GAMMA RAY frontman Kai Hansen is featured in a new interview with Mark Kadzielawa at 69 Faces Of Rock. An excerpt is available below.

Q: When you left HELLOWEEN the band was on the verge of making it big, yet you wanted to create your own entity. What was going through your head back then?

Hansen: "That’s right. Everybody said I was crazy and nuts to do that. Many people would tell me, 'You only get one chance in life, and it never comes back, why are you doing it?' And my motto was always: love it, change it, or leave it. I couldn’t love Helloween as it was at the time when I left it, and I couldn’t change it either, there were too many obstacles in the way. So, I had to change something. And of course I didn’t feel like changing the band, but I didn’t want to get in the way of other players. They were still Helloween, and all that. Even though Helloween was my baby I decided to leave it, and I was confident to say 'I’m good enough to do something, and still write music, and play it.' The record company supported me right from the start. They told me they would buy whatever I decided to do. Having that support made me feel very confident, and they did help me a lot. There was still this uncertainty, but I had to stick to my guns, and my inner self. It didn’t feel right to do what I was doing, so I had to change it."

Q: You started Gamma Ray with another singer, and even towards the end of your time in Helloween, MICHAEL KISKE took over the vocals. I felt your vocals were always great and very distinctive sounding. But the two above mentioned examples make me wonder if you ever doubted your vocal abilities?

Hansen: "Yeah, I always doubt it. I’ve never considered myself a singer, especially in the early times. I was a shouter, and I spoke my heart out. That was good maybe, but I felt very restricted. I saw myself more as a guitar player, and we wanted to do more intricate stuff on the guitars while the vocals were running. I couldn’t really fulfill that because it was of this, and half of that. We always wanted to have somebody like ROB HALFORD, or GEOFF TATE, one of those guys. And we found one in Michael (Kiske,) and it was really great with him. When I left Helloween, I was used to working with a singer. Even though I sang on all of the demos, and I thought they were pretty good, I never considered the idea that I would be the singer on the record. That seemed at the times like a burden too much. The first guy that came into my mind was RALF SCHEEPERS, so I called him. Ralf was actually the guy we wanted to have in Helloween before Michael was even anywhere near us. I called Ralf, and he was free at that time, so we did the record together."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Gamma Ray recently issued the following update:

"You might have heard through the grapevine that the Rays have something cooking again, .....and yes, we do have.

Since the Skeletons In The Closet album was so well received some time ago, we thought it might be time to do an encore. While going through all previous albums we found that there is still a ton of songs that we either never or barely played. So we decided to do a bit of touring with a total different set and revive some of these songs with our nowadays chemistry and vibe.

But that's not all... while jamming around with acoustic guitars we discovered that it's actually much fun and that we have a good amount of songs that are cool to listen to as unplugged versions. So these special shows will consist of live un- or rarely heard stuff in full metal gear (Skeletons) and a good choice of our most famous hits in a different way (we chose to call them Majesties) ...and presto: here we go with Skeletons And Majesties!!!"

Check out a full BraveWords.com report from Gamma Ray's recent trek to New York here.