Интервю с Rene Shades (PRETTY MAIDS)

„I think music got into me, not the other way around“

The PRETTY MAIDS fans have already got used to him – the eccentric bass player with his invariable cylinder on stage, the emblematic figure which cannot be mistaken. This is Rene Shades, the man who joined the Danish veterans in 2011 and ever since then he is an inseparable part of the band. The reason to meet him is not only the PRETTY MAIDS live gigs in Bulgaria, but also his solo debut „Teenage Heart Attacks & Rock and Roll Heaven“ which was out this summer.

MH18: Hi Rene, how are you and where am I finding you?
Rene Shades: Hi, I am in Spain and I am fine, thank you.

MH18: Please tell us how did you get into music. Did you go to some music school?
Rene Shades: I think I am mostly self taught in fact. I think music got into me, not the other way around. I’ve just always listened music when I was a kid. When I was 6 years old I started to listen Elvis and stuff like that and it always had a fascination for me. So I started playing guitar when I was 6. Тhen I played football instead for a while and then I picked the guitar up again and it stuck for me for long… it was maybe since my early teenage years. That’s how it really started, I couldn’t stop playing.

MH18: So you just practiced hard and worked hard. And all this is without musical education?
Rene Shades: Yes, I worked very hard, but for me it wasn’t work to begin with, it was just fun. My parents had some BEATLES albums, that I loved and as I said I loved Elvis as a kid and there was a couple of Danish bands as well. But when you are a kid and you don’t know what are you listening to and when you play to those early BEATLES, this kind of music sticks with you forever. So I am glad my parents had such music in the house. The records were there and I listened all the time.

MH18: In PRETTY MAIDS you play bass, but on your solo album you play guitar. Please tell us how many instruments can you play?
Rene Shades: Well, I play guitar obviously, this is my first instrument, then I play bass. You know I can get around and play keyboards if I have to, but I wouldn’t call myself a keyboard player at all. If you know what notes you have to play, sometimes you can get around that in a recording situation. And I work in a studio and I am very used to this job and I know how it works. But I would say I really only play guitar and bass and sing.

MH18: Your first instrument is guitar but you got into PRETTY MAIDS playing bass…
Rene Shades: Yes and No! I have been in PRETTY MAIDS two times. The first time I was in PRETTY MAIDS I played guitar. That was in 2004 I think and PRETTY MAIDS didn’t have a lot of shows back then. I would’t say the band was „on hold“, but not a lot happened. And we’ve been friends with Ronnie Atkins and Ken Hammer maybe since 1995, so Ken asked me if I wanted to play guitar, so we played some shows together and I played guitar on those shows. PRETTY MAIDS always had two guitar players in the beginning.

MH18: You have known the guys from PRETTY MAIDS since 1995?
Rene Shades: Oh yeah, I know them from back then. Denmark is not so big country.

MH18: And how many languages do you speak?
Rene Shades: I speak Danish, English, Spanish. I speak a good bit of German as well.

MH18: You are unbelievable multi-linguist, singer, guitarist and bass player!
Rene Shades: Thank you man. (laughing).

MH18: Do you have a favourite PRETTY MAIDS song recorded before your arrival in the band?
Rene Shades: I think maybe always it was the song „Future World“. „Future World“ and „Love Games“  because I kind of grew up with that. So I would say „Future World“ if I have to pick one.

MH18: And from the period when you stepped in as a permanent member of the band?
Rene Shades: If I had to choose one it would probably be „Mother Of All Lies“.

MH18: Do you remember your visits in Bulgaria? You recently had a show in Chelopech.
Rene Shades: Of course I do! I just want to thank you. All the times I’ve been there with PRETTY MAIDS, it has always been fantastic. Everybody treated us so nice. We love coming there and we’ll be back soon! Thank to everybody who comes and supports us and shows us all this emotion!

MH18: Can the Bulgarian fans expect to see you soon back here in Bulgaria again?
Rene Shades: The plan is to go touring next year, so yes, it really could happen!

MH18: Let’s talk about your new solo debut album – „Teenage Heart Attacks & Rock’N’Roll Heaven“ which was released on 14th June this year. Congratulations! A wonderful piece of work! The music in it is rather different than the PRETTY MAIDS style.
Rene Shades: I would have no reason to do hard rock, I do it all the time and I think PRETTY MAIDS do a pretty good job of that. I cannot do that better and I cannot sing like that. And I always have a love for country music. You know I grew up with Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen and I wanted to do something more in that style, and mix it up a little bit.

MH18: How did you choose the title for the album?
Rene Shades: A lot of titles nowadays are very short, which is cool. But I was a little bit influenced by VOLBEAT, they have long titles on the albums, you know. I was sitting in Jacob Hansen Studio and just looking around. There were a couple of gold records I noticed and one was „Shady Ladies and Outlaw Gentlemen“ of VOLBEAT and I thought „That’s kind of cool long title“. Then I read the new Bruce Springsteen book and in the book he actually mentions one of his first gigs: „It was great, it was fantastic“ and then he says: „It was teenage heart attacks & Rock and Roll heaven for me“. I thought „OK, that’s cool, I’ll use that“. So I thank to Bruce Springsteen for that.

MH18: How many instruments do you play on your album?
Rene Shades: I play all the guitars and I sing, that’s my main job. There are a couple of songs where maybe I play a little bit of keyboards and a little bit of bass, but my main job is to sing and to play guitars.

MH18: Who are the musicians who helped you?
Rene Shades: There are a lot of people on the album. Bryan Adams drummer was supposed to be on the album too, he is a friend of mine, a guy named Mikey Currey, but we can never find time to make it fit. There’s another friend of mine – Kasper Lund – he plays drums. I have the bass player from Tim McGrow, who is a big country artist in America – he is called Paul Bushnell, he plays bass on a lot of songs. I also have some German players from Udo Lindenberg band. There is a guy – Jimmy „Z“ Zavala, he is famous saxophone and harmonica player who played with Rod Stewart, Eurythmics, Tom Petty and Etta James. There are a lot of different guys and I am very happy. And of course I have a famous guitar player on one of the songs called Brent Mason, he is a legend and I am very happy he said „Yes“ and did that. It was fun, it was great fun actually. I can also tell you the guy who produced the album with me is Hans Martin Buff. He works with the SCORPIONS and he also worked a lot with Prince.

MH18: It sounds like you gathered a whole lot of total professionals for you solo debut!
Rene Shades: Oh yeah, I wanted to get to the next level and these guys pushed me along. And I am very happy! Of course I got Jacob Hansen to mix the album, he mixes PRETTY MAIDS and VOLBEAT.

MH18: Did you ask someone to help you with the vocals?
Rene Shades: No, it’s all me on the vocals. There are a couple of people, friends of mine who did some backing vocals here and there. But it’s 99.9% me on the vocals.

MH18: How did you make this album? Did you have some material over the years or all the songs in „Teenage Heart Attacks & Rock and Roll Heaven“ are new material?
Rene Shades: I didn’t take any old staff I had, I started from the beginning again, because I had a project before called SHADES & PETERS with which I did an album and it was a little bit like this, not totally but a little bit. I just didn’t want to take songs from that period. I thought: „OK we start all over and see where we end up!“ These are all new songs.

MH18: How long did it take you to have „Teenage Heart Attacks & Rock and Roll Heaven“ ready?
Rene Shades: From the decision to make an album till it was finished it took maybe like two years.

MH18: Which was the first song you wrote for the album?
Rene Shades: It’s a song called „The American Dream“. It was probably the first song we did and „Reckless“ after that.

MH18: A lot of musicians make songs about disappointment by the political systems and elections.
Rene Shades: There wasn’t such idea about „The American Dream“. It wasn’t really about it, to start with, but the song got to this shape in the process. I didn’t write the words in the beginning, I just had the melody and the chords.

MH18: In the album there is one cover song „Oh Susie“ (original by SECRET SERVICE). Why did you choose exactly this one? Is there something special about it?
Rene Shades: It’s just a song that I remember from when I was in 6th or 7th grade, when you are a young kid and when for the first time you go to  private birthday parties with people, and when you start to get interested in the other sex. So I just remembered the song from that period and I thought it was a great song. I just listened to it again and I thought „Maybe we can do something with that“. The funny story actually comes after the song is done. As we work in the studio a lot of songwriters come here, and there is a guy called Johan Becker and he is actually the singer in SECRET SERVICE now and he sings the song, and he came in and heard my cover and said „Fantastic!“ and for me it was really fun!

MH18: You succeeded to achieve a really good sounding of „Oh Susie“.
Rene Shades: Thank you very much! I appreciate this. The song was made in 1979, in a different time. It’s a great song anyway. I’ve always loved the original!

MH18: And what about „Forever Girl“? It’s a killer song!
Rene Shades: It’s just a story, it’s just like writing a story for a film. It doesn’t have any real truth in it. I just wanted to write a little bit like „Where the Wild Roses Grow“ song by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue or like „Summer wine“ by Ville Valo & Natalia Avalon (original by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood). I wanted to write in that sort of style so when I just came up with the story I was working with a lot of Irish people so it became like a little bit Irish. The only song that really has like a personal connection to me is „Little Footsteps in the Sand“.

MH18: Very beautiful and relaxing song with the feeling of summer vacation!
Rene Shades: It’s a song about my son. It is supposed to sound a little bit like you are in Spain, ’cause I live in Spain. It is supposed to be a positive song for kids and family. I believe every kid in the world should have a good childhood, I know that’s not the case but I really think every kid deserves good start to life.

MH18: Now when your first solo album is a fact a tour to promote it is on its way. You are about to start a tour as a support for SHOTGUN REVOLUTION in Denmark. Which musicians are going to support you on the stage?
Rene Shades: It is going to be the drummer from SHOTGUN REVOLUTION who plays on my album – Kasper Lund and I have a guitar player from another Danish band – ST. PROSTITUTE who is going to play guitar along and then I have a bass player who is a friend of mine in Denmark. That’s about it. We just make sure we play really loud!

MH18: What are your words to the readers of Metal Hangar 18?
Rene Shades: Metal Hangar 18 is the coolest magazine in the world man! Everybody who goes in and reads about these things nowadays is really appreciated! It’s not something we just say, we actually mean it! You can’t kill Rock’n’Roll, no matter in what form it comes! We just appreciate everybody’s passion for this, even if it’s PRETTY MAIDS or my own stuff. I am really thankful to the people who take the time in this busy world to read a magazine like yours. You guys do a fantastic job! Thank you so much and all the best!