Philip Bardowell: In The Cut with a fresh voice for AOR Philip Bardowell delivers his most straight forward melodic rock release to date in partnership with Tommy Denander. Hi Philip, I hope you saw my review of the album, it got quite a rave. Congratulations on the end result. Yes. Indeed I did. Thanks for the review and the kind words. While you have been cast as a melodic rock singer, it certainly isn't or hasn't been your total upbringing has it? Not really. I enjoy singing all styles. I grew up singing rock and gospel music in church. I've always been drawn to bluesy, soulful singers, so my natural style tends to follow along those lines. I even sang show tunes in various musicals and I sing Jazz as well. In the Beach Boys, I really had to tone down my natural inclination towards blues/soul to accurately capture the Beach Boy's sound and in Criss (my band with Peter Criss) I was really stretching my voice to cut the hard rock vocal style that the music called for. In The Cut I would say, is easily your most straight ahead rock release for your career to date. What ...

Pride Of Lions: Fulfilling Their Destiny. Jim Peterik talks about the spirit behind the music and the making of the new Pride Of Lions album, not to mention what else he has in store for 2005. Ok, Jim - first of all, well done on creating another great slice of classic melodic rock. Thanks Andrew - coming from a man that has "heard it all" in classic rock that is a great compliment! Going right back to the time following the release of the debut - that album also gained some amazing reviews and personal feedback for yourself. Did you feel any pressure building in the time following that to start work on a follow-up that would have to top the work done on the debut? I happen to work well under pressure. When Frankie and I were asked to write the theme for Rocky 3, we had one week to write it, record it and mix it! Not to mention rewrite it a few times. If there seems to be more urgency and a fresher sound on this record it is because we didn't have time to over-think it and process it to death. In some cases I would write a ...

Praying Mantis: The Journey continues for one of the UK's longest running hard rock acts.. Chris Troy talks about the band's new singers, new songs and dealing with life in 2003. Hi Chris…This album was recorded after the departure of vocalist Tony O'Hara. How did that originally come about? What were the circumstances leading up to his departure? It is quite a long story but basically like all singers, they get too big for their boots and eventually start making excessive demands. We really did try to salvage the band but I think when he moved from London to Birmingham the death knell was already sounding. Sometimes geography like that does make things very difficult. On top of that there was talk from him for the requirement for big money and the band got sick and tired of it ...it just was not worth the hassle. You have used the band members and two guest vocalists for the album - how was the process behind selecting those sings undertaken? Mainly because there is some history there. John worked with Dennis when he was in Lionheart a number of years ago and he told Tino and me what a great voice ...

Thanks Pete for hooking up with me for this interview. First up - when was the first time you considered bringing back the Harem Scarem name? After we finished our deal with Warner we were checking out our options and both fans and labels we were talking to seemed interested in another HS record so we tried some stuff in that vein and decided that that is what we would do. What kind of frustrations lead you to drop the name in the first place? There was a stigma attached to the name in Canada and we thought the music had gone far enough from HS to warrant the name change. In hindsight, were the Rubber albums good for you and Harry mentally? Absolutely ... I still feel that the first Rubber record is some of the best work we have done. And we were somewhat vindicated by having a top 40 hit in Canada with Sunshine. Were they successful for commercially, in comparison to HS? In Canada we had more luck with Rubber but it seemed to throw some of our Japanese and European fans for a loop. Back to the point...haha...so you decided to bring Harem back and ...

PONTUS NORGREN xx Pontus, you have been involved in just about every aspect of the rock scene in Sweden. What part do you enjoy most - producer, engineer, guitarist, live performer, song writer...? - I have to say everything! Guitar playing I have to say is still closest to my heart, but what can you say when you get offered to do sound for bands like Thin Lizzy, Y.J. Malmsteen etc. Also traveling around the world gets you to meet a lot of people in the same business. The last few years have seen you release several projects under several different names, including a solo release, how do you see Humanimal fitting into all of that? - I see Humanimal as a good opportunity to take my guitar playing/song writhing to a different level, and I think I can back it up with just saying, Listen to the album! I guess what I mean is will Humanimal be an ongoing concern - more records and maybe some live appearances? -There will for sure be a second Humanimal album! We are more than ready to play live, but it depends on the backup from our label if they think ...