Interview du groupe ACT le 17/07/06 (Part 2)

(...following of the previous post)

Hadi : To all the band, your music is a high level music in every instrumental aspects (including vocal one of course) doesn't it make a hard challenge to take for the live concerts ?

Jerry : We all like challenges, we love challenges !

Peter : It’s true that it’s hard to play this way, but at the same time we *always* play like this.

Thomas : We’re pretty well rehearsed on a tour like this, we’ve rehearsed quite a little bit.

Herman : But at the same time, the sound you hear live is probably not the same as on the albums.

Jerry : And it shouldn’t be, cause it would be boring, we want to give something extra.

Herman : Yes, that’s two different things, we want to have more on stage.

Peter : When we play live, we want to sound like a real rock band, you know not any sampling stuff, just to make it sound like the record. Cause when we play live, this is our live, this is how it sounds, this is *us* as true as it can be.

Hadi : I understand, this is a different approach, live and studio.

Jerry : I mean, when we are in the studio, we have all those gismos and stuffs, we have strings arrangements, real strings and on stage we can’t bring all of that.

Herman : You have to compromise.

Jerry : Yes you have to compromise and to make the song fit more for live.

Herman : But still we want to get as close to the album possible !

Jerry : Yes of course, it’s not a totally different play.

Hadi : The fans will be looking for the solos and stuff
(laughters)

Herman : That’s one thing that we always play. We never had “jams”. Ok we change some things but …

Thomas speaking to Ola : Your solos are always constant aren’t they ?

Ola : I think we play it pretty much as we do on the albums…

Herman : it’s just the arrangements which change, some arrangements.

Ola : some arrangements, maybe we add a bit more energy to it.

Herman : We won’t offense all the people coming to the concert that they are going to get a little bit “treated” you know, If you play the songs exactly as on the albums as it come, then they may say : “Oh, what’s that !” (on a negative way).

Hadi : Some people would like to meet with the solos of the albums (like me ) some others will be looking for something completely different, from what you said I understand that you are in between ? You take some things from the studio, you bring new things for the live so that everybody is satisfied.

The band : yes, exactly.

Hadi : Can you tell us more about how you compose the songs, in which order do you put everything (drums, guitar, singing, etc..) ? this is something that is always interesting for people who are musicians amateur like me (and many others of your fans).

Jerry : Well that’s a little bit different, you have to separate to compose and to record, it’s two separate things. To compose songs, I just sit at home, I play on my keyboard with a piano sound and just sing along and see what happens, then sometimes I find a melody and then I just bring it over to the guys and we start to arrange it together. But in the studio, we always start with the drums.

Thomas : That’s the most usual thing to do, almost everybody start with the drums.

Jerry : You have got a click track on which you put the drums then it’s bass. Guitar and keyboards are then put after almost the same time.

Hadi : Let me guess what comes after, singing.

Herman : yes singing at last.

Hadi : What are the other bands you would like to make stages with ?

The band : difficult question..

Jerry : so many… we all have our favourites, it’s difficult to name one…

Herman : If we could choose, it would be great to support … TOTO !

Jerry : Yes I was just thinking about them (and they both look and smile as they seem to be imagining the scene), it would be cool !

Jerry : Frozen ! (laughters)

Thomas : There are a lot of bands, Rush would be my favourite, I would be happy (laughters).

Hadi : Ola ?

Ola : Electric boys (laughters). Maybe some of the bands we mentioned before when we discussed about inspiration. So many bands…

Herman : Mel. C ! (laughters again )

Jerry : Britney Spears would be pretty cool.

Herman : Backstreet boys, with all the girls !

(Note from the interviewer : yes, they are really crazy as hell )

Hadi : Is there an other Sweden band you would like to tour with ?

The band : Abba !

Herman : But seriously, if we think about it…

Hadi : of course it’s me, you know, but I was thinking about … EUROPE ?

The band : Oh yes that would be cool !

Thomas : They’re like heroes, of course yes that would be really cool !

Hadi : To Herman, which other singer did give you the motivation to become a singer ? same question to the other members for their instruments, to Ola : which guitarist, etc…

Herman : I didn’t start to sing until I was about 14/15, then I had a music teacher and I did really believe him and he told me “you have to sing”, he just heard me somewhere and I was a trumpet player at that time, he just said “you gotta sing, you’ve got a fantastic voice”. And I said “what, me ?” and I started to sing and then I sang everything. I love music, and I listened very much the beatles, but in that era I listened very much to TOTO and I just love Bobby Kimball, he’s way up there. I used to try to copy him, because he’s so high, I just love him. I’m a TOTO fan, I listened to it a lot, that man (Bobby Kimball) means very much to me.

Jerry : At first I was a guitar player when I was a little kid, and I also played the drums, and my heroes were KISS, I wanted to be Peter Kriss and then I wanted to be Ace Frehley. But then, when I found the keyboard interest, it was through SAGA, absolutely when I heard them I thought “Oh, it’s my instrument” immediately.

Herman : So imagine how cool it was when we made the tour with SAGA, the 1st show Jerry was petrified and couldn’t make any word go out of his mouth (he then makes a very funny imitation of a stoned Jerry ) he was so afraid, (imitating a SAGA guy) “Hey there, who are you ?” (then imitating Jerry) “hmpffff ghhmmfff” (laughters of the whole band)

Hadi : It must have been an intense moment to play with your idols !

Jerry : Yes it was great as they were great guys all of them, they could have been like : “get the fuck out of here”, but they were really nice, nice people.

Hadi : Maybe you will tour again with them in the future ?

The band : We hope yes !

Herman : They are on the INSIDE OUT label too now.

Hadi : Ola, your favourite guitarists when you were kid ?

Ola : I think I had 3 guitar heroes when I started playing, they were Conny Bloom from Electric Boys (it’s a Swedish band I don’t think you know them), Jimmy Hendrix…

Hadi : I’ve heard about him !

The band : Yes ! (laughters)

Ola : and the guy who really got me interested in playing solos was Marty Friedman from Megadeth, he was the biggest inspiration I’ve had.

Thomas : When I was a kid, the first thing I was dreaming to before I had a drum kit was Peter Criss from Kiss, and Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, those kind of bands. Then it got interested in Mike Portnoy…

Hadi : Big guy !

Thomas : Oh yes really he is, they’re all big guys.

Hadi : About bass ?

Peter : I used to play drums before. I played the drums from the age of 9 up to 17. So I just started to play bass when I joined these guys.

Hadi : Oh Ok you switched to a new instrument ! (surprised to realize that these guys not only are very talented players of their current instrument but also know other instruments that they used to play before !)

Peter : Yes, and I’ve never regretted it, ever.

Thomas to Peter : and your favourite drummers was Nick D’Virgilio ?

Peter : Yes when I was young it was Nick. But later on I used to listen too to Mike Portnoy. So I don’t have really any specific bass player to mention. Just myself…

The band : (big laughters)

Peter : Just kidding , but I really liked Tommy Levin, Peter Gabriel’s bass player, that’s a really really cool bass player.

Hadi : Are you considering to invest into bigger promotion like tv promotion / magazines advertising, etc.. ?

Peter : It’s up to the label. The way the label currently concentrates on promotion is through touring and some magazines. And if things start to happen big time, then probably bigger promotion will be going on.

Ola : Our new label is INSIDE OUT, and on the promotion side, it’s gonna be much better, on the distribution side it will be also much better because as they say themselves, the ACT albums will be available in all stores over Europe now, not only like 1 or 2 stores in the whole France, it will be everywhere. And they will advertise it and promote it. Things will be better.

Hadi : Let’s finish with some typical fan questions What are your favorite books, movies, songs, (food ) ?

Jerry : favourite book, I like to read auto-biographies. I’ve read Brian Wilson auto-biography, actually I’ve read it 3 times. It was very good. Favourite movie, that’s hard because there’s so many, Jesus of Nazareth, Godfather, Star Wars, I can’t choose . Food : Indian food ! Favourite drink (note from the interviewer : not asked ) : BEER !! (laughters of the band)

Herman : favourite book, I like fancy books, I like Robert Jordan, he’s American. I have to read “Da Vinci Code”. Favourite movie, I used to say “Pulp fiction”, I love that movie, but I’ll say “Lord of the rings” I’ve seen it a couple of times, just love it. Favourite food ? Kebab !! (laughters) and favourite drink is beer !

Ola : I have read lots of fantastic books, I can’t name one. Favourite movie, I’m really into movies, I like David Lynch, a movie named “Blue Velvet” from him

Thomas : Mulholland Drive…

Ola : Yes, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks of course. Food, I will also say Indian.

Thomas : Favourite movies, that’s a really tricky one I really like a lot of movies, but ok I’ll say mafia movies like Godfather, gangsters of New york, there’s a lot of movies…

Herman : Raging bull…

Thomas : Yes Raging bull ! Books : like Jerry I read a lot of biographies, Aerosmith, Kiss, Iron Maiden, I like to read the crazy shit they’ve been through during the last decades. I’m not picking up everything there, I like a lot of books that depends on the day. Food : Indian, Drink : Beer !

Peter : Favourite movie, that’s hard there are so many, “The big blue” !

Hadi : Very nice !

Peter : Yes ! Food : Indian food is very good (laughters, Herman tries to promote his Kebab ).

Hadi : Last question, what do you think about France ?

The band : We love it !

Thomas : It would be cool if we could stay longer because we didn’t yet get the chance to see that much of it.

Ola : We’ve got the feeling that people there are very passionate. And there are good places to discover, also good food, ..

Herman : Yes, food ! (laughters)

Hadi : Ok the interview reaches its end, thank you very much for all and good luck for the concert.

The band : Thank you, see you later, good bye !