H R H - I N T E R V I E W S

Mat Jaehnke (Cannon)
Interview March 2006

Hardrock Haven: To start with, Hardrock Haven posted the review for Back in Business about a week ago. Since that time, I've had at least 10 people e-mail me about my review, telling me that "Cannon kicks ass!" Some of them have never heard of you, checked out your Web site, and for the first time heard what Cannon is all about. Most of the other responses were just, "I'm so happy Cannon is back! I can't wait to pick up this CD." Now, in all my years of reviewing, I have never gotten this much feedback about one review. Does it surprise you as well?

MJ: Oh yes, it's amazing - awesome. We had never know that we have so many hardrock fans in the USA/Canada. That kicks our ass…

HH: The reason I got in contact with you for this interview is again because one of your fans asked us to. Her name is Mel, and she wanted to contribute to this interview. The next four questions are hers!

MJ: Oh yes Mel - I think she comes from Canada. She wrote some nice comments in our guest book too.

HH:. What did the band do from 1996 (split of the band) to 2003?

MJ: Short answer - nothing (if you mean music)! Nobody played in any other band. We always played for our own fun at home. Only Steve did a little bit more. He built a small home studio in his house near Hildesheim, Germany. Now, this point is our advantage as a band because we can use this studio for our recordings.

HH: Why is Cannon so (relatively) unknown in the USA and Canada, while other German bands like Accept and Bonfire "made it" in the States?

MJ: I think they made it because they had major label deals in the States (and World wide). We only had a small independent label deal for Europe and the label did not do enough promotion. For example, Thunder and Lightning did never get an official release in the States.

HH: Is there a chance to get a USA/Canada release for Back In Business too?

MJ: Yes, we just undersigned a release deal contract with Metal Mayhem Music.
They'll do a new cover artwork and will release BIB in March worldwide.

HH: Will Cannon record a new CD, and if yes, when will you be ready to release it?
MJ: Yes, we just finished recording for the new CD. We hope to get the recordings ready to release at end of the year.

HH: (Thanks Mel!) Back to me … Cannon's bio reads a bit like Spinal Tap, especially with the drummer leaving and coming back to the band on a rotating basis. Not only this, but in 1991 someone broke into the studio and stole the recordings. After all the adversity, and now seeing Back in Business being released on Metal Mayhem all over the world, do you feel like the hard times might finally be behind you and the band will get the chance they've deserved all along?

MJ: Spinal Tap - aha …
Yes, I think so. The times have changed. Business is not our primary point for
making music. Other things in our lives are more important to us (our families, the jobs, etc.). Today, we make music because we want to have fun and we want to give that music, that feeling to the people. If the people like our kind of music, that is awesome. It's not our target to become a superstar like the "plastic" singers and bands on MTV and so on. Such reactions which you described in your first question make us proud - they give us power for the future.

HH: Tell us about The History. It is the complete back catalog of all Cannon music, and it came out in July 2004. Why did you decide to release this 2-CD set, and what has the feedback on that release been like?

MJ: That was our idea because in 2002 the original Thunder and Lightning LP and CD was sold at very high prices on Ebay. After the reunion in 2003, we thought it would be a great idea and we tried to find a record label. With the help of Georg Siegl (from AOR Heaven) we got a deal with Point-Music. We wanted to give our fans the whole CANNON package of music. Not only the released songs from Thunder and Lightning; we wanted to gave the world the unknown (and never released demo) songs too.The fans love The History. We got many mails and contacts all over the world where people remember CANNON and our music from the '80s. They love the remastered version of Thunder and Lightning and the "new" songs on the Timeriders CD.

HH: Does Cannon have any plans to hit the road and start touring, maybe hitting some big festivals this summer in Europe?

MJ: Actually there are no touring plans. Sad - but true. The first reason is that the status of CANNON is not high enough to do a real tour - it's too expensive today. The second reason is that we all have families and jobs. It's not so easy to organize this with playing concerts. Don't understand me wrong. If the circumstances are OK and we get the right offer, we would love to play live.

HH: Is there anything I left out that you'd like to leave with our Hardrock Haven faithful?

MJ: I want to thank all our fans in the States and Canada. Please help us to support our music style. Tell everybody that stadium rock isn't dead! Tell all your friends that there still is a musical style without plastic and casting features - CANNON is just Rock'n'Roll …