The following is an excerpt from an interview with EUROPE frontman Joey Tempest conducted by Adam Harrold for RockSomething.com:

Before 1986 the band were a much more guitar-orientated rock band, with John Norum’s riffs alluring many a rock fanatic. Finally, a quick gander at Tempest nowadays confirms that he’s neither the owner of massive poodular locks (though his hair is still very nice) nor a wearer of tight-fitting rubber trousers.

“When we got back together, we just wanted to be very honest and with “Start from the Dark” and this one we just wanted them to be rock albums,” insists the vocalist, “We didn’t want too much production – so it was just like the two albums before “Final Countdown”. As for whether we chose to make our music sound like this, we only decided that we would use contemporary productions, but we didn’t change the song writing. All we really wanted to do was push ourselves and show that we’re a real hard-working rock band. We’re not comfortable doing anything else.”

The result – Secret Society – is a rip-roaring confirmation that Europe are indeed a true rock band willing to take risks, but that’s not to say that it’s what the fans want. Releasing an album that harks back to the days of The Final Countdown would surely have been a safer option – sometimes fans just want things to stay the same.

“Yeah well I can be like that too,” he laughs, “Yet I’m also in a band so I realise how difficult it is. I can understand Final Countdown being important for people, there are always songs that relate to particular times in your life which make them special, so you don’t want the band to change. But we have to be creative and do a modern record - at the same time we understand there is a kind of old fans versus new fans thing. We see it on the forums a lot, but at least we’re generating debate. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time for the record to grow on people and I’ve noticed people coming back and saying that they’ve changed their minds. You have to remember that the band is always one or two years ahead of the fans with the music, because of the writing and recording. The fans are clever and they usually work it out though.”

And just like any real rock band, Europe are playing a lot of their new material live – with five or more new cuts making the current set list. In fact, Tempest insists that the band never write any songs that they don’t believe can work live.

“We’re a live rock band first and a studio band second. Yes, you can get away with a lot because of the technology these days, but we always try to play the standard way. It’s usually just “One, two, three, four…” and then we play. We might change some things afterwards but you’ve got to know how to play – if you don’t people will find out when they see you live. So you’ve got to practise. There are bands that don’t, but there’s a new wave that are very good. Bands like My Chemical Romance and The Killers are great. They aren’t great, great, great musicians individually, but as a unit they are very good.”

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