Battttty enjoys a veritable smorgasbord with
Janne Stark

You have a very discerning ear that can only have come from having listened and paid attention to a zillion hours of music. For instance, you picked up on the Bram Tchaikovsky vibe of the HTRB album, without even knowing that Keith the drummer had worked with Bram and thereby Bram's style had filtered through into the HMK album. Do you make your kids sleep in a cupboard so that you can use their bedroom as a home for your cd collection? No, my kids have to sleep in the garage, as I need both their rooms for all the CDs, amps, guitars and other gear. Seriously I'm the one who's crammed in with all the CDs, computer etc in a room. My daughters do come first (I'm just longing for them to move out...) Same here! How many albums do you have? I have about 9.000 CDs and vinyl, plus about 2000 cassettes.

Blimey! Having so many albums, do you find that you don't listen to your old favourites very much, and when you do, how does it feel, compared to listening to newer music? As I review a lot I have to prioritise these releases, but I tend to pull out the old stuff whenever I get a chance. I’m buying a lot of the CD re-issues, but still keeping the vinyls. I've actually now got into a strange vinyl-mood and also bought loads of vinyl stuff, mostly ones not available on CD. I notice I remember the lyrics of a lot of the older stuff I haven't listened to in years, while I tend to listen in a different way to the newer stuff and don't remember the lyrics the same way. An age thing? The thing with the old stuff is that I can appreciate it a lot even though the performance might not be 100% and the sound is a bit thin, while I have a bigger demand for perfection on newer releases. I think good songs and the right feel can make up for a half-bad sound, while on some current releases they would not be half as interesting if the sound was thin or bad. May just be the nostalgia-factor, though.

You have interviewed dozens (probably hundreds!) of artists. Who have you most enjoyed interviewing? Who has been the most difficult to interview? The most difficult and also ironically enough the easiest to interview was Michael Schenker! The first time I interviewed him was after "Written In The Sand". He only answered "Yes", "No" and some unarticulated growls. I had to use every single word he said just to fill the page. The last time was this year and he was extremely nice, polite and talkative. A great interview which kinda made up for the other one.
Another fun thing was I met Metallica when they recorded “Ride The Lightning” in Copenhagen. They lived at a friends house (Ken Anthony). Me and Kirk swopped guitar riffs, we swopped debut albums (Overdrive had just released “Metal Attack”) and had a great time. When I met Kirk earlier this year to interview him regarding “St Anguish” he instantly said – “I recognise you”. I said we’d met back in 1984. “Yes, at Ken’s place in Copenhagen. I remember you played guitar, too. You had a great slinky guitar style and you had just released an album with your band. Man, I REMEMBER you”, he said, which was kinda fun. I of course said I didn't recognise him Is there anyone you are really looking forward to interviewing? I've actually managed to interview most of my favourite musicians, but I guess Jimi Page is one I'd like to interview! Tell us about any embarrassing moments in interviews - and don't pretend there haven't been any, hahaha. Embarrassing... well, I was going to interview Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul. I came directly from an extended business meeting in tie and all, stressed out of my head, sat down picked up my tape recorded, remembered I had forgot to buy batteries, picked up my pen and paper, clicked the pen and all pieces just went "zoom" - the spring, ink-container and all in different directions... and I had no spare pen. This was at the Globe sports arena gallery and I had to ask an attendant for a pen... Great start!

OK, now, tell us about these Encyclopedias! I’ve written two encyclopedias about Swedish hard rock entitled “The Encyclopedia Of Swedish hard Rock & Heavy Metal” Vol 1 and 2. The first one came out in 1996. It’s 400 pages and features over 1000 Swedish recording hard rock/metal bands with biography, discography, hometown, line-up, photos, covers etc. It also contains a bonus-CD with unreleased tracks by Europe, Candlemass, Talisman, Therion etc. The second volume was released last year and contains all bands that I missed in the first book, all new bands and all old bands that have made new releases, in total about 900 bands. It also features a chapter with just names and releases of the 700 bands only featured in the first book. This volume also features a bonus-CD, this time with unreleased stuff by Europe, Lion’s Share, Motherlode, Therion, Talisman, Mustasch etc. It started when a friend and fellow collector asked me to send a list of all Swedish releases I had in my collection. As I have all records neatly listen in my computer, I just excluded all non-Swedish and sent him the list. While at it, I though, hey, why don’t I include info on members, etc., and I’ll have a place to find the info when I need it. It ultimately developed into the idea of an encyclopedia.

Sweden Rock is one of the best-organised festivals of its kind, with a vast array of bands every year. In the years you've been doing Sweden Rock, who have been the bands that you've most enjoyed watching. Any disasters? Funny moments? I've actually been with the festival since the first year 1992, although I was a writer for a local newspaper that year. In 1993 I became the festival press manager and since three years I do text/layout for the festival magazine. My favourite bands I've seen are: Y&T, Captain Beyond, Pride & Glory, Frank Marino, Freak Kitchen. Disasters: When Van Halen, the head act, cancelled 14.00 the same day! Panic! I had talked to John Norum some weeks before and he said to call him if we needed an extra band. I called him! We managed to gather the members (from 3 different parts of Sweden) and get them up and running to finish the festival. At least all guitar freaks got theirs. Funny moment: Watching Freak Kitchen is always a blast! When Mattias made the entire audience turn to and applaud a single poor guy pissing against a fence! Spending time and jamming with Leslie West and Frank Marino was also really memorable!

You have played on many albums for other artists, as well as the two albums you've made with your own
band, Locomotive Breath. Tell us all about Locomotive Breath and the impressive list of musicians who have played with that band, and also tell us about the other bands you've worked with.

We shortly and partially reformed in 1993, but only recorded a demo. In 1995 we formed LOCOMOTIVE BREATH and two years later our debut "Train Of Events" was released (the year after in Japan). In 2002 the follow-up "Heavy Machinery" was released and in 2003 Rivel Records re-issued "Train Of Events" as "Train Of New Events" because it had 5 new tracks, new artwork etc. We are currently working on a new album. The reason we have guests started with the fact that our former second guitarist was asked to leave and I needed someone to do his solos, as I didn't want to do them all. I asked my friend Mattias IA Eklundh of Freak Kitchen. I also had the idea of doing an instrumental where I selected some friends and wrote the parts especially for them. On the first album we had Micke "Nord" Andersson (Roxette, Nord), Calle Grimmark (Narnia), Tommy Denander (Radioactive, Prisoner, Rainmaker etc). On "Heavy Machinery" I had a song where I just felt Mattias had to do it ("High & Mighty") and I also did another instrumental where I did parts for Micke "Nord", Pontus Norgren (Talisman, Great King Rat), Roland Grapow (Helloween), Tommy Denander and Mattias.

What are your plans for Locomotive Breath? Any tours coming up, etc? We're just about to record a cover of The Sweet's "Into the Night" for a tribute. We are also working on material for the third album that will be recorded next year. We'll do a demo in a few months. We are also starting to book gigs for next summer's festivals, so we'll see what happens. Who would you cite as your influences? My early influences include guys like Pat Travers, Leslie West and Snuffy Walden (Stray Dog), while I later discovered Michael Schenker, Dave Meniketti, John Sykes (yepp, already in Tygers) and even later Ty Tabor of King's X, one of my favourite guitarists! I’ve however always tried to develop my own style, which I’ve been told I have by now and which is probably why I’ve been invited to play on other band’s albums.

Are there any bands that you think are still as good, or even better, than they were back in the 70s or 80s? Are there any that you think should hang up their rocknroll hats and call it a day? Aerosmith? The Stones? UFO? I think when Aerosmith cranked out "Done With Mirrors" and "Pump", and Deep Purple did "Perfect Strangers" they measured well up to their old standards. The new Styx album is a killer, too! Unfortunately things have gone downhill for Aerosmith. Their later stuff really sucks and even though Deep Purple's “Bananas” is a great album, it doesn’t beat the old classics. UFO had, according to me, their peak around "Phenomenon", but I do still enjoy their albums, the same goes for Heep, Budgie and Wishbone Ash. Never been a Stones-fan. Bands I've more or less given up on include Scorpions, Nazareth, Slade (now just a sad cover band), ZZ Top and I think Boston are on the verge. Nice reunion surprises include Heavy Metal Kids, Stray, Moxy, plus there's a lot going on in Sweden with Spellbound, 220 Volt, Europe etc.

Are there any bands that you would give your right arm to see get back together? If so, which ones and why? As a guitarist? NONE! Hahaha, good thinking! I wouldn't give my right arm away for anything, not even my left! I would however like to see some of my old 70's bands reunite just to see what they would sound like, such as Sir Lord Baltimore (which is about to happen!), Stray Dog, Leafhound, Dirty Tricks (I know they've did once, but I missed them) and a Norwegian band called Jack In The Box. They changed singer, and changed their name to Autopulver and now suck. Hahaha.

What would be your view on, for example, Queen getting back together with a replacement for Freddie Mercury, or Led Zep with a different drummer? Does this kind of thing ever work? Wouldn't feel right. They're such an integral part of the band's sound. It's a bit like the "new" Thin Lizzy... nah, I don't really buy it (even though Sykes and Gorham is in there). Well it has worked for Quo and AC/DC, hasn't it?

I know you have strong reservations about how much - or should I say how little - effort some of the record labels put into promoting their artists. Tell us what you think their shortcomings are and how they could put them right. And then let's go out and kick some arrrrrrrrrses. Well, one of my problems when writing the books was trying to get some labels to send me promos/bios/photos of their bands. Rage Of Achilles for instance never even bothered to reply to my e-mails. Why turn down free publicity? It would only cost them the friggin' postage and a promo! I wanted as many album/single-covers in the book as well, and even had to search the web's bootlegging sites to find some covers because the labels were either too tight-arsed or lazy. If that's helping a band I don't wanna be helped! OK, I can understand they are probably fed up of "writers" selling off their promos to the nearest record exchange before it's officially released and it ends up on the web, but excluding people who really want to help is not the right way in my book. I also hate it when labels tamper with the promos, like only putting half of each song on the promo, which I think is like sending out a book without the final chapter, or making the entire album one looooong track. The first thing I do is put it in the computer and burn a new CDR in CD Architect, where you can easily divide the tracks. I guess nooooone has ever thought of that but me… yeah right. It's just annoying as I want to be able to listen to the album, jump to another track, compare, listen to a single track over again, which is impossible. I reckon you and I ought to work as a team, and kick some sense in the music business. We could be the new Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell! Or maybe not...

Tell us about the work you're doing with MTM. It started when I was contacted by Mario at MTM as he was looking for an old Swedish band. We then started talking about re-issues of old Swedish bands and I was offered to help MTM dig up and help release long lost, mostly Swedish, releases. First one out is SNAKE CHARMER – “Backyard Boogaloo” (featuring Göran Edman on vox), formerly only out in Japan, now featuring bonus-track. Their debut “Smoke & Mirrors” will also be released later. There’s a lot more, about 15 releases, in the pipe. Among these a classic UK-band’s three albums, which is a real kick for me. (I hope I’ll be able to get back to you with the name asap), plus some more long lost AOR-killers!

How do you feel the Internet could be put to better use to promote music by established and up-and-coming bands? What are your views on downloading music? Well, as a musician I feel that if I want to have my music available for free on the web I’m the one who’s going to put it there! No one else has the right to put up my album for free download.

On the other hand I don’t think it’s right to chase the kids who are downloading, it’s better they chase the ones who put the albums out there in the first place. File-sharing is a bit of a grey zone and I do think it’s highly doubtful if you have 2000 mp3s in your computer for others to download. I however do think the CDs are way too expensive, and decreasing the prices is probably the ONLY way motivate people start buying instead of downloading.

Now, the obligatory amps'n'valves questions. I'm always out of my depth with these. cos I've always favoured gin-and-tonics over diatonics and pentatonics. But for the people who are into that kind of stuff, tell us all about what gear you use, (you never know, we might be able to get you an endorsement deal outta this, hahaha), and also tell us about your songwriting, how you got started, who influenced you, who you air-guitared to when you were younger etc etc. I started fiddling around with my mother’s old Bjarton acoustic when I was 7-8. Around this time me, Pelle Thuresson (later Overdrive/Crosseyed Mary) and his brother Jörgen (later Stormbringer/Crosseyed Mary) were doing our advanced miming with paper boxes as drum kit, badminton rackets as guitars (I even had a banana as a whammy bar!!). We did anything from The Sweet, Nazareth, Status Quo and Black Sabbath to Gary Glitter. Great stage act already back then! I didn’t really get a real interest in playing until I had the chance to buy an old Hofner bass (with a banana-shaped neck…) for 40£ when I was about 10. I formed a band with some other kids, Sgt Pepper’s One And Only Hearts Club Band (short and simple…). I then got Pelle into playing guitar and we later on formed the band Flash, which became TNT, which later became Paradize. We recorded a 7” in 1979. Then we formed Overdrive in 1980 and the rest is history. As I said in an earlier question I started playing along to records, never took a single lesson. I actually didn’t really start writing songs until in Overdrive, where more or less me and Kjell did 50/50, plus I wrote all the lyrics. In Locomotive Breath, actually up until now I’ve written more or less all the songs and all the lyrics (did anyone say dictator…?). Now that we have a new singer he’s (thankfully) changed the routine and we’re working on songs, lyrics etc together, which I think is great! The songs we’ve written for our next album, are in my opinion the best we’ve ever done (yeah, yeah, haven’t we heard that one before…) True though!

Some technical introversion then: Guitars: My favourite is a custom built Norwegian guitar built by Henrik Eugen (he also builds for John Norum etc.,) where I’ve picked out the neck, body (swamp ash), pick-ups etc. It’s a blueburst Strat-type guitar with Rio Grande pick-ups (BBQ and Tallboy).
I also have an Ibanez DT350 with Dimarzio Super Distortion pick-ups and an Epiphone Strat with Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck + Van Zant Vintage Plus pick-ups. It’s also modded a bit. Amp: I use a Peavey 5150 through a 4x12” cab, and for Accessories: Ibanez Tube Screamer modded by Analog Man, Jim Dunlop Cry Baby wah wah and a Boss Digital Delay. At home I use a POD XT for demo recordings.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.... Ooops, sorry, I dropped off to sleep then. OK, that's quite enough amps'n'valves talk. Blimey. Now... what about the 7.4 seconds of the day when you're not doing anything musical. What other things do you like to do in your 'spare time'? 1 of the 7.4 seconds I enjoy fishing, 3 seconds I spend with my family, 3 seconds I work on the house and the remaining 0.4 I just relax!

What are your hopes for the future of rocknroll? That it never dies?! Any bands that you have high expectations of? What is next for Janne Stark? I hope Locomotive Breath will finally break (on the other hand we’re already broke….duuh). We are working on new material and will record a new album early next year. Judging from the new material we have penned down so far it’s something I’ll be mighty proud of. I heard about a reunion of Sir Lord Baltimore which I’m really looking forward to (a mix of expectation and fear, I guess), the next Freak Kitchen album, Sweden Rock Festival 2004, playing with Overdrive at Headbanger’s Open Air in Germany next summer and lots of exciting MTM-releases on the way, are some things in the pipe. For myself I’m also trying to find time to finish the recordings with Rod Chappell Band (I’m recording the guitars for some tracks of his forthcoming album, in my home studio), I’m working on encyclopedia #3 (it’s a perpetum mobile), writing for Fuzz and Sweden Rock magazine. I’m also working on heavy, blues de luxe songs together with Nicky Moore (Samson/Mammoth) for a possible release of our joint venture (the man’s a great venture, I tell you!) and there’s a lot more happening. I’m also trying to find some time to do my regular 9-5 as an information designer…Blimey - you do a full-time job as well?????????? Darlin, if only there were more people about like you. Apart from Me, of course, hahaha. Hey, we really are The Future Of Rock'n'Roll, aren't we! Let's make babies, and make them NOW!

This interview © Batttttty - 25th September 2003

OK, now go to Janne's website and see what else he gets up to!


Another interview with Janne can be found at the
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