Few bands out there today have a really great ‘live’ album behind them, one that you could stand up against some of the iconic live releases of the past. Of course these days a great ‘live’ record isn’t enough, you need all the bells and whistles as well, a great date, a great show,the very best songs and a performance that stacks up sonically and visually too. H.E.A.T. has done it with ‘Live at Sweden Rock Festival’ maybe the best rock ‘live’ package of the Century so far? We caught up with Jona Tee to talk all about great records of the past, and get an update on the next studio album too…
Mark: Hi Jona how are you?
Jona: I’m good, sorry I missed you I just looked at my phone and I saw I had six missed calls. I’m just at the zoo with my family and we’re looking at lions and stuff!
Mark: (laughs)
Jona: (laughs) I had a reminder!
Mark: No worries at all!
Jona: All those animals distracting me!
Mark: It’s all good. Let’s get down to it then – I love the new album, it’s one of those live records that you only get once in a while, that really seems to capture the moment and the whole experience.
Jona: Yeah?
Mark: I think so, and I grew up on the classic live albums like ‘Live and Dangerous’; ‘Strangers in the Night’ all of those, and it’s rare you get to hear a really great live album these days, but this is definitely one to add to that list. I loved the previous live record ‘Live in London’ but this is a very different beast. Are you at a point in the band’s career where you really feel that you have that complete set to show what you are capable of?
Jona: No the thing was that we were booked for the Sweden Rock Festival and people had been asking for years about a DVD or Blu-ray and I just said to the manager “wouldn’t it be great to film a big show?” We always have a big crowd at Sweden Rocks so why not film it. And that kind of set the wheels in motion. And here we are with a Blu-ray – have you seen the footage?
Mark: I’ve seen parts of it, it looked like a really special night.
Jona: The thing was with live in London it was only recorded audio, we weren’t even supposed to release it as a CD but it was the record company that suggested we did. So for us it was always about the film, but I guess it sounds awesome as well. (laughs)
Mark: We’ve only seen you down here in Australia the once a few years back and that time just you and Eric, but you’ve been getting some pretty huge accolades since then for your live show. I have to ask for the local fans, is there a chance we will see you back here one day?
Jona: Yes, I know it was just me and Eric for the acoustic show, but we played with the guys from White Widow as well. We have no specific plans, nothing booked yet, we’ve had offers but it hasn’t lined up as yet, but there’s definitely a desire to come back to Australia again, that would be amazing.
Mark: I see you have your tour slots already lined-up on Festivals this year are you looking at touring later in the year?
Jona: We just have a few Festival shows this year, we’re just focussing on the new album really, and we’re entering the studio again in one and a half weeks to record the rest of the album. We have two songs done already.
Mark: That’s great, and that was going to be my next question!
Jona: (laughs)
Mark: As along-time listener, I’m very much in the camp that thinks that ‘Into the Great Unknown’ your last release was the best thing you’ve done so far.
Jona: Awesome, I agree.
Mark: I’m very interested to hear if the new one is going to be something in the same vein. You experimented a bit on the latest and the big question is are you going to push that further or produce something in the same vein?
Jona: I mean, we’re not really building on ‘The Great Unknown’ I mean there are going to be influences, but with this one I think it’s going to be more Hard Rock and in your face. We’ve been touring a lot more than we have in the past to support the great unknown… I’m actually staring down a tiger right now (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Jona: I’m sort of alone with him now! (laughs) So anyway the next album is certainly inspired more by us being on the road and I guess more heavy and more rocking in a way. It’s a bland of ‘Tearing Down the Walls’ and ‘Address the Nation’ but with aspects of ‘Great Unknown’ in there too. We lso looked back at our first album, but the songs here are really strong in my opinion. I don’t wanyt to jinx it or anything, but it’s gonna be really cool. It’s like the 80’s influence is there for sure but the live influence is really big if that makes sense?
Mark: It sound great and you play so well together as a band these days, who wouldn’t want to catch that energy in the studio!
Jona: Yeah, but…
Mark: I imagine it’s still going to be beautifully produced, I don’t expect it will sound like you’re all there jamming in a room!
Jona: (laughs) exactly! It’s not going to be like huge snares and kicks! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) though that might be interesting down the track! So getting back to the record, I think you’d be hard pushed to top this live package this millennium so far, but looking further back to last century did you grow up on some of those huge iconic live records of the 70’s and 80’s especially? Were there any that really stood out for you?
Jona: For me it was Maiden! Their live albums just did it for me – especially ‘Live After Death’; ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’ those were huge for me when I grew up, those were my ‘live’ albums and also thigs like Kiss “Alive’ and all those others, but definitely for me my main influence comes from Maiden.
Mark: One of the greatest forces of nature live!
Mark: We have a quick-fire section for our ‘Heaven and Hell’ podcast called ‘off the record’ where we just throw you some random fan questions are you ready?
Jona: I’m ready, hit me!
Mark: If you could trade places with any other band, past or present who would it be?
Jona: I have to go for Iron Maiden I guess! (laughs) They’re my favourite band, I always wanted to go hang out with those guys, so I’d love to be a part of that.
Mark: What band would you most like to tour with?
Jona: I think it would be awesome and a dream com to true if we could tour with a band like Def Leppard. I think that would be perfect. I just saw them at Sweden Rock and they were crazy good, so that would be a dream tour to do.
Mark: Who would you most like to sit down and write with?
Jona: That’s a tough one. I think it would be cool to write with someone like Desmond Child, someone who wrote the big hits of the 80’s, that would be amazing.
Mark: If you could be credited with the composition of any one song, what would that song be for you? What would you like your named attached to forever?
Jona: Oh my God… That’s a tough one. The best song? The one that springs to mind is the Symphony X song ‘The Accolade’ that’s one of my favourite songs and its super, super well-written. I love that song so much and have since I heard it the first time. That would be the one for me.
Mark: Great song, nice choice. Do you have a guilty musical pleasure, something people might not imagine you listening to?
Jona: Well I listen to all kinds of music. I listen to Heavy Metal of course but I also like Pop music, Blue, Jazz, anything that speaks to me in anyway. But I don’t know if I have any specific ‘guilty pleasure’.
Mark: A very diplomatic answer. If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album, just to see how the magic happened in the studio, what would it be for you? What would you have loved to have heard and seen being made?
Jona: Well for me it would have to be ‘A Night at the Opera’ or ‘A Day at the Races’ – that was an easy one.
Mark: And the final question – the easy one we end with – what is the meaning of life?
Jona: The meaning of what! (laughs) Life – well I guess to reproduce and try to be as happy as you can.
Mark: We’ll take that.
Jona: That was a boring answer (laughs) but the truth!
Mark: Well thank you so much for taking the time to drop by Jona, nd thanks for such a great ‘live’ album. I think people should just drop what they’re doing and rush out and grab a copy of the record when it drops on 26th July! And thanks for doing that while you were at the zoo too! My favourite animal was always the Red Pandas – are there any of those there?
Jona: (laughs) literally 50 metres away from me I have your Red Pandas!
Mark: Fantastic! One day someone will write a rock song about those guys!
Jona: (laughs)
Mark: You take care of yourself mate and let’s talk again when the new album is out!
Jona: You too Mark, we will, thank you.
