Guitars

Played in Helloween from the beginning till 1988


Although it's already seventeen years since Kai Hansen left Helloween, his name is still strongly associated with the band. And there's no wonder about this - what he created was not just a team of musicians or just another style of Heavy Metal. It was something more. The musical direction and the line-up changed many times, Michael Weikath became the leader in place of Kai, many years of "post-Hansen" period have passed - but Helloween are still Helloween. One of the "evergreens" Hansen wrote, Future World has never ever left the band's live set-list (and recently two more old songs written by him, Starlight and Murderer are back). Moreover, it wasn't just a single band Kai created. He was at the source of a whole movement in rock music. After leaving Helloween he started helping out many young bands beginning with Blind Guardian. But of course the most important of Hansen Works was and is Gamma Ray, a band many fans consider Helloween's equal.

"...I'm sitting somewhere playing the guitar and suddenly I find a good riff. And normally if I have a good riff there is instantly some vocal line in my mind. It can be just a keyword, a melody, a phrase..."

"...the real good things stick in my mind. And may be I can forget them once but if they are really good they'll come back sometime!"

"The freedom I'm talking about is the freedom of thoughts, of speech, of mind. Do not restrict yourself to a certain way of thinking or to a certain look on the world, on society because there are always different angles to have a view."

Career timeline:

date	event
january 17th, 1963	Kai Hansen was born in Hamburg (Germany)
beginning of 70s	Kai, by then a fan of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Slade, started learning to play on a homemade drumkit and saving money for a professional one
middle of 70s	Hansen's parents got tired of the drum noise and bought him an acoustic guitar. Kai immediately tried to turn it into electric one using a microphone and an amplifier
1975	Kai finally made his parents buy him a real electric guitar, Ibanez Les Paul
1976	Hansen founded his first "real" rock band [band name unknown, possibly Kathreen Wheel]
1976-1978	Kai was making money delivering newspapers to buy himself a new guitar, Fender Stratocaster this time. During the same time he and Piet Sielck created Gentry band which later developed into Helloween (for further info, see Helloween timeline)
january 1st, 1989	after months of doubt Kai Hansen left Helloween
1989	together with Ralf Scheepers, Uwe Wessel and Mathias Burchadt (and also with Dirk Schlaechter whom he met at the courses of "popular music") Hansen founded Gamma Ray. The band recorded their first album Heading For Tomorrow, released by Noise Records
1991	Gamma Ray's second album, Sigh No More, was released
1993	Gamma Ray's third album, Insanity & Genius, was released
1995	Gamma Ray's fourth album, Land of the Free, was released. For the first time in nine years Hansen performed not only guitar parts but also lead vocal parts
1997	Gamma Ray's fifth album, Somewhere Out In Space, was released
1997	Kai Hansen, his old friend Piet Sielck and Thomen Stauch from Blind Guardian formed a project called Iron Savior and soon released a self-titled album
1999	Gamma Ray's sixth album, Powerplant, was released
1999	Iron Savior's second album, Unification, was released
beginning of 2001	Iron Savior's third album, Dark Assault, was released
summer 2001	Kai Hansen parted ways with Iron Savior to focus his main efforts on Gamma Ray
autumn 2001	Gamma Ray's seventh album, No World Order!, was released
august 7th, 2004	Kai played together with Helloween at Wacken Open Air festival. They performed How Many Tears and Future World songs

Discography:

Helloween (Helloween, Walls of Jericho, Keeper of the Seven Keys part 1, Keeper of the Seven Keys part 2)

Gamma Ray (Heading For Tomorrow, Sigh No More, Insanity & Genius, Land of the Free, Somewhere Out In Space, Powerplant, No World Order!)

Iron Savior (Iron Savior, Unification, Interlude EP, Dark Assault)


Guest appearances:

Joal (Who's got the feeling)

Blind Guardian (Follow the Blind, Tales from the Twilight World, Somewhere Far Beyond)

Angra (Angels Cry, Temple of Shadows)

Heavens Gate (Hell for Sale!)

Michael Kiske (Instant Clarity)

Heavenwood (Swallow)

Primal Fear (Primal Fear)

Hammerfall (I Want Out EP)

Heavenly (Coming from the Sky)

Avantasia (Avantasia - the Metal Opera, parts 1, 2)

Headhunter (Parody of Life)

Stormwarrior (Stormwarrior, Northern Rage)


Websites dedicated to Kai Hansen:

Gamma Ray official website

Gamma Ray unofficial Russian website


Interview links collection:

Interview for Metal Invader magazine - Date: ??.??.1997