Jorn Lande – A Conversation With The Duke

Jorn Lande has been steadily making a name for himself as one of metal's finest vocalists. Drawing his inspiration from the genre's classic singers, he has been involved in quite a few well-known and lesser known bands, though his main claim to fame comes from his membership in the Power/Heavy weights – Masterplan, and his solo albums. With a new solo album coming out, called "The Duke", we sat down with Jorn to find out more about his career, past and present.

Hello, first of all, congratulations on your new Solo album. What do you think is vibe in this release?

I think this release is, in a way, of me going back to my roots, of Classic Hard Rock, and it's something I've been experimenting with for many years, trying different combinations in music. Of course I always try to put classic, but still I feel that with "The Duke" I go back to more European, British Hard Rock that I grew up with. I try my range, and try all these different musical landscapes, being liverish. In a way I feel that now we try concentrate on song structure, and find some kind of form and identity, so we can have a platform and audience – more people will get what we are doing.

Since your success with Masterplan, your solo career got quite a boost, how did that affect your life as of now?

Of course Masterplan's debut moved me forward. I think it was important for everyone in the band, because we all had quite a long history, we had our previous releases, and we worked with different bands in the past. I'm always trying new things. I guess I really didn't find my platform, I was always working and trying to make things happen, and face more things to do, I had all this records out and everything, and Masterplan had a real breakthrough. You can say that Masterplan was better as a band, because I work with ex-members of Helloween, which was already established, we try to have a pact, and be accepted in the music scene. It's really difficult for a band to come out with other bands that are not really making it. I think with the band we found something really special and right, and we try to make it our way.

You said in the past that your 3rd solo album, "Out To Every Nation" actually felt like your debut album, and as a listener it's easy to see the unique upgrade in that album compared to your previous two. What do you feel now about your current release?

I think this is definitely the best record, if you look at everything, like the song structure, and the construction of the band, and the concept in general – this record is much more complete. I usually don't really think about everything, the songs just have the right moment and feel, they are not too progressive or experimental, I think it's a strong song material. My band is unique, I have players that are really rare today, and I worked with them before in a different complex than today, and now I have them again, I think it might have more quality, it has a really great show of music.

I have Morty Black [Bass] which plays on the album with groove and authority. And then I have Tore Moren [Guitar], which grew up with guitarists like Randy Rhoads, and Zack Wild, and I think together with Mr. Lofstad [Jørn Viggo Lofstad – Guitar], that came from a totally different world, more technical world, he grew up with guitarists like Steve Vai, Van Halen and those kind of players – can create together an old classic element which makes it all really big and powerful, together they are perfect, and they are friends and working well. I think we had really something special with this release, it's a perfect band for playing live. I think the total of "The Duke", is some of the best recipes I ever had.

Why did you choose to re-record "Starfire", which was the title track from your first solo album?

I consider the "Starfire" album to be more of a Demo…

This is quite a Demo…

The "Starfire" album sounds good, but the performance of the record is very organic, in way you can say this record was more like in the '70s, everything was recorded analog, we didn't had any computers, pro-tools or q-base or whatever they use. We just played everything, and it was recorded like the old days, on old tape. You can say we didn't have any help, we didn't use any special elements, it was just back to basics and that's why I see it more as a demo recording. At that time I didn't had really greatest budget to make the record, so I did it more based on the feeling, and when it came out, I thought it was cool, its not my favorite album, but it was kind of a beginning, like a presentation of me as an artist, doing some covers and so on.

I think "Starfire" was a good song, and it didn't get the production it should have. Also we started to play it live a few times, and we started doing a guitar riff which is now on "The Duke", that was totally different thing from the original version which was more orchestral. So we tried it in performance, and fooled around with some guitar riffs, we thought to make a version that is more Rock N' Roll, more Hard Rock instead of having this Pop-Progressive version, or worse. So we did more of a Hard Rock chorus, and added more Rock N' Roll, and on each combination we made a discovery, and after playing it a few times live, and growing with the song, we thought it will be great with a new arrangement and it deserves a new recording, with better sound and production, and that's why we did it.

What inspired the songs on "The Duke"? Is there any specific concept behind them?

No, not really, I always write this things, I don't really have a goal, I try to reflect my life and my thoughts about the past, present and the future, so you can say the concept on "The Duke" is same as I always do, writing about the same things in a way, but just new ways of doing it. I'm trying to reflect and visualize thoughts about living and history, which people can identify with and create their own pictures. In a way, I try to say a lot in a few words, not too many difficult words, I like to be simple and direct so people can understand what I'm saying, so I guess that's what I'm doing.

Like, you have the song called "Duke of Love", I guess that's also partly said in the title, the song has all these kind of elements, and in perspective about the new metal scene which is more aggressive and extreme, I feel that "The Duke" has all these elements that I have as an artist. It have control, power, arrogance, irony, drama, feeling… all these elements are important to me in general and I feel that if you see all these Classic Artists or Classic Hard Rock in general, these elements are present. Like a duke, it has class, touch, control… in a way it's elegant but in the same time it has all these elements I mentioned. I think it's important to show all these aspects, and to make it interesting, the second it becomes only aggression its limited to me and I think there's a link between what I'm doing to classical music, we both speak about all these elements.

The new album again features the guys you've worked with in past projects, why did you choose to work with the same players again, because until now, if I'm correct, you played with different musicians on each solo album?

This time, we were all just there, we were all ready to work together. In the past people had different things to work with, when I wanted to record something either someone was busy with something or didn't have time. When I do this thing I never really plan it, I just find a time to work and do it, but sometimes people had other work. In the past it wasn't really a band, just a solo concept, that's why I had different people all the time, I just asked people to work with me if they had time, and was cool to work with me on the record.

Like when I toured with Masterplan together with Hammerfall I met some new people, and that's why, for example, I asked Magnus Rosèn to do the bass, on "Out To Every Nation". You can say that things happened naturally, but with this record, it's different, because we all worked together in different contexts in the past, we all known each other for years, and I thought that with these people together we will make a killer lineup, we are all egotistic in our own world and eager to prove that we can do new things, experiment with new lineups, new combinations of people, and that would be very exciting.

It actually goes back to the beginning of the '90s when the Grunge Music came out, and the music scene changed, we were all kind of trapped… [Laughs]… In that environment and what we really wanted to is to do our Classic Melodic Hard Rock. But the times were different, you could get a record deal or lose it, you couldn't do something that is linked to something classic, everything like the '70s is taboo, '80s is taboo, so I guess we tried to experiment and still keep some identity, but also we tried to be diverse, that's why you have records like "Burn the Sun" from Ark, or even with Masterplan, I had those elements.

Going back to my earlier career, I had something called Vagabond, which was really an experimental band, and all this music came in middle of this Hybrid period in the '90s, when things were totally different. I guess that's why we had this diversity in our early albums, because we wanted to keep the classic element, but we had to change it or at least develop it, to take it a step further, so people wont say "Oh no, it sounds like this, we heard it before" or stuff like that. Everybody had some kind of idea where to put us, that's why we tried to put something else, we all thought like this in every band I worked with, everyone wanted to try new musical landscapes, new combinations.

As a singer I try to be more diverse than some of the singers that I took inspiration from when I grew up. All these artists from the '70s, you could always recognize them, they have the same way of performing, always, every record, they never tried new things, maybe they followed technology, with new production and sound changes, but when you heard them perform it was always the same characteristic, they never changed their identity, they never experimented in trying to sing differently.

I think that's what I did, I tried to use all these elements when I grew up, and took inspirations from. instead of using just one identity, and perform with one kind of singing, I tried all these different things from singing clean-high, using my range, to singing more progressive and dark, to again, going in the mid-range with a different kind of landscape or changing my voice totally to singing more aggressive and opera oriented with more technique. So I used all these experiments and made it this way more original, it became something new, even though it had all these elements that I grew up with, all these classical things.

So that's how it was in the Grunge era, and the Hybrid '90s, it wasn't only music, it was in everything, people had 4 jobs, people had a lot of things going on, people would work in a Tv store and on the next they sell Fish… [Laughs]… things changed people so they wanted to push their limits. Same in movies, I think what happened is that the world forgot some of these classic elements, its like when you visualize something that you've seen before, if you're not going to use the element because that was done before, then in the end you will be left with only b-quality. There is a limit to what a man can do, some people say that everything is possible, but actually there is a limit.

That kind of thing was going on in the '90s, people were trying desperately to create a new trend, and link it to the past. I'm an old-fashion, and now I'm in a point where I take all of this to consideration, looking back at my past, and really asking myself Why did I begin? Why did I start in the music industry in first place? And that took me back to when I was really young, when I took inspiration from Ronnie James Dio, Paul Rogers, David Coverdale, and so many other good melodic Progressive Rock bands and also Classic Rock bands, I just looked at that and thought its natural to me to go back to do something really classic, this British Hard Rock, which I feel where it all begin, that's what made me start in the first place.

When did you have time to work on The Duke, since you've been very busy with Masterplan's Aeronautics, and then your co-op with Russell Allen?

A lot of people have normal jobs, unlike me, that everything I do is based around making music. When all the people go to work in the morning, and when I'm not working in the studio, or on tour, I spend the time as much as I can, and try to be creative, and when people come home from work I have been already working on my disc or writing stuff. It seems I'm very busy all the time, but nothing is really that extreme, I spend my time like all normal people with jobs, I'm more creative, and of course when I have the time I can be more at home in Norway, just stay for few months, and maybe some weekends elsewhere, to get ideas. I have some quiet periods like that, when I try to write as much as I can.

Speaking of Russel Allen, how was the working process to record "The Battle"? How did you chose who sings what, and who wrote the music, lyrics and melodies?

That album was different than other stuff that I've done. Most of the time I'm writing my own stuff, and on this record, I was more doing something that was created by someone else, so it was a different thing. The label had the basic material for the concept and I was asked if I would be interested on working with this concept, so I just heard the music, and I simply felt which songs would be perfect for me. I think the same happened with Russell too, we both thought it would be cool doing it. I respect him, and I like his solo albums, and progressive singing, and we didn't really need to do it, we just did because we had the time since we can do it in different countries. I had the ideas and music, so I just went to the studio here and recorded it.

So you didn't actually meet at the studio?

No, we just worked separately, and spoke on the phone. It's different way of working, but as I said it was a totally different project than what I did, and that's why I thought it's cool because when you write your own stuff all the time, you don't get new ideas, you start to repeat your own pattern as artists, so to get away from this, and try to put my energy into something else, and then go back again to my own kind of thing, its really good for me. Then you can get an objective view again. I never did that much AOR [Album-Oriented Rock] music in my life, I always had some elements here and there in my albums, with AOR-ish chorus or melodies. I think in "The Battle" you have much melodic Americanize Hard-Rock, I think that in Europe the angle of the album makes it a little bit more powerful, and in general you can say it's a Modern AOR album.

What are the similarities, or differences between his and your style of singing?

I think we have quite a similar style, although we have a rich background, it's difficult to say, like we had some different singers that we were inspired from, but we both have things in common like the love of that music. I think we both, if you go to the core, if you take all the experimental and progressive stuff we done, and the song writing, then I think we are really similar, we are different but still coming from the same background, we both have a technique but we not over-do it, we have range and we just do something we like.

You started out doing Whitesnake covers, how much of an influence was David Coverdale on your voice? Sometimes it sounds like a really good imitation, if it is.

I never really spent time on trying to imitate him or something, it's just the way I sound. If I thought that's how he would sound in the past, then it would sound similar, because some songs that were done in the past can't be done in different way, they are really great, and every time you hear someone doing a different version of a song, it would never be the same. I feel it's important to stay true to the originals, though sometimes it would be great to do something totally different.

Yeah, like you did with Deep Purple's "Burn", from the "Starfire" album, you took it to the limit, and it didn't sound like a cover…

You have different things, like on "The Duke" with "Are You Ready" [Thin Lizzy Cover], which is the only cover on the album, and that was something else because I did it totally different. With that I feel I'm contributing by doing something cool with that song, more metal, little more Hard-Rock and Heavy performance, but then I have this songs, showing a way of performing it, and that's when I stay true to the song.

…So from who did you take inspiration from?

Well, Paul Rogers and Brian Conaly were very important, and they had influences on me when I was a kid, also Elvis Presley, I had a collection of his CD's. You can say I was inspired by Rainbow, I was much into singers like Ronnie James Dio and David Coverdale, I had a period when I was devoted to different kind of artists, I was fascinated by Steve Welsh, the singer is incredible, and was totally different, more of American Folk / Rock, and it also gave me inspiration. But I think that my heart lies with British kind of Hard Rock, that's where I really started, and that's where I feel my roots are touched.

There's a hilarious TV commercial you took part in, the one with the rocker dancing around in pink tights, how you got involved with that, and who is the guy in the tights?

That was a long time ego… [Laughs] …It was a commercial for national TV so the advertisers wanted to have a rocker and they called me up and asked if I can do it, and I just did it…. Out of the 3 people that were there, only 2 of us were into music, one was a true dancer, I can't remember much… And the other one was professional actor. I was the only true rock artist there, on the commercial… [Laughs]

Before "The Battle" came "Aeronautics", which was an even bigger success than your first album with Masterplan, and it made you popular around the world. How can you explain what caused Masterplan to be more popular and successful then all your other projects, which in my opinion, are as good or some of them are even more refined than what you did with this band?

I think some of the stuff I did have fallen between the chairs. I think it's because the Hard Rock or Metal scene is a very limited market, if you want things established and get offers to play places, then you must have something good, but in general, you don't get good conditions since you want all Hard Rock and Metal scene to buy your album. Like there was Ark, or even with Vagabond, I really liked them, but we were in between chairs, because people said different things, like "It's really good", "Tell them to stop", "Good musicians!" it became more as an experiment, you couldn't find a definition for it, to buy it, or a trade mark what the band had. It was really diverse, and surging in a way, musically.

Even if you had good reviews and a lot of attention in the press, which was very good to read, on the next day people went to the record stores and bought the new Iron Maiden, or the new Judas Priest, something that was more to the point in Hard Rock or Metal, because that was the market, and that's how people would know it. I think if we had more commercial, distribution or marketing… I think with a band like Ark, we could have reached out to bigger audiences, because it's also a music that people who don't really appreciate Heavy Metal or Hard Rock can get, and even like it… But I think if you are only limited as a band, to the press in the Hard Rock or Metal scene, nobody else will know who you are. It doesn't help that you read about Ark at Metal Hammer or Rock-Hard magazines, because nobody reads them besides Heavy Metal or Hard Rock fans, so I think that's why we fell between chairs with albums in the '90s.

Masterplan is more to the point, it has that Power Metal kind of platform, and the structure is there. You basically know what you get, even if you have some progressive songs, and songs could go to different musical landscapes, then the structure is always with powerful drumming, and the art is still to the point, so you know what you get in a Masterplan album. In a way, even after 2 albums, people know what to expect, I think it's that combination and this kind of Metal direction, but at the same time, we are looking to come at a time, when there are not too many artists like that. But I think it's not just about being good, or being somewhere at the right time, we were there, we did good job, and it all have to do to come together.

We were lucky, because we used a promoters with the first albums and got attention, then we got asked to play and tour, I don't think it's rare for a band, that's just came out – I think we knew what we can achieve with that, it was ideal for Masterplan. I tried many years to work and do good music, so it's always a struggle, sometimes you have bad stuff, or you want to do so many things and you don't have finance, or you want to work with different people – you have to do things based on strong ideals and make the best with what you have. I think in a way that we came to a place where the world starts taking note of us as artists.

Is there any chance to see some of your earlier albums get re-released? It seems that it got lost somewhere in the Music Market and hard to find anymore.

I don't think there will be releases of all my old albums, but I plan to release some of my old material, I'll just pick out some my best songs and they would be released sometime. It won't be all old material, but some stuff I did, that would be out soon. Those albums are really rare, there might be a chance to re-release them, and we are looking into it, maybe, in a couple of years, maybe…

I know you have been harassed with this issue, but can you tell us, what's the story between you and Finn from Beyond Twilight? Is it over yet?

I don't know if you read it, but I did an interview for RockDetector.com, where I explained everything. Obviously Finn spent a lot of time getting in touch with the press, to make a big issue out of this one interview that I did, and what I said there suddenly became such a big matter. I never really spent 5 minutes on that case, so I took that one day when I made a statement, I wrote an email explaining in detail what happened. I think in general, it was Finn who took things too personally, he read something I said and made his statements. To me it was just an interview.

It wasn't the fact that his stories were about, it was the fact that he used my song ideas, and he got someone to sing my stuff which I wrote, but it's not the whole album, just little part. You can hear some stuff that reminds you of me, most are not, but songs like "Sleeping Beauty" are typical stuff that I do, like the melodies, or lyrics. I think these ideas were from "The Devil's Hall Of Fame" session, something we didn't really finish on the recordings. If he would ask me, I would totally say Ok! … [Laughs]… but it was wrong, because he didn't, and that's why I personally didn't want these ideas to be on his album.

Of course you try not to take things personally, but if someone takes your trademark in a way without asking, it can provoke everyone, that's why I think he freaked out when I told this thing. When you do a whole album, people need to work and write their own stuff… and if you're going to use something of someone else, why don't you ask?

Let me squeeze a little more gossip… Have you heard, or do you give a damn about what happened with Kelly and Beyond Twilight? They replaced him with a new singer, again.

They did!? Then they have a trend going. I never saw Beyond Twilight as band, only as concept or project that I worked with. When we started to work on "The Devil's Hall Of Fame" I saw it as a Rock Opera. I thought this was something that I and Finn wrote, that has little metal brand, I thought it was cool, but I think that record is more of a Metal Opera record. They shouldn't have repeated that pattern, and made a record that speaks for itself. "Section X" sounds good, but I don't like when I recognize some of the stuff. Finn is a good Keyboard player and good arranger, but some people take things too personal.

My life is music, through the year I'm touring, I'm writing, recording and doing music, by the time guys like Finn manage to release an album, I already did 5 records. Maybe some people work with music as projects or as hobby and not on regular basis. I think Finn is good musician, but when you're not always working with music, it becomes too personal, and you become touchy. To me it's just another album, I recorded it, and was happy with stuff I did … and then I guess he took it personal and wrote things over the internet, I didn't really care, but I made a statement about it. As long as people know what you do, they can separate what's true and what's not.

You performed in many events and festivals through your career, and had the chance to share the stage and the backstage with many Bands, some of the Extreme Metal like Death, Black, Hardcore, etc'. How do you feel about the popularity of these genres, and this style in general?

I find it hard to identify with it by myself, maybe I'm too old for it. I think this is the circle of life, it get like that, you become true in a way of making work, and develop, I think people have different ideals today and they want different music then what they used to, something tuff. I guess I'm more into the older Metal days, and places. It's like, I can actually sit down and watch a movie from the '40s and I could really be into it, but people that are 5, 10 or 20 years younger than me, they would say "Why do you watch it?" because they don't have anything there, they can't find anything to relate to.

For me its natural, for me its old fashion, I feel that I belong to old days, I feel like I have this element, that's why I'm fascinated by this. But this days, it's hard to analyze it, I don’t know, I just like to look at the world and see what happens, some of the quality will always come back to me, because a true performance – pushing the buttons of feeling and heart – will always be in the world, even with young people, when they experiment, and get extreme, after a while it comes to something more natural, you get the picture of it.

How do you keep in touch with your family while touring and working around the world?

We have communication, or on Telephone…

I asked because some of the songs that you wrote, like "Can't Let Go" from the first Ark album, seems like inspired by being far away from your loved one…

Yeah, you try to reflect your life as an artist, use your ideas and thought, if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have anything for songs, I wouldn't find inspiration for things to write on, to make it natural, write on my experience in my daily life, present and future, it's very accidental. I try to paint the picture in a way that people can identify with. That's why I'm thinking about every element. Sometimes you feel like a Martyr when you been on the road for too long, you feel like a stranger, in apartments, or on plain, or on the next gig, you become like robot, because you don't connect in a way. Of course I find inspiration while on tour bus, I get ideas, we all get lonely or fight with ourselves, and sometimes I find words to that.

I heard that you're going to be in Progpower USA, do you hope to set a market for your music in the US as you do in Europe?

I'm not really thinking about it, I always try to do more and expand as artist, but I'm singing in natural development. I would do some stuff over there, I try to plan some touring over there, it's going to take time, like 2-3 years before it comes to the point when I can tour. But it's difficult for new artists over there, even though I have many fans, it's a hard market, and hard to build a career. If I try to do what I'm doing, and try to build my future, then I think it can come natural. I see it as natural platform for me, that's why I want to establish the release of "The Duke", since now, we have more like a band, that also important, because you wont get the attention as a solo artist, that people can relate to, you want to establish as a band that people can see with lineup…

Right now it's more in a phase that people expect to hear everything, to hear every song of every record, but they are speculating on what we will play. I'm grateful that this disk showed me that I need to establish a band, which I did, and it's a good beginning for "The Duke" with this lineup, I need to focus on that. Even tough its Solo stuff, people see it as band, and that is important for my career, if I take care of that then I can make music to play live. It would be natural development, because I'll be more touring and more out there, I could have some new priorities. Like when I work on Masterplan, you put priority on one thing, and the other thing just get less attention. Now I had a development, that became important part of my career not just a solo album… so we don't always focus on records, we have to do more as band and focus on it.

How do you get ready before you get on stage? Do you have any strange rituals?

No… Well, if sometimes I'm nervous, like before Masterplan's concerts, if we have intense songs, or complex songs, then sometimes I feel strange, I try to get warmer, and then it's cool to have some wine or beer before the show. But when I don't have anything else, I try to sing a little, to test where I am. Everyday is different, there is a time when you go to stage and the voice is there, but also there are times when you have demons before the show, or you just feel like shit and have to warm up more, before you go on stage… It is the blood.

What is the current situation with Masterplan now that your solo album is out, maybe you'll work on a DVD?

Well we have some plans, we actually have a lot of material from before, we try to work on it, but we just talked about it, we don't have something finished yet, I think if anything, after the next album we will do a DVD or something. Masterplan needs 3 albums before we can do it. There would be much work to release a DVD with only 2 albums, every time you do or think something different, so we need to get extra stuff to make it more exciting and worth for the buyer. It's not the quantity, its quality.

How could your fans and those who don't know of your rich career read about you and your work? Is there any chance that your official website will be opened anytime soon?

Yeah, it's actually finished, it's going to be out soon, I just need work on some more text through the week. Check it in the next couple of weeks, maybe it will be finished by then, don't worry. We have forum, bio, and discography. I just need some small few details to be finished that I'm not totally satisfied with at the moment, I want to make it right so people would know every detail.

Many artists such as Roger Waters, Depeche Mode and Sting are coming to play in Israel this summer. It is rumored that Masterplan were afraid to visit Israel despite the fact you have been approached. Is it true?

No I don't think we are afraid, when things are intense, then every artist is careful going there and need to check everything with security. I'm not really afraid of that, it's more then doing only gigs, you need to get right contract. It's not always just playing combination, there should be situation to play, we need to be able to deliver a show, sometimes the conditions do not expect to our conditions. You have to remember that even if we are established artists, those I that you mentioned are older and more establish, so they have better conditions to get what they need, sometimes it's things like that.

Well thank you very much for this Interview, do you have any last words for the Israeli fans?

Well, there are so many different artists and possibilities in the world today and people that say you should buy their records, but at the end, you should do what your heart says – if you can't feel it, don't buy it! I expect to still continue and move forward, and even to come and play in Israel some day. The world is my arena, I have no limits to where I want to go!