BANG ON 25!
13 Dec 2015 8:17 PM GMT
There was a time when the band culture took the music industry by storm and various bands emerged to carry forward the lineage and standards set by the leading rock bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. MLTR was one such band that had just stepped in through the joining of hands of Jascha Richter with his high school friend and drummer Kåre Wanscher along with guitarist Mikkel Lentz.
A Danish band that went on to become one of the most popular soft rock/ pop band of the 80s, Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR) has successfully completed 25 years of their existence.
And now MLTR is in India! Yes you read it right. They are here for a five-city tour-‘25 Live’ to celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band. They were recently in Delhi where they performed live on December 11 at Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon.
Walking down the memory lane and talking about their journey, Michael Learns to Rock in a candid conversation with Millennium Post.
What prompted the genesis of Michael Learns to Rock at a time when people had developed a liking towards bands like Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eagles, ABBA, etc?
Well that’s a good question, in fact no one has asked us that before. Umm...all the artistes whom you have mentioned are the ones whom we grew up listening to and they are our inspiration.
At a time when bands culture was predominant and people were looking out for something new and fresh every time a band came up, so, we too thought of having a band of our own and this is how MLTR came up.
The name ‘Michael Learns to Rock’ is thought by many to be synonymous with the King of Pop-Michael Jackson…… Is it really so? And is the inspiration for your band has got something to do with MJ?
Well ya, it is true. MJ was our inspiration. Also at that time long names for bands like Johnny Hates Jazz and Frankie Goes to Hollywood were quite popular so when we connected the two things that is MJ as our inspiration and a need for a long name, Michael Learns to Rock instantly came to our mind and we didn’t have to think twice and we locked it.
MLTR has completed 25 years in the industry and has almost 30 songs from 20 albums, numerous concerts as well as radio shows to its credit. So, how does it make you guys feel to be able to stand out as a Danish band amidst your contemporaries who are mostly of Brit or American origin? And how was your experience so far?
It’s a little bit weird looking back at all that we’ve tried and all that we’ve came through and all our achievements which have been way beyond any dreams we had when we started out as young children.
One unusual thing was that when we started as a band, then the other bands of Denmark were singing in Danish whereas we were the first ones to sing in English as we wanted to reach to a wider audience.
We don’t know what to say except that we are very grateful and feel very lucky to be around for such a long time and came to do what we’ve been doing and connecting with so many people around the world, which is an amazing thing.
You guys took a break after the release of “Blue Night” and during that time some rumours of your disbanding the band was doing the rounds. Did you ever consider that as a possibility or did you treat it just as a rumour?
It actually just happened (laughs!).We were pretty exhausted after four years of touring. I mean, we were impatient.
It was great but it was very exhausting so we needed a break and actually before Blue Night we almost took a year off, not playing music at all but we didn’t even see each other. Umm…and then after Blue Night”, yeah, we met one night and actually disbanded until the next morning, when we got a great offer for a concert. We split up for 12 hours and then we got together again.
Asia has somehow played an important role in your success and your work has been highly appreciated every single time a new album of yours came out. So, how much credit do you give to Asian music lovers?
I think we are very surprised and happy that we’re still popular in Asia and especially in India and we wonder how people can really remember our songs after such a long time.
We are proud that our songs have been appealing to so many people. Also, I guess for long we have not been doing much to promote our songs actually but we still get offers to come and play.
So, we can say that the songs are living their lives, independent of the band. It’s nice and now we are in a period where we have a nice label behind us and we are again pushing and promoting it and got new art years for our career so, it’s amazing!
Your last visit to India was in 2010 when you embarked on a 3-city tour to promote your album-Eternity...How was the experience and what's your take on the Indian music lovers ?
Last time we were here, they were great! We had a fantastic evening in Shillong and we remember the Indian audience as very lively and ready to party.
It was actually raining when we played in Shillong but people didn’t care, they screamed along and sang along to the lyrics and to the songs. It was really fantastic and we even released an album back then.
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