"This makes... And Justice for All sound like the first Ramones album."
Nja, det tvivlar jag på. Ulrich verkar lyrisk när legenden David Fricke snackar med Loutallica i oktobernumret av Rolling Stone. Det var många år sedan jag köpte denna blaska, men nu känns det som att man är tvungen. För övrigt har nya numret ett riktigt snyggt Floydomslag.
Loutallica här
/Niclas
Oh Henry my Henry!
Henry besöker bland annat Library of Congress tillsammans med Ian "Fugazi" MacKaye och får nöjet att läsa amerikansk historia i form av brev och annat skrivna av Lincoln och Washington, samt flukta på originalsjuor i mint condition med MC5. Jag ryser av avundsjuka.
Henry här
/Niclas
Metalsucks vs Bill Kelliher
Ganska lång och bra intervju.
Mastodon här
/Niclas
"This house is on fire"
Legendariska KB-hallen i Köpenhamn har brunnit ner. Här såg jag min första KISS-konsert den 15:e september 1988.
"Crazy nights" var i mitt tycke lite av en nytändning, även om bandet lätt popigare än vanligt. Jag och polaren tog ledigt från skolan och spenderade hela dagen i den danska huvudstaden. Tidigt gav vi oss ut till KB och stod där och väntade med ett 20-tal andra fans. Precis i ögonblicket då vi tröttnat och ska spankulera iväg för ett litet mellanmål, dyker KISS upp i en buss, kliver ur och går rakt igenom den lilla skaran fans.
Polaren lyckades knäppa några suddiga kort på bl a herr Simmons bärandes en Godzillafigur.
Självfallet blev vi som tokiga och stod sedan kvar utanför och lyssnade på soundchecken. Minns hur vi då fick höra "I was made for loving you" och blev alldeles till oss i trasorna. Att just denna discodänga dammats av hade vi läst om i Kerrang och Metal Hammer. Det var ju tidningar som dessa som var ens stora infokälla i denna dåtid då internet inte existerade.
Trist när en klassisk byggnad försvinner och det pga att någon lallare på en erotikmässa satt upp en lampa lite för nära något brännbart.
/Niclas
Kycklingfot live på det där internettet ikväll!
"CHICKENFOOT, the highly acclaimed US supergroup of Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony (both ex-Van Halen), guitar hero Joe Satriani and Chad Smith, are set to celebrate this week's release of their eagerly anticipated album "Chickenfoot III" with a very special concert performance to be streamed tonight, Wednesday, September 28th, at 9 pm CET via www.chickenfoot.us. People across the globe can watch the full show in an intimate, never seen before setting in this special re-run, particularly dedicated to the band's enormous European fan base.
The band just released the album "Chickenfoot III" this week and is heading on a short and very rare run of US tour dates next week. The concert stream is a very special opportunity to see the 4piece jamming on the new tracks and also holding a short Q+A with attending fans thereupon. This will also be the live debut for drummer Kerry Aronoff (who had played with basically any superstar, ranging from Elton John to Bob Seger to Jon Bon Jovi or the Smashing Pumpkins), who will be filling in for Chad Smith, who has other touring obligations."
/Niclas
Apropå så jävla metal!
Vackert.
/Niclas
Hello Cleveland!
120 kalla kronor för att komma in. På scen hittar ni bl a In Solitude, som precis agerat förband till Down i USA.
Torsdag 4:e oktober kl. 20.00
/Niclas
Film om engelsk thrash på gång!
Kommer tydligen en bok till också.
Mer om filmen här
/Niclas
Skivrecension
Anthrax
"Worship music" 2011
Anthrax är tillbaka och det med en rejäl smäll! Må så vara att de allra tyngsta thrashriffen lyser med sin frånvaro, men det gör faktiskt inte så mycket. När jag intervjuade Frank Bello på Ullevi i somras var han exalterad som en liten skolpojke över plattan och nu inser jag varför.
"Worship music" är i mina öron något av det bästa bandet klämt ur sig på år och dag och Joey Belladonna sjunger faktiskt förbenat bra. Lägg därtill en bunte riktigt tunga och övertygande riff uppblandat med förbaskat bra melodier. Det här är faktiskt långt mycket bättre än vad jag hoppades på.
Klara favoriter är kombon "In the end" och "The giant", men här finns förutom dessa två pärlor en hel drös med låtar som kan få igång vilken såsig likvaka som helst.
På sina ställen tycker jag mig höra spår av Faith No More, som i exemplevis de två nyss nämnda spåren, men själen av Anthrax finns hela tiden representerad genom plattan.
Visst sviktar det kanske något mot slutet, men på det hela taget är det här en platta som kommer ligga högt upp på listan över mina årsfavoriter. Att sedan omslaget och hela förpackningen i sig är vrålläcker, gör ju inte saken sämre.
Betyg: 4/5
/Niclas
Jon Stewart och Nirvana!
I lördags intervjuade den übercoola Jon Stewart Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic och Butch Vig angående 20-årsjubileumet av "Nevermind".
Rolling Stone har en del kortare bitar av intervjun i en artikel och LA Weekly har även några bilder samt text.
Newsday.com har satt ihop en 10 i topplista över det bästa från intervjun.
Stewart/Nirvana i RS här
LA Weekly här
Newsday här
/Niclas
Bokrecension
Joe Berlinger och Greg Milner
"This monster lives" 2004
Endast ett fåtal sidor in i boken ångrade jag djupt att jag inte läste den här boken när den kom ut och låg närmre i tiden till filmen och albumet.
"Monster lives" är ett utmärkt komplement till filmen och ger en djupare bakgrund till hur "Some kind of monster" kom att bli vad den blev. Berlinger berättar om sitt samarbete med Sinofsky och hur de själva hade kommit ifrån varandra efter Berlingers kalkonrulle "Blair witch project 2" och hur skapandet av"SKoM" och mötena med Phil Towle även kom att hjälpa dem i deras realtion.
Det berättas mycket om deras tidigare filmer som "Brother´s keeper" och den fantastiska "Paradise lost" och hur dessa senare ledde fram till Metallica, även om filmen från början mest var tänkt som ett säljknep för kommande albumet.
Boken ger också en viktig inblick i skapandet av en dokumentärfilm och hur man går från 1600 timmar film till att klippa ner det till 140 minuter. Av stort intresse är hur de jobbade med händelser kronologiskt. Flera scener i filmen är inte kronologiska och även hur man klipper ihop scener för att skapa en större nerv i sammanhanget. Ett sådant exempel är den numera ganska kända "Fuck-scenen" där Ulrich skriker i Hetfields ansikte. I filmen vävs denna scen ihop med en spelning de hade för fansen i HQ, men egentligen var det flera månader mellan dessa händelser. Berlinger påvisar dock hur de ville visa hur stämningen i bandet var, då de ena sekunden skrek åt varandra för att i nästa enas och genomföra saker som om allt var som vanligt igen.
Här ges även exempel på hur svårt det var att välja bort många scener. Något de kallade för "slaying babies". Hur vissa scener som i sig själva var viktiga och starka, men som ändå valdes bort i slutändan för att ge ett flyt i filmen och bättre kunna berätta historien om bandet som föll hårt, men reste sig på nio.
En fascinerande och mycket intressant läsning, vilket ledde till att jag såg om filmen och även lyssnade igenom "St Anger" för första gången på många år.
En given läsning inte bara för Metallicafans, utan för alla som har ett intresse i det kreativa skapande och det mänskliga sinnet.
/Niclas
Loutallica vs världen!
Första hela låten från kommande albumet "Lulu". Efter att ha läst kommentarer på Blabbermouth, Facebook och andra forum kan man ganska snabbt komma till slutsatsen att bandets fans världen över inte direkt uppskattar låten eller samarbetet. Ord som "shit", "ridicolous", "despise", "suck", "awful" osv är frekventa i kommentarerna på bandets Facebooksida, men å andra sidan har över 17000 personer tryckte på "gillaknappen".
Själv tycker jag att den växer, men som så många andra anser jag herr Reed vara den svaga länken i låten. Det påminner en del om Rollins "Liar", men är långt ifrån lika ettrig och drivande.
Hur som haver kommer det bli oerhört intressant att få höra hela albumet i sin helhet i början av oktober. Och jag måste samtidigt säga att jag förstår bandet. De måste hitta nya vägar för att utmana sig själva och hålla liv i experimentlustan, oavsett vad fansen tycker. De skulle egentligen aldrig mer behöva släppa ett nytt album och ändå kunna turnéra var tredje år på utsålda arenor. Detsamma gäller även band som AC/DC, U2, Rolling Stones och Iron Maiden. Låtskatten de har räcker långt och färre och färre människor är intresserade av helt nytt material.
"St Anger" var ingen gigantisk succé och bandet spelar inte låtar från albumet längre, men nu är det lättare att se syftet med albumet och varför det låter som det gör, även om jag fortfarande har ganska svårt för det.
/Niclas
Svår Van Halen live 1981!
Fantastisk publikinspelning från Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1981 på "Fair warning" turnén. Underbart break i mitten av låten som bryter av från det vanliga framförandet.
Pärlor som denna ger den där lilla guldkanten på tillvaron.
/Niclas
Det finns fler saker än pölse och Carlsberg i Danmark!
Ser verkligen fram mot att införskaffa detta album.
/Niclas
Hela världen firar!
Idag firar världen "Nevermind" och Guitar World har lagt upp den sista intervjun de gjorde med Kurt Cobain.
SPIN är inte sämre och har lagt upp en hel sektion med allt möjligt kopplat till "Nevermind".
Kurt här
SPIN här
/Niclas
Intervju med Tobias Sammet i Edguy!
Via Rocket.fm hade jag möjligheten att igår fredag, prata med sångaren och ledaren i Edguy, Tobias Sammet. Det blev ett kort samtal med en pratglad tysk som uppmanar alla att se Sverigekonserterna, speciellt Göteborg och Stockholm, då han hoppas att hela scenproduktionen ska kunna få plats.
Tobias, wie geht´s?
Tobias Sammet: Gut! Danke schön!
Das ist ja gut!
TS: That is very good!
That´s all the German I know after six years of German classes.
TS: Well, that´s not too bad, not too bad! It´s two words actually.
Where are you calling from?
TS: I´m in Malmö, in the hotel room!
Ah, the southern parts of Sweden! That´s where I come from.
TS: Yeah, it´s beautiful here! It´s raining outside and happily, we´re not gonna play open air tonight, but it´s great. I´ve got a comfortable hotel room that´s about the size of 8 square meters.
That´s when you realize you´re not the Rolling Stones! (laughs) I´m doing fine and it´s great to be back on the road finally.
Figures! Tell me about this new album of yours? Where did the title “Age of the Joker” come from?
TS: Well, we had that idea… when we started out almost 20 years ago… we shouldn´t say that because we come across as pretty old, but when we started out 20 years ago, we were of course dreaming of making money buy playing music and in the late 90´s when heavy metal kind of came back on the map of music, the traditional metal music, we said “Wow, this is a great year for us!”, but the ´99 was a great year and 2000 and 2001 were even better. It was another great year and another great year, so we said these is not just the year of Edguy, it´s an era! It´s an age actually! It´s not even only a decade, it´s an age and of course the Joker suits the band very well. It´s always been our mascot and the Joker is the personality, or the character of the Joker is allowed to say all sorts of things, tongue in cheek behind a smile and get away with all sorts of impudent things (laughs) and that´s what we´ve been doing throughout our whole career. We´ve always been different and we´ve always done things differently and we got away with things other bands would have had their heads chopped off for. (laughs) So ”Age of the Joker” is just a megalomaniac title! And besides that, it´s epic, it sounds big and it sounds a little bit mystic and it´s great! It just fits the band, I think.
What was it like working on this album? Does it get more and more difficult coming up with stuff or does it get easier year after year?
TS: It´s really hard to compare, because once you start working on a new album, you´ve almost forgotten how hard it was to put the last record out. Seriously, when we started this album, I had a little trouble because in the beginning it was hard to adjust myself to a band situation again after having done the Avantasia stuff. In Avantasia it´s just Sascha and me and I´m the one who says what we are doing, who makes the decisions and takes the responsibility, although Sascha is really important for me. But with Edguy you have to please four other personalities who have all sorts of different kinds of tastes. When we started to get back and working in the rehearsing room, the first few rehearsals were quite odd, because I had to remember myself that I had to be a little more diplomatic when pushing my ideas. (laughs) It´s not too obvious that I´m also a dictator in Edguy! But after a while, after a couple of rehearsals I felt at home and it felt as usual for me and that´s when we realized “Oh, this is working great!” and the songs literally wrote themselves and the material was getting better and better. In the beginning you always have your doubts about if you will come up with something that lives up to the expectations of yourself and to what you have done in the past, but ultimately it´s not the Olympics and you don´t really want to mess with the past and compete with the past, but just do a great new album. That´s what we did and now listening to the final results, “The age of the Joker”, I scratch my head and I´m really, really surprised as to how great the material is! And how we´ve come up with another, in my opinion, great album. It´s always really hard you know, it´s hard to believe when you´ve done something that really pleases you. You think “This is as good as it gets and next year we can probably quit or we should probably quit!”, but then you start working on new material and it fulfils you and it makes you happy and all of a sudden you have that master in your hand and you listen to it and you say “Wow, great! We´ve done it again!” and it´s maybe even better than the last album, although you can´t really compare. It wasn´t too hard!
Right! There´s a couple of really long songs on the album, like “Robin Hood” and “Behind the gates to midnight world”. They´re around eight minutes long and those songs, did you know while you were writing them, that they would turn into really long songs or does that just happen? Is it because there´s a special story to tell? How come certain songs become that long?
TS: (laughs) That´s really hard to explain, because I don´t know myself! Sometimes you have a feeling when you write a long song, for example “Behind the gates to midnight world”, to me it sounded so epic. You can realize it and when the vocals set in, I think you´re one and a half minutes into the song and that´s already quite long. A long introduction of the song. You have a feeling that this will turn out to be a longer song, but to me it´s easier to write longer songs, than to chop things off and get to the point. Like I´m talking, I´m beating around the bush all the time (laughs) and it´s the same with songwriting,. You just write and the good thing about being in a heavy metal band is that you don´t really have to cut down your songs to a radio friendly duration or running time. You can go with whatever you have and nobody really cares if it´s eight minutes, six minutes or four minutes. To me it´s more difficult to write a three and a half minute song than writing an eight minute song, because it´s easier for me to include all the passages that I wanna have in the song and do those kind of things and play around a little bit and build up things like Richard Wagner did and having those long, long build up passages and atmospheric parts. You kind of do those things when you wanna write a three and a half minute song and sometimes a song just have that feeling when you do a song like “Superheroes” or “King of fools”. You have the feeling that, no it shouldn´t be too long! It should be a shorter song and that´s when you really have to make up your mind, where you cut out the pieces to make it a short “Living on a prayer” part 75. (laughs)
What´s it like touring with James Kottak? That´s one crazy guy, right?
TS: He is crazy! It´s just been one night on the tour bus and there wasn´t too much craziness there. Everybody was sleeping and everybody was tired. He´s really weird! He´s an alien, I think! It´s great! We´ve known him for a long time. We´ve done the Scorpions tour in Germany and we played with them in Slovakia and we played in Bulgaria with the Scorpions. We´ve known each other for years and he´s a great guy! He´s funny and weird and odd!
Avantasia then? I mean, you´re doing Edguy now and I guess for quite a while, but are there more plans for Avantasia and more albums coming?
TS: I don´t know, to be honest! I don´t think of it right now. I don´t have a record deal and I didn´t try to get one, because I didn´t think of recording anything. I have no plans! I don´t have any songs written yet. I have fragments that could be Avantasia or could be Edguy or Bon Jovi as some people would say. (laughs) Seriously, I really, really don´t have any plans. I think there will be no Avantasia record in the near future. I don´t know if there will be any more Avantasia stuff! I have no plans and I make no plans for touring or live concerts. There will be no festival appearances. I´m fully focused on Edguy now and we have just started this tour and I´m so happy to be back here in Sweden with Edguy. I´ve got to advertize the tour a little! We´re playing Malmö tonight and where are we tomorrow? I think Gothenburg and then Stockholm on Sunday. It´s fun because we brought a really big stage and we can´t fit it into the first club we´re playing. It was really funny because we´ve got some real cool specials and very tongue in cheek and very over the top specials, but they nowhere nearly fit in the club we play tonight, so tonight is gonna be a rock and roll show basically without the stage.
That´s good enough!
TS: Yeah, it´s good enough, but we have real special things and I just hope we can… I think Gothenburg will work and we´ll get it inot the club. I´m not sure about Stockholm. Have you been to the place we´re playing?
Yeah, a long time ago. It´s a pretty cool place (Tyrol) and I think it´s bigger than the place in Malmö.
TS: What´s the height of the ceiling?
It´s pretty high, I believe.
TS: Really? And above the audience, is it high as well?
I think so, yes.
TS: Oh yeah! Then people come to Stockholm and nobody will speak of KISS anymore after that show. (laughs) Or probably they will speak about KISS and say “Well, that´s the odd club version of KISS!”. People should really come and we´ve brought some pretty funny specials.
After the European tour, are you heading for the US, Asia, South America and stuff like that?
TS: Well, yeah we will, but not this year! I think the tour will be over by the end of October and we´ll be home for Christmas and the five month Christmas season. (laughs) You know, we´re lazy guys! We´re getting old and we need our breaks. We´re gonna do the world tour next year!
Ok! All the best with the show tonight, tomorrow and on Sunday here in Stockholm and congrats on the album! Take care Tobias and nice talking to you!
TS: Take care and nice talking to you!
/Niclas
Mick Wall fortsätter hylla Loutallica!
I en av sina senaste krönikor på RockAAA.com vidhåller Mick Wall att Loutallica är rent överjävligt bra. Om han är vid sina sinnens fulla bruk återstår att se i oktober.
"... for me it may well be album of the year. I’m still not allowed to say anything more specific about it. But I will say this. If half the low-expectation, meagre-goals fuckers that form most bands these days would try something even a tenth as daring or risky, rock would be the most exciting form of world music extant."
Wall här
/Niclas
Oh Henry my Henry!
Henry tänker till om Los Angeles.
Henry här
/Niclas
En liten sneakpeak i PJ-boken!
Billboard har lagt upp kapitlet som behandlar året 1994. Bläddra, läs och begrunda bilderna! Måste säga att det hela ser riktigt trevligt och intressant ut.
PJ här
/Niclas
Intervju med Ted Poley i Danger Danger!
Ted Poley från Danger Danger är högaktuell med en Sverigeturné tillsammans med Badmouth och detta gav tillfälle att ringa upp en mycket pratglad Ted och prata om allt mellan himmel och jord.
Are you in New Jersey?
Ted Poley: Pennsylvania!
Is that where you live these days?
TP: Yeah, yeah! I love it out here! I live in PA, which is nice and we had an earthquake just recently. I thought it was earthquake proof. We had a big one on the east coast of the US and my office walls were shaking or actually swaying and I got some cracks on my ceiling.
Wow!
TP: Yeah, it sucked and I don´t have insurance for that. They don´t offer it!
Because of force majeure?
TP: There´s never an earthquake! I called up my insurance company and said “Hey, I just had a fucking earthquake and got some cracks in my ceiling! Wanna come out and take care of this?”.
They said “You´re not covered! We don´t offer it!" And I said “Well, you gotta cover it under something!”, but no, they don´t do that, so now I´ve got cracks. (laughs) Then we had a hurricane the next week. It was ridiculous! Nothing severe, but cosmetic stuff and I was really pissed off because they don´t even offer insurance for that.
Well, Mother Nature must be pissed off at something!
TP: Nah, sometimes I just can´t tell the difference if it´s my stereo or if it was something really good I smoked that day because the house was really moving. (laughs)
What´s going on in the world of Ted Poley at the moment?
TP: Oh, man! There´s always something going on. I´ve just been training on what I call my torture device in my basement. I´m on my exercise bike with a boom mic and I sing to karaoke tracks so I can do all these songs while exercising. At this stage it´s just become ridiculous. I´m in the basement for an hour of aerobics on a bike to sing “Naughty naughty”. I have to tell you, that´s how much I love my fans. I love them so much, but that´s what I´m doing. Training so I don´t drop dead in the middle of the Rock like a Viking tour of Sweden and Norway coming up. I´m very excited! We leave on Monday which means I´m running around trying to find things that I thought I had to pack. I don´t even know what city or country I left them in. I have to go back to YouTube and look at some videos, “Well, I still had this bracelet in Portugal!”. (laughs) Sometimes I go online and look at the videos to see where I possibly might have left it. As I go and do laundry I see that “Well, those pants are not even here!”. (laughs) Actually, I think I should start filming some of this stuff of me getting ready, because I think some of the most fun stuff happens off stage. They could see me running around with my wife yelling at me, “You´ve had six months to find those pants!” (laughs) “Last time I saw them was in Portugal!”. Strange conversations you have and I ask her “What country was I in last?”. She has to remind me where I was. I´m turning into Ozzy Osbourne!
This “Greatest hits” of yours with the Queen cover and the Nirvana cover…?
TP: Oh, that was a cool thing! I had an artist friend who… the first one was just boobs. I still have some of those and sell them. People can get it from www.tedpoley.com or just look on Ebay and if they see tedpoley1, that´s my seller id and you can actually buy them cheaper off of Ebay. The first one was the boobs and the second one was… it´s the same album, but for the new cover I wanted to make something really special and put a lot of money into the artwork, because I always loved album covers. I bought Starcastle and Yes because of the album covers, so I always wanted to do good art and never just a photograph of me. They can see me when they show up, so I wanted good art, but I thought the concept would be, that if you put me in your collection and all of a sudden I grow like mould all over your other classic cd´s and then it´s almost like you´re hallucinating, looking at an exact album cover except now I´m in it! (laughs) That´s the concept, where I take over the rest of your cd´s. I wanted to pick some very classic and noticeable, recognizable good art of all different styles and my artist friend did such an amazing job of actually copying all the different styles. They´re all original paintings, all water colors and they´re really cool! He did such a cool job with the Queen one and you saw the “Nevermind” cover. It takes a tough man to put his head on a baby penis. I will go the whole way! You gotta be consistent! So I guess the big things would be the tour and the ongoing things I´m very happy with. “Greatest hits” is still selling. There´s a lot of people that don´t have it and I hope they get it and then of course the brand new video that I did, which was for a song called “Breathe” which is a Michelle Branch tune but we rearranged it and we rerecorded it and that´s just been the greatest thing of all. In two months over 13000 hits and a lot of opportunities came in from that and people are really enjoying that video. It´s been great! The video, the “Greatest hits” cd and then of course Danger Danger, where I´m on call at all times. If they get a gig I´m there! We´re done for this year and that´s why I´m heading off to rock like a Viking! Danger Danger is still my day job and my first love and as soon as we get some shows, I´ll be doing all of those, but in the meantime I don´t sit around. I like to go out and see the fans and I love to play the songs and be out there and spread the word of Danger Danger and as well, I play different Danger Danger songs and I try to make it as different as possible so if you go see Danger Danger you´ll hear things from the new cd and I play the more obscure Danger Danger songs, that you won´t ever hear us play as Danger Danger. I have a keyboard player and we don´t in Danger Danger. I like to keep it completely separate from a Danger Danger show and as a fan you get to hear different songs and for me it´s more interesting because it´s not the same songs that I´ve been playing for 20 years. I throw “Sick little twisted mind” in there and stuff like “One step from paradise” and I try to keep it as separate as I can while still being the same guy. One of my strongest areas is now Sweden! I love it and they´ve embraced me and I´ve embraced them and the meatballs and the whole deal and I can´t wait to get back there and eat some cool food and the smorgasbord and get crazy! (laughs)
Going back to the artwork for “Greatest hits”, you´ve put ink stamps on them to make sure there´s no infringement. Do you really need to do that since it´s done in water colors? Is there a danger of being sued or something?
TP: I´m a little disappointed that nobody contacted me. (laughs) I´m not even big enough… I don´t think the guys in Aerosmith know who I am, so in a way I´m a little bit disappointed that nobody contacted me and said “Hey, you better put that out of print!”. (laughs) I would love that, but nobody cared. The only issue would have been… yeah, that´s why I didn´t use existing artwork and that´s why I had my guy completely redraw everything, so you´re correct on that point. They´re actually original paintings, but he painted in the logo and those are copy written and I didn´t wanna step on anybody´s toes, including Danger Danger. I mean, I don´t wanna piss them off! I´ve been fired already, I don´t wanna be fired again! (laughs) But these days it´s a little bit different. We actually like each other now. But I don´t wanna be a pain in the ass or do anything wrong either, so what I wanted to do was just make sure… I would love for somebody to at least attempt to sue me, because then they´d notice it, but otherwise I really didn´t wanna be a pain in the ass. It´s just something funny and artistic and I´m not trying to infringe on anybody´s work. I just go through my day, man! (laughs) You´re the first person to ever even notice that art thing and that cost a fortune to do. The artist who´s my friend, had he actually charged me what an artist would charge, it would´ve been something like $50.000. I mean, really, really expensive! So the value of what I changed it to was really more valuable and cooler and more expensive and I gotta tell you, boobs outsold it ten to one. So no matter how expensive, nothing compares to boobs! (laughs) I could rehearse my whole life and Katy Perry or Lady Gaga could wear a bikini at the airport and I swear to god, I think I have literally underwear in a suitcase from a tour that was unpacked before she was even known and now she´s a billionaire and my underpants are older than her career and they´re still sitting in a suitcase and I´ve been touring for 20 years and that kills me!
You were born and grew up in New Jersey, right?
TP: Yes sir!
What was it like back then and what was the music scene like back then when you started getting into music? Were there a lot of bands around and bands playing in clubs in New Jersey? Did you ever come across the Skid Row guys in those days?
TP: I have to tell you and I sound like an old dude that says “Oh, man the scene now is nothing! When I was a kid it was the greatest we´d ever had!” and I don´t know if that´s just me remembering what was really great or if everybody thinks that their own time was great, but I have to tell you, when I got into it, there were bands that were some of the greatest bands! It was like the early stages of California. I wasn´t there, but when I was in Prophet we were recording out there and I got to see bands in clubs like Ratt, Mötley Crüe and London. The beginnings of what became the Warrants, the Firehouses and the beginning of the hair band era and that was very interesting! When I first started out in clubs and I was playing from like the early 80´s… I got out of high school and I was actually too young to play in some of the clubs and back then we had so many bands and so many guys in bands like Ray Gillen and Danny Vaughn and I know all these guys. We were all from the same bands and the same time. There was a band called White Tiger, not White Lion! Different animal!
Was that the band with Mark St John?
TP: I don´t think so. Eric, the drummer went on to TT Quick and of course their singer went on to Accept and the bass player actually plays with my guitar player now in another band. Back then they were the greatest rock stars ever. Nobody played original music, we all played cover tunes like Judas Priest and Journey, Bryan Adams, AC/DC. It was great stuff, but they would come out and they looked like rock stars and they would bring a PA system and a light system for a concert into a club and this was a big club. All the bands would wanna warm up for them and on a Tuesday they would get 2000 people without even breathing hard. Sell out on a Tuesday night and they played five nights a week all across New Jersey of course and the biggest bands at that time were them and Twisted Sister, Prophet, before I was in it and they were actually one of the top bands before I joined. Honestly, that scene was golden! A lot of these guys went on to other bands and the music was incredible, but these guys in White Tiger played originals and they were so loud and so amazing, that some of my influences are more of some of these bands that nobody will ever have heard of. There was a band called Jesse Bolt and I loved them! They had three guitar players and it was sort of like melodic metal, like UFU style stuff and just the greatest times! For me it was definitely a wonderful time and I actually got my guitar player in my solo band… when I was looking for a guitar player, I remembered that there was this really good guitar player that was a really friendly guy, because right now I have no patience for any assholes! I´m done with assholes! We´ve made some recent lineup changes and we´re all friends and we have so much fun, but this guy, I remembered him from 30 years ago when my band and his band used to be the other band that would warm up for White Tiger. I remembered this guy and I tracked him down and he still the nicest guy and we were rival bands back then and probably didn´t speak to each other. But I called him and it´s great to play with a guy who comes from the same moment in time. He was on the same stages as me during the exact era that you´re speaking of.
When Danger Danger happened and the first album came out in 1989 and grunge was just around the corner…
TP: We were 15 minutes too late! Let me tell you! We could´ve had the greatest run if we came out like when Ratt and all those bands. I was still in Prophet and making progressive music and listening to bands like… I think the first one that came out that I thought was really cool, was Autograph and “Turn up the radio”. Remember theat one?
I love Autograph!
TP: Meanwhile I´m playing stuff that sounds like Emerson Lake and Palmer or something, which I love, but “Wait a minute, this kind of rocks! What the heck is this?” and I was living in Los Angeles finishing the Prophet record when I heard “Turn up the radio” and I said “This fucking rocks!” and I was sort of like “I wanna sound like that!”. (laughs) Later on and it took a long time, Danger Danger happened right at the end and it´s a real shame because literally, just as it started to look good, everybody put on flannel and it was done! Back then, besides,,, I mean, I was a pain in the ass for these guys so they fired me and I think half because I was a pain in the ass and half because the music changed and they wanted to get heavier, but being a pain in the ass made it easier to fire me. (laughs) I´ve mellowed out since and I think even I would´ve annoyed myself back then. My decisions were right, looking back, but I just didn´t have the right delivery.
You toured with KISS and I recently just read about the first time you met Paul Stanley.
TP: Oh yeah, and then they made it into a song too! That one is on the greatest hits and it´s funny, I use that as my pretape in concerts and I had nothing to do with it other than being in the story. I don´t sing on it, I didn´t ask them to do it and when I heard it I just thought it was the greatest thing I´ve ever heard, because it´s true. Basically Paul Stanley sung my name to the tune of “Unholy” and I love it so much, I use it as my pretape and when people hear it, first they hear the KISS song and the words are sort of funny and then when they hear “Ted Poley” and before I even hit the stage I got them in the mood I want and they´re happy. My show isn´t exactly dark and I come out and start signing autographs from the stage and I´ll walk into the audience. Obviously I´m not getting rich doing this, I do it because I love it!
What was it like touring with KISS?
TP: It was for “Hot in the shade” and we did many countries and we were actually out with them for two years, three years. It was wild! We went to England and they had the sphinx and the eyes would open up and they had laser beams coming out. That was cool! It was a dream come true and they were my favorite band and my first KISS concert was when I decided I wanted to do this and I stuck with it! Then, there I am with Paul Stanley knocking on our door and bringing us his leftover shrimps just because he liked us. We went bowling in England and we played laser tag, because they didn´t have anybody else to hang out with.
Do you remember anything about Eric Carr being unhappy on that tour because they ditched his drum solo? Any stuff you noticed back then?
TP: No! All I noticed was that Eric Carr was probably the nicest guy in the whole… I mean, I´m sure Paul is nice, but these guys don´t have a whole lot of time. They were very nice and even to this day whenever I see Paul he´ll always say “Hi Ted!” and he remembers. He is a good, good guy! I have the best autograph and my most cherished autograph and I never really know that he was paying attention to us, but when I finally asked him to sign my tour book, he wrote “What a set of pipes!” and that´s like getting the stamp of approval from my Jedi master and it was the greatest thing ever! But Eric Carr was the most down to earth and regular kind of nice guy and that´s why I feel horrible that he´s not here anymore and leading into that, there´s a new cd coming out.
Yeah, I read that!
TP: It´s music that he left unfinished and other stuff and I actually finished a song for him, so I´m on it and I think they actually gonna make it a single and a video for that, but it´s actually taken years to do it and it will probably be on “Greatest hits vol 2” and it will probably have more boobs on it. (laughs) It´s really cool and it´s neat because it´s an Eric Carr song and I put vocals on it and got to do the harmonies and arrange it and I was glad I got a chance to do it. I have to tell you, I´ve already gotten so many more interview requests than anybody would ever give a shit about my stuff. (laughs)
What´s on the horizon for Danger Danger album wise? Are you talking about it?
TP: Yeah, yeah we talk about it and the discussion is “NO!”, that´s the discussion! (laughs) We just put out a new cd and we toured it. It´s a great cd actually and I don´t even say that because I´m on it, quite honestly, there are cd´s that I´m on that I don´t think are the greatest, but Bruno ´s become quite the producer lately and it´s very rare for a band to come out from the old days and have their new cd actually be good. A lot of them and I´m not gonna name names, but I´ve been a little disappointed and I listen to everything that come out just to hear what people are doing, but I think the Danger Danger cd actually is the best one! He made my vocals sound better than anybody ever has, the songs are great and he really beat the shit out of me and really made me sing the stuff the way he wanted it and I love him for it and I really think it´s one of our best things. Another band that did that is Mr Big. I love the Mr Big cd and that´s not the same for several of the other bands that sort of did a new record after many years. We got lucky with that and we´re still touring it and as far as making a new one, you know, it takes these guys five years to write songs. They write good songs, but it doesn´t come over night. (laughs) I really don´t know!
Finally, a pretty interesting thing about the album cover for Bonemachine´s “Disappearing inc”, with the World Trade Center? It was kind of weird when it later on happened on 9/11.
TP: Yeah! In many ways, weird is the right word. I´m a very weird dude! I have ESP, I get premonitions and obviously that was one of them and you can´t take that away from me! That was in 1996 I had that dream and that´s why we did that cover. That was all me and that´s what I thought… like I say, my wife won´t even play Trivial Pursuit with me, because I can read the answers from her mind. I´m a very weird dude. I can´t predict the future and I can hardly predict the present, but once in a while I get really weird. My life is very weird and that was one of the really weird things. As soon as that happened, I thought for sure I was in big, big trouble! They´ll be coming looking for me, because that was exact, even the floors and it´s sad in a horrible way and that´s why I took it out of print. It was sold out for years and it went on the Internet for $100-$150 and it´s actually my favorite cd and the greatest cd I ever did. It´s my best singing, no autotunes, no nothing and we recorded on 8-tracks and once again I had a great producer who just beat the fuck out of me in the studio and made it real and I love that cd! But what happened was, there´s a few copies left that I sell on my site for less than they were on the Internet, but there´s only about five left in the whole world and when they´re sold out they´re gone. The really funny thing is and I had no idea of this, but fans alerted me, that there are certain conspiracy sites out there and they have me as part of the conspiracy. (laughs) They literally show my album cover as proof that the plan existed ahead of time and that it was like a warning and I´m thinking “Yeah, because I would´ve been the guy they picked for that message! They wouldn´t pick like Bon Jovi! Just let it out to a few thousand people around the world.”. What kind of fucking concept is that, that these people think that I would be the person to let in on it? Like I´m not gonna get stoned at a party and let that information out four years early? It´s so obviously ridiculous! Yeah, trust me with that info of all the people in the world. Ted Poley? (laughs) he got fired from his band, he can get the message out! (laughs) They think I knew about it. Not that I was in on it, but somehow… “Oh, this information must´ve been out there because this guy knew about it and he even put it out as maybe a warning!”. Quite honestly, I had a dream and I thought it was cool. I sued, I didn´t get my millions of dollars and I never got paid and I hate the corporations and that´s why I called it “Disappearing inc”, so the idea behind it from my point of view was that I just wished they, the corporations, would disappear. I didn´t want the people gone, they buy my cd´s. That was the concept, I hate business, I hate corporations and corporations are ruining the music business and that was my real idea about it, but now it´s a little bit fucked up. I won´t be reprinting that cover!
Fascinating story! Thanks Ted!
TP: Thank you man!
Ted Poley i Sverige och Norge 2011
21 September - Club Dirty Harry, Växjö, Sverige
23 September - Backstage Rockbar, Trollhättan, Sverige
24 September - Untouchables Hardrock Club, Jevnaker, Norge
25 September - Harry B James, Stockholm, Sverige
/Niclas
Q&A med Six Gun!
Six Gun är ett nytt band på Sveriges rockhimmel, så varför inte skicka lite frågor och kolla läget? Sagt och gjort. Vic Ionzon och de andra svarade och berättade om bandet.
Hur och var bildades ni?
Vic: Chrissy bildade bandet i Norrköping, sommaren 2009, med hjälp av
Pat. De höll bandet igång och skrev låtar med olika medlemmar. Tidigt
2011 ringde Bonta upp Chrissy och sa ”nu tycker jag vi startar
Sveriges bästa rock n' roll-band”, så Chrissy frågade Vic om han ville
börja spela bas i bandet och kort därefter kom Hooligan in på trummor.
Var kom bandnamnet ifrån och hade ni några andra namnidéer innan det blev Six Gun?
Vic: Chrissy ville ha ett laddat namn så han tog namnet efter
slanguttrycket på en gammal westernrevolver. Första varianten av
namnet var Sixx Gun Rocks som senare bara blev Sixx Gun och efter det
Six Gun för vi ville inte förknippas med Nikki Sixx.
Hur gick inspelningen av demon till? Några kul minnen?
Vic: Trummorna togs på åtta tagningar. Det roliga var att det var med en
arg trummis som efter varje tagning skrek ”NÄSTA!” och när han var
helt klar kastade han trumpinnarna i luften och skrek ”KLAR!”. Vi
spelade in demon i årets sunkigaste studio som var en källarlokal i
ett hyreshus i Linköping. Det var billigt och studioteknikern var
effektiv. Vi ville ha ut demon så fort som möjligt. Nästa gång gör vi
det bättre.
Hur har responsen varit på de låtar som finns tillgängliga?
Vic: Helt jävla fantastisk. Vi är superstoked över att folk gillar vår
tolkning av skitig 80-talsrock. Vi var nere i Malmö för att träffa
lite folk och presenterade samtidigt vår demo för Andy Pierce i Nasty
Idols på en förfest hos honom och han gillade den som fan.
Sitter ni på mycket låtmaterial och när kan vi förvänta oss en officiell debutplatta?
Vic: Vi sitter på mycket bra material och så fort vi blir signade kan du
räkna med att Live in Sleaze kommer att levereras. Vi går snart in i
studion för att spela in ytterligare några låtar som kommer ut
inom kort.
Vilka band har varit era största influenser?
Vic: Våra största influenser har framför allt varit band som Guns n
Roses, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Crashdïet och Iron Maiden. Sen har vi även
Nasty Idols där vi umgåtts lite med Andy Pierce, sångaren, och
Snakepit Rebels som Chrissy är lite polare med och som han skrivit
mycket ihop med. Ett band som dessutom inte får glömmas är ju Kiss som
är det bandet som har fått in, dom flesta av, oss i musik.
Är den stora drömmen att "lyckas" som Vains of Jenna och flytta till Hollywood?
Vic: Ja, större än Vains of Jenna och bo granne med Lemmy. Vi måste ju
ha någon att dricka Whiskey med. Haha!
Har ni många livegig och vad är på gång just nu?
Vic: Vi har många gig på gång men alla datum är inte klara än så vi kan
inte gå ut med det riktigt än. Det kommer komma en hel del
överraskningar.
Blir det mycket Jack Daniels?
Vic: Does Pinnochio have a wooden dick?
Nämn 5 favoritplattor från LA-eran och varför de blivit just favoriter?
Vic: "Appetite for destruction" - för att den är bäst. Punkt!
"Too fast for love" - den kom 1981 och var banbrytande för
sleaze-rocken. Det var som att kolla på en Mad Max film med snygga
brudar.
"Cocked and Loaded" - Det var kul att se att Tracii Guns klarar sig utan
Guns N´ Roses för han är ju en av världens bästa gitarrister.
"Look what the cat dragged in" - Helt enkelt en av världens bästa plattor.
"Lick it up" - För att Kiss är Kiss och kommer alltid vara Kiss.
Dessutom en av deras bästa plattor från 80-talet.
/Niclas
Cameron Crowe om PJ20!
Rob Owen på Seattle Times intervjuar Cameron Crowe om den kommande filmen.
Crowe här
/Niclas
Intervju med Roger Glover i Deep Purple!
Roger Glover tillhör det gamla gardet och får väl ses som något av en legend inom den brittiska hårdrocken. Han har precis släppt ett nytt soloalbum, "If life was easy", och kommer snart till Sverige med Deep Purple och en symfoniorkester i släptåg.
Jag tänkte att det kunde vara kul att ta ett snack med denne basist och höra hur landet ligger. Efter att bara ha fått lyssna på Rogers telesvar under en dryg halvtimme, lyckas jag till slut nå honom och efter diverse strul med småbarn och en dålig telefon, kunde vi sätta igång med intervjun.
Are you ready?
Roger Glover: Yes, now I can sit down and talk to you.
Alright!
RG: I have a little baby and I dropped my phone and the phone doesn´t work and I had to find another phone and get the baby. Well, you know what it´s like.
I know what it´s like.
RG: Are you a father?
Yes I am and I just put my two daughters to bed and that ain´t easy.
RG: Exactly! I´m glad we´re on the same wave length!
First of all, I just want to congratulate you on a really fine album and a great bunch of songs!
RG: Well, thank you very much! I haven´t had a lot of feedback so I actually don´t know what people think of it.
I´ve been listening to it and there´s some really good stuff on there! The artwork for the album, was that just something you found on a wall or was it made especially for the album?
RG: No, it´s actually just something I found on a wall. There´s an explanation for it on my website and there´s a little competition involved. I travel the world with Deep Purple and I always like to take my camera with me and if I see something interesting or an interesting view, I take a shot. This was taken in Poland, I guess, about eight or ten years ago and I never thought of it as an album cover until one night at about 3.00 in the morning, I suddenly woke up and I had been struggling with the cover and all of a sudden, the song “If life was easy” and this image came to mind. It´s one of those interesting accidents and I like accidents.
For how long have these songs been around? Are they songs that have been around for a couple of years or are they newly written?
RG: Well, it´s been about nine years in the making and in those nine years, which it says on the album cover, I´ve been through a lot. Moving and …in fact, I´m moving right now. I´m surrounded by boxes and it doesn´t end! Anyway, I think, probably one of the first songs was “If life was easy”. That was a little guitar thing that I was picking for months and probably actually a year or so, before I realized “Yeah, maybe there´s a song in there?”. Another one that was early was a song called “When life gets to the bone”, which eerily predicts the future I was gonna have with my problems like divorce, separation, countries and babies… especially divorce. In fact it´s not about the baby, it´s all about the divorce and all about lawyers and the crap you have to go through. A lot of my life of the last few years wound up as lyrics and hopefully somewhat poetic and deep enough so that other people going through the same emotions, can identify with it.
During all these years, were any of these songs stuff that you brought to Deep Purple or were they just made for a solo record?
RG: The thing about Deep Purple is that you don´t bring a song to a writing session, because they don´t like that. I mean, we don´t like that! If anyone brought in a song that was completely finished and all we had to do was copy it, neeehh, that´s not what Deep Purple is. Deep Purple starts its songs… I mean, we don´t write songs for start, they kind of evolve from a series of jams and really what you want to bring into a Deep Purple session, is just a riff or a chord sequence or a rhythm or a line or two and that´s all and then everyone else just kind of join in. There are a couple of ideas that I might have considered for Purple, but we had a writing session and a lot of my ideas went into the writing session anyway, and that was in March. There´s a Purple album bubbling under and we´ll get to it next year.
I was thinking about the song “Stand together” which I think, and that´s just me, it´s got a bit of a Robbie Robertson feel to it. Kind of the stuff that he did on his first album.
RG: Is that the one that has “Broken wings” on it? (I think Roger means "Broken arrow", Editor´s note)
The one with “Crazy river”.
RG: Yeah, I remember! I actually bought that one. I suppose… the Band is one of those seminal outfits that influenced everyone. In fact, I just bought the remastered “Big pink” to bring back memories. I remember the organ on “Chest fever”.
Oh, I love that song!
RG: That was an influence on Jon (Lord) as a matter of fact. You hear that sound and that intro… wow, it´s amazing! I mean to songwriting! I have Deep Purple for my hard rock side, so on a solo side I wouldn´t consider doing anything ultra heavy or in any way competition, you know. The solo thing is very much a personal thing! It´s a personal outing and a personal adventure, if you like.
Will you do any kind of touring behind this album?
RG: Well, I would love to, but time is a problem right now. If there´s a great deal of interest in the album, then that certainly is an impetus to the idea of doing some live stuff, but failing that, it´sprobably gonna have to wait untiI I get a little bit more time on my hands, which is a shame because I have a lot of songs between this album and the last album and several albums that I´ve done before. There´s a lot of material there and it could be a great live show.
Was it recorded in New York?
RG: If I used a studio it was in New York, but a lot of it I did at home. When I say at home (laughs), home is where the suitcase is these days. A lot of the stuff was done on the computer and a lot of it is actually demos! I´ve got a computer and Pro Tools set up, the whole business, and I write songs that way. Usually you write songs where there´s a little drum machine thing and a couple of keyboards and you program it all and bing bang, you have a song! It´s really a kind of demo, but the weird thing is, I don´t have to write for anyone except myself! That´s what I´m indebted to Deep Purple for and so I tend to write whatever comes into my head and that´s pretty dangerous. (laughs) Lots of things come into my head. I mean, I listen to a lot of internet radio and that´s probably my main source of music these days. Switching around and there´s a couple of radio stations that I really like and I thought of doing an album like a radio station really, where you get a lot of variety, so that´s the idea for the fact that there are so many different… I hate the word style, but you know what I mean!
I do radio for a small station here in Stockholm and you should check it out! It´s all in English and it´s called http://www.rocket.fm/! We play everything from Johnny Cash and Fogerty to Slayer and Depeche Mode. We also got Little Steven´s Underground Garage every Friday between 6 and 8 pm.
RG: Oh yeah! Hang on, I´ll write it down!
We have a lot of fun doing it!
RG: Fun is really what it´s all about! I think it´s all very serious and corporate and intense. One thing the internet has done is free up people to really go for themselves, but I guess the downside of it is that there´s so much crap out there! (laughs) You don´t have a life long enough!
Exactly! Are you based in Switzerland these days?
RG: Yes!
Ok! Are you hanging out with Phil Collins?
RG: No, no… I mean, I´ve met him, but I´m hardly a friend and call him up “Hey, how are you doing? We´re having a barbecue!”. I´m afraid not.
A few things about your history and stuff you´ve done. I found out that you produced Barbi Benton!
RG: I did!
That was a huge hit!
RG: To my memory it was never really legally released. What was the song from it…? “Ain´t that just the way”, yeah! Well, she had a hit with that because it was part of a TV program in America and I got involved with purely because our manager started thinking about managing other acts and ended up managing her for some reason. How it came about I don´t know. Maybe he just likes good looking women! He hooked me up and said that she wanted to do this album and she wants to be a country singer and “Do you wanna produce it?” and I said “Sure!”. It was for Playboy Records and as I recall it, we finished the whole thing and almost till the day, Playboy Records folded. It was never really complete and I never got paid. I think the musicians got paid and maybe the studio, I don´t know. It didn´t end very well and then six months or a year later, Barbi Benton called me up and said she didn´t like the sound of the record. I said “What? What record?”. Apparently what had happened or I imagined what happened, she got a cassette that I gave her of the finished mixes and somehow that ended up as being released in some way shape or form. So that it was a big hit was a bit of a victory.
You and Ian Gillan had a song, “Lonely avenue”, on the “Rain man” soundtrack. How did that come about?
RG: No idea! No clue! It´s not our song, you know, it´s just our performance.
I know!
RG: That´s a classic song! The first I heard about it was when our engineer Nick called up and he was in the movie theatre watching the movie and heard it. He immediately called us up and said “Your song is in a movie!”. I don´t know what Ian thought, because we don´t live together, but it was quite a surprise and how it got there I have no idea. I don´t think it means any money.
But still, don´t you need some kind of permission even though it´s not your song? It´s your performance of it.
RG: I don´t know how that thing works. I´m not really involved in the business.
You should sue Tom Cruise!
RG: (laughs)
Another thing! You produced another album that is a favorite of mine, david Coverdale´s “Northwinds”. You should hook up with him again!
RG: Well, that´ll be the day! I don´t know how that might happen. He´s on his own, but I was actually really glad to do those two albums. Ian and I got kind of thrown out of Deep Purple, well Ian didn´t get thrown out, he left, but I got thrown out and to work with the ones that followed us, to work with those people was great! It shows that there´s no hard feelings. I don’t have a grudge against someone because someone else fired me, you know. They´re both talented people! I was glad to do them and I enjoyed them.
Yeah, I think it´s one of the best things that Coverdale has done!
RG: Yes, before his a… well, I´ll shut my mouth now!
It´s before he became a blonde and started dating models in the US!
RG: Yeah, you know what I mean! I was actually gonna put it a little bit more crude. (laughs)
You´re coming to Sweden with an orchestra. Are there any plans for putting out a live DVD or turn it into a live album or something like that?
RG: Yes, as a matter of fact! This last tour we did… well, we´ve done two tours now with the orchestra, one was North America and one was Europe and we did the Montreux Jazz Festival again, which is always a special occasion. We did it with the orchestra this time and we recorded it and there´s a DVD that will be out in November, I believe. It was a really good show and I think it´s the best Montreux we´ve ever done! The whole thing with the orchestra has actually been a total gas! I wasn´t sure about it to start with and I thought it was a bit of a gimmick, but maybe we need a gimmick, who knows? (laughs) It´s just hard to stand out these days! But it worked a dream and it worked on a musical level really, really well. I´m actually very thrilled with it.
Cool! It was kind of funny, because I read an interview with you and you mentioned Metallica and a few years ago, all of a sudden all metal bands were doing these live recordings with an orchestra, like Metallica and Scorpions.
RG: Well, they´re making the connection that we made years ago. It´s all simple really and it´s all music. Either you have a synthesizer making orchestral sounds or you have an orchestra!
True! And I gather from another interview that any kind of new Deep Purple album will probably surface next year?
RG: Yeah! We´ve had one writing session and it´s becoming kind of difficult. We´re kind of slightly directionless at the moment. I know what we wanna do and everybody else know what they wanna do. (laughs) It´s a question of getting together. It is a timing problem. We tour a lot and we live in all different parts of the world and getting together to do an album is a bit problematic, but it will happen! I´m fighting for it!
There´s all kinds of Deep Purple unreleased stuff and live recordings and we just has this “Phoenix rising” album. Will there be more of such stuff in the future? Are there more stuff in the Deep Purple vaults?
RG: Well, there´s always the old anniversary edition, reissue kind of thing! Some of which I´ve been involved in and some of which I´m proud of, but what people don´t seem to realize is that there are two Deep Purples. There´s the Deep Purple that exist now and there´s the Deep Purple that existed in the 70´s and all that material get kind of reissued and reissued and reissued and with live bits and it´s out of our control! We don´t have copyright of it or control it. So a lot of stuff get put out, which is really not in our interest. I sound a bit… I mean, we haven´t done an album in five years, so maybe I should think about that? But this older stuff is just scraping the barrel really and it doesn´t always go down well with us. Especially when they choose things that we don´t particular care for.
A final thing, listening to this latest album of yours, I just thought you should try and do something with Robert Plant! That would be really cool!
RG: Well yes. I know Robert and that would be very cool. It would be very cool for me and go and say “Hey, you wanna work with me?” (laughs) and he´d go “What do I get out of it?”. (laughs) I don´t know, maybe his reaction would be different, who knows? It´s very odd finding partners and especially if they´re big stars.
True! Do you have any more plans of doing some producing? Producing some other band or an artist that you´re thinking about?
RG: Well, yes I´ve been a producer, but most of that was in the 70´s when I had time. I haven´t done anything for six years as a producer! I did a few bits of production after that, when I was in Rainbow, but since Deep Purple started in 84, I haven´t really had much time to do it. The old traditional way of doing an album is that it´s gotta take at least two or three months and I´m hard pressed to find two or three weeks.
I guess that´s the way it is!
RG: That´s life! Maybe it´s something I´ll return to one day, assuming I still have ears, which I still do. I love producing and it´s an exciting environment to be in. Any one given problem can be solved four or five different ways and it´s a fantastic mental exercise to figure out which is the best way or the cheapest way or the easiest way to do something. Your brain is in overdrive “If I do this will it sound like this? If I do this it will cost more!”. You make that decision in seconds and it´s a bit like being on stage. When you´re on stage your life is down to nanoseconds. You´re so in the moment, because you´re listening to the band and you´re listening to your playing and you´re aware of the audience and you´ve gotta be prepared for any change immediately because things do change and just keeping in time with everybody. Then being an artist and making it mean something. It´s microseconds and it´s a fantastic feeling and that´s why everybody when they come off stage are so pumped up.
Makes sense! I´m looking forward to catching you live here with Deep Purple and I wish you all the best with the album and I hope you get to tour with it.
RG: Well, if you get a chance to come say hello, please do so!
I will and best of luck with moving again!
RG: Thanks a lot! (laughs) Yeah, it´s a crazy life!
Thank you so much Roger!
RG: Thank you Niclas!
/Niclas
Foo Fighters vs Westboro Baptist Church: 1 - 0
Foo Fighters to the rescue once again! WBC demonstrerade i samband med bandets konsert i Kansas City.
WBC´s resonemang: "The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the people in this doomed nation:hardhearted, hell-bound, and hedonistic. These people have a platform and should be using it to encourage obedience to God; instead they teach every person who will listen all things contrary to him: fornication, adultery, idolatry, fags."
/Niclas
Intervju med Troy Sanders i Mastodon!
Inför "Crack the skye" hade jag det stora nöjet att sitta ner med Brann Dailor och snacka om det då kommande mästerverket.
I år blev det Troy som ringde upp från ett soligt Atlanta för att berätta lite om arbetet med senaste alstret "The Hunter".
How ya doin´ Troy?
Troy Sanders. Fuckin´awesome! How are you?
I´m good! They played some really crappy music over the phone though, while I was on hold.
TS: Really? I´ll have to talk to them.
Why Mike Elizondo for producer? Did that have anything to do with him producing Avenged Sevenfold?
TS: We chose Mike! A lot of people look at his résumé and he co-wrote some giant hits with Eminem and Dr Dre and he worked with Fiona Apple and Mavis Staples and that was one thing that drew us to him. Mike is a very, very musically intelligent person from all genres of music, just like the four of us are, as people who respect music from all over and every genre. But deep down his roots are in… he grew up playing bass in heavy metal and thrash bands and then he went to college for orchestral upright bass guitar and then he went and worked with Dr Dre and then Fiona Apple and then he worked with Mavis Staples and he´s all over the place. Mike is the first producer for this record that approached us and said “Hey guys, I want you to know that I´m a big fan of what you guys have been doing and if you have any inclination to work with me at anytime, these are things that I can bring to the table dah dah dah dah!”. So we befriended on a personal level immediately and then after many, many talks and sharing demos with each other, we thought he was the guy to work with. Now, listening back to the record, we´re very, very glad that we did.
I´ve been listening to it for the last three weeks and it´s just a killer! It kicks ass!
TS: Oh, cool! Thank you man!
Did he approach you and had you come across him before and knew of his work?
TS: We knew of his work, but he actually approached us back in February of this year when we were in the demoing process of all our new stuff. He flew to Atlanta and took us out to eat some tacos and that´s when we started sharing ideas and first and foremost we bonded on a friendship level, which was the most important to us. We wanna be friends with someone that we´re working with before we enter into a business relationship. It started from the ground up, personally first and business second.
After “Crack the skye” and you were done touring and all that, had you already decided that you weren´t gonna be working with Brendan O´Brien again?
TS: Well, we didn´t decide that we would not work with him. It was more of a fact that we knew… once we decided to change everything… we wanted to change the direction of the music, we wanted to change the album artwork, we wanted to change producer! We just wanted to change everything and we wanted to hit the refresh button on our band. Kind of like feel free to explore anything that we felt and explore in any direction we wanted to go. We didn´t speak about the idea of working with Brendan again, but then we just said “You know what, let´s change everything!”. We love Brendan and he´s a giant reason why we were able to make “Crack the skye” what it was.
Speaking of that artwork? How did you come across that guy AJ Fosik?
TS: We´d seen some of his work in magazines and such and books and it was quite striking. Months ago while we were in the writing process, we contacted him and discussed the idea of making an epic wood sculpture and he was very much into it, so he started busting his ass similarly to the way we feel about creating our music. He spent hours and hours of dedicated time and talent making this massive wood sculpture of a triple jarred minotaur type head and it turned out to be so slick and beautiful, that it almost looks like a computer generated image, but it´s not. It´s actually a massive wood sculpture that he spent many, many hours on. It was cool to change it up and we´re very, very happy with what he did.
Where´s that head now?
TS: It is being sent to our rehearsal space in Atlanta, Georgia and we are going to make a shrine right there at our rehearsal space.
Cool! I was watching the video of him working on it and it´s so unbelievably detailed and it just blows your mind!
TS: Yeah, thank you! We feel the same way.
How much was recorded for the album and were there a lot of ideas and bits and pieces of songs that didn´t make it unto the album?
TS: No! Actually, we recorded 14 tracks and 13 of them are on the regular issue and the 14th song is on the deluxe version, so essentially every song that we recorded made the album.
That´s another thing these days and I´ve talked to others about this, these days there´s like five different versions of the album released. The making of dvd, the bonus tracks, the deluxe jewel case and so on. What´s your thought about that? Is that just another way of selling things?
TS: Well, I think… we always do a limited deluxe because we do have a handful of people that want to have everything, that are collectors. A lot of people think that the deluxe stuff is only released like a cash grab, but in our opinion that´s not the case. I only buy the $50 version of things from the bands that I truly love and I really want to own. That´s why we only make a small run of those things, for those that wish to have that and that´s fine, but if you just wanna hear that 14th song, then you can simply buy that digitally for a dollar, so we´re definitely not doing that for any type of monetary gain. Obviously we release the standard version and that´s what bands do, but the deluxe is strictly for those that really want this limited collector´s type release.
Writing this album, I understand that it was more of a collaboration and a group effort than “Crack the skye”. How do you guys work on songs? Does everyone bring an idea for a riff or a melody?
How does it work?
TS: Yeah! Essentially everyone in the band contributes a lot to the finished product, but the majority of songs are written in one or two ways. One of the ways is that one of the guitar players will come into practice because they both have acoustic guitars and they play a lot of music at home on their couches, so sometimes that guitar players will walk in and say “Hey, I think I have a whole song! Check this out!” and they´ll play it and then we take what we love and move forward and build on that or it might be a complete song already and we´re like “Wow, kickass!”. The other way that a lot of the songs are written is that somebody will come into the practice space and somebody will start jamming on something cool and everybody kind of joins in and then we try and find other riffs that match that and just kind of build it very spontaneously and then by the end of the day we´ll go “Holy shit, that´s a song! Done! High five!”, so those are the two main ways that songs are written in the Mastodon world. Essentially everybody has their style and their feel and their contributions to it, whether it be guitar wise or vocally or whatever. It is very much a band effort when it´s all said and done.
Right! Does it happen a lot that someone brings an idea and the rest of you go “Nah man, that sucks!”?
TS: Yeah and no one has their feelings hurt. There were a couple of songs, a couple of riffs and pieces that I had, that I thought were cool and the other guys were like “Yeah, that´s pretty good!”, but they didn´t feel like it was awesome, you know, so I didn´t use it and my feelings weren´t hurt. I trust and have enough for my band mates that you know, hey, if it´s not good enough for everybody, then it´s not good enough to do. The four of us essentially have very soft egos and we don´t hurt our feelings too bad if people shoot down our ideas.
How do you come up with stuff like Octopus has no friends”?
TS: Well, that´s diving into our more humorous side. You know, the octopus is a magical creature and we´re fascinated with magical creatures and creatures on the depths of the ocean floor. They´re always by themselves. Do they enjoy being alone? Do they want to be a recluse or do they really deep down desire to befriend some other creature and have some companionship? These are just questions that we have and we seek answers for them.
How´s it looking tour wise now? Any plans for Europe and Sweden?
TS: Oh absolutely! The record comes out very soon and then we have a US tour booked from October to November and then we´ll take a break for the new year and right now it´s all coming together for the plans for early 2012 and we definitely wanna come across the seas and do a proper club headlining tour, so we hope to be over there doing our own shows at the beginning of the new year. That´s very high on our priority list.
Excellent! One final thing! In Atlanta, do you guys ever come across Elton John? “ (Elton owns a home in Atlanta, Editor´s note)
TS: Man, I´d love to! I love that guy! I have yet to see him.
Mastodon and Elton John should do something together! That would be pretty cool!
TS: You know, that would be amazing! A dream come true! He´s such a talented person and I´d love to shake his hand.
You could do your own Metallica – Lou Reed kind of thing!
TS: Hell yeah! That´s what we´re gonna have to do in 2013! We´ll make it happen!
Yeah! Well, thanks Troy and I hope to see you here in Sweden real soon!
TS: Awesome! Thank you!
/Niclas
