Radio Metal has issued an interview with GOTTHARD guitarist Freddy Scherer. An excerpt follows:

Q: We heard the new Gotthard’s live concert, and what a performance! It is really nice to hear the band again!

A: "It is true this is a particular performance, because of all the things linked to it, because of Steve (Lee)’s death. We recorded it on the third to last gig of the last Need To Believe tour. In fact we recorded it in order to take a break, we wanted a year off to work on the new album and on an acoustic project, but unfortunately everything has changed… The DVD was supposed to be released in January, but we thought it was not a good thing to do only three months after Steve’s death. So we waited for the first anniversary of his death.

Q: How did the band go through these times right after Steve‘s death? What happened and what have you done until today?

A: "The first months were very difficult because you know, if there is a death in your family, you can still go out, you can go anywhere, in a restaurant or a bar. Here, there were no places for us to go to; we couldn’t run away because each time we went out, the neighbors came out to ask us questions. And when we went to a restaurant, the chef himself came and asked us questions. The two first months were really intense. We took time to talk, just the four of us, we discussed about our thoughts, about what each of us wanted to do. It was a way for us to cope with the situation as well as we could. Two or three months later we met again and talked about our projects, in order to know if we would carry on playing music together, under the name of Gotthard.

There were so many aspects to consider. First we all wanted to go on creating music, and secondly we all wanted to do this together. And the most important thing was that Steve’s family, his father, mother and sister, called us several times to tell us that Steve would have wanted us to carry on under the name of Gotthard. They told us that he would have carried on the same if he had been in our place. Considering all these things, we decided to go on, but we didn’t know if it was really possible because it wasn’t enough just to want it, we had to find a good singer.

So in February-March we began slowly to announce that we were looking for a new singer. Six months later we have almost decided who it will be. I think almost 450 singers have sent us emails, pictures and recordings, etc. Luckily the management team made a pre-selection, so in the end we received only 150 applications. We invited fifteen singers to Switzerland in our studio to spend some time with us and think together about music and about Gotthard. I can tell you that we are hesitating between two or three of them. Auditions are closed and one among those who came to see us will be our new singer. It is the final stage, we are composing music and writing songs with them and we see how it goes."

Find the full interview at this location.

Gotthard’s new album Homegrown – Alive In Lugano was released on September 30th. Homegrown – Alive In Lugano contains a live recording from July 17th, 2010 in Lugano, the band’s hometown. It is one of the last concerts with singer Steve Lee, who died on October 5th, 2010 in a road accident in Nevada.

Gotthard commented : “Everything started in Lugano and it’s exactly there where the circle of what we experienced with our friend Steve Lee, closes.”

The tracklisting is as follows:

'Unspoken Words'

'Gone Too Far'

'Top Of The World'

'Need To Believe'

'Hush'

'Unconditional Faith'

'Acoustic Medley 2010'

'Shangri La'

'I Don't Mind'

'Heaven'

'The Oscar Goes To'

'Lift U Up'

Leo vs. Steve (guitar- / -vocal solo)

'Sister Moon'

'Anytime Anywhere'

'The Train' (unreleased studio track)

Bonus DVD (Millennium Show Lugano December 1999):

'Let it Rain'

'Acoustic Medley 1999'

'One Life, One Soul'

'Hey Jimi'

EPK / Interviews

A trailer for the album can be seen below: