April 2026
Sevendust was touring in Europe early this year, and Metal Covenant got some time to talk to drummer Morgan Rose, one of the guitarists John Connolly, and vocalist Lajon Witherspoon about the new album One.
It seems to be like two and a half to three years between every album during the last decade. Why is that your preferred time span between records?
Morgan: You know, the thing that’s weird is that we’ve been such a predominantly United States band, unfortunately. That was probably a big reason because, you know, you tour, tour, tour in the United States. We’d get up to Canada, and then occasionally we are going to Australia, but very little in Europe. So now with this idea of trying to break Europe at this stage of our career, which is wild, we’re really determined to do it. So that’ll probably speed the process up, ‘cause in a perfect world, we would come and play Europe multiple times in a year, and then we play one run through the United States, one run through Australia, and then through Canada once or twice, and then it’s over. And then we get back to business, you know, and turn it around quickly. So I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s turned out that way.
John: Most of the cycles are usually around, you know, 14 to 18 months, and then you got to kind of get your shit together to go into the studio. So it’s usually always right around two years, give or take. Now hopefully we can push that, because if we have more places to play, then maybe every three years or something like that. But yeah, about two years is our window. We don’t do that intentionally. It’s not intentional at all. It’s not like we say, “Okay, in two years we have to do this.”. It just sort of works out that way.
15 albums. Isn’t that just a crazy number?
Lajon: It’s crazy to think about all the catalog, and all the songs, and going out there hearing the Chino (Moreno) song Bender. (Laughs) I almost forgot about that. But it’s cool to have that over your head, with so many incredible pieces of music that we consider all our babies. So this is really cool.
To put out an album in these times, in 2026, what does that mean to you guys?
Morgan: It means that we’re getting close to that not being an option anymore. We were there when they were selling cassettes, and we went through cassettes and CDs, and then back to LPs being a cool thing again. Now I’ve heard that CDs are starting to come back again. But in the big scheme of things, what we’ve noticed for the last four or five years, like everybody else, is that people are starting to drop singles. It’s because the attention span is non-existent. To think that somebody could really listen to 10-12 pieces of music and be like, “Oh, let me pick which one I like.”. I don’t think that’s gonna happen for much longer.
Lajon: It’s in the sense of a music video. When was the last time you really watched a music video? I mean, I think about things like that. When you’re on the computer, you kind of dig for it, but you’re not seeing it like when we were growing up. You know what I mean? Like, “Oh man, that band, I love it.”. And that’s what kept us going. Now people are not doing that. So I miss those days. So we’ve kind of gone with the changes, you know. I guess, right? (Laughs)
Morgan: But I think we’ll probably try to record records, and then release them in the modern way, which will be a little interesting, you know.
John: Yeah, back in the day Elvis used to have a whole bunch of singles, and then they’d eventually take the singles and they’d make an album, and then they’d release it. But he was always on tour ‘cause he was touring a single. So that’s sort of what the mentality was. I think, these days, instead of anchoring, you know, ten things to it, just commit to one or two. And if it works, great. And if it doesn’t work, well then you’ve got a little bit of wiggle room, you know. That’s the thing about the record; it’s a major investment when it doesn’t work. (Laughs) With a single, eh, not so bad. Fire off a new single. You know, “This one sucks. We’ll get another one.”.
Lajon: You just made sense of what you said, man. Who’s gonna sit down and listen to all those songs? A lot of times these days, I feel like the kids lose that nostalgia of having an album because everything is so fast in the world.
Morgan: I read a quote today from Matt Damon that tripped me the fuck out, and it was spot on because it was me. And I’m not a kid, but it was me, and I’m just falling in line and that is: the attention span is so small that literally you can put a movie on, and you’ve got 30,000 different places you can watch whatever movie you wanna watch, and now they’re making that movie in a way where they keep revisiting the real plot of the movie over and over and over because people are looking at their phones while they’re watching the movie. And I’m like, “Holy shit, dude. We don’t have the attention span to stop and just watch a fucking movie.”.
Lajon: That’s why Dave Chappelle and they are like, “Put your phones down and put them in this lock box right here, and watch the show.”.
Morgan: And with the exception of some amazingly bold and intelligent bands like Ghost, and I believe Tool did it, and there’s a few other bands, and Bono did it when I saw his spoken word. They’re like, “Your phones aren’t allowed in here.”, because they’re like, “There’s a lot of work going on up here, and we want you to decide whether you really like it or not and not be diverted from your phone.”. So I think we’re stuck. I don’t think it’s gonna get anything but worse. You have this nostalgic feeling of where we started, and we’re one of millions of bands over that time period. We’re lucky enough to still be relevant after 30 years. That’s fucking weird. Especially when we never had monster success, you know. It’s wild to think about. We’re as big in the United States right now as we’ve ever been, and we never had monster success. It never went all the way up and down. So that’s why we’re like, “Well, let’s try Europe, as many times as we can go before we have Alzheimer’s.”.
A cool thing you said a few minutes ago, Morgan, is that you said LP. You didn’t say vinyl. I always said LP. Never did I say vinyl.
John: My daughter says vinyl. She has a record player, but she never had it back in the day. You know, I’m like, “That’s an LP.”, and she goes, “What does that mean?”, and I’m like, ”Long play. Look it up!”. (Laughs)
Morgan: When there’s somebody that is born blind, and you look at them and you say, “This is such a travesty that you can’t see the beauty in the world. What does that feel like for you not to be able to see something?”, and they’re like, “I don’t feel anything about it ‘cause I never saw it.”. And that’s the way that I look at these kids sometimes, where I look and I’m like, “You don’t know what it’s like to grab a magazine and read up on the artists that you like that are doing a new record that’s gonna come out, and then getting the LP, opening it up and praying that there’s pictures or liner notes in it, going to the concert, buying a T-shirt.”. You know, having the lights go off and the flashlight lead them to the stage, and you’re looking, “I think I see ‘em, I think I see ‘em.”, knowing nothing about what they eat, who they’re dating, what they’re doing, unless they’re big enough to be in People Magazine or something. And the news that you would get out of the magazine would usually be a month or two late to begin with. So it was like everything was mysterious. Everything would have a mystique to it. I’m like, “You guys don’t know what that’s like, man.”, and they’re like, “That sounds fucking miserable.”, and I’m like, “Huh?”. They’re like, “I wanna know who they’re fucking in an hour, and I wanna know what they had for lunch today.”, and I’m like, “Why?”, and, “Because I wanna be able to fucking comment on it, and I wanna judge it, and I wanna get into a fucking battle with people about it.”. It’s just chaos.
John: We were talking about that the other day. It’s like when Metallica released The Black Album, I think half the reason that it was as big as it was is there was no internet, there were no phones, you didn’t have Instagram and TikTok. You had to wait until Metal Edge said, “Ooh, new update on the record.”, and they had this year-long buildup to it and when they launched that thing nobody had been checking in every 15 minutes. So I think there’s an upside and a downside as people are so desensitized to seeing everything.
Lajon: We could do it. We just have to shut everything down. They’re like, “What are you guys trying to do?” – “We’re trying to do like Metallica did. We don’t care anymore.”. (Laughs)
Morgan: Nobody would care about us anymore. That’s the weird part. If you don’t post something for two years about your band and then you post, “We got a new record coming out.”, they’re like, “There’s still a band?”. (Laughs) You got to tell them what you’re doing that day.
John: They’re like, “We need you to be more active on the socials.”, and I’m like, “I post three times a day. How much more active do I need to be?”. (Laughs)
So back to the actual record that you have made. What stuff do you personally think on this album is furthest away from something you have done before?
Morgan: Is This The Real You is probably the furthest thing from what we’ve done since Clint came back in the band. That was one of these things where I didn’t think the song was gonna make it.
John: It was the last piece of music we added. We needed one more song to kind of finish out the list, and we were like, “All right, let’s go explore this.”.
Morgan: And it was, “LJ. Just do something.”. You know, like nobody had any ideas on it, and nobody could start anything. And he scatted something, he scatted something else, and he’s just scatting them. You know, it was like ad-libbing at least a rhythmic part of it, with some words here and there. And then John goes, basically like a lot of the guys do when they’re recording leads. They’ll play a bunch of leads, and then the producer will go in and piece it together, and then the guy goes in and learns the lead. That was kind of the way it worked. It was basically Lajon did a bunch of stabs and then John pieced it together.
Lajon: Yeah, we just kind of went in and just did it.
John: Yeah, it was just stabbing, you know. Lajon was like, “You got anything?”. I was like, “I don’t have any words. So, just whatever comes to mind.”, and literally, the first thing that came out, Lajon recorded it, and then we probably spent maybe 10-15 minutes to organize it. Once it was sorted there, no words still, we played it for Elvis (Michael Baskette, producer), and he listened, and he held his arm out and the hairs were standing straight up, and I’m like, “Okay, do you want us to continue?”. He goes, “No, let’s not mess with this for a minute. Let’s just leave it and come back in a few days and make sure that it still is cool.”. And when we came back and listened, the hairs stood up again. And the true test was Clint hadn’t heard it at all, and I remember he asked me, “Hey man. Did you guys work on that song?”, and I was like, “Yeah”, and I meant to send it to him, and I got sidetracked when we were going through the studio. A couple days go by, he comes in, he goes, “Hey man. You never sent me the thing.”. I was like, “Oh”, and I played it for him. He listens and he goes, “Dude, that’s a hit.”. I was like, “I don’t know, man. It was the first thing that… We didn’t work on this real hard. It just kind of came out, you know.”.
Lajon: Those are the best ones though, you know.
John: Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes it’s the ones that you’ve got to work on for three or four years to get nominated for a Grammy, ‘cause that did happen to that song (Thank You). That song was hanging around for a while. And then there’s other ones, like this one, Is This The Real You, that all of a sudden just kind of fall in. But we didn’t have any expectations on that song, no.
Lajon: But then you say the Grammys. I don’t know if it really mattered that we worked on it for four years for them to nominate it. (Laughs)
John: No, but it was just interesting that that’s the one that got picked. I was like, “Really? The one that we struggled with for all that time?”.
Morgan: That song was the last one that went on the record too.
In the beginning of working on this album, could you imagine what the album would turn out like in the end?
Lajon: For me, I knew it was gonna be good from the start, just because I felt like we were in a different place. Even though things are not as bright as they should be, it’s brighter-looking for us with the avenue that we’re taking. Being able to get ready to come back over to Europe and to tour over here, that was something I felt like was going into the energy of this album too. You know, if we didn’t have anything to look forward to, I don’t think we would have been able to be as productive and to be so excited about it. So it has a lot to do with everything that’s going on around us.
John: I think the music was a little better when we started too. You know, I’m usually pretty critical over the first five or six things that we work on. I always tell these guys, the joke is, “It’s not making the record.”, and they’re like, “Yeah, it is.”, and I’m like, “I don’t know, man. We’ve got a lot more writing to do.”. You know, you set the bar, and you try to raise it, and you keep trying to raise it. But I don’t know, man. Making a record these days is like… You know, after you do it 15 times, you can either overthink it or underthink it, and in a lot of ways I was just consciously just trying to, “Let’s not overthink any of this. Let’s just let the music kind of come and we’ll see what happens.”. The first batch out at The Farmhouse, I knew that we had something special. And one of those songs isn’t even on the record, but I still knew that it was a special batch of music. It was different. It just had a slightly different vibe to it, you know. It was more real. These guys were going through some personal things. You know, when you wanna talk about something, and you have something to talk about, sometimes you’re like, “Ah, what am I gonna talk about?”. There was no mystery what they were talking about, you know. It was real. But yeah, I think the level of the music was just a little bit better when we started.
So what kind of lyrics do you deal with?
Lajon: Just everything in life. Like in Is This The Real You we’re talking about not just necessarily one person, but just people going through life, and maybe changing all of a sudden at the end of the day, “Is it too late when you’re a douchebag your whole life and now at the end of it you wanna be nice? Is this the real you? Where you been?”.
Morgan: I would write anything that really came from this place, and I’m definitely there right now. You know, I’m a big believer in therapy and talking to somebody, especially when your nervous system and your world is breaking. But even when it’s okay and manageable, you know, talking to somebody is a good idea. I realized I was like, “Well, I know the one main thing here. I don’t trust my decision-making. I don’t trust my own gut. I don’t trust.”. Like I don’t trust anything. So it can literally be, “I think I want out of here because I’m pretty sure that this is a fucked-up situation.”, and then I’m like, “Or is it me that’s the fucked-up situation? Are they really the problem or is it me that’s the problem?”. You know, there’s a difference between accountability and not trusting your own instincts. You know, you can sit there and say, “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.” all you want. What I was looking at whenever I’d have my hands in there was strictly saying, “I feel like I’m about to drown and I don’t know if the life vest that’s there is really hooked onto anything or not. I don’t even trust whether that’s gonna save me.”. So there’s a lot of that in the record. That desperation.
Nothing bright at all?
Lajon: There’s a song called Bright Side.
Morgan: That’s about somebody who’s a miserable fuck. Yeah, the song Bright Side is about a miserable fuck.
John: It’s an interesting record there, ‘cause there’s so much major. Like normally we’re very minor oriented, and there was something very heavy about us being major, but it also gives us weird, trippy lights, “Ah, okay. Well, it’s sort of bright, but maybe not.”. Like there’s darkness in the mix.
Morgan: The end theme of it is that there’s hope. Like the desperation is part of the story, you know. Almost everything that I see in there is like, you know, “I can get through this. It’s a motherfucker, but I can do this.”.
Lajon: At the end of the day, yeah, we always get through it.
Has it become easier to write lyrics with all the things going on in the world now?
John: I mean, if you turn the TV off, I think it’s easier. Like I can handle my own stuff. If I watch CNN too much I’m like, “I don’t know, man.”. (Laughs) It’s all doom and gloom.
Lajon: And you don’t have a ticket out too. We don’t get too political. We don’t wanna get into that political world, even though it’s sad.
Morgan: It’s a real simple political world. If you say, “I believe in this.”, the person that doesn’t says, “Well, fuck you! I hope everybody in your family dies.”, and then if you go, “Well, hold on then. I believe in this.”, and then the other people on that side go, “Oh, cool. That’s good. Fuck you! I hope everybody in your family dies.”, and it’s like, “Why am I even talking to you guys?”.
Lajon: You know what I say every night? At the end of the day I’d say we all know right from wrong. That’s it. You can make it that easy, you know.
But the political climate has gone insane. It’s always the other one’s fault. In our country as well.
Lajon: It’s not like anything over there though. (Laughs)
Morgan: The one thing that I realize is that nobody has figured out how to stay in their own fucking lane. I’m like, “Do you guys really see what’s going on here? Do you realize that you can believe and do what you want?”. Just stay in your lane.
John: Once again. Instant, “Uh, I hate them.”. TikTok: “Who am I supposed to be?”. You know, it’s constant just driving those wedges in everywhere.
Morgan: “Is there a fucking spaceship that’s coming towards the Earth?” – “I don’t know.” – “Is some fucking thing gonna lose gravity for seven seconds in August?” – “I don’t know.” – “Are there aliens in the fucking water?”. What used to be the National Enquirer, that people laughed at, is real life right now. You know, “Werewolf gives birth to six human babies!”, and it’s like, “No, dude.”. So fucking bizarre, you know. That’s as close as you’ll get as the political.
Do you think there is anything specific that a Sevendust album will always include?
Morgan: Groove, soul, and heavy.
Lajon: Soul, passion.
John: LJ. (Laughs) I would say LJ and drums. I don’t know. Um. Groove? I just don’t think we can do stuff with it. Like we have a groove that we just have. Some bands do and some bands don’t. We don’t do it all the time, but there’s certain lanes that I think Clint and myself write in that just sort of lean to those particular drum grooves that we’re just gonna lock in with his kick drum, and that’s gonna be a thing. The Morse code, so to speak. I think that’ll always be in there. Even if we try to shed some of it, it pops back in.
Tell me about the artwork of the album. Tell me about the idea.
John: It’s basically like the Hourglass Nebula. It’s called the Eye Of God.
Morgan: The band found a way to get closer, and I swear I’ve heard other bands say that stuff before, and we kind of were forced to grow up together, you know. Like our way of making a living has been doing music for 30 years. So you start to realize. It’s like we’ve all had moments with each other. We have the original band. With the exception of Clint being gone for a few records it’s been the original band for over 30 years. Once we got to where everybody kind of caught up with each other in the world of “We’re grown up”, ‘cause it kind of stunts your growth out here a little bit, then all of a sudden the compassion came into the mix where it was like, “Hold on.”. And this goes back to the accountability and the mental health thing where it’s like, you know, “Do you think I wanna hurt you?”. It’s like, “Do you think I really want bad for you? Or am I just human that can be selfish and make mistakes?”. And we’ve had internal things happen that are serious shit. You know, health things that kind of force people to wake up and go, “Wait a minute. I don’t want anything bad happening here.”. So that’s happened with each one of us. We’ve had moments like that, whether it be a family member, or them personally. Like when the shit’s raw, you got the guys. And I think it just got close. So that one thing had that mindset of like, “We are one.”. And it’s always been that way. It’s just brothers that occasionally wanna snap the other brother’s head, you know. But at the end of the day, we’ve seen it all the time, two guys could not talk for two days, then somebody comes into the mix and tries to do something to either one of those guys, and the one that is upset with him will be in the shit of the other person like that (Snaps his fingers). It’s just brother stuff, you know. But we’ve seen all of it together. We’ve watched family members pass, we’ve watched people in the band be physically not good, we’ve seen many breaks for everybody, so we’ve been there for each other, and I think it finally just got to where it was like, “That makes sense.”.
Nowadays artworks are about an inch wide on Spotify. So, what does artwork mean for you guys?
Morgan: Merchandise. I mean, it’s merchandise, ‘cause that’s really your billboard, you know. That’s gonna be where people are gonna see it the most. So, “What do you want people to be wearing around?”.
Lajon spots a poster from Iron Maiden’s Somewhere On Tour in 1986.
Lajon: You want people to be wearing a shirt fucking like that right there, you know what I mean? (Laughs)
Morgan: I wish we had that. That I would have been totally good with.
What’s your take on using AI for artwork or even for music?
Lajon: For fun, when you sit down and you say, “Hey. Write a song about this dude.”. That’s my friend, and you tell a story, and it comes back to you, that’s fun. I’ve never seen anything like that, but as far as…
John: It’s interesting with the artwork thing there. Well, the artwork thing is like… I don’t know, I go back and forth all the time, ‘cause if you tell AI to give you 20 different designs, you’re probably gonna really love three of them. Now the trick is you may have too many options with AI. You know, if you get an artist to draw something, or come up with concepts for records, usually you’re only gonna get a couple things. Sometimes you can go into the deep end of the pool with AI, and you can get lost in the woods if you have too many things. And I think the same thing with music too. I know people who use it. I got a buddy, his name is AI Dave, and he loves it. He does it sort of more the real way. Like he actually inputs the guitar into it, he writes the lyrics, and then it organizes the song. I don’t know, man. I haven’t felt like I needed it yet. I haven’t felt like I wanted to use it yet. There are days where I go, “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.”, but it never forces me to go, “Yeah, let me go grab AI and write a song.”. I’ll just go for a run, or just not doing music that day, and then I’ll come back the next day and be like, “Oh, yeah.”. I think I’m not gonna have a shortage of ideas.
Morgan: If you’re passionate about what you’re doing… You know, I don’t wanna be a dinosaur, but I was like that with Pro Tools. I said, “Fuck this Pro Tools shit.”. Then the guy that doesn’t know how to play the drums can walk in here. And we’re gonna beat the shit out of it. You had to be somewhat capable even when they were cutting two-inch tape back in the day, you know. It was like, “You either play it right or we got to do it again.”. So I was in that world. And of course I conform back into Pro Tools has a place. I’m not gonna be the dude on the sidewalk with the megaphone going, “AI is just ruining the music industry.”. Right now it’s really easy to say, “Oh man, you don’t know who’s really doing anything.”.
John: The thing that I keep coming back to with the AI stuff is no matter how many times I listen to it I haven’t heard anything that AI has done that I’ll go, “That is insane. I’ve never heard that before.”. It’s usually homogenized versions of what humans have already done. So I think it’s still gonna take the human to kind of do the breakout thing.
Lajon: One country song that was an AI song went number 1.
John: That’s what I’m saying. At some point in time AI will cross over to the point where it will create something that will be a little different, a little unique, but it hasn’t happened yet. Or at least in my mind I haven’t heard it. I know it’s coming. It’s just a matter of time ‘cause it’s getting better and it’s getting stronger. But I don’t know. I think it’s just another tool. It’s a tool that you can use or not use. Look, people have been using sampling libraries and stuff for decades. There’s not a whole lot of difference. Somebody made that, and now it’s out in the universe, and AI is just a better collector of all of the things that it could possibly be.
Lajon: It’s scarier. It’s a lot scarier. (Laughs)
John: It’s a little scary, you know. But it’s creepy when you sit there and you look on Spotify and you’re like, “Okay, I know ten percent of this is not real.”. I just don’t know which ten percent it is. (Laughs)
Morgan: And there’s the idea where the record labels are going in there and creating bands. That’s a problem, you know. I mean, in our world we make our living playing in front of people. You can’t take that away. If you care about that and you’re passionate about putting an evening together for people that have spent their money to spend it with you… If you care about that, which this band has proven they have for 30 years, I don’t think that’s something you can take away.
Lajon: Then you think about how long it’s been since we’ve been here. It’s crazy to think. You know, like, “Are they gonna wait?”. Obviously, they are gonna wait. They’re waiting for us, so it is something tangible about this, the bodies, these people here, and fuck AI, you know. (Laughs)
John: I used to be worried about the whole Napster thing, and the file sharing, and all that stuff, and it’s gone so far past it all that I kind of look and I go, “We do something that requires human beings to jump around on stage and sweat.”. You can recreate a video of it, but you can’t recreate it.
When I take a look at your setlists, I see a lot of songs from the first four albums. When there’s a new album now coming out, will there be any room for playing new songs?
Morgan: We keep threatening to actually evolve, you know. I mean, we keep threatening everyone, “Trust me. We’re gonna evolve at some point.”. We have to have real production to be able to put together the show that we would wanna do, and we are doing that, finally. Like we haven’t had a truck with video walls and the stuff that everybody has fun with. Maybe one time in our career. So now we can build the peaks and valleys of a show to make it interesting. You go to see that, and that’s very interesting, that’s entertaining. You go to see a band go up there and hammer the shit out of you, it’s like, “How long am I gonna take a punch to the face? I can take it for x amount of time. You’re gonna need to give me a second to see something different than you fucking yelling at me or him jumping up and down. Something is gonna have to happen.”. So now we’re gonna develop that. So to answer your question, we’re threatening to evolve. (Laughs)
John: My solution, and I keep telling Tim (Tournier, tour manager, and also filling in for Clint on this European tour leg.), like, “Dude, it’s easy. There’s 15 records. We need 15 songs for a show. One per record.”. There is no way that any one of us could pick one song from each record. It’s not possible. (Laughs) It would be five different setlists if we did it that way.
Morgan: And then the people start getting online saying, “I ain’t going to see that fucking shit. I don’t wanna see that.”.
Just play longer shows.
The set lengths mentioned below must be taken with a grain of salt.
Morgan: That’s what I mean. You know, you need a two-hour show. That would be proper. You know, a two-hour show that has the breaks in it to where Lajon doesn’t have to be up there the whole time. It doesn’t have to be, you know, leads, but there needs to be something.
Lajon: What show do you go to for two hours? What band?
Morgan: The one last night. Alter Bridge plays two hours.
John: They play about an hour and fifty, yeah.
Lajon: They do? I didn’t know that.
Morgan: Creed plays two hours.
Lajon: I’m old, so I’m just not staying at the show for so long.
Morgan: Foo Fighters played almost four hours.
John: Taylor Swift plays like five hours.
Lajon: Really? You know me though. I’m like, “Hey. I’ve seen enough. Wrap it up!”. (Laughs) It’s like, “I love them. Wrap it up! Take me to the house.”.
John: I think Metallica is like two and a half to three hours.
Morgan: Metallica is over three hours.
John: The only one that I think is not too long is Machine Head. Like Machine Head didn’t need to be four hours. But yeah, I mean, if you have a lot of material it’s hard to get around to everything and to please everybody ‘cause if you don’t do praise you’re gonna hear about it from somebody. Even though we’d be like, “Yeah, they won’t miss it.”. Yeah, it’s tough, ‘cause we wanna play the new stuff. I remember talking to Eddie Van Halen about this. It was like, “They don’t wanna hear any of our new stuff.”. He was like, “What do you wanna hear?”, and I was like, “I wanna hear Unchained.”, and he goes, “See.”. I was like, “I’m just telling you, man. I’m out here and I wanna hear you play Unchained.”. (Laughs)
Morgan: Europe might get a better version than the United States ‘cause Europe doesn’t know us as well. Over here it’s like, “Oh, we can kind of dig in.”. I mean, we put this set together, and we let Tim put it together. We call him Euro Tim. He’s been over here so many times. I’m like, “What would they like the most?”, and he goes, “I’ll put the set together.”, and I’m like, “Oh, this is just like it is over there, but shorter.”. (Laughs)
By Tobbe – Published April 28th, 2026
Metal Covenant met vocalist Ronnie Romero to speak about the new Elegant Weapons album Evolution.
A separate interview about Ronnie’s solo work was published on April 7th.
Would you say that the new album is an extension of Horns For A Halo, or is it a new chapter?
I would say it is a new chapter, definitely. It’s the same band somehow, but I think the approaches we took in the two albums are completely different. When Richie called me to join Elegant Weapons, they had the album recorded already. He asked me to just jump in, so I just needed to adapt the songs a little bit to my performance. But everything was done. In the second album, we were working on the songs from scratch. It’s a totally different approach. We spent a lot of time in the studio with Richie, and Andy Sneap, working on the vocal lines, and the lyrics, and the backing vocals, and everything, so. I think actually the title of the album completely reflects what this album means for everybody. It’s like an evolution because for me it sounds like Elegant Weapons, finally.
Nowadays some albums are made even a year before they are being released. So, at what time of the year did you work on this album?
I think it was in September last year, yeah. I think there was enough time. I mean, at that time we didn’t even know which record company was gonna release the album. So we just wanted to work on the songs. I remember that I recorded the first album, like, in three days. But for this one, I would say only for the vocals, I spent at least, like, two weeks working with the guys. As I said before, it’s a different approach, but it felt as if the dynamic was different also.
And just how important is it, for especially Richie and Andy, to not sound like Judas Priest at all?
Yeah, it could be. (Laughs) I imagine that it’s really hard for them. But the songs are different and it’s a different approach. Though, there is a song that we use. It was a song that Richie wrote many years ago, and he tried to use that song for Judas Priest, and it didn’t work. You have only two options for the songs: it works or it does not work. You have magic in the studio, or you don’t have it. It’s not related to the quality of the musicians. It’s just if it doesn’t click, it doesn’t work. Actually I heard the demo with Rob Halford. That song didn’t work for them, but then we tried it in the studio for Elegant Weapons, and it totally worked. But I don’t think they have this pressure not to sound like Judas Priest because I think that the music style is a little bit different.
What kind of lyrics are there on the album?
There are different lyrics. We talk about the times we’re living in nowadays and how the people feel about everything that is happening in the world right now. And then also some introspective kind of feelings. The thing is, Richie and I have, like, a similar background. We both needed to step into a big band replacing somebody. So we really feel connected about that, and how a younger musician feels facing the music industry being, like people say, a hired gun. So sometimes we reflect that also in the lyrics, how you feel about, you know, criticism, and betrayal, and all this stuff. Obviously, you always try to put the lyrics in a way that it becomes a universal message that everybody can understand and take in their own meaning. It’s just like we’re trying to represent how we feel nowadays with everything that’s happening right now in the world with the wars and all this stuff, and also our experiences as musicians.
Are the lyrics metaphoric? Because very few lyrics actually point out people, even though they are bad sometimes.
You want the message to be pretty clear, so we tend to be metaphoric in a way that I’m trying to say this in a beautiful way, so that people don’t get it as we’re just protesting against the system. Even if we do. I mean, my last solo record is called Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters. That’s a pretty clear statement. Ronnie James Dio was criticizing the system since the first record he did, but in a beautiful way, so we try to do the same thing.
Can you tell me something about the artwork?
We always try to bring this ‘80s, ‘90s vibe, like this ‘90s culture about movies. Richie and I are pretty much the same age, and we grew up watching all those movies in the ‘80s and in the ‘90s, and all that ‘80s culture like Back To The Future, Star Wars, and all that stuff. So when we thought about Evolution, it was like, “Yeah, we need to have this kind of metalized humanoid.”, which is pretty much what we actually are living like nowadays. (Laughs) Sometimes you don’t know if it’s coming from a human or not. Also in the music. You know, with all the AI stuff, it’s like, “Is this real? Was it made by a musician or was that AI?”. So it’s kind of a duality between machines and organic. So yeah, we try to represent that in a way.
Maybe in the future, with AI, holograms, and stuff, maybe people who buy concert tickets will demand to touch the artists to see if they’re real or not.
Actually, it was funny, because when we released the cover, many people were asking if it was made by AI. Which it’s not. It’s made by a proper artist. Nowadays people don’t know anything. They cannot see the difference between the things, which sometimes is pretty dangerous.
You know what? I think you’re probably the first one in about ten interviews that I haven’t asked if the album cover has a little bit of AI in it.
Nowadays nobody knows. Sometimes it’s the video clips, and sometimes even the songs. I read about this band from Frontiers called Frontline. Everybody’s talking about that they’re doing the music with AI, and they’re trying to say, “No, we did the songs ourselves.”. It’s really hard to actually recognize nowadays. And I think that’s a dangerous path, when you don’t have a difference between reality and something made by a computer. That’s pretty dangerous, actually.
As I see it, a video clip, that’s totally fine. You have seen movies from, like, the last hundred years, and it’s always been cutting, pasting, editing, and stuff like that. But many artists say, “I make music because it’s something I got to get out of my system. Why use AI? What’s the point of that?”.
I think the problem is never the tool itself, it’s how you use it. That’s the problem. I mean, for example, I am not a great guitar player, and I’m writing a song, and I’m writing a demo for a song, and I’m thinking about how the guitar solo should be for the demo, so maybe you can use it just to check how it works before you get really with the band working on the song. And that would be it. The difference is if you actually write a song through AI, and then you release a song like that. That’s a different thing. But anyways, I think it’s also a trend opinion, because if people are caring so much about AI, why are they not caring about bands playing with backing tracks live?
And I said movies, but it’s in music too, because artists have cheated in the studio for the last, I don’t know, 70 years.
If you overproduce an album, and then you need to play live, and you need to use a lot of backing tracks, but the people are not complaining about that, why should they complain about somebody writing a song with AI? Are we a hundred percent on one thing, and not a hundred percent on the other side? You have one opinion on this, and then a different opinion on that. What I don’t understand is why people have a very strong opinion on certain things, and then on some others it’s like, “It’s okay.”. Why do you need to argue about AI when you pay for a ticket to see a band live and they use 70 percent of backing tracks? If that’s okay for you, what is your point? It’s complicated. But yeah, that’s the times we’re living in nowadays.
And then you have the question of copyright. What if AI uses your songs to write songs for other people? You’ll maybe hear that, “Whoa, this sounds like my songs.”.
Actually, that happened to me a few years ago. Somebody put on YouTube a couple of videos of original Rainbow songs from the Joe Lynn Turner era, and how it should sound like if the song I Surrender was sung by Ronnie James Dio. And it’s clearly made with AI. But then I realized that they use my performance, my vocals, on the live shows, and I was like, “Oh, I did that.”. It’s not actually Ronnie James Dio. It’s my voice through an AI put on the video. So what can you do? I mean, it’s not controllable.
And we got to bear in mind as well that most people listening to music maybe don’t visit concerts every week like I do. So it’s important for me that it’s real.
It’s a different species of fans. Well, obviously, because of the Internet, everybody wants to have an opinion on everything. There are a lot of people who criticize everything, but they never pay for the music, they never pay for a ticket, but they are entitled to criticize your work anyways. You need to live with that. It’s not much you can do. (Laughs)
So back to Elegant Weapons. Do you guys ever meet besides maybe when you’re recording the album, shoot a video, and when you’re playing live?
Well, not very often because Richie and Chris live in Nashville and Dave lives in France. So we don’t meet very often, but every time we have the chance we do. The last time I met Richie was last summer. Judas Priest came to Romania, to Bucharest, and I live there, so obviously we met. It’s not a big issue anyways, because, you know, you have WhatsApp and other stuff, so we speak almost every day, even about different things. When we are doing the recording, obviously we speak more. And actually, I talked to him a couple of days ago, and we are looking forward to meeting each other, because the last time we met, I think, was in July last year.
As a vocalist, how much can you truly affect the end result of the songs?
Well, actually, that’s my job. That’s what I need to do. So that’s the main goal. When somebody comes to you with a demo, and he has an idea with the vocal line and all that stuff, obviously my main goal is to make it sound like it’s Ronnie Romero singing the song. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be exciting for me. The same happens to me with, for example, Magnus Karlsson when we record The Ferrymen. He is a great singer, actually. He’s singing on the demos, and for me it’s like, “Why do you need a singer for this album? Because you’re a great singer.”. So the real challenge is to make the songs sound like I’m singing on them. So that’s actually the main challenge.
Would you care if somebody called Elegant Weapons a band or a project?
We don’t think about it, actually. Some people call it a project; some people call it a super group. Actually, I don’t believe in the term super group. What does that mean? Do we have superpowers? It’s like, “Because you all come from famous bands.”, and I go, “Yeah, but that doesn’t make me a better musician being in that band.”. I still need to prove it, you know. So I don’t believe in this super group term. We are just like four friends trying to do our best, and doing music together, and trying to do some shows. Because this is not just a studio project. We wanna do shows. That’s the main thing for us. We love to do recordings and work together on songs, but then we really wanna go out and play the songs live. We come from that background. Before they got famous with Judas Priest and Uriah Heep, Richie and Dave were playing bars together in the UK. I grew up playing in bars, and pubs, and all this stuff. So our nature is to be out playing. People can call the group what they want, like project, band, super group, super band, whatever. We are just four friends trying to do music.
It’s a little bit late now for getting on the summer festivals this year. Are you looking for some festivals next year, or maybe a tour?
While Richie is in Judas Priest, we always need to wait for the Judas Priest schedule, which is fair, you know. That’s Richie’s main band, and it’s a legendary band, so. I’m not gonna be the guy who is, you know, arguing about that, like, “Elegant Weapons is more important than Judas Priest.”. It’s not. We planned the schedule for the recording, and then we got this new record label, Exciter Records, and they said, “Okay, we need to release the album in April.”. Then Richie goes to record an album and on tour with Judas Priest. And then we need to plan what to do, which is pretty okay for everybody. It’s like, “Okay, yeah, no problem.”. Probably we’re gonna start the tour in the U.S. maybe at the end of the year. In November and December maybe we go to the U.S. to do a few shows, and then for the next year, obviously, we will try to get to some festivals.
And you will have to try to fit that into your own calendar as well.
I mean, for me it’s easy, because nowadays, if I think about it, I’m just doing my solo stuff. I don’t play with Michael (Schenker) anymore. With any other project or studio project, it’s just the studio and the recording. The only band I’m actually touring with right now is my band. So I have the power to decide when I go out with my band, or when I need to make space for Elegant Weapons. It’s pretty easy, yeah.
By Tobbe – Published April 22nd, 2026
The Finnish power metal unit Sonata Arctica is currently on a run to celebrate the band’s 30-year anniversary, and on the stop in Stockholm, Sweden, Metal Covenant was given the opportunity to exchange a few words in the tour bus with keyboarder Henrik Klingenberg.
The band celebrates 30 years this year, even though the band wasn’t named Sonata Arctica 30 years ago. Tell me about this celebration.
I think the first time we started with celebratory things was when our first album turned 15. We did a remake. And then we tried to do a 25th anniversary tour, which didn’t quite work out because that was during the Covid times. So we booked it and canceled it, and booked it and canceled it. For example, the Latin American part of it, we did it, I think, three years after the fact. So it became a bit weird. (Laughs) But now, finally, we thought, “Okay, the band is now turning 30 years. Now we can celebrate and try to make it work.”. And so far it’s been fine.
I checked out a few setlists from earlier this year, and, okay, I get it, it’s a 30-year celebration, but you didn’t play a single song from your newest album Clear Cold Beyond.
Oh yeah, that’s true. We had to pick and choose. And we played quite a few songs from the latest album just before this, because basically we didn’t have any recording break now. Usually, you make an album, you go on tour, then you have a break while you make the next album, and so on. So, for us, this, in a way, seems like we are just continuing our tour, and that’s why we somehow felt that it was okay to drop some of the songs from the latest album. But it’s tricky. And now we picked up a new single that we just released, and we’re gonna play that, so that’s gonna represent the new parts.
I was gonna ask about the single a little bit later. But let’s go to that single right now instead. So, a new song, Freedom Concept, was just out. Tell me about that song.
Yeah, that was something we recorded in the last sessions with the last album. It quite didn’t fit on the album, so we thought, “All right, let’s figure it out somehow.”. And then, of course, a year or two later, we realized that, “Okay, it would be cool to have something to put out to promote this tour.”. Like, “Yeah, we have this song, so let’s go with that.”. So basically that’s how that came about. We didn’t have any sessions in between. I think it’s a fun song. I think it combines the later Sonata with… Well, I don’t know if it even combines. It could have been written 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
Is Sonata Arctica a band that usually records a couple of more songs than should be on the album?
When we have the chance, we do. But it depends also on Tony’s songwriting, because he writes all the songs, or most of it, and sometimes we go into the studio and he has maybe half an album, so he has to come up with stuff so we can get enough songs. But with the last album I don’t think there’s anything else. Well, actually there is. There was this song, and then another song, but we didn’t finish it. We recorded it, like, halfway through or something, and then Tony was like, “I’m not feeling it. There’s something wrong with it.”, and I said, “Hey, look, it’s your song. If you say it’s not ready, then we’ll drop it and get back to it later.”. But usually there’s not really a lot of leftovers. They will find their way either on a B-side, or a bonus track, or whatever. So we don’t have that much unreleased stuff. Unless we’re talking about live, because these days you can record basically everything. So I don’t know how many hundreds of shows we have on hard drives. But if we would want to use it, then somebody would have to go through it, and that’s a massive thing to do. Maybe when we can’t stand each other anymore and quit the business, then we’ll have time to go through that. (Laughs)
And also, a lot of record companies aren’t so interested in live albums anymore as they used to be. So it’s a money thing as well.
Yeah, that is true. Especially now, even if you film something just with your phone and put it online, I wouldn’t say the quality is good, but it’s a lot better than it used to be. And so for example that’s the reason we haven’t made a DVD. Somebody has to pay for it, and that somebody is just not paying, you know. But we have been planning to release a compilation album to celebrate this 30th anniversary. We have picked the songs. I think last year we recorded live shows in Latin America. We have mixed them. So it’s ready. We have 10 or 11 songs, or something like that. So everything is planned. But the rights to the first three albums are held by a different company. So they are now talking about it. And we are waiting. So let’s see if this is gonna be a clusterfuck or if they can figure it out. But there are plans. The graphics are ready. The songs have been picked. Everything, so. It’s been a bit of a hassle. Anyway, we’re trying to get it done, but it’s not up to us, basically. The thing, of course, with the compilation albums now, is that everybody is just making playlists. So it might not make sense, but that’s why we wanted to include the live songs. And also, the original plan was to have one CD with hits, or whatever, and then one CD with B-sides. There’s a lot of Japanese bonus tracks that we haven’t released officially anywhere else. So just to make it interesting. I also think, like you said, that labels are not so interested in live albums anymore. I think they are even less interested in compilation albums. But when the band turns 30 years and says they want to release a compilation, then it’s a bit hard to say no. So let’s hope we get it done. (Laughs)
About Japanese bonus tracks and B-sides. Those songs, in my opinion, can vary from being awesome to being kind of shitty sometimes. So, when you shall release such a song, what goes through your mind then?
It’s really hard because the thing is first we finish all the tracks, and then we start to pick and choose, and a lot of times, for example, right now we’re working on the new album and there is an order already for the songs. But then, depending on how they turn out, you know, it might change. A lot of times the core of the album is the same as when Tony sends out demos. He’s like, “This is what I have in mind.”. But then, if you have 11 songs, and you have to pick one to be the bonus track, it’s a fucking nightmare. The thing is, you listen to it and go, “This should be it.”, and then you talk with the guys and somebody else says, “No, I think it should be this because of blah, blah, blah.”, and then you go, “Oh, that’s actually true. So it might be that one.”. And then you change your mind, and then somebody else changes, and it’s back and forth, and then one year after that, you’re like, “Oh, what the fuck were we thinking?”. Like for example, on The Days Of Grace, we had three or four bonus tracks, and there’s a song called In The Dark that I think turned out very, very well. But at the time we thought, “Of course it’s a bonus track.”. And now, well even just a few years after the album, “Why didn’t we put that on the album instead of something else?”. So it’s hard, and especially because we have always been a band that produces itself. So that’s tricky. This is one of the things where it would be useful to have some outside guy who comes in and say like, “This is good. That’s shit.”. But hits and misses, you know.
And you have lived with the songs for a long time since you were recording them maybe over and over again, and listened to them so many times. You may be biased in a different way than your fans are.
Yeah, we are. And I think it totally clouds your judgment. Like a song like Tallulah, for example. When you’ve played it a thousand times, you go like, “Aah”, you know. And it’s a really good song. But of course it’s different when you play it on stage in front of people. Then it’s always fun. But then we have a rehearsal, and we’re like, “Do we have to play FullMoon and Tallulah in rehearsal?”, and we’re like, “No, we really do not have to do that.”, you know. (Laughs)
What’s it like for you today to play the oldest songs in comparison to songs from the middle of your career in comparison to the new songs? Is it any different?
Well, I think it’s not always very different, because basically with what we are playing tonight, I don’t feel like, “Okay, here I’m 20 years old, or here I’m 30 years old.”, but it’s more of, “This night is what brings everything together in some way.”. But I can definitely see it just from the parts that I’m playing. Like for example, the older songs have a much simpler arrangement, and some stuff is not so well thought through. (Laughs) Sometimes it works better that way, and sometimes not. But you can hear that, and for me, because I go through a bunch of patch changes every night, like changing different sounds and playing different parts, I can immediately see where we are going, like if this is an old song, middle era, or whatever. But in that moment, it doesn’t really matter when the song is formed.
Clear Cold Beyond was kind of a return to the Sonata Arctica power metal days. What are your feelings today about that move to travel back in time?
Yeah, it’s more like maybe Sonata power metal 2.0, you know. So, I’m really happy with it. The thing is because we first did the Talviyö album, that ended up somehow very, very soft. Like, you can even hear it from the sound. At the moment we were like, “Yeah! This is good.”. And we recorded most of the stuff live, playing together, and that was like this ‘70s rock. And like a year or so afterwards, you’re like, “This is not really what we should be doing.”. However, at the time, we were into it, and we were doing it. And then after that, you had all this pandemic shit and whatever, and because we couldn’t do shows we had to do something. I had already talked with the label about doing acoustic albums, because we had done some tours before, and how I got them to shell out some money (Laughs), I pitched the idea to the guys also, was that we have a buddy of ours that has a studio in Los Angeles, and he had Adele there when she was writing and recording Someone Like You on his piano, and I wanted to play on that piano, so, of course, that was a perfect excuse. The idea was that we would fly there, record the acoustic stuff on that piano in his studio, and then come back and mix it, and that would be fine. But of course we couldn’t travel, and we didn’t have any income. But I had a deal on the table, so we just took the deal, went to Pasi’s studio in the middle of the woods and recorded, like, 25 or 26 songs of acoustic stuff. So now we have a rock album that is a bit too soft for us, and two acoustic albums that are even softer, so you get to the point where I don’t think we could have gone any softer. So of course there is a backlash. And we have been talking now with Tony about it also, especially now when he’s also making his side project (Himmelkraft) where he can put his weirdest stuff. So, the new stuff we are working on now is also in a similar way to the last album.
But the last album is not power metal all the way through. There is different, more modern stuff on it as well. It’s not Silence Part 2.
Yeah. But Silence also has some more progressive songs, or mid-tempo songs. It’s funny because I think we have more speedy songs on Clear Cold Beyond than on any album before, but it’s more of an image thing.
And the speedier songs on the new album are covered in more music than it was in the beginning. It’s more production nowadays.
Yeah, exactly. That’s why I talked about the arrangements. Back in the day, it’s just like you took a chord with the guitar and the same chord with the keyboard, and you just went on playing the solos, and then the chorus, and, “Thank you. Good night.”, you know. But the thing why these songs still work today is because of the melodies. And that is the reason why we are still here. Because Tony writes really good melodies that people can relate to, and they’re not too weird or something, and they’re still stuck in your head. That’s why we’re still here, because of his songwriting.
Even though you’re working on a new album, have you talked about making yet another acoustic album and do a tour for that one sometime again?
Well, first we did the two albums, and then when we finally got to tour I think it was a ten-week tour. We started in Finland with just one or two off days per week, and then we did like a seven-week European tour. And after that, mentioning acoustic (Laughs), you know, made some people leave the room for quite some time. But the thing is now when we have distance from it, it’s a very interesting thing. I’m really sure that we will do it at some point. I don’t know if we’re gonna do an album or just shows, but it’s still something that is there and it’s not something that we’re gonna forget about, you know. For example, now when we had our birthday cruise on the icebreaker we played acoustically as well. And it was really fun to do because we hadn’t done that before. At some point, yeah, but not right now.
You have been involved in quite a few projects and guest appearances back in the day, but that seems to have stopped, or has it?
Yes and no. For example, we have a Silent Voices album that we demoed and played everything on, like, six or seven years ago. We haven’t gotten around to it. And I have a solo album that has been recorded, but it’s missing the vocals since four, five, or six years ago maybe. I forget how long ago it was. (Laughs) So every once in a while. But somehow there’s so much to do these days, you know. I don’t know if it’s because of family and kids or whatever. It’s just how it is right now, and it’s really not something I’ve chosen, but it just happens to be, and at the moment this is how it is. But when something interesting comes up and I have time for it, of course I’ll do it.
Which other instruments do you master besides piano related stuff?
Master or play? There’s a difference. (Laughs) Well, I play a little bit of bass. I have performed live on bass as well. I’ve performed songs playing bass, in the studio. I have a few guitars, and I like to play them. Basic stuff can work, but not really my forte. But enough to play demos, and for example, if I get Elias to play something, I can play him a demo and say like, “Like this, but play sixteenth notes instead. Like this, but faster.”. So for those kinds of purposes, I can work with that.
And how are your vocals?
Stellar. (Laughs) Well, I can sing. Sometimes I’m happy with it, sometimes not.
You said you missed the vocals for your coming solo album. So how do you sound on the demos? Because I guess you…
No, I haven’t even done the demos. I just did the music. But I sang on the last solo album myself. It felt like I wanted to do it, and I did, but in retrospect, I don’t know if that was the best idea. It didn’t sound the way it sounded in my head, you know. (Laughs) So I’m not sure. But I think that’s the fun thing about doing solo albums, projects, and stuff. You don’t have to be so goddamn serious every time. You do what you feel like, and then it turns out whatever, and then that’s what it is, and then you move on.
How come you became a piano player or a keyboard player, and then going into heavy metal with that knowledge of the instruments?
Basically, I was put into music school, playing classical music, when I was five or six years old. And then, of course, you get into your teens, and then you start to think that maybe there’s something else than just sitting there and just playing these sonatas every day. So the first natural thing is you start to look at pop music, and then jazz music, because then you get some more interesting chords and different stuff, and then from there I actually started to listen to heavy metal. But there were no keyboards in Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera, and then somehow I came across Deep Purple and stuff, and then people were like, “Hey, you can actually do this with the organ.”. Then you have to figure out the difference between organ and piano, which is kind of huge. And then came Dream Theater, where you’re playing solos, and then Stratovarius. I wasn’t really that into the Stratovarius thing before Jens (Johansson) joined, and then, you know, hearing Jens’ solos, that was a thing. So I think he, Kevin Moore and Jon Lord were the guys that really turned me on. And at some point I listened to a lot of, like, Emerson, Lake & Palmer stuff. But somehow it’s too square for me. It’s like it’s interesting, but it came and went. And also Yes and stuff like that. But yeah, somehow that kind of route.
And nowadays, when you have become a little bit older, when you’re playing at home, can you sometimes compare yourself to those legendary people you just mentioned?
I don’t know. I try to steal from them as much as I can. (Laughs) One time we were watching Dream Theater in Helsinki, and (John) Petrucci and (Mike) Portnoy did a clinic at the Tavastia Rock Club, and there was a Q&A at the end, and somebody asked like, “Hey John, how many licks have you stolen from Ritchie Blackmore?”, and he chuckled and said like, “Maybe 25.”, and then I’m like, “Yeah, everybody does it.”. And that’s usually how you find your own style. You try to steal from people, and you fail, and then it turns into something else.
When you got into heavy metal, was there a dream for you of making it big, or was it just for fun?
Well, at first it was fun. But I think really early on it was like you start to listen to the bands, and then you start to see, “Okay, they are playing shows.”, and then you’re like, “Okay, they’re playing big shows, and they’re traveling the world and playing music for people.”, and then you’re like, “Fuck, I wanna do that.”. And it was never about, you know, “I wanna be a millionaire.”. I’m not opposed to that. (Laughs) But it’s just probably never gonna happen. But that was not the thing. The thing was that you could go and play in front of people everywhere and play big shows, you know. And that came pretty early on. And here we are. It’s not so big, but I mean, we’re doing it.
How many of your dreams have been fulfilled in music?
The thing for me why I love dreams is there will always be new horizons and new dreams, so you’re never done. Or actually, when you get to the point that you are done, then I’ll say, “Thank you. Good night.”. But the biggest thing for me is to be able to make a living of music, traveling the world, and playing heavy metal with a bunch of nice dudes. That has come true.
And how about party days? Are they over, or are they still there, and to what extent?
They have changed, extremely. I mean, what I think about partying, it’s not there anymore. But of course, you know, we like to have a few glasses, or a few beers, or whatever. But it’s more like a bunch of middle-aged guys sitting around laughing at the same stupid shit. You know, having a drink, and then you’re like, “Oh, fuck, I’m a bit drunk. I should go to bed.”. It’s more of that, as opposed to the earlier days, when it was like when the show was over, that was basically the start of the evening, not the end. And it’s, you know, you can go on, and then when the sun comes up you’re like, “Fuck, I have to go to sleep because we have a show tonight.”. So it’s a completely different attitude. And also, I wouldn’t dare to try to, you know, out-party 25-year-old me, or even 30-year-old me. So we like to have a good time, but it just looks different these days.
By Tobbe – Published April 16th, 2026
Metal Covenant spent some time in Stockholm with Solence’s singer Markus Videsäter and guitarist David Strääf on the second show of the band’s currently running European tour.
Two days ago in Helsinki you played the first show of this tour. Tell me about your feelings when you go to the first gig of a tour.
Markus: There are a lot of feelings. You meet the crew, all of the guys, for the first time on a tour. You meet everyone from the venue. And you’re kind of like reminded again about the touring life, and all the routines, and you have to find, like, “Where do I put my stage clothes? Where do I put my shoes?”. And it’s the first show. I mean, the crowd was amazing. We had a really good time. But it’s a weird feeling because you’re trying to get into it. Like the whole gig, you’re trying to get into it. At some moments, you really do. But it’s hard. But I think we did a good show, and it was a good time, so.
David: This is, like, our first headline tour. That means that you play twice as long. When you saw us last time with Nøthing Møre, we played 30 minutes there. Now we play for 75 minutes. When you’re on stage, you’ve gotten used to being the quick, and you’re so energetic for it, and it’s like in your face, “Here we are! Here we are!”, and it’s like headbang, do everything, and then we’re out, and then we want them to remember us. And now, you do that, but a show to me needs to be like a movie. You need that dramaturgic curve. You know, where it’s like you have the peak, and then it needs to go down a little bit, and then you need to find it. You need, like, the story of the show. And how you behave on stage is something I feel like it’s gonna take a couple of shows to get used to that. Not to be overdramatic, but this is something we’ve been looking forward to, like, our whole lives. Like the idea is to do a headliner. Even though we wanna do it even bigger and better. And I went out and watched Written By Wolves for a couple of songs when they played. I got a little bit emotional. I just stood in the back, and I was like, “They’re so cool, they’re so good, it sounds amazing, it looks amazing, and people are having a good time.”. It feels really special and cool to be, not the reason, but one of the big reasons why people gather here and have a good time. And before we’ve always been like the little spice on it. But now it’s like we had the opportunity to bring the bands in.
A lot of bands say that maybe it takes two or three gigs until things really work out live. What can we expect tonight on the second show?
Markus: We try to make every rehearsal as we are playing live. So I think the first show went really well. I don’t think, honestly, that the crowd is gonna notice a big difference. I think it’s more emotional for us to be tapped into something and reach the flow state. That’s what you wanna achieve, right? And it’s just like now we think about things a little bit more, but I’m sure that in no time we’re gonna reach that. Honestly, same thing. Great energy, great show. Fucking Solence experience. That’s it.
David: We spent so much time preparing. When we come here, we don’t change a single thing. Like the last three weeks have been like, “We’re only doing this.”. The set is produced. Like everything. Like every second is like… We really have thought about everything, so we already know what we’re doing, but then we’re doing it in front of people. But yeah, I think the big difference is just getting into, like, the flow state, as Markus called it.
Not having a bassist. Is that something that sometimes bothers you and maybe the crowd?
Markus: I think that it’s been a thing maybe 10 years ago. I mean, Written By Wolves also has like a drum kit, one guitar, and one singer. Bands nowadays I feel are more like you experience the songs and the experience of seeing the bands. It’s less about being exactly right and genuine with everyone playing everything and all that. I think that we’ve come a long way from, like, “Oh, they use backtracks.”, to like, “It’s just a show.”. I think that we would like to have a bass player. I think that would be cool. Right now we have a good mix of people in the band. It’s hard to add someone. So I think it’s more personal. I mean, there’s bass on every song. But on stage, there is literally no bass player, yeah.
David: The way music is created now is just so different, where it’s like, “You’re in a studio. Let’s record.”. And then that’s what you do. Now, such a big part of what makes it sound like it does is because you do stuff with it. Like on the computer, you do little, like, silences or whatever it is, and you pitch stuff. The production process of the music is I think more like EDM (Electronic Dance Music). So a lot of stuff is something that you can’t play ‘cause it’s like you’ve done stuff to it in a creative way in the studio. So if we would just do no backtracks, only synths, we can do that, but it’s gonna be different songs. Which could be cool to explore in the future when we can have more musicians. That’s something I would like to explore. Future will tell.
And you guys have recorded quite a few short video clips. Tell me about those clips in general.
Markus: Now we have a new social media manager called Kelsey (Childs). She literally tells us what to do and we’ll do it. It’s not something that comes very natural to us, I think. We’re, like, really focused on being in the studio. But it’s very fun when we do it. She’s very, like, Gen Z, whatever. It’s very cool. So yeah, she tells us what to do and we do it. It’s gotten a lot of attention over the last couple of months.
David: It’s a little bit similar with the songs you sometimes don’t put much love into. It’s the same with these clips. Sometimes you just do something quick, and it reacts. And when you’re like, “This is awesome!”, nobody does. (Laughs)
On this tour you offer the fans a VIP experience with a meet and greet. Tell me what it’s like to meet fans on meet and greets.
David: I feel like it’s not that big of a difference ‘cause it’s something that we always do after the shows. I’ll just jump into the audience. I just put away the guitar, and I jump into the audience. That’s something I usually always do. And I’m hanging out with people after the show and be like, “Thank you for coming.”. Like that. And then meeting them after, taking pictures, and just getting to know them a little bit. So I don’t think it’s that big of a difference, for me. How about you?
Markus: I think it’s more calm and you’re able to actually in peace get to know the person. They’ve paid money to be able to meet us, and I think that’s a very, very beautiful thing of them to do. And it’s very humbling for us. But I think the personalized experience for these individuals to come here, stand in front of a backdrop, get proper pictures, get a package, is that they get the Solence experience just one step further. I think that’s really beautiful. So I appreciate them. It’s very foreign to me, but I think it’s very cool.
David: It’s a new thing. It feels kind of weird that people would pay to see us, you know. But I know I would for the artists that I look up to.
Markus: I would pay for the quality of the actual interaction.
Well, it’s part of the whole thing. People buy merch. Merch isn’t free. Records aren’t free.
Markus: Yes, correct. And I mean, if it’s someone that means a lot to you, then you get a memory for a lifetime, which is, like, really cool.
You guys quite often release songs or albums or whatever. It’s close to six months since Angels Calling was out. So are you already in the making of a few more songs? Because I know you guys work productively in the studio, like, year-round.
Markus: We are actually in conversation with some amazing features for a couple of songs that we have right now. So it’s gonna be a very exciting couple of months ahead. So stay tuned.
David: Extremely exciting. We can’t reveal anything yet. We have a couple of songs that I feel that I’m very proud of, which are gonna come out soon after the tour. And yeah, it’s really, really exciting.
Just a question about new songs. Will they kind of follow the track of Angels Calling, or will you maybe try something new?
Markus: That’s always a difficult question for us, because we don’t do anything, and we just try to make the song the best it possibly can be. Angels Calling was not like a thought like, “We wanna do this kind of thing.”. We just made a couple of songs and then we put them all together. And I think it’s the same thing here. We’ve just been trying to make something that feels very special to us. And I think if you would start at the other end of it, where you actually have to do a certain thing, it’s hard to find the inspiration for that. We really push ourselves to make the best songs we possibly can. And it becomes what it becomes, honestly.
David: I would describe ourselves as, or maybe myself, as a little kid when writing songs. I’m like, “I wanna do this!”, and then I have to do that. If I don’t do that, it’s not gonna be good, ‘cause I have to follow where my happiness wants to take me. (Laughs) That can be whatever. Maybe I hear something. I know for a while I was really inspired by drum and bass. Because I lived in England, and I went to a nightclub, and I heard drum and bass, like, “This is metal! But I wanna take this and do it in a metal way.”. Whatever it is, I’m like, “I need to follow that.”. And a lot of times Markus also has stuff, but you’re also really nice when you’re writing. You’re like, “Are you excited about something? Let’s do that.”. It’s really nice.
Markus: Yeah, but for me also, I wanna get into that more, I think. I also need to find that kind of like thing in the beginning when I write something, and I think I wanna find that more. But yeah, we just push things, for sure.
At this stage, making music together with AI isn’t a choice, or is it?
Markus: It’s totally a choice. It’s definitely a choice. It can be extremely lazy, and it can be very uninspiring. I think it’s very much a choice. You have to fucking learn an instrument, dude. Then you can use AI. But do that first. Learn the craft first.
David: I don’t think it’s gonna replace the same as people think it’s gonna be replaced. I feel like music already now is divided. Some stuff is just corporate music and more like a function. You’re in a clothing store, it’s just on, and you don’t even hear the song. I feel like it’s gonna be more automated in that way. I think it’s gonna develop in the same way the computer made it, where it’s like you don’t necessarily have to play the drums, but you need to know how to play drums. Sometimes we mix and mix with programs and real drums, but we know how it’s played. It’s gonna be used in a different way. I’ve tried to use it a little bit, but it’s really difficult too, because it just makes something that sounds finished, but it’s shit. I don’t know what to do with it, because it’s finished, but it’s not good. So, I don’t know. You lose the feeling.
What would you say if I’d say that people who don’t go to shows regularly are maybe easier to convince to listen to AI created music?
Markus: I think it’s a little bit different. I think that it totally can replace real musicians and do whatever. It’s up to the song. Do you like the song or not? Even if it’s made by a robot, that’s fine. Like it’s not up to us, you know. (Laughs) It’s the same thing when synthesizers came. People were like, “This is not an instrument. This doesn’t vibrate.”. But I think that it’s totally cool. Like listen to whatever you wanna listen to. But I think for musicians and people who want to achieve emotional connection to music of some sort, it’s very important that you actually do it through your fingers, through your voice, and experience music the way that the human experience of music is supposed to be experienced. But if you wanna listen to an AI song, that’s fine.
David: I think a big problem with that is how you solve the royalties and how people get paid. ‘Cause it’s like Spotify already takes so much. Like all these horrible companies. They take so much, and it’s more and more and more. Basically how royalties work is they have a big pot of money and whatever people listen to gets paid percentage-wise, and if a company can create four million songs a year that gets taken from the same amount of money, then that’s gonna be a problem ‘cause then it’s just more and more corporate. And then it’s gonna be even more difficult for people to live off music, and people need to be able to live off music or see a pathway to make it a living to be able to become good enough to actually create good music. ‘Cause it takes a long time to be able to create good music, right? So I think that is a big problem and something that I hope gets solved, and whatever I can do, I would like to do that. But I don’t know, you know.
And we have a copyright thing as well. Would you really be comfortable with hearing, like, your own songs that someone else has done through AI?
David: No. Or something that’s clearly inspired. And that’s like, yeah, no, I don’t know.
Markus: (Sighs) Ah, it’s a difficult situation, right? We have copied so many songs for our own music…
David: Of course people do that.
Markus: …so it’s easy to see it from one angle. And it depends on what the future holds. I think that it’s cool that the technology moves forward and that people are able to use technology to get creative. But, ah, I don’t know. It’s in the very early stages.
David: It’s difficult to have an opinion, in a way…
Markus: It’s very difficult. And it should be difficult.
David: …because with what you’re saying, I don’t agree with what you’re saying, but also, if I’m thinking about it logically, yes. It’s different. It’s like you’re split between two sides, and you also don’t know what you’re choosing between. So, ah, I don’t know.
Markus: I mean, you can do whatever you want, but AI can’t play live. I mean, go play. You know what I mean? If you wanna do something else, go play.
Tell me a little bit about your background in music before you formed Solence.
Markus: There is no background. It’s in high school. I mean, I had a band two years before that, but that was in middle school. There is no background. Through my whole professional and serious studying life I’ve been in Solence, literally.
David: Yeah, we’ve been in the band for longer than we’ve not been in the band. We were 15 when we started, and Markus came in when you were 15 as well, right? Or 16, maybe. It’s like we’ve only been in the band, kind of.
Markus: I mean, yeah, sure. We, like, sang in a choir. But I mean, it’s nothing (Laughs)
David: I mean, okay, if you start with that. I’m a classical violinist in the foundation. So I played a lot of violin, like Mozart, and did all of that, played solos, played quartets, orchestras, everything. My mom absolutely forced me to play violin. In the beginning, the first two years, it was really fun. But then I wanted to quit, and then she was like, “You have to practice 20 minutes a day. You have to.”. We had so many fights about that. But I’m so grateful my mom made me do that, because in a way that enabled me to be able to have music in my life. And when I later found the guitar it was so much easier for me to play guitar, because I play violin. Violin is, for me, a much more difficult instrument. Like to be able to even sound decent is work. It’s difficult and different stuff, but guitar came easier because of the violin. And Markus played classic trumpet and played a lot of jazz and stuff. Really good.
Markus: But that was while we were in Solence.
David: Yeah, true, but you started before. Like violin is my first instrument. It’s the first instrument that I started playing, but I would say I’m better at guitar now than I am at violin. But for a long time, when we had the band, I was better at violin. And Johan plays bassoon. He still does it with professional orchestras, like Norrköping’s Symphony Orchestra. He’s so good. And he went to the Music Conservatory in Stockholm and stuff like that.
Which is your strongest market today?
Markus: Well, I just know the numbers, right? So it’s Russia, the US, Germany, Europe in general. But I think that, honestly, Russia is very strong, which is sad because of the current situation. We would love to play there, and we would love to meet Russian fans, but it’s obviously very hard to do with the situation. Otherwise than that, the US is pretty big for us as well. Germany, France. Yeah, kind of like that. The usual suspects.
But is there a place or two that you will put some extra effort into since you’re already starting to get more famous there? Because if you have a place where you work really great, maybe work harder on that one.
David: Then you will never see us again. (Laughs) I’m joking.
Markus: It’s hard to say. I mean, you build everywhere, right? You build everywhere. I think it’s mostly driven by population. So Germany sells better because there’s more people in Germany. But opportunities just come from anywhere. So if we would be able to do a cool tour in the US, we would do that. There’s not really a lot to do. It’s just to book tours and go there. (Laughs) And then we have a label that, of course, tries to get us into radio in some different locations. But it’s more driven by the actual opportunity of the very moment. That is a focused effort.
What does a regular day, when you’re not making or playing music, look like for you guys?
Markus: It’s two different things for me. I’m always in the studio. But it’s depending on if we have something that we’re working on musically, or if we’re preparing something, like a tour. But I’m always in the studio. That’s where I am. Every day. From the morning to when I quit at night. (Laughs) Of course I cook and stuff, but I’m in the studio. I’m born like that. I think I was born in a studio, and I will die in a studio.
David: I try to go to the gym. I mean, but it’s the same, ‘cause the music is such a big part of my identity and my life. Everything is centered around that, and whatever I can fit in around it that doesn’t drain me from making music, I’ll try to do. So the gym gives me energy, sometimes. Trying to hang out with friends, when there’s a moment, gives me energy. And then going on trips with my girlfriend.
By Tobbe – Published April 13th, 2026
Metal Covenant met up with singer Ronnie Romero and talked about guest appearances, his solo album Backbone, which includes a story around Kee Marcello, as well as the difficult times for musicians today.
Also, a separate interview with Ronnie was done about the new Elegant Weapons album Evolution, which is out on April 24th, and that interview will be published close to that album’s release date.
Tell me about the song Black Flame, which was recently out.
Yeah, that was fantastic. I’ve been collaborating with Cleopatra Records for a couple of years already. They came to me a couple of years ago to do one song. I met the guys in LA recently. We love to work together. I think that’s pretty cool in the way they put some musicians together to do some collaboration, and it’s a great time to time to do that kind of stuff. And the funny thing is, when I did the song Black Flame, I didn’t know anything about who was gonna play on it. So they just sent me the demo and said, “Can you record this?”. I said, “Yeah, sure.”. So I went to the studio and recorded the song, and then when they released it, I just realized it was Chris Poland, and Jonathan Cain, and all those guys. (Laughs) It was like, “Really?”. I didn’t know. So yeah, I think it’s great. It’s a great time to time to do this kind of stuff. It keeps your creativity working, and also it grows and it makes your catalog and even your CV grow a little bit. So now I can say that I did a song with Jonathan Cain from Journey, which is one of my favorite bands. Another check on the list. (Laughs)
And you have collaborated once again with Gus G. on his coming solo album Steel Burner. Tell me about that work.
I mean, it’s pretty natural for us. We are good friends. Two years ago, we did a few shows together. It seems like the people really liked to see us together. And then we did a tour and it worked really well. We do another tour now because it really works for us. We did the song My Premonition for his solo album, and then he came to me and he said like, “Since we’re gonna tour again together and I’m gonna release this solo album, maybe we can add another song.”. So at the end, I did two songs for him, for his solo record, and another bonus track, which I think is for Japan, from one of the songs we used to play live. And yeah, it’s pretty natural, you know. Like we’re talking now, we’re friends, and he calls me and says, “Hey. Can you do another song for me?”, and I say, “Yeah, sure. I’ll go to the studio tomorrow, so in one hour, it’s gonna be ready.”. And then we can use the song for the shows we do together. So it’s like a natural collaboration. It’s pretty organic, and I think that’s one of the things that people like the most when seeing us playing together. It’s not a forced collaboration because of the record label or a contract. We like to play together, we like to hang together, we like to make music together. Actually, I think you can see that on stage, and probably that’s why the first tour was very successful, and that’s why we’re gonna do a second tour this year.
And tell me about this one, Delalma.
Oh, you know about it. Because that’s supposed to be only in Spain, man. It is great. I feel very blessed to be part of that. Because, you know, I’m Chilean born, and I lived in Spain for almost 12 years before I moved to Romania. Even when I did all my catalog in English there were a lot of fans from Latin America knowing that I was born in Chile, and I played with Rainbow, and all the success I had before, and people from Spain telling me like, “You should sing in Spanish. You should do something in Spanish.”. Like they were waiting for it. So actually I was waiting for something meaningful to do. So when this band came and he (Manuel Seoane) offered me to do the album, I thought it would be the right time to do it. The album is great. The songs are great. All the singers there in the album are top singers in the Spanish market. So I thought, “I think this is the right time to do it.”, and I did it, and I think the people really like it.
What’s emotionally different for you to sing in Spanish and English, respectively?
Because Spanish is my native language, I can somehow connect better with the message of the song. I can express better what I’m trying to say. But that would be it. On the other hand, I always try to approach everything in the same professional way. But I think it’s just because it’s my native language. Obviously, you can interpret better what you’re trying to say.
Do Spanish people hear a different dialect from you when you’re singing in Spanish?
It depends, because actually for this band, since it’s a Spanish band, I need to sing with the Spanish accent. So sometimes people from Latin America don’t get it. (Laughs) I mean, they get it, obviously it’s the same language, but they ask why I need to do this. I say, “Yeah, because it’s a Spanish band.”. Actually, I asked the producer, “Do you want me to go with the Spanish accent or my natural Latin American accent?”, which will be more natural for me, and he said, “No. You need to go with the Spanish one because it’s a Spanish band.”.
So, now to maybe the most important stuff for you. Your album Backbone was out in October last year. Tell me about that one.
I’m very happy, actually. I’m very happy. I think it’s an evolution from the first album (with original songs) with the guys. I didn’t expect the good reviews from all the media, and also I didn’t expect the reaction from the people when we were playing the songs, and I’m very surprised about some songs that I didn’t know that could work on the live side. You know, we thought, “These ones are the strongest ones for the singles.”, but then we realized playing the shows, like, “Okay, the people like these ones also.”. And especially, there is a song (Eternally) that turned out like, not an anthem, I’m not gonna say that because it will be very egomaniac. Yeah, I need to wait at least 20, 30 more years to call a song of mine an anthem. But it seems like when we played the song, the people naturally go with their hands and they sing with us. Even not knowing the vocal line, they know what is coming. And that’s very surprising. I’m very happy with that. I never thought I would be able to write a song that actually can connect with the audience at that level, which is a pretty cool feeling. So I’m very happy with the record.
Kee Marcello is playing on the album. Were you looking for him or just a random guitar player?
The thing is we had this song that Russ Ballard wrote, called Hideaway (Run). I talked to Russ and I said, “Listen, would you be able to do a song for my record?”. And he asked me what kind of song it was. I said, “I want a rock song, obviously, but a song that can be played on the radio.”. And obviously I was right. He did the right song because that song got to third on the radio rock charts, and I think it was fourth on the iTunes rock charts. When we did the song, we did the adaptation from the brass demo to make it a little bit heavier. The song has, like, two solo parts. So there is one in the middle, the typical guitar solo, and then there is another one at the end, which is like a fade-out. And I thought, “This has like a classic rock vibe. Really close to Europe.”. I felt that. We recorded the album in August. I met Kee Marcello in March before. I met him on a festival we were doing together in England. So I thought, “Maybe if I ask him, he can do something here.”, because it’s pretty much his style. My bass player played with him before, so he gave me his phone number. So I just texted him. You know, “This is Ronnie. We met a few months ago and I would love if you can do this.”, and he was like, “Yeah, sure. I will do it.”. So this is when the funny story comes: We had all the album mixed and pretty much mastered already. So we were waiting just for his solo, and the weeks passed, and he didn’t come back with any tracks or anything. I started to text him, like, “Next week we need to deliver the master to the record label, so I need to know if you are able to do something, or if we’re gonna leave the song like that.”. He told me, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t worry. I will do it on the weekend, and I will send you the tracks. Then nothing happens on the weekend, and then he texted on Monday and he was like, “Sorry. It was a holiday in Sweden this weekend so I couldn’t do it, but I will do it during the week.”. Wednesday and Thursday went by. We need to deliver the album on Monday, and it was already Thursday and nothing happens, so I texted him again, and he was like, “Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna send you the tracks tomorrow.”. So now it’s Saturday, and we need to deliver the finished album on Monday to the record label, and he sends me the tracks, and then he sends me a long email. I started to read the email. I was like, “Oh, my God.”. It said, “Ronnie, I hope you read this email with an open mind.”, and then I thought that maybe he didn’t do anything and it’s just, you know, like telling me that he’s not able to do it. The thing is, he did a solo, but it changed the chord progression of the song. So that means, being Saturday and I need to deliver the album on Monday, that I need to re-record the bass line and the keyboards, and I was like, “Oh, my God. We don’t have time to do this.”. But my co-producer and guitar player José says, ”Don’t worry. I will do the keyboards on Sunday, and I will do the bass, and then we’re gonna do the mixing and the mastering really fast, and we can deliver on Monday. And then when I listened to the final version, I was like, “Fucking Kee Marcello. He was right.”. It changed the chord progression, but he was right. It works that way. So I was very happy. And then after that we met for the video clip and all this stuff. We met in Madrid. We’ve been hanging together and it’s fantastic. He’s such a nice guy.
But you will never work with him again, right?
No, I will. I don’t care. I mean, I think the stress was worth it because what he did on the song definitely made the song better.
And to what extent was Roy Z involved in the songwriting and the album?
He did a complete song. It was actually one of the singles. He’s a great guy. He’s a good friend of mine for many years. Actually, he was always telling me, “We need to do something together.”, because we are both Latin people, you know. He has these Latin roots also. We’re speaking Spanish with each other, so. He was always telling me, “Ronnie. We need to do something together.”. So when I was writing the album, I had a space for one song. I didn’t have any demo, and I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna text him.”, and I said, “Bro. Can you do something for me? Can you do even just a riff or something?”, and he was like, “Yeah, yeah. I have a bunch of ideas.”. So he sent me the song, and actually sent me a song that he was supposed to use for Bruce Dickinson. We thought it was a good idea. We adapted the song to my music style. And at the end, it became one of the singles on the record. It’s a song called Eternally. Yeah, I’m very happy. He was happy also.
What made you choose the album title Backbone?
That came from when I started to write the lyrics for the album. The first song I wrote was Backbone, actually. The lyrics of the song. And I wanted to do something like Holy Diver in terms of what the lyrics mean. Like the power you have to change your life, or do what you need to do to, you know, succeed. And I thought about this Backbone term, and then I did the song, and then I thought, “I think that’s actually a really good title for the album because it really represents my career so far.”. You know how the music industry works nowadays, and it’s really hard for everybody, and even when I had the chance to play with great artists like Rainbow, and Michael Schenker, and Vandenberg, and all those guys, one day you are here, and then the next day you don’t know what’s gonna happen. And in financial terms, it’s really hard every day. To put a tour together, or even to make an album together, it’s really hard. But it’s like a message for all the musicians. They’re still trying. You know, this is what you need to do if you like music. If you wanna do music, you need to keep trying. So I thought it would be like a very strong message for, like, “Yeah, we’re still here.”. You know, like, “We’re still trying.”. You know, doing things, which is cool for me.
The front cover is like an unchained wolf-snake coming out of a volcano. What does that symbolize?
That’s a clear statement. The serpent wolf actually is a mystic figure from the Romanian tradition. It’s called the Dacian Wolf. So this is something that the Dacians, before it was Romania, were using to fight the Ottoman Empire. So it was kind of an artifact they were using as a flag. So when they were going to battle, there was a flag with this wolf head with a serpent body. So the wind was coming through the wolf’s mouth, and it was making a noise going out in the back. It was scaring the enemies. So they were using, like, a trumpet, or drums, or whatever on the battlefield. I found that mythology figure very interesting, so I adapted that to the first album (with original songs) Too Many Lives, Too Many Masters. But then coming to Backbone I said, “Okay, it should be like a clearer statement of what we’re doing.”. It’s like a battlefield figure. Because we’re going to battle every day. You know, you can see it now. We came here to Stockholm, seven hours from Gjerdrum in Norway yesterday, and when we arrived here, the show was canceled. (Ronnie’s band was on this tour supporting Primal Fear, whose singer Ralf Scheepers caught bronchitis, resulting in three shows in a row getting canceled.) And tomorrow at six in the morning we need to take the ferry to Helsinki, and then going, like, 11 hours to Helsinki, and we don’t know if it’s gonna be a show or not. Every day is a battle for a musician, so I felt really identified with that figure. I thought, “This is gonna be my figure from now on.”. And coming from the volcano like a phoenix. So there are a lot of meanings on the cover. But I also think it really represents what a career is right now for a musician. It’s a lot of battles every day. And sometimes, you know, the people don’t know about it, obviously. They don’t know the insights of being a musician, and some people even criticize your work, not knowing what you need to go through every day, which sometimes is unfair. I understand because they don’t know, but yeah, sometimes you feel a little bit like you need to make this statement, “You should know what all we musicians need to go through always, then maybe you will have a different opinion.”. (Laughs)
It’s tough times for musicians now, but imagine if it gets even tougher, and you have a long time to go until your career is over.
It could be. It was really bad during the pandemic, for example. And that’s, for example, why I’m so grateful to Frontiers, my record label. Because I remember when the pandemic happened. Obviously, everybody was suffering, and everybody was creeped out, like, “Oh, what are we gonna do now? Are we gonna do shows?”. People need to understand that nowadays shows are 95 percent of a musician’s income. Because today record labels work as a bank. They give you a loan, which is called an advance for the album recording, but they get it back from the sales, and they get it back from the royalties. So sometimes you record an album, you release an album, and you don’t see any royalties until after five years because they need to get the money back. And you need to buy your own CD to sell it on the merchandise. You need to buy the copies. So during the pandemic that was totally cut off, like, “What are we gonna do?”. And Frontiers, they came and said, “We understand what the musicians are going through. Let’s do some albums. Let’s do some studio projects.”. And we did that. I did Sunstorm, and I did two Lords Of Black records during the pandemic. Other record labels would say, “No. There is no money now. Nobody’s playing. Sorry. See you in a couple of years.”. Frontiers didn’t do that. They really supported the artists, which is pretty cool. Yeah, the people don’t know all about it, and they think that you’re just living your life as a musician, and, “You play in Rainbow. You must have a Ferrari.”. No, I don’t have a Ferrari. (Laughs) Yeah, so sometimes it’s really hard in that way. It’s really hard. I don’t know how it’s gonna be. I think the problem nowadays is that after the pandemic everybody needs to tour. Everybody needs to do shows. For example, we came here today, and we’re supposed to do a show, and two days ago it was Michael Schenker, and how many shows were there yesterday? It’s oversaturated. And the people are not going to shows every day. You cannot ask a fan to go to shows Monday to Sunday. That’s not gonna happen. So there’s a huge competition, and you need to plan it very well to not clash with any other bands. But anyways, it’s still complicated. I don’t know how it’s gonna be in the future. That’s why I’m so happy just doing support acts. I don’t care. I never had the chance to play with my band before in Scandinavia. Sadly, we don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next few days. And we will need to come back at some point, but I don’t know. So yeah, the only way is to go out and play. That’s the only way that you can prove yourself that you’re a good musician. I don’t think that albums can tell if you’re a real musician or not. (Laughs) Talking about the AI and all the overproduced albums that you can find. And we do shows on Mondays. I never saw that before. Doing shows on a Monday, and then you get a hundred people, and then you blame the fans, like, “They didn’t come to my show to support me.”, but probably they were going to five shows last week, and they can’t pay for a ticket every day, you know.
We were saying a little bit about Michael Schenker. Erik Grönwall and R.D. Liapakis have been singing the UFO songs in the last couple of years. What would it have been for you to sing the UFO songs now with him and maybe together with them?
The thing is I love singing UFO songs. But the problem for me was, and that’s why I quit Michael Schenker… So when I talked to him, and I explained it, my point of view was: I’ve been playing with Rainbow for five years, and then I joined Michael Schenker, and we’ve been together for four years, so we’re talking about nine years being in bands playing other people’s music. So I think one of the main challenges for a musician is actually to try by yourself, to see what you are capable to do by yourself, and not being in the safe zone. For me those nine years were amazing, obviously, having the chance to work with Ritchie and Michael, and learning from them, but also I felt that it was too easy in a way that I didn’t care how many tickets you sold for tonight, how many records you sold, I never cared about logistics, or anything. Somehow it was easy and boring, and I think that kills a little bit of my creativity and enthusiasm as a musician. Because it was too easy. I was just being called, “There is a tour in two months.”, and, “Okay, where do I need to be?”. And then we play the songs every night, everybody is happy, and the next day it’s the same thing, and the next day it’s the same thing, and then I go home, I get paid, and, “See you next time.”. So I felt like, “I really wanna try to do something by myself.”, with the risk that brings. And that cheers me up as a musician. So when I talked to Michael I said, “Listen, I really love playing with you…”, because I really love to play with him. He is a great musician. He’s a legend. So I really love him. And we hung out really well together. And I love to play the UFO and the Michael Schenker Group songs, and the songs we did together, and the three albums we did together, and all this stuff. I love the payment also. (Laughs) I’m not gonna lie. It was a good payment. But there was a point where it was too easy. It was too easy to get, and it was like, “I need a different kind of emotion doing music.”. But going back to your question. I mean, I would love to sing a song with the guys. I think they are great singers. Especially Erik, for me. He’s a fantastic singer. I’m not gonna say that he is not. I really respect what he did with Michael, and what he’s doing with his solo career, and all this stuff. I really respect what he went through in his personal life, and yet he’s able to deliver. He delivers. He’s an example for everybody. So yeah, I would love to somehow do something together in the future. Why not? Yeah, that would be fun. I think most of the people would love it.
You’ve been collaborating with so many artists, and you live in Romania, but you seem to work with not so many people from Romania. Do you have all your connections already from other countries, so you don’t have to work with people from Romania?
Actually, my bass player, in this band, my solo band, for two years it was a Romanian musician (Aurelian Dincã). He’s from a band in Romania called Trooper. They’re very famous and they’re very popular. They do a lot of shows. He’s a great guitar player, in that band. Actually, we were gonna do some shows, and I asked him, “Do you know any bass player in Romania that I can use for these shows I have.”, and he told me, “I’m in. I can do the shows. I’m a guitar player, but I can do the shows on the bass.”. So he was in the band for a couple of years. He is actually on the live album, Live At Rock Imperium. And the studio where I go to record everything is a studio from a very famous rock band in Romania also. So I have a lot of connections. I don’t use them very often for my solo stuff. Romania is a small market, but since they sing in Romanian, it’s a big market for them. So they’re always busy, you know. This band, Trooper, can do, I don’t know, 60 shows a year only in Romania, which is crazy. Every week they have shows. But I have good connections there, and also there are a lot of great musicians in Romania, and the rock scene is very strong also. I mean, the heavy metal scene is strong there. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I mean, I have a lot of friends from other bands that go there, like, “Yeah, we’re gonna be in Bucharest this week.”.
By Tobbe – Published April 7th, 2026