Ytsejam [us]
Åge Sten "Glam" Nilsen
The Rock Never Stops by Tommy “Hashman” Hash
Anyone who says that glam metal or sleeze metal is dated, should be taken out back and shot (with a pneumatic staple gun, of course). The music is alive and well as hair metal has become a new form of classic rock, not to mention new blood such as Steel Panther, The Darkness, and Hot Legg have removed the stigmas against it and even breathed new life into it - we even have bands including Crazy Lixx, Crash Diet, and Wig Wam are heralding a new era of melodic metal heightened with attitude. Hailing from Norway, this four-piece powerhouse has brought their metal to the masses with four albums and a rigorous tour schedule that has seen the band play abroad - built on strong musicianship and big arena rock anthems, Wig Wam are a band that takes the music that they make seriously first and foremost, with no kitsch factor present.
Fronting this band is vocalist Glam, who is better known to many people as Åge Sten Nilsen, who alongside of Wig Wam, he has had success in the entrainment industry on his own, by hosting a television show called Singing Bee, hitting the stage in musicals such as Chess, and even singing in a Queen tribute band - finding time to release solo albums in the process, as his latest, GLAMuntition was released in 2006. Now with Wig Wam's latest record, the appropriately titled Non-Stop Rock and Roll, has found release abroad on Frontiers Records, where the potential to reach a wider audience outside of the Scandinavian metal scene is unlimited. Åge Sten Nilsen speaks on behalf of the band's latest musical endeavor.
"This time it was very different for us to make this record because the first record (667...The Neighbor of the Beast renamed Hard To Be A Rock N' Roller ... In Kiev! as a re-release), we wrote it and recorded it in guitarist Teeny's (Trond Holter) bedroom," begins Nilsen, "back in 2002-2003, no record label really wanted to spend the money on a band like ours. We decided that we would put up a studio and record an album on our own expense. That album was recorded on a Cubase (software) system and the next album (Wig Wamania), we wrote it and recorded it in-between tours. In 2005 we did like 287 gigs and we took five days off during Christmas and by the third of January, we started work on Wigwamania - by mid-March it was out and we were back on tour, then we had a long break from each other, which we needed; but we got back to where we had started again, we started jamming and we had a great time. (Frontiers) was enthusiastic about signing us and they wanted to hear something, but we told them we didn't want to hurry this one, as we wanted to enjoy recording the album. We didn't want to overproduce it we wanted keep it simple, a bit more raw than the previous albums."
One of the biggest hot spots for metal has always been Japan, as the Japanese have had great respect and love for heavy and hard, being one of the biggest places for support, regardless of whatever trends are encompassing the globe; Wig Wam have seen the desserts of having a big fan base over there even recording a live album called Live in Tokyo back in 2007, "As early as 2003, we noticed that our fans in Japan have been coming over (to Europe) to see our gigs," says Nilsen, "we were taken by surprise because we never released an album there and this was about the same time as when we released the first album. Suddenly all these people were coming all the way to Norway to see our shows, but wasn't until 2005 that we released an album there. Now it's like we have a very strong following in Japan, when we first played Japan, we heard rumors that tickets were sold out within two months of the tour, we didn't think too much about it because again, we thought they were rumors - when we saw over a hundred fans showing up at the airport, we were pretty shocked."
So what about Europe, they too have been big supporters of metal, "All of Europe in general, they have heard about us and they were definitely ready for us, but up until now, we hadn't had the proper distribution and a strong company to work with as far as the rest of the world was concerned, but this time around we are going to do a lot more. We had actually toured with Alice Cooper back in 2005, we did some gigs with Gotthard, we played Iceland and Romania. A big area that we noticed was Greece, we have a strong following there, they go crazy down there when we play, it's great."
Finally inking a deal with Frontiers, the band now has the distribution and promotion tools that they need to get their name out there besides the means of just word of mouth, "Oh, they've been on our backs for about five years trying to secure a deal," hints Nilsen, "previously, we have owned the rights to our recordings, so we had done licensing deals with indie labels in Norway, and those labels have been more excited to export, say 200 (copies) there, maybe 50 here, the quantity meant a lot to those labels, but this time around we wanted to release the album around the world at the same time - for the other albums, they were released in Norway, then we had done some licensing deals in other countries, but that would happen a few months after the original release in Norway, we are a bit wiser now. With Frontiers, Wig Wam fans can buy the album in the United States, and that's important and great for us."
Keeping busy for Nilsen has never been a problem, after the band took a breather a couple years ago, he went into other similar endeavors where he could utilize his love for music as he explains, "For two years while Wig Wam was on a break, I have been occupied building my own career here in Norway with a huge Queen show called "The Show Must Go On" so we had sold over one-hundred thousand tickets over in Norway. I was contacted by a production company asking if I would like to do some TV stuff and I accepted the offer so I became the host of the Norwegian version of Singing Bee and I stared working more and more on TV; I also got invited to do the Battle of the Choirs, where we have several celebrities from Norway going to their hometown and picking the choir and battling each other - which is more like meeting the conductor of the choir, picking the songs - and that show debuted the same day as Non-Stop Rock and Roll came out in Norway and we did "Do You Want to Taste It" and it went straight to number one here in Norway, the very same night."
The band has a charity tour in the works for the spring as well as being an opening act for KISS in Norway, those two tours along with plans on going back to play some gigs in Japan in April will see Wig Wam active on stage throughout 2010, "We are a live band, that's our home, on stage and we are enjoying ourselves on stage, we have had a tendency of accepting too many gigs," says Nilsen, "this time around we will make sure that every gig is special and unique - thinking about two-hundred-eighty-seven gigs a year, obviously we weren't "fit for fight" every night, it got tiring at times, especially for my vocals; but we have never cancelled a show because of being tired or anything like that, there are times that we think "what do I have to do to get on stage," but we are a clean and sober band, we don't use any drugs or substances to keep us going. There was a period where I understood why bands go out and get loaded, but at the end of the day, if it's been rough, just get some sleep and it will be a new day."
At this time, Wig Wam is interested with dealing with a U.S. based management firm to help get them to get a grip on the stateside market once the record is out, to hopefully get some gigs going here. Wanting to bring a prototype of the "guitar monster truck " on the cover of the album as a stage setup for tours, which seeing how something like that is rarely done, it would be a great treat to see something like that enhance the stage persona of the band, but until then, the band will continue to make music on their own terms, not bowing down to some commercial fashion or flavor of the day, "The main focus is on Wig Wam's future," concludes Nilsen, "but I don't know what the future holds. We are in the mood to where we would like to record a new album again so I can't wait to get back into the studio and record new songs; of course, we are excited about going out there and playing rock and roll for the fans, but I take one step at a time. I do see a future for us, continuing on till were old. We know we are out of fashion as far as our music goes, but this is the music we want to play, when we first started in 2000, the music was pretty dead, we all should thank a band like The Darkness, even if it is done tongue-in-cheek, they are putting it out there again, people aren't scared to play real guitar solos or even wear spandex (laughing). We take the music seriously first and foremost. At the time we climb up on stage, we are heroes, when we go offstage, we are normal people, that's our mentality, we don't take ourselves too seriously and act like 'divas,' but we certainly enjoy ourselves."
Tommy Hash, Ytsejam 28.03.2010
www.ytsejam.com
The Rock Never Stops by Tommy “Hashman” Hash
Anyone who says that glam metal or sleeze metal is dated, should be taken out back and shot (with a pneumatic staple gun, of course). The music is alive and well as hair metal has become a new form of classic rock, not to mention new blood such as Steel Panther, The Darkness, and Hot Legg have removed the stigmas against it and even breathed new life into it - we even have bands including Crazy Lixx, Crash Diet, and Wig Wam are heralding a new era of melodic metal heightened with attitude. Hailing from Norway, this four-piece powerhouse has brought their metal to the masses with four albums and a rigorous tour schedule that has seen the band play abroad - built on strong musicianship and big arena rock anthems, Wig Wam are a band that takes the music that they make seriously first and foremost, with no kitsch factor present.
Fronting this band is vocalist Glam, who is better known to many people as Åge Sten Nilsen, who alongside of Wig Wam, he has had success in the entrainment industry on his own, by hosting a television show called Singing Bee, hitting the stage in musicals such as Chess, and even singing in a Queen tribute band - finding time to release solo albums in the process, as his latest, GLAMuntition was released in 2006. Now with Wig Wam's latest record, the appropriately titled Non-Stop Rock and Roll, has found release abroad on Frontiers Records, where the potential to reach a wider audience outside of the Scandinavian metal scene is unlimited. Åge Sten Nilsen speaks on behalf of the band's latest musical endeavor.
"This time it was very different for us to make this record because the first record (667...The Neighbor of the Beast renamed Hard To Be A Rock N' Roller ... In Kiev! as a re-release), we wrote it and recorded it in guitarist Teeny's (Trond Holter) bedroom," begins Nilsen, "back in 2002-2003, no record label really wanted to spend the money on a band like ours. We decided that we would put up a studio and record an album on our own expense. That album was recorded on a Cubase (software) system and the next album (Wig Wamania), we wrote it and recorded it in-between tours. In 2005 we did like 287 gigs and we took five days off during Christmas and by the third of January, we started work on Wigwamania - by mid-March it was out and we were back on tour, then we had a long break from each other, which we needed; but we got back to where we had started again, we started jamming and we had a great time. (Frontiers) was enthusiastic about signing us and they wanted to hear something, but we told them we didn't want to hurry this one, as we wanted to enjoy recording the album. We didn't want to overproduce it we wanted keep it simple, a bit more raw than the previous albums."
One of the biggest hot spots for metal has always been Japan, as the Japanese have had great respect and love for heavy and hard, being one of the biggest places for support, regardless of whatever trends are encompassing the globe; Wig Wam have seen the desserts of having a big fan base over there even recording a live album called Live in Tokyo back in 2007, "As early as 2003, we noticed that our fans in Japan have been coming over (to Europe) to see our gigs," says Nilsen, "we were taken by surprise because we never released an album there and this was about the same time as when we released the first album. Suddenly all these people were coming all the way to Norway to see our shows, but wasn't until 2005 that we released an album there. Now it's like we have a very strong following in Japan, when we first played Japan, we heard rumors that tickets were sold out within two months of the tour, we didn't think too much about it because again, we thought they were rumors - when we saw over a hundred fans showing up at the airport, we were pretty shocked."
So what about Europe, they too have been big supporters of metal, "All of Europe in general, they have heard about us and they were definitely ready for us, but up until now, we hadn't had the proper distribution and a strong company to work with as far as the rest of the world was concerned, but this time around we are going to do a lot more. We had actually toured with Alice Cooper back in 2005, we did some gigs with Gotthard, we played Iceland and Romania. A big area that we noticed was Greece, we have a strong following there, they go crazy down there when we play, it's great."
Finally inking a deal with Frontiers, the band now has the distribution and promotion tools that they need to get their name out there besides the means of just word of mouth, "Oh, they've been on our backs for about five years trying to secure a deal," hints Nilsen, "previously, we have owned the rights to our recordings, so we had done licensing deals with indie labels in Norway, and those labels have been more excited to export, say 200 (copies) there, maybe 50 here, the quantity meant a lot to those labels, but this time around we wanted to release the album around the world at the same time - for the other albums, they were released in Norway, then we had done some licensing deals in other countries, but that would happen a few months after the original release in Norway, we are a bit wiser now. With Frontiers, Wig Wam fans can buy the album in the United States, and that's important and great for us."
Keeping busy for Nilsen has never been a problem, after the band took a breather a couple years ago, he went into other similar endeavors where he could utilize his love for music as he explains, "For two years while Wig Wam was on a break, I have been occupied building my own career here in Norway with a huge Queen show called "The Show Must Go On" so we had sold over one-hundred thousand tickets over in Norway. I was contacted by a production company asking if I would like to do some TV stuff and I accepted the offer so I became the host of the Norwegian version of Singing Bee and I stared working more and more on TV; I also got invited to do the Battle of the Choirs, where we have several celebrities from Norway going to their hometown and picking the choir and battling each other - which is more like meeting the conductor of the choir, picking the songs - and that show debuted the same day as Non-Stop Rock and Roll came out in Norway and we did "Do You Want to Taste It" and it went straight to number one here in Norway, the very same night."
The band has a charity tour in the works for the spring as well as being an opening act for KISS in Norway, those two tours along with plans on going back to play some gigs in Japan in April will see Wig Wam active on stage throughout 2010, "We are a live band, that's our home, on stage and we are enjoying ourselves on stage, we have had a tendency of accepting too many gigs," says Nilsen, "this time around we will make sure that every gig is special and unique - thinking about two-hundred-eighty-seven gigs a year, obviously we weren't "fit for fight" every night, it got tiring at times, especially for my vocals; but we have never cancelled a show because of being tired or anything like that, there are times that we think "what do I have to do to get on stage," but we are a clean and sober band, we don't use any drugs or substances to keep us going. There was a period where I understood why bands go out and get loaded, but at the end of the day, if it's been rough, just get some sleep and it will be a new day."
At this time, Wig Wam is interested with dealing with a U.S. based management firm to help get them to get a grip on the stateside market once the record is out, to hopefully get some gigs going here. Wanting to bring a prototype of the "guitar monster truck " on the cover of the album as a stage setup for tours, which seeing how something like that is rarely done, it would be a great treat to see something like that enhance the stage persona of the band, but until then, the band will continue to make music on their own terms, not bowing down to some commercial fashion or flavor of the day, "The main focus is on Wig Wam's future," concludes Nilsen, "but I don't know what the future holds. We are in the mood to where we would like to record a new album again so I can't wait to get back into the studio and record new songs; of course, we are excited about going out there and playing rock and roll for the fans, but I take one step at a time. I do see a future for us, continuing on till were old. We know we are out of fashion as far as our music goes, but this is the music we want to play, when we first started in 2000, the music was pretty dead, we all should thank a band like The Darkness, even if it is done tongue-in-cheek, they are putting it out there again, people aren't scared to play real guitar solos or even wear spandex (laughing). We take the music seriously first and foremost. At the time we climb up on stage, we are heroes, when we go offstage, we are normal people, that's our mentality, we don't take ourselves too seriously and act like 'divas,' but we certainly enjoy ourselves."
Tommy Hash, Ytsejam 28.03.2010
www.ytsejam.com
