October 3rd, 2007
On October 3rd I (Tina) met Ola and Leari of Swedish Eurovision participants The Ark for a short chat at the Prime Club in Cologne. Due to a couple of journalists taking a tad longer than planned, I hopped on the bus to catch the guys for a few questions - also a bit longer than planned.
Especially Ola was pretty worn out and tired so extra thanks for taking the time for this, Ola and Leari!****
MEM: So first of all maybe you could tell me a little bit about your musical background? How did you start making music at all, like when and why?
Leari: It started in the southern parts of
Ola: And culture started growing in Rottne.
Leari: Yeah. As we speak.
MEM: How would you describe your style of music and did it change during the years?
Ola: If I would describe it today I would say that it's some sort of new wave glam rock, rock opera. And throughout the years we have sort of circled around these fundaments of glam rock and psychedelic rock and classic rock music, new wave music. But I think that changed a bit but it's always been sort of the same foundation. You can spot there influences from David Bowie, Abba, Queen and Kiss… But then this changed slightly from every record because we want every record to be unique. I think the first album was very… I don't know, it was a bit musical-ish, the second one was a little bit more bombastic, the third album was very disco influenced and this new album is a sort of a mixture between all the previous albums. But I think that our music has been always a sort of mixture between these… Bowie, Beatles, Abba, Queen…
Leari: And we've been listening to all that as well. We're into that scene, late 60s early 70s scene and I think we have tried to deliver our own sound of these inspiring bands, like Ola said, like
Ola: Yeah. It's probably a combination of the early 70s glam rock and glitter pop, in combination with late 70s, new wave and power pop.
MEM: Okay! So… you did take part in the Eurovision Song Contest this year, how did that feel, and would you participate again?
Ola (laughing): No I think we'll never participate again. It felt quite strange but it was fun to us, it was very much an experiment. We were working in a new way with media. I think that our initial ambition was to create a big buzz in
Leari: We were One in
Ola: Yeah, we were too good! (laughs) And so we came to these European Finals… It was big fun and we met a lot of people from all over Europe and we got the chance to speak to a lot of media, journalists from all over
MEM: Aha, well that sounds great then! Now I have a question about one particular song, 'This Piece Of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm' – is that referring to Shakespeare? I mean obviously it is but, you know, what do you think about Shakespeare and do you think that his sonnets are actually dedicated to a man or a woman?
Ola: Oooh that's interesting! I think I have always been inspired by Shakespeare and especially sonnets and I think especially the metre, the rhythm in his writing is very nice. But then, also Shakespeare's texts are like the Bible. It's like part of the universal knowledge, it's like part of everyone. So if you refer to Shakespeare, it's like referring to something everyone can relate to. That's why I refer a lot to The Bible and to religious stuff, but I also sometimes refer to stuff from classic literature that people can relate to, I think that just gives the feeling of, you know, that sounds like recognition. And I like the idea of paraphrases and travesties, you know, you sing a phrase that people are familiar with, like "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" or "In God we trust" and then I twist it around saying "In lust we trust"… And I like these mixing high and low things, and "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is probably one of the world's most famous love poems. And it was interesting to like take that poem and like put it in a mixer and just tear it apart and make a hate-poem out of it. That was a fun idea that I had and so the reference to Shakespeare is absolutely supposed to be there. And I think that some of Shakespeare's sonnets are… it's pretty clear that they are written to a man, and the others I don't know. I'm not that familiar with him, so I don't know all about it.
MEM: Okay. So what's your favourite piece of lyric then, from your own songs?
Ola: Actually I think that 'This Piece Of Poetry' is maybe one of the best lyrics I've ever written. I always get shivers down my spine while singing it because it's pretty powerful and it's pretty harsh and I like it because it's sort of angry. And I like that stuff that I write that is angry. I think that one of the best lyrics on the new album is 'Death to the Martyrs' which also has got that sort of angry attitude. Besides that I think that 'It takes a fool to remain sane' is a very good lyric, so if I would choose one from every album I would say 'It takes a fool to remain sane' from the first one, from the second one… I don't know, maybe 'Beauty is the Beast' is a pretty good lyric, and then on the third one 'This piece of poetry', on the last one I would say 'Death to the Martyrs'.
MEM: And does your country, Sweden, or the mentality of the Swedes have any influence on your music?
Ola: Yeah, I think in many ways. In one way we are very Swedish in the sense that we, though we're a glam rock band, we don't believe that much in glamour. We believe very much in hard work, which is a very sort of Swedish social democratic Luther and Protestant philosophy. (grins) And I think that's very much what we believe, we have a pretty hard working discipline when we work with our music.
Leari: On the other hand we're not that Swedish 'cos we go our own way. And I think The Ark's strength is to believe in yourself and be quite comfortable with the idea of being ridiculous and doing ridiculous things sometimes. And that's quite unusual for Swedes.
Ola: Yes. Swedes in general are very afraid of conflicts. And they are very afraid of seeming ridiculous in the eyes of others, so in that sense, the Swedish mentality is also influencing The Ark because we're sort of, well, what we're doing is a sort of a protest against that mentality.
MEM: Okay. And have you ever considered singing in Swedish?
Leari: We have done one song in Swedish. Well, we haven't done the song but we did a cover version of an old Swedish prog band. We did a disco version of a song. The disco scene in Sweden with Abba and things like that in the 70s wasn't that… - well, the prog scene in Sweden was quite political and quite strong at that time and the disco scene wasn't; they didn't really like the disco scene in Sweden in a way. But anyway, we did that disco version of a band from the 70s who actually did that prog thing and actually he liked our version!
MEM: Good! (grins)
Leari: Yeah! He's a little old now. (laughs) He accepts disco.
MEM: Okay! (smiles) Well, I've cut the questions down a little bit so this is the last one; what are your plans for the future?
Leari: Rock the world!!!! (laughs) I think we're gonna keep on doing what we're doing until it gets boring or it's not fun any longer. I think that's the most important thing when you're in a band, that it's fun to do it. And it's very fun so I think we'll keep on doing this, we'll see!
MEM: I hope so!
Leari: Mhmm, I hope so as well!
MEM: Okay, I think that's it from my side, thank you for taking your time for this!
Ola & Leari: Thank you!
****
Interview: Tina Makiolczyk
Special Thanks to: The Ark, Gun Label Group, in particular Sibel (thank you SO much!) and the Prime Club Cologne.
Interview © MadEyedMoose.com 2007
