EUROPE Has 'Started Talking About' Making New Album

EUROPE frontman Joey Tempest has confirmed to Finland's Kaaos TV that he and his bandmates have "started talking about" making the follow-up to 2017's "Walk The Earth" album. "Everybody is collecting ideas individually," he said (see video below). "And that's how we start. And sometimes we start something we call the 'Sunday club,' where every Sunday you contribute an idea, we e-mail an idea to each other. So we may do that again. It's kind of good, because it keeps you on your toes, it keeps you producing stuff at home. And then you get the ball rolling. And as soon as you get two or three great ideas going, then it starts rolling. And then you come into that six-month period before the recording, where we meet up and we rehearse together."

He continued: "We send a lot of ideas in different ways. We write in many different ways. Me and Mic [Michaeli] meet up sometimes, the keyboard player, and I play drums and sing and he plays keyboards, and we jam for two days straight. So we have 12 to 13 hours of material that I go back to London to sift through. And then I sift through all the jamming bits and I take that bit and that bit and that bit, send it back to Mic and say, 'What do you think of this?' And then we start. That's how a lot of great EUROPE tracks have come about — me and Mic just jamming and picking out the best bits."

According to Tempest, EUROPE doesn't "write so much on the road". He explained: "We've never been like that. We're a soundcheck band as well. So we always soundcheck. We soundcheck whenever we can. Festivals is more difficult, as you know. But it's possible sometimes — you can go in the morning and do it.

"What happens to us is usually we write for six months when the touring has come to an end on an album," he continued. "So it takes us about four to six months to write, to get everything together, get 75 to 80 percent ready, music and lyrics. Then we go into the studio and then we work fast — record everything live in two weeks. This is how we've done it on 'Bag Of Bones' [2012], 'War Of Kings' [2015] and 'Walk The Earth'. The last three EUROPE albums were recorded fast, because those fast decisions are amazing in the studio — everybody's there; everybody's on fire. That's how those great albums were made in the '70s — on the spot, when that glow and that fire is there."

While stressing the importance of improvisation in the studio, Tempest said that "you should be prepared. You don't wanna waste time in the studio and waste anybody's time. So if you're 75 percent ready, the last bit the producer can help out with or the circumstances, or whatever happens happens in the studio. But we've been so lucky working with Dave Cobb — a great musician and producer and a great guy to just hang with. He's now part of the band. Like he works with RIVAL SONS, he also works with us. He's part of the band when we're in the studio with him. He writes with us. He comes up with great ideas. He sits and plays the songs with us in a circle in the studio before we record it, and then we just slam it down live, three or four takes, and pick the best takes to work on and to finish up. And the nerve is there, the decisions were made right there, and that's how you make great rock records."

"Walk The Earth" was released in October 2017 via Hell & Back Recordings (Silver Lining Music). It was recorded at famed Abbey Road Studios in London with the aforementioned Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (RIVAL SONS, Shooter Jennings, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton).