Intervju - Nuno Bettencourt, Extreme Extreme tog ju världen med storm när deras andra platta "Pornograffitti" såg dagens ljus 1990. Själv knockades jag rejält och tyckte att bandet var en frisk fläkt i det dåvarande musikklimatet. Men efter stordådet och världsuccéen blev det nästan plattfall och bandet nådde aldrig upp igen till de höjder som nyss nämnda platta tagit dem till. Några år senare splittrades bandet och främst Nuno Bettencourt och Gary Cherone gav sig ut på andra musikaliska äventyr. Cherone var ju under en mycket kort tid sångare i Van Halen. Nu skriver vi 2008, 18 år sedan det stora genombrottet och bandet har återsamlats till tre fjärdedelar och gett ut en riktigt bra platta i och med "Saudades de Rock". Metal Shrine tog givestvis tillfället i akt och ringde upp Nuno i Los Angeles. Det blev ett kort samtal på en halvtaskig lina, vilket alltid förvånar med tanke på den tekniktid vi lever i. Det blev ett snack om bl a frånvaron, eventuellt Sverigebesök och bonusmaterial. How are you? Nuno Bettencourt: I´m alright, I´m alright. When did you start working on the album and how long did it take to get it done? NB: We started, I believe, in September last year and it took us about three, four months to get it all done and mixed and mastered and all that. Why did you produce it yourselves and not bring in an outside producer? Was that the idea from the beginning, that you were gonna do it yourselves? NB: Well, you know, we´ve always been involved in our own productions from the beginning. Whenever you read a producer that´s on an Extreme record, chances are that it didn´t turn out very well and we fought and he didn´t really do anything. It´s always been the case so we figured we´ve done enough records and we´ve had som success and some not success and if we can´t figure how to arrange and produce a song by now, we´ve got problems. Right. How many songs were written for this album and how many songs were recorded? Is it just those songs on the album? Were there a lot of left overs? NB: Eeehh, you know what, I think we wrote something like 25 or 26 songs. Who came up with the title? NB: That would have to be the Portuguese guy in the band, I think. (laughs) Were there any other titles floating around or did that one come straight away? NB: We were looking around for titles and we were thinking about it. It´s tough when you´ve been gone for 13 years and you´re not just naming a record, you´re kind of almost making a kind of a statement or where you´re at and "Saudades" is a word that really described how we were feeling. It´s been a while and we were never sure if we were gonna do this again and all those sort of meanings and all those things come with that word. I kind of said it almost thinking that they didn´t want to do it, but they really liked it and in fact, "Saudades" is one of the few portuguese words that there isn´t another word for it in English, so that´s interesting also. What´s it like being back in the studio again? Did you click right away? I understand you´ve kept in touch with gary, but did you stay in touch with Pat as well? NB: Yeah, with Pat, we were less in touch but we were still never the less in touch, but it wasn´t like Extreme ended. I basically left Extreme in ´95. It wasn´t hatred or a bad thing going on, it was more like my heart was not in it anymore and we maintained our friendships and that was that. What was it that made it take so long? Why didn´t it happen 6 or 7 years ago? NB: I guess everybody had stuff to do. I had stuff to do. You know, when you´re with a family, Extreme is like a family and we spent 11 years every day together without breaks, which was probably one of the reasons why we split. We should´ve taken breaks between albums and tours. That would´ve helped, but we didn´t. You get to a point when you´re with your family at home and at some point you just want to leave and go away and get away from them. It´s not a matter of not loving them, it´s a matter of it´s time for a change and you want to travel the world and see other places and see other things and then you do that and sometimes while you´re away, you go to one country that maybe wasn´t very kind to you. In my case it was the "Satellite" project with Perry Farrell. That was not a good experience for me and it was actually one of the worse experiences I´ve had. Dealing with people and personalities. Not surrounded positivity, a lot of negativity and deceit and things like that, but I have a lot to thank for, because it made me realize that it´s time to go home. "I think you´ve traveled enough, I think you´ve seen enough. I think it´s time to go home." and it made me realize that we had something special with Extreme. It was ours and it was mine and I never felt that with the "Satellite" project. It was kind of a bad/good experience. Are you and Gary the main song writers in the band? Did you write all the material or did the other guys bring in stuff as well? NB: Yeah, we always were the main song writers. Not by choice, that´s just the way it is. We just always wrote a lot more on our own and together, but when we jammed with the band, some of the songs on this record come from different places. Sometimes when Kevin was playing drums, Pat was there and everybody´s get a vibe together and that´s the way it goes. About the tour now. As far as I can see, you´re playing Portugal and Spain and you´re going to Japan. Will there be more places in Europe later on, like coming to Sweden? NB: Yes, absolutely! We´re actually very disappointed. I kind of fought a little when I got the Europe, UK schedule. I was really disappointed of all the places we weren´t going to, that we always had fond memories of, like Sweden and the Scandinavian countries and I kind of argued for it, but they had booked the other side first which was the Asian side, so by the time they got the beginning going for Europe we couldn´t squeeze in any more dates. I made them promise me that we´re gonna come back next year and we´re gonna do all the cities and the countries that we din´t do and maybe do some festivals in the ones we did do. Do proper headlining shows, so we´re definitely gonna do that next year. We apologize to everyone. You should come to Sweden Rock Festival next year! That´s a really big festival. NB: Ok, well I´m gonna have to mention that to our agent over there. I´m wondering about the song "Americocaine", which is a bonus track here. It´s such a killer song. Why did you include that one and is there more of that stuff lying around? NB: There´s plenty of that stuff lying around. (laughs) They wanted bonus tracks and I´m not a big fan of bonus tracks, new bonus tracks, because all they do is extend the record. A true bonus track is something that fans will enjoy and don´t have. I said to Gary "Hey man, let´s dig up some old demos!". We were together for about 2 weeks when we demoed that song. We thought that maybe this would be something for people to enjoy. You know, sometimes it´s good, sometimes it´s a little embarassing, but we thought that it´s like an old photograph and let´s show everybody what it felt like way back then. You should play it live! NB: Yeah, we thought about doing it live now. It´s probably a good time to do it. Any thought of, since you have stuff lying around, later on releasing outtakes, demos, live stuff and things like that? NB: Well, that´s basically what we´re doing. We have some demos. We did one for the Asian release, which is kind of cool. Right now the focus is on the new record and the tour, all that other stuff like bonus things, they all come up when we talk different scenarios and we might be recording one of the London shows for a dvd. We´ll see how it goes. When you started out, what was the Boston music scene like in the mid 80´s? Was it a happening scene and a lot of bands like you? NB: It was. We were lucky enough to have a scene at all considering what´s going on now. Most of the clubs we played at are gone. They´re like GAPs, clothing stores you know. It´s crazy. But there was a very rich scene with all kinds of music in Boston. Metal, pop, dance music. It was incredible! I tried to explain it to my drummer Kevin, who´s 10 years younger than I am. He looked at the scene now and the scene he grew up with was kind of terrible and he was like "God, I missed out on the period when there was a lot of musicians in town and a lot of people trying to make it happen.". What´s your take on the music industry today. A band like Extreme, you release a new record and I´ve asked other bands this, but do you expect to sell records these days? NB: To answer your question, no we don´t expect to sell many records at all. I don´t think anybody does. A lot of bands used to sell tons of platinum records and now you´re looking at the Rolling Stone chart and you´re lucky if you see one or two, like a new hip hop artist or something. Put it this way, if you´re not working with Timbaland or Justin Timberlake, chances are you´re not gonna sell a lot of records. If they´re not producing one of your tracks and you´re not on the i-Tunes top 10 download, you´re pretty much screwed. That´s ok. It kind of takes away the pressures from everybody. It makes them create art and not hits. Makes them create good records and knowing that people are gonna steal it, knowing that people are gonna share it, knowing that some people are gonna buy it, but the important thing is that it puts the focus back on touring and being an actual good band. You have to have the skills now to make people come see you. Makes sense. When you put out "Pornograffitti", did you feel a lot of pressure putting out an album after that one or did you just go "We´ll make another album and see how it goes!"? NB: If we had pressure it probably woul´ve worked out better, but the truth is that we are always selfishly in our own world making records, just like we did the new one. We never try to make it sound like an old one or current sound or something ground breaking. We just did what we did. Whatever songs we wrote, whatever we were doing at the time, that was the focus and that´s what we did, because we didn´t want to try and recreate anything. Write another "More than words" or another "Get the funk out". Let´s just write and keep it on and keep it good and whatever happens happens. Ok. How involved are you when it comes to coming up with new ideas for guitars for Washburn? NB: I work with them a lot on it. I try not to change too far from what I play. I don´t want to be pretencious and come up with all these different guitars and that´s basically the last thing I wanted to do, was to put out amplifiers and guitars and things that I´m lying to everybody that you´re using, so I try to keep it to things I use. Alright! Thanks a million Nuno and I really hope to see you in Sweden soon. NB: You will! We´ll see you next year in Sweden and we´re definitely gonna look at the festival stuff, but either way we´re gonna be there guaranteed. Great! Thak you so much! NB: Cheers man!
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