The Poodles
Dogs Of Rock’n’Roll

08.04.2008

Ass-kicking hard rock, which this Swedish band performs with unbelievable enthusiasm and charm, may either bring to mind the best memories from the 1980s or remind you of Great Britain’s The Darkness, which took global charts by storm a few years ago. Anyway, The Poodles know their stuff: their debut album “Metal Will Stand Tall” became an instant hit in Sweden, and the rest of the Europe followed suit very soon. The second strike was no less deadly - “Sweet Trade” (2007) solidified The Poodles’ success, even though they still have to play a lot of shows to support this album. In the run-up to a new tour, which starts in April 2008, singer Jacob Samuel took some time off to answer our questions.

How did you all – Jacob, Kicken and 2 Pontus – meet? Are you all fans of the 80s rock music and how much, in your opinion, do the 80s influence what you do?

We were friends and colleges for ages in different bands, Stockholm is not a very big town, and you get to know the good players pretty fast. The 80s and early 90s era of music is what we grew up on, so of course we got it in our blood but it's nothing that we try to live up. Again, we are no retro band, we make music for the 2008 with the experience that we have in our backpack.

Sometimes The Poodles are compared to The Darkness (for instance, your Russian press release has a reference to this English band). What do you think about such comparisons? Did you ever meet The Darkness?

No, we never meet and I can’t say I’m too familiar with their music except the big hit they had a few years ago. I see very little in common but that’s always in the eye of the beholder.

Who came up with the name Poodles and why did you take it?

The name came from a good friend and old colleague, a famous beebop artist, who said that he thought we should start a band called The Poodles because when he saw us together we looked like a bunch of long haired dogs. It's a great name, it’s easy to remember and it awakens curiosity, which is good. At the end of the day the name becomes what the music is and the guys in the band are about.

Prior to forming the Poodles, Jacob and you played in the band Midnight Sun. Why didn’t this band become as successful as The Poodles, when there are quite a few similarities in the music of the two bands?

It was only me in Midnight Sun, and I think that fell on bad business and bad management. I love that album (“Metalmachine”, 2001), I think that one could have made it big if a chance was given, but then again it’s often a game and coincidences and luck. Me and Jonas Reingold (bass player of Midnight Sun – ed.) still cooperate though, we wrote together songs like “Metal Will Stand Tall”, “Seven Seas”, “Reach The Sky” and there is more to come.

You have several record companies in different parts of the world – Lionheart in Scandinavia, AFM in continental Europe, Irond in Russia, etc. Do you think this approach works better than having one company for the entire world?

We have very little to compare with but in Sweden it works fine and many parts of Europe too. I have no idea about Russia, but I think things will fall into place more and more as we go along. It’s often on the third or fourth album when it happens on a broad line, we will get there, just a little time and a lot of hard but fun work…

What were your expectations for the first album “Metal Will Stand Tall”? Did you expect it to become big, or was it a surprise for you?

No, I can’t say it was a surprise. I had a very good feeling about it before it was released but that it would hit through the roof so hard was not easy to foresee. I’m very grateful and happy for this.

Was it hard to make a follow-up to the debut album? Did you feel any pressure after “Metal…” was such a success?

I spent most of my time writing and touring so I never gave much time to feel pressure and I knew that we had a lot of golden eggs in our basket. My philosophy is to work hard, connect with good people and look ahead. The best is yet to come.

Why did you choose such a “simple” cover artwork for the “Sweet Trade”? And what does the title mean?

At first sight it looks simple but if you look closer, it’s a very sublime artwork. I think it looks like a classic 1970s Queen album, and the thought was that it should be easy to find in the record store. But on the reissue of the album it’s a new cover with a band picture and fire and stuff, pretty cool actually.

You have many famous musicians among the guests on the album - Mats Leven (Yngwie Malmsteen, At Vance, Therion), Jonas Reingold (Time Requiem, The Flower Kings, Midnight Sun), Goran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot), Anders Fastader (Electric Boys, Great King Rat, John Norum)… Could you tell about the contribution of those people to your record?

I think it’s important to have the best songs, the best production and the best band possible and we have the luxury of knowing and having worked in the past with these very talented people. We will continue to include a lot of the great forces surrounding us in the Poodles working situation to have a lot of fresh blood in the creative process.

Many songs on the first album were written by various songwriters, including Holly Knight (she co-wrote such big rock hits as “Rag Doll” by Aerosmith and “Stick To Your Guns” by Bon Jovi – ed.). Who wrote songs for “Sweet Trade”? Did you get any out-of-the band songwriters to contribute this time?

It’s the same situation on “Sweet Trade” but the big difference is that I now had time to be the spider in the web of the creative work if you look on the album you see a lot of the talents I co-wrote with.

Could you tell us what the Swedish Melody Challenge is about? And how did you end up performing with E-Type at that show?

E-type is an old friend and fan of our craftsmanship and we of his, and we talked many times about writing something together. It's been a thrill and a pleasure to anticipate and we are very proud to be one of the acts who brought hard rock / metal into the contest. It has 4.5 million viewers in Sweden so it's a good window to be in if you’ve got something good to show.

In October/November you had a tour with Gotthard in Germany. How did you like Gotthard? What were the highlights of that tour? Where did you have the best accept of the German fans?

Yeah, we love Gotthard, a great band with great songs. That was a fabulous tour, and fantastic audience, we really gained speed on that tour and we would have loved to do the whole European tour with them but our schedule back in Sweden didn’t allow it.  I think that opened a lot for our first headline tour that we now are doing in April.

Can you compare touring with HammerFall and touring with Gotthard?

That was a great tour for us too and the HammerFall guys are now close friends of us that we really appreciate, but we were the openers and even though that went down very good and meant a lot I think it’s quite a difference to be special guests like we were on the Gotthard tour.

How much touring are you going to do in 2008? As experienced musicians, can your say where The Poodles had their best and worst shows?

We will tour practically the whole year, first we are doing the European tour in April, then June to September in Scandinavia and in the fall we have co-headline plans for Europe. If you follow on www.poodles.se you will be updated on the tour dates. When you play so much like we do it’s hard to pick one and we always enjoy being on stage but we had a great show with The Ark on a fantastic summer evening and a fantastic party afterwards. I had 2 shows on the HammerFall tour when I was really ill and had to break the shows, that was a nightmare, but the crowed was very understanding and polite.

Your performances are like an energy explosion, your behavior on stage makes people crazy about what they see and hear. But do you usually have conversations with your fans after shows? Is it hard to have somebody from The Poodles for a drink?

Well thank you, it’s great to hear that we actually touch and reach out to people and yes, we usually hang out and meet & greet fans, signing autographs and records unless we are in a hurry to another destination. We enjoy that very much, fans are usually very polite and nice.

What is your usual day like? What are good and bad sides of being a Poodle?

Rude awaking by tour leader telling you that you’re late, fast breakfast in hotel, on the road for hours doing Internet and phone interviews, soundcheck, dinner, quick nap, change and get ready for the show, show, meet & great, afterparty, late to bed….and that goes on and on. No matter what you do it has good sides and bad sides you have to get along with it. But after all the sun always shines on a Poodle.

Can you earn a living by doing The Poodles alone, or do you have to engage in outside activity? What are your interests outside The Poodles?

The Poodles are now a full time occupation and there is no time to do anything else. We all have families and love to spend time with them when we are not rocking & rolling.

You have some videos and quite a lot of live recordings. They all are easy to see and download from the Internet. Does it bother you? Do you ever think about a full-length DVD release?
 
No it doesn’t bother us, we like the net when it’s used in that kind of way but it’s not to compare with a great live DVD. Illegal downloading is another thing, it’s stealing the music.

Pontus, you visited Russia a couple of times as a sound engineer for other bands, for instance, for Royal Hunt. What are your impressions about the country, the people and the fans? What are the chances of seeing the Poodles live over here, too?

I like the country a lot and the fans are fantastic! The problem is that all the time when you come to Russia it’s so much stress so you don’t get the time for anything else then just work, and that’s a pity. I hope we can come with The Poodles and have time for some sightseeing and meeting more of the interesting people.  

Thank you for your time and please leave here a message for your fans.

Well. thank you. We really would like to come and play in Russia and see our fans over there, let’s hope that we can connect with a good promoter who can make this possible. All the best to you all from the Poodles family.

The Poodles on the Internet: http://www.poodles.se

Special thanks to Alexei “KIDd” Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview

Anna Babicheva
March 21, 2008
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