07) Avantasia, “Maniac” ft. Eric Martin (Michael Sembello cover)
It was a surprise hearing Avantasia’s latest effort, Moonglow conclude with a cover song. However, Tobias Sammet not only made it sound like it was part of an Avantasia masterpiece, but he also brought a new life to the original Michael Sembello song, “Maniac.” Whether it was Eric Martin’s contributions or reliving the classic Flashdance scene in our mind, it turned out to be pure joy as Sammet explained:
“Pure joy. I always loved that song, and I told Sascha that we should do a cover version of that. And of course, it had been done, and it’s been overdone. As I did not have a specific goal with it in mind, I thought, OK we’re going to do a cover version and see what happens. I don’t need to use it on the record. It was absolutely not planned to use on the record. Because why would you want to have a cover version on a conceptual Avantasia record? Once the basics of the song was recorded for “Maniac,” it sounded so great that I thought OK, if we would have a duet partner for the song, I immediately thought of Eric Martin. I thought this would be a great Avantasia song and also a great counterbalance to the more sophisticated material on the album because some of the songs are quite long with 11 minutes running time like “The Raven Child” and the 10 minutes in “The Ghost in the Moon,” I said it might not make sense to put the song on the record. But heavy metal and Rock n’ Roll are not about making sense; it’s about fuck it and follow your intuition, and doing the fuck that you want to do. We put it on the album, and it worked. It’s a great song. It feels like it’s a part of the album. Story-wise, or conceptually put it this way; it’s not.”
