(February 2008) PCM's Music Guy spoke to Jorn Lande, a musician who has been rocking stages all over the U.S. and is influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Kansas.

J: I read that you have been to the states. Have you been here once or more then once?

JN: I have been there many times. I have played in Philadelphia once.

J: They sent us two albums. Unlocking The Past is kind of a greatest hits.

JN: The cover album is more containing more all those tracks and leftovers from previous albums and except for one or two brand new recordings. The idea was to only use a few covers and have a bonus track. The record company wanted to record a few more and wanted to release two albums.

J: Are both albums being released in the states here?

JN: Yes they are. They are out now. The Gathering is sort of a compilation of my previous works. We just tried to pick out the best tracks from my previous albums. He wanted to mix cover songs with the originals. That is one of the reasons why we picked more covers.

J: You have one of those classic rock and roll voices, but I bet everybody tells you that. You sound so mellow when your not singing.

JN: Well, I have been around for many years.

J: I know you have been touring for a very long time. What are some of the highlights from touring?

JN: I will say that most of my tours have been great reguardless of which band I was playing. The best experience, personally, was when I played in the states and had the chance to be on tour with DIO. We opened for up for DIO, in 2000. Being on that tour was a really good experience. At that time I was about to start my own concert and I was kind of a little bit frustrated about what to do and what direction to take. It was like a contemplation. You could say he became sort of like a mentor.

J: Oh, Good.

JN: Even though I never spent time with him after that, because we are all busy with our own stuff it was a good experience. It was a good experience for my musical development as an artist. I discovered things that I have been wondering about and helped me to find what to do.

J: I would like to ask you about Sitting Down. You are one of those singer/song-writers...

JN: I write the skeleton and the basic structure of everything, but of course I need to work with my guitars. I am not a great guitarist myself. I create some basic ideas with the guitar and write some lyrics and then I sit down with the guitarists. It is a classic recipe really.

J: Who influenced you in the 1970's?

JN: In the 70's I was inspired by all the great bands of the era, regardless of style. Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Kansas was one of my favorites. These bands had a high quality and met a high standard. Because you have to be able to play and be a true performer and those times have changed. Now everyone can make records and substitute for lack of talent. I am not saying it's a bad thing I am just saying that if you are used to real handcraft Then that is the reason for beginning in music in the first place. I do not really like to overproduce music and make arrangements.You don't need a hole in every gap I want it to be strong with the guitar. I don't like to over-analyze.

J: You like it to be raw.

J: What do you say when you hear something do you say "I wish I did that"? Your happy with what you did?

JN: I did it with the record very new and out and the sights are electrical in The Gathering. I rerecorded and remixed some of the songs. I definitely discovered stuff that could be changed and make it better. Maybe I just improved the song. I would like to do two or three years later. It is never a big deal. If the song has been a true classic the way it is I don't think I need to change it, but sometimes I feel I have potent ional, very strong classic songs, I guess.

J: When you perform in the studio and you perform live what kind of difference is it? I guess you get the exhilaration but do you experiment when you are out there live.

JN: I don't experiment a lot now. I used to when I was younger. I used to use different musical landscapes and change my voices. But not the basic is always basic and heavy metal and classic rock oriented. It has been kind of a journey. I have been working hard and I never got anything for free in this life and so I used my experiences and my life in the full in my work and my happiness and my drive and frustartions in my music. I never had the chance to stand back and have success. Because of that I found myself in this very dedicated and thick dream and see how far I could push it. With being a more classic hard rock oriented expressionist it helps. It is just much more hard to search for something like a pencil. When you receive a certain element when you are young then you just push that hungry and that's what I did. I feel ok and I feel I have a long way to go and its long and spiritual. I have the want to experiment and check out things. Nobody could really lengthen me. That is the guy who is famous for this or that. I could allow myself to be totally free and check out all these things, but now I am a more classical oriented area. When you have played for a couple of years and you know what kind of music comes naturally and you have a range and you are comfortable and you have that and have control. I like doing something that I am really in control of and it is strong and it is something I can do twenty or thirty years from now and still deliver. In France ?____? , they proved themselves to struggle with the delivering. That is what they became famous for. I got to learn from that. I am scared with the computer and how hard a substitute for everything can be if we rely on technology. Simulators and everything so we can make records and we don't have a real god-given talent. I prefer to say that bands of today are using more computers more instruments rather then their tools. That's a big difference. It should be the opposite way around.

J: I agree with that. Speaking of computers do you handle your own Myspace page?

JN: I have people that takes care of the Myspace page.

J: I know that that's where a lot of people commit to their fans and their world-wide fans.

JN: I check it every now and then and try and respond, but its hard to follow everything all the time.

J: Yea. It is tough sometimes.

JN: I think it is hard to be writing more and more people. If I was not to do nothing but that then my life would be dead. I would be just typing all day.

J: Yeah. Sometimes you have to devote a whole afternoon to being online.

JN: People from all over the world go on everyday and most people like it. It is nice to see the feedback on the internet and it helps me and give me spirit.

J: I know you have been doing this for a long time, but are there any other jobs you had prior to being a musician?

JN: When "Sweet Release" the single came out my dad brought it home and that was it. I knew I had to do something with music.

J: If you weren't doing music today what would be your secret job?

JN: That is a tricky question. I like a lot of others things in life and I am into cars and motorcycle. Maybe I would import cars. It is a big market for that here. I am interested in architecture and a lot of other stuff. I really don't know where I'd be though. I don't know if it was something more conventional. Maybe something to do with history.

J: If I was to put you back on stage right now are there any bands that really impress you that you think stand out among the others?

JN: That is a tricky. There are really not that many bands in hard rock or metal that I enjoy, because I think they all lack some kind of magic and they have good production and cool riffs and concepts, but it is difficult to find a band that's new and interesting. I am old fashioned and I still like the classics of music. I can not find it in any band even if they are totally extreme or they are German power metal oriented music, which has a lot of high pitched vocals and it seems to be very overproduced today. When I go back to the way people do producing records. They do everything synthesized and everything is very sterile and cold, because you are not aloud to keep any of that unique flavor.

JN: Yeah. Of course.

J: There is something different. There is something missing with CDs and the way we are recording today.

JN: It is totally different. I am also able to hear every digital recording around here. I am able to hear the digital noise. Different kind of…I don't know what it is. There is something going on with something. I can sense it and hear it and there is actually noise and a lot of stuff that is digital. I don't know. I used to work with this record player and a USB and I tried to play my vinyl and the transfer scrapped onto my laptop and it did sound incredible. I can play the actual vinyl recordings from my laptop and its different. The sound is totally different. Of course it is. When people produced records everything was based around the technology of old. The bass drum was kind of a too much up front and they would put the bass drum in the back and they would make it a little more blurry and upfront in the speakers.

They had their reasons for doing this and now maybe if the bass drum was too loud and you could hear if things weren't really that pumped or the bass drummer was rushing. You put the drums in the back and give it some room. The guitars and the bass would be in front of you and you wouldn't hear the playing if it was weak. When old music comes forward then what they do remasteries and they put the bass drum in the back and suddenly its really loud because it's a weak so they fix it and that's what they do. The whole intention of the production and the brilliance of the production is gone.

J: It is a different recording.

JN: Yeah. It is a totally different recording. Only if somebody was really brilliant with remastering old stuff, but usually the remastered version is alike a stripped version. They don't connect with the frequencies.

J: Is there any private comment you have for our readers? Why should they pick out your album?

JN: I think that they should want something new but still with the classic roots and it is something that is timeless and played and isn't like today's albums. I think the younger generations and most of these people play their old records over and over and most people don't even know that they have new music and that they can still buy something new that still has the old classical roots. Something new that has those roots. It is timeless. The record is timeless. Timeless rock and roll.

J: Thank you very much. It was really nice talking to you.

JN: Thank you.