Rock Brigade was a classic metal magazine from Brazil, written in Portuguese. Here is an interview translated to English.
SILVER MOUNTAIN (SWE)
Recently, I had an interesting interview with JONAS HANSSON, founder of one of the oldest hard/heavy metal bands in Sweden, SILVER MOUNTAIN. Here is the result:
P - When was SILVER MOUNTAIN formed and what was its lineup?
JH - We started in the winter of '78 and the lineup at the time was me, JONAS JOHANSSON (guitar and vocals), MARTEN HEDENER (drums), MORGAN ALM (guitar) and INGEMAR STENQUIST (bass). Personally, I played in some bands before like FIRE and SATURNUS.
P - You recorded a single in '79, tell us a little about it.
JH - I knew a guy in another band who had a studio. We became good friends and spent a lot of time in the studio, and one day we decided to record a single. This was during the summer of '79 and we recorded two songs: AXEMAN AND THE VIRGIN and MAN OF NO PRESENT EXISTENCE during 10 days and with a pressing of 1,000 copies.
P - In the early years you had two guitarists. What made you replace a guitarist with a keyboardist?
JH - We are evolving musically all the time, and we realized that the other guitarists were not following the same level of evolution. This started a change that made us become more "hard rock classic", and it was more compatible and interesting to have a keyboardist than a second guitarist. Besides, all the bands started playing Heavy Metal and this made us try to do something new and fresh. JENS JOHANSSON was our first keyboardist.
P - Why didn't you get a contract with a Swedish record label? When and how did you sign with Roadrunner Records?
JH - Polygram was interested in us and came to see us live a few times, but nothing materialized, we probably didn't have anything commercial. We then contacted the Ljudspår studio in Gothenburg where Derek Lawrence was. He produced the EF Band and the early Deep Purple albums. We talked to him about producing us at Ljudspar and since we are in the style of Purple, he was quite interested and wanted to release our album on his own label, but first he showed our work to several record labels and Roadrunner's interest materialized.
P - Tell us something about your two studio albums. How did they sell?
JH - The first, SHAKIN' BRAINS, was recorded at LjudspÅr in Gothenburg in '83. We used four days to record and two to mix. The second, UNIVERSE, was recorded at Easy Sound in Copenhagen (Denmark) in November/December '84 and was released in '85. Ten days were used for recording and three days for mixing. I don't know exactly how the albums sold, but I can say that both pressings of UNIVERSE were completely sold. We sold many records in Japan.
P - Why did the JOHANSSON brothers leave the band in mid-'84? And what made them join YNGWIE MALMSTEEN's band, RISING FORCE?
JH - Money.
P - Why did you stop singing in the band? Did CHRISTER MENTZER, who sang on UNIVERSE, become a permanent member?
JH - We looked for a vocalist for the band, but we never found one, so I started singing. If we were just a studio band, then I would have continued to sing, but since we started playing live and my voice didn't "work" well live, we had to find a vocalist. CHRISTER could have been a permanent member but never sought to be, as he was in his own band called MENTZER. He was with us from spring of '84 to winter of '85.
P - During '85 you recorded a live album released only in Japan, why? Tell us something about it.
JH - This was a hard rock festival in Japan and the organizers asked SMS, the company that distributed our records there, if one of their bands could play. SMS called us and asked if we could record a live album when we were there. The result was HIBIYA and we are satisfied with the final result, although the vocals could have been better. Actually, SILVER MOUNTAIN didn't exist when we were called, because we took a break and were tired of everything, and this was a little after the JOHANSSON brothers had left the band.
P - You have a unique style. How would you describe it? What are your influences?
JH - I like to say that this is hard, wonderful and fast. I write all the music and try to write magnificently, because to play it later is much easier, a lot of it comes from my head. We don't have any influences. When I was younger I was influenced by DEEP PURPLE, BLACKMORE and the album MADE IN JAPAN.
P - Your last vocalist, KNUT AKSELSEN from the Norwegian band ROAD is no longer in the band. Why? How did he join you?
JH - We took a break in the summer of '85 and MARTEN (our drummer) played with a band that opened for MOTORHEAD on their Scandinavian tour. The Norwegian band ROAD was also there. Opening for that tour, and that's when MARTEN met KNUT. Later MARTEN suggested him, and he sent us a tape that sounded okay, and came to us for an audition. It sounded good at first, but then he became very "self-possible" (NE:- poser). We recorded a demo and he started changing the songs to his liking. Actually, he was fired, but he had already told us that he was planning to leave anyway.
Q - What is the current lineup of the band?
JH - It's me, JONAS HANSSON (guitar), MARTEN HEDENER (drums), PER STADIN (bass), ERIK NIELSEN (keyboards) and SONNY LARSSON (vocals). SONNY is a member of MOTHERLODE but since this doesn't interfere with them, he's with us. ERIK played in UNIVERSE and has since become a permanent member.
Linnart Larsson - translation: Eduardo de Souza Bonadia