked at the picture and I realized that it represented the female force of the Universe. The colour was blue and I thought it was a complementing thing with the male force doing the same thing. I then asked her to do a second painting, representing the male force of the Universe - like a yin and a yang thing. And the main colour was to be red, orange, yellow - like the first half of the cosmic octave. The result was the cover of the "Earthquake" album. Very often Monika used me as a model for painting and she said “ok, let’s go for it”. She painted the cover using my likeness, but it's really not about me, but about a much bigger, universal concept. It's representing something more important than just a single person. That’s the story of the cover. It’s a long story and I never told it like that.

-It’s a beautiful story to be told.

There’s a story behind all of Monika’s paintings. I really loved Layla. We all did. She was a very nice person. She died in December 1978 - the month that we finished recording our “Earthquake” album in London.

"Earthquake" back cover.

"Earthquake" front cover.

-Could you tell us something about “Firewind” and “Beyond the Astral Skies” covers?

The “Firewind” cover doesn’t have so much of a deep story behind it. It is representing the elements Earth, Wind and Fire, Monika painted them beautifully. One of the tracks is “Enola gay (Hiroshima today)” and originally wanted to have an image of the atomic bomb on my right hand side. She painted that at first, but later on I made my mind up and thought it was too much. She thought the same and painted it over.

“Beyond The Astral Skies” was not painted directly for the cover, but when I saw it I thought that was one of the most amazing things. I love the colours and I love what she did. Basically, she painted a traveler through space and time and that idea fit the concept of that particular album perfectly. She used the face of the ancient and inspired Egypcian Pharaoh, a king of Egypt, Akenaton, who was the husband of Queen Nefertiti. I was very happy with this album and it was gift to have such a great artist as Monika for the covers. She was so good with portraits, colours and details. Most people simply can’t do that. She was an exceptional artist. She was usually painting from photographs. Very often when you compare her paintings the person looks exactly like on the photograph, but she managed to put more of the soul into it if that were possible. They’re incredible alive and I can see the spirit of the person in those faces. She often managed to surpass the photo which is something ultra-special that only very few painters can do.

-That’s amazing. I also think that Egyptian civilization is fascinating.

These are interesting subjects to me. The Scorpions questions - I’ve answered them a thousand times in the same way, because very often of course the questions are the same and after some time one starts to sound like a broken record. I understand they have to be like that, but sometimes I get bored with it because the topics are the same and people ask the same over and over. Subjects like these are very interesting to me because I don’t get to talk about them a lot.

-How about the live shows and set lists? I´ve listened to some bootlegs and the band sounds powerful. You play in Europe to promote this LP. How was that first Electric Sun European tour?

As I said, I wasn’t satisfied with the format, because I was not happy on stage. It was ok when I played rhythm guitar, but was necessary to play the lead - which I did a lot of the time - the supporting harmonies were missing and it sounded too empty to me. We played all of the “Earthquake” songs, other than “Winterdays”, which was impossible because of the harmonies. I also remember that - for the same reason - we didn’t play “Lilac” either. I was not satisfied, because I needed more musicians to do those songs justice so that’s why we didn’t have enough repertoire and then played some classics from past. For the second album we had more repertoire, because most of the songs were also playable live, particularly “Hiroshima” so the set list become larger. I was more satisfied with Electric Sun live after we started to become a bigger band in 1983. By then we had more repertoire, more songs so I prefer that time. We started to tour Sweden and England and some of the best Electric Sun concerts are from that time.

Electric Sun: Sidatta Gauthama, Uli Jon Roth, Ule Ritgen.

-Do you remember how the first Electric Sun concert was?

I remember it very well and it was a disaster. It was no good, kind of an emergency situation. It was at a festival called Brain Festival. Brain was the record company that had signed us for a lot of money. We had just completed “Earthquake” and then the problem arose that the drummer, Clive Edwards, got a better offer from another band and basically left when we ended the album. Now that was before the release which was supposed to be in the spring... It was finished in winter 1978 and I believe that the final mixes were made January 1979. The record company - having paid so much money for us and having me fresh after "Tokyo Tapes" - they had that festival where all their bands played. We were kind of the headliner and they had three festivals in three days. I told them, we were no way near ready for stage since we didn’t have a drummer, but they insisted we had to play, full stop. At that point we were nowhere near ready for the stage yet. First of all we would have needed to do a smaller tour and get acquainted with the new material on stage. I tried to protest and said "You can’t put us into a situation like this when we're not ready at all" but they said “no, you have to play the festivals”. And me - not even being a coward in those things - I said “ok, I’m gonna do that”. But I sure didn’t have a good feeling because we were not ready by any means. And we didn't even have a drummer at that point. And finding a right drummer can be a nightmare, because I'm so very particular in what I want from that department. Eventually we found the drummer briefly before the festivals whose name was Sidatta Gauthama who played on “Firewind”. It was a difficult situation because we were completely under rehearsed. And here we are at the Brain Festival, my mind was still in “Tokyo Tapes” mode, because that was the last concert I had played one year before so I felt confident on any stage, but I had no idea how to play this extremely demanding music without at least a rhythm guitar player. Suddenly I was reduced to only one guitar instead of having three or four like on the album. It's not that I hadn't ever tought about this before, but I felt that I'd worry about that bridge when we come to it, but that I'd have plenty of time to figure it all. But at last there was no time and I was thrown in at the deep end, because I hadn't seen the festival situation coming. It was suddenly thrust upon us. I think I did my best under the circumstances at the Festivals, but it wasn’t good enough. My guitar was too loud on the first show, the mix was not good and it was evident we were not ready for a headlining appearance, let alone any festival experience. We should have been in a club in front of fifty people or so. The next day it was a huge hall called Grugahalle in Essen and thousands of people were there. We were a little better, because luckily we were fast learners, but again the show was anti-climactic, because I wasn’t able to get a real grip on the audience trying to get the music under control. We took a lot of chances playing the most difficult stuff without proper rehearsals. I don’t think we played badly, but certainly we didn’t have the magic and the sparks that were expected. The third day was in Bremenhaven and that was a different thing. We had some magic and also the audience responded very well. It happened that the entire Scorpions turned up to check us out that day. That third day we started to sound more like a band. So that was the first Electric Sun tour: three days and not exactly a happy memory...

-Then you weren’t comfortable with the three pieces band, were you?

Afterwards I didn’t feel so good and took one of the few holidays I never did in my life. I booked a plane to Portugal and I spent about ten days in the wilderness regrouping. And afterwards I came back. That’s when I wrote “Hiroshima” and that’s when I started writing new songs. I found in my life that sometimes the initial start isn’t all that great. You have to persevere and then it works, particularly when you try things that are off the beaten track, that are not mainstream.

-And what was your next step after that?

At that time I wanted to do the three pieces because I wanted the challenge of being reduced to the most barebones imaginable, but with hindsight it was a big mistake to do that live. We got better very soon, though, and then on every tour we got better with the three piece format, but I was never fully happy with that situation. I remember my good friend Jack Bruce (R.I.P.) from Cream who wasn’t my good friend in the beginning because I didn’t know him. It was in the Eighties, after Electric Sun, one day he gave me a phone call and he wanted to do a three piece band with none other than the fantastic drummer Cozy Powell (R.I.P.) and myself. They wanted to do something like the new Cream if it was possible. But to me it seems impossible, because how can you do Cream without Eric Clapton?. As much as I loved Jack Bruce, I had to turn down that idea and said no. I can’t see myself in a three piece band, because I would not be happy. If there had been more musicians involved I would immediately have said "yes", but not as a three piece band. Jack said: “you can do so much as a three piece”. He was right, but I didn't see myself as that kind of guitar player. My guitar playing was more classical so I need those harmonies, rhythm guitar and keyboards. Clapton was also a great singer and I’m not in that way. But through that Jack and I became good friends and did quite a few things together. Then they did a band afterwards with Gary Moore (Editor’s note: BBM). I hardly tell this story, it’s only because you keep asking me about the three piece band and that brings me back these kind of memory in particular. Usually I don’t think about that because it’s like forty years ago. I generally like to think about the future.

Bruce, Powell & Roth. Painting courtesy of our friend Paul Simon.

-Incredible news, never knew about that. Next album was “Firewind”. The title song “Firewind” is one of my favorites from your entire career. The end of the song with the guitar solo is magical but unfortunately doesn´t finish in the studio version. When you perform live it usually finish with some great improvisations. How was the original solo that you recorded for this tune?

It was faded out. That was the original solo finish and I didn’t carry on much longer. Those days it was fashionable to fade out. Nowadays, if I did that song, I would give it a definitive ending. Anyways that solo was improvised at the studio and the tape pretty much stopped at that time. Nowadays I finish it with “Turn the Time” and it really works. It’s now a combination of those two songs when we play it live.

Electric Sun: "Firewind".

-“Hiroshima” is another great song. You´ve reworked it later with “Transcendental Sky Guitar” and in your symphonies. What did you like to express with this song?

It’s epic, I think about ten minutes long. It was written in a few hours in Monika’s flat in Dusseldorf I think it was in 1979. I don’t know which anniversary it was of the atomic bomb. It was in August and I read about the anniversary in the morning paper. I already by then had a bit of a connection with Hiroshima, because my dad had told me about it and he told me that he had some original footage at some point so I was kind of intrigued by this human catastrophe and I started reading a lot of history about the World War II and I then had the idea of writing some piece of music. I had been as a departure I was aware of the airplane which carried the bomb, Enola Gay being the mother of the pilot and in my mind I started singing it and I chose F sharp. Somehow I needed some guitar that suggested an airplane, not very rocky but still sharp and strong and I also needed some pentatonic kind of thing. It didn’t take long to finish and after it was finished I knew I had come to a new thing. I also think it was one of the best things I come up with but it’s an incredibly intense thing to play live. I got many intense pieces so you got to choose. Otherwise you’re killing the audience (laughs).

-“Chaplin and I” was very lyrical, another true gem. I read in the past that is based in one of your dreams. Is it true?

It’s absolutely true. I dreamt with Charles Chaplin and it was at Monika’s flat. One morning I woke up and that same day I wrote that song. It was an easy thing to do, it come out in one piece.

Electric Sun: "Chaplin and I".

-The next Electric Sun Lp was “Beyond the Astral Skies”. There´s some musical changes. You used keyboards, other vocalists, percussions, more orchestrated and melodic music. Why did you choose this way to express yourself?

In the studio it was a three pieces, it really was a two pieces because except for the drums I played all the bass myself. That was a completely new approach and we added vocals for the first time and we did quite a few keyboards which I didn’t do on the other two albums because I wanted deliberately to keep the guitar sound as pure as possible having that with “Earthquake” and “Firewind”. Then I really thought I want keyboards and to this day still thinks the same.

-The sound of the guitar changed. You started to use your then new Sky Guitar.

It was exactly the same approach. What changed was that it was recorded in a different much smaller room. It’s my absolute favourite album from the Electric Sun. I did the Sky Guitar but not yet in a lot of things. Most of it was the white Stratocaster and it was mixed because the Sky Guitar didn’t have the correct pick up. I also used acoustic twelve and six strings guitars.

-You filmed a video clip for the track “The Night the Master comes”. What did you think about the video clips to promote the albums?

That was the promo. In those days it was that much the thing to do if you had a single. The record company EMI had a budget to do a two days shoot to produce this video. I enjoyed it and at that time I wrote the script. Back then we were quite proud of it and it got good reviews, nowadays quite a lot of people say it looks dated. What it does because there are the musicians wearing eighties clothes and walking around but some of it was tongue in check. We had good reviews and they played it quite a lot on MTV but maybe nowadays it looks too eighties.

I thought some of the scenes were really cool but there was a mixed affair. There was a very low budget and maybe it was a lower quality. I was very ambitious with it.

Electric Sun: "The night the master comes" Official promo video.

-The song "I'll be there" has got an incredible final solo, epic and dramatic. What are your feelings about this song?

It was the best solo of the entire Electric Sun I would say. It wasn’t so easy to record because it was difficult to play but eventually I was very happy with the result.

-“Eleison” and “Son of Sky” were orchestrated, with the soprano and tenor voices reminding a classical and operatic side. When did you start to interest in classical music? How would you describe these two songs?

I started when I was not even in the Scorpions, back in the Dawn Road days. My friend Achim Kirschning used to play me all these amazing classical pieces. I started getting it by then playing piano and violin concertos. That was in my teens so I always started Classical Music. Personally I had some teachers but not many, usually there were some lessons here and there but I bought myself books and I studied. When I heard a song like “Kirie Eleison” the musical and spiritual power came out from that music I could only listen once. It was like an incredible thing for me. I couldn’t believe this kind of thing was possible. Songs like “Confutatis” or “Lacrimosa” were the maximum you can do with music. That music was composed a few months before the composer Mozart died in 1792, December 5^th to be precise. I was so deeply touched by this music that I thought: “I have to emulate this”. I started getting inspired. “Eleison” and “Son of sky” was an intense piece of music for Orchestra though there’s a lot of guitar in it. I recorded it using my Yamaha FZ700T87. I was very satisfied but took me ten days to mix it in the studio. I was mixing day and night and it got crazy. Before I die I want to do this piece with Orchestra and it will sound much better. I will use the guitar too. Basically I was asking too much of the stereo recording medium with all those guitar colours. In the end the finish mix was a poor representation of what I had in mind.

Electric Sun: "Eleison" - "Son of sky".

-You performed extensively live in Europe and United States. Two vocalist, drummer and percussion, bass player, keyboards, backing vocals and you playing and singing, the band performed and sounded brilliant. What are your memories about those shows?

We did a tour in 1983. First of all, after we did “Firewind” I think we only toured France and Germany and I thought I needed a break from all this. I think it was in 1981. I told the band I needed a year off because by then we had always recording or playing. I took this year between 1981 and 1982 and I spent it writing new music, improving my violin playing. It was a very good time for me and I came with new ideas. The person who became my manager was Dave Corke –he was the first manager of Judas Priest and he was a very good manager. He was a fan and he told me to talk about it. I said ok. I think that maybe was the time to start again. We decided to go for the next level with Electric Sun and I said from the beginning to Dave: “we’re gonna do a new album, I got these new songs, but I want a bigger band”. First it was a seven pieces band. We rehearsed in London and we had two drummers instead of one because I didn’t know which one to take, it was really great on stage. We had a keyboard player and two backing singers. With the new band and the new songs we booked to tour in Sweden as a warming. We played to a lot of people there and it was very successful. Then we played quite a few shows in England and they booked us some quite a big halls. We played Hammersmith Odeon, Birmingham Odeon or Newcastle City Hall to name a few and most of them was nearly or completely sold out. The reason was that in the time after “Firewind” suddenly the album started exploding. It got such a good following in the UK and the papers always featured it very well. I did lots of interviews. That was a very good band and we were successful. That landed me in the EMI record contract.

-When you secured the record contract then you started to record “Beyond The astral Skies”, didn’t you?

I spent the entire first half of 1984 in various studios recording the album. In the second half we rehearsed and in the first half of 1985 we embarked in a very long tour which included UK, Germany or Sweden to name some of them. Also it concluded with the first American tour of Electric Sun. It went all over America till July and that was successful although we lost a lot of money because back then my manager was very creative but with money he wasn’t so skilled. He was never on the tour himself and basically we overspent on our equipments and tour.

-And what happened after that tour?

After all that Electric Sun for me had to come to an end because I felt I had come to the maximum in this format. Our last ever show was in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, it was at Beerfest. They had this festival by the lake every year and it was July 4^th with the fireworks going out. That was the last Electric Sun concert until 2018 when Electric Sun will be reborn. A different story.

-Some tracks you usually performed live weren´t included in the album: “Daughter of the inner sun”, “Neptunian love”, “On that night” or “City lights”. Were them demos from “Beyond the Astral Skies”? Maybe a 4^th Electric Sun LP in the works finally unfinished?

With Electric Sun there were quite a few songs that never made into an album. “Daughter of the inner sun” had a good riff, but my brother Zeno took it and made a better riff that became “Eastern sun”. It was more commercial than the one that I’d done.

-After “Beyond the Astral Skies” and its tour you disappeared from the public eye. Could you tell the readers of HUSH-Púrpura Chess the reasons for doing that?

I stopped touring for thirteen years. It was not intentional to stop for so long so I guessed it just happened. I stopped Electric Sun in 1986. In 1987 I wrote songs, I wanted to do another album and I made a demo recording but then I decided I wanted to do something completely different. Then I did the Sky Concerto.