GuitarManiaEU - Interview with John Norum

You've just released a new album by the title of “Walk the Earth”. Working out your solo parts on the new record, how did you go about that? Is that something that comes spontaneously or do you invest a lot of time into preparing and composing your solos?



I wish I had the time to do it. I can do that when I do my solo stuff, you know. I take whatever time I need to finish it. I don't have deadlines. I hate deadlines. It has nothing to do with art whatsoever. When an album is done and everybody is happy with it, then you should release it. You shouldn’t put a date on it, I think. I don’t think you should go on and say, well, this album has to be done in two weeks or three weeks and then that's it, it's over with. I don’t do that with my own stuff. You know, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Leonardo da Vinci didn’t have a deadline when he painted Mona Lisa. He showed it the world when he was ready. He didn’t have someone telling him, you have to be ready at this day of month, year, day or whatever. So I don’t do that type of thing. So a lot of stuff gets rushed.

When we went into studio now, I pretty much didn’t have anything done or ready beforehand. Maybe for one or two solos I had slight ideas, but it was just going to the studio and try to do something right on the spot, do it fast. I’d do four or five different versions. When I've done a couple of solos, I'd bring the guys in, and ask them what they thought of what I have played. Either they'd say, they love it, and that it's greatly done, or they'd say, well, you can change this bit and that bit, and I do it. That's how it works. It's very on the spot. And sometimes that's good, too.