COMING
FROM SWEDEN, STREET TALK IS THE BRAINCHILD OF
KEYBOARDIST FREDRIK BERGH. THEY ARE GETTING SOME
GOOD REVIEWS EVERYWHERE WITH THEIR HIGHLY
POLISHED AOR. I GUESS IT WAS TIME TO CHAT WITH
THE BAND'S MAINMAN...
The long
question of the day is almost abligated: STREET
TALK has a different line-up, different label...
surprisingly the band's sound remain the same.
Why? What led you to do so many changes in the
band?
| Well, the reason why the
sound more or less have remained the same
I believe is because I have always
written and arranged most of the Street
Talk songs during the years, so I guess
the changes in the sound aren’t so
big even though there’s some new
musicians on the album… Also, Goran
Edman, Mikael Berner and Christian
Johansson all appeared on certain songs
on the first album as well…so it’s
not completely new people on the record…
the only really new musician in STREET
TALK is the brilliant guitarist Sven
Larsson who have played with artists like
Tommy Nilsson (ex. Easy Action) and
progrockers Galleon…What happened to
the musicians that played on the first
album Collaboration is the following : In
1998 Drummer Jon Persson decided to leave
STREET TALK because he was moving to the
Swedish capital city Stockholm to educate
himself as a drum teacher at the royal
music school in Stockholm…and
Guitarist Tomas Olsson who hadn’t
been so much involved in STREET TALK
during the last years also moved away
from the town Bollnas, Sweden where I
live. |
| And Guitarist
Andreas Lidberg who I worked closely with
on the first album felt that he didn’t
have the time and energy that it takes to
get involved in another time consuming
process that it is to do an album… |
"...on
the third forthcoming
album I hope we will work
more like a band on the writing
and the arranging
and everything" |
So
can we say you are definetly a band or just your
personal project?
Street Talk is
very much my own project at this moment in time
as I have written, arranged and produced the new
album totally on my own except the lyrics on two
tracks which Goran Edman wrote…But I have to
tell you that I could never have done this album
without the input from all the great musicians
that participates on the album! But I won’t
do another album totally on my own like this one…so
on the third forthcoming album I hope we will
work more like a band on the writing and the
arranging and everything…and if I can choose
it will definately be the musicians I have with
me on this album that will be working with me in
the future…
I
personally enjoy Göran's vocals. He is brilliant
and your songs seem to fit perfectly his voice.
What do you think?
Yes, I totally
agree with you, Göran is really brilliant
singing softer aor music, his singing is very
soulful. I believe we couldn’t have found a
better vocalist in Sweden to sing as good as he
does on the album!
A GREAT GUITARRIST: Sven Larsson
Obviously,
there are many Journey influences in a STREET
TALK's sound. Who else has inspired you as a
musician?
Well Roger, you’re
absolutely right - I’m a big fan of the
Journey boys! And I would say that my other
influences comes from musicians like: PRINCE, DON
HENLEY, BRUCE HORNSBY, STEVIE NICKS, LINDSAY
BUCKINGHAM, JOHN WAITE, PHIL LYNOTT…and many
others!I guess my biggest influences when it
comes to keyboardplayers are: Jonathan Cain and
Bruce Hornsby.
| One of the most
surprising moments is the festive
"Energizer Bunny"... certainly
not something that I would expect from
Street Talk... what's behind this song?
Energizer
Bunny was the last song that was written
for the album…I had all the music
written for the track but I haven’t
got any lyrics written for the song, I
asked Goran if he could write lyrics, 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 they get stuck in your
mind! I believe it’s a very cool track!
|
"I guess there’s quite a lot of
bands
that are still playing AOR/Melodic rock
which is great! but I’m afraid
to tell you that the music scene
here in Sweden really sucks!" |
|
After
two releases, you are beginning to be a household
name for the AORsters, but what did you do before
forming STREET TALK. Where you in any other
band/project?
I haven’t
really played in any well known bands, Street
Talk is the most known band I’ve played with…Before
I formed Street Talk I was the lead vocalist in a
band called Shape. In that band I played together
with two members from the progmetal band Tad
Morose…I have also at one time worked
together with the Alien guitarist Tony Borg for a
compilation album project with local Swedish
bands…
And
what's next... are you already working on
anything new?
Well, what’s
next for Street Talk and myself is to continue
the promotion work for the Transition album here
in Europe and to start to work on some brand new
song material as soon as possible…And later
in the summer, on July 19 the album will be
released through Marquee Inc./Avalon in Japan
with the brand new bonus track " I’ll
Always Remember"…I really hope the
sales figures will be good for the album so we
can go out on tour in support for this album!
BTW, How
is the scene for Aor bands In Sweden?
Regarding the
music scene in Sweden, I guess there’s quite
a lot of bands that are still playing AOR/Melodic
rock – which is great! but I’m afraid
to tell you that the music scene here in Sweden
really sucks! There’s no support from the
media or live gig promotors or anything when it
comes to AOR! But I know that there’s many
many people out there who still loves this kind
of music…but it’s very hard to reach
out to all those people though as there’s
absolutely no support at all from the media so
most of the fans aren’t aware of most of the
new great AOR/Melodic rock releases which is a
shame!
OK. this
is the end of the interview. Thank you for taking
the time to answer these questions. Thank
you very much yourself Roger!
I wish
you the best luck with this new and brilliant
release. Thanks a lot again for your
support and keep up the great work with Aor Land!
|
