Interview de Joey Tempest le 03/05/2006

Hadi : Hello Joey !

Joey Tempest : Hello Hadi ! How are you ? "Je suis le chanteur" !

Hadi : It's a honour and a great pleasure to speak with you. I'm addicted to your music since I was a teenager To present myself briefly, I'm the webmaster of a french forum named Europe Music ( http://europemusic.forumactif.com ) dedicated to discussions about the music of Europe.

Joey : Thank you.

Hadi : Ok if you're ready, let's start with the interview :
- We have noticed that "Start from the dark", eventhough being a very good album, is not at the same level of "instrument skills" than the previous Europe albums, especially when thinking for example to guitar or keyboard solos.

Question : Are you aware that some of the fans have been "in love" with the band *because* of the high level of instrument skills that was present in former albums and is the band going to come back to it - at least for some songs - for the forthcoming album ? (we miss John and Mic powerful solos ;-)

Joey Tempest : I know what you mean. Making long solos of 5 minutes in songs makes not sound them "modern". As you could see in the Live from the Dark DVD, in a live situation we have more room and there, instrument skills demonstration is more appropriated. In a studio situation, we try to go straight to the point.
But I understand that some fans misses the technical solos we used to have in our songs. We are currently working on the new album and the band is going to meet very soon, I think we will consider putting some "high instrumental skills" stuff inside the album.

Hadi : - Can we expect an pure instrumental (like boyazont) for the forthcoming album ?

Joey : I like boyazont too, it's a very good instrumental. When the band will meet, we will discuss to see if it's possible to make an instrumental for the new album.

Hadi : - From what you know/think, what is the management going to do to promote in a stronger way the band for the forthcoming album ? (we hope a stronger promotion than for Start from the dark, for example we would like some advertising on TV like we could see for Bon Jovi).

Joey : We are currently focusing on making the best album possible. When the album will be finished, then we'll put it in the hand of the management and we'll rely on them for making a good promotion. But if you want to help, you can contact the management when the album will be ready to come out to check how you can help the promotion in your country. You know, a good thing fans can do is "street actions". You can contact record companies, magazines, radio, etc. to propose them to discover and promote the album. "Street actions" can do a lot of good promotion for a band.

Hadi : About song-writing :
- Where do you find your inspiration / song ideas ?

Joey : Well it can comes from many things. Sometimes I find inspiration in a book I've read or a in a movie I've seen. It's hard to say where exactly the inspiration comes from, it's just comes. I play my guitar and keyboards every day and I try to catch all the inspiration to make good songs and melodies.

Hadi : You have speaked about books and movies, can you tell me some of your favorite books and movies ?

Joey : Currently I'm reading "Bono by Bono", from the U2 band singer, it's a good book. One I did like a lot is 1984 (from Georges Orwell), it did influence me for my song writing. About the movie, I did like 6th sense, do you know it ?

Hadi : Yes, damn good film

Joey : Yes I like such kind of movie.

Hadi : - Do you first write the lyrics or the music ?

Joey : Most of the time, it begins with the music. I play the chords on my guitar and then it goes on. But it happens that sometimes I write the title of a new song on the paper, and then build a song around it.

Hadi : - Do you prefer to compose a song using a guitar or a piano ?

Joey : Mostly guitar, but sometimes if I have already wrote the lyrics, then I can go on the piano to put them in motion and make a song.

Hadi : French fans and the band :
- During the next tour in France, if we (our forum regular members) organise a dinner in a fine restaurant in Paris, and propose an invitation to the band, can we hope a "yes"

Joey : You will have to contact management so that they could see how they can arrange this. But when I'll come to France we will meet, I don't know exactly how and when, but we'll have to meet.

Hadi : - Don't you think that it would be a good idea to make a "revival" for some old songs that have never been released, I'm thinking especially to "Blame it on me" who is a so powerful song and is loved much by the fans.

Joey : Yes "Blame it on me" is a good song, I like it too. But I know that fans already have these songs, they get it from the internet (laughter). We prefer to come with new material, rather than to try to get back to old songs.

Hadi : (trying desperatly to give a chance to "Blame it on me" to have a come back ) But you know a song like "Blame it on me" is timeless, I bet that one could listen to it in the 80s, 90s or nowadays without ever thinking about an "old song", it will always sounds modern.

Joey : Yes, It's a very good song (laughter).

Hadi : - I'm playing guitar in a band, would some Europe band members accept to be "guest stars" for a Jam session ? (I would love to share a "musical moment" with my idols ;-).

Joey : (laughter) Well, if some Europe members want to join you for a jam why not ? You will have to contact management to see how it can be possible when we'll come to your country.

Hadi : - We miss the "crazyness" that was spread by your music in the former albums (for example the crazy solo of "Wings of Tomorrow", or the crazy riff of "Scream of Anger", the original idea of "The king will return", etc.), in "Start from the dark" there was not much of this "crazy feeling", do you intend to get a little bit "crazy" again in the forthcoming album ?

Joey : I know what you mean. Yes we have to get "naïve" again, and make songs that are even more spontaneous as we did in the past. We'll try our best for the new album.

Hadi : - Which Europe songs do you prefer ?

Joey : (thinking) I like "Girl from lebannon", "Mind in the gutter"..

Hadi : I heard in previous interviews that you like songs from the Wings of Tomorrow album

Joey : Yes ! Wings of tomorrow is a good album with good songs, I like Wings of Tomorrow song, I like also Scream of anger , Open your heart, etc.

Hadi : - There is a "mistery" on which we are often busting our mind in the forum (laughter) : can you tell us *why* is the keyboard intro of "The Final Countdown" always a playback when you are on stage, rather than played live as the rest of the music ?

Joey : Well you know, this intro has a powerful mix with complex sounds effects and we like to begin our concerts with an intro we are sure people will like and will recall easily.

Hadi (wanting to dig a little bit further ) : but couldn't you play this intro in a way that would be as powerful as the studio version ?

Joey : It would be difficult to get the same deep sound. You know the intro was originally performed using something like 11 keyboards all controlled by m.i.d.i. It would be difficult to make such thing live. There is also the pb of the set up ; Mic Michaeli doesn't have the same instruments as he had at the time we made the intro. He has some new nice keyboards, but as I said, it would be difficult to make it sound good live.

Hadi (digging even more ) : Maybe you could be on keyboards too with Mic during this intro to have 4 hands and get something nice. When you'll come to France, if you play it "live" for us, we would be very happy by this "special gift" ;-)

Joey : (laughing) haha Ok

Hadi : - In which themas do you wish to go through in your next song writings ? (war, politics, terrorism, woman / man relationships evolution, etc. ?)

Joey : the songs so far are about Spirit, religion and love

Hadi : - Do you know an other very nice swedish band named A.C.T ? Their website is http://www.actworld.nu If yes, what do you think about their music ?

Joey : They seem like a good band

Hadi : - Is there a cover from a Europe song that you know/like ? If people of our forum make covers from Europe songs, can we send it to you so that you could tell us if you like it ?

Joey : There had been many, but no real favorites. There was a Swedish jazz trio that did a version in the 90's it was very strange. If we see you in France you can give us a Cd of any covers if you have any.

Hadi : - During the interview, I understood that you told me that Mic Michaeli is not sure about the keyboards setup that allowed to make "The Final Countdown" keyboard intro.

Question : was Mic Michaeli part of the band when this intro was created and did he participate to it ? (some sources tend to say that this intro was made by a night club DJ starting from a melody composed by you, all this happening previous to Mic Michaeli joining Europe).

Joey : Mic knows the set-up and if you asked him he could tell you what he used on that session. However I don't know if he has the exact same keyboards these days. He was very much part of that session. Mic together with Kevin Elson, myself and a keyboard specialist we created the intro in Switzerland 1985

Hadi : There is a special message I promised to forward to you, it's from one of our most active member, your n°1 fan, her name is "Eva la peste", don't know if you know her ?

Joey : (lots of laugh) yes ?

Hadi : She says that she sends a kiss to the "scorpion tatoo" of Gunnar and she also wishes you a big "good shit luck" for the new album, and so do all of the members of Europe Music french forum.

Joey : Thanks to all of you for your support, it's good to see that we
are nicely supported in France !

Hadi : We are at the end of the interview, Joey, you have brought music into our life and melodies into our heart, we want to tell you how much you are important for us. We send you all the encouragements for the forthcoming album and be sure that we are all impatient to discover it.

Joey : Thank you very much, see you when we come in France, Good bye !