In our fourth and final interview in our Avantasia Series we managed to get some talk time with Norwegian hard rock & heavy metal singer/songwriter Jorn Lande who’s resume stretches across a multitude of genres, having led the way with bands such as Ark, Beyond Twilight, Vagabond, The Snakes (with Bernie Marsden & Micky Moody), and most notably power-metal band Masterplan. In 2007, Tobias Sammet drafted Lande in to join the star-studded vocal line-up on Anastasia’s first EP entitled ‘Lost in Space Part 1’, alongside the likes of Bob Catley (Magnum) & Eric Singer (KISS). Since then Jorn has appeared, not only on the follow-up EP (Part 2) but five more of the studio albums that have made up the Avantasia series, including the latest offering ‘Moonglow’. Lande has also been ever present on the subsequent world tours in support of each album and is excited to be heading down to Australia for the first time. Not only did we manage to discuss the current world tour but also his wonderful 2016 release ‘Heavy Rock Radio’ where we find he has an undying respect & admiration for a certain John Farnham…
Sean: Hi Jorn, thanks so much for your time. Currently in Switzerland I believe?
Jorn: Hi Sean, yes we are two nights down for a three show run here.
Sean: Let’s get straight into discussing this incredible show, Avantasia. You’ve been involved now since 2007. It’s been a wonderful series of albums.
Jorn: Yes, the only one I haven’t done since 2007 is ‘The Mystery of Time’ and this was because at the same time that was being done I was doing a rock opera about ‘Dracula’…
Sean: That was ‘Swing of Death’? I’m yet to hear it…
Jorn: Yes, I did it with my former guitar player Trond Holter. So, I was in the middle of that so had to let Toby down when he asked me. But I came back again for ‘Ghostlights’ & ‘Moonglow’. For me ‘Moonglow’ has the best production so far sound-wise – they all have great songs on the albums but this one just sounds incredible.
Sean: It’s so great to see so many of you have returned and are coming down here for the two shows in Melbourne & Sydney. I spoke to Bob (Catley) early this evening and he was saying how excited you all are. It was funny because Bob is just so chilled out – he was lying on his bed watching snooker on BBC Sport…
Jorn: [laughs] That’s Bob… he loves just staying in his room and having cups of tea. He was running around looking for a kettle. He came to my room yesterday, “Jorn, there is no kettle in my room. Bloody hell! How will I make my tea?” [laughs] He is such a character. I love Bob – he’s like my father.
Sean: One thing Bod did say was that it was his first time down to Australia. Have you been here and visited us before?
Jorn: No, this is my first time too. It’s about time. I’ve always wanted to come and I have had several offers to play in Australia over the years but for various reasons it has never happened. Sometimes it was that weren’t enough shows to make it financially possible or I was already in the middle of a tour so logistics were not the best for me. But finally I am getting to perform there and I am so excited, just like everybody on the tour is excited too. I am coming over with some great singers. I mean Bob & I go back a long time – I’ve known Bob since the mid-90s, so he is a good friend and I call him ‘Uncle Bob’ [laughs] or ‘Bob’s the Henge’ because he grew up around Stonehenge [laughs]
Sean: With all due respect to Bob, he will probably outlast Stonehenge. That man will never retire from singing – he is incredible. Certainly the chemistry on stage amongst you all must make it pretty special?
Jorn: Yes, it’s great to be onstage with all this singers and even though I’m getting a bit older myself now, I’m still younger than most of them. I used to listen to Geoff Tate when I was younger. I used to play Queensryche’s ‘Empire’ album in the car. I used to watch Eric Martin when I was a young lad back in the 80’s and when I got my driver’s licence I used to play Mr Big in the car.
Sean: Mr Big came to see us here last year on a dual tour with Extreme and I have to say Eric was in fine form. It came in as one of my top three or four gigs I went to last year.
Jorn: It’s a bit different for him on this tour. He gets a bit concerned because he gets to sing some songs that are bit heavier than he’s used to singing. But he does it in his own way and it really works – I usually say to him, “You are Eric Lee Martin from America… you are fucking Eric Lee… you’re the legend Eric Lee Martin. You don’t have to worry about anything, you just do your Frisco kid thing and you’ll be fine.” [laughs] He’s a very funny guy too – always making jokes and full of life. It’s always great fun in the tour bus and everywhere we go. To be onstage with all these singers is really an honour. This tour probably has the strongest line-up so far even though we’ve had people like Michael Kiske from Helloween and so many others have been involved in the past but I think the line up now is very, very strong. Also the band is tighter than ever too because we are a bit more structured & focused on the show now than in the past. We take a lot of pride in the performance. Visually it looks great too. The ‘Moonglow’ album has elements for all the others and it’s like it all comes together – you can’t say something is better than the other but it all comes together but still has its own identity. People have expected differences like new vocalists or what will Toby do next. It’s all become like a style and a band now and people hope to hear a certain thing now – they want some of the same singers back even though it’s cool to change sometimes. People expect to have Bob there, me doing some parts at least… I mean it was really from 2008 when ‘The Scarecrow’ album really set the standard and gave it direction and once that happened success was fast approaching.
Sean: Even the album artwork is wonderful. Is certainly a collection that looks great on anyone’s CD rack…
Jorn: There’s a lot of work goes into it. Toby leaves nothing to circumstance – when the rest of us go back to our bands and projects or go back to work on our houses or whatever we do, Toby goes back to focus on Avantasia mostly. I guess that’s the reason you have so much detail and extra effort put into this and he must really put in so much time on these albums. The planning of the tours is just so much hard work but he’s definitely doing something right for sure. We may be contributing with our singing and so forth but it’s all handed to us on a silver platter because of all the hard work Toby does behind the scenes. He is usually working on the next one maybe one or two years before we come into the picture. We might change little bits & pieces like melodies here and there or shorten down the riffs. It’s a real luxury gig [laughs]. We are so excited to be coming to Australia and it’s probably the highlight of the tour. It’s a big tour this time – by the time I get home in June it’s going to be nearly three months since I left home. But in the whole tour it’s Australia that’s top of the list for us all.
Sean: Well, I know everyone is in for a treat with this show. There is something I’d love to talk to you about and that’s your 2016 covers album ‘Heavy Rock Radio’. Some really odd songs choices but I have to say they all work so wonderfully well. The song I have to ask about is how did you decide on ‘You’re the The Voice’ by John Farnham?
Jorn: Thank you, it was great fun to record. Because I have done so many original albums and worked on so many projects alongside my own career under the Jorn banner, I never got to perform or record the songs that got me interested in music in the first place. When I grew up I grew up in a more contemporary style – I wasn’t really into the harder or heavier rock. I was more into Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley and of course John Farnham [laughs].
Sean: And that one totally caught me by surprise. How does a young Norwegian guy back in the day get into someone like John Farnham?
Jorn: He was always one of my favourite singers… probably one of my top five in the world. I simply just love him. He great to see he’s still performing – he’s got shows in July still I think. I know he wasn’t well recently. I still pop in on the internet to see what he’s doing. I know he was supposed to retire but he seems to have been doing more than ever. He’s such an icon. I don’t think there is any other singer who can perform live like he can. I love the fact that he is so honest to himself, I mean I don’t know him personally but I can tell from a musician’s point of view. I really respect that you can hear in his performance that he is doing something one hundred percent – he’s one of those artists who is true to himself. I read somewhere that he turned down the chance to work with Queen back in the day because that’s not what he wanted to do.
Sean: The power he generates with his voice is incredible… It’s amazing to watch the way he pulls the microphone away from his mouth but still gets all that sound.
Jorn: I learnt a lot from John. He’s also the reason I started using the microphone that way too when I was younger. I have only ever seen him live once – he played a concert in Oslo in 1992 I think. It was a small venue and he didn’t have a huge orchestra or anything like that and I was in the front row and I just remember it was a magic night. I grew up with the Little River Band and had the first record he did with them. My father was in a band and his drummer had a record store in my town… it was more a corner in the store and the store sold refrigerators and stereos. And in the corner there was this little section with vinyls… So he used to let me take home vinyls from the store on a Friday and he told me to promise not to scratch them because he still had to sell them if I didn’t want to buy them. So, I was just this little guy who turned up with my bag and just picked out vinyls based on the artwork on the covers then listen to them over the weekend and bring the ones back that I didn’t want. The Little River Band was one of those albums and bands I discovered through not only my father’s drummer but also because he was so nice. I used to listen to a lot of Australian music back in the day like Jon English for example.
Sean: I still need to see John Farnham – he’s on my wish list to see live. So, what was the last album you listened to Jorn?
Jorn: I think it was 10cc. It was their album with ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ on it… ‘Bloody Tourists’ was the album. I love those records. I get nostalgic a lot and I just need to hear those analogue sounding records – it frees me just hearing them. They have real warm sound production. In today’s world when you put those on its like “Thank you Lord” [laughs]
Sean: If you could invite three guests from the music world to dinner, dead or alive, who would you want to join you?
Jorn: Of course, John Farnham would have to be there [laughs] because he is a great entertainer. Elvis if he was with us, that would be cool but I guess he’s really up there now [laughs]. Number three would be Ronnie James Dio. Those three would be really cool but if I could add one more id ask Kate Bush so she could make cookies [laughs]
Sean: This is becoming a regular thing now… you artists keep adding extra guests [laughs] but I’ll let you have a fourth. My last question to you is if you be credited with writing any song that’s been written, what song would you chose?
Jorn: That’s a hard one because there are so many good songs but I’d have to say ‘Hotel California’ by The Eagles.
Sean: A fantastic song choice to end with and one which you covered on ‘Heavy Rock Radio’. Jorn, on behalf of us all here at The Rockpit I’d just like to thank you so much for your time & we wish you, the cast and crew the safest of journeys on the rest of the Avantasia tour and enjoy your time in Sydney & Melbourne.
Jorn: You too man. Thank you, it’s been cool talking to you. We’ll do our best you know. Bye.
