It was a Mother's Day in Germany – what else could be better than to have a nice little interview a few hours before the concert with the Swedish girls from Thundermother? I had the great opportunity to meet the girls live in the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund to catch up on some questions. All four members, namely Filippa Nässil (git.), Linnéa Vikström (voc.), Majsan Lindberg (bass) and Joan Massing (dr.) joined the interview and though I didn't have too much time, it turned out to be a very entertaining and funny one. Enjoy reading!

Michael

Hey, how are you doing?

F: We're all good! (nodding and yeahs from the other girls)

You're on tour with the Scorpions – how did it come to having this honor?

F: Rudolf (Schenker; M.) asked us while we were on tour with them in America if we also wanted to go on tour with them in Europe as well. We sent a lot of our songs around everywhere and a guy in Los Angeles heard them. He worked for CAA, that big booking agency who also signed the Scorpions and so they signed Thundermother as a support band. That was a fantastic evening when they asked us if we wanted to open the Scorpions.

In between you have some other gigs on your own. How busy are you doing this?

F: We're very busy doing this. We're six weeks just on the road.

In 22 there were some big line-up changes in the band, ¾ of the band members are new. How is the chemistry between you all? Is it the way it should be or is there still some space for improvements?

F: Haha, I'm happy that we all have good vibes. Majsan is an old member, she was already on the Heatwave album.

M: Yeah, so I'm back, you could say.

J: So how was your vacation?

M: It was horrible (laughs). I missed the stage

Are you already working on a new album?

F: We are writing on the road for the first time ever. It's very exciting and it's fun. Fooling around and coming around with some really good stuff when you don't think about it. I think it's because we have such good vibes.

Haha, that sounds cool. So when you are in a traffic jam here in Germany, you have a lot of time to write!

L: Yeah!! (Sings) Traffic jam!!!!

Linnea, you have been a vocalist in Therion in the past and now you're doing some dirty heavy metal. How difficult is the vocal change for you?

L: It was not difficult (laughs). I was in Therion for eight years and it was a lot of fun. I mean, my role in Therion wasn't the operatic one so I did more of the rock n' roll girly vocals. I did some operatic parts as well but it's a very different style of music. I think that a different part of me both as performer and as a person was fulfilled in Therion compared to my role in Thundermother. So it is totally different but both sides are true sides of me.

Where do you get the inspiration for the songs from – both lyrically and musically? You are heavily inspired by Motörhead, AC/DC etc. How did you come to that style of music?

F: I started with Van Halen and stuff like that when I was a teenager and at 24 I had a revelation when I found AC/DC. The simple stuff is really cool and that's when I decided we should do this sort of band playing easy stuff because this is difficult and that's my genre.

M: Yeah, guitar, bass and music was around me when I grew up. It just continued and I kept it like having coffee in the morning.

J: I played blues rock in another band before I joined Thundermother which allowed me to get introduced to old bands like Jethro Tull and stuff like that. This was very good for me because it was totally different from the music I've been listening to so far.

Last but not least: what is your favorite album? And by Scorpions?

L: By the Scorpions I would say it's the one with "Wind Of Change" on it – "Crazy World". With my most favorite albums – I change my mind all the time but right now it's "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensryche.

F: But it was Black Sabbath last week.

L: Yeah, as I said, I change my mind every time. Everything I have said, tomorrow I will have changed my mind completely, haha!

Haha, I know this problem! So which one was your favorite Black Sabbath album?

L: Filippa, which one was my favorite one?

F: That was "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"!!!

L: Yeah, right!! "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"!

F: I have to say that I am a new Scorpions fan – I'm a "Rock Believer" (laughs). My all time fave is "Powerage" by AC/DC.

J: That's easy - "Wasting Light" by the Foo Fighters.

M: I would say it's "Abbey Road" by the Beatles.

Today is Mother's Day here in Germany…

(Linnea raises her arms)

So congratulations to you first of all!

L: Yeah, I've heard that it was Mother's Day but then I looked into my calendar and we have Mother's Day in two weeks.

F: So you can have many Mother's Days! We have to buy Schnapps!

Is the attitude in a girl rock band quite different from male bands?

J: We're not thinking about this when we are playing together. I don't think so and we're not really thinking about the fact that we are all female.

L: Well, that's actually a very good point – are we thinking about that? No, we're not!

F: We're just a band.

But it's 3.30 PM and you're still not drunk!!

F: We have a day off tomorrow, so tonight, maybe!

L: Well, it's Mother's Day and my kids are at home, so let's hurry up, haha!

Do you think that you had to fight harder in that business though?

F: There were ups and downs as a female in the rock genre. There weren't too many girls playing classic rock. We need more of them. As a musician it was pretty difficult, at least for me being the only girl doing this thing in my school. I got a lot of comments from my classmates because I was sticking out.

M: Yeah, it was hard even until my 20s but somehow it also was an advantage.

L: It has both sides in some aspects of the music industry. When you talk about how you are received as a person, in some aspects you even get dehumanized. But if you have some skin on your bones you will get through. But it is a very difficult topic because some things are to our advantage and some things are not.