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Interview with Lars Chriss,
By Jessica Skipper
April 9, 2008
We here at GlamMetal had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Lars Chriss, guitarist and founder of the Swedish Metal band, Lion’s Share. They recently released “Emotional Coma” which was their first official American release. We discussed their forth-coming album and tour dates, as well as Lion’s Shares desire to branch out to a wider American audience.
Hello Lars, I just want to say that all of us at GlamMetal.com would like to thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
My pleasure. Thanks for the support.
So you’re calling from Sweden?
Yeah.
I just have to say that “Emotional Coma” is wonderful. Just Love “Cult of Denial,” The Edge of the Razor,” the title track. Love it!
Thanks.
So I have to start off by asking you, why did you make us wait so long? It was worth the wait, but six years?
Lars: Yeah, I was, uh, you know, burnt out more-or-less after four albums, and we did a lot of touring here in Europe: a tour with Dio, Manowar, Motorhead, Iced Earth, Nevermore, Saxon…two tours actually…UDO from Accept. They put us back to back, and I was taking care of everything from writing, to producing, speaking to labels, speaking to promoters, etc. So I didn’t really take care of myself… and I didn’t think that I needed to rest, to be honest. At first it hit me pretty much over night. It wasn’t fun to play guitar, you know, my playing started to suck, and I felt I needed to stop to recharge my batteries, and I knew I wanted to move. I had the “Emotional Coma” direction in mind, and I didn’t feel the lineup I had at the time was close enough to help me go where I needed to go. So I needed to rebuild the lineup as well, and I told the guys too, that I’m going to put the band on hold….blah blah blah…and go play with other people. (Laughs)
Got ya. So how did you decide, I mean, I love how Patrick’s (Johansenn) vocals are amazing, so it’s a different take for you, huh? How did you decide on him?
Lars: Yeah, my favorite singer of all time is Ronny James Dio, so I like similar singers like Tony Martin, Jorn Laden, Russell Allen from SymphonyX. I like that style of singers, and I always hear that when I write the melodies. I need a pretty strong voice to match my riffs, because all the livelier songs are built on guitar riffs, and you know, in the Black Sabbath, Judas Priest style, so I needed a strong voice. Of course, I like melodies with a wide range…I like melodies to go somewhere.
Right, and I agree that his vocals match your riffs wonderfully…beautifully. I mean they go from the insane, raw, and powerful to the sweet and melodic.
Lars: Yeah, I’m very happy with the lineup I have actually, and we work real well together and get along well, you know, and that’s important too.
Good. And what about the musical guests? Bruce Kulick did a wonderful job... obviously from Kiss fame and Glen Drover. How did they come about as far as collaborating with you?
Lars: I was working at a label that had Glen and Shawn Drover’s other band besides Megadeth, called Eidolon, so we were much in contact over the phone… I was setting up interviews and stuff for Glen. Also, when Megadeth played in Sweden, and we’d hang out and had a beer and you know. It was a friend simply asking if he was interested in doing a guest solo, and he agreed, so that was very nice of him. He did it over in Canada I think, during the time he was doing the latest Megadeth, and he sent us the file. And
Bruce…I’m a huge KISS fan…
Ok, yeah, good. (Laugh)
Lars: (Laugh) Thanks. He was the reason I started playing, and I heard him for the first time when I was eight years old. So the studio we were working in here in Stockholm was co-owned by the former KISS Army President of Sweden. So when Bruce was coming here to do KISS Expo and a concert in Stokholm, he came up with the idea to invite Bruce to the studio. Of course, that was great. (Laugh) So we picked him up, brought him to the studio, and he listened to the track, and he agreed to do it. I actually have it on film…so hopefully one day we can show it to the world. It was great! It was very nice, and when he was done he had to sign my entire KISS collection. (Both laugh)
So you have a big KISS collection?
Lars: Yeah, Yeah! (Laughs)
Very cool!
Lars: (Laughing) Yeah, I kept him busy. So they’re both very nice guys and did a great job as guest solos.
Any future collaborations?
Lars: I don’t know. Patrick’s not very keen on guests.
Oh no…well… (Both Laugh)
Lars: I don’t know. I’d love to bring on some vocalist, or whatever it was, you know? We’ll see.
We’ll see…sounds good. I have a question about the lead track, “Emotional Coma.” Now you have called it a “doom ballad.” Can you elaborate on that?
Lars: Yeah. I mean I’ve always been into the Tony Iommi style of riffing. We have that on all our albums. The half notes and the doomy stuff. I love Black Sabbath too, and especially with Ronny James Dio. The “Mob Rules” album is my favorite album of all time, and I thought, you know, the intro riff and the verse is very doomy, but then Sampo came up with a picking for the chorus, the guitar picking, which is more of a ballad style, so I guess that’s why we called it that.
I like it!
Lars: Yeah, I never heard that mix of doom. Either you do doom like Candlemas or whatever, or you do other stuff, you know, so I think we could combine it in a good way. The chorus opens up, you know, and the song gets into another mood…
Uh huh…absolutely, so the lyrics, as far as those go, is Patrick your main lyricist?
Lars: Yeah, it is him, and, they’re pretty brutal and dark because he gets inspired by the music. He feels the riffs and the music is pretty dark as well. So, you know, he can’t sing about the beach and girls, and beer and stuff (both laugh) to this kind of music.
No. So did you write the riffs first and then he added the lyrics, or together, or vice versa?
Lars: We usually start with building the music…the riffs and then I, for “Emotional Coma,” wrote most of the melody lines, vocal melody lines, and then he wrote the lyrics, and just followed my melodies more-or-less. But he came up with some of the melodies as well, and now with the new album we’re working on, we’re working even more as a team. All three of us actually, and you know, it’s mostly our first collaboration, and we’ve been playing a bit live, and now we’re even more of a team now, so…
Right.
Lars: Great vibe within the band I would say.
Wonderful, because speaking of your next release… I mean in the states here, “Emotional Coma” just came out two months ago, and now you’re working on another release, and what I’ve read, is that Charles Manson and the late 60’s are influences…a concept album, can you expand on that? It sounds so interesting?
Lars: Yeah, I think Patrick read some biography of Charles Manson and he got pretty inspired.
Was it Helter Skelter?
Lars: Hmmm., not sure, I didn’t read it. (Laughs) He came up with the idea, and I went, hmmmm like, I don’t know…. Charles Manson..hmm? But then he started writing about other things that had happened in the 60’s, so I think all lyrics are based on stuff that went on during the 60’s. But I guess two or three songs are based on Charles Manson, and he gets really inspired by that so…. (Both laugh)
Well it sounds fascinating to me. (Both laugh) You know, I’m really looking forward to that. You know that’s going to pique a lot of American curiosity, I think, so…
Lars: Yeah..
I want to ask you, as far as America goes, do you ever plan on touring here in the states?
Lars: We would love to of course, but we need a manager or promoter or booking agency to collaborate with, and so far we don’t have those contacts. Even though this is our fifth album, it’s out first for the USA that was officially released. Pretty much because when we started out in the mid-90’s, at least from our point of view, the USA wasn’t interested in this kind of melodic alt or heavy metal, it was more grunge, or rap-metal, so the USA fell off the radar, more-or-less. We didn’t even think about it. We focused on Japan and then Europe. We didn’t feel there was any point to even bother really.
Ok
Lars: Well, we’re really excited about what we’ve heard… that this kind of music is coming back in the US, so of course we would hope to gain much more fans, and play live and all that stuff. It’s a real bonus.
Absolutely! Well, that would be great if you came to America because I don’t foresee going to Sweden soon, unfortunately, so I mean, hey, after your next disc maybe that will be the breakthrough here. Has it been a goal of the bands’ to hit it big beyond Europe, Japan, and so forth?
Lars: Yeah. I mean of course we’re aware that America is the biggest record market and as I said, many of the bands we listen to and grew up with come from America – even the British bands that we’re into like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, they had huge success over there. But, when the Grunge and Hip-hop thing happened, you know…you know… we dropped it; it was no use. But, now it’s open of course because the weird thing is from day one actually, the most fan letters, back before e-mail (Laughter) came from the U.S., and we have a great response on MySpace from the U.S. I read in the reviews as well, how much people seem to appreciate our mix of melody and still we don’t sound dated like an 80’s band or something. We have the aggression and steal from newer stuff as well in the production. It feels like we’re…for some reason, I think that the USA could be our biggest market because we don’t play the German style of power metal like Helloween or happy stuff. We’re more Anglo-Saxon, I would say, more like the old power metal from the U.S. Sabotage or whatever, and those kind of bands and all the British styles like Saxon, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath. So yeah, we’ll really keep our fingers crossed that America will welcome us with open arms.
I hope so because I think we’re looking for you guys, you know, metal, like a change to come our way. Because there is nothing really dominating American radio right now.
Lars:Uh-hum
So, hey, this might be your chance, so…
Lars: Yeah, well I hope so, and it’s very great to read reviews when the journalists and even the “Blabbermouth” one, we had a review there, and people made comments and they were really excited that we had real singing and that we don’t sound wimpy.
Right!!!!!
Lars: We have a great combination. We tried to actually evolve the style to mix the more present production and still be aggressive yet very melodic.
Very Cool. So on the next disc, of course, we can expect to hear more of the same style going on here, huh?
Lars: Yeah, I think so. We had some great response and especially on certain songs, we tried to focus on what’s really more original and more Lion’s Share sounding, what people like and tried to take it one step further…maybe be a little more direct I would say with the melodies, a little more catchy, you know, but with strong riffs …
Ok, like “Trafficking”? Would you go in that direction more so? It seems like it would be very radio friendly in America.
Lars: Yeah, exactly! People seem to appreciate, especially that song because it’s something that doesn’t sound like rehashed Judas Priest – it’s a mix of different styles.
Absolutely, and I think it would be a good introduction to an American audience, or to get them into your other music,
Lars: Yeah. We hope to re-release the first four albums as well in the U.S., now that the market seems to be more, you know, our style over there.
Very cool. I’m going to wrap this up soon, but I have to ask this question about your cover art, and how you’ve said that that’s your mascot, just like, you know, Eddie is for Iron Maiden. Now does yours have a name?
Lars: No. (Laughter)
The nameless man, huh, or nameless demon…
Lars: Yeah, I have a funny story more-or-less because Patrick came up with the idea and said, ”Let’s call him Andy.” I said, wait a minute, our first singer was called Andy…
Ohhhhhhh! (Laugh) I don’t know if Andy would like that…
Lars: (Laughing) No! Not a good idea, and I even mentioned it to some other journalists in Europe. I think it was some English journalists, and they’re like, “don’t call him Andy.” (Laughter)
So he remains nameless, huh?
Lars: He does, I mean, on our website we can try to come up with something cool, but as of now, I think it’s nameless. At least from my point of view. Maybe Patrick has a name in his mind. I don’t know.
Ok, well… (Both laughing)
Lars: He’ll be back on the new cover as well. We’ve already seen it, and it’s really great, so we’re going to keep having him back. So maybe a name would be good. (Both laugh)
Maybe he might get offended if you don’t name him, and come to life, and I don’t know, attack the crowd (Both laugh) “I want a name...” Anyway…your upcoming tour in May. You’re playing a festival? A three-day festival in Sweden? In Stockholm?
Lars: Yeah, we’re doing a warm up show here in Sweden. Then we’re doing…it’s a big Ferry with a lot of bands playing…Gotthard. It’s a lot of partying. It goes between Sweden and Finland, so we’re doing a couple of shows on there. Then we’re flying right on to Holland to do a festival, but then we need to head back to the studio because we’re in the middle of recording the new album, and we’re going to mix it at the end of June, so we need to spend some time in the studio as well.
Any dates planned for after you finish the album?
Lars: Yeah, if the new album gets released in October we will hope to go on a tour. If we get some offers from some festival, sure, we can do it now because it’s well rehearsed, and you know, it’s not that big of a deal.
Right. Wonderful! Is there anything else you would like to share with our GlamMetal.com readers that we didn’t cover?
Lars: Yeah. Hopefully people will give us a chance and check us out, and to all the old fans who have bought our imports; we of course want to say thanks for the support through the years because the response from the U.S. has always been great even though we didn’t release the albums officially. So check out our website www.LionsShare.org or www.MySpace.com/LionsShare . Keep in touch.
OK! Lars, thank you so much.
Lars: My pleasure.
We really hope you break it in America because I want to see you guys over here.
Lars: We’d love to come!
GlamMetal would like to send a special thanks out to Carol Kaye and Shanna Wynn from Kayos Productions for setting up this interview and for being so flexible. Thanks!
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