INTERVIEW AND PHOTO BY MARKO SYRJALA / COURTESY OF THIS IS ROCK MAGAZINE
Legendary U.S. band KISS started its long awaited European leg of the Monster tour in Friends Arena, Stockholm on 1’st of June. The band introduced in front of 30 000 fans, its new spectacular stage set called the “Spider”. Two days later, KISS landed in Finland and played a sold out show in the Hartwall Arena. I met the band’s drummer, Eric Singer, the day after the gig at the hotel in Helsinki. Eric was really excited about the new tour and because of his very good mood we then had a long conversation about the Monster tour, the Spider, KISS fan-dom, the future of KISS, and various other topics. Read on !
NEW STAGE SHOW
Marko: First of all Eric, I have to say that the new Spider stage is amazing!
Eric Singer: It’s going to get better. We are still working it out and it will take more, like maybe about eight or nine shows, until it’s ready.
Marko: So you are going to add more elements and parts on it?
Eric Singer: You’ll see, yeah we are. We didn’t get to rehearse, we tried to rehearse with it and the stuff wasn’t working. So, on the first day we only played music. First show was first time we were doing this thing. We came in that day to practice the beginning. So, it will get better. Paul and Doc saw the stage when they had built it, because they designed it, Paul designed it, but I did not see it until we came to Stockholm, I only saw… I didn’t physically see it with my own eyes until we came. I saw the videos when Paul first came, he sent me video clips showing me how it looks, how some things moves and things like this. I saw just a video clip where he went to the place where they built it and the way they designed it. So, he went there and my drum tech, the tech, that production man, they all went there. I didn’t go. I only saw it when we got here. And then my drum tech, he told me, “Here is how it’s going to look, your drum riser is going to be this big.” Because the crew put this together with Paul, Paul designed and the crew built it and then they tell them what we need. Like my drum tech for example would say, “Eric’s drum set is going to be this many pieces. If it’s this big, we need this size of drum riser. Because originally they want to make it smaller, I said, “No, I need it big because I have more than like 3-4 toms.” I have a lot of drums, I’ve got seven tom tom’s, so.
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Check out this KISS Japan Tour poster that was spotted in a Japanese train station.
