Tagged: CHRIS LANEY
Gimme the microphone…! :)
I’ve been 100% absorbed working on a song all evening. I had almost forgotten that magical feeling, when you’re creating something, and you get to watch it grow into something really cool as a result of your work. :-)
Six years ago I felt that urge to record a song, so I called the best musicians, who I knew would be perfect for that particular song, and we spent many fun but also tough hours in the studio recording the Savatage-song “Summer’s Rain“.
I’ve posted it here before, but in case you just got here for the first time, this is the song I’m talking about:
Now I got a few top-notch musicians again, some of the best at what they do, and it feels great to be working with them. It’s so inspiring to hear all their ideas and just see their energy and enthusiasm.
All the guys have been so full of cool ideas that this thing would have turned into a 20-minute Led Zeppelin or Purple type of song, to fit it all in. We had to choose the best parts.
No details yet, there will be more about this soon enough. And when this project is finished, there is more music, more songs, more upcoming projects – this “all star”-thing will continue (with additions of other people), because it’s fun and it’s a great opportunity for everybody to play with other musicians that they maybe wouldn’t have worked with otherwise.
Oh yeah, here’s another “old sin” by the way….. :-D
Back in the very late 90’s I asked my “little brother” Chris Laney (multi-musician and producer at Polar Studios – where ABBA recorded their albums) for a song that had a summer-vibe to it, a mix between hard rock and summer-hit for the radio, kind of like Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly“. Just an upbeat, fun type of song.
He brought me “Ride The Future“.
As the extremely busy guy that he was – and is even more now, he invited me over to his own studio, Platform studio in Stockholm in 2001, to record this inbetween his mixing of a Candlemass-record and whatever else he was up to at the time.
The thing was – I hadn’t heard the song even ONCE before recording it! So, the way we did this was that he sang it to me – line by line and then we recorded it that way…! Line by line. I didn’t even know how the song ended…! :)
As the producer he is, he also wanted me to sing in a different style than I normally do, with more of a “girlie baby-voice”, which I didn’t quite like – but… I love the song! So did the reviewers, here’s one of the reviews for this one:
“Daniela is from Sweden and her debut single song demo packs a mighty punch.
Loaded with hot guitar layers and a great singalong chorus ‘Ride The Future’ purrs along in similar style to Aina, Alyson Avenue and No Doubt and is perfect for the radio.
The song does have some modern alternative loops in the mix, thus the resemblance’s to No Doubt , but with a killer “woh, woh” Europe style chorus, and great vocals you can’t fail but to love this song, I was hooked from the first play as this song has huge crossover potential.
Honestly this is a fantastic song and I really can’t wait to hear more from the delicious Daniela in the future. Interview soon.
Nick Baldrian
Fireworks magazine, UK”
I wish I could have done the vocals at some other, better time and actually nail it. This was a super-quick recording, but I was grateful that he had time to do this for me at all. The guy is one of the best songwriters I know, music runs through his veins!
So yeah – it’s time for more on Saturday. When it’s all done, I’ll reveal the people involved and how this whole thing came about…! :-))
WHITESNAKE-TIME!!
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:
LINK: http://www.myspace.com/video/lita77/david-coverdale-doug-aldrich-acoustic-live/4251198
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..!).
LINK: http://www.myspace.com/video/lita77/david-coverdale-doug-aldrich-press-conference-stockholm/4224844
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! :)
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 