Yes I know to some stuck in the 80’s Mike Tramp will always be the voice of White Lion, but as someone who has followed him and his music over the years there is so much more to his solo material that you need to hear. He has a new album out in May and in my opinion it is Mike Tramp at his very best. As Mike says: “The songs on “Second Time Around” are some of my favorite compositions, and for many years I have gone around with a feeling that they were never given a real chance. I have missed them in my live shows and I have missed singing them. So when I made the decision to rebuild and resurrect this bunch of songs, it was truly a chance to go for a ‘Second Time Around’.” We caught up with Mike amidst the ‘corona-craziness’ at home in Denmark.
Mark: Hi, Mike, thank you for talking to us again.
Mike: Hi Mark, how are you doing buddy?
Mark: I’m fine thanks Mike, it’s been a while since we last spoke, longer than usual. How are things in Denmark?
Mike: I think it may be better than in America!
Mark: Of course we’re speaking to you from your ex home, here in Australia.
Mike: Oh, man, I was speaking to someone in Melbourne who was keeping me updated of the situation there.
Mark: It’s pretty crazy!
Mike: It is, but we’re just going to have to sit it out for a while and hope for the better.
Mark: It’s incredible how much it affects the music business especially with all the tours being cancelled everywhere.
Mike: It’s sad, but it’s the only way, everyone has to stay at home!
Mark: Definitely. I think so too! One of the things I think is going to get us through all of this is music, and one of the albums I love at the moment is yours!
Mike: I appreciate that.
Mark: We first heard “The Road” the single, which is great, and there’s a further nine tracks for us to enjoy on “Second Time Around”. You worked with Soren Anderson; it’s a really cool sounding record!
Mike: Well to this from 1996 when I did my first solo album and through all of my twelve solo albums I’ve been trying to produce something new and I think I get closer and closer to it without ever really feeling that I’ve departed. I want every album to sort of sound the same and feel the same but just get better, I’m not going to be ground-breaking so I’m just carrying on you know, telling the story of my life. I always feel it’s a long-ass way to get down the highway. And every album becomes like an exit where you pull off and you look at your life and you look back and you look at the moment where you are, then you look at where you’re going. And you live that moment for a while and then you carry on and the next chapter will be the next exit and the next album. It’s all part of next journey.
Mark: And it’s been a fantastic journey so far, I remember buying ‘Capricorn’ when that came out and it’s great as a fan of your music to have been along for the ride with you.
Mike: I really appreciate that Mark, there are many rewards, there are a lot of people who get a Grammy there are a lot of people who fill their walls with platinum albums and they are great things to have but the true reward is when you feel that someone is getting the point of the artist. And it’s not that it’s a very complicated point it’s just that this is my life and when I did ‘Capricorn’ and I finished with the two bands that I’d been part of I wanted my own albums to be about me in the way that when I sing it’s me I’m representing, there’s no fantasy in these songs. They’re pain and they’re anger, they’re happiness and joy and all that comes between.
Mark: And all that comes out in the words and that rawness that you bring. I know that some people always hanker after the past and it’s great for fans that you do on occasion step back and revisit the White Lion songs that hold memories for so many, but it’s the passion and your belief in your new music that gives it that extra dimension. So many artists take the easy route for whatever reasons, but you’re still out there creating great original music.
Mike: Thank you.
READ ALBUM REVIEW OF SECOND TIME AROUND
Mark: When I listen to a track like ‘All of My Life’ which I think is one of my favourite songs of yours full stop I wonder how you approached writing this album, you were back in Denmark doing a lot of other things at the time, was it a different approach?
Mike: Well I really only write one way – the songs come very easy to me I don’t really have to struggle and I don’t sit down and try to be clever (laughs) and really what I first write down are just an extension of my feelings and my thoughts at that moment. I even wrote that way in White Lion. All the songs are the acoustic version first. If the song works around the campfire, which is usually your living room (laughs) that’s when I know the songs aren’t depending on a unique sound or production. All those things are a bonus when the band starts interpreting the song from what I play when I play the song on my acoustic guitar. And Vito and I were writing most of the White Lion songs sat in front of each other with two acoustic guitars and we wanted the song to work there. Sure we knew that once it was given a big production that would turn the songs into the current and ‘in the moment’ sound, you know in the 80’s the big snare drums and things like that. But the songs worked with a little amplifier or strumming away on an acoustic guitar. We knew the songs were great there. But we also knew that we could do lots of things in the studio to make them even bigger. And every single song I’ve written since has been that way. I write the songs you know, on the couch with an acoustic guitar and I quickly record them and when I play it back the song has to work right there, I don’t think OK that might be a good song when it has a piano or imagine the final production in the studio, the song has to work there.
Mark: You’re so right Mike a song has to work in that way and any way you dress it up is always going to be a product of the times to a certain extent. The album comes out on the first of May through Target and it’s born into an unusual world. My next question I guess is very much about the days we’re all living in – what is the best way of supporting an artist like Mike Tramp when to put it bluntly – the gigs are all cancelled?
Mike: (laughs) exactly! Well first of all it is a huge shock to an industry like ours, and I have a small team around me who are involved in sending out our product and we’re all affected by what’s happening. So aside from buying the record and streaming I can’t think of anything more that people can do. I know there’s a lot of music out there but hopefully people will feel that this is a product that’s worth getting and I hope that will keep us going until we work this out and I can get out and tour again. But in the meantime there’s not a lot I can do except guarantee people that we’ll take care of the orders that are coming in, and I guess that maybe I’ll do even more on my Facebook, maybe a small performance of some of the songs just in my studio with an acoustic guitar so people can see it that way. And thank god that I’m that kind of artist that is completely comfortable with just sitting there and recording a song with just a little phone.
Mark: Now that would be great to see. I’ve seen you play acoustically many times over the years on many continents but I’d love to see this particular bunch of songs played live and that I guess is as close as we’ll get for a while. I was back in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and I went down to The Espy which they’ve just done up now, and I remembered that one of the first times I saw you play a solo show was there in the Gershwin Room. And now the place is just so empty, everywhere has lost that ‘life’ that live music brings.
Mike: It is Mark, it’s just so real. It still takes time for it to sink in that we’re in this situation. As you know I have my son Dylan in Melbourne, and I have my wife and my two younger children in Jakarta in Indonesia where I just came back from a month ago and I was back to start a US Tour on April 15th for like two and a half months. So it’s just taking a deep breath and just scaling down.
Mark: Scaling down and staying safe, and I guess that will mean that aside from all the financial pain…
Mike: Oh my God yes.
Mark: Maybe we’ll all get a chance to reconnect to music and listen to some great stuff whilst we’ve got all that time at home.
Mike: Yes.
Mark: Thank you so much for your time today Mike I hope you and your family stay safe and that there’s not too much time before that tour resumes and you can get back onto the Road that you seem to have been on for years. I hope it continues to be as inspiring as it has been to date.
Mike: We will ride sooner or later Mark and I’ll be back on that road again. I hope to get back Downunder soon too.
Mark: Well that would be great we’d love to see you back, it has been too long.
Mike: Yeah it has been a while, cheers mate!
Mark: Bye!
