Interview: THE POODLES

Hello there The Poodles, Hello Pontus

I welcome you to the interviews with Rocket Queen. I hope you are doing fine, and having a great time? It is very nice that i got the opportunity to do this interview with you and I thank you very much for this.

1. For all those who didn`t already know THE POODLES. Please introduce your band to my german readers first.

Pontus: The Poodles was pretty much formed around the opportunity to perform the song “Night Of Passion” in the Swedish leg of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. We entered the contest, took the Swedish TV audience by storm and after that we recorded our debut album “Metal Will Stand Tall” and headed out on tour. After a hectic period of touring in Sweden in the summer and fall of 2006 we released our first album in mainland Europe in early 2007 and hit the road, this time as support to Hammerfall. Already in September of 2007 we released our sophomore album “Sweet Trade” and headed out on the road again in Europe, this time as support to Gotthard. After this we have released our third album “Clash Of The Elements” in May 2009, been doing hundreds of shows back home in Sweden and at least four more tours of Europe as well as a number of festival appearances. There’s a quick summary for you.

2. Since you started with your band a lot of things happened and I guess many things changed in your lives.... and NOW... you worked on a live CD and also a DVD. Only a few days left until the release of the live-CD "No Quarter" and the DVD "In The Flesh". So how did you got the idea of doing this live CD and DVD and how long did you worked on the CD and DVD. And who did chose the CD title No Quarter for what does it stand?

Pontus: The live performance has always been a very big part of what The Poodles are all about and I, personally, have always liked live albums ever since hearing great albums like “If You Want Blood” with AC/DC and “Live And Dangerous” with Thin Lizzy when I was a kid so it was kind of a natural thing to do. Why it happened right now is partly because it felt like a good time right now, after releasing three studio albums and doing a whole lot of touring, sort of a good way to close one chapter and go on with the next. The other reason is that we met, and hit it off really well, with Steve Ravic (director) and Vesna Trokter (producer) and they, as much as anyone, have really been the driving force behind this. The CD and DVD was recorded in the summer of 2009. After it was recorded it stayed pretty much untouched for a few months as we were on tour and busy with other things but in December we started working on the sound and the video people started working on the video material. All in all I’d say it took about six months to get the finished product ready, a lot of work. I think I actually came up with the title. For us it stands for what we do when we go on stage, which is to go out there and give it everything we got without taking any prisoners.

3. Can you already tell us something on the song which you chose for NO QUARTER? So if which ones did you chose and why did you choose exactly them?

Pontus: When deciding which songs to use on the DVD we simply used all of the songs we had recorded. What you hear on the DVD and live-CD is the set list we played live at the time, nothing added, nothing taken away. Choosing which songs to play live can be hard sometimes though. Some songs are just given on the list but there are always a few numbers that are open to discussion and everybody has their own favorite songs that they want to play. Sometimes it’s hard to agree, it’s a bit of give and take from everybody, but I think we usually get it together pretty well in the end.

4. What are you doing after releasing your CD and DVD. Does it mean some resting time for you? Or do you have a full timetable till the end of this year? Or do you start recording a new studio album after this?

Pontus: No, no resting here! We are actually in the studio right now recording our next studio album. The first part of the year we spent writing a lot of music when we were not on the road and we entered the studio the last week of September. The sessions are coming along really well and we hope to have it all done by the end of the year. Unfortunately I don’t have a release date yet but sometime next spring for sure, looks like mid-April right now. We are once again working with producer Mats Valentin who did “Clash Of The Elements” and it’s going to be a killer album, we are all feeling very happy about the material and the way it’s sounding so far so be on the look out for that in 2011.

5. Kicken attended on the big Swedish TV-show: "Doobidoo"! Can you tell us something bout the TV Show and what it was all about and what Kickens part was in the show?

Pontus: The TV-show Doobidoo is sort of a musical game show. I didn’t watch the show Kicken was in actually but I’ve seen the show before. The contestants are supposed to guess what song it is from a sentence in the lyrics or from hearing just a small piece of the music and stuff like that. Kicken was simply one of the contestants and though I didn’t see it myself I heard he did a great job.

6. Well we know that Mr. John Lord invited Samuel Jacob to his show named "An Evening with Jon Lord and New Symphony Orchestra". It took place in Sofia (Bulgaria) 30th October 2010. So how did the meeting with John went and did you also have a guest appearance as a singer on his show?

Pontus: No, I didn’t. I’ll gladly leave the singing to Jakob, I think it’s better that way. The show went very well, Jakob was actually invited to do one more show after that, in Poland I think it was. As far as I heard it was a spectacular show and everybody was really happy, Jakob of course, as well as Mr. Lord himself.

7. Due to some tradgic circumstances Gotthards singer Steve Lee passed away. And i know you toured togehter and were friends with him. Maybe you like to share some happy tour memories with us from you and him to keep up his memory alive?

Pontus: We had the great opportunity to tour with Gotthard a few years back and got to know the guys in the band a little bit. Steve was certainly a fantastic singer and, as far as I got to know him, a very nice guy, down to earth and very serious about his singing and his performing. It’s a real tragedy what happened, he will be missed by a great number of people. We had a really great time on that tour and I remember most shows were just fantastic. We made a pretty funny prank on the last show of the tour when we walked out on stage while Gotthard was playing only dressed in a towel around our waist pretending we were looking for the showers. Steve and all the other guys got very confused let me tell you.

8. Which music do you listen to in your free time? Or are you so overdosed with music that you don`t listen to much music when you have some days off?

Pontus: Well, as you are suggesting it’s easy to get overdosed on music when you spend so much time either playing live or recording in the studio so during those most hectic periods I don’t listen to a lot of music but there are certainly also periods when I do listen to quite a lot. During those periods I listen to anything, some classic rock stuff like Led Zeppelin, RUSH, some more modern stuff like Audioslave but also artists like John Mayer and more jazzy stuff like Melody Gardot has been spinning in the CD-player lately.

9. Well, I saw you live back in 2007 when you where in Gießen (Germany) supporting Gotthard. It was such an amazing time and there were many people watching you and Gotthard. It was a bummer concert. And now I ask myself if you plan to come back to Germany soon specially to Gießen?

Pontus: We are starting to look in to the touring for next year and I can definitely promise there will German dates but I can’t be more specific than that. After releasing our next album in the spring we are planning on doing festivals in the summer, hopefully all over Europe and at the moment we are looking in to the possibility to do a tour of Europe starting early in the fall. It’s still very early in the planning process but yes; we’ll be back to Germany as soon as we get the chance.

10. Last but not least please leave a message for all your German fans now!

Pontus: Thank everyone for being such cool fans! I hope you’re enjoying our recently released live CD “No Quarter” and the live-DVD “In The Flesh” and if you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet you should! Also, be sure to keep an eye out for our next album in the spring. After that I’ll see you all on tour, right? It’s always a pleasure to tour in Germany so I sincerely hope we’ll be back very soon to play for you all.

Cheers!

Pontus

I thank you so much for this interview. Like I always say: Sweden rocks and thats it! Also I want to send congratulations to you for signing with Frontier Records. I wish you all the best and hope to see you again some time in my hometown that would be a blast. Best wishes to all of you, SUSI

Interviews '10:

Interview: THE POODLES