"I met Bob several times in the States, and
first I thought he was a freak, because he looked exactly like a
typical American producer. I never judge a book by its cover, but
I am convinced that everything happens as it has to. But how my
album came under his direction is a bizarre story.
A couple of years ago I met a talented and rather
successful musician called Gregory Darling in the USA, the lead
man of a band called Darling Cruel. Shortly after that, I moved
to Monaco where I met the former Scorpions drummer - Herman
Rarebell. He was enthusiastic of his new company 'Monaco Records'.
You remember: this project where Hermann's partner, prince Albert
of Monaco, gave no money but ennobled it with his name and his references.
Next day I met Herman for a drink and I talked about Gregory Darling.
Herman knew him as well and thought of him as a great musician.
So we called Greg spontaneously.
Within this conversation Gregory mentioned this
fantastic producer Bob Rose, whom he worked with at that time. The
perfect marriage. - At this time I didn't had any concrete plans
about music, but nevertheless we flew to the States a few days later.
There I met Bob and when I heard what he did with Gregory's work
I gaped. Herman had the idea that the four of us could fly to Barbados
for a week or two; he had to go there anyway to check out some studios.
And I was allowed to be the alternative tour guide, as I knew the
place.
Two days later we - Gregory, Bob, Herman and I -
sat in front of our house at the beach of Barbados, and I took a
guitar and played a few song-fragments that I had had in my head
for some time. Gregory and Herman went to the nightclub later and
Bob and I sat together for hours talking about songwriting, producing
and the vibes between the man at the mixer and the musician etc.
Bob came across so intensely that I became nervous and told him
that I wanted to produce myself this time because of my bad experiences
of the past. I said that I had had enough of the influences of a
producer on my music, to give up a part of myself again. Nevertheless
we decided to go to a studio and give it a try and look if we could
work together. So when we went back we rented a studio, signed on
some musicians we knew and to my surprise we recorded, within a
week, eleven complete songs. And I had to tell Bob: 'Unbelievable,
you've convinced me! I like it from beginning to end.' So we went
on working on the album which was never planned and was done by
chance. But this coincidence made me feel how the relationship between
Bob and me grow every day."
Photograph Smile Info 
An
important part of the coming off and the success of making "Photograph
Smile" has your producer Bob Rose, who I've known for a long
time and who arranged this meeting. How did you get to this studio-maniac?