The best bands and singers in the world!!!!!.......You are listening to a Street Talk song

Welcome to this new section BSC,(bands singers and cds).Get to know the new cd releases and the BEST bands around the globe!!

EXCLUSIVE RECENT INTERVIEWS WITH SWEDISH BAND MOB US BAND NORWAY NORWEGIAN ACT RAIN AND SWEDISH AOR BAND STREET TALK

-Hi all,thanks a lot for this interview!!Well,here goes the first question.....

-How can you describe your music?

-We try to play classic hard rock, by keeeping the melody in the music,and also by mixing different styles of rock, just like Kiss had their
Beth and God Of Thunder, or Queen had their Stone Cold Crazy and Radio Ga Ga. We are trying too keep things interesting by making
a good song rather than to deliver a wall of noise and attitude.
And I hope everyone will think that we do it successfully!!

-Which are your influences?

-In this band we are four very differentt personalities, and since we all write songs, all our individual influences becomes important. But the
influences we have in common, and makes our music sound like rock'n'roll,is definitely Kiss, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Mötley Crue and stuff like that. Peter is very influenced by swedish traditional and pop-music and a big dose of jazz too, which makes him not only a talented guitar-player,but also very open-minded and easy to work with when it comes to trying
new ideas. If Peter, or the guitarist in any band, only could play heavy metal songs, no matter what musical ideas came from the other guys in the band,
it would still be heavy metal. A good example of this is the song "Little Star"
off the new "Merrie Melodies" album, which Rick wrote. Can You imagine that song with a heavy metal guitar???

-When was MOB formed and why the name MOB?

-M.O.B was formed in 1982, as a trio, wiith Peter on guitar and lead vocals,and Rick on drums. First the name was E.T.G, Extra-Terrestrial-Group, but when the movie E.T premiered, it was hard for us to play anywhere without
people chanting "phone home" at us, which is a nightmare for a band trying to be hard and dangerous! So we changed to M.O.B, The Most Outstanding Band, and now also refering to the mafia-mob, made us a 100 times more dangerous
in an instant!!In 1983 we recorded our first 4 song demo.

-I know that you are about to release a new CD, can you tell us something
about it?

-It is recorded at our own newly built llittle studio, outside Stockholm,and it is a first time for us recording with computers and hard-drives.
This recording has took some time, mostly because of us dealing with new
technology,but now at the end of the day, we can really present the best sounding
recording we have ever done. Also musically, it represents the best music M.O.B has ever recorded, we have never been this satisfied after a recording session.It is very diverse, and whatever mood You might be in, there's a song there
that fits.
Also, in the future, after this learning process in the studio, we will be much faster in recording next time!!

-I know that you we contributed to the amct Cheap Trick tribute 2 ,and now I know that Rick will be drumming on the third tribute too,what can you tell us about this,it must be a great experience,right?

-Definitely! It's very satisfying to be able to contribute to something like this,especially since we are as far away as Sweden!!
When Rick, was in Chicago for some Cheap Trick shows in '98, he met several friends from the amct newsgroup, and we discussed recording stuff for the next amct tribute, by sending the tapes around for different overdubs.
So, the first track we did was "Dream Police/Who'd King" which Rick recorded the drums for, before sending it all over to Detroit for further overdubbing.
For M.O.B, this has meant nice exposure, and most die-hard Cheap Trick fans know about M.O.B, and I think that "Merrie Melodies" will be a very important record for us, if they like it maybe we could have the start of a small
fan-base over there??

-Did you ever get to meet the band (cheap trick)?

-Yes, Rick has been to the US several tiimes for Cheap Trick shows,and will attend the 00/01 New Years Eve Show in Chicago.
A nice picture of Rick with Cheap Trick is on the M.O.B web-site!!

-What inspires You when you are abouut to compose a song?

-Since our first album, "Read My Hiips", lyrics has become a much more important part of our music. Many things off both "Loony Tunes" and
"Merrie Melodies" is about things related from our own life's, and especially Fred's, since he writes all the lyrics. But also about
stuff that are relevant in many ways, like "There's Nothing At The End Of The Rainbow" which is about worshipping different religious beliefs.
It's a far cry from "Taste My Grape" or "Do The Dog" in any way! *LOL*
At the same time, we are not trying to be as political as RATM, we still like to sing about and rock'n'roll and having a good time, in the end, that's
what's it all about!

-So far, which is your favourite song on this new album?

-There are 14 songs on this album, and eevery single one of them is so different from the other, and we all have our own favorites, but if we had to pick out one,it would be "Signs", which was the only time during these sessions we saw
all 4 members perform headbanging at the same time, during playback!! *LOL*
And that song really demonstrates M.O.B today, powerful and merciless.
Another band favorite is "Miss Everything", a poppier thing, which would be
the first choice for a single, if the band would decide. The lyrics for that song is very interesting, on how You meet "Miss Everything" of Your life, but after 6 months of dating You just discover that she just miss everything
of what You REALLY like!! A classic topic, ha ha ha!

-Would you like to say something to your fans?

-We would like to thank each and everyonne of You who will listen to our new album, and we can't wait to hear Your opinions about it!!
Check our web-site often for surprises and other cool things,we will never forget our fans!!

-Thanks a lot for this interview, and good luck with your new cd,thanks for your kindness and for making such great songs =).

-Thanks to You, Beatriz, we will never fforget Your support ! !

Norway is a 4-pc rock band from New Jersey, USA .Their indie debut album Night Dreams, was a smash hit in Europe among the fans of AOR, Melodic and Hard Rock, and was called "CD of the Year" by rock magazines worldwide.
NORWAY has now released a new cd called "Arrival",and they just told us that they are working on their next album.

I want to thank a lot to the whole band for this interview,specially to Glenn and Jim.Thank you guys!!

-Glenn: I am a huge Kansas and Alan Parsons Project fan! I like progressive bands but I also like to listen to good songwriters. Since I do a lot of our lyrics, I really focus in on storytelling and how different artists use the language to create pictures and feelings.

-Jim: The Beatles, Todd Rundgren, 70’s hard rock like Deep Purple, Led Zep and of course all the great 80’s bands like Def Lep, Journey, and Bon Jovi.

-Jim: We came up with the idea of the ship coming in, but the graphic artists Seb Kozak and Craig Read did a fantastic job taking it way beyond what we envisioned. I was really pleased with the cover. I personally think it’s one of the best covers Seb has done.

-Glenn: We wanted a name that , when you hear it, doesn’t really make you think of a certain style of music. Something generic. When you hear our music, we THEN want you to think “Oh, that’s NORWAY !!!

- Can you also tell us about your 2 cd's names: Arrival and Night Dreams?Love those names!!

-Glenn: Night Dreams is a song on the first album that we thought just sounded cool as an album title. Arrival is our first “ label” release (Night Dreams was put out independently on our label) so we thought it was fitting to “arrive” with this album title !

-Glenn: Yikes ! I don’t think I can narrow it down to one but for different reasons, I like singers Steve Walsh (Kansas), Joe Lynn Turner(Rainbow), Lou Graham(Foreigner). Bands-Kansas, Alan Parsons, James Gang, Starcastle. I like so many different styles it really is hard to pin it down!

- Jim: Hands down, it’s the Beatles. Over the years I’ve had many “favorites”. If I was in a cover band and we were playing a lot of a certain kind of music I would be heavy into that, then move on. For singers it’s probably Ian Gillan from Deep Purple.Love that voice!

-Glenn: We are currently focusing on the new album so we have not been doing many live shows.

-Glenn: I think we have the ability to write ballads and great rock tunes ! We’re not too heavy , but do like to write and play heavier stuff. We also can write great ballads. The problem that arises is that fans and critics do not want us (or other bands) to go too far “outside the bounds” of what our “sound” is. As an artist, this is a no win battle. If we go a little heavier we get accused of going too far. If we do more ballads, we get accused of being to soft and not rockin enough. On Arrival, we did some more heavier songs than on our debut. Arrival has gotten great reviews but it does crop up about the heavy VS. soft musical line. We’re trying new things and things WE LIKE. We always try to please our fans but we also need to express what we feel. In most cases, everyone likes our direction. I think the new album will have a few new surprises on it for everyone to chew on !!

-Jim: Simply our music always defined by the strong melodic and harmonic structure.

Always a Norway song will be singable, have great vocals, and a strong arrangement.

-Glenn: Night Dreams was recorded in the US over a 5 year period as demos. We had interest in the songs so we released the album as it was. We had no money to master or re-record anything. Arrival was recorded in England over a 3 week period and had better funding to make a better sounding album.

- Glenn: Our last visit overseas was to the GODS festival in England in 1999. We are hoping to put a tour together this year but it is still in the very early planning stages.

-Glenn: Producers I might pick do not generally work on albums at our level of success yet.Jim and I have been producing our own records for years and we have a complete picture of our direction and of how we want to sound. Why fix something that ain’t broke ?

- Jim: I do the more technical side of our producing, I can actually get in there and engineer if I have to. I enjoy doing it, and we’re getting better at it the more records we make. BUT if I had to pick it would probably be Mutt Lange or Todd Rundgren.

-Glenn: Everyday !! We are always answering fan mail ! If you want to chat with any of the band members, visit their pictures on the web site and ask away !!!

- Jim: Oh yeah! I also do the bands website, so I’m always updating the site and moving things around. We have really gotten a tremendous amount of support from our internet fan base. Also these days most of our business contacts with overseas publishers and our label is via e-mail. I’m probably on-line about 20-25 hours a week minimum!

-Glenn: The fan club gets a lot of business. We send out about every two months letting everyone know what we’re up to. We currently are running a contest to win free NORWAY Merchandise! Check out the web site for details!! For Fan Club members, we also send out “Sneak Previews” of new stuff!!

We really have to work hard to earn every new fan. Like Glenn says, we have a contest going now at our site. We have a special “fan club only” section of the site, and MP3 music samples. We usually update our fan page with the latest news the day before our main site.

-Glenn: I hope to have a future or else I’m in serious trouble!! Since I stopped driving in England (on the left) my future is looking much brighter!

-Jim: We’ll we’re working on the next album already. Right now it’s in the writing stage.

I think we have a few more “classic NORWAY’ songs already! We hope to start recording perhaps in late spring 2001 and have the album out in October.

-Glenn: Of course thank you for all the support! We’re looking forward to the third album and we know everyone will be pleased. We’re writing better than ever! We have a survey on the website for which songs the fans like best. Lets us know what you think because it helps us get a better feel for what the fans are diggin in the music!

Send us e-mail! We respond to them all so don’t be shy!! Also, if any fans see write ups about the band in Europe, Japan, South America and the good old USA send them to us (with translations, if possible)! We can’t be everywhere!!!

-Jim: Please visit our website.(www.norwayrocks.com) Like Glenn says, don’t be shy! We answer all emails, really. Join the fanclub/mailing list, check out the pictures and if you don’t have Arrival or Night Dreams there are MP3 clips and Real Audio files.

RAIN is a GREAT and SUPER AOR act,if you dont know this band please go to their site and listen to their songs,this is a cd that has to be on your record player!!!!

I`ll guess it was my songwring partner Sonny Crow,who came up with the name.It`s easy remember.

-Which are your favourites cuts on your album?
It`s miss myself,Sentimental sunday,Anyway the wind blows,The best is yet to come.

Yes we are.So hopefuly we gonna have 2 new ones finished soon.

-Do you like being compared with Bon Jovi?
We have no problems with that.Bon jovi has sold 80 million albums,so for us it`s ok.

-Which are the positive things on this business and which are the negative ones?
The negative ones are,Lots people are fuull of bullsh....(the people in recordcompanies)The positive ones:We love to do this,writing songs and play them live.

- Where do you see the music going,or what do you think about it?
I see that rock music is coming back and it`s here for stay.y favourite songs from your cd is Talking One

-One of my favorite songs from your cd is Talking to my heart,what can you tell me about that song?

It`s one of my favorites to.It was one of the first Rain songs ever written.It`s about a
relationship that is not working out.But S Crow knows more about.He wrote the lyrics.

- Which song would you secretly love to cover?
I'am not sure.Maybe These are the good times by Eric Martin.

-Would you like making a cd with producers like J.Mutt Lange or R.Zito?
Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Those gyus are the best ones.Together with Bob Rock.

-What would you like to say to your fans?
We are trying were hard to get a record deal.And we hope to meet on tour

-Guys,thanks a lot for this interview,hope you come one day and play here!!I wish you the best!!You are all very talented =)

Thanks a lot,We hope to play in Montevideo too.

-Wow,I would love that Lars!!Thanks a lot for this interview,and I will like to tell all your fans to e-mail the record labels and send them your site address so they can listen to your great songs !I cant believe that you still dont have a label,hey anybody out there?You dont know what you are missing!!!!!!

Now and interview with the great Fredrik Bergh,not only an awesome artsist but also a GREAT human being.Fred is an excellent songwriter,producer and keyboardist and he is the leader of the extraordinary AOR band,Street Talk.You will love this interview.Enjoy it.

Hi Betty! I’m fine thank you very much! No problemas here ! I hope all is well with you too Betty! And yes! It very cold and snowy here in Sweden…You’re very welcome :-)

Yes! You’re right - the name is of course taken from the first Steve Perry solo album which is called Street Talk and was released in 1984…I thought that the name was cool and I thought it suited the style of the music we play fine!

styles of music and to get inspiration when I create my own music…but I would say that my main influences comes from the following bands and artists: PRINCE, JOURNEY, EAGLES, BRUCE HORNSBY, FLEETWOOD MAC, JOHN WAITE, PHIL LYNOTT, MARC JORDAN, RICK SPRINGFIELD and many many others…..

I guess my biggest influences when it comes to keyboardplayers are Jonathan Cain and Bruce Hornsby…..

I listen to a lot of different styles. Lately I have listened to a lot of old funk and soul from the seventies like Bobby Womack and Chaka Khan…very cool stuff! But of course I’m listening to a lot of pop and rock also....

Thanks a lot Betty! Well….I like to write about things I can relate to – things that have happened to me in real life…so it’s only natural for me to write about things that have touched me, like love and relationships…I guess these are the things that inspire me to write my songs….

Well…I started to write songs from the moment I got my first guitar from my parents…I guess I was thirteen at the time….

I can’t remember any titles of the first ones…but I remember the song "In the night" which was one of the first I wrote in the Aor style….

It was after the band SHAPE broke up which I had been playing in for about three years the idéa came to form my own band. I had at this time been recording loads of material at my home studio and I was working very hard to develop as a songwriter. So at the end of 1994 I started STREET TALK and I was very motivated to create the ultimate song material for STREET TALK in the more sofisticated mellow AOR/Melodic rock style…

-Now lets talk about your new cd,Transition,how long it took you to release it and where did you record the album?

Well…"Transition" is the second Street Talk album and it’s the follow up to the 1997 album "Collaboration".

The album have taken a long time to complete as I’ve been writing songs for "Transition" during a two year period to make sure that I had the best material possible available for this second album…

I believe the album is much stronger and more solid than the last effort as on the first album there was a lot of different musicians and vocalists so it felt more like a project album…

I’m very pleased with the new album, and this time around vocalist Goran Edman is doing the lead vocals on the entire album…Goran and myself also wrote two songs together for the album and all the musicians have really put their hearts and souls into this recording…

"Transition" was recorded at the Sound creation studios in Bollnas, Sweden (which is also where some friends of mine in the bands Lefay and Tad Morose are recording their albums) during January/February 2000 with myself as the producer…and the entire recording took about two months to complete.

The reactions towards "Transition" has been nothing but awsome! The album have
recieved great reviews from the press and I’m hearing positive vibes from rock fans from all around the world. The album have recently been released in Japan and BURRN! Magazine in Japan gave the album 86 out of 100 points which is a very good score! And the European magazines have also given the album top scores…so I’m very pleased with the reactions to the new disc…

-As you know,for me Transition is one of the best cds of the year,its a very well done cd with awesome aor cuts.

I wanted to ask you about 4 of my favorites songs: The funny E.Bunny,the wonderful Ye gods n lil fishes the superb Everything I do is just for you and Let me be the one.

Let Me Be The One – this is the albums first ballad, a percussion driven track with some midwest rock influences. Goran Edman is singing directly from the heart on this one and he’s letting a lot of his soul influences shine through on this track….The sax player on the track named Mikael Karlsson is playing together with Street Talk members Sven Larsson and drummer Christian Johansson in the soul band Grooveyard as well as the guest percussion player on this track Pierre Loven…

Ye Gods And Little Fishes – One of the two tracks on the album that I composed together with Goran, I wrote the music and he wrote the lyrics which is about cloning and gene manipulation…Musically I believe you can hear the influences of Journey and such bands on this pumping uptempo rocker! If you listen carefully to the lyrics you can hear Goran sing about the cloned sheep Dolly! I think Goran is a great lyric writer…The title "ye gods and little fishes" is a very old interjection which originates from the States I believe!

Everything I Do Is Just For You – I originally wrote this song back in 1993 for the band SHAPE…It was at that time titled "I’ll Be There"…I thought it was a strong track, so I rewrote some parts of it in 1998 so it would fit for this album and Goran also helped me quite lot with the vocal arrangements on the chorus on this song…

Energizer Bunny - Energizer Bunny was the last song that was written for the album…I had all the music written for the track but I hadn’t got any lyrics written for the song. I asked Goran if he could write lyrics and he accepted to do it, so he wrote all the vocal melodies and the lyrics for the song…and he came up with this funny lyric dedicated to all the crap music on the radio/tv that it is impossible to get away from! Wherever you go you always hear those songs you don’t wanna hear! And those songs always get stuck in your mind! The vocal arrangements on this track is very complex…I guess there’s not one line in the song where there’s only one voice…There are harmonies and lots of vocal overdubs all through the track…I guess it took us five hours only to mix the vocal tracks on the song!!! Goran got the idéa of the lyric when he saw this tv programme of an old American politician who when he was asked by the tv reporter how he could have all this energy at his old age replied that he was like the Energizer Bunny! (from the tv comercial).

-Fred,you told me that you have recently written some songs for the huge publishing company Warner/Chappell in Scandinavia,tell me more about that,it would be great to see country acts singing your songs.

Yes, that’s right….I have written some tracks that have been sent to Nashville from Warner Chappell Scandinavia. At the moment I haven’t got so much to tell you really. All I can do is to sit and wait and hope that some huge country artist will record my songs so I can get a lot of $ ;-)

-I know that in 2 weeks you will be travelling to the USA to start working as an assistant recording engineer at a studio in New York, that is going to be a great experience for you,what else can you tell us about it?

Yep! I will travel to New York City to work at a studio (Multi-Sound Group) as an assistant engineer for a six month period… I have received a scholarship here in Sweden where I can go to the Usa and work for six months. I'll get the money to travel back and forth to the states and wages every month from this scholarship….

I will also meet up with some cool musicians while I’m in New York, hopefully I’ll be able to write some songs and play on some records……

I know that you have been a guest on the last Sinopoli album,what can you tell us about it?

Well…I haven’t played on this album yet…the thing is that I have been in contact with Joey and we talked about working together in the studio when I arrive to N.Y.C. …We haven’t discussed exactly what we’ll work on, Joey asked me if I would be interested in playing on some songs for his solo album and it sounded like a really cool thing to do, so we’ll see what will happen when I get to the Us…

I would like to thank the fans from around the world for their support and belief in Street Talk and in Melodic rock music! And I really hope you guys will enjoy the new Street Talk album Transition!!!

-Fredrik,Im wishing you the best of luck on this new year,you are a very talented artist,so I know that you will do a great job in NY,thanks a lot for taking your time to make this interview for my site!!

This is one of the BEST CDS of the year,get it at: AOR HEAVEN where,by the way,is at the top 10 at this site,congrats!!!!!

Awesome!This is the long awaited follow up to their 1997 debut album: Collaboration.

Street Talk Transition its pure AOR,with great guitar playing by Sven Larsson,the sweet vocals of Göran Edman (voice very similar to Dennis De Young) and the magnificent lyrics,music and production of keyboardist and leader of Street Talk: Fredrik Bergh.

The sound and the musicianship is professional throughout.

The cd starts up with ¨Someday I will get Over You¨an excellent aor song with sweet harmonies and very good lyrics.

All the songs are so well done!!So is the case of Ye Gods and Little Fishes (song composed by Fred and Goran) another beautiful track with a spectacular chorus,such as ¨Everything I do is just for you¨.

Energizer Bunny is a very funny song which also contains a catchy chorus.

You also have songs like ¨Let me be the one¨,¨Dont give up on this love¨or ¨When you lose the one you love¨ which are some incredible ballads.

While you are listening to this album you feel like living in an AOR land.

Im so proud of you Fred!!

Beautiful lyrics,great production and fabulous songs,make this one of the best albums of the year.

This is Street Talk doing their stuff in a very efficient way.

Two words spring to mind to describe this cd:Unique and Special.Do yourself a favor and get Transition.

Street Talk is one of the BEST AOR bands in the world!!!!

VISIT STREET TALK OFFICIAL SITE

Ashes to Ashes

Great Heavy metal band,know more about them:

Ashes to Ashes was formed in 1992 by Michael Stenberg, Björn Luna and Kristian Johansen.

In the fall of ’98, the band began planning their self financed debut album, ”Shapes of Spirits”. An album intended for promotional use only. The songs which later made it to the final product, were a mix of new ones, and some older material that was totally re-arranged.

Only weeks before the band entered the studio they recruited singer Kenneth Brastad after several auditions during the fall of ’98 and beginning of ’99.

The recording and mixing took place at Gordon Studio with engineer Thomas Sörlie in the spring of ’99. The basic tracks (rythm guitar, bass and drums) were recorded live, and the band used 40 hours, all in all, to complete the recording and mixing of the album. The mastering took place at Strype Audio by Tom Kvälsvoll in the fall of '99 and after some delay at the record plant, the CD was finally ready to be distributed in the end of December '99/January ’00.

”Shapes of Spirits” contains a very varied blend of different musical elements and includes everything from classical music to heavy metal, with a strong focus on atmosphere and haunting melodies. The album has recieved excellent reviews in magazines and webzines worldwide. The band has recently signed to the Dutch record company DVS Records.

Ashes to Ashes are currently working on new material. The songs on the forthcoming album will take them into a ”heavier” and slightly more uptempo direction, mixed in their distinct ”trademark” sound. Classical music will also be more present compared to ”Shapes..”. The tentative title is ”Cardinal VII ” and are scheduled for a September release 2001.

Check out http://www.atoa.net for further information, reviews, photos, soundfiles and more.

Ashes to Ashes

Great Heavy metal band,know more about them:

Ashes to Ashes™ ©