From his home in Stockholm, Sweden, Conny Bloom of the Electric Boys and Hanoi Rocks talked with me about his music, the new Electric Boys album out April 30th, touring–past and future–the secret to staying young, whether the global pandemic was his fault, and the scariest moment in his life–that time he played Led Zeppelinin front of Led Zeppelin and thought Jimmy Page was going to knock him out.
01:00:00 – Start
02:00:06 – Introduction
02:35:10 – Touring and Playing with the Dan Reed Network
03:40:09 – Same fashion sense–Keith Richard’s ring
04:07:10 – Coming up with the Electric Boys sound
04:39:18 – Musical influences growing up
05:36:16 – “We need to put a band together and find our own thing.”
06:03:24 – Coming up with “Lips N’ Hips”
06:19:04 – The inspiration for “Psychedelic Eyes”
07:11:18 – What motivates the distinctive Electric Boys sound?
09:03:18 – “It’s not something you can practice, read about, or watch on YouTube.”
09:39:10 – The song “You Spark My Heart”
11:08:12 – “I’d rather be too experimental than too safe.”
12:00:23 – They’re not AC/DC
12:48:00 – Two differences being a band now versus in the 80s and 90s
14:14:08 – Feeling the loss of MTV
14:35:06 – “Every band has this same question.”
15:09:15 – Crowdfunding albums
15:28:06 – One of the few lines Conny Bloom has ever borrowed
16:14:08 – The sickly sound of greed
16:43:05 – Music? Not if you want to make money
17:17:14 – Game, Set, Bloom, a casualty of 2020
18:19:08 – Is the global pandemic Conny Bloom’s fault?
18:39:17 – Or was the global pandemic Motley Crue’s fault?
19:11:13 – “Everyone is hanging on the edge, just waiting.”
20:44:22 – Niklas Sigevall missed out on the new album
21:23:13 – The Electric Boys is now a 5-piece band
22:07:00 – An Electric Boys live album
22:46:04 – New album, Ups!de Down
22:58:24 – Getting back to touring
24:04:06 – The 30th anniversary of Groovus Maximus
24:48:01 – Whole-album concerts and songs there were never written to be played live
25:51:03 – Playing Led Zeppelin… FOR Led Zeppelin
27:04:24 – Experimenting with a Led Zeppelin tribute for the Royal Family and the royalty of Led Zep
27:40:07 – “Jimmy Page is going to knock me out now.”
28:27:05 – The musicians’ secret to staying young
28:54:01 – Alice Cooper and playing where the Beatles played
29:46:10 – “You don’t have to get old and boring.”
30:24:04 – The music of today
30:57:21 – Reggae and older Rock N’ Roll
31:37:21 – “A wall of sound.”
32:20:19 – A musical conversation
33:38:08 – Covering ABBA’s “King Kong Song”
34:20:08 – It’s all about the riff
34:54:07 – “Sweden was always a Pop [music] country.”
35:43:22 – Did you have to bring up that song?
36:53:14 – “It was about the melodies and the right words to go with the melody.”
37:26:01 – The opposite of Bob Dylan
38:11:22 – “They always start their songs with the title.”
38:47:22 – Interesting openers to the Electric Boys songs
41:24:17 – The advice of Bob Rock
42:12:06 – Coming up with “Captain of My Soul”
42:32:17 – New song release dates
43:23:07 – Ups!de Down: Harder, edgier, more varied
44:23:02 – Building a supergroup around Conny Bloom
45:42:20 – Mitch Mitchell
45:57:20 – Dan McCafferty so I can be really annoyed
46:13:14 – John Entwistle
46:20:19 – John Lord
46:26:21 – Soul singers and horns
46:36:21 – Pariah Burke, Executive Producer for Conny Bloom’s supergroup
47:34:15 – Where to find the Electric Boys
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