Every band has that one song they’re best known for, but in the case of Swedish quintet Europe – who came out of obscurity to conquer charts around the world with The Final Countdown in 1986 – their big hit ended up taking a whole new life of its own.
It was, in many ways, a double-edged sword; on one hand, it gave them their first taste of international success and all the financial security that came along with it. On the other, its five minutes would end up overshadowing everything they’d done up to that point, as well as everything else to come.
Listen to any Europe album from start to finish, however, and you’ll hear five musicians leaning on their gold-standard instinct for melody to produce arena-conquering rock anthems, heart-stirring ballads and everything in between.
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This is still very much the case on this year’s 12th full-length, Come This Madness, which sees them dialing down the Deep Purple worship in pursuit of harder-hitting and more contemporary ideas that could easily have come from a band starting out today.
The main riff from opening track and lead single One On One, for example, isn’t a million miles away from British alternative rockers Muse, with super-producer Tom Dalgety [Pixies, the Cult, Rammstein] bringing a band with almost five decades behind them into the modern age.
“I guess we are a young band compared to Deep Purple,” says founding guitarist John Norum with a laugh. “We put a lot of energy into this. Working with Tom was fantastic. He gave us that boost as if to say, ‘Come on now – wake up, you old men. It’s time to get to work!’ So that’s what we did.”
The producer had been recommended by fellow Swedish heavyweights Ghost and Opeth, whose respective singers Tobias Forge and Mikael Åkerfeldt also make guest appearances on the album. After the members of Europe had done their due diligence, they decided that “Tom was the guy” because “our friends said he was fun to work with and everything he’d done sounded great.”
Norum also jokingly reveals how Opeth six-stringer and Ghost studio guitarist Fredrik Åkesson had been “kidnapped” and forced to execute an octave riff while the tape was running (“I would say he’s one of the top 10 players in the world right now,” Norum says).
The sessions took place at RMV Studio in Stockholm, which is owned by national treasure and ABBA legend Benny Andersson, with the collective aim of cutting a record that sounded fresh and exciting. Mission accomplished.
What solos and riffs are you most proud of on this album?
The title track is one of my favorites. When I heard the demo, I knew it had to either be the opening track or the title track, and we went for the latter. I’m especially proud of the solo; it came out really well. I also love the lead single, One On One, for the melody part at the beginning and Takin’ It Back because it sounds so blazing.
The solo you played on the title track has some aggressive blues licks leading into this dramatic chromatic climb that ultimately serves as an exclamation point.
I don’t usually do that sort of thing and usually stick with more bluesy pentatonic stuff. But for this part, I thought why not try something super-chromatic. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever done it on an album. It’s a cool ending that helps the solo stand out.
You recently acquired Gary Moore’s 1972 Super Bass 100 at auction, which you described as your dream amp. Did that end up on the record?
The Gary Moore amp arrived after the sessions. It’s always been my Holy Grail head. If you know anything about the history of Gary’s gear, this amp was the main centerpiece of his sound throughout the ’80s. You can hear it on albums like Corridors of Power and Victims of the Future, all those recordings until 1989’s After the War.
So for pretty much the entire decade, this was his sound. Afterwards, he switched to the Marshall JTM45 for Still Got the Blues and then a Soldano SLO-100. I’ve been reading interviews with Gary for many decades where he talks about this particular head. My favorite guitar sound of all time is on Victims of the Future.
I had to find out the serial number and history. He only had one 1972 Super Bass, which was originally purple but someone painted it gloss black. When it came up for auction, I knew this was the one. I didn’t care what it cost. I just had to buy it.
So what are we hearing on this album?
I used another 1972 Marshall Super Bass on some tracks. There’s this great amp builder in Sweden called Baskim Zuta, and I used his GBG120 amp on some of the songs. It has four channels and looks like a spaceship. I only got it toward the end of the sessions – it takes a couple of weeks to get to know an amp and figure out how everything works, otherwise I would have used it more.
I’m actually playing it all the time right now because it has such an incredible tone. I also used a 1979 Hiwatt DR504 that used to belong to Matthias Jabs from Scorpions.
There was a Mezzabarba MZERO for a few solos, they’re a great Italian company. As for pedals, it was a Boss DS-1W in Custom mode for my single-coil tones, but it can get a bit mushy for humbuckers, so then I’d switch to the SD-1W in Custom mode.
As for guitars, is it still a mixture of Gibson, Fender and Paoletti?
I mainly used my 2000 Gibson Flying V, nothing crazy or vintage. Or maybe it is, actually, given that it’s now 26 years old. [Laughs] I still think of it as a new guitar. It’s fitted with Black Belt humbuckers by Motor City Pickups, which were handwound and made to order.
I always need a Fender, so I used my Japanese 1972 Strat with DiMarzio FS-1s. Quite often you are hearing the Strat on the left and the Flying V on the right, which is a nice blend.
The only other guitar I used was my new Paoletti, which is an ES-335 shape with P90s. It’s my main guitar right now. I’ll be using it all over my next solo album. It’s what I used for my guest feature on the new Accept album. I’ve used it on stage, but the guys are always like, “Are you really going to play the jazz box?” I always tell them it’s the best-sounding guitar on the rack.
You posted a photo with Greeny a few years ago. As a Gary Moore diehard, that must’ve been pretty special.
I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I’ve been following that Les Paul for 45 years. Holding it was one of the highlights of my life, a dream come true. There’s so much history going back to Peter Green, and now Kirk has it. We were playing the Tons of Rock festival in Norway with Metallica. I was on stage getting ready when I saw the guitar in a tech’s hands.
When I asked if I could take a photo, he handed me the guitar, saying, “No, you can play it.” I went down on one knee and put my head against the wood so I could hear the resonance. I had a few minutes before our intro tape came on. I remember it being light and ringing super-loud.
Kirk had the action set quite low, but I know Gary used to have it quite high with thicker strings because he had strong fretting hands from being naturally left-handed. Higher action sounds better, so my guitars are set up somewhere in the middle. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
The Final Countdown 40th anniversary tour is coming up. What do you remember about writing that iconic solo from the title track?
It all came from Ritchie Blackmore. I have to thank him for that. It requires a special technique and I see so many people online doing it wrong. It can sound close but never quite right. There’s a secret note that everyone seems to miss. I still haven’t, to this day, seen anyone play the secret note that’s in that solo. It’s only played for a millisecond but it’s in there. Everybody misses it, every time.
There’s a secret note that everyone seems to miss. I still haven’t, to this day, seen anyone play the secret note that’s in that solo
You also played some blistering runs on Rock the Night.
That solo was totally improvised, while The Final Countdown was worked out. Joey Tempest [vocals] and I recorded the demos over at his house using a Rockman. For “Carrie,” I composed the melody. When it’s a ballad, that’s what I usually do. Melody is important in those situations.
A ballad solo with no melody doesn’t mean much to me. I learned this from Michael Schenker, especially on those early UFO songs. It’s more effective to stick the blazing licks in the middle or at the end than do it all the time. Do the melody, then burn a bit before returning to the melody.
Sometimes I even take the chorus hook and use it somewhere in the solo. Mindless noodling and showing off is a bit pointless for me. I don’t need to show off; I did plenty of that in the ’80s, especially live. I watch the footage now and think, “Take it easy and slow down, dude, for Christ’s sake!” But that’s how it is when you’re young.
You’re not the first guitarist to admit that.
Well, I was hanging out with Yngwie in the ’80s, which obviously affected me. He was burning like crazy. I was one of the first people to hear him, I was 15 and he was 16. A friend of mine auditioned to be his drummer and I helped him take his kit over to Stockholm on the train. We went down the rehearsal space and I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
I stood there wondering where it all came from. Yngwie blew my mind. My friend got the gig so we started hanging out there a lot. It was horrible, like an old cellar with rats running over the Marshall stacks.
We recorded some stuff together on his four-track, with him pretending to be Uli Jon Roth and me pretending to be Schenker. We both ended up moving to the States and would hang out at the Rainbow before heading to a hotel to jam all night drinking beer. We had some good times.
