From his home in Stockholm, Sweden, Conny Bloom of the Electric Boys and Hanoi Rocks talked with me about his music, the new Electric Boys album out April 30th, touring--past and future--the secret to staying young, whether the global pandemic was his fault, and the scariest moment in his life--that time he played Led Zeppelin in front of Led Zeppelin and thought Jimmy Page was going to knock him out.

Contents:

01:00:00 - Start

02:00:06 - Introduction

02:35:10 - Touring and Playing with the Dan Reed Network

03:40:09 - Same fashion sense--Keith Richard's ring

04:07:10 - Coming up with the Electric Boys sound

04:39:18 - Musical influences growing up

05:36:16 - "We need to put a band together and find our own thing."

06:03:24 - Coming up with "Lips N' Hips"

06:19:04 - The inspiration for "Psychedelic Eyes"

07:11:18 - What motivates the distinctive Electric Boys sound?

09:03:18 - "It's not something you can practice, read about, or watch on YouTube."

09:39:10 - The song "You Spark My Heart"

11:08:12 - "I'd rather be too experimental than too safe."

12:00:23 - They're not AC/DC

12:48:00 - Two differences being a band now versus in the 80s and 90s

14:14:08 - Feeling the loss of MTV

14:35:06 - "Every band has this same question."

15:09:15 - Crowdfunding albums

15:28:06 - One of the few lines Conny Bloom has ever borrowed

16:14:08 - The sickly sound of greed

16:43:05 - Music? Not if you want to make money

17:17:14 - Game, Set, Bloom, a casualty of 2020

18:19:08 - Is the global pandemic Conny Bloom's fault?

18:39:17 - Or was the global pandemic Motley Crue's fault?

19:11:13 - "Everyone is hanging on the edge, just waiting."

20:44:22 - Niklas Sigevall missed out on the new album

21:23:13 - The Electric Boys is now a 5-piece band

22:07:00 - An Electric Boys live album

22:46:04 - New album, Ups!de Down

22:58:24 - Getting back to touring

24:04:06 - The 30th anniversary of Groovus Maximus

24:48:01 - Whole-album concerts and songs there were never written to be played live

25:51:03 - Playing Led Zeppelin... FOR Led Zeppelin

27:04:24 - Experimenting with a Led Zeppelin tribute for the Royal Family and the royalty of Led Zep

27:40:07 - "Jimmy Page is going to knock me out now."

28:27:05 - The musicians' secret to staying young

28:54:01 - Alice Cooper and playing where the Beatles played

29:46:10 - "You don't have to get old and boring."

30:24:04 - The music of today

30:57:21 - Reggae and older Rock N' Roll

31:37:21 - "A wall of sound."

32:20:19 - A musical conversation

33:38:08 - Covering ABBA's "King Kong Song"

34:20:08 - It's all about the riff

34:54:07 - "Sweden was always a Pop [music] country."

35:43:22 - Did you have to bring up that song?

36:53:14 - "It was about the melodies and the right words to go with the melody."

37:26:01 - The opposite of Bob Dylan

38:11:22 - "They always start their songs with the title."

38:47:22 - Interesting openers to the Electric Boys songs

41:24:17 - The advice of Bob Rock

42:12:06 - Coming up with "Captain of My Soul"

42:32:17 - New song release dates

43:23:07 - Ups!de Down: Harder, edgier, more varied

44:23:02 - Building a supergroup around Conny Bloom

45:42:20 - Mitch Mitchell

45:57:20 - Dan McCafferty so I can be really annoyed

46:13:14 - John Entwistle

46:20:19 - John Lord

46:26:21 - Soul singers and horns

46:36:21 - Pariah Burke, Executive Producer for Conny Bloom's supergroup

47:34:15 - Where to find the Electric Boys

Reb Beach (Whitesnake, Winger, Black Swan, guitarist)