FORCE (Spain) 2001

INTERVIEW TOMMY DENANDER - Radioactive

1.- Having such and excellent curriculum and that in Spain you are quite unknow, we wwould like you to do
us a brief biography since you begun to play the guitar, groups, collaborations you have been doing these days.

- Hello Spain!
Well i was born in 1968 and i started to play guitar at the young age of 5.
I joined my first bands when i was about 7 or 8 and did my first live shows when i was 10 so i really found my place with music early.
Like many other swede's at the time i was into tennis as well and i was a very promising player so for a while i wasn't sure what to chose.
But when i was about 12 i started to get asked by friends to play on their demos and when i was 14 i got my first record deal with Polygram/Vertigo so then the choice was easy of course...and i haven't regretted it one single day in my life!
I always wanted to be a session player so through the publicity i got from that record deal i got asked to play on albums for all kinds of artists and before i knew it i had become a studio musician.
I played in bands and did sessions in Sweden untill i moved to Los Angeles in 1987, i spent 3 amazing years there and i got to know many of the biggest musicians in the world.
After i moved back i opened a big recording studio in Stockholm and still played a lot of live shows and sessions for bigger and bigger artists.
In 1995 i released my first solo albums "Less is More" and "Skeleton" and since then i don't play live any more, i just do albums and some of my favorite one's are -
Fee Waybill - Don't be scared by these hands
Sayit - s/t
Sayit - Again
Prisoner - Blind
Prisoner - II
Rainmaker - s/t
Talk Of The Town - The ways of the world
Denander/Gaitsch - Counterparts
Bruce Gaitsch - Understanding
Lions Share - Entrance
Radioactive - Ceremony Of Innocence
And this is what i do these days, write, play and produce for myself and others.

2.- Your last lp is Radioactive, a project that you have been working on, during a decade. Talk us about how you begun to work in it.

- I got to know the guys in Toto when i moved to LA but we never really worked together there, just jammed a little.
So when they played in Sweden in 1991 i just asked them if they would play on my album if i got a deal?...and they all said yes!!!
So i got a record deal and went to LA in october of 91 and recorded 10 songs with Jeff, Mike Steve Porcaro and David Paich.
After i came home i quickly realized that the label i was signed to Sony wasn't doing a good job at all so after a lot of trouble i bought the tapes back from them and kept working on the album by myself.

3.- Why wasn´t it edited in his day? Talk us about the problems you had with Epic.

- Sony signed me for the wrong reasons!, they didn't care about me and my music they just thought it was a cool thing to send a Swede to LA to record with Toto!
But to me this was the biggest thing in my life so i got very upset when they didn't wanna promote it or anything so i left.
It's a very lucky thing i did cause othervise it would have been released in 1992 with no other guest stars on it so i think it was meant to happen this way.

4.- In Radioactive you work with Toto musicians. How was the contact? Does that collaboration has something to do with the sound that looks like Toto?

- I knew them since my days in LA and i've always been a huge Toto fan since they started the band.
They didn't know what kind of album i was doing cause they're session players and play what people ask them to play but they were very happy to hear the music cause it's harder then they usually got to play on, more hard rock stuff and that's what they love so it turned out great.

5.- It is curious but among Toto musicians Steve Porcaro is missing, Why is this?

- Missing?...he is on the album but he did all the keyboard programming and also was engineer for David Paich but he didn't play.

6.- In the records deceased Jeff Porcaro appears and you also dedicate the record to him. When you knew about his death, what did you first think about?

- I met Jeff 5 days before he died in LA!
I flew back to Sweden the day after and a couple of days later my manager at the time called me in the morning and said that my friend from Toto had died...i didn't believe him and just laughed it off but of course it was true and i ran down to the store and bought a newspaper...and there it was!
I just cried and to this day i can't believe that Jeff is gone...and it's been almost 10 years now.
On my first solo album "Less Is More" there's a 10 minute blues i wrote and recorded with Jeff and Mike it also features Paich...it's called "5492" in honor of Jeff 1954 to 92.
He was the greatest drummer in the history and the absolutely nicest guy you could ever meet...one of my biggest idolsin life and i'm so honored to have known him and to have had the amazing experience of playing with him.

7.- As we said a decade to finish the records. Why so llong? In this period did you offer the record to other discographic company appart from MTM Music?

- I talk ed to a few big labels right after i left Sony but at this time in the begining of the 90's AOR music was quickly dying and i got no real interest so i kept working on the album bit by bit and when Jeff died in 92 i realized what a special album this was now and i gave myself a promise to not release it before i was totally happy with it.
Over the years i got to know and meet a lot of other stars so i invited them to play or sing on the album and it was easy to get them cause they all loved Jeff!
I talked with Magnus before he joined MTM about signing it with him so when the time was finally right i had no other label that i wanted to work with and i'm very happy with MTM, much better than any other label i worked with!

8.- How has the work been all this time?

- Both fantastic and totally horrible!
I've had the kind of journey you probably only make once in your life with this album, one of those situations where i've created something that no one can do.
You can't make another album like this cause Jeff isn't around, most of these guys don't agree to albums like this but since this was a special one they said yes, they cost a lot of money of no small label can afford it and no big label is interested in this kind of album...so i feel blessed that no matter what i do now in life i've created something totally unique.

9.- Did you throught that maybe you could never edit the records?

- Many times!
Sometimes the tapes would sit untouched for a year or more cause i had no way of working on them and many time i tought that this album will never be released.
I just didn't know how to get it all together but friends and fans really pushed me and the last two years i just said to myself "it's time"...and i did it.

10.- What has been the most complicated part of the album?

- I guess the hardset part was that the original tapes were these huge 24 track reels and i didn't have access to a big studio here cause they cost too much so in 98 i think it was i transfered the music to digital ADAT format cause that's what i had in my studio and this is when it became possible to work on the album again, so i did most of the last recordings on ADAT but when it was time to mix it i had bought a Pro Tools hard dics system as well so we transfered it again to that and this has been the hardest part i think...eventhough there's a million other things during the 10 years that have been tuff as well...but without all these it wouldn't have become a special album!

11.- In „Ceremony Of Innocence‰ various vocalist appear. Did you think of it from the beginning or you had other vocalist for that function? Why various vocalist?

- This changed a lot over the years cause i auditioned about 20 guys that didn't make the album, some big names in Sweden!
But as the album grew bigger over the years and i got to know Bobby Kimball, Fergie Frederiksen, Joseph Williams, Jason Scheff, Fee Waybill etc i of course wanted to have them cause they're the best in the world!
I had no real plan for which singer should sing what song, i just gave them 2-3 songs to pick from and they had an easy time finding the one's they liked best so.

12.- The musicians that appear were the ones you wanted or there were other musicians on the list?

- I talked to great players like Nathan East, Michael Landau, Dann Huff, David Garfield, Bill Champlin, Greg Guidry, Paul Jackson jr, Jay Graydon etc who all agreed but for various reasons couldn't do it...there's so many amazing players out there that i wanna work with.

13.- How did you get in touch with them?

- Absolutely, and just having talked to many of these legends is cool!

14.- Were there any musicians that didn´t want to collaborate or that just couldn´t because of the schedules?

- No one i asked said no but a couple of them couldn't find the time cause like Nathan East he was always somewhere in the world with either Eric Clapton or Phil Collins.
But i'm pretty happy with those i got:-)

15.- Has the final result of "Ceremony Of Innocence" varied much from the idea you had from the begining?

- For me it's always a huge difference from my original idea to final product with every album i do.
Of course Radioactive changed more than any other album i've done cause it took so long to make it.
Over the years i also tried to make it more of a pop album or even more heavy than it is...cause trends and of course my personal taste changed.

16.- Is there any new theme and that wasn´t part of the composition from that age?

- Almost all songs have gone through many changes, i think there's only the title track that has the same lyrics and the rest have both new lyrics and vocal melodies.
I've changed a lot over the years and even when we mixed iti added a few extra guitars and keyboards...the never ending story it seemed!

17.- Did you had in mind that any of the themes that appear in this Lp., were included in other Lp´s of the bands you are working in? Were you tented by this idea?

- I always knew that most of the tracks i recorded in 1991 with Toto would be on the album of course but since i changed the style of them many times i also changed the songs i wanted to complete the album with a lot of times.
I'm working on a DVD documentary called "The making of Radioactive" and in it you will see and hear a lot of what didn't make it and so on.

18.- Have you talked with Toto musicians to collaborate again?

- Yes i just signed a new deal ast week with MTM to do more Radioactive albums, this means that i have left Prisoner and Rainmaker (plus Z Records) so Radiactive will be my only main thing from now on.
Bobby Kimball is a very close and dear friend and he will be a big part of it and maybe i'll use Mike Porcaro, Fergie and Joseph if possible...we'll see.

19.- Will Radioactive have continue..

- See above:-)

20.- Does the variety of vocalist that appear gives the Lp other style?

- In a way it does cause you rarely hear albums with so many singers but it seems to be ok with everybody and i've tried toplace the songs in a logical order so it makes sence.
I've always loved groups with more than one singer myself like Kiss, Toto and Chicago so i think it's cool.

21.- One of the vocalist is Jim (ex Alien). Whose step we had lost. What is he doing now? Does he dedicates to music? Is he working on a band or on a new solo Lp?

- Jim is an amazing singer and a good friend and he spends most of his time as a vocal teacher in this music school he started.
I hope to work more with him in the future and please check out the new Sayit album called "Again" where Jim sings a beautful ballad called "I Can't Go On".

22.- Talk us about the hidden song "Remember My Conscience" please

- It wasn't meant to be a hidden song actually!
That's the bonus track for Japan but the printing lab made a misstake and kept it on the european release.
It's Andy Eklund from House Of Shakira who sings it and it's Jeff and Mike playing with me.
It's the only Radioactive song that had been released earlier on a compilation CD that followed the great book Encyclopedia of swedish hard rock and heavy metal by Janne Stark in 1996.
But i re-recorded my guitars and re-mixed it for the japanese version of Radioactive.

23.- With the long curriculum, collaborations, any participation on other groups as a writer, musician or producer. Do you think you work hasn´t been recognised until now?

- I've done more than 400 albums in my life and that's a lot but as a session musician you rarely become famous and i've never really wanted to be a "star", i just wanted to be a respected player and writer and in the business i've been pretty known since the mid 80's but since i started doing my own albums in 95 and the groups Prisoner and Rainmaker things have really taken off and i've had to accept that i'm becoming more of a "star" to many people now, and it's a great feeling of course cause i'm getting so much nice feedback from people all over the world and i'll always be the same grounded person anyway so...

24.- We have seen that you have appeared in nearly 400 recors. Can you remember the work you´ve donde with each band?

- Most of them i remeber but i did so many sessions in the 80's and early 90's that were such bad albums that i try to forget some of them HAHA.
But i'm only 33 years old so when i look at my list of work i can't believe when i had time to do it all!

25.- Do you know about many songs have you composed until the date?

- It's somewhere around 3500 to 4000 cause i write all the time and i always have.
I have demos of atleast 1500 to 2000 songs and i have some 200 on albums.
Writing is what i love most of all and i write for all kinds of artists and projects like radio jingles, CDROM's, games, movies etc and if there's any signed band or artist in Spain who are looking for songs feel free to e mail me at tommy@tommydenander.com.

26.- Do you remember all of them? How many songs have you got that you haven´t edited‚

- I used to have a better memory but these days i sometimes hear a song even on albums that i like and somebody points out that i wrote it haha!
Maybe i'm getting old huh haha!

27.- Which band would you like to collaborate as a musician or as a composer?

- There's so many that i can't really pick, i love working with talentm young or old doesn't matter but people with good ideas and a lot of talent is always very cool.
Of course these days when i get to work with so many of my childhood idols life is great, i write a lot with Bobby Kimball now and i sometimes have to stop and remember just how big of a hero he's been to me since 1978!...but we're all just humans and we have to remember that.

28.- Who wouldn´t you work again with?

- That's also a long list haha!
It's been rather easy cause those who used to hire me to play on their albums i only had to meet once or twice and the great people i stayed friends with and these days thanks to the new technology i get tapes sent to or even files through the internet and i do my work at home and send it back so i don't meet that many people anymore.
Those from my past that i didn't have a good experience with probably knows it and don't call anymore and i'm the kind of guy who usually get along with most people so it's never been a big problem.

29.- Which would be your ideas band?

- In a dream where everything is possible it would look like this -
Drums - Jeff Porcaro, cause in my drems he is still alive!
Bass - Nathan East
Keyboards - David Foster and Vince DiCola
Guitars - Michael Landau and i would be pissed if i couldn't be in it so me haha
Lead vocals - Bobby Kimball and Geir Ronning
Backing vocals - Michael McDonald, Richard Page and Steve Perry
That could work!!!

30.-Which musicians have you jelf more identified when you were working?

- As a guitarist my influences have been Ace Frehley, Carlos Santana, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Lukather, Mike Landau, Steve Stevens, larry Carton, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler and a few more...as a keyboardist i'd say David Foster and Toto.
I find inspiration in so many things in life and i find something good in almost all styles of music...you gotta have an open mind in life!

31.- Musically talking, which musicians have influenced you on composing?

- I'm the product of all my inluences and those are plenty!
I hear music all the time in my head...the beat from a train moving or through the emotions i get after having seen a great movie.
i'm born a true artist in this sence cause my mind transforms all impressions i have to something creative...words or music for the most part and i still get that same buzz when i write a good song as i did when i was a kid.

32.- Is it true that did you first recording when you were 14 years old with the group ATC in the Lp "Cut In The Ice". What remembers do you have from those years?

- That's true and it was the most amazing feeling cause on my 10th birthday i told my parents that i wanna be a musician and if i work really hard every day for 10 years i should become good enough to make atleast one album..but it only took 4 and we got signed to Polygram who were the biggest hard rock label at the time with Kiss, Dio, Lita Ford, Bon Jovi etc so it was very overwhelming for me.
I remember those years really well and we really had a great time, i spoke to the drummer Per and the bass player Jonas a few weeks ago for the first time in a long time and that was great.
Per just got married and Jonas left ATC to join Talk Of The Town for their first album and has since then toured with a lot of known artists in Sweden and a funny thing is that he was a gladiator on the swedish version of the TV show!
The other guitarist Mappe left ATC and started Candlemass so the band started several cool careers.

33.- Do you think you would have so much sucess before all this?

- I had a very naive mind about what Radioactive would do for my career.
I was just so happy that i finally had finished it and i thought that it'll probably sell ok but not more than my other groups...and then the whole world just exploded!!!...i've done some 130 interviews and the albums is selling really well and only now am i starting to realize what has happend so it's been stunning to say the least.

34.- Which are the musicians that have influenced in each instrument you play?

- see above!

35.- Do you consider yourself a multi-instrument player?

- Yeah i think so cause i play guitar, bass and keyboards pretty good and i do a lot of drum programming.
I've played keyboards almost as long as i've played guitar but i never practiced on keyboards so i'm definently best at playing guitar.

36.- In 1987 you moved to Los Angeles. What did you llearned from that age and what did you let you down?

- I moved there to learn and to get a change in life cause i was a bit tired of Sweden at the time.
I learned more in those 3 years than i probably have at any time in life.
Just to be around all the best players, producers and studios in the world all the time rubbed off in more ways than i even realized then and since i got to know and jam with a lot of great people i grew as a player so quick over there.
The only bad side to it and the reason i moved back to Sweden was that LA in the late 80's were so amazing that in the end nothing impressed me any more!
I saw Toto, Landau, Karizma, Los Lobotomys, Larry Carlton etc every week at clubs like Baked Potato and his had been a dream for me back in Sweden but i found myself missing more and more cool events cause i didn't really care any more so iknew it was time to go back and get some perspective and i left.
It will forever be some of the best memories i'll ever have.

37.- Why did you decided to go banck to Sweden?

- see above!

38.- In 1991 you coincided again with Toto. Talk us about that moment, please

- It was a cool situation cause i had gotten to know them really well by this time and it was always a big pleasure to hang out with them.
This was a short festival tour they made in Europe to support the Kinfdom Of Desire album that they were still working on at the time and they played 3 songs from the album and it's the only time we got to hear Jeff play those songs live and makes it a special memory as well.
We had a great time as always and in a quiet moment when we all sat in the hotel lobby i just got this crazy idea and at the same time said ot out loud "hey guys would you play on my album if i get a deal?"....he rest is history!
It's "my" moment in life that changed so much.

39.- We would like you to talk about the bands where you are now and you solo works. How would you define them?

- PRISONER
It started as a joke from me cause around 96-97 i saw how many swedish "projekt" bands were making a lot of money in Japan by doing 80's type of hard rock albums so i said to my friend Ricky Delin that we should do the same thing...cash in on the market that still is there.
So i wrote the music in one week and Ricky wrote the lyrics in the next week and i played all the instruments including drum machine and we got 2 singers and quickly recorded it.
Then we realized that this was too good to not work more on it and the singers really didn't fit the music so we found Geir and Pierre who are both amazing singers and we asked Johan from Lions Share to put real drums on it and all of a sudden we had this really good album in our hands.
i had become friends with Mark Alger around this time and he told me that he was starting this new label called Z Records so i just sent him a tape of it and he loved it and signed us!
Funny things is that we got rejected from several labels in Japan before Marquee finally released it.
The album did really well and we ended up on many top lists for the year and even was voted "best new band" in a big UK magazine.
So for album number 2 we were ready to really kick ass and make a much better album but the label did a poor job for a long time and in the end we were so fed up that we just through this album together with a lousy drum machine and so on...and eventhough i think "II" has some very good songs it's a shame that we nenver got to do it like we wanted to.
Now Prisoner has left Z records and i've left the band i Ricky's capable hands so it's up to him what will happen.

- TALK OF THE TOWN
I knew Thomas Vikstrom from long before he started the band and since they "loaned" our bass player for their first album i was always around from the start.
When it was time to make their second album i was writing and recording a lot with them and it felt like there was a great album in the making but unfortunately the band broke up.
Antonio kept working off and on with the band using all sorts of members and Aor Heaven released an album called "Reach For The Sky" with mostly old demos but they saw that there was still a lot of interest in the band so Aor Heaven offered Antonio and Thomas a deal to make a new album.
Antonio and i had become good friends over the years and he asked me if i wanted to help them write and produce it and i was very pleased about this since i never got to do the second album in the begining.
it's still one of my favorite albums i've ever done and i just happend to write 11 of the 13 songs and ended up playing all keyboards, bass, drums and most of the guitars!

- RAINMAKER
Mark Alger had this name that he tried to build a band/project around and he liked what i did with Prisoner and he really liked Geir's voice so he asked us if we would concider doing this special album for him and the label?
It's not often that labels ask you to work for them it's usually the other way around so we were very excited about it.
I think the album has a couple of the best hard rack songs i've ever written with anyone and the fact that we got bas legend Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder, Whitesnake) to play on it was also cool.
Unfortunately Z messed up a little on this one as well cause we had so little time between final mix and mastering and then pressing that the mastering really destroyed the great mix.
We've talked about re-releasing it the way it should sound but it still did really well and like Prisoner and Talk Of The Town and it also ended up on a lot of top lists for the year.

- RADIOACTIVE
Most you need to know i've said in the interview i guess but this is of course my dear "child" in life, my once in lifetime baby and if you haven't heard it and you're a fan of Giant, Toto's Isolation and such please check it out.

- TOMMY DENANDER
I've released 5-6 solo albums so far and they're mostly instrumental guitar albums and i will definenlty do more of them in the future but it's such a small market and i have to feel really inspired to do them.
I will focus on more Radiactive albums and mostly writing and playing for others.

40.- Can you tell us which is the actual situation.

- PRISONER

- Not signed right now, the band is in the hands of Ricky Delin and i will help him write and play for another album cause there's a new deal on the way.

- TALK OF THE TOWN

- Nothing will happen for a long time cause Thomas is busy with several projects and Antonio has a big security company that he is running...time will tell.

- RAINMAKER

- Since i left Z Records i also left Prisoner and Rainmaker so this is now Geir's project and i have no idea at the moment if he wants to keep doing it but if he will i'll help him in any way i can,

- RADIOACTIVE

- I just signed a new deal with MTM so there will be a new album next year.

- TOMMY DENANDER

- Maybe another guitar album next year but i'm staying busy as always...you won't get rid of me yet haha.

41.- Have you got any other solo Lp. Will you continue editing?

- See above.

42.- It is curious that the bands where you are has got a record company (Prisoner and Rainmaker) with Z Records, (Talk Of The Town) with AOR Heaven and (Radioactive) with MTM Music.

- These labels have been very kind to me cause i've been able to work 2-3 labels at the same time and that is not common.
I think they know that i always work hard on making good albums for them.

43.- In this days the second Lp of the group Sayit called "Again" is being edited and you also participate here. What can you tell us about it? Would we can say that you are a member of Sayit or are you
just a collaborater?

- Sayit is one of my closest friends and he's a great guitar layer himself so his 2 albums are not my projects as many think but his solo albums.
Of course my part on both albums has been big cause Sayit needed the help but it's always his decision that goes.
The new album is one of the strongest albums i've been a part of, the songs are all good and the guests do a great job.
It features people like David Hungate (Toto), Kee Marcello (Europe), Mats Olausson (Yngwie), Michael Thompson, Kim Jidhed, Geir Ronning, Kristoffer Lagerstrom (Radioactive) and more.
It's released through Aor Heaven so please check it out.

44.- Apart from Radioactive you have also worked in the tribute Jason Becker. Talk us about that participation.

- I feel so sad for Jason and what he is going through and anytime i get asked to be a part of something like this it makes me feel good cause it's for a good cause.
I've done 2 tracks for the second part of the tribute album, the first song is called "Desert Island" and it's a cover of an old song Jason did with Marty Friedman and it features Geir on lead vocals, Kristoffer on backing vocals and me and Michael Thompson on guitars and the second song is called "Jason" and i've written it with Bobby Kimball, it's gonna feature a lot of big names so i can't wait for this to be ready.

45.- One of your last works have been as a producer of the group Eclipse. Talk us about the group

- I started to produce them but it never felt right.
They're very young and talented but lack a lot of experience so they would tell me "we want it to sound like Prisoner" and when i did the same thing as i did for Prisoner and it sounded close to that they weren't happy cause it sounded different than their demo!...which sounded awful but they were so used to it...so they left and finished the album in another studio which was fine with me.
I have no bad feeling towards them today and i'm happy that album seem to do well but i've been in this business as long as they've been alive so i know they have things they should think about if they wanna last.

46.- The fact that you appeared in several groups at the same time. Is this good or it can make the listener confused.

- It's good and bad i think cause on one hand i think it's ok as long as the records are good but of course it's also confusing for the fans sometimes and this is one of the reasons i left Prisoner and Rainmaker so my main thing will only be Radioactive from now on.
But people must also realize that i am a working musician who write, play and produce for amny people so i will always appear on many records every year...but Radioactive will be my only band so in that sence it's more clear.

47.- Which projects have you got in mind, collaborations, recording.....?

- Right now i'm helping Kristoffer Lagerstrom with his Cinema project, i've just done guitars on a great Boston tribute album for Escape records with Terry Brock, Steve Overland, Don Airey, Heartland and others, i'm working with Bobby Kimball on several projects, i've been helping Peter Friestedt and Ricky Delin with their westcoast projects and both feature a lot of big names plus i'm writing for a lot of people and a few labels right now so i'm staying busy.

48.- To finish, what would you like to your spanish follower and Force Magazine readers?

- I've been getting more and more e mails and positive feedback from people in Spain and it makes me very proud cause i think you're a great country with wonderful people and due to a sad situation 2 1/2 years ago i will always have a big piece of my heart in your country cause my dad died there while on vacation!
The good part of this sad situation is that he was very ill for the last 5-6 years in his life but he still made this last trip and i'm so happy because i know he had a great time in the last days of his life...so you people in Spain will always be close to me.

49.- We would like you to ask this test:

- 5 Favourites records

1. Kiss - Destroyer
2. Steely Dan - Gaucho
3. Van Halen - Van Halen
4. Toto - 4
5. Greg Mathieson - Baked Potato Super live

- first record you bought

- Kiss - Alive

- last records you bought

- Tim Mcgraw - his last one can't remember the name!

- first concert you saw

- Kiss in 1976 i really don't remember much but i was there:-)

- new revellation group

- Dave Mathews band

- last book you read

- I don't have time to read books so it was the manual to Pro Tools:-)

50.- Thank you very very much for the interview and congratulation for the work you do.

- Big thanks to you for your support and i'll talk to you soon again.
Best wishes
Tommy