Goran Edman interview about Yngwie Malmsteen

[Wyvern]

Pretty good one. I like Goran's vocals a lot in Karmakanic, Time Requiem, Nikolo Kotzev "Nostradamus" and of course in both Malmsteen albums.

Date : September 2008
Interview made by : Jörgen Holmstedt
Website : www.swedenrockmagazine.com

When Göran Edman left Yngwie Malmsteen in 1992, he hated the guitarist and his behavoir. As Göran a few years later refused to sing on Yngwie Malmsteen´s ”Inspiration” album, Yngwie got so annoyed that he made a prank call to Göran, pretending to be Slash offering him an audition for Guns N Roses. Over the years Göran has started to feel a bit different about his former employer: “Deep inside I actually like Yngwie. And deep inside I think he likes me too. Yngwie is not the hard man you might think”, the singer reveals in his usual honest manner.

Göran Edman takes a break from his recording duties as Burrn! wants the master vocalist to remember his time with Yngwie Malmsteen, which lasted for two albums in 1990-92.
Göran : I´ve just finished the vocals for the third Karmakanic album. I´m really proud of this new one, it´s the best yet. I think it´s gonna be called “Who´s the boss in the factory?”. That´s humour, isn´t it? (laughter)
I wasn´t sure if you wanted to do an interview about your days with Yngwie, as you been so negative and tired of him ever since you left his band.

Göran : The truth is that deep inside I actually like Yngwie, as I know there is a different person than the diva most people get to see. He can be very nice, sensitive and gentle too. And as a guitarist he is absolutely unique. Yngwie is the only guitarist I know with that very special flow in his playing. Even when he plays nonchalant, he still has that natural skill which makes it sound so fit. To me it´s an honour to be on his records, even though I´ve said a lot of negative things about him.

You got the offer to join Yngwie after he heard your vocals on John Norum´s “Total control” album, didn´t you?

Göran : Yes, Yngwie heard the song “Back on the streets” from that album, and liked what he heard. It´s funny, previously that song also gave me the job in John Norum´s band, as he heard my vocals on the demo of the song writer, Vinnie Vincent. Anyway Nigel Thomas, Yngwie´s manager at the time, asked me to fly to Miami for an audition. As I´d been waiting for almost a year for Vinnie Vincent to call me to do the vocals on his third album, which never seemed to happen, I thought I should give it a shot.

What was the audition like?

Göran : First of all Yngwie wanted us to drink some vodka. (laughter)
Then, in the middle of the night, we went into his home studio. He gave me the new song “Save our love” to sing, which ended up on the album “Eclipse”. A lot of the material for the next album had already been written but he didn´t have a band as they had left him after a big drunken fight at a rock club. Anders Johansson, his drummer back then, has told me that he smashed a lot of drinking glasses to the floor at that club and Yngwie was giving the blame. Naturally Yngwie didn´t take kindly to that and sacked Anders on the spot. Jeff Scott Soto too. Otherwise Jeff was going to sing on the next album. Jens Johansson, the keyboard player, had already left for Dio.

What was Yngwie´s reaction, hearing you sing “Save our love” in the middle of the night, having downed a few vodkas?

Göran : He started to hug me again and again. (laughter) “Oh, you sing like a god, the job is yours”, he slurred – and hugged me some more. Then it was a quick trip back to Sweden for me to get ready to start working on the album in Criteria studios in Miami. The studio was already booked as it was meant that the old band would be recording by then. Expensive studio time was running and we had a lot of catching up to do.

But you still didn´t have a complete band, did you?

Göran : No, I was supposed to met Yngwie in London in order to audition two of the guys from Saxon. Before that I told Yngwie about these great players I knew in Sweden: Mats Olausson, the keyboard player, Svante Henryson, the bassist, and Michael von Knorring, the drummer. So before me and Yngwie went to London, I arranged a quick audition with us all in Stockholm. Yngwie seemed to be very pleased with the Swedish guys, but we still went to London as planned where we met the drummer and the bassist of Saxon.

What was their names?

Göran : Sorry, I can´t remember their names. But we only played one and a half song, then Yngwie excused himself and said he needed to visit the mens´ room. As he passed me, he whispered “Let´s leave”. The manager Nigel Thomas had to tell the abandoned Saxon guys it wasn´t going to happen. So that´s how the Swedish line-up we´d tried out in Stockholm became Yngwie´s permanent band.
So you where the one responsible for putting together Yngwie´s band?

Göran : Well, yes, I suppose so. I´ve never made a big thing out it.
I can´t understand why Yngwie would audition guys from a British heavy metal band like Saxon for his neo classical rock music anyway?

Göran : I think it was Nigel Thomas´ idea, being an Englishman himself. Anyway, then we went to Miami and I started to complete some of the new songs. There was a lot of parts missing which I added, like a verse here and there, a few melodies and lots of lyrics. I especially remember the song “Judas” being incomplete and “Motherless child” was just a few lines which I made into a complete lyric.
You didn´t get credits for that one, did you?

Göran : No. I suppose I should have that. At least I got credits for a few songs I worked on. Yngwie often took half of the lyric credits, even though the only thing he did was to decide what the song was going to be called. Like “Faultline”. Yngwie said “This one is called “Faultline” - now write the lyrics for it”. I didn´t know what to write, but at least Yngwie said it should be about earthquakes, which he was very afraid of. That´s why he moved from Los Angeles.
He took half the lyric credits for coming up with just one word?

Göran : Yes (laughter). But I was happy to have a decent job and at least we had some sort of deal going. I felt OK to do some comprimising.

What was it like to record with Yngwie?

Göran : Very time consuming. The “Eclipse” album took six months to complete. Yngwie was very un-organised in those days. Some days he didn´t show up in the studio at all. But Yngwie still demanded me and the rest of the band to be there all the time, in case he felt like working. Then we had to be on the case within seconds. His private life was a mess as he didn´t have a girlfriend then. He visited the rock clubs in the night and there was a lot of partying at his house. He didn´t go to sleep until 8 in the morning, then slept until 5 in the afternoon and showed up in the studio at midnight. By then I might have done vocals all day and he demanded to hear what we had done. There was one time he almost made me broke down in tears.

Let´s hear it.

Göran : It was when we did the following album, “Fire and ice”. I´d just worked my ass off finishing the vocals for the song “I´m my own enemy”. Nigel Thomas was there trying to act as executive producer in order to make Yngwie progress a little. Yngwie dislikes soul and wailing vocals, you always had to stick strictly to his melodies. When I originally recorded that song, I did it with a Stevie Wonder feeling as Nigel Thomas asked me to do that. But Yngwie freaked out when he heard it. “Turn off that shit!” he screamed and demanded a serious talk with me on the spot in another room. “If you wanna sound like a black man, you can do it on a solo album of yours. But when you sing MY songs, you stick to MY melodies. They are like GODGIVEN and therefore NO details can be changed. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!”. So I had to re-do everything after working for a whole day. I was so tired I almost broke into tears. I felt so dissapointed as I went back into the vocal booth.

What do you think of the two albums you did with Yngwie?

Göran : “Eclipse” was the most enjoyable one to do. Yngwie gave me and the rest of the band pretty much creative freedom to do as we liked on that album, he didn´t care that much. Plus we had a very skilled engineer who almost functioned as the co-producer of that album, Tom Fletcher. He had worked with the guys from Yes a lot and was very good at recording back-up vocals. Like on “Faultline” we did massive vocal harmonies. Yngwie was very pleased with the album but as we hit the road we discovered that it was difficult to reproduce what we had done in the studio. Some songs was impossible to perform live, like “Faultline”. So for the next CD, “Fire and ice”, Yngwie said he wanted a more live sounding record. “No more of that fucking over production!”, he yelled.

So you had to have some pre-recorded vocals on stage?

Göran : Yes. But when I think about it, that was mainly for older songs. Like “Heaven Tonight”, the whole intro to that song is almost acapella. We took that vocal intro straight from the “Odyssey” record, so you could clearly hear Joe Lynn Turner´s voice even though I was the singer on stage (laughter).

I understand the “Fire and ice” album took even longer to make.

Göran : Eight months! There was a lot of waiting around for Yngwie to get all his guitar tracks on tape. Back then Yngwie could come to the studio armed with two bottles of wine. He immediately opened one of them and started to drink. During the first half an hour they could get a lot of work done with him, but then he became too drunk. As that happened, it was time for a break. “Let´s go to a restaurant”, Yngwie said and then we would all get drunk.

You have credits for eight lyrics on that CD. Did Yngwie ever give you any feedback on your work?

Göran : Yes, Yngwie was very generous with compliments, both as a singer and with everything else I did. He was supportive. But unfortunately he had a darker side as well, which deeply affected me in a negative way. For instance I had my hair in a ponytail on top of my head during the recording of “Fire and ice”, like a samurai. Yngwie hated that. He wanted us all to look like rock stars even when we were not in the public eye. All of a sudden he ripped off the rubber band that held my hair together. Lots of hair went with it and it really hurt. He yelled that I had to get my act together, in his band you had to look cool 24/7. I became so pissed off, I just left for my hotel room. Then Yngwie called and almost cried on the phone. He begged to be forgiven. He said: “I´m sorry, so sorry, this will not happen again, please. I really beg to be forgiven. Honesty I don´t know why I did that”, he sobbed. So I said OK, I´m not angry with you.

Was he drunk?

Göran : No. I just think he actually cared for the band. It was his family. Deep inside I think Yngwie really like me. Another terrible time I will never forget is when we were about to start the “Fire and ice” tour in 1992 and I had gotten a cold and could hardly sing during rehearsals. Yngwie was furious. We all went our to a fancy Italian restaurant and during the meal Yngwie stood up all of a sudden. He screamed at me, accused me for pretending I was sick and ordered me to sing the full set the following day, otherwise I would get kicked out of the band and be replaced by another singer – pronto! All the guests at the restaurant went quiet and just stared in our direction, gobsmacked.

Could you sing the next day?

Göran : Well, mentally this put a hellish pressure on me. It was a nightmare, it felt like a was falling down a big black hole. I just wanted to disappear. After the meal it was like nothing had happened, everybody was happy and was going to Yngwie´s place for drinks. I was feeling really uncomfortable though. I refused to drink and went out to the van, just sitting there alone and quiet in the backseat. Then all of a sudden Yngwie comes out and start to hug me over and over. “Sorry, I´m so sorry, Göran. I was so stupid, you know I think you are so good and I know you will make it”. Then I burst into tears. I´m crying and crying and Yngwie hugged me and tried to comfort me. “It´s OK, Göran, there´s nothing to worry about”. Yngwie was like a little teddybear. He is not a hard man at all. He has a lot of empathy behind that though facade. He doesn’t really want to hurt people.

How did it work out with your voice then?

Göran : It was difficult but my voice was at least OK as we kicked off with a few warm up club dates on the US east coast. There was a few high notes I couldn´t reach.

Overall you´ve been pretty critical to those two Yngwie albums since leaving him?

Göran : Well, yes, you know, I would have prefered to sound slightly different. In wanted my vocals to have more bottom end, more power, being bigger sounding. I think my voice sounds too nicey, too clean on those CDs. There isn´t that much rock feeling, if you ask me.

I guess Yngwie wanted that kind of smooth sound to try and get American air play?

Göran : Yes, he was trying to get a hit song. In think he was desperate for that, to make it in his new home country. He realised that AOR was how you make it big in the US back then. These days I don´t think Yngwie like those two albums.

What makes you say that?

Göran : He is never using any of those songs on compilation albums. “Bedroom eyes” has been on one Best of CD, but that´s it.

How was the touring then in 1990-92?

Göran : The first tour was bigger than the second where he started to lose a lot of his European market. Ironically he became bigger in Japan by then. Do you know that the “Fire and ice” album was his first real Japanese gold album for a solo record? Earlier on Yngwie always pestered the record company to send him a gold album no matter what, so they sent him some gilden fake award just to make him happy (laughter). We played the Budokan in Tokyo during the 1992 tour, the biggest place we did when I was in the band, 11.000 people. I remember a TV crew was there and I was deadly nervous. I went to the loo four times before I could hit the stage (laughter).

Did you notice in any other way that Yngwie was bigger than ever in Japan in 1992?

Göran : Yes, as soon as I came to Japan, nine o´clock in the morning, Burrn! wanted an exclusive interview with me. I remember all I did was bad mouthing Yngwie in that interview. I was so sick and tired of Yngwie and his insane behavoir by then. He had been so unbelievable disrespectful to people in Indonesia where we´d just been. There´s no use for me telling you the evil things he did to the innocent and very generous Indonesian people, because you just can´t print things like that. I told the poor guy from Burrn that I hated Yngwie´s music and him as a person too, that I rather would like to do something else and the only reason I was singing with Yngwie was because he payed me. It was the totally wrong time to ask me questions about Yngwie.

How did the Burrn! people take that?

Göran : They looked stunned. I´m not sure they even used much of what I´ve said. (laughter). I´m sure the Japanese record label got wind of that I´ve said and they must have passed it on to Yngwie and Nigel Thomas. Basically it was the beginning of the end for me in Yngwie´s band. I was so un-inspired and said the most sarcastic things between the songs.

Like?

Göran : I presented Yngwie after he trashed the guitar on stage with this line: “If he treats his women like the treats his guitars, then it´s really bad”.

Tell me how you quit his band?

Göran : In 1992 Yngwie´s personality started to really get on my nerves. I remember the last gig we ever did together, at a club in Seattle in the summer of that year. We´d done a coast to coast, south to north tour of Northern America including Canada for one and a half month in a bus. We were all pretty fried and one thing I was tired of was those marathon sound checks of three hours where I just had to sit around, waiting to do my bit. Yngwie was always checking his guitars for hours and then all of a sudden, when you least expected it, he would start to play a song and at the same moment I was expected to enter the stage and start to sing. After a long tour like that one the sound tech, a Scottish guy called Kirk, knew exactly where to put the level of my vocals on the mixing desk, so I asked him if it really was necessary for me to do the sound check for his part. He said no, he knew what to do anyway. After a while Yngwie started to play “Bedroom Eyes” and after half the first verse he stopped and went to the mike and screamed: “I want the FUCKING singer on the FUCKING stage right FUCKING now!”. The sound tech said “Maybe you better do it anyway”. So I jumped on stage, went straight up to Yngwie and just stood there staring into his eyes. He stared back and nothing was said. Then I said in anger: “Do you think I´m sort of robot where you can just press a button to sing like some sort of machine at your convenience?! You need to learn that you are dealing with real people of flesh and blood!” Yngwie said nothing he just continued to stare at me. Then he took a guitar pick and stuck it to my forehead, still in silence, still staring into my eyes as he started to play the intro riff to the song. There was no use in arguing. (laughter) So I sang the song in the most ironic way, making a parody of it.

You just wanted to get out of the whole Yngwie thing?

Göran : I think he got that. He had a talk with me afterwards: “Göran, it seems like you do not enjoying singing for me? That´s the feeling I get”. I just said: “Yes, I don´t know, I feel pretty tired”.

So the two of you agreed on going separate ways?

Göran : It was nothing we actually said. I went to Sweden and after a while my salary stopped coming. This was the time when Yngwie had his whole band on a payrole. I got a phone call from Mats Olausson, telling me that Yngwie is going to use an American vocalist. Mats said especially the record label wanted to try something new. I didn´t mind at all. After that last gig in Seattle I actually gave away my stage clothes to a couple of people in the audience. I knew it was over. By then I had also sued Yngwie.

You did that when you were still in his band?

Göran : Yes, the process started during that US tour. I didn´t get my publishing money for the songs I co-wrote so I got myself a lawyer and he and a representative from the Swedish music union got in touch with Nigel Thomas regarding this matter. But he refused to deal with this.

Did Yngwie mention anything about the law suit during the tour?

Göran : No, he made no comments about it. But I´m sure he was informed. Eventually, after five years, I got my money. I threated to drag them to court, and they didn´t want to end up in that situation as they knew I was right.

Around that time, in 1996, Yngwie called you about one song he wanted you to sing on his “Inspiration” album.

Göran : He gave me a few suggestions, like the Kansas song “Carry on wayward son” and some Deep Purple tune. At first I didn´t know what to say, so I told him I´d like to think about it. Eventually I called back and said I wanted 3.000 US dollars for the job plus expences for traveling to Miami and a decent hotel room. Yngwie´s answer was that I was an ungrateful idiot. So I said I wouldn´t do it. A little time passed and then there was a drunken message on my answering machine. It was Yngwie telling me there was a plane ticket waiting at the airport for me. “I recommend you to get over here and sing”, he slurred (laughter). He called me again much later, taking the mickey out of me.

How?

Göran : Someone called me and pretended to be Slash: “Hi, this is Slash from Guns N Roses. Our vocalist Axl Rose has left and we like to know if you would be interested in coming over to do an audition. We´ve heard your stuff with Yngwie and really like it”. Again I didn´t know what to think. I mean, I would hardly fit in Guns N Roses (laughter). So I said I´d put it under consideration and asked the guy to call me again. Which never happened. Then I heard from a friend that it was Yngwie being drunk with a few friends, coming up with the grand idea of making a prank call to me.

What do you expect from his new album?

Göran : Is there a new one coming? I haven´t got a clue (laughter) Who is singing? “Ripper”, the guy from Judas Priest? I´ve never heard the guy. He sings like Rob Halford, you say? I wouldn´t know if that suits Yngwie. I have no expectations at all. I´ve not heard any of the albums Yngwie has done since I left. Just a song or two on the radio, I think. It was with Doogie White, he sounded good. Also, come to think about it, I´ve heard a few songs Yngwie did with Mats Levén on vocals. Mats sounds good, a powerful voice much better suited for Yngwie´s music than mine. I´m not a natural high pitched singer. I had to push myself to sing that high. Mark Boals is the best natural tenor for Yngwie´s music, at least in my mind. He has a very clean voice. Jeff Scott Soto was good too, with that raspy rock voice. And Joe Lynn Turner of course. That album Joe sang on, “Odyssey”, didn´t sound like the typical Malmsteen album. Very commercial with lots of influences from Turner. Sounds excellent.

It seems like you´ve made the decision to never work with Yngwie again?

Göran : That used to be my decision, but now I don´t know how I would react if Yngwie called me and wanted me to sing on an album. If we could do it differently and not the same old style again, then maybe. But no touring, absolutely no tour.