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VII Gates are a testimony to down to earth talent. Formed just 4 years ago in Sweden, their debut 'Fire, Walk With Me' gives mainstream bands a run for their money - and yet they look like your neighbourhood headbanger - so who are these fuckin' madmen?!

-Shan Siva

I can’t believe how cool this album is - how long have you guys been musicians? I mean, its a relatively young band (formed 1999) so have you been taking lessons from Ritchie Blackmore or is the ghost of Jimi Hendrix in you? I can’t believe you play this good!!!

JJ: Thank you, thank you, you make us almost embarassed… especially since Ritchie Blackmore is one of my two favorite guitarplayers (Brian May is the other), can’t think of any who is nearly as good as them. Anyway, part of the band have played since the end of the 70s, while both Basti (the other guitar player) started out 1997 or something like that, don’t remember. So our collected amount of experience is pretty high, even if no one have played on this level before.

Mick: Hey, really..everyone thinks that the band was formed in ’99...but it wasn`t formed until spring 2000...sorry, just a short notice (JJ: I think Mick finds it a little bit hard to accept that we first played with a drum machine.. J)...But anyway, I started to play drums in ’79, after a lot of listening to Mick Tucker of Sweet, and a bit from Peter Criss..but I nearly lost it between 1991 - 2000..I had 9 years without any serious drumming except from a couple of months...and here I am today...

I totally freaked out when I saw this fantasy front cover, flipped it over and its like, the ‘Bad News’ tour ha ha! Whats going on with this band?! Do you smoke lotsa weed or something?!?!?

Mick: Ehh, dudes?? Wassup? Weed?? Ahh, you mean rock`n roll tobacco! Hey, music should be fun, don’t you think???

JJ: It wasn’t planned, it was more like we used what we got… we actually had another title and picture (not a finished picture, just an idea…) ready for the cover but then our label told us that they couldn’t find anyone to do that cover quick enough. Instead they found this guy David Wyatt who had a lot of already finished pictures. So we choosed the 5-6 pictures we liked best, and than tried to think of as many titles as possible to them. This was the result. The band picture, well, since we don’t look that good ourself, we thought, maybe if we use some other good looking people on the picture, people still might remember us ha ha!

And those 3 chicks in the car with you guys - who are they? Do you know them personally? Are they triplets?

JJ: It was Mick who brought them to the photo session, I am not really sure how he knows them. His connections to girls might be seen as sort of doubtful, and sometimes it’s maybe better not to ask!

Mick: They’re friends to me - Pilla, Carro and Connie.You can actually see Pilla wearing some panties of ours ..(the bands I mean so that no one think we are wearing any panties), in a couple of nice angles...And guess what..they`re not triplets!!!

Why did you form a rock band? Are you are multi talented (like mebbe a brain surgeon for your day job)?

JJ: Yes - but on a lower level! I’m a cycle mechanic (which allows me to say ”Ooops” sometimes), and the other guys, except Mick, have regular jobs too. Anyway, don’t know if there was a specific reason to form this band, more than that we all love to play music!

Mick: Job??? This is what I do for living....or maybe not!!!

Who are your influences?

JJ: Probably everything I listen to, which is a lot! Mainly hard rock/heavy metal, but I prefer to divide music into two genres, ”bad music” and ”good music”. Some of my favorite bands are (no specific order) Rainbow, Queen, Judas Priest, Queensrÿche, Sweet, The Who, Magnus Uggla, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Asta Kask, Whitesnake, City Boy, Manowar, Mötley Crüe, Styx, De lyckliga kompisarna, Europe, Savatage, Beatles, Meat Loaf, Dire Straits, Dio, Brian Setzer, Skid Row and a lot more! Tim (Diaz, keyboards) for example, listens a lot of prog bands like Genesis, Yes, Flower kings and other similar bands which I can’t even remember the name of….

Mick: I think I’m influenced a lot by drummers like Uli Kusch and some other drummers of today....Hey,hey...can I get serious or what?? Actually, my biggest influenses are Mick Tucker and Neil Peart, at least they are the drummers I`ve been listening to the most..but that doesnt meen that it has to sound like the same....

How did you get on Sound Riot? Is it easy to work with a label based on the other side of Europe? Do you think Portuguese are more laid back than Swedes?

JJ: We sent them a demo (just like we did with 70 other labels…), and they liked it. No problem that they are based in Portugal, internet have really made the world smaller. Only drawback might be that they aren’t very good at speaking english. Well, we aren’t either, so that definitely doesn’t help the situation! Have to add that we have changed label to Lion Music, a Finnish label. And Lasse, who runs the company, speaks swedish. Much easier!

How did you get guys like Kee and Chris Amott - Europe and Arch Enemy aren’t exactly small bands - to guest appear on the album (aha - mebbe those 3 chicks again)

Mick: No,no.. the chicks weren’t the reason ha ha ..they just love our music...and anyway, if anyone lays their hands on the chicks, they wouldn’t be able to play anything afterwards!!

JJ: Chris was easy, he lives just a few kilometers from my home, so we see each other sometimes. Kee Marcello wasn’t to hard either, did about half an hour of internet research, got his email adress, and asked him. And he said, ”Ok, if the material is inspiring, I will play”.

Now that you’ve released ‘Fire, Walk With Me’ what are your future intentions in terms of releases and touring - any chance you will be appearing at Sweden Rock Festival?

JJ: That’s what we hope, at least. We are collecting information about different festivals right now, and will start to talk to the responsible people this autumn. So please write to your own favorite festival and wish us!! Will also start to record album #2 this autumn, but I have no release date, probably sometime next spring. And we have material for another 2 albums, and are constantly getting more. We write songs quicker than we rehearse them! Especially now that we got this new bass player Nicola, he write songs on his own (none of our previous bass players did that!). And recently we found out that Tim could write songs too!! Some weeks ago he brought a demo to the rehearsal room with two songs, which were great! And Mick has threatened us that he will start to write songs too, but he will have to learn to play a real instrument first ha ha!

Mick: Its always fun to play live, but I don’t think we will be able to do Sweden Rock...not this year...

JJ: It seems like we are always to late looking for festival dates. Or too early.

What do you think of some of the classic metal bands still going like the Scorpion, Priest, Dio etc - do you think they should be making more room for younger talented bands like you guys?

JJ: No, it’s great that they carry on, actually pretty impressive. Dio, he must be 62 or something like that now? And still releases a new album every year, and the time between he spends on touring. And I think it’s great that they are giving newer fans a chance to experience them as live bands. I mean, a lot of Dio’s fans weren’t born (or even planned to be born) when he had his commercial peak in the eighties. And to be honest, I actually can’t think of any newer bands that would be able to take over Iron Maiden’s spot?

Mick: Scorpions?? Is that a metal band??? All respect for Dio, but I think that some of these bands are working on overtime...maybe!! But saying that, they still kick a lot of ass....

I see your contact address is in Halmstad - do you know Mortiis?

JJ: No, we just used the same studio.

What do you do outside the band in terms of work, hobbies etc (don’t say you are Mortiis) - did you do national service (on the way back from Sweden Rock this really fat guy sat next to me and told me about his national service experience - he hated it - so it was a really depressing trip back - and then it rained after we got offa the bus ha ha!!).

JJ: Music is my only real interest. The only thing I can think of that I like as much is skiing, but we don’t have much snow this south in Sweden, so it’s mainly music. So when I’m not at work (where I listen to records all the day…) I practise with the guitar, write songs, working with the homepage (which I would need help with! It’s very ugly), answering emails, interviews and so on.

About national service, I managed to be free from that. Don’t feel too sorry about that. You see, in Sweden it’s a duty to do it according to the law. But since they don’t have enough resources, just about 40-50% of all guys are allowed to do it (girls don’t have to, which I find very strange, since feminism is very strong in Sweden), and just 30% of those who pass the training would have something to do if we actually got into a war. So I found it very odd that they tried to force me to do it, especially since there were guys who were mad because they weren’t allowed to do it!

Mick: I have no job, at least not at the moment...even though most friends think I won’t be looking, I’ve really got to...otherwise there won’t be a huge drumkit with tubular bells and glockenspiel,belltrees and d-pads! Uh, and hobbies...well, give me three carp rods, a bucket of Mainline boilies, Pva ,bitealarms,bivvie and a bed...and I will survive.......hey,maybe some coffee `n sandwishes as well........

JJ: In case you didn’t get the jargon, Mick is a fishing maniac. And he’s spent several huge drumkits worth on buying fishing equipment ha ha!!

Check em out online:
http://www.sevengates.se