Artist: Chris Laney 

Date:   24th April 2010

Following the release of his excellent solo album 'Pure', Chris Laney once again comes up with the good with his new album 'Only Comes Out At Night'.  We catch up with Chris once again to find out more about this latest release and he plans for the future.

MM - Thank you for taking the time out for the interview Chris, I know you’re a very busy man at the moment.
Chris - No problem, it's cool.

MM - Let me also congratulate you on what is another superb album 'Only Come Out At Night'.
Chris - Thank you, I really pleased with it.

MM - I thought 'Pure' was a good album but this one really goes that extra mile. Chris - Oh thanks, I was really scared about this one.  You know the second album is always the one people wait for the most.  I’ve been scared shitless.  Writing the first album people say ... you had your whole life to write that album ... but that isn’t true because of the other bands and things I’ve been involved with. This time around I wrote the songs I wanted to write, whether this is right or wrong, but it feels good.

MM - I think its turned out superbly to be honest.
Chris - Yeh, thank you again.

MM - As I said earlier I thought the 'Pure' album was good but this one goes a lot further.  There's a lot of different styles on this album, you’ve got the heavier stuff, some gentler tracks, something a little sleazy, there really is something on it for everyone.
Chris - I've got my vinyl collection together on one album! (laughs)  That’s always been my goal.  People nowadays don’t listen to albums like when I was young, you could like an album then even if it didn’t have hits. 

To me it's all about the album vibe, if I can make an album with hits that would be cool.  A hit isn’t something that is played on the radio all the time, a hit is a song that feels goods for me, or a song that feels good for someone else.  This album is full of songs that I like and I don’t care if it sounds like a Def Leppard song or a Kiss song, or a Shotgun Messiah song or whatever.  To me it's an album where I think ... do I like this? ... can I have a party with this album?  It's like, if I was to have a compilation album on back home in the background at a party, an album that made you feel good, well that’s the vibe I wanted to bring out with this album. 

MM - Once again there are a number of special guests on the album, how hard was it to get these guys involved with the album?  Were these just friends you called up?
Chris - To begin with, this is a question I always get, why do you have so many guest artists on the albums.  It's like being a plumber and you need a pipe fixed, you’d ring around your friends who are plumbers and ask them.  It's no deeper than that.  That’s how 'Pure' came about, this time it was different.  I mean Ian Haugland from Europe rang me.  We’d just been working on his solo record together, I was the co-producer on that album, he rang me up and said ... I hear you’ve got Robbo soloing on the new album, can I play on it? ... that’s the way it works.  We're just good friends helping each other out and having a good time.

MM - It also well reflects on you, if someone says .. hey can I play on your new album? ...
Chris - Yes it's cool.  I’m flattered but after they played the solo we are still friends.  It's like if your decorating and a friend comes round and offers to help you’d say yes. To get back to why I have so many guests, I’m a band guy to begin with.  This is my second solo album in two years.  I do not enjoy making music by myself, I love to have other people around me.  I love to get different input and views of how things could be, and should be done, and for me the song is king and if someone comes in and changes one note and that note makes that song better then ok.

MM - Yes also if Conny Bloom comes along and asks ... can I play on your album? ... you're not going to say no are you ... how did that come about?
Chris - We wrote a pop song together for a Swedish artist.  It was way beyond what we do normally, we had so much fun doing that.  We actually realized that we'd met five years earlier when our kids were in dance school.  I didn’t know he was Conny and he didn’t realize is was me at the time writing this song together.  I told him that we’d actually had coffee at his house and he said ... now I remember you, you used to have hair! ... (laughs). Stockholm is such a small place and there are so many musicians it just a good vibe.

MM - I noticed the albums release date has been put back, has this affected your show at Stockholm Rock Out?
Chris - A lot of things had an effect on the Stockholm Rock Out, the fact that the volcano erupting has meant that the whole festival has now been put back till September.

MM - You're still doing the special Volcano day as it is now on the original day?
Chris - Yes, when I found out how much the promoter had put into the original festival ... I mean this was my kind of dream festival ... so I actually called my manager and said ... “hey I actually know most of the bands here from Sweden, let me call them up and see what I can do, this guys needs to have something so the audience doesn’t go crazy and hysterical".  So we’re all playing for free.  I’m still having my release party with XYZ, they're playing an acoustic set for the release party as well as playing the festival.  We're all doing this to keep Stockholm Rock Out alive.

It's good to see all these musicians from Sweden getting together for this guy.  I mean he’s a musician too, he’s in a band called Bad Mouth.  He’s put all this money into this festival because it’s his dream festival too and because of a volcano he could have been facing bankruptcy.  So I said ... Hey let's help him out ... I think it’s a good thing.

MM - The Chris Laney band, who will be in the line up for that show?
Chris - Rob Love on guitar, he used to play with me in Zan Clan, it's John Berg on guitar, George Egg on drums and I have a new bass player called Mat.  He’s a great bass player, I’ve known him for years but I didn’t know he played the bass.  When I was looking around for a bass player people said ... hey why don’t you try Mat? ... He’s in a band called Scar and it was like yeh!  

He opened up for Animal, when I was with Randy Pipers Animal.  We did five shows with them and he was always back stage drinking beer.  I never saw them play live! (laughs)  I didn’t know he played the bass, but now we're best friends so it’s going to be awesome.  He’s the same age as me, whereas the rest of the guys are about twenty.  They're all amazing musicians.

This last leg of the tour will be the last with George because he’s got the role of the drummer in the Queen musical that’s being put on here in Stockholm, so we're looking for a new drummer at the moment.  

MM - I know the release date has been delayed but will the album be available it the release party?
Chris - Absolutely, we actually got 300 copies from the record company.  They are release party special editions that will be slightly different than the original album, so they are kind of collectors editions.

MM - I believe the reason that the album's release date has been put back was because the pressing company made a mistake the whole first batch they put the wrong music on them?
Chris - Yes, the promo copy was the same, it only had eight tracks on it instead of eleven.  There were only eight tracks on it and the three keys songs on the album were missing.  I spoke to the president of the record company and said ... “hey Georg, WHAT’S UP?” ... he said ... "I’ve been involved with albums for over fifteen years and I’ve never had an album this jinxed” ... So something good must happen after all this because I’m going crazy. 

The promo that’s going out to the radio stations doesn’t have the actual singles on it, every one of those eight track songs has a fade in it, the idea was to have those three songs as the high resolution ones for radio play. Someone had actually reviewed the album with just those eight songs, that’s not a good thing, my album is going out to the media either with three tracks missing or someone else on them, it's hilarious! (laughs).

MM - I got the promo through with just the eight tracks on it but the PR company who sent me the album quickly got me the digital link to download the whole album with all the tracks on, because I didn’t want to do a half hearted review of half an album.
Chris - I’ve seen reviews of eight tracks.  Why did they review half an album? I mean why?

MM - Yeh, even if they just did those original eight tracks and then downloaded the other three later on, they could have added them to the review.  Just doing eight songs doesn’t do the album any favors for you as and artist.
Chris - I was totally shocked when I heard the news, then all this with the volcano happened and the festival was put back ... something good has to come out of all this, I laid my soul and my time out for this album and things turn out like this.

MM - You were involved with the Crazy Lixx guys again on their new album 'New Religion', what was it like working with these guys again?
Chris - It was great to work with them again.  The first time around was awesome.  I found this band or they found me and we hit it off right away and we did a good album.  Then they called me up a few years later and now all the boundaries are gone.  This time I think we kicked the living shit out the first album, because we got away from all the boundaries and we just sat down and focused on the songs and how we wanted it to be.  We actually worked on it 24/7.  I’m not kidding when I say we worked 24/7, I actually had my wife bring the kids to the studio on weekends so they could see their dad!  They were actually sitting in the lounge of the studio watching TV till they fell asleep and then she took a taxi back home with them.  Then I would get back to work again.  

That album is one where I can say I was near to hitting the wall.  That album was quite hard because the band was working so hard.  They had a new record label, they had a new guitarist, we knew it was going to be really, really hard work to get the album the way we wanted it.  It was a hassle when you have that thing on your shoulders where we have to make it bigger, we had to make it better than the last one. 

At one point I called up the singer, while I was mixing the album, because they weren’t there when I was mixing it.  I hate people being around when I’m mixing an album.  I called up Danny and he said he wanted the vocals louder and I said the can was full, we'd need to back down on stuff to make the vocals louder, but we got there.  I think that that is an awesome album, we did everything, all the tricks in the book.  I pushed the band to the limit and they pushed me to the limit also.  That is like a team album.

MM - Yes, I really enjoyed the album but yours just pipped them for album of the month!
Chris - Really? I must tell Danny that! (laughs)

MM - Yeh it's what I like to call a great old school rock album. The new Crash Diet album also has that same vibe going on.
Chris - I haven’t heard the whole album one yet.  You know I did the demo’s for that album, two tracks that didn’t make the album.  I think it was a track called 'Parasite’, that was the single in my opinion.  I think that’s why I didn’t get the job! (laughs)  For me that was Crash Diet X1000 if you know what I mean.  The other song was a song called 'Chemical', I don’t think that made the album either.

We've been through a lot with Dave and things, but the record company did think I was the guy for the album.  For me those guys are like my younger brothers.  We been through a lot, both weddings and funerals and I wish them all the luck.  The new singer is great, this is the first time they’ve got a real singer.

MM - I think you're more focused as a people.
Chris - Like I said, we’re only nine million people and there isn’t much to do, so we focus on one thing and we're good at that.  We do have good sports men as well, but I think that’s it.  When I meet up with new bands I’d asked them what they did last week and they’d say we rehearsed.  While other bands are out partying and drinking beer, they would be rehearsing.  Yes they’d also drink beer, but they’d do it while rehearsing.

MM - I think also we in the UK and the US are more swayed by what’s trendy and what will make money, rather than the talent that’s around.
Chris - Sweden was one of the countries that were hit hardest with the download thing, because we were one of the first to have high speed Internet.  Because we're Sweden and we want to have the best because we are such a small nation. And of course the record sales just disappeared here and in the same breath people that that happened to, people were saying, I’m just gonna play my music because we don’t sell records anyway.  I think that has something to do with it as well.

I used to work as a song writer and that’s how I made the money to actually be able to buy my first studio.  Nowadays I’m talking to the guys who write for Brittany Spears and those people and they’re starting to worry as well because that’s the way things are going.  I’m saying ... hey that’s how it been for me all my life so deal with it!  

If you're into rock music you have to deal with the situation that you're not popular on radio and TV.  We used to rely on sales of albums but now we have to rely on playing live and people buying shit loads of merchandise.  The CD has now become part of that merchandise and I’m ok with that.  

MM - The labels are not taking advantage of giving bands CD's to sell while they are on tour because they think that the bands are taking money away from them.
Chris - It’s the thing of the bands and the parasite, but now the big labels need the bands, and now they are being parasites with what is known as a 360 deal.  A 360 deal is where the record companies do a deal to make profits from the live concerts and also the merchandise, why, because they aren’t making money from CD sales. 

I say fuck them.  If you're in a band then get a decent deal with a small label that believes in you.  Get your music out there, go on tour, make the money for a new album.  Build yourself a fan base.  A fan base will always be around.  If you like something whether it be chewing gum, or hamburgers, or music, if you like it you’ll always go back to what you like.

They say people will always steal music, but the young people don’t know that you actually need to buy music.  OK if that’s the deal let them have it for free, but someone has to step in to provide the money, whether it's Jack Daniels or Volvo or whoever, I don’t care as long as I get the money to make an album that sounds good.  But I don’t need to make it back home in my cellar.  It's all about how you look at it, I’m just glad my CD went to CD, I didn’t expect it to go gold I just wanted the hard sleeve you know.

MM - You just wanted the CD in front of you to say ... hey this I mine!
Chris - Yeh it’s closer.  I can now put that CD on myself and move on with the next one.  But if you don’t have that and it's released over the net, it's ... hey I’ve released an album but I’ve never seen it.  I was raised on having an album in my hand.

MM - You're like me, I like to have the hard copy in my hand.  I like to read the sleeve notes, I like to know who was involved with the album.
Chris - If I’m gonna spend ten bucks on music I’m not gonna spend it on something like iTunes, I'd get a bad mp3 back.  I want something that’s high resolution.  I love to read the lyrics and who did what.  I’m a nerd, I’m always gonna be a nerd.

Yes, CD's might be dead but I read this thing where a band went over to magazines.  They sell this 100-page magazine with a CD.  So they don’t sell CD’s.  That’s great.  I would love KISS to sell a 100-page magazine with the new CD, I’d pay ten bucks for that.

MM - You need to have that something extra, it's all too easy for someone to make an album in their bedroom, and just because you have an album out, doesn’t mean it’s a good album.
Chris - As a producer 90% of the albums I hear suck quality wise.  They have good songs on them, but come on, people have an over-belief of what you can do at home.  It really pisses me off, when they say things like your next-door neighbour couldn’t tell the difference.  No not right away, they might listen to it twice, but a good album that’s good on your ears, it’s mechanical, it's human, you’ll listen to it over and over again.  I was like when I got my first bootleg copy of Rambo of VHS from Korea or whatever, it was flashing red then blue then in black and white.  I watched it one time.  Now I have the proper DVD I can watch it ten times.

MM - If the quality is there the people will respond to that quality.
Chris - It’s getting harder and harder to find quality.  Take my profession, Terrion for instance are making an album they believe in.  They don’t want to cut corners.  They blew their production costs three weeks ago and they are still pouring in money on an album THEY want to make, and I respect them, because that’s when you're an artist and you believe in what your doing.  

As Chris Laney the solo artist I’m the same, I’m making an album I want to make.  The record company didn’t hear one song before I gave them the master, they believe in me and that’s what I love about Metal Heaven.  I spoke to Georg and he asked how it was going and I’d say it was going great.  He'd say he couldn't wait to hear it and that his response.  I have total control over what I have to do.  The only reason I called him was because my contract says that I have to produce an album of 45 minutes of music.  I can't do that, I can only write songs around three minutes long and it would take a lot of songs to fill 45 minutes.  So I recorded two more songs, but they weren’t good enough.  So I rang Georg and said ... "Hey seriously, if you want 45 minutes we're gonna get bad reviews.  I’ve done two more songs if you want them, but honestly please let me have my twelve songs" ... and he said “OK’.  So that’s the only time we spoke, but I really admire his faith in the artists he’s signed.  I’m very lucky.

MM - I’ve never spoken to Georg but everyone I’ve spoken too really has a lot of good words to say about him.
Chris - Yes, he’s a music lover; he’s a really cool dude.  He wants to release albums he wants to listen to.

MM - The albums release date has been moved back to 7th May now, has this made any difference to your plans?
Chris - Not really.  It's gonna be out May 7^th, it might be early we don’t know.  We're going to play the release party on 1^st May, then we're out playing City Of Rock.  We’ve got dates lined up until 7^th June in Sweden.  I’ve had people calling asking ... when are you coming to our country? ... and I say ... book us and we’ll come!  I need to get out of the studio and on the road.

MM - I’d love to hear both albums live, they deserve to be played live.
Chris - We do about twelve songs in a set.

MM - People want to hear their favourite album live, that’s what music is all about.
Chris - It's so cool to play the songs live as well.  Because I work in the studio, I mean 350 days of the year, that’s what I do, I make albums, so when I get to play live it’s a totally different experience, it feels so good.  That’s when Chris Laney comes alive, literally.

For me and the band, we want to play live so bad.  We just discussed this, we thought let's just buy plane tickets and buy our merchandise so we can play.  This time is different to with the first album, I was a bit insecure about playing on my own and had never done anything like it before.  But this time my kids are big enough to understand why their dad's away and I spoke to my boss at Polar Studios and he said .. “go for it man”.  The timing is right now and we’re are going to make it happen.

MM - Well Chris it’s been a pleasure once again to talk to you.
Chris - It’s been a pleasure for me also.  

MM - I wish you all the best with the album, I know it’s gonna go down well.  Good luck with the release party and the Volcano special, and I hope to see you in the UK very soon. 
Chris - Thank you.  

MM - We'd like to thank Chris for taking the time out to chat with us tonight and look forward to seeing him and the band live in action, hopefully in the not too distant future.  If you haven't already heard the new album 'Only Comes Out At Night' then do check it out, we didn't choose it as our 'Editors Choice' for nothing!

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