Boken om Alice Cooper ute 15/6.

Då släpps den snart och dessutom på svenska, bara två dagar efter att den kommer ut på engelska.
Själv hoppas jag beta av den inom de närmsta dagarna och återkomma med recension. 


Från förlaget Kalla kulor:


"Den sista stora rockklassikern! Alice Cooper är skräckrockens främste pionjär. Welcome To My Nightmare skildrar bandet och personen Alice Cooper från barndom till nutid. 1975 beskrevs “Welcome To My Nightmare”-turnén som den mest extravaganta produktionen som någonsin satts upp på en rock ‘n’ roll-scen. Sedan följde ett mindre framgångsrikt decennium. Men 1989 släppte Alice ett nytt album med monsterhiten ”Poison” och hamnade åter på toppen. Idag är Alice Cooper en självskriven del av rocketablissemanget. Bandet har funnits sedan 60-talet, men det var först 2011 som Alice Cooper fick ta plats i det kända museet Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Därför är det nu hög tid att berätta Coopers historia. Och vilken historia! Biografin är en upprorisk berättelse om en 40-årig – framgångsrik – karriär. Vi får följa Alice Coopers uppväxt som prästson i Arizona genom de kämpiga åren i Phoenix och Los Angeles och in i den berg- och dalbana som kommit att karaktärisera hans liv och karriär. Boken innehåller aldrig förr publicerade intervjuer som lägger grunden till en chockerande och nervkittlande historia. Detta är den första biografi som berättar hela historien om Alice Cooper och Welcome To My Nightmare kan mycket väl vara den sista stora rockklassikern.
Dave Thompson är en av de främsta författarna inom genren rockbiografier och expert på Glam Rock. Bakom sig har han en försvarlig mängd titlar sedan debuten med U2 1984. Han är även verksam som journalist på några av de största rockmagasinen – Rolling Stone, Mojo, Spin – i Storbritannien och USA."

/Niclas

The Van Halen Encyclopedia behöver din hjälp.

Den här boken har jag länge funderat på att inhandla, men det har inte blivit av. Nu vill Chilvers göra en uppdaterad version och behöver pengar. Jag tänkte bidra och för olika summor får man olika saker. Skit i att köpa A-bladet, cigg eller snask under en vecka och lägg det på boken istället!
Dock tror jag Chilvers får svårt att nå 25000 dollar fram till den 4:e juli.

Mer info om projektet HÄR

VH Encyclopedia på nätet HÄR

/Niclas

Corpsepaint - en historia.

Riktigt cool och självklart japansk.
Via eminenta Cherrybombed.com

/Niclas

Vem kommer köpa denna styggelse till bok?

Vem i hela världen kommer köpa denna mosterbok? Med tanke på storlek och att den binds för hand lär priset bli högt.


Saxat från KISSONLINE:

"KISS got an up close and personal look at a "finished proof" of the massive KISS Monster book last week and were quite impressed. Gene was quoted as saying, "It's fantastic!" After Paul had his first look he said, "This book is way beyond my expectations. The photos are incredible at this size. It's not a coffee table book, it's a coffee table!" The KISS Monster book is a retrospective featuring all the different eras of KISS in makeup, starting in the early years and continuing on to present day. "We selected photos that captured the absolute essence of being in and around a KISS concert," says Tommy. "Ten different editions will be dedicated personally to the KISS Army of the biggest countries we've toured throughout the World," Tommy continues, "each edition will feature a different cover featuring the flag of that nation and inside each book there will be a personally signed, dated and numbered dedication page from the band." The book is presently being custom printed in Italy at EBS Editoriale Bortolazzi Stei, one of the finest book manufacturers in the world. Each individual copy will be handmade with no machines involved in the finishing and binding of the book. Each book will have a character and feel of its own, at the same time retaining explicit high production standards. KISS will officially unveil the KISS Monster book in July. Stay Tuned!"

/Niclas

Vill. Se. Nu.

Jag har tidigare berättat om den här kommande filmen. Troligtvis får man väl vänta tills den kommer ut på DVD, men kanske kan den gå upp i huvudstaden. Man vet ju aldrig.
Nåväl, The Guardian bjuder på en mycket läsvärd artiekel om filmen och desss huvudperson(er).

The Guardian HÄR

Filmens hemsida HÄR

/Niclas

Nytt med Hellsingland Underground!

Det finns otroligt mycket bra musik, även om jag personligen finner den i andra genrer än just hårdrock och metal. Just nu kan jag inte annat än lovorda Last Days of Aprils senaste, "79". Ohyggligt mycket bättre än det där andra aprilbandet.
Fantastiska Hellsingland Underground har ny platta på gång och presenterade omslag och inspelade låtar idag. Dock kommer inte alla presenterade låtar att komma med på slutprodukten då de anser att album med 10 låtar är det optimala.
"The lost river band" blir förstasingel och släpps om några veckor. Själva albumet dyker upp först den 19:e september i en skivaffär nära dig.
Och hur jäkla snyggt är inte omslaget? 


1. The Lost River Band
2. You Shine The Dark Away
3. Evil Will Prevail
4. Flare Up The Night
5. I Just Don't Believe In Love
6. Far Beyond The Sun
7. In The Evening
8. Singin' While The World Dies
9. Midsummer's Wreath Meltdown
10. Drunk Driver
11. Black Clouds On The Horizon
12. They All Grew Old While I Grew Young
13. King Of Nothing
14. It's Been A Long Time Now Since Then

Mer Hellsingland HÄR

/Niclas

Mitt band heter Frantic Tendencies. Vad heter ditt?

/Niclas

Nytt med ZZ Top.

"Chartreuse" finns tillgänglig att lyssna på och tja, det låter inte alls dumt. Låten är med på 4-spårsep´n "Texicali" som släpps digitalt imorgon.

Lyssna HÄR

/Niclas

Humor på hög nivå.

Från Sepulturas Facebook:

"This I had to share with the "fans"! This was sent to our tour manager. This is real we couldn't make this up enjoy people!

Dear André, I´m in charge for catering services at Sweden Rock festival were you visit on 7th of June. I´m going through your catering rider for Sweden Rock Festival now.
I have some questions: 1. Dressing Room requirements: 01 fan MUST HaVE NO MATTER WHAT! - Please explain - do you mean I should get hold of a swedish fan and put in the dressing room waiting for you?"

/Niclas

Intervju med Athena Lee.

På Sweden Rock Festival 2007 hade jag det stora nöjet att möta och sedan hänga hela kvällen med den charmanta Athena Lee. Jag gjorde någon månad senare en lång telefonintervju med henne och tacka vare alla sociala medier som finns idag, har vi hållit kontakten de senaste åren.
När jag fick reda på att hon skulle vara med i en ny tv-serie, "Ex wives of rock" och samtidigt läste att hon hade en bok på gång, tyckte jag det kunde vara läge att återigen ringa upp Athena i LA och ta ett snack.
Athena är numera skild från sin man James Kottak (Scorpions) och verkar vara väldigt tillfreds med livet.
Det blev ett långt snack igen om bla boken, musikplaner, tv-serien, sminkning av Poison och om hon har hört något från den kommande plattan med brorsans band, Mötley Crüe.

Hey, it´s Nick from Stockholm!

Athena: Hey Nick from Stockholm!

How are you?

Athena: I´m good. Damn, I haven´t talked to you in years.

No, it must´ve been in 2007, I think.

Athena: Oh my god! I´m a grown up now. (laughs)

So am I!

Athena: Wow! You came out here with your dad, didn´t you?

Exactly!

Athena: And I didn´t even get to see you. I don´t even think I was here.

The thing was that we made the whole round trip and then I e-mailed you about hooking up the night we came back, but you were playing somewhere in Beverly Hills and we just couldn´t go because we were flying out real early the morning after. Next time!

Athena: Yeah! Did you ever see friends of mine, Blowsight? They´re from where you are.

I know. I think I saw them live once opening up for someone when they were starting out. For a year or two there were flyers and posters of Blowsight all over town and then it all kinda faded away. I know you toured with them.

Athena: Yeah, they´re a good band and the coolest nicest guys ever. I can´t believe they put up with our bullshit and we still remain friends. It´s awesome. I love those guys. They´re like my brothers, the von Crapp brothers.

Right. The whole “Ex wives of Rock” thing (Bobbie Brown, Sharise Neil, Athena Lee and Susan Blue Ashley), how did that get started and how did you get into that? Are you friends with Lorraine Lewis (singer in Femme Fatale and co-producer) since way back or…?

Athena: Yeah, listen to this, this is crazy! They had already had the show going on and I knew nothing about it. In fact I was still married at the time when they were doing the show and Lorraine and I were friends and honestly I didn´t know anything about it because they were keeping it a secret, even from me. I was her friend. I sat in on drums with LA Nookie, which is Lorraine Lewis´. It´s like a rock and roll cover band, but it´s great and I sat in with them and from that night we just became great friends because I didn´t really know her before that, we had just talked on the phone. We became great friends and all of a sudden… I told her that “Yup, I had to file for divorce and I just found out a grip of stuff that I didn´t never want to find out.”. Lorraine goes… and she waited a while to because she didn´t want to benefit off of my divorce. She waited a while till it all kinda sunk in and she asked me and I was like “Are you kidding me? Right now would be the best thing ever because I´d get paid to hang out with my friends, are you kidding me?”. That´s what I needed and the show is not about them. I´m sure they´d like it to be, but it´s not. It´s got nothing to do with them. It´s just about us and the only reason it even says “Ex wives of rock”, is because that´s how we all met each other years ago. We were all married to guys in rock bands and even they were all in the same band at one time, except for Vince. It´s just how we know each other. One of them I know for sure is waiting there to be like talked about or something, but it´s not gonna happen. It´s not about that. I´m not being mean, I´m just saying like it is. I hope people who are fans of those bands don´t tune in and expect to see them, because they´re not in it.

Is it coming out in Canada? At least that´s what I´m reading.

Athena: Yeah. You know what, it´s a Canadian production. It´s Tricon Pictures (Films) so they own it so it has to air in Canada first before anywhere. They don´t tell us anything, I hate it, but it starts August 29th on the Slice network. When it comes here or when it comes out to you, we don´t know. They won´t tell us. Probably because we are blabbermouths. (laughs) We just have to wait and we don´t find out until everybody else finds out. We even film stuff, we don´t even know what´s going on until we see it. We haven´t even seen it.

You haven´t?

Athena: Nope. We don´t live in Canada so we won´t be able to see it, but what we´re doing though is that we´re having a huge party here, like a viewing party, so we will get to see it before it starts. Probably that day, because they don´t want us to tell anybody what happens in it. Good times.

But the plan is to air it in the US after Canada and perhaps even world wide?

Athena: Of course. That´s are hopes anyway. Keep your fingers crossed. It´s a really good show. Like if I didn´t know me, I would watch it. It´s that funny.

Yeah, I saw the trailer but now I can´t find it.

Athena: Oh, you know why? That wasn´t a real trailer. That was somebody at Tricon who had just taken footage and they kinda made their own trailer and that was before it was even edited or anything, so that´s not the real show and when Tricon found out, they yanked it. That almost made it look like it was about the guys to be honest and it´s not. That wasn´t supposed to come out. It was just somebody playing around. There will be another one.

Is it in any way scripted?

Athena: Zero. (laughs) Not in the least. I think that´s why it´s so funny. You see a lot of these shows and they take people who are strangers and they don´t know each other and sometimes they just stick you in a house for a week with unlimited booze and then watch you like freaks to see what happens. This is not like that. We all know each other and there´s plenty to talk about and there´s plenty to do. They don´t need a script. Oh, you know what? Shannon Tweed narrates our show.

Yeah, I read that.

Athena: Can you believe it? How rad is that. She´s the ultimate rock wife. I can´t even imagine what she´s had to deal with. It´s gotta take a pretty strong woman to be her. She´s gorgeous and she´s from Canada.

Definitely. What´s it like having cameras following you around? Do you forget about them?

Athena: Yeah and that´s not a good thing. They´re not really in your face. They´re just kinda there, but they don´t get in your face so it´s really easy to forget that they´re there and I think that´s usually when some of the funniest stuff comes out, when you´re hanging out and you forget they´re there. I didn´t think that could happen because I´ve watched shows before and I go “That guy is being a bonehead. He has to know they´re there?”, but even though you know they´re there, just for a few minutes here and there, you forget. It´s not like there´s huge lighting rigs, it´s not like that.

I also found out that you´ve got book coming out.

Athena: I do.

Is it called “Coming in second”?

Athena: No, that´s actually a chapter in it. What happened is that as things kinda evolved, we changed the title because I´m not really sure which one we´re gonna use yet, but I´ll know soon. (Athena has since told me that the correct title for the book is Girls don´t play drums. Editor´s note)“Coming in second” almost sounded like…, if you don´t know me, it almost sounds like a victim, like “Oh, poor me coming in second.”. That´s not what it meant though. There´s nothing said and I don´t feel sorry for myself. None of that. I didn´t come in second so I don´t want anybody to take things the wrong way. There´s no pity party over here. It´s all good. It´ll be a chapter and you´ll get to see how that title involves just about everything. I can´t explain it, you just have to read it! It makes sense to me because I already know what it means. That made no sense to you, did it? (laughs) 

It did. When did you start writing it?

Athena: Actually, about a year ago. No, no, no what am I saying? Two years ago. It´s always been a thought. Kinda like “Oh my god, there´s so much stuff!” and here´s what I thought honestly, “Nobody cares! Who gives a shit what I think?”, but then there´s a lot of stuff that I´ve been through and dealt with and seen. I had some friends, because what I was doing was that I was just writing for myself and after I filed for divorce, within a month I wrote probably 40 or 50 songs. You know how people put out they´re break up album or whatever. I just had some friends and I started working with them and they´re going “God, this is great but really, please write a book!”. Some of this stuff is just so fucking crazy that if you´re not me and you´re watching it from the outside, you just go “This is insane!”, but when you´re living it you don´t see it that way. You know how you´ll watch somebody else and you watch what they´re doing and you´re going “Don´t you see what´s going on? It´s retarted. Get out of it! Why are you doing it?”, you know what I mean? But when it´s you, you seem to put up with more stuff and I don´t know. You just hope for the best. There´s a lot.

So it´ll be from when you were a kid up till present then?

Athena: Exactly. There´s a lot of detail in there. There can´t even really be a song. It just makes more sense. You could write as many songs as you want and you can tell a little bit of a story but this is all stuff… if you ever want real therapy? Write a fucking book! I´m serious. Once you write it and you see it from another standpoint instead of just sitting in your head, when you put it out of your head and on the paper, you just go “Wow, man! I can´t believe I didn´t see that.”. I´m a bonehead. I´m not some kinda saint. I´m an idiot and I have no problem admitting that. (laughs)

Well, we all are.

Athena: I know. (laughs)

I remember reading Steven Adler´s book and you´re in it.

Athena: Ah, yes. (laughs) What was that? One crazy night in New York, right?

Exactly.

Athena: Yeah, we got funky. It was fun. A friend of mine forwarded me the paragraph. Actually I´m reading the book right now. It´s on my table. Somebody gave it to me because there´s a lot more. I know Steven very well. He´s a sweetheart and he´s been a friend for 25 years, so I´m reading it now but I have barely gotten into it. I remember that so well. We were in a suite and it was Jackie Gleason´s old suite where he used to stay when they were filming “The Honeymooners”. It was the biggest fireplace I had ever seen in my life and we were in the fireplace partying. It fit us standing up. It was maybe 8 or 9 ft tall and of course me I´m all “C´mon, let´s party in the fireplace!”, so we were inside the fireplace. Nevermind, I think you can imagine the rest.

Oh yeah.

Athena: (laughs)

Last time I talked to you, you mentioned that way back in the early 80´s you did makeup and stuff for bands like Dokken. Is that gonna be in the book as well?

Athena: Yes. I actually did the… you know I see Rikki (Rokket) now because we´re doing the Rokket drums and he actually guests on our show and it´ll be really exciting for Poison fans. It´s great for them to see him like he really is. He´s hanging out and he´s hilarious. I did make up for them and I actually got them their first gig when they came to LA and I did make up for “Look what the cat dragged in”

Never seen such pretty girls.

Athena: You know what they said to me? I´m like “What do you want? What do you wanna do?” and they just go “Make me look like you!” and I go “Oh, that´s easy.”. (laughs) So I did their makeup exactly how I would do mine. There you have it. (laughs)

Have you had any help writing the book or is it just you?

Athena: I´m definitely working with someone. I´ve got a ghost writer. I´m pretty scattered when it comes to… you know when you start on one subject and all of a sudden you have all these memories that just pop up like “Oh my god I forgot about that.”. I just have somebody who keeps me focused. Keeps me on the subject and then will get to the other subjects later. It´s real easy for me to just go off in my head and come up with 15 different scenarios and not finish any of them. I have “shiny ball” syndrome and couldn´t do it without her.

Do you have any kind of release date? This year or next year?

Athena: Next year. It was this year, but so much happened that I actually had to go back and just rewrite an entire year basically. What I saw was that my last year wasn´t even close. I just found out more and more and it´s just a crazy ass year and if I wasn´t gonna be honest, I wasn´t gonna do it. For somebody who would read this and think it´s about somebody else, it´s not. It´s not about somebody else at all. It´s about me and how I found out stuff. There´s no blaming, there´s no anything. Anybody else is not even a focus. It´s all about me and what I was doing and what I was dealing with. It´s very fucking selfish Niclas.

It should be. It´s your book.

Athena: (laughs) I´m just kidding, but I wasn´t set out to focus on anybody else. That´s not my deal. I could care less.

I´m looking forward to it. I love stuff like that. You must´ve had a quite a rough year with the divorce and then your mother passed away, right?

Athena: Yeah, she died, on March 9th and Mother´s day is coming up in a few days. It´s gonna be weird. She was also really, really sick and we had some scares. She´d actually flat lined before and there was a time where we had to go out to Laughlin and basically sign papers removing her from life support and she breathed! It´s kind of like “Wow, she´s cool. She just wants to hang out.”. She´s one of the strongest women I´ve ever met and hopefully I can be that way once I get… I mean, I´m totally different than I was a year ago.

Yeah, stuff like that really…

Athena: It makes you grow up.

Yes.

Athena: You don´t have any parents now. Everything turns around on you. When you´re young you don´t even imagine being the parent because you always have one, or two and then all of a sudden you´re faced with not having any and you´re the responsible one, it´s pretty heavy.

You´ve got three kids and I´ve been checking out Bad Suns and it´s good.

Athena: Yeah, Miles!

I was thinking, with you and your brother playing drums and the whole rock thing, I thought Bad Suns was gonna be something like that, but it´s more in the vein of The Strokes or something like that.

Athena: You know Miles is extremely musical. Nobody in the family taught him to play. It was his thing. I would like sneak up behind him with a video camera when he was five years old and he would be playing on… his sister had a little toy salon, which is funny because she´s a hairdresser now. I didn´t put that together until right now. Look what I started. It had a chair and a sink and one of those faucets like who they wash your hair at the salon? Anyway, he would sit in the chair and lean over and sing into the faucet like it was a microphone and I would bust him. He was like that from jump. He took every kind of drumming you could take in school. Concert band, jazz band, marching band and he just kinda knows what he´s doing.

Have they released a full length album yet?

Athena: I´m not really sure. Things are happening so fast with them. I know they just finished an EP. As far as him not playing the heavy stuff? He can and he likes it, but he´s smart in knowing that there´s also a limited audience for that. He wants to do this for a living and make money. He wants to make sure that he can do this for life. He plays guitar and he sings and he wrote the theme song for our TV-show. He wrote the music for it and Lorraine Lewis and myself wrote the lyrics and we recorded it at my brother´s studio The Atrium.

Not too bad.

Athena: He´s 18 years old and wrote his first TV-show theme song. That doesn´t suck.

Your kids, are they living with you or have they moved out?

Athena: Well, Miles is 19 and Toby´s 21 and Matt will be 15 in a few days. He´s still figuring his thing out. He´s a good kid, but he´s 15 and we´ve all been 15.

True. What´s it like being a single mother in Hollywood?

Athena: You know what? I´ve been a single mother for the last 22 years, so it´s the same thing. I´m just being honest. I am and I have been. It´s been that way since they were born. The only thing that´s different now is that I can have boyfriends.

Good for you. A single mom with benefits.

Athena: Yes! (laughs)

I saw a video with this guy Scott Carey. Who´s that? He´s a pretty boy.

Athena: He´s amazing! Keep your eye out for this one! He´s great and he´s getting his thing going in the country. Me and Bobbie Brown are in the video (Cougar). They actually called her because they knew her from back in the “Cherry pie” video and now it´s supposed to be a few years later and she´s still hot. Hello! They asked if I could come in and play drums with him and I was kinda nervous and I go “I have never played in a country band in my life!” so I was laughing about it. Then I heard the song and it´s just a rock song basically, with country lyrics. Then I went down there and filmed the video and Honestly, I don´t think I´ve ever laughed that hard. They´re some fun people and Scott´s so talented and as you can see, definitely not hard to look at. (laughs) God, that was a rough day. (laughs) We just had a blast doing it and he´s actually releasing the video the last weekend in June in Nashville, and Bobbie and I are flying out there for the premiere. It´s gonna be amazing. If he wants to do live shows, I´m right here.

I read somewhere that there´s a possibility of an album coming out? Are you working on stuff right now?

Athena: I actually have the songs already, but I still have to get together with some musicians because it´s really hard… the hardest part is getting everybody’s schedule together. That´s the hardest part. The music is easy and fun when you get together, but the hardest part is getting together because people are touring. That´s the only thing that´s left, when we can all really get together and sit down at the same time and that´s when it´s all gonna start coming together. Right now it´s just not the time, with the show and the book. Unfortunately, that´s last on the burner, but I think it´s worth the wait.

Any names you´ll be working with that people know of?

Athena: Eeehhh, no. (laughs) Yes, but we´ll get that together later.

Excellent. Is it gonna be hard rock or rock?

Athena: No, no. Definitely not. I was a dancer my whole life and it is definitely not pop. You know what they all say, it´s dance but it´s heavy. Heavy dance, let´s put it that way. It´s super hooky. I´ve never been one for going into the room and kill everybody. I fucking hate that. It´s just not in me. I did play it for years, but I´m not saying I liked it. I´m all about a groove and that keeps me interested.

Are you hanging out with Pam Anderson these days?

Athena: I haven´t seen her. Actually I haven´t seen her for a while. My brother´s girlfriend Sophie is awesome and she´s a great girl. She´s a dancer and she´s a singer and they work on music together. I´m not saying that´s why I haven´t seen Pam. Pamela´s just not around.

I totally understand. Finally, have you heard anything of the new Mötley Crüe stuff?

Athena: Eeehhmm, no.

Ok.

Athena: (laughs) You don´t believe me, do you?

No, not at all. (laughs)

Athena: I´m a liar. No, I´m not a liar. I haven´t. They were recording it over at the house (Tommy´s) and my mom was there. She was there up until she died. She was staying there and had her hospice nurses and stuff and they were there recording downstairs. That´s it.

Cool. You gonna go see him on the KISS tour?

Athena: Of course! I couldn´t see them during the Vegas one. It flew by and I was all over the place, but I´ll get to see a lot of the same show that I missed and that´s gonna be great. That´s gonna be such a huge tour. Maybe I´ll be hanging with Shannon Tweed, you never know.

Have you got anything else going on besides the show, the book, the album?

Athena: No, I just keep in practice and I do play with people and I sit in with people, but unless an amazing tour comes to me and asks me to play and it´s already rolling, I´m in. If I like the music and I like the people, I´m there. I´m totally available to play in that sense, but as far as me starting right now and having the time to put something together from scratch, I just don´t have it in me. Number one, I don´t have the time and number two, right now I´m all about enjoying my life.

Sounds like you have a full plate and I´m real happy for you Athena.

Athena: It was good to talk to you, finally. I was talking with the girls the other day and we were talking about when you get older and settle down and I go “You know what? After all this stuff, I would love to have a place here for life, but I almost see myself living almost nomadically. Like not really locking into anything. I felt that I was locked down for so long and I don´t wanna be that way. What I would like to do is just rent a place that is mine and mine to keep or whomever I´m with and if I´d want to, just live in Greece for a summer or go anywhere and because of all the issues that Greece has been having, you can get dual citizenship by having Greek blood relative citizens! I Just wanna check things out. There´s a huge planet out there and as much as I love LA, I´ve been here and done that. I was born and raised here. I just kinda see myself floating around happily. Having a solid home is great, but I´m never again gonna lock myself into anything because life´s too short. You gotta see it.

So true. I´m actually gonna write for another blog about when we met at Sweden Rock Festival. It was a real fun experience and I had a blast. First me and my buddy interviewed Rudolf Schenker ans he was sitting there with his shirt off and there was this really young girl sitting next to him and we kept thinking “Is this his daughter or girlfriend or really young wife?” all through the interview.

Athena: (laughs) Right. That was a good night. It was fun. I loved it there but I didn´t get to see enough of it. But just driving into there, I was blown away by how beautiful it was. I´ll be back.

Cool. Thank you so much for taking the time and we´ll definitely talk again soon.

Athena: Cool Niclas!

Bad Suns HÄR

/Niclas

Intervju med Marty Friedman.

Jag fick nyligen möjlighet att ringa Japan för första gången och det kunde man ju inte låta bli att göra. I andra änden svarade supergitarristen Marty Friedman som 1990-2000 spelade med Megadeth.
Sedan flera år tillbaka bor han i Tokyo och är enormt engagerad i den japanska musikscenen och syns ständigt på japansk tv. Det blev ett långt samtal om bl a Megadeth, att öppna för Deep Purple, Jason Becker och Aqua (?).

Hi, I´m calling for Marty Friedman.

Marty Friedman: That´s me. Where are you calling from?

Stockholm, Sweden.

MF: Very cool. Hang on just one second. Ok, great. Let´s rock, man! How you doing?

I´m good. How´s Tokyo?

MF: It´s awesome, man.

Tell me about these albums of yours? They came out last year in Japan as I get it and now they´re being released in Europe.

MF: Right. Well, the main idea behind it is that they´re two albums of mine that I had originally only for Japan and for no other reason than that I was concentrating on cultivating Japan in the first place and I never really thought about doing international stuff with the records, but just doing it in Japan. I know I have a lot of fans and people interesting in my music outside of Japan and I certainly don´t want to ignore them, but it really takes a certain commitment to release your stuff everywhere. There´s a lot of things you have to do. You have to make sure the company is gonna get your record to the people that wanna hear it and you have to tour there and you have to go places and actually play the stuff live, so it´s a big commitment and I was just way too busy in Japan to even consider that kinda stuff when I made the records and to be honest with you, I´m still exactly the same kinda busy now, but the reason why I decided to release these records in Europe is because last year I did a solo tour of Europe with my band and we just had such great times that I just said “I don´t care how burnt out I get, I just need to get to Europe and keep playing and keep doing this stuff.”. I really got a lot of wonderful, wonderful response for playing there last time, so I just wanted to take the effort and get out to Europe a little bit more than I had before.

When was the last time you played in Sweden?

MF: Well, I´ve never played there as a solo artist, but I´m sure I´ve done guitar clinics by myself over there, but with a band I´m sure it´s Megadeth. I don´t remember when that was, but we played there many times in many different cities and it´s always been an excellent place and it´s a question why I haven´t been able to play there with solo stuff. This time I´m planning to do a tour of Europe in the fall of this year so hopefully I´ll get to Sweden. At least Stockholm or maybe Gothenburg, but I really don´t know why I haven´t up till now.

Cool. When you write, how do you write your music? Do you just sit down and it all kinda flows? How does it all start off when you´re writing a song?

MF: It´s always a melody based thing. I´ll always hear a melody and it´s usually when I´m not near an instrument or anything like that. I´ll just hear a melody and I wanna remember that and then I´ll start by recording that melody and see how many different ways I could possibly interpret the same melody and where that melody leads. It usually starts from a very simple melody and the rest just kinda takes care of itself. One thing leads to another and once I have a basic shape of the whole song that I´m doing, then I start to think of things like tempo and what kind of musicians I want to play on it or do I want to use sequencing or who I want on the track and what keys I wanna play it in and stuff like that. It all starts very simple and then it gets really blown out of proportion by the time it gets done for real.

What was it that originally attracted you to Japan and what made you stay in Japan?

MF: When I was touring in the 90´s particularly, and I´ve been touring there for a long time and every time I´d come to Japan it was like “Wow, I don´t wanna leave.”. I just really liked it and I really liked the music in Japan. What a lot of people don´t know is that in Japan, 80 % of the music that is sold and that people listen to, is domestic music and the other 20 % is all of everything else, like U2, Mariah Carey, Coldplay and all those big artists. They fit into only 20 %, so there´s a huge Japanese domestic scene which is just the most unique sound. That´s kinda what drove me to do that “Tokyo jukebox” series. It was kinda an obvious thing to do. Take my favorite songs and interpret them my way and that brings you to the reason why I´m in Japan really. It´s the musical scene and the musical world that I could really do something well with what I wanted to do in and I really wanted to be a part of it and add my flavor to Japanese music and be part of the Japanese domestic scene here.

I remember a few years back, Jack Blades from Night Ranger worked with some Japanese guy Tak…

MF: Tak Matsumoto, yeah.

Exactly and I read that he had sold like 80 million records in Japan and I´d never heard of the guy and I realized that Japanese artists sell a lot of records in Japan and you never hear about them over here.

MF: Right. Yeah, Tak Matsumoto is in a band called B´z and I´m sure they did sell at least 80 million in Japan and it´s such a fantastic band and there´s just a lot of really big, big artists here that do that kinda thing. B´z have had a super long career so that will add to that, but you know, there´s a really big hunger for music here even though it´s a small country. There´s a lot of different genres that kinda fit into J-pop and I like the freedom of not being stuck to a genre, like it has to be heavy metal or it has to be pop or R&B or whatever. J-pop is very blurry and there´s no real set genre type of thing in there.

Moving there, how long did it take for you to start speaking fluent Japanese?

MF: I was actually fluent before I moved to Japan. I was really interested in the language long before I moved here and I kinda learned it as a hobby and then I just started getting better and better and towards the last few years in Megadeth, I was doing all of my Japanese interviews in Japanese without a translator. I had gotten pretty good by then, but once I moved here I was pretty much beyond fluent at that time.

Cool. When you started out, what was it that attracted you to playing guitar? What made you pick up the guitar?

MF: Well, like probably tons of people it was the first hearing of KISS and The Ramones actually. Those were the two big ones. When I heard KISS, and I wasn´t even into rock music because I didn´t like rock music because I thought it was for hippies and stuff. I didn´t think it was cool at all and then I saw KISS and thought it was something different about it and not a bunch of hippies rolling around in the mud like Woodstock. It was exciting and loud and hard and it was just like the coolest thing I ever saw and when you see something like that when you´re 13 or 14, it has a lot of impact. After I heard them I heard The Ramones and I was like “Wow, I can probably do this.”.

As I understand it you´re pretty much self taught?

MF: Yeah.

Did you ever take classes?

MF: Yeah I took lessons for almost a year, maybe 8 or 10 months or so at the very beginning. My teacher was very good but he was kinda like a little bit closer to the hippie style of music, but he wasn´t teaching me wanted I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn everything off of KISS “ALIVE” and stuff like that and he was teaching me very important things that I eventually understood later, but he was maybe more towards the Jerry Garcia way of playing and that didn´t interest me, but he was an extremely good teacher and once I started being able to play guitar, I remembered things that he told me but I didn´t understand them before. It was like “That´s what the guy meant!”. I didn´t have time for that. “Fuck this, I´m gonna do it myself!”. (laughs)

As a guitar player and playing as much as you have, do you ever have to work out with your hands and fingers to stay in shape so to speak?

MF: No, I think once you´ve been playing even half as long as I have it´s not really about your fingers anymore. It´s all from the heart and your mind and it moves your fingers. You´re just receiving messages from elsewhere in your body to do what you do. That said, I don´t do unnecessary things that are gonna injure my fingers and I guess that´s just common sense for any kind of musician. I´ve never been one of those guys who makes athletics out of the whole thing. It´s not about your fingers, it´s kinda about your melodic sense and doing new things melodically that you have never done before. If anything, it´s an exercise for the brain that you have to continue to do and you have to always make sure that you´re not repeating yourself. That´s the biggest thing for me, to make sure I don´t repeat myself.

What kind of guitars are you playing these days? I was reading up on you and it was like you played with different ones like Jackson, Ibanez and Ovation. Do you stick with one brand or…?

MF: Right now I´m endorsing PRS guitars, but I play everything, man. On the two albums that you have, “Tokyo jukebox 2” and “Bad DNA”, and interesting thing about both of those records is that I didn´t use any of my own guitars on either of those records. I used guitars from the company, PRS sent me a few and the other guitars, which was about 25 guitars each time, were just borrowed guitars from my friends, from engineer´s friends, from people in LA that I knew and basically anybody that wanted to have their guitar in the studio and I wound up having a studio full of guitars that weren´t mine and I would just go through them and play them and if I liked them, they´d be on the record. I just found it so much more exciting, especially when people have their guitar and they might not be professional musicians like I am, but they play as a hobby and they buy one or two really nice guitars, those guys put a lot of love into those guitars. It´s like their dream and for me, a guitar is a tool, so whatever guitar I play, there´s no real emotion attached to it, but I notice when these people will bring their beloved guitars into the studio for me to play, it was like their girlfriend or something. (laughs) There´s a lot of love attached to it and I found it exciting to play on these guitars that I´´ve never played before and if the sound was something I liked I had no problem finding a place for it on the record. Now that I listen to those two records, the guitar sound is really fresh and it´s a wonderful way to do work because you´re playing with an instrument you´ve never touched before and I just found that extremely exciting. Both of these records are the first time I´ve ever done that.

Fascinating, because usually when you talk about guitar players they kinda stick with one guitar like Clapton playing Fenders and Frehley playing Gibsons and that´s all they play and so on.

MF: No I´m not like that at all. I think one reason is, whatever guitar I play, it wounds up sounding like me anyway, so there´s that and plus, I just never like getting tied down to a particular instrument even though I do endorse PRS and that´s because their fantastic guitars, I´m never one of those guys that´s gotta have my exact guitar or this exact piece of gear or else I can´t do it, you know. I never wanted to be like that, so whatever is in front of me, I can make something work. It was exhilarating to play all these different guitars and go through them. Of course I couldn´t use all of them, but maybe I used 20 different guitars on each record and learned a lot about other guitars. I´m not a big music store kinda guy or big guitar nut or anything like that. I knew the difference between a lot of guitars so when I get to actually test drive them and play them on the actual album it´s cool. I played Jeff Beck´s signature guitar on a lot of stuff and I really liked that guitar and Dave Grohl has a signature guitar and I used that a lot and a bunch of PRS´s and Gibsons and Fenders. The whole thing.

Do you know the Swedish guy Tommy Denander?

MF: Who?

Tommy Denander. He´s really well known and he´s played with a lot of people and he´s working with some guitar manufacturer and they came up with this guitar that you don´t have to tune?

MF: Yeah, I´ve played some of those guitars. I think it´s wonderful but… Gibson has one called a robot guitar and I think it´s really good for a live situation and maybe he´s got one that is better, but I don´t think they´ll make one that is perfect to a studio recording standard. I think it´s probably best for not necessarily professional musicians but someone who is like playing local parties and stuff and doesn´t have one to tune their guitar or don´t have the time to do it. I really don´t know the purpose of that guitar actually. I enjoyed my Gibson one, but in the studio it was never perfect for recording.

Back in the day, how did you and Jason Becker hook up?

MF: When I was first starting to do some work with Shrapnel Records, I was gonna make a solo album of all my own original stuff and it was just gonna be the most intense guitar record ever. It was gonna be the dream record that I wanted to do and just before I was about to record it, I got a call from Mike Varney from Shrapnel Records and he said “Dude, you gotta listen to this 16 year old kid! He´s a monster on guitar.” And I´m like “Whatever dude!”. I couldn´t have cared less. “What do I care about some guitar player?” and he said “No dude, you gotta check this guy out! Just listen to him once.”. So I had Jason come to my house and I just fell in love with the guy. He was really good on guitar, but he was just a different kind of guitarist. Most guitarists are kind of a similar personality and he wasn´t that at all. He was just like a really nice kid that happened to play just like jaw dropping amazing guitar and it was fantastic, but what did it have to do with me? I didn´t care. I was making my own record and then I started to show him some of my music and he could pick it up really quickly and my stuff was really unique and difficult and not the type of stuff that people already know how to play. Really quite perverted, but he could pick it up just as soon as I showed it to him and I started to think that if we formed a band together, we could actually perform my music live. Even though my record was pretty much already written, I decided to rewrite some of the record and have it written so he could be featured on the record as well and that´s how Cacophony was born.

It´s pretty amazing that after all he´s gone through with the disease and everything, that he´s still around and he´s still making music. I´m really looking forward to the movie. I´ve just seen the trailer for it.

MF: Absolutely. You have to see it man! I can´t recommend it more to you. They did a great job.

I read that you had this band Hawaii and you supported Deep Purple in Hawaii. When was this, in the 80´s?

MF: Yeah, in the 80´s for sure. I don´t remember exactly what year. Probably ´84 or something like that.

Was it for the “Perfect strangers” tour?

MF: Yeah, that´s it.

What was that like and how did you get the gig?

MF: Well, Hawaii just started to get popular in Hawaii actually. We´d been playing in Hawaii for two years or something beforehand and we were so heavy and so noisy and so intense that people hated us really. Heavy metal wasn´t really popular around the whole world in 1981 or 82 and Hawaii is already like 15 years behind. All they wanted to hear was hula dance music and our music was really, really intense and we´d just released an album called “The natives are restless” and for Hawaii it was kinda pop. It was still metal but it sounded like your basic 80´s kinda pop metal, but not like what we were really like and that got us really popular in Hawaii. The radio stations played us a lot and we started to actually have people show up at our shows and we started to make a name for ourselves in that small place. We´d done a lot of gigs and we had a name around town and they asked us to do the big show with Deep Purple. It was a great show but I was never a Deep Purple fan at all. That whole classical music played by rock, it didn´t impress me at all. It wasn´t my type of thing but when I saw them play live I realized how professional they were and how unprofessional we were. I thought we were the greatest thing ever and I had a big old ego. I was a big old ego guy. I was like “They suck! They´re a bunch of old fat guys!” and I could not be bothered with it. Then after we finished playing, they started playing and they sounded about 5000 times better than us and it was just such a professional sound and I just couldn´t believe how much better they were than we were. After that point I really stopped being an egomaniac. (laughs) When a band that you didn´t really like, just blows you away so much, you kinda learn from the experience and I was maybe like 18 or so. No I was older than that. I was probably 20 or something and it really changes your mind about professionalism, but we did a really good job as far as Hawaii goes, but we were kinda like crazy young kids playing heavy metal and they were professional, so I learned a lot about that and tried to be a little bit more professional after that.

Cool. I also read that you played Budokan in Tokyo in 2003? What was that like? That is a classic arena. Did it feel like playing in a historic place?

MF: I was always a huge fan of Budokan just because it´s legendary. I think it´s the only venue in Japan that rock people know the name of. Megadeth never played there and so when I came here by myself I played Budokan three times, but the first time… of course I was nervous, but it´s just another gig so there´s actually no reason to be nervous and when you get in there it just looks like a nice venue, but I kinda like psyched myself into getting nervous because you gotta get a little bit nervous, man. It´s a nice venue and I´ve played millions of similar venues all around the world, but it´s not the biggest venue in the world. I think it´s maybe 6000 or 7000 people, but it is legendary and the first time I played there it was just the biggest thrill. I had billions of photos taken and sent them to every single person I knew and I just loved it. It´s just an awesome thing to do.

Have you stayed in touch with Dave Mustaine and the other guys through the years?

MF: Not all that much. Not really that much, but not zero. We´ve been in touch a few times and it´s very friendly and I have no problem in the world with them and wish them nothing but success and hopefully they feel the same.

Have you listened to any of the stuff they did after you left?

MF: Actually, I heard the one record they made right after I left and that´s the last most recent thing I heard of theirs. That´s about it really.

I read that one of the reasons that you left was that Megadeth wasn´t aggressive enough. Is that true?

MF: Oh yes, that´s totally true. Totally, totally true. At the time when I left it was the beginning of 2000, but I actually told the guys that I was gonna leave in the middle of ´99, but that´s another story. I left in 2000 an at that time every other band was just about a 1000 times more aggressive than we were. At the time you had I guess Korn and Marilyn Manson and even Limp Bizkit had stuff that was deeply heavy and our stuff just sounded thin and small and to my ear it just sounded really dated and very old fashioned and traditional. There´s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things and in fact a lot of people who are into heavy metal, really like that traditional sound and don´t want it to change, so that´s a very valid point and I understand it especially since I´ve been an Ramones fan since I was a baby. When they changed just the slightest thing I got all crazy, so I understand that but with a name like Megadeth and all the other bands are just blowing you away with this big deep heavy sound that is way scarier and way harder and more aggressive than a band called Megadeth, it was not turning me on anymore. I was like “Let´s do one thing or the other! Let´s either get friggin´ heavier or let´s just be a little bit more marketable, because right now, we´re kind of an underground band and we shouldn´t be. We´ve got so much great potential within the four members of the band that we shouldn´t be an underground traditional metal band.”. That´s not where I wanted to go, but maybe that´s where they wanted to go. It was just a completely musical decision why I left the band and it had absolutely nothing to do with any personal problems. I was just seeing all these other bands and I love aggressive music, but it´s gotta be really fucking aggressive. I hear stuff now like Decapitated and stuff like that. I would´ve wanted to play stuff more in that vein than what we were doing. I thought, maybe our first couple of records when I joined the band were kind of aggressive for that time, but there was so much stuff after it that I would say was trumping us in that department. I know music´s not a competition and I wasn´t competing, but I just thought that other bands were doing what I thought we should do better. I don´t know why we were always in the mid tempo kind of 80´s thrash metal zone and we were all beyond that, but that´s really what I meant back then and I totally meant it.

About doing something different, did you listen to Metallica´s “Lulu” project?

MF: Ahhh, I think I heard one song where Lou Reed is like talking or something. I didn´t listen to it thinking that I was gonna be asked about it, I just remember “What´s this?”. Was he rapping or was it spoken word?

Yeah, I guess it´s more like spoken word throughout the album.

MF: Yeah, I don´t know. I have no idea.

But as a musician, could you see yourself doing something that´s totally different from what you´ve done before in a way to push things forward?

MF: I absolutely believe it and I absolutely get it and I understand it. The thing with Metallica is that they´re such a great band and they´ve got so much great stuff already in their history, that they could just like fart on a record and people would at least wanna see why they´re doing it, you know. They´ve got so much great stuff and they´re allowed to be experimental if they want. I have a lot of weird trippy stuff that I haven´t released that maybe if I was in a band like Metallica, I would have the opportunity to release it, but I kinda keep my stuff a little bit more to how I´d like to represent myself, but I think all musicians have a lot of experimental stuff and that´s how you grow. I give them total props and total credit for always being experimental and that´s why they´re always one step ahead of the curve in the world of heavy metal and that´s why they´re like the Rolling Stones of heavy metal. They´ve always continued to reinvent themselves while keeping that great sound, but I can´t really speak for that whole “Lulu” album. I don´t think they´re gonna lose fans with it, but they have fans of their old stuff who are not gonna like it as much most likely, but if they like it, that´s all that matters. It really is. Especially when you have a history of success behind you. It takes balls to do something that you know your hardcore fans are not gonna like. It´s easy to preach to the converted. It´s easy to do that and it´s fun to do it because everyone´s gonna love you and it´s great, but it takes balls to take a risk and even more balls to do it in public and release it so I give them credit.

Right. Finally, as I understand it, you´re turning 50 in December of this year?

MF: Ah well, some people might think that. (laughs)


How do you feel about your age. I turned 40 a year ago and you really get the feeling that things go faster and the years go by faster. Do you feel like there´s all this stuff that you gotta do before you turn 70 and you can´t hold a guitar anymore or do you juust go with the flow?

MF: Nah nah, I never ever think about that kinda thing. Age has not stopped me from doing anything and actually, I think I´m probably way healthier no than I was 20 years ago. I´m able to do so much more and so much better with so much more energy now than before. It´s almost like a strange phenomenon I guess in my case because I really feel that I am physically stronger and I´m better at what I do than ever and it keeps going that way for whatever reason. I think it´s the things I´ve surrounded myself with and projects that I´ve been involved with and just a constant flow of interesting work that I have been able to do. Maybe that´s my secret, enjoying what I do. I never think about that and I lie about my age constantly if I´m asked. (laughs) That helps, man. As long as you look the age that you´re lying about, who cares?

True. What other projects have you got going on right now?

MF: Too many to even speak about. A lot of the stuff is pretty much all for Japan as of right now, but I´m looking at American releases of my past five records. I´m looking to do the same thing in America as I did in Europe and that means touring there too, but in Japan I have tours planned and I have new releases planned and lots of television stuff, but for anybody reading in Sweden, the main thing I really wanna talk about is this album release and the tour which looks like it´s gonna be in October. I really hope to get to Sweden on this tour because this will be my third solo tour of Europe and on the first and second one I didn´t get to anywhere in Scandinavia. I don´t know if it´s a promoter thing or a money thing or what it is? It´s always been a great place when I came with Megadeth and it´s always been the type of place where I think they would appreciate what I do. Hopefully the promoters that are taking me this time, will get me to Sweden and if not, then hopefully people will be able to see me close by. I do plan to cultivate Europe and America more and hopefully Scandinavia even more. I´m a huge fan of Scandinavian music to be honest with you. I´m a big, big pop fan from way back, like going back to ABBA, but more recently stuff like Aqua and stuff like that. That´s probably gonna lose me friends in the metal world, but a good song is a good song so fuck everybody! (laughs) It really is but a lot of that stuff has correlations to metal, especially now days where everything goes… especially in Japan where everything goes mixing happy silly stuff with really heavy hard stuff. A lot of the best pop music in America is written in Scandinavia and there´s no secret about that so I have a really big interest in a country that puts out so much unique and great melodic music. It´s a big deal for me so hopefully I can play there and soak it up a little bit.

Cool. Well, excellent talking to you Marty. This was actually my first phone call to Japan ever. A totally new experience.

MF: Wow! Well, hopefully I can meet you when I get over there on this tour. We´ll definitely say hello.

Absolutely and good luck with all your projects!

MF: Thank you so much and I appreciate your support.



/Niclas

Axl strikes again.

Enligt NME har rödtoppen slagit till ännu en gång under pågående Englandsturné och beordrat vakter i arenorna att se till att ingen i publiken bär en tröja med Slash på.
Kan ingen bara kasta en stekpanna i huvudet på denne fullkomliga galning?

Läs i NME HÄR

/Niclas

Så sant.

Efter kvällens högtidsfestande med frun siktar jag på att under helgen antingen ta tag i intervjun med Marty Friedman eller den med Athena Lee.
Skål!

/Niclas

Blivande personlig sommarplåga.



Något av det bästa som föräras speltid i rock and roll-rummet just nu. Den får dock samsas med Storm Corrosion och Panteras "Vulgar display of power" Deluxeverionen.

/Niclas

Dee Snider gästar el Stockholmo!

Missa inte chansen att få boken signerad av pudelfrissans overlord himself, Dee Snider. Personligen hoppas jag på en liten intervju. Den som lever får se.
Själv minns jag återföreningen på Sweden Rock. Jag och polaren lallade runt backstage mer än framför scenen och träffade på allt och alla. Vi fotade oss med samtliga medlemmar i Twisted Sister. När jag la armen om Dee och råkade röra hans blonda och hårt sprayade hårman, tittade han lite förmanande på mig och yttrade de numera klassiska orden: "Please, mind the hair!".

Info HÄR

/Niclas

Nytt i brevlådan.

Vilken timing. På min och fruns 10-åriga bröllopsdag landade den här lilla godsaken i brevlådan. Ska bli kul att läsa även om det verkar vara mycket father hit och father dit och spreading the gospel. Dock tvivlar jag inte en sekund på att den är underhållande.



/Niclas

Ny serie om 80-talet på SVT.

Saxat från SVT:

"Eurythmics, Frankie goes to Hollywood och Kim Wilde är några av de ikoniska grupper och artister som porträtteras i The Eighties. Viktiga händelser som Live Aid och starten av musikkanalen MTV har också en självklar plats i serien. Varje avsnitt tar avstamp i ett år och serien börjar med 1980, året då synthbandet Depeche Mode bildas och hårdrocksbandet Def Leppard släpper sitt debutalbum. Reportern Jens von Reis har pratat med Vince Clarke (grundare av Depeche Mode, Yazoo och Erasure), Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode), Andy Bell (Erasure) och Joe Elliot (Def Leppard). Dessutom blir det naturligtvis massor av musikvideos och konsertklipp!"

Första avsnitten sänds den 8 juni.

/Niclas

Van Halens barnvakt om de ljuva åren.

Ted Cohen fick i uppgift att "vakta" bandet på första turnén 1978 och blev sedan kvar med bandet under de kommande åren. Enligt honom hade troligtvis Diamond Dave aldrig fått sparken om det inte varit för Eddies fru Valerie Bertinellei, som han jämför med Yoko Ono.

Läs om VH i LA Weekly HÄR

/Niclas

Oh Henry my Henry i ny film.



Kanske inte en blivande klassiker, men Henry Rollins är ju alltid Henry Rollins.
Jag mailade Henry tre korta frågor och fick tre korta svar.


How did you end up in "In the House of flies"?

Henry: The director asked me.

When was it shot?

Henry: Last year, I think.

What was it that made you do it?

Henry: It was work. I work for a living.

/Niclas

Nytt i brevlådan.

Gojiras nya DVD dök upp i lådan idag. Två konserter på DVD, en dokumentär samt en konsert på CD. Dessutom är hela paketet riktigt snyggt. En dubbelsidig poster medföljer också.
Vive la France!

/Niclas

Slutet för Queensrÿche?

Efter galenskapen kring Operation Knifecrime i Sydamerika känns det som att bildandet av Rising West knappast löser problemen mellan Geoff Tate och de andra medlemmarna.
Tate har ju i intervjuer rackat ner på fantastiska album som "Rage for order" och "Empire" och att de andra medlemmarna nu bildar ett band som ska spela de "klassiska" låtarna visar väl än mer att allt inte står rätt till i Queensrÿcheland, men det har det å andra sidan inte gjort sedan "Promised land" såg dagens ljus.
Jag har träffat och intervjuat både tate och Rockenfield och de har alltid verkat okomplicerade och med fötterna på jorden, men det är ju ingen garanti för att ett band ska fungera. Tates soloplatta var fullkomligt värdelös och att frun sköter bandets management kanske inte alltid är så bra. Verkligen synd på ett band som en gång i tiden var överjävligt bra och stora personliga favoriter. Men men, den som lever får se. Kanske blir allt detta en spark i arslet på samtliga medlemmar och 2013 prånglar de ut den där plattan som alla väntat på sedan "Empire"?

/Niclas

Äntligen!

Solen sken och jag traskade in på Pressbyrån med yngsta dottern för inköp av glass. Lo and behold, men där uppenbarade sig äntligen Metal Hammers och So Whats specialnummer om 30-årsfirandet på Fillmore i San Francisco förra året.
En liten bonus är den medföljande sjutummaren med de två livespåren "So what" och "Through the never". Pappa Niclas är en happy camper.

/Niclas

Oh Henry my Henry!

I den här veckans krönika befinner sig den ständigt resande mr Rollins i Johannesburg, Sydafrika. En plats som påverkar honom starkt.

Henry HÄR

/Niclas

Intervju med Zakk Wylde!

Några timmar innan konserten med Ozzy Osbourne blev jag inslussad till ett rum snett bakom scenen. Där satt Zakk Wylde och välkomnade med en flaska vatten samtidigt som han öppnade en alkoholfri öl till sig själv. Han var på ett sprudlande humör och skämtade hårt med sin crew som kom och gick under intervjun.
Så här i efterhand ångrar jag att jag stängde av bandaren när jag trodde vi var klara och tiden egentligen var ute, för herr Wylde fortsatte att snacka och bjuda på allehands stories om Axl Rose, Bon Jovi, Kingdom Come, hur en rockstjärna ska lära sig om banklån och avbetalningar med mera. Vi skrattade ikapp och så här i efterhand vet jag inte egentligen vad som kom fram av själva intervjun. Wylde har en otrolig förmåga att hamna på alla möjliga sidospår och ibland är det svårt att avgöra om han bara driver eller om han helt enkelt bara tycker om att prata. Mycket.
Den inledande frågan om hans såser ställdes för att han tidigare under dagen besökt den nyöppnade butiken Extreme Foods på Östgötagatan, men om jag fick svar på den vetefan.

Were you out promoting sauces today?

Zakk Wylde: Sauces, the book, shows, the whole nine yards. World peace. I was doing some United Nations Gandhi business and it was very good. A very fruitful day. Spreading the Black Label gospel of religion of confusion.

That´s the way to do it. I was kinda wondering about your acting stuff, like “Californication” and that movie “Jed”. Do you get scripts sent to you?

ZW: Yeah, I run into some of these guys like a director and they say “I was thinking about you and I said, dude let´s put Zakk in this thing!”, you know what I mean? So they can obviously belittle me and take the piss out of me and I think that´s the reason why I end up in these movies, man. (laughs) No, but whenever I do them I always have a great time. Like everyone´s super cool and like “You tell me what you need me to do.” and we go over the script and I learn my lines and you do it till you get it right. It´s just like being in the studio, you just keep doing it till we got the take. I mean, it´s not like Broadway and it´s live and one shot. I mean, in the studio Jimmy Page could´ve played that solo for Stairway to heaven” 42 times until we got the one we liked. You just keep going.

Have you ever taken classes?

ZW: Yeah, I took classes for a little bit because they asked me before we did the “Rock star” movie and some other thing and I was like “Yeah, no problem.”. But I mean, the acting thing… if they want you to act pissed off, I think you´ll be able to act pissed off, you know what I mean? (laughs) It´s gotta be believable. It´s just like when you watch those “Snatch” movies and “Lock stock and two smoking barrels”, a lot of those guys were like athletes and some of them were not really professional actors. Like a friend of me told me that one of the guys used to be an old rugby player. But as long as you´re believable and it doesn´t look cheesy. It depends on… if the acting is so bad it´s awesome. (laughs) But if you need to act pissed off or you need to act upset… “Zakk, act like you´re really pissed off about something!” and it´s like “Alright, no problem.”. Like I said, you just do it till you get it right.

Is “Californication” the latest thing you did?

ZW: Yeah, yeah. They asked me to work in a guitar store or something like that and I was like “No problem:”.

That´s a great show.

ZW: Yeah it´s way cool! David Duchovny is super cool, so I had a good time doing that one as well.

Cool. Are you gonna do something with Kerry King?

ZW: Well I mean, I always talk with Kerry, especially during the football seasons because he´s a big Raiders guy and… you know, the running joke is… with him and the whole Satanism thing and me being Catholic (laughs) it´s awesome man! His lady, his wife will send me pictures of them with like upside down crucifixes and everything and I go “That´s so humble of you.”. That´s the most humbling thing you can do. You know that´s Peter´s cross, the first pontiff, the first pope and I go “You´re gonna score some points when you get upstairs.” and he goes “Fuck you asshole!”. (laughs) And then when the Broncos ended up beating the Raiders, because he´s such a huge Raiders freak and Raider Nation I just called it the Satanic Nation and the whole thing… and Tim Tebow is such a massive Christian and when he is bowing down to the big guy and I go “It´s a sad day in Satanic Nation when you got beat by a Catholic rookie quarter back!”. (laughs) I was calling him up because he wasn´t even responding to the texts and he was like “Go fuck yourself asshole!”. (laughs) You know he´s got the tattoo God hates us all and I said to him “Dude, on the other arm you gotta put Satan ain´t too fond of us either.” (laughs) and he´s like “Hey man, don´t blame me for this bullshit!”.

But if you guys would do something together, would it be more towards your style or more in the aggressive vein of Slayer?

ZW: Well, with Kerry… they were the originators of that, the thrash shit, but originally med Dime and Kerry were gonna do like a 3G type of thing like Steve Vai and they guys and obviously with Saint Dime it went down with him, so I mean it´s just like… he´ll either come out to the shows or we´ll see him when they´re doing a Slayer gig or like I ran into Kerry at the Roast, you know he was down at the thing. But Like I´m looking here and they´re gonna be here like two weeks from now with Marilyn Manson or some stuff like that? They´re playing here, right?

Gothenburg.

ZW: I mean, he´s working all the time and he never stops working either. If he´s not on the road, they´re pumping out a record and then they´re right back on tour. Those guys never come off the road. It´s a miracle I run into Kerry and talk to him as much as I do.

New Black Label stuff then? Are you working on anything?

ZW: No, but in August we´re gonna do an “Unblackened” DVD and it´s gonna have strings, piano, acoustic, but still electric with solos and stuff like that. It´s till electric and jamming and so. Like how we “The song remains not the same” where it´s like the heavy version of songs reworked on piano and stuff like that, so that´ll be the next thing we do and then we´ll go off and roll with the Canadian chapter and the South American chapter after that and obviously when that´s gonna be out, we´re still gonna be out touring and obviously they´ll probably want us to promote that thing as well, so I would imagine 2014 will be the next studio album with the heavy stuff on it. I was just looking at my schedule and it´s like two or three years, but it´s already mapped out. Obviously shit changes in between and we´ll figure out what the fuck to do, but this way it´s pretty much mapped out. It really is crazy when you think about it. Anything you gotta plan now is gotta be like six months down the road. I mean, as soon as the soccer season stops, they´re already setting up next season. That´s just the way it goes. But right now in the foreseeable future, after we get done with this eight week crusade and jamming and being with the boss… we´re having a blast. We jammed the other night and it was a good time.

You´ve got Black Label, you´ve done some acting, you got your book out, is there anything left that you feel you have to try?

ZW: Eehhh, I´m trying to think here… Well, I´ve tried Satanism, that Crowley thing, I´ve tried Catholicism, Judaism… one day I´ll try Scientology and get kicked out and get chased after and then I´ll be part of the Illuminati… (laughs) Overall good family fun! Just kicked out of every religion. (laughs) Even worse the Alistair Crowley. Kicked out of everything. The golden dawn, the local Irish pub. (laughs)

Pretty cool idea actually.

ZW: (laughs) Oh my god!

Before I came here, I did some radio and I played Pride & Glory´s “Toe´n the line”. Is there stuff lying around from that album?

ZW: Oh, from the P&G stuff? I think, not that much. We recorded pretty much everything when we did that thing. That album was obviously a complete departure from the Ozzy stuff. Like with Oz double tracking guitars, layering things, you know like making a proper record whereas Pride & Glory was just kinda like how you made them in the old days where it´s just live. It really was. It was like one guitar track and that´s about it and if there was a mistake in there or something like that, we pretty much left it on there. I didn´t go back and put clean guitars on them, it´s just me turning the volume down on the guitar. But that was the energy on that record. It was kinda really like a Cream type vibe. It was a three piece and that´s why there´s a lot of improv going on and a lot of jamming because it´s not… I mean, Ozzy is Ozzy and Black Label´s Black Label and the Allman Brothers, there´s room for improv and the guys stretching things out and jamming and same thing with Cream. The three of them were virtuosos, so Jack Bruce… I mean, that´s why Geezer, that was his favorite guy because as a bass player he´s all over the place. I mean, he´s like lead bass and then you´ve got Eric (Clapton) killing it and Ginger was all over the place. It´s not like he´s just sitting back there holding down the groove, he´s wailing all over the place too, but you can do that with a three piece. That´s why Black Label is more of a controlled environment then P&G. I don´t know how much of that stuff is left. I´ve got all the masters at the house and stuff like that. Actually, I´m getting everything digitalized right now, because that 2 inch ain´t gonna last forever. It´s like pope Page with all the Zeppelin masters, god only knows what those things look like. I´m just saying. Once they´re gone, they´re gone. Those things are like the Ten Commandments. (In a loud voice) “I give you these 20…” (makes the sound of lightning striking) “These 10 commandments.”. What´s the name of that movie? (laughs) Was it “Wholly Moses”, the one with Dudley Moore? He´s building the statue because he was pissed of that Moses… remember the two babies were going down the stream and Moses went the right direction and Dudley Moore´s character went the other way and he felt he was the chosen one and they were all pissed off and got ripped off and he´s building that statue and he´s on a ladder and goes “People will come from miles around… to worship your granite ass!”. (laughs) The massive rainstorms comes and the lightning hits the fucking statue and he´s on the fucking ground and all of the sudden it´s god talking to him and he goes “How dare you?” and goes off on him and Dudley goes “Well, why did you do this to me? Why did you let Moses be the one?” and god is explaining to him and he goes “Don´t let me ever catching you doing this again!” and Dudley goes “Why should I believe you?” and all of a sudden it stops raining and he goes “By the way, who do you think just stopped the rain?”. (laughs really hard)

Good stuff. A final thing, I was just wondering… I work as a teacher…

ZW: What´s that like, with the kids? What grade do you teach?

Right now, 4th graders.

ZW: Is that pretty cool?

It can be.

ZW: What age are the fourth graders?

My kids are 10.

ZW: 35, 38 (laughs) Right before 40. (laughs)

Yeah. It´s way out in the suburbs and it´s mostly immigrant kids with parents from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and stuff like that. It can be really difficult.

ZW: Wow! How old are they again?

10.

ZW: 10, alright. My little guy Hendrix is nine.

I was wondering about when you grew up and when you were in school, was there any teacher that you remember encouraging you in taking up music or as you remember being…

ZW: Well, one teacher Mr. McCormack in high school was really cool. I took music theory and stuff like that, but his class, I always looked forward to that because that was cool and I still talk to him to this day. He teaches a high school band in Jackson Memorial High school and they´re playing at the Rose bowl parade, like the marching bands. I still talk with him and then there´s my guitar teacher Leroy was great. Besides teaching me scales and theory and stuff like that, he´d teach me how to play my favorite Sabbath songs or how to play that lick in “Back in black” (sings) and that was like the coolest thing and being able to do it, it was like “Wow!”. It just opens up a new world. It´s like “Wow, that´s how you do that lick!” and then you connect that lick to this lick and how everything connects together, so you learn how to speak the language, you know what I mean? This word connects with that and spells that. That´s what´s cool about theory and learning scales. It just opens up the worlds. And obviously you have like with The Beatles, just stumbling on things like the 7th chord, “Wow, this is cool!” and chord changes like with George Harrison just messing around with chords and going “Wow, this sounds bad ass!”. Here´s a good trivia question! I read this a while ago and it´s pretty cool. Apparently George Harrison went down to see a Zeppelin show and he told Jimmy Page “Wow, how come you guys don´t do any ballads?” and this was right before they did “Houses of the holy” and that´s why in the “Rain song” (sings) it´s the first chords in “There´s something in the way she moves…” (from the song Something by George Harrison) and Jimmy did that like purposely, so those first chords are like a nod to George Harrison and The Beatles. It´s really cool and “The rain song” is amazing.

Cool!

ZW: And also, if you notice on the “Order of the black” album we have the symbols. We didn´t get that from Zeppelin. We got it from Prince, who got it from Zeppelin and Zeppeling got it from the Druids. (laughs) Just to let the record be straight, ok! And if you notice, it´s a trickledown effect, a water down effect and as you can tell, we´re the most watered down and the weakest. (laughs hard).

Excellent! Thank you!



/Niclas