Full transcript
0:00[Music]
0:01this is a full bloom interview with
0:03guitarist
0:04andy larock inside the album king
0:06diamond
0:07abigail more info at fullanbloom.com
0:11tell me about sonic train studios it's
0:13like a legit working studio you have
0:16right it is man i mean i've been on this
0:18location for about
0:1914 years now you know i had the studio
0:22up in gothenburg
0:23with a different name and i was
0:26up there for about 12 or 13 years before
0:30moving down here is about one hour south
0:32of gothenburg
0:33so i moved away a little bit from the
0:35gothenburg scene but then again
0:37i had so many clients coming from
0:40outside
0:40sweden so to me it really didn't matter
0:43i just had a few local bands you know
0:45and the same now actually there are a
0:47few local bands but
0:48most of the people i work with they are
0:51from
0:52different places in around sweden or
0:53scandinavia or around
0:55europe or you know from the world
0:57actually i work with
0:58some people from the u.s uh italy
1:02germany japan australia
1:05from everywhere kind of so i guess it
1:07really doesn't matter where you're
1:08located in that sense
1:10except for you know it's good of course
1:11you know if it's something around the
1:13studio to do
1:14and i'm located in a small town by the
1:17coast
1:18so there are nice places to go in the
1:21summertime and even in the winter time
1:22too of course
1:23so all together you know i've been doing
1:25this studio thing
1:27professionally for about 26 years now
1:30congratulations on that that's quite a
1:32feat
1:33in today's modern world so it looked
1:36like i couldn't quite
1:37tell um and i didn't see any uh
1:39information on there was that a topped
1:42console by any chance that you have no
1:45i had a pretty big english
1:48uh british made console up until two
1:51years ago
1:52that was the sound tracks soundtracks
1:56uh i can't even remember the name solid
1:58solitaire console
2:00pretty big with automation and built-in
2:02dynamics and everything on every every
2:04channel
2:05but then after like 19 years small
2:08things
2:08started to break apart i only used at
2:11the very end
2:12a small part of the console so i thought
2:14you know i get rid of that and get what
2:16i
2:16really need and really want so i put
2:18focus on
2:19getting some really really good
2:23mic preamps uh different brands
2:26everything from
2:27api or neve different kinds of neves
2:30and ssl and all that you know and also
2:32some vintage stuff like siemens
2:34and some old neumann's and stuff too
2:38pretty good you know palette of uh
2:40different types of preamps
2:41which suits my needs much better and if
2:45anything breaks you can just take out
2:48that module
2:48send it to the repair guy the studio
2:50still can be up and running instead of
2:52you know a
2:53small part the console breaks down and
2:55you're you're you're [ __ ] so
2:56that really suits my need uh my needs
2:59for sure do you also
3:01engineer yeah i do everything uh
3:03everything from like uh
3:05starting up talking with the bands
3:06before they come into the studio to
3:09uh do the engineering myself or the
3:11producing
3:12and also mastering i've been setting up
3:15this whole studio by myself pretty much
3:17and i had help from my assistant
3:18soldering all the cables
3:20thousands of solderings here with the
3:22multi cables and stuff you know of
3:24course
3:24i've been doing everything i'm not only
3:26a guitarist of
3:27king diamond and other bands or even
3:31not just a musician i i do all kinds of
3:33stuff because i think it's interesting i
3:35love that kind of stuff but
3:37it almost looks like when you initially
3:39even join
3:40king diamond are you engineering at that
3:43point or is that something that comes in
3:44just a little later that came in much
3:47later i would say because in the
3:48beginning i wasn't
3:49interested at all i remember the first
3:51couple of times in the studio
3:53for example when mickey was doing sound
3:55check i just thought
3:56oh god this is really boring like a
4:00whole day for setting up the drum sound
4:02and toms and stuff i was excited to you
4:05know start playing and all that i was
4:06just very bored you know i didn't really
4:08think it was
4:09interesting at all but slowly the
4:12interest for that kind of woke up
4:14and i learned a lot from being in the
4:16studio without even knowing it i was
4:18picking up things that
4:19was really helpful later on when i tried
4:22to build up my own business and started
4:24the studio like
4:25using a certain kind of microphone for a
4:28certain kind of
4:29sound source and how to put it how to
4:32place the mic
4:33and using different kinds of compressors
4:35and all kinds of stuff that's
4:37stuff you learn from the engineers
4:40and the producers we work with at that
4:42time when you were
4:44only a musician if i may put it that way
4:46now i want to make sure that
4:48uh i got this right that you and
4:51mickey d were in a band and even prior
4:54to that you were friends but
4:56before you joined king diamond you guys
4:58are in a band together and
5:00friends as well yeah we were friends
5:02from the beginning
5:03we were kind of a competitive we played
5:06in competitive bands in the very early
5:0880s
5:09and we got friends and we played
5:11together for a very short while we just
5:13jammed out and tried out things for a
5:15short while and then mickey
5:17moved down to copenhagen denmark with
5:22another swedish swedish guys actually
5:26and he was down there for about about a
5:29year
5:30and then he got to know the merciful
5:32faith guys
5:35and then when merciful fate kind of
5:38broke up and king
5:39started his own thing mickey was asked
5:43to to join the band and at that time it
5:46was
5:47michael denner tim hansen mickey d and
5:50king
5:50and they also had another swedish
5:52guitarist that
5:53did not really work out in the studio
5:56the way they wished for
5:57so after being in the studio for about
6:00two weeks
6:02mickey called me and said hey andy you
6:04really gotta come down
6:06here and that this week is exactly
6:0936 years ago that's incredible
6:13yeah it was around swedish midsummer you
6:16know which is
6:16end of june um every year so he called
6:20me the day after mid-summer and he asked
6:22me to come down to
6:23to uh copenhagen and i said oh sounds
6:25cool man
6:26um i'll just quit my job and get my amp
6:29and my guitar and i'll be down there
6:31tomorrow
6:32i took the train down from gothenburg
6:34down to copenhagen with my guitar and
6:37my amp and went into the studio say hi
6:40to the guys
6:40and they asked me to do an audition to
6:44one of their songs called dressed in
6:46white which is a good choice because
6:48a lot of soloing in that there were a
6:50lot of lips in that
6:51yeah yeah exactly well you know after a
6:54while they just said
6:54well take your time you know go into the
6:56studio plug up your stuff and play along
6:58with this stuff and
6:59we'll see what you can come up with and
7:01that's what i did you know i gave it a
7:03few tries and takes and
7:04went out to the studio and uh they had a
7:07short meeting i believe you know and
7:09they said
7:09after a while okay welcome to the band
7:11and at that time you know i was
7:1322 years old and i thought it's now or
7:15never i got to do this i really gotta do
7:17this
7:17wow 22 years old and we're talking on a
7:20on the 22nd
7:21as well so uh another coincidence i
7:23thought another weird coincidence is on
7:26my youtube channel i had just hit
7:286 600
7:31subscribers right right before this
7:34interview i mean today it was at that
7:36number i just thought
7:37isn't that hilarious man
7:41um so now before this have you even
7:44heard up to this point before even
7:46meeting them have you had you even heard
7:48of merciful fate
7:50yeah i did i heard about the first time
7:52i believe maybe in 1983
7:56but i can't say i was listening that
7:58much to them you know i heard a few
8:00songs here and there and i thought it
8:01was really scary stuff at that time i
8:03probably heard
8:04come to the sabbath and a few other
8:06songs um
8:07but when mickey joined the band he said
8:10that
8:11that was a big change you know in music
8:13this was like more
8:14up-to-date and in his taste more modern
8:18kind of thing too
8:18and that made me interesting in what was
8:21going on so
8:22it was like updating me before i joined
8:24the that spring
8:26about what they were doing in the studio
8:28and such and
8:29also in the rehearsal room and when i
8:31came down and first heard the songs in
8:33the studio
8:34i was just blown away because i thought
8:36it was just great
8:37stuff that was very uh
8:40much updated from um
8:43the more 70s influenced uh merciful fate
8:47to this new
8:48kind of eightish style king diamond in
8:51at least in my opinion so i thought it
8:53was just great and that together with
8:54the
8:55spooky stuff that the king and also i
8:59always been a fan of that the scary
9:01stuff theatrical
9:02dark chords that combination to me
9:05was just very very cool right
9:09and do you remember meeting king diamond
9:11for the first time or kind of your first
9:13impression do you remember anything
9:15about that yeah
9:16that was a very good and creative
9:18meeting of course and at that time
9:20we all spoke english to each other
9:23because
9:23i did not understand a word
9:26of danish even though it's kind of
9:29related to the swedish language but
9:31uh was very different at that time uh
9:33that was a great meeting
9:35and king explained the future plans and
9:38all that and i really got along with all
9:41the guys
9:42real fast in the band and that was just
9:44a very
9:45very very cool meeting i believe and so
9:47are you coming in
9:48kind of late to the they're already on
9:51their way
9:52i'm assuming recording fatal portrait
9:54and so are you coming kind of late
9:56into that project or at what point of
9:58the recording are you coming in and they
10:01when i joined the band they have been in
10:03the studio for about
10:05two weeks so drums were pretty much uh
10:08done rhythm guitars were done and i
10:11think
10:12maybe there was a few bass parts missing
10:14when i was
10:15when i when i joined the band and then
10:17of course some solos from michael denner
10:20uh were missing and also some some
10:23pieces where i supposed to play solos
10:25too so
10:26[Music]
10:28i still think we had like four or five
10:31weeks
10:32left in this video when i joined the
10:33band and those last weeks were intended
10:36for
10:36the solo stem and the missing parts and
10:38also most of the vocals actually and the
10:41mixing of course too
10:42i came in kind of well not late but i
10:45recorded all the basics when i joined
10:47the band
10:47and so from there you finish the album
10:50and then you guys go on tour and the
10:52band is pretty bonded by the end of that
10:55and
10:55uh then are you guys kind of writing
10:57songs for
10:58abigail or working on abigail while
11:01you're touring or anything like that
11:04yeah what happened here i mean this was
11:06the summer of 1985.
11:07so it took a while for uh everything to
11:10get finished of course with
11:12pressing the final cd wasn't really
11:15happening at that time for us it came
11:17out but uh took some time but
11:19the first live performance we had with
11:23diamond then was a few days before
11:25christmas 1985 in a very classic
11:28place in copenhagen called the saga
11:31which is a theater and we played there
11:33just a few days before christmas and
11:35then
11:36it took a couple of months until we did
11:39the first
11:41live shows again with diamond and we did
11:42like a small european tour
11:44in the spring and then followed by
11:48a u.s tour 1986 and
11:52between those barriers we wrote songs
11:54for the for the next album which
11:56actually we started uh to rehearse
12:01uh for for uh the abigail album
12:04in the fall of 1986
12:08after coming back from the u.s tour now
12:10of course this album
12:11is a magical album i don't care who you
12:14were
12:15even people i think that weren't
12:17merciful fate fans which i was
12:19but even people i knew that weren't knew
12:22that
12:22um the album was special and then you
12:25also have music people like me
12:28uh who geek out on things like just the
12:30fact that i mean really in retrospect
12:33that
12:33you're the mainstay in king diamond's
12:36solo career
12:37you've been with him forever the longest
12:39out of anybody and then of course
12:41the greatness of mickey d and all he
12:44became eventually i mean i can still
12:46remember him showing up in don dawkins
12:48band and being like oh [ __ ] that's king
12:50diamond's drummer but beyond that
12:53you got basically like you said three
12:56members from
12:56merciful fate with uh michael dinner and
12:59then uh
13:00timmy hansen do you look back on that
13:02and just think
13:03like what an incredible moment in time
13:06that was
13:08yeah definitely everything kind of
13:11kind of was put together you know after
13:13that first u.s tour because we really
13:16enjoyed it
13:17and we played really good together and
13:20i guess we all got kind of inspired
13:22doing that because
13:24when we started uh rehearse for uh
13:27abigail later that that fall
13:30it was just fun we had a lot of fun back
13:32then the songs that king came up with
13:34and also
13:36me and michael denner that was just
13:39uh fun writing it fun playing it in
13:42reverse room and
13:43we later got into the studio we just
13:45felt that this this
13:46this is really this is really good
13:49material we had
13:50and everything kind of you know fell in
13:52place in in a good way
13:53um it was just a magical moment going
13:57into the studio because
14:00well the the atmosphere on the album
14:04i mean you can hear that we were hungry
14:07and uh i think we uh did something
14:10really good
14:11oh absolutely often i talk to people and
14:14they don't realize that they're working
14:16on some kind of monumental
14:18masterpiece in the moment but you guys
14:21did realize
14:22in that moment that you were working on
14:24something special
14:25yeah i mean we didn't know at that time
14:27how appreciated
14:28it was going to be by the fans and such
14:31but i mean
14:33after listening when we were done with
14:34everything the production and everything
14:36was really good we were happy with
14:38what we did you know with it with all
14:41the
14:41extra stuff we put on there with like
14:43harmonies
14:44and that was just a very very creative
14:48period you recorded that at soundtrack
14:50studios
14:51yes in copenhagen and we we started
14:54recording in
14:55in december 1986 it was a very very cold
15:00winter
15:00a lot of snow actually that just also
15:03made it a very
15:04cozy feeling and i had a great time with
15:07the producer roberto falcao which also
15:09was
15:10uh had a very creative mind it was
15:13laying down a lot of the keyboard parts
15:15she also it's
15:16in my opinion a big part of the king
15:18diamond sound like what time of the day
15:20would you guys start recording and what
15:22time did you
15:23wrap things up each day we started
15:25around
15:26nine o'clock i can't really remember
15:29exactly but something like that
15:30nine or ten and probably stopped around
15:34seven or eight sometimes i know that we
15:36stayed longer of course too to get the
15:38right feel if we really had the right
15:39feel for things you know i mean
15:40especially
15:41king and roberto working out keyboard
15:43parts they they stayed up long doing the
15:45crazy stuff
15:47and is king diamond in the studio every
15:49day kind of overseeing everything
15:51pretty much so yes the only thing i can
15:54say that
15:54i always wanted to be kind of by myself
15:57when i when i do the leads
15:58and that time i sat in
16:02at the very back of the recording room
16:04which was
16:05pretty big and um i had a little booth
16:08with my marshall stack uh chandelier
16:12uh lit chandelier and uh headphones and
16:16just tracked my solo that way actually
16:17together with the uh with the engineer
16:19it was just the two of you in the studio
16:22yeah he was in the
16:23in the control room you know doing the
16:25tape machine and all that stuff you know
16:26but i was at the very back of the studio
16:29just the guitar on the and the candle
16:31and that's it to get the right feel
16:33yeah what kind of guitar did you play on
16:35that album or did you use multiple
16:37guitars
16:38um i had a busy rich and i
16:41believe i had a fernandez back then
16:45oh wow yeah fernandez a soloist
16:49and of jackson style and i also had my
16:52own build i used to build guitars back
16:54then from scratch actually with the neck
16:56and everything and i had like a jackson
16:58style kind of
16:59render rhodes v which i also used on on
17:03the first
17:04uh album uh fatal portrait so i used
17:07kind of two or three guitars back there
17:09plus
17:10um i had an acoustic guitar which i
17:12can't even remember the name of right
17:14now
17:14when you're recording your guitars did
17:16he throw like a 57
17:18on him or do you recall anything about
17:20the process
17:21i can really remember the microphones
17:24but
17:24i'm pretty sure we used either
17:28sennheiser's 421s 57s
17:31or we also tried neumann's u87s
17:35and i kind of mix up things you know
17:38because i know we use the 87s later but
17:41at the first recordings
17:43i i got a strong feeling that we used to
17:4550 sevens for the guitars
17:47and according to uh roberto the
17:50producer's notes we used an
17:52mci console at that time when you're
17:55composing a solo
17:56is that something that you are
17:58improvising and then you kind of comp
18:00together or
18:01with each song are you working out a
18:04part beforehand
18:05and then coming in and doing a mix of
18:07improvising
18:08and do you do any comping anything like
18:10that it's actually
18:12different but i try to to work out the
18:15solo in a way i just play along with
18:18the solo part uh when the song is is
18:22finished i just play along with the solo
18:23part and work
18:25out kind of part by part until i got
18:28something that
18:29is a good flow it's flowing good you
18:32know
18:32and uh and uh if i think okay this is
18:36good from the beginning to start
18:38i check if maybe i could put some
18:40harmonies on there
18:42somewhere you know but the most
18:44important thing nowadays at leisure is
18:46that
18:46it's going to be some kind of melodies
18:48to it and then
18:50you can do like a fast run or two once
18:53in a while but
18:54nowadays when i do solos the main thing
18:56is is the melody
18:58how long does it take to record abigail
19:00in total
19:01i think we spent between six and eight
19:04weeks
19:05total with the mix and everything maybe
19:07around four or five weeks recording
19:10and then maybe some additional stuff and
19:12uh
19:14and mixing for about 10 days 14 days
19:16something like that somewhere
19:18between six and eight weeks total do you
19:20guys do it the traditional way where you
19:22get
19:22mickey's drum tracks first and then go
19:25from there
19:26yeah i mean at that time me and mikey
19:28play together
19:30in the studio like a q guitar in order
19:33for him to play but we
19:34never used to click track at that time
19:36that was just total
19:38feel in the studio so i just put down
19:40like a q guitar to mickey's drums
19:42for him to play along with and sometimes
19:44he didn't even want that
19:46sometimes oh man this is easier if i
19:48just play this along i got the riff in
19:49my head so i just do this myself even
19:51that which is which is great
19:53and uh after that i put down the rhythm
19:56guitars and then the bass and
19:58starting building up things from there
20:00so other than the times that he would do
20:02it
20:02himself it would just be the two of you
20:05to get the drum tracks
20:06the two you playing yeah when king
20:09diamond's writing
20:10he's writing guitar parts as well yes i
20:13would say
20:14he's uh he's uh writing most of the
20:17stuff
20:18on guitar and some parts he plays a
20:20little keyboard too you know so
20:22if he got like a keyboard thing in his
20:24head he can start out with that
20:25and then put guitars to that or the
20:28other way around but i'm assuming he's a
20:29pretty badass guitar player because some
20:31of the stuff that
20:32shows him as the soul songwriter or
20:34there's just
20:35some yeah i mean hillary parks he's got
20:37some great yeah i mean he
20:39he's got the ability to to
20:42compose on guitar you know so yeah one
20:44of my favorite songs
20:46on the album a mansion in darkness i
20:48know you co-wrote it with him do you
20:50recall anything about
20:51writing that song mentioned in darkness
20:54yeah the music was uh
20:56written by me and that was right before
21:00we
21:00left for the first u.s tour actually i
21:03remember that that was
21:04uh well now it's uh 35 years ago
21:08and about summertime and i remember all
21:11my friends were off to a really cool
21:14place in sweden you know having a party
21:16uh and i said no i'm gonna stay home i
21:18got this thing i gotta do you know and
21:20that's when i composed that song
21:22actually that was just a few weeks
21:23before we
21:24left for the first us tour and that's
21:26writing the whole song from start to
21:28finish or you had a couple of
21:30little ideas already no that was pretty
21:32much uh
21:33that's it i remember i recorded that on
21:36a small walkman kind of thing so i just
21:38uh remembered all the stuff you know but
21:40uh that was pretty much it yeah and you
21:42even wrote
21:43in the shadows at the gate part yeah
21:45music was yes
21:46that's then when we got you know
21:48tutorial to um to rehearse the stuff you
21:50know of course everyone added you know
21:52their spice to it you know
21:54of course yeah what about the seventh
21:56day of july
21:571777 and that acoustic guitar intro or
22:01uh you know that i don't remember that
22:04well
22:04but i i remember i had the riff in my
22:06head for a long time and i just thought
22:08i would get it out so that
22:10came during or after that u.s story
22:13before we started to uh
22:15to rehearse that spring um
22:18but all i can say is that classical
22:21field
22:22with with a scary touch of the intro had
22:25been in my head for a long time and then
22:27when
22:27roberto came up with a keyboard id on it
22:30i thought it was
22:30uh complete that was exactly what that
22:33intro needed
22:34and anything stand out about recording
22:36like the title track or any other song
22:38from that album is there a moment or uh
22:41well i think you know if you look at the
22:43total i mean the whole
22:44overall picture of the abigail album we
22:47just had a very
22:48good time in the studio the whole
22:51atmosphere of
22:52i mean got captured on the album that we
22:55had
22:55well played we've been out on tour you
22:57know we had fun together and everything
22:59was working fine
23:00all that i mean was just a whole magical
23:04moment that you can hear on the album i
23:06think that album stands out
23:08in in that way what about the family
23:10ghost video
23:11any memory from shooting the video that
23:13day yeah i believe
23:15we were in england shooting that video i
23:18guess that was
23:19uh let's see what was that
23:22see if i can remember that i guess that
23:25was right before
23:27we we went on the u.s tour so that must
23:32be
23:32uh summer of 1987. well that was a
23:36really cool experience of course
23:38because that's the first video we did
23:40for king diamond and
23:41uh we did that in an old kind of a
23:43factory
23:45kind of thing and uh all i can say is
23:48that that was
23:49my first video experience you know that
23:51was really cool
23:52and the album comes out like it's
23:54released in europe and
23:55like what four or five months later it's
23:57released in the
23:58states oh really was it that long in
24:01between
24:02that's what it looked like at least on
24:03uh wikipedia i think at least
24:05four months did i write it down yeah i
24:08did
24:08it says june of 87 it was released in
24:12europe and then
24:13october of 87 in the us
24:16really that's that sounds strange that
24:19doesn't sound strange because
24:20yeah because we did like a u.s tour
24:24starting i guess in july or something
24:26like that
24:27um 1987. oh then that doesn't make sense
24:30at all yeah no
24:32it doesn't really make sense you know so
24:34but i'm not sure about that you know but
24:35i mean
24:36we played the abigail songs on that tour
24:38so that
24:39that sounds strange and so what makes
24:42you and king diamond so
24:43compatible that you've been the one
24:45that's worked with them all these years
24:47well we pretty much shared the same
24:49music vision
24:51and also what's going on on stage has
24:54always been
24:54really fascinating to me i mean i've
24:57always been very interested in a cool
24:59stage kids you know the music comes
25:01first of course but we share the same
25:05vision when it comes to what's happening
25:07on stage and presenting a good show with
25:10good music
25:11so i believe it's that we match
25:14good in a way that he writes his style
25:17and
25:18i do my style of songs you know and that
25:20combination works out really good
25:22what's he like to work with can you
25:24describe what it's like working with him
25:26yeah he's very determined of what he
25:28wants and he's got a
25:29very strong vision of
25:32what he wants and uh when we
25:35for example when we mix things he's got
25:37excellent pair of ears he can hear
25:39things sometimes that i can hear and the
25:41other way around
25:42we just try to work our way through it
25:44to get the best possible
25:46result why did michael and timmy leave
25:49the band
25:50did they leave before the recording it
25:52looked like timmy maybe
25:53uh started the recording of them no but
25:56he was
25:57uh with us uh when we uh
26:00when we rehearsed and all that but i
26:02guess he he lost interest you know and
26:04he had a family at that time and
26:06all that and michael denner he left just
26:08a few weeks before
26:10we supposed to do the the second u.s
26:13tour the abigail tour
26:14and i guess it was the same a little bit
26:17the same
26:18reason there you know i mean he kind of
26:20got tired of it and wanted to do other
26:22stuff and all that but
26:23i mean me and mike or we still talk once
26:26in a while especially with i mean
26:27i'm still in in touch with mickey d of
26:29course you know he was down here in the
26:30studio just a few months ago doing stuff
26:33oh wow so i mean yeah i still you know
26:36try to keep in touch with
26:37the old members when you reflect after
26:39all these years is there anything we
26:41haven't covered that
26:42you think of from time to time or that
26:44stands out
26:47no i mean all i can say is that
26:51that period of time was a very
26:54harmonic period of time for the whole
26:57band i believe
26:58even though i know that during that time
27:00when king's father
27:01passed away and all that during the
27:05recording of abigail but uh that
27:07whole period of time was just very
27:08harmonic i i believe you know because we
27:10had
27:10great songs great musicians in the band
27:13and uh
27:14everything was just uh put together in a
27:16very good way
27:17anything else as far as king diamond the
27:20the institute in 2022
27:22is there any news on what's up with king
27:24or anything like that
27:26i'm actually going to talk to him today
27:28but
27:29the news is that we're going to try to
27:33as soon as this uh kovitch stuff you
27:34know is getting over with we're gonna
27:37try to
27:38set up a tour and uh before that we
27:40definitely have to record
27:42uh all of the institute still working on
27:44songs to get the best possible songs of
27:46course
27:47and as soon as we're done with that you
27:48know we pick out the best songs and
27:50start recording it and that's still
27:52shooting for probably
27:532022. probably something like that yes
28:03[Music]
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