EUROPE's JOEY TEMPEST Hopes To 'Mix In Blues And Soul' On Next Album

EUROPE singer Joey Tempest was interviewed by rock journalist Mitch Lafon for a recent edition of the "One On One With Mitch Lafon" podcast (Facebook page). You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On EUROPE's musical evolution over the years:

"We never really wanted to repeat ourselves; it was kind of always that way. And we are always kind of the underdogs as well. We sort of take our turns and try to keep ourselves on the toes and do slightly different things on every album. But we're still hungry and we wanna make interesting records. Yeah, it's been an interesting journey coming back. We've done five albums now [since reuniting] — as many as we did in the first period of EUROPE. But this is a different adventure. I mean, we try to find a deeper expression, we try to incorporate the blues that we have in us to use that on recordings. We try to incorporate the thousand shows we've done together and play live in the studio and really capture the essence of the band rather than overworking it and overproducing it. I think too many bands are stuck in that way of working and need to break out of that and find the essence of every instrument and find a vibe. But it's easy to say, of course, but if you have guys like [producers] Kevin Shirley or Dave Cobb, they can handle it and they can help you get really interesting records out of… made, basically, performing live in the studio."

On whether EUROPE had any reservations about performing "The Final Countdown" for a GEICO commercial and being associated closely with that song again:

"Yeah, we were aware of all that. But we wanted… I remember seeing Iggy Pop's commercial over here for an insurance company, and he did it with a tongue-in-cheek attitude and it was kind of humorous as well. And I thought, 'Yeah, we can do this. If we do a great version of it and we do it seriously.' And it turned out great. But, yeah, we knew that 'The Final Countdown' would come into focus again. But in America, we hadn't been there for ten years, and if we can get some people to talk about us again, maybe we can build our relationship again with America. And that's the idea. And coming over, playing some new tracks, and hopefully releasing the back catalogue and spreading the word… I mean, we're proud of 'The Final Countdown', and I'm proud of it. Years have passed now since [I expressed any concern about being only known as 'The Final Countdown Guy'], and I don't really feel that anymore. I feel it's a great track and we're proud of playing it live. it's part of us, and we're ready… We'll play it anywhere, and we also play our new songs, because they're strong and we feel proud of 'em. So, yeah, it works."

On EUROPE's plans to record the next album with producer Dave Cobb:

"Yeah, we talked about it, and Dave seems interested, we are interested. Hopefuly we'll come together. The idea is to go and record the next album September/October next year for an early 2017 release. That's the band's plan, and we hope we can stick to it. We had a great time last time with Dave, and we hope that this comes together."

On EUROPE's musical direction on the upcoming album:

"We are very organic in that sense. We don't decide where to go until we have the songs, until we are in the studio and starting recording. Everything with EUROPE just happens quite fast. We record basic tracks in two or three weeks — that's it — and then we start putting it together and mixing it. It's impossible to say. What we like to do is challenge ourselves with every record. We wanna go slightly left or slightly right on every record, and that's gonna happen again. I mean, I'm sure there'll be some twists and turns. But we have found a good thread now with 'Bag Of Bones' with Kevin Shirley and 'War Of Kings' with Dave Cobb. It's moving organically somewhere, and we're excited about it, so we don't wanna analyze it too much; we just wanna go with it. What we want to do is find a deeper expression and maybe mix in blues and soul a little bit. It's amazing for us; after a thousand shows, a band from Stockholm being able to record songs like 'Praise You' or 'Angels (With Broken Hearts)' with a bit of a dynamic and depth and expression that we never thought we could do. So if we can explore that even further, that would be amazing."