On Sunday Night, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jan and Nik from Mob Rules, before their gig at the Underworld, London.
1. Could you tell me a little bit about the band and its influences?
“Klaus is the only original member left. The rest of us have been in the band for a period of about fifteen years to a decade. But yeah, really the band started off as a way for everyone to really just play music and be like our heroes. Our influences were bands like Dio you know your classic metal and rock bands. Naturally every member has their own influences and brings that to the table.”
2. What’s the approach to writing music?
“So we write the music first and then Jan writes the lyrics. So, it starts off with either a riff or a melody, we then slowly put it all together and go from there. In terms of the lyrics, Jan usually looks through historical things or just general themes and thinks about what could mesh well with the melodies we present him.”
3. What was the process for writing the new record like? Were there any changes?
“We made it all in our guitarist Sven’s studio. We just went for it and let it flow instead of coming to sessions before with full ideas. With our previous album ‘Tales From Beyond,’ we’d done something similar and the fans seemed to like that and we liked it, so we went with that sort of formulation again. It gave us more power and made the songs more powerful. A song like ‘Ghost of A Chance,’ had a really cool melody line that fit well with ‘Fear of the Dark,’ funnily enough, but then one day whilst Jan was driving to work, he heard the Ghost of a Chance said and thought that would work well. ‘Children’s Crusade,’ came about after researching the actual crusade period.”
4. How have the new songs been received live? What’s your favourite song to play live?
Jan: “Well we’ve reached a nice middle where we play a mixture of old stuff, and new stuff, but also playing a fair few shorter songs as well for this set, given the time limits. But favourite songs? Children’s Crusade I think.”
Nik: “Our fan base ranges between 6-70 years old, so I think it’s a mix really. And as for favourite song? I’d say My Kingdom Come.”