Human Clay An Exclusive Interview (from "Burrn!" Magazine, September 1997) Part 1 Inteview with Marcel Jacob. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ They call their melodious hard rock the 'history book metal' and just released their 2nd "U4ia" album! Are they really going to continue under the name of Human Clay and leave Talisman behind?.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I met Marcel Jacob in one of the coffee bars in Stockholm and he seemed to be really tired because of the law case he and Jeff started against their ex-friend and the "Empire Records" company owner Christor Wedin... But Marcel isn't a priest or something to judge Christor. In fact, did he compose the new material himself or just stole it from various musicians? Anyway, he tries to deny it... J - Jörgen Holmstedt M - Marcel Jacob J: Comparing this "U4ia" album your the 1st one you seem to put much more energy in its production, didn't you? M: Oh, really? (laughs) It might be but I see no real difference between both of them. We had to put the energy there since the very beginning this time. Before the recordings for the 1st album started we had just half of the songs written so there was a need to finish the process as quick as possible. We decided not to use the drum machine but asked our good friend Jamie Borger to play drums on the album. Then Jeff (Scott Soto) went on tour with Boogie Knights so I spent the rest of time in LA recording the lead guitar parts. J: Do you think the album sounds better this time? M: Sure, using the real drums you can understand the difference between the machine and the actual drumming. Also this time the whole album was mixed by Pontus (Norgren, the guitarist of Great King Rat and the ex-Talisman member). However he did it according to my ideas. J: You know I was really surprised seeing the name of Human Clay on the album cover instead of Talisman. So it's quite strange that Jeff wanted to continue under this name with Jamie. M: Well, the record contract was signed at the period when our relations were quite bad. Instead of waiting for the relaxation in our relations we finally decided to continue under this new name. J: Did you apply to the court about your case with the "Empire" company owner Christor Wedin? M: Of course we did. He owns a big sum of money to me, Jeff and Jamie so we had no choice but to discuss it with his through our lawyers. He didn't pay us and he sold the copywrights and master tapes of the Talisman albums without letting us know. That's the absolute disaster. J: Whom did he sell the master tapes to? M: It's the solo production company. Probably to somebody in Japan. So the whole situation looks like according to the contract with Wedin he had all the copywrights on every master tape. J: How much does he own you? M: About $4500 to Jeff, $7000 to me and $1500 to Jamie. J: Anyway, you charecterised the style of Human Clay as the 'history book metal', right? M: I did. Seeing the word 'history' people recall the various political and cultural changes in their countries and that's the way they imagine it. And one day I suggested Jeff to play together something in an old vein. J: Do you mean that many other artists base thier songs on the riffs? M: Yes, it's really this way and everybody likes it. The same thing happens to many pop bands like with Per Gisle from Roxette, for instance. Not everything they play sounds cool but isn't it great that they express the feeling of love and respect in their songs? And everyone makes his own decision about this type of music whether he likes it or not, ignores or enjoys it. J: Well, seems like Yngwie (Malmsteen) couldn't agree with you, could he? M: Well, I don't really know... it depended on the situation... (laughs) All the Swedish musicians Yngwie ever played with including Jeff, me, Goran Edman and others always received the complete recommends from him of the ways of playing the hard rock music. We all had to concider him to be someone like God. (laughs) J: But you never did, didn't you? M: When I first met Yngwie I understood that he is sure to become the famous musician and nothing could spoil the influnce I had on him. He also taught me many different things about the world of music itself. J: Talking about the past, you played bass in Rising Force and one of the songs was "Merlin's Castle". Was it 1981 or so? M: I guess much earlier. 1979-80 or something... I don't remember exactly. J: When you recorded this album was the song "Pain And Deception" transformed from that very song with new lyrics by Jeff? M: OK, it may sound the same but it's the completely different track. Only Yngwie himself can confirm or deny it. J: Did he say it is the remake of "Merlin's Castle" after listening to it? M: He did. J: What did he say exactly? M: 'Can you write your own songs instead of using the other musicians' ones?' (laughs) J: Did he want to contribute there? M: No but I guess he won't get angry with us after hearing the final version. J: Do you like joking with your friends? M: Sure! Isn't it really interesting? It's the perfect way to know who your real friend is, quite funny. J: And don't you think that Ritchie Blackmore can get angry after seeing the song "Boy On The Golden Hill" which can remind him of "Man On The Silver Mountain"? M: I guess no matter who you are in the music world - musician, composer, producer or something - you don't need to worry about such things. Lets leave all these negative reactions to the journalists 'cause sometimes they don't understand the way we do this or that. Of course, tastes differ and I don't think there can be too many people to judge us this negative way. Ritchie couldn't help laughing if he ever read the lyrics to that song. Believe me, I'm not going to steal any other musicain's copywrights. J: But didn't you say the song "Boy On The Golden Hill" was written together with Ritchie? M: (laughs) No, it wasn't. It can be similar to his stuff so the idea is quite interesting. J: Well, you played all the lead guitar parts on this album and it can be called the tribute to Ritchie because you sound very close to him. M: I try. You know, I'm a big fan if Ritchie and also like all the British guitarists of the 70s like Ritchie himself, Michael Schenker, Scott Gorham, Gary Moore and Tony Iommi. J: And what do you think of yourself as a guitarist? M: Quite bad! But I like it. (laughs) It's impossible to compare my playing to Yngwie, Ritchie or John Norum. I would just like to play the way they all do someday. It feels really funny when you listen to your own playing after their one's. But I don't copy Ritchie's guitar parts because most of my playing is based on the Santana-like riffs and when I listen to Yngwie playing Ritchie's parts there ain't no way for me to understand the way he does it. Anyway, I don't have any personal guitar style so it enables me to play whatever I like. J: Can you tell us something else about the way you composed songs for this album? M: Well, I know that song "Man On The Silver Mountain" and that's one of my favorites. The rest of the influences are behind the songs. For instance, while listening to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne or Dio I can't understand the way they play until I tune my brains on it. Also I don't concentrate on what Jeff sings and always ask him, "What did you say? I didn't listen to." J: Guess he was influenced by American bands more than the European ones and you seem to be the really British-influenced person. As far as I know Jeff doesn't like Led Zeppelin that much, does he? M: He seems to know Deep Purple and that's probably the main reason why our songs sound quite different to the originals. J: Oh yeah, listening to this album you can't find any similar songs and ideas taken from the other bands. M: That's right. Yngwie also stuck only to his own songs. In fact, he's the big fan of Deep Purple but never tried to copy Ritchie's playing. I also tried to aviod the similarity between my own songs though "Lessons Of Love" sounds really close to the Talisman tracks like "Coming Home" or "Break Your Chains". J: Can you explain the reason why you don't write your own songs. That's what Yngwie once said to me. M: And what's the reason for it? I don't feel any appreciation to the world of music right now and I'm really dissatisfied with the Talisman career. Well, but the wounds always heal and the good time is coming closer. J: Why did you and Jeff cut your hair? M: We had long hair for about 20 years. It took us too much time to brush them in the morning and wash them almost every day. I'm 33 now and don't feel like a 13-year old boy. That's enough for me. J: When the debut Human Clay album was released last year you were studying at the institute, weren't you? M: Yes, you're right, I studied psychology at the University of Stockholm. I never did such things before but you should do whatever you want to without loosing the aim in life. J: Did Talisman really split? M: That's the way hard rock scene lives. It's not good for us now and many changes happen in the music industry. Maybe one day we'll live on the steet and eat from the can. J: You mean the misic market changed and you don't know what the future'll bring. M: Right you are. J: So let's hope for the better. So what do you need for touring with Human Clay? M: Money and time. Yesterday I spoke to our Japanese promoter and he assured me of 3 shows there and that we don't need to worry about the financial side. J: Could can be able to take part in the tour? M: Well, Jamie Borger could be a drummer and Pontus might be the guitarist. If we could find the keyboardist and bassist we might play Talisman and Human Clay songs with Pontus. J: What's the possibility of the 3rd Human Clay album? M: In fact, our record company really wants us to make it and if they would like the results the possibility of the 3rd album is about 90 per cent. Well, if the "U4ia" album is a success I guess we can manage to find the right people who might be interested in the Human Clay future. And that's when we can be able to release the new one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------