Mat: Talented? A little hard working? Of course – if work is mostly fun, I can work 24 hours a day – but it's not only fun! I do my best and it's a kind of lifestyle and appeal to be part of this scene. As we started Primal Fear in '98 I just thought about going more into the record company / producer direction, but the never expected worldwide success stroke back and I'm still enjoying this great band and the individual characters!

With all of the music they're you're writing and producing with other bands (aside from Primal Fear), how do you have time to work on everything that you do?

Discipline and motivation! I've learned to relax when it's time and I started to run every second day and it helps to stay in shape and healthy! I listen to a lot of audio books, while I'm driving in my car. Great stuff! It's still a great moment, when you notice, that you have enough great ideas and a vision after all these years. And the response at the moment from all the media is wonderful and I really love the new album. This gives me a lot of positive power!

You've been pretty busy as of late with the new Primal Fear album and making an appearance on the new Renato Tribuzy album. How did you come about playing on his new solo album?

Primal Fear did a lot of shows in South America during the last couple of years and he covered "The Nature of Evil" on his album. The title track of my Sinner album of 1998 – he asked me about co-singing the song – so why not! But the new Primal Fear album was my priority focus during the last couple of months!

The forthcoming Primal Fear album Seven Seals is being regarded as the bands finest to date. What do you think makes this album stand out more than the band's previous efforts?

It's an outstanding album. The album was written and designed with a lot of courage into a little different direction. We know that something has to happen with this album! We can't write a Devil's Ground Part 2 now. Seven Seals has to be different. We started with the song writing, a different crew for the recordings, a different cover artist and photographer etc. – it was a little risk and not a cheap solution. We had that kind of "all or nothing" attitude and it seems that our Plan B worked out! We worked more on the details, orchestra parts and put more music into the songs. It doesn't matter how long a song is as long as the song stays interesting till the last second!

Speaking of the new album, how did the recording process go? Was there any pressure on making Seven Seals?

We've written more than 20 songs for the album. We did a pre production with 18 songs and decided the final 12 songs short before the real recordings started. As I told you before, we had this vision how the album should sound and what's the path into the future for Primal Fear. We started to record the album in Germany with engineer Charlie Bauerfeind. Charlie worked for bands like Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, Helloween, Saxon and more. I worked with him on some albums, but never on a Primal Fear album. Now it was the right time to join forces. In the end we co-produced the album together and Charlie did a great job to make this album sounding like it is now! We worked for 4 weeks in Germany and moved then to Vancouver BC to finish the vocal recordings with Ralf over there. We negotiated 6 well known mixers in the US & Canada, because we want to involve a well respected man, who has nothing to do with the European trade metal thing. We could finally make a deal with Mike Frazer (Metallica, AC/DC, Aerosmith etc.) and mix the album with him at the Warehouse studio. We spent 18 days in Vancouver and had a fantastic time. Maybe the best time in my entire recording career!

With Sinner and Primal Fear being the bands you've spent the most time in, you've also played in many other bands. The one I find most intriguing is Hammerfall. How did you come about playing for them?

The guys became real friends after our tour with them in 1998. That's the story! Charlie is producing their albums and he likes my voice for backing vocals!

You've got a pretty diverse group of favorite artists. Phil Lynott (R.I.P.) formerly of Thin Lizzy and Billy Idol all the way to David Coverdale and Kip Winger. How have these musicians influenced you?

Mostly singers and/or bass guitarists – you forgot Sting – which I really like most, music and lyric wise. Phil Lynott was a great songwriter and entertainer. I really like most of his work. I like Billy Idol's energy and the combination with Steve Stevens is still going strong – fantastic! I did my first ever tour with White Snake and that's why I will always follow David Coverdale. Strong personality and cool voice! Kip Winger is the most underrated musician. His solo album (This conversation) is one of my all time favourite!

You've worked with a pretty impressive roster of artists in your career. Who have you enjoyed working with the most?

The last Primal Fear album. Isn't that cool, that it just happened. After all these years, now I was involved in the best album of my career. Ok, it's my kind of view, but it counts for me and I'm a really happy man at the moment!

Throughout your entire musical career, what are some of your greatest accomplishments? Is there anything you haven't done that you would like to?

Of course, there were Sinner album's like "Dangerous Charm" for example – we lost guitarist Angel Schleifer due to problems with the record company and the mix of the album was a disaster! The production of Sinner's album "Respect" was horrible, but I learned a lot of these mistakes and all other productions are mostly fine for me!

If your musical career were to end tomorrow, would you be happy with what you've accomplished?

I never expected such a career. I recorded more albums, I toured more countries, I had a lot of chart success, I had more fun as ever expected. Mat Sinner should be remembered as a hard working and honest rocker!

Finally, there is no shortage of talented, underground bands out there who receive little or no attention. What advice would you give them to keep their head held high and continue to make music?

Song writing is still the key! They should work hard on their act. Lyrics, music and image is still important – better to work 1 year longer in the practise room and small clubs, than recording to early and releasing a CD too early……