7TH HEAVEN
"We are selling our double CD cheaper than most other bands sell a single CD..."
(Interview with Richie Hofherr / 18.05.2004)

Hi Richie! First of all, thanx for takin’ time answering our questions… Incredible, we are very fortunate every review we've had so far on the CD is
amazing and very positive. We very happy that "Silver" is getting
accepted everywhere around the world. Originally how many songs have you written for the album? Have all ideas/songs
been put on these two discs? We had a shell of 150 songs to work from. We focused on 100 of them and
tracked/finished about 70-80 of them. "Silver" has the best 30. It’s not usual for a band to release a 2CD album containing 30 (!) tracks.
What was the idea behind releasing a 2CD album? We wanted a CD that had value for the money. We are selling our double CD
cheaper than most other bands sell a single CD. We also open opportunites for
film/tv placement, MTV already is using "Silver" on "Punk'd"
and "Making the Video". We also wanted to show some various styles of
music. How do your songs come to life? Do you just start jamming, contribute several
individual ideas or do you record demo versions to present your ideas to each
other? Typically I write the music in full, pretty close to how it ends up and then
I give it to Andrew & the other writers we write with to write lyrics.
Sometimes I'll try to paint the picture of what I see in the song and other
times I let them paint the picture with words. Then the song comes back to me
and we'll sit and match my ideas with theirs and we'll pick what's best for the
song. We'll then track the song's vocals and make a ruff mix and sit on it for a
few days. We discuss if we think the song is there or needs to improve in some
fashion. Sometimes it's the tempo or key, other times it's the words or melody
and sometimes we'll start over. Which topics do you process on "Silver"? "Silver" is written around many of our lives and what we've been
through. The many small stories tell one big story. What I like most on SILVER ist the HUGE style variation you guys have to
offer. From power pop to melodic rock to new rock with melodic industrial
influences – with SILVER you got it all. So what are the bands influences? We LOVE music. Each of us listen to all different types of music and we're
not afraid to let that come thru our music. We listen to everything: Def Leppard,
Bon Jovi, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Linkin Park, Rage Against The Machine, Bee
Gees, Incubus, Phil Collins, Police, Dan Reed Network, Bryan Adams, Billy Joel,
Elton John, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, TLC, Queensryche, Queen, U2, Journey,
Rob Zombie, NIN, Sting, Lionel Richie, Nelly, Beatles, shall I go on??? Okay.. I think you don’t have to go on J How
important is the world wide web for a band like 7th heaven? VERY important! With a website like ours now we can communicate with fans
around the world like you. Our website lets the world see & hear the band 24
hours a day/7 days a week. You can purchase all our music and other products on
our website and we'll ship it to you worldwide. Our website has live info, news,
a messageboard, customized 7th heaven video games, icons, puzzles, a street team,
store, music, video, bios, photos, a college section and coming soon a
international section for people around the world who can read about us in their
language and also a 7th heaven radio station/juxebox!!! Do you care about the reviews in magazines and e-zines? Yes, we care about everything we do. Would we do things differently? I don't
know. Would we take to heart what people have to say, yes. At the end of the day
we would never release something we weren't proud of and love. How does the future of 7th heaven look like? What are your plans? Great, we're lucky to have a CD like "Silver". We're going to play
as much as possible and try to move over 10,000 CD's and then make a new goal
after that. We plan on shooting music videos all summer long and release a DVD
of "Silver" in the winter. We'd like to tour Europe next year. We're
hitting the midwest area of the America all summer long, then in the fall expand
thru various regions in America. Hopefully next year we can come to Europe to
play. We are going to start a radio promotion over the summer and hopefully that
will open more gates for us to grow. Is 7th heaven more kind of a studio band or is the main thing to play live on
stage? Both, we go into writing mode and all we do is write. Then after we're done
with the CD all we do is play. Both worlds are fun to be in. In the studio you
feel the excitement of a new song coming to life and you hear it develop into
something you created. Live you get a chance to actually see the affect
the music has on others emotions. And the instant gratification you get from
people cheering and singing along with your music. So both are great. Any funny thing to tell us about something that happened live on stage? So many things... Mark's zipper was down the other day and he had no boxer
shorts on.. the girls in the front row were smiling from ear to ear. I have fun
throwing my guitar picks into peoples drinks/cups. Do we see you guys ever play here in Switzerland? We're trying. If there's a crowd there that will see us, we'll come there and
play. We might need to land some radio play there first. Do you guys have a
video music channel there? Maybe they can play our music videos. Your personal highlight in the career of 7th heaven? I would have to say our CD "Silver". Being on MTV and Jenny Jones
is cool. But "Silver" is a highlight to me. Okay.. here’s your place to do some promotion for your record. Why do our
readers have to buy the actual 7th heaven album SILVER – why do they cannot
live without? Well in this day and age of music being force-fed to you and every CD sounds
like one long song, "Silver" is a breath of fresh air. We
made"Silver" with a passion & love we all have for music. We took
our time making sure we hit the bulls-eye with what we set out to do. Many bands
are limited by time to make a CD, we took our time and made sure it was our
masterpiece to ourselves. We think you will definitely find something that moves
you on "Silver" By the way… do you think rock is making a comeback? Have you heard of the
Darkness? I would like to think Rock is coming back. I heard the Darkness, cool rock
sound. How is the current situation in the United States? Does rock music got a
better acceptance than some years ago? The music industry needs to find music that can touch the masses and fill
stadiums again. There's not many new bands that can sell out a stadium for 3
nights. I think that really says something about the quality of music being sold.
Madonna, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, etc...THOSE bands can fill
stadiums. Other than U2 I can't think of many bands who can do that. The
business has forced bands to write one song one way and then re-create that song
9 more times on the same CD. None of those BIG bands I mentioned have CD's that
sound like one long song. Another reason why "Silver" is the way it
is. As usual we have a little "game" in stock for you – something we
usually do in our interviews. I give you a word you tell us what comes straight
to your mind… Switzerland - A place I wanna play as soon as possible. Velvet Revolver - all star rock band Talent Shows like Pop Idol / Star Search a.s.o. - some great talent Politics – frustrating Michel Moore - roger and me Janet Jackson / Nipplegate - i love her Doin’ Interviews – fun Favorite Food - milk chocolate Ok.. so we reach the end of this interview. Something you like to tell our
readers? Thanks for taking the time to check out "7th heaven". Stop by
our website (www.7thheavenband.com)
and say hello. Once again thanx for takin’ time and all the best for you and the band.
Oh.. by the way… don’t want to put you under pressure, but I do really hope
that the next album will be again a double CD I was discussing with the band a idea that would top "Silver",
hopefully that idea will come to light... stay tuned... for now "Silver"
is our world. Thanks for the interview Ralph. (Interview by Ralph/MEDAZZAROCK)
Congratulations for the bands latest release SILVER, a fantastic double cd
release. How have the reactions on "Silver" been so far?

Questions/Thoughts? (or whatever):