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In Words: D:A:D



- Jacob - March 1998 - Anika Peterson -


www.d-a-d.dk







Live in Hamburg
© Claudia Ehrhardt

Jacob - Cologne (Germany), March 1998




The Danish rocker were on tour to promote Simpatico their latest release and stopped in Cologne. I took the chance to talk with guitarist Jacob about all and everything.


First of all, tell us something about yourself, your musical background and D:A:D!

Well, how much time do you have. Okay, I started to play the guitar when I was 13 years old together with my brother and it was fun, and after a while we knew this is what we wanted to do. We started a band and went on tour and recorded a maxi single with 3 songs in June 1985 and then our first album with D:A:D was released in January 1986.

What is the story behind your name, I mean, I can remember you were called Disneyland After Dark, why did you change the name into D:A:D?

Most people know that the Disney Company doesn't like anything else with its name on it, so we just shortened it up and insiders know what it means, so what.

What about the "new" album Simpatico, well it was released in November 1997, do you have any favorite songs on it?

This is hard, but I think it is A Hand Without Strength.

Let's get back to your favorite song, what is it about?

The normal stuff, a woman...

Who writes your songs?

All of us.

When I listened to the album, there was one song I couldn't get out of my head, I Hate To Say I Told You So and one part is "there's no such thing as paranoia", what does it mean?

It's a song about feelings, I don't know how to explain it. Everyone should listen to it and try to find out for themselves. It's going to be our next single (editor: already released).

How is the Swedish market for your nowadays, in '85 - '86 they played you a lot on the radio back then?

On this tour we're going to Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm. We have played there often and I like the country and the people there, and they like us.

What about radio in Denmark, every time I go to Sweden I go through Denmark and I have to admit, I think the Danish radio is very boring, or have I only heard the bad stuff?

You're right, the Danish radio is terrible, but what can you do about it? It is like in Germany / Holland they only play pop and techno stuff. And we don't have a chance to get on the radio, whether in Denmark nor in Germany or Holland, except in shows like yours on the public access channel.

What do you expect from this tour?

Well, tonight is the first show of this tour and the venue has been sold out. And that's what we expect or hope for the whole tour. We will play six shows in Ger­many. We'll see....

What do you personally listen to?

Hmm, I've got two heroes - one is Al Atkins and the other one is Joe Pass (?), but it doesn't look good for him.

What do you think about Satriani, Malmsteen or Vai..?

I think they can play good. Well, they are good technical players, but I miss the feelings when they play. And if you can't play with feeling, you're not a good guitar player. I don't give a damn for technical players, I only use my feelings and that's the best way.

Do you do anything else for living but your music?

No, I've lived on my music for 8 years now.

And the others?

We're all only playing, we have enough to live.

What about Japan, that's normally a good market for metal?

Japan? No, we're small there. We're big in Europe, but small in Japan. And if you're big in Japan, you're big in the World.


Perhaps this album will make them big all over the world... A major label, sold-out shows in Europe... What more can they ask for? Seems that they are quite happy about the situation for D:A:D so far. And due to their success we had a limited time for this interview, other journalists were waiting for the guys. Anyway, this was a short round-up and hopefully we can continue one day!



Anika Peterson

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