How would you react if you were a young hard rocker, with a band from a small town in the North of the world, and one day, out of the blue, received a phone call from an American tour manager inviting you to join two hard rock icons from the 80´s on tour? Well, at first you would probably think that was some kind of tricky call but after realizing it was truth there would be no further options: YOU WOULD HAVE TO SAY YES AND JUST GO! This may sound impossible but it´s exactly what happened to these 4 Swedish guys: Emil Ekbladh (vocals), Christopher Olsson (guitar), Björn Willander (bass) and Markus Winberg (drums) a couple of months ago. They were just there, doing their regular stuff when the phone rang and now, their band, Dirty Passion in on tour around Europe living a dream-come-true situation with the forever kings of Sleeze rock Faster Pussycat and the hard rock band Enuff z´ Nuff

Dirty Passion was created in 2006 and although they´ve got over 133 thousand views on myspace - the band´s main source of publicity together with their website www.dirtypassion.net - they are still independent and taking care of their own business. With 10 released songs on myspace, one video clip and all their material available for free on their website, they bet on the internet to promote the band and have been doing a great job. Their music is classic hard rock, influenced by Europe, Guns ´n Roses & Backyard Babies and everything is done and shown really carefully, well played and in extreme professional way.

A few days before they started the tour I talked to Emil and he gave me this great interview to let you know everything about this Sweden based classic hard rock band. If you are in Europe, take a look at the tour dates at:  www.dirtypassion.net and get ready to see the kings of Sleeze and Dirty Passion together kickin´asses all over!

Swedish rock is well known worldwide respected as one of the best of the world. As an independent rock band from Sweden, what do you have to say about it? Is it truth?
I think Sweden has produced more great rock bands than many other countries. I would not go as far as saying it's "the best" place for rock music, but Europe, Backyard Babies, The Hellacopters, Crashdiet and a whole bunch of others are on my list of favorite bands.

And how is it to take care of band without a label or a manager? Who takes care of Dirty Passion mostly?
We all care a lot about the band so we're all equally involved. We haven't found a suitable manager yet so there's a lot of "background work" that needs to be taken care of. We keep busy connecting with promoters and venues to get gigs and we also try our best to spread the band to the world and fans around the globe, as well as record labels. We haven't found a decent label yet either... I guess we're the only band around touring Europe with no label to support us. That's pretty cool!

You have quite a lot released material on the internet but no full length albums. Why have you chosen the internet as your main source instead of producing the ”physical” material?
From the start, we've never really cared a lot about bringing CD's out there. We've recorded, I think, six demos, or promos, consisting of two songs each, that we've released on our website and on MySpace. We feel that we have a lot more to gain by releasing our songs to "the world" than to put them on a few CD's. Only die-hards that know your band from before will buy your CD's but on the internet everyone can listen to your songs, no matter who they are or where they come from. It's a lot easier to get new fans and connections when you got the songs right in front of their noses. It's just a click away... That has helped this band a lot! We get a lot of attention from all around the world which we really appreciate.
Record labels are, however, very old-fashioned and most of them will only listen to you if you send them a CD. That's why we put out an EP in late 2009 called Baby's Got No Say (Baby's Got No Say/Liar/Self-Destructive/Angel). We will also bring this one on tour for sale.

Is MySpace your biggest source for promotion, then?
MySpace and our website are probably the best ways of promotion for us. But I think getting out on the road and playing live has helped us very much too. It's a combination. Some bands only exist on MySpace and that usually doesn't bring them anywhere. You need to come out in the real world as well to get people interested. The best thing about MySpace is that once you put some good songs up (along with some pictures maybe) it takes care of itself and you can focus on the important stuff like writing music and rehearsing. You just need to log in once in a while to communicate with your fans.

Which bands do you consider as your biggest influences?
I listen to bands like Kiss, Guns 'n' Roses, Backyard Babies, Europe, Alice Cooper and The Darkness. Those are my all time favorites so I get a lot of inspiration from them. As for Dirty Passion I think we sound like a mix between Europe, Guns & Backyards - at least that's what I'm told.

Tell me briefly a little of the band's history.
We all met in 2006 to create a great rock 'n' roll band and that's basically what we're still trying to do. We always try to make it one step better. Since the start I think we've played 50-100 concerts. We've opened up for bands like Y&T [US] and Towers Of London [UK]. We've played in most of Sweden's larger rock clubs and we've also played in Denmark and Germany.

How is the music making process of Dirty Passion?
Usually Christopher, the guitarist, comes up with a good riff or two and then we take it from there. We add lyrics and melody, bass guitar, and finally drums. We work together but also a lot separately. It's hard to start writing a song with all four equally involved because there are so many different ideas and directions. Different opinions are good, but you need to have a solid ground first.

You were chosen to warm up the European tour of Faster Pussycat and Enuff Z'Nuff, two very popular American hard rock bands from the 80/90's. You are an independent band from Sweden, with no press assessors or promoters. How were you found and chosen?
We were actually contacted by their (Faster Pussycat / Enuff Z' Nuff) promoter who were booking an European tour for them. They had heard of us and liked us, so we were simply asked to join. We said to ourselves "we can't afford to miss out on this one". We had been considered for a previous tour with another well-known American band but missed out on it because of an hour delay in our reply. Another band came in before us and got the slot.

Was it a big surprise for you? How was it to answer the phone call and find out you were invited to go on a tour with the kings of Sleeze rock?
It's was amazing. Here we had this American guy from California on the line, and we were in the small Malmö getting ready to rehearse. When he entered our website and started playing "Baby's Got No Say" in the background - we knew it was for real. We have a lot of respect for Faster Pussycat and Enuff Z'Nuff so it's a great honor for us to do this.

You released a very well produced music video in 2009, from the song 'D.O.A'. How was the experience of recording a video clip?
Recording a promo video was a new experience for us. We've never done anything like this before. We just thought, we needed to take this one step further and that's when the idea of a video came to our minds. After some research we contacted this guy, Jonas Hansson, who had made some other video productions and asked if he would be interested in shooting a video for us. We sent him the song and he immediately got back to us and said that he was interested. Jonas used to play in an early Swedish metal band called Silver Mountain, so he knows about music business and what has to be done. We told him we wanted a raw video, nothing spectacular, just us in front of the camera doing what we do best. Since we got a lot of live experience it was very easy to record the video, we just played the song live a couple of times to get the right angles. It's recorded at some locations in our hometown, Malmö, and the outcome of the video was way better than anyone of us had expected.

What are your expectations for 2010 now that you got a very long and nice step with this European tour?
We feel 2010 is the year for Dirty Passion. First of all we hope the tour is great and that we survive it! Then, we will hopefully land a record deal and start making a full length record. We just need to find the right people to work with.

This is a curious fact, actually, you have around 134 thousand views on your MySpace profile and a very impressive number of plays on your songs. Some of them with over 9 thousand plays. Many signed bands don't have even half of what you achieved. You are still independent, though. How is it so difficult to get a label and a contract?
The problem is that it's not very difficult to get a label. To get a good label is very difficult, though. Many bands sign stupid contracts just to get a record out, and think they're bigger than they really are. We all have previous experience from dealing with labels so we know what's important when signing a deal. We've gotten a bunch of offers from labels, but none of them has been good enough. You gotta ask what the label can do for you, not what you can do for the label. A CD is no good if it can't be found in your local store or if it doesn't get any promotion or attention. That's the problem with most of the deals today. You get the CD, but it's not gonna sell a lot or take your band further if it ain't promoted. If that's the case, you're probably better off on yourself, staying independent.

At the end of your bio we can read the following statement: ”while other bands come and go, one thing is for sure: this is just the beginning”. What makes you believe so much in your success?
The reason we believe in ourselves is because this is the only thing we know how to do well. We know how to rock 'n' roll, but we don't know how to live an ordinary life. We've found what we love to do, and we're gonna keep on doing it until we die. Either we make it big time, or we don't, but at least we tried. Going on tour is the best thing we can do, leaving everything behind. We only have to worry about being sober enough and making it in time to do the next gig.

What was the most difficult moment for Dirty Passion so far?
Landing the deal for this upcoming tour was probably the most difficult thing so far. It may sound easy, but there's a lot of work behind it that needs to be taken care of. We need to make sure nothing fails us on stage, with backups and everything you can imagine (guitars, amps, strings, cables and so on). We also have to worry about stuff like who's gonna pay the rent for your apartment when you're not around to do it? There's a lot of stuff that's usually not much to worry about but suddenly can become a major problem for you. Once we enter that tour bus, we will be free though!

If you weren't a musician, what would you be? Why?
I seriously don't know. This is the only thing I know how to do, and sometimes it feels like this is the only thing I enjoy doing in life. I love to stand up on stage and sing to an audience to communicate my feelings. It's just a great feeling that you can't describe. I love to kick ass out there and see new faces every night. If you do it good, you get so much back from the audience...

Dirty Passion is living a very good moment but you've been working hard to get it. What kind of advices would you give to the bands who are following the same goals you are?
Don't give up too easy. If you believe in yourself and your band, just keep going. If you don't believe in what you do, or your band, you need to move on. There's no reason holding on to something you don't believe in. Find your place in a band you believe in, that's important if you want to get somewhere. Then there's the usual, you need to have good songs, lyrics and you need to be damn good on stage! If you suck in a concert, no one's gonna be interested in buying your CD... that's for sure.

Leave us a final message!
Come see us on tour in January / February! Check the dates on www.dirtypassion.net.

Maila-Kaarina
photos: promo