Shane Rockpit interviews DYNAZTY's Rob Love
After forming in 2008, Dynazty released their debut album BRING THE THUNDER, produced by Chris Laney in Stockholm, in July 2009.
In my review of the album [click here] I said "Racing out of the gates in a fury of distorted guitar riffs and catchy hooks, Sweden’s Dynazty let it be known they wish it was Sunset Strip ’87 with a collection of teased hair soft metal anthems that are impossible not to sing and chant and air guitar along to." Yes it's THAT good - so good in fact that I rated it #15 album of last year.
I caught up with guitarist Rob Love recently to ask how things were going in the Dynazty camp.
G’day Rob, thanks for talking to The Rockpit!
Thank you yourself!
“Bring The Thunder”, your debut album, is fantastic – I rated it #15 in our Best of 2009 Report. How has the response been around the world?
Thank you very much!
The response hase been great all over, and "Bring the thunder" has been rated as one of the best album's 2009 on quite a few sites.
Dynazty - Rob Love 2nd from left
How was working with Ex-Zan Clan man Chris Laney?
Working with Chris is always a pleasure, everything went really smooth and we are very satisfied with how "bring the thunder" sounds.
He did a great job with the new Steevi Jaimz album as well as yours – What is it about the way he works and his sound that’s making him (as they say) “so hot right now”?
Probably because he works with the artists all the way from rehearsing to recording, mixing etc, which gives him the opportunity to shape the sound of the album already from the start and all the way through.
What is happening in Sweden that has so much amazing music coming out of your country in the past few years?
I have no clue.
I guess because in Sweden we have six months a year of fucked up weather in the winter, so we have to have something to do that part of the year, like practising your music instrument for instance.
There is a lot of sleaze metal especially coming out of Sweden and other parts of Scandinavia – is there a reason for this do you think?
Probably becouse people don't care much about the massmedia as much as before.
People listen independently on what they like, and after a decade of this fucking terrible shit that's played on the radio all over I think people have built some kind of urge to get the metal back in our homes!
Are there any other great bands from your neck of the woods that we may not know about but should check out?
Check out a band called "De Van", a band from Stockholm ready to kick your ass!
How would you describe Dynazty’s sound. I think the vocals especially are more traditional metal, but the music – whilst not being sleaze as such - certainly has that rawer edge to it.
I think we have a pretty unique sound. All of us in DYNAZTY listen to all kinds of music, which gives us a lot of influences.
I would prefer to describe our sound as pretty heavy hard rock, with choruses that makes you wanna dance!
Why did John Berg leave the band after the album’s recording?
We did not get along very well, so we decided to continue without him.
Who have you got in to replace John, and how have they changed your sound or dynamic?
We have a tour guitarist named Mano Lewis, a really great guy and a great guitarist! The only way our sound has changed is that we now are even more tight, and we sound a lot better.
What is the origin of the band’s name – at first glance we thought you might even have been a KISS tribute band, but Dynazty doesn’t sound much like KISS at all?
No, actually we where just trying to come up with a cool name for the band and then Joey proposed that we should name it DYNAZTY.
What sort of dynamic do you guys have when writing and recording? Is it democratic or does someone take charge?
Most often I come up with an idea or a song on the guitar, and then we meet up to put it together.
Or sometimes Nils writes some lyrics and melodies and then we add the music afterwards, but everyone in DYNAZTY is a part of the writing and shaping of the songs.
Who are your major influences personally and as a band?
My personal influences are guys like: Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Van Halen, Ratt, Def Leppard and artists like that.
And as a band we are infuenced of everything from 90's pop to Meshuggah.
Your live shows have been described as “dynamic and energetic”. Not having had the pleasure, can you run us through what a live Dynazty show is all about?
A DYNAZTY show consists in five guys givin it all on stage, both in musical performace and the show itself.
What has been the most amazing gig you’ve ever seen?
Hard to say, I've seen a lot of gigs.. But It's always amazing to se bands like Whitesnake, Defleppard, Yngwie etc who always gives you a hell of a show!
You must have some hilarious (or shocking) backstage stories. Any that you can share with us today?
Yes. A lot of those there is, but no one to be shared, sorry [laughing]
Do you have many new songs written? When can we expect a new album?
Yeah, We have like eight new songs writen, and more to come. You can expect heavier songs, and choruses that makes you wanna fly!
We have our expectations set to maximum on this one!
Where should fans go to find out more about the band or to buy your CD and merch?
www.myspace.com/dynaztyband
We will soon start to take orders for merch from our homesite.
Our cd can be, if not found in your lokal cd store, on www.perrisrecords.com.
What’s the ultimate goal for Dynazty?
To conquer the world. What else?
What does 2010 hold for the band?
Doing shows in scandinavia and hopefully around Europe, and this autumn we will record a new album!
What makes a great song?
Great structure, great riffs, great melodies and great musicianship!
And lastly, the question we ask all our interviewees - what is the meaning of life?
The meaning of life as i see it, is to do the thing you love the most.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Thank you all for reading and have a great 2010, best regards
Thanks for your time Rob, good luck with Dynazty in 2010!
Shane Rockpit