Page 23 - Black Velvet Magazine Issue 98

BV98 pg22-25 hcss_BV98 pg23 19/08/2018 03:48 Page 2

BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 23

Not a lot has happened since then. I don’t know
if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. He’s very gen-
uine, and I think we all have that same person-
MEN with their music. “It might sound like a cliché,
ality pretty much, exactly the same still.”
MEN
The band’s personality comes out on stage
but I think that when we are on stage that’s
when our real personality comes out,” says
Adde. “If you go and see us, I think you can see
in our eyes that we’re not joking. This is exactly
how we are. I think you can see how much we
still like to do it. Very much our personalities
come out in the show, yes.”
He thinks real and genuine musicians show
their feelings on stage, and their real personal-
ities always come out.
“Ten years ago I went over to America and
went to see the first reunion shows with Van
Halen with David Lee Roth coming back to the
band. We went to see the first two shows, the
first one in Charlotte and the next one in
Greensboro. On the first night, you could see
that they were kind of nervous and on the sec-
ond they just relaxed, both feelings they were
so true that they showed. David actually started
to cry and he hugged Eddie and it was really, re-
ally like the whole arena could feel that vibe and
it wasn’t fake. It was so real. And that was prob-
ably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I
think they were away for… I think they were 24
years apart… and it all came out on the second
show, like ‘Yeah, we can still do this’. That was
a magical moment and that’s how it’s supposed
to be.”
dde’s first show ever was seeing KISS
Asupported by Bon Jovi. He tells us, “I’m
the youngest in my family, and have two older
brothers. We were all very much into AC/DC,
Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and KISS. One day,
my dad came home and he had tickets for KISS.
I was only 8 years old. It was 1984 and Bon Jovi
opened up for KISS in Gothenburg, Sweden,
and from that moment I pretty much knew what
I wanted to do when I saw KISS, and Bon Jovi
for that matter, because they were fucking great
that night. They were out on the ‘Runaway’
album, the first album, and they were really, re-
ally good. That concert, I still remember it like
yesterday. That joy… it’s very easy to have a
goal when you go and see that concert. And you
know why I’m doing this today, because it was
such a good show, you know. Bon Jovi and
KISS, they were probably trying to up each
other. They were fucking on fire, both bands,
that night. I don’t have anything to compare, but
I have a lot of bootlegs from that time, so I can
it took a couple of albums to find our own similarities between thrash and sleaze. It sit and listen. Great times, magic almost.”
voice. In the beginning, we were more like comes from standing in the rehearsal stu- A Hardcore Superstar show is similar – the
a punk rock band, and on the second one dio. You have your own little rehearsing band are always on fire and have an arsenal of
it was more like an American rock, Aero- room. It’s basically white, poor men,” he hits in their setlist. But they don’t just attack
smith-type on ‘Thank You (For Letting Us laughs, “with a lot of energy and a taste for the audience with their songs, they heal them
Be Ourselves)’. Then, on ‘No Regrets’, it partying. It’s very much based on partying, too. Adde likens Jocke to a medicine man – and
was almost like Blondie, pop-punk. And thrash and sleaze… and women, of course. was inspired to write a song on the new album
then on ‘The Black Album’, that’s when we The energy thing, it came from the streets, called ‘Medicine Man’ in relation to that.
really, really found our thing, combining it didn’t come from schooling or anything “I saw this documentary about medicine
thrash with sleaze rock, and it became kind like that, it was invented by kids. Prog rock men, native Americans. There’s always this
of street metal. That’s where we kind of came from well-educated musicians who medicine man and he’s worshipped by the vil-
found our own genre. On ‘The Black studied. Thrash and sleaze pretty much lage. They dance around the pole and he gives
Album’, there was no such thing as street came from an energy you had, being rest- them medicine, he gives them treatments, he
metal; I’m pretty glad to say that we were less. To me, that’s what it is.” makes them feel good. Very often they end up
the first band that someone used the term Jocke sings ‘Is there a place for me? partying, having fun. ‘Medicine Man’ is pretty
‘street metal’. I think it suits the style very Will never change my personality’. We ask much like today’s rock star. They go from town
much because thrash and sleaze very Adde if his personality has changed much to town, they heal people, they dance around a
much comes from the street, y’know. during his time in the band. pole. I was thinking about Jocke when I wrote
There’s nothing fancy about it, it’s just “I know that people don’t believe us the lyrics. He’s kind of a medicine man. When
pure energy. They actually have a lot in when we say this, but we’re pretty much we’re out on tour, we go from town to town and
common, sleaze and thrash. They don’t unharmed by the business. I’d say that he’s like… some people worship him and some
say that and they don’t want to be com- Jocke, for example, is exactly the same people don’t, they think he’s a phony and fake
pared with each other, but there are a lot of person today as when he was 12 years old. and blah blah blah, but I just had fun with this
HARDCORE SUPERSTAR