HELLOWEEN bassist Markus Grosskopf recently gave an interview to the band's official web site (www.helloween.org) in which he talked about the group's upcoming album, "Rabbit Don't Come Easy", and the group's decision to record ACCEPT and QUEEN covers as bonus tracks for the CD.

When asked how "Rabbit Don't Come Easy" differs from 2000's "The Dark Ride", Grosskopf replied, "I guess we did things the way we feel like doing, there was nobody there to tell us to arrange things differently, there was nobody there to tell us that we have to do things differently than we want to... nobody but the band had an influence on the arrangements of songs and the songwriting. We just did it the way we felt like it should be. Of course we had [producer] Charlie [Bauerfeind] in the studio, but he's been in that scene we have been growing up in and he has listened to a lot of albums in that style so he knows what HELLOWEEN is supposed to sound like... He's got his influence here and there but the main parts of the album are done only by the band. That's probably the biggest difference and it sounds more HELLOWEEN than the last one."

On the choices of bonus tracks:

"Well, [QUEEN's] 'Sheer Heart Attack' was [guitarist Michael Weikath]'s idea and you know when the people came to use from the record company, it was already very, very late, and you know, they want the bonus tracks and stuff like yesterday, you know? So we had to run and put more songs together and instead we did more cover tracks since it was easier to just record cover tracks instead of having to compose more material in a week, and you know... HELLOWEEN is known for doing a cover tune here and there...especially on b-sides... It was funny because we had this idea to have [new drummer] Stefan Schwarzmann in the band and when we did we figured it would be easier for him to play an ACCEPT song like 'Fast as A Shark' since he already knew it after being in the band for as long as he was . It was an idea to have him in the band too because you know... he has always been in the scene for a long time, he was always doing productions, studio work, live dates, and he never had a break and he was always there and there aren't many people doing it for so many years and most of the people either stop when there is no money or if things get too complicated but he was just always carrying on and staying normal and he just knows what its all about and when you listen to the stuff he does you will understand he was a good choice for the band. He is good for HELLOWEEN because he already knows what it's all about."

Read the whole interview here.