Exploring Wacken: Subway to Sally Discusses Festival Life, German Culture, and Music Adventures

0:04 Hi, you love then too. He's true. For wow, crazy you. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with. Zimon Mitchell from the German bands Subway to Sellly and we are here at Vakan. Oh my god, I've heard about that festival the. Holy Ground, like even we know that. Yeah, and you know that. I mean like there's not one place in the whole world you can go that doesn't know that Vakan is the holy ground. Really. It's so it's so crazy because all the people who don't know a shit about heavy metal, even if I tell them I'm in.

0:50 Vaking, They're like, wow, you're right here at Vakan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when I tell them I'm playing there with my band, they they they are even more upset, like wow, you play in Vacan When I tell them that, I'm probably the drummer who played the most shows in Vaking at all. Really, yeah, I think so. I stopped counting, but a Subway to Study was a few years ago. We were the band that played the most shows in Vaking on the main stage. So that's amazing. I don't know if it's still because because we haven't been here for quite a while, for six or seven years, so probably in the meantime Blind Guardian. They did more shows than us.

1:31 But yeah, how did it all start? Like when you the first time you were invited to play vaking. Oh this is a question I will have to ask my bandmates because I joined the band only twenty two years ago. Oh yeah, that's all. But I remember my first time at Vacan. It was a blast. You know, I was here, I was twenty one or twenty two years old, and I was playing main stage with my band, and it was like a Chida dream coming true. You know. I never thought that it will ever made it make it to fucking as a visitor, but then I made it to fucking as an artist and it was just as Taboo Wortz. By the way, you can say whatever, okay you want fucking amazing and it's fucking crazy. So again that.

2:13 Means you must be fucking amazing, because you're not getting invited back to Vakan year after year. If you're not fucking insanely amazing. I don't know that you have to do to decide. That's so I don't know if we are amazing, So uh, but we love fucking and we love to be here. So yeah, yeah, it's amazing, and like it is somebody like me who as this is my first year at vaking okay, And I go around the world and I do festivals like all over the US, all over Europe, UK, Heal Fest I do every year, And I remember coming to this. Before I got here, I was like, I can't imagine it's much bigger or better than health Fest because healthest is fucking insane.

2:57 Yeah yeah, And then I got here, I'm like, holy shit, Like Yester. The first day, I had a little break between interviews and I went to walk the ground. I didn't even scratch the surface. Like yeah, yeah, that's what I tell people. You know. People ask me, can we can we have a beer together we are here at the beer garden or something, and I'm just like, you know, I'm having an interviewer in about an hour. I will not make it to the beer garden because it's so fucking far away. And so I once when we were playing here a few years ago, I made it to walk the whole area. I didn't make it into the into the village, but I went from the first spot of the festival to the last spot, so just as far as I can as I could see, I think I've been everywhere. But I was on my way for about three hours or something.

3:55 Right, Yeah, I went out for like a little less than an hour. I did hit the village, yeah, but I wanted to go to Wasteland. I still have no clue where that is. Yeah, probably that's the reason. Whether they doing the festival for about a week or something, so it's such a three days No, it starts on Sunday. Right, right, you need the time to cover the time to cover everything. Yeah. And I'd a band that wanted to do an interview, but they were at the stage. I forget what it is because I can't pronounce. It starts to win l but it's like a forty minute walk, yeah, and I'm like, well, I have this interview here, and I have this interview here. Yeah. I wouldn't even make it to the interview much less back.

4:37 Yeah. You need to prove up a plan, that's what you need to Yet. That has to be like the only interview of the day if you're doing it, really, you know, because it's so far like and or maybe the end of the day where you have no more and okay, I can walk there. Now, let's have a walk on the fucking corone and see it as it was. Last night, I helped some friends get to their car, and then I had no clue where I was because I knew how to get to my car from here, and I ended up walking like forty minutes to find my car after doing interviews from like ten in the morning till eleven, and I'm out there at one o'clock in the morning. And trying to find my car in the darkness.

5:18 In the darkness, yeah, hopefully cheapy as is working, so you could probably put something onto your car. So right, It wasn't at first, and then I finally got work on, thank god, because I was asking everybody. I don't speak German, and even the security they're like, I don't know where that is. I'm just saying, where's crew parking? Where's crew parking? They're looking at me like I'm at twelve heads. So it's this your first time in Germany. Or just no, no, I've been in Germany multiple times. Actually, my daughter, her husband was stationed in Bombholder. If you know where that is what it's called Bombholder. It's a holder it's a very small town, Okay, Like I'm in the middle of nowhere and there's an army base there.

6:02 Ok And then my son was stationed at ram Sign, which I'm sure you know that one. So I've been around there. I've been to Berlin. I love Berlin. I love, love love Berlin. I was totally surprised too, because like, I'm a Jew and so I'm going to Berlin and I don't know what Berlin is, like I just know from history, Okay. And then I went there, I'm like, holy shit, this is one of the coolest cities, and the whole underground music scene there. Is so awesome. Yeah, so how far are you from here? Well, actually the band is coming from pots which is not so far from Berlin. Okay, so.

6:43 Yeah, let me tell you the Potsum it's quite different to Berlin. But actually it's it's the most southern. Point of Berlin. Oh Okay, And I am from Bavaria. I hear a lot about that. In fact, so I did. Day a German girl that I met at grass Pop. She lives in Lingoln. Yeah, and she always would talk to me about Bavaria and how it's different and how then the language is different, you know, like she's trying to teach me stuff. I was trying to learn German so I could communicate with her in her language. Your language is hard, the German language, and then the Bavarians even different, right.

7:26 It's even different. It's yeah, it sounds quite different. So Venice, touch Pressia and Clinta so very badish, so nice. So that's that's the difference. So I actually like the way that sounds. I like it better than the normal German. Really, it sounds nicer. Like when I heard Germans. Talk, I think. It's after it always sounds a bit like being drunken. But yeah, so the German, the German dialects, they're pretty nice. There are so many many ways to speak German, and even the Germans they have a hard time trying to understand each other sometimes. So when my the father of my wife, he's a Franconian, so that's a different part of Bavaria and a different kind of German language if he wants to when he is speaking to another part of my kind from Botton Wooden back, which is not so far away, but the language is quite different.

8:28 They have a hard time to understand each other. So Wow. And you know, my daughter, she's really jealous because she lived here for three years being stationed here. She loves this country. She never wanted to go back to the US. She loves all the castles, oh yeah, and all the cool stuff and just the whole culture. She immersed herself in, loved it. Like I told her I was coming here. She's like, I'm so jealous because she would move back here in a heartbeat, which is cool. A testament to your country because there is a lot of cool shit here, you know, and it's it's a lot bigger than probably people think because I've driven it. Yeah. And scariest drive I had though, was when I went to Czech Republic and when I was coming back over that bridge and my car literally moved over a lane without me doing it because no crossed wind was so bad.

9:21 I'm like I'm gonna die. No really, Yeah, it was scariest ship. And I've driven in some scary conditions, but like literally the wind blew my car and it says when you go on carefolders crosswinds, but yeah, I was like when I got on the German so I was like, thank. God, I'm glad you made it right. Or else we wouldn't be here right now. So how how. Are the US metal festivals compared to Vakham? So I do all the metal festivals in US, and no comparison, in my opinion, used to be even more of no comparison getting closer now because basically Danny Wimmer runs all the festivals there now, like most of them, all the big ones, so he has come visit like Hellfest and got ideas.

10:13 So we're more like European. But we've always like all my years, even before being in media, we always knew the European festivals were far superior than ours because ours it's more like usually not as much anymore. If you go to the non Diany Wimmer festivals, it's like going to a fair. You know that they have. The fair foods or the food's gross. You know you have you know, fair rides too. Is really thing man and all that stuff. Not roller coasters, although one of them I do, yet it's connected to a theme park, so you have all that, but you always a ferris wheel and a few other rides, and it's just it's good because you have the music, but it's not the experience like you have at bocking or hell fest like this is experience. Like I was blown away the first day when they opened the gates and I was like, that's fucking cool, you know, and the whole opening of it, like it's just awesome. And the energy and the love here and the people and it's just such a different vibe.

11:23 And I'll tell you what. The food is way better, way better, way better, and half the price. Half the price, okay, Like at the festivals, I do a slice of Pizza's twenty bucks a slice pizza Nice, which would be like probably twenty five euros, I think, or something like Yeah, you know, it's it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous, but you know, there's nothing like coming to the Holy Ground. I'm like in awe the whole time I'm here, and I haven't even been able to explore. I've been doing so many interviews, but I'm coming here every year now, Like I always go back from these European festivals and I brag about how it is and also how professional and organized it is and how.

12:09 That's what German's actually can do. Yeah, yes, you're very organized. So I think that's great for the artists because there's no more stress than if you have stress with loading and with sound check and all that. Like, you should have a stress free environment. Yeah, it's not that important that the artists are relaxed. It's important that the people are relaxed and everything is secure, that everything is going nicely. And I think this is something that the people here and vaking can do pretty nicely. But this is something that the German said all can do pretty good. Yeah, you do a great job. Your band is going to do a great job tonight. Fully, we'll see and I gotta let you go your other airview. So thank you so much for being here at Baking and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

12:57 Thank you so much, mister pipe Man. Was an nice to meet you. I appreciate everything you do. And yeah, I. Really like that we could do this interview. Thanks so much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipeline. I'm w for CUI Radio.