Michael Monroe - Sweden Rock Festival 2002 Photo: Steve Mårtensson Intervju - Michael Monroe, Hanoi Rocks Hanoi Rocks är tillbaka och Michael Monroe har dessutom släppt en ny soloplatta. Så självfallet tog Mikael, Metalshrineīs egen Hanoi Rocks fanatiker, chansen att prata lite med Finlands enda riktiga rockstjärna. Här har ni resultatet! "Watcha want" is your new album. What is your best memory from the recordings of the album? MM: Well, recording some of my favorite cover songs of all time and working with Pink Gibson was fun. Heīs a fun guy. It was fun, I didnīt have much pressure. I was given a lot of freedom to do what I wanted. I did nineteen tracks in the studio and I had the same bass player and the same drummer as Hanoi Rocks. So I had to decide what songs were gonna be on Hanoi and which should be on the Michael Monroe album. So we decided with Andy McCoy and we took five songs for Hanoi, saved one for the future and the restof the thirteen tracks I put on my solo album. Which song do you think turned out the best? My favorite track is "Right here, right now". MM: Oh yeah, you liked that one! Thank you, great! Yeah, I like that one and I like "Stranded". I like the Leonard Cohen one, itīs so different and "Rumour sets the woods alight" and also "Telephone bill is all mine". What do you think of the album when you compare it to the rest of your solo albums? MM: I think itīs very much of what Michael Monroe is today. Maybe a little more wider spectrums of styles. Itīs not as punk as Demolition 23 was. Itīs got all the elements of Michael Monroe solo. You have written quite a lot of songs over the years, and a lot of lyrics. Are there any lyrics that youīre especially proud of? MM: Well now, let me think. There is a great song on the "Peace of mind" album, "Whereīs the fire John". I like that lyric on "Life gets you dirty". I like a lot of them, but to think of one particular song, hmmm....In my solo career, a song that I didnīt write myself "While you were looking at me", thatīs one of my favorite lyrics of all my songs. But Little Steven wroye it for me. From this album, "Right here, right now" says pretty much what it is all and..."Shattered smile"...off the new album, I like that one best. On the other hand, is there a song that youīve released that for some reason, didnīt turn out as good as you had hoped for? For example, you did a re-recording of "Self destruction blues" a couple of years ago. MM: Oh yeah1 That was only because we did a jam in the studio with Andy in the early days of Hanoi. We did a blues jam and I started singing the lyrics, but it was originally like that. Early ZZ Top meets Deep Purple meets Status Quo, whatever! That was the original way it was written. We never did record it, so I was really surprised, well maybe not...we never ended up doing it properly and I thought of doing it and I talked to Andy when he was making his movie "The real McCoy"...Maybe we should include it on the soundtrack, but he disappeared for a couple of weeks, so fuck it, Iīll do it myself. And it turned out great. So thatīs the way it was originally written. We never did it with Hanoi, even though it was one of the first songs we ever wrote. It was? MM: Yeah! Speaking of "The real McCoy". It was broadcasted on Swedish Television a week ago. Iīm just wondering, what did you think when you got the news that Andy had fallen off the balcony from the third floor? MM: I was pretty shocked! It was pretty sick, the way the guy who directed the movie handled it. He called me and said that Andy is in the hospital. His legs are in a hundred pieces and heīs probably never gonna walk again. I said; Holy shit! You know it was bad Kharma and heavy shit to happen and it was a heavy blow to Andy, but heīs only come out stronger of it. But I think it was sick, the way the director got the Finnish musicians there, The Hurriganes, Dave Lindholm and so on. He called me and asked me to come to Andyīs bedside, even though Andy was really out of it on painkillers and stuff. I think it was really cold blooded how he used it for the movie. I said; No way Iīm gonna come down! That movie...I havenīt really watched it the whole way through. I watched the part where Iīm in it and some of the other stuf, but I couldnīt watch the hospital stuff. It was unbearable! How does it feel to be back on track with Hanoi Rocks again? MM: Itīs great because me and Andy have reconnected and we have gotten to know each other better and in a new way. After all the years of experience, we have grown as people. Itīs exciting to see what we can accomplish with Hanoi Rocks now, as it was a sort of rebirth. It just happened automatically by itself. We didnīt do a reunion and I never thought I was gonna use the name Hanoi Rocks again, but we just wrote some songs. We jammed at a club one night and did some Hanoi songs and we had fun. So we decided to do a gig with Hanoi songs only, a festival gig, which we did. So we ended up writing new stuff in the studio and wrote some remarkable songs. I figured it would be a shame if we didnīt do it. It just sounded like Hanoi Rocks. It was like a rebirth and it kind of happened by itself. It was not planned. I never thought in a million years that I was gonna use the name Hanoi Rocks again. If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said; Are you crazy! I think that "Twelve shoys on the rocks" is a really amazing album. It really picks up where "Two steps from the move" left off. MM: Thank you! Alright! And I saw you guys at SRF 2002. It was great! What do you remember from that festival? MM: I remember Ted Nugent was great and our gig was really early in the day, but it was ok. It was cool! I had a great time playing there. I remember thinking that 95% of the people there would wear black leather, skulls and all that kind of death thing. I think I said something about Iīm not into that skull thing, you know I really dig Jesusī style, whatever! That surely went down real well ha, ha, ha! Yeah, itīs exactly like the song "People like me". We really need you! MM: Thank you! I think that too. Itīs a good way of saying it. Do you plan to do any solo songs live with Hanoi Rocks? MM: Yeah, we talked about that. Andy really likes the song "Rumours sets the woods alight" and "Do anything you wanna do". Thatīs a great song! We might do that one as an encore or something. What are your musical influences? Is it the groups and artists that you covered on "Watcha want"? MM: Yeah, some of my musical influences are Stiv Bators. Heīs very big, especially Dead Boys and his solo stuff. The Damned, UK Subs, The Ramones of course, Sex Pistols, The Alice Cooper Band....the original Alice Cooper band with Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Neal Smith and Dennis Dunaway. "Love it to death", "Billion dollar babies", "Schoolīs out"! That is some of my favorite albums of all time. And Little Richard! Heīs the original glam, or whatever you wanna call it, make up and hairdo. It was good that he came out and changed the rock and roll world. The Rolling Stones are quite a big influence... Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers... And Heavy Metal Kids? MM: Yeah, Heavy Metal Kids for sure. Gary Holton is one of the most amazing singers of all time. Early AC/DC with Bon Scott. I think Bon Scott and Gary Holton sounded quite the same and another singer, Alex Harvey from The Alex harvey Band, he also sounded like those two. Three singers with the same kind of whiskey voice. They are all dead! Thin Lizzy I like a lot. Phil Lynottīs solo albums...Nazareth is one of my favorite bands of all time. What do you think of the Hanoi Rocks box set that came out a year or two ago? MM: I think itīs good. Thatīs when I met Andy actually. We met that night and we jammed and we had fun. So that was pretty much the turning point for us. One thing that I donīt like about the box set is "Oil and gasoline". The song shouldīve been the Hanoi version and not the Cherry Bombz version. But the rest of it is good. You have been a rock and roller for over twenty years! MM: Yeah, all my life! What would you have done if you hadnīt chosen the rock and roll lifestyle? What profession would you have had? MM: Well, I donīt know. Probably do some kind of artistry. Maybe I would have been a painter. I donīt know. I could not work at a straight nine to five job. Something creative I would have done. I always wanted to be a rock singer. Do you paint or write? MM: Yeah, I draw stuff and I write poetry when I write songs. Iīm just lucky to do what I love to do and making a living of it. Whatīs your plan for the future? MM: Well, first of all weīre gonna get the Hanoi Rocks album out in the rest of Europe and then America. Iīm prioritising Hanoi Rocks now. Itīs gonna be exciting! I heard that you were in the studio recently. Is that correct? MM: Yeah, we were mixing the Hanoi album, because it was mixed without us being there. Because we had to go on a UK tour, the engineer mixed it by himself and there are some things we wanna change to make it even better. We are gonna include two bonus tracks for Europe. Oh, which ones? MM: Probably a song called "This oneīs for rock and roll" and another song called "Are you lonely tonight", a Mink DeVille song. We hope to see you on tour in Sweden soon! MM: Yeah, me too! We were supposed to tour there already, but it was moved to forward. But I havenīt heard anything conclusive about it. Itīs coming, Iīm sure. It was just postponed. Weīre coming soon, Iīm pretty sure. Well, I wish you good luck and keep up the good work! MM: Thank you! It was nice talking to you. MM: It was very nice talking to you too. Thanks! Cheers! Hanoi Rocks - Official website

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