PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
This is Lee Walker from www.PlanetMosh.com conducting an interview with the band Bonafide
Lee – For those people out there who are just discovering Bonafide as a result of this festival appearance how did the band come into being?
Pontus – We started off late 2006 as a side project to my solo career, I wanted to play heavier music, my own stuff was like country/Americana stuff. That quickly became the opposite this is the main band now.
Lee – Why did you pick the name Bonafide for your band ?
Pontus – Because of my two biggest heros, John Bonham and Bon Scott
Lee – What bands/artists have been your main influences over the years ?
Pontus – All the classic rocks acts
Lee– Do any stand out?
Pontus – All the British good bands
Mikael – We’re quite British actually (all laugh)
Pontus – For being Swedish we’re quite British
Niklas – Spiffing! (laughter)
Pontus – And of course we love the blues like muddy waters
Mikael – Status Quo, AC/DC, Humble Pie, The Who, Human League, Pet Shop Boys…all the British Bands (laughter)
Lee – I believe this is the first time you have played in the UK what do you make of it so far?
Pontus – Fantastic. We did a warm up yesterday in Chester at Brookers bar, was really good for a Thursday night. The crowd was cheering us. Today our acoustic set was fantastic, a really good response.
Lee – In terms of the bands playing Hard Rock Hell this weekend what ones are you looking forward to watching the most?
Pontus- Dan Baird and Homemade Sin,
Mikael -Dan Baird, Quireboys, Black Stone cherry and in a while we are going to watch Raven Vandelle with some mates from Birmingham
Lee – You have a new studio album out next year. Can you tell us anything about it?
Mikael – Well we could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you! (laughter). It’s a couple of really, really good songs …
Pontus – …11 of them…
Mikael – …Yeah 11 of them, written by Pontus solely this time
Pontus – We’re gonna record it like a live recording, like the good old bands used to do in the 70’s, not the vocals live of course, but take down the rhythm tracks all together, like a live performance to get the real feel on the songs, that’s the main thing. Its gonna sound fantastic.
Lee – How do you think it compares with your earlier releases?
Pontus – I think its gonna be the best one, of course you always say that, but last time around some of the songs were written just prior to recording, this time I’ve had a couple of years writing the songs so some of the songs are 2 years, old almost 3 years old, so we do them over and over again some of the best ones of all the songs I’ve written. Its gonna be a great album.
Mikael – But we’re pretty sure we know that Bonafide is all about, so its gonna be a Bonafide album. Its gonna sound like Bonafide. Your immediately going to tell it’s a Bonafide album.
Lee – “Fill your head with rock” is huge over here right now. How did the song come about ?
Pontus – Its actually the slogan for Sweden Rocks Festival. Our first CD was signed by Sweden Rock when they used to have a record company as well, so they asked me to write a song that’s called “Fill Your Head With Rock”, do anything you want with it, they want to have it on a CD for all the tenants that bought 4 day tickets so they got a CD as a special bonus treat, so it was us and a couple of other bands recording a song called “Fill Your Head With Rock” but various songs. I wrote it and came up with this, so I wrote it for Sweden Rocks Festival
Lee – Do you have any plans for any tours or any festival appearances?
Pontus – Yeah, we’re probably coming back to the UK in March or April and then we hopefully can release at least the single in the spring and maybe a video or the whole album if we’re quick.
Mikael – Of course we’d hope to play some festivals over here next summer
Lee – Any idea which ones?
Pontus – Nothing set in stone right now.
Niklas – I can imagine myself playing Download
Martin – We’ve playing some Swedish ones coming up, like Sweden Rock and some other big ones. Hopefully England to and the rest of Europe.
Niklas – High Voltage festival would be fantastic, but you never know.
Lee – Are there any bands from the rock/metal scene do you recommend keeping any eye on right now ?
Pontus – A lot of good bands, The Rival Sons are really good new band.
Mikael – Yeah The Rival Sons for sure. Are they called Electric Mary (yeahs pop up from the other band members) that’s a really cool band.
Martin – From Australia? (again more Yeahs)
Niklas – I keep hearing this song on Planetrock Radio
Martin start to sing Your Beautiful by James Blunt (more laughing)
Niklas – But I can’t remember the band or the name of the song, but I think it’s a British band
Martin – So you might want to move on (more laughing)
Niklas – There’s actually a good band if your into to Meshuggah and that kind or type of music there’s a really good band from Sweden called C B Murdoch who are going to be the new thing, insane musicians like Meshuggah but its fucking spiffing (laughter)
Martin – Meshuggah does Billy Joel (laugh)
Lee – Are there any messages that you would like to pass on to your fans ?
Niklas – We hope to see you out there when were fighting to become fluently touring (laughter)
Pontus – We are very grateful to be here in Britain and to be able to get the chance to tour again, it’s a dream come true for me personally and for the band as well, we are very glad that people come to our shows, so thank you.
Niklas – Its not an easy country to conquer but we’re gonna do our best (laughter)
Follow Bonafide on:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/22826442414/
Or the internet: http://www.bonafiderocks.com/
