Guitarist John Norum has revealed that Europe are planning to enter the studio in early 2023 to record the follow up to 2017’s Walk The Earth. He also revealed that the band hope to work with producer Dave Cobb once more, the producer who helmed both Walk The Earth and 2015’s War Of Kings. Norum made his comments in a brand new interview with eonmusic about new solo release Gone To Stay, which is released on October 28.  

Speaking about what brought him back to the band when they reformed in 2003, the guitarist said; “I got a phone call from Ian Haugland the drummer of Europe, and he said that they were interested to put the band together again and that they were going to have a meeting, and asked me if I was interested to come and hang out and have a chat. So That’s what we did, and we’ve been together ever since. It’s been eighteen years since we reunited."

When asked about whether his re-joining righted the wrongs he felt which led to his departure, he admitted; “I have no idea really. We just have chemistry that is really good. It’s something that just happens. I mean, we met when we were teenagers, very young, and we just have a chemistry. It’s just the energy when we play, and I haven’t felt that for a long time."

Going on to talk about his time away from the band, during which he was briefly a member of Dokken, and recorded a number of solo albums, he said; “Throughout the ‘90s I did a few solo albums, and some other things like guesting on other artists’ albums and things like that, but I never felt that chemistry with any other band. So that was a big part of it, that I thought it was a good idea to get back together again, and I think they felt the same. So there was no big masterplan behind it or anything like that; we just got together and started writing the songs, and took it from there and recorded Start From The Dark [2004]."

Going on to talk about new music, and the follow up to Europe’s Walk The Earth, which was released in 2017, John said; “Has it been five years?! Oh wow! That seems like a very long time. Time just flies by, it’s crazy. Well, we’ve been talking about future plans and things like that, so we plan to go in the studio in around April / May [2023], something like that, but we are writing songs at the moment for the next Europe album, and we’re looking for producers."

He also revealed that the band plan to work with Dave Cobb once more, who produced the band’s last two releases, Norum said; “We hope can work with Dave Cobb again because he’s the greatest. He’s so good, he’s amazing, so hopefully we can do it with him if he's not busy, and hope that we can do it in his studio because that would be a lot of fun. He has a studio in Nashville, so that would be fun to go there and record the next album."

Read the entire interview at eonmusic.