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In Words: B. Joe



- B. Joe - January 1994 - Claudia Ehrhardt -


www.b-joe.com








B. Joe (phoner interview)- January, 8th 1994




Today I have the possibility to talk with singer and guitarist B. Joe of the same named Danish band. First we will talk about the band and the current album Ready To Ride.
The current line-up is: B. Joe (voc/g), Thomas Johansen (key), Jesper Irn (dr) and Nils Kroyer (bs). Later I'll ask B. Joe a little bit about himself to know the person behind the music a little bit better. So we start right now.

Please tell us a bit about the past, the for­mation of B. Joe.

B. Joe been founded 9 years ago. Well, I formed the band with the drummer and we used a lot of bassists. We were just playing around for about 3 years. Then some day we heard a jam session and found Nils, he wanted to join the band. Later we had a lot of tours and gigs about 900 in the next 4 - 5 years. Then my little brother, he was my younger brother, he was a kind of growing up, so he started playing keyboard and he kind of join the band. After about 3 years we recorded our 1st album which was a kind of a demo album only releasing in Denmark.

Are there plans to release the album later on in the rest of Europe?

No, not the first one. The first one gave us the record contract. So that we could make the Ready To Ride album. That's the one we got to release.

You said you toured a lot, in the info was written that you played U.S., Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Madeira. How do you get to play in Madeira? It is not a typical location for concerts.

Well, it was just a kind of a holiday tour. I think it was the first time they had a professional band there playing.

How was the reaction on your tour as support of Slade?

The reaction there was just great from the audience on these tour. It was a very good tour for us. Cause there was most a lot of people in the audience. You know normally people don't like the support band too much. "It's only the support act and we have to get over it, so we can hear the main act". But the reactions were just fantastic. They were yelling and clapping. And the magic was to feel.

Where are your musical roots?

I think everywhere, every kind of music. We try to listen to everything I'm a guy who just love music and that means classic music as well as jazz music. Music is just like languages. A matter of putting yourself into that kind and try to understand what happen in that kind of music. And I think there is some good thing in everything. We listen to everything in this band.

How would you describe your music?

That's pretty tough ! But most people call us something between Bon Jovi and the Eagles, maybe. You know Hard Rock, it's a little bit of Blues and Country in this. But I think it's pretty tough to describe it.

I think it's not just for Hard Rock or Heavy Metal fans it's also open to Rock Music fans, because it's not really in heavy metal. It's something in-between.

Yes, that it is!

What's about song writing, do you do it alone or with the others? And what's about the lyrics?

I do everything alone. I think it's like a painting, you know. When you painting something it's pretty hard to do it with two people or three. And I think I'm not a guy who do everything alone, just this. I write a lot of songs, an awful lot of songs, and so if I was supposed to do it together with other people it would be a lot of more songs. And that could be a problem too. Cause I know we haven't enough room for.

Some years ago I saw Giant on tour with there first album, it was fantastic and the people really went crazy. So the band started playing their set again, because they hadn't enough songs. That could never happen to you?

Definitely not, never ever this would happen to us. We have some much songs that we haven't enough albums to put them on.

What are your plans for the near future? And later on?

I think right now on the 1st of February we going to France to play on the Midem fair. After that I think we have a tour in the United States and then we will have a club tour in Germany. We will be released in Great Britain, United States and Japan. So we will tour in Japan, too. I think this will gonna work in Japan too.

We also do something like a personal file. Because the people want to know something about the person behind the music. When were your day of birth?

22 January 1967

What are your hobbies?

Well, music of course. And I read a lot of books, I'm a big fan of books.

What kind of books?

Well, all kind. About history and science.

Do you like sports? What kind of sports?

I swim a lot.

You have enough beaches in Denmark, but the weather ain't pretty good. What is your favorite song on your current album?

Wow, that's pretty hard to answer. I wrote all of them, you know. It changes, I think, sometimes I think this one is the best. At the moment I'm most into the soft songs and especially Dirty Sheets. We just made a video for the song in Los Angelos.

What is your favorite all time album?

I prefer a lot of different albums, too. Right now I listening a lot to Dire Straits - Love Over Gold album. I think that's a master piece!

What' s been the most interesting location you ever played?

Well, I don't know. I think there is some magic in every place your playing. You know we play more than 1,000 shows, that's a lot. Well, it's pretty hard to say. We played a concert last summer on a festival in front of 15,000 or 20,000 people that was a big experience. Again we have played some gigs lately there were only about 200 people, just small clubs here in Copenhagen where we are from and that was pretty great, too. You can have a kind of experience and it doesn't matter how many people are there. But of course there's a kind of magic when there are about 20,000 people. Not every concert is great, but I think we have had a lot good ones and we had a lot of fun.

What do you fear most? When you see what happened around the world.

The hardest problem right now is the racism thing. That some people can't share there things with other people. That means both the land, the food, the money.

That is a major problem in Germany. Do you have the same problem in Denmark?

Yeah, I think we have the same problem everywhere.

I think the Danish are more mind-opened than the German. So I feel it's a bigger problem in Germany.

Yeah, but your country is larger, more people immigrate in Ger­many than in Den­mark, perhaps this is the basic problem.

What is your wish for the future?

I hope that these things will be settled.


So, you now know a little more about the Danish. More questions to be answered next time!



Claudia Ehrhardt

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