teleschau: Is there a reason why you recorded your DVD in Australia?

Timothy B. Schmit: Well, we wanted to record a live DVD last year. Since we toured the far East and Australia for three months from September till November we simply picked Melbourne. We did four or five shows there, and we recorded three.

teleschau: Is it difficult to cut one single DVD concert from different gigs?

Schmit: No, many musicians do this. The sequence of our songs is the same each night. It's much more important to wear the same clothes on each recording. The advantage is: if a song isn't that great on one night you still have the choice between different versions.

teleschau: Since the Eagles reunion touring has been a priority. Is it more important than recording new songs?

Schmit: Concerts are just easier for us. We're not lazy, we've often been in the studio and tried again and again to record new Eagles songs. But somehow we didn't get any further lately. Right now there isn't so much on going on, and I can't explain it myself. Maybe we're too distracted by other things in our lives. But I hope one day we will still do something new. And I believe that we all want to do that.

teleschau: Why the doubts?

Schmit: On the other hand many people come to our concerts to just hear our old songs. It's their biggest wish to go back to the old times with these songs.

teleschau: I don't suppose you're lazy. But where do the difficulties to write new songs come from?

Schmit: It's probably the four different characters in the band. We've been together for a long time. We know each other in and out. Sometimes we can't even stand being in a room together. Apart from that meanwhile we're all family men. I've been a father for almost 35 years. But other band members started their families rather late. Don Henley's oldest child isn't even 10 yrs old. So there are wives and children - and other interests.

teleschau: What do the band members do today apart from playing in the Eagles?

Schmit: We frequently toured during the past 11 years since the comeback album "Hell Freezes Over". Sometimes for three months, last year we played 7 weeks in Australia alone. So we also need time off to recover. I think the lack of breaks was the reason for the first break up of the Eagles between 1980 and 1994. Back then we never went on vacation, it was pretty self-destructive. (translator's note: expr.?). But also during the Eagles free periods the music is important to us. The other guys do solo concerts, I'm working on a new record.

teleschau: What kind of music do you play on that?

Schmit: I realized I'm rather a folk singer. I'm working all on my own. There are no deadlines when I have to have the thing ready, nobody discusses the thing. I feel very comfortable this way.

teleschau: Do the others plan to release some solo stuff, too?

Schmit: If the Eagles took a longer break probably everyone would think about a solo album. But the band's calendar is always filled up for a year in advance. We never talked about what happens after this year.

teleschau: Let's talk a bit about the band's history. In America they say the Eagles invented "Classic Rock." What exactly does it mean?

Schmit: I don't know. I'm not comfortable with expressions like this. I only know we sold out eight big shows in LA recently. There are not so many bands that achieve this. Don and Glenn are legendary songwriters, they created many classic songs. These are standards that will live forever. This is the difference between us and many other bands. Maybe therefore the phrase "Classic."

teleschau: The first Eagles records sounded more country. So probably there are the Eagles' roots ...

Schmit: Yes, it's true, but this was before my time. When the Eagles were founded I still played with Poco. Back then in LA it wasn't very trendy to have a country touch. But it's funny in a way: Glenn is from Detroit, a very urban environment. Don Henley is from Texas and spent his youth with a lot of soul and R&B. Joe Walsh is from the Midwest. So everyone's interests and influences were very different ...

teleschau: But what's different between the Eagles and other great west coast bands of the seventies is this: they never played psychedelic sound. They were one of the first bands that wanted their songs to be "straight" and function as pop music ...

Schmit: Yes, it was all about the songs. About clear harmonies and everything to serve the song. We wanted to write music for the radio. And I believe everybody wants to do that, no matter what they say. It's always cool to be played on the radio.

teleschau: Where are the Eagles most successful today?

Schmit: On October 30, 2004 - I remember cause it's my birthday - we played the Tokyo Dome. There were 42,000 people and it was just one out of two shows. As I said we played 10 concerts in a row in LA. Sometimes in Europe it's not that sold-out. During our last tour in 2001 there were still tickets available here and there, but these were only a few free seats.

teleschau: Do you know why the Eagles are this successful throughout the world though they sound so very American?

Schmit: It's the songs' quality I would say. Many people come up to me after the concerts and say, "Someone brought me here. Before this I didn't know much about the Eagles. But then I knew almost every song you played tonight."