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ON THE ROCKS 2003 JIM JIDHED He did the vocals on the classic ”Alien” album back in ´88,two years later he did his first solo album titled “Jim” that is a really good AOR album but through the 90´s he didn´t work as hard as the years before and slowed down a little bit with a minor visit in the popworld. But now the circle is full,he has returned to his home in music and once again the curtain is drawn for a diamond voice called Jim Jidhed! If the album had the name Raised on Radio 2…..I wouldn´t argue. Hello Jim and good to see you back in AOR business
again with your fresh new album "Full circle"! Jim Jidhed:Hello Kaj! It´s nice being back It´s a bit different this time from the
last album you did in the same genre from ´90 that included a
whole lotta covers(Love hurts, Don´t lose any sleep,These are
the good times,Silence is golden) because the new album "Full circle"
contains more stuff written by you and Denander and I must say you stand
stronger with more of your own songs. Do you regret doing so many covers
on that album titled “Jim”? Jim: I can´t say I regret them,I liked the songs that I did on that album Was the idea born of making “Full circle”
after your guest appearance on Tommy Denanders Radioactive album from
2001? Jim: After being on Radioactive,Tommy was approached by different record
companies with questions concerning me getting in to the recording studio
again,in January 2002 me and Tommy decided it was time to put together
this album As a huge Journey fan I see your record as the
closest sounding album to Raised on Radio someone has ever done without
copying anything from Journey more than that it´s sounding familiar
to it. I guess you´ve been influenced by Steve Perry quite a lot?
Jim: I think I heard Steve Perry the first time around 83-84 and I
immediately liked his voice and the way he sang. And yes,for a while
I was influenced by the way he was using his voice First time I heard you was on an early single
with Alien before the album and it was called "Headstrong",I
really loved that tune and has always wondered why it didn´t show
up on the Alien album. Can you remember so far back and tell me why
the song was left out? Jim: I´m sorry but I can´t remember Among the finest voices in Sweden are Matti Alfonzetti,Goran
Edman,Jan Johansen,Tommy Nilsson and Martin Stenmarck but you´re
no:1. I think your voice just gets better and better with the years,
is there any limit for how high you can sing?.....I doubt that! Jim: Sure there is,but I´ve worked a lot with my vocal technique through the years and that has allowed me to sing very high without losing the base quality in the tone What music have you grown up listening to? Jim: The first thing that comes to mind is Status Quo and Thin Lizzy,
I´m sure there were others but these two had a major impact on
me in the early years When you left Alien,have you had any offers from
other bands to join? Jim: I think there´s been one or two offers Are all the songs on "Full circle"
written for the album or have you had some of them with you for some
time?(except “Silence of your heart” by Trudel and “Lost
angels” by Perry/Magness) Jim: I wrote five new songs in winter/spring 2002,some songs are from
the beginning and mid 90´s and two songs I wrote together with
Tommy and Ricky Dehlin. Tommy and Ricky wrote “I can´t go
on” a few years earlier If you´re planning on doing any gigs,will
you put in some stuff from the Alien era and the solo album titled "Jim"
or are you thinking about only doing songs from "Full circle"?
Jim: I don´t even know if I´m gonna do gigs at all,it all
depend on how the album do What are your faves on the new album? Jim: It´s hard to say since every song is special to me but I
really like the way “Now we cry” turned out and “Marie”
both melody and lyric wise,that song is my favorite on the album,I don´t
think that comes as a surprise! If we talk about the new album now and each song
on it starting with the opener “I will never leave you now”,which
I think is like a mix between “Girl cant help it” and “Suzanne”
from Raised on Radio,unbelievably good in my opinion and the instrumental
ending part is groovy,was it you or Tommy who came up with that idea?
Jim: It was me! 2nd out is the title track “Full circle”
that has grown from have beeing “just good” to a major fave
and I feel when you´re singing “I´ve come full circle
once again”,that it´s about your rocknroll life like going
back to where you once started? Jim: I was thinking about how I suddenly was back making an album again
and I felt like I was coming “Full circle” and from there
I wrote the song Then there´s a uptempo version of a splendid
Billy Trudel song called “Silence of your heart” that he does
more ballad kindalike on the demo he did but your rocking version is
truly fabolous where Tommy has done a great work producing ,thinking
about the part where you take it down calm singing “5 a.m I´m
wide awake…….”! I guess it was Magnus at Atenzia who
insisted on you making the song? Jim: I´m not sure if he insisted but he played us the track and
Tommy and I thought it was a cool song to have on the album, but I can
tell you that he was very pleased that we choose to do the song,it´s
a great song by the way The 4th track is “Someday” that will
ease and satisfy any Journey fan because this is typical Schon/Perry
harmonies and I can imagine Tommy had something to do with the break
that is Toto-ish,it almost feel like anything that Steve Perry could
have done for his solo records too, It must be rather nice being compared
to one of the world´s greatest voices? Jim: Someday has a shuffle beat to it that I like and a great chorus
(I think) and yes,Tommy re-wrote that part that you mentioned and it
turned out just great. As I said earlier,Steve Perry is one of the true
great rock singers and if I´m being compared with him that´s
alright by me The first ballad is “I can´t go on”
and the 2nd song you haven´t been involved in writing ´coz
it´s done by Denander andRicky dehlin,one thing that strikes me
is that the vocal performance here is one of the most outstanding performances
on the album and you didn´t write it??!! Tommy must have a good
sense in making fine melodies? Jim: I can´t go on is a great song and I think both Tommy and Ricky did a fine job writing that song Then we have maybe the most uptempo rocker on
the album titled “Anyway you want it”,written by you,Denander
and Ricky Dehlin. This one is really rocking and could´ve been
a song taken from Toto´s Isolation,is this one what you call a
“live stage rocker”? Jim: Yes,”Anyway you want it” really rocks and I´m
doing this track at the release party in Gothenburg in February along
with “Full circle”, “Someday”,”Now we cry”
and “Marie”. We needed a few more uptempo rockers so Tommy
came up with this song and I wrote the melody to it while Ricky did
the lyrics. The 2nd ballad out is “Now we cry”
but it´s more of a halfballad I guess and this tune is very close
to the Alien years,do you agree? Jim: Yes,you can say that but at the same time I think it has an Hall and Oates feeling to it. Anyway,this song as it turned out is one of my favorites Well,now we have come to the point where time
stand still and the classic mega tune “Lost angels” that didn´t
end up on Perry´s solo album “For the love of strange medicine”
but you showed the song Justice because the band Raine did a poor version
of it and I have always wanted to play this song on a CD, Thanks for
doing such an amazing version! Jim: You´re welcome!! It´s a cool song and I think it came out good,Tommy and I wanted to use it for the Japanese version only but Magnus convinced us that all the Journey fans in Europe would be disappointed if they didn´t get it so we agreed The third ballad and the first single is “I´ll
be ready then” which is a real wonderful song that I took to my
heart immediately I heard it,are you getting any airplay for it? Jim: Yes,people around me tells me that they sometimes hear the song but I haven´t heard it yet,then again I don´t listen that much to radio All the lovers of Pure AOR will have their needs
fulfilled with tracks like “Falling in love”,it makes you
wanna dance and singalong….just what music is all about,making
you happy so to speak and thinking about your vocals,one can really
hear how happy you are. Is it a nice tune to sing? Jim: Yes,”Falling in love” is another great song with a strong melody and a catchy refrain(again that´s what I think) and it was fun doing that track The only song that doesn´t get to me as
much as the rest is “Wish you were here”,it feels kinda sad…….a
“missing you” tune but I can imagine it´s one of your
faves? Jim: Absolutely,this song is very special to me Then we have a song that was meant to be on the
Japanese edition at first but thank god it was changed and “Don't
close your eyes” ended up on the European release. I like Tommy´s
guitarplaying a lot here and the refrain is a little odd too,maybe some
Tubes harmonies over it…..it doesn´t sound like a typical
Jidhed song to me! Jim: The refrain in this song is a little odd to me too,but when I wrote it the chorus just came natural. Sometimes you get surprised where you end up in the world of songwriting Last song out is “Marie” and a true
love song,everytime I hear it my knees gets weak,stunning vocal work
from you and a beautiful song made for your lifetime love. Is this your
dearest song on the whole album? Jim: Yes,definitely!! If we talk about other records,what 5 cd´s
are spinning the most in your CD player right now? Jim: Right now,nothing special,I´m not much of a record or radio listener. It may sound strange but that´s the way it is Thank you very much for taking the time doing
this and good luck with “Full circle”,you most certainly deserve
all the credit you can get and take good care of that diamond voice
of yours! Jim: I thank you,Take care By Kaj Roth melodic.net (c) - 2003 |
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