LARS CHRISS,
LION'S SHARE

Interview - September 2007 - January 2008,
Sweden - Russia

- So, the new album after a long silence!.. Really, how many years Lion's Share has kept this silence? We have waited your comeback so long!

It’s been six years since the last release. After the “Entrance” album and tour I was totally burnt out after taking care of everything regarding Lion’s Share plus doing the album tour - album tour routine for over 8 years. I hit rock bottom pretty much overnight and playing guitar wasn’t fun anymore so I put the band on hold to be able to re charge my batteries. At first I didn’t do anything. Then I did a couple of shows with friends like the guys from Europe (the band), the most famous weather man in Sweden (at Sweden Rock Festival 2004), etc just for fun stuff without any pressure, just to get the fun back into playing music again. I also co wrote songs for a couple of records and did a couple of guest solos here and there, plus produced, wrote for, played on and mixed an album called AUDIOVISION “The Calling”. It was mainly the solo album from Narnia singer Christian Rivel that he hired me to do, but we had some very cool guests on there like Jeff Scott Soto, Mic Michaeli, Bruce Kulick, IA Eklundh, Tony Franklin and some past members from Thunder, Electric Boys etc. Also towards the end of the break, our new bass player Sampo Axelsson and I wrote an album in the more 70s melodic hard rock style with singer Matti Alfonzetti called ROAD TO RUIN that was released on Metal Heaven Records in late October. Of course also a LOT of hard work to make the new LION’S SHARE album as good as I think it turned out. Both albums will be out in Russia early 2008.

- You have got a many interviews at the last time, I think. Can you tell me, which question is more frequent?

It’s mostly about why it took 6 years for this album to arrive and what I did during this period. They ask about the guests Bruce Kulick (KISS), Glen Drover (Megadeth) and Mats Leven (Therion, Yngwie Malmsteen). If we will do a tour. Some ask about the lyrics and the cover artwork.

- And what about your music? :) Hope, musical critics don’t ignore this matter? :) How sounds Lion’s Share-2007? Your account?

“Emotional Coma” is more raw, up-tempo, energetic and guitar heavy compared to the old records I would say. I believe I returned to my roots with this album and the kind of Metal I started out playing as a kid. For the first four LS albums we had a keyboard player so obviously those are not as guitar heavy sounding and in many cases more progressive. To me “Emotional Coma” still have my Lion’s Share trademark riffs and melodies and any fan of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Megadeth should be at home with this album. An E-card with samples can be found here so people can judge for themselves what we sound like: www.fanbay.se/buy/index.asp?movie_id=1897&company_id=39

- Let's talk about the band's line. Who play in Lion's Share at this moment?

Lars Chriss – guitar, Patrik Johansson (also in Astral Doors) – vocals, Sampo Axelsson (ex-Glenn Hughes) – bass. On the album we had Richard Evensand (ex-Cimaira, Soilwork, Therion) on the drums and when we tour we have a guy named Stefan Norgren since Richard now lives in Australia..

- As I see, you have many gigs in your schedule. Most of them are different fests, in Sweden first of all. You had a shows at the Sweden Rock Fest. What about your impressions by this Fest, your 2007-show there and your fans' acceptance? Can you see more of new faces from them or you have met with your 'old fans team'?

It was our third time at Sweden Rock Festival and probably our best so far. We had a great crowd and many people at our signing session too. After that we went to Germany and played to 10 000 persons at Manowar’s own festival Magic Circle. Two of our songs from that show is featured on Manowar’s official DVD from the event. We also played Norway with Testament, Queensryche and others at the Metal Heart Festival. We’ve had a blast so far and we see many new faces in the crowd mixed with the old fan base so we have high hopes for the future. We will start writing for the next album soon so people don’t have to wait another six years HaHa. No seriously we want to cement the come back feeling so we hope to have the next cd out after summer (October 3rd)

- BTW, it's very interesting to get a portrait of the Lion's Share's fan. Can you tell me about the average age, gender, musical preferences of your fans?.. ;)

Oh, probably 65% guys and 35% girls aged between 18-45. They most likely are into true heavy metal and prog metal. Real hard to say actually. They are very nice to us and we appreciate them a lot obviously. We always try to sign stuff after shows etc. We have a Fan Club that’s for free at www.lionssharearmy.com it’s run by a long time fan named Peter Ronnqvist. We hope many Russian fans will sign up and join the family.

- How do you think, is progressive metal for guys (not for girls) mostly? ;)

I have no clue. Fortunately for us we have pretty much left the most progressive stuff since I feel we are much more an old school Heavy Metal band nowadays. Our first two albums were pretty progressive since it felt fresh back then (mid 90s). Then it sort of became trendy and we got tired of doing it. It’s much more fun to play the more straight ahead songs on “Emotional Coma” live as well. These days the fans can jump and headbang to our songs without falling over like back when we used to change the drum patterns all the time Haha.

- Lion's Share played many cover-versions, and did it quite successfully. Tell me, please, about your favourites. What influence they have had for the music of the band?

This more or less happened by chance since most of them were recorded for tribute albums. As long as we can do the songs justice and they fit with the rest of the songs on our albums we are fine with it. A good song is a good song and will hopefully make the album as a whole better too. I think “The Day The Earth Caught Fire” turned out real great. “Sorcerers” from the new album is great too.

- Which plans do you have for the current year?

“Emotional Coma “ will be officially released in USA, Russia and South America. It came out in Europe and Japan 2007 so it’s a bit spread out but that’s actually good promotion wise. We will record the new CD this spring for an October 3rd release. We also have some shows booked with more to follow. Hopefully we’ll do a big tour after the release of the next album. We would love to play Russia so we hope CD Maximum will do a good job with it and that the fans will buy loads of it.

- Do you have any plans to play gigs in the Eastern Europe or Russia maybe?

At this point we have no connections with booking agencies or promoters over there. Maybe CD Maximum can help out or if someone contact us directly through our web site www.lionsshare.org We would love to come and play!!!

- Well, we’re looking forward to see you here! :) Thanks for your time and hope to see you this year! :)

P.S. "Emotional Coma" was released in Russia and CIS on February 11, 2008 by CD Maximum.