In 2015, Europe (yes, THAT Europe) released one of my absolute favorite albums of the year, War of Kings. I was so floored that the same band who gave us “The Final Countdown” and “Carrie” 30 years ago was now releasing an album that sounded like a lost Deep Purple masterpiece. This lead me to go back and discover over a decade’s worth of great material that I had no idea even existed. Europe hit the road behind War of Kings and low and behold in 2016 Europe embarked on their first extensive North American tour in many years.
I had the opportunity to hang backstage with Europe drummer, Ian Haugland. Ian was an awesome guy to talk to a really funny guys. We discussed the resurgence of their career, the humor behind the Geico commercial, and how important it was for Europe to continue to make new music as opposed to moving on as a nostalgia act. It was a really great time talking to Ian and I hope you’ll enjoy reading this one.
Interview commencing in 3…2…1…
Ian, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today!
Sure. No problem, Don. Thank you.
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It’s been a while since you’ve been here. How has it been returning to the states for such an extensive tour for the first time in a while?
It’s been great. I think it’s fantastic that we can still come back and do this after such a long time. Basically, we haven’t been touring on the West Coast and in Florida since 2005 so it’s been well more than 10 years. It’s fantastic that people still care for us and remember us [laughs].
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Like many fans my age, I discovered you guys with the release of The Final Countdown and was a huge fan of Out of this World. After that I lost track of the band until the release of War of Kings. Thanks to that album, I discovered the rest of your albums. Are you hearing this from a lot of people?
I hear this a lot. People really think that War of Kings is a killer album and has taken us into the now so to speak. It’s not just the fans saying that but reviewers as well. It’s almost like this is Mach II of Europe in a way. It’s rejuvenated us. We also have a rejuvenated audience that got into Europe through things like YouTube and Facebook. To them, all the Europe albums are basically new music to them which is an interesting thought.
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Many of your American fans are probably not even aware of the great albums that you put out. I mean, I am absolutely floored by the albums that I missed out on all those years.
Yeah, it’s cool that you get that feeling from the new music. We said when we reunited in 2003 that if we were going to do this, we would have to let driving force to be to create new music and to take the band on a new musical journey, not only to play the stuff from the 80’s that people know. We had to stay creative. That’s the key word for Europe.
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That’s a very hard and rare things for bands from your era to do. In a time like this now, most of your peers are out doing the nostalgic thing while you guys are very much a currently relevant. Your new material, in my opinion, is your strongest material to date.
Thank you, Don. I totally agree with you. It’s like an old wine. I gets better by the year I guess [laughs]. I guess you get more stories to tell as a songwriter when you’re a little older than when you’re in your 20’s. Also, it’s a different approach these days. In the 80’s you made an album and you were thinking, “How can we find that hit song?” These days, it’s not about that any more. We’d rather think about how we can make a solid album with great songs? It’s also important that these songs will be great to perform live.
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Looking back on your catalog, which album do you feel best represents everything that Europe is truly about?
I would say that War of Kings is the album where we are really showing our influences from way back. Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, UFO. You can hear that in there. In that sense, I think that War of Kings really is the album that defines Europe the clearest. We’re not afraid of showing our heritage.
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Thanks to the Geico commercial you guys have really had quite a resurgence in popularity. My mom even called and asked me if I had seen it. You guys definitely seemed to roll with the humor of it. How did you guys approach that without being insulted at all?
[laughs] Geico got in touch with our management and presented the idea and what the plot was for the commercial and we thought it was cool and really funny. We didn’t have to do anything but just be ourselves. We just did it and I loved it. I love the sense of humor to it and I feel that is very important in music because if you don’t have any humor in music, it just becomes pretentious and boring.
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That’s so cool to hear. At first I was like, “They’re making fun of one of my favorite bands!” but then I just realized you guys were down with it and I thought that it was really cool. I mean, that commercial exposed you to a whole new generation.
[laughs] I know. “The Final Countdown” went to #1 on iTunes charts so that shows the power of TV [laughs].
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I’m sure you’ve seen the video of that band doing their bad cover of “The Final Countdown”. What were your thoughts on that?
Oh yeah, the one where they were outside and it’s all empty? [laughs] That was great fun. I mean, performance wise, it was really bad, but they were young kids and they did it with passion and that deserves respect. It was an awful version of that song though [laughs]. There have been a lot of cover versions of that song done. One version that was really cool was done by a marching band as they marched through the streets.
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The song “The Final Countdown” also has quite a bit of relevance in this day and age.
Thank you. Yeah, I mean, you can put whatever meaning you want into the lyrics that you want. The reason I would say that The Final Countdown is still so popular is that it’s a timeless song. It fits into any situation at any time. Sound wise, you can hear it’s from the 80’s but the song itself is classic music. You could probably listen to that song in 50 years and it will still be a great song.
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Do you ever get tired of playing “The Final Countdown”?
No, really. The energy and the rush we get from the audience just blows my mind every night. I think it’s important as a musician and as a performer to kick yourself in the ass and remind yourself that these people have paid money for their ticket and this may be the first time they’re every seeing you. We can’t get lazy and start thinking, “Oh fuck that song.” We have to perform at 100% every night. It’s really important that you remind yourself how lucky you are, especially a band like Europe that comes from the 80’s, that you can still be doing this.
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What is one song that you absolutely love playing live every time?
Well, it varies from night to night but obviously, when you’re out on tour and promoting a new album, the new stuff is always most fun to play. There’s one song called “Nothing To ‘Ya” that I love. It’s a great song. I love playing songs like, “Sign of the Times” and “Cherokee.” They’re just great songs and the response from the audience is always the reward. Obviously we played these songs hundreds of times but every night when you’re up there on stage and you get the reactions from the audience, it’s like the first time you’re playing them.
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What is a song that rarely, if ever, gets played that you would love to see in the setlist?
You know, one of my favorite albums is the Prisoners of Paradise album. There are so many great songs on that album that I think would be great to play live. We’ve been doing so many albums now that it’s kind of hard to make a setlist that pleases everyone. I definitely love that album though.
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Finally, what’s in store for you guys in 2016?
We’re recording a new album in September. That’s going to be great fun. We’ll be working with the same producer that we did for War of Kings, Dave Cobb, so that’s really thrilling because it was a very inspiring and creative process in the studio. We’re also going to do some festivals in the summer. The festival scenes are always great where we can just go out and meet friends and see other bands. In October and November we’re going to do a couple of Final Countdown 30th Anniversary shows and play the album front to back.
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Will those shows be recorded?
Yes. That’s what we’re planning on and then next year we’ll be back on the road with a new album. Hopefully we’ll be back in the states.
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Ian, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to me this evening. This was a real pleasure.
No problem, Don. Thank you so much.
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