LH: Hails! So you’ve come back after six years with a fantastic new album, and a new record deal with AFM. Things are looking good for you right now! How do you feel about it all?

Lars - “We’re very happy and excited about the current situation thanks.”

LH: Lars, I understand that the reason that it has taken so long to release this album is basically because all the pressures had begun to take their toll on you? You “burnt out” so to speak? Could you elaborate on that?

Lars - “Well, I like to be on top of things so I was pretty much involved in everything regarding the band from day one. I produced, wrote, played, did interviews, negotiated with labels and promoters… I was involved in photo sessions, artwork, homepage, videos etc. so I guess all this got too much after doing it back to back for over 8 years? I desperately needed a break to reflect on things, figure out where to go next and re-charge my batteries.”

LH: When you disbanded Lion’s Share six years ago, was it your intention to just take a much needed break from the band, or was there a time when you felt that perhaps it was time to quit making music altogether? At what point during this time did you begin working on the new album?

Lars - “I just needed a break Luci. I never sent out any press releases saying Lion’s Share was no more. But for some reason the break got much longer than I’d expected, I guess?…In this period I was heavily involved in an album called Audiovision that took more or less a year to complete. I also did a couple of shows at the Sweden Rock Festival with friends and old music acquaintances….. My old friend Tommy Denander and I started writing an album in the Def Leppard “Pyromania” kinda direction that we hopefully will find the time to finish at some point, but the time just drifted... I mean, when our new bass player Sampo Axelsson joined, he and I wrote an album in the style of bands we grew up with like Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple Mk3, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Rainbow, Whitesnake; that’s called Road To Ruin (www.roadtoruin.org). That’s gonna be released October 26th on Metal Heaven Records.”

“The writing session for “Emotional Coma” more or less started when “Entrance” was recorded. I had a lot of songs written when Sampo and Patrik joined. We worked on and kind of got more focused from mid 2004 onwards. By then I knew exactly what we wanted out of this comeback. To me it doesn’t really feel like six years…”

LH: The new album sounds a lot more aggressive and as it mentions in your biog, you have moved slightly further away from the progressive sound. Would you say that your break from being in the band has had an impact on your musical direction at all? Also has it changed your outlook on life and being part of a band?

Lars - “Well, I decided quite early on that I wanted Lion’s Share to reflect my Heavy Metal influences only this time. In the past we’ve tried to cover many of our influences from Pop, AOR, prog metal and Heavy Metal under the same umbrella. Now I have side projects for my other influences to make those more focused products. For example the Road To Ruin album I mentioned earlier that Sampo and I wrote together with singer Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge, Skintrade), is in the more classic Hard Rock style. …..I have a pretty good picture of what I want Lion’s Share to be and what our fan base expect from a new LS release. The new guys were hand picked by me to fit in both musically and on a personal level. We have a great chemistry and I think that is reflected perfectly in the music. Obviously you learn from your history so I think this break was the best thing that could have happened to LS, but there‘s still much more to come. I was never able to really enjoy all the great tours we did with Dio, Manowar, Motorhead, Saxon, UDO, Iced Earth, Nevermore etc. since there was always something new going on in my head. And, it was time for reflection. I’m sure this is the reason we’ve come back stronger and better than ever with “Emotional Coma”. I also found time to sit and practice guitar a lot more which shows especially in my lead guitar playing on this album, the Road To Ruin CD and when people see us live.”

LH: Have you had much feedback for the album from your fans and the press? Do you expect that the new album will reach a new kind of audience at all, with the heavier sound and also with the new members already being established in other bands?

Lars - “The feedback has been awesome so far and I’ve done over 100 interviews in Europe alone with more to come. Here in Sweden at least there’s a brand new generation of metal fans that weren’t around when we released our previous records so I’m sure we will add many new young fans to our already existing fan base. Feel free to sign up with our free of charge Fan Club at www.lionssharearmy.com. It’s run by long time fan Peter Rönnqvist and I’m sure he will appreciate all the support he can get.”

LH: Your new vocalist Patrik Johansson is also in the band Astral Doors. How did you meet him and how did he come to join Lion’s Share? Was he a fan of the band before he joined?

Lars - “Yes, I believe he was. Our debut was pretty big here in Sweden among metal fans when it came out (in 1995). I’d heard an mp3 on the net right before his first release (“Space Odyssey“) and when I got in touch and he liked LS and the material I was working on, we agreed fairly quickly that he should join even though we decided to not go official with it to avoid pressure from fans and the media for an immediate new album. We wanted to be able to work with this comeback until we were 100% ready. Same thing when Sampo joined in 2004 as well.”

LH: You have a few guest musicians appearing on the album; Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Glen Drover (Megadeth) and Mats Leven. How did these collaborations come about? Was Mats Leven happy to be invited back to do guest vocals?

Lars - “Yes, Mats is a great guy and an amazing singer. He’d worked with us on the first two albums as well so I knew he would be the perfect choice for this job. The studio where we did most of the demos is co-owned by the former KISS Army President of Sweden, so when Bruce Kulick was in Stockholm to do a Kiss Expo, he suggested we invite Bruce to the studio to do a guest solo. I’m a huge Kiss fan (since I was 8 actually!!), so of course I was very pleased to have a former Kiss member on my record. Glen Drover I’ve known for a couple of years having worked with his other band Eidolon. I asked if he could do a solo and he agreed. Eric Peterson from Testament was working on a solo too for “Bloodstained Soil”, but unfortunately we had to start mixing before he was done and time ran out.”

LH: Although I haven’t managed to find any lyrics on the web, I did read somewhere that the lyrics to “Hatred’s My Fuel” are based on a true case in Sweden where someone killed their siblings and ate them? Do gruesome true life occurrences like this one inspire you a lot where writing lyrics is concerned? What other topics have you written about on “Emotional Coma“?

Lars - “Well, Patrik wrote all the lyrics, so I guess that’s a question for him, but I believe he felt these topics reflected the mood of the songs and the riffs which he apparently felt were pretty dark this time. “Cult Of Denial” is another true story about some teenagers that spread the word on different chat sites they were going to commit suicide. Instead of trying to stop this madness other youngsters encouraged them to go ahead and actually do it?? “Bloodstained Soil” was inspired by the James Ellroy novel "Killer On The Road"; I know that. It’s about a mass murderer drifting around America killing people. We don’t wanna be another band singing about “Lord Of The Rings” kinda stuff and love and flowers in your hair doesn’t fit with our style either, really. I’m not a person that puts much attention on lyrics personally, but I think Patrik did a great job for this record because he really expressed how the music flows.”

LH: You signed a deal with Massacre Records around 2000, and from what I can gather, the contract was terminated early. Why did you choose not to continue your partnership with Massacre, and how did the deal come about with AFM? Are things going well so far with your new label?

Lars - “We are extremely happy to be with AFM. The guys working there totally understand what Lion’s Share is about and are lovely people that I consider my friends and brothers already. Massacre simply was not the right label for us. They had some trouble with the promotion of “Fall From Grace” that totally fucked that record up so after this we wanted to leave asap. We did a big mistake switching to them from Century Media who really wanted to keep us and was a much better label in hindsight. AFM was the only label we sent any material to this time so we were very happy when they decided to sign us.”

LH: You have recently played a few key festival appearances. How did they go?

Lars - “Well, we’ve done some really great gigs this summer actually. Especially Manowar’s Magic Circle Festival which was great for us. Germany is an important market and we played in front of 10, 000 people there. The Sweden Rock Festival was great too. A lot of fans both at the show and the signing session there!!! We just got back from Norway actually after playing the Metal Heart Festival with Testament, Queensryche, UDO and Candlemass. The band is sounding better than ever and we have a lot of fun hanging out not only with each other but also the other bands as well.”

LH: Aside from that handful of Summer festival appearances, do you have any plans to go on tour to support the new album?

Lars - “We’ve received two offers so far for a full blown European tour. It’s all about timing and going out with the right package so nothing is confirmed yet. We’ll do some Swedish club shows in September but of course we hope to be able to go out with some bigger bands and play all around Europe before the next album gets released.”

LH: That’s all of the questions I have for now. Thanks for your time in doing this interview. Feel free to leave our readers a final message.

Lars - “My pleasure Luci! Thanks to both you and the UK fans that have been with us through the years for the support. I hope you will enjoy the new album as much as we do. Check out an e-card with samples here www.fanbay.se/buy/index.asp?movie_id=1897&company_id=39 and check out our homepage www.lionsshare.org for news and updates. Cheers!!

Interviewed by Luci Herbert