Dalton – Interview

Dalton – Interview

26 Febbraio 2014 1 Commento Alessandro Lifonti

Interview by Alessandro Lifonti

Italian Version

MR.it: Let’ s go back to the 80’s. Dalton was a Swedish melodic rock band which released two albums (the race is on / injection). How did you guys meet back then?
Dalton: It all started when drummer Mats, who had just left Treat, met Leif (guitar) in a rock club in Stockholm 1985. They really hit it off well and decided to start a new band. They teamed up with fellow musician Bo, Anders and Ola and the band was complete.

MR.it: Which is your favorite Dalton album? The 1st or the 2nd one?
Dalton: Oh, we couldn’t pick one! We believe you will find great songs on both albums! But our biggest hit in Sweden back then were from the first album ‘The race is on’ – “Your not my lover” was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child. It was given to us after the making of “Slippery when wet”!

MR.it: In your opinion why didn’t Dalton make it to the top back in the 80’s?
Dalton: We come from a small country with a lot of great bands, today as well as back in the 80’s. So the competition is and was tough. Perhaps it was because of the amazing band Europe that successfully made the big headlines everywhere that made the rest of us look smaller. But we had our share of success, we used to tour a lot in Sweden and did more than 500 gigs between 1986 and 1990 – that feels very good to have in the bag these days!

MR.it: Why did you break up?
Dalton: When Grunge hit us all in the early 90’s our music didn’t get the same attention as before. The band, as well as our kind of music just didn’t fit in, so we all started to play with other artist and bands and Dalton run out of fuel and was left behind in the pit stop.

MR.it: What have you all been doing after the band broke up? How did you spend the last 20 years?
Dalton: Mats and Leif have been successful in running their own companies and Ola is teaching music. Anders and Bo have been busy in various bands and music projects over the years and still are. Even though we haven’t been in Dalton, everyone has kept on playing music in some way.

MR.it: How come you decided to give the band another try?
Dalton: It all started in the summer of 2011, when a producer from one of the big TV production companies in Sweden brought us all together and presented an idea of doing a movie about our comeback. We hadn’t seen each other for more than 20 years but it was like time had stood still. There were a lot of laughs and we all felt great, so we agreed to do it. They filmed us in a lot of different situations, individual as well as in the band. The documentary ends with us on stage opening for Scorpions in Sandviken, Sweden in December 2012! (they’re still looking for a financier to finalize the movie, so if you have any connections… 😉
This project got us back together and made us realize we really like being a band again. We started talking about taking a next step and see what happens. Since then we have been in and out of rehearsals playing and laughing!

MR.it: The reunion will also bring a new album to the Dalton fans. Can you tell us a bit more about the new cd?
Dalton: After the gig in 2012 Leif and Bo, who was the main songwriters’ back then, started to dig the closets for old songs and new ideas. They found an old demo with 20 songs from 1990 that was made prior to a third album that never was made. We listened to it all and found some really nice stuff we totally had forgot we made! We started to work with it, and as of today we have material for a full album ready to be recorded!
Our plan is to make a classic Dalton album with main inspiration from the 80’s, but with a little more contemporary sound. With producer Erik Mårtensson’s ‘magic fingers’, Anders Livåg’s ‘magic ears’ and the band, the first three songs have already been recorded – and we are really happy with the result – and that we found the feeling we were heading for!

MR.it: On May 1st you will play at the frontiers rock festival in Trezzo d’ Adda here in Italy. What would you like to say to your fans?
Dalton: See you all May 1st in Milano…..and, FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS, ‘THE RACE IS ON’….. AGAIN !!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/DaltonSweden
http://www.frontiersrockfestival.com/dalton/

© 2014, Alessandro Lifonti. All rights reserved.