ON THE ROCKS (1) 2001
By Marco Spaeth

1. The history of RADIO ACTIVE leads back to 1987 when you packed your things and moved to America. Where from does a 19 year old Swedish guitarist pluck up courage to move to a city of danger like Los Angeles?

- Good question since i grew up in very small town called Akersberga about 30km's north of Stockholm!
I've never been the scared type but not stupid either so if you're careful and think twice you'll be OK 99% of the times in life no matter what you do!
I had been to New York a few times and knew that LA was not as tough so that helped of course but my parents were a bit concerned at first.
The thing that made them OK i guess was that they knew i wasn't into drugs or drinking at all and i had already been a pro musician for a few years and had toured around the world so it was fairly easy for all involved.
But it was such a great feeling to leave my childhood room and move right in to a nice apartment in the middle of Hollywood!

2. Can you still remember the very first meeting with the guys from TOTO and can you still remember the feeling you had to meet your shining idols face to face??? What did you say and what did they say???

- I remeber it like yesterday.
About 2 weeks after i got to LA i was going to the NAMM show which is one the biggest trade shows for music instrument makers and i knew i was gonna meet Steve Lukather for sure cause we had mutual friends among the companies.
And a few days before the show i got a call from a journalist buddy in Sweden who wanted to come to LA and do an interview with TOTO for his TV show, a program that would air shortly before TOTO's tour was coming to Sweden so it would be a great promo for TOTO of course.
He asked me to help him set this interview up and it gave me the perfect reason to start talking to Luke...and it was!
We become friends in 5 minutes and he gave me his phone number plus the number to their management so i could set up the interview.
My friend came over and did this great thing about them and everybody was happy and shortly after that i ran in to Jeff Porcaro at the Valley Arts music store and since he was my biggest idol in life i had to say hello.
We started talking and when i told him i was from Sweden he stopped and just said "are you Luke's buddy who set up that cool interview?"...and from then on we had a good thing going every time i met him and the same happend with the rest of the band.

3. In the booklet of your album you wrote that you asked TOTO to be your backing band for your own album. After they said "yes" you talked to one of their A&R's and only one week later you signed to Sony. Holy sh#&%, was it really so easy to get signed by Sony??? ;) Didn't they want to hear any of your songs first???

- It was actually this easy and that's also one of the biggest reasons to why we broke it off.
I mean, i was stunned that i was in a position to do an album with TOTO...shit like that don't happen except in good dreams!
But when i came up to their office the next week they already had a contract ready for me and my first question was "don't you wanna hear some music?"...but they were more interested in the "hip" fact that they were sending a swede to LA to work with TOTO!!!..they acted like kids.
A week later when i came back to sign it i had a tape of songs with me and only after i had signed the deal did they listen to it and here's what the head A&R guy said - "oh cool it will even have good songs"...!!!!
I was not getting a good vibe from this guy at all but i didn't care cause i had my deal and the money in my hand so i was going to LA!

4. In October 1991 you spent three weeks in L.A. to record 10 songs with the guys from TOTO. What a feeling was it for you to be in one and the same studio with these guys and record songs with them???

- First of all i went through HELL just to get everything booked and set up, mainly cause i wanted to use another big star as co-producer plus to record it in his studio but he turned out to be a major asshole and he almost ruined the whole thing!
Luckily Jeff didn't like him either so he did one of the greatest things i've experienced in life and took control of the whole thing, he put me in contact with the right people, booked studios and engineers and when i got to LA he and his brother Mike treated me and my girlfriend like royalty!
When the first day of recording came i was still so tired from all the shit that had been going on that i never had any time to get nervous or so...i just walked in and gave the guys a hug and we went right to it.
There i was, 23 years old and i'm producing my own songs for my own album with TOTO backing me!!!!!...talk about wild!
I know now that i do have what it takes to get through any kind of situation, i made this because i have the talent and a good combination of my own strong mind but a good sence of when to listen to others.

5. Are all these 10 songs you recorded back then featured on "Ceremony Of Innocence" or did you drop one???

- 8 of them are on the european version and 9 on the japnese one.
The last song is called "5492" it's in memory of Jeff (1954-1992) and i wrote that with Jeff and Mike in the studio, it's a ten minute instrumental blues with all of them playing so good.
You can find that song on my first solo album "Less Is More".

6. When you recorded the songs in 1991, didn't you record any vocals for the songs???

- No vocals at all cause i didn't even know who was gonna sing it!
I didn't even have a vocal melody or lyrics to most tracks so when i got home i auditioned a lot of people, famous and not so famous but no one felt right.
In 1993 i "discovered" Andy Eklund (House Of Shakira) at a talent show were i was a guest playing with famous swedish singer Tommy Nilsson (Easy Action) and i had talked to Tommy about singing on the album but when we heard Andy he just whispered to me "that's the guy who should sing on your album"...
I became a close friend with Andy really quick and he sang demo versions of most tracks and it sounded great but later in 1993 i got very sick for a long time so the whole projected stopped.
A couple of years later i got a call from House Of Shakira cause they had heard one song that i did with Andy and wanted him for the band, i felt right away that it would be a perfect band for Andy and it was.
When i finally started to work on the album again i had gotten to know Bobby Kimball and some other fantastic singers so the dream of getting them was there instead.

7. When you returned home the deal you had with Sony was suddenly broken up.
What were the reasons for this disaster???

- I don't wanna sink to the lowest level that they did and spill the story in the media but what they did was so bad that i haven't seen anything like it before or after.
We both decided that it would be best to go separate ways and i took a loan and bought the tapes back...walked away as a free man from these complete idiots but unfortunately i did something to them out of anger at the time that i really regret and have paid a big deal for after...not in money but in bad reputation.
We both did something bad and promised to keep this quiet...but they quicly broke that promise!
All i'll say is that the A&R was fired and other important people got some heat at Sony as well and i've never seen a big label in worse shape...it was a joke, the big office in USA had meetings about the future of the swedish office!
I'm just so blessed that this happend cause othervise i wouldn't have the album that i do today so big thanks guys:-)

8. In the last 4 - 5 years you had a few offers from different record labels from all over the world for a release of the album but you refused them all.
Why did you only accept Magnus Soederkvist's offer???

- First of all i wanted to sign it with a small label cause they work from their heart and you get a closer more personal friendship with them.
Second i had known Magnus for several years and i knew he was great at this music so i felt like i would be in good hands.
I was signed with Prisoner and Rainmaker to Z Records when i signed with MTM but both labels have been great about it so it's not a problem.
I could have signed this as well to Z but i had been talking for so long with Magnus about it and it just felt like an MTM release in my heart and they're doing a great job with it so i have no complaints at all.

9. In all the years you worked on this album, did you ever loose your believe in a release of the album???

- Oh many times...4-5 years ago i didn't have a clue what to do with it!
It takes so much money, time and special equipment to make an album like this that i was getting close to a point where i just wanted to leave the tapes in a box forever!
If it wouldn't have been for all my friends pushing me and the constant buzz from fans and media around the world it would still be there now.
This album is more of an achivment than just another album for me and that's why it's something i can't top in my life no matter what i'll do!
I will write better songs and i will most likely work with many of the people involved again but i can't make another album like this...no one can cause Jeff isn't around anymore (RIP) and to get all three Toto singers plus people like David Foster is so hard that no one will probably be stupid enough like me to try it:-)))

10. When did you record vocals for the album and how did you choose "the right singer for the right song"???

- Most of the vocals were recorded in the last 2 years and every time i found a singer i wanted to work with i just looked at the list of songs and gave him a choice of two or three.
Some did one track and others like Bobby, Fergie and Jason did 2.
I also had this great backup plan since Geir Ronning is one of my best friends and also one of the greatest singers in the world i knew that i could always use him for whatever was left to do!
I didn't wanna use his too much for lead cause we've done quite a few albums together already so i mainly used him for backing vocals but he does a really great job as always on the two tracks he sing lead on.
I still can't believe that i got all these amazing singers on this album.

11. The album features so many performances from different musicians. I guess it was extremely difficult to put them all together and to not lose track of things!?!?

- I'm a pretty organized guy but the song that gave me most trouble was the instrumental "Liquid" cause i had three bass players, three keyboardists, 2 guitarists and so on...and most guys played all over the song so it took some serious editing in Pro Tools to make it right!
It's a song that stands out from the rest for several reasons but i'm a musician at heart and all these legends agreed to play on the album and i had to make room somewhere!
It's one for the musicians more than the usual AOR fans.

12. All the guys from TOTO played on your album, except Steve Lukather. I read in an interview that Steve doesn't like you. Is that correct and what are the reasons his antipathy???

- Luke was booked to play on it in 1991 together with Mike Landau but Mike got called out of town with James Taylor and Luke cancelled cause that asshole i talked about earlier made him believe a lot of complete lies about me when they were REALLY drunk!
Jeff was so pissed at Luke for this that i thought he was gonna punch Luke's teeth out!
But Steve and i cleared this out some time later and he apologized to me in a very nice way.
A couple of years later i got mad at him cause i hated the way he treated the old members (singers) of TOTO in the media.
He spoke so bad about them that they could hardly get any work in the music business any more...and why?, he did it for no reason at all except cheap jokes that REALLY hurt these people badly.
I got very angry at him and said something stupid like "i don't think you have the right to beat down on these people who actually were a big part in making you and TOTO big when you're an alcoholic, drug user and often cheating on your wife!"...it was hard of me and not fair in a sence but i was really pissed to see him over and over and over again in magazines and on TV with the same hard words.
i mean how would you or anyone react to that kind of treatment year after year..and all they did was play in a group together!!!!!
I'm sorry to say but Luke can be such a prick sometimes and i guess i was just fed up with him and the direction TOTO was going at the time so i told my honest opinion on a Toto mailing list....boy was that a stupid move:-).
We all made jokes about each other and Toto all the time on that list but in good spirit i thought, but it turned out that some little pissants collected everything that was being said and took things i had said totally out of context and e mailed it to Luke!
So he got the impression that i hated him and the band which wasn't true at all.
I say it all the time...i wouldn't be half the guitar player i am if not for Luke and TOTO.
The way he played from the late 70' to early 90's is among the best there will ever be but im sorry to say that these days i think his playing is awful most of the time and this has nothing to do with any bad feelings between us...it's just that his sweet and beautiful sound and feeling is gone and he plays sloppy!
It breaks my heart cause he used to play like a genious!

13. I was surprised to see former ALIEN singer Jim Jidhed singing on the album as I thought he has quit his career as a singer. So it this an older recording or did you reactivate him from retirement??? Do you know what he's doing today?

- He's become a pretty good friend and we've done two tracks together lately, this one and a great ballad on the new Sayit CD.
He hates most things about this business and i can't blame him so now he's started a music school and gives lessons in Gothenburg were he lives.
He's a great guy with a fantastic voice and i hope i can do more with him later on.

14. The name of the project, RADIO ACTIVE, seems to be an allusion to the fact that all songs are radio friendly and perfect for airplay. Is that right and are you not afraid that the best times for airplay for this style of music are over?

- The name is actually one word RADIOACTIVE but i got the idea from David Foster's old group AIRPLAY, to get played a lot on the radio would mean it's radio active but i've know all along that this isn't the music for radio these days.
There's 2-3 songs like Grace, Haunt Me Tonight and maybe one more that could work for radio and TV so we're working on making a professional video for those two...mostly for fun though!
I made this album for all those (me included) who miss the kind of westcoast/AOR album that you bought in the early or mid 80's and i had no plan to make it "modern" at all.

15. In the booklet of the album you wrote that there were incredible rumours about the existence of the album. Can you name us a few???

- Mainly i got the ones saying that the whole album was just a bad lie from me to get publicity and that i had never worked with TOTO at all and so on.
And i can't blame them cause it sure took a long time and i also had a really stupid period through my teen years where i did lie a lot and it got me both in to trouble and also gave me a bad reputation in Sweden, mostly around Stockholm.
But i know why i did it, i got in to this business when i was too young and the kick you get from being on albums and seeing your self in magazines when you're 14 or 15 is so big that when it slows down you need to feel that rush again and i was never interested in drugs or alcohol so i guess making up lies to get people impressed solved it.
I've come along way since then and my life today is completely the oposite but i don't regret those years cause they made me who i am today...i only regret those i hurt by lying to them!

16. I think "Ceremony Of Innocence" is your best album to date. Not only because it includes some of the best songs you have ever written, but also because of your guitar playing. There are a few very emotional solos on this album which I didn't hear from you ever before!?

- Thanks mate.
The guitar playing on an album like this is very different than anything else i've done for simple reasons, you feel the preasure to perform on a higher level because of the other people involved and also since they play so great it inspires to play better.
I've also kept my favorite songs for this album since it's my life's work and it's so great cause it doesn't matter one bit what others think of the album, i made it for me and i like it!
Of course getting good reviews for it will not suck:-)))

17. Is there any song on the album that has a very special meaning for you?
Which song and which meaning has it for you???

- It's like having 12 kids, or 13 cause i have one in Japan:-) and being asked to pick a favorite.
They all were written and recorded with the same kind of love but if i have to name something i'd chose 2...Grace cause it's very much the way i hear my music and Ricky wrote some beauiful words to it plus it has Foster playing piano!...and second i'd chose Crimes Of Passion cause it's kick ass with Bobby singing his butt and ours off:-)))...but again i could say this about all songs so i really can't pick!

18. I love the song "Haunt Me Tonight" that was co-written by Richard Marx. I think his unique songwriting style dominates this song. How did you get this song from him???

- Bruce Gaitsch who wrote this with Marx and Fee Waybill is a close friend of mine and he recorded this song for his first solo album "A Lyre In A Windstorm" with Marx singing it.
I always loved the song but was puzzled why it never became a hit so when Bruce visited me about a year and a half ago i said that i wanted to record it for Radioactive and he liked the idea so much that as soon as he got home he made a copy of the whole song from the original tapes and just gave it to me!!!
I couldn't keep Marx for legal resons but having Geir to sing it solved that in an hour or less:-)
Geir did this song so good and i'm deeply honored to have it on my album, i kept it 99% like the original and just did my own solo and fills.
It's a beautiful song.

19. The booklet of the album shows only 12 songs to be included on "Ceremony Of Innocence" but when listening to the album there is a 13th track on the CD.
Tell us everything about this song and why isn't it mentioned in the booklet???

- Well concider yourself lucky cause it's a misstake from the printing company!
That's the bonus track for Japan and it's not meant to be on this release at all.
We found this out and almost all copies of the album have been returned and destroyed and the real version will out instead.
So anyone who's got that extra track has a real collectors item!
The song is called Remember My Conscience and it's Jeff and Mike Porcaro playing plus me on guitars and keyboards, it's Andy Eklund singing and he did that vocals in one take with a VERY high fever...a real trooper.
It has been released earlier on the CD you get with a great book called "The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Hardrock and Heavy Metal" by Janne Stark.
It's also included on my Limted Access solo album but that was only made in 500 copies and the version now has completely new guitars.

20. Your album is so to speak the last one with Jeff Porcaro on drums. I think this gives the album a special touch. How do you think about that and does it make you proud that Jeff played on your album, especially as he played a little harder on it than he usually did???

- First of all i have to say that no other musician and person has meant so much to me as Jeff.
he was the greatest drummer in the history and he worked with every legend there ever was and my private moments with him are some of my best memories i have in life..
This was not the last album he ever recorded but it's one of the very last ones and from what i've been told it's the last recording he did with the other guys in TOTO cause they had just finished all the sessions for Kingdom Of Desire and in fact i used the same studios and engineer that they had used.
Having played with this incredible musician makes all other things small, that how amazing it was and again having my other hero David Foster on the album as well makes this album a bit hard to understand for me at times:-)
I love the fact that Jeff had such a great time doing this, he loved that he got to play heavier songs and not use a click track, we just counted in 1-2-3-4 and played the songs live with me, Jeff and Mike.
Some of the big names on this album said yes mostly to get one last chance to play with Jeff...that's how big he was!

21. In an interview with you I read that you don't like TOTO's latest album
"Mindfields" and that you think it would have been better if they split after
Jeff's death. Did you ever talk about this with them???

- There are some songs on Mindfields that are very good, almost like the classic TOTO and Bobby sings as great as ever but then there's a ten minute blues and songs that sound like Rolling Stones and so on and that doesn't work for me if it's a TOTO album.
People have to remember that i'm only shareing my personal opinion about this and what i say matters to no one but me...that's the great thing about music that there is no good or bad music at all...just a matter of personal taste.
But i've had talks with some of them over the years about this, it really doesn't matter to me any more cause TOTO without Jeff is like a cool car without it's engine!
Simon is a brilliant drummer but to replace the guy with best groove in the history in a band that depends on those grooves with a guy that sounds like a stiff drum machine when he plays those kinds of songs makes no sence.
But i still give TOTO a ton of credit for dareing to go on without Jeff and they have certainly made some great music...it's just that for me it's so far from the magic that was TOTO when i grew up.

22. In your previous career your worked for many great American artits, but now it seems that you are concentrating on your own projects in Sweden. Are you not interested anymore to play for people like Richard Marx or so????

- I do play on lots of album for people all over the world but i guess in the last 2-3 years since i've had my own projects/bands it seems that i'm keeping it more at home.
And if you look at Radioactive it's 95% americans.
The last american album i played on was Bruce Gaitsch new solo album called "Understanding" a very good album and i'll play on anything if they call:-).
I'm involved with Bobby Kimball and some other people as well right now with a couple of cool projects so there will be more:-)

23. You are involved in so many projects: RADIO ACTIVE, SAY IT, TALK OF THE TOWN, PRISONER, RAINMAKER... Don't you think that's a little too much??? To be honest, I think your involvement in all these projects has a negative influence on the quality of the albums. The last RAINMAKER and PRISONER albums didn't sound very promising...

- I know what you mean and i do agree.
Here the deal...Radioactive was only for this album, Sayit is not a project but one of my best friends and that's his real name! and after his new album that will be out in september i've told him that i can help him with a third one but not to be as involved as i've been so far so that will change...Talk Of The Town will not do another album for a long time cause Antono is very busy with a company that he's started and it's not even my band so it's up to them...the new Prisoner has some great songs and performances i think and we're getting a lot of new fans from it but it's not the album we wanted to make with the drum machine and so on but this was out of our hands and i guess we took the bad choice of recording it the way we did but i promise you that next summer there will be a Prisoner album to shut any one up:-)))..and lastly Rainmaker, if you didn't like it it's your taste and that's of course cool but it sold really good and got great reviews for the most part so...and we're working on the second album right now, it will not come out before it's a kick ass killer and if it does really well we might keep doing more albums but mainly we all feel like Prisoner will be our main thing.
I am a studio owner, session player, song writer and producer and this is how i make my living so you will see my name on a lot of albums but the difference is that i won't do so much like i've done on all these albums in the future.

24. Especially the last PRISONER album received some bad critics, in particular for using a lame drum computer. Now I heard you promised yourself to never release an album with a drum computer on again. Is that right and why didn't you work with real drummers in the past???

- I personally hate drum machines compared to a good live drummer but people must understand that these small labels don't pay out a lot of money for recording budgets so it's been the only choice on some of the albums.
I wish all these labels would release only like a third of the amount of albums the do and give the best bands twice as much money to work with, it would be better for the whole AOR market.
But for me i don't wanna do another drum machine record ever again and i think with a new partner that i've found in Sweden that i won't have to.
It's a fantastic highly professional studio in Gothenburg called Hypersonic where i get to do all drum sessions with a deal that will always work!

25. In August there will come a new SAY IT album. What can we expect from it???

- No drum machine:-)
Sayit has been my close buddy for about 5 years now and i've seen him turn in to an amazing guitar player.
I couldn't do the Prisoner show at ZROCk earlier in may so he took my place and did a great job.
This labum feels very strong and it features a lot of cool players and singers.
For more info see my website http://www.tommydenander.com
It's a nice combination of westcoast and AOR and it's not a very soft album, there's mostly rockier songs.

26. What are your next plans??? Any new projects or maybe some live shows???
I think it would be a pity if RADIO ACTIVE songs like "The Story Of Love" or L. A. Movies" wouldn't be played live someday!?!?!

- Right now i'm finishing the Sayit CD, writing with Geir for Rainmaker and writing and producing a special song for the JasonBecker tribute part II with Bobby Kimball...the list of guests on this song will be scary!!!, plus i've done a few sessions and also work with Ricky Delin on his solo album so i'm staying busy.
For the most part i'm trying to take some time off though this summer cause it's been a little too much lately...surprise huh:-)


OK; that's it Tommy! Thanx for the time and the patience to answer my questions!

- My pleasure Marco...thanks a million for your support.
Best wishes
Tommy