TYKOON: A New Swedish Melodic Hard Rock Supergroup

TYKOON is the name of a freshly-launched Stockholm band that features in its ranks guitarists Tommy Denander and Lars Chriss (LION'S SHARE),vocalist Leif Sundin (GREAT KING RAT, MICHAEL SCHENKER, JOHN NORUM),bassist Andy Loos (GLORY) and an as-yet-undisclosed drummer.

"Tommy and I have been working hard on writing songs lately and so far it's FANTASTIC AOR in the style of STREETS Crimes In Mind [or] DEF LEPPARD Pyromania/Hysteria, with some touches of Paul Stanley's songwriting in KISS," Chriss told BLABBERMOUTH.NET. "Pretty much like the most melodic side of LION'S SHARE (with Tommy's influences added),since I have decided to exclude that side and concentrate on the heavy metal (ala JUDAS PRIEST) and doomy (ala BLACK SABBATH) side only (like 'Waiting', 'Shotgun Messiah' or 'Fall From Grace', 'Unholy Rites') on the next LS CD."

Although Sundin is said to be "VERY interested" in joining the project, he has apparently yet to hear the material, "so WE haven't made [the information] public yet," said Chriss in response to a question about the information leaked to various Internet sites. "I will meet with him around July 8th to play him some stuff (he's out of town). Loos said yes [to being part of the project] earlier, but is right now on vacation in Turkey and will be back on July 4th, so again WE didn't [want to] go public [with this information] until [it was] 100% confirmed."

At the moment, plans exist for TYKOON to participate in an upcoming KISS tribute CD containing only Unmasked-era songs, to which they will contribute a version of "Easy As It Seems". "There are also plans to record a cover of STREETS'Crimes In Mind' for the TYKOON album, hopefully with Mike Slamer (STREETS/CITY BOY) doing a guest solo on the song, and possibly even mixing the whole album," according to Lars.

In other news, Chriss is continuing work on the material for the upcoming full-length debut from COSMIC SPHERE, in addition to keeping busy with the aforementioned TYKOON and LION'S SHARE projects. "Instead of getting all my influences into LS albums, I really enjoy doing all these side projects to cover all the angles I'm into—COSMIC SPHERE (aggressive metal),TYKOON (AOR),LION'S SHARE (classic/heavy metal),and even an as-yet-unnamed doom/SABBATH project for the most dark and slow stuff," stated Chriss.

Not to be outdone, Lars is also planning on getting more involved in production and songwriting for other artists, with several projects in the works, including some that fall outside the metal genre.

"There is a 99% chance that I will start working at a production company called Plugged as a producer, engineer and songwriter," Chriss revealed. "They have earlier had success with REDNEX and SHEBANG among others. I have written a couple of songs in LAMBRETTA style and will probably co-write with the Plugged guys in pure-pop style as well. I will also start looking for rock/metal bands to produce and record at their studio soon."

To visit TYKOON's official web site, click here.