Wig Wam, hailing
from Norway, are perhaps most famous in the UK for
taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2005.
However there is far more to the band than that. Having
produced two albums full of classic hard rock tunes and
played countless gigs in their homeland Wig Wam are a
band that demands the listener to site up and take
notice. With a debut appearance in the UK coming up at
Firefest III, it seemed like the ideal time to catch up
with vocalist Glam to find out
more...
2
Hi Glam,
Hi Dougie How are you?
Cool, you ready for the questions then?
Let’s Get on with it
To kick off would you care to introduce
yourself and the other members of Wig Wam to the readers
of HardRockHouse.com?
Ok Dougie!
Dear readers of HardRockHouse.com , here we are. Wig Wam!
I bet some of you have heard about us through last years
Eurovision Song Contest, not knowing whether you should
to take us serious or not. And I don’t blame you for
feeling that way. But let me tell you one thing: We’re
DEADLY serious! We’re so serious we even participated in
the Eurovision Song Contest to make our music heard. We
have always believed in melodic rock and the spirit of
the good old hard rock scene. And we knew that as long
as we stick to our tradition, playing our music from the
heart, we’ll get something going.
We
started out in the year of 2000, when Hard Rock still
was a taboo. We put on our spandexes, our eyeliners and
our platform boots, cranked up the Marshal amps and
headed out on tour. People were actually shocked. But
then again, I think they had been missing the 80’s a
lot. Since then we tried to convince the record industry
that ROCK IS BACK! They didn’t exactly listen. So we
bought a studio and recorded an album, and rocked the
Norwegian Eurovision final in 2004. Making a great #3,
people really started to notice us and we released our
first album 667…The Neighbour of the Beast. Which later
got a new title “Hard To Be A Rock’n’Roller” and some
new songs. In My Dreams being one of them. After the
success in the Norwegian Eurovision in 2004, the
Norwegian broadcasting desperately wanted us for the
2005 final too. And In My Dreams was one of the songs we
had recorded demos for. In My Dreams was a huge success,
and 2005 was a dream year for us. We played over 170
gigs, plus all the promotion trips and tv, radio etc.
Still we managed to write new material and started
recordings for what was to become Wig Wamania, released
in Norway in March 2006. We all think Wig Wamania became
a much stronger album than Hard, breaking us into the
Japanese market these days. If you wanna know more about
the band, visit our official site
www.wigwam.no
Who are your personal heroes and influences?
My personal favourites are The Beatles, Sweet, Kiss,
Bowie, Journey, Van Halen and Alice Cooper. But hey,
there so much great classic rock out there that
influenced us. Our drummer is a huge Ramones fan by the
way. And he also loves…Pet Shop Boys. I despise his iPod
actually
How would you describe Wig Wam to our readers who may
be unfamiliar with your work?
I’d say Epic and classic melodic rock with a bit of that
tongue in cheek X factor that entertains you the good
old way that even the kids of today can be addicted to
Norway is known internationally for it's Black Metal
scene, what made you want to play "glam metal"?
Obviously we have other things to do than burning down
historical churches and slaughtering band members. I
mean, everyday should be Saturday, so let’s party and
have a good time. I for one don’t wanna be a miserable
Satan worshiper. The truth is the Black Metal thing is
such a sell out. Those guys are often really friendly,
supporting their sweet families and kids in every way .
“Daddy have to go set another church on fire son, so be
a good boy at school, and don’t swear…” Pathetic !
What is the difference between the Neighbour Of The
Beast and It's Hard To Be A Rock And Roller albums?
The main difference is the title and some songs being
added for the Hard albums. Our first record label were a
VERY small one. And they just didn’t know how to handle
a rock’n’roll band. And they had simply NO budget at
all. Since we owned the master rights, we signed a deal
with Voices of Wonder, which is a very cool label in
Norway. They wanted to give 667 another shot, but we
needed another title, to avoid conflicts with our former
label. So we changed the cover, made some remixes and
added The Drop, Teenys master piece, and a radio version
of HARD TO BE A ROCK’n’ROLLER. When we won the Norwegian
Eurovision final with In My Dreams we thought it would
be a disaster not to have that one on an album right
away, so we put it on the newest version of HARD TO BE A
ROCK’N’ROLLER, which is the version most people have
these days ... But hey, there’s also a Japanese and
German version of that album which includes different
bonus tracks.
Why did you cover Mel C’s I Turn To You?
By accident actually! Ole Evenrude invited us to his
studio in 2002, because he had heard No More Living On
Lies. Yet, he thought we wouldn’t stand a chance with
original material. So he convinced us to record a number
of cover songs done with the Wig Wam attitude. I Turn To
You was the only one we really loved. The rest was
bullshit, and we ended up paying the studio bill….so we
thought let’s at least use THAT song. It cost us more
than the entire HARD album really.
Wig Wam
How do you approach your song writing?
We simply sit down and do what we do. Nowadays the song
writing is very influenced by our live shows, which I
think is easy to hear on Wig Wamania. Sometimes a song
is a result of us jamming together, but mostly Teeny,
Flash and I make individual demo tapes. I prefer working
together as a team though. It’s more social
The main differences as I see it between the bands
first album and the latest release, Wig Wammaina is that
whislt the first album showed the bands influences, the
second show's the band developing it's own sound.
Do you agree/disagree?
On Wig Wamania we had found our style for sure. When we
wrote HARD we weren’t quite sure what to expect or who
our fans REALLY were. Still we were true to our
influences and had a great time. But believe me, Wig
Wamania was a much easier album to write. Now we’re
looking forward to recording again. We’re so inspired !
You recently collaborated with Bruce Kulick; what was
that experience like and how did it come about?
Well, we have always had a good relationship with the
Kiss Army. And after doing a Kiss special show with Kiss
drummer Eric Singer, we were asked to do the Norwegian
Kiss Tribute. And Bruce had heard some great things
about us from Eric, so he wanted to do something
together. I think our I Was Made For Loving You version
really rocks! Bruce did a great job with the guitars I
think .
How did taking part in Eurovision affect your
profile?
It
didn’t affect our profile at all. It only made people
aware of Wig Wam. Yet, some rock fans out there had a
problem with us presenting our music on such a Non
Rock’n’Roll show. But I prefer Hard Rock taking part of
such a big TV event rather than Hard Rock being
excluded. Fact is, I don’t think competing in music is a
good thing. But hey, promotion is promotion. And God,
did we get promotion that year.
How do you think you are perceived here in the UK?
I’ve read some great reviews from English mags like
Classic Rock. But we don’t think too much about what
people think. We are doing this mostly for our own sake.
And if the rock fans of the UK likes it and wants Wig
Wam, then GREAT. If not, there’s a lot of other
countries that like what we do. Our main focus is to
have a good time EVERY TIME ! But we’d love to go for an
UK TOUR. It all depends on you guys
You have a DVD available – what’s on it and Is your
output likely to get a full UK release?
The DvD is a double disc. Disc one contains Wig Wam
Symphonic. A show in front of 10.000 Wig Wamaniacs with
a full symphonic orchestra and choir. Counting 100
musicians on stage. Disc two contains two different
documentaries, one by the Norwegian Broadcasting
focusing on what we did in the Eurovision S.C, and one
tour documentary from last years tour, plus all the
videos and photo galleries. Hopefully it will find it’s
way to UK stores, but hey, we still have no label
working for us in the UK.
Is there a song by somebody else you wish you’d
written?
Yeah !! Yesterday by the Beatles. Then we could just buy
an English label and do things our very own way.
Firefest will be your first performance over here –
what can we expect from a Wig Wam set?
You can expect a mix of songs from HARD and Wig Wamania
plus some of our all time favourite songs. We’ll kick
some English balls. And that’s a promise, not a
threat....
Finally is there anything else you’d like to tell the
readers of HardRockHouse?
Well....we’re looking forward to seeing you in
Nottingham, and thank you for taking your time putting
this interview together. See you in the UK, so lock up
your Grand ma’s
Many thanks to Glam
for taking the time to answer our questions. You can
find out more about Wig Wam by visiting their website at
www.wigwam.no
