Talking to Jona Tee from H.E.A.T.. Thanks so much for joining me tonight.
JONA-
A pleasure.
MAL-
We’re just about to come out with a new album which I’ve only heard a couple of tracks from, but if we can just quickly backtrack. The previous one H.E.A.T. II, what a magnificent album. How did that one go for you?
JONA-
It went very well. I mean if you look at you know streaming wise it’s probably our best album to date you know everything was kind of set up who to have a great tour. But then, you know, pandemic and the rest is history. So we kind of had to pause everything and then Eric left the band obviously. So it didn’t turn out exactly as we planned. But I mean here we are….
MAL-
How much touring did you actually get to do? Did you get to do any?
JONA-
We did Monsters of Rock Cruise in the Caribbean and we did two shows, one (unclear) and one in Gothenburg. We’re just on our way to Japan when, you know, lockdown started.
MAL-
It was a real shit time for everybody, especially bands with not being able to play and earn an income. So, what did do you? Do you have a ‘regular job’?
JONA-
Me personally, I’ve been staying kind of busy, you know, in the studio producing other bands, that’s like my other day job. We’re still making music, recording stuff.
So I’ve actually managed to do all right during the pandemic, but you know I’ve seen so many people suffer you know, musicals, shows, theatres you know everything it’s just been a mess, but me personally, it’s been it’s been all right. Also for the band getting Kenny back in the band is like perfect timing for us to kinda integrate him into the band again, and start writing new music, instead of just started starting touring.
MAL-
It’s a real unique situation, isn’t it? Because Eric was in there for a while and then he’s departed and then lo and behold, Kenny’s come back. How did that all eventuate? What happened with Eric? Was it not working out for him? Did he need a break? Was pandemic ‘the nail’ if you like?
JONA-
It had been kind of growing for a while, actually. As early as 2015, you can tell he was kind of getting tired touring. You know we are making money? But you don’t, you can’t just do H.E.A.T. to make a living. We couldn’t do it. I don’t know what now if we haven’t really tried, but so it was just a bit of a struggle when you’re building a band, you know, and I think it took a toll maybe on him more than others, and eventually that led to him not wanting to tour that much because he wanted to do other stuff, you know. He’s like a real entrepreneur, he did startups. He started, you know, do this, where you speak in front of people like having tell them about his career. And yeah, doing other stuff, some news convention started doing music managing and stuff like that, you know? Just think he just didn’t have the same motivation as the other guys and you can kind of tell but because he, when we were on tour you know, we had a great time, everything was awesome, but then you kind of got back and you can feel he was kind of distancing himself a bit and well then we just ask him like, ‘How is everything?’ We talk like grown-ups and we came to the conclusion that he should move on.
MAL-
So what happened with Kenny? Did you give him a call? Did you run into him down at the coffee shop? How did that come about?
JONA-
Basically, Dave had been writing music with Kenny, and they were like in touch pretty much, and he kind of knew that Kenny wanted to be back in the band and actually Kenny texted me, it was (20)18-19. ‘Hey man, I hope everything’s good. Just so, you know, I want to go back in the band’. I was like, ‘Well, that’s gonna be kind of hard because we have Eric in the band, we will see. Who knows in the future Eric don’t want to be in the band anymore, we can speak about it.’ and that happened. So we kind of knew that he wanted to get back. We didn’t even look at other options, you know, we considered it but then we figured like what we should just Kenny and see how his voice is and how he feels. It turns out ee felt very much like going back and his voice sounded great. So, it was just a perfect match and it’s also the keep it in the family as we did with when Eric Rivers left, Dave came back to the band. So it turned out amazing I think.
MAL-
So, new album, ‘Force Majeure’ coming out very soon and you’re touring shortly thereafter and you’re coming to Australia in September, which we’re very excited about. That must be something good to look forward to, on your behalf.
JONA-
Oh, yeah. Same here. I mean, looking forward to it so much. It’s gonna be a blast, not the flying part, but just playing will be amazing.
MAL-
Come on, it’s not that far.
JONA-
It will be fine, they have beers on the plane. It’ll be fine. ‘Beers on a plane’, should be a movie,
MAL-
You know, whenever I talk to someone from your part of the world, and they’re talking about coming here, they always mention the flight and our American friends, ‘It’s just so far, Mal’.
JONA-
It’s a bit of a trip.
MAL-
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’ve done it going to America so you know, it can be done. What can be done also is, when you go to Japan, then you just turn South.
JONA-
Oh yeah. But then again, it’s like 12 more hours from Japan or something like that.
MAL-
Come on, you’re killing me here.
JONA-
But now we’re coming and we’re hell-bent on Australia, it will be fun.
MAL-
How was it recording the new album? Did you just slide back in like, almost nothing had happened?
JONA-
Well, we started, you know, as I said in 2020, when Kenny rejoined, we started bouncing ideas, started writing stuff together again to kind of reconnect the old threads that had been torn apart. And you know, I felt really cool and we think we’ve managed to ride a couple of really good tracks that’s going to be released on Friday.
MAL-
Yeah I’ve heard a couple of tracks and they are really good so I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the album and hearing some of it live when you come down here.
Now, you’re bringing CRAZY LIXX with you.
JONA-
Oh yeah.
MAL-
Have you played with those guys before?
JONA-
Yeah, many times in Sweden. Playing in Chicago together. Yeah, we know the guys. I think it was the third H.E.A.T. show something like that in Stockholm, in 2007 CRAZY LIXX were headlining. So, yeah, they’ve always been around like parallel careers to ours and we’re good friends. I think that it’s a really fucking great live band and the music is meant to be heard live. So people coming to the shows are going to have a great time I think.
MAL-
I think we’re in for a good time. September the 8th in Sydney, 9th in Melbourne, 10th in Brisbane, the 11th in Adelaide. Four shows in a row, we’re hitting you hard.
JONA-
We’re super excited to come down and play Australia for real for the first time, you know, and it’s gonna be a blast. We want to bring a high energy show and people are in for a treat.
MAL-
Now you guys have been around for a while. You would have seen the market, the world change going from you know vinyl, CD to MP3, to streaming. I mean vinyl’s making a bit of a resurgence but how is your view on the streaming?
JONA-
I mean you got to just embrace it that this point. It’s just too convenient. I have Spotify. I pay for it you know and I have all the world’s music in my pocket. It’s too good to say no to you know? I haven’t bought a CD in I don’t know ten years you know. So I’m a part of if you want to call it a problem. But I think it’s great and I think you know, I would have loved to be you know in the 90s where the CD was a thing, you can actually sell records. You went out touring to promote the sales on the records and you were making money. I do, you know, we do make a little amount of money from record sales and a tiny amount from streaming but we really have to go out touring to, you know, to earn our keep. But it is what it is. We haven’t really experienced that, how it used to be. But I’ve heard the myth and the legends about people actually make good money from music. I’m not complaining though, I can I can do what I love for a living..
MAL-
..and you get to see many exotic places like Australia, so that’s that’s one thing.
JONA-
Absolutely. I mean it’s all about living while you’re alive.
MAL-
How do you go living out of a suitcase? This is one thing that’s always intrigued me. And when I went on holiday with my wife, a few years ago, we went to the US and we only stayed in five cities, but I said to her a couple of times, ‘how do these bands do it?’. Different place every night. I mean, if you’re on a tour bus, you’re probably sleeping in the same bed every night and it’s just driving somewhere during the day but flying, different bed, every night, suitcase. How do you go?
JONA-
You just roll with it. I think it’s actually nicer I think too, well actually not the flying part, but like actually just staying at a hotel is kind of nice when you do when you do like a three or four week European tour and you’d go with nightliner you sleep on the bus. That’s also nice because then you kind of remove the whole traveling part. You just sleep and you wake up at the venue the day after and, you know, venues look the same, they have bread and the beer. You live on sandwiches for a month and maybe get some chicken for dinner. But no, it’s all great. I mean, like we actually have a day off, the last tour went into Paris, had a day there, you know, to a nice hotel and I mean, it’s amazing to be able to see all these sights and you know and also do I actually make money from this? We did you know. It’s so cool.
MAL-
Hi, thanks so much for taking the call. Looking forward to the album coming out Friday. Best of luck with that. And can’t wait to see you guys down here in September in Adelaide on the 11th at The Gov. You’ll love playing there. Can’t wait.
JONA-
Amazing. See you there, man.
MAL-
Hey, rock and roll, man. Can’t wait. We’ll see you then.
JONA-
Have a good one. All right. See ya.
Scandinavia heads down under as Silverback Touring bring you two of Sweden’s finest Hard Rock exports H.E.A.T and CRAZY LIXX. This will be the first Australian Tour for both bands and the action takes place in September 2022.
Over the last several years H.E.A.T have established themselves as one of the leading bands in the melodic rock scene, both in their homeland Sweden and internationally. They have toured and performed front of thousands and thousands of fans around the world.
In April 2008, their self-titled debut album was released and became a massive vitamin injection for the genre and instantly received accolades from both fans and critics worldwide. The release was followed up by immense touring and H.E.A.T played with bands such as Alice Cooper, Thin Lizzy and on big festivals like Sweden Rock.
Since that time H.E.A.T have released a further 6 studio albums and have established themselves as a major force in the hard rock world.
During the Covid period, the band experienced a shift in personnel with original vocalist, Kenny Leckremo, returning to the fold replacing Erik Gronwoll. The band has a new album, Force Majeure, releasing on 5 August just in time for their Aussie visit.
“What can you say about H.E.A.T? If you don’t like these energetic Swedes you must be dead inside, as this year they’ve shown the UK crowd how to be the most complete band on the planet” – Classic Rock Magazine.
