I know it is on your website, but could you tell our readers what 'Galloglass' means (personally I didn't know what to make of it until I read what it was about...great idea....very different) and also why you chose it for your name?

Galloglass: A "Galloglass" is a figure from Shakespeare´s "MacBeth",and can also be found in irish history. It is a heavy armored soldier supporting an irish chief.We thought that this name would fit for our music !

How did you come to be signed by LMP? Were there several labels looking to sign you guys? Why did you choose LMP?

Galloglass: We had sent some of our demo-cds to some labels we knew and we got some offers after a while. We just picked out the best (and most serious!) one.Some offers were really absolutely not acceptable or even worse!! So we voted for LMP because they made the best offer and we knew that LMP is doing a lot of advertisements for his bands. So there was absolutely no reason not to be signed by LMP !!

What previous bands were you guys in, what did they sound like and how do they influence the sound of Galloglass?

Galloglass:Carsten, Dirk and Arnd played together in a band called "Serpent Moves" and the music was a rude mixture of melodic power metal and progressive death metal with rare influences of jazz and black metal!! From the remnants of this band Galloglass was founded and we can say that the sound of "Serpent Moves" can still be found in the sound of Galloglass, for example the heaviness,the speed and the large variety of sounds and of cause the vocals !! Kais former band "Desolation" is still alive and they play a high-voltage-mix of death and black metal with non-satanic lyrics. Finally Nobby´s former band was called "Progeria" and their music was intense power metal with female vocals. They were really superb but they had split up,bad luck for them, good luck for Galloglass!! So in general you can hear influences of our musical histories in the sound of Galloglass but that were really different styles.

Favorite bands/ influential bands? What have you listening to recently?

Galloglass: If we would tell you all our favourite bands or all bands that had some kind of influence on us, this would probably become a very,very long list!! Generally speaking you can say that we like to listen to every kind of good music. That means our musical taste reaches from classical music to grindcore, with nearly every shade in between!!

But to give you some names that had or still have an influence on us, here they are : Blind Guardian, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Accept, Judas Priest, Gamma Ray.

Albums we have listened to in the last months are: Nightwish - century child, Tobi Sammets´Avantasia (part 2), Symphony X - the odyssey, Star One - space metal , Pagans Mind - Celestial Entrance and many, many more.

Obviously your songs, lyrically, are fantasy based, but are there any specific books or stories they are about or are they just your own creations?

Galloglass: The fantasy lyrics are own creations. They are not based on any book, but there is a story behind the songs of our album!! Start reading the lyrics of "The quest" carefully and maybe you will conquer the secret of our album!!

What is the song writing process you used for this album? Will you use it for the next?

Galloglass: Well our ways of song writing are very simple: Someone has an idea,shows it to the rest of the band and we all work on it, or someone writes a song at home, shows it to the rest of the band and then we play it as it was written!! Writing the lyrics is almost the same way. We will keep on working that way because it really works for us that way and the results are pretty good!!

What was it like producing with Olaf Reitmeier? Did he bring new things to the sound of Galloglass?

Galloglass: The work with Olaf Reitmeier really was relaxed and comfortable. He is a very nice guy and he added some new ideas to our songs. He also gave us some new facets concerning the sound and he was a big helper in the studio. It really was more working together than working against each other.It was a positive experience to work with him and we would like to work with him again.

What or who inclined you to use a violin, cello etc with your music? Was it intended from the beginning of the recording process?

Galloglass: Using the classical instruments on our album was planned from the beginning on, because on our demos we used computer-based artificial orchesters and choirs and they sounded not bad, but even though not good enough to put on our debut-album!! We wanted to get the best sound possible for our album so we asked some friends who are studying music to play for us and they did it. Real classical instruments sound thousand times better than the computer-based samples and so on, so you can hear that it was the right decision.

Are there any plans in place for the next album? Any songs written?

Galloglass: Yes, the work for the next album is in progress. Two songs that are nearly finished have already been tested live on stage, two more are about to be finished within the next month and our heads are still full with new ideas. So there won´t be any problems to fill our next CD!!

I noticed Carsten Frank created the cover concept and art work (nice by the way), is it a hobby of yours? Do you use it in a job? Learn in school....?

Galloglass: Carsten has not learned that in school and he doesn´t use it in a job, he just is a natural born talent!! The original picture was an oil painting of the dragon he painted a few years ago and we thought that it would fit for the cover because it looks simply great!! And of cause when we already write songs about dragons, why shouldn´t we put a dragon on the frontcover?

I really like your website..is it designed/maintained by the band?

Galloglass: Nobby is our webmaster and he designed our website, and yes, we agree that he did a very, very good job designing it. He even did´nt learn designing or works in a programming job. He´s also a natural talent like carsten. We all look at our website frequently to see if there are new entries in the guestbook or to answer some questions in the forum.

I noticed on your site that you have played some shows. Are you planning any tours either on your own or with someone?

Galloglass: Until now we have just single shows throughout Germany, but we´d like to play all over the planet!! At the moment it is a bit difficult to make a tour because we have to work or study or something else like that. But we want to play more concerts than we do now and of cause we don´t want to play just in Germany. We will see when we get the possibility to go on the road and make a tour. Unfortunately we can´t confirm any dates until now.

Since I live in the USA and have to imagine it, describe what I could expect from a Galloglass show? How do you recreate the violin, cello etc?

Galloglass: You have to imagine a Galloglass show as wild party full of raw power, pure adrenaline and a lot of fun!! We don´t have a big scenery on stage or lots of decoration that take off the attention from the music. It´s just us on stage presenting metal as it was meant to be!! The orchestral parts in some songs (such as "A Wintertale" ) are a kind of half-playback that we play along with on stage when we have the possibility to use them. Most of the songs we play without orchestral background so that the songs sound rougher and heavier than on CD and they also sound great without that. On our CD-release-party we asked our friends who also played on our album to give us company on stage for some songs and they did!! It really was a wonderful thing and we really want to do that again, but unfortunately it is not possible to do that on every concert that we play.

I saw some pictures, what was the CD release party like?

Galloglass: Oh, what a night!! That night really was a very special one. Five bands, more than five hours of finest metal music !! We can´t stress in words how great this party was, it was simply unbelievable!!

Any final words for our readers?

Galloglass: Thank you very, very much for listening to our music!! We really appreciate your interest in our band and music. And of cause we would like to invite you to visit our website www.galloglass.de and tell us what you think about us and our music!! Don´t hesitate to write down your comments in the forum or the guestbook!!