Interview Mikkey Dee

Hello Mikkey ! The first Lex Legion album has been released last month… it looks like the feedback has been more than positive, doesn’t it ?

Absolutely incredible ! Way more than I expected… but at the same time, I kinda expected it a little bit (smile). I expected it to be big news… because I can’t name a band that comes back and play together after 40 years, well, four members out of five. Can you ? I don’t know…

Well, after 40 years, like that, on the spot, no, not really…

See ? Me neither. It’s kind of a big thing…

True. Could you tell us a bit about the name of the band ?

Well, here’s the thing. We wanted another name… it’s really hard with fucking names, let me tell you that ! We wanted to be called The Hollow House at the beginning but we couldn’t, it was impossible, there’s a company called Hollow House and there’s already so much Hollow House stuff out there. So we liked the word "legion", it’s cool, we are a legion… I came up with the name Lex, it sounded cool with the X in it… and everybody liked it, they all liked the way it sounded. It’s as simple as that.

We know about your bond with Andy, Pete and Hal, you all played together with King Diamond in the 80s, but what was your relationship with Nils K Rue before Lex Legion was formed ?

There was none. I’ll give you the quick story, Pete came to me three years ago with some riffs, I said to him « this is really good… why don’t we call Andy and Hal, see if they wanna do something and maybe we can find a good singer ? ». Andy and Hal said yes immediately. Andy and Pete had written riffs together for years, you know, just for fun but they hadn’t released anything. When the four of us finally got together, we had a talk and I said that if we got a singer, he had to be cool, we couldn’t have an asshole, a rock star or whatever. I wanted this thing to be fun. I had a couple of guys in mind but Andy said « why don’t we try this guy Nils ? I worked with him in the studio ». We said yes and we sent him two songs. When the songs came back, we said "fuckin’hell, this is it !" (laughing). He’s perfect.

You hadn’t heard his King Diamond cover of "At The Graves" with his band Pagan’s Mind ?

Yeah but I wanted to know what he could do with our stuff. He was a bit confused at first, wondering if he should sound like King Diamond, Lemmy or else… We just told him "Do your shit ! Be Nils !" and he found a way. It turned out so great for this band.

Was it easy for him to integrate a band in which all the other members already knew each other and had history together ?

No, I don’t think it was easy. Even if you ask him today, he will tell you that. He’s been a huge King Diamond fan and he was very nervous. He still is today, when we meet… "I can’t believe I’m sitting here today with these guys…" (impersonating Nils). So we say "Come on ! Stop that shit !You’re one of us now". So there’s no rockstar bullshit. We’re all on an equal scale. The biggest ego is probably me, you know… haha. And I really don’t have a big ego…

How was working with the old gang again after all this time ? Did the chemistry come back instantly / naturally ?

Yes, completely. Simply because we have always kept in touch. We have stayed close friends since after I left the band. And we have played together. I used Hal for Nordic Beast with John Norum and the guys. Pete, Andy and me have been playing a lot together, you know, secretly, just for fun. So yes, it was very easy and natural, like being back in 1988 but with more confidence… And everybody is very calm and nice. And then I told the guys I would bring in the Motörhead family. Handpicked people I’ve worked with for thirty years. Todd Singerman as the manager, we have Neil Warnock booking us, we have Barry Drinkwater, Scott Givens from MNRK, the record label… all these guys, the family as we call it, people who were good with Motörhead. I put this all together and got us the record deal with Scott, you know. I played two songs over the phone and asked Scott what he thought, he was like "Oh my God, we gotta do this !"… I said it would take some time because I’m playing so much with Scorpions but he said we could take our time, and that as soon as we’d be ready, he’d push the button !

Was it hard for the band to create a balance between sounding new and sounding a bit like the old King Diamond band reunited ?

It was not hard, it came very naturally. We just brought to life again something we did together in the 80s, that part was easy but we sat, talked about and agreed not to make music as complicated as in the 80s. We wanted more flow, a little more melody, riffs and groove. I didn’t want to make too many technical shit again… but there is a lot of cool shit there ! But still, we wanted to be more straightforward.

It’s true the songs are shorter and the album doesn’t last more than thirty-five minutes… Was that your intention right from the start to release a short record ?

Yes, for the vinyl quality and also because it was time to press the button. We had a window we could use. But, with that said, I’m gonna give you the plan so you understand why it’s not a big deal that the album is a little short. This year, we’re doing this, press, and we’re putting the band on the map. And we’re also writing our second record, it will probably come out next spring, hopefully. So you’ll have two albums in one year… So, at the beginning, we thought we could maybe release an EP, like four songs… but then we had nine and we said "Fuck it ! Let’s press the button !". It would not have been great to wait for another couple of months to have maybe one or two other songs. We wanted to release it before the summer… if we had waited to have a longer album, it would not have been out before October maybe. So, yes, that’s the plan, writing the new album this year, recording it and touring next year. Depending on what Scorpions are doing of course.

In terms of drumming, your playing in Motörhead or Scorpions more recently has been more straightforward, less progressive or technical than when you started… how was it for you to come back to that kind of playing ?

It’s been fun but also a big challenge. Because, every band I played with, I’ve always had to reconstruct I way I think drums. When Phil played a solo in Motörhead, I had to fill the space with drums but when Mattias is soloing in Scorpions, I really have to stay on the groove, when I hear Klaus sing certain melodies, I have to be like a second echo, he sings something, I have to repeat it, to play more music with my drums so to speak… So yes, you have to think differently depending on what band you play with. And I don’t like to create too much technical shit, you know… I think that, on the next album, the drums will be more classic. We want to keep the flow going, the groove you know, with some sort of Judas Priest heavy metal vibe.

Now, could you tell us how the work was shared by the different members of Lex Legion ? Has everybody participated in the writing or the arrangements ?

We all write together but, obviously, Pete and Andy come up with the riffs. I do most of the arrangements. They wrote some stuff, I listen to it and say "Look, this part is no good here, it should go there, why don’t start the song like this or end the song like that ?". A classic producer would go crazy over how we did this ! Cause it’s the « normal » way of doing things. They would say « Why on Earth don’t the vocals start here ? » and we would say « No because we have a guitar harmony going on there »… A classic producer would go : verse / chorus /verse / chorus / solo / verse / double chorus / end. We don’t care about that. The way we did this album is just how we wrote in the 80s. We wanted to come back to the way we thought and created music back then.

You’re going to have one show only this year in Göteborg, late November. I’m wondering, as your album is quite short, what will you add to your setlist ? Do you have more material or do you plan on playing covers ?

First, we won’t be playing that long. I’d say we’ll probably play for an hour or something like that. We’ll have a good support act… and we’ll play a couple of King Diamond songs of course, a Motörhead song just for fun and maybe play one or two songs that we wrote for the new album.

You talked about touring next year, will it happen after the release of the second album ? Headlining dates or are you looking for a band to open for ?

It depends. I’d like to get out on a big opening act tour. Then, it’s enough to play forty or forty-five minutes. Then we have it right there, we don’t need to wait for the new album. We could also play festivals in the summer. But it really all depends on what Scorpions are planning to do next year. I don’t know that yet, I’ll figure it out with the boys next.

Have you ever talked of a reunion show with King Diamond, you know with the old lineup, playing songs from the first four records ?

No, not really why. And I really can understand why. And I respect why. King has a drummer, Matt Thompson, he has been playing with him for, what, twenty years ? You know, the same thing happened with Motörhead. I was in the band with Phil and Lemmy got offered a lot of money to play a tour with Fast Eddie and Filthy when they were still alive and he said "Why ? I play with the best band I’ve ever played with… I would never do that". The same goes for King. He has his band and he’s happy with them. I’ll tell you something, when King did Abigail II, I actually offered myself to play on the record, I said "If you want, I’ll do the record for you" and he turned it down. For a moment, I thought we were gonna bring Hal Patino and Michael Denner… but he said no, he wanted to keep his band. I respect that, I think it’s the right thing to do.

Are there tracks on the Lex Legion album that are more special to you and you would recommend in priority ?

I think that all songs are pretty equal. But yeah, I really "Sleep Eternally", the first single we released, "Life Eternal" as well, it’s a really good and heavy one. "I Am the Resurrected" is really groovy and there’s a great riff there…

Could it be that after Motörhead’s ending and Scorpions’ future retirement, which is bound to happen one day, Lex Legion would become your main band and priority ?

Yes, absolutely, it will be. It already is in some way… I really want to focus and work hard on this. It is definitely what I’ll be doing. It is also quite a unique situation, you know, the fact that we’re all back together, that really puts a smile on my face. It’s so weird in a way, when we all meet up at my house, it’s like we never left. I see everybody, separately, all the time you know… Well, Hal, not so much because he lives in Norway but I talk to him very often. Andy and Pete, I see them or talk to them every week. Andy and I live forty-five minutes from each other, Pete and I live one hour away from each other, Andy and Pete live one hour away from each other… on a map, it’s like a triangle. And I text with Pete every single day… He texts me every fucking day ! Sometimes, I have to say "Pete, I’m fucking busy !", ha ha… So yeah, it’s great that we’re all in this band and playing music together now.