Mike Tramp: A lot of them don’t know what else to do. : What makes the difference between Mike Tramp and all those other ones you’re talking about? That’s where a song like “When The Children Cry,” “Little Fighter,” “Crying For Freedom,” “If Our Mind Is Evil,” and all those songs that the fans today who have grown with it understand that this is where White Lion and Mike Tramp is different from some of the other ones even though we all had the same long hair and the same kind of bands. Bit by bit, it began attaching itself to me with “you can’t write these silly lyrics anymore. And America, Hollywood, just, what do they…it’s all just a party. All the social awareness of the world being a Dane – very similar, very aware. I couldn’t run away from my background that the way David Lee Roth had grown up and the way that I’d grown up are two completely different things. For a while, I wanted to be like the new David Lee Roth or something like that and all that kind of stuff. I didn’t know it, but later on, even in White Lion, I started understanding that I am where I come from. Because that’s what my mom was playing, and that was like freedom, a hippy movement that was very strong in Denmark. Because I have gone back, I had come back to Denmark both mentally and also in music-wise because when I grew up in the early ’70s, with Kim Larsen and Bob Dylan and stuff like that.
In a way, you have now made a full circle musically, right? : With MUSEUM and its predecessor COBBLESTONE STREET, you’re back to where it all began. It was great and stuff like that, but when you are not there mentally, and you don’t believe in that anymore and things like that.
Was it in 2007? It was a good show, in my opinion. : I saw the new version of White Lion in Sweden Rock.
The first thing that I wanted to do was change the band’s sound, and it completely defeats the purpose of going back and using the name, it’s only complete, and the second I woke up, it says no, no. I never for once went in there and just, “What should I do? Let me try to do something smart.” I simply just did what I am, and everything has just followed where I am mentally, and for a very short time, I got called back into trying to do a new version of White Lion, and I really regretted it. Or what Mike Tramp is when he’s by himself and just sits with the guitar.
Freak of Nature happens because of that, and the sound of all that becomes five guys wanting all to break free of that, and after Freak of Nature, the solo career takes over, and I follow just what I am as a solo artist. In other terms, keep moving on and never just saying… Freak of Nature happened after White Lion because mentally, we were done with that kind of sound and that kind of way, and that kind of way of being in a band and what the ’80s had become and stuff like that. It’s something that started but something that didn’t stop there but kept growing and growing. Mike Tramp: We are kind of talking about the DNA and stuff like that, and to me, my career looking back it has been an evolution. The album presents a very different Mike Tramp than what we are accustomed to in the past, or how you see it? : Let’s start this interview about your latest album, MUSEUM. Before the show, I sat down with Mike, and we discussed a variety of topics, such as Mike Tramp’s new musical direction, changes in life, the craziness of the ’80s, and the future of Mike Tramp.
Tramp made his solo debut in Finland last October. Hard rocker days are long gone, and his last two albums have been totally acoustic, grown man albums that draw their inspiration from the ’60s and ’70s, where it all began. People change over the years, and Mike Tramp is no exception here. Since then, Tramp has been a solo artist, and he has released eight albums, including the newest MUSEM, which came out earlier this year. Later, Tramp founded the band Freak of Nature, which released three albums before breaking up in the late 90s. Mike Tramp is a Danish singer and songwriter, best known for his work on a very successful 80’s hard rock band, White Lion.
INTERVIEW AND LIVE PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA