MTUK: Welcome back Mark and congratulations on ‘Burning Leather’. This is a tremendous album, especially the new material. Can you tell me how this all came about? What made you guys get back together?

MR: “Thank you for the kind words! Cool that you like it! I got this great idea (the OZ reunion) at a Midsummer Party in 2009, while being sponsored by Carlsberg (Ha! Ha!); and Nokia ("Connecting People"). I called both Jay (C. Blade – Bass) and Ape (DeMartini – Vocals) and asked them if they would be interested and thankfully, after a while thinking it over, they said yes. Then we started to make the plans; what we'd like to do and how we’d like to do it?” “Now, after more planning and working, we are at this point; “Burning Leather” album released, "Dominator" video released prior, and we've played shows at some festivals during the last summer!! We didn’t know what would happen when we got back together again, but it worked out a lot better than we probably expected. It‘s really fun to work with the boys again and as much fun as in the good old days. The main reason for an OZ reunion? We just wanted to get together again and make some music. And I call this reunion time ‘AfterBurner Time’! No time for wondering, just get on doing things, Ha! Ha!”

MTUK: When did you start writing the new material?

MR: “Jay already had some ideas in his head, when I called the first time in that midsummer of 2009, and most of the new songs started to get in shape in the winter right after 2009/2010. During the winter, we were sending demo songs to each other and managed to get them all to a level, where we could start working with them in the studio. Some of the new songs have some roots in the 80’s and some of them are totally new, such as “Dominator” and “Enter Stadium”..... “Enter Stadium” is a special track actually, that we made for a special purpose; and that song will only be on this album and on video! We will never play that song on stage!

” MTUK: Has your song writing process changed since the early days and albums?

MR: “Yes, definitely! Song writing this time worked like this: Jay wrote a demo song and after we’d listened and checked what kind of drums I would play there and also what options Ape had for his singing, we’d work more and more with demos until we were ready to go into the studio! There Nicke (Andersson) our producer was then doing his changes and modifications, and, we have the final version of a song.” “We all work well as a team, because we have respect for each other, and we all know what we can do. We have the same end result in mind, which is to get the songs as good as possible. In the 80’s, we were living in the same city and were having rehearsal sessions with the band several times a week, but now it’s different! We are living in different places and use modern technology to make the music together. A lot of email traffic, I tell you!”

MR: “Well, Jay has been working in a studio so much during these last few years, that for him there was nothing new being in the studio, and Ape has been in the studio infrequently as well, so he was also quite familiar with singing in one. But, for me, the situation was different, but also really fun and exciting. I hadn’t been in a studio since 1991, so I did notice technological development; more flashing lights. The main difference between the “Burning Leather” recordings and the recordings we have done before was that we were not recording all the background instruments at the same time, to save money! This time, we recorded drums first and after that the rest of the music. The technical stuff was handled by sound engineers in the studio (and Jay), so there were no troubles. We pretty much used the same technique for recording as in the 80’s, just play your instruments and there’s no special studio or recording tricks. The new technology has just made our music making process different when compared to then; but at the end the results are the same, OZ = Raw Metal!” “How we will create the new music in the future? Probably with the same recording procedure as we were using with the “Burning Leather” album. We will use different studios and sound engineers for recording, of course, but still want Nicke as the producer.”

MTUK: What was it like to work with Nicke as a producer? He is more famed for his death metal projects (in the majority)?

MR: “Nicke was the best choice as the producer for OZ, definitely. Working with him was really fun and the “Burning Leather” album shows what we can do together! He was also good help in keeping OZ on the right track; for example, we were talking together a lot about the OZ sound and what we should do as a band. And, we got a lot of feedback from Nicke; sometimes also some hard words! Nicke is a great musician and producer and his knowledge of music is not limited only to death metal.”

MTUK: What made ‘Dominator’ the first promo track and video release? Was there anything in particular in the music or the lyrics that made the decision easier?

MR: “Well, we all thought that “Dominator” was a really great song to release as the promotion track and we loved the idea of a video, so we just did it. There is one “funny” thing with “Dominator’s lyrics you might not know though? Jay was inspired for it, by the Swedish film “Män Som Hatar Kvinnor” and he asked me if he could write “quite hard” lyrics? I told him there are no limits for lyrics! Write as you like! And the “Dominator” lyrics become really “quite rough stuff”. Then, David Fincher also started to make a Hollywood version of that film (“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo); whilst in Stockholm, we were ready with OZ “Dominator”, so there are some funny connections between us, this song, and this Swedish film!”

MTUK: There are 5 classic Oz tracks on the new release, how did you decide which ones you wanted to re-record and what do you think stands out with these new re-recorded versions?

MR: “We basically picked up songs from the “Fire In The Brain” album and, of course “Turn The Cross Upside Down”. Then we also wanted to take 2 songs from “Third Warning”, because we think that that “Third Warning” album, in its original version, is a disaster in terms of sound!” “Choosing the old songs was not “a big deal” actually; we had the same favourites on each list quite quickly. We just picked songs from our best periods, from when we started to work together, right up until the last days, because the reunion is just a next gear to drive us further forward. “Burning Leather” is presented as the perfect package that shows what OZ is today. We wanted to combine the mystique of the 80's with the relevance of the 2000's.”

MR: “We were actually talking with quite a few record companies in Scandinavia and also in Europe about the distribution contract for “Burning Leather”, but AFM got in contact through some contacts that we’d had already; and they showed their interest quite fast... After they listened to “Burning Leather” itself this gained considerable momentum and we are really happy that we could sign OZ to AFM now. Well, UDO can’t be wrong, right?!”

MTUK: I see you are listed as playing this April’s ‘Keep It True Festival’; that’s rather a dream line up too, have you been to this festival before?

MR: “No, I have never been there before. My first time on that festival is with OZ. Yes it will be cool to play there! We are so looking forward to being on stage there!”

MTUK: Was ‘Muskelrock’ your first reformation show? Or were there others before that?

MR: “Yes, that’s right... ‘Muskelrock’ was OZ’s first show since 1991. There were none prior..... We had to use Johannes Sandberg on bass, as stand in for Jay, because he couldn’t be there at that time. As well as also having OZ’s own Swedish ‘Axemen’ on stage! Michel Santunione and John Berg.....!”

MTUK: Later performances at Sweden Rock must have been good? What did you make of that day and overall, what are your general impressions of the crowd response so far? Do any of these shows stand out in your mind?

MR: “Yes, Sweden Rock was a really good one! The hard core of OZ (Ape De Martini, Jay C. Blade and Mark Ruffneck) all on stage for the first time since 1987! Tremendous!!” “To be honest, all the festival shows have been quite similar in their working schedule. We like to get to the festival backstage some hours before we play, check the stage, and get ready for the show. Before the show, we like to be free from any kind of “noise” and just get focused. And after, after some time for the band only of course, we love to talk with people and probably drink some beer, but it’s different. It’s all about time! I hope we have time for all of this, because it’s so important now. We have been so well received everywhere. Especially at the ‘Swordbrothers Festival’ in Germany I remember, which turned into a virtual "Metal-Sauna". We can be really happy with the crowd response so far, for sure!”

MTUK: Do you think there would be a chance of a UK show or tour? Have you a European tour planned or even further a-field like the USA, South America etc?

MR: “We have started to plan our touring for the summer time, and probably we will play different festivals in Finland, Sweden and Germany, but it’s hard to say where we might go. Right now, we have no plans for the UK, USA or South America, but you never know what happens in the future. OZ will try to play as many places as possible; if people like to hear our music, we will play there!”

MTUK: Would you like to leave some parting comments for our readers?

MR: “We would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal fans out there, and also welcome new fans into our fold. For more info, please check out our website: www.ozofficial.com...”

Thank you so much for your time, congratulations on ‘Burning Leather’, and I hope to see you guys live at some point in the future.

For more on the band check out

http://www.ozofficial.com

Interviewed by Paul Maddison

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