Michael Schenker Group and The Universe
Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Jack Lue The legendary Michael Schenker goes intergalactic and well beyond with Universal, his latest and greatest magnum opus of hard rock now available via Atomic Fire Records. With the omnipresent Ronnie Romero on lead vocals and a cast of the finest musicians in the galaxy, Universal by Michael Schenker Group (aka MSG) is sure to send music fans into even greater stratospheric heights! In the interview, Michael Schenker discusses the making of Universal, his many artistic collaborations found within his auditory journey, the upcoming US tour, and more... Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title Universal? It’s just simply when I did my first Temple Of Rock album a few years ago, I had Captain Kirk – William Shatner from Star Trek – he was speaking on my album Intro – and 18
based on that I had an idea for an album cover. So, I made a little sketch, and I had my website kind of do a bit more to it. And then when I was doing this album, I remembered that sketch. It wasn’t good for the time when I sketched it, but when I was doing this album, I was thinking about album covers and I remembered that sketch. I showed it to my record company, and they liked it and they did something to it. Basically, it was already what the album cover was, and obviously there were lots of planets on there. And that cover kind of suggested Universe anyway – Universe – Universal – or The Universe. It was asking for it just by looking at it. So, there’s some thoughts behind too of doing what we want to do, like flying through space and maybe doing concerts on distant planets (laughs) with a UFO behind me. And like with Universal – music is a universal language that can be understood by any nationality or any kind of being. So, it is connected to that kind of stuff. That’s how it came together, but it obviously has a lot of (meanings), and one can make out May/June 2022
HIGHWIRE DAZE
