JOHN NORUM
Control freaks. They’re everywhere. Your boss is one. Teachers too. Cops. Parents. Everybody wants to be in charge. Most of us, however, are too embarrassed to admit it, and laugh foolishly when we’re accused of being, well, bossy. Not John Norum.
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JOHN NORUM
New Metal
Swedish, But No Meatball
Kate Batisa
Control freaks. They’re everywhere. Your boss is one. Teachers too. Cops. Parents. Everybody wants to be in charge.
Most of us, however, are too embarrassed to admit it, and laugh foolishly when we’re accused of being, well, bossy. Not John Norum. He’s proud of it.
Norum is the Swedish guitarist who cofounded the platinum band Europe before leaving, over a lack of control-to go solo in mid-1987. 'Course his timing may not be the best; he left the band after recording the album, but before the dollars started flooding in the band’s direction.
So John’s judgment is a little skewed, but at least he’s honest. He named his first solo album Total Control. He’s not kidding.
“I have never regretted leaving Europe,” he says firmly. “I was feeling so bad with them. They wanted to play softer music, more pop. And add more synthesizers. I was more into guitaroriented rock. I wanted to produce myself and have more control. Now when I’m alone with my band, I always have the last word. It’s great. If things don’t work, at least it’s my decision. I made the album I wanted to make, with a harder sound and no synthesizers. It’s also really nice,” he adds slyly, ‘‘to be making some money.”
Money, now there’s a concept. Though Total Control has just been released and is beginning to attract attention in America, the album has been out overseas for almost a year. And selling in a major way. Add to that the royalties from Europe’s record, and you have one happy guitar player. Things go better with bucks.
"It wasn’t hard to leave Europe. The Final Countdown sold 6 million copies, and that’s a whole lot of nickels,” Norum laughs. “But it became very strained. I’d wanted to leave for a long time. After the first couple of years the band was together, they weren’t the same guys that I’d met or knew. Success ... I guest it does affect some people like that. I don’t think it’s affected me,” he laughs, “but you better ask some of the other people around me. They can tell you better.”
Norum’s ego may have been kept in check by having to actually sit down and write Total Control. Easier said than done. While he claims the music were no problem, the words were another story.
“The hardest part was writing the lyrics. I’m not English-speaking person by birth,” he laughs. “So I had to go through the lyrics millions of times to make sure they make sense, I mean, I just sing them. It helps that my bass player, Marcel Jakob, had been in Vngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force. He had been living in the States for a while. He’s got a really good command of English. That helped me out a lot.”
Norum did cheat a bit. Though he and Jakob did write eight of the album’s eleven songs, the other three are covers. Those include the late Phil Lynott’s “Wild One” and the first single in America, “Back On The Streets,” which was written by Vinnie Vincent and appeared on his debut solo album.
Having his first American single be a cover tune was not Norum’s idea; he learned to live with it.
“I wanted to introduce myself, and start fresh with my own new material,” he concedes. “But I liked the song so much that I put it on the album anyway. I’m very happy that I did that. It’s funny, the first time I heard that song, it was in the background of a movie. And I liked it so much that I wanted to record it. I had no idea who wrote it. I am really happy with the way it turned out, but I wanted the first single to be ‘Let Me Love You,' which is the first single everywhere else.”
Okay, so he doesn’t have total control. Yet. Still, he’s been doing his bit to see that the sales figures continue in an upwardly direction. Soon after the album was released, Norum hit the road for a tour that took in practically every non-war zone in the world. Except America. That error will be rectified in the fall, when the John Norum road show comes to the US before returning to the studio to record a second solo disc.
“It really has been a long time between records for me,” he says, “even though everybody here has just gotten Total Control. And I think I’m getting better as a guitar player. That’s what I’m proudest of. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m completely satisfied, but I’m getting better all the time.”
