{"id":69023,"date":"2020-12-13T17:15:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T22:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=69023"},"modified":"2020-12-14T20:50:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T01:50:11","slug":"interview-with-age-sten-nilsen-of-wig-wam-and-ammunition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2020\/interview-with-age-sten-nilsen-of-wig-wam-and-ammunition\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen of Wig Wam and Ammunition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Is Rock dead now, or is it the genre\u2019s revival…? There are a lot of people who keep on complaining that Rock music is not a part of mainstream culture anymore these days. But what they often forget is that not so long ago it\u2019s been way worse than that. In the early to mid-2000s, genres such as Melodic Hard Rock with that unmistakably \u201880s vibe to them were seen as cringeworthy at best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But something\u2019s certainly changed as the Norwegian band Wig Wam went on to represent their country on the Eurovision Song Contest twice in 2004 and 2005, followed by the Finnish ensemble Lordi\u2019s victory a year later with what was the first ever winning Hard Rock song in the history of the contest. Now looking at the burgeoning Scandinavian Hard Rock scene of the early 2020s, one may only wonder if what they see is at least partially a merit of such bands as Wig Wam and Lordi… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter what the truth is \u2013 it\u2019s certainly better days coming for those who were heartbroken after Wig Wam disbanded back in 2013. Now the reunited group prepares for the release of their new studio album Never Say Die<\/em> in January 2021 via Frontiers Music SRL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But was it challenging for the original line-up to join forces again after years apart…? How different is the current incarnation of Wig Wam from the Glam Rock-inspired, larger-than-life act that we remember…? And what else is the man formerly known as Glam<\/em> \u2013 \u00c5ge Sten Nilsen \u2013 up to these days beyond Wig Wam\u2019s return…? Hardrock Haven talks all that and more in a long and in-depth conversation with \u00c5ge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I believe it\u2019s actually Trond Holter [Wig Wam\u2019s guitarist] who wrote \u201cNever Say Die\u201d, which is Wig Wam\u2019s first single off the new album. But there\u2019s a line in the song that goes \u201cI never thought I\u2019d see this day\u201d related to the band\u2019s reunion… Did you actually expect that to happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: I think that line would speak for myself as well (laughs). None of us would dare to believe that this was gonna happen. So I think that was a natural thing to write which Trond wrote (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Let\u2019s go back to 2019, when it was announced Wig Wam would actually reunite to play on Norway\u2019s Tons of Rock Festival in Oslo in June 2020. It didn\u2019t happen for obvious reasons, but what circumstances led to the band actually getting back together in the first place after a good few years apart? And how did all that lead to writing and recording an album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Well, first and foremost \u2013 time. Time has a tendency of healing wounds and I think it mattered a lot when it comes to us getting back together again. After the last [Wig Wam] gig in 2013, when I left the venue, I didn\u2019t look back. I went straight back home and then we started Nordic Beast with Mikkey Dee [ex-Mot\u00f6rhead, currently of Scorpions], John Norum [Europe], Mic Michaeli [Europe] and Hal Patino [King Diamond]. I went straight to Stockholm to finish the songs that I demoed for Wig Wam\u2019s forthcoming studio album that we were supposed to release somewhere in 2013 or 2014… that never happened. So I went to Stockholm to finish those demos with Erik M\u00e5rtensson [Eclipse, W.E.T., Ammunition, Nordic Union]. We started a band together and… you know, all these things happened and we had so much to do for so many years, and I never looked back. And I had this bad feelings for the band \u2013 all those bitter feelings about the break-up and what this band turned into, so I didn\u2019t even wanna look back at the history of Wig Wam. I just looked ahead. But at some point I met Bernt [Jansen, Wig Wam\u2019s bass player]. He attended one of my Queen shows and I met him. It felt a bit awkward, I remember (laughs). It was like, \u201cOkay. We\u2019re not really friends anymore.\u201d And it felt really bad actually, to meet the guys not being friends [with them] anymore, so at one point I started to get in touch with the guys \u2013 and we started to talk again. We talked about why everything happened and put our cards on the table and we managed to renew our friendship. And also we had a lot of invitations from the Norwegian broadcasting for doing some comeback surprise appearances that I declined every time. But the last time we received it, I said \u201cWell, let me check…,\u201d \u2018cause we started to talk to each other again then. So I let the friendship grow and then at some point I asked the other guys if they were willing to get back together again just for a shock appearance on TV. And they thought it would be a great idea just to celebrate good stuff, and to move forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: In the very first interview we did for Hardrock Haven back in 2015, you talked about how important a sense of brotherhood is among band members. If you didn\u2019t renew your friendship and chemistry still wasn\u2019t there, would you still go for the reunion for any other reasons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Oh no. The only way for me to a part of a reunion was our friendship being renewed and me feeling comfortable with the guys again and them feeling comfortable with me. So in the development of our comeback, the main priority was to find a renewed friendship and that we could trust each other again, and that we could look each other in the eye and say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry for what happened and you\u2019re sorry for what happened and now we can see eye to eye\u201d… and to actually be able to have fun again, too, and to be brothers again. That was my main priority, so when that actually happened and we started to plan this shock appearance on TV, very soon we found out that we still have the same old sense of humor \u2013 while at the same time we also had matured, pretty much everyone… We had all been able to do other music projects and to realize other dreams, and we weren\u2019t as competitive anymore. Especially Trond and myself, we were probably two band members that fought the most (laughs). But you know, we came to terms with our past and have this camaraderie again. It felt good when we were invited to do the Tons of Rock [Festival] and we accepted the deal and we wanted to do a couple of festivals. Then, things started to move from there. And suddenly Trond played me some riffs as he started writing a song \u2013 I thought it was cool and we started working on that song and before we knew it, we had a song. And we thought, \u201cYou know, let\u2019s release this as a single before the festivals.\u201d One thing led to another and then COVID-19 entered our lives and here we are…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Was this COVID-19 enforced break a blessing for Wig Wam when it comes to making Never Say Die<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Of course, everything stood still for a while and that gave us a chance to have more quiet time and to be able to be more creative than we would have been if we had been out touring different projects and stuff. But even before COVID-19 we started to talk about writing songs together and I had even visited Trond a bit. We hadn\u2019t really started recording the material and doing it properly yet, but we had started to plan it. And of course, when everything was postponed, it gave us more space just to continue writing and recording. But I would never called COVID-19 itself a blessing (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. It\u2019s a nightmare and let\u2019s hope it ends soon. So anyway, does the return of Wig Wam also means your return to your stage personas or at least, stage names? What are your thoughts when looking at early Wig Wam photos and performances?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: (laughs) Well, let me tell you this… When we started to plan our comeback, one of my conditions was that we\u2019re not going back to the old image. I\u2019m not gonna go back to being an action figure called Glam (laughs). You see, from 2012 and our last album until now [Wall Street<\/em>], I\u2019ve been focused on being myself. I became more personal in my artistic life and I\u2019ve built a name for myself \u2013 in Norway at least \u2013 so going back to trying to be someone I\u2019m not… no. That wouldn\u2019t work for me and for the other guys either. So we decided on being ourselves. We\u2019re bringing back Wig Wam as a unit with the same four members… and you can call me Glam if you want, but my name\u2019s \u00c5ge Sten Nilsen, and on bass we have Bernt Jansen, and Trond Holter on guitar, and \u00d8ystein Andersen on drums… formerly known as Glam, Flash, Teeny and Sporty (laughs). So we tried to tone down the image thing, because you know, when we started Wig Wam, it was really an irony band. It was a time when Hard Rock and Glam Rock was kind of taboo and so outdated nobody even wanted to touch it. So we started as a party band doing \u201880s nights, and that\u2019s why we put these characters together and the whole idea behind the show… And for us to become as known as we suddenly were \u2013 that wasn\u2019t a part of the plan (laughs). Now we can actually turn things around and do this music without being a concept \u2013 just being who we are. And of course we\u2019ll put on some stage clothes on gigs and we\u2019ll probably turn into those characters on stage again, but as soon as we get offstage, we\u2019re back to being the normal us. And that\u2019s a good thing, because I know what it\u2019s like to live being a character for twenty four hours a day, every week… (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Sounds like a nightmare…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, it kind of was because you\u2019re trapped into this image thing. And we were a bunch of guys in their mid-to-late thirties at that time. But at the same time, at the time when we started, nobody would\u2019ve jumped onto it \u2013 this whole fantasy trick \u2013 if we hadn\u2019t done it the way we did it back then. So it was a cool thing to do, but now I think times have changed and we\u2019re ready to stand for this album and the music that we do in a totally different way than we used to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. But at the same time, there\u2019s a lot of references to the band\u2019s past in the band\u2019s new videoclip to the second single off the album \u201cKilimanjaro\u201d. Does it mean that even though it\u2019s a whole new chapter for the band, you also have learnt to embrace your past and developed a positive attitude towards it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, of course. We have come to terms with the past and \u201cKilimanjaro\u201d is pretty much a song that says something about our past as well. I wrote that song and it says something about regrets and not wanting to go back to a certain lifestyle again, even thought I put a twist on it at the end, like \u201ceven though he has learnt, he hasn\u2019t learnt.\u201d But we have (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And what was the feedback from your fans like once you announced your reunion? Was it what you expected it to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: We had no expectations… no idea really. We just thought, \u201cLet\u2019s give this a shot.\u201d And I pretty much suggested the record company [Frontiers Music SRL] that they shouldn\u2019t go out and promote the forthcoming album \u2013 that they\u2019d better not say anything until the first song is there, like that shock performance that we were supposed to do in March. So my idea was to do this like the bolt out of the blue and see what kind of reactions we get before we settle for anything more. And it was pretty exciting. I mean, from the first small clips of the video that were shown, from the first snippets our fans started to gather and speculate if there was something more coming… and then suddenly there\u2019s a new video! (laughs) And nobody would expect that to happen. That was pretty cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: When planning a comeback, did you think about the band\u2019s legacy at this point and how to continue it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: I don\u2019t know about legacy, but I know we just wanted to write new music that we really dug, so we didn\u2019t sit down and analyze anything. We just thought it was cool to make new songs again and it was great to write with Trond again. It really felt like kind of coming home, even though I\u2019ve been writing with great songwriters and having a very good band around me with Ammunition. But it didn\u2019t really cross our minds that we were keeping our legacy or anything. It\u2019s just about making new music for the love of music. And how people look at us \u2013 if they see us as legends or outdated old musicians… you know, we don\u2019t give a damn (laughs). We just do this for fun and try to bring that fun back to our lives and to Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll. I\u2019ve been writing solo material for my own albums recently and that was very important for me just to write them and to get that music out of my system, because that\u2019s a part of my late reaction not only to the band but also my personal stuff throughout the years. To deal with all that stuff, I really needed to write more melancholic songs and to get them out of my system. Now I feel ready to rock again and to have fun again. But for the right reasons, need to be told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you think that due to all this \u201870s and \u201880s nostalgia we have now, Wig Wam may actually be even more successful now than it was initially, especially that it\u2019s been fifteen years since Eurovision and your youngest fans back then are grownups by now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: I haven\u2019t given that much thought actually (laughs). We\u2019re just making music and it\u2019s good to see that Hard Rock fans started to stream [our songs], \u2018cause you know, in our past streaming was for new music and now everybody is on Spotify and it\u2019s not a new thing anymore. On the other hand, now they can even make vinyls for bands like us… But comparing our music style to, for example, EDM, you see that they have songs streamed millions and millions of times, whereas in genre it\u2019s more seldom. People rather buy a CD and listen to it at home, so this music isn\u2019t streamed that much. So we\u2019re more about going out there and playing live in front of people, \u2018cause we\u2019re live musicians. We play our instruments instead of pushing buttons and trying to make believe that we play. Our business is the live business and hopefully we\u2019ll go on tour and hopefully people will be eager to see what the band is up to live in this era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for it to happen very soon! And what was the songwriting process for the new album like and was it different from the way you worked in the past?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: It was pretty different, because now we make songs together more and listen to each other more. It wasn\u2019t competition anymore \u2013 we set out to make the best album as possible and didn\u2019t care who wrote the songs. I even thought these days Trond listened more to what I had to offer. I could bring in songs that I performed acoustically and he would listen and check them out instead of declining my ideas. I don\u2019t bring in finished ideas \u2013 I\u2019m not a studio guy \u2013 so I usually write songs on piano or acoustic guitar and I just simply record them on my iPhone, and then I present them with the lyric idea that tells the producer what I\u2019m looking for. I\u2019m more of a travelling guy and I don\u2019t have the time to sit around in the studio and tweak on buttons that need patience to [be used]. I know what I want and how I want things to turn out. But to tweak the drum sounds and guitar sounds… I\u2019m not patient enough (laughs). I can write lyrics and do melodies and riffs using acoustic guitar and once I wrote a song, I\u2019m finished with it until I want it to be done in the studio and then I tell someone how it\u2019s supposed to sound (laughs). So that process was much easier now. Remember that I went to Erik M\u00e5rtensson\u2019s to record demos in a professional studio with a producer to present them to the band after Wall Street<\/em>…? It was just because I didn\u2019t think they were patient enough to listen to my ideas within the band, and that pissed me off back in the day. But now it\u2019s been much easier and I feel that we have new respect for one another within the band and even if Trond writes a song, he won\u2019t be as protective of it as he maybe was back in the day. And if I have an idea, I will bring it to the table and he will listen to it and we\u2019ll check things out. It\u2019s a matter of making a song as good as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely, it\u2019s the most important thing and probably the reason why Never Say Die<\/em> is pretty diverse an album musically. But is it only about this exchange of ideas within the band, as you say, or also a matter of different things you did after disbanding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that diverse. I think all the songs have something in common, but at the same time it doesn\u2019t get boring. Wall Street <\/em>was a really diverse album because we didn\u2019t know what kind of album we wanted, so we wrote ten different styles (laughs) and each song had something else and we didn\u2019t know what that album was supposed to be. I wanted to go softer and Bernt wanted to go more funky and Trond maybe wanted to go more Black Metal… I don\u2019t know (laughs) But for this album, everything was kind of wrapped together in the same package because the only songs we brought to the table were those we thought were suitable for a Wig Wam album. Although there\u2019s a couple of my songs that I have already written with Ammunition as a target. \u201cHard Love\u201d was actually written for an Ammunition album and the bass line and the idea for \u201cKilimanjaro\u201d was also a song that I was supposed to do in such a way as \u201cWild Card\u201d [of Ammunition\u2019s 2014 Shanghaied<\/em> album]. Then, I started to work on the lyrics and it ended up being about Wig Wam\u2019s past, so it was more suitable for Wig Wam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And as you\u2019ve mentioned, you\u2019ve also released a couple of solo albums during your career. The third one, GLAMunition<\/em>, was perhaps the closest to what you did in Wig Wam and at the same, so different from the two that followed…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, I released five solo albums, and my first was called g-sten <\/em>[2000] and Wolf & Butterfly <\/em>six years later, and then GLAMunition<\/em>… And GLAMunition <\/em>was an album I hadn\u2019t even planned to make. The reason I made GLAMunition <\/em>was that we were supposed to be in the studio in 2008 to record what was to become Non Stop Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll<\/em>. Trond didn\u2019t have time to record that album, because he was working on the Dracula concept. So I was a little bit pissed off about that back then, because that would cost us another year before we could go out on tour. You know, having this as a job, you really need to plan stuff. So we planned to record and release Non Stop Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll <\/em>in 2009 to be able to tour that year. And I had taken three months off the road to be able to record [that]. And when he [Trond] didn\u2019t have time for that, I thought, \u201cWhat is my 2009 gonna look like?\u201d as I really wanted to go out on tour. So, in the very last minute, I brought in a producer, Christian Ingebrigtsen of A1 [an English-Norwegian Pop group founded in the late \u201890s]. He\u2019s a friend of mine and nobody would even imagine I\u2019d bring him in as a producer. A fantastic songwriter. And I had this plan of making it almost like the Beatles album where every song was very different from the rest, so it was supposed to be a kind of my own playground, twiddling with different ideas. So I brought in Ronnie Le Tekro [TNT] on guitar on one song and Dan Reed on one song, and Kee Marcello [ex-Europe, ex-Easy Action], and a famous Norwegian singer called \u201cElg\u201d [\u00d8ivind Elgenes] from [the band] Dance with a Stranger… So actually, in retrospect, this album had nothing to do with being as personal as the last two ones I\u2019ve released. Smooth Seas (Don\u2019t Make Good Sailors) <\/em>[2017] and Crossing The Rubicon <\/em>[2019] are my personal [albums] in that respect that I really needed to get that music and those lyrics out of my system. So they were more introvert in a way, more reflective of my life \u2013 more than just party albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you think they also re-defined you as an artist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, they had a purpose and after releasing Smooth Seas (Don\u2019t Make Good Sailors) <\/em>I went out on an acoustic tour for the first time. I called it \u201cUnplugged & Personal\u201d where I tell the audience about my life and not only the glamorous stuff, but also the shitty stuff. I did these concerts around the country since 2017 and they last about three hours each \u2013 three hours of playing the piano and the acoustic and doing a kind of a biographical concert and kind of reflecting on things that I think are important in life… and helping people to see that there are different sides to what they may have seen in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: As a solo artist, you also reworked some of your earlier songs, most notably on the album we\u2019ve just brought up \u2013 Smooth Seas (Don\u2019t Make Good Sailors)<\/em>, from Ammunition\u2019s \u201cWild Card\u201d to your solo songs \u201cWolf & Butterfly\u201d and \u201cWhere The Good Times Grow\u201d. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: There\u2019s a reason why they are on the album. It\u2019s that before I released that album, I went out on tour \u2013 my first real unplugged tour \u2013 with Mr Dan Reed from the Dan Reed Network. We did that tour in Norway and we brought in a bassist from my band and my previous producer Freddy Holm on violin, banjo and so on. We did acoustic versions of our catalog \u2013 both Dan\u2019s and mine \u2013 and talked about life and what was important in life and how the songs came through and how we wrote them… We had a great tour together, and after that tour we thought it\u2019d be great to release an album together \u2013 Dan Reed and \u00c5ge Sten Nilsen\u2019s, with the acoustics from the show. We both were so busy at the time \u2013 especially Dan, because he had just started up with the Dan Reed Network again \u2013 so I just started to record some of my songs from the show. And those were the ones that you\u2019ve mentioned. And waiting for Dan to join, one day I was playing a song that I wrote for the producer \u2013 that was \u201cPipe Dreams\u201d. I was sitting by the piano, playing this song, and he just came into the room and asked me what that song was. I told him it was a new tune that I just have written and he really wanted me to record it. So we did it and after that, I came up with another song… and before we knew it, we had the whole album (laughs) and I thought \u201cWell, maybe I should release this…?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So that was a smooth process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, that was the start of it. I really haven\u2019t planned to release a solo album at that time. That was supposed to be a Dan Reed\/\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And when we talked for the first time back in 2015, you said \u201cI have a feeling that we\u2019ll do an interview 10 years from now\u2026 about the same band\u201d and obviously you meant Ammunition at the time. As we talk now mere five years later, what\u2019s the status of Ammunition in the light of Wig Wam reunion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Oh, nothing has really changed. After we did a self-titled album back in 2018, we went out on tour. But prior to that, a year ahead of the release of the album, our first single from that album was \u201cWrecking Crew,\u201d and it did very well. It was qualified for the finals at the Melodi Grand Prix [the Norwegian music competition which serves as the country’s preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest] but at that time we knew we had no time to win the Eurovision Song Contest (laughs). We just wanted a showcase, some kind of promotion \u2013 making people aware of our forthcoming album. So we ended up at number two, but at one point it looked like we\u2019re gonna win. And we thought to ourselves then, \u201cWhat we\u2019re gonna do?,\u201d because Erik and Magnus Ulfsted were busy around the time when the international ESC was going to take place. So we really hoped that we wouldn\u2019t win (laughs), because then we\u2019d have to change all the plans and they were in the middle of the Eclipse tour… And they got more and more busy doing Eclipse, so at the time of our tour we really missed having the two guitars thing. So I bought a guitar and started to play the electric guitar onstage every time Erik was missing [on our gigs] because of Eclipse. And then, all of a sudden, Magnus didn\u2019t have time to do both Eclipse and Ammunition and he continued with Eclipse [he announced his departure from Eclipse too in September 2019]. We found a new drummer, Ole Tom Torjussen \u2013 an old friend of mine who\u2019s also playing in my Queen show and I\u2019ve been playing with the guy since 1994. So, we toured a lot without Erik and we started to write new songs… I don\u2019t know yet when this new album is coming out, but I hope Erik will find the time to join in again. What\u2019s sure is that we will definitely make new Ammunition songs and get out on tour again. I really love this band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Both you back in 2015 and Erik when I talked with him a month ago rejected the idea of Ammunition being a super-group, but why? Do you think it\u2019s because all these negative connotations associated with this term?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: (laughs) Yeah, I still don\u2019t look at us as a super-group. I mean, we\u2019re simply five people playing Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll. A real super-group was what I started in 2013-2014 and by that I mean Nordic Beast. We had super-duper players like Mikkey Dee and John  Norum, but that was a typical super-group, an all star band, with all the legends bringing in a pretty unknown singer called \u00c5ge Sten Nilsen from Wig Wam (laughs). So, when we put Ammunition together a \u2018super-group\u2019 thing wasn\u2019t definitely what we were thinking [about]. My mission was to bring together a bunch of guys that I love from the heart and that could realize my musical dream \u2013 a band containing good friends that I would rely upon after life in Wig Wam when at the end I couldn\u2019t relate to the guys anymore. I needed to have friends around me and that\u2019s the main reason why… For example, Erik was the part of the plan because we really hit it off. We became good friends very fast and he\u2019s a guy to be in the band with, and the same goes for the other guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: In that 2015 interview we did, you also mentioned a project with ex-Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s Rainbow Tony Carey being in the works. Now, five years later, we know it worked out, so what kind of experience was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: It was a great experience. I got to sing a lot of Rainbow songs and travel around doing that… It didn\u2019t really pay off that much \u2013 you know, it was small gigs, but I think it was fun. I didn\u2019t do it for the money, I did it for the experience and for the love of that music. I wasn\u2019t as available as I could have been (laughs), but it was in the middle of a long tour with my Queen show and everything, but we had a great time. And I really appreciate that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: What else are you up to these days? Any other projects we might not be aware about yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, you know me! (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Well, that\u2019s why I\u2019m asking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: (laughs) Right now, we\u2019re planning some shows for the Queen show for the next year. After touring with my Queen show in Norway since 2007, we really put the show to rest in 2017 after a farewell tour that lasted more than a year, and then we decided to revive it but do it only the biggest venues in Norway, the biggest arenas. So we just did one in Oslo Spektrum and the show was packed \u2013 eight thousand people… We were supposed to do another one in Trondheim Spektrum in November but that was of course cancelled because of the pandemic… Now we\u2019re planning some shows in spring \u2013 don\u2019t know if it\u2019s allowed by then, but I hope so. We\u2019re also planning some shows \u2013 and hopefully, a tour \u2013 with Wig Wam. Now we have four concerts coming up in Norway \u2013 in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim \u2013 and we\u2019re doing festivals this summer and we\u2019ve just accepted an offer from a German festival. And there will be more… And I\u2019m about to release an album with John Norum \u2013 I\u2019m singing on his forthcoming solo album… So I\u2019ve been in Stockholm in the studio working with John and done some songs together. We\u2019re planning a tour, but I don\u2019t know when that\u2019s gonna happen because Europe\u2019s tour plan has obviously rescheduled, so we\u2019ll see. And we\u2019re making some new Ammuntion songs too… There\u2019s a lot of stuff going on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: We\u2019ll surely keep the Norum album on our radar. With all those bands, projects and solo career, your schedule seems to be busy to say the least, so how do you manage to avoid burnout?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: You know, it\u2019s a good question. The way I\u2019ve done it in the past and how I\u2019m gonna do it in the future is that I\u2019m releasing an album with the band and I\u2019m going on tour and while on tour, I\u2019m writing new songs to be recorded when I get back from tour, and I release an album… if that\u2019s with the same band or a different project, it doesn\u2019t matter, but I have something else to do when the tour is over. So that\u2019s how I keep my music and everything alive and keep myself hungry \u2018cause I don\u2019t repeat myself. After this forthcoming Wig Wam tour I will probably go out doing an acoustic tour again. That would feel refreshing to me to do something else \u2013 and then probably going on tour with Ammunition would feel refreshing too as there\u2019s always something new. You know, I\u2019ve never been an artist that does one thing and will burn out doing the same songs every night. I do something new and try something else. Also in this pandemic I managed to release my first song in Norwegian. It was a Norwegian version of \u201cShallow\u201d [originally released by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper back in 2017 for A Star Is Born <\/em>movie, the Norwegian version of the song is titled \u201cS\u00e5 ekte n\u00e5\u201d and features \u00c5ge Sten Nilsen alongside the Pop singer\/songwriter and TNT\u2019s drummer Dieter Dahl\u2019s daughter, Carina Dahl]. It was viewed like three-four million times and is about to pass two and a half million streams \u2013 it\u2019s become one of the biggest hits of the pandemic times in Norway… I went on a tour with Carina Dahl and did concerts with her. You just have to keep it alive and kicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So do you plan to record more songs, or perhaps a whole album in Norwegian?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: Yeah, I\u2019m writing songs in Norwegian as well. I haven\u2019t started to record it yet, but I\u2019m obviously gonna do that. A solo album in Norwegian at some point… of course, that would be more personal than ever. I will probably release it the same time as my book comes out, when I\u2019m seventy or ninety (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Who knows! Is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5ge Sten Nilsen: I just really wanted to say that we really much appreciate how we\u2019re received with this two new Wig Wam songs and we can\u2019t wait for people to hear the whole album because we\u2019re really proud of it. And we are very much looking forward to get out on tour and to be on stage again to perform these songs live. And one good thing now is that people have enough of time to consume and get to know the new songs \u2018cause we\u2019re bringing a lot of them on the road together with the all the old antics. So Merry Christmas and happy new COVID-free year everyone! And thank you Hardrock Haven for having me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits: Tom Andreassen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 Is Rock dead now, or is it the genre\u2019s revival…? There are a lot of people who keep on complaining that Rock music is not a part of mainstream […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":69026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15247,10533,203,10471],"class_list":{"0":"post-69023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-age-sten-nilsen-2","9":"tag-ammunition","10":"tag-interview","11":"tag-wig-wam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}