ROCK IT(Germany) 2001
By Kai B

TOMMY DENANDER (Radioactive)

+ First, Congrats to your new album - perfect Westcoast! How come it has taken so long to complete?

- Thanks so much Kai.
It was never meant to take this long.
When i got the deal with Sony in 1991 i went to Los Angeles in october and recorded 10 songs with Toto and the plan was to release it in early 1992.
But when i came home i got into all these problems with Sony that in the end resulted in me buying the tapes back.
So there i was with 10 of my own songs recorded with Toto as my backing band and i just said to myself to take it easy and work on finding the right singer or singers cause i had the idea from the start to use more than one singer.
In those early years i had among others Thomas Vikström, Matti Alfonsetti and Tommy Nilsson but eventhough they're all great singers it wasn't what i was looking for.
And in 1993 i met Andy Eklund when i was playing with Tommy Nilsson as guests on a talent show.
Andy won it and really impressed both me and Tommy Nilsson, so much that he turned to me and whispered "that's the guy who should sing on your album!"...
Andy and i became good friends really quick and he sang demo versions of most tracks and he sounded perfect for it but shortly after that i got sick and had to put the album on hold for a long time and when Anders from House Of Shakira called me to ask about the possibilty of Andy joining them i just knew right away that this was gonna be great for Andy, and it was so i'm very happy to have been a part in him getting this break cause he's a great guy.
My illness kept me from working on the album for a couple of years and since Jeff Porcaro so sadly passed away in 1992 i knew what a treasure this album was and i just decided to try and bring as many of my idols to play and sing on it no matter how long it takes.
It was not so hard to get most of the people cause they all loved Jeff and gladly jumped on the chance to do one last album with him and when you have 5-6 big names you can get 2-3 more and so on.
The last year was amazing with people like Dean Parks, Michael Thompson, Bobby Kimball, Joseph Williams, Greg Phillinganes, Jason Scheff and others plus the last week when i got my biggest influence in music David Foster to play piano on one song...amazing!
I'm just so happt today that i didn't release it in 1992 cause none of this would be as big as it is now!

+ Was it really THAT easy to get the TOTO guys on board? Do you think just asking could work for me , too :-)

- Of course:-)...well of course the fact that i knew the guys and that they knew i was a good musician most likely helped them decide but you have to remember that eventhough Toto are big stars they are (were?) still session musicians and you rarely say no to a paying gig!
It's funny in a sence to think that it's something special to have worked with these guys but so have 1000's of artists around the world....but on the other hand it IS special:-)
No matter what, the two greatest moments in my life as a musician was to play with Jeff and Foster.

+ You have many many projects going at the same time ... How do you coordinate your work? Do you mix up anything sometimes?

- I'm a very organized person about work and i like to have 2-3 projects going at the same time.
I have no problem keeping them apart or finding the inspiration to work so much...i mean i get paid to do what i love most in life and you can't complain about that.
I concider myself to be extremely blessed and thank the higher powers whatever they may be every day!
But it's also important for me to schedule free time in between othervise i get really burnt out after a while and that's what happend in 1993 when i got sick...i collapsed cause i ran out of all power i had.
It's also a great feeling to make all these albums cause it's my legacy as a human, the albums will be here for 100's of years after i'm gone.

+ I know there's another song from the Radioactive sessions named "Remember my Conscience" sung by Andy Eklund ... Is there more material recorded and could we expect a follow up maybe?

- That song is the bonus track for Japan but there's no other material recorded.
I had a lot of new songs on a list in the last 2-3 years of making Radioactive and only very late did i decide on recording LA Movies and Grace.
I know the question of a follow up is gonna grow stronger with time as the album start to sell and right now my heart says 90% No but i'm leaving that 10% open cause you never know.
It wouldn't take 10 years though and it would not include so many people, it also depends on what happens with Prisoner and Rainmaker. cause we want to keep make albums with both bands and play live.
Only the future knows what fun stuff we will experience:-)

+ What about "The Hitmen" ?

- The Hit Men is the name of the company i have with my engineer Thomas Ulvebring.
I do a lot of work outside of the westcoast/AOR genre, most of it the regualr fans never see or hear...or even know about.
I just did the music for a Ferarri CDROM and i do radio jingles and soundtracks for independent films and for sport events...i'm love making all kinds of music and it pays the bills.
We have just joined forces with one of the biggest and best studios in Sweden called Hypersonic, it's built by the same guy who did Polar (the ABBA studio) and Cheiron where Max Martin and the guys did all the Britney Spears, Backsrteet Boys and NSync albums.
We are looking for artists and bands of any style to produce so anyone interested can e mail me at tommy@tommydenander.com.

+ I know you recorded the music for a Swedish home porn series? How did that happen and what do you think of it today? "I was young and needed the money"?

- I was shareing an apartment with a friend who had all these contacts with the Swedish porno mags and they needed music for these videos called "Swedish people's own home videos" and i ended up writing 4 of them i think and playing guitar on one.
They are the most sold porn tapes ever in Sweden...but i don't know if that's a good thing:-)))
It was good money for a silly thing and i don't regret it for a second cause i was big enough to know what i was getting into...mind you i only did the music...i didn't appear in them.-)))

+ I really like your guitarplaying since you change the style (from Westcoast to hardrock as in Rainmaker) but you still could recognise Tommy Denander ...

- Thanks a lot that's nice to hear.
It's one of the reasons i wanted to be a session player cause i felt i could play most styles equally good and i always try to make these different albums with a personal touch for each one.
I guess it comes from my love of music cause i can get just as excited about Toto or Celine Dion as Judas Priest or NSync....if i like it i like it!...doesn't matter what artist it is.
I've been playing guitar for 28 years now and i've done close to 1500 sessions with all the albums, jingles, CDROM's, demos, soundtracks and so on....you're bound to learn something from it if you pay attention:-)
I've never concidered myself a "guitar hero" or even strived to become one except for a couple of years in my early teens when i like most kids dreamt of being a rock star.
I've pretty much just wanted to stay busy and get the chance to work with interesting people and projects.

+ What are your next plans? Going on tour with Toto maybe? :-)

- I hardly think Lukather would like that:-)
Right now i'm finishing the new Sayit album with guests like David Hungate (Toto), Bruce Gaitsch (Richard Marx), Kee Marcello (Europe), Michael Thompson (MTB), Mats Olausson (Yngwie), Geir Rönning ( Prisoner) and others, it will be out in september through AOR Heaven.
Me and Geir are also working on the new Rainmaker and we have 6-7 songs written so far, we really are hungry to make this the best hardrock album we've made.
I've also had a lot of requests in the last 2 years from fans about releasing my first 2 solo albums "Less Is More" and "Skeleton" again so i've done a deal with Z Records to make a special double CD with both albums plus unreleased songs...maybe even for the price of one CD!
I've played on Bruce Gaitsch new solo CD called "Understanding" that i think is a great album and i've worked on Lions Share's new CD "Entrance" where i recorded the keyboards of Mats Olausson and even played a little myself and i love that album....plus i've done a bunch of other stuff as always but mainly after i'm done with Rainmaker and Sayit i'm gonna relax a bit...if that's possible:-)))
The coolest thing i do now i guess is working on a DVD documentary called "The making of Radioactive".
It will be atleast 90 minutes plus bonus stuff and will show lots of cool stuff like video clips from when i started with Toto in 1991 to the last stages of mixing it....plus lots of pictures, demo versions of songs and God knows...something you don't wanna miss!

+ The cover is quite unusual to support the musical content? Did you have any option on that?

- I designed the cover with a good friend Fredrik Widman who's really good with computer art.
I really didn't want just another cover that looks like everything else out there eventhough i have to say that most bands in the AOR genre have really nice covers these days.
We just came up with this idea around the name Radioactive....it's like a meltdown in the radioactive core of a nuclear plant and that little guy you see on the computer is probably to be blamed.-)
The concept of the eyes came from Fredrik and there's no real plan behind the use of the eyes...it just looked science fiction!
As with many things during the making of this album i had my doubts if this was the right kind of cover but all my doubts are gone and i love the whole album.

+ Do you still work with Talk of the Town?

- Not right now but i'm close friends with them, especially Antonio who's one of my best friends.
We have talked about making another album next year but there's no real plan so far.
I'd love to do another one cause i'm very proud of this last one.

+ If you had to choose between
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton
Playing guitar or production work
Toto or Chicago
SayIt! or Rainmaker
Sweden or Hawaii
Roxette or Dr. Alban
What would you choose?

1. Clinton cause Bush is as dumb as they get...in a short time he's taken the world 20 years back to the feeling of the cold war.
Clinton had fun with the ladies but he did a great job for the most part and he and Al Gore made the world safer.
2. This is a tuff one cause i love both but i guess i can live without producing but the thought of not playing guitar isn't fun!
3. Old Toto but new Chicago (from 16 and on)
4. Rainmaker cause that's my band...and for ther record, Sayit is not a project by me, it's actually a human being and one of the best friends i've had in my life.
He's also a fantastic guitar player which he proved when he filled in for me with Prisoner live at ZROCK in Manchester.
5. Sweden cause i love the 4 seasons and i get so little done when it's warm...in Hawaii i would just chase beautiful girls all day long:-)
6. I played on Dr Alban's "One Love" album and the following tour in 1992...so i would definently say Roxette:-)))....cause that's more of my kind of music.
 
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