by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
Starting from live music played throughout silent movie exhibitions, the relationship between moving pictures and music is nothing short of fascinating. That’s why we tend to remember the iconic songs from movie soundtracks long after the posters promoting this or that flick fade. And when it comes to perfect sound complementation of a blockbuster movie, the ‘80s were the decade for that – Back to the Future, Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Rocky… you get the idea. But how about a soundtrack for a movie that was never filmed? That was the exact creative idea behind Crazy Lixx’s more recent albums – a soundtrack to an nonexistent ‘80s slasher movie [Ruff Justice, 2017] followed by an OST to the ‘80s jet fighter movie no one’s ever watched [Forever Wild, 2019]. Now that the Swedes return with a new release called Street Lethal, is this cinematic vibe still present in their music? Hardrock Haven caught up with Crazy Lixx’s lead singer and songwriter Danny Rexon to find out this and more. An ‘80s revival and the future of the scene from a Millennial perspective, the reasons why said revival has been primarily Scandinavian or whatever it was that prompted collaboration with Welsh singer Chez Kane – you name it. We asked about it all…
Hardrock Haven: Crazy Lixx started out almost twenty years ago and obviously, throughout that time the band has been through many trials and tribulations, including some line-up changes a few years ago. As you’re the main driving force behind the band’s success, what do you think your motivation to keep going was?
Danny Rexon: Well, in a way I think there’s never been an alternative for me not to pursue a career in music. Through all those line-up changes, we’ve had times when we were thinking about calling it quits. But I think that even if the band would’ve disappeared, I would definitely try something else musically – maybe as a producer or something like that… As fate has it, it’s always been [that] in the very last moment, new members have come and infused some kind of new energy into the band. And I think since the addition of our last two guitarists Jens [Lundgren] and Chrisse [Olsson] we’ve had a very stable line-up for the very first time in the band actually. So, since then it’s been more stable on the front and we’ve been able to focus more on producing the albums and all that – and there was not many trials and tribulations left. But yeah, certainly in the beginning and especially at the very beginning we’ve had a lot of line-up changes. Even leading up to the first album [Loud Minority], which was released in 2007, between 2002 and 2007 we’ve had a lot of trouble establishing ourselves as a stable band.
Hardrock Haven: Now the ‘80s are kind of back in vogue, whereas fifteen or more years ago it was a social death of sorts to be a fan of ‘80s music.
Danny Rexon: Yeah.
Hardrock Haven: So when founding Crazy Lixx back in 2002, have you actually expected the band to continue for so long and lead the way for many other groups when it comes to the revival of ‘80s Hard Rock?
Danny Rexon: Well, you know – when you start out, you’re young and you have world domination in your mind of course. But I never really envisioned what it would lead to. I was thinking we get a quick success and we kind of make it, because in those days you were just hoping for a record deal and when you had a record deal, that was it. You were set for life. That was the kind of vision that you’ve had, because – of course – the CD market was still big when we started out in 2002. But that has all changed… And as you say, in 2002 it was hopeless to do music in the genre that we did. We didn’t have audience at all and we didn’t know if anyone even wants to listen to it – it was hopelessly out. You know, in Sweden it was Nu-Metal or the Gothenburg-based Melodic Death Metal sound. Those were the only alternatives. So, us coming out and playing something that at that time wasn’t even old at all – it had faded away merely a decade earlier, so it hadn’t had time to kind of recycle again, either. But as you’ve also noticed, it’s getting more and more popular. You can see it in many cultural aspects, in series and films and, of course, music. Not only Rock music, but also other styles, like Electronic music and Pop music. So I’m happy that I stuck with it for so long, and I think maybe the time is right to take another step… doing something that we’ve actually done for a long time (laughs), but now it’s getting back into fashion, I guess.
Hardrock Haven: In the 2000s, you named our generation – a Millennial generation – a “wasted” one in “Do Or Die”. Almost two decades later, would you still say so?
Danny Rexon: Well, in a way I think it’s sad that a lot of Millennials have this kind a view of the earlier generations – especially nowadays it’s kind of popular to, you know, bash the Boomers. For me it’s strange, because for me the Boomers were the ones who made all the stuff that I looked up to so much when I grew up. All the movies and cartoons and comic books were [made] by that generation… Of course, there were problems with that generation. They were still stuck in an old mindset and the Millennials had to kind of rebel in some way against that generation – as every generation has to do. But I feel Millennials were a “lost” generation in a sense that it never picked the torch of Rock’n’Roll and the kind of youthful rebellion leading into other venues. I see a lot of the Millennials talking about social justice movement or the cancel culture that I think is very toxic. All of that, I don’t feel that’s the right outlet to set your generation apart. But I have high hopes for the newer generations. Maybe it’s a cycle – maybe we will return to Rock music…? But it’s certainly gone from the airwaves now. And well, I am a Millennial – even though I don’t subscribe to a lot of the typical stuff that people say about Millennials – and some of us are trying to kind of revive something being a bit conservative in that way and trying to return to something older… But I think it’s maybe time for the next generation to kind of revolt against our generation. And I feel a good way to do that would be to bring back the rebellion and flair of Rock’n’Roll music.
Hardrock Haven: Now, you must have talked a thousand times about the bands that influenced Crazy Lixx, dropping the obvious names like KISS for example. But with the Scandinavian Melodic Rock scene being as rich as it has been, are there any Scandinavian bands you would say were as much of an inspiration as the ‘80s American bands?
Danny Rexon: I mean, there is one obvious band of course. Actually, we had a talk in the rehearsal studio, right before we rehearsed the other day, which Swedish Rock band is actually the biggest. And I mean, it’s always hard to compare of course, but we were looking at figures from online streaming and stuff like that. And it seems like Europe is – and was, and more or less has always been – the biggest Rock export from Sweden. And one of the songs that I remember most fondly when I was growing up is “The Final Countdown.” It was one of my favorites when I was a kid and I’m very glad to say my own kids also enjoy the song (laughs). It seems to be something captivating about that song for young kids… So Europe has definitely been a big influence, even if I don’t feel they put out good stuff nowadays… But stuff that they did put out in the ‘80s and ‘90s was awesome and still keeps them on the top actually, when it comes to the Swedish bands. I mean, even if you compare them to newer bands, like, say, Ghost or the harder ones – Amon Amarth or Sabaton – Europe still seems actually to top those bands here in Sweden. So I would say that Europe is this Scandinavian influence, definitely.
Hardrock Haven: And why do you think Scandinavia was a leading force when it comes to return of ‘80s Hard Rock back in the 2000s?
Danny Rexon: Maybe it was – in a way – that we felt like we missed out on it. Because, as I said, we were very subjected to that culture in Sweden. We have a love-hate relationship with the US, because Sweden kind of sees itself like a modest, social democratic country, whereas the US is always like the crazy capitalist cowboy country… But we love the stuff that they did – or use to love it at least. But we were always a bit behind, you know, behind on everything. So when the Grunge wave hit, there was already too late for the Swedish bands to make it. There were some bands that were more or less in between – there was a band from my hometown called Nasty Idols who put out quite a good album… but it was too late for most of them. So maybe that’s the reason why we felt like we missed out on the opportunity when it was still a big thing on MTV and on the US airwaves in the late ‘80s and the early ‘90s. And we felt cheated on it, because we didn’t jump on the train fast enough (laughs). So we wanted to do it ourselves, and maybe that’s the reason. But you know, I do agree with you that a lot of the revival came from Scandinavian and especially Swedish bands.
Hardrock Haven: And do you think we’ll eventually reach the point when the sound and style become too obscure for a modern day listener, especially that it’s forty years since the ‘80s now?
Danny Rexon: It’s a bit crazy, because when I think that today we still listen to the stuff that, as you say, is forty years old – or maybe even fifty with some ‘70s music… When you look at any person in the ‘80s, if they’d said they were listening to forty-year-old music, people would’ve said they were crazy. “Why are you listening to some kind of old Jazz from the ‘40s…?” But there is definitely a quality to it that’s appealing to younger people – still. And my vision was always that I wanted to go back to the retro sound that I grew up with, because I felt it had evolved in the wrong direction afterwards. So I’m not set on just doing the ‘80s stuff and keeping it forever like that and not changing anything… I mean, it’s too late for me probably, because you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But if you get a new generation who’s into the same things, but they choose to evolve it from there in other direction than it evolved into in the ‘90s – so you skip Grunge, you skip Stoner Rock and you skip Nu-Metal and all that… what would happen with the Rock genre if it had gone the other way? And I think maybe now we’re at a point in time where that would be possible. Get the kids hooked on the same kind of flair and over-the-top show that it was in the ‘80s, but let them take it from there and do whatever they want with it with their direction and the new technology and the new outlets that they have possible today. That would be very interesting to see. But of course, there is some sense of cycling to it, so it would be out of style and probably in style again (laughs) after a while. I would hope though that this means it stays in the consciousness but maybe forms in a different way for the future.
Hardrock Haven: Right. But no matter what the future brings further on, now let’s focus on the present. The new Crazy Lixx album Street Lethal was released on November the 5th. Was the experience of working on this album any different than before, from a viewpoint of a singer of the band as well as of a songwriter and a producer of the album?
Danny Rexon: Well, it was different in some aspects, because we had to take the pandemic into account. I mean, I talked to some interviewers about this and they were all a bit surprised, because in Sweden we had kind of lenient restrictions when it comes to the pandemic actually. So we’ve had a lot of personal freedom – I’ve been able to move around and to meet with the band, so most of the recordings have actually been done more or less the same way as we used to. We’ve just made sure there weren’t too many people in the studio at the given moment and stuff like that. Also, I contracted the COVID in December 2020, so that was before we started recording the album. I’ve recovered from the illness and already had the antibodies, so I wasn’t really worried about it either. But in that sense of course there were some differences, I would say. And also, at the time when you record an album, what you usually have in mind is getting the songs recorded and done and then planning for a tour, and at that point, we didn’t know if there was actually going to be a tour after the album. Now it looks like stuff is easing up around the world and we’ll actually be able to play at least some gigs, but when we started the album, we were totally in the dark about these things. So that was a strange feeling, doing something and then not knowing what the end result was going to be when it comes to actually promoting the album.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. And although the previous albums Ruff Justice and Forever Wild weren’t necessarily concept albums, when I interviewed Jens Anderson two years ago he kind of compared Ruff Justice to an ‘80s horror movie soundtrack and its follow-up to the soundtrack of an ‘80s action movie. Would you say there’s some kind of a cinematic theme to the new album also this time around?
Danny Rexon: Oh yeah. Definitely. I mean, we started this concept of having something to write towards. We felt it’s necessary especially after the self-titled album – which was a collection of good songs I think, but in my mind it lacks a bit of personality, because it’s just a bunch of songs on an album… Ruff Justice came from a point when we were asked to do three songs for the video game Friday the 13th: The Game. And those three songs, they set the mood for the entire album. We had a point to get inspired from and to write from – we’ve always had these ‘80s slasher movies in our minds. So when we did Forever Wild album, we wanted to do something similar, so we kind of invented this hypothetical ‘80s fighter pilot movie. And then we went on and did the same thing for Street Lethal, where we looked at it from the point of the martial arts/street fighting movie. So a lot of the songs are lyrically about that and I tend to have that kind of mental imagery when I write the music for an album. So yeah, definitely, there’s a cinematic feel to it. And we’d love to have our music in the movies as I think it would fit the real movie soundtracks very well, including the stuff that we’ve done for this album.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. The album title has quite a lot of associations as well, from the world of games to the title of Racer X’s first record released back in 1986. Where did the idea for the title come from?
Danny Rexon: The title actually came from Jens Anderson, our bass player that you talked to. Not sure where he got it from, and at the point when I heard it, I wasn’t even aware of the Racer X album. So we did a song “Street Lethal” – a kind of a rough demo – and it was already talked of when we did Forever Wild album. So the song is quite old. It didn’t end up on that album then, but we re-worked it and thought it would fit on this album. In the end, it actually got to name the entire album. We just thought it sounded cool and it sounded like an early ‘90s movie basically. It also goes very well along the lines of all our album titles, which is always two words – so we had Loud Minority [2007], New Religion [2010] and Riot Avenue [2012]. There’s always the same kind of formula to it, so it fit very well in that aspect as well.
Hardrock Haven: The sound of the few last albums is huge and polished, which makes it slightly different from the early albums – especially the first Crazy Lixx album. What would you attribute this evolution to and are you happy with its direction?
Danny Rexon: Yeah, I think so. Very much. I mean, some of it has to do with the production skills improving of course, and also technology. Because what we do today a lot is layer a lot of guitars – and also a lot of backing vocals to get kind of these massive backing vocals… Sometimes we stuck like sixty to eight voices on top… I mean, not different voices, but different takes from different people. That was something that we weren’t able to do on an analog console, which was what we started recording with. So, the digital era has brought in a lot of technological means to do that. But also, of course, skills. I think I’m a better producer now than I was when I started out. And also, this time we’ve used a different mixing guy for the final result – we’ve used Tobias Lindell who’s done H.E.A.T. and Crashdïet for example, so there’s a bit of an update when it comes to that. So if you listen to this album compared to the last one, there’s also I think more of a modern touch compared to the last one. But I think it goes very well with a retro production, so yeah – a match made in heaven.
Hardrock Haven: And can you take us through each song on the album and reveal inspirations behind each track?
Danny Rexon: Sure. So we have the first instrumental intro of course [“Enter the Dojo”], that is meant to set the mood for the album. I wanted to do something that had a kind of Asian feeling to it, so there’s an Asian melody to it. That was something I was doodling with actually on my youngest kid’s toy piano [laughs], so it sounded quite differently when I played it for the first time. But I think it set the mood for what could be like an ‘80s fighter movie.
Then there’s “Rise Above”, of course, which was co-written with another Swedish songwriter called Oscar Bromvall who’s in the band Fans of the Dark [also in Palace]. He gave me the opening riff for the song and I kind of wrote it from there. And of course, keeping in mind the theme of the album that we went for, which was that martial arts movie stuff –this one is much about being in the competition and fighting and trying to win the grand prize.
The next song is “Anthem for America”, which stands for my disappointment at the US at the moment [laughs]… where it has gone compare to what it was when I was growing up. I mean, of course it’s all tongue-in-cheek – it’s not like I hate the country or anything. I just think that the youth could [do something]… They deserve something better really and it’s up to them to kind of turn it around.
Then we have “The Power”, I believe… That was me envisioning a training montage stuff for this “movie”, and I was very much inspired by the Rocky movie series… you know, when he’s climbing up the stairs and boxing frozen meat in a butcher shop and stuff like that…
Then it’s “Reach Out” and actually that’s a song that I had very little input in, because it’s almost entirely done by external songwriters. I only re-wrote some of the lyrics and was part of the arrangement for it. But it fit the style very well, so when we got pitched this song, I thought to myself that this would work very well for us and I personally get some kind of Survivor vibes from this song – and Survivor obviously made music for Rocky, so that’s the reason why we chose it for the album as well.
Then we have a “Final Fury”, which is also an instrumental piece leading up to the title track, which – again – revolves around the theme of the album. But this one is more set on the kind of a street fighting level, more like a rough, almost post-apocalyptic, kinetic setting where people are betting on street fighters.
“Caught Between the Rock’n’Roll” was mainly written by Chrisse Olsson and I do know that his inspiration for it was the pandemic, of course – being unable to come out and play, you know. So if you listen to the lyrics, there’s a lot of things about not being able to do what you love and go out to the audience and play some Rock’n’Roll for them.
Then we have the ballad – “In the Middle of Nothing”, which is kind of a love serenade to the one you leave at home when you go out on tour and travelling far. Bands have done this for quite a while, so I was inspired by the songs like “Home Sweet Home” by Mötley Crüe, for example, which also revolves around the same theme. And also, I wanted to do this song with more of a Bon Jovi-esque feeling… Bon Jovi is a band that I love, especially the older stuff of course. I was also thinking a bit about Prisoners in Paradise by Europe, which also was an inspiration when it came to the sound of that song.
Then it’s “One Fire – One Goal”. Again, it’s revolving around the theme of the album – the competition and one goal and kind of conquer-it-all [mentality]. But it can be taken metaphorically as well, to go beyond obstacles and hardships in your life.
“Thief in the Night” is another love song, but it has a kind of dark theme to it. And of course, we wanted to do something dramatic for the end of the album. Quite early on, we knew we wanted to put this song at the end of the album, so we prolonged the outro as a very, very long fade and we just added and added stuff and there’s guitars and backing vocals and everything… I think it came out very well – I envision almost a kind of ending credits for this one, where you see the slow credits crawl coming up and the song for the end of the movie.
So, that’s it for the album. Hopefully, there’s some touring [ahead], but you never know – the situation is a bit odd…
Hardrock Haven: Keeping my fingers crossed for things to work out right! Street Lethal wasn’t the only album fans of your songwriting and production style looked forward to this year and obviously, I’m thinking about Chez Kane’s debut now. How did the idea for a project with the involvement of a female singer start?
Danny Rexon: Well, Frontiers reached out to me and asked if I wanted to produce something apart from Crazy Lixx. I said I would be interested in doing something but not really a band project where I was a member. I wanted to do the songwriting and production but not be a part of the band. So I told them I wanted to work with a new solo artist – and my only demand was that it was going to be a female singer, because I think there was a kind of a void… There’s a lot of retro ‘80s bands with male singers or male members, whereas in the ‘80s you had acts like Robin Beck, Saraya, Chrissy Steele, Vixen or Heart… And I felt a lot of the audience who likes our music would also resonate with that kind of music as well. So that’s what I was aiming for. I think the result came out very well – I believe a lot of people who enjoy our music also like the Chez Kane’s album.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely, and the success of the project is undeniable. So was the whole material that ended up on Chez Kane written specifically with this project in mind?
Danny Rexon: Well, I started writing some songs and at the same time I started to look for the singer. So I demoed a few different people, but when I found Chez, I knew almost from the start that I wanted to have her on this album. I think she works perfectly and after we signed her for the album, we wrote half of the material – but the first half came before I have ever heard of her as a singer.
Hardrock Haven: What were the differences between writing and producing music for Crazy Lixx and for someone else, especially a woman?
Danny Rexon: I mean, it was more of a total process for me, because I did the whole thing including the mixing and everything. So in that way, it was a bit different. And of course, if you’re not the lead singer yourself, you can kind of lean back and not be as involved in the performance of it. But I did play the instrumentations and was still very much involved in the process that way.
Hardrock Haven: We already know there’s a second Chez Kane album in the works, but do you plan to continue your collaboration with Chez further in the future?
Danny Rexon: Well, we’ll see how the second one goes, I guess. But I’m very happy doing the stuff now, so I hope that if the next one goes as well [as the first one], we’ll surely go make another one.
Hardrock Haven: And as you’ve already mentioned, it all started with Frontiers reaching out to you and discussing the general possibility of scouting and working with new talent. So before we run out of time, let’s hypothesize if it means more artists and more albums you’ll help introduce to the world in the future…
Danny Rexon: Well, I wouldn’t say it’s an impossibility, but right now I’m quite busy with the Chez Kane album and the Crazy Lixx stuff, so we’ll see how much I can take on. But I’m always open to listening to new stuff and, you know, if people wanna pitch something for me, I’ll be happy to listen to it. So you never know…
Visit Crazy Lixx online: Official Site | Facebook | Instagram
Check out new singles and videos off Crazy Lixx’s new album Street Lethal:
“Anthem for America”
“Reach Out” [Official Audio]
“Rise Above”
