Micke Larsson of Coldspell
by Derric Miller
Staff Writer
HRH: Thanks for taking the time to talk with Hardrock Haven; we appreciate it. To start with, when I received your new release Infinite Stargaze I assumed that it would be Progessive Metal. But, ColdSpell is more in the Hard Rock arena. How would you describe the ColdSpell sound?
Micke: Hi Derric you’re welcome; it’s my pleasure to do it! Yes I guess we’re more in to that classic hard rock thing. The ColdSpell sound is a mix of that hard rock arena and some metal and progressive stuff. We’re more like those classic hard rock bands but with a more aggressive sound and approach!
HRH: You guys are garnering rave reviews for your new release, including here at Hardrock Haven. So, did the band expect to have so many positive reactions to the new CD? And if you have any scathing or negative reviews, how does the band deal with those?
Micke: Yes we had some really nice reviews , by the way – thanks! I didn’t really know what to expect, I wasn’t quite sure but when we received the first reviews we felt that this album wasn’t so bad at all, haha! When you have had those songs in your head for quite some time and then played them live and do them on “demo” and then get in studio to record them once again , it’s very easy to get a little sick and tired of listening to them! It’s great to get good reviews but I also know that you can’t be loved by everyone and a review is still just one person’s opinion, if that is of any comfort when you get a bad review. But now we seem to be overwhelmed with good reviews so our confidence is on top!
HRH: Your singer, Niclas Swedentorp, is a phenomenal talent. He’s one of the best new singers I’ve heard in years. How did you hook up with Niclas?
Micke: Yes he is brilliant, he gets so much good feedback and have been compared to many of his own heroes so I guess he has grown about one foott after reading everything! He has lived in Kiruna all of his life and hasn’t worked professionally with music but have been doin’ the local scene in many different constellations over many years. I had a lot of material and when it was time to get this ColdSpell thing goin’ there couldn’t have been anyone else singing these songs but Niclas. I’m extremely glad to have him by my side.
HRH: How does the songwriting process work in the band? Do you all play a role in writing the music, or, do you have one main writer?
Micke: I am the main songwriter and I guess ColdSpell is my little “brainchild”, I write all music, on some songs there are co-writers and the lyrics are written mostly by me and my wife.
HRH: ColdSpell sometimes gets compared to Blue Murder. Do think that’s a fair comparison, and, as a guitarist, are you influenced by John Sykes? Who are you influences in general?
Micke: It’s very odd but amusing to read all those comparisons, some of them I could understand but Blue Murder for example was not the band I thought would be mentioned. At the same time I’m not that surprised , I guess it is sort of belonging to the same genre! Of course I listened to Sykes in the ‘80s but I would not say that I am influenced by him. My influences – my god that’s so many that I don’t know where to begin but all those giants like Blackmore, Iommi, Eddie, Lynch, Jake E Lee, Satch and of course Hendrix did a big impression on me. But if you’re a good axeman you need to have a great band and some fantastic songs so I guess my influences is more those bands that did and do fantastic albums.
HRH: You were the guitarist in the band RAW, and I reviewed the re-release of First a few years ago. RAW was extremely talented and deserved a much bigger audience. RAW was more AOR leaning, though, where ColdSpell is heavier and more complicated musically. So, did you purposefully go in this somewhat harder direction when you formed ColdSpell?
Micke: I guess RAW did 2 albums at a time when this kind of hard rock was not so “attractive” around the world , grunge killed it or it fell to sleep for a while! Haha. If we have released those albums 10 years later I wouldn’t be surprised if the situation would have been different for RAW. Yes I agree that RAW was more of an AOR band and ColdSpell is a bit heavier and I always been a bit heavier in this hardrockin´ soul of mine! Some of the ColdSpell ideas and songs took its beginning at the same time while playing with RAW so the plan to do this heavier stuff has been around me for a while and it seems like the timing is right now!
HRH: We have the festival circuit right around the corner, both here in the States and in Europe. So, is ColdSpell going to be able to play any of those festivals?
Micke: I really don’t know but I hope so. We haven’t got that much booked yet but we’re looking for someone to take care of that business for us. So if someone in the US is ready for us – here we are! Haha. But I must say that it would have been awesome to get to Rocklahoma for example. I know it’s not easy to get to those festivals; there’s a bunch of good hard rock bands out there!
HRH: Festivals aside, is ColdSpell working on a tour in general?
Micke: No tour plans yet but we hope that we find our way out in Europe after this summer and maybe visiting the states. Would be great to do some support act job with the right kind of headline!
HRH: Escape Music in the UK released your debut CD. Was it a lengthy process finding a label, because I can’t imagine any label turning down ColdSpell …
Micke: As a matter of fact it was not a long process , we did have some labels that where interested and we had TSM promotion in UK that passed us through to Escape so Khalil at Escape called me and we signed with them!
HRH: One thing I touched on in the Infinite Stargaze review is that Sweden seems to have an inordinate amount of musical talent per capita, especially compared to the U.S. Over here, we just don’t have any new bands that sound like ColdSpell. So why are you guys in Sweden so damn good at making music?
Micke: Oh, you don’t? I’m surprised! Well in that case we will fit in perfectly in US! I agree , it’s a small country with a lot of good musicians and bands and I really do not know why it is that way! Overall I guess it has always been a large interest to play music and play in bands here in Sweden, one half of the people do sports and the other half play rock´n roll.
HRH: Is there anything I left out that you’d like to leave with our Hardrock Haven faithful?
Micke: I must say that we are very pleased with our album and all that good feedback, I think Tommy Hansen (TNT,Jorn,Halloween…) did a fantastic job with the mixing and C-A Beckston did amazing artwork! We hope that this will generate some good gigs and that we get the opportunity to come and rock your socks off.