Europe were so pleased with the response they got on the 'Start from the Dark' Tour 2004/2005 that they began to write a new album just as the tour was coming to a close. Those writing sessions went on to become 'Secret Society' and what a killer album it is. Still retaining the heavier, more modern guitar driven sound, this album is a lot more melodic than its predecessor. I was given the golden opportunity to sit down face to face with Joey Tempest in a quiet London pub near Richmond, and for moral support I brought along my good friend Mike who is probably the most informed Europe fan in the world. Joey was in fine form and overstayed the allotted time by 60 minutes, for which we will be forever grateful to him. He certainly has a lot of stories, and likes to talk, as you will see from the results – let the marathon begin!!

Hi Joey, it's a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on another amazing album. When did you start pulling ideas together for this one?

We started just after we came off the 'Start from the Dark' tour. We really didn't know what to expect from the audiences, but they gave us such a good welcome in all the countries we visited. We felt very humbled and happy that we thought we'd get a new album out as soon as possible, basically because we wanted to get back on the road again as soon as possible. So the first demos were in November 2005 in the studio in Stockholm; one was 'Human After All', one was 'Mother's Son', and 'Almost the Pretenders' was among them. Then I went to London, John Norum went to LA and the other guys were in Sweden and we worked separately for a while. Mic sent me a bunch of ideas, four of them were great, which are on the album now. John sent me two or three, and those are all on the album, so for a while we were sending stuff around to each other, doing overdubs and writing in studios for a while, then we met up a few months before the recording at the beginning of the summer.

'Start from the Dark' took 40 days – how long did this one take?

It took 60 days to do everything. We put a deadline of August 3rd to do the mastering in New York, so we knew we had to be finished in time. We worked a bit harder on this one, day and night, because we wanted to take it to a new dimension – we wanted it to be a little bit better than Start from the point of view of sound and songs, and we are very happy with the results. We think it's one of the strongest albums that Europe has ever done. There is definitely some more melodic stuff on this one. 'Start from the Dark' was very raw and made a statement, which is cool but for us it felt like a debut album in a way, so we wanted to branch out a bit on this one and take it to new levels.

Was that the theme behind 'Start...'? Was it about new beginnings?

Yes, automatically. I just wrote the lyrics there and then, with us getting back together and everything. There was a lot of energy from the band, whereas 'Secret Society' is more reflections about the world as a whole, and what happened to the band during these years. It's perhaps a bit more spiritual, with lyrics about faith and where to find faith. I think it's the first Europe album with more depth to the lyrics.

The three tracks that you've mentioned already were very personal songs – any particular reason why those three came first in that period between the two albums?

Yes, they are personal. I felt that it would be nice to take 'Start...' to a more spiritual level and be a bit more reflective in the lyrics. Start was more straightforward, so, yeah, maybe you're right, maybe that was a more conscious thing. Then after those songs the ideas from the others came in and then I get drawn to other things. When the idea of 'Forever Travelling' came from Mic, he had a verse and a riff, and I had a chorus, and we put it together and then automatically it started to sound like American AOR music, and I thought this was great – it could be a tribute to Journey, so that's how that happened. And musically it just drew me there, you know? That happens sometimes when the guys send me ideas. For example John sent me the idea of 'The Getaway Plan', it reminded me of something darker, a nightmare I'd had a long time ago. When I write by myself it's a little bit more personal, but if I work with someone it automatically goes in another direction.

So would you say your songwriting process has evolved somewhat since the eighties?

I wrote most of the stuff in the eighties. In the beginning John Norum was more interested in doing his solos. He wasn't that interested in writing. I remember when we started the band Force we were playing covers in the rehearsal room, because we just wanted to learn our instruments, like all bands, then one day I said maybe we should do our own stuff. Nobody had any ideas, so I brought mine into the rehearsal room, and that is when we started writing our own stuff. John has always been supportive, but now he has developed into one of the band's songwriters because he has done so many solo albums, and Mic has done some stuff as well, so it's just natural that everybody chips in. They weren't so interested in writing at first, but now they are. As for me, it's great to have the input.

So where else do you find your inspiration for your lyrics?

Living in London. My last solo album was more London based. In the last few years, Ian's Mum passed away and Mic's Dad passed away, so that started a whole way of thinking as well, so we ended up with'Mother's Son' and maybe some other tracks touch upon that. Also, events around the world. I've been through three bombings now. I was living in East London during the Canary Wharf bomb, and it shook the whole building, man! That was my first brush with that – it was crazy. I was still in London for 9/11 and it touched me and my wife very deeply. We went to the Embassy with flowers and everything. And then of course there's 7/7 last year so those events have also crept into my lyrics in a few places. Not much, more a reflection about it, it's not in any way a political record or anything, but I think we are getting better at observing things that happen and putting them into the lyrics. 'The Final Countdown' was great, but we were all so young then, and Swedish as well. Our English may not have been that great, so what we found as cool expressions became our lyrics. I liked that, but we've taken a step further since those days.

How did you arrive at the decision to make 'Secret Society' the title track of the album?

It was quite ironic actually. I was in a pub in London, and a television programme was scheduled to call me up because Robert Plant was a guest on the show. They called me because I'd mentioned that Robert Plant was one of my heroes. Luckily I'd met Robert before backstage at one of his gigs, so I knew him a little bit and he remembered me, so he was asking what we were up to, and I told him we were going to America to tour 'Start from the Dark', and he said that's great – all bands should keep gong and stick together and it's like a secret society. So that's where it all came from – it's like a bond of musicians. He said it as a throw away comment, but I remembered it and told the band and they thought it was a cool title for the album. Then I went on to write the song, and the song is very different. It was written very quickly. I was looking for an opening song, really, just like I did on 'The Final Countdown', I was looking for something that would be great to open the album or the show, and that's why that song might be a little bit different to the other songs. You need to think a bit differently when you want to make a special track for a show opener, but that track is very much a tribute to the seventies, you know, one riff, a kind of AC/DC thing with a modern twist.

You've said that 'Always the Pretenders' is about 9/11. Are you prepared to go into the contents of the telephone call that you said you got that day?

Well, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, but I can just say it was a very close friend calling me that day, but it was the idea of it was the person calling me said there had been an accident and it's on the TV – I was in the studio at the time. I went to watch it, and I called him back and said "That's no accident". The innocence that was lost in that person was amazing - the younger generation that don't know that there would ever be a situation where people could do a deliberate act like this. I felt that the last drop of innocence disappeared that day. But the song is also an uplifting song for me, because it's kind of a love song, too, but that song and 'Wish I Could Believe' talks about the reactions after these things happen, to find faith in other places, your loved one or your family, because sometimes you lose faith in religion because it's just too crazy.

It's interesting that there is a boys' choir singing on 'Let the Children Play'. How did this come about?

Actually, it's connected to England in a way, because the boy is 10 years old. He is called Archie. His Dad is a guitar player and a good friend of mine, and his son is a singer in a choir. So I called Adam and asked if Archie would sing on it. He wasn't sure, but I said I'd send him the song so he could send me a few lines back. I was looking for an English accent – it's much better for a boys' choir than an American accent, or any accent at all, for that matter. So he sent it back, and I played it to the guys in the band and they said it sounds great. They put it on 10 more times, so what you hear is 11 Archie's (laughs).

Do you have a personal favourite track on 'Secret Society'?

Right now, it's the first two tracks – I really like those and keep going back to them., but it's amazing to have songs like 'Wish I Could Believe' and also 'Brave and Beautiful Soul' which is almost like a U2 track. In fact, the band make fun of me because I've been living in London for such a long time, they say that song was definitely inspired by English music culture (hums the riff) – it's kind of an odd track. English rock music takes more chances, so that's one track that was definitely influenced by me living here.

Yes, I thought I recognised a U2 influence ...

Yes, I think so, I like U2 a lot, lyrically and musically. That song maybe sounds a bit more like U2, because it's driven by the bass (hums the bass riff).

I'm sure Adam Clayton would be proud of that. Have you ever met the band?

Yes, we have a funny story about Larry (Mullen, drums). We were staying at the Sunset Marquee in Los Angeles on the Final Countdown tour and U2 was there, filming the Joshua Tree movie, I think it was. Ian was sitting reading his newspaper and Larry Mullen came up to him - Ian didn't know who it was. The guy says "Are you from Europe?" Ian says "yes". Then he says "I really like your new stuff – it's great". Ian said "Oh great, thanks" and went back to his newspaper and Larry walked off. Then U2 met up in the lobby and Ian said "What the hell, that's U2 – I just spoke with the drummer," then he got really embarrassed! Luckily Larry's a really friendly guy, so Ian didn't make a fool of himself (laughs).

(Meanwhile Mike has found the Oxford English dictionary definition of Secret Society). "An organisation whose members are sworn to secrecy about its activities."

That's it! So we can't tell too much, we can't give away too much. The cover might have some surprises in it as well. I love the picture on the cover. We used Storm Thorgerson – the guy who did Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, UFO and all those famous rock album covers. He was quite pleased with it himself, and he said if any journalist asks what the hell it is, just tell them that I'm completely mad!

It might be reading too much into it, but it's quite interesting that the guy is facing into a corner, completely blind to everything going on.

The thing is that we gave Storm some demos and he did some drawings and brought them to the band, and everybody pointed to this one because we loved it and thought it was a fantastic combination – the cover and Secret Society as the title – so we've just finished it and it looks really good on the CD. Some of the guys in the band even said it was the first time we've ever had a good cover (laughs).

Yeah, John's never liked the other covers ...

(laughs) No, but actually everybody's agreeing that we were never really so much into the covers, more into the music, and we would just put something together quickly, but this time we put some thought into it.

Does the new cover feature the new band logo?

Yes, but it's not on the picture itself as Storm doesn't like to do that because it's a piece of art, and as soon as you put a logo on it, you date it because of the font, the style, the name of the band, anything. He's putting a book together with all his covers that he's ever done. We are really proud of that.

Why did you decide to change the logo?

We thought our logo was a little bit too 80's. We're probably going to change it again a little bit from album to album. We're just going to use logos that fit the project, fit the album and the music. We also like the new logo because the way it's written it almost looks like Eastern Europe, the blocked letters. There are a lot of things going on in Europe, you know, a lot of countries coming together and we thought it would be a good idea to modernise it. We're not letting the old logo go, you can still get it on t-shirts and merchandise and everything, but it might vary a bit. We've also noticed new English bands, for example Audioslave – their logo is very straight forward. It's about the music, not about the logo. As soon as you make the logo too flamboyant, you pinpoint the time completely. Our original logo was done in 1982 by the drummer's brother, so it's quite old, and we like it, but we also want to keep it a bit fresh.

This is the first album you've produced entirely yourselves. What was the motivation behind this decision?

We were thinking about it before 'Start from the Dark' but we weren't sure. We used Kevin on that album, he's a great friend, great to work with and very talented. But we realised during that recording that we could do it ourselves, but on the condition that we'd get the rest of the production team involved with us. That's a mistake that bands often make - sometimes when I hear that a band's going to produce their own album, I think it's so easy to get too involved in it, then you might choose to maybe engineer it, then you get involved in mixing. So we just said let's just concentrate on the songs, and let the professionals do the rest. That way it worked for us and everybody in the band is extremely happy that we pulled it off. But it was much harder work than 'Start from the Dark', I can tell you. We even slept at the studio. It's easy to have producers tell you what to do, but this time we were doing it ourselves at the same time as being creative. We were in a big studio in Stockholm, we started out in one room, and ended up using three more. Mic and I were in one room, Ian and programming in another, John and the engineer in the third room doing solos and then a fourth studio where the mixing was going on, so it was like a conveyor belt in a factory. We had deadlines and we had to work really hard, but we seem to work well like that – sort of creative chaos.

Why did you decide to go back to Stockholm?

We did the last two albums in Stockholm – firstly it's for practical reasons, because three of the guys live there, and I live in London and John is in LA, so it was easier to get everybody to Stockholm – there's only one person with jetlag (laughs). John takes about three weeks to get over his jetlag. It's a sort of confidence thing as well. We had lost touch a little with our roots. We had lived in America too long and had got used to that American sound, and before long we started hearing it in our music and it's not so good. So that's one of the reasons why we wanted to do it back home, to have a connection to where we started, the sound we like.

Back to 1986, it was well publicised at the time that John left the band due to differences in opinion over the band's musical direction. What was the reality of that old clichι?

Well, if you ask him he would say a combination of things. He didn't get on with the management - I remember he didn't like them at all. We started out as a rock band, we did two albums before '... Countdown', inspired by British rock. But then we ended up with an American producer and the guitars were lower in the mix. John is such an exceptional musician that these things really affected him. When we mix a record he'll be checking the guitar levels of every track, and he can't sleep if it's not right. '... Countdown' was mixed in LA with Kevin and none of us was involved in the process. We liked the album, of course, but we also realised that it was very keyboard oriented and featured less guitars. That was definitely a reason for John to start thinking "I wonder where this is heading - I don't think I can do this." He likes more aggressive music – he's into Black Label Society, Audioslave, Velvet Revolver. He is our anchor with the heavier side of music. I'm more the melodic tunesmith that wants to put everything together, so he and I are a great combination. Unfortunately back then we simply stopped communicating and that was the biggest mistake we made - we will both agree with that. We were a rock band thrown into a pop world, because that's what happened with 'The Final Countdown'. Our dream had always been to be like Thin Lizzy or Deep Purple, just a hard working touring band, then all of a sudden we were doing hundreds of playback shows without playing, and John didn't like it because he didn't get to play. I got to sing sometimes, on singback shows, so for me sometimes it was okay, but he didn't get to play and all the promotion got to be too much. So I put it down to a rock band being thrown into the pop world. Survival in that situation is not easy, because everyone wants a piece of you, and you've got 20 photo sessions per day, and John just didn't like it. He's changed a lot though, and now he goes around with me doing promotions everywhere and plays acoustic on radio shows with me, so he doesn't mind that side of it so much now ...

Was reconciliation ever involved or did you keep in touch?

For the first few years we didn't speak, but he sent me his solo albums – he always does. Then I sang on one of his solo albums, and he played on one of mine, and we called each other all the time to see what we were doing. I have to say it was always in the back of our minds that we'd get back together again, because the bonds were too strong. I mean, I saw him playing when he was 14 years old, when he was already a wizard. There was only him and Yngwie Malmsteen that was really good at the time, but John was more my taste, because he was more into songs as well. Yngwie was more into his soloing! I was asked by Yngwie if I wanted to sing with him, but I said I had a new band, so wanted to concentrate on that. So the bonds were too strong for us not to start up again. It's a good chemistry.

Given Yngwie's track record with vocalists, I bet you're glad now that you didn't get involved?

(laughs) Yes, I meant that "no thanks". That was a good decision.

You called time just as grunge was stabbing the eighties in the back – were you starting to feel the effects of that particular musical "genre" at all?

We felt the effects from our label. We had a huge contract with Sony in New York. Two things we noticed were that we couldn't make any live albums, they wouldn't allow us. We also felt that when bands like Nirvana were on the horizon that they changed their whole policy, and that's the problem with those big labels. I think we drifted apart quite quickly from them. I think it was good timing in a way, because even we thought the eighties was a bit over produced and over blown in certain ways. In 1989 we were with Guns and Roses in Tokyo and I saw a change in front of me. I just thought "This band is amazing". They don't even have a set list, their live show is terrible, they look like shit, but the kids are loving it! Two nights before we played with them we played another show and some of the guys from Guns were there looking at us, and then we went to look at them when they played, and the contrast was quite big. You could see the shift in the music world right there. Back then there was no internet, no word of mouth, because it would have been easier then for the fans to stay in contact with the band, but the only contact with the band was through the record company, and the scene had changed.

Then, in 92 when we did our last world tour I felt that I wanted to make a solo album as I'd been with the band for 10 years and really needed to do something completely different. And the band was okay with that, but everybody got the impression that we were splitting up, which we weren't. We were always talking on the phone together. But then I did two more solos, and the other guys started playing with other artists, Glenn Hughes etc, plus they were enjoying their home life, too, which they'd not had much time for before. So nobody was in a rush to get back together, it sort of took a bit of time, but the millennium show triggered it because it was easy to get everybody together. That night we all said this is our life – this is what we want to do. Then it was just a matter of a few contract issues, I had my last solo album to do and John had to do the Dokken album (Up from the Ashes), so we couldn't immediately start out again. We had a meeting in 2003 at Mic's place in Stockholm, and we agreed we'd start over again and do it properly, and that we were in this for the long haul. We'd concentrate on the music and not go near the big labels. Now we have the control. We were so young when we got our big contract and we didn't have a clue. It was great at the time because we were the first big signing from Sweden, but it's a different story now.

Was there ever any debate over whether it would be Kee or John to come back on guitar?

Well there was no doubt that we wanted John back, and John wanted to get back. For me it was important to get that spark going again that we had before. I like Kee, he is very talented, but we'd been talking to Kee on the first tour about maybe doing the two guitars thing, but in some way it felt like Kee was a bit busy - he is a producer, song writer, he has his band K2, whereas John is very focused on one thing. Basically I felt that Kee was too busy to commit 100%, because we wanted to be back in 100%, so it didn't happen.

Back to the present, I think you can be credited with having a sense of immaculate timing, as you've come back just as the melodic rock scene is healthy, productive and credible again.

Yes, that's just coincidence, really, because we weren't planning it to happen that way.

You've been subjected to some criticism from your "diehard" fans who are saying the new material is not Europe, and yet there are people who are out there who appreciate the heavier stuff but then say they don't like it because it's not "cool" to like Europe. How was the response generally on the 'Start from the Dark' tour?

We were happy with the response from 'Start from the Dark', but we realised that there were two camps – 'I love old Europe' versus 'I love new Europe', and that's great, you know. We decided to keep our forum quite open, and there's a lot of mudslinging sometimes about the old versus the new stuff but we like it because at least the band is being talked about! Hopefully the old fans will stick with us and we get new ones along the way. But the main thing is we're doing exactly what we want to do, because if we'd come back to do an eighties album, we'd have stopped after one. We get bored by doing stuff we've done before, so for us it's because we want to be creative and move forward, and of course we're going to upset some people who really love songs like 'Carrie' etc, but we play those songs anyway – we love playing those songs live, so we carry them with us all the time, but we have to develop otherwise we wouldn't be doing it.

At the moment you've sold around 600,000 copies of'Start from the Dark'. What is your expectation for 'Secret Society'?

I didn't think it was that much – oh good (laughs). I think we'll sell more of the new album than the last one – I hope so anyway. We've lost the surprise factor now, we can't ride on the "We're back" kind of thing. We knew that with the tour as well, that's why we're careful with the venues we choose – we've downsized because we don't want to play venues with huge empty spaces. So we're doing the rock thing now – now the hard work starts. We're very confident, though, because we know we have a better album, so for us we have succeeded anyway. The business is changing too, so I don't think rock bands will sell more on CD, I think it will be less and less. But now we have Youtube, Myspace and our own website which is being re-designed right now and in a few weeks will be up. You can listen and buy music there, so it's kind of a new world anyway.

Pontus Norgren is a highly respected musician in his own right, but you had him as sound engineer for the 'Start...' tour. How did you get him involved?

He's a talented musician, he's a talented mixer, actually my personal point of view is that sound engineering is what he is strongest at. He's really, really good.

Is John still doing his solo projects?

Yes, he is. He actually agreed to a Japanese deal even before we started back. He's happy with that, and I'm happy with it too because I don't want him to feel like he did last time where he's restricted with his playing. If he wants to do a blues record or a classic rock album or anything, then it's great for him to do it, because then he will enjoy being with us even more.

I couldn't do it – I can't run two projects at once. Anyway, Europe is night and day for me now, so it could never happen that I would do another solo album. But for John, he's a player, so he needs to play. But actually, he got to play so much on this Europe album he's really quite content and he said he doesn't feel the urge to do another solo album.

I think 'Devil Sings the Blues' is some of the best soloing I've heard from him.

Oh, absolutely. He loves it! It was the last solo, and he did something completely different to what he usually does. He invited people into his studio, had a couple of beers ... he wanted to see how they did it in the old days! A lot of bands had people in the studios when they worked – roadies, women (laughs). So he warmed up for it, like 19 or 20 times, then did it in one take. He's kept his classic rock influence on this album. He didn't go on his speed metal licks or anything, he played a bit of blues here and there, beautiful melodic solos – just great.

You've got some Scandinavian shows lined up, concentrating on Sweden, obviously. What other tour plans are being considered for 'Secret Society'?

Scandinavia will be before Christmas. After Christmas the first date of the European tour will be the 16th January, and I don't know where it is. They're booking it right now. I suspect we will do a month in Europe then, hopefully including England, plus all the usual countries, Germany, Holland, Spain. On the last record we went to Japan, UK and USA in the spring, then did summer festivals, and we're going to try to do the same with this one. It all depends with what the agency comes up with. After the summer it will be a year, so that's probably enough, then we'll start thinking about the next album.

Are you planning to record any of the 'Secret Society' shows?

Yes, we're going to record a lot. We did that on 'Start from the Dark' and we're beginning to release some extra tracks now. Japan has got 'Start from the Dark' in Tokyo Live, iTunes America have got 'Paris' and the European release of the single 'Always the Pretenders' will have two live tracks from BB King's in New York. We want to do a live album as well on this tour. The website is going to be so developed that we might be able to show live gigs there.

Would you ever consider releasing the definitive live album, a kind of Europe 'Live and Dangerous' or 'Strangers in the Night'?

Oh, those live albums were our favourites. And 'Made in Europe' is where I got the name of the band from. But in the eighties we were turned down by our record company, and on the last tour we thought it was enough with 'Live from the Dark', the DVD, so we thought we'd get one more album under the belt then it would be great to do a live album. So we are definitely talking about it, even though the market for live albums may not be the best.

Do you get together before a tour starts to do some rehearsing and "bonding" and how long do you need?

We rehearse every day for 2-3 weeks non stop, then for the last four days we go into a bigger rehearsal space with more lights etc.

Are you planning to use pyrotechnics and special effects?

We're going to use some and our lighting guy has come up with some great ideas. But we'll not use them on every gig – it depends on the venues, too.

The lighting at the Hammersmith Show on 'Live from the Dark' was spectacular ...

Yes, it was really good, especially if you were there. I think it wasn't captured 100% on the DVD, but we're gong to make sure next time that it's all captured properly.

Sum up your bandmates in one word for each member ...

John Norum – explosive
John Leven – reflective
Mic – diplomatic
Ian – there are so many words for that guy (laughs) but I think "humour" would be good

And how about yourself?

Oh, I'm the one with the blind faith. I have complete faith in the band. John says I have fire in my belly. Oh, I don't know, maybe "driven" is the right word. I like to drive things forward.

Speaking of driving, I understand you did some karting in your time, are you still into motorsport?

My brother does a bit of motocross and a bit of karting. He was the one who continued with it. I drove karts and competed between the age of 10 and 14 I think, but then music took over, and when my dad saw that I'd lost interest he focussed on my brother instead. But I managed to do a bit of damage ... I got some prizes in my time. I liked it, but I had other missions – girls and music came into my life, and I just couldn't do anything else!

Do you follow Formula 1 at all?

Yes, I really like it. I would have to say my favourite driver of the moment is Fernando Alonso. And Raikkonen, too, of course. He's Finnish and we have the Scandinavian connection.

What is your opinion on the download generation – are Europe albums available on iTunes?

Yes, you can get 'Start from the Dark' and all the older stuff as well. I think it's really good, at least it's controlled, and it's not too overpriced. When albums leak though, that's a different story, because it happens a lot. Iron Maiden had a super secret military campaign to fly in journalists rather than send out copies. I would just like to find out if that system worked, because if it did, they are the only band to make it work. Sometimes bands will leak it deliberately, but most of the time they want to keep to one release date and not have it leaked beforehand. But I have a theory about that. If you have a leaked album, it could work as promotion for you. On the other hand if it's not such a good album, it could kill your reputation. It would be nice if everything happened on one day like it used to in the old days. But if you look at what you've got at home – look at your cassette tapes! We copied stuff back then, and nobody ever counted what we were doing. There might have been a lot more copying going on than was ever credited. I think people of our generation anyway are more into having the "real thing". I download maybe one or two tracks to check something out, but I end up buying the CDs anyway.

I know you're a long time Thin Lizzy fan, as are the rest of your bandmates, and you've often said that your treasured memory was making the trip to Hammersmith in the eighties to see the band. Did you ever get the chance to meet Philip?

Yes, I did, but not at the Hammersmith show. We did wait outside for a while, around the corner. We never really used to ask for autographs and stuff, we just wanted to see them. But they were partying at the venue. And now, having played Hammersmith, we know what it's like. You don't leave, you start partying in the rooms up there, and you don't come out. But I did meet him two years later, in 1984. They were doing a secret gig in a club called Garage in Stockholm. He was standing in the corner by himself, looking a bit sad. He used to do this because the girls would come up to him. I've been using that trick lately myself (laughs). Anyway, I had the courage to go up to him, even though I was really nervous, so I said to him "You're a great singer, Phil, but what made you sing and play the bass – why did you never have a singer in the band?" I didn't know what else to ask! He first of all thanked me for the compliment, then began mentioning names of people he had been inspired by, but I can't remember who they were or exactly what his answer was. He looked so tired and he was mumbling his words a bit.

Do you write while you're on the road?

We have tried before, and we are going to try again. But what's easier on the road is to maybe film a bit of the shows and send to the website, contact the forum – things like that are easy to do on the road. Being creative is more difficult. I'm much better at being creative when I have time off when I can reflect on the last album and the tour, call the guys etc. I'll come up with lyric ideas – I always put my lyric ideas on my mobile, send them to myself or just save them in there. I also record ideas on my acoustic guitar straight into it. Then when I come home I check to see if there's anything good in there.

Have you replaced the excesses of the eighties with internet sessions on tour now?

Ah, yes, there's always a computer going. Ian and Mic are really good at that. I'm usually a bit trashed after a gig, but they usually go into a room and hook up and check the forum and send things around. I wrote some tour diaries last time round in New York.

Yes, I've read the tour diaries, and even though the writer is not revealed until the end, I could tell which ones were yours – yours are so lyrical, so detailed.

Yes, that can be a problem, because as soon as I start writing, I can take all day! Ian and Mic are quicker than me, but of course we all leave messages for the fans.

Do you answer questions from the fans personally?

So far we haven't got a question and answering thing going. We check our forum, and if we see something that we want to react to, we just send it out in news, or we'll do a general response. But we might do a Q&A in the future, actually, that might be a good thing to do, maybe once a month. Or maybe live chat, but you need someone to control that. The ones I've done were good, because there was someone centrally checking everything to send onwards, and they delayed them a little bit, so you had some time to respond. They actually screen the questions as well, and the idiot questions get deleted immediately.

You're obviously very conscious of the 20th anniversary of ‘The Final Countdown', with the release of the DVD. Are you also conscious that the 25th Anniversary of the band is coming up next year?

Yes, the 20th Anniversary, to start with, is from Warner's not from our record company. They approached us and we said well it's an old gig, but okay. We're not that excited about the actual gig but to do something to celebrate the 20th anniversary was okay. What we were interested in was the interviews, so that we could talk about us, the new stuff, and also revisiting Powerplay studios in Zurich which was quite fun, actually. Have you seen it? (NO). Ah, that's one thing that hasn't leaked, anyway! We'd had a couple of beers and were walking around the studio, and Ian was filming me and we found the old piano that we did Carrie on, we found the room where we recorded the drums, we found where we slept and ate and everything else. So all of that's on the DVD - there's some fun stuff on there. Some of the interviews are good – John Norum and I talk about that period around the time of ‘Final Countdown'. You can order the DVD on the internet, or you can get it through our site.

I notice you've picked up a bit of a London accent? Did you find when you lived in Ireland you picked up an Irish accent?

No, but I'm always interested in different accents and different places. We spent a lot of time in LA as well doing ‘Prisoners in Paradise' so that's when I started having a broader American accent, then I came back to England and now the English accent is slowly creeping in again. I can't help it – but I like English better than the American accent. I like the mix – people in taxis can't pinpoint where I'm from – they think it's Canada, sometimes America. But lately they haven't been asking me so much where I'm from, so I have to take that as a compliment that I speak good English (laughs).

So do you live around this area of London?

Yes, Olympia studios is near to here, and I do some editing and stuff there because it's close. I'm closer to Heathrow than to here, actually. I used to be in East London (Wapping), but that was too much. There is a big Swedish community around this area, and a Swedish school.

Finally, what's in the future for Europe?

Well, all of us have made a decision – a pact – that we want to make a real go of things again as far as building up the catalogue and pushing the limits with the music, and maybe on the next album we can push it a bit more.

So, there you have it. Europe are back, and the fact that the band is in it for the long haul this time round means that we can look forward to seeing and hearing much more from them. After this interview was completed, the announcement came through for the British dates in February. Needless to say I will be at one or two of those shows. Be sure to check the bands official website www.europetheband.com for updates, and enjoy the album!!