ZUR�CK zu den Interviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| BACK to Interviews ZUR�CK zu den Interviews |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb Interview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Straying far from the usual Shoutweb artist but still offering some great Hard Rock is Nickelback. Nickelback originally hail from Vancouver, BC where the band got their name when Bass player Mike Kroeger was working at a local coffee shop were coffee was $1.45 (I'll leave it to you to put two and together here!). Offering fine-tuned hard combined with the intense melodic vocals by Chad Kroeger (Brother of Bass player Mike) manages to separate Nickelback from the pack of horrible radio friendly bands like Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind. Their latest offering "The State" was released in Canada independently where the single "Leader Of Men" went Top 20, after which they then signed with Roadrunner Records for national release. Nickelback's "The State" is one of the best Rock releases of 2000 and Mike Kroeger told us why. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Hey Mike, how's it going? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Good except for the fact that I was 3rd choice to do this interview since neither Chad nor Ryan could do it! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Well if it makes you feel any better you were my number 1 choice! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: You lie well my son! You lie well! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Well I tried! Somebody has to keep morale high for the band! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Wanna job? (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: You're in Boston right now as we speak? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Yea we're in Boston. Where are you calling from? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: London, Ontario. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Cool, we played there a long, long time ago when nobody knew who we were at. It was rough back then. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: That's where you need someone to keep morale high! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Well it's much better now since we're big radio stars! (Laughs) Yea' right! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: What I find interesting was that "The State"; was actually recorded independently then "Leader Of Men" was a top 20 hit here in Canada, which got you guys label interest. Did that give you guys some bargaining leeway with labels when signing a deal? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Oh' for sure! You bet! Usually when your signing a record deal contract you can kick and scream but they'll only give you what they want to give you. In this case we had a little bit of power cause we were already selling records on our own and didn't really need that much help with that. We had it all under control and the record company wanted to get in and help push us to the next level at the same time make some cash. Obviously they're not in this business to make friends but to make money and they saw we were making some money and they wanted in on that. It's a little easier to deal with labels when they need you more than you need them. Don't get me wrong because they always need you but sometimes the record companies act like you need them more than they need you in a lot of cases. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: What were you guys doing before you actually got a record deal? What kind of jobs did you have to hold down? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Well Ryan our guitar player was working in a movie distribution house cause he's a movie junkie and that worked for him. I was working in a lumberyard stacking boards, bricks and bags of cement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: So everyone was doing the 9-5 thing? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: That's where it gets interesting because all of us where doing 9-5 jobs as well as being a record company. I did the distribution part, as that was my job, which kept us always busy. We hardly ever got bored. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: That's like me in a sense cause I do this journalism thing and then go and do my 9-5. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Nice! Ya' see that's what you have to do to be any kind of artist in North America basically; In Europe your given more and you can earn a living without being a bigshot. In Europe if your artist than your given more than you are on this side of the world. If you're an artist in North America your viewed more as a transient or viewed with sort of this social irresponsibility especially in the music business and not reverence like it is in Europe. In Europe if you're a musician or a writer it's a big deal but over here it's more like "Oh you're an artist? So you don't wanna work then!?" (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: They view you more as a slacker! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Exactly! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: When you guys were doing your 9-5 thing did you ever expect the kind of success you had with the single going top 20? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Yes we did. We were basically gambling to the tune of $100,000 that it was going to work. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Ouch! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: That was how much we were in debt when we got signed! We were gambling really hard on the fact that we were going to get signed and that everything was going to pan out for us.If it didn't work we would have been in really big trouble! We'd be in debt $25,000 each for nothing! When you fail at that level all you have is an album that nobody is buying with a huge debt, which you have to pay back! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Do you even remember the 1st time you heard yourselves on the radio? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Yep! I was at a staff Christmas party in Vancouver for a certain Coffee shop that shall remain nameless. (Laughs) Their not kicking us any cheques so and they get enough promo, as it is so. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Do you remember the reaction? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Yea' it was awesome and all the people I was working with at the time were really supportive. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Was there a sense of achievement that you guys had accomplished your goal? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Totally bro'! I was actually on pins and needles hearing it for the first time and you asking me this is taking right back to that moment. It's a trip lemme tell ya'. We basically go through that on a smaller scale every time we hit a city like Boston where they're playing us And we realize we're a long way from home and they're listening. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: What's it like having never played a city before but the crowd is there knowing every word to each of the songs? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Awesome! Totally awesome! That stuff happens, too. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Now I got to ask why Roadrunner Records was chosen as your label? You guys stick out like a sore thumb! I can't really picture a support slot opening up for you guys with Type O Negative or Slipknot anytime soon! (Laughs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: (Laughing) We don't do very many shows with Roadrunner bands very often and we're not your typical Roadrunner band by any means. We played with a band called Glassjaw on Roadrunner but they're more straight ahead rock than any of their other bands. The reason we went with them because they have formidable distribution and they're a global independent covering every modernized country on the planet. We knew they were going to work hard for us because they can't afford to lose money on us, right? They want to make it work where as the big steam roller record company they basically trample through the market and whatever they pick up they keep and whatever doesn't work they drop. It may all look good on paper but what those companies are actually doing is dropping people. Careers are getting dropped. We didn't want to be in that position because we know people that are in those bands that get the record recorded, they have it on the shelf for 6 weeks and it doesn't sell so they get dropped. Who really wants to be a part of the cheques and balances that get sent back to the record label as the "loss" they write on their taxes? That right there is just the shits man. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: It comes down to big companies trying to shove everything out there at once and then work with what sells the quickest. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: They're always going to try and have the one that sells make the other one work but at the same time their going to throw a lot more money at the bigger name act than they would at the smaller name act. You kind of get left in the cold in cases like that. Roadrunner has been awesome for us so far! They are a record company and sometimes things just don't work out for certain bands and I think that any band that gets dropped from their label is gonna be unhappy. At the same time you got to look at it from their perspective and if the records didn't sell then they just didn't sell. Everything we thought they were going to do they have. We wanted individual attention and good priority and their learning how to sell records from a different angle now where as with the heavy bands it's basically just throw em' out on the road for a year and see if they catch on. That's the long and hard way but now they're trying a different angle by going through radio and they're having some success at it as well. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: You guys recently released your independent CD "The Curb" on your website like a lot of bands that have went on to gain a certain degree of success have. Why did you decide to go back and re-release it? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Well because our distribution deal with a Canadian company the time ran out on it and we got the album back. The term of that agreement is over and now the record has been turned back over into our hands and so we're pursuing our own way with it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: The video for the single here in Canada is "Worthy To Stay" which deals with the growing of Marijuana? Care to explain? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: The reasoning is just that "Worthy To Stay" was basically dealing with that lyrically in the song. I guess that was the way everybody wanted to go for the video ya' know? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: You are Straightedge yourself aren't you? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Totally. I don't endorse that stuff because anyone can do what they want to, as long as nobody is getting hurt which is the case when people smoke pot, very few people get hurt. I will not personally endorse that kind of thing but in this case I kind of have to tow the party line! (Chuckles) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: I think some people are too preachy when they display the fact that they're Straightedge on their sleeve but I think it's a great message for people to spread. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: It totally is but you can't force that on to others, as they have to be able to make their own conclusions on and make their own decisions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: I think it's especially a cool message to spread in a genre like hard rock where you have bands like Pantera saying, "Smoke weed! Drop Acid and all that other good shit!" So it's cool to have the opposite and have someone spread a positive message. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Definitely. I'm not much of an activist and I rarely jump onto the "soap box" but if someone asks I'll be pretty free with my opinion as far as that stuff goes. I just think that everybody should make their own decisions because they don't need me telling them that smoking cigarettes is bad for them! They already know that. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Why do you think it is so hard for Canadian talent to break the American market? We obviously have the talent if you look at bands like Moist, Tragically Hip or The Tea Party. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: I don't know because there have been bands from Canada that have broken down here in the States. Rush is one of the biggest classic rock bands in America so there are bands that have broken down here but why those other bands haven't broke down here? Probably because they're not given a chance. Their not given a chance but the corporate knuckleheads running the show! They're given that 6 week sink or swim program and obviously being brand new to the scene they're going to sink. It isn't going to work because they need to be promoted and the need help but their not getting it! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: What is coming up for Nickelback in the future? I heard you eager to get some new material out there. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: We have a lot of new material ready, more than we need, and we're going to go in and make a new record in January. We're taking time off to do a tour with Everclear across Canada then head back into the studio and finish off the record. They will sync the release dates this time as well since that was a problem this time as "The State" had been out 2 years in Canada and 1 in the States but now it will be a unified release for both countries. As for touring we've seen a lot of this side of the world and now we want to see the rest of it like Europe, South East Asia, Australia and areas such as these so we wanna see the rest of it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Finally the site this is for www.shoutweb.com deals with a lot of heavy acts so how would you kind of sell yourselves since you aren't in the same vein as them. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Ahhhhhh. Just listen to the record and if it's for you then you'll like it if you give it a chance but sometimes that doesn't happen especially coming from the metal people. (Laughs) They're a little bit of a touch nut to crack at times but I'm the same way so I'm totally in touch with the mentality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shoutweb: Well thanks Mike it was great talking to you. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike: Nice talking to you too! We'll see you and everyone else one city at a time! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||