The members of Crystal Ball have been supporting LHM for years. When I was given the opportunity to interview their vocalist, Mark Sweeney, I jumped at the invitation. This Swiss Melodic Hard Rock quintet is comprised of Mark Sweeney “vocals”, Tom Graber “keyboards, guitar”, Marcel Sardella “drums”, Scott Leach “guitar”, and Dany Schallibaum “bass”.
CRYSTAL BALL interview
With a release party following on November 16th, 2003 at the Swiss Venue “AlpenRock House”. A European Tour kicks off in early spring 2004, with Crystal Ball supporting Pink Cream 69 and Axxis.
Crystal Ball’s fourth full length album “HELLvetia” was recently released through Nuclear Blast, how did this come about?
MARK: Well Eddy Freiberger is big fan of Crystal Ball and he worked with NB (now he takes care of his own record label). He also is a very famous DJ in the Rockfabrik in Ludwigsburg (Germany) and he played our songs very often there. Eddy has contacts within NB and finally we signed with them! We are very proud to be part of this successful record company where bands like HAMMERFALL, MANOWAR, HELLOWEEN OR STRATOVARIUS are signed as well!
You have a European Tour coming up. You kick off the tour on March 5th 2004 and tour continuously for 22 days. Is this a first for you?
MARK: We were already on tour for this amount of time. Not sure exactly if it was more or less 22 days, but pretty much the same time frame (with Doro and then we changed directly to the U.D.O.-Tour and back again to the Doro – Tour in 2002) It’s a great feeling to tour for 3 weeks and visit 8 countries in this short time! That’s röck n röll ;o)
What was it like touring with DORO?
MARK: Well, it was one of my most nicest experiences to be on the same stage with Doro and to tour with her! She is very nice and friendly, very open and she has a huge heart!!! Everybody knows her, even those not into hard rock or metal! That makes me very proud! Doro was fair with Crystal Ball and did not make orders or anything to that degree. At the end of the tour we all were very sad including the crew, because all of us became a big family while on tour! But we’re still in contact and I hope to play with Doro again.
Tommy Newton Produced your previous albums. Why the change to Stefan Kaufmann on “HELLvetia”?
MARK: Tommy Newton (our former producer) did not have the time when we wanted to record. And because we didn’t want to wait and release in 2004 we looked for another guy. We got to know Stefan Kaufmann when we toured with U.D.O. He was very interested in Crystal Ball and gave us tips. He also said that he would be interested in producing us. We called him up, we got lucky and he managed to fit us in to his tight schedule. The collaboration was very relaxed and we enjoyed working with him. We also learned a lot of new aspects of producing and arranging songs.
CB was approached to compose a track for Swiss boxer Stefan Angehrn in 1998. How did this come about? What kind of exposure did you receive from this?
MARK: Stefan was looking for a rock hymn while he enter the ring! Most all boxers have their own hymn today. So for us it was a great opportunity to receive some attention in the press. We played the song live in the ring in front of five thousand boxing fans and a Swiss private television was there as well.
You have not had the chance to tour the States. Is this something you will be working on?
MARK: We would love to tour in the states. For almost every musician in Europe it’s a dream to play once in your country! I mean, almost all our idols come from America and this would be very exciting to play overseas! But first we have to strengthen our reputation in Europe and play some other tours here!
You mention that most of your idols come from the United States, who in particular would you name as an idol?
MARK: No, no one in particular, well not really! I just like the bands from the 80’s like Firehouse, Steelheart (Matjevic is one of the best singer), even Stryper (because Michael’s voice is amazing) or early Bon Jovi….But it is very important to find my own style and the older I got the more I leaned towards heavier music like Gamma Ray, Stratovarius or nowadays Masterplan (all typical European double bass heroes *lol)!
Is Crystal Ball a self maintained Business or do you have outside help?
MARK: Well we have a booking agency in Germany but otherwise I manage the Band with my music agency which is called Pie Music GmbH. But the bigger Crystal Ball becomes, the more help I will need in the near future and we have had some offers from well known Music Managements in Europe. We will see what the future brings!
In my opinion, Europe has some of the best metal fests around . Have you participated in any of them?
MARK: Oh yes! For example we played at the Summer Breeze Open Air (Germany) in front of about 10,000 rock fans which was just fantastic! And there was another festival in Germany with more than 15,000 people, mostly biker fans! The stage was huge and the feeling was simply “breathtaking”! But I hope we can play on the Wacken Open Air in Hamburg this year, because rumors say, if you can play there then you got the “breakthrough”!
Is Crystal Ball the Original Line up from Day one?
MARK: Yes! And I’m very proud of this! We started out as a cover band in 1995 and made the change to originals in 1999. And we’re still the same guys in the band since then! That’s very unusual for a band, we are definitely very strong and we are happy about that! I hope we can continue for other 8 years in the same line up!!!
What musical differences can be heard with each of your albums?
MARK: All our albums are very dynamic, heavy but melodic. It depends a bit on the production of every single album. Sometimes it’s a bit rougher or smoother, but we never changed our musical directions, it only moves a little to left and to the right in between this style. On our last album “Virtual Empire” we did some experimenting with the songs, especially with keyboard sounds…but in a “legal” way ;o)
Check them out. It’s “In the Beginning” , ” Hard Impact” and “Virtual Empire”.
What becomes of Crystal Ball when your tour comes to an end?
MARK: Well, we write new songs again and enter the studio! Imagine, we released 4 albums in the last 5 years! And don’t forget we organize everything from promo stuff, band pics, contacts for another tour, website, sponsors and so on! Very hard work but its worth it, because music, of course, is our life!