For
Eva Tomorrow and for all the fans that don't understand English so well, here is the transcipt of the interview!!!
I wanna thank
watercolourgirl for her revision of the text!!! Your help is always so precious!!!!
(And btw, I then managed to catch my own words in that point! I was saying "Wake up!"... apparently, just by changing the earphones, I could hear everything much better!
)
Milan - 28th November 2015Stefy: Hello John and welcome back to Italy!
John: Hello!
S: It’s always a pleasure to see you playing here in my country! And you know that yesterday also the national TV news talked about your concerts here in Italy?
J: Really? I didn’t know!
S: Yeah, it was a great surprise!
J: Great!
S: So, you’re currently touring to promote your tenth studio album “War of Kings” that has gathered largely positive reviews in the rock press. BTW the riff for WOK comes from you, right?
J: It’s more than a riff actually… it was just something I had from the beginning but we changed around it a little bit… Dave Cobb came up with some ideas and Joey of course made the melody and the lyrics…
S: WOK was labeled by many as the best EUROPE album from the reunion. What’s the band’s feeling about your latest achievement after some months of touring by now?
J: We are really proud of this album! There were many different things that came together really well… One thing was that we found Dave Cobb and he agreed to work with us… He was a fantastic producer… We really had a good time with him in the studio… he had really good ideas!
S: I know it’s always difficult to choose among your own babies, is there any specific track that for you stands out both lyrically and musically?
J: Of course “War of Kings” the song… “Second day” I like very much… also “California 405”…
J: What’s your favourite? I know which one…
S: You know? Which one?
J: We play it tonight!
S: Yeah, I hope so! You’re gonna play it, right?
J: Yeah!
S: Which is it?
J: You tell me!
S: It’s “Nothin’ to ya” of course!
J: Yeah, of course! That’s a good song too!
S: Yeah, it’s so damn sexy!
J: Sexy??? Is it sexy?
S: It’s sexy, yeah! That’s my own opinion! Not only mine actually! There are a few fans that really dig this song!
J: That song came together really funny… we had it jammed sometime when we rehearsed and Joey recorded the jam on his telephone, then he sent it to me and said “John, can you make a demo out of this?”… “Yeah”… I tried to listen to this “What the fuck is going on?” because the sound was so bad, it was his telephone but then I made the demo out of it!
S: Really?
J: Yeah!
S: Nice!
S: While touring on your own, you’re also playing some gigs with Scorpions in France… I was at the first gig in Lille and I think the atmosphere was really amazing, because it was a great response from the Rock fans especially after the terrible events in Paris… I could see also that the Scorpions fans really welcomed you on stage and were really impressed by your performance…
J: Yeah, I think we do have similar audience…
S: Yes, it’s more or less similar… How are you experiencing these specific gigs, especially considering the delicate circumstances in which they are taking place?
J: Well, there was discussions before we went ahead to do this… we didn’t know… “Scorpions maybe wanna cancel the whole tour!”… many bands cancelled their tours in France but I was hoping that we’re still been doing it… and Scorpions said “Yeah, 1000%, we’re gonna do it!”… I think it’s a good thing because the worst thing is to let things like that, these horrible events, affect you… also stuff like that can happen wherever
S: Wherever and whenever…
J: We can’t go around and being scared by things like that… just let life go on…
S: I agree!... When you are backstage after a show, what makes you say “Oh guys! That was a night to remember!”? Is it more about the technical aspect or more about the emotional one?
J: Little bit of both, but mostly it’s how the audience was…
S: Oh really? Great!
J: Last night in Pratteln was fantastic… it was Friday night!... and Friday night is always different than a Thursday night or Wednesday night, because you have a couple of beers…
S: Everybody gets drunk!
J: Yeah…
S: In August this year you won the Aftonbladet Rockbjörnen, which is a Swedish music prize, in the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Band of the Year” category. How is your connection to Sweden now? Because I remember reading in some interviews that Sweden didn’t always love you…
J: The press you mean, then?
S: Yeah, the press!
J: The thing is with Rockbjörnen… especially… <he pauses>… excuse me, I just had lunch!
S: Don’t worry!
J: It’s the reader’s of that paper that votes… so it’s the people’s choice… so that’s very special I think… instead when you get Grammy or something, it’s the record company executives in the jury that decide who’s the best… so it’s more important when it’s the people’s choice I think…
S: I saw when you got the prize, the bear on stage that was really bothering you, especially Mic!
J: Yeah!! They said in the paper – the headlines was “I almost started crying, John Levén says”…
S: Really?
J: Everybody “Really John? Did you almost start crying?” Well, not really…
S: Because I heard also that only John Norum was quite sure that you were gonna win this prize…
J: Yeah, he said before “We’re gonna win!”
S: Because you’re simply the best, he said…
J: Yeah… that doesn’t really matter sometimes because some other band that’s not very good can win because people can maybe make their own choice, so me and Mic said “Oh well, let’s go have some beers and have fun! We’re not gonna win any ways!”… But then… I’ve been noticed during the night that they were really concerned “You guys don’t go anywhere! You have to stay here!”
S: Oh, so the winners were announced during the night? You didn’t know before?
J: No…
S: Ah ok, good!
J: So we had one special guy from this magazine, he was the guy for us… he came back, we sat at the restaurant close by “Don’t go anywhere!” then I started “Why is he so concerned?”…
S: So you started understanding something…
J: Yeah, but I was really surprised though!
S: Cool! Instead in November EUROPE picked up another prize, the “Best Come Back of the Year” award at the Classic Rock n’ Roll Of Honour in London and you performed 4 songs in front of other legendary rock artists. You were introduced with these words “When EUROPE came back they wanted a little respect, now they got it! So the comeback is complete!”… Do you feel nowadays a different attitude towards the band from the rock press and the other musicians?
J: A little bit, especially from media or press because before it was always “that one-song band, “The Final Countdown” and shit like that… but now I think they are really understanding that we are a hard-working band that keeps coming out with great classic albums!
S: Cool! Great! In April this year you toured the US for the first time in 10 years! How was the response? How did you feel to get back there?
J: It was really fantastic! We did mainly the East Coast that time and the response was fantastic. We did some festivals, we did our own shows at… The House of Blues shows… and we’re going back now in January to the West Coast so it’s gonna be really exciting!
S: Is there still a difference balancing the choice between old and new songs when you play in the US?
J: It’s always difficult for us! Because we wanna play new songs, of course we’re gonna play some old songs too, but it’s really hard to… I think especially when we go back to America because they haven’t really followed us for the latest albums…
S: Like in other countries…
J: Like Italy or in Europe has… so we’re probably gonna play more older songs in America and blend in some new songs…
S: “The Final Countdown” was recently used in the Geico’s advertising campaign and reached no.1 in “The Billboard Top Commercials” which tracks the most popular songs used in the US adverts. By joining this commercial, did you also want to get the US the US audience more familiar with the band again?
J: Yeah! We had to show people in America and in Europe as well, there are still people coming out “You guys are still playing?” “Yeah, we have been playing for quite some time!”
S: Yeah! Wake up!!
J: Especially America “Oh that 80’s band! What happened to those guys? They’re gone now!”… So we have to keep showing that we are still around, especially in America… and the Geico commercial has been great…
S: Great response, a winning move I think!
J: Yeah, I hear it’s playing all the time!
S: Great! Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of “The Final Countdown”, the album that changed everything! Are you planning any celebratory tour like you did with “Wings of Tomorrow”? Any chance for Italy to be included?
J: Yeah absolutely! I can’t say much because I’m not really sure… there are some dates already in the works so we’ll be doing something for TFC…
S: Ok, nothing more than that you can tell us now, ok!
J: No, because the booking and everything… it’s all been planned right now… I don’t really know…
S: One last question, John. Discussions about EUROPE are always very animated among rock fans! On one hand it is said that EUROPE is one of the few bands that has never repeated itself and always tries to trace a new track with every album. On the other hand it is said that doing so, the band has lost its trademark, becoming confusing and less recognizable. What’s your thought about it?
J: I like the first point of view! I think the most boring thing with artists or bands is when they keep repeating themselves all over and over again. If you wanna listen to old EUROPE stuff, you just go back and listen to… you have the records, just listen to them!
S: They are already there!
J: Yeah, they are already there! So we don’t wanna do the same album over and over again, that’s too boring… we have to keep pushing ourselves!
S: That’s what I like!
J: Yeah, I know!
S: Ok, thank you so much John for your time and would you like to send a message
to Rock Rebel Magazine and the Italian fans in general?
J: Over all, thank you very much for hanging out there and been following us for all these years and Rock on!
S: And get ready for a really warm welcome! Thank you so much John!
CONGRATULATIONS 
(And btw, I then managed to catch my own words in that point! I was saying "Wake up!"... apparently, just by changing the earphones, I could hear everything much better! 
