THE MODERN RECORD INTERVIEWS ' VOLBEAT'S JON LARSON'
Before their sell out gig in Glasgow tonight , I caught up with Jon Larson drummer with Danish rock giants Volbeat.
VOLBEAT PERFORMING AT GLASGOW’S O2 ACADEMY - 24.09.2019
PICTURE BY: | GAVIN ROSS PHOTOGRAPHY
They currently have a new album out called Rewind , Replay , Rebound . I asked him if the name meant look back , ponder and move forward getting better . “ yeah , Michael came up with the title and I didn’t have a clue at that time what it meant but yeah something about looking back when you were a kid and move forward , that sums it up pretty well” . We took it further and Jon went on to say every album was a progression and so was this album . He also felt they went back with songs like ‘Pelvis on Fire’ and ‘Cheapside Sloggers ‘ which were definitely indicative of their earlier stuff in the past. However newer songs like ‘Sorry sack of bones ‘ wee very different. I asked about ‘Last day under the sun ‘ being written after Michael ( Poulson) had read Johnny Cash’s autobography and if the band had input into the songs . “ The lyrics are all his , but yes ‘last day under the sun’ was inspired by a passage in the book , but music wise it depends , he sometimes has a finished song or sometimes only a few bits and pieces we try out and sometimes it works and sometimes doesn’t , Rob (Caggiano, guitarist) has come up with some ideas and again if it doesn’t work it’s back to the drawing board , theres always stuff lying around that doesn’t even leave the rehearsal room , but to answer 98% of stuff is Michaels”
I brought up the fact that they have a few guest musicians on this album and how does this get accomplished , who asks who to play.
“It’s usually us who ask that , touring around the world you play all these festivals and get to know these people. You talk and always say , yeah lets do something , but we have been lucky in that the people we have reached out to have always said yes.It’s not something we directly say we gotta get this guy or have a song that we must have that guy , but for ‘Die to Live’ Michael was actually doing the vocals and it was like wow , he said I can hear Neil Fallon singing this , so he wrote him an E mail , ive got this track , yadda yadda yadda and he said yes, and we did and that’s basically how it happens. For ‘Cheapside Slaughter ‘ song , Rob had left the studio and we didn’t want to bother him doing stuff in America , and Michael said we need some sort of lead solo and said I think Il reach out to Gary Holt from Exodus & Slayer and he did , and he replied immediately and it was like yes and he came up with a few solos , so that’s how it basically works. “
The conversation got round to live shows and I said the couple of times I had seen Volbeat previously I was surprised as to how much different they were live , so much heavier on stage. “ Yeah I think its probably just the live sound we have , in the studio we experiment with different guitars , or sounds different snare drums , different cymbals , but for live shows we basically have the drums we have , they change guitars and Michael has a few new ones for songs , but yeah you’re right , the live sound has always been more heavy . “
Sticking with the live shows , I asked other than Denmark where did he feel most at home playing .” I don’t know ,I mean personally , I always love coming to the UK , I was raised on the music of the 60’s some of the 70’s & ‘80’s , guys like Adam & The Ants , Duran Duran , I dunno I always love coming to Scotland and Northern Ireland , England , the whole UK. “
I pry further with the Adam & The Ants and what else does he listen to , does he have a big spectrum of bands to listen to . “ Na i’m very narrow minded in my listening , i’m stuck in the past , as I say Adam & The Ants , Iron Maiden , Rush , early Bowie , Metallica , Slayer all the good stuff from my youth , even Slade , yeah for me it’s all about the old music . “
My last question to Jon was do you have a hobby , what do you do in your down time . “ I am addicted to collecting stuff “ he said , “ I collect vinyls , movie posters , horror posters ,a never ending quest “ he said, its horrible , “ because there is different stuff whee I kinda go , I really want that but it’s several hundred million pounds ,I try to narrow it down but figures , movie posters , horror posters I can’ say no .” He says on off days he’s on the internet every day looking for stuff. “ I was a huge Kiss fanatic , I wanted everything they made , but it’s impossible “ .He says he sticks to vinyls and posters now , the main-collecting he does nowadays is “ Adam ant , I just recently founs a rare Japanese promo copy not for the public and I found it at a decent price , I have the songs but its rare “ He further goes on to say his wife always asks him what he has brought home this time and when he tells her she says he already has six copies , “ but its rare “ he says .
Sadly my time was up and I thank him for his time.