LAST AUTUMN’S DREAM (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What are you currently up to?
MIKAEL: Thank you very much:) Right now we are planning some gigs this summer, and of course it becomes a part songwriting as usual. I also plan to live a more healthier life, so to Peak…
– First of all I would like you to make some history of the band.
MIKAEL: From the start of the group’s history in 2003, it was not the same members as it is now. «Last Autumn’s Dream» first line up you will find John Leven, Ian Haugland and Mic Michaeli from Europe, and of course myself and Andy Malecek .. After the first album was, unfortunately, the former Europe members leave us to make a comeback with their old band .. The record company in Japan tipped us about Marcel Jacob and Jamie Borger and Thomas Lassar (Keyboard), which became the «Last autumn dream» mark II 2004th Thomas left the group after the second issue, whereby we became a quartet with four individuals … Subsequent years, we made an issue per year útil Marcel so tragically left the earth life 2009th Winnie Påhlsson took over as bass player and has been with us ever since
– Why did you pick the name of «Last Autumn’s Dream» for the band?
MIKAEL: The name «Last autumn Dream» is a name that our record company in Japan gave us an idea of how my music sounds like, broadly
– And what are your main musical influences?
MIKAEL : My biggest musical infuenser is: Elo, Beatles and even a lot of classical music such as Beethoven and the Sex Pistols
– You will soon release your new «Nine Lives»; how could you describe it in just a few words?
MIKAEL; Simply beautiful Rock´n pop songs with soul ..
– Does the title of «Nine Lives» have a special meaning or is just because this is your 9th studio album?
MIKAEL ; Yes it means that is our 9th album , but even a songtitle on this album . Suits just fine J
– The album will be released next February 6th in Europe; why has it been already released in Japan? How has been the feedback for this effort so far?
MIKAEL; Yes , we have got a lot of positive reactions from our Japanese fans and even in Magazines like BURRN the biggest rockmagazine in Japan gave us high score in reviews Feels just great ¡!
– In my opinion, this album comes back to the best of the band; you’ve managed to create 11 superb songs. Do you think you have now reached your highest degree of maturity or is there always room for more?
MIKAEL ; There is always room for more ,but we think 11 is a good number of songs J
– In this record we can also find the cooperation of Jeff Scott Soto. How did that cooperation start?
JAMIE: Well I was writing songs for the upcoming JSS soloalbum and Jeff were staying at my house for a couple of days. I played him a few of the new LAD songs and he liked The Last To Know…We ended up doing it as a duet with Mikael, so that way I have two of my Avourite singers on the same song ,-)
– How has been the sognwriting process for this CD?
JAMIE: I usually sit down and write my own stuff and Mikael is pretty much on his own aswell…Then we get toghether and start throwing ideas around, and we kinda end up with 5-6 songs that are mine and 5-6 songs from Mikael´s sessions..Since I always write on guitar and Mikael´s a keyboardplayer, u can tell the difference between us as songwriters…But when all is down on tape it all sounds like LAD songs 😉 I have my special tone on my songs and Mikael has another flavour on his, but in the end it´s all LAD!
– And what could you comment on the artwork? (the artist, its meaning, etc.)
JAMIE: We have used Eric Philippe forever for our artwork. He is a nice gentleman from Belgium, and always come up with interesting ideas for our covers..He always has free hands and we don´t really interfear with his stuff..He pretty much know what we want, and though we may have some ideas or small changes, he will turn those into magic! We try and keep a red line on our covers, so they´re easy to recognise as LAD covers!
– «Nine Lives» was produced by Jamie Borger and Ulf Wahlberg; why did you choose him? And are you satisfied with the final output?
JAMIE: It´s like a well oiled machine working with Ulf and Mikael…Mikael´s usually in the studio all the time when it comes to mixing the vocals and backingvox… I´ve always liked working in the studio and have a great communication with Ulf when it comes to editing stuff or discussing ideas for a song, or how the final outcome of a song should be or sound…And yes, this album rounds very much like LAD and it represents our sound for the time being, very catchy and melodic 😉
– I can see you are a band with much studio activity; you use to release many albums in just a little time, and I guess that wouldn’t be the same if you’d spend much time on the road. What could you tell us about this?
JAMIE:Well you´re right on the spot! We like to spend time in the studio writing music instead of constantly being on the road! It´s a natural choice we´ve made, since we´re all kinda busy anyways with other things…And we have a guitarplayer that lives in Berlin, Germany, one of us on the Swedish westcoast and the other three on the eastcoast! But if an interesting offer comes up we´re always ready to play live…We´ve toured Japan and done festivals in Germany….
– What are your feelings on being labeled as a «superband» due to the band members?
JAMIE: Well, I guess it´s kinda flattering, but it´s not something we think of on daily basis 😉 It is what it is…We have all been around in this business for some 20-30 years, so I guess it comes with experience and all the classic albums we have played on over the years..What matters is that we write good music when we come toghether, and have a blast playing our stuff!!!
– Now that the year is about to end; what are your three favorite albums released this year 2011? And the worst one?
JAMIE: ohhh, that´s a tough one…I have to mention the new Gavin DeGraw album Sweeter, Chickefoot III, Foo Fighters Wasting Light and I like parts of the new releases from Journey and Whitesnake….The worst???..Sorry I don´t listen to bad music 😉
– And finally, what are the near-future plans for the band?
JAMIE: We have started writing songs for the next album already, and we´ll see what comes up when it comes to playing any liveshows this year..If we get the right deal, we come flying!!! 🙂
– That has been everything from my side, thank you once more for answering to our questions. If you now want to add some final thoughts, take the last lines.
JAMIE: All the best to our Spanish fans, I´ve always had a blast playing in Spain with both TALISMAN and TREAT, so I´m/we´re looking forward to see you all again with LAD!!!! All the best for 2012!!! / Jamie, Mikael
