THERION Singer SNOWY SHAW Discusses Side Projects

RockersDigest.com recently conducted an interview with Snowy Shaw, current singer with THERION and former drummer of DREAM EVIL and KING DIAMOND. A couple of excerpts follow:

RockersDigest.com: What can you reveal about the glam-rock-punk-metal project?

Snowy: Well, at this point I prefer not to reveal too much about it, but I can say this much. We call it XXX, as in triple x, and currently me and guitarist/engineer X are finishing up the recording that we've been working on off and on for some time during breaks and I've been writing on tours as well. We go into mix with Andy La Rocque in his brand new studio in about three weeks, and I feel it's gonna be really fucking great album, I can just feel it in my gut.

RockersDigest.com: In a similar sphere of music you've been helping out the Swedish band LOUD 'N' NASTY, who bill themselves as "the return of rock 'n' roll decadence." Are you a fully fledged member of this outfit and what is the plan?

Snowy: They say that about themselves? Ha ha ha! Well, they are real good guys and real good friends of mine and initially I thought I could help them a little, though they've struggled for almost 10 years without getting anywhere and I thought they deserved a chance. So among other things, I ended up producing a three-song single with them and told them to get rid of their not so good drummer and then I played the drums on the songs. We mixed it with Kee Marcello and it was released in Sweden only on some smaller Swedish label. I later also brought my bass playing friend to the ranks, so that the singer could better concentrate on his singing and for a little while things worked just fine …then along came the return of the decadence ha ha ha!.

RockersDigest.com: You mentioned "other things" When we last spoke, you were hoping to put a project together with Mats Levén called S&M, schedules permitting. Has anything happened with this?

Snowy: Not that much really, our busy schedules haven't permitted it, like you said that I had said earlier on. What happened is that we wrote a bunch of great songs together and recorded some rough demos in my old house. Then Mats took the files and worked very much with it on his own while I was busy doing other stuff. He did a terrific job and it sounds great. Honestly, I think the best way, since it seems to be a higher priority for him, would be to drop the "S" in the name and to do a solo album with the material. I'm sure he'll get a good deal with a decent record label for it and I'd gladly help out in any way I can for my great dear friend. I've been meaning to bring this up with him, but there has never been the right time and place. I'll try to do it within the next few days.

RockersDigest.com: Last May you were laying down drums for an unnamed project for a CD called OPERA DIABOLICUS which Andy La Rocque was due to mix. What's the story?

Snowy: Yeah, I dropped the guys a mail last week asking if they died or what the fuck is happening. I thought the album would be released by now. It's not like there's any big mystery or secrecy surrounding this project and it is no longer unnamed. I persuaded them to use the album title as the band name instead. The album was finished 6-8 months ago and Andy's mix turned out really, really good. Besides myself it features some guest appearances from members of bands like DRAGONLAND, DREAMLAND, or whatever. First they hired me to do some vocals on the self-financed album about 18 months ago and they used programmed drums on it, until they realized it didn't work out in the mix. So the very last thing that was recorded was my drum tracks, when in most normal cases it is the first thing you record for logical reasons. Anyway, it's a great album in a classic style if you're into KING DIAMOND, CANDLEMASS, MEMENTO MORI, NOTRE DAME and I hope it will be available in the stores before summer.

RockersDigest.com: I also read you were playing with METAL FÜR ALLE with Kriss Göbel (ex-FALCONER),Michael Åberg (ex-NOSTRADAMEUS). Is this just a fun covers project?

Snowy: Yes, it is. Easy money, too, of course. You surely are well informed on every little piss thing I do, I'm impressed. In contrast to most musicians, I've somehow managed to stay away from the covers thing all my life and pretty much thought of it as some sort of prostitution but Kriss does this a lot, and he called me to once to fill in for their double booked drummer and to my surprise I had a really great time. I just showed up unrehearsed and played classics for 2-3 hours. I didn't even know what songs we were supposed to be playing, Kriss would just call out things like "The Trooper" and we just played it on the spot. I always loved to jam but those occasions are unfortunately rare and very far in between these days. Anyway, they called me again and I sat in for them another time, and they thought it was so much more fun playing with me and easier too. So we decided that we should try to do this more often whenever we weren't doing stuff and formed a new concept of a cover band doing, as the name suggests if you know your German, "Metal for Everyone" from four decades or so. From DEEP PURPLE to RAMMSTEIN. But since I've been so extremely busy touring there was no time to play more than 1 or 2 gigs last year.

Read the entire interview at www.RockersDigest.com.