Read the interview in German
"Silver Side Up" becomes their second longplayer in 2001. And after so much preparatory work which was hardly recognized by the public scene here (in Austria), it was no wonder that the first single "How You Remind Me" led the alternative-charts and soon went to the top-ranks of the "media-control"-charts.
We met Mike Kroeger, bassplayer of the band NICKELBACK, who is also considered to be the inventor of the band-name (having worked in a coffee-shop, saying "Here's your Nickel back" over and over again while giving changes to the customers), at the TWO DAYS A WEEK - festival in Wiesen, Austria.
Time to sum up the past and have a look behind the scenes of the stars and their future with the brother of singer CHAD, who is obviously in a very good mood.
"Unfortunately, we cannot use our whole pyro-show, because they didn't allow us to burn the whole thing down here. So, I guess it's gonna be a very loud rock-show in Nickelback-style."
Any surprises?
"Maybe one - a brandnew song from our upcoming album."
Is it gonna rock?
"Oh yeah! And it's gonna be for all the ladies out there...", Mike betrays and takes a break, "uhm... what I just said doesn't really make sense... but you'll see."
Compared to your last concert in Austria, with which expectations will you go out there tonight?
"Things turned out to be very nice and so it's simply good to come back!"
Are you aware that people are gonna wait especially for that one song - "How You Remind Me"?
"Well, I prefer this from people not expecting anything of the show.That sounds like this one-hit-wonder-mentality - which is by the way mostly said by those people who never wrote a hit theirselves."
Here (in Europe), it is the case that the radio stations only played this one song - "Too Bad" won't have a big chance because of that and "Leader of Men" is hardly known by anybody overhere.
So, how do you deal with the success?
"oooh - it's not bad. It's okay. You get along with it, it doesn't change that much."
Does that mean you still drive the same car?
"Not exactly the same... (laughs) Something did change. And we're having a f*cking great time right now - it's unbelievable."
High chart-positions worldwide bring along a lot of money. Do you see yourselves as the big money-makers on RoadRunnerRecords?
"It's interesting that you receive even more support when you are the money-maker of the label.If we don't like one of their decisions, we win.", Mike Kroeger laughs and becomes more serious again, "They gave us their money for everything some time ago and now they take it back. But they also helped us a lot. RoadRunner is a good label. Other labels wouldn't have even done that for us."
And for how long is your contract running with RoadRunner?
"For another three or four albums."
With any options?
"Yes, of course!", Mike says and makes a pause. "You seem to know what those contracts look like. They've got almost every option open and we've only got one. That's what all those record-deals look like."
What about side-projects?
"My brother has got that label which cooperates with RoadRunner."
With THEORY OF A DEADMAN signed who sound very much like NICKELBACK...
"You think so?"
And the singer sounds very much like Chad.
"You think so?! But they asked me a lot about that That's as if you would say: Oh, that woman's voice sounds like your mother's voice. I can say that because I know this voice. But THEORY is a f*cking great band and their record is heavy, it rocks, it's got some good stuff on it. I know the guys for a while now... they're good freinds."
Are NICKELBACK and THEORY gonna tour together one day?
"We're talking about that. We're doing a show-tour through the small clubs in the US for Budweiser. They could support us there."
What are these club-tours to you today, thinking back to the past?
"Today, we've got 2500 people coming to those gigs."
2500-people-clubs are pretty big things...
"Ya, its the bigger clubs. An then the way the tickets are sold: only those people get in - by competitions or something like that - who really, really want to be at the gig and who really wanna see us play. Could say they're the die-hard-fans."
You are on tour now for 14 or 18 months. Don't you get tired of it?
"No f*cking way! We do this voluntarily. There may be bands who are put on the road by their recordlabel. And music business can treat the artists really bad. But even if it does - they give good money for it."
While one of your most recent gigs, you quit the show after two songs, because the audience seemed to not like you.
Mike declines. "That were like five or six people.I wanna keep things positive here. I don't wanna talk about this bullsh*t.
Does that mean you don't care?
"I do care! When we left the stage, the crowd was calling for NICKELBACK to get us back on stage. The crowd wanted to see us play, there were only five or six assholes who did not and they finally made it. There were 15000 people. 15000 peaople who wanted to see us play. We would have rocked there! This is something I do care about. And only because of those few people, we didn't. But we're gonna come back."
How many songs have already done for the new album?
"Around 12 or 15."
Did you write them on tour?
"Ya, mostly while jamming during soundcheck. But we don't even have a soundcheck tonight... we actually only had like two soundchecks during our whole European tour. So you play the same songs every night and you need something fresh and new to keep things from boring you. New stuff really helps you in this. And this new song we're gonna play tonight is one of those songs that we look forward to."
Now who is most responsible for songwriting?
"Chad composes the songs, he writes the lyrics, because these are the things that he's gonna sing. Then he comes along with the basical tunes that fit to the lyrics and then we all finally come together and finish the song."
Now this leads us to a topic which is highly controversial, at the latest since a special exeedingly rich band declared war to the Internet and file-sharing. What does Mike say to this?
"I think it was good for us. Of course, it depends on who you are. METALLICA hate it because they lost millions of dollars through it. In contrast, we won millions of dollars through it. The Internet made us known.
Do you download stuff yourself?
"No. To be honest I don't even know why. Maybe it's because I never think of things like that when I use the Internet. It's like with porns...", Mike adds and you already know that a joke is coming up. "I guess, the Internet was firstly invented 'cos of the porns." Immediately he returns to the actual topic: "It would be better to get mp3 from the Internet bacuase I could save a little money with it", he says and laughs. "Sooner or later, the companies will find a way to get to their money!"
But then again, the users will find a way to dodge this...
"Are you sure? When I think of those masses of money that the companies got - they will find a f*cking way.The more you work with the record-labels, the more you realize how comprehensive this whole business is."
Sure - just recently, I heard that labels put false songfiles into the web and that only one week later, they invented a tool with which you could identify those files.
"It's a back and forth."
And what about the copy-controls of cds?
"There is a line to draw: as long as you only exchange stuff, you can't say anything against it.I don't understand why this has to be seen as illegal. Are charity-organizations illegal? If I contribute money for the blind, that means if I give something for the blind, is that illegal? Giving is giving. Somebody is willing to give something, it's the same with the music. People who like a special band, they will buy their cd anyway. I won't die of people downloading our music."
Back to the new album - which kind of sound can we expect from the new songs? Rather slow stuff or rather rock?
"Both." is Mike's noncommital answer. "Some songs will be rather slow, some will be heavier. There is a song that we rocorded for a demo-tape..." - Mike interrupts himself and grinns - "which will probably also get to the Internet if one of our people uploaded it... It is very, very heavy. More than anything we've ever done. It's in tradition to SEVENDUST, so it's f*ckin' heavy. But there's also some slow and quiet stuff."
Softer than this "Hero"-song?
"Ya, around that area. As an artist, you constantly grow, but you also change. And I think some people - fans for example - don't like these chamges. Not everybody can make the same songs for twenty years like AC/DC did and record the same reocord over and over again. But they're f*ckin great!"
Would you see "Hero" as a NICKELBACK-song or rather as a side-project?
"It's only a project. If it would've been written in a time where we had more of this kind of songs on an album, it would've maybe worked out. But "How You Remind Me" is the softest song we ever made 'till now."
How did it come to a connection with Josey Scott? He uses to play heavier stuff actually.
"We already know eachother for a few years. When we toured with them the last time, Chad came and played that song to us. Together, we decided that it's not a NICKELBACK-song. So he wanted to try something new and got Josey Scott. He was very interested right from the place. Josey's from Memphis, Tennessee. And when you're in a heavy-band coming from Memphis, Tennessee - there's a lot of country music in Memphis - he wasn't a stranger to the slower tunes.It wouldn't be like that taking King from SLAYER telling him to play an acoustic guitar.
So SLAYER is what you like...
I also listen to SYSTEM OF A DOWN right now. also some weird jazz sh*t like Miles Davis - but also TOOL.
An interesting band.
"Of course. What we do has to be simple and straight. If it becomes too complicated, the songs get lost. But some bands can really do that like TOOL making their art-rock. The complexity works for them, they can live it up as an artist in their songs."
Coming to an end, it starts to become really interesting when Mike talks about his wife who stayed way back in Canada. That's far, far away!
"Some would say it's far enough", Mike laughs. "But not me. I know how intelligent my wife is. I will never have another woman - and I#m not intereted in it. If somebody should catch me... she would cut my f*cking head off." He makes the appropriate gesture. "If you are a non-thinking, non-feeling person and badly need another woman... this job gives you a thousand of possibilties to do that. But that's not mine. Sooner or later, you'll have to go home. And I wanna go home with a pure conscience. And if I die one day, I wanna die without thinking about what a bad husband I was or what an asshole I've been through all my life. To cut a long story short, it's mostly about this head-cutting-thing!" ;)