Joey Tempest and Ian Haugland of Europe Interview for Rock N Roll Universe

Joey: We have fantastic year behind us. We are very surprised that our fans are so strong. In some way we started from the beginning. Recorded new album.

Ian: It seems that we have strong support from our old fans as well as from new ones, from teenagers. It’s good for us if we want to play.

WE START FROM THE DARK

Many people were very surprised and happy when they heard that legendary Europe was coming back to the world of music. Smiling and not-reminding rockers from the 80’s: Joey Tempest (vocals) and Ian Haugland (drums) didn’t wait for the first question. They greeted us and started with words:

Joey: We are very happy. Our new album is great. It reminds Wings Of Tomorrow in some way. Relationships between me and John Norum were very positive all the time and they let the whole band feel very well being back together. We wanted to create very good hard rock.

Ian: We didn’t loose the time. When we entered recording studio all tracks were ready because we played them on our rehearsals many times. We just had to polish up arrangements.

Joey: Whole recording and mixing process closed up in 40 days. Composing took about six months. I wrote five or six tracks, Norum as well. We started recording God To Have Faith. Everybody liked this song and it made our time at the studio. The rest went fast and well too. The new album is about three things: our fans, our band and communication between people. Lyrics are mostly about how great it is to be back together. For example Wake Up Call it’s a kind of conversation between us and our fans, Start From The Dark is also for the fans.

New recordings are stronger and somehow deeper than, for example, Prisoners in Paradise. Sometimes also more aggressive.

Joey: I think that huge influence on them had our solo projects, which were softer. When we met together we all were full of power.

Ian: It’s also an influence of music we are surrounded by. We really like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. I think that we are still under influence of classic rock but we also use all what’s going on now.

Joey: Our new album it’s a kind of mixture of the rock from 70’s and new bands. We really like listening to Audioslave, Velvet Revolver, Muse... We don’t like when there is more computers than pure music on recordings. Unfortunately it happens very often. It’s something different, not real music.

Considering the title of your new record: Start From The Dark. What is the dark? You private life? Europe? World?

Joey: It’s more like our feeling when we got back as Europe. We wanted this album to look more like a first recording of the band. It’s like starting from zero, from nothing. We didn’t look back to Europe from the 80’s. We started like all bands did. I was pretty afraid, just like if I never played in Europe.

But I really hope that all what you created many years ago Carrie, The Final Countdown or Let The Good Times Rock have still a meaning for you?

Joey: We have so much fun when we play them live! They are great! And our audience loves them. They belong to our fans. The Final Countdown was written for them. It wasn’t considered as a potential hit. It’s six and half minutes long and we wanted it to open our shows. We hadn’t expect that it would become a hit.

Joey: Yes, we know! Many people listened to the album and asked us: what the fuck is that? Ian’s reaction was the same.

Joey: I think it’s good that people like it not right after listening to it. They have something to discuss. Then they listen to it one more time and discover something for themselves. It’s exactly a kind of music that slowly appears from the dark. Just Start From The Dark.

Joey: It was for Thin Lizzy. When I was a kid, I was maybe 17 years old I met him. He was very kind. Gave me a good lesson. Told me to be just myself, to stay cool. It was great pleasure to meet him. He was a star and starts aren’t nice too often. He was very kind to me. We chatyed maybe 10 minutes. I could see Thin Lizzy live many times. This is my favourite band.

Joey: After European tour we are going to England. In January we play in Japan. We have also in our plans shows in Great Britain in March and later in USA. We’d like to play some festivals later in summer. We took part in about 14 festivals last summer and we liked it very much.

Joey: I and John Norum met up in 1977 or 78 and in 1979 we formed a band which was called Force. I was 16. Later, in 1982 we decided to change our name for Europe. I don’t remember how did it happen. Perhaps because we were listening to Deep Purple’s Made In Japan very often. Maybe we wanted to call our band Made in Europe, but eventually it became Europe. I don’t remember.

Joey shows us a cup of tea but he can’t finish his words because Ian who likes the question very much has something to say:

Joey: By now I had no troubles with my voice. I do many exercises before each show like playing acoustic guitar and singing.

Joey, I heard that in the 80’s you were collecting keys from each hotel you stayed in... How many keys are in your collection now?

Joey: In those times there were huge keys, sometimes it was hard to get out with them not to be noticed. And they were heavy. In Japan I was almost arrested. Hotels stuff saw me going out with hotel key and they sent a car following me. Then its driver gets off and runs to me and with a serious voice he says: give me back the key otherwise you’ll be arrested! So I thought that it was crazy and decided to quit it.