We all love Pink Floyd and The Beatles, they still have all the old equipment there, it’s got the vibe and it’s still one of the best studios there is.
“It’s kind of two different bands, both great obviously, but it’s two different things for us. We just wanted it to be an adventure, try and evolve and do different things.” That’s what Joey Tempest thinks about his band Europe and the two completely different eras in which they existed. Although it was the eighties and their mega hit ‘The Final Countdown’ that put Europe on the Rock map, since their 2003 reformation, their style of music has taken a dramatic turn, heading towards a retro seventies sound with a darker, edgier approach. With the release of their eleventh album ‘Walk The Earth’ imminent, Fireworks spoke to the enthusiastic frontman to find out all about it.
No two Europe albums have ever sounded alike. Do you have a specific direction in mind when you begin writing?
Not really, that’s probably why they sound so different. And an album is also a reaction to the previous one, because it’s so intense when you make an album that you really want to shake it off and have a new approach for the next one. It’s just something that happens − we make an album and then tour on it, then we leave those songs. We love them but we want a fresh approach to keep ourselves excited, if you like. You just come up with a crazy idea, and that’s what happened with this album; in the winter when we started talking about what it’s going to be like, we start sending each other ideas and we don’t know what will come out. I’ve been listening to a lot of early Rush and Jethro Tull, a lot of Prog music, and I told the guys it was giving me a lot of inspiration. I start in a very obscure place and then move into the middle, or the light if you like, then it becomes cool. If you start in a very predictable, everything perfect kind of place then it has nowhere to go...that’s why the albums are a little bit quirky and different, not so predictable.
I had picked up on the Prog influence on the new material which is something Europe haven’t really embraced before.
Yeah. It’s interesting, and it came from an ever crazier side, but we brought it in and everybody in the band agreed, and the producer, and the circumstances, and we ended up with something that everybody loved. I mean, we’ve never done a song like ‘Pictures’ before, the outro to ‘The Siege’, or ‘Wolves’, but everything came naturally. We just had fun with it.
The occasional Psychedelic feel also adds something new to the Europe sound.
Well because we were in Abbey Road Studios we picked up on the vibe from Pink Floyd and The Beatles because they went a bit psychedelic. We were using some of their old cassettes, and echoes, and it triggered different things. It wasn’t
deliberate, it just happened.
There is also a strong Deep Purple vibe, which is ironic as you are touring with them this year.
Yeah I know! It’s always been there though, especially the last four albums: ‘Last Look At Eden’, ‘Bag Of Bones’, ‘War Of Kings’ and now ‘Walk The Earth’. It’s definitely going back to what we grew up with, with sort of a modern retro feel to it, thanks to Dave Cobb of course. We can’t avoid our first ever combined favourite records, ‘Made In Japan’, ‘Machine Head’, ‘Burn’ ... it’s embedded in us, it’s in our blood, so I suppose now when we do albums it’s going to come out in what we do.
So why did you actually decide to record at Abbey Road?
We were actually going into the studios at the end of last year, but we decided to write over the winter and record in spring, and we discussed which studio. And I say this every time to the band: “It would be great if you guys came to England this time.” Because normally we record in Stockholm. We always talk about different studios to try, but this time I thought to myself that Abbey Road would be great, because I have some friends who could get me in to talk to the management because it’s not so easy to get in there, they’re fully booked most of the time. We managed to get two weeks so the guys thought it was a really interesting suggestion. We all love Pink Floyd and The Beatles, they still have all the old equipment there, it’s got the vibe and it’s still one of the best studios there is.
When you start writing the songs for a new album do you keep the fans in mind, or do you just write for yourselves and hope the fans will embrace it?
Oh we definitely write for ourselves, but our fans are amazing and we wouldn’t be here without them. But I think they actually like the journey, they like to be tested or even a little bit shocked, they like to be on the adventure with us. That’s important, and it goes for a lot of other bands too. You don’t listen to the people around you, you just listen to the core of the people in the band, the heart and soul, you decide everything. That goes for Europe − when we’re done we do wonder what people are going to say, but I think that’s the best way.
You released five album back in the eighties, now this is your sixth album since the 2003 reunion. Do you see this as a landmark release for Europe?
I suppose it is in a way because now we’ve done more albums now than the first period and we’ve actually been together longer this period than the first period. This album is kind of a miracle album: we wrote fast, we recorded fast, we trusted in Dave Cobb and the studio, we trusted in ourselves. I didn’t think we could pull this one off really, but I enjoy listening to it afterwards now. We did a lot of work in those two weeks, then of course afterwards we mixed and mastered it. Mixing took some time because we were very nerdy as we wanted to make sure all the sounds were right. But yeah, this was a very important album for us, I think now we have cemented that we are an interesting band. It’s been a long journey back because we are very connected with the eighties, which is cool, but it’s also something that we realised, that we had to take time to develop a new Europe, and maybe it is this album that is going to cement that.
And that’s funny because ‘Space Oddity’ was one of the first singles I ever bought! But this song came from a completely different place.
So what has inspired the direction of your lyrics on ‘Walk The Earth’?
Well for the first time I couldn’t resist. I grew up in a political discussion family; my parents were always into politics but I never felt that Rock ‘n’ Roll and politics should be together. I still don’t really, but for the first time with the world being such a chaotic place politically I couldn’t resist. So there are observations for the first time on a Europe record ...like ‘Kingdom United’, that goes back to when the UK started embracing democracy with Magna Carta, ‘The Siege’ goes back to the French Revolution when Napoleon started to fight the aristocracy and democracy started to get a foothold in France, ‘Election Day’ is an observation about the weird elections that have been going on both here and over the Atlantic. For the first time I have observed and written a few lyrics about it, because it is a crazy place at the moment. But other than that I said to myself, “We’re a Rock band, we’re entertainers.” I love the lyrics that just came in while we were in the studio. ‘Walk The Earth’ was just a reflection, we just wanted to make a positive record about who’s going to stand behind mankind as a whole − everybody’s pulling in different directions so we thought there’s got to be something for us all to stand behind. With ‘Wolves’ there are hidden sub-stories in there about whistle-blowers and people who told the truth and had to move their families to different countries to live anonymously because they had revealed certain things, but it’s also a Rock album. ‘Pictures’ is quite interesting; we had decided to make a follow-up to the lyrics of ‘The Final Countdown’, so in 1986 we were leaving ground and this is a story about one of the people who are still floating out there and their destiny is getting closer and closer. It’s kinda interesting.
The lyrical content and melancholy feel of ‘Pictures’ reminds me of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’.
And that’s funny because ‘Space Oddity’ was one of the first singles I ever bought! But this song came from a completely different place. I had parts of it twenty years ago and it was an up-tempo, Punky type of thing but when we started writing for this album, the chords at the beginning of the verse have been with me for so long now that I knew that this melody is timeless, I can’t shake it off. I started writing it at my parent’s house where I used to writealotofstuffwhenIwasa kid, and it all came together. So when I got to rehearsals I said to the guys, “We’ve got something really different here, we’ve got a different type of ballad here that’s pure emotion rather than a big verse/bridge/chorus type of thing.” They loved it because it’s so different from what we’ve done before.
Nowadays when you’re doing new albums do you ever draw comparisons to those eighties days in terms of style or album sales?
No, definitely musically we don’t. I remember when we did ‘Bag Of Bones’ we had a minute’s silence when we buried our eighties past! [laughs] That was when we knew we had left the big keyboards and that style of writing behind, we had truly moved on. And when it comes to sales, we didn’t really think about that the first time either, because remember we did ‘Europe’ and ‘Wings Of Tomorrow’. With ‘The Final Countdown’ we had some crossover songs that fed into the Pop world which was a little weird for us, kinda uncomfortable, but we did it and it was a great ride for us, but by the time of ‘Out Of This World’ we were back doing what we wanted, we weren’t trying to please anybody else. Comparing things like that is difficult because mentally and spiritually we’re in a different place now. And there are other young bands around now who play music like we did in the eighties, which is kind of interesting because they enjoy it and they’re doing it with passion and it’s great, but I couldn’t write like that anymore.
Obviously it was ‘The Final Countdown’ that made Europe a household name because it was a phenomenal success, but as it’s so different from the type of music you’re making now. Does having such a huge hit become a burden because it becomes your trademark song and the one people want to hear?
Yeah, but we are very pragmatic about it. In the Rock world, I mean Rock media, Rock Radio, the fans... they know about our new album as much as they know about ‘Wings Of Tomorrow’ and how important that was. But in the broader media and the Pop world and people who don’t listen to so much Rock music, they know ‘The Final Countdown’ as well, so it’s something we’re happy about because they know us but they know we’re a Rock band. The cool thing about that song, it’s kinda different and unique, it stands out in a different way. We see it as a Progressive type of song that stood out. It really works well in our live set but we also know that’s the song for the broader audience out there. They may not know the rest but they know that one, but that’s okay because we feel comfortable to be respected in the Rock world. To be respected out there in the Pop worlds, that’s a different story. I don’t think we’d be comfortable being associated with those mainstream artists.
Do you still get the same kick out of playing ‘...Countdown’ all these years later?
Oh yeah, we play it at the end of the set and it’s just a great way of bringing everybody together. I remember playing Hellfest in France, which is one of the biggest Heavy Metal festivals in the world. We’d never played there before and we were unsure how it was going to go because it was all Heavy Metal and Thrash fans, but we played it and in front of the stage there was this sea of people all coming together to sing that song. It has a meaning for a different kind of people and that’s a good thing. It’s stood the test of time well. Everybody did such a great job on it, everybody played great. There are some amazing melodies on there, it just flows all the way through...the guitar solo is almost a song in itself, every part is almost like a journey, like a soundtrack.
Have you ever considered doing a documentary about the band?
We get asked all the time, we get so many request for documentaries and books. We’ve all agreed that we’re not ready for a book because the journey’s not complete and the book companies and publishers just want to make a fast buck. If we feel ready then we’ll go to them with something when we feel we have something to present. A documentary would probably be the closest thing but it would still be a few years down the line. We started talking about it, but we want to see how this album takes shape touring-wise and how we feel next year, because a documentary we would want to do over a year or two and that would take time. It will probably happen but I don’t know when.
Since you reformed, each subsequent Europe album has shown real growth in terms of the style and musicianship. Do you have a long-term plan for the band or are you prepared to take it one album at a time?
We do have a long-term plan in the sense that we want to keep going and try to find new angles, new studios, new inspiration. Everybody writes in the band now so for me it’s great when somebody sends me an idea. I look forward to a new album because I know they’re going to send me some great stuff to sing or work on and finish. But we take each album as they come and they have to have their own life and be a reaction to the one before, and just come alive in rehearsal and then in the studio. We know we’re going to be doing this for a while because we’re having so much fun.
We see it as a Progressive type of song that stood out. It really works well in our live set but we also know that’s the song for the broader audience out there.
Interview by Ant Heeks
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Europe
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