I was watching a video on Youtube of Marty Friedman in Thessaloniki, Greece – being joined on stage by Greece’s #1 guitar hero Gus G. When those two great players started playing, I spontaneously thought to myself: “Man… What a GUITARGASM…!”
I laughed and wondered where the hell I got THAT word from. It just seemed like the only appropriate word for it. Was it even a real word?? I had to check, so I googled it. Turns out that it was very much a word used to describe the sexual symbolism in guitarplaying.
Definition of guitargasm #1: “The look of sheer ecstacy on one’s face while playing a guitar solo – usually triggered by a long, sustained note or bend. Looks very similar to the person’s “o”- face” Definition #2: “The expression of often orgasmical ecstacy shown whilst playing guitar. Most commonly used during shredding”
I often thought of that actually, how sometimes when I see guitarists getting into a solo, or just playing for an enthusiastic crowd, they get that facial expression that most of us women have seen many times.. :-) Well, you know…. That expression. ;-P
There’s a lot to be said about the erotic symbolism of the guitar. Speaking of Gus G, this was something I actually thought of a few months ago while watching the Firewind live DVD. At times he played so passionately that… not only could you see it in his face that he was totally into what he was doing, but he actually played as if he was making love to his guitar.
That’s a cool thing, because when you are able to project that on a stage while playing your music, you’re truly born to be a musician. After all, we’re all just animals who are responding to very simple things, whether or not we’re aware of it.
“Embrace the gun”??
Yngwie had that quality too. His hands were flying up and down the neck and over the body of his guitar. He could really make it look sexy, eventhough he wasn’t exactly a pretty boy.
My sister once mentioned something about that when we were talking about music. She said that there was actually scientific proof that women could get aroused by watching a man play guitar, simply because of the shape of the instrument and the musicians hands skillfully handling it. It was a subconscious thing apparently. Quite honestly, I never heard of that before, but it sounded like it made some sense. So I started looking for more info on the subject.
The first thing that came up when I was searching for more info on this delicate but interesting subject, was ART. More specifically, Picasso and a painting called Reclining Nude with a Man Playing the Guitar.
I’m not an art expert by any means, but the common interpretation of the painting was very interesting. I’m taking the liberty of copying it as is:
“Is xxx suggesting that the guitar — the male artist’s instrument in more ways than one — is more important than the nude, who is an incidental accompaniment to the strident music of the colors and bizarre interplay of the shapes?
Is the covert point of Millei’s transformation of Picasso’s painting to suggest the dominance and consequence of the man and the submission and inconsequence of the woman? But let’s not forget that Picasso’s guitar is shaped like a female body, suggesting that when the man plays it he is copulating with the nude in unconscious fantasy. He is after all playing the guitar to seduce her.
Also, the guitar’s opening has become a surreal hole-nipple, suggesting that it is a dream condensation of the female body, and also an abstract condensation of concave and convex forms.
The guitar’s long, fretted neck is clearly suggestive of the penis, suggesting that the guitar is also a dream condensation of heterosexual intercourse. But playing the guitar may mean that making art is masturbating and is thus fundamentally narcissistic, whatever the accompanying fantasy of a stimulating woman.
As Hanna Segal suggests, to make good art is to make beautiful music with oneself, while to have good sex is to make beautiful music with someone else.
This again affirms the primary importance of the actively playing male artist and the secondary importance of the passively reclining female nude, even if she physically occupies more of Picasso’s painting than he does.”
Who knew that there was so much to be said about the guitar and the symbolism of it?! I was never that much into guitars when I first got into metal (which to me is the ultimate guitar-music), but after hearing Yngwie, how could I resist?! I always loved good music, passionate music and most of all, passionate musicians – regardless of the instrument they’ve chosen.
Being a singer myself, I’ve been mostly into good vocals/vocalists, because I could relate to it more than any other instrument. That has changed over the years. I’m crazy about drums, and a good drummer can make me feel musically high. There is definitely something very sexy about drums too – it’s very primal, very masculine, aggressive and powerful. Hell, you can make anything to be about sex if you want to. :-)
You live and learn. And all this just because I watched a video with two cool guitarplayers sharing a small club-stage in Greece. :-) Seriously, how cool is this – I totally dig it:
Only 2 weeks till Sweden Rock Festival and all those bands that I love…! One of those bands being Whitesnake – a band that’s always been close to my heart.
It’s funny when I think back and remember how I even started listening to WS, it was after hearing “Guilty of Love” on the radio back in 1984. The reason why I loved the song wasn’t the song itself at first, it was that very simple but effectful drumroll that Cozy did right at the end of the song, before the last chorus. I loved that detail, could listen to it over and over again. The rest is history. :-)
Sometimes when I find interviews or videos of my meetings with David Coverdale, I still can’t believe that this man went from being a poster on the wall in my teenage room, to somebody who knows and remembers my name in an instant, regardless where he sees me, if it’s in a crowd or a press conference or whatever. If I stop and think about that, it’s pretty amazing, because of all the people this man meets on an everyday basis, in all different corners of the world – to think that I said or did something that makes him remember me every time, is pretty damn unbelievable. :)
These are some of those memorable moments…. The “classic” interview that I did in 1999 I’ve already published in this blog, audio files and all. Check for “Lost and found- David Coverdale” (link in left hand column).
David and Doug doing an acoustic performance at the Sweden Rock Festival kickoff party at Nalen in Stockholm, 2006:
One of those special moments was the press conference at the Sweden Rock festival-kickoff at Nalen in Stockholm December 2, 2006.
I recorded this press conference on an MD-recorder but the recorder/MD-player is shot so when I try to play the MD’s it sounds like crap. If anyone still wants to hear the entire press conference, drop me a line at intherearviewmirror@ymail.com or add a comment.
As you can hear from this short clip, the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. But this is one of those small moments that I was talking about, in a room of journalists where David treats everyone politely but professionally, he never once mentioned anyone by name. Until I decided to ask something…
He kept doing that, talking as if we were old friends, when in fact, I had “only” met him maybe 3 or 4 times prior to that, very short hello’s apart from the long and relaxed interview that I had the pleasure of doing in 1999. One of the rare occasions where you don’t have to feel stressed. Usually you get 20 minutes, tops. He had all the time in the world, cause I think I was the last journalist to talk to him that day.
A funny thing about the Sweden Rock kickoff press conference, was that I was going to take a photo of David and Doug before they left, but accidentally hit the record-movie button. Thank god for that, cause I got these 8 seconds on tape (where he gets up to leave and doesn’t ask anyone else if they’ve got any more questions – he turns to me to check if I’ve got all the material I need..!).
This is from my MySpace-account so I’m not sure if it’s visible to non-MySpace users but since I can’t find the original video, this is the only place I’ve saved it:
Then there was my birthday. Whitesnake playing in Copenhagen, Denmark that day and once again, David made it such a memorable birthday, I couldn’t have asked for a better b-day. :)
My friend Mari had a surprise in store, cause I didn’t know that she had prepared a sign to let David know it was my birthday. Much to my surprise he took that sign and walked around with it on stage and sang for me. Well, he has a way of making people feel like he’s singing just for them, one of those qualities that made him a superstar.
When he told the crowd that it was my birthday and that I was “giving out birthday kisses to guys” I thought it was funny and a very “Coverdalish” thing to do. :-)
Inbetween two songs, he went behind the stage and came back with a beer in a cup that he offered me as a birthday-gift and bowed. No wonder I love this man! :)) Small, but such nice gestures.
And he’s always done that. I can’t think of one single Whitesnake-show where he hasn’t talked to me from the stage or smiled and winked or whatever. There was only ONE time that I was pissed off at him, and I was mad for at least a year…
It was Sweden Rock Festival, I think in 2003. I was standing in the front row as usual (being my size, you don’t see shit if you’re way in the back) and as you all know, when you are in the mosh pit, you’re stuck. You can’t move – at ALL. Suddenly I feel how some guy had his hands all over me – where they shouldn’t be. I was so mad and frustrated because I couldn’t see who it was and I couldn’t do anything to get the idiot to stop what he was doing. In the middle of all this, I see David looking at me and whoever the asshole was, with a big smile, and he says: “I don’t blame you man, she’s got great tits!”
WTF?! He could have said something to make the asshole stop, instead he encouraged it. Oh boy, my respect for David Coverdale went down the toilet after that. I was pissed off, VERY pissed off. When my “little brother” Chris Laney opened for Whitesnake in Linkoping some time after that, he put me and my then boyfriend on the guest list and I guess I had the opportunity to talk to David that year. But I didn’t want to.
I remember him spotting me from the stage, like so many times before, bringing the mikestand over to my corner, where he happily started talking, asking how I was doing blah blah, I don’t remember what he said exactly. For the first time ever I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. And I didn’t go backstage to hang with Chris and his band either. I just left.
But then, time heals everything I guess and I figured that maybe David had misunderstood the situation I had been in at Sweden Rock 2003, and I just decided to drop the grudge. I’m back to being the same enthusiastic Whitesnake-fan that I’ve always been.
And I can’t wait to see them rock again. The new album Forevermore is the best they’ve done in a long time – go get it! :)
Camera guy Henrik and I went to Copenhagen a few days ago to hook up with AMARANTHE, the new Swedish/Danish band whose CD has been on repeat in my car stereo for two weeks now. I simply love their sound. I get a kick from the unique concept and from the very high quality of their work, all the way from musicianship to production.
When they go onstage, you don’t only get one charismatic frontman, you get three. Well, two frontmen and one frontwoman. Seeing them on stage is like an explosion of energy – they all give everything they’ve got – and with all those different personalities, it works so damn well.
Though time was very limited, I managed to catch them for a short chat. They had just finished their set and it was the last day of the tour. Meet Amaranthe.
AMARANTHE IS: JAKE E. – clean vocals (in this intervew “J“) ELIZE RYD – female vocals (in this intervew “E“) ANDY SOLVESTROM – growl OLOF MÖRCK – guitars & keyboards (in this intervew “O“) JOHAN ANDREASSEN – bass (in this intervew “J.A“) MORTEN LOVE SORENSEN – drums
D: You’re new in this constellation but you’ve been in the business in other bands before. What’s your background?
O: I’ve been playing with a band called Dragonland for the past 10 years. I’ve also been playing with Nightrage for 4-5 years and done a million other things. Collaborating with these two in other constallations.
J: Yeah. I originate from Dreamland. Did albums with Dignity, guesting on Dragonland, Hammerfall, was part of Dream Evil for a short while and a lot of guest stuff…
E: I’m educated in singing and dancing. Not exactly musical but it’s very similar, at a performing arts school in Gothenburg. So my plan was to work, in some way, in showbusiness. I worked two years as a cabaret artist in Gothenburg, and in 2003 I met these guys, Jake and Olof. I was guest vocalist on their album.
D: Which one was that?J: The first Dreamland album. E: That was before I started my education actually. My brothers played in metal bands. It inspired me very much and there’s been metal in the house since I was 1 year old. The singer of Falconer came to my school and asked the teachers if they knew someone who could sing on their album and so I auditioned for them. That was the first studio job as a professional. D: What you do is pretty unique and different from other bands. How did that whole thing even happen?O: It was kind of a coincidence, because when Jake and I started working on the project, we had the idea of doing some kind of All Star-project together with some people from the music business in Gothenburg. Basically we were talking to people from In Flames, Hammerfall and Evergrey, and they really liked the stuff that we showed them.
The idea was to do some kind of Gothenburg version of Avantasia, with Jake as the lead singer. The first we tried out was Elize and Andy and we got these different voices on one song. We sat down and listened to it – and we realized that this was something quite special and unique. The idea took off from there. We made Amaranthe a priority band instead of just a project. That was basically the beginning…
J: It’s funny cause now we’re on tour with Evergrey, and Rikard Zander, their keyboard player, was on the project for quite a while. He actually played on Leave Everything Behind, the first demo we did. And now we’re on the same tour. It’s a pretty small world.
D: So this is a band that’s gonna stick around for a while? You’re not just gonna do this and then go back to your other bands? J: Of course, we still have our other bands, but the main focus is Amaranthe.
O: Yeah, it started as a side project but now it’s the main project.
J: Andy, for example, is still with Within Y. So far it works. We’ve been doing this for about two years, and as long as everything is working out, we can still play with our other bands. We love to play music – that’s why we’re in the business. D: How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard you before?O: I think you came up with a pretty good term in your review from Sweden Rock Magazine, I think you called it deathmetal pop? I think that’s kind of funny… I mean, we don’t really see ourselves as some kind of pop band at all, but there are some influences from that kind of music. I just find the term quite funny because it’s sure to piss off a lot of people. In the foundation there’s definitely melodic death metal, but then we just add a lot of melodic vocals and catchy choruses and stuff like that. There’s definitely a lot of inspiration from bands like Soilwork or In Flames but then on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, you’ve got…
J: Joey Tempest! Haha!
O: Yeah, Joey Tempest! I mean, anyone who can write a really good song… for me personally, I think that Amaranthe is a tribute to songwriting. We’re not in the business to impress some guitarist. J: Yeah, some call us ABBAranthe. But ABBA has the most Top Ten singles on the American charts, so… We love them. They were the kings of making great choruses.
E: For me they were the first big idols. I always wanted to be one of the ABBA girls. They inspired me to want to become a singer.
D: You kind of stirred up a whole lot of emotions in the business. People can’t make out what you are, are you pop or are you death, then they end up hating you? J: We still consider ourselves a metal band. That’s what we are. We have our influences from a lot of stuff but mention one band today that doesn¨t have influences from other stuff.
D: Has people’s attitude changed now that you’ve been out playing? Before you left, there was a lot of stuff being said on the internet…J: It’s still like that. People still think it’s either shit or the greatest thing. Me and Olof said that from the very beginning, that either you hate us – or you love us. There’s a thin line there. There’s a lot of people who really want to have an opinion just to have an opinion. I think that is cool. O: As long as they have an opinion, they actually care. I was talking about this yesterday in a different interview… One thing that’s very important is that – people could be giving us some pretty fantastic reviews, and the comments would say the same if you went to our youtube videos but… For us it’s very divided, and that means that people who don’t like us, still care. That’s definitelty a big step up. You know that you started to matter.
There have been some pretty extreme discussions on internet sites, like on Last FM for instance. There’s a lot of bitching back and forth. People have very strong opinions. I think we had over 2000 comments on Last FM in only a few weeks. People from the site basically had to tell people to shut the [beeep] up. “If you’re gonna continue this conversation, please start a forum for it”. J: What I’m saying is that it’s so amazing to stir up that kind of emotions. It means that you’re affecting people. We’ve got our own hardcore fans. We love these fans and for everyone else that doesn’t like it… well, listen to something else! E: What I’ve heard so far is that they hear us and… like my family for example, friends… they’re like “I don’t like the screaming…” whereas the metal fans are like: “we don’t like the chick“. “Can you remove her or remove the keyboards…?” But – that’s our thing! We are three different characters. Actually, most of them start to like it after a while. They say “I was a little bit sceptical in the beginning but now I love it”. I don’t think that you have to either like us or not like us. I think you can also start liking us – if you like music.
D: But how do you handle stuff, I mean, I’ve seen some pretty degrading comments about you. How do you take that?E: In the beginning I cared a little bit but… Now I realize that there’s no point to care about it.
J: But that’s like what we were talking about in our last interview as well [we met in Gothenburg a little while ago for another interview]… If this would have been our first album ever, and we had been 20 years old, and people said negative things about us, we would want to send an e-mail to these guys telling them to shut the fuck up. But now, we’ve all done like 10 CD’s each and you just don’t care as much.
Like the comment I told you about last time, “Kill the guy with the dreads – other than that it’s a great band“. You know, I don’t care. O: At the end of the day, I think that the negative voices are always gonna be there. If you look at the youtube video for Hunger for example, there’s like a 50% ratio of negative comments, people have very strong opinions. “Is this pop, is it mainstream?“, etcetera etcetera… But if you look at the staple measuring how many people actually liked it, there are maybe 2700 people whereas the dislike is maybe 150! That means that everybody who didn’t like it actually commented on it, cause they feel so strongly about us – and to me that’s even more amazing than for us just getting straight A’s in every review.
But on this tour, we’ve definitely been feeling the love from the audience. It’s quite amazing. Even in distant countries…. like for instance in Krakow, there was a phenomenal response in Krakow, they knew the songs, sang along… So, even if you had some negative comments, it’s quite mindblowing to see the response from the crowd. E: (gets ready to leave) I have to go, I’m doing a show with Kamelot [Elize sings backing vocals for Kamelot as well]. The show starts in five minutes! I just want to say before I go, that I really like our fans and I’m really happy about that. You need to be very open minded. Some people are like “we don’t recognize this style” or it doesn’t fit in this box or that box, But there has to be an opportunity to create new things and that’s what we wanted to do. That’s what we’ve done and our fans are open minded. We love them! They’re awesome!
D: You’ve been on tour for a while now – what are some of the highlights?J.A: I can’t pick out a specific moment, but the highlight has been the people on the tour. We’ve been getting along so good with everyone. No arguments, no nothing. Everybody’s been good friends. There haven’t been any problems at all.
J: I also must say that… Evergrey have been touring around for 15 years and we shared the same bus with them. At first you’re thinking: “Okay, this is a big band“… You don’t know what to expect, but they treated us like we were in the same band.
J.A: We’re equals.
J: Yeah. On the bus, we’re the same guys, we shared the same catering, the same dressing room, everyone’s been great all the time.
O: Obviously, we’ve been touring with Kamelot before, and they’re totally like brothers. The help and support that we’ve gotten from them on the last tour and this one has been just amazing.
D: It’s gonna be really hard for you guys to go back to normality…. What are you going to be doing in a few days, Johan…?J.A: Well… I’m gonna go to work! I’m going to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and I’m gonna get off work approximately at the same time as I used to get out of bed on the tour! So it’s gonna be quite a big changeover. So I’m probably gonna be totally fucked up for a week.
J: For me and Olof it’s a bit better cause we can and we’re gonna sleep for a week probably!
D: What are your plans for the rest of the year?J.A: Quick answer! World domination and Iron Maiden opening for us! That’s the first plan!
O: The schedule is really full at the moment, for example, we just booked our first show in Japan, on the 1st of July, and we’re gonna play at Metaltown, Bloodstock and a lot of different festivals throughout the summer. And in the fall we will probably, most likely, do another European tour. We’re playing a lot of gigs in Finland as well.
D: Headlining?J: Yeah. A few headline shows in Finland and probably around Sweden and Norway. And also, you’ll be the first ones to know that last week we were the 83rd most listened album on Spotify. Not in the metal category, but of all categories!
J.A: We’re going for world domination! So Kenya, here we come! Yeah! Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris are gonna call us and say “Please can you let us open for you!“
J: Yeah, Bruce is always calling me.
D: I’ll let you guys go, I know you’re dying to watch the hockey… J: Yeah, Sweden is gonna beat Finland!
J.A: I know the current score! 1-0 to Sweden!
Yeeeeeeeeeaah! We love Finland.
[For the record – Sweden lost to Finland 1-6 in that game…..]
We all know the name HELIX. And if you don’t, you do know the big rock anthem from the 80’s “Rock You“. If you don’t know that either, welcome back from your cave.
I have to admit that I fit into in the same category as many rockers out there, we know Helix from their heyday, but when they disappeared from the spotlight, I kind of lost track of what they were up to.
Until recently when a Canadian online friend asked me if I would be interested in talking to Brian Vollmer, the frontman of Helix. Of course, I was curious to find out what the band had been up to since…well…”the good ol’ days”. I spent a few days reading up on Helix and realized that they are still very much a hard working band, and definitely still loving what they do. As always, I find that very, very inspiring.
So, I picked up the phone and called Brian. 6 p.m in Malmoe Sweden, noon in London, Canada – Friday 13th, 2011. It couldn’t be a more appropriate, rock’n’roll-date for an interview. :)
Hi Brian, it’s Daniela. Am I calling at a bad time? No, no, it’s a good time. I’m ready to go Daniela!
You mentioned before that you did you first ever acoustic gig recently? Yes, that’s right.
Was that really the first acoustic show you ever did? Yes, and it was a crazy day because my uncle also died this week and he was the oldest living person in Canada with Down’s syndrome. I had to drive about two hours from here first thing in the morning, cause I had to sing at the funeral. And then, as soon as the funeral was done, jump in my car and zip back to London, Ontario and straight down to the Aeolian Hall.
I was five minutes late and everybody was already there, and it was just crazy. But we got a standing ovation at the end of the night and it was a very good night for the band. We’re gonna tape this, as in film it, and it’s gonna go out to the agents, and we might even sell it as a video so….we’ll see what happens.
How did the acoustic thing come about…? Well, whenever you have a new album out you go out and promote that album and in this case… You know, we’re an electric band up to this point, so it’s pretty hard to showcase the songs of Smash Hits Unplugged without doing an acoustic show and we also felt that this was a good time to try to take the show to the theaters because it’s much more suited for a small theater than it is for a bar.
We have video interview footage between the songs, that we spent a lot of time doing, and I think that in a club, that would be lost. You know – people are talking and it’s hard to get the screens up above everybody’s heads – usually clubs are low…
But in the theater we had everyone’s attention and it was pretty cool. It’s not as easy to do as you would think. It’s pretty complicated, but next time around I think it’s gonna get much better, as in presentation.
It was a huge success – we got a standing ovation at the end of the night and people just loved it. I’ve getting loads of e-mails since the show and it’s all very positive. We had a record company, I won’t say who it was, but they thinking now of distributing the Smash Hits album in the United States which will be a good thing for us. It’s all gonna help to build the band.
“We’re hoping that promoters and agents over there will take a look at the band and see that “the old guys” are proficient at their instruments and performance – they look good and sound good!”
I heard that you will be coming over to this part of the world soon? Yeah, we’re thinking of doing that in October. I can’t tell you exactly where or what yet, I’m not allowed to say, but one is gonna be a boat cruise, and we’re also gonna be playing in Finland. But we’re looking very forward to coming back and we’re hoping that once promotors and agents over there take a look at the band and see that “the old guys” are back and proficient at their instruments and performance, and they look good and sound good… We’re hoping that it will lead to more festivals – primarily Sweden Rock. I’d like to get back on that bill. (Helix played Sweden Rock Festival 2005).
Well, Sweden has been pretty good to you guys – you got your first #1 record in Sweden, right? That’s correct, we had a #1 album in Sweden back in 1985 with A Long Way To Heaven. Yeah, god that was ages ago..! :) That was only YESTERDAY, come on Daniela! he laughs. “We were classified a heavy metal band, but I always thought of us as a heavy pop band”
I was actually watching some videos on youtube before I called you and I found “Heavy Metal Love”, I used to love that song when I was a kid. That WAS a hundred years ago! All those Helix songs… We were classified a heavy metal band, but I always thought of us as a heavy pop band. To have songs on the radio but yet still not be viewed as selling out or whatever you call it, I think is a lot more difficult to do actually, than be a heavy band. We always tried to concentrate on writing good songs and you know…
We grew out of the Canadian bar curcuit. When we first started out in the seventies, to survive you were essentially a travelling jukebox. We did all sorts of cover songs, everything from Bob Seger to Aerosmith, to Ted Nugent…the Bay City Rollers for god’s sakes…! And, you know… We really earned our spurs as musicians and performers by playing that circuit every night, 3-4 sets a night, 6-7 nights a week. And just constantly, constantly, constantly playing. And we spread out to the United States, and eventually in 1983 to Europe with the Kiss tour.
For people over here, you’re still the band that got the hit with “Rock You”…. Yes. But you have a long history with the band, and some of the stuff you’ve been through reminds me a bit of your fellow Canadian colleagues Anvil, have you seen their documentary…? Yeah, I’ve seen it (he says with a laugh) Do you see any similarities there between you guys and them? Cause your careers have been like a rollercoasters? Yeah, for sure. But I think it’s been a lot more dramatic for those guys cause they didn’t really have the radio-hits. Anvil is a great band in the sense that they pursevered all these years, and they’ve done it because they love the music. And I really believe in my heart that no matter which band you’re in, if you believe in just writing good music and doing it for the right reasons and you stick with it – eventually you’ll be successful. In some shape or form.
In regards of Helix, I think the lowest part in my career came around the mid-nineties when days really dried out, but you know… You constantly gotta be out there working and just try to get your foot in the door with every little thing you can.
Right now – we’re in a comic book for instance (laughs) it was just released. We’re also trying to do a reality show/documentary. We’ve got some interest in that and… We have “Rock You” coming out on a Tellus commercial. Tellus is a big phone company over here in Canada. That starts in July. It’s just things like that, you know. We just keep pushing forward.
No matter how old you are as a band, you can’t sit back, unless you’re doing the “Milk run”, going out there doing, what you were originally talking about. People know us primarily for one song. That’s okay as long as they’re there. And then once they’re there, we can educate them on the rest of the Helix catalog. I really think Helix did have a lot of great songs.
We’ve always been a kind of underground band with the fans, but being in a band and continuing is like baseball – you get three strikes. “We were educated by our manager how to run a good business” With the Anvil guys for instance, they were slugging away in anonymity for….ever! I remember they were going down to play in South America, a place Helix have never played, but going down there and doing tours…. I think the biggest difference between Anvil and us quite truthfully, is the fact that we had a great manager Bill Seip and he taught us a lot of good basic business things that helped the band survive.
” I really believe in my heart that no matter which band you’re in, if you believe in just writing good music and doing it for the right reasons and you stick with it – eventually you’ll be successful. In some shape or form”
You know – look at the Anvil movie – we would never have gone to Europe without getting a deposit or something, you know, are you crazy? We just didn’t do things like that, or show up at the train station and expect to buy tickets at the train station. Everything was set up in advance and well organized. We were educated by our manager how to run a good business.
And today I really take good care of the business side of things, because… if you don’t do that, it’s all over with, no matter how much you wanna stick in it, if you don’t get any money, that’s it. You’re done, game over.
Every time we do a set, everything is accounted for, we know when we go in to making an album how much we’re gonna pay for that album and exactly how many records we have to sell to break even – after that, I don’t care. Albums go on forever. They’re great gifts for Thanksgiving. :)
“We were sleep deprived, drinking too much, doing drugs…”
When you got the hit with “Rock You” did you ever stop and think “Yeah, I’m a rock star now, this is the big time”? No, because none of us had any money! It’s hard to think you’re a rock star when you’re only making like 150 bucks a week. You can’t pay your bills.
So you never got big headed, even during that time? Nah, if there was ever a case of that with anyone in the band, it was more a case of that we were sleep deprived, drinking too much, doing drugs… you know what I mean? Crazy schedules, it was just… Especially sleep depravation which is never really talked about anywhere. But I know lots of bands that keep really weird hours and if it screws up factory workers, why wouldn’t it screw up a rock musician just as much?
We used to do 2 hour driving shifts after the shows. Say your driving shift was from 3 am to 5 o’clock but you just got into bed at 2.30 – it didn’t matter. They’d wake you up and you’d have to get up and get behind the freaking wheel. I mean, how dangerous is that?! But we did it. For years.
I hear Judas Priest are quitting now for that same reason, apparently… Actually, I think that nowadays we’re holding up better than ever because we were so used to the lowest of low conditions…Like, our “tour bus” consisted of a renovated school bus with a Porta Potti in the back and no air conditioning. At least those guys travel in nice buses and flew to gigs and stuff. That didn’t happen too often with us.
But nowadays it’s a totally different story. We fly to many of our gigs in Canada, and when we do drive it’s it’s not the horrendous 18 hour epic journeys that we used to take. It’s more stuff like 4 or 5 hours at the most. And the money is good, we eat well, we stay at nice hotels… for us it has gotten easier. Eventhough we are doing crazy dates.
“Every time I went to quit the band, something would come up, and it would keep me in”
You went through a lot of tough times …. got disillusioned, felt like you didn’t want to do this anymore? That’s right.
What made you go back to a business that you knew wouldn’t change? I actually intended to quit at the end of the Ian Gillan tour in 1989. We got to the end of the tour and I was staying at my wife’s place in London, England…or, well, we weren’t married at that time, we were “living in sin” Anyway, my manager phoned me from Canada and said that “Good To The Last Drop” was becoming a great radio hit in Canada, and “the record company wants you to come back, shoot a video and tour on that song”. I went… “Naaah… I’ve had enough”.
He said: Listen, are you crazy? You worked all these years, now is the time to collect some money and you wanna pass it out? All you gotta do is stay for a couple of more months and see what happens. So I came back and said “okay“. We did the video and sure enough, it became a big hit.
In the back of my mind I thought to myself… Every time I went to quit the band, something would come up, and it would keep me in, right? I thought, maybe it’s an omen that I should stay in this, there’s something, somewhere down the line for me – or maybe it’s just living this great life. That’s what kept me in. And I’ve never thought of quitting since then.
Someone once said that a musician can’t ever really retire…. Would you say that’s true? (laughs) Id’ say yeah. You’re driven to it. That’s why you’re either suited for this life or you’re not. But people that aren’t suited for it, they don’t last too long. You really have to enjoy the life…
I think that as for longevity as in a career in the music business, you have to have controlled enthusiasm which means that… I try to keep an average on my emotions, because not every day is The Big Gig,The Big Tour, The Big Album, The Big Song… A lot of those inbetween days are Mondays – crap like answering the phone, paying your bills, arguing with freaking agents, the dull shit that nobody wants to do. So you’ve got to keep it even keel,so to speak,
“We’re toying with the idea right now of actually doing an album with a brass band…!”
You’ve done so much over the years… what’s left to do? Do you have any more goals and dreams…? Things you haven’t achieved? I’ve lots of goals. I’d like to go to Japan. I’d like to go to South America, Asia… Anywhere we haven’t been before. We’re toying with the idea right now of actually doing an album with a brass band…! Which is interesting….And the reality show. That’s our focus right now. Helix actually sold more albums in the US than we did in Canada, although we had gold and platinum albums over here, it was a different standard quantity-wise, for what range you’d get a gold or platinum album. In the States it was about ten times of what it was in Canada! We did a lot of touring in the US…. uh.. I forgot what the question was!
I was asking you about where the reality show would be shown? It will probably go to VH1, but it’s not as simple as “okay, it’s gonna be on VH1“… Usually there are brokers and agents that are involved in it because you gotta raise money for each of the episodes. What we do is we’re spending our own money for a pilot show. If things don’t work out, it’s bye bye money, but…. You gotta believe in yourself. At the very least, we’ll release our own DVD and we already have interest in that. It’s a good time for us right now. We feel confident that it’s gonna happen. We’re ready for it. This is an incredibly hard job. You have to be focused.
“I’m probably one of the last people in the world to teach Bel Canto”
I hear that you’re giving vocal lessons as well? Well, I got into in the early 90s, when things really slacked down for us. Now I have about 40 students. I’m probably one of the last people in the world to teach Bel Canto. I feel very privileged that I learned how to do it, But it took me a good 20-25 years to learn how to teach it.
How would you explain what that actually is? Haha, got two hours? :)
Howcome so few people teach this vocal technique if it’s the only “right” way to sing? What makes it so unique is the fact that when you learn it, it takes so long to learn how to master the actual technique that most people that learn it, they don’t teach it. They do it.
So, it’s not that there aren’t people out there who want to learn how to do it, it’s the fact there’s no teachers. I kind of was forced in the situation out of financial considerations. But once I got into it, I realized that I love teaching. I had a very unique market and I had a foot in the door so…. I can do this til the day I die.
In a nutshell, what sets Bel Canto aside from 99,9999 per cent of all vocal techniques out there, is the fact that when you sing true Bel Canto, you inhale your voice – that is, as you’re singing, you suck in breath into your skull. Every other technique out there, the singer is forced to push – and whenever you push, you have to use muscles, and whenever you use muscles, it screws up your instrument – your vocal chords. The difference is right there, the inhalation. To master it takes at least a couple of years. It’s a secret, the whole technique…
“… there’s this big roadie pissing in one of the plant pots in the lobby. He destroyed that place!”
So – as far as you know youll be over to this part of the world in the fall? Well, I’m not allowed to announce any details yet, but yeah we’ll be over there. It’s gonna be fun though, and all the guys are looking forward to it. Especially my youngest member of the band, Kaleb Duck he’s only 23 and fits right in with us! He’s got a great attitude, he’s always smiling and it brings a smile to my face working with somebody like that. Everybody’s pumped to come over.
Was Sweden Rock the last thing you did over here? That’s correct, 2005. That was something else, the hotel there…I got up in the morning to leave on the bus and I was on the bus with Sebastian Bach all the way. But anyway, I got downstairs in the morning, and there’s this big roadie pissing in one of the plant pots in the lobby. With an old lady behind the desk…! There was piss everywhere on the floor, he destroyed that place.
See, I don’t understand that kind of behavior. We were never into wrecking things. How intelligent is that, really?! I think it’s stupid. I just think that nothing good comes ouf destroying a hotel room where you’re staying. Nobody does that except people in the music business! I think Sweden Rock was very well run. We would like nothing better than to come back!
When I launched this blog I pretty much thought that most of my readers would be the loyal people who have been following me for years.
Some of you have been with me since the “pre-internet”-days, when I wrote for various newspapers and magazines and had my radio-show and everything else.
Or maybe you’ve been reading Sweden Rock Magazine the past 10 years, then you’ve probably read my articles and reviews there.
Some of you joined back in 1996 when I got my first website online, and some of you discovered and rediscovered my writings through my very active MySpace-blog 2006->.
If you’ve been with me that long, you have a pretty good idea who I am and what I do. But when I see the blog-statistics for this blog, my jaw drops! Hundreds of new people end up here every day and the number of regular readers is increasing day by day. It’s such a great feeling to see that people like it, However… maybe an introduction of the person behind the blog might be appropriate.:-)
So….here’s the “About me”-section, the long and the short version.
THE SHORT VERSION:
I’ve lived for music for as long as I can remember. I’m still a dedicated fan of bands and the whole rock’n’roll lifestyle.
You will find me anywhere in the world where there’s a good band playing – or somewhere at a local joint checking out an up-and-coming new act. I believe in doing things passionately and I love music and writing as much now as I did when I was 18. The blog is a way to share some of my memories with everybody who live and breathe music– whether they’re fans, musicians or managers, from across the globe.
MY RESUME:
1988 – Started out as a hard rock reporter for Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten. I was 18. 1990-1995 – Editor of FICK-Journalen, music pages of weekly Hemmets Journal (while still working for Kvällsposten and freelancing for other magazines). 1989 – Hosted my own hard rock radio show at Radio MCB. 1992 – TV-hostess for RockShow. 1991-2000 Free lancer for Metal Zone, Heavy Mental, Zero, Kool Kat News, Arbetet, OKEJ and many other music magazines and newspapers. 1998-2000 – Launched and managed hard rock club Hard Break. Bandbooking. PR, DJ, hostess and more. 2001->(current) Sweden Rock Magazine
….and even more…Been singing with melodic rock/progressive rock band Spirit and as solo artist. Managed female rockers Modesty Blaise and Seventeen (whose frontman Chris Laney has become a succesful producer at Polar Studios in Stocholm as well as a great songwriter, guitarist and singer for various hard rock acts).Featured in Neil Daniel’s book about hard rock journalists “All Pens Blazing” vol.1. Also credited in the unofficial Judas Priest-biography “Defenders of the Faith” for contributing w. info.Currently writing for Sweden Rock Magazine and hosting my own blog In The Rearview Mirror – found at www.lita77777.posterous.com
THE LONG VERSION…..
I was 18 and bursting of ideas, dreams, expectations, energy – life was ahead of me and I knew where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do. I had a dream and I was aiming for it.
I used to write to one of Sweden’s major evening papers, Kvällsposten, on a regular basis, just to get noticed. I had been writing letters to the editor since I was 10 years old and back in those days, it wasn’t easy to get published. So many people had something to say but space was limited. (Yes, how did we ever survive the pre-internet era??)
But I got used to having my letters published almost every time. It made me confident at an early age, that if there was anything I was good at, it was writing.
That’s what I wanted to do. Write about music – my greatest love of all. :-)
In 1988 I sent a letter to Kvällsposten, again, asking them to bring me along if they had any plans to interview Yngwie Malmsteen, who was playing at Olympen in Lund that year. I wanted to see a music reporter in action, learn from him/her, then go to the University and get a degree in journalism, and then start my career as a music journalist. I had it all figured out.
It was like walking into a temple when I walked through the doors to Kvällsposten’s impressive building that day. I saw the editorial staff all busy writing, there were records and press-releases everywhere, stuff from record companies, info.. All the stuff that would end up in the paper eventually. Holy shit. It was a big deal to an 18-year old who was nursing a dream to do exactly what these reporters were doing.
When they saw me walking in with my Yngwie Malmsteen t-shirt, I heard one of the reporters, Pär Hägred, go: Hello Daniela! You’re the one who’s been writing to us, right?! Apparently, they loved reading my letters. Everybody up there had read them, I was somewhat of a “celebrity” and I didn’t even know.
Will be updated. Check my Twitter, MySpace and Facebook pages for updates!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 