MIKE TRAMP: 'I Don't Want To Do WHITE LION No More'

Rock Meeting conducted an interview with former WHITE LION singer Mike Tramp after his March 19 solo performance at Rocher de Palmer in Bordeaux, France. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked about the possibility of a WHITE LION reunion with the band's original guitarist, Vito Bratta, Tramp said: "The thing that has been difficult is that when you always have to answer a question that [Vito] should be [answering]. And the thing is that the answer is no. Because he is not gonna get back up on stage and play music. Number two, I don't want to do WHITE LION no more. I didn't wanna do WHITE LION after the band broke up, because the sound of WHITE LION represents who Mike Tramp was at that time. Even though I am out now playing some acoustic versions of WHITE LION songs, it's different [because] I'm a completely different person. I would not say 'no' if Vito called me up and [wanted to] do a project or something like [Jimmy] Page and [Robert] Plant and they do something different. But the second you call it WHITE LION, you want Mike Tramp to sound like he was in 1987, and I can't be like that… We have our times. There are some artists who don't understand that; they keep trying to be the same. But you do change as you grow older."

Tramp will release new solo album, "Cobblestone Street", in North America on May 7 via Deadline Music, a subsidiary of Cleopatra Records. The effort will be made available in Europe on April 8 via Target Records in the following formats: CD, limited digipack CD (with two bonus tracks),LP and digitally.

"Cobblestone Street" is a departure from the sound that most people would expect from a singer that has been around since WHITE LION crashed on to the hard rock scene in the '80s. Rock fans have gotten to know Mike Tramp as a legit rock singer and frontman that looked like he was born to be just that. Therefore many might find it surprising that Tramp's roots and musical upbringing lie deeply buried in folk music.

Heavily influenced by fellow Danish artists with acoustic guitars and international stars like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, Tramp says that all of his songs through 35 years on the music stage, have always come from sitting with the old faithful acoustic guitar playing and singing. That WHITE LION songs like "When the Children Cry", "Broken Heart" and "Wait", and FREAK OF NATURE's "Rescue Me" later have ended up as epic rock classics is just a question of arranging them in that way with the band in the rehearsal room, but all songs have always been fit to play around the campfire or in the back of a shady bar.