Interview taken from Erik Heikne.
GEORGE: Welcome to BeRock Radio guys, the most melodic place! I am George, please make yourself comfortable!
We’re glad to have you here. Tell us some words on how you came up with your band name, "Miss Behaviour"?
ERIK: Thanks for having us George! We get this question a lot, and maybe that’s good, cause then the name has fulfilled
its purpose. When Henrik and I started this band, more than a decade ago, we wanted something that stood out. Its something
of a equivoke you can say.
Either you interpret it as a dominant girl, you know Mrs. Behaviour if she would have been married, or you can see it like a way
of missbehaving, like bad behaviour. And maybe that fit us all sometimes.
Its allways this way when you come up with band names, first it sounds like you came up with the most genious thing ever,
and than over ten years later…hmm. Maybe it wasnt that great! But anyway, it lives it own life now and its more of a brand.
Honestly, how many people think of a medieval instrument of torture when hearing about Iron Maiden?
GEORGE: Ever since 2006, when you released your debut album, “Heart of Midwinter”, you’ve had a lot of changes
to your line-up, with the exception of Erik Heikne (Guitars) and Henrik Sproge (Keys).
Tell us a few words about the band’s current line-up.
ERIK: Speaking of bad behaviour… Henrik and I was a bit like a very famous Swedish guitarist (no names mentioned…)
in the beginning of our careers. It took us some time to find the right line up and luckily we did, right before the tour,
promoting our album Last Woman Standing. Since that tour, we´re a complete band, five great friends with a very professional
attitude towards music.
GEORGE: You’ll be releasing your new work on the 2nd of August 2016.
Can you tell us some information about your fourth album?
Was it hard composing the tracks?
ERIK: Actually it will be released on September 2nd, the first single will be out in late august though.
It’s a cliché to promote a new album and say that it’s the best you have ever done, but I´m going to do just that anyway,
cause it really is, from the bottom of my heart.
Last woman standing was a land mark for the band and Double agent was a good album, but we were going thru some
really hard times when doing the last one. This time it was like “time to get our asses together and show people what
we are really capable of”. And I think we have done just that.
GEORGE: Along with producer Patrik Magnusson (Crashdiet, Mick Mars, and others),
you spent the entirety of 2015 writing and recording.
Are you satisfied with the results of your hard work?
ERIK: Satisfied is the least I can say! For the first time in our career we did an album together as a team.
Music isn´t sport, so I don’t mean like a team that way, cause musicians are more individualists, but we found a way were all
five of us got something creative out of this. Its not funny to be a drummer for instance, if you just get the notes or a finished
pre production and then just “play it EXACTLY like that man”. We´ve done it that way before.
The whole band has been much more involved and for the first time we hired a producer.
We have always done pretty much everything ourselves before, but this time we came to a point where we needed a producer
to really capture what we had in our minds.
Patrik has become a great friend of the band and together we did something very special.
GEORGE: What are your plans for the promotion of the album? Should we expect any video clips?
What plans do you have for live shows/tours, will we see you in other European countries as well?
ERIK: This is also an important part of the music and this time we will do it even more planned and professional than before.
We have just finished the shooting of the music video, promoting the song “Friendly Fire”. And we have a team working on
PR toward radio and press. Added to this we will also release a video, more like a commercial for “Ghost Play”.
Most of the bands do boring EPK´s with some footage from the studio, telling the fans about the songs.
We have made something very different and you will be able to see the result on our social media channels in a few weeks.
GEORGE: For the past 4-5 years, we’ve been seeing a bloom in Melodic Hard Rock.
Do you believe that rockers want more quality in the music and listen to more of this genre?
What’s your opinion on this?
ERIK: Interesting question George! The way you put it, the obvious answer would be…YES!
But I guess it aint that simple. Every genres popularity goes in cycles but fans of melodic rock
is more dedicated that many other fans I believe.
This music is ageless I think.
GEORGE: Recently, I spoke with Eric (Rivers) from H.e.a.T. and asked him what you do there in Sweden and keep giving us
these excellent bands with amazing musicians. “Is there something in the water?”,
I asked him, and he replied with “Hmm, it’s probably the beer!” (laughs!!)
I’m asking if you can tell us your opinion on the amazing music scene of Sweden.
You clearly have a lot of talented musicians there, what makes Sweden rise above the rest in the music industry?
Can you tell us what’s going on there that causes a new star to be born?
ERIK: This is a question we get a lot and I haven’t come up with a good answer to it yet, I think Mr. Rivers was pretty close (laughs).
On a more serious note… You know, the live scene for this music in Sweden is almost dead. You got Sweden Rock and a couple
of more great festivals, but otherwise… In order to get the chance to tour outside Sweden you have to be good at what you´re doing,
if you want to leave a mark in melodic rock. And that takes a lot of hard work and ambition.
And in Sweden, a country buried in darkness and snow for more than 6 months a year,
you got every condition for doing just that.
GEORGE: Sweden, as I’ve said before, is famous about its music industry, especially the genre you support (Melodic Hard Rock).
Do you feel it’s difficult to meet such high standards of quality?
ERIK: I think we have managed to reach a high standard, but of course, there are bands that is untouchable.
Europe for instance, their contribution to this genre is huge and its important.
It motivates us to have such great melodic rock bands come out of Sweden.
GEORGE: The music industry in the recent years has changed.
We see that a lot of people prefer digital purchases, which are more convenient, faster and more easily accessible.
What are your thoughts on the future of CDs?
ERIK: The way of consuming music has and will always change with time.
The cassette had its time and so will the CD. The problem is that with streaming, people tend to listen to music in a whole
different way. While doing something else! I miss the days when people just sat down on their asses and listened to
a whole album from beginning to the end, and paid for it!
The streaming services do not give a fair repayment to the composers and that leads to a lot of poor productions
overflowing the market. That’s my way of seeing it.
GEORGE: It’s not just the music industry that has changed over the years.
Nowadays, we see social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...) become hugely widespread.
How much do these sites support a band and in what way?
ERIK: It bring the fans and the press closer to the bands, that is both good and bad I think.
Its good in one way, cause it makes interviews like this possible and that’s great!
But I miss the mystique from the old days. I remember when buying my first Helloween CD,
reading the liner notes and made my own picture inside of my head, what Helloween was like.
Now I can log on to Facebook on my phone and write them a PM. It’s a two sided coin.
Without Facebook I wouldn’t have been friends with Roland Grapow, he contributed with a
fantastic guitar solo on our album Last Woman Standing.
You know, I mentioned the commercial for the new album before…
That one will answer this question quite spot on I think.
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’s Radio minizine readers!
ERIK: Thank you so much for having us George.
I hope that the readers really take their time to listen to the whole album, cause its that kind of album,
that take a couple of spins to show its fully potential.
Very nice talking to you!
