GAMMA RAY frontman / UNISONIC guitarist Kai Hansen is one of several music business veterans featured in the March issue of Germany's Rock Hard Magazine discussing the future of music. An excerpt from his interview is available below:

On compensating losses of CD sales with concerts: "No, that's wrong. This would maybe work for IRON MAIDEN... band of a middle category would have to go on tour for two years to get enough money for everyone..."

On whether musicians like being on tour for long periods of time: "There are only 10-20% of the musicians who really like being on tour for such a long time. Most of the people I know, which are around 80-90% prefer being at home and enjoy sitting in their personal room and writing new songs. Most of the tour life is completely useless. You are sitting in busses, concert halls or hotels and drink a lot or do other stupid things. You don't have a stable basis and almost no one is interested in cultural things like visiting churches or similar stuff. You are degenerating somehow."

Gamma Ray's new EP, Master Of Confusion, is due for release on March 15th via earMUSIC. About the EP, Kai states: "We got two brand new songs that we actually wrote for the upcoming album, but since we saw that it would be kind of impossible to make it for a full length album towards the tour, we said 'Well, we don't want to go on tour naked. We want people to listen to some new stuff, at least something,' so we said, 'Let's take two songs which are in some way representative for the album and record them, and add up two cover versions plus some live stuff.'"

Listen to the full interview, streaming at this location.

A teaser for the new EP, Master Of Confusion, can be found below:

The two new tracks on the EP, ‘Master Of Confusion’ and ‘Empire Of The Undead’, are the first two new studio songs by Gamma Ray to be released after the successful studio album To The Metal!, which brought the band to the highest positions in the charts worldwide.

“We have been away for quite some time,” declared guitarist and founding member Kai Hansen. “We have released what we consider a very beautiful live product, Live – Skeletons and Majesties, but we felt it was time to release some new music by the Rayz… Yes, we planned to have an album ready by now but deadlines are not our best friends. No, seriously, although we have already started working on the new album (Empire Of The Undead; expected in late 2013/early 2014), we did not want to wait any longer and thought we should let the fans listen to these two new songs before the world tour with HELLOWEEN. We have also recorded cover versions of two songs we have always loved and… before anybody could say that a CD can feature more minutes of music… we are also releasing the live material recorded for the Skeletons Blu-ray that could not be included on the live CD. OK, it’s not a new album. But it’s 60 minutes of music… call it the longest single in metal, if you like!”

With its 60 minutes of pure and raw Gamma Ray, Master Of Confusion is a great way to wait for the new album, scheduled for the end of 2013. Gamma Ray always takes its music and the relationship with their fans very seriously, and the band wanted this release to be priced as a mid price mini-album.

In addition to the brand new studio song, 'Master Of Confusion' features a second new studio track: ‘Empire Of The Undead’, showing the heavier side of the band, with an explosion of energy and pure Gamma Ray sound at its best. The release is not free from tasty rarities: a brand new studio cover versions of British glam rock band SWEET (‘Lost Angels’ - “the reason I have joined a band many years ago”, stated Hansen) and a hidden treasure of NWOBHM (‘Death Or Glory’ by HOLOCAUST).

Master Of Confusion is rounded off with six live versions (‘The Spirit,’ ‘Wings Of Destiny,’ ‘Farewell,’ ‘Gamma Ray,’ ‘Time To Break Free’ and ‘Insurrection’ recorded in Bochum) that were already included on the Blu-ray Live – Skeletons and Majesties but were not featured on the CD release (which included the show recorded in Pratteln).

Tracklist:

A Side

'Empire Of The Undead' (new studio track)

'Master Of Confusion' (new studio track)

B Side

'Death Or Glory' (Holocaust studio cover version)

'Lost Angels' (Sweet studio cover version)

C Side*

'The Spirit'

'Wings Of Destiny'

'Gamma Ray '

'Farewell'

'Time To Break Free'

'Insurrection'

*Recorded live in Bochum.

Master Of Confusion will be released as a digital bundle only in the US on March 19th.

For more details visit Gammaray.org.