Gamma Ray’s Kai Hansen

December '08/ January '09

Harder Beat Magazine Online

Gamma Ray’s Kai Hansen
Coming full circle

By Andy Laudano

Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray
Photo: Andy Laudano

Kai Hansen is a legend. As Helloween’s co-founder, guitarist and original singer, Hansen helped create the genre known today as power metal. Many of today’s top bands — from Edguy and HammerFall to Children of Bodom and Trivium — might not exist if not for Hansen’s influence. As founder, guitarist and vocalist for Gamma Ray, he continues his proud legacy.

On Helloween’s 1985 debut, Walls of Jericho, Hansen shared guitar duties and vocals. “I never considered myself a real singer back then,” Hansen reveals. “I liked it, but our guitar parts were getting very intricate and I wasn’t able to do both. One day we were sitting in my car and heard Queensryche’s “Queen of the Ryche.” We decided we should have somebody like that.”

Helloween hired singer Michael Kiske and made the now legendary Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 and Part 2 albums. After three amazing albums, Hansen shocked fans when he quit the band at the height of its popularity. “It was a hard decision, but in the end I had to follow my heart,” Kai relates. “Two parties in the band weren’t getting along. We had two different visions of the group. Plus we had two managements, a record company and people in the background fighting. Too many people were telling us what to do. There was no real union in the band anymore. We were too focused on ourselves, and I was not keen on doing long tours. I felt we didn’t need to hurry or do anything anybody else wanted us to do. Everybody else thought that we had to, because you only get one chance at success.”

It wasn’t long before Hansen put together Gamma Ray. “I wanted to keep making music but step back a bit on touring,” Kai explains. “I wrote a lot of stuff for Helloween that was successful. I had good ideas and wanted to prove I could do it.”

In the beginning, Gamma Ray went through several lineup changes. Ralf Scheepers, who handled the vocals on the first three albums, lived a great distance away. Hansen would write the lyrics, vocal melodies and sing the demos for Scheepers.

When Scheepers was in the finals to replace Rob Halford in Judas Priest, Hansen and Scheepers decided to split up. (Scheepers would go on to form Primal Fear)

Gamma Ray convinced Hansen to sing on the next album, and Land of the Free became an instant classic. The lineup solidified on the following album, Somewhere Out In Space, with Henjo Richter (guitar) and Daniel Zimmermann (drums), and guitarist Dirk Schlachter switching to bass. We’re definitely on track,” Kai states. “This lineup has been consistent for over ten years. We have such a good chemistry together.”

Recently, Hansen’s career has come full circle, as Gamma Ray and Helloween joined forces for the Hellish Rock World Tour. As a special treat at the end of each show, both bands would take the stage and jam to Helloween classics “Future World” and “I Want Out.” “It’s like a family thing now,” Kai relates. “The first time we did it, it was weird. “Weike” (Michael Weikath/guitar) and Marcus (Grosskopf/bass) were still there, but the rest was a different band. Still, it brought back some good memories. Now it’s so natural, we can’t imagine going on tour with another band.”

Gamma Ray has also just released new DVD, Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome. “You get a two hour show from Montreal,” Kai reveals. “Plus another DVD that offers a lot of extra private footage, road movies, videos and more.”

A double live CD from the show is also available in stores now, just in time for the holiday season.

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