Metal Express Radio correspondent Mick Burgess recently caught up with EUROPE guitarist John Norum to discuss Norum's new solo album, Play Yard Blues. An excerpt is available below.

Q: There’s a real organic blues feel with a huge groove running through the music. Is this the vision you had when you started writing for the album or is this how things developed over the sessions?

Norum: "I just wanted it to groove. That’s the most important thing in music getting the vibe and the groove going. I’ve got a great bass player, Tomas Torberg and drummer, Thomas Broman. I’ve known these guys since the beginning of time and they’ve played a lot of shows together with different bands so we just went for a kind of groovy album that you could feel in your bones. It’s a very spiritual album too and I went into the studio when it felt like the right moment. It was when the sun was in the right place in the sky as the saying goes. Sometimes when you go into the studio it doesn’t really feel like its happening but everything felt right recording this."

Q: You do most of the lead vocals on the album. Do you think that people that haven’t heard your earlier solo work will be surprised at your singing voice? There’s hints of Gary Moore and David Coverdale in there especially on 'Over And Done'.

Norum: "Ha!! That’s a total Coverdale rip off that one!! I’ve never taken a singing lesson in my whole life. I actually started off wanting to be a singer so I practiced a lot back then by singing along to David Bowie albums like Ziggy Stardust. I was totally into that and you can probably hear that influence on the second song on the album 'Red Light Green High' the vocal has such a Bowie vibe to it. Singing is something that I do and enjoy very much but I don’t take it too seriously. People seem to enjoy it when I do albums and sing myself. I’ve had quite a bit of flack in the past as I’ve had some great singers on my albums like Glenn Hughes and Kelly Keeling. The fans still enjoy my singing even though those guys are a lot more technical than I am and are much better singers than me but I think it makes it a lot more personal when I sing on my albums. If you can sing your own songs when you’ve written the lyrics it just gets the song closer to the heart so to speak. The song 'Over And Done' was recorded after I’d been out with the engineer having some Indian food and some Cobra beer; we had a few of those. For some reason I wanted to go back to the studio and I wondered how I’d manage to sing after all that. Something happens to your voice after a curry. I went in there and for some reason got into this California Jam Coverdale mode, I don’t know why but it just came out like that. He’s one of my favourite singers so it’s kind of a tribute to him. I don’t sit down and analyse it too much I just go in and that’s how it comes out."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Mascot Records have announced the July 5th UK release date of Play Yard Blues – the long-awaited new studio album from John Norum. The album will be released throughout mainland Europe on May 21st.

According to a press release, "this new album is full of steaming bluesy hard rock with great guitar work and vocals. John is touring extensively with Europe but it is expected that he will also do a solo tour later in the year or early next at the latest."

Song titles:

'Let It Shine'

'Red Light Green High'

'It's Only Money'

'Got My Eyes On You'

'When Darkness Falls'

'Over And Done'

'Ditch Queen'

'Travel In The Dark'

'Born Again'

'Play Yard Blues'

Further details to follow.

For more info visit Myspace.com/johnnorumsolo.