After a four year break the legendary norwegian band Turbonegro have reunited and released the album Scandinavian Leather. The Fitness Tour is sold out and FUZZ meets the guitarist Euroboy to talk about the band in general and rock guitar in particular.
Turbonegro is a remarkable band. Since they disbanded in 1998 their fan base has increased. Euroboy explains what really happened:
- The last album we released in 1998, Apocalypse Dudes, offered sparkling punk rock with lots of classic rock elements. That was something new in '98, even though rock today has gone further. At that time, the "in thing" was French house music. The coolest guy in "the village" was the DJ and not the guy with the electric guitar. When we toured that year we played for lots of different kinds of fans, from old-school punks with mohawks and chains to pure garage punk rockers with Ramones-haircuts. What happened was that we did an awesome tour, but in Milano our singer Hank couldn't take it anymore. At the time, he was very depressed, heard voices in his head and was addicted to heroin. You could say that he was on a thin line for a long time. As if that wasn't enough, we had a lousy record deal and a bad record company.
- The tour was sold out and when we had to cancel it halfway through we lost lots of money. The turning point was when Hank appeared at a pizza parlor in Milan, after having walked through the entire town in his socks, with a small piece of paper that said "I wanna go home". Then everyone knew that Turbonegro was over. After we had quit our reputation lived on through word of mouth. A new wave of bands appeared, for example Hellacopters, Gluecifer, Backyard Babies and later The Hives and International Noise Conspiracy. Every time the media mentioned one of these bands they also mentioned "an earlier band called Turbonegro".
The bands fan club, Turbojugend, has its own life and is kind of a mix of the Kiss Army and the Hells Angels. Turbonegro is a very visual band. Hank von Helvete for example always has eye-makeup in the vein of Alice Cooper, the bass player Happy-Tom always look like a sailor man and Euroboy uses a fur hat.
- Maybe you could even call us a "teenage-cartoon-band", he says. I believe that bands who has a special look easier gets devoted fans. So today Turbojugend exists over the entire world, organized in chapters. From Buenas Aires to Lofoten. On Manhattan there's three chapters and when we played there the three of them competed about who had the best afterparty.
Turbonegro has never had any promotion budgets, no bought-in opening gigs or other help from record companies. They've never been in rotation on MTV or radio either. It's remarkable that the band still manages to sell all the tickets to their tours.
Euroboy himself joined Turbonegro in 1998 soon before the big breakup. The bands core was a gang of guys who had been developing their Death Punk since 1996 [sic]. In the reorganization they brought in the two new musicians Euroboy and Chris Summers.
- We didn't have the same punk background as the other guys, Euroboy says. We liked 70's rock, garage rock and I liked 60's music as well, so we brought a classic rock element to Turbonegro. Actually, I had played with Happy-Tom earlier, in the mid-90's, in a band called The Vikings. This was a party band who played covers of songs by Dictators, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Cheap Trick and Bay City Rollers. This was very radical at the time when it was "forbidden" to play barrechords with your pinkie. We did a song together, where we combined Turbonegro's punk with classic arena rock guitar solos, a sing-along chorus and an AC/DC ending. We felt as if we had created a new genre. Tom wanted to play that song with Turbonegro and Good Head later became the final song on Apocalypse Dudes, as well as the song we came to finish our gigs with.
When Turbonegro was on hiatus Euroboy and Chris have built a studio and played with their other band Euroboys.
- We were very surprised when we saw that Turbonegro got more and more fan mail even though we had broken up. At the same time cover bands popped up who played Turbonegro songs on their sold out shows. The first SMS-message I ever got, before I even knew what SMS was, said "Will there ever be a new Turbonegro record?". At last we realized that there were an insane amount of kids out there who loves the band but never had the chance to see Turbonegro live. With all the new bands who followed our footsteps we wanted to play again.
We begin talking about the music and I ask Euroboy to comment on the guitar harmonies on the record. One has heard guitar harmonies on records by bands like Wishbone Ash, Eagles and countless artrockbands, but never has guitarists played guitar harmonies to punk music.
- Ha, ha... I like harmonies a lot. My favorite music is really 70's soft rock, everything from Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac to Steely Dan. I love that sound. We're actually very inspired by California, just think of a band like Black Flag! As lead guitarist of Turbonegro I feel that I have a responsibility to contribute with a sound that gives the song a little more character.
- One of my favorite record, actually the first record I ever bought, was Raw Power by Iggy Pop. That guitarist, James Williamson, is my only guitar hero and he has inspired me much in developing my own sound. In the end of Search and Destroy theres a crescendo of layered guitar solos and you get all "blinded by rock" or as I would like to call it, you get a rock-chock when the sound hits you like laser beams. When I sat and listened to that song in headphones it was like standing in an electric rain. That's the feeling I try to bring to Turbonegro, the ecstatic feeling of being in rock heaven.
Turbonegro has three guitarists in the band who do simultaneous guitar solos live on stage. Euroboy says that they play better together now that there have passed four years when they did not play together at all.
- When you got perspective it was easier too see the bands qualities. One of the strengths in the band was my lead guitar, so we thought that Pål Pot Pamparius should move away from the piano and play more guitar again so that I could do more lead.
His favorite guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Custom from 1972. Last year Euroboy and second guitarist Rune Rebellion went to Stockholm to buy guitars.
- When I bought my Les Paul it felt like guitar were getting more and more expensive for every hour so it was no bargain. I just paid for it to get it as soon as possible. And it's a very good guitar.
Euroboy likes the Custom model because it has a more aggressive sound.
- You know that classic punk Les Paul, Never Mind The Bullocks or The Dead Boys or Iggy Pop and The Stooges that's Les Paul Custom. I try to lay between the sound of James Williamson and the sound of Randy Rhoads on the early Ozzy solo albums.
- But when it comes to amps I never know how to get the best sound, he sighs. You can have the ultimate guitar sound on sound check and in the first song of the concert, but half and hour into the show the worlds warmest guitar sound has turned into a cold german industrial grinder that just saws down the hair in your ears. Generally I use the Les Paul through a 100 watt Marshall. But when it comes to Marshalls you have to use it on full volume to make it sound good and that obviously makes it a little complicated when you play smaller places. In the studio I use an old 100 watt Super Lead and that old yellow MXR distortion box. It has a little bit of the "bad ass bedroom-rockstar-sound" and reminds me of very early metal records, Ozzy for example. But then it's very important which speakers you use. A classic Greenback cabinet gives in comparison a completely different sound than a new Marshall cabinet. So I used the Greenbacks on the record but on stage it sounds a bit too soft.
In the studio I also often use two amps and then add a VOX AC30 to the sound. During this tour, though, we actually play on Peavey. Rune Rebellion plays a Peavey Roadmaster that Sonic Youth uses a lot as well. Peavey wanted to sponsor us with equipment and after the last US-tour, when we had problems with getting newly manufactured Marshall equipment to sound good, we thanked yes. When the stuff from Peavey arrived it just sounded completely right, even though it was new.
Suddenly, Euroboy sees my tape recorder, purchased in 1982 for 300 SEK, and immediately manages to do one better by owning a Sanyo Cassette Recorder from 1969.
- I record all my demos on it in my apartment, he says enthusiastically. It gives my acoustic guitar a character like Street Fighting Man from the Stones album Beggars Banquet.
Translated and transcribed by izzy_stradlin@whoever.com
