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file under prog / sympho metal
The Meuse is a big river in The Netherlands. I live on one side of that waterway. If I would take a swim across it I would land in a little village called Baarlo. Locally this tiny space is known for all its medieval castles. Worldwide many fans of prog metal know it. Since 1999 one of the biggest festivals with progressive bands takes place in this little village. You all know the Prog Power Festival, don’t you? Well that’s the thing I am talking about. Since the beginning they had many fine bands from the genre on their stage. What to think about Evergrey, Threshold, Vandenplas, Devin Thowsend, Opeth and Pain Of Salvation? But what all this has to do with the band from this interview, Cloudscape? Well let me tell you, when I heard this for the first time, the first thing I was thinking about was this festival. Cloudscape would be the perfect band to be on the line-up of this great event. I mailed the promoters of this band to suggest to them to get their band in the picture of the organisation of Prog Power Festival. They did, I am curious about the result of my little interference here. Let us use this piece of broadband here to get to know a bit more about this fine new Swedish band. Vocalist Mike is the guy I am speaking with.
Text: Eddy
 Hi Mike, it would be great if you start of with a little introduction of Cloudscape. Please tell some more about the band history and the band-members who are in the band right now?
Cloudscape is me, Micael Andersson on lead & backing vocals, Bjorn Eliasson (guitars), Patrik Svard (guitars), Hans Persson (bass & backing vocals) and Roger Landin (drums). Cloudscape was formed in 2001out of the ashes of a band called "Doctor Weird". We tried to get attention from different record labels with Doctor Weird but no interest was shown. In 2001 we parted ways with the lead singer of Doctor Weird (I played keyboards in DW) It was a very frustrating time for us since we had worked so hard trying to get anywhere with our music and after his departure we agreed to start over from scratch again, composing new songs and as a new band (Cloudscape). The reason for his departure wasn’t because he was bad or anything, it was simply because he got tired of proceeding in the band without getting feedback from labels. I have always have been the lead vocalist in all my previous bands so joining Doctor Weird as keyboard player was kind of an adventure to me. Anyway, it did not take too long until I missed being the lead vocalist so when we parted ways with Bjorn Persson (lead vocalist in DW) it became very natural for me to step back to my long lost position in a band as lead vocalist.
When the band was still going under the name Doctor Weird did you recorded albums under that name?
Yes, we did. Doctor Weird recorded an EP containing four songs in 1995 (that was before I joined the band) and in 1999 we recorded a self-financed full-length album which we called "Changes". We honestly hoped to get some feedback from labels with the full-length album because it was a "finished product" we were presenting but the few replies we got were saying; “There are too many songs in the same tempo. We cannot sign a new band right now so, come back later.... and so on". We did not have the best contacts either, so maybe that is why we did not manage to end with a record deal for Doctor Weird.
You played at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2000. Can you share some memories of that event? How was it like to be in front such a large crowd and with which bands did you share the stage?
Hehe, one of the favourite memories of that event was that one of my favourite artists performed at the same festival. It was Yngwie J. Malmsteen. The stage we were performing on was only for "demo bands" so we were one of the "headliners" on that stage. Nowadays they do not book any demo bands anymore, that stage is replaced by a stage called "Spendrups stage" where Brainstorm, Sun Caged etc. performed last year (2004). I remember it was a great gig because for being a quite unknown band there came quite a lot people to watch us play.
What made you decide to change the name from Doctor Weird to Cloudscape and how did you come up the new name?
We consider "Cloudscape" as a new band. The only resemblance between Cloudscape and Doctor Weird is that all of us have a history in Doctor Weird. When we decided to start over as Cloudscape we wanted to put more focus on melodies and variation in our songs. We don’t play any songs from the Doctor Weird set list anymore. The band name was Rogers (drums) idea. He came up with lots of band names, so we picked out five possible band names and handed them over to our management (Roasting House) so they could choose which band name they thought was the best for us and as you know, it became...CLOUDSCAPE;).
Could you describe the music of the Cloudscape debut album to the readers who did not hear your album yet? Fans of which kind of bands and music would be the ideal listeners for your album?
We describe our music to be melodic metal with progressive touches. It is hard for me to say what other bands we resemble, according to some reviews I have read on the net, some reviewers compares our style wise with bands like Masterplan, Royal Hunt, Symphony X, Queensryche, Conception etc. As I said, that is some reviewers opinion, not mine but it is great to be compared to such great bands style wise in a positive way:).
How did you get in touch with the Metal Heaven label that did release your debut?
Well, Georg Siegl (label manager) e-mailed me since he had talked to a friend of mine (Niclas Olsson of Alyson Avenue & Second Heat) who also was signed to AOR Heaven. Niclas recommended us to Georg. In my case I forwarded Georg to our manager in order for him to handle the negotiations. We are very happy to be signed to Metal Heaven. It is one of the best independent labels in Europe and they have done a marvellous job this far:).
How does a band like Cloudscape come up with the compositions? Are you all together in a studio and jam or is there another way of working for Cloudscape?
It is Bjorn and me who compose the music for Cloudscape. I compose my songs and Bjorn composes his. When we are finished with a song we present it to our band mates and they decide if the song is good enough to rehears. If it is, we all work together rearranging the song if needed and although Bjorn and I provide the music we never say something like: "THIS IS HOW IT MUST BE". No no, everyone has input in our songs in order to make it the best possible.
An interesting song-title I think is ‘Aqua 275’. Can you tell me some more about what this song is about and how you explain the song-title?
The lyric is written by Roger and it is inspired by the classical movie "The island of Dr Moreau" and a more recent movie called "Deep blue sea". The message is… do not experiment with animals or human beings in order to play God. The title of the song ‘Aqua 275’ is the name of the place where all experiments are being done. The lyric is very much like "The island of Dr Moreau" but under water;).
I suggested your band to play on the European Prog Power Festival in The Netherlands to your promotion-lady at GerMusica. Are you familiar with that festival and if you do what do you think about that idea?
Yes, we are very familiar with that festival:). We have sent a promo to Rene who runs the festival and I know that we have passed a couple of listening sessions so within a few weeks we will hopefully know if we will play at Prog Power Europe in October or not. We really hope so since we have heard so much great things about PP.
I am so amazed that there are so many quality bands and musicians coming from Sweden. What can you tell me about the hard rock/metal scene in Sweden? For instance are there any radio or television-shows and what kind of magazine can you get there.
We have the superb "Sweden Rock Magazine" (and a few other decent magazines) which has about 15.000 subscribers and that is considered quite many in a small country like Sweden. When it comes to television and media I have to complain. The heavy metal scene in Sweden is quite big but it seems that the media does not have any interest in supporting the metal scene that much. It is better now compared to a few years back but it could definitely be much better!
Which bands and musicians were your main influences to go into the business yourself?
Well, I wanted to be a musician since I was very young but I think I got determined when I heard the Canadian rock band Helix back in 1984 (Rock You) for the first time. I formed my first band called "Zanines" in 1988 together with Peter Wildoer (Darkane, ex-Majestic, ex-Time Requiem) and Christofer Malmstrom (Darkane) and from that moment on I have been determined to get a recording contract;). Luckily we did not get one with "Zanines";)
You also appear on the new Audiovision album. Can you tell us what you exactly did on that album and how did you come in contact with Christian Rivel, the founder of that project?
I have been a friend of Christian for many years so, when he planned this album he wanted me to compose a song for it. The song I composed on that album is called "The king is alive" and I have recorded the keyboards on it (except for the keyboard solo which is recorded by Andreas Lindahl of Platitude).
 On the Audiovison album you can find dozens of well-known artists like Bruce Kulick, Jeff Scott Soto, Tony Franklin, Tommy Denander and more. Did you meet one or more of those people in the studio and if you did can you share some interesting stories about those meetings?
No, I did not meet anyone of those people you mentioned except my friends Lars Chriss (Lions share) and Christian Rivel. I have a funny story thou;). When I was in the Canvas studio recording the keyboards for "The king is alive" it was passed midnight. Suddenly a guy came and said that he suspected burglary in the building. Christian called the police (it looked so funny when he did that, he was so scared just like the rest of us). The guy who came heard some noises in an empty area of the building so Lars grabbed a hammer and a saw and we went out to the police. They searched the whole building but found no one. We were certain that there were burglars but they probably escaped before the police arrived. I filmed some of it;). Lars looked real cruel carrying the hammer and the saw while he was talking to the police officers;). Perfect bonus material for a forthcoming DVD;)
Then there are more side-projects of members of Cloudscape. For instance some of you play in bands like Alyson Avenue (a totally other direction as the Cloudscape style) and Second Heat. Do you personally listen to those disks your band-mates are on and what is your opinion of that music?
Why shouldn’t we? I used to be fond of AOR rock in the early nineties so of course we have listened to those albums, they are great. I prefer Second Heat since it is a bit harder than Alyson Avenue.
There are thousands and thousands of bands right now, all trying to get a piece of the cake selling their albums. What do you expect of Cloudscape, will it make you quit your day-jobs?
HAHAHA!! Well, that’s a question I get every day at work, hehe. I do not think we will be able to quit our day-jobs in the near future. Maybe we will be able to work fewer hours a day when we have released two or three albums, who knows. I do not know what the future has planned for us but of course we hope that our music reaches out to as many metal fans as possible:))
Please tell us some more about the near future when we talk touring and a next album. What are the plans?
Well, we are really hoping to tour Europe in 2005 but right now we do not have anything confirmed. I think Prog power is the closest thing to hope for at this moment but we have sent promos to lots of other festivals as well so we will see what happens next. When it comes to our second album I can reveal that Bjorn and me are composing songs already. I think we have ten or eleven songs ready to rehears so, that is what we are going to do when we are in the rehearsal studio.
What famous band would be a dream to be the singer in if you could choose any you like?
I would love to sing in "Symphony X" but since they already have an awesome vocalist (Russell Allen) it would feel strange. I would also like to try to sing on an Yngwie Malmsteen album. Not as a fulltime member but one album and one tour. Since I am a composer myself I think I will get bored being a fulltime member of Yngwies band since he composes all music by himself.
Okay, to end I like from you a little reaction to the following words and names, whatever comes to mind.
OK!! Lets go...
Music: Melodic Metal & soul funk
Cloudscape: A life passion!!!
Studio: Roasting House
Playing live: Absolutely....Prog power?
Sweden: ...Rock Festival
Love: ...is important!!!
Illegal copying and downloading: No, I do not like it since too many people downloads good albums without buying them afterwards!!
Money: Important but, not everything!!
Thanks Micael, do you have any words left you like to say to the readers of Lords Of Metal?
It has been real fun doing this interview Eddy and thanks for the fantastic review of our album!! Now to all Dutch metal fans, if you haven’t bought our album yet, buy it NOW!! We are here to stay and provide you with melodic metal!!! Don’t forget to visit the Prog power site and request us;)!!
Rock on!!
http://www.cloudscape.just.nu
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