by Konstantin Chilikin
— Columnist —
BJ Laneby of M.ILL.ION
It’s not a secret that Sweden has very strong rock and metal scene, especially when it comes to melodic kinds of genres. The fact that Swedes invented melodic death metal tells it all. But while some bands in Gothenburg forged their blend of brutal riffs and melodies, M.ILL.ION preferred to play obscenely catchy hard rock, mixing it with blues and rock ‘n’ roll. They carried the flag throughout the ’90s and 2000s, released seven albums that became successful in different countries, played shows all over Europe and Asia but disbanded in 2014 due to the serious illness of the founder and bass player BJ Laneby. In 2021, BJ decided to reunite with original members and the band is back on track and goes at full steam to the fans. Hardrock Haven chatted with BJ Laney about the new beginning of the band as well as some old stories.
Hardrock Haven: Hello BJ! Nice to see M.ILL.ION back on track but let’s talk about the break-up of the band first. In 2014, you suffered from a bacterial infection, which almost killed you. What kind of bacteria that was?
BJ Laneby: We were on tour in the UK. I had been working very hard before the tour and I got cold, my health was a little bit down. So, during the tour, we had a show in Liverpool and I hurt my knee at the hotel, there was a small wound but it didn’t worry me that much. But one day later I was seriously ill. I got terminal bacteria, and usually, it is a two million to one chance that you get it. So on the next day, we had a show in London with lots of people, which was really important. I had some medicines to do the show and then I fell unconscious. I nearly died and my family flew from Sweden to say goodbye. That killing bacteria was eating my leg. Later I learned that when your immune system is low and you get a wound, sometimes (one in two million) your body produces this bacteria that eats you. I almost died but I made it! After two weeks, they flew me to Sweden and I was still unconscious. I woke up in an intensive care in a hospital in Gothenburg where I live. That was very strange and many things occurred my mind. When you are so close to dying, a lot of strange things happen to you. I saw my funeral in my brain. So, when I got out of the hospital a few months later I took a break from music.
Hardrock Haven: However, you kept playing music with MAJOR INSTINCT. What was the point to put M.ILL.ION on the ice and form another band when you recovered?
BJ Laneby: Before I went for that UK tour, I was thinking about doing a side project and playing more 70’s music. So, I talked to a couple of guys before going to the tour. One of them was the singer who I produced and whom I loved, and he was totally up for it. I said, “Let’s talk after the tour. I’ll be back in July”. But the next time we talked was December 2014. (Laughs) When we met, I said it’s going to be something serious, not just a side project. So I put M.ILL.ION on hold because I wanted to do something else.
Hardrock Haven: Were you tired of the music M.ILL.ION played?
BJ Laneby: When you are so close to dying, you think about what you want to do with your life. So it was time for me to do something else with different people. When you are in a band, everybody contributes. With M.ILL.ION I was in a driving seat, but when you put 5 or 6 guys and their creativities together, it doesn’t matter when it comes from, it gets M.ILL.ION-ized. The same thing was MAJOR INSTINCT. It was my idea, I picked the people, I wrote all the lyrics, I produced it, but we did it together. So I was in a driving seat again, but that was another seat. (Laughs.) We had a lot of fun doing the album (“Roots & Wings”, 2015) and it turned out great. But now M.ILL.ION is back on track and we also have a lot of fun.
Hardrock Haven: So how did this reunion happen? Was it the band’s 30th anniversary that made you think about it?
BJ Laneby: After MAJOR INSTINCT I stopped playing and I didn’t do anything for a couple of years. I had to take care of my family. But in late 2019 or the early 2020 people started to remind me that it was 30 years since M.ILL.ION recorded the first album. This reminder came from different sources: friends, fans, labels, promoters. So I started thinking if I wanna do this, how I wanna do this, with who I wanna do this. Long story short, I had a party at my place in the August of 2020, and a couple of the original members of the band were invited. I wasn’t thinking about the reunion at all, that was just old friends getting together. But one week after I was thinking, “Damn! This is so nice! We should do it with the original members!” The original line-up was very creative for several years and we were close friends. So I phoned Hans, the singer, and said, “I got this crazy idea. What about doing a reunion for the 30th anniversary of the band?” And he said, “Yes! Let’s go for it!” The next day I asked CT, the guitarist, and he said, “Are you nuts?!,” I answered, “Yes, I am!,” and he said, “Let’s do it then!” (Laughs) Then I called up Markus, the keyboard player, and he was into that. We had a few meetings to discuss what we were going to do. We decided the band should give us three things: a lot of fun, give us more energy than it takes, and it has to be for real, we gonna write new songs, we gonna record an album, we gonna do a tour, not just a bunch of old farts rehearsing 3 times a month.
Hardrock Haven: Ok, I see. There are a couple of guys from the original line-up who are missed: Roland Christoffersson (drums) and Stefan Wetterlind (guitars). Did you try to get in touch with them?
BJ Laneby: Yes, I spoke with Stefan. You know, me and him had another band in a small village before M.ILL.ION. We were really close in the early days and he is a brilliant guitar player. Roland was also a member of that band in the m’80s0’s. But I always wanted to achieve something bigger, I wanted to tour, so I took Stefan and Roland and we moved to Gothenburg. So these guys were the foundation of M.ILL.ION. But, you know, it’s 2021 (note: we did this interview in the end of 2021. — Auth.), and Stefan now lives a bit far from me and he is a little bit tired, and I didn’t want to have something like that in this band. We are as old as him and we need energy, we want to make it for real and not being tired old men getting back together.
Hardrock Haven: Could you introduce the new members, who replaced Stefan and Roland?
BJ Laneby: The drummer, Magnus Rohdell, is CT’s nephew. When we formed M.ILL.ION and moved to Gothenburg, we have a couple of goals: a record deal, playing a lot of shows and rehearsing like hell four or five days a week. So when we were doing local shows, Magnus was one of our roadies, setting up the drums etc. Fast forward to 2020. When Stefan and Roland said they couldn’t do the reunion, I was like, “OK, we have four original members: me, CT, Hans, and Markus, but we need to rehearse and check out other musicians”. So we needed a drummer to help us with practices before we would start auditioning drummers and lead guitarists. That’s when CT said, “Maybe I can talk to Magnus…” And I was like, “Who?” It took me a while to remember the guy. It turned out that Magnus is a friend with In Flames and he fills in when their drummer is ill or whatever. Magnus was happy to help us out. We played with him for a couple of weeks, and when it was time to audition drummers, I said, “Why do we have to look for drummers?” We’ve got the right guy!” That was it. We still had to find a lead guitarist, and this position is very important. There are a lot of Yngwie Malmsteen’s around but I didn’t want this type of musician in the band. I wanted someone like Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore, Bernie Marsden, a great player and songwriter with a really good vibe. So I thought, “How can we find such musician?” And one night after a couple of glasses of wine I sent an email to a group of journalists, promoters, producers etc., who know me and the philosophy of the band. I wrote them that the band was going to reform and we needed a lead guitarist. I got 32 or 34 recommendations with several big names. One of my requirements was that our new guitarist should be a great guy because you can’t tour or share a hotel room with an asshole. We have to have a laugh, talk about football, have a drink, discuss different things and be friends. We had recommendations from all around Scandinavia and ended up finding Henrik Andersson who lives five minutes from my place. (Laughs) And I can tell you he is the best guitarist I have worked with. He was suggested by the journalist of Sweden Rock magazine who said, “I’ve got Mr. Ritchie Blackmore for you!” (Laughs) So I met Henrik, we had a beer or a coffee, and I was checking what kind of a guy he is. Henrik plays with Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band, they tour like hell. I checked out his live videos and was like “Wow! How can you play all these solos?” I told about Henrik to the guys, and they were like, “What the fuck?” Henrik is very creative; he is a good player and a good guy with amazing sense of humor.
Hardrock Haven: What album out of the three you recorded with the original line-up you had in mind, when you started writing new songs for “Back on Track”?
BJ Laneby: M.ILL.ION have always been about melodies. If there are no melodies, what songs are they? Our first album was a little bit AOR-ish, the second one was more bluesy and more experimental but still melodic, and the third one was straight-forward rock ’n’ roll album. And when we get together in one room, it gets M.ILL.ION-ized. We all contribute and everyone has his own influences and input, and I love it. So to answer your question, we didn’t have just one album in mind, we just got in one room together and wrote songs. Of course, we didn’t want to do a Jazz/Fusion album or a Thrash Metal album, we knew it would be a Melodic Rock record.
Hardrock Haven: Let’s talk about new songs on “Back on Track”. The title track is obviously a statement; both musically and lyrically, but what about “Rising” and “Circle of Trust”?
BJ Laneby: “Back on Track” is basically a compilation album. It was like bring stuff from the first three albums together, refreshing it and adding 2 re-recorded tracks (“Sign of Victory” and “90-60-90”). As for the brand new songs, the title track is my song, but again everybody contributed. And you are right, it’s a statement — we are back on track. “Rising” is a song of CT, which is about coming back from this Covid thing. CT is a way more straightforward than me in songwriting, so this is very cool rocking track. “Circle of Trust” is Marcus’ song. It is about a secret foundation of people behind the doors doing different things. As I said, everyone contributed to the song and that’s what M.ILL.ION is about.
Hardrock Haven: Where did “Lovely Eyes” come from? I didn’t find it on any of your previous records. Is itan unreleased song from your archive?
BJ Laneby: We wanted to make a flashback to the early years, so we found some old tapes, remastered and remixed some of them, like “Narrow Mind Land”, with Simon Hanhart, who has worked with artists like David Bowie, Brian Adams, Marillion etc. As for “Lovely Eyes”, that was a ballad for the second album, “We, Ourselves & Us” (1994), but the song became a bonus track for Japan because we already had a ballad on the album. I remember when we recorded “Lovely Eyes”, the producer said, “I have to go for lunch for a couple of hours”. And when he came back to the studio, he brought the number one female singer in Sweden with him. I can’t reveal her name, but when we saw her, we were in awe. The producer asked her, “I have a song for you. Do you want to try it out?” She is very religious, and we had songs like “Burn in Hell” or “Judgement Day” on the second album. (Laughs) Luckily, the producer played her “Lovely Eyes”, which is my song from the early days, and she showed the lyrics to her assistant and after an approval, she sang it in one take totally killing it. So she is on the song and you can hear her voice in the chorus.
Hardrock Haven: “Back on Track” includes only two songs off the first album. Why did you pass this record by?
BJ Laneby: Well, we choose “Sign of Victory” which was very successful back then, but we updated it a bit. This is a very melodic, very 80’s track, and we tried to give it a little more modern approach. “90-60-90” was also successful, a bit of a radio hit, it was aired in Sweden for three months every day, so that was a no-brainer to put in on the CD. But we wrote these songs in the late 80s, so the lyrics were… (Skeptical hemming) And I want to make these songs more bluesy or gospel, to make them more adult. I don’t regret any of the songs off the first album, they are great and melodic, but they were done 30 years ago, so now, when we are 50 years old, singing the lyrics written by the 18 years old guys isn’t that cool.
Hardrock Haven: I guess trumpets or horns would be really good in “90-60-90”, that would give the songs that gospel vibe you wanted to achieve…
BJ Laneby: Yeah, we were thinking a lot of different ideas. I wanted to have real instruments, real singers but not these damn computers and other tricks that arew in all over the music business. I hope that for the new M.ILL.ION album we will do more of that authentic stuff like real strings, real people playing instruments. All the great stuff, like Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll, has been made by real people, real characters but not computers.
Hardrock Haven: Did you have any feedback from ex-members of the band like Ulrich Carlsson (vocals)?
BJ Laneby: Yeah. We had a reunion show in Hard Rock Café in Gothenburg, Novembr, 2021. It was totally packed and Ulrich was there. He talked to Hasse, had a laugh and he was cool. I asked his opinion about the show and he was way too sad because Hasse’s voice was low in the mix. (Laughs)
Hardrock Haven: Why didn’t you invite Ulrich to perform a few songs?
BJ Laneby: That would be great and probably we would do it next time. There are no problems among us at all.
Hardrock Haven: Are you going to play the songs off “Kingsize” or “Sane and Insanity” which were recorded after Hasse left the band?
BJ Laneby: Great question. We actually talk about it. Of course that during the reunion show we wanted to play songs from the first three albums. But we talk about playing the songs from the rest of the albums. That would be great.
Hardrock Haven: Now let’s talk about the history of M.ILL.ION. You found the band after your trip to England in 1988. Did you go there to attend “Monsters of Rock” at Donnington?
BJ Laneby: A friend of mine invited me to England and the purpose was to see “Monsters of Rock” with Iron Maiden, Kiss and Guns N’ Roses. The friend took me with him to London where we spent seven or eight days and saw all the things that happened around. We met all the heroes, we went to backstages and pubs, All the band who was going to perform at Donington were in England doing rehearsals, partying, so London was boiling. So we met a lot of people, had a drink with Lemmy, went to a party with Iron Maiden guys and made friend with a lot of people, When I got back to Sweden, I was inspired.
Hardrock Haven: You also attended secret gigs of Kiss and Iron Maiden before Donnington. I wonder how did you get to know about secret gigs, as there were no announcements, promotion etc.
BJ Laneby: I’m a lucky guy! (Laughs) Me and Mark, my pal who took me over to England, we were major Kiss fans. We happened to go The Marquee club the night before they reopened and there was a carpenter doing his job. So we asked him who would play tomorrow, he refused to tell us but I didn’t accept “No” as an answer and kept asking him. After 30 or 40 minutes, he told us: “If you leave me alone, I’ll tell you who is gonna play tomorrow, but don’t tell anybody”. So we discovered that Kiss were gonna play. But there was also a small announcement in Kerrang! Magazine that Kiss were gonna play. The magazine came out eight or nine in the morning of the day when Kiss was supposed to play. We were near The Marquee at 9:30 am and there were 10 people, but all of a sudden fans started to appear asking, “Is it true about Kiss?” and soon there was a queue for blocks and blocks. That was August and it was hot like hell, so that was a long day but we saw Kiss! And while we were in the queue somebody told us that Iron Maiden was gonna play at the reunion of their school but under the name Charlotte the Harlot. So we went there, too, and saw the band playing in front of a few hundreds of people.
Hardrock Haven: As you said, after “Monsters of Rock” you returned to Sweden and formed M.ILL.ION. Usually bands start with demos but there are no demo recordings of M.ILL.ION in the web or something like that. Did you record one?
BJ Laneby: Sure! We did a demo with two songs for record companies. One of the songs was called “Fire” and another was “Hold On”. Our aim was to get a deal within a year, so we did a demo, we took the pictures of the band and we got three or four offers, which we declined, for one reason or another. One label, for example, wanted us singing in Swedish. Then we did a new demo with three songs. One of them was “Winds of Change”, which ended up on the first album. Another one was “All of Me”, a great track which I still try to find. And the last one was “Lovely Eyes”. This demo brought us a record deal.
Hardrock Haven: I’ve always wanted to ask you about the cover of “We, Ourselves and Us” which shows sheep. This not what you expect from a Hard Rock band.
BJ Laneby: (Laughs) I don’t know. Probably that was our reaction to trends that you had to be like someone else. We had a song “Follow the Trends” on that album and I am still proud of it. That was 1994, so you had to have a certain haircut, you had to sound like Nirvana. So the song was our answer to that attitude: we don’t follow trends, we just play rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe that influenced the cover with sheep but it certainly wasn’t my idea.
Hardrock Haven: As a fan of hockey, I’d like to know how your song “Showstopper” appeared on “NHL 2003” video game together with Papa Roach, Queens of the Stone Age and Jimmy Eat World.
BJ Laneby: That’s the song from our 4th album and the 1st one recorded without original guys. Our record company in the UK tried to place our songs on TV series, ,movies and all that, and two companies, EA Arts and Coca-Cola wanted to use this song. So we decided to go with EA Arts and let them use it in “NHL 2003”. This is the most successful M.ILL.ION’s song so far, it’s been played all over the world. And it is definitely one of those songs I want to play with Hasse on vocals.
Hardrock Haven: Ok, let’s keep some questions for another interview when the band will release a full-length album. Hope to talk soon!
