It will be produced by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace who were behind the LCD Soundsystem concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits.
Magna Studios will produce the film alongside Sam Bridger, Guy Heeley, Marisa Clifford and Kate Shepherd. Their previous credits include Beastie Boys Story and other music-related projects.
No release date for the film has been confirmed and no other details have been made available as yet.
He spoke out as “sources close to the band and reunion tour” reportedly confirmed the identities of the musicians who will be joining him and his brother Noel in the reformed Oasis line-up.
While the band have not confirmed it, it was reported that former members Bonehead (guitar), Gem Archer (guitar) and Andy Bell (bass) will be in the lineup alongside alongside American drummer Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Atoms For Peace), who played with Liam on his tour with former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire.
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Oasis tour dates 2025
Jul 04: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK Jul 05: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK Jul 11: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 12: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 16: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 19: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 20: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 25: London Wembley Stadium, UK Jul 26: London Wembley Stadium, UK Jul 30: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 02: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 03: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 08: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 09: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 12: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 16: Dublin Croke Park, Ireland Aug17: Dublin Croke Park, Ireland Aug 24: Toronto Rogers Stadium, Canada Aug 25: Toronto Rogers Stadium, Canada Aug 28: Chicago Soldier Field, USA Aug 31: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, USA Sep 01: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, USA Sep 06: Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium, USA Sep 07: Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium, USA Sep 12: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico Sep 13: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico Sep 27: London Wembley Stadium, UK Sep 28: London Wembley Stadium, UK Oct 21: Goyang Stadium, South Korea Oct 25: Tokyo Dome, Japan Oct 26: Tokyo Dome, Japan Oct 31: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 01: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 04: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 07: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia Nov 08: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia Nov 15: Buenos Aires Estadio Mâs Monumental, Argentina Nov 16: Buenos Aires Estadio Mâs Monumental, Argentina Nov 19: Santiago Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos, Chile Nov 22: São Paulo MorumBIS, Brazil Nov 23: São Paulo MorumBIS, Brazil
Feature Photo: Bruce Alan Bennett / Shutterstock.com
Whether it’s a song about giving your “whole” heart, a “whole” lot of trouble, or a “whole” world in one person’s hands, these tracks show just how much power a single word can carry when paired with the right melody and voice. We picked ten pretty interesting ones for this list.
Jerry Lee Lewis brought “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” to life with a pounding piano and fearless swagger that helped define rock and roll’s first wave. AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie” cranked up the amps to deliver one of their most ferocious anthems, built on Bon Scott’s electrifying vocal delivery. Stevie Nicks turned inward on “Whole Lotta Trouble,” laying bare vulnerability and defiance wrapped in one of her most compelling late-‘80s performances. Bon Jovi’s “Whole Lot of Leavin’” shifted the focus to heartbreak and regret, reminding listeners that even larger-than-life rock stars know the pain of walking away. The Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” became a definitive jangle-pop anthem of disillusionment, blending bright guitars with lyrics about picking up the pieces after a romantic fallout.
Sammy Hagar’s “Whole Lotta Zep” paid loud and proud tribute to Led Zeppelin, capturing the essence of their sound while reminding fans of rock’s roots. Dion offered a spiritual counterpoint with “(He’s Got) The Whole World in His Hands,” turning a gospel classic into a contemplative and soulful moment on Born to Be with You. Paul McCartney and Dave Stewart’s “Whole Life” tackled reflection and perseverance, written for a cause greater than themselves while showcasing McCartney’s enduring songwriting brilliance. And with all the fire and energy expected of a rock pioneer, Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (worth mentioning twice for its sheer cultural impact) set a precedent that songs with whole in the title aren’t just about words—they’re about shaking the foundations of what music can do.
# 10 – Whole Wide World – The Rolling Stones
We open up this fun list featuring songs with the word ‘whole’ in the title with one of the greatest bands of all time. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones. If you haven’t heard the new Rolling Stones album, which has been out for over a year now, then you’re missing out on a really great rock and roll record. It’s amazing that these guys who are hitting 80 are still putting out such killer music. This is one of my favorite songs on the new album Hackney Diamonds.
I guess while on the topic of rockstars who are hitting 80 or above, here is one from the most famous rock star of all time. I would bet my Sonny And Cher 8 track tape that most people have never heard this song. Paul McCartney and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics co-wrote and recorded “Whole Life”, a powerful track that showcases the combined talents of these two legendary artists. Although their original collaboration on the song dates back to 1995, the track remained tucked away in the vaults for years until a rough mix finally surfaced on McCartney’s Flaming Pie Archive Collection in 2020. It wasn’t until 2003 that they revisited and re-recorded “Whole Life,” this time with the backing of McCartney’s full live band, giving the song new energy and purpose.
The song’s revival was closely tied to Stewart’s deep involvement with Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign, an initiative aimed at raising awareness and funds in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The campaign’s name, 46664, was Mandela’s prison number during his 18-year imprisonment on Robben Island, and in 2002 Mandela personally granted Stewart permission to use it for the cause. Stewart reached out to McCartney to contribute to this humanitarian effort, and “Whole Life” became part of that mission.
Shortly after its recording, “Whole Life” was made available for download through the official 46664.com website as part of the campaign’s efforts to spread its message worldwide. In 2005, the track saw an official release on the One Year On 46664 EP, which appeared digitally on Apple iTunes in January and later on a limited physical CD in Spain that April.
“Whole Lotta Trouble” stands as one of Stevie Nicks’ sharpest declarations of empowerment and defiance, released as the lead single from her 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror. Co-written with Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the song was recorded in 1988 and produced by Rupert Hine, who brought a polished yet edgy sound to Nicks’ signature style. With searing lyrics like “You got a whole lotta trouble, you got a whole lotta nothin’,” Nicks delivers a powerful warning wrapped in a driving rock arrangement, spotlighting her ability to blend vulnerability with fierce independence.
The track features Waddy Wachtel on guitar, who injects a sharp bite into the song’s rhythm, alongside other members of her longtime backing band. Though it only reached No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Whole Lotta Trouble” earned Nicks a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, reflecting critical respect for its uncompromising spirit. As part of this list focusing on songs with “whole” in the title, Nicks uses the word to frame a narrative about breaking free from toxic entanglements, making it not just a rock anthem but a personal declaration of survival and strength
“Whole Lot of Leavin’” by Bon Jovi captures the restless spirit of a life spent in motion, reflecting on themes of love, distance, and emotional disconnection. Released as the third single from their 2007 album Lost Highway, the song was co-written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and recorded in 2006 at Blackbird Studios and The Sound Kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee. Produced by Dann Huff along with Bon Jovi and Sambora, the track is infused with a country-rock flavor that marked the band’s stylistic shift on Lost Highway, blending their classic arena rock sound with contemporary country influences.
Driven by Sambora’s smooth guitar work and Bon Jovi’s plaintive vocals, “Whole Lot of Leavin’” confronts the emotional cost of always being on the move, with lyrics like “It’s been a whole lot of leavin’ goin’ on” echoing the tension between longing for stability and the demands of a restless heart. Though it was not released as a physical single in the U.S., the song charted in various countries, reaching No. 62 on the Canadian Hot 100. Its somber yet melodic composition makes it a natural fit for a list focused on songs featuring “whole” in the title, with Bon Jovi using the word to frame a story of fragmented relationships and life on the road.
Well, we couldn’t leave this one out. “Whole Lotta Rosie” stands as one of AC/DC’s most enduring and explosive tracks, closing out their 1977 album Let There Be Rock with an unforgettable burst of raw energy and audacious storytelling. Recorded in January and February of that year at Albert Studios in Sydney, Australia, and produced by the legendary duo Harry Vanda and George Young, the song features the classic lineup of Bon Scott on vocals, Angus and Malcolm Young on guitars, Mark Evans on bass, and Phil Rudd on drums.
“I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” by The Byrds is one of the definitive tracks of the 1960s folk-rock explosion, written by Gene Clark and featured on the band’s landmark 1965 debut album Mr. Tambourine Man. Recorded in April 1965 at Columbia Studios in Hollywood, California, and produced by Terry Melcher, the song captures the jangly Rickenbacker guitar sound that would become the group’s signature, with Jim (later Roger) McGuinn on lead guitar, David Crosby on rhythm guitar, Chris Hillman on bass, Michael Clarke on drums, and Clark himself delivering the song’s lead vocals.
Lyrically, “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” is a sharp breakup anthem that blends vulnerability with defiance, as Clark reflects on betrayal and self-preservation through lines like “I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone.” Though released as the B-side to the hit single “All I Really Want to Do,” the track garnered substantial radio play in its own right and has since become one of The Byrds’ most beloved and influential songs, covered by artists ranging from Tom Petty to Johnny Rivers. Its combination of shimmering guitar lines, tight harmonies, and emotionally honest lyrics cements its place as a cornerstone of folk-rock and a prime example of how the word “whole” can frame the complex process of moving on.
Sammy Hagar’s tribute to Led Zeppelin is a whole lotta fun and a perfect fit for this list. “Whole Lotta Zep” was featured on Sammy Hagar’s 2002 studio album Not 4 Sale, which was recorded between 2001 and 2002 at Red Rocker Recording in San Rafael, California. Produced by Hagar himself, along with Bob Daspit, the track serves as a medley-style homage that weaves together iconic Zeppelin riffs and song references, capturing both the spirit and sonic ferocity of the legendary band. Hagar, joined by Vic Johnson on guitar, Mona Gnader on bass, and David Lauser on drums, channels Robert Plant’s primal energy while reinterpreting some of Zeppelin’s most famous licks with his own hard rock flair.
# 3 – (He’s Got) The Whole World in His Hands – Dion
When you’re picking a song as famous as this one, which hundreds of artists have covered, the challenge becomes the choice of which artist’s version to represent it. We went with Dion’s version which sounds nothing like almost anyone else’s recording of this famous traditional song. One may even think that it’s even the same song “(He’s Got) The Whole World in His Hands” appears on his 1975 album Born to Be with You, a record famously produced by Phil Spector and recorded between 1974 and 1975 at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles.
Dion’s stirring vocal performance, backed by Spector’s dense instrumental textures and choir-like backing vocals, gives the song a profound emotional weight, turning its message of spiritual assurance—”He’s got the whole world in His hands”—into a personal meditation on salvation and resilience. While Born to Be with You was largely overlooked upon release, it has since been praised as one of Dion’s most profound artistic statements, with this track standing out as a moment of quiet conviction and spiritual depth that resonates with the concept of holding on to a sense of completeness in an uncertain world.
# 2 – Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On – Jerry Lee Lewis
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” became the song that launched Jerry Lee Lewis into rock and roll history when it was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1957 under the direction of legendary producer Jack Clement. Although originally written and first recorded by Big Maybelle in 1955, Lewis transformed the track into an explosive fusion of boogie-woogie piano, rockabilly swagger, and unrestrained vocals, backed by J.W. Brown on bass and Jimmy Van Eaton on drums.
With its iconic opening piano riff and provocative lyrics like “Come on over baby, we got chicken in the barn,” Lewis turned “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” into a celebration of wild energy and rebellious spirit. Released by Sun Records in April 1957, the song soared to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and also dominated the country charts, signaling the cross-genre appeal that helped define early rock and roll. Lewis’ uninhibited performance style, which famously included pounding piano keys and kicking over his bench on live television, cemented the song’s reputation as a cornerstone of the genre. Within the context of this list focusing on “whole” in the title, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” stands out as a track that doesn’t just use the word—it explodes with it, embodying a full-throttle attitude that shook up the music world and still resonates decades later.
Metallica will unveil an Apple Immersive concert experience this Friday, giving fans a virtual front-row seat to their M72 World Tour.
You can watch the trailer below.
The concert experience, simply titled Metallica, will be available on Apple Vision Pro. Filmed in Mexico City in September 2024 (the final date of that year’s M72 World Tour leg), the special features performances of “Whiplash,” “One” and “Enter Sandman.”
Captured exclusively in Apple Immersive Video, Metallica will give viewers unprecedented access to the band, from up close in their famed Snake Pit to wide-angle views of the stadium.
A new EP titled M72 World Tour: Mexico City, which comprises the three songs from the Metallica special, will also be available in Spatial Audio on Apple Music this Friday.
How Can I Watch Metallica’s Apple Immersive Concert?
Although the Metallica concert is technically free to Apple Vision Pro owners, it will cost fans a pretty penny to actually acquire the mixed-reality headset. The product currently retails for the cool price of $3,499, or 12 monthly payments of $291.58.
For comparison, that same $3,500 would have afforded a Diamond-level “I Disappear” ticket for Metallica’s M72 World Tour, which granted general admission access to unlimited shows on two continents for two years.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich insists Apple Vision Pro is worth the hefty price tag. “Game changing is putting it lightly,” he said in a statement. “Seeing our concert like that, along with the energy of the Mexico City fans — it’s very immersive, and it’s super fun. We’ve always been interested in pushing the boundaries, and Metallica on Apple Vision Pro is exactly that.”
Fans who aren’t yet sure if they want to take the plunge can book an Apple Vision Pro demo at their local Apple Store to check out an extended preview of Metallica.
Metallica Albums Ranked
There are moments of indecision when compiling this list. After all, we really could have had – for the first time ever – a three-way tie for first.
The Grateful Dead announced the release of a limited-edition 60-CD box set to mark the band’s 60th anniversary.
Enjoy the Ride contains concert recordings from 1969 to 1994, with unreleased performances from 20 venues spanning the quarter-century, totaling 450 tracks and over 60 hours of music.
The complete show list can be seen below.
A statement said: “Enjoying The Ride maps an epic cross-country road trip along the ‘Heady Highway,’ with stops at storied stages where the music, the moment and the magic of the Grateful Dead reliably converged, and consistently inspired the band to new heights.”
The set includes visits to the Winterland, Frost Amphitheatre, Madison Square Garden, and Hampton Coliseum. “Whether playing the intimate confines of Fillmore West or beneath the open skies at Red Rocks, the Grateful Dead never played the same show twice,” the statement continued. “Enjoying the Ride is a thrilling testament to that adventurous spirit.
“Of the 20 shows in the collection, 17 are presented in full, with some featuring additional material from the same venue. With the exception of a few tracks from earlier releases, virtually all of the music is previously unreleased.”
Enjoying the Ride is limited to 6,000 copies. It’s released on May 30 and available for pre-order now. In addition, a cut-down version titled The Music Never Stopped arrives on the same day in 6LP, 3CD and digital formats.
Hear the Grateful Dead Perform ‘Scarlet Begonias’
Grateful Dead – Enjoying the Ride
Rhino
The Grateful Dead – ‘Enjoying the Ride’ Show List
Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, CA (4/5/69) Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/5/69) Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/7/69) Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA (6/8/69) Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/24/71) Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY (2/20/71) Fillmore East, New York, NY (4/25/71) Fillmore East, New York, NY (4/27/71) Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA (9/15/72) Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA (9/16/72) Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (3/16/73) Winterland, San Francisco, CA (3/20/77) Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA (5/13/78) Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO (8/12/79) Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI (8/23/80) Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI (7/11/81) Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT (3/14/81) Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA (5/1/81) Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (8/20/83) Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley, CA (7/13/84) Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA (11/21/85) Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA (11/22/85) Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY (9/16/87) Deer Creek Music Center, Noblesville, IN (7/15/89) Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA (12/27/89) Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA (5/12/91) Capital Centre, Landover MD (3/17/93) Capital Centre, Landover MD (9/15/82) Boston Garden, Boston, MA (10/3/94)
Grateful Dead Albums Ranked
Even the Grateful Dead’s most ardent supporters admit that making albums wasn’t one the band’s strengths.
The make-up may be off, but Gene Simmons is back on stage again.
The Kiss co-founder’s Gene Simmons Band is following-up a run of 2024 dates with 26 more this spring, starting April 3 at the House of Blues Anaheim and running through May 24 in Houston, then regrouping for an appearance at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on Aug. 3 in South Dakota.
Even Simmons seems surprised with what’s transpired — especially after Kiss took its final bows on Dec. 2, 2023 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“I tried to stay away from being on stage, but it’s too much fun,” Simmons tells UCR via Zoom from one of his two homes in Malibu, Calif. “I thought I was gonna take a few years off after the band I was in for 50 years decided to call it quits. I have other stuff — a restaurant chain, a movie company, a lot of stuff. But I couldn’t stay away. Last April we got an offer — ‘Hey, why don’t you put a band together and come and headline the Sao Paulo (Summer Breeze Open Air) Festival?’ I said, ‘What? Do you mean in a stadium?’ ‘Yeah, a stadium.’ “Wow…OK.’
“We did this before; when Kiss took some time off I put together a band of usual suspects. We have a ball. Most importantly the fans and the band are having the time of our lives — that’s what this band is about.”
While the shows so far have primarily featured Kiss favorites with dashes of Simmons solo material, there’s a looseness he finds welcome. The Simmons band has thrown in a variety of covers, from Motorhead‘s “Ace of Spades,” Led Zeppelin‘s “Communication Breakdown” and the Van Halen‘s “House of Pain” (in the original arrangement Simmons produced for the band’s demo tape) to the Beatles‘ “And Your Bird Can Sing.”
Watch the Gene Simmons Band Play ‘Ace of Spades’
“The shows are almost never alike,” Simmons adds. “We toss around songs; if somebody in the band says, ‘Hey, why don’t you do [Cream’s] ‘Sunshine of Your Love?’ we look at each other and go, ‘What key?’ and there you go. We’re like a commando unit; there’s no manager, no road crew, no trucks not buses, nothing. No big PR campaign. We fly commercial or we’ll get an SUV and travel from city to city. The promoters provide the backline, the amplifiers and drums; we just come with a guitar and a guitar pick. It’s really fun.”
And, Simmons notes, it’s a “completely different experience” than tramping around in eight-inch platform boots during a Kiss extravaganza.
“I’ve been there, done that,” he says. “Half a century of that is plenty of time, and I firmly believe — and Paul (Stanley) believes the same thing — you take something as far as it can go and finish on top. This is more like if your favorite band comes to your house and sets up in the garage and opens the garage door and the whole town comes informally and hangs out. We have conversations and bring kids up on stage, teenage musicians. It’s just about having a good time.”
Simmons adds that he’s continuing to write songs, though no release plans are in place. Meanwhile he and Stanley are moving forward with the Kiss avatars that were unveiled at the band’s final show. Pophouse, which purchased the Kiss copyrights and brand for a reported $300 million, is continuing to develop that show, which Simmons predicts will be out during “the next two years;” he, Stanley, drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer filmed their motion-capture performances at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic studio in San Francisco last year.”
“Pophouse is very impressive, very forward thinking,” Simmons says. “They’re futurists. And the bottom line is the future is here, whether you like it or not. And we’ve always tried to do that.”
While Simmons has been involved in these endeavors and Stanley has continued his painting and Soul Station band, their sons have been making news together. Nick Simmons and Evan Stanley — whose band Amber Wild opened for Kiss during the final leg of the End of the Road farewell tour — have been working on music together and sharing photos of themselves in the studio. This follows an online video in December of the two performing Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.”
“We, me and Paul, have nothing to do with it,” Simmons says. “Evan has his own band. Nick’s music and songs have already been in Ozark and Prodigal Son. In science and nature there’s something called a singularity; nobody plans it, it just happens. There was no guarantee that Evan and Nick would even get along, but they do. They hang out. They started strumming guitars…so they started writing their own songs. All of a sudden record companies are meeting with them. But they’re not following in anybody’s footsteps. It has nothing to do with Kiss. They’re feeling is, ‘We like doing this. You’ve got opinions, we’re not really interested. This is what we’re doing.'”
Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Counting down solo albums released by various members of Kiss.
ABBA‘s “Mamma Mia” is world famous. With a catchy chorus and a blockbuster film starring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried behind it, people of all generations know the tune. But back in 1975, the band nearly gave the song away.
ABBA was not at all sure of their future that year. They’d won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, and had a hit with the song “Waterloo,” but their subsequent singles didn’t fare as well and their tour dates didn’t sell out. It began to seem as though ABBA’s fate was that of a one-hit wonder band.
“If you look at the singles we released straight after ‘Waterloo,’ we were trying to be more like the Sweet, a semi-glam rock group,” Bjorn Ulvaeus later recalled to The Guardian in 2014. “Which was stupid because we were always a pop group.”
Nevertheless, the band kept writing songs. At one point, Ulvaeus and his bandmate Benny Andersson convened in the library of Ulvaeus’ home in Stockholm. Here, they casually penned a song they called “Mamma Mia.” Their manager, Stig Anderson, helped come up with the name.
“That turned out to be another distinctive and memorable title, and one that maybe a native English writer would have thought was too European – and very uncool,” Ulvaeus recalled in the book Mamma Mia! How Can I Resist You?: The Inside Story of Mamma Mia! and the Songs of ABBA. “The saying ‘mamma mia’ is used very, very commonly in Swedish and is just as well known a phrase as it would be in English.”
‘Mamma Mia’ Was Nearly Given Away
But at that point, ABBA didn’t think all that much of the song, to the extentt they offered it to the British pop group Brotherhood of Man to record.
“We knew it was a potential smash,” singer Martin Lee recounted to The Guardian in 2022, “but left it for the next recording session because we wanted to do ‘Save Your Kisses for Me.’ Of course, ABBA then did it themselves.”
This turned out to be an excellent stroke of fate. “Mamma Mia” was the last song ABBA recorded for their self-titled 1975 album. On March 12 of that year, the band gathered in Metronome Studio in Stockholm, where they were joined by drummer Roger Palm, bassist Mike Watson and guitarist Finn Sjoberg. There’s also the famous marimba intro, which came about merely because there happened to be one sitting in the corner of the studio that day.
Which is not to say ABBA took a haphazard approach to recording the song.
“If you listen to ‘Mamma Mia,’ it’s very intricate, no one is playing rang-a-lang-a-lang-a. Everyone is knowing exactly what they’re doing,” Andersson said to The Guardian in 2008. “That was one of the first tracks when we started to do that. Everything is tightly arranged.”
Vocals were done then, strings were overdubbed and some additional guitar recorded on March 15, and the song was completed less than six weeks before it appeared on ABBA.
Slow Success for ‘Mamma Mia’
Despite its promising sound — and an accompanying promotional clip — “Mamma Mia” was not chosen to be released as a single anywhere in the world with the exception of one country: Australia. ABBA’s music was particularly popular down under, which led to Anderson, the band’s manager, allowing “Mamma Mia” to be released as a single there in August of 1975, where it went to the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks. Finally, it was released as a single in the U.K., grabbing the No. 1 spot there, too.
Australia’s love of ABBA continued, but it did not appear entirely out of the blue — there were people championing the song along the way.
“Bjorn and Benny have always been very gracious, and they keep thanking me for helping break them here, and worldwide,” Molly Meldrum, an Australian music critic who also worked on a weekly music television program in the ’70s called Countdown, said many years later in the Herald Sun. Back then, Meldrum put “Mamma Mia” on heavy rotation on the show, which led to fans flocking to record shops. “But they don’t have to do that. [They] are so bloody good they would’ve broken through on their own.”
“It’s a really good album, but I’m not sure it’s better than the ones that came before. You ask, ‘Why didn’t this happen sooner?’” Many consider Blackwater Park to be Opeth’s masterpiece. Opeth don’t
(Image credit: Opeth)
Opeth were maligned in the Swedish metal scene… then 2001 album Blackwater Park made them heroes of progressive music. Singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt told Prog the story behind the music in 2021.
“Godlike.” “As perfect as a metal album can get.” “Metal’s answer to 70s King Crimson.” These were some of the phrases thrown around in the music press when Opeth released Blackwater Park in 2001. The fifth, breakthrough album by Sweden’s progressive metal outcasts, it earned them the status of worldwide rock’n’roll heroes – a reputation they still enjoy today.
Doors were broken down by the album’s corpus of 10-minute giants The Drapery Falls and The Leper Affinity, which were experimental without compromising on melody or groove. While prog loyalists swooned at the unorthodox chord changes and technical guitar licks, metalheads could headbang until their necks were sore thanks to the simplified rhythms.
Then they could scream their lungs out alongside Mikael Åkerfeldt’s seething roars. Elsewhere, classic rock fans could get lost in the heartfelt choruses, sung gorgeously with the help of producer Steven Wilson, and the acoustic tenderness of Harvest. It was music for both the head and the heart, uniting the rock world in adoration for one fleeting moment.
Twenty years later, many people still consider Blackwater Park to be Opeth’s masterpiece. However, those people don’t include Opeth.
“Quite honestly, it’s a really good album, but I’m not sure it’s better than the ones that came before it,” the stoic Åkerfeldt says. “Of course, you can’t help but ask yourself, ‘Why didn’t this happen on [preceding album] Still Life?’ Or maybe even the one before that? I’d been waiting for any type of attention for this band; and it happened with Blackwater Park.”
Although he’s proud of his band’s acclaimed opus, he’s quick to attribute its groundbreaking success to the business that was whirring away behind it, more than the music itself. For starters, Blackwater Park was Opeth’s first record with Music For Nations. Following their blink-and-you’ll-miss-it residency at Peaceville Records, it was released by the large specialist label whose roster included, at various points, Metallica, Tool, Frank Zappa, Poison, W.A.S.P. and Slayer. “We got management and we got an agent as well,” Åkerfeldt adds. “We got a lot of help to reach out to a lot of people with that album.”
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Blackwater Park also heralded the second tour – and their first world tour – of Opeth’s then-decade-long history. Beforehand, their sole stint on the road was under Cradle Of Filth in 1996. Now, with the music business machine behind them, they were touring the US with Nevermore and Amorphis, selling CDs at every stop along the way.
“We went down so well supporting Nevermore that we were booked on a headlining tour straight after,” remembers Åkerfeldt. “I could tell that there was a hunger for our band. The European tour, same thing there; we were popular. Since Blackwater Park, we’ve toured a lot. It’s certainly helped to get people to pay attention to us.”
Some people find it hard to understand that we were writing Still Life and listening to Stevie Wonder
In the aftermath of Blackwater Park, they had it all: industry support, worldwide goodwill, a prosperous live schedule – all things any musician would rightfully kill for. It was a stark reversal of fortune compared to where the band had stood before the album’s release. “We had a bad reputation,” says Åkerfeldt. “We were so unknown that, if you’d heard of us, you’d been told that we were shit.”
Original vocalist David Isberg founded Opeth in 1989 in Stockholm. Initially they were a death metal band, peddling incessant heaviness during the height of the city’s fascination with the genre; local acts Entombed and Dismember were the hottest things in the underground at the time. Isberg brought Åkerfeldt into the fold as bassist the following year – without consulting the existing bassist. An internal squabble ensued, during which Isberg fired every member bar Åkerfeldt. Despite wrangling a new line-up, things only worsened when they played their first concert together.
“It was shit,” says Åkerfeldt. “It was a complete farce. Our drummer, Anders Nordin, couldn’t remember the songs. I had to stand with my back to the audience to wave to him, saying, ‘There’s a transition coming up!’ People threw chewing tobacco in David’s face during the show and they stole the microphone stand from him. He was running around in the audience, trying to catch the guy who stole his microphone. To this day, I’m blushing because it’s very embarrassing.”
Isberg left in 1992, allowing Åkerfeldt to take the reins as lead singer and rhythm guitarist. Inspired as much by Deep Purple and Pink Floyd as he was by Morbid Angel, he steered the band in a more progressive direction. He composed In Mist She Was Standing and The Twilight Is My Robe – suites that, Åkerfeldt’s hoarse screams notwithstanding, bore minimal resemblance to death metal. They boasted galloping, complex melodies à la Iron Maiden, which frequently gave way to acoustic guitar segues and jazz-like bass solos.
In 1994, the band holed up with Dan Swanö – leader of the rowdy yet avant-garde Edge Of Sanity – in Unisound Studios to record their debut album, Orchid. However, their unenviable reputation persisted. “A death metal band called Unanimated went to Unisound to record right after we finished Orchid,” recalls Åkerfeldt. “Dan called me up, saying, ‘They asked me what the last thing I produced was. I went, ‘It was Opeth,’ and they said, ‘Opeth? They’re shit!’”
Åkerfeldt continues: “But then they played the album. They had to have a band meeting, asking, ‘What are we gonna do now?’, because they thought it was so good.”
A Blackwater Park-sounding record today would sound old hat. I don’t think it would be exciting to anyone
The album marked the commencement of Opeth’s campaign to win over the Swedish scene. “I always carried a cassette of Orchid in my jacket,” Åkerfeldt says, “so, wherever I went, I put it on, like a fucking geek. I put it on in backstage dressing rooms to get people to go, ‘What’s this?!’ I was so proud. I really wanted to start a new reputation – one that was good, instead of being a joke.”
That desire to wow made 1996 follow-up Morningrise even more progressive, to the point where Åkerfeldt today lambasts it as self-indulgent: “It’s a bit pretentious; then again, we’re kind of a pretentious band! But I’d prefer if that pretentiousness wasn’t audible. Morningrise is more sophisticated than Orchid, but it’s also pseudo-intellectual.”
Their third album, 1998’s My Arms, Your Hearse, took some much-needed backward steps, setting the stage for the band’s coming-of-age release. Still Life was new ground for Opeth in many ways. Not only was it their debut on Peaceville (one-time home to Katatonia and Anathema); it was the first album from the ‘classic’ line-up of Mikael Åkerfeldt, drummer Martín López, guitarist Peter Lindgren and bassist Martín Méndez, which would last until 2005. “We were tight,” Åkerfeldt recalls of the four-piece. “We were almost brothers, you could say.”
The album also drew from new influences. “I had been reaching out from just collecting prog records to jazz and soul,” says Åkerfeldt. “Some people find it hard to understand that we were writing Still Life and listening to Stevie Wonder. Still Life was really important for me. I knew what I wanted to do, and that music was exactly what I wanted to do. That feeling continued on Blackwater Park. It was like finding a gold mine: you find gold, you continue hacking away and then there’s more!”
Despite signing a five-album deal, Still Life would be Opeth’s only release through Peaceville. After listening to the band, the imprint’s distributor, Music For Nations, added them to their own roster. “Andy Black, who ran Music For Nations, was so desperate to have Opeth that he threatened to cancel the entire distribution deal if he didn’t get us,” remembers Åkerfeldt.
Buoyed by their camaraderie, musical maturation and new label, the band quickly journeyed to Studio Fredman in Gothenberg to make Blackwater Park. However, although he’d worked on both My Arms… and Still Life, they began struggling with producer Fredrik Nordström’s hands-off approach – as well as the other ways the studio made money.
This article first appeared in Prog 122 (Image credit: Future)
“Technically, Fredrik wasn’t even there,” Åkerfeldt states. “He’d set up a great sound on the drums, guitars and bass, and then piss off. You could be interrupted in the middle of a recording by 10 women storming in because there’s a bridal shower and they’re gonna record a funny song, drunk. Sometimes bands that rented the studio had to wait in the toilet for three hours.”
As a result, after tracking drums, bass and guitars by themselves, Opeth brought in Steven Wilson to oversee the vocals. They’d previously caught the Porcupine Tree leader’s attention when a French journalist had given him Åkerfeldt’s email address and a copy of Still Life. When Wilson reached out to the frontman, he declared the album as containing the best metal he’d ever heard.
Wilson’s passion led to his role in Blackwater Park growing over time. What were initially simple co-production duties soon evolved into him composing new harmonies and, most notably, singing the alluring chorus of the second song, Bleak.
“When we brought in Steven, Fredrik felt challenged,” says Åkerfeldt. “All of a sudden, it’s gonna say on the record, ‘Co-produced by someone else.’ And Steven is a down-to-earth, friendly, calm guy, and Fredrik is a bit loud. I remember him giving Steven a hard time.” The tension between the two resurfaced during post-production. “Steven mixed the stuff that he recorded. I remember him being nervous that, if Fredrik mixed what me and Steven had worked on, Fredrik would fuck it up.”
Nonetheless, when Blackwater Park saw the light of day on March 12, 2001, it was received as Opeth’s crowning achievement. The planets aligned: the powers that be amassed behind the band at their artistic peak.
Twenty years later, still road warriors adhering to the touring schedule Blackwater Park introduced, Opeth no longer make metal. Bored of the limits of the genre, they’ve completed the journey to prog rock they began in the 90s. Still, even if they don’t think it’s quite worth the hype, they’ll always embrace their fifth full-length as a stirring moment in time.
“If we were to put out Blackwater Park now, I don’t think people would love it,” Åkerfeldt says. “A Blackwater Park-sounding record today would sound old hat. I don’t think it would be exciting to anyone. Specific records come out at a specific time and they mean a hell of a lot to people. Then the magic is gone.”
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
“It was love at first sight. I broke up with Judy and chased Sharona for a year”: How The Knack wrote My Sharona, the one hit wonder to end all one hit wonders
For Doug Fieger, the secret of songwriting success was to stay in touch with his inner teenager. That meant raging hormones, unrequited love, and girls, girls, girls.
“When The Knack started, I wrote songs about girls,” the late frontman told me in 2008. “I think girls is really what rock’n’roll is about.” Indeed, every song on the band’s 1979 debut album Get The Knack feels like it burst out of some sex-crazed adolescent bedroom. And although Fieger was 25 when he wrote it, he told me he “felt sixteen”. And that was all down to his lust for a raven-haired muse named Sharona.
In 1978, when The Knack (named after Richard Lester’s film The Knack… And How To Get It) were rising through the LA club scene, Fieger’s then-girlfriend Judy casually introduced him to her friend Sharona Alperin. Sharona was 17, a stylish clerk who worked in a clothing shop. “It was love at first sight,” Fieger said. “Literally. I broke up with Judy shortly after and chased Sharona for a year.”
It’s a good thing he didn’t catch her right away, because the thrill of that chase sparked the idea for the band’s biggest hit.
“It was a conscious effort for both me and Berton [Averre, lead guitarist and co-writer] to come at it from the point of view of our remembered teenage selves,” Fieger recalled. “We wanted to tell the story from that place, where it’s more raw and direct.”
Fittingly, Averre came up with the famous hammer-meets-chisel guitar riff. “He’d been listening to Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model album, especially Pump It Up,” said Fieger.
Although Alperin was in a relationship and put Fieger off, it didn’t stop him from writing even more songs about her (Frustrated and She’s So Selfish).
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“Doug made it very clear he was in love with me,” Alperin told National Public Radio. “It wasn’t like my boyfriend and the world didn’t know. I always say that he was my groupie, I wasn’t his.”
Still, she couldn’t forget the first time she heard her namesake song: “One day, on my lunch break from the clothing store, I went to their rehearsal. And Bert and Doug were saying: ‘Should we play it? All right, let’s play it for her.’ Cut to: I’m driving back to the store, thinking: ‘Did I just hear a song with my name in it?!’ It’s a feeling I’ll never forget because I can’t even describe it.”
(Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Indeed, for Fieger, that reveal soon turned into an indescribable mix of emotions. It was part torture, part flattery to see Sharona at Knack gigs, dancing in front of the stage to her song.
Meanwhile, by late 1978 The Knack had become darlings of the Sunset Strip, selling out shows at The Whisky and The Troubadour, jamming with established stars like Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. “Bruce got on stage with us on a Friday night, and by Monday morning we had fourteen offers from labels,” Fieger said.
They signed with EMI/Capitol, partly because it was the home of their favourite band, The Beatles. They were paired with producer Mike Chapman at The Record Plant studio in New York. Chapman, who’d made his name as one half of the Chinn-Chapman songwriting/producing duo behind glam rockers The Sweet and Suzi Quatro, had jumped the fence into new-wave hit making with 1979’s other breakout hit, Blondie’s Heart Of Glass. He understood that The Knack’s appeal lay in their British Invasion vibe. So his approach was no fuss, no muss – cut the record like it was 1964.
“We were a tight live band,” Fieger said. “So we didn’t have to do a lot of takes. And Mike thought My Sharona was a huge hit. But for some reason Capitol wanted to release Oh Tara as the first single. We went along with it. That’s why the album went to number one before the single; My Sharona wasn’t released until a few weeks after.”
My Sharona became the soundtrack of the summer of ’79. It spent six weeks at No.1 in the US and was constantly on the radio, and made the Top 20 in many other countries. Every cover band playing school dances had a go at it. Pre-MTV there was even an early music video, the band looking fab with their skinny ties, Vox amplifiers and monogrammed bass drum head. That was in keeping with the black-and-white LP artwork that nodded to Meet The Beatles.
Predictably, some rock critics considered this hubris rather than hat-tipping. Creem called them “a carbon copy band of nothing particularly original”. Rolling Stone’s Dave Marsh wrote: “The most salient characteristic of The Knack is their repulsive misogyny. Sexism pervades every song.”
The Knack – My Sharona (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Reflecting on the backlash, Fieger told journalist Todd Longwell: “I’d always thought of The Knack as an art project. The concept was to start out with our remembered adolescence on the first album, then we’d progressively explore other, more mature things as we went on.”
While The Knack’s subsequent six albums did develop their sound, they never recaptured the buzz of their debut. But My Sharona has continued to enjoy a healthy pop-culture afterlife. In 1982 it was the inspiration for Michael Jackson to write Beat It. And although Devo denied it, their hit Girl U Want owes a debt to it. It was also famously parodied in My Bologna, the debut single that launched the career of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. It’s been in an episode of The Simpsons and many films, including Reality Bites, Charlie’s Angels and Super 8.
Fulfilling the song’s hope, Fieger and Alperin finally did get together, and had a four-year run as a couple. They remained friendly until Fieger died from brain cancer in 2010. He called her “the love of my life”.
“And that song, and the whole beginning of The Knack was such a joyful experience,” he said.
Bill DeMain is a correspondent for BBC Glasgow, a regular contributor to MOJO, Classic Rock and Mental Floss, and the author of six books, including the best-selling Sgt. Pepper At 50. He is also an acclaimed musician and songwriter who’s written for artists including Marshall Crenshaw, Teddy Thompson and Kim Richey. His songs have appeared in TV shows such as Private Practice and Sons of Anarchy. In 2013, he started Walkin’ Nashville, a music history tour that’s been the #1 rated activity on Trip Advisor. An avid bird-watcher, he also makes bird cards and prints.
When Bob Dylan first arrived in New York City in January of 1961, he was 19 years old, baby-faced and Woody Guthrie-worshipping.
But it did not take very long for people to discern he was not exactly like the other folksingers on the scene. Terri Thal was one of them. Thal, a native New Yorker, had gotten involved in socialist organizations in college, and soon became immersed in the political and social world that was Greenwich Village in the late ’50s. In her words: “The world was very small then, and the head of all the left wing organizations were in the Village.”
This is how she came to meet and eventually marry folksinger Dave Van Ronk, and started doing some rudimentary management work for him. When Dylan arrived, and Ronk became convinced of his talent, Thal began working with him, too.
“Van Ronk’s wife, Terri, definitely not a minor character, took care of Dave’s bookings, especially out of town, and she began trying to help me out,” Dylan wrote in his memoir Chronicles: Volume One. “Both were anti-imperialistic, anti-materialist. ‘What a ridiculous thing, an electric can opener,’ Terri once said as we walked past the shop window of a hardware store on 8th Street. ‘Who’d be stupid enough to buy that?'”
On Sept. 6, 1961, Thal taped a performance Dylan gave at the Gaslight Cafe, needing something to show out of town club owners who might be willing to book Dylan. That tape was later bootlegged (available for listening below), but the original master recording is now up for auction. It is the earliest known recording of Dylan.
Dylan would eventually bring Albert Grossman on as his manager — “I know he can do much more for you than I can,” Thal recalls saying to Dylan then — and released his debut album in 1962.
UCR spoke with Thal about the famous 1961 tape and her experiences with Dylan before he became a household name.
Do you remember your first impression of Dylan when you met him? Well, by the time I met Bob — I’m a year older than him. So, ’61 when he hit New York…I was like, 20, maybe 21. My first impression of Bob? I thought he was some kind of remarkable….He was not a great guitarist, he was not a great singer. He kind of stumbled all over the stage. It took a while to realize that I was watching Charlie Chaplin, and there was something charming and memorable about the guy, and that was my first impression. I thought he was some kind — I won’t use the word genius. I can’t do that, but that’s sort of like where it was, and I have no idea why.
Why don’t you use the word genius? Well, I don’t know if that’s what I would have said at that point, you know. I mean…the guy I was then living with, who became my husband, who I was managing, was a folksinger [Dave Van Ronk]. And David came home one night and he said, ‘I just heard this kid, and he’s a bloody genius. You gotta go hear him.’ The next night, I trotted down to the Cafe Wha?. Saw this kid, and I mean, did I say he was a genius? I don’t know. You know, something like that, because that was the reaction of people in the folk music world.
I mean, the folk music world was a supportive one at that time, and people looked out for one another, they taught one another, and they recommended one another, and they boasted about [one another]. And Bob had the immediate support of more people in the folk music world, more folksingers, than anyone I can think of.
It does still sound like you thought he was special or different in some way. Yep, absolutely. I thought he was special. I thought he was distinctive. And you know, we very quickly became friends. Dave, Bob and I hung around together immediately, a lot.
Suze Rotolo [Dylan’s girlfriend] was in the picture then, too, right? No, not yet. No, he met Suze months later.
Gotcha. I’ve read that you don’t feel like Suze’s character in A Complete Unknown [Sylvie Russo, played by Elle Fanning] was portrayed appropriately. I think they turned Suze — they turned an extraordinarily smart, creative woman into a wimp.
You knew Suze up until she died in 2011. Can you talk a little about her as a friend and a presence around the Village? She obviously had a very positive impact on a lot of people, Dylan included. Well, Suze was involved in a lot of things. Was involved in theater. She was an artist, and most of the people in folk music really limited themselves to music. One of the things that struck me over the years is that folksingers and the folk music world — I mean, by and large, any world of artistic young people at that time was somewhat limited, somewhat limited. And the folksingers, pretty much, were not into art, were not really that interested in literature, as far as I knew. I mean, these were things I talked about, that Suze talked about. And she was one of the people who brought a broader perspective to the people she met than most others in the folk music world.
And also to the extent that she was with Bob, that she was seen as somebody who — I don’t like the word “educating” Bob, but who was introducing Bob to culture that he didn’t know. He was not an uneducated guy, but there was a whole realm of culture Suze was aware of, and it ranged from the French Symbolists to visual artists to Bertolt Brecht, and Suze was known for introducing Bob to a lot of that.
So, this tape you made of Dylan in 1961…tell me about the reaction you would get when you would play the tape for people. I took the tape to a recording studio, and I had a little cassette made or something like that, that I could physically carry to an out of town club. And that’s why the thing got bootlegged, incidentally, at some point. I assume the recording studio let somebody make copies, or a copy or whatever, of that tape, which ultimately was issued as a bootleg with dreadful sound.
But the reaction that I got was pretty universally: “Why should I hire this guy when I can hire Jack Elliot?” And Jack Elliott was a folksinger, also Jewish, incidentally, from Brooklyn, who also changed his name, incidentally, who sounded like Woody Guthrie, at that time a lot like Woody Guthrie, and people…you know, the reaction I got from the club owner in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the club owner at the Club 47 in Cambridge, and the club owner in Philadelphia was exactly the same. “Why should I hire this kid when I can hire Jack Elliott?”
What was your response to that? “I don’t know, because he’s good?” No, that was my response! That was my response. And that he’s more than a, you know, than a Woody Guthrie imitator. This is only a little bit of the range of the songs that he plays. But really what else can you say? And this young man could be very successful, and you’re going to want to be one of the people who introduced him.
You had a lot of faith in his potential then, but thinking back on it now — Dylan is 83 years old, still touring the world — was that something you could have predicted in 1961? Did you think he was going to go the distance? Not like that. We could not have predicted that anybody we knew would ever, ever reach that level of fame. It wasn’t — nobody did! Nobody.
What is something you don’t think people know or understand about Dylan that you wish they did? That he’s a very funny guy, with a very wise sense of humor…that a lot of putting people down publicly, interviewers and stuff like that, is his way of being funny. That he has one of the most extraordinary memories of anyone I’ve ever seen, I’ve ever met. Bob can hear something or read something, and he can do something that I think is very unusual. He can take a piece of it, that information, immediately. He can take another piece of it and put it in the back of his head so that he can use it 20 years later. … And then he can take some of it and totally pitch it, so it doesn’t bother him. And that is one of the things that marks — whatever kind of genius Dylan is, the things that mark him – he can pull that out. He can separate it. He can use it. I think it’s a very rare quality.
Is there anything else you’d like people, Dylan fans or not, to know about the Gaslight tape? The tape represents a deliberate public statement by somebody who was just beginning to find himself or to think of himself professionally. He chose the songs that are on it, he chose to do that set. And I think that the mix of what he did is kind of interesting.
And if you listen to it, you listen to his “Song to Woody,” and that’s a world Bob walked out of. He left it for his own reasons, but I find it very moving, because it was his truth, it was his truth at that time. And I think that remained, maybe not as hero worship of Woody, but what that song represented. I think it’s still part of Bob’s reality.
Listen to Bob Dylan at the Gaslight Cafe, Sept. 6, 1961
The Stories Behind 20 Bob Dylan Album Covers
Looking back at the artwork chosen by the famously enigmatic songwriter.
With deep roots in Finland and India, and a musical palette informed by classic rock, pop, traditional styles and beautiful voices from various genres, Von Hertzen Brothers singer and guitarist Mikko Von Hertzen has a keen sense of the many possible paths to a great song. Together with his brothers – guitarist Kie and bassist/keyboard player Jonne – the singer/guitarist stirs the sounds and sights of a diverse life into enigmatic rock anthems, most recently on their tight yet rich ninth album In Murmuration. These are some of those sounds.
The first music I remember hearing
The lullabies sung by our parents. We always fell asleep while either mummy or daddy or grandma was singing. They were traditional Finnish lullabies, or it might be a British lullaby that is translated to Finnish, and Christian hymns. They were singing all the time.
The first song I performed live
I started playing piano when I was four or five, and by the time I was eight or nine I had to perform because I went to this musical school. When I was in the seventh grade I started playing drums, and in an end-of-school festival we played Panama by Van Halen and Queen’s We Are The Champions. I was thirteen or fourteen years old.
The greatest album of all time
If I think about which once made the biggest impact on me, it would be The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. For me that was next-level songwriting. For a top four I would pick Queen’s Night At The Opera, Sergeant Pepper’s, Jeff Buckley’s Grace and OK Computer by Radiohead.
The guitar hero
I regard Kie [Von Hertzen] as one of the best guitarists in the world, because he crafts his solos so well. But that aside I really love Mark Knopfler, because when he’s playing guitar he’s telling stories. Brian May would be up there too, because he’s got that similar vibe – he makes it sing, and he transports you into somewhere you wouldn’t expect.
The singer
Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley and Chris Cornell, but of those three I would probably pick Freddie. His command of his voice was so amazing. I’m a little bit more drawn to the soft and fragile side of his voice, like Love Of My Life. In that song I feel like Freddie is, in a way, very naked. He’s singing from his heart.
The songwriter
John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They are probably the best songwriters in pop and rock ever, that duo. They complement each other. There’s a reason why they didn’t separate the songwriting from each other in the credits. We always call everything ‘Von Hertzen Brothers,’ even though somebody wrote the song, because we understand that it’s a team effort.
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The best record I’ve made.
It’s so lame to say “the new one”. You can’t look at it objectively, it’s still too close. So I would say… [long pause] Approach from 2006 was for us, nobody was backing us in any way and we just put it out. Then War Is Over [2017], that’s a very strong album. And Red Alert In The Blue Forest [2022] – I don’t think anybody in this world does music like that.
The worst album I’ve made
Probably the first album [Experience, 2001]. It was still a bit raw, we didn’t really have an identity yet. Stars Aligned [2011] has good songs, but we missed the mark a bit with the production.
My guilty pleasure
We sometimes have a lot of fun with Scatman and nineties Eurodance things. If the time is right and we are in a partying mood, we could easily see ourselves doing karaoke of Coco Jamboo [by German Eurodance group Mr President] or something.
The best cover version
I really liked Heart’s version of Stairway To Heaven. And I’d say our band made a really good version of [King Crimson’s] 21st Century Schizoid Man.
Heart – Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin – Kennedy Center Honors HD – YouTube
Anathema. They really know how to craft songs. They should be on the same level of appreciation as Steven Wilson.
The best live band
She’s Anohni & The Johnsons now, but when they were still Antony & The Johnsons their 2013 gig in Helsinki was amazing. His voice and the whole thing with an orchestra, it was so engaging and so magical.
My Saturday night/party song
If it’s a rock club, I would go for Foo Fighters’ One By One or something like that. Or The Look by Roxette.
My ‘in the mood for love’ song
Sigur Rós, for sure. Untitled, the ‘bracket’ album [( )], and I would play the whole album.
