WORK OF ART (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What are you currently up to?
Hello there! I just came back from Firefest in Nottingham where I played with WET. Fantastic crowd and a fantastic festival so it was a great place for WET to our first live show. Now, it’s time to prepare for WOA’s first live gig which will take place in the beginning of next year. Can’t wait to go out and play our music in front of a real audience:)
– First of all, I would like you to make some history of WORK OF ART.
We all met back in 1992 when our drummer Herman and I went to school together. He already knew Lars and invited him to our band to play keyboard. But after 3 years of looking for a lead singer with success with put the band on hold. Then in the late 90’s when Lars stared to get really serious about singing, we tried to record some of our songs with him on vocals and it sound amazing. But then it took almost another 5 years before we all could find time to start working on new music for Work of Art. Remember that in the 90’s, this music was very un popular and we all wanted to work with music so we were caught up in other projects. Buy slowly but surely with stared to get back into making WOA music and everything kind of fell into place in 2006 and then we got our record deal and record our debut album in 2007.
– And why «Work of Art» for the band’s name? Both its origin and meaning. Is your music both a work and an art?
Haha, I guess you can say it’s both work and art. Work in the sense that we put a lot of «Blood, Sweat & Tears» into the making of our albums and art because I think every time you create something out of nothing, it’s art. As for the band name, it’s been there with us since our high school days!!
– You have recently released your latest «In Progress»; how’s being its feedback so far?
Fantastic so far. We been getting so much great reviews from all over the world and it feels really good. We did this album because we wanted to give something to all ones who loved our first album and wanted us to do a second one so, it feels really good that most people seems to be even happier with this new album. Also, unlike the first album and unlike most AOR band, we have gotten some attention from Swedish mainstream press which is a pleasant surprise. They hardly never write about this type of music so that is very positive I think.
– The first thing that caught my attention off this album was it’s title; does it mean the band’s still on evolution and can improve even more?
Oh, absolutely! I think we took a big step forward with this record compared to our last one and don’t see why we couldn’t to the same with the next album. But as far as title goes, we made up the names for our first three albums back when we still went to high school and we are sticking with that plan.
– Your debut album had a really overwhelming impact over Melodic Rock fans, it certainly had an impact not seen in many years, even some critics labeled your album was one of the best Melodic Rock pieces off that decade. Did you expect such a good response?
Oh no, absolute not! We were just happy to get the chance to record an album doing this kind of music that we personally love and thought that it was a fun opportunity but, that the album would pass by fairly unnoticed. But, I’m happy we were wrong, otherwise we never would have proceed to make «In Progress».
– Due to this expectations regarding this second «In Progress» were really high; did this make you work under more pressure or, otherwise, did it motivate you to create this new album?
At first, there was a bit of pressure yes, but once we got into it, we just do what we always do, that is to try to make the best possible music we can. It’s really great with this band because everybody is really good in giving each other constructive and supportive feedback so that way, I think we keep are standards fairly high.
– And did you ever thought during your first steps you will ever get that far?
Actually when we first started back in 1992, I would say yes! But then again, we were just naive teenagers with dreams back then;)
– If I’m not mistaken «In Progress» was already finished some time ago but; why did it take you that time to finally release it?
Because Frontiers Records has had such and impressive amount of really high profile releases this year, they didn’t want to risk our album to fall between the cracks of their bigger released so, they waited for the right time to release the album when it would get the attention it deserves. Hence the 10 months period of holding back the record after it was actually done.
– Even though this album follows the same pattern and essence as «Art Work» did, I noticed is a heavier album. Was this something you wanted to get?
I think the heaviness on this albums comes from two factors. One is the way it was produce and the other factor is that we wanted this album to be more of everything. Heavier when it is supposed to be heavy, softer on the softer songs etc. Just to make it more diversed without losing to much of the sound from the first album.
– Tracks as «Castaway» have a certain GIANT’s feeling to it. What could you comment on this song?
Well, I wrote that song with Anders Ryholm from Grand Illusion and the working title was «A touch of Giant», go figure!!! 😉
– In fact, you have been compared to bands as GIANT or JOURNEY and TOTO among others. Anyway, I guess beside the obvious and most classical influences there may be some other bands and artists that have inspired you: which are they?
Oh absolutely, the whole «west coast» scene with band like Mr. Mister, Chicago, Airplay etc. And maybe more closer to the WOA sound, bands like
SAGA, IT BITES, the Swedish duo BIG MONEY and songwriters like Jeff Paris and Desmond Child…to name but a few!
– We could say you are an old-fashioned Melodic Rock band, though you have managed to add your own trademarks, making your music sound just as WORK OF ART. What do you think make you guys different?
I think it’s the combination that we write songs in the tradition of all the old legendary bands but we (especially Lars) produces it the same way as the more modern music that we work with outside WOA. A combination of old and new in other words.
– Sweden seems a really good country for music lovers, though into the Rock camp it seems to be a special urge for Sleaze/Punk Rock. Are things easy in Sweden for a Melodic Rock/AOR band? What other Swedish bands into your style could you suggest?
Not easy at all. This type fo music is very underground here in Sweden with almost no place to perform live. The press could give a damn most of the time so it’s actually really hard. Other bands, check out my friends bands: Grand Illusion, Eclipse, Xorigin etc. There are plenty of them:)
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
Right now, we are totally committed to try to come out and play live as much as possible!
– That’s all, thanks once more for your time. If you would like to add some final words; last lines are yours.
I would like to thank each and everyone who supported us so far! It’s really you the fans who made this second album possible and motivated us to make it as good as we possibly could!
