EUROPE - Mic Michaeli

By: Lori Smerilson Carson | Photo: Andy Ford

Forty years ago, a specific set of keyboard notes and chords stopped people in their tracks and commanded their attention. That riff stuck in their heads, and they immediately became lifelong fans of rock band EUROPE. That third album, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN released in 1986 brought in bandmates that stood the test of time, as well as several successful albums known worldwide. Now, on September 25^th, these extraordinary musicians called EUROPE are releasing their latest studio album COME this MADNESS.

Catching up with keyboardist Mic Michaeli after a full day of rehearsals, he divulged some details about the new album that he and bandmates Lead Vocalist Joey Tempest, Guitarist John Norum, Bassist John Levén and Drummer Ian Haugland have created, a bit about his past, and what fans can look forward to.

SFL Music Magazine: The new album COME this MADNESS is out on September 25^th on vinyl, CD and digital. What inspired it?

Mic Michaeli: It was nine years ago since the previous album was released, so we could take the time to really work on the songs. We’re really proud of the album ourselves as well. So, we had a lot of time, and we could sort of reflect on the songs and change a lot of it around. I mean, even after we recorded it, we went back and did some extra stuff just to get it the way we wanted to. When it comes to lyrics, I don’t know, it’s more like just looking around in the world and see what’s going on. Plus, there’s a few personal things that Joey wrote as well, more like describing a brief moment, a feeling that you had and trying to describe that in a whole song.

SFL Music Magazine: Is that “One on One”?

Michaeli: Yeah “One on One” and also, I think the last song on the album “Nothing Can Follow This”.

SFL Music Magazine: The album has the classic Europe sounds with your keyboard playing and some harder rock stuff like “Come This Madness” and then more of a ballad song like “In the Absence of Grace” and then rockin’ stuff like “The Cult of Ignorance”. The lyrics are as if Joey is telling stories?  Would you say there is a theme?

Michaeli: That wasn’t the intention from the start but, in a way, it turned out lyrically to be a few. I mean, we haven’t really written lyrics before with too much criticism or reflecting all the things going on in the world. I think that’s a theme that comes back on a lot of the songs on this album. So, that’s kind of a new thing we explored for this one.

SFL Music Magazine: The cover has newspaper strips over a man’s face with words lies, ignorance, etc.

Michaeli: Yeah. All the bad things in the world we could come up with is on there.

SFL Music Magazine: Would you say there’s symbolism?

Michaeli: It reflects a lot of the songs on the album, I think.

SFL Music Magazine: “One on One” Is out with the video starring Peter Stormare. What inspired that video?

Michaeli: We just wanted to do something different with a video if we stuck with that one. So, Joey and I sort of threw ideas at each other and we thought, oh, we don’t want to stand there pretending to play a song, you know, just doing it play back and pretending to look cool or trying to look cool. We don’t even want to be in it. So, we said, let’s see, who can we get to do this? We thought well, we’ll ask Peter if he can do it and he said, “yeah.” I mean, he lives in Los Angeles. He just flew over, did it one day and then flew back the next day (he laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: Are you all friends?

Michaeli: No. We haven’t met him before, so this was the first time, but he’s really into music and rock music. So, he knows about us and we of course know about him. It was a great pleasure meeting him. He’s a great guy really.

SFL Music Magazine: He really draws you in with the video. The music has the orchestral intro then into hard rock.  What inspired the song?

Michaeli: Musically, it started off with John Levén had this bass riff idea that comes in right after the orchestral parts and Joey had some other parts. And then Joey, I had sent him an idea, totally different idea that included this orchestral intro. So, he phoned me up and said, “can we use this for this song? Use it as an intro and also play around with the same theme in the guitar solo.” I heard the demo that they had made, and I love the song, so I said, yeah sure. Go ahead. It’s going to be great!

SFL Music Magazine: Where did you get the idea for the orchestral intro?

Michaeli: Ah, just you know, ideas pop up. I don’t know where it comes from (he laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: Like “The Final Countdown” your signature keyboard intro alerts fans that it’s that song. What made you become a musician?

Michaeli: My mother was a professional singer, classical music, and there was always love of music at home. They didn’t listen to any rock or pop music, so when I was like six years old, I heard The Beatles and I was just, what’s this? I never heard anything like that before. So, I got really into the later period of Beatles from ’67 to ’70. After that I just kept digging into all kinds of rock music during the ‘70’s. I mean, we always had a piano and a guitar at home, so I started playing early. It was just a big part of my life.

SFL Music Magazine: Did you teach yourself?

Michaeli: Most of it, yeah. My mother forced me to take some piano lessons, but when you’re a kid, you’re in school, you already have a lot of homework that you hate and now is another homework, I need to practice this piano and don’t really want to play this stuff. I want to play rock and roll. So, it was a long lived those lessons.

SFL Music Magazine: It paid off!

Michaeli: Yeah (he laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: This is EUROPE’s fortieth anniversary of THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.

Michaeli: Yeah, it is.

SFL Music Magazine: You’ve had a lot of hits and have sold millions of albums worldwide. What would you say attributes to EUROPE’s longevity and success?

Michaeli: We’re the same band now, same members as we were back in the eighties. Same guys, and I think everyone in the band would agree with me if I say that you have to learn to accept that you’re working with four other idiots, morons because it’s not like we meet every day and have dinner together, but when we work, it’s a work thing and the magic comes when we play together. It really does. I think it has a lot to do with just accepting the fact that we’re all different and also appreciation of what we’re able to do. We’re able to work with what we love and not everyone can do that. If you just sometimes step back and say to yourself that we’re pretty lucky that we can do this, but those little things, the arguments and stuff shouldn’t take over too much. I think that’s an important ingredient of keeping the band together for such a long time.

SFL Music Magazine: Is that something you would recommend to a new band?

Michaeli: Yeah, sure.

SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else you’ve observed over the years to pass along?

Michaeli: Don’t listen to anyone else. Do your own thing. It might take some time but try and find what defines you as a band or an artist and don’t try to sound like anyone else. Of course, you have influences but take in all the influences and do something totally from your heart.

SFL Music Magazine: That is great advice!  You are touring around Europe and England. Will you be coming to the States? Florida??

Michaeli: We definitely want to do it, but we don’t have any specific plans at the moment. We had a tour a couple of years ago, but it just went down the drain. It was a package thing, but for some reason that didn’t happen. The tour didn’t happen at all. We want to go there with a package, three bands together touring around because it was a few years since we were in the United States, so we want to build that up again.

SFL Music Magazine: You all are from Sweden and that’s where you recorded this album. What elements does Sweden have that makes it stand out in the music industry?

Michaeli: I think in a lot of cases there is, if you look at Ghost for example, the band Ghost. They have really heavy riffs but still a lot of melodies on top of it, and I think that’s something that a lot of Swedish bands have. I really don’t know why, but sense of melody is sort of common, a lot of bands have that. Also, there’s some really heavy bands, death metal bands or hard-core bands that they don’t have any melodies.  There are a lot of Swedish bands that have made it internationally, but I don’t have a clue why really.

SFL Music Magazine: Will there be any more new videos released from COME this MADNESS?

Michaeli: Yes. There is a new video coming out I would guess the beginning of September and that’s a song called “Scandinavian Eyes”. We released two videos “One on One” and “The Cult of Ignorance”. Third one will be “Scandinavian Eyes” and then we’ll probably have a ballad coming out in maybe October, “This Time of Year” it’s called.

SFL Music Magazine: What inspired “The Cult of Ignorance”?

Michaeli: I read something by; it’s an author and biochemist professor guy called Isaac Asimov. He had this expression called ‘the cult of ignorance’ and it just stuck in my head, and so I wrote a lyric sort of based on that and what he’s written about. Then I had this riff, the guitar riff, and I had most of the song except for the solos. So, Joey added some lyrics and the solo. It’s just one of those songs that started with a phrase, ‘the cult of ignorance’, and then it just moved on really smooth. It took me probably one or two days to write the whole thing.

SFL Music Magazine: “Scandinavian Eyes” has a bit of an orchestral intro as well. What influenced that song?

Michaeli: That was a riff that Joey and John had as well. They had a chorus that didn’t really go all the way. So, he asked me again, “can you write an intro and solo for that song?” So, I wrote the orchestral intro, and we used that as a solo basically as well. Then after that, we kind of changed the chorus to be very similar to the orchestral intro as well. So, it was working, all three of us and also, I have to say, our producer Tom Dalgety, he was really involved in the songwriting. He had some great ideas for that song as well. So, it was the four of us putting that song together with different parts, worked really hard on it, and paid off.

SFL Music Magazine: Was there anything in particular you want fans to know about this new album?

Michaeli: We feel that we have worked really hard on all the songs and everyone in the band is really proud of this. I mean, we’re always proud of the albums we’ve made, but somehow, we feel that this album is for us, something special, and I really hope that can sort of cut through to everyone who’s listening to it as well.