Hello Eggs & Dogs.... Well, immediately this has to be the first question...! Where does the name come from?
I guess we all are huge Zeppelin fans. They are probably the ultimate rock band! And of course everybody knows the song "Black Dog". This name came up in my head and I started to play with words. "Doggy Style" was really a bad choice, Dog Dog (just stupid)... finally it ended up with Dog King. But then again, it was too close to my old band The Flower Kings. Then one morning at breakfast I just saw this name in neon Eggs & Dogs. It tasted differently!

Introduce the band to us, and tell us a bit about each bandmember and what they do.
Well, first out is our lead singer and bass player Michael Stolt. I used to play in a band with him ten years ago. He was one of the original members in The Flower Kings. He also had huge success in Sweden with the band Desperados. I remember they had #1 hits back in 80s! He also played with Tomas Ledin (one of the guys playing with ABBA)…. Oh my God… that was a rotten name drop! LOL.
JJ Marsh is our lead guitarist. He is a crazy SOB but a heck of guitarist! JJ has been playing with Glenn Hughes for many years. He is also is a great song writer! He is the man behind many of the songs on Glenn´s records. Anyway, we started to work together back in 2002. Today we are very close friends.
On drums we have an old time friend named Marcus Lilijequist. He also used to play with The Flower Kings. Marcus has the groove and he is such a sweet-spot hard-hitting guy!
My name is Tomas Bodin and I am the keyboard player and sort of band leader. I've been touring the last fifteen years with the progressive/symphonic rock band The Flower Kings. I guess we have released fifteen CDs in that time... could be more! And I have also released six solo CDs.

Well this IS a long story…
Back in 2005 I was thinking (lucky me) about my future. I have to admit, I’m pretty scared about the future! Everything feels very uncertain. And it's clear that we are moving into the wrong direction. Now, I know that music can affect people. So my thoughts were; “If I am going to make music then why not make a statement at the same time”? I wanted to tell stories! After all, music is not only music.
For me I can only tell stories based on my own experiences. So it felt natural to write stories about being human. So here I got this idea about the trilogy.
The first part - I AM - was going to be my own life story. (I can tell you that I read Lemmy´s book “A white line”, and I felt some similarities, but only some, LOL)
The second part - YOU ARE - was me looking at other people. I feel that today’s world is somehow totally fucked. TV programs like “Total Makeover”, “Big Brother” and shit like that! Here we have stories to fill an ocean!
The third part will be about love… After all love is suppose to be the greatest thing! But “love” is not always positive. People sometimes use the word “love” to control other people. Jealousy is perhaps the most obvious behaviour. The production of YOU ARE started very well! Marcus recorded the drum tracks to my demo. JJ recorded the guitars. Here I must say, JJ has a very good “working energy” at least when he is awake. The problem is to get him awake! I remember calling him at 3pm asking... “Is it ok if I pick you up now?" The studio was ready… but there was no answer from JJ!!! So I went to his house and rang the bell. After ten signals a totally confused JJ opens the door! “Woot”? “SOB*~^¨***=&*^^^*^!!!!
So after a fast kick in the ass he collected his guitars and a zillion pedals, then... strong coffee and one hour later we could start the work! Phuu!
But then it became pure magic! JJ is always “here” when performing! He has a total focus!
I had problems finding the right singer and a bass player! I got totally frustrated for each try. Sometimes I felt really close to quitting it all. Then after 2½ years Michael's name came up. We decided to start with just a couple of songs...

Immediately I felt this was right! The only problem was that Michael had some other commitments. So step by step, little by little, we recorded his part in his own studio. Of course there was a lot of fun and talk about life. We became very close friends during this time. And I can say that one thing Michael is sure about, is that Famous Grouse whisky is the best medicine to get a sexy voice! Now, we better put Grouse on the credit list. “Dear Grouse, thank you for shaping my voice”!

You're using very distinctive lino-cut drawings. Who does your art, and where does the inspiration come from?
Yes I was so happy when Stina Wollter said yes to do the artwork! She is a very famous Swedish artist. At first we talked about the lyrics. I had some ideas about it all. She listened to it and then made it into her art! And I love it! I also feel the cover art is one of a kind! You see it once and you never forget. I don't know the name for it but the technique is to start with a black surface. You use a sharp tool and when you scratch it, a white line will show up. (We are not talking about Lemmy´s white lines!) I know it takes a lot of time…

For this cd you've teamed up once again with JJ Marsh, who, as you've already mentioned, toured for over ten years as the guitarist for Glenn Hughes, and had a significant role in the writing of Glenn's recent studio albums. JJ's style of playing became very much a part of Glenn's sound. Which features of the Hughes/Marsh style have transferred to Eggs & Dogs - apart from having a bassplayer as your lead vocalist?
Hehehe… well, I would say that JJ is brilliant when it comes to playing heavy riff! I don't know but it feels like he’s having a “rubber band” around his musical mind. He plays with such a great laid back vibe. But I also discovered that he is a great acoustic guitarist too! I like a riff played with a mix between the distorted guitar and an acoustic guitar. It's just such a sexy sound! Then of course he is an eggcellent solo guitarist! He can always surprise me finding “new” notes.

I'm interested to hear about the lyrics to Lucille. I'm guessing it's a true story about someone you know, yes? So... how do you feel when you play it?
Yes as I said, I can only write lyrics about things I have experienced myself. And yes I have had a close experience about anorexia. I don't want to talk about this person but I can talk about my own feelings that I used to have at that time. I felt so totally out of control. Imagine that you see a person close to you, sinking deeper and deeper into a lethal sickness. Imagine also that whatever you do, nothing will change! This illness is not on an intellectual level. You need to connect emotionally. But many people suffering from anorexia are disconnected from any feelings. And the truth is that a person suffering from anorexia is not thinking like we do. They actually see a fat person when looking in the mirror. The brain is feeding them with the wrong signals.
So this is what you have to fight against! I also feel that there is a lot of shame connected to illness like anorexia, alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction and so on. I am saying; “There is no shame in having problems, it's a fucking shame not dealing with it”. And to be able to deal with it you first need to admit that there IS a problem. Of course I hope my lyrics will help people in this work. Yes - it feels like there's nothing you can do to help them, because the problem you're trying to help them with isn't the same problem as the one which (they think) they are suffering from.

What's been your proudest moment as a musician?
My proudest moment…well, when a guy named Peter In de Betou (one of Sweden’s top two guys in mastering) wrote me and said, “Among all the thousands of albums I have mastered in the last 25 years, this production, YOU ARE, is one of the absolute best”!

Please give us a message to pass on to everyone reading this page.
I really want you to give our album YOU ARE a fair chance! Please check out the snippets on Myspace.

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© Get Ready To Roll - 21st September 2009