In the late 80’s and early 90’s the band Nelson could do no wrong. They sold over two and a half million copies of their debut CD and took the AOR scene by storm. It was after this that it all seemed to go wrong. Their second album was shelved and they were forced to release the more mainstream ‘Because They Can’. The ensuing legal battles saw them finally leave Geffen Records, a move that left the brothers with a very bitter taste in their mouths for years to come. Since then they have managed to move on and last year released ‘Life’, an album that was to me the best they had made, and with the imminent release of their live tribute to their father plus their first country album, things have never looked better. I caught up with Gunnar Nelson recently to get the lowdown on the Nelson camp.

If the truth be told, most Nelson fans would like an album that was similar in style to your debut. Would you ever go back down that road?

“Well, I think it really depends Robbie. I think it depends on what kind of listeners you are talking about. I think the ‘Life’ record, last year’s debut from Nelson was really the closest to our debut of any record we have done so far. As far as going back down that road, I found that there are a lot of bands now a days that are kind of trying to recapture their glory years so to speak. Going on all sorts of reunion tours and doing that whole thing. I know that I for one don’t want to ever feel like I am going backwards. I always want to feel like I am going forwards, so probably not. But I will say that we will definitely taking elements from the very first record, the debut, incorporating that into the stuff we are doing today and tomorrow. So stay tuned for that.”

Your last album ‘Life’ was very similar to ‘Because They Can’, an album that got a rough ride when it was released, for being very country in style. Did this cross your minds when you recorded it, or was it a case of ‘if they like it fine, if not, it’s their loss’?

“Well, you know what...I don’t think that ‘Because They Can’ is very similar to ‘Life’. I think it’s very subjective. Again, like I said, I think ‘Life’ is more similar to the ‘After the Rain’ record. I believe that ‘Because They Can’ got a rough ride, not necessarily from fans, but from the record company and the industry in general. And I think that is more due to the time that it was released. As you recall, it was released in 1994 when Nirvana and the alternative Seattle town was really in full swing and Nelson in general, I don’t think would of been successful again, had we released anything. We could have released absolutely anything and it would of tanked. Simply because Nelson, the band, really represented the old guard. It really represented the ending of the previous era of ‘confidence rock’ so to speak, and we were now in the full swing of ‘insecurity rock’ which is what Nirvana really represented. So I really, honestly don’t believe that ‘Because They Can’ got a rough ride for any reason other than political and timing reasons. Again I don’t think ‘Life’ is gonna get a rough ride at all. As a matter of fact it has gotten the best critical and fan reviews of any record we have released to date.”

In your opinion, how does ‘Life’ compare to previous Nelson albums?

“I think I kind of touched on that before. I think ‘Life’ is, well, the first time since our debut, we went into the studio as a team, as a duo so to speak, and decided to make the finest Nelson record we could make with no fear, with no record company executives looking over our shoulders telling us ‘You can’t do that’. With no concern about what was hip or hot or happening at the time, the flavour of the month, we just made the best pop/rock record we could possibly make. Guitar oriented, song oriented, and that’s what we’ve done and it really incorporates what we have learned from the previous five releases that we’ve made. It’s got some elements of it all - of metal, of hard rock, of melodic pop, some country, a little gospel perhaps. It’s all there but it’s incorporated into a sound that doesn’t sound disjointed at all and I think if you check the album out, you will find for yourself it is one cohesive work and you know instantly that it’s Nelson from the first chord of the first song.”

Who or what inspires you as songwriters?

“Well, I think life is the biggest inspirational muse. I think the events in one’s life, I think you just need to be conscious of what’s going on around you and you need to be aware of the little distinctions in life that one may not pay a lot of attention to at first but if you look at the uniqueness of it and really look deeper into it, it can make a great story for a song. A lot of times I start a song idea with the question, ‘What if?’ Like, ‘What if I were that guy that I spotted across the restaurant having an argument with his girlfriend?’ You know, what if I were him? How would I get out of it, what would I be thinking? What would the argument be about? What would be my way out of it? All that kind of stuff. That’s really where song ideas come from. As they really come from true life experiences.”

The influence of country music is quite strong in some of your songs. Are you fans of country and is that why you have recorded the not yet released ‘Brother Harmony’ CD?

“Yes, I am a big fan of American country just like my father was a fan of American country before me. A lot of elements to American country music that I dig. And of course, a lot of crap about current American country that I absolutely can’t stand. Matthew and I want to do, I suppose, American country rock the same way our father did, on our own terms. Just like he did the Stone Canyon Band stuff on his own terms. His sound really incorporated everything he had learned up to that point. For his style, it incorporated rockabilly, rock n’ roll, rhythm and blues, gospel and the country that he loved, into one sound and that became the Stone Canyon Band era Garden Party sort of sound. Matthew and I are making music right now after spending 3 or 4 years in Nashville and the resultant sound is something that is perhaps a little more mature but som thing that definitely blends the melodies that we have learned as pop/rock songwriters from Los Angeles, and melds them together with the lyrical content and quality of some of the Nashville writing, which is more representative of story tellers, modern storytellers of the era. So hopefully, if we do our job right, you’ll get the best of both worlds. You’re are gonna get pop melodies, rock attitude and country storytelling in one place.

Will the album ever get released?

“Yes! ‘Brother Harmony’ will be released. We just did a distribution deal for it about two weeks ago and you will see it in the stores from January.”

You are currently selling your CD’s via the Internet or on your own label. Do you see this as the future or would you go back to a major if the offer was right? Like Geffen perhaps? Maybe not!

“Very funny! You know, perhaps. It really depends. The thing is that, the wave of the future is for bands to have their own labels and to make their own music on their own labels and perhaps license their material to the majors. Because nothing can beat a major label for promotional value, they just have more money, they’ve got more trucks for distribution, they’ve got the network all set up and the political ties. And they can really bust your stuff wide open. The problem is that if you have a standard record deal and you are successful, you are a slave for life. That’s just basically the way it is. You don’t own your own records. And I think it is very important to really note that when you make records nowadays and you are signed to a major label, you are basically signing a slavery contract. And you are getting a loan from a record company to make your record, then you pay back your loan, if all things go well, and the record company still owns your record. It’s the same thing of taking a mortgage on a house and the bank still owns your house after that’s done. It makes no sense, so I think the wave of the future is having your own label as a band, funding the making of your own record, licensing that to a major and having success with it. If you can do that, that’s the way to go. In that case I would definitely do a partnership agreement with a major label to help us with the promotion and distribution.”

Do you still play live in the States? If so, what about the UK?

“Yeah, we play live in the states all the time. We did about 100 shows last year and we are actually now discussing, with the release of the Rick Nelson box set, in conjunction with the release of four more of our titles with this distribution deal we just did, putting a European and UK tour together. So stay tuned for that one.”

A lot of your songs seem to be about love lost or gained. Painful experiences or is it something you find easy to write about?

“I think it is a combination of both. Matthew and I grew up as the unpopular kids in high school. We were the unlucky guys who all the beautiful woman came to talk to about their dirt-bag boyfriends that were treating them like crap and we were the saps that were giving them the advice and of course, never going home with the girl. So, I suppose it’s a very easy topic for us to identify with. And a song like ‘Love and Affection’ really showcases that. It’s obviously easy for us to tap into, but I find that it’s also a topic that is easy for the listening fans to identify with as well. They can understand the pain or elation involved in love lost or gained. I just think it kinda goes down smoother with a little bit of sugar so to speak, so we kinda put some melody on top of that kind of lyrical content and hop fully we create a song that has a message that can really benefit peoples lives.”

You are about to release a live album in honor of your father’s songs. How did this come about?

“As an idea at first. We had a promoter friend of ours ask us to do a special tribute concert, kind of a one-off thing in Japan and we thought, what the hell, let’s go to Japan. No one’s gonna know about it or hear about it and that would be great. So we went over there and did it and what was amazing about it was the response was incredible and felt like a lot of fun to be able to do it. So we decided to do a few more shows of that ilk and we let the tape roll when we did it and the album that we recorded is so much fun and something that we had never done before, we just thought it would be great to get that music out there. We had no idea that is was pretty much going to correspond with the release of the Rick Nelson box set on Capital that’s about to come out, but we hope you enjoy it.”

When can we expect a new Nelson album out and will it be similar to ‘Life’?

“Well, we are going to work on that right now. We are actually in the studio as we speak. I know Matthew and I are planning on doing a record of basically ‘the best of’ the stuff that we’ve done so far. We are going to, if we can’t license the original tracks from Geffen, re-record the hits from the first record, ‘Love & Affection’, ‘More Than Ever’, ‘Only Time Will Tell’ all that stuff again and the singles from the second record ‘Because They Can’ and take the best songs from the other 5 records and put them into one body of work and have a greatest hits piece. And we are looking at doing that and I hope that will be successful. And as far as the next original album, as I said we are in the studio working on that right now.”

Pick your 3 favorite Nelson songs and tell us what they mean to you.

“Wow, that’s pretty tough. I think ‘Everywhere I Go’ off the first record is one of my favorites because it was the first song we really wrote and chose for that first record and the first song that we co-wrote with Marc Tanner, our co-conspirator from that first record. I just remember actually starting that song, writing that song in a hotel room in a really seedy area of Sydney, Australia and how it felt at the time and it was really nice that we could take our rough experience and turn it into a positive with that song. Of course, ‘Love and Affection’ being the first number one, was really a magical moment for me, so I think that would definitely be a favorite. And there’s a new song, that I sure you haven’t heard yet and it’s a ballad and it’s just absolutely magical and it’s called ‘Just Once More’. It’s about not taking the people you love that are in your life for granted, about really letting people know you love them while you have the chance. It’s a great message in a song, it’s a beautiful song. We played it when we were opening up for the band America last year and the audience response was phenomenal. And I have a feeling it’s going to be coming out on the ‘Like Father, Like Sons’ record. So check it out and let me know what you think. But those would be the three.”

In past interviews you have talked about ‘Imaginator Part Two’ plus a screenplay. Is it still in the pipeline or will it never see the light of day?

“Well, I think that’s a really great question and I believe that ‘Imaginator’s time has come and gone for a variety of reasons. I think that the process of making the record was so unbelievably cathartic and painful in regards to Geffen not accepting the record and not being willing to release it, when it was such a mistake when Geffen did not release that record when it was delivered. Probably the ‘Imaginator’ record will be the first and last chapter on that part of the Nelson book but I do remember when we finished that record, we would of felt proud if we had just released one copy and hand it over and say ‘Here, here it is, its done, it’s finished’ and people can hear it. And I know seeing that this record is available in stores, you should check it out and see what I mean. It’s a very honest record and a very concept-oriented record. But it’s a stone I don’t want to turn over again. I would have to see what’s underneath everything again.”

If you had to pick one song that summed up rock n’ roll to you, what would it be?

“Wow, geez, probably ‘Rock n’ Roll’ by Led Zeppelin. I mean that would be the one. That’s got all the exuberance and the style that I love in rock n’ roll and the fearlessness. That’s what it’s all about man, just having a great time and having a great attitude.”

What would like to say or add to the readers of Fireworks?

“Thank you for your patience. I know the Nelson saga over the years has been unique, to say the least, and a roller coaster ride. We want to thank all the people over there in the UK who have been fans and supporters of my family in general, for the last 50 years or so, for hanging in there with us and realize that our first goal is to come over to the UK and do some kick-ass touring. And if and when we do, please come down and see the show and come and say hi and say you heard about us in Fireworks.