DAMNED NATIONBy Nicky Baldrian
DAMNED NATION
By Nicky
Baldrian
Sweden's Damned Nation have had
their fair share of up's and downs, but finally almost a year to
the day, the bands brand new album "The Grand Design"
which was produced by themselves with some help from technican
Tomas Banestal is finally due for release at the end of April.
"The new album" explains drummer Roger Jern " has
turned out great. It's in the vein of Road Of Desire, but
probably slightly heavier but yet more melodic of course. I
honestly think the material is stronger for this one. We started
to record the album in January in the same studio (KN-Studio) we
recorded Road Of Desire. Some changes will be made production
wise, new studio engineers etc..We can't wait for everyone to
hear it!!"
Damned Nation was founded in the late eighties by Robert
Warnqvist, Magnus Johnsson and their former drummer Leif Erixon
under the name of "EASY STREET". Easy Street struggled
for a couple of years and
released a single, but nothing really happened. The band then
changed vocalists a couple of times and played local bars and
made various demos. The real starting point came when they signed
with UFO Records in 1993. A new singer was found after eight
months of auditions and demo listening, they found Thomas Thorsen
and the bands name was then changed to DAMNED NATION and the
debut album "Just What The Doctor Ordered" came out in
1995. Leif left after the tour of Thailand and Roger Jern and
Anders Andersson joined a year later.
" We had our mind set to do the follow up as soon as
possible. Especially since it sold very well and got fantastic
reviews. And everything went on smoothly, new songs were written
and all seemed to be going great. But the record company
(UFO-Records) wouldn't let us in the studio. There was always
some strange reason why we should wait, and wait, and wait."
says Roger.
Roger Warnqvist continues "Before Roger joined the band,
Damned Nation's former label came up with a 10 week tour in
Thailand during 1997 . I think that Thailand is a great country,
if you are rich!!"
Magnus Jonsson interrupts " I think Thailand is a
"Cool" place. We had a show six days a week and
therefore we didn't t travel around Thailand as much as we
wanted.
But Bangkock is a place were the nightlife is hot, it was kind of
a 10 week rock n roll party.
But it wasn't only party and performances, we also did some
promotion for the CD "Just what the doctor ordered"
with several TV stations, Newspapers etc.I hope that we go back
to Asia and Thailand after the release of the next coming
CD."
After the tour the band were supposed to start recording "
But as usual nothing happened. After a lot of struggling we
decided to break up with UFO-Records and try to find another
label that was interested in releasing albums. " concludes
Roger.
A demo was then made and it was Mark Alger from Z Records who
heard it and approached the band "after a couple of months
negotiating we had a new deal. It took us 4 months from signing
to release!!! And now we are already releasing the follow up to
Road Of Desire almost a year later".
The bands former manager and the man behind UFO Records (Hans
Edler) is practically hated in the buisness. " He's been
ripping off everyone he worked with. Both bands, studios,
producers etc.
Big Warning!!! ALERT!!! He once called himself "The Wizard
Of Sirius", read the thankslist on ROD!!! "
The notes on the inside of the albums cover go on to say "No
thanks to the "Wizard Of Sirius".
The bands first album "Just What The Doctor Ordered"
was "pretty much payed for out of our own pocket and the
contract stated that he was to pay for everything on the follow
up.Producers, hotels, food, you name it. The budget would have
been quite high and probably he didn't think he would make enough
profit.".
So hows the situation with your new boss? "It's going really
great", continues Roger "We have our discussions once
in a while. But it's mostly minor things. He's got his point of
view and we've got ours. Sometimes they differ a bit.The worst thing
that has happened was at the Z ROCK gig in Stockholm when someone
drank all the beer and we didn't get any!!!( LAUGHS). I think he
still owes us a pint or two.Cough up you tight git!!!"
At Z ROCK in Sweden the bands beer had been supped up by former
label mates SNAKES IN PARADISE , " Snakes drank up all the
beers in Stockholm." Roger laughs.
Damned Nation also played a magic set at Z ROCK in England last
year, but were the band nervous, as this was their debut UK gig?
" I don't think anyone in the band tends to get nervous. But
we were taken a bit offguard by the terrible sound on
stage." Roger says frustratingly " It was a bit hard to
do your best not having a clue what anyone was really playing!!
But it was fun and when we play at this years event we'll (in the
words of Arnold Schwarzengger) Be well and truly back!!!"
concludes Roger.
The band have also had their fair share of behind the camera
action too "We actually shot a video for "Are You
Willing To Forgive Me". It didn't exactly get any awards if
you know what I mean. But it got some airtime anyway. Nowadays I
don't think it's worth the money to do a video. I mean who's
going to show it? MTV? Not likely!!"
Musically the band are influenced by bands like Deep Purple,
Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Billy
Sheehan, Dream Theater, Rush, Thin Lizzy and Giant amongst
others.
Roger Jern started to take drum lessons "when I was 10
years", and joined his first band "Flames" when he
was 13 "the band still exists under the name WOOD and have
released a couple of albums." adds Roger, " After that
I played in a band called DEAD END STREET, we were influenced by
bands like Rush, U2 and Police. Later on that band turned out as
a coverband playing club gigs for a couple of years. And when I
was seriously thinking of quitting the music career for good,
Robert called me and talked me into this. "
Magnus and Robert have always been involved in music but It was
at age of 15 that Magnus decided to be musician in a more serious
way, Before Damned Nation Robert used to sit at home and play the
guitar until his fingers bled, "allday nŽallnight.The
Music, I have been involved with music since I was about 15 years
old." explains Robert.
The new album Roger believes
best represents what the band are about " I believe we
managed to get a mix of all influences that we have within the
band. Or at least a lot of the influences. We all got our roots
in the 70's hardrock, mixed with aor and a dose of the eighties.
All this mixed together with a fresh sound is Damned Nation. We
really love this kind of music and we always try to mix all the
genres of melodic hardrock into an album, our dream musically
would be nice to be able to make our living on music. Basically
sell more albums, tour more and get more money to spend on
recordings! So everyone! –buy the god damn album!!!"
As with every Damned Nation album, things never run totally
smooth " Recordings never run smoothly. No it wasn't pretty
smooth, there are always things that don't turn out the way you
thought. Things to be rearranged. The hardest part is always the
mixdown, a lot of sleepless nights went by and a lot of different
mixes until we found what we were looking for. Lets face it, the
way the scene looks today you can't afford to be in the studio
for 6 months. I wish we could!" shrugs Roger. "The
scene here in Sweden is much like the rest of the world, but it
seems to be recovering a bit. You're only semi-mental if you like
melodic hardrock now a days! In other words it's bad but it's
been worse."
Damned Nation also have their fair share of laughs, "Ok, a
real life story about a friend of mine. Everyone knows the
"my god I'm dying" feeling after a really wet night.
Often it stops by that, a couple of aspirins and back to bed. But
not this guy! He was so convinced that he was dying that he
actually called 911 for an ambulance. –911 what seems to be
the problem? –I'm dying for christ sake, send an ambulance
quickly! Hahaha…Imagine the magnitude of that hangover!
"
Damned Nation release their new album "The Grand
Design" at the end of April and hope to set up a series of
live dates across Europe starting off with Z ROCK in England. If
you get the chance to see them, then be advised to go along to
their show, as live Damned Nation ROCK!!!