JET CIRCUS

"The Purest Of Knight"


Interview with Ez Gomér

By Sergio Vilar

Please Ez, count me some details of Jet Circus origins…
... Sergio please brief me a little more on this question... I’m not sure I know what kind of origins you want to have… sorry.

OK, no problem. What did it impel you to form the band?  
Jet Circus was formed directly after me and Terry Haw departured from Leviticus. We got to know each other while still in that band and it came very natural to me to begin form a new group based on the fine chemistry and over all good relations me and Terry had. I simply told Terry I had some ideas for it and he was in. I booked a studio and we began writing at the same time.

The main reason for having a band can be split into some different areas as I see it:  It’s absolutely a social thing to gather some friends around a band and have fun. It’s s also a natural form for using your creativity and skills as a musician. This act of culture would be enough to give your mind and social being great satisfaction.
But most important to me is to satisfy my deepest inner being – my spirit and soul. I feel the deepest satisfaction by sharing the love of God through Jesus Christ.
Put it like this: When somebody comes up to me and tells me he or she loves my music I will be very, very happy and proud as an artist. But if somebody got their life changed by God by the seed I planted with the music and lyrics, it would be of eternal value for us both and I get a deeper sence of God given happiness right there, on the spot. That’s the difference I see, feel and go for.

Jet Circus combines elements of progressive rock brilliantly and of heavy metal. Which your main musical influences are?  
I’m glad you say so and I agree that there is progressive elements in the music I create in Jet Circus.
Most people don’t seem to reflect on it though. When I grew up and began to learn to play bass I had already played piano for five years. I think, if that ever did me any good, it made me stretch a bit extra to be a great bass player. I always appreciated great musicianship and I avoided punk rock in every form when that thing exploded. But, everybody needs to have some fun so I’m not picking at anybody.

I grew up with all those wonderful 70’s band like Uriah Heep, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Slade, Nazareth…
I was never a big Deep Purple fan like my friends were... Then there came a few years when I did not listen to almost any hard rock because I was too occupied with playing bass and I practiced a lot to Yes, and Rush. All of their albums over and over. I was a complete progressive music fan then. I did not listen as a listener, I listened as a musician all the time those years and I was always analyzing bass lines in my head. A bass freak if you want.
I never left the hard rock with my heart so after some years, I relaxed a bit about the bass playing and came around with a new luggage to the heavy rock music. For me it is as important to be able to play fast and technical as well as to contribute with some beautiful melodic bass lines, as well as to be steady as a hammer and punch hard when that’s needed. It’s all about having the capacity to flow with the music you play. I would not say that the the bass playing is life or death... but close to.

Do we speak a little about “Look At Death Now”. Did you compose the songs with some idea it specifies in mind or did you simply let them to leave natural form?
I had set a theme for the album by first of all deciding the name of it - “Look At Death Now”.
There was the theme for the lyrics.
Musically I had two main ways of writing the songs, 80 percent of the songs are written in my head without any instrument. I used every single spare minute to work on new songs in my head – to work through the riffs and leads and memorize them until I got a chance to get back to the studio to put down the bass lines as riffs and leads. This way I had most of it arranged for drums, guitar, bass and lead melody already in my head when I began recording the track.
When back in the studio, checking the song on my bass guitar the additions could be to compose a bridge, an intro or the solo parts.
The other 20 percent of the songs are just bass improvisations, playing to a rhythm pattern that I did first on a keyboard.
The title track “Look At Death Now” was such an improvisation. I told Ulf, the studio technician to open up a new track in Pro Tools while I just got a new idea playing around a drum beat that was playing in a loop. Ulf set up a new track for my bass and pressed the record button. Then I played continuously for some 2.45 minutes with the intention to complete a song and that is the bass track you hear in the title track. No clipping, adding or changing parts. The song was complete, I just had to add drums, guitar and vocals.
There is no must in working fast, but when you feel you have it right on, there’s no problem having it fast and easy either.

My idea was just to keep it simple enough to make the drum and bass present the song for the guitar player so he could to get into the studio, understand the song and start to record. We did no rehearsals. Just record right away to the bass tracks. I thought I would later redo all the bass tracks because of that but I didn’t redo any of them. It sounded just great the way it was and I felt people was starting to wonder if the album would ever be released.
You know playing to the drumbeats alone, trying to feel what the guitar player would do later is no dream, but the listener hears a complete band, rockin’ on full throttle.
Same thing for Michael Ulfsgärd, the drummer. He had only the bass to play to, so I had to make it fill up like a guitar... but that’s my style of playing anyhow. My bass doesn’t play with the bass drum alone, it’s playing with the snare drum even more.

Telling all that, for some it sounds strange. If you know I have a studio located right above my advertising agency, there seems to be no problem with taking your time for writing, rehearsals etc.
But the fact is that I had to do the complete album on spare time or in the middle of the night because I’m so occupied with my companies. After a working day at the office, I had to step up to the studio, trying to feel in shape for a nights work with the music. I usually worked in the studio until 3 or 4 in the morning get some hours sleep, take a shower and be at the office 9 o’clock following morning. And the same procedure over again.
All the lead vocals are night work and the backup vocals was made on my lunch breaks.

You see the competition of the album was depending on my ability to work 16 – 18 hours a day, so I did not want to complicate the songs and arrangements too much to pull the thing off at all.
I told this to my good friend Torbjörn Weinesjö of Veni Domine, but he ashured me that no one could complain about the songs being too straightforward and well, he is a guy who likes complicated arrangements. In fact he we was laughing a bit - in a nice way when I said wanted to have time to make the songs more complicated. I guess that’s the artists problem, never wanting to stop to fulfill even more, all the time.
Main thing – The album is the greatest I’ve done and I get overwhealming response from all over the world. I’m very thankful and proud of it.

Besides the musical aspect, it got me a lot the attention the thematic of the lyrics. What type of situations did they inspire you to write them?
Yeah, the lyrics carries a big part of it all. They mean a lot for me and I hope they mean something out there for the listeners.
This album started as a little sneaking thought in my head. I wanted to finally make use of the fine studio I had built a few years back. When I own a first class professional studio, I found myself too busy with other things to work in it. This was the situation for some years. I wanted Terry, my former band colleague to come down to the studio to finish the “No Mercy” album we had laying around, almost finished.
So, one late night staring at my computer I decided that this was the end of waiting and I immediately pulled out a new site under www.ezgomer.com , telling I was making a solo album called “Look At Death Now”. No way back now, huh?
This was what I needed to do to get going again. No more waiting for Terry and a new goal ahead.

So the lyrics, all of them are built around the theme I got that second - “Look At Death Now”. The deafeat of death by Gods victory on the cross.
I told you in the beginning of this interview I want to carry out something good, because I have received goodness and my task is to give goodness. Goodness, not from my own head or even my own heart, but from God himself. That’s the reason for living if you ask me. God is the source of love and we should carry it out to the people around us. Most of the time we see the opposite. Now we are getting to the lyrics. I always write from my own perspective as an ordinary sinner that have made a choice of talking it throgh with God.

Could you give me a brief impression of each song?
“One Dime Scapegoat” : “Scapegoat” is the perfect album opener, rockin’ from start to goal with the kind of swing to it that I look for all the time. It’s also the first radio single picked for the USA and climbes there right now.
It carries a nice melody and tells a story. It sets the pace and spirit for the whole album. It was one of the first songs I wrote for this album and is one of those I wrote sitting in a restaurant at lunch time, just memorizing the song in my head. Great guitar work all the way from Sayit.

The lyrics is about trying to save yourself through good deeds. About giving from your heart or giving to make yourself look good and maybe be happier than the poor soul that gets a dime from you.
I once saw an interview on TV, with a street bum that had cleared things up and he said he envied this specific lady the joy she got herself, by tossing him a dollar. That twist of the mind stuck in my head for years.

“Man Rules”: A heavy cool song.  With it’s bending, cool riff it is one of my personal favorites on the album. The bridge in the middle ads a little progressive touch to this heavy rocker. Lyrically, this bridge carries for me also the most important lines on the album. It really moved me to sing those lines and I know the listeners can feel it.
I sing about murder, prostitution, robbery, lies, pride – all the evil that man does – high or low, young or old - simply because they wants to do that and then proclaim that there is no God.

“Godless Happiness”: This one is the heaviest track on the album and one of the two rockers on the album with a keyboard.
I wanted a Hammond behind the guitar solo. I wrote this on the golf course and my wife thought I was far out and felt I was hard to talk to. And I guess I was. I finally had to say OK, I cant talk right now I’m writing a great song. There you have it. The keyboard enhances the little funky feeling in the groove that builds this song. It just keeps on rolling and when you really want a change there is a hooky big chorus and a bass / vocal break. The lyrics is about the pleasure of sin. I can’t deny the pleasure it brings, but I think it brings an even bigger dose of unhappiness in the long run. I guess the doctors in Beverly Hills prescribes as much pills against depression as the doctors in general.

“Look At Death Now” :I told you about how this song was made in one take as an bass improvisation. In a few days after that, I took my note book to a sunny outdoor restaurant and wrote the lyrics. This was a quick one to write.
It’s a fast track that fitted drummer Mickey Dee (Motorhead) perfectly. His playing on this one really gives the song the maximum energy I wanted. Mickey is a very nice guy and it was a pleasure to work with him. I had to buy another monitor amp because he liked to have it more than LOUD in his head phones. After half an hour the studio drum set was in pieces and everybody was happy.
The fast rhythm riffing of guitarist Stefan Elmgren (Hammerfall) works just perfect with the bass. And he blazes off a great solo as well. Stefan is also a very nice guy and I’m really glad he too was able to contribute.

“Lizard Love” : The most glam rocker of the songs. It’s built around the groovy chorus with a high pitched and very seventies backup chiore. I wanted a kind of Slade sheerful song, but my way and not too far away from the sounds of the other songs. And I think it works fine. It’s a little different then the rest, just enough to enhance the range of the songs on the album and make you feel good.
Lyracally it’s not as sheerful, about chasing love. The never ending chase of love and never get it depending on the own unsatisfied mind.
I placed it right after the title track to bring down the rocking tempo a few steps just before the ballad.

“The Way You Bless Me” : I wrote it to my family to say thank you for being there and meaning the world to me.
One of the two ballads on the album. A soft song with a beautiful melody and the arrangement grows all the time in strength. I think this one has a real potential for a great audience. I would like to see it end up in a film.
I worked together with Kjell Bjurling from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra for the string arrangement. He got my input and we tested our ideas and set up the main frames for the strings. Then he took it all and in a few weeks he worked out a wonderful arrangement that together with the strings of the orchestra means a lot for this song. Even the Piano, played by Joakim Holgersson band member of Swedish jazz legends Putte Wickman and Arne Domnerus must be mentioned for creating the atmosphere. A great job of everyone involved that I am happy for and the song gets attention all the time.

“Shooting Star” : This is a powerful heavy rock n’ roller that will make a superior, sweaty live number. The keyboard marries fine with the vocal harmonies that lights up the song. It boasts and rocks all the way and seems to fit the Americans well. They comment this one frequently so it might be a radio single.
The song carries much energy from the approach of the rhythm section. But that’s the cord of the sound of Jet Circus. I want the listener to feel pumped after hearing it. The lyrics is based on an interview with one of the top names on the rock scene. This man is often spoken of as a Satanist and he told a story on when he was doing Heroin and got a bad fix. Here he was freightened to death, riding a big white whale and thought he was dying, I guess. This bad experience he said, thought him to stay away from this specific drug, but still the real frightening experience of an even worse caliber is waiting in eternity when you choose evil as your partner. The devil himself is what you need to get out of your life in the first place and the rest will follow. I say this in love, not to point finger. I believe we all can get saved by Gods grace. I’m sure Satanists get saved every day.

“Skull Of The Poet” : This song demands a bit of the listener. It’s not the ordinary rock’n’roller by the way it’s performed and arranged for the instruments. Here we go busy all the time. It’s wild and you can feel it almost explode in every direction to suddenly get together for the chorus and bridges. I’m surprised it appealed to the US listeners. Maybe here they got that real crazy Jet Circus nerve. I’m a bit surprised but of course happy and not just a little impressed of the listeners. It’s almost free form Jazz in a heavy rock costume. Hey, there is really hard music lovers out there as well, ready to take a strange ride.

“Fears Of Tomorrow” : This is a very atmospheric piece of music. I wanted to have it almost like a string quartet, with the cello in the fore front before the violins. It’s basically a melody I wrote while attending a movie not interesting enough. I was very satisfied when I had it all worked out when it was time to turn on the lights. The lyrics came later. I lay my voice in a deeper register to get that real soft touch, then it takes off in a bridge. The lead vocals, the melody and strings is everything here and I feel I couldn’t have a better ending for the album. It leaves the listener in a kind of thought full mode.
The lyrics is a thought on the eternal life and how you as a human being feels not worthy to enter the happiness but you humbly receive it as a gift of God.

What vision do you have now of the album that it is already published? Was the final result the one that you waited?
My vision now stops at thinking it will be a new album made soon. I have learned a lot from this experience of making it almost by myself. It was a steady walking up the hill experience. Everything that needed to be done I had to do myself just because I am so stubborn and felt it was the right way to do it this time. Maybe, if I get what I long for, it would be having the possibility to really work the next one trough without the hazzle of running three other companies at the same time. I could also add that I want to get out there and do some touring and meet the people who likes my music.

The result is, especially if I measure it from the earliest days of the production, over whealmingly good.
Yes of course I am satisfied. I can hear, even though I am picky on my own work, that this is a really, really great album. If someone has their taste headed for this kind of heavy rock, it’s a top notch album. It’s satisfying enough to have it out there and the best reward I get for making it, is not money. It’s the feedback I get from the listeners. Nothing can compare to a loving word or two when you feel you did leave something of yourself to be valued out there.  

Are you working on new material for a future disc? Of being this way, do you have a tentative date for their exit?
Yes, I have just begun to try out for a very soft start for the next one. After talking a while with Torbjörn Weinesjö of Veni Domine about having him on guitar and see what comes out of this collaboration. We just started to work a little on a song I wrote a while ago. He is a friend of mine and a very nice fellow. My hopes is that we will find it fun for the both of us to create some extraordinary heavy music. It feels like a match.
No dates yet, but lets hope for a new album made in a year.

Have you thought of carrying out in some moment a conceptual album? Could a good idea be, keeping in mind your style and artistic concept?
Well, a conceptual album like “Look At Death Now” or even more conceptual, could fit in. No decisions made on this yet, but I am quick to decisions when it’s time to move.

A last question Ez. Besides the activity in the band, are you working in another project?
Besides the business projects I’m involved in, which are a few and have nothing to do with music but it keeps me alive, there is an American All Star project that I have contributed to make. It’s the new album of American Liberty ‘n Justice which contains about 16 singers like Lou Gramm (Foreigner), Fergie Fredericksen (Toto), Ted Poley (Danger Danger), Oni Logan (Lynch Mob), Phil Naro (Peter Criss Band) doing one track each. I wrote, played bass, sang and produced a track called “Kings Of Hollywood” for this album backed by the same guys as on “Look At Death Now” (Mikkey Dee - drums, Sayit, Tommy Denander – guitar).

Then the guys liked it very much and asked me to co-write and play on another song named “Killer Grin”. This is sung and co written by Stephen Pearcy (Ratt)
This album will be out early 2006.
Read more on http://www.libertynjustice.net

Thank you. Do you have some final message for our readers?
Thanks a lot for your interest and I hope to meet you all. Get a copy of Jet Circus “Look at Death Now” so you can rock your butt off with style!

 

www.jetcircus.com  

Nucleus interview: 23/07/05