Eric Rivers: Guitar	Jimmy Jay: Bass	Erik Grönwall: Lead vocals	Crash: Drums	Jona Tee: Keys

 

 

H.e.a.T	Freedom Rock	Address The Nation
Release Year: 2008	Release Year: 2010	Release Year: 2012

 

Band's Website: www.heatsweden.com

Band's Facebook: www.facebook.com/heatsweden

Interview taken from Eric Rivers

 

GEORGE: Welcome to BeRock Radio Eric, the most melodic place! I am George, please make
yourself comfortable! We’re glad to have you back on BeRock since the Interview of 2011,
and it’s our pleasure to meet again! Before we talk about the new album, I‘d like to ask
you about Dave’s decision to leave the band. A while ago, you announced that the gap won’t
be filled by anyone and that you’ll be taking full control of the guitars.
How difficult is something like that for you and the rest of the guys in the band?

ERIC: Hi George, glad to be back! Well, at first it felt really hard when Dave left.
Both on a musical level and on a personal level. Being in a band with someone for 7 years
really makes you close to a person. So it felt a bit scary at first, but we all felt that we
should at least try and do this as a five piece band, and so far it’s working great.
It’s not easy for me to fill Dave’s boots, but the reactions from the fans that have seen us
live as a five man band have been very good, and we’re getting more comfortable with it for
each gig. I love Dave and I hope he continues making awesome music.

GEORGE: After 3 melodic Hard Rock Diamond releases, H.e.a.T has been set in the conscience of
rockers around the world as the “Boss” of melodic Hard Rock. How was it for you to get in the
studio for recording, with having in mind that you already have 3 very successful albums?

ERIC: We always do our thing, and we try not to think about the expectations we have on us, even
if they are there. Of course we always try to make an even better album than the one before,
but if you think about that too much, I don’t think the result is gonna be that good. You just
have to write music that you love, and write lots of songs. We try not to be afraid of new ideas,
and find new ways of making music.

GEORGE: What can we expect from your new album? Has anything about Heat changed?
Are there any new elements in your music since Dave left?

ERIC: Well, I think with each album the sound and the band change a bit. A lot happens during
the two years or so you spend writing and making an album and you always (hopefully) evolve as
a songwriter and band during that time.

There aren’t any huge changes, but I guess you could say we’re a bit less afraid to try new things
on this album. We tried some new instruments, some new types of arrangements. We valued gut feeling
more than trying to make each note of every instrument perfect this time. We tried to capture the
band playing together, because that’s where the magic happens.

GEORGE: Can you reveal anything about the album? Such as how many songs it’ll include, its name,
where you recorded it, who’s responsible for the production, mixing and mastering?

ERIC: I’m afraid I can’t tell you the title yet, but I can tell you that it’s awesome! It’s not
decided how many songs there will be on the album, but I guess we’re gonna go with 10-11 tracks on
the original album, and then some bonus tracks for different regions around the world. We recorded
15 songs in total! The album is produced and recorded with Tobias Lindell at Studio Bohus, the same as
Address the Nation. We felt really comfortable with him last time so it felt natural for us that he
would be the producer on this album as well. The songs are also gonna be mixed by Tobias, but he moved
to Thailand, so I guess mixing by the pool takes a bit longer, Haha.

GEORGE: Your new album is your second work with Erik in vocals. Rockers loved “Address The Nation”,
and have welcomed you with excitement! And just like that, Kenny has become a beautiful musical past.
You seem to have ‘bonded’ very well together not only as a band, but as friends.
Can you tell us anything about that?

ERIC: Erik has been a natural band member since the day he joined the band. He’s just a great guy from
the first time you meet him and he’s like a fine red wine; he just get’s better each year, haha. And
also musically, he’s been great from the first day, everything is just feels so natural, so I guess
we’ve been really blessed having him on the team!

GEORGE: One of the people’s desires since the release of “Address The nation” is to see more video clips
from you. Is there any chance that you’ll shoot more of those this time?

ERIC: We sure hope so! I mean, as you mention, the response for the videos have been great, so I guess
we’re gonna keep making more and more of those. It’s great fun to add a new dimension to the music,
so we try to be as involved as possible in the videos as well. I know that Crash wants to make a video
where he plays the drums nude, so we hope to make that happen this year!

GEORGE: As of October, you start a tour that will span from China, to Nottingham UK, to Firefest, and in
November, France! Are there any plans after that? Any chances that you’ll visit Greece, Italy, Bulgaria etc.
also, since we’d love to see you around here too?

ERIC: Of course! I think we can call these gigs the end of the Address the Nation tour, and we sure hope
to make an even bigger tour on this new album. It’s not always easy booking gigs, a lot of things have to
be right, you know. We want to go EVERYWHERE to play, but it’s not always that easy. So we always try our
best to set up gigs wherever we have fans. We will work even harder on the next tour to play our first show
in Greece, I promise you that!

GEORGE: In every “Live Show” of yours the audience is more than exited,
how do you manage to transfuse your energy to them?

ERIC: It’s one of those things that’s hard to explain. You know, we always give the audience 100% of what
we got, and that makes the audience go wild, and that makes us go even wilder, and that just continues on
and on… So it’s just a constant flow of energy bouncing between us and the audience.
We love it.

GEORGE: Sweden is known to have a long story with the Melodic Hard Rock Scene from the past.
Now, after the large success Heat has met, more Swedish bands seem to have been following their footsteps,
such as Nubian Rose, Degreed, Diamond Dawn, Dynamite, etc.. Can you tell us what’s going on in Sweden that
makes it create such good musicians and great bands all the time? Is it something with the water you drink?
(laughs)

ERIC: Haha, I think it’s more about the beer we drink. It all goes back to ABBA I guess. They proved that
a band from Sweden can become the biggest band in the world, and I think that every Swede playing music has
that mentality. It’s possible to make it, you know. And we have a great tradition of Swedish bands and
songwriters topping the charts world wide. So we just keep on struggling and keep on believing that one day
we can rule the world. And we drink lots of beer as well, haha.

GEORGE: Name a few bands from Sweden that you admire and the reason why.

ERIC: Well, as mentioned before, ABBA. They are one of the best bands ever. The songs are just perfect,
great melodies, arrangements, hooks, lyrics. Everything they did was pop perfection. Roxette were my heroes
when I was a kid. Also great pop music. Europe took over the world in the 80s, and they are from the same home town
as us, so they mean a lot to all of us in the band. Hardcore Superstar is an awesome band, one of the best live
bands out there today. We also have great songwriters, like Max Martin, who are really inspiring to us.

GEORGE: How much does it help a band to have for management such a serious company like Hagenburg, so
that it has freedom with its music without the management getting in the way and creating problems?

ERIC: I think you have to be very cautious when choosing the people you want to work with, because it can really
cause problems if you choose the wrong people. But we feel really comfortable with our management Hagenburg and
our record label, GAIN and our booking agents around the world, and they make our job so much easier. We always
have an open and honest dialogue with “our people” and we respect each other. We love the people we work with at
the moment!

GEORGE: And one last question, can you tell us the release date of your new album?

ERIC: I cannot, since it’s not decided yet, but we’re aiming on having a single out late this year,
and we hope that the album will be released early 2014!

GEORGE: Thank you for your time, I wish you all the best for the future!
The last words are yours for this interview. Feel free to say whatever you want
to all BeRock Radio readers!

ERIC: Thank you so much for this interview, George! And thank you to the readers and the fans,
we are nothing without you. Hope so see you on tour next year and have a beer with you guys after
the show. Stay true!