Rockezine.com interview with The Poodles on Oct 18, 2007

with Pontus Egberg on Oct 18, 2007

On 18 October 2007 the Swedish band The Poodles had a show in “De Nieuwe Nor” in Heerlen in the Netherlands. I took this opportunity to ask some questions to Pontus Egberg, bass player of the band.
		Why is the band called ‘The Poodles’? It is lake a winning concept having an animal name. Look at bands like Whitesnake, Def Leppard and The Beatles, so why not The Poodles?
		Who came up with the name? That is another story as well. In Sweden the nickname of the kind of music we play is “poodle-rock”, I guess because of the long hair. So we decided to name the band after the music we play. Maybe not the best name but there are more bands with strange names; after a while the music is associated with the name. The name of the band isn’t that important than anymore. The Poodles will be associated with something positive I hope.
		By what musicians are you inspired? Many, bands like Rush, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Maiden, Van Halen and Swedish hard rock band. So mainly bands from the 80th. Beside these hard rock bands we are also influenced by all kind of other music, not only bands from the hard rock scene.
		When I listen to the album ‘Sweet Trade’ I hear influences of bands like Cinderella, Motley Crue, Poison and AC/DC. You mentioned the bands that inspired you, they are not the same. How do you explain this? When we are writing the songs or pre- or producing the songs anyone of us have in mind that the songs should sound to something special; we just want to make and play the kind of music that fits to us. It is just coincidence.
		What are the main differences between the first 2 albums according to you? A big difference is that when we recorded ‘Metal Will Stand Tall’ we were sort of a new band. We were all doing this for quite some time, playing in different bands but as a unit we were quite new. When we recorded ‘Sweet Trade’ he had done over a hundred of shows. This makes us sound like a band, it’s audible very well on ‘Sweet Trade’ according to me.
		‘Metal Will Stand Tall’ has become a huge success in your country, did you expected this? To be perfectly honest, no we really didn’t expect this. We were quite surprised that it took so very well. We haven’t got very much time to think about it. It has been a sort of hectic ever since playing live, touring, writing new material for the second album. It’s been moving quite rapidly. Maybe in a few years time I’m looking in the back view mirror and say: “Whow”.
		The first single was sold very well, the second one also. What will bring the future of The Poodles? Well I don’t know. Hopefully something that sets over a long time and we will all be fortune and fame. We just release our second album ‘Sweet Trade’ and we are promoting it now. Our plans sort of ended right now (laughter). We have no definite plans what we will do in future. The third album is coming out in 2008 and this spring we will go touring in Europe and we hope to play a headline tour in more smaller venues like this one. We are working hard on the road, writing, recording and trying to do what it takes to become a band that maybe in a few years time we can have our own tours; We also have also plans to for putting together a live DVD, we have a lot of material already. Hopefully the sales will increase to get the money to make our touring dreams come true on the long run.
		How did you end up with AMF-records? That is a funny kind of story. Our guy at AFM, Marcus, used to work for Nuclear Blast which is the company where Hamerfal has signed. ‘Metal Will Stand Stall’ was released in Sweden. Marcus heard The Poodles and then he got the cd of our friends of Hamerfal so he could check it out. He got in contact with our label back home in Sweden. So that is how it worked out.
		The kind of music, glamrock, is doing very well in America; when will The Poodles go to America? America is a very tough market to get in to, but we definitely hope to get a deal with an American label for touring in America in the near future, we are working on it. It will be great over there. At the moment we have no plans to go to America but we it is definitely what we are looking for in the future.
		This is the only gig in the Benelux, why just in “De Nieuwe Nor” in Heerlen? We are touring in Germany with Gothard now; which is fantastic by the way. This gig is some kind of special set up by Rock Inc. (Thanks Theo!). They want us to come over and play. Theo has done a fantastic job setting up this gig and arranging the press.
		Who is major responsible for the song writing, who comes up with the ideas? We all contribute with the song writing. Jacob is doing all the lyrics of the songs, music comes from all over the place. Some songs are written by me, other songs are written by guitar player Mantes and songs are written by old friends of ours outside the band. At the time we go into the studio to do the rehearse and the preproduction we further form the songs into the sound that fit the way we play. That song is recorded on the album.
		Who decided what song will be on the set list? We discuss it, everyone comes in with their favourite songs, than we agree which songs will be on the set list (without raising fists). If there is someone who really doesn’t want to play a song, we don’t play that song.
		Can you live of The Poodles? It’s getting there, it’s definitely the final goal to do The Poodles fulltime and get the opportunity to have more time to write songs and putt all the attention to our most important thing: the band.
		How do you explain that there are so many good musicians coming from Scandinavia? I don’t know, it’s a kind of funny actually because it looks we have a huge rock scene but that isn’t. Scandinavia has not many clubs bands can play; but still we have great bands. That is true.
Thank you for the interview and have a great show. Thank you for the promotion. (Ralph Vermeere)