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Congratulations to what’s in my opinion are the album of the year.
Thank
you, that
pleases my heart to
hear.
“Wake
Up To The Real World”-How did you decide on the album title?
We had a
drawing of the girl from the “Future World” cover .We wanted a title
track and it was the
best
one.
In
the Pretty Maids camp how does the writing process work?
Most of
the songs are written just the two of us (Ronnie & Ken) with two
acoustic guitars. Some of the songs are written with the band in the
rehearsal room. No computers or drum machines are used.
How
many songs did you write and how many did you record for the new album?
We did
twelve. There’s a song called “Beautiful Madness” that didn’t make the
album, we didn’t think it was strong enough. It might be a bonus track
or b-side at some point.
Any
singles to be released from “Wake Up To The Real World”?
We might
put out the title track in Scandinavia. But we’re still talking about it. A lot of people seem to
like it. Maybe not the most obvious one, in
Denmark we normally release ballads.
For
this album you have a new drummer Allan Tschicaja. What’s the reason for
the change and how did he land the gig?
Michael
left cause he had a lot else going, not musically. And I think he was
fed up waiting. It’s been 4 years and we’ve started and then stopped,
started then stopped. It’s been because of disease, divorce and
management. Life in general. When Allan joined the band we started again
and half the album was written two weeks before we went into the studio.
Allan played with Royal Hunt that opened for us on the “Planet Panic”
tour. We tried the guy from Hatred but Allan was the first choice. And
he also works socially as well, besides that he’s a great drummer.
Who
is the keyboard player on this tour?
The guy
on the album (H.C. Roeder). But he will only play on these two
Denmark gigs in December. I don’t know yet who will play on the
European tour that starts in April/ May.(The tour: We’re working on that
now)
Over
the years you have recorded some great covers, the latest one being Deep
Purple’s “Perfect Strangers”. How and why did you decide on that
one?
“Perfect
Strangers” is on the album because the “Beautiful Madness” song didn’t
fit. It was meant as a bonus track. We played it because we rehearsed “I
Am The End” which is written on a D tuned guitar. After we rehearsed it
Ken one day just played the riff and I’m a big fan of Deep Purple as
well. We’ve toured with Deep Purple, Ian Gillan have done vocals for us
(A Merry Jingle) and Roger Glover produced one of us albums (Jump The
Gun)
What
cover would you like to do on the next record?
If you
ask me, No covers! Ken would love to do a cover album, which I don’t.
People don’t wanna hear Pretty maids doing cover songs. “Please Don’t
Leave Me” was a cover song, but that is something else because a lot of
people didn’t know it was cover. That’s the difference.
How
did you end up doing “Please Don’t Leave Me” (John Sykes single released
in 1982)
We had
the single and we needed a ballad for the “Sin-Decade” album. That’s why
we did it.
What
band or artist is the biggest influence on Pretty Maids?
Thin
Lizzy, Deep Purple, Kiss, Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath. I’m a big
Sabbath fan. I’ve always said that Ozzy was a great singer. He’s not
technically a brilliant singer, but he’s made great melodies and he’s
voice is very distinct.
So many
people sound like Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, you know that type of
singers. But I think Ozzy is very distinct and that’s why I love him. I
love the old Sabbath. Also the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal had a big
influence on us like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden & Tygers Of Pan Tang.
What
band/artist would you like to tour together with as a great package?
I
would love to tour with Elvis, that would draw a lot of people
J
We might
be going out with Dokken opening for us next year. Something that fits
musically really and Iron Maiden would have been good.
What
is your favourite Pretty Maids album?
I’m in
the fortunate position when I can say I don’t think we’ve ever done a
real bad album. There’s always albums you prefer to others. I think song
writing wise “Spooked” is one of the best we’ve done in recent
years. I
don’t think the mix on “Spooked” is very good but the material is.
“Future World” & “Red, Hot And Heavy” are also good albums.
What
is your favourite Pretty Maids song?
I think
“Future World” is probably the best song we’ve ever done. I still feel
ok when we play it live. I think it has all the ingredients of a good
hardrock song.
In
the last couple of years there’s been some hardrock success in the
Eurovision Song Contest with the likes of Lordi, Wig Wam & The
Poddles.
Have you ever thought of entering the contest?
No!
Music is not a competition. I consider it a joke.
Any
plans to make another album in the same vein as the acoustic “Stripped”
album?
Let
me put is this way-You’ll never know. But I think one of the mistakes we
did was doing “Stripped”. It sold a lot of records in Denmark but in
Japan where we just had major success with the “Sin-Decade” album we
dropped like that and it really took us a long time to work that up
again. People get confused.
But
we do what we feel like doing these days and I don’t know what we’ll do
next but it won’t take another four years until the next album but it’ll
probably will be another hardrock/heavy metal album.
Are
there any plans for a live DVD?
There’s
been plans for the last ten years, but we’ve never done it so far. There
is a plan but we haven’t picked the place to record one. All the promo
videos will obvious be on it as well. We haven’t done a promo video in a
long time, in fact the last one we did a lot of people don’t know
about.
We did it in
Stockholm for a song from “Stripped” called “If It Ain’t Gonna
Change”
Are there any regrets in your almost 25 year history?
We’ve chosen the wrong management, sometimes the wrong record company
people but the biggest mistake we’ve ever did was that we turned down a
three week tour with Whitesnake in America in 1987 when the “Future
World” album was released. CBS pushed the album, we made videos and it
was big focus on Scandinavian bands at the time. But we committed
ourselves to do the Monsters Of Rock tour in Europe with Deep Purple
instead. But these three weeks with Whitesnake could really have done it
big time for us there.
What is the proudest moment so far in your music life?
One of the highlights was the year 87´. “Future World” was a big success
and we played the Monsters Of Rock. But I guess the proudest moment was
the first time we had a record deal, that’s what I dreamt about my whole
youth. Commercially it was 87´and 92´ with big success in Japan.
What is the plan for 2007?
We’re
gonna do some festivals next year. I think Sweden Rock Festival will be
one of them. I hope so. We talked about it a year ago but we didn’t have
a new album out then. I know we have been approached by Sweden Rock, but
the deal is not done yet. There will be dates in Sweden next year.
Andy Flash
Copenhagen December 14th 2006 (foto: Andy Flash)
  
  
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