Spinal Tap på riktigt!
/Niclas
söndag 16 oktober 2011
Jisses!
Sitter, as we speak, och skriver ut intervjun med Steffan Chirazi. Utan tvekan har den mannen ett otroligt kul jobb som chefredaktör på Metallicas tidning So What.
Vi snackade i ungefär en timme och många av hans svar var av den längre varianten. Är just nu uppe i 4 sidor och då har jag inte ens kommit halvvägs. Ett av hans svar sträcker sig över en och en halv sida och då är kanske en tiondel av svaret det egentliga svaret på frågan och resten en lång utläggning som leder fram till svaret. Hhmmmm... Dock är det kul och intressant, i varje fall för en musiknörd som mig själv.
Förhoppningen är att intervjun ligger uppe i slutet av nästa vecka.
/Niclas
Sitter, as we speak, och skriver ut intervjun med Steffan Chirazi. Utan tvekan har den mannen ett otroligt kul jobb som chefredaktör på Metallicas tidning So What.
Vi snackade i ungefär en timme och många av hans svar var av den längre varianten. Är just nu uppe i 4 sidor och då har jag inte ens kommit halvvägs. Ett av hans svar sträcker sig över en och en halv sida och då är kanske en tiondel av svaret det egentliga svaret på frågan och resten en lång utläggning som leder fram till svaret. Hhmmmm... Dock är det kul och intressant, i varje fall för en musiknörd som mig själv.
Förhoppningen är att intervjun ligger uppe i slutet av nästa vecka.
/Niclas
lördag 15 oktober 2011
Intervju med Tuomas Holopainen i Nightwish!
Igår, fredag, hade jag nöjet att få ta ett snack med Tuomas på Warners kontor i Vasastan. Först blev det lyssning av kommande plattan "Imaginaerum", som låter väldigt mycket som ett soundtrack, vilket det också är.
Jag hann även snacka lite kort med Anette Olzon om våra hemtrakter. Anette är ju som bekant från Helsingborg och själv är jag uppväxt i närliggande Ängelholm. Det visade sig att Anette i tidiga år deltagit i samma talangtävlingar som Jill Johnson och My Blomqvist, två välkända och på 80- och 90-talet, konkurrerande sångerskor i Ängelholm och precis som jag och många andra, hade hon då trott att My skulle bli den stora stjärnan, men så blev det ju inte.
Nåväl, Tuomas var återigen mycket trevlig och sade sig inte ha några som helst problem med att under en hel dag sitta och svara på frågor, vilket han gjort denna dag.
Samtalet kom givetvis att handla mest om nya plattan och filmen.
First off! If I´m not mistaken it´s been four years since your last album?
Tuomas Holopainen: Yeah, it was since September in 2007.
Right, so it´s getting close to the style of Def Leppard!
TH: (laughs) Even Guns N´Roses! (laughs)
What´s the reason for it taken so long? Was it that you just took a break or was it a difficult album to make?
TH: Basically for two reasons. The first one is that we had a two year tour after “Dark passion play” and I´m just the kind of personality that cannot do two things at the same time. I guess I´m a typical male, (laughs) when it comes to stuff like that. When I´m on tour I can´t do songs. I can gather ideas here and there, but the actual songwriting doesn´t suit me if I have in the back of my mind that I have to go out on tour in a week, so we had to wait two years and then start the actual songwriting process and at the moment we have this movie project going on and it took a lot of effort to get the financing for that figured out, so this is basically why it took so long.
When it comes to recording an album, the sequence in the way you record the songs, is the first song you record the first one on the album or is it just random?
TH: No, it´s whatever. The way we work is that I always do this rehearsal tape for the whole band. All the songs that I´ve done, as professionally as I can because the music that we do is really, really complex and when you try telling the guys and the girl what the song is gonna sound like in the rehearsal room… you know, “Play this riff and there´s gonna be horns and choirs!”, it just doesn´t do the trick. Nobody has that imagination, so that´s why I do it like that when we start rehearsing. Then we rehearse the songs with the band and do a demo and then after the second demo, we start doing it.
The way the songs end up on the album, the order of them, do you have that long before you start recording them?
TH: Oh yeah! Especially for “Imaginaerum”. Before we even started rehearsing the songs , I knew the order of the songs for the album, because the movie is so heavily based on the album, that we needed to know the order of the songs and that was quite a challenge actually, to make the drama work even though we didn´t know how they would end up sounding.
What came first? Did the movie idea come first or the album?
TH: The movie idea came first. It was the very first thing that came into my mind. It was the summer of 2007 and we had just finished “dark passion play” and I started to think “What´s gonna be next?”. This is so insanely diverse and big that we need to come up with something original for the next album and it just occurred to me that we have always been on the cinematic side with things so why not put it into realization and do an actual movie and make a soundtrack based on the movie? That´s how the original idea was born.
Cool! I´ve only heard it just now, but for me it is a bit more theatrical sound wise and there´s songs that are quite diverse and I wrote down that “Slow love slow” has a bit of a jazzy feeling to it and then “Turn loose the mermaids” has a bit of a Western feel to it…
TH: Yeah, Ennio Morricone!
Exactly! And then you have “Rest calm” with some pretty heavy riffing at the beginning and then it kind of mellows out and the riff came back.
TH: I like to think of it as a free and twisted and warm album. There´s a lot of light at the end of the tunnel on this album, unlike “Dark passion play”. But it´s also really weird and twisted. This is because all of the songs were made for the movie and there´s a scene in the movie that takes place in a jazz club, like a 30´s jazz club and some weird stuff is going on there so I just thought, “Ok, this needs to be something like David Lynch and ‘Twin peaks’! Ok, we´ve never done a jazz song so let´s try it!”. (laughs) And there´s a scene in the movie which happens in a ghost circus where everything is really weird. It´s like a nightmare of this little kid, so… “A circus, ok!”. (Tuomas starts singing something similar to circus music and claps on his knees. Editor´s note) That´s why the songs sound what they sound like. They were made for certain scenes.
Did you write the script as well?
TH: I had the original ideas of the scenes, but we actually had to hire a professional screenwriter, because I have no idea of how to write a script, I just had the idea and the story. A guy called Mikko Rautalathi who did the transcript.
Is it different making a movie than an album or is it kind of the same?
TH: It´s kind of like creating emotions and visions out of nothing, so there are a lot of similarities, but it´s even a bigger hassle. We were two weeks in Montreal shooting the movie, just about a month ago, so it´s all filmed now. We just got a glimpse of what making a movie is about. It was an unbelievably interesting experience!
Well, you read about movies that sometimes the shoot the last scenes first…
TH: That´s what they did now! Everything was scheduled to the minute. “This scene requires these actors and they will be picked up at this hotel, by this driver at this hour and get make up by these two hairstylists and these makeup artists.”. It´s an unbelievable puzzle and I don´t know who handles it all, but everything worked and everything was on schedule and within budget, but just the whole hassle of everything, so interesting. And just really long days. We had to be there at six o´clock for makeup and then the acting started and they were building sets all the time.
Sounds like a lot of people were involved?
TH: There was like 40 people all the time. One guy just building the props. The director says “We need a compass that spins all the time and we need it in about four hours for the scene. Can you do it?”. So the guy just went and made one and came back, “Is this good?”. “Yeah, it´s good but just make it a bit more brown!”. And there was just one guy working the smoke machine all the time. That´s all he ever did. There were two guys who just drove the band and that´s all they did. People Just had their things that they were doing. They were proud of it and they did it perfectly and that´s why everything worked. I was just standing in the corner, “Four years ago I had an idea! Fuck! I never ever thought it would come to this.”.
That´s gotta be pretty cool, to see it come to life, so to speak? To have an idea and then see it come to life in front of you?
TH: It was one of the most emotional moments in my life, because to be honest, getting the finance for this movie and getting it altogether, getting people convinced, was harder than anything I´ve ever done. Especially the finance . At one point everybody almost gave up . I had to go to the band and sell my house, almost. I wanted to do this movie and if it came to selling my house, I would do that. A lot of drama involved. Finally we got the financing and we got the production and we were there doing it and it happened. It was just “Wow!”. Then it turned into melancholy. We actually got this done and so, “Now what?”.
Well, that figures!
TH: The journey´s always more rewarding than the destination.
Probably! Are you guys doing any acting as well?
TH: Not really and that was something that I emphasized to the director and the screenwriter from the very beginning, “Don´t put us there!”. This is supposed to be a credible and believable drama movie with a lot of fantasy, “So don´t put the band there!”. He insisted that we were shown because it´s a Nightwish movie, so in two scenes we play as a band and then I have this very little role of an older guy, but none of us have any lines, but you can see us in cameo roles.
The plan for it then? Is the plan to show it in movie theatres or is it going to be on a DVD? Is it going worldwide?
TH: They´re hoping for the best and I think it´s gonna be a theatrical release at least in Finland and Canada since it´s a Finnish – Canadian production, but I have my doubts about the commercial success of this because it´s a bit more on the cult side. The main thing is just that we get it done and I think it´s gonna be a really good movie, but I don´t really see a big commercial success to it, but you never know. When it comes to distribution, all the people just want to see the trailer first, before they make any decisions if they take it to the theatres. We´ll have to wait until January for that.
It´ll be really interesting to see.
TH: It´s a really weird concept.
The title of the album? I read somewhere that there were rumors saying it was gonna be called “Wind embraced”. Is that true? Was that ever a title?
TH: No! It´s the first time I hear this. I´ve never heard of it before.
Ok, we blame Wikipedia for that one! Where did the title come from and were there other titles floating around?
TH: No, it was “Imaginarium” from the very beginning. I wanted to make a thematic movie and album about the power of imagination and the roller coaster of life. All the wonders and all the good stuff and all the bad stuff and it just occurred to me. Originally I thought of something like “Imagine”, but “No, that´s the John Lennon song and that´s too obvious. Something to do with imagination… imaginarium, that´s it!”. Then we had some troubles with that word from a couple of companies and they asked us if there was any way that we could change it, so we just changed a few letters and it was “Imaginaerum”. That´s the story.
Later on when the album is released and the movie is out, will the movie in any way be represented in the live show? Actors, theatrical stuff?
TH: We will try to bring the movie alive in some way in the live shows, but nothing concrete because the movie won´t be ready until April or May and we start the tour in January. I would assume that there will be some props from the movie onstage and there might be some screenshots from the movie if we bring screens, but nothing too big.
Are you gonna start in Finland?
TH: The album release show will be in Los Angeles on the 21st of January.
What place?
TH: The Gibson Amphitheater. After that we´re gonna do a tour in Finland and Europe and Russia. Then comes the festival season and then America, South America, Japan. That´s the plan.
So you´ll be busy for another two years?
TH: One year! (laughs) We decided in the band, "Let´s cut it in half!".
Yeah, I guess it takes its toll on you to be on the road for two years?
TH: It was a bit too much. It´s real easy to admitted now that we were all a bit naïve when it came to touring last time, but we had a new singer and the pressure was huge, concerning her and then we decided to do this insane tour and then there was her divorce at the same time. There were a lot of different things within the band and the crew. People started dropping like flies at some point, so we decided it was worth the effort and we had a lot of wonderful times, but at some point it just felt like it was not worth it. I have no idea how Metallica did it after the “Black album”.
Well, they later on did “Some kind of monster” and needed therapy. It´s fascinating and I recently talked to Gilby Clarke and the “Use your illusion tour” was one crazy thing that lasted for three years and you read about all the craziness and he said that you kind of live in your own world where there are no rules and no obligations and you pretty much do what you wanna do.
TH: Exactly!
And you take advantage of it and do stuff that you might not have gotten away with in other places.
TH: Yeah, and then the fact that three out of five band members have families with many kids and you call them and they say “Why are you not at home? Don´t you love us anymore? When will you be home?”, so all this combined with living in this fantasy world, it really messes with your head.
And then you´re gonna play in Sweden?
TH: yeah, we´re gonna play in Gothenburg and it´s gonna be the first show on the European tour.
No Stockholm?
TH: The schedule is so limited and there´s a whole planet to tour, so we just basically do one show in many countries and this time it´s Gothenburg.
Ok, Tuomas! Nice talking to you!
TH: Nice talking to you!
/Niclas
Igår, fredag, hade jag nöjet att få ta ett snack med Tuomas på Warners kontor i Vasastan. Först blev det lyssning av kommande plattan "Imaginaerum", som låter väldigt mycket som ett soundtrack, vilket det också är.
Jag hann även snacka lite kort med Anette Olzon om våra hemtrakter. Anette är ju som bekant från Helsingborg och själv är jag uppväxt i närliggande Ängelholm. Det visade sig att Anette i tidiga år deltagit i samma talangtävlingar som Jill Johnson och My Blomqvist, två välkända och på 80- och 90-talet, konkurrerande sångerskor i Ängelholm och precis som jag och många andra, hade hon då trott att My skulle bli den stora stjärnan, men så blev det ju inte.
Nåväl, Tuomas var återigen mycket trevlig och sade sig inte ha några som helst problem med att under en hel dag sitta och svara på frågor, vilket han gjort denna dag.
Samtalet kom givetvis att handla mest om nya plattan och filmen.
First off! If I´m not mistaken it´s been four years since your last album?
Tuomas Holopainen: Yeah, it was since September in 2007.
Right, so it´s getting close to the style of Def Leppard!
TH: (laughs) Even Guns N´Roses! (laughs)
What´s the reason for it taken so long? Was it that you just took a break or was it a difficult album to make?
TH: Basically for two reasons. The first one is that we had a two year tour after “Dark passion play” and I´m just the kind of personality that cannot do two things at the same time. I guess I´m a typical male, (laughs) when it comes to stuff like that. When I´m on tour I can´t do songs. I can gather ideas here and there, but the actual songwriting doesn´t suit me if I have in the back of my mind that I have to go out on tour in a week, so we had to wait two years and then start the actual songwriting process and at the moment we have this movie project going on and it took a lot of effort to get the financing for that figured out, so this is basically why it took so long.
When it comes to recording an album, the sequence in the way you record the songs, is the first song you record the first one on the album or is it just random?
TH: No, it´s whatever. The way we work is that I always do this rehearsal tape for the whole band. All the songs that I´ve done, as professionally as I can because the music that we do is really, really complex and when you try telling the guys and the girl what the song is gonna sound like in the rehearsal room… you know, “Play this riff and there´s gonna be horns and choirs!”, it just doesn´t do the trick. Nobody has that imagination, so that´s why I do it like that when we start rehearsing. Then we rehearse the songs with the band and do a demo and then after the second demo, we start doing it.
The way the songs end up on the album, the order of them, do you have that long before you start recording them?
TH: Oh yeah! Especially for “Imaginaerum”. Before we even started rehearsing the songs , I knew the order of the songs for the album, because the movie is so heavily based on the album, that we needed to know the order of the songs and that was quite a challenge actually, to make the drama work even though we didn´t know how they would end up sounding.
What came first? Did the movie idea come first or the album?
TH: The movie idea came first. It was the very first thing that came into my mind. It was the summer of 2007 and we had just finished “dark passion play” and I started to think “What´s gonna be next?”. This is so insanely diverse and big that we need to come up with something original for the next album and it just occurred to me that we have always been on the cinematic side with things so why not put it into realization and do an actual movie and make a soundtrack based on the movie? That´s how the original idea was born.
Cool! I´ve only heard it just now, but for me it is a bit more theatrical sound wise and there´s songs that are quite diverse and I wrote down that “Slow love slow” has a bit of a jazzy feeling to it and then “Turn loose the mermaids” has a bit of a Western feel to it…
TH: Yeah, Ennio Morricone!
Exactly! And then you have “Rest calm” with some pretty heavy riffing at the beginning and then it kind of mellows out and the riff came back.
TH: I like to think of it as a free and twisted and warm album. There´s a lot of light at the end of the tunnel on this album, unlike “Dark passion play”. But it´s also really weird and twisted. This is because all of the songs were made for the movie and there´s a scene in the movie that takes place in a jazz club, like a 30´s jazz club and some weird stuff is going on there so I just thought, “Ok, this needs to be something like David Lynch and ‘Twin peaks’! Ok, we´ve never done a jazz song so let´s try it!”. (laughs) And there´s a scene in the movie which happens in a ghost circus where everything is really weird. It´s like a nightmare of this little kid, so… “A circus, ok!”. (Tuomas starts singing something similar to circus music and claps on his knees. Editor´s note) That´s why the songs sound what they sound like. They were made for certain scenes.
Did you write the script as well?
TH: I had the original ideas of the scenes, but we actually had to hire a professional screenwriter, because I have no idea of how to write a script, I just had the idea and the story. A guy called Mikko Rautalathi who did the transcript.
Is it different making a movie than an album or is it kind of the same?
TH: It´s kind of like creating emotions and visions out of nothing, so there are a lot of similarities, but it´s even a bigger hassle. We were two weeks in Montreal shooting the movie, just about a month ago, so it´s all filmed now. We just got a glimpse of what making a movie is about. It was an unbelievably interesting experience!
Well, you read about movies that sometimes the shoot the last scenes first…
TH: That´s what they did now! Everything was scheduled to the minute. “This scene requires these actors and they will be picked up at this hotel, by this driver at this hour and get make up by these two hairstylists and these makeup artists.”. It´s an unbelievable puzzle and I don´t know who handles it all, but everything worked and everything was on schedule and within budget, but just the whole hassle of everything, so interesting. And just really long days. We had to be there at six o´clock for makeup and then the acting started and they were building sets all the time.
Sounds like a lot of people were involved?
TH: There was like 40 people all the time. One guy just building the props. The director says “We need a compass that spins all the time and we need it in about four hours for the scene. Can you do it?”. So the guy just went and made one and came back, “Is this good?”. “Yeah, it´s good but just make it a bit more brown!”. And there was just one guy working the smoke machine all the time. That´s all he ever did. There were two guys who just drove the band and that´s all they did. People Just had their things that they were doing. They were proud of it and they did it perfectly and that´s why everything worked. I was just standing in the corner, “Four years ago I had an idea! Fuck! I never ever thought it would come to this.”.
That´s gotta be pretty cool, to see it come to life, so to speak? To have an idea and then see it come to life in front of you?
TH: It was one of the most emotional moments in my life, because to be honest, getting the finance for this movie and getting it altogether, getting people convinced, was harder than anything I´ve ever done. Especially the finance . At one point everybody almost gave up . I had to go to the band and sell my house, almost. I wanted to do this movie and if it came to selling my house, I would do that. A lot of drama involved. Finally we got the financing and we got the production and we were there doing it and it happened. It was just “Wow!”. Then it turned into melancholy. We actually got this done and so, “Now what?”.
Well, that figures!
TH: The journey´s always more rewarding than the destination.
Probably! Are you guys doing any acting as well?
TH: Not really and that was something that I emphasized to the director and the screenwriter from the very beginning, “Don´t put us there!”. This is supposed to be a credible and believable drama movie with a lot of fantasy, “So don´t put the band there!”. He insisted that we were shown because it´s a Nightwish movie, so in two scenes we play as a band and then I have this very little role of an older guy, but none of us have any lines, but you can see us in cameo roles.
The plan for it then? Is the plan to show it in movie theatres or is it going to be on a DVD? Is it going worldwide?
TH: They´re hoping for the best and I think it´s gonna be a theatrical release at least in Finland and Canada since it´s a Finnish – Canadian production, but I have my doubts about the commercial success of this because it´s a bit more on the cult side. The main thing is just that we get it done and I think it´s gonna be a really good movie, but I don´t really see a big commercial success to it, but you never know. When it comes to distribution, all the people just want to see the trailer first, before they make any decisions if they take it to the theatres. We´ll have to wait until January for that.
It´ll be really interesting to see.
TH: It´s a really weird concept.
The title of the album? I read somewhere that there were rumors saying it was gonna be called “Wind embraced”. Is that true? Was that ever a title?
TH: No! It´s the first time I hear this. I´ve never heard of it before.
Ok, we blame Wikipedia for that one! Where did the title come from and were there other titles floating around?
TH: No, it was “Imaginarium” from the very beginning. I wanted to make a thematic movie and album about the power of imagination and the roller coaster of life. All the wonders and all the good stuff and all the bad stuff and it just occurred to me. Originally I thought of something like “Imagine”, but “No, that´s the John Lennon song and that´s too obvious. Something to do with imagination… imaginarium, that´s it!”. Then we had some troubles with that word from a couple of companies and they asked us if there was any way that we could change it, so we just changed a few letters and it was “Imaginaerum”. That´s the story.
Later on when the album is released and the movie is out, will the movie in any way be represented in the live show? Actors, theatrical stuff?
TH: We will try to bring the movie alive in some way in the live shows, but nothing concrete because the movie won´t be ready until April or May and we start the tour in January. I would assume that there will be some props from the movie onstage and there might be some screenshots from the movie if we bring screens, but nothing too big.
Are you gonna start in Finland?
TH: The album release show will be in Los Angeles on the 21st of January.
What place?
TH: The Gibson Amphitheater. After that we´re gonna do a tour in Finland and Europe and Russia. Then comes the festival season and then America, South America, Japan. That´s the plan.
So you´ll be busy for another two years?
TH: One year! (laughs) We decided in the band, "Let´s cut it in half!".
Yeah, I guess it takes its toll on you to be on the road for two years?
TH: It was a bit too much. It´s real easy to admitted now that we were all a bit naïve when it came to touring last time, but we had a new singer and the pressure was huge, concerning her and then we decided to do this insane tour and then there was her divorce at the same time. There were a lot of different things within the band and the crew. People started dropping like flies at some point, so we decided it was worth the effort and we had a lot of wonderful times, but at some point it just felt like it was not worth it. I have no idea how Metallica did it after the “Black album”.
Well, they later on did “Some kind of monster” and needed therapy. It´s fascinating and I recently talked to Gilby Clarke and the “Use your illusion tour” was one crazy thing that lasted for three years and you read about all the craziness and he said that you kind of live in your own world where there are no rules and no obligations and you pretty much do what you wanna do.
TH: Exactly!
And you take advantage of it and do stuff that you might not have gotten away with in other places.
TH: Yeah, and then the fact that three out of five band members have families with many kids and you call them and they say “Why are you not at home? Don´t you love us anymore? When will you be home?”, so all this combined with living in this fantasy world, it really messes with your head.
And then you´re gonna play in Sweden?
TH: yeah, we´re gonna play in Gothenburg and it´s gonna be the first show on the European tour.
No Stockholm?
TH: The schedule is so limited and there´s a whole planet to tour, so we just basically do one show in many countries and this time it´s Gothenburg.
Ok, Tuomas! Nice talking to you!
TH: Nice talking to you!
/Niclas
Nightwish!
Jo, ni har rätt. Bild och rubrik går inte ihop, precis som olja och vatten. Idag bar det av till Warner i Vasastan för att lyssna på kommande plattan "Imagenaerum". Svulstigt och soundtrackaktigt, vilket det rätteligen är och samtidigt så som Nightwish alltid har varit.
Det mest fascinerande nuförtiden är att du får en liten dosa ca 3 cm X 3 cm som innehåller hela plattan, kopplar in hörlurar och sedan sitter du där och lyssnar. The age of technology indeed.
Efter lyssningen satte jag mig ner med Tuomas för att snacka om vad som händer i Nightwishlägret. Summa sumarum, en jäkligt trevlig finne.
Men Van Halen då? Jo, som bonus fick jag med mig "VH II", "Women and children first" och "1984" på nya fina 180grammare. "Women..." har dessutom en gul ram och blått omslag. Vet inte riktigt om det är fel press eller ej. Oavsett kommer de förbli inplastade och bara fungera som ögongodis.
/Niclas
Jo, ni har rätt. Bild och rubrik går inte ihop, precis som olja och vatten. Idag bar det av till Warner i Vasastan för att lyssna på kommande plattan "Imagenaerum". Svulstigt och soundtrackaktigt, vilket det rätteligen är och samtidigt så som Nightwish alltid har varit.
Det mest fascinerande nuförtiden är att du får en liten dosa ca 3 cm X 3 cm som innehåller hela plattan, kopplar in hörlurar och sedan sitter du där och lyssnar. The age of technology indeed.
Efter lyssningen satte jag mig ner med Tuomas för att snacka om vad som händer i Nightwishlägret. Summa sumarum, en jäkligt trevlig finne.
Men Van Halen då? Jo, som bonus fick jag med mig "VH II", "Women and children first" och "1984" på nya fina 180grammare. "Women..." har dessutom en gul ram och blått omslag. Vet inte riktigt om det är fel press eller ej. Oavsett kommer de förbli inplastade och bara fungera som ögongodis.
/Niclas
torsdag 13 oktober 2011
Oh Henry my Henry!
Henry är i Washington DC och tar en liten promenad "down memory lane".
Henry här
/Niclas
Henry är i Washington DC och tar en liten promenad "down memory lane".
Henry här
/Niclas
onsdag 12 oktober 2011
På gång...
Klockan är mitt i veckan och jag är just nu tröttare än trött.
Imorgon ska jag ringa up Steffan Chirazi i San Francisco. Vem är nu det då, undrar ni okunniga där ute? Jo, Steffan är sedan ´99 chefredaktör för Metallicas egen tidning "So What" och jag fick ett litet infall om att det kunde vara kul att ta sig ett snack med denne man som jobbar nära bandet. Kanske kan man få reda på ngt mer om Loutallicaprojektet.
På fredag bär det av in till Warner i city för att få lyssna på kommande plattan med Nightwish, samt sitta ner i 20 min och snacka med bandledaren Tuomas Holopainen.
Nästa onsdag ska jag ringa upp Tony Speakman som är basist i nyligen återuppväckta Hell. Har ni inte lyssnat på deras 25 år försenade debut "Human remains", kan det vara dags nu!
Dessutom ligger en väldigt lång intervju med Tykettos Danny Vaughn och väntar på att bli publicerad och jag borde också ta tag i intervjuerna med Fredrik i Opeth och Henrik i Cipher System.
Sist men inte minst, så hoppas jag även få tillfälle att sitta ner med Ika och Jon som ligger bakom nyutkomna boken "Blod eld död" och få höra lite om arbetet med boken.
/Niclas
Klockan är mitt i veckan och jag är just nu tröttare än trött.
Imorgon ska jag ringa up Steffan Chirazi i San Francisco. Vem är nu det då, undrar ni okunniga där ute? Jo, Steffan är sedan ´99 chefredaktör för Metallicas egen tidning "So What" och jag fick ett litet infall om att det kunde vara kul att ta sig ett snack med denne man som jobbar nära bandet. Kanske kan man få reda på ngt mer om Loutallicaprojektet.
På fredag bär det av in till Warner i city för att få lyssna på kommande plattan med Nightwish, samt sitta ner i 20 min och snacka med bandledaren Tuomas Holopainen.
Nästa onsdag ska jag ringa upp Tony Speakman som är basist i nyligen återuppväckta Hell. Har ni inte lyssnat på deras 25 år försenade debut "Human remains", kan det vara dags nu!
Dessutom ligger en väldigt lång intervju med Tykettos Danny Vaughn och väntar på att bli publicerad och jag borde också ta tag i intervjuerna med Fredrik i Opeth och Henrik i Cipher System.
Sist men inte minst, så hoppas jag även få tillfälle att sitta ner med Ika och Jon som ligger bakom nyutkomna boken "Blod eld död" och få höra lite om arbetet med boken.
/Niclas
tisdag 11 oktober 2011
måndag 10 oktober 2011
söndag 9 oktober 2011
Intervju med Sebastian Bach!
I fredags hade jag äntligen nöjet att få ringa upp mannen, myten, legenden Sebastian Bach. Han visade sig vara en väldigt rolig rockstjärna som skrattade högt och länge flera gånger under samtalet och var på ett mycket gott humör, trots att han nyligen stigit upp.
I januari/februari dyker han upp på våra breddgrader igen visade det sig och vi kom även att bl a snacka om skivomslag, New Jersey, ny teknik och överblivna låtar.
Hey, this is Niclas from Sweden!
Sebastian Bach: Yes, hello dude!
How are you?
SB: Alright, what´s going on?
Not much! Had a couple of beers. Been to a birthday party.
SB: Nice!
Congrats to the new album! Not to kiss ass or anything, but it´s a fantastic album!
SB: (laughs) Thank you so much dude! I´m just waking up here, so I´m having a coffee while you´re having a beer. Thank you very much! I worked really hard on it for two years and I´m back on the charts all over the world for the first time in 16 years and it feels really, really good! It´s incredible! I can´t even tell you how good it feels.
I was actually pretty floored the first time I heard it and it´s a bit different from “Angel down” and I just sat there listening to it and it was just song after song with kick ass melodies and great riffs. It sounds awesome!
SB: Thank you so much! I think the producer, Bob Marlette, did an incredible job and I´ve gotta give a 100 % credit to Nick Sterling for revitalizing my whole sound. He´s 21 years old and just came in with all this incredible music and we came up with the first Skid Row album when we were that age, so people say this reminds them a little bit of the first Skid Row record and that´s because rock and roll is all about the spirit of being a teenager and getting crazy, you know. Going out and fucking getting loaded and having fun! (laughs)
True! It is!
SB: True! (laughs) Well you know, when you get older and into your 50´s or whatever, some guys can´t retain that spirit. I´m quite immature! (laughs)
Well, you probably should stay a bit immature in a way.
SB: Well, I go see Ozzy Osbourne now and it´s so much fun and he says “Let´s have fun!” and everybody´s smiling and having a great time and he´s one of my favorite front men. And we´re running out of dudes like that! I don´t know how much longer they can go because they´re really getting up there in age, you know. All of them! Maybe I´m next up to bat? There´s not many, you know!
Bob Marlette, was he a first choice? What led you to choose Marlette for producing?
SB: Well, I have a manager named Rick Sales and he´s really, really helped my career a lot since he started managing me and he hooked me up with Bob. We were looking at some other producers, but Bob was really fired up to do it right away. I want always to be busy doing stuff. I don´t wanna wait around and Bob was like “Let´s go!”. We started in February and went up until… well, the last day of recording was April 3rd, my birthday. He just did a great job! Technology has progressed so much recording wise and since we made the Skid Row albums it´s completely different, so when people say it sounds like… “You only like modern!” and I´m like “Well, if you´re making a record in 2011, you´re gonna use the best equipment in 2011! You´re not gonna go and get a fucking board from 1987!”. You know what I mean? (laughs) I don´t think I could make a record that sounded exactly like those old records. It would be impossible! I don´t want to do that! I want to make those current killer sounding records that I can and I think I did to so…
How do you feel about making records today? Some say that people just want one song and there´s no one listening to a whole album anymore. It´s so much about just one song here and one song there.
SB: Right! Well, I listen to records and like... I love the new record by Black Veil Brides, “Set the world on fire”. I listen to it from the first song right to the last song and I love it! That´s a great new album! With “Kicking and screaming” I don´t want you to press shuffle! It´s all made to go in the sequence that it´s in. The ballads are kind of hidden on the record, but then when you find them it´s like “Wow!” and the tempos and the grooves and the key changes, they go together real well. I just wanted to make a record that fits along the line of all the other records I´ve made and I haven´t made that many. I look up to a band like Rush, which has like over 30 albums or whatever it is. I don´t know how many, but that´s what I wanna do. I´m that kind of vocalist and I´ve got a lot of energy and when I have a guy like Nick Sterling, it makes it real easy because he´s very prolific and he comes to me like “Do you like this?” and I´m like “Yeah dude, I really like it!”. (laughs) “I really like it a lot!”. (laughs)
The title for the album, did that come early on or…?
SB: I think the part of being a good writer is to be organized and when you have an idea, you should be able to capture it on your smart phone or, like a million years ago, on a piece of paper. (laughs) Or you should be able to record it or if you have lyrics you should be typing it somewhere. Whenever I hear a phrase or something, I´ll write it down and I have so many ideas from over the years and I´m always writing stuff down and Nick and Bob Marlette, the producer, came up with that music and I fucking freaked out. I remember Nick going “Dude, wait till you hear this fucking song! You wanna rock?” and they put on “Dah dah dah dah” and I was like “Oh my god! You gotta be kidding me?”. It had no lyrics or melody, so I went through all my ideas and I had an idea, “Kicking and screaming” and that riff to me, sounded just like that. I love music where the lyrics seem to describe the sound of the music and I really learned that from Rob Halford of Judas Priest. For some reason… like “Desert plains” sounds like he´s in the desert riding in the plains. I don´t know why and I don´t know how he does that. And like “Hot rockin´”…(sings, Editor´s note) “I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go hot rockin´” and it sounds like hot rockin´. (laughs) Or (sings again, Editor´s note) “I got a contract on you… dah dah dah dah!”. It sounds like I got a contract on you! (laughs) he´s really good at that and I always noticed that about his writing, so I always listen to the music and go “What does this sound like?” and that sounded like kicking and screaming. (laughs)
It makes sense!
SB: Yeah, right on!
Did you wind up with a lot of leftovers from the recordings that didn´t make the cut?
SB: Yes, we did! We had a bunch of other songs. Three or four with Nick that were fucking amazing and then I had about five or six songs with Jamey Jasta and another song with John 5, so there is a bunch of other demos.
Any chance of you using them later on?
SB: Yeah, and there´s also other country songs that I didn´t put out. There´s a bonus, “jumping off the wagon” on the deluxe version and there´s other songs from that session. But these are the best of the best and I´ll probably do the next record soon because I wanna capitalize on this momentum, so I wanna put it out sooner rather than later. I might listen to that old stuff, but by then I´ll probably feel different, you know, and I wanna express different things probably.
The artwork then? Did you just go “Well, I want some elephants, I want fire and I want a woman with a lot of arms!”?
SB: (laughs really hard) That sounds so funny! “Well, I want elephants, I want fire, I want a woman with a lot of arms, I want some skulls, I want leather!”. (laughs)
No, but how do you do that?
SB: That fits the lyrics of the album. The album cover was done by Richard Villa, who did the Black Veil Brides cover and I´m good friends with them and Andy (Andrew Biersack) showed me their cover and I was like “Wow dude! Who painted that?”. He hooked me up with this guy and I went through a divorce last September and then I came to LA and fell in love again with another girl, who I´m still seeing. She did the video and so a lot of the lyrics are about losing love and some of the lyrics are about finding new love. I mean, any guy that´s been around for a couple of years have gone through stuff with girls and the cover (laughs) is the goddess Kali Ma dragging me into hell with knives to kill me and I´m kicking and screaming not to be dragged into hell. (laughs) We came up with that concept, me and Richard Villa, and he´s like “Dude ok, let´s have the goddess of Kali Ma dragging you into hell!” and we just came up with the concept and it´s based on the lyrics on the record. It came out really good and my girlfriend Minnie, she´s a model, on the front and we did an amazing photo session that was a lot of fun, of her doing all that and he painted it. I´ve never seen that Indian artwork in rock and roll. I´ve seen like Japanese and German world war II kind of things, but I´ve never seen that crazy fucking violent Indian art and I´ve always been attracted to that. I like to make something that I´ve never seen before. The album cover is very original to me.
Going back to when you first started out and everything and getting into singing and all that, was there a first moment when you felt that “Wow, I´ve made it!”?
SB: Yes! It was on the Bon Jovi tour and we started touring with him in Texas and this was one the “New Jersey tour” and by the time we got to Chicago, I think it was a month into the tour and maybe less… We were building up momentum and becoming a big band, but then when we got to Chicago and the Rosemont Horizon and I´ll never forget this… I was on stage and I told the whole crowd “I want every single one of you to stand up! Get up out of your seats!” and I raised my hand and the whole arena stood up and I went “Oh my god!”. It was like to the back row and for the first time I raised like 20.000 people to their feet with their fists in the air and I turn around to the guys and go “We´re fucking making it! This is it”. (laughs) Then I came off stage to Doc McGhee and I go “Did you fucking see that?” and he was all crying and “Yeah, you did it dude!” and we were all freaking out. That was the exact moment!
Cool! I saw Skid Row when you opened up for Mötley Crüe in Gothenburg…
SB: Oh yeah!
It was the "Dr Feelgood tour” and me and my friends had the first album and you came on stage and blew us away and we thought “Wow, this is amazing!”.
SB: Cool!
And then Mötley Crüe came out and they felt kind of tired and old…
SB: I remember that!
Skid Row blew Mötley Crüe off the stage and during that tour, did you have that feeling that there were more action in you guys than Mötley Crüe?
SB: Well, I don´t wanna put down Mötley Crüe and they´re certainly doing amazing now, but at the time yeah, we felt like the younger version of a rock band. I don´t know what to say… I was such a Mötley Crüe fan, that I was just blown away that I was on tour with them, like a fan. “I´m on tour with Mötley Crüe and I can´t believe this!”. I don´t remember feeling that we were better than them. We were different and I´m such a fan.
Not long ago I talked to Ted Poley from Danger Danger and Danny Vaughn from Tyketto and the whole New Jersey scene back then. Were there a lot of things happening in New Jersey back then?
SB: Yeah, New Jersey felt like rock royalty, because Bon Jovi was so huge on “Slippery when wet” and he really summed up the whole New Jersey scene and also Springsteen. It wasn´t heavy metal but there was this whole scene in Jersey that felt like rock royalty and it was weird. I remember driving around in Jersey back then in ´87 or ´86 and I was like “Wow, we´re in New Jersey”. (laughs) It was like Graceland or something. (laughs)
What made you end up on Frontiers Records?
SB: They´re signing so many bands, like every hard rock band you know! It´s amazing and they´re very good! They pulled out all the stops for me. They´ve done everything. They put me back on the fucking charts! My album came out at number 68 and my album “Angel down” came out at 190 and I was not happy that day when that happened! I was fucking miserable! So this is something I can live with and it inspires me to do another record, which is all I really want. We also have an hour long DVD in the deluxe version with live versions of all the songs from the Guns N´Roses tour plus the three videos that we shot for the album and they also made a vinyl record, which is amazing! They´ve really gone all out to make sure. It´s all very high quality, everything that they do and that´s what I really appreciate. You have this CD for the rest of your life so it gotta be really good quality. I mean, I´ve had record companies in the past, where I´ll get the CD and the album cover is completely fucked up, like it´s cropped in the middle of the guys face. Shit that makes you nuts and it´s too late to change it because they printed it up already and I´m like “How the fuck can you do it? How can you have the cover like all screwed up, fucked up? This is it!”. It´s fucking garbage, but everything with Frontiers is amazingly high quality!
Cool! You were just here last weekend, but when can we expect to see you back on stage in Sweden and Europe?
SB: We´re booking a tour right now for January and February.
Alright!
SB: Yeah, we´ve got a new agent now, Steve Strange, and he´s one of the biggest booking agencies in Europe and he signed the band and we´re going to Europe in January and February.
Excellent! I hope to see you in Stockholm!
SB: Oh yeah buddy! I think my great memory of Stockholm is when I played the Globe (Stockholm´s biggest indoor arena, Editor´s note) with Guns N´Roses and I was wearing my silver pants. (laughs) I came on stage and Axl Rose is like “Dude, where did you get those pants man?”. He really liked my pants.
Of course! An honor talking to you and again, all the best with the album and the tour and looking forward to catching you here in Stockholm!
SB: Thank you so much dude! I´m glad you like the record and I hope to see you in January!
/Niclas
I fredags hade jag äntligen nöjet att få ringa upp mannen, myten, legenden Sebastian Bach. Han visade sig vara en väldigt rolig rockstjärna som skrattade högt och länge flera gånger under samtalet och var på ett mycket gott humör, trots att han nyligen stigit upp.
I januari/februari dyker han upp på våra breddgrader igen visade det sig och vi kom även att bl a snacka om skivomslag, New Jersey, ny teknik och överblivna låtar.
Hey, this is Niclas from Sweden!
Sebastian Bach: Yes, hello dude!
How are you?
SB: Alright, what´s going on?
Not much! Had a couple of beers. Been to a birthday party.
SB: Nice!
Congrats to the new album! Not to kiss ass or anything, but it´s a fantastic album!
SB: (laughs) Thank you so much dude! I´m just waking up here, so I´m having a coffee while you´re having a beer. Thank you very much! I worked really hard on it for two years and I´m back on the charts all over the world for the first time in 16 years and it feels really, really good! It´s incredible! I can´t even tell you how good it feels.
I was actually pretty floored the first time I heard it and it´s a bit different from “Angel down” and I just sat there listening to it and it was just song after song with kick ass melodies and great riffs. It sounds awesome!
SB: Thank you so much! I think the producer, Bob Marlette, did an incredible job and I´ve gotta give a 100 % credit to Nick Sterling for revitalizing my whole sound. He´s 21 years old and just came in with all this incredible music and we came up with the first Skid Row album when we were that age, so people say this reminds them a little bit of the first Skid Row record and that´s because rock and roll is all about the spirit of being a teenager and getting crazy, you know. Going out and fucking getting loaded and having fun! (laughs)
True! It is!
SB: True! (laughs) Well you know, when you get older and into your 50´s or whatever, some guys can´t retain that spirit. I´m quite immature! (laughs)
Well, you probably should stay a bit immature in a way.
SB: Well, I go see Ozzy Osbourne now and it´s so much fun and he says “Let´s have fun!” and everybody´s smiling and having a great time and he´s one of my favorite front men. And we´re running out of dudes like that! I don´t know how much longer they can go because they´re really getting up there in age, you know. All of them! Maybe I´m next up to bat? There´s not many, you know!
Bob Marlette, was he a first choice? What led you to choose Marlette for producing?
SB: Well, I have a manager named Rick Sales and he´s really, really helped my career a lot since he started managing me and he hooked me up with Bob. We were looking at some other producers, but Bob was really fired up to do it right away. I want always to be busy doing stuff. I don´t wanna wait around and Bob was like “Let´s go!”. We started in February and went up until… well, the last day of recording was April 3rd, my birthday. He just did a great job! Technology has progressed so much recording wise and since we made the Skid Row albums it´s completely different, so when people say it sounds like… “You only like modern!” and I´m like “Well, if you´re making a record in 2011, you´re gonna use the best equipment in 2011! You´re not gonna go and get a fucking board from 1987!”. You know what I mean? (laughs) I don´t think I could make a record that sounded exactly like those old records. It would be impossible! I don´t want to do that! I want to make those current killer sounding records that I can and I think I did to so…
How do you feel about making records today? Some say that people just want one song and there´s no one listening to a whole album anymore. It´s so much about just one song here and one song there.
SB: Right! Well, I listen to records and like... I love the new record by Black Veil Brides, “Set the world on fire”. I listen to it from the first song right to the last song and I love it! That´s a great new album! With “Kicking and screaming” I don´t want you to press shuffle! It´s all made to go in the sequence that it´s in. The ballads are kind of hidden on the record, but then when you find them it´s like “Wow!” and the tempos and the grooves and the key changes, they go together real well. I just wanted to make a record that fits along the line of all the other records I´ve made and I haven´t made that many. I look up to a band like Rush, which has like over 30 albums or whatever it is. I don´t know how many, but that´s what I wanna do. I´m that kind of vocalist and I´ve got a lot of energy and when I have a guy like Nick Sterling, it makes it real easy because he´s very prolific and he comes to me like “Do you like this?” and I´m like “Yeah dude, I really like it!”. (laughs) “I really like it a lot!”. (laughs)
The title for the album, did that come early on or…?
SB: I think the part of being a good writer is to be organized and when you have an idea, you should be able to capture it on your smart phone or, like a million years ago, on a piece of paper. (laughs) Or you should be able to record it or if you have lyrics you should be typing it somewhere. Whenever I hear a phrase or something, I´ll write it down and I have so many ideas from over the years and I´m always writing stuff down and Nick and Bob Marlette, the producer, came up with that music and I fucking freaked out. I remember Nick going “Dude, wait till you hear this fucking song! You wanna rock?” and they put on “Dah dah dah dah” and I was like “Oh my god! You gotta be kidding me?”. It had no lyrics or melody, so I went through all my ideas and I had an idea, “Kicking and screaming” and that riff to me, sounded just like that. I love music where the lyrics seem to describe the sound of the music and I really learned that from Rob Halford of Judas Priest. For some reason… like “Desert plains” sounds like he´s in the desert riding in the plains. I don´t know why and I don´t know how he does that. And like “Hot rockin´”…(sings, Editor´s note) “I wanna go, I wanna go, I wanna go hot rockin´” and it sounds like hot rockin´. (laughs) Or (sings again, Editor´s note) “I got a contract on you… dah dah dah dah!”. It sounds like I got a contract on you! (laughs) he´s really good at that and I always noticed that about his writing, so I always listen to the music and go “What does this sound like?” and that sounded like kicking and screaming. (laughs)
It makes sense!
SB: Yeah, right on!
Did you wind up with a lot of leftovers from the recordings that didn´t make the cut?
SB: Yes, we did! We had a bunch of other songs. Three or four with Nick that were fucking amazing and then I had about five or six songs with Jamey Jasta and another song with John 5, so there is a bunch of other demos.
Any chance of you using them later on?
SB: Yeah, and there´s also other country songs that I didn´t put out. There´s a bonus, “jumping off the wagon” on the deluxe version and there´s other songs from that session. But these are the best of the best and I´ll probably do the next record soon because I wanna capitalize on this momentum, so I wanna put it out sooner rather than later. I might listen to that old stuff, but by then I´ll probably feel different, you know, and I wanna express different things probably.
The artwork then? Did you just go “Well, I want some elephants, I want fire and I want a woman with a lot of arms!”?
SB: (laughs really hard) That sounds so funny! “Well, I want elephants, I want fire, I want a woman with a lot of arms, I want some skulls, I want leather!”. (laughs)
No, but how do you do that?
SB: That fits the lyrics of the album. The album cover was done by Richard Villa, who did the Black Veil Brides cover and I´m good friends with them and Andy (Andrew Biersack) showed me their cover and I was like “Wow dude! Who painted that?”. He hooked me up with this guy and I went through a divorce last September and then I came to LA and fell in love again with another girl, who I´m still seeing. She did the video and so a lot of the lyrics are about losing love and some of the lyrics are about finding new love. I mean, any guy that´s been around for a couple of years have gone through stuff with girls and the cover (laughs) is the goddess Kali Ma dragging me into hell with knives to kill me and I´m kicking and screaming not to be dragged into hell. (laughs) We came up with that concept, me and Richard Villa, and he´s like “Dude ok, let´s have the goddess of Kali Ma dragging you into hell!” and we just came up with the concept and it´s based on the lyrics on the record. It came out really good and my girlfriend Minnie, she´s a model, on the front and we did an amazing photo session that was a lot of fun, of her doing all that and he painted it. I´ve never seen that Indian artwork in rock and roll. I´ve seen like Japanese and German world war II kind of things, but I´ve never seen that crazy fucking violent Indian art and I´ve always been attracted to that. I like to make something that I´ve never seen before. The album cover is very original to me.
Going back to when you first started out and everything and getting into singing and all that, was there a first moment when you felt that “Wow, I´ve made it!”?
SB: Yes! It was on the Bon Jovi tour and we started touring with him in Texas and this was one the “New Jersey tour” and by the time we got to Chicago, I think it was a month into the tour and maybe less… We were building up momentum and becoming a big band, but then when we got to Chicago and the Rosemont Horizon and I´ll never forget this… I was on stage and I told the whole crowd “I want every single one of you to stand up! Get up out of your seats!” and I raised my hand and the whole arena stood up and I went “Oh my god!”. It was like to the back row and for the first time I raised like 20.000 people to their feet with their fists in the air and I turn around to the guys and go “We´re fucking making it! This is it”. (laughs) Then I came off stage to Doc McGhee and I go “Did you fucking see that?” and he was all crying and “Yeah, you did it dude!” and we were all freaking out. That was the exact moment!
Cool! I saw Skid Row when you opened up for Mötley Crüe in Gothenburg…
SB: Oh yeah!
It was the "Dr Feelgood tour” and me and my friends had the first album and you came on stage and blew us away and we thought “Wow, this is amazing!”.
SB: Cool!
And then Mötley Crüe came out and they felt kind of tired and old…
SB: I remember that!
Skid Row blew Mötley Crüe off the stage and during that tour, did you have that feeling that there were more action in you guys than Mötley Crüe?
SB: Well, I don´t wanna put down Mötley Crüe and they´re certainly doing amazing now, but at the time yeah, we felt like the younger version of a rock band. I don´t know what to say… I was such a Mötley Crüe fan, that I was just blown away that I was on tour with them, like a fan. “I´m on tour with Mötley Crüe and I can´t believe this!”. I don´t remember feeling that we were better than them. We were different and I´m such a fan.
Not long ago I talked to Ted Poley from Danger Danger and Danny Vaughn from Tyketto and the whole New Jersey scene back then. Were there a lot of things happening in New Jersey back then?
SB: Yeah, New Jersey felt like rock royalty, because Bon Jovi was so huge on “Slippery when wet” and he really summed up the whole New Jersey scene and also Springsteen. It wasn´t heavy metal but there was this whole scene in Jersey that felt like rock royalty and it was weird. I remember driving around in Jersey back then in ´87 or ´86 and I was like “Wow, we´re in New Jersey”. (laughs) It was like Graceland or something. (laughs)
What made you end up on Frontiers Records?
SB: They´re signing so many bands, like every hard rock band you know! It´s amazing and they´re very good! They pulled out all the stops for me. They´ve done everything. They put me back on the fucking charts! My album came out at number 68 and my album “Angel down” came out at 190 and I was not happy that day when that happened! I was fucking miserable! So this is something I can live with and it inspires me to do another record, which is all I really want. We also have an hour long DVD in the deluxe version with live versions of all the songs from the Guns N´Roses tour plus the three videos that we shot for the album and they also made a vinyl record, which is amazing! They´ve really gone all out to make sure. It´s all very high quality, everything that they do and that´s what I really appreciate. You have this CD for the rest of your life so it gotta be really good quality. I mean, I´ve had record companies in the past, where I´ll get the CD and the album cover is completely fucked up, like it´s cropped in the middle of the guys face. Shit that makes you nuts and it´s too late to change it because they printed it up already and I´m like “How the fuck can you do it? How can you have the cover like all screwed up, fucked up? This is it!”. It´s fucking garbage, but everything with Frontiers is amazingly high quality!
Cool! You were just here last weekend, but when can we expect to see you back on stage in Sweden and Europe?
SB: We´re booking a tour right now for January and February.
Alright!
SB: Yeah, we´ve got a new agent now, Steve Strange, and he´s one of the biggest booking agencies in Europe and he signed the band and we´re going to Europe in January and February.
Excellent! I hope to see you in Stockholm!
SB: Oh yeah buddy! I think my great memory of Stockholm is when I played the Globe (Stockholm´s biggest indoor arena, Editor´s note) with Guns N´Roses and I was wearing my silver pants. (laughs) I came on stage and Axl Rose is like “Dude, where did you get those pants man?”. He really liked my pants.
Of course! An honor talking to you and again, all the best with the album and the tour and looking forward to catching you here in Stockholm!
SB: Thank you so much dude! I´m glad you like the record and I hope to see you in January!
/Niclas
lördag 8 oktober 2011
Intervju med Gilby Clarke!
I måndags begav jag mig in till haket Harry B James för ett möte med Gilby Clarke. För några år sedan minns jag att jag lekte DJ där och att stämningen på folket utvecklades negativt i takt med alkoholintaget. Vid detta tillfälle hade HBJ inte direkt profilerat sig som det hårdrockställe det numera är och folket ville mer höra Gyllene Tider och Carola än Kinks och Iggy.
Jag möter Gilby direkt och vi slår oss ned vid ett bord nära scen. Han plinkar på gitarren genom hela intervjun och visar sig vara en mycket trevlig och rolig rocker.
Han är just uppe i en liten Sverigeturné med svenska Badmouth och verkar trivas alldeles utmärkt.
How has the shows been?
Gilby Clarke: Well, it´s only been two but both of them have been really good. Nice turn outs and the band played well.
What´s it like touring in Sweden? All these small places.
GC: It´s fun! Over the last four or five years I´ve been doing smaller clubs and stuff. It´s fun! You can look at it in a lot of different ways and I tend to try to make it the best I can.
Is it different doing these clubs in the States?
GC: No, it´s about the same. I mean, the only thing that´s different when I think about the States is that the gear is better. Equipment and stuff, it´s a little bit more modern, but it´s the same thing and the same crowd, you know! People that come to small clubs, same people go to big concerts.
What kind of set are you playing?
GC: I play a little bit of everything. I´ve made four or five solo records and I play some of that. I play some GN´R and I play some Stones and songs I did with Slash and Snakepit. I do a Supernova tune, so it´s a little bit of everything that I´ve been involved with. Anything I can sing! (laughs) Anything I can play on guitar.
You grew up in Cleveland and moved on when you were like 17, to LA?
GB: Yeah, I was 17! You know that?
I did my homework!
GC: (laughs) Actually I think I was 15 when I moved to LA, but 17 when I first got in a band. When I moved to California it was high school basically and it was my way of adapting and I started a band and started playing at school dances and then I moved to Hollywood. (laughs)
In Cleveland, did you ever come across Eric Singer or Derrick Green?
GC: No, I didn´t! As a matter of fact, I didn´t meet Eric Singer… well, I met Eric Singer in the late 80´s and I only casually met him. I didn´t get to know him until the mid 90´s and what we didn´t realize when we met each other was that we actually lived four blocks away from each other. I was 208 and he was 216. Same block, just four blocks away. We were different age groups. I´m a little bit younger than him, so we kind of missed each other. We went to the same school too.
Cool! Is Cleveland a music town?
GC: Yes, I´d say it is, in a sense that there is a lot of music and people are very passionate about music. Everybody goes to every concert, even in the suburbs to the main town, people are into music. I think with me, it was more of my escape. It wasn´t like a rosy childhood, I mean we were troublemakers and for me it was just a way of not being a bad kid.
When you came to LA and getting into the whole music scene there, were you in a lot of different bands before you ended up in Candy?
GC: No, I wasn´t actually! I really haven´t been in a lot of bands. My first real band was Candy. I mean, I had like a high school band that I played in, but my first Hollywood band was Candy, so the first band I was in, we got a record deal. It wasn´t successful, but we at least got to make records and things like that.
And this was in the early 80´s?
GC: Yeah, this is very early 80´s. When Candy was going through some changes, or mainly the scene was changing you know. It was becoming much darker and harder which for me was what I liked anyway. Candy was a good band, but it wasn´t exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something harder and I formed my band Kill For Thrills and it was out of the affect that I wanted things darker and harder. I actually play some Kill For Thrills songs in my set.
Being part of that scene and LA being kind of a Mecca back in the 80´s, were you out putting up flyers and stuff like that?
GC: Oh yeah, absolutely! You had to and everybody did. I wouldn´t say that there was a lot of competition between bands, but there was competition like to get the audience. Even though the metal scene dominated, it wasn´t all there was. There was punk rock and there was also like an underground scene and that´s where bands like Jane´s Addiction came out of, the dark underground scene. And my band was stuck between the metal and the underground scene. We played with Jane´s Addiction, but we would also play with the hard rock bands too, so we were kind of like on both fences.
Was it more fun back then?
GC: I don´t know if it was more fun as much as, you know, that was just our youth, so I think we look back and think “Oh, that was great!”. It was hard, but it was fun because that´s the way we grew up.
Before you joined Guns N´Roses for that tour, what were you up to right before that? Was it Kill For Thrills?
GC: Yeah, it was! I was just finishing up… We did two records and a bunch of touring and once again we were kind of like right on the fence and just about to break and I got a call from him, so I had to quit my job. (laughs)
How did you end up getting that call? Did you know any of those guys before that?
GC: Yeah, I knew all of them! The Hollywood scene was very closed knit and we all went to each other’s gigs and when I was in Candy, is when I knew the Guns guys. I knew Axl when he first came to town and Izzy was one of my first friends in LA and it was just because there was a small group of guys that liked both sides, liked the rock stuff and liked the punk stuff and we would go to both shows and that´s the way Izzy was. I´d run into him at a Germs concert and I´d also run into him at The Plastmatics. It was just a way of us having a lot of things in common. Slash was more like a metal guy. We always saw him backstage and he´d be back there drinking and trying to grab your guitar and it was like “Go get your own guitar!”. (laughs) We were all part of the local scene, so yeah, I did know all of them. Even Matt! I knew Matt really well too.
There was this guy, Chris Weber, who was in Hollywood Rose and I talked to him a few years back…
GC: Yeah, I remember him!
Well, he had a brain tumor. Is he still alive?
GC: I don´t know! I met him way back when, so I don´t know him.
Ok. Coming from Kill For Thrills and the you do this huge tour that goes on for three years, when it´s on that level and the craziness that goes with it, is it like you´re in a world of its own and everything else stops existing and laws and rules don´t apply anymore?
GC: I gotta tell you, that´s true! And I´ll tell you for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons is, when you´re on a tour, you are in your own world. I mean, you´re with the same 20 people for 2½ years every single day. Hotels, eating together, going out together and time kind of stops, because we´re doing the same thing every day. We´re traveling, checking into hotels, playing a show, travel, checking into hotels, playing a show, but the rest of the world around you is going on and going about their business. Work, having children, so when you come back into town… usually you´d play for two or three months and then come back for two weeks and take a break. Everything changes around you, but you don´t because time is standing still and also within that world, there are no rules, because that´s all we do. Our job is to play those three hours every night and that´s it! Get there, play the show, so you have a lot of freedom and you definitely take advantage of having no rules. So I agree. What you said is actually true.
Did you ever feel like, during those three years, that there were times when it got out of hand?
GC: Well, it always got out of hand! (laughs) But also, my experience is different from if you would ask Slash, Duff or Axl because remember, I was also in two bands that weren´t successful, so when I got that call I said to myself “I´m going to enjoy this, because I know this isn´t easy. This is hard.” And when you have the success it´s supposed to be fun. I have a different experience than they do. For them it was the first band. They think it happens to everybody. (laughs) That it´s easy. It´s not easy! So I definitely enjoyed it differently.
Just wondering, were you on a salary back then?
GC: Yes and no! I was a band member, but I also got paid weekly but there are also perks and other things with it. But everybody was, they all took a salary.
I read about these theme parties…
GC: Oh yeah yeah… (laughs)
Was that every single night or…?
GC: Well, it was only on the Metallica tour I think we did them. I have to tell you, I didn´t even go to a lot of them! (laughs) I remember some of them. There was like the Roman bath party and I remember in New Orleans where we had the voodoo party which was really cool. That was fun! Texas was a stripper party with stripper poles and all that. I mean, they were fun.
Were those parties at the arena or at the hotel?
GC: At the arena, always at the arena! That was their job. They actually had people that went on the road and did that, you know. You gotta have fun!
Definitely! What´s your take on Axl Rose and the band Guns N´Roses today?
GC: As it stands? Well, knowing Axl and knowing Axl 20 years ago and knowing what he wanted to do, I would assume that he´s a happy guy. This is, what he explained to me, what he wanted the band to be. When we had our, what I call a disagreement, he wanted to take the band in a new direction. He wanted to bring in lots of people and this is what he envisioned. I assume he is happy. Is it the kind of music that I enjoy? Some of it, some of it! I think it´s creative and I think it´s what music is supposed to be. It´s supposed to be original and creative and I think it is all those things. It´s just to me, when I think of Guns N´Roses, it doesn´t sound like Guns N´Roses to me! But as I say, if this was an Axl Rose album, it´d be fantastic, because it´s good music! It is! I can´t say it´s not good music.
You kind of get the feeling that LA and Hollywood is quite small in a way. Do you run into each other?
GC: No, never! You would think it is, but it isn´t a small place! There´s also a lot of scenes within scenes. Even in our period when things were simpler, there was a hard rock scene, there was an underground scene, there was a punk rock scene, there was a country scene, so no you don´t! I mean, I run into Matt all the time going out, but I don´t ever run into Axl. (laughs) I wouldn´t even know if he was in the same town!
You´ve done a lot of producing as well. How come you ended up producing The Bronx?
GC: (laughs) Once again, I like a lot of music!
Are they still around?
GC: Oh yeah yeah! As a matter of fact thay have a new record coming out, but they also have another band called Mariachi el Bronx and they started a mariachi band and it´s traditional mariachi but it´s kind of punk rock. You should look it up! When they told me about it I thought it was silly and then I went to see them and I went “Oh, it´s really good!”. They wear the outfits and everything. When I got approached about that… it always comes down to the music and I thought they were really good. I heard something… they reminded me of X and when they first came out. It was very LA sounding and sounding like people living in LA and that´s what The Bronx sounded like to me.
What´s the name of the X song, “Johnny hit and run Paulene” or something like that?
GC: Oh wait, I remember that one! No, “Hit and run! Yeah, “Hit and run”! (It actually is “Johnny hit and run Paulene”. Song from their first album “Los Angeles”. Editor´s note)
Such a cool song!
GC: “Hit and run” is great!
And then you did Nancy Sinatra. Did she tell you any funny Frank stories?
GC: That´s all she told! (laughs) She also tells Elvis stories. Every time I do a different gig, there are always reasons behind it. With Nancy, I´ve always been a terrible music reader. I know my notes, but I never have to read. Nancy is a reading gig. They throw a chart in front of you and “Go!”. Like if we´re playing tonight, she throws a chart in front of you and you have to go. That was my way of sharpening up on my skills plus I liked her band. It was a mixture of the original Nancy Sinatra band with newer guys and for me, I had to learn a lot of different things. As a musician you need to be a little bit more well rounded and I pride myself on trying to be versatile and not just being stuck in one thing. I wanna be able to play with a country artist and a rock artist and a pop artist and I wanna be able to do it all! Whether I do it is another thing, but I wanna be able to and that´s what Nancy was. It really taught me a lot and I learned a lot from the original guys, the Wrecking crew guys who were just phenomenal! And she is badass! Nancy is so on top of the music scene. She´ll bring up bands that I never heard of before. She´s on the cutting edge and she´ll go “So and so is doing this!” and I´m like “I didn´t know that!”. She´s got a Twitter account. She´s sharp and she knows what´s going on. When I had my motorcycle accident, one of the first phone calls was Nancy. She called me every single day checking up on me. A sweetheart!
Cool! Have you fully recovered from that?
GC: Ah, no!
It was pretty bad, right?
GC: I broke both my legs and had a lot of damage. I still limp a little and I´ve got hard ware still stuck in my leg.
Do you get a different view of life after a thing like that?
GC: No, no! I mean, I got right back on my bike. I think… let me think about that! No! I think I´m a little bit more careful, but I was careful before. I didn´t do anything, somebody hit me. No, I don´t think so!
This other band you´ve worked with, Hotel Diablo?
GC: Oh yeah, that´s going on right now! They´re a couple of guys from some LA local bands. One´s in Quiet Riot, a couple of guys from WASP and from Lady Jack. It´s just a new young band with young fresh music and I´ve been working with them trying to make a whole record, so we´re getting there.
What´s it like making records these days? I read about Tommy Lee who said that there´s no point in making records anymore, because everybody just wants one song.
GC: True! Well, I agree with him in that sense. I do agree with why make a record? Like why make 10 or 12 songs? It´s kind of going back to like in the 60´s where people just made singles and look, is that a good or bad thing? I don´t know! It´s easier! I think making music is a lot easier than it ever has been and I think that you see a wide variety. I think you see some real creative music and I think you see some real narrow shitty not creative music. All of these things that are available to us are tools. These are tools that The Beatles would´ve used if they had them, The Rolling Stones and Elvis. It´s just a matter of using a tool, but you still have to be creative and write a song.
These days, do you see yourself as 50% producer, 50% musician?
GC: That´s exactly how I see myself! That´s what I do. I´m either producing or… I see myself as a guitarist. Even though I sing in my band, I´m a guitar player first. I would rather play guitar!
A new album from you then?
GC: (laughs) Well, I´ve got about six songs done. I always say that when I have ten good songs I´ll make a record. It´s just not there yet and I don´t want to put out something that´s shitty.
When you put it out, are you gonna get a record deal or do it yourself?
GC: I always do a record label. That´s not my gig! My gig is write the songs, record the songs, perform the songs. It ain´t my job to sell the songs!
Are there any other musicians you´d like to work with?
GC: I think there´s a lot of musicians. At the top of my head I can´t really think of someone, but production wise, I´d produce Muse, I´d produce Mötley Crüe! I like people that are inspired by good music and like to be creative. What I hate is unoriginality. I like things that are new and exciting. Even if that is a hard rock song that´s two four, as long as it´s creative and new I like it!
Ever thought of moving to Nashville because I´ve talked to a lot of LA people and Nashville is apparently the new thing?
GC: It is! They´re actually right, it is! Nashville is a great place to be, but for me, I have a family, a wife and daughter and my daughter goes to school and I don´t know… I also hate the cold! (laughs)
Alright Gilby, thank you!
GC: Alright, cool!
/Niclas
I måndags begav jag mig in till haket Harry B James för ett möte med Gilby Clarke. För några år sedan minns jag att jag lekte DJ där och att stämningen på folket utvecklades negativt i takt med alkoholintaget. Vid detta tillfälle hade HBJ inte direkt profilerat sig som det hårdrockställe det numera är och folket ville mer höra Gyllene Tider och Carola än Kinks och Iggy.
Jag möter Gilby direkt och vi slår oss ned vid ett bord nära scen. Han plinkar på gitarren genom hela intervjun och visar sig vara en mycket trevlig och rolig rocker.
Han är just uppe i en liten Sverigeturné med svenska Badmouth och verkar trivas alldeles utmärkt.
How has the shows been?
Gilby Clarke: Well, it´s only been two but both of them have been really good. Nice turn outs and the band played well.
What´s it like touring in Sweden? All these small places.
GC: It´s fun! Over the last four or five years I´ve been doing smaller clubs and stuff. It´s fun! You can look at it in a lot of different ways and I tend to try to make it the best I can.
Is it different doing these clubs in the States?
GC: No, it´s about the same. I mean, the only thing that´s different when I think about the States is that the gear is better. Equipment and stuff, it´s a little bit more modern, but it´s the same thing and the same crowd, you know! People that come to small clubs, same people go to big concerts.
What kind of set are you playing?
GC: I play a little bit of everything. I´ve made four or five solo records and I play some of that. I play some GN´R and I play some Stones and songs I did with Slash and Snakepit. I do a Supernova tune, so it´s a little bit of everything that I´ve been involved with. Anything I can sing! (laughs) Anything I can play on guitar.
You grew up in Cleveland and moved on when you were like 17, to LA?
GB: Yeah, I was 17! You know that?
I did my homework!
GC: (laughs) Actually I think I was 15 when I moved to LA, but 17 when I first got in a band. When I moved to California it was high school basically and it was my way of adapting and I started a band and started playing at school dances and then I moved to Hollywood. (laughs)
In Cleveland, did you ever come across Eric Singer or Derrick Green?
GC: No, I didn´t! As a matter of fact, I didn´t meet Eric Singer… well, I met Eric Singer in the late 80´s and I only casually met him. I didn´t get to know him until the mid 90´s and what we didn´t realize when we met each other was that we actually lived four blocks away from each other. I was 208 and he was 216. Same block, just four blocks away. We were different age groups. I´m a little bit younger than him, so we kind of missed each other. We went to the same school too.
Cool! Is Cleveland a music town?
GC: Yes, I´d say it is, in a sense that there is a lot of music and people are very passionate about music. Everybody goes to every concert, even in the suburbs to the main town, people are into music. I think with me, it was more of my escape. It wasn´t like a rosy childhood, I mean we were troublemakers and for me it was just a way of not being a bad kid.
When you came to LA and getting into the whole music scene there, were you in a lot of different bands before you ended up in Candy?
GC: No, I wasn´t actually! I really haven´t been in a lot of bands. My first real band was Candy. I mean, I had like a high school band that I played in, but my first Hollywood band was Candy, so the first band I was in, we got a record deal. It wasn´t successful, but we at least got to make records and things like that.
And this was in the early 80´s?
GC: Yeah, this is very early 80´s. When Candy was going through some changes, or mainly the scene was changing you know. It was becoming much darker and harder which for me was what I liked anyway. Candy was a good band, but it wasn´t exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something harder and I formed my band Kill For Thrills and it was out of the affect that I wanted things darker and harder. I actually play some Kill For Thrills songs in my set.
Being part of that scene and LA being kind of a Mecca back in the 80´s, were you out putting up flyers and stuff like that?
GC: Oh yeah, absolutely! You had to and everybody did. I wouldn´t say that there was a lot of competition between bands, but there was competition like to get the audience. Even though the metal scene dominated, it wasn´t all there was. There was punk rock and there was also like an underground scene and that´s where bands like Jane´s Addiction came out of, the dark underground scene. And my band was stuck between the metal and the underground scene. We played with Jane´s Addiction, but we would also play with the hard rock bands too, so we were kind of like on both fences.
Was it more fun back then?
GC: I don´t know if it was more fun as much as, you know, that was just our youth, so I think we look back and think “Oh, that was great!”. It was hard, but it was fun because that´s the way we grew up.
Before you joined Guns N´Roses for that tour, what were you up to right before that? Was it Kill For Thrills?
GC: Yeah, it was! I was just finishing up… We did two records and a bunch of touring and once again we were kind of like right on the fence and just about to break and I got a call from him, so I had to quit my job. (laughs)
How did you end up getting that call? Did you know any of those guys before that?
GC: Yeah, I knew all of them! The Hollywood scene was very closed knit and we all went to each other’s gigs and when I was in Candy, is when I knew the Guns guys. I knew Axl when he first came to town and Izzy was one of my first friends in LA and it was just because there was a small group of guys that liked both sides, liked the rock stuff and liked the punk stuff and we would go to both shows and that´s the way Izzy was. I´d run into him at a Germs concert and I´d also run into him at The Plastmatics. It was just a way of us having a lot of things in common. Slash was more like a metal guy. We always saw him backstage and he´d be back there drinking and trying to grab your guitar and it was like “Go get your own guitar!”. (laughs) We were all part of the local scene, so yeah, I did know all of them. Even Matt! I knew Matt really well too.
There was this guy, Chris Weber, who was in Hollywood Rose and I talked to him a few years back…
GC: Yeah, I remember him!
Well, he had a brain tumor. Is he still alive?
GC: I don´t know! I met him way back when, so I don´t know him.
Ok. Coming from Kill For Thrills and the you do this huge tour that goes on for three years, when it´s on that level and the craziness that goes with it, is it like you´re in a world of its own and everything else stops existing and laws and rules don´t apply anymore?
GC: I gotta tell you, that´s true! And I´ll tell you for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons is, when you´re on a tour, you are in your own world. I mean, you´re with the same 20 people for 2½ years every single day. Hotels, eating together, going out together and time kind of stops, because we´re doing the same thing every day. We´re traveling, checking into hotels, playing a show, travel, checking into hotels, playing a show, but the rest of the world around you is going on and going about their business. Work, having children, so when you come back into town… usually you´d play for two or three months and then come back for two weeks and take a break. Everything changes around you, but you don´t because time is standing still and also within that world, there are no rules, because that´s all we do. Our job is to play those three hours every night and that´s it! Get there, play the show, so you have a lot of freedom and you definitely take advantage of having no rules. So I agree. What you said is actually true.
Did you ever feel like, during those three years, that there were times when it got out of hand?
GC: Well, it always got out of hand! (laughs) But also, my experience is different from if you would ask Slash, Duff or Axl because remember, I was also in two bands that weren´t successful, so when I got that call I said to myself “I´m going to enjoy this, because I know this isn´t easy. This is hard.” And when you have the success it´s supposed to be fun. I have a different experience than they do. For them it was the first band. They think it happens to everybody. (laughs) That it´s easy. It´s not easy! So I definitely enjoyed it differently.
Just wondering, were you on a salary back then?
GC: Yes and no! I was a band member, but I also got paid weekly but there are also perks and other things with it. But everybody was, they all took a salary.
I read about these theme parties…
GC: Oh yeah yeah… (laughs)
Was that every single night or…?
GC: Well, it was only on the Metallica tour I think we did them. I have to tell you, I didn´t even go to a lot of them! (laughs) I remember some of them. There was like the Roman bath party and I remember in New Orleans where we had the voodoo party which was really cool. That was fun! Texas was a stripper party with stripper poles and all that. I mean, they were fun.
Were those parties at the arena or at the hotel?
GC: At the arena, always at the arena! That was their job. They actually had people that went on the road and did that, you know. You gotta have fun!
Definitely! What´s your take on Axl Rose and the band Guns N´Roses today?
GC: As it stands? Well, knowing Axl and knowing Axl 20 years ago and knowing what he wanted to do, I would assume that he´s a happy guy. This is, what he explained to me, what he wanted the band to be. When we had our, what I call a disagreement, he wanted to take the band in a new direction. He wanted to bring in lots of people and this is what he envisioned. I assume he is happy. Is it the kind of music that I enjoy? Some of it, some of it! I think it´s creative and I think it´s what music is supposed to be. It´s supposed to be original and creative and I think it is all those things. It´s just to me, when I think of Guns N´Roses, it doesn´t sound like Guns N´Roses to me! But as I say, if this was an Axl Rose album, it´d be fantastic, because it´s good music! It is! I can´t say it´s not good music.
You kind of get the feeling that LA and Hollywood is quite small in a way. Do you run into each other?
GC: No, never! You would think it is, but it isn´t a small place! There´s also a lot of scenes within scenes. Even in our period when things were simpler, there was a hard rock scene, there was an underground scene, there was a punk rock scene, there was a country scene, so no you don´t! I mean, I run into Matt all the time going out, but I don´t ever run into Axl. (laughs) I wouldn´t even know if he was in the same town!
You´ve done a lot of producing as well. How come you ended up producing The Bronx?
GC: (laughs) Once again, I like a lot of music!
Are they still around?
GC: Oh yeah yeah! As a matter of fact thay have a new record coming out, but they also have another band called Mariachi el Bronx and they started a mariachi band and it´s traditional mariachi but it´s kind of punk rock. You should look it up! When they told me about it I thought it was silly and then I went to see them and I went “Oh, it´s really good!”. They wear the outfits and everything. When I got approached about that… it always comes down to the music and I thought they were really good. I heard something… they reminded me of X and when they first came out. It was very LA sounding and sounding like people living in LA and that´s what The Bronx sounded like to me.
What´s the name of the X song, “Johnny hit and run Paulene” or something like that?
GC: Oh wait, I remember that one! No, “Hit and run! Yeah, “Hit and run”! (It actually is “Johnny hit and run Paulene”. Song from their first album “Los Angeles”. Editor´s note)
Such a cool song!
GC: “Hit and run” is great!
And then you did Nancy Sinatra. Did she tell you any funny Frank stories?
GC: That´s all she told! (laughs) She also tells Elvis stories. Every time I do a different gig, there are always reasons behind it. With Nancy, I´ve always been a terrible music reader. I know my notes, but I never have to read. Nancy is a reading gig. They throw a chart in front of you and “Go!”. Like if we´re playing tonight, she throws a chart in front of you and you have to go. That was my way of sharpening up on my skills plus I liked her band. It was a mixture of the original Nancy Sinatra band with newer guys and for me, I had to learn a lot of different things. As a musician you need to be a little bit more well rounded and I pride myself on trying to be versatile and not just being stuck in one thing. I wanna be able to play with a country artist and a rock artist and a pop artist and I wanna be able to do it all! Whether I do it is another thing, but I wanna be able to and that´s what Nancy was. It really taught me a lot and I learned a lot from the original guys, the Wrecking crew guys who were just phenomenal! And she is badass! Nancy is so on top of the music scene. She´ll bring up bands that I never heard of before. She´s on the cutting edge and she´ll go “So and so is doing this!” and I´m like “I didn´t know that!”. She´s got a Twitter account. She´s sharp and she knows what´s going on. When I had my motorcycle accident, one of the first phone calls was Nancy. She called me every single day checking up on me. A sweetheart!
Cool! Have you fully recovered from that?
GC: Ah, no!
It was pretty bad, right?
GC: I broke both my legs and had a lot of damage. I still limp a little and I´ve got hard ware still stuck in my leg.
Do you get a different view of life after a thing like that?
GC: No, no! I mean, I got right back on my bike. I think… let me think about that! No! I think I´m a little bit more careful, but I was careful before. I didn´t do anything, somebody hit me. No, I don´t think so!
This other band you´ve worked with, Hotel Diablo?
GC: Oh yeah, that´s going on right now! They´re a couple of guys from some LA local bands. One´s in Quiet Riot, a couple of guys from WASP and from Lady Jack. It´s just a new young band with young fresh music and I´ve been working with them trying to make a whole record, so we´re getting there.
What´s it like making records these days? I read about Tommy Lee who said that there´s no point in making records anymore, because everybody just wants one song.
GC: True! Well, I agree with him in that sense. I do agree with why make a record? Like why make 10 or 12 songs? It´s kind of going back to like in the 60´s where people just made singles and look, is that a good or bad thing? I don´t know! It´s easier! I think making music is a lot easier than it ever has been and I think that you see a wide variety. I think you see some real creative music and I think you see some real narrow shitty not creative music. All of these things that are available to us are tools. These are tools that The Beatles would´ve used if they had them, The Rolling Stones and Elvis. It´s just a matter of using a tool, but you still have to be creative and write a song.
These days, do you see yourself as 50% producer, 50% musician?
GC: That´s exactly how I see myself! That´s what I do. I´m either producing or… I see myself as a guitarist. Even though I sing in my band, I´m a guitar player first. I would rather play guitar!
A new album from you then?
GC: (laughs) Well, I´ve got about six songs done. I always say that when I have ten good songs I´ll make a record. It´s just not there yet and I don´t want to put out something that´s shitty.
When you put it out, are you gonna get a record deal or do it yourself?
GC: I always do a record label. That´s not my gig! My gig is write the songs, record the songs, perform the songs. It ain´t my job to sell the songs!
Are there any other musicians you´d like to work with?
GC: I think there´s a lot of musicians. At the top of my head I can´t really think of someone, but production wise, I´d produce Muse, I´d produce Mötley Crüe! I like people that are inspired by good music and like to be creative. What I hate is unoriginality. I like things that are new and exciting. Even if that is a hard rock song that´s two four, as long as it´s creative and new I like it!
Ever thought of moving to Nashville because I´ve talked to a lot of LA people and Nashville is apparently the new thing?
GC: It is! They´re actually right, it is! Nashville is a great place to be, but for me, I have a family, a wife and daughter and my daughter goes to school and I don´t know… I also hate the cold! (laughs)
Alright Gilby, thank you!
GC: Alright, cool!
/Niclas
fredag 7 oktober 2011
Don´t fuck with The Runaways!
Ny bok om Joan Jett av Dave Thompson, "Bad Reputation: The Unauthorized Biography of Joan Jett."
"One night at Jett's apartment, some guy was over and started messing with the band. They decided to give him a popsicle that was 10% lemonade and 90% pee. As the Runaways smoked a joint, the poor guy licked his popsicle and made a face. "This tastes like shit," he said. Without missing a beat, Jett responded, "You're getting close."
Fler kul historier här
/Niclas
Ny bok om Joan Jett av Dave Thompson, "Bad Reputation: The Unauthorized Biography of Joan Jett."
"One night at Jett's apartment, some guy was over and started messing with the band. They decided to give him a popsicle that was 10% lemonade and 90% pee. As the Runaways smoked a joint, the poor guy licked his popsicle and made a face. "This tastes like shit," he said. Without missing a beat, Jett responded, "You're getting close."
Fler kul historier här
/Niclas
Oh Henry my Henry!
I veckans krönika är Henry spot on vad gäller nedladdning, skivor och pengar till artisten.
Henry här
/Niclas
I veckans krönika är Henry spot on vad gäller nedladdning, skivor och pengar till artisten.
Henry här
/Niclas
torsdag 6 oktober 2011
Holy matrimony!
Gjord i ETT exemplar och inte ens spelbar. $5000 på Ebay. Med andra ord som hittat.
KISS här
/Niclas
Gjord i ETT exemplar och inte ens spelbar. $5000 på Ebay. Med andra ord som hittat.
KISS här
/Niclas
Shaaaaaaron!
Har ni 9,45 miljoner dollar över är det kanske dags att slå till på Ozzys hus i Malibu!
Ozzyhus här
/Niclas
Har ni 9,45 miljoner dollar över är det kanske dags att slå till på Ozzys hus i Malibu!
Ozzyhus här
/Niclas
onsdag 5 oktober 2011
Högt betyg för debut!
Inte illa alls! Min skivdebut, dock bara som "reporter", får 8/10 i Sweden Rock Magazine.
Slingblade här
/Niclas
Inte illa alls! Min skivdebut, dock bara som "reporter", får 8/10 i Sweden Rock Magazine.
Slingblade här
/Niclas
tisdag 4 oktober 2011
All good in VH - land?
VHND.com har senaste uppdateringen angående bandet. Tydligen är alla happy pappy och Diamond Dave har dragit igång Facebook och Twitter.
VH här
/Niclas
VHND.com har senaste uppdateringen angående bandet. Tydligen är alla happy pappy och Diamond Dave har dragit igång Facebook och Twitter.
VH här
/Niclas
Hail metal!
För 120 bagis kan ni ikväll ta er in till Starnd vid Hornstull och kolla in kommande filmen "Så jävla metal". Dessutom spelar In Solitude och Switch opens.
Själv är jag för trött och för gammal för att pallra mig iväg.
Filmen visas sedan på följande platser:
7 oktober
Stockholm, Bio Rio
Göteborg, Roy
Malmö, Spegeln
Helsingborg, Röda Kvarn
Västerås, Elektra
Borgholm, Folkets Hus
Blomstermåla, Folkets Hus
Heby, Folkets Hus
Hallstavik, Folkets Hus
Hofors, Folkets Hus
Åseda, Folkets Hus
Båstad, Scala
Jokkmokk, Folkets Hus
Falkenberg, Folkets Hus
Fagersta, Folkets Hus
Gusum, Folkets Hus
Oskarshamn, Saga
Lund, Kino
Arbrå, Saga (Lucy Seven spelar innan filmen)
9 oktober
Grästorp, Folkets Hus
Nykroppa, Folkets Hus
10 oktober
Norrköping, Cinema
Örebro, Roxy
13 oktober
Konga, Folkets Hus
14 oktober
Karlstad, Arenan
20 oktober
Tranemo, Tranan
21 oktober
Haparanda, Teaterföreningen
22 oktober
Nynäshamn, Folkets Hus
29 oktober
Lessebo, Folkets Hus
30 oktober
Lindås, Folkets Hus
2 november
Norrhult, Folkets Hus
4 november
Lycksele, Medborgarhuset
11 november
Skruv, Folkets Hus
/Niclas
För 120 bagis kan ni ikväll ta er in till Starnd vid Hornstull och kolla in kommande filmen "Så jävla metal". Dessutom spelar In Solitude och Switch opens.
Själv är jag för trött och för gammal för att pallra mig iväg.
Filmen visas sedan på följande platser:
7 oktober
Stockholm, Bio Rio
Göteborg, Roy
Malmö, Spegeln
Helsingborg, Röda Kvarn
Västerås, Elektra
Borgholm, Folkets Hus
Blomstermåla, Folkets Hus
Heby, Folkets Hus
Hallstavik, Folkets Hus
Hofors, Folkets Hus
Åseda, Folkets Hus
Båstad, Scala
Jokkmokk, Folkets Hus
Falkenberg, Folkets Hus
Fagersta, Folkets Hus
Gusum, Folkets Hus
Oskarshamn, Saga
Lund, Kino
Arbrå, Saga (Lucy Seven spelar innan filmen)
9 oktober
Grästorp, Folkets Hus
Nykroppa, Folkets Hus
10 oktober
Norrköping, Cinema
Örebro, Roxy
13 oktober
Konga, Folkets Hus
14 oktober
Karlstad, Arenan
20 oktober
Tranemo, Tranan
21 oktober
Haparanda, Teaterföreningen
22 oktober
Nynäshamn, Folkets Hus
29 oktober
Lessebo, Folkets Hus
30 oktober
Lindås, Folkets Hus
2 november
Norrhult, Folkets Hus
4 november
Lycksele, Medborgarhuset
11 november
Skruv, Folkets Hus
/Niclas
Just nu!
Igår drog jag mig in till stan för ett litet möte med Gilby Clarke. En trevlig rocker som verkar vara väldigt lugn och står stadigt på jorden. Tyvärr skulle han inte gå på scen förrän 23.00 och för en sliten lärare med familj är det på tok försent. Intervjun uppe till helgen hoppas jag.
Ett recex av omtalade boken "Blod eld död" damp ner idag och jag räknar med sträckläsning under några kvällar. Har även snackat med författarna om en kommande intervju.
Imorgon blir det telefonare med Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) för att se vad dennee man sysslar med och på fredag ringer jag upp Sebastian Bach för att även där kolla läget.
Förhoppningsvis orkar jag ta tag i utskriften av intervjuerna med Opeth och Cipher System inom en snar framtid.
Just nu är det kombon "In the end" och "The giant" från senaste Anthrax som får absolut mest speltid. Riktigt, riktigt bra!
Och jag vidhåller att Loutallicas "The view" inte är så usel som hela världen vill påvisa.
Hail Satan!
/Niclas
Igår drog jag mig in till stan för ett litet möte med Gilby Clarke. En trevlig rocker som verkar vara väldigt lugn och står stadigt på jorden. Tyvärr skulle han inte gå på scen förrän 23.00 och för en sliten lärare med familj är det på tok försent. Intervjun uppe till helgen hoppas jag.
Ett recex av omtalade boken "Blod eld död" damp ner idag och jag räknar med sträckläsning under några kvällar. Har även snackat med författarna om en kommande intervju.
Imorgon blir det telefonare med Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) för att se vad dennee man sysslar med och på fredag ringer jag upp Sebastian Bach för att även där kolla läget.
Förhoppningsvis orkar jag ta tag i utskriften av intervjuerna med Opeth och Cipher System inom en snar framtid.
Just nu är det kombon "In the end" och "The giant" från senaste Anthrax som får absolut mest speltid. Riktigt, riktigt bra!
Och jag vidhåller att Loutallicas "The view" inte är så usel som hela världen vill påvisa.
Hail Satan!
/Niclas
söndag 2 oktober 2011
Dalton gör en Anvil!
I pappersversionen av dagens Aftonbladet bjuds det på en liten artikel om det gamla bandet Dalton. Tydligen finns det planer på att göra en film om bandet i stil med "Anvil! The story of Anvil".
Produktionsbolaget STO-CPH ligger bakom det hela och Anders Tengner är också inblandad.
Nog måste det finnas ett betydligt roligare och intressantare band än Dalton? Till skillnad mot Anvil så har de dessutom inte spelat tillsammans på 19 år och det gör ju saken ännu underligare.
/Niclas
I pappersversionen av dagens Aftonbladet bjuds det på en liten artikel om det gamla bandet Dalton. Tydligen finns det planer på att göra en film om bandet i stil med "Anvil! The story of Anvil".
Produktionsbolaget STO-CPH ligger bakom det hela och Anders Tengner är också inblandad.
Nog måste det finnas ett betydligt roligare och intressantare band än Dalton? Till skillnad mot Anvil så har de dessutom inte spelat tillsammans på 19 år och det gör ju saken ännu underligare.
/Niclas
lördag 1 oktober 2011
Skivrecension
´77
"High decibels" 2011
Tänka sig att AC/DC har återfötts och bosatta sig i Barcelona! Dessutom är Bon med i bandet igen och låter bättre än på länge.
´77 är utan tvekan klonade och framställda i ett hemligt labb någonstans, allt annat ter sig omöjligt. Det här är sinnessjukt kul att lyssna på, men samtidigt blir det lite svårt att avgöra hur man ska se på dessa spanjorer. Är de bara ett "coverband" med egna originallåtar i stil med gamla svenska AB/CD eller är de bara ett rockband som överdoserat på klassiska AC/DC? Ja, inte fan vet jag!
Hur som haver är det här ett album som kan ses som den perfekta hybriden mellan "High voltage" och "Highway to hell". Det svänger på det sätt som det bara kan göra när man snackar AC/DC och sångarens röst är äckligt lik the late great Bon Scott. Och som grädde på moset har Sveriges störste rockambassadör Nicke Andersson proddat hela kalaset.
Visst ligger bandet på ett gigantiskt minuskonto vad gäller originalitet, men jag bryr mig inte. Det här kan vara något av det absolut roligaste som landar i din skivspelare i år, för givetvis köper du plattan och laddar inte ner den!
Betyg: 4/5
/Niclas
´77
"High decibels" 2011
Tänka sig att AC/DC har återfötts och bosatta sig i Barcelona! Dessutom är Bon med i bandet igen och låter bättre än på länge.
´77 är utan tvekan klonade och framställda i ett hemligt labb någonstans, allt annat ter sig omöjligt. Det här är sinnessjukt kul att lyssna på, men samtidigt blir det lite svårt att avgöra hur man ska se på dessa spanjorer. Är de bara ett "coverband" med egna originallåtar i stil med gamla svenska AB/CD eller är de bara ett rockband som överdoserat på klassiska AC/DC? Ja, inte fan vet jag!
Hur som haver är det här ett album som kan ses som den perfekta hybriden mellan "High voltage" och "Highway to hell". Det svänger på det sätt som det bara kan göra när man snackar AC/DC och sångarens röst är äckligt lik the late great Bon Scott. Och som grädde på moset har Sveriges störste rockambassadör Nicke Andersson proddat hela kalaset.
Visst ligger bandet på ett gigantiskt minuskonto vad gäller originalitet, men jag bryr mig inte. Det här kan vara något av det absolut roligaste som landar i din skivspelare i år, för givetvis köper du plattan och laddar inte ner den!
Betyg: 4/5
/Niclas
Jag blir exalterad!
Svårt att förklara varför det är så kul med bilder som just denna. Bland bandets mer seriösa fans har det länge debatterats om det är just herr Stanleys hand på omslaget till "(Music from) The Elder).
Bilden ovan bör klargöra att så är fallet. Hittade den idag och tror inte den synts till tidigare.
/Niclas
Svårt att förklara varför det är så kul med bilder som just denna. Bland bandets mer seriösa fans har det länge debatterats om det är just herr Stanleys hand på omslaget till "(Music from) The Elder).
Bilden ovan bör klargöra att så är fallet. Hittade den idag och tror inte den synts till tidigare.
/Niclas
fredag 30 september 2011
"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
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
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
onsdag 28 september 2011
"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
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
"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
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