First of all... congratulations with your brand new album “Emotional Coma”. Who has produced and mixed the album? And are you pleased with the result?
Lion’s Share: Thank you very much! We are extremely pleased with how it came out. We all worked really hard with it. The album was mixed by Ronny Lahti, who also did “Fall from Grace” with us in the past.
Who had the idea for the name Lion’s Share?
Lion’s Share: At the very beginning we had help from an English guy named Peter Ferry to write the lyrics. We asked him to come up with a name and he gave us a full A4 paper with names, but strongly suggested Lion’s Share.
How would you compare your earlier albums to the new one?
Lion’s Share: “Emotional Coma” is more up-tempo, raw, aggressive and in your face. In the past we were pretty influenced by progressive stuff like Dream Theater, Rush and Queensryche. We also used a lot of keyboards and big back-ground vocals. This time I more or less returned to my roots and the kind of metal I started out playing as a teenager. My main influences have always been bands like Black Sabbath (especially with Dio), Judas Priest, Megadeth, old Metallica, Accept, Saxon etc.
Which subjects do your lyrics refer to, and who writes them?
Lion’s Share: Patrik wrote all lyrics for this album. He gets inspired by stuff that goes on around us. Stuff he reads about in news papers, see on the TV news or from movies and books. The lyrics are pretty brutal and dark since he felt he wanted to match the music’s mood.
“Emotional Coma” great. But “Trafficking” is maybe my favourite track... Are there any songs that are special to you?
Lion’s Share: I like them all (surprise!!). It differs from day to day but I always try to write an album instead of separate songs if you know what I mean? Hopefully people will put the CD on and play it all the way through. That’s what we’re hoping for at least. We try to make it like a journey where you pass different places and moods along the way.
Who has done the artwork? And how important do you feel it is to have a great cover?
Lion’s Share: A cover should attract people to check the music out. We wanted a mascot figure like Iron Maiden’s Eddie. A mascot that we can use for future covers, on shirts and other merchandise. This friend of ours Robert had to do draft after draft until we were happy. I think it came out great though. We even made a 6x5 M backdrop of it for live shows that looks amazing.
Bruce Kulick and Glen Drover are playing on a track each... how did you get in touch with them?
Lion’s Share: Bruce was in Stockholm to do a KISS Expo. The studio we were working in was owned by the former KISS Army president of Sweden so he suggested we invite Bruce to the studio. He apparently liked what he heard and hammered out those two solos for “The Edge of the Razor”. I’m a KISS fan since I was 8 years old, so obviously this was very cool. Glen Drover was kind enough to do his solo even though he was busy working on the new Megadeth CD. I know him from working with his other band Eidolon. Very cool down to earth guy.
What tasks presently lie ahead for Lion’s Share?
Lion’s Share: We just did our big comeback at Sweden Rock Festival and will continue to do some Swedish summer festivals. In July we’re going to play the Magic Circle Festival in Germany with Manowar. After this we will do Metal Heart Festival in Norway with Queensryche, Testament, Dimmu Borgir and others. We are also looking at different tour offers for the fall.
Let’s speculate – you have been granted a free slot on a tour of your own choice – who would be your ideal touring partners?
Lion’s Share: That’s a tough question since usually you wanna tour with one of your old heroes like we have in the past with Dio, Manowar, Saxon, UDO, Motörhead etc. This is of course very cool but to attract today’s young record buyers it’s probably better to go out with some younger band that draws kids from 15-25. I must admit we worked very well with Saxon’s audience. Same with Dio’s crowd. OK, just for the sake of it I would have to say Heaven & Hell. Their show at SRF was amazing.
Please name the 5 most important Metal-albums of all times!
Lion’s Share: For me it has to be something by KISS obviously. “Love Gun”. Then the one that has influenced me the most as a song writer Black Sabbath “Mob Rules”. I’m a huge fan of “Pyromania” by Def Leppard as well. Something from Judas Priest must be in there so let’s say “British Steel”. KISS was the reason I started playing and they were everything to me while growing up so I’ll throw in “KISS Alive “ as well.
Well, that’s it! Thanks a lot for the interview. Anything you’d like to add to our head banging readers?
Lion’s Share: Thank you for your support!! I usually try to promote our web site so don’t forget to check out www.lionsshare.org for news and other info. Hopefully we will sell enough records in Denmark to justify a promoter to bring us down for some shows. We haven’t played there since 1999, so it’s about time to bring us down for a cold Carlsberg…or two.
