As you start your career in 1989 and release an album in 1993, why did you go separate ways after?
Hello Franck, it is our pleasure to do this interview and we are glad that you like our album..
Well, Mike and I started NB when we were 15 years old, riding our bicycles on our way home from school; I remember it like it was yesterday. *smile* We practical lived in our basement, played almost everyday. Through the years we change members a couple of times, I mean, we were just teenagers and all that matters was party and rock’n’roll. When we finally got our final line-up that felt good, we decided to go in to a studio and record a single. It went very well and fans really liked it, the song Fallen Angel is still the most popular song in our hometown. When the record finally hit the daylight we played a lot live everywhere and anywhere, but in the meantime we slowly slip away from each other. We all started to get other interest, girlfriends and other kind of music etc. We started to play covers instead of lay focus to our own songs. We stopped hang together and we never where at the same time to rehearsal, all the magic was gone and that was the beginning of the end...
Please explain your comeback in 2003 with the 3 tracks cd release("X ten"), how Naughty Boys joined again and decided to go on the story?
The comeback was very simple, Mike got an inquiry 2003 to do one gig with NB, only one simple gig, to celebrate that it was ten years since we released our first single, so when Mike gave us a call everyone said yes without hesitate.. During time when we were apart all of us have had other projects, Me have act a lot in theatre, musicals and done TV commercial, toured and sang in different bands, recorded own songs in a studio. Mike recorded songs in his studio for himself and other artists, he also played a lot in different bands. Hans and Jonas played in different bands and toured a lot.
Then when we finally got together it was like we never been apart. We started to rehearse on our old songs and it did not take long before they sounded better than 10 years ago. During the period when we were apart, all of us wrote some songs, and slowly we started to try them out and it felt good. After a while, we came up with the idea to play two new songs live, to give our fans a chance to hear them before the gig, we went into the studio and started to record a new single... Also this single went well with fans and media” I Will” made it on www.melodicrock.com beast inside compilation album and that was more than we could imagining. When we finally went out on stage, it was unbelievable, full house! Moreover, the crowd went wild and everything was fantastic. After that night, we decided to go on.
Well, you recorded in 2005 songs for the new album: why did you decide to produce yourself the album and can you present each musician in a few words?
After the release with “X”, some labels contact us and we decide to sign with a label in Sweden, but in the end, it turned out to be a big bluff. We send our contract to a music lawyer and he sent us back 9 pages of why we should not sign, after that we thought it would be better to do things our own way so no one can interfere with our music or the rights to our own songs. We started our own record label
(N – Records) and went back into studio. In the beginning we mean to have 15 song on our album, but we realized it should take some time to finish the album because we did all work our self, so in summer 2005 we released a new single with 2 songs which “ Shake The Neighbourhood “ was voted to the 9th best song in 2005 at Maine US. When the recording was finished, we sent it to a studio in Stockholm for final mix and mastering.
Hmmm... Mike have a voice that no one else have, you can always tell that is NB when you hear him sing. Hans always seems to find the right melodies on right place. Jonas is more of a grunge drummer, that goes more on feeling than technique and Robert is just a brilliant bas player, with a heavy sound and a good punch... Me...? - I am just a simple keyboard player... *smile*
There is a great unity in this album: catchy hooks, great melodies, big choruses, it sounds like in the blessed 80's years. What are your fundamental influences and your great-preferred musicians?
Well, we all grow up in the 80’s except Robert, with band like Poison, White Lion, Bon Jovi and Headbangers Ball on MTV. We wanted to retain the sound from the 80’s and give it a touch of the sound today with more heavy guitars, but still keep the melodies. We are five different individuals with different taste of music, but in the end, we all feel the same. We listen to all kind o music, everything from jazz and swing to metal and reggae, and I think it’s why our songs sound like they do.
Do you think you are the new EUROPE, and do you hope to have their success in 2008 as they got it in the 80's?
Of course *smile*
No, honestly I don’t think that any of the bands that coming up these days will be as big as Europe or the other bands was in the 80’s, who sold millions of albums and sold out arena after arena.
And shouldn’t that be something, to achieve the same success as they had, I can only wish that is going to happen someday…
What do you think really about "R U naughty enough?", honestly are you proud? Does the album contains all the songs you wanted to record or do you have much more songs in reserve?
Yes, we all are proud of it! In the beginning, this record where meant to be a record only for ourselves, to have in our own collection, an album that we could listen to when we got older.
But during recording we all felt that it would be a waste if we didn’t released it to our fans. I think that we succeeded to get the sound and the song we wanted to have on this record.
We several songs left that we thought did not fit the sound, and some songs that we thought was not god enough …
I think there is a mixture in your music : 80's sound because you have grown up at this time and current sound in the songs, perhaps brought by Robert who is the younger. Am I right?
Yes. You are so right. When Peter left the band, it came like shock for everyone and we didn’t know what should happen to NB, should we go on? Should we close this chapter? Peter had played with us since we were youngsters and was a very good friend, so we knew it should be difficult in many ways to fill his part in the band. However, we decided to move on without Pete.
At the time, I was acting in a theatre and Robert played the bas in the orchestra, I asked him if he would be interested to play with NB, and lucky for us he said yes immediate. When Robert joined us, all songs that we planned to have on the record where written, and we had already started to record two of the songs. But when Robert put his bas on the songs the sound got better right away, just the modern, heavy sound that we were looking for.
Have you planned shows and perhaps a tour for promoting your album? Are you going to perform to the Sweden rock festival?
No promo tour is planned at the moment, but it is going to be some gigs during the spring/summer here in Sweden, and hopefully some in Europe. To perform live on Sweden Rock Festival would be a dream! We been in contact with them but have not heard anything yet …
Are you satisfied by Musicbuymail and your manager? What are your projects for 2008?
Cooperation with Musicbuymail has worked out great. No problem what so ever, and we have good contact with them. The plans for 2008 are to play live as often as we can, and perhaps release a new album in the end of this year or in the beginning of 2009. Many of the songs are finished, only some details and arrangement left to do...
What do you think about the future of melodic hard rock in Europe and in the world? Are you optimistic?
I´m really optimistic. There is so many great band out in the world today who plays melodic hard rock and I think is gonna be like that for a couple of years. There are many teenagebands starting to play sleaze and glam (like NB once did) nowadays, than for just 2-3 years ago, Well.. I mean.. We manage to survive 90´s, so why shouldn´t melodic hard rock survive for another hundred years?! .... |
