So here we go my friends. If I knew anybody of you personally, each of you would owe me a beer!!!
Here is the whole interview. Please remember that it was translated from Czech. Apologies for my mistakes in English and typos.
Part 1
Quote:
Bon Jovi - four friends for life and death
Berlin reminded rather a big prison than a shining capital. Police and army patrol were everywhere plus terrible autumn weather. And in the middle of this - Bon Jovi. Legendary rock band from New Jersey, USA. Group that has sold more than 120 million albums, has so many hits and sold-out many shows all around the world. Only in the Czech Republic it seems that this popularity is stagnating. God knows why but the truth is that their last concert here was in the 1990s after the album Keep The Faith was released.
The group arrived to Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wall fall with their brand new single from the album The Circle - We Weren't Born To Follow. While many politicians, VIPs and many others change in the probably most expensive hotel in town, the members of Bon Jovi - singer Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan and drummer Tico Torres - stay calm. The new single is the most frequently played single since the time of It's My Life, the new album reached the no.1 spot that day and the tour starting next year seems to be very successful as well. The band arrived to Berlin from London where they were giving interviews and played two secret shows - at the BBC Radio in British Music Experience Soundstage, in almost one week. They had been in London before they went to London and right after the performance in Berlin, they fly to North America to play at The Tonight Show. It wasn't a bad idea because they entered at the official American chart at no.1, as it turned up later.
Despite this, David Bryan and Tico Torres look relaxed and satisfied. A short walk through the city and a quick coffee (Tico: "It's unbelievable how bad is the coffee in such an expensive hotel".) and we can start with the interview. Tico and Dave make themselves comfortable in armchairs in the hotel library and look like they've just returned from a holiday with family and friends and not from an exhausting journey around the world.
David Bryan (DB): I'm surprised too how fine we are. On the other hand we have been travelling around the world so much that our bodies can't understand when we are right now. After the performance in The Tonight Show in New York we are all going home. It's clear to me now that I'll fall into my bed and stay there for a week. I don't want to complain. It is unbelievable but I still enjoy all of this so much.
Hardrocker (HR): The shows in London were quite atypical for you, weren't they? You played for a small audiences and just a bunch of songs.
DB: British Music Experience Soundstage is over the corner from the London O2 Arena where, as it is known, we will play series of big shows in 2010.
Tico Torres (TT): First of all, the audience of the second show was full of some competition winners from all around the world. However everything went well. We played four songs from our new album and some older songs. I have to say that concert versions of We Weren't Born To Follow, When We Were Beautiful, Work For The Working Man and Superman Tonight proved my feelings about the album as such.
HR: And that is?
TT: It's possible that I will feel it differently after few months or years but now is The Circle my absolute front-runner in the Bon Jovi catalogue.
HR: Who knows you a bit knows that you are not a friend of cliché and phrases.
TT: I've said this to Jon and Richie not long ago and they've told me that they don't have adequate distance to say this. But I stand for my opinion. I have great feelings of the album. It sounds very organically, it's well build and every time I listen to it, I just have to smile. The lyrics are great and perfectly describe what happened to us after Lost Highway. Even though some of the themes are quite dark, there still is the typical Bon Jovi optimism and positive approach. There are some Bon Jovi albums which have just few songs that I really like from my today point of view, whereas The Circle works as a strong unit. On the other hand there is no Bon Jovi album which I don't like. All of them are my kids. But The Circle is a phenomenon: I have to listen to it over and over again.
DB: The Circle is very strong and self-confident album. It is also an album of a working band - we can't say this about our previous album Lost Highway. Moreover, there are some parts on The Circle which came on the first attempt. Everything worked well. There were many great ideas and later songs. Richie was in a great shape and his contribution to the album was 100%. It is unbelievable that even if we are at the stage when albums don't mean that much, we were able to give everything to the songs.
TT: We weren't speaking about a new album at first. We met in Jon's studio to work on some new songs for the new compilation. But everything went so fast and so well, we had many great ideas so we were coming back over and over. The planned compilation seems to be released next year (2010) and we would like to add an official compilation of all our videos up to this day to the package. Many people have asked us to do it and even if some people in the band complain that we'd reveal how crazy we looked like in the 1980 to our new fans, I think it will be interesting for people. Besides that, in the age of internet and firstly youtube we can hide nothing!
DB: We also have bonuses for the compilation now. We have written almost 30 songs while working on The Circle.
TT: We haven't worked as hard on any different album as on The Circle. We had time for three month to record an album in the past. But now we went to the studio, composed and recorded few new tracks and returned there after some time.
DB: Distance is very essential with this method. We could judge and decide better with a distance.
TT: The accurate number of the new songs is 28. It is an unbelievable luxury to have so many to choose from. Few other songs will get to our fans gradually. And those will prove people that the band is in a great position now.
HR: Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambore are responsible for the majority of the songs. At which stage do you get the songs? We know that David rarely writes songs and Tico never.
TT: We get the songs very early. There is a tradition in Bon Jovi that we have very simple demos. We get those very early and we contribute with our ideas and creativity afterwards. If normal people heard those demos they would top their foreheads. The songs are very primitive. Guitars sound aweful, so does the vocals and the rhythm is played by a badly programmed drum computer. But there is a tie and teamwork between us that we can say what is worth and what is not.
DB: From time to time we take a part of a song and put it in a different song.
HR: Jon, Richie, David and Tico are members of Bon Jovi for decades. Can you still surprise each other?
DB: From time to time I catch myself thinking why any of my colleagues sent me such a song and that they can't be serious about it. But after few listens it is all clear and I know that Jon or Richie perfectly knew why they did so!
TT: I remember that David was against the song Always so much.
DB: Jon played this song to us in a studio many years ago and me and Richie were thinking that the song is not good enough. I added that the song would kill the band. But Jon loved Always and after some time when it was on the shelf, he pushed it through. Then we just wanted to record it in the best possible way. And there is nothing to add. It was a huge hit. Jon was right. That's why we are a band. It is all about cooperation, not an individual work. We like to communicate and we enjoy working together.
TT: There is a similar story about Livin' On A Prayer. We recorded a demo in our small studio in New Jersey and it was getting in Jon's hair. He left the studio offended. He said that he had imagined it all differently and that this song would be on Slippery When Wet only over his dead body.
DB: Finally me and Richie sung the vocals for the song in our version and played it to Jon. We convinced him to put it on the album. It wasn't the worst idea, was it? (laughing)
TT: So it was equal. Once - with Always, was the band wrong and once - with Livin' On A Prayer it was Jon. We listen to each other better from this time and we admit that the others could be right. The word NO is not that frequent. I've learnt one thing - when a song is good at an early stage - it stays good. Songs which take ages to finish usually don't work, even the best arrangement does not help.
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01-08-2010, 11:19 PM
