(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.
JN: I like it to be useful and like it happens. When I am
not perfect its like perfect. It doesn't matter. Its about
the vibe and the feeling and the dedication and it needs to
be fresh. That is why I never release my work for two or three
years on a record.
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. 
J: That reminds me and you would probably notice this too.
I think I can hear the difference between a CD playing and
an LP playing.
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.
