Mindview - Belgium 1996
By Peter Peters

"... A fourteen year old kid that could play like Eddie Van Halen!"
Following is the original e-mail interview I did with this Swedish guitar hero, who will be playing at our Metal Convention on Sunday November 10, 1996.Enjoy it!

* How does a swede get to do so many sessions?
- I always wanted to be a session player when i was young and after i made my first album (Swedish hard rockers ATC and the album CUT IN ICE - POLYGRAM / VERTIGO) in '83 i started to get calls from producers in sweden to play "flashy solos", they had heard about "this 14 year old kid" who played like Eddie Van Halen. i also asked around for work, i said that i'll play for free now and if you like what i do maybe you'll hire me next time again and then pay me...I
worked for free for 4-5 years but since i lived with my parents, it was
okay....i get paid now though!

* How did you get connected with music?
- My uncle used to play the guitar everytime he came to our house when i was a kid, i just loved the sound of it and started to fool around with, i was only 5 when i started.
My mother (who played piano) gave me an old acoustic guitar and they thought that i'd just play with it for a couple of days and then leave it...BUT, i keept playing that horrible guitar for two years and on my
seventh birthday i bought my first electric guitar (for 50 us$). My uncle always gave me tapes with Steely Dan, Santana, Doobie Brothers and such, GREAT music.
When i was 7 years old the KISS ALIVE album came out and completely blew me away, since then it's been nothing but music for me.

* Why did you spend 3 years in the states?
- Why not...just kidding, i always had the dream of moving to the states
when i was young and in the summer of '87 i was so tired of the music
scene in sweden. Through destiny i meet Mathias Bohman (who also
plays on LESS IS MORE), he was working for FAIRLIGHT, the greatest
synth/sampler company in the world and was an amazing musician (still
is offcourse).
He said that he was moving to Los Angeles and asked me to join him and
start a band there.
I sold ALL my equipment and moved there with him within 3 weeks
after we'd meet. I already had some good contacts in LA like PAUL
RIVERA from RIVERA AMPS (who's made amps for EVERY major
session player in LA), he gave me a sponsor deal + i also bought a lot of
new and better equipment.I started to make sessions in LA too but only
demos and so, except that Mathias and i played on the soundtrack to
GORILLAS IN THE MIST with SIGOURNEY WEAVER. I also played
on stuff with MATT SORUM, ZACK WYLDE and so. Basicly it was a
BIG learning period in my life but after 3 years i felt i needed to go back
home to sweden to get some perspective on everything that had
happend...and i'm glad i did.

* How did you meet TOTO?
- Since i was endorsed by RIVERA and Paul's done Lukathers amps
from day one, I knew that i'd meet Luke at the NAMM show in LA, and
so i did. We became good friends right away and he invited me to his
home to hang out and jam, he's such a great guy and definently one of
THE best guitar players in the history. Through him i got to know the
other guys in TOTO, who are ALL just the nicest people you can meet.
The GREATEST moment in my life was when i recorded 10 songs with
JEFF, MIKE STEVE PORCARO and PAICH, nothing will ever beat
that.

* How were the reactions to the albums 'till now?
- GREAT!!!!!!....unbelievable, i've got 4 of 5 (or 8 of 10) in about 50
magazines around the world so far + a couple of 5 of 5...and only three
3 of 5, so that's great and also they're selling pretty good for this kind of
music.

* Didn't you have a better chance for a carrier an USA than in Sweden?
- Not then, cause i wasn't mature enough as a player to do a solo thing
then. I got an offer then and started to write for an album, but i stoped
cause i simply felt not ready yet...and i'm really glad i did. My albums
are out in the states through various importers and they're selling out all
the time so i guess it's happening now when i'm really ready for
instead...thanks god!!!

* What was your inspiration to do 10 albums?, and why 10?
- I've always loved ALL kinds of music, jazz, pop, heavy metal, gospel,
blues and so on, so it was really hard for me to decide on ONE style to
do on my solo album, and i didn't want an album with 10 different styles
so i came up with the idea of doing 10 albums, each with it's completely
own style.
IF YOU'RE GONNA DO SOMETHING INSANE, DO IT BIG!!!

* Did you make a planning for the next 8?
- Yes!, i'm long gone with part 3 and 4. Part 3 will be an mix of jazz,
fusion, r&b and pop...lots of super funky r&b grooves with jazzy
harmonies but with popy melodies...it's gonna be a KILLER. Some of
the players are JEFF PORCARO, MIKE PORCARO, SIMON
PHILLIPS and BRUCE GAITSCH. Part 4 will probably be a super
heavy hard rock album, i've already got TOMMY LEE on drums for it
and i'm gonna try to get LUKATHER to play bass on it!?!

* Aren't you making it difficult for yourself?
- Who said life would be pretty... I LOVE to go the way other people
don't or don't expect, i've always been a leader and not a follower. I
HATE artists and bands who change because the trend changes, people
who try to be trendy are the first one to be untrendy. I truly believe in
timeless music, if it's well written, well played and well produced it
doesn't matter what the trend is, there will be people who'll buy it
anyway. Also, i'm a big realist, i KNOW this kind of music won't sell
millions of copies, but i'd rather sell 10000 copies of something i'm proud
of then 1000.000 copies of trendy bullshit.

* What are the plans for the coming months?
- ALOT!!! Right now i'm working on my 2 new solo albums and i hope
to have them out
in aug/sep. I'm also working on my group RADIOACTIVE, to that
album out in sep/oct - it
features me and my singer ANDY EKLUND + JEFF, MIKE STEVE
PORCARO, PAICH,
LUKATHER and hopefully BILL CHAMPLIN RICHARD MARX and
FEE WAYBILL on
backing vocals...kind of cool huh.
I'm also doing an album with the drummer from PARADISE LOST -
LEE MORRIS.
It's gonna be an classic westcoast/AOR album and i think we'll have
STEVE OVERLAND (from FM) on vocals + BRUCE GAITSCH,
SOME TOTO GUYS + more on it.
I'm also writing songs for alot of artists here in sweden.
I'm producing an album with a great swedish singer - BERNT EK.
I'm also writing and producing a solo album for my singer ANDY
EKLUND.
I'm doing guitars on a really cool westcoast project album (don't know
the
name yet), with PER LINDVALL, BRUCE GAITSCH, TOMMY
FUNDERBURK, BILL CHAMPLIN and many more.
I'm featured on lots of different albums, compelitions and so.
So you can imagine that my schedule is kind of full

* A day later we received the following e-mail from Tommy
I almost forgot this: I played one song called DYING OF DELIGHT on
FEE WAYBILL's new album. It's produced by RICHARD MARX, FEE
and BRUCE GAITSCH and also feature STEVE LUKATHER, RANDY
JACKSON, JONATHAN MOFFET, JANEY CLEWER and CYNTHIA
RHOADS.