AOR Heaven [eng]
With their successful debut album and their appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, Wig Wam created quite a stir. With their new album "Wig Wamania", those Norwegian melodic rockers have to prove that they aren't a one-day wonder. But because of the album's classiness, this will be a mere child's play for them, and Glam is absolutely sure about that in our interview.
How is being back from Kiev? Is it still hard for you to be a Rock N Roller? ;-) Hi Marco! It feels like ages since we got back from Kiev really. There has been so much going on in theWig Wam World since then. We have played 167 gigs, released a DvD, recorded and released a new album called Wig Wamania, produced a whole new show and we’re finally back on the road again *S* Regarding being a rock’n’roller, it has never been hard in the negative way you know. And my mission with that particualer lyric was to address an „up yours“ to all those rockers who keeps complaining about their way of life, popularitys backside etc. If you choose fame and rock’n’roll you should really appreciate EVERY aspect of it. You can’t both have the cake and eat it alone too.....can you ? You’ve gotta share ! I find it easy to be a rock’n’roller, especially with the best fans in the world around. We acctually dedicated our latest record to our fans, THE WIG WAMANIACS, for standing behind us all through the years. Did you by accident know that we are celebrating our 5 year anniversary this year ?
I guess a lot of things have changed in your lifes since the release of „667... The Neighbour Of The Beast“. Can you still go shopping in Norway without writing autographs? A lot of things have changed, and most for the better. No, I can’t even go to my private toilet without writing autographs *S* And it strikes me everytime, how strange it is to be able to make someone happy by simply signing my name on a sheet of paper. It’s pretty weird ! But hey ! I feel like Santa Claus all the time *S*
When did you start working on the songs for „Wig WamMania“? Did you put some extra time into the songwriting to make sure it can keep up with your first album? No, we didn’t have time to put some extra time into neither the production nor the songwriting. But we managed to slow down the live gigs a bit from January to late February to be able to finish the album though. We met ,after a 12 days Christmas break, January 2nd in a rehearsal room, to present different songs for eachother and try them out . We also had some co-written material from soundchecks and stuff., The 3rd of January we had decided on which songs to record and started the recording prossess.
Did you feel any pressure from the fans' expecations on the new record or was it just kind of a positive push for you? Pressure is a negative word I think. We obviously felt a lot of expectations from our fans, but we felt that more like a positive x-factor that inspired us to make the best album possible. Remember ! When we recorded 667.. we didn’t have a clue what to expect. We knew what we were about as a live band, so we simply tried to bring the live essence to the album. This time around we had a lot of knowledge about who we were and who our fans were. And that made this album a lot easier to make. The only pressure was the deadline. Since we allready had booked the tour start and the release party, which were done in a bombastic way in front of 35.000 people during the World Cup in Holmenkollen, Oslo, being broadcasted to over 150 million people with me doing my first ever ...skijump....!! But that really made us work hard, and avoided us from being lazy. We had to work our asses off !!! And I think that’s a great thing ! We’re so God damn proud of this album !!!
The album was just released in Norway. When is the official release for the other territories? Here in Germany I still couldn't find it listed in any store! Wig Wamania will be released in Iceland this week. Then it’s due for an April release in Germany, Switzerland and Austria through Napalm Records. We’re also about to settle a deal with KING Records for a May release in Japan. It looks like it’s also being released in Sweden, Finland and Denmark in May as well. We’re a live band, and we’re not signed to any major recordcompany with Robbie Williams budgets. So our philosiphy is to visit each country that is releasing our record for concerts and public appearances. Right now we are working Norway out, and as soon as Germany is about to release our album we’ll go there and so on.
How would you compare the new record with the debut? I think, it's even better!!! I don’t even think it’s better ! I KNOW it’s better ! Much better production and a more solid album in every way, from the artwork to the songs. It represents who we are today, and it’s more mature I think. And I think we managed to keep the good melodies even though we put more energy to the music.
You released „Gonna Get You Someday“ as first single from the new album. I really love the song. Why did you decided for this song being the first single? We knew that we needed a strong AND commercial tune that didn’t take us too far away from the IN MY DREAMS vibe. When we started presenting our songs to eachother, we knew we had to find the first single first, because that was the one we had to start recording first because of all the deadlines. As soon as Teeny played us his demo of that song we all agreeed it was the right song for the right purpose. It was to be presented in the Norwegian Eurovision Final two days before release. Being a part of the break entertainment. It has been in the Norwegian charts ever since, being the second most sold single in this country for three weeks in a row.
Another great song is „Slave To Your Love“ which reminded me of classic EUROPE. Would you call them as an influence for your music? Sorry, but I really can’t hear Europe in that song at all, and I sure don’t think Teeny were inspired by Europe while writing it. To me it’s the most „modern“ song on the album, and to me it’s more like Green Day meets The Rasmus on a Journey day *S*
Well, and with „The Riddle“ you recorded an obvious follow-up to „The Drop“ and „Erection“. Seems your guitarist has still some Viagra left in his hands!? ;-) I don’t think so !!! HE DOESN’T NEED VIAGRA ! That’s the point ! Teeny is in his prime-time right now, working his guitar like a 18 year old stallion.
Did you get any help from Ole Evenrude again for the new album? Ole ? Who-the-fuck-is Ole ? No way ! We didn’t even plan for him to have anything to do with our first album you know. We did a demo on No More Living On Lies in a studio in Halden, Norway, which he fell in love with. He asked us if he could get our permission to mix it for free. We said, sure yeah, go ahead. Then all of a sudden he invited us to his studio. This was like 2003. He told us how much he liked this song, but he couldn’t see any reason at all for us to write original material. So he launced this idea for us to record.....BOYBAND songs the heavy way. We didn’t buy it at first, but since no one wanted to sign us we thought, let’s listen to this guy and give it a shot. After all he got all the contacts in the world and were known to be a smart ass. And a former band mate to both Sporty and Teeny as well. At the end of the day we finished 5 songs, that we couldn’t stand when they were done, and it cost us 100.000 norwegian kroner. An expensive lesson ! It was supposed to be payed by our manager, a friend of Ole, but he suddenly dissapeared leaving us the bill. Ole used to be both Teenys and Sportys best friend and band mate, but he didn’t even consider giving us an advance..... But later we thought both the NO MORE.. and I TURN TO YOU versions came out pretty well, and decided to put them on the album. We left I DID IT MY WAY (Backstreet Boys) in our trash can with Oles name on it ! IT SUCKED BIG TIME !!! Nowadays Ole has tried to convince the norwegian press that we used to be his backingband to get draw sort of attention to his BEST OF ALBUM. The biggest lie I have ever heard !!! Teeny used to write most of his songs, but often he wasn’t even credited. Ole even took credits for doing the guitarworks on his One Size Fits All album in GuitarPlayer even though Teeny had recorded every note, pulling every string and even come up with every guitar lick . Guess Ole will kill me for telling you this. Teeny too. I think Teeny’s been too kind to his old time mate, keeping his mouth shut about all this. I think Teeny deserves better !!!!
By the way, some great lyrics again. I love „Can't Get Her (Out Of My Bed)“!? :-) He he he Yeah !Thanxxx!!! Just a little dirty story from my teenage years !
Did you record any cover version for the new album? I couldn't recognise one! No! This time we had so many songs on our list that we wanted to record that we didn’t see the need for a cover song.
The first album got an extra boost from the Eurovision song contest. This time you have to make it „on your own“. Do you think you can beat the success of the debut? Eurovision Song Contest made people aware of Wig Wam, but at the same time it made the rock’n’roll audience a little suspicious. Let’s face it ! We’re a rock’n’roll band that prefers playing live onstage in clubs and rock’n’roll venues. Even though Eurovision Song Contest put us on the map, it also put a great deal of doubts regaring our credibility as a live band. Being signed to small record companies without budgets to promote us big time this was our way to make sure even you got to hear about us. Now, let’s make the music and our live performances do the talking ! I know we’ll blow any other rock act off the stage. We’re hungry and dangerous ! So beware !
I am sure you will be touring Norway for the new record, but what about other European territories? Would love to see you finally playing here in Munich!! :-) We’re definitely gonna play outside of Norway. On the last tour we did two weeks in Germany with Gotthard, supported Alice Cooper in Sweden, did concerts in Romania, Iceland and Ukrania. This year we have allready done a weekend in Iceland again, and we will go to France, England, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and hopefully Japan, where we are about to sign a record deal. There’s also some great things going on that still isn’t official. Munich ? We’d love to go there ! Hopefully Munich will be Wig Wamed during our next trip to Germany.
WIG WAM's success at the Eurovision song contest paved the way for the new Swedish contender THE POODLES and Finland's LORDI. How does it feel to be the only original!? ;-) To be honest with you we never paid too much attention to Eurovision Song Contest at all. For us it was simply a way to promote ourselves. But hey! It’s cool that we made hardrock accetable in the competition. I bet Lori will kick some serious ass this year. I will also use this opportunity to thank all our German fans, Gotthards fans and Gotthard themselves for treating us like family during our last trip to Germany. Can't wait to rock you all again !
Marco Spaeth - AOR Heaven / MRF
How is being back from Kiev? Is it still hard for you to be a Rock N Roller? ;-) Hi Marco! It feels like ages since we got back from Kiev really. There has been so much going on in theWig Wam World since then. We have played 167 gigs, released a DvD, recorded and released a new album called Wig Wamania, produced a whole new show and we’re finally back on the road again *S* Regarding being a rock’n’roller, it has never been hard in the negative way you know. And my mission with that particualer lyric was to address an „up yours“ to all those rockers who keeps complaining about their way of life, popularitys backside etc. If you choose fame and rock’n’roll you should really appreciate EVERY aspect of it. You can’t both have the cake and eat it alone too.....can you ? You’ve gotta share ! I find it easy to be a rock’n’roller, especially with the best fans in the world around. We acctually dedicated our latest record to our fans, THE WIG WAMANIACS, for standing behind us all through the years. Did you by accident know that we are celebrating our 5 year anniversary this year ?
I guess a lot of things have changed in your lifes since the release of „667... The Neighbour Of The Beast“. Can you still go shopping in Norway without writing autographs? A lot of things have changed, and most for the better. No, I can’t even go to my private toilet without writing autographs *S* And it strikes me everytime, how strange it is to be able to make someone happy by simply signing my name on a sheet of paper. It’s pretty weird ! But hey ! I feel like Santa Claus all the time *S*
When did you start working on the songs for „Wig WamMania“? Did you put some extra time into the songwriting to make sure it can keep up with your first album? No, we didn’t have time to put some extra time into neither the production nor the songwriting. But we managed to slow down the live gigs a bit from January to late February to be able to finish the album though. We met ,after a 12 days Christmas break, January 2nd in a rehearsal room, to present different songs for eachother and try them out . We also had some co-written material from soundchecks and stuff., The 3rd of January we had decided on which songs to record and started the recording prossess.
Did you feel any pressure from the fans' expecations on the new record or was it just kind of a positive push for you? Pressure is a negative word I think. We obviously felt a lot of expectations from our fans, but we felt that more like a positive x-factor that inspired us to make the best album possible. Remember ! When we recorded 667.. we didn’t have a clue what to expect. We knew what we were about as a live band, so we simply tried to bring the live essence to the album. This time around we had a lot of knowledge about who we were and who our fans were. And that made this album a lot easier to make. The only pressure was the deadline. Since we allready had booked the tour start and the release party, which were done in a bombastic way in front of 35.000 people during the World Cup in Holmenkollen, Oslo, being broadcasted to over 150 million people with me doing my first ever ...skijump....!! But that really made us work hard, and avoided us from being lazy. We had to work our asses off !!! And I think that’s a great thing ! We’re so God damn proud of this album !!!
The album was just released in Norway. When is the official release for the other territories? Here in Germany I still couldn't find it listed in any store! Wig Wamania will be released in Iceland this week. Then it’s due for an April release in Germany, Switzerland and Austria through Napalm Records. We’re also about to settle a deal with KING Records for a May release in Japan. It looks like it’s also being released in Sweden, Finland and Denmark in May as well. We’re a live band, and we’re not signed to any major recordcompany with Robbie Williams budgets. So our philosiphy is to visit each country that is releasing our record for concerts and public appearances. Right now we are working Norway out, and as soon as Germany is about to release our album we’ll go there and so on.
How would you compare the new record with the debut? I think, it's even better!!! I don’t even think it’s better ! I KNOW it’s better ! Much better production and a more solid album in every way, from the artwork to the songs. It represents who we are today, and it’s more mature I think. And I think we managed to keep the good melodies even though we put more energy to the music.
You released „Gonna Get You Someday“ as first single from the new album. I really love the song. Why did you decided for this song being the first single? We knew that we needed a strong AND commercial tune that didn’t take us too far away from the IN MY DREAMS vibe. When we started presenting our songs to eachother, we knew we had to find the first single first, because that was the one we had to start recording first because of all the deadlines. As soon as Teeny played us his demo of that song we all agreeed it was the right song for the right purpose. It was to be presented in the Norwegian Eurovision Final two days before release. Being a part of the break entertainment. It has been in the Norwegian charts ever since, being the second most sold single in this country for three weeks in a row.
Another great song is „Slave To Your Love“ which reminded me of classic EUROPE. Would you call them as an influence for your music? Sorry, but I really can’t hear Europe in that song at all, and I sure don’t think Teeny were inspired by Europe while writing it. To me it’s the most „modern“ song on the album, and to me it’s more like Green Day meets The Rasmus on a Journey day *S*
Well, and with „The Riddle“ you recorded an obvious follow-up to „The Drop“ and „Erection“. Seems your guitarist has still some Viagra left in his hands!? ;-) I don’t think so !!! HE DOESN’T NEED VIAGRA ! That’s the point ! Teeny is in his prime-time right now, working his guitar like a 18 year old stallion.
Did you get any help from Ole Evenrude again for the new album? Ole ? Who-the-fuck-is Ole ? No way ! We didn’t even plan for him to have anything to do with our first album you know. We did a demo on No More Living On Lies in a studio in Halden, Norway, which he fell in love with. He asked us if he could get our permission to mix it for free. We said, sure yeah, go ahead. Then all of a sudden he invited us to his studio. This was like 2003. He told us how much he liked this song, but he couldn’t see any reason at all for us to write original material. So he launced this idea for us to record.....BOYBAND songs the heavy way. We didn’t buy it at first, but since no one wanted to sign us we thought, let’s listen to this guy and give it a shot. After all he got all the contacts in the world and were known to be a smart ass. And a former band mate to both Sporty and Teeny as well. At the end of the day we finished 5 songs, that we couldn’t stand when they were done, and it cost us 100.000 norwegian kroner. An expensive lesson ! It was supposed to be payed by our manager, a friend of Ole, but he suddenly dissapeared leaving us the bill. Ole used to be both Teenys and Sportys best friend and band mate, but he didn’t even consider giving us an advance..... But later we thought both the NO MORE.. and I TURN TO YOU versions came out pretty well, and decided to put them on the album. We left I DID IT MY WAY (Backstreet Boys) in our trash can with Oles name on it ! IT SUCKED BIG TIME !!! Nowadays Ole has tried to convince the norwegian press that we used to be his backingband to get draw sort of attention to his BEST OF ALBUM. The biggest lie I have ever heard !!! Teeny used to write most of his songs, but often he wasn’t even credited. Ole even took credits for doing the guitarworks on his One Size Fits All album in GuitarPlayer even though Teeny had recorded every note, pulling every string and even come up with every guitar lick . Guess Ole will kill me for telling you this. Teeny too. I think Teeny’s been too kind to his old time mate, keeping his mouth shut about all this. I think Teeny deserves better !!!!
By the way, some great lyrics again. I love „Can't Get Her (Out Of My Bed)“!? :-) He he he Yeah !Thanxxx!!! Just a little dirty story from my teenage years !
Did you record any cover version for the new album? I couldn't recognise one! No! This time we had so many songs on our list that we wanted to record that we didn’t see the need for a cover song.
The first album got an extra boost from the Eurovision song contest. This time you have to make it „on your own“. Do you think you can beat the success of the debut? Eurovision Song Contest made people aware of Wig Wam, but at the same time it made the rock’n’roll audience a little suspicious. Let’s face it ! We’re a rock’n’roll band that prefers playing live onstage in clubs and rock’n’roll venues. Even though Eurovision Song Contest put us on the map, it also put a great deal of doubts regaring our credibility as a live band. Being signed to small record companies without budgets to promote us big time this was our way to make sure even you got to hear about us. Now, let’s make the music and our live performances do the talking ! I know we’ll blow any other rock act off the stage. We’re hungry and dangerous ! So beware !
I am sure you will be touring Norway for the new record, but what about other European territories? Would love to see you finally playing here in Munich!! :-) We’re definitely gonna play outside of Norway. On the last tour we did two weeks in Germany with Gotthard, supported Alice Cooper in Sweden, did concerts in Romania, Iceland and Ukrania. This year we have allready done a weekend in Iceland again, and we will go to France, England, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and hopefully Japan, where we are about to sign a record deal. There’s also some great things going on that still isn’t official. Munich ? We’d love to go there ! Hopefully Munich will be Wig Wamed during our next trip to Germany.
WIG WAM's success at the Eurovision song contest paved the way for the new Swedish contender THE POODLES and Finland's LORDI. How does it feel to be the only original!? ;-) To be honest with you we never paid too much attention to Eurovision Song Contest at all. For us it was simply a way to promote ourselves. But hey! It’s cool that we made hardrock accetable in the competition. I bet Lori will kick some serious ass this year. I will also use this opportunity to thank all our German fans, Gotthards fans and Gotthard themselves for treating us like family during our last trip to Germany. Can't wait to rock you all again !
Marco Spaeth - AOR Heaven / MRF
