Intervju - Mike Monroe, Hanoi Rocks Finska Hanoi Rocks är en stor del av den finska musikhistorien, då de var ett av de första finska rockbanden som gjorde sig ett namn utomlands. Hade det inte varit för Mike Monroe och hans gäng, kanske Guns and Roses hade sett annorlunda ut. Amerikanarna har ju gång på gång visat sin uppskattning för finnarna och hävdat att de var en av deras riktigt stora influenser i mitten av 80-talet. Dagens Hanoi Rocks ser något annorlunda ut än när det verkligen begav sig för mer än 20 år sedan. Kvar är Mike Monroe och Andy McCoy, men resten av bandet är nya ansikten. Eller nya och nya? Conny Bloom och Andy Christell var ju en del av den svenska rockeliten i Electric Boys, men numera återfinns de alltså i det finska världsbandet. Nya plattan heter "Street poetry" och är en pigg liten sak på 13 spår. Vi tog tillfället i akt och ringde upp herr Monroe i Finland för att få svar på några frågor. Här nedan följer hela intervjun. Hi! This is Niclas from Sweden! Mike Monroe: Hi Niclas! How ya doin´? Fine. How are you? MM: Pretty good, pretty good! The new album?First of all I have to say it sounds brilliant. MM: Oh, thank you! I really like it and there´s a bit of a classic Hanoi Rocks feel to it and you´ve made a perfect mix with the new sound as well. MM: Thank you. It´s great to hear that. Why the title "Street poetry"? Where did it come from? MM: The song "Street poetry", we´ve had that for a while. It´s really about this homeless guy sitting on a subway station observing people and kind of being invisible to them. Watching people rush off to work and back. There was actually a guy like this at a tube station in London. Me and Andy used to see this guy under the bridge there and he would stand up once in a while and recite poetry and we thought he wrote it himself. That´s what this idea was really about. So that´s what the song´s about, but it could be anybody. It could be any homeless person. There´s a bit of a street poet in all of us and we always maintained our street credibility and we figured with Hanoi it was the perfect title for the album. Were there any other titles around that you were thinking about before you ended up with this one? MM: No, actually not! We figured this pretty early on. We thought about it for the last album, but it wasn´t the right record for it yet. But it was pretty early on that we decided on this one. When did you start working on the album? MM: We started working on it in April. We actually did the single "Fashion" in April and it was just the first song that was ready, so we decided to put that one as the single. We recorded that in a week or two and then we had a break for a couple of weeks and then we went back in, in May. We rehearsed for about a week and then started recording. It took about a month and a half for the whole thing. How did you work on this one? Do you work by yourself or with Andy? MM: We did everything together this time, with the band. Me and Andy, AC, Conny and Lacu together in a studio. For the last album "Another hostile takeover" we didn´t really rehearse much. We just went in and Lacu did the drums in a couple of days and then it was me and Andy over a period of several months. Four or five months. We were working on it in the studio and I was playing a lot of the guitars too because we only had me and Andy. Conny Bloom joined the band towards the end of the recording. He just played a little bit of guitar. AC didn´t play. I played most of the bass too, so AC didn´t even play any bass on the last album. This time, since the beginning of 2005, when Conny and AC joined the band we´ve had the band together pretty tight and the chemistry really locked into place. This time we really made the album as a band. Recorded it live. The drums and bass took about five days to a week. We recorded sixteen songs altogether and some of the guitars were kept in the basic tracks too. We were doing it together as a band. We wanted to capture the live sound of the band and the live vibe and not do too many overdubs on this one. It´s basically two guitars, bass and drums and vocals. Some solo overdubs, a couple of sax solos. A horn section on a couple of tracks and some piano on a couple of tracks and that´s about it. Classic stuff! Did Conny and AC bring any songs or did they just help out with stuff? MM: Well, Conny actually, more than anyone else, he had some riffs and stuff that turned into songs. "Hypermobile" he had a riff for and "Power of persuasion"...we had that verse forever. Andy´s had that verse for a really long time and Conny had an intro riff that he always thought sounded too much like Hanoi Rocks (laughs) and now that he´s in Hanoi we could use it. It really fell into place and we did the chorus together. "Powertrip" was his originally and we reworked it with Andy and fixed the chorus up and stuff. And "Tootin´ star"... "Tootin´ star" was another riff that Conny had, which he thought sounded too much like "Oriental beat". He´s had that one for a long time too and then we figured "Hey, that´s cool!" and then we worked it into a song. The outro, the musical thing, "Fumblefoot and Busy Bee", that was Conny´s pretty much. He had already written that somewhere in the 80´s. Andy added something to it so Andy gets credit. We came up with the name together. Me and Andy have had several different names over the years and maybe that´s us, "Fumblefoot and Busy Bee" (laughs). I am the hypermobile busy bee (laughs). But yeah, Conny brought a lot to the band and AC helped with some lyrics on "Tootin´ star", so he gets credit. Lacu even came up with a riff for a song that is actually not on the album because we had too many songs. It was a choice between "Tootin´ star" and that one and Lacu was the first one to say that "Tootin´ star" was a better choice for the entirety for all the tracks. So that´s gonna be on a b-side for a single in the future. About the song "Tootin´ star", does that have anything to do with the old track "Tooting bec wreck"? Is it about Tooting in London? MM: No, no it´s not! It´s like a rootin´, tootin´, shootin´ star! It´s about a dumbass rock star who falls for the trappings of fame, you know. All the sex, drugs and rock and roll bullshit. The typical stereotype of a LA hair band (laughs). No one in particular. Just a guy that falls for the showbiz disease. That´s what the "tootin´" is about. There´s a lot of shootin´ stars and this is the tootin´ star. "Tooting bec" was the place where we lived. There´s a place called Tooting. I know! MM: Yeah. But you know what tootin´ means? Kind of yeah. MM: Tootin´ is like taking a snort. Powdering your nose and party hardy dude and chicks and stuff and all you´ve got left is emptiness. And no money in the bank (laughs). Why produce it yourselves? Was that the idea from the beginning or did you have any idea for a producer? MM: Well, we did it ourselves because we could. We have so much experience between all of us, that we really didn´t need anybody else to produce it. That doesn´t mean that we´re shutting out the idea of having somebody producing us in the future. We´re still open for that, but at the time there was nobody offering to produce it so we figured we could do it really well ourselves. We had a really good recording engineer and he´s done the last two albums as well and he´s top of the line. A world class recording engineer. He´s very good so were in good hands with that and me and Conny and AC were there most of the time. I was there all the time and Conny and AC were there almost all the time and Andy came in... Andy is not there for the whole part of the mixing. He just comes in with fresh ears. But we worked together as a band really and Lacu came too. As I said before, last time Lacu was there for two days and this time he was there for at least two weeks and even more so. He was coming in now and then. We really made it like a band effort. What´s next then? You´re doing a couple of shows in Finland, right? And then you´re heading for Japan in October? MM: Yeah, around October 20th we´re gonna do five shows in Japan. There was a tour in the works for UK in November, but I think it´s gonna fall through. I don´t think it´s gonna happen. It´s not being put together right. Is that the one together with LA Guns? MM: Yeah, and it looks like it´s not gonna happen now. We gave the promotor, an American guy, we gave him a deadline til the end of this week. Friday (Sep 14th) actually and if we don´t get some decent papers like contract and stuff, we´re just gonna cancel it. We´ve got the Welldone Agency in Finland and they´re booking us now and we´re putting together a European tour and we´re coming to Sweden too definitely. Next year, as soon as possible. We´re gonna try to tour heavy with this album. What´s it like coming back to Japan? You´ve must´ve been there a million times? Is it still special? MM: It is. It´s always special to go there. I think this will be my 15th time for me personally. I´ve been there many times solo too. It´s always great to play in Japan. Everything works like clockwork. People are very professional. It´s a nice country to visit. It´s very clean and people are very polite and we have a special relationship with the Japanese. Maybe it´s the oriental kind of imagery, because we´ve always been into that culture. The Hanoi logo has always been kind of oriental looking. I have the geisha girl tattoo on my shoulder. We were one of the first bands with a blonde lead singer and after a while tons of Western bands had... and I always wondered what it was with these Western bands and the blonde lead singer (laughs). "Big in Japan!". Before too long everyone was "big in Japan", but we´ve kept our fans there. We have a new generation of fans there. So when we play the halls there, up on the balcony you can see there´s a lot of suits and ties and they´re loosening their ties and start rocking and on the floor there´s a lot of younger kids. Definitely a great country to tour in and they´ve always been good to us. Are you going there yourselves or are you bringing another band with you? MM: Just by ourselves. There´s a festival in Tokyo with Marilyn Manson headlining and we´re playing before them. It´s Loud Park. Right, right, right! MM: And then we´re doing four more shows ourselves. Cool! You should join Manson on stage and give him a saxophone solo! He could need that. MM: He could (laughs)? Well, I have to bring it up. Great idea! I´ll tell him that! Absolutely! I was thinking, how would you compare today with the heydays and the craziness of the 80´s. Was it much different than it is today? Was it more exciting back then? MM: Well, it´s actually more exciting now when the band is so good. I really enjoy playing now and you know everything is working, but it´s always exciting to play. So in a way it´s more exciting now and I feel that we´re so much better than before and it´s exciting to see how people react to the new record and the songs live. You can only get better at what you do. It was exciting then... but we know so much more now. I´m actually reading a great book about Guns´n Roses now and on every other page they keep saying how they wanted to be like Hanoi Rocks and that you were a huge influence on them back when they started out. Did you ever think, when they started to take off and sell millions of records, that it should´ve been you selling all the records since they took a lot of what you had? MM: No, I never felt that! Not at all! I was always happy for their success and they definitely earned it themselves. I´m thankful for them recognizing the Hanoi Rocks influence and talking about it in the press. A lot of bands weren´t really that talented and they sold a lot of records and really just deliberately tried to fake something out of it with the looks and not having much to back it up with. But Guns´n Roses really had their own thing and they were secure enough in themselves to quote Hanoi Rocks as an influence. Also, they released a lot of the old catalog in America with their Uzi/Suicide label. So they were definitely paying homage to us and they were being very cool. I´ve never been envious of their success, quite the opposite, I´ve been very happy for them. I was part of it. I played on their records and I was happy to be part of it. It´s always fun working with those guys. Slash played the right kind of guitar because he grew up with Hanoi and mine and Andy´s playing. I actually did something with him for the movie "Coneheads". Yeah, I know! MM: Yeah, that´s a great song and it turned out great. It´s always fun working with him and I still keep in touch with him. Do you remember the first time you met those guys? MM: I met Axl... he came to my video shoot in New York. I was shooting a video for "Dead, jail or rock and roll". He showed up and just came to say hi and he introduced himself. I got to talk to him and he was a big Nazareth fan and I was like "Wow, a Nazareth fan!". He didn´t realize that "Not faking it" was a cover of a Nazareth song. He had heard the record and he was really into it and he liked the song "Dead, jail or rock and roll", so I said "Why don´t you come up and do a couple of takes with us?". He came up on stage and he ended up in the video. I got along with him great and I always had a nice time with him. I never had a problem with him. I hear all these horror stories, but he´s always been cool with me. It was fun working with those guys afterwards. Playing sax on their record and we did the duet "Ain´t if fun". That was magical and they have great star quality. A great band and it´s a shame that they didn´t stay together. Have you met Axl lately? MM: He was in Finland some time ago and I didn´t meet him then but we said hello through the press. I said nice things about him in the press and he said to say hello and all that stuff. Slash I talk to more often. We call each other now and then and keep in touch. We talked about going on tour together with them, but it hasn´t been the right time yet for Hanoi. But that would be cool, with Velvet Revolver. That would be awesome! MM: Yeah, maybe one day. I know you´re busy with Hanoi Rocks now, but are there plans for future solo albums? MM: Well, I couldn´t say. Right now there are no plans. I´m just concentrating on Hanoi Rocks and right now I have no need to make a solo record. I´m just happy being the singer in a band right now. That´s always what I wanted to be, I never chose to go solo. That was only because Hanoi broke up. I´m happy about the solo stuff because I developed as a songwriter in my solo years. Right now this band is so strong that I want to keep it together. When you´re on the road, do you write a lot of music or do you just write when you´re recording? MM: We get ideas all the time. Me and Andy, on and off we sit down and go "Oh wow, this is a great idea!". When it´s time to make an album we collect all the ideas and put them together. This time I did demos at home and Andy came over sometimes and we did it together. This time Conny had some demos he´d made at home and we had most of the songs ready, but Conny did cowrite four, no five songs. When it´s time to make a record we just finalize them with the band and we arranged everything with the band. So we get ideas all the time. It´s not like you shut off the writing when you´re on tour. Actually, when we´re on tour we´re together so much that we end up jamming in the tour bus. Cool! Any thoughts of a live album or dvd? MM: Yeah, there´s been plans for that for a while now. Maybe within a year or so. We just want to tour with this album a bit more and have some more footage of us live. Some gigs have been documented, like the "Fashion" cd has some live tracks on it from last March in Helsinki. That gig was filmed, but we want to have some more footage still. But it´s in the works and we´re planning to put a dvd together. Actually, eventually the whole Hanoi story with some of the old footage would be cool. It´s about time we made some kind of a book too... there´s actually a Finnish guy who´s written a cool coverage of the old Hanoi Rocks which has not been released. We were planning to write, you know, that´s like the Old Testament (laughs), so we have to write the New Testament as well, so that´s in the works too. This guy has written it in Finnish and it´s really great. Great coverage of the first, you know, the wasted years, so it´s half way there really. It would be cool to have a book with a dvd. That would be really fantastic. We´re just trying to get the finances together for it. Is there any stuff left song wise through the years that hasn´t been released yet? MM: Musically or video? Musically, like unreleased songs? MM: "Teenage revolution" was an old idea. There was a demo of that one that was done in ´84. That chorus was from that time. Some of these ideas are from quite a long way back. The chorus for "Fashion" was definitely Andy´s from 2001 or even before. What do you do with all the old suff? Do you keep it in a box or what? MM: I have cd´s with a lot of the old demos that someone once transferred. But they were never finished and we´re not planning on releasing it. Some of it has been actually. When they re-released "Two steps from the move" and "Back to mystery city", there were bonus tracks. Yeah, I know. MM: So stuff like that we´ve done, but there aren´t that much stuff that hasn´t been exploited in one way or another. Most of the demos were released at one point or another, so we´re just concentrating on new stuff. We´d rather just rework it into new songs like "Teenage revolution". That´s the best way to use those old ideas. I guess. So tour in the works and we´ll hopefully see you guys in Sweden next year. MM: Yeah! We just did "Sommarkrysset". Right! MM: That was fun! We reached a lot of people. "Fashion" is just one side of the band and we´re a hard rocking band and it doesn´t really represent the whole album. That´s just one side of it, so we figured that was a good song to do. We would´ve liked to do another one, a rocker, but I guess they only have time for one song. Yeah, it´s always a matter of time. It´s been absolutely great talking to you Mike. MM: It´s been great talking to you too.

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