Love It Loud recently conducted an interview with EUROPE’s Joey Tempest about the band's forthcoming concert appearances at the iTunes Festival in London, Sonisphere at Knebworth and more. Excerpts from the chat are below:

Love It Loud: Having originally split in the early 1990s after five successful albums what prompted you to reform once again and how challenging was it to define the sound of Europe for the 21st century with Start From The Dark?

Joey Tempest: “We just couldn’t stay apart any longer. We’d all been on different journeys for a while but it was inevitable. Start From The Dark was just a new beginning. We had a meeting in 2003 where we said – 'If we’re doing this, we will do it long term.' We needed to build up a new trust with the fans and media and strive to get better at our job. It’s amazing to think where we’re at today. It feels like we’re beginning to achieve what we set out to do.”

Love It Loud: Do you still regularly perform much of your earlier material in your live sets and would you rather focus solely on your modern work?

Joey Tempest: “We like to find the balance that works for us. We still feel exited about playing live and we never get bored. Usually we play between four to five new songs. Our set list has a core format where certain songs will always be played. On top of that we alternate a few songs more regularly. We have our favourite songs that all five of us agree to play and we don’t really divert much from that.”

Love It Loud: Having formed in Sweden how do you feel the culture and music of the country influenced Europe and set it apart from the other rock groups during the 1980s?

Joey Tempest: “In the northern suburbs of Stockholm where we grew up there was a lot of British hard rock being played. We all had one thing in common. We wanted to express ourselves that way. The Swedish music scene did not inspire us at all. We got turned down by labels because our international approach. We had loud guitars, long hair and we sang in English, and that must have irritated the music establishment in Sweden at the time. Of course there were some decent Swedish bands and musicians around but they we’re not our source of inspiration.”

Read the entire interview here

For more on Europe visit Europetheband.com.