The Poodles are a definite overnight success story, with gold and platinum selling singles, a chart topping debut album and a vast number of concerts performed throughout their home country. After signing a European deal with AFM records, the band set off on their first European tour on 22nd January with label-mates Krokus and fellow Swedes Hammerfall. Anyone who knows me will know that I love the Scandinavian Glam metal scene, and I've even given it an acronym – NWOSGM – the New Wave of Scandinavian Glam Metal (yeah, I know, I'm sad!). Having already interviewed Wig Wam in the wake of their Eurovision success in 2005, followed by Brother Firetribe in Finland a year later, having the opportunity to interview Jake Samuel of The Poodles served to complete my personal triad of favourites. Having just about survived a fractious journey northbound to Bradford from London on a Friday afternoon, risking divorce on the way, we finally arrived at Rios to discover that there had been an accident when the nightliners had driven off the Holyhead ferry from Ireland earlier that day. The end result was that we were able to witness a Poodles show prior to conducting the interview, which couldn't have worked out better!

Jakob, good to meet you at last. It's your first outing in the UK. What has the reception been like?
Oh, it's been great. I mean, Hammerfall are obviously the dragons of this tour, and they are so big in Germany and Central Europe. It's been smaller venues here, but the reception has been fantastic. Like tonight, most of the people in the audience were seeing us for the first time and they were great. This whole tour has been fantastic for us.

London audiences are renowned for being tough, with a reputation for saying "Okay, impress me!" How was that show?
It was great, too. I know they have this reputation, but for me that is fine, that's my work. I should entertain them. Sometimes the audience can be a little unfair of course, but mostly I find it really enchanting just to go out there and try to win them over.

Rather like the spirit of Phil Lynott – "We're not coming off the stage until we've got them."
(Laughs in agreement). Yes, that's a great way of looking at it. We're not there to get it for nothing; we have to work hard for it.

Glasgow, on the other hand, is renowned for being a little south of mental. How was the reception there?
(Giggles at the memory.) That was really good, I believe that night we had the biggest audience of the tour.

Have you got any pre-show rituals?
Well, if I had any, they would definitely fall over on this tour, because it's been manic – "Okay, you've got 30 seconds to get ready and hit the stage". It's been insane sometimes, but the thing I like to do is just to get dressed in good time and get focussed, you know, and then have ten minutes of doing some scales and stuff to get in the mood, because this set is really challenging vocally. From the start to the end it's vocals all the time, with only short solos, and back to vocals again. So for me it's almost easier to do an hour, like we used to do back home in Sweden. We had such huge success that we were able to headline a lot, but to do a half hour set you compromise everything to get all the stuff in that you want to do. It's almost harder to do than one hour, because in a longer set you can squeeze in longer guitar solos, and there's other stuff going on. Yes, it's nice to chill before the show, but on this tour, we have been sharing the dressing room with Krokus for half of the shows, and you just have to take it as it is. They are really nice guys, so it's no hardship really.

I know you guys have a reputation for enjoying a party or two. Has there been any hard partying since you arrived in the UK or is there a law against that when on tour?
No, we don't have a law against it! True, we are a bunch of people who enjoy partying, but it's been very modest. We've had a few very late nights, but we've not partied so hard this tour. Yesterday was very nice in Dublin – we went to this place where Phil Lynott used to hang out (Bruxelles, off Grafton Street), and we saw the statue and everything, and we listened to some great music.

I'd like to take you back to the start of your musical career? You started out as a singer, and then switched to drums. Why?
Well, it was the other way around, actually. I was a drummer then switched to singing. I was drumming from when I was a teenager; I think I was 14. Then I played drums when I joined Talisman in 1990. I was just a kid back then; I think I was 19 when I joined. I was in Talisman for nearly 4 years. After that I was doing some vocal stuff with different people, but never on stage, just studio things. Obviously I did some good stuff with Snakes in Paradise – I was the original singer with them. Then I was supposed to start a band with those guys, then somehow other things turned up and I started my own band Jekyll & Hyde in 1994.

Who is your drumming influence? And I was wondering if you had given lessons to Blas Elias?
(Laughs). I think if I had to mention one or two it would probably be Tommy Aldridge and Cozy Powell, and Ian Paice of course.

What was the catalyst to get you singing again?
Basically it was the thought that I could actually make it as a front man. I had been touring with such great front men, like Jeff obviously, and Zinny Zan and other people. I have worked with great performers, and I got very tempted to try. When I got the opportunity I gave it a go, and just kept going! I had always been a bit of a show drummer myself (hence the Blas Elias reference), so for me being a front man wasn't that different. It was more a matter of feeling that I could hold the concert from the vocal point of view, and getting the confidence. As a drummer you can always have a bad day, you can always hide in your instrument while you are playing, but as a vocalist it is very hard to do that. But I don't mind that at all - I don't find it hard, even if I am having a bad day, once I get up there it is like there's only one way to do this.

Yes, we noticed that you obviously enjoy yourself! Who is your major influence as a vocalist?
Well, there are so many. That's a tough question, but if it was top 3 it would probably be Robert Plant, David Coverdale and I guess Bruce Dickinson would be in there too.

Ah, you didn't say Vince Neil (he bears a striking resemblance)...
I get that a lot actually; people think I look like him. I don't mind at all, I think he's a great performer and a pretty good singer as well, when he's on it. He's really cool, and he represents something that is a real musical era. He is a legend, so I don't mind being compared to him at all.

Great vocals seem to run in your family. Tell us about your brother's (Jonas Samuelsson) success?
Oh, that's great that you picked up on that. He is a few years older than me. He used to be a metal singer, so he has actually been one of my biggest influences as well. He didn't have a big thing going as a metal singer, but he was very good, because he was very young, so in his twenties he switched over to classical singing. Our mother is a conductor too, so he started studying classical, and he has been working for many years in the southern parts of Germany doing a lot of musicals like "Beauty and the Beast", and he was also in "Les Miserables". When he came home to Sweden he had a really hard time for many years, but then around a year ago he got a break, so it has been really good for him ever since. He is a fantastic singer and great performer. So he has worked very hard, and now he is enjoying success back home. Justice has been done (smiles). (Jonas is guest vocal on ‘Song for You' from the debut album)

I just couldn't resist asking you this question, but is there anybody in the Swedish rock scene that hasn't been in Lions Share?
(Laughs hysterically) Well, Lions Share is not my table, but on the other hand I know them so well since we got Pontus (Egberg) in the band. Once you get in the circuit of experience and knowledge as a musician in Stockholm and Sweden it's like a big family, and everybody's like "We need a bass player, can you do it?" But then again if you work at something for a few years and you feel you are not going in the same direction or making the landmarks you think that you should, then you start to split up. I think it's a matter of distance in Stockholm. There are so many great musicians in a small place, so it's kind of natural in some way. People like Mats Leven and Lions Share have been all over the place. On the other hand, when good musicians hang around, you get lots of ideas and try different things.

Do you think it will ever be resurrected as a going concern?
Oh, they are recording right now with a new crew (sure enough news came through a fortnight later that they were indeed about to release a new album!). Actually, they are not that dominant in the Swedish scene, you know. Lions Share has always been Lars Chriss (founding member and guitarist). He's the captain there, you know, writing everything and making all the decisions, and I guess that's what made Pontus and some of the other guys say, "Okay, we've had enough now". There was no democracy at all. But he doesn't make a secret out of that either, so that's fine with me, too. All bands need a captain and he's definitely the captain there, maybe not a democratic captain, but he is definitely steering everything.

I heard from a mutual friend that you used to play in a band called Grand Slam with Martin and Fredrik Thomander and Zinny J. Zan. When was that and what type of music did you do – do I detect a Lizzy tribute?
Oh, that was a long time ago. Yes, I remember, those were great times! No, there was no tribute at all. It all happened during the same time as Talisman. Actually, Talisman was also a band with very strong leadership of course - Marcel Jacob who had been used to playing with the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen. I wasn't that happy with that situation, and I hooked up with Martin and Fredrik who are fantastic guys and musicians, and Zinny was in and out all the time. Zinny is a fantastic lyric writer by the way. So we did a more metal edgy thing with a lot of flavours from Thin Lizzy actually. So it was like Skid Row goes Thin Lizzy, something like that with a lot of great musicianship.

Sounds like a great recipe for success...
Yeah, but then Zinny was so heavily into drugs that he ended up at the hospital for a long period of time. Warners from the US came over to see us, and we had a lot of things happening for us, but Zinny was in rehab, so everybody went "OK, we'll quit". We got very close to the big time, but then again maybe it was for the best.

Tell us something about Midnight Sun, which seems to have a connection with The Poodles in Jonas Reingold?
Jonas Reingold was the captain of Midnight Sun. He is a great player and a really good songwriter. I worked with him with the Poodles, and he is also writing with me for the next Poodles album. I co-write a lot with him. He is also in a Swedish band called Flower Kings which is really successful. Midnight Sun was an AOR band from the beginning, very melodic hard rock. They did three albums, then Jonas called me and asked if I would like to do the fourth album with them. He sent some really good demos and one of them was "Metal Will Stand Tall". There was also "Gods of Metal" and lots of lyrics that I liked. I advised him that he should think of changing the name of the band and doing something new from the beginning, because "Metal Machine" was the name of the album. I thought that everybody who liked Midnight Sun would not be into the Judas Priest kind of thing, and wouldn't go for the new sound. Also, I am a different singer to Pete Sandberg (ex Midnight Sun vocalist) and the music style and the lyrics were totally different from what they'd done before. So we got a lot of bad reviews of that album because there were a lot of disappointed people.

I wanted to work with Jonas (Reingold) on The Ring, and he said he would love to do it, but he was so heavily into Flower Kings and they were touring so much, then he started a family. Also, he lives in Malmo, and I live in Stockholm, so I decided I'd do The Ring with Marcus Jiddell (former guitarist with Jekyll & Hyde, now with Royal Hunt) and Pontus Norgren. With The Ring we went on tour with Sepultura and Motorhead in Germany and we did some other stuff, but nothing really happened despite our efforts to get things going. When Marcus got the opportunity to join Royal Hunt, he said "I don't know if I should do it", and I said "you're joking, of course you must do it – after 11 years you need to do something on your own, you need to broaden your horizons". However, that actually made me sit down and ask myself what I was going to do, because I wanted to play the music that I had written, but nothing was coming my way. So I waited for a while to see what would happen. I wrote lots of music, moved house, then the Eurovision thing came up.

Which leads me nicely on to my next question... tell us the story of the run up to Eurovision? How did you make the connection with Matti Alfonzetti (vocalist Jagged Edge, Bam Bam Boys, Skin Trade)?
Matti was actually in Talisman for almost a year before he joined Skin Trade, so we had worked on the second Talisman album together, and we'd kept in contact, more frequently as time went by. He had actually called me the year before regarding Eurovision, but then the song was "Don't Give Up On Love". We couldn't get our schedules together so we didn't do it, but then a year later he called me again regarding this. He lives pretty close to me so he just dropped the CD into my house. It was a simple demo of "Night of Passion" and I liked it immediately, because it is a great song. It's classic but fresh, with some new flavours to it and the combination was just very exciting. It's edgy but not speed metal or any shit like that. I felt very comfortable with it. So I did the demos and everybody went through the roof! When it turned out that we were taking part in the contest, I thought the perfect forum would be The Poodles, as I'd been working with them for a couple of years already. We were a show band, like a covers band. We were at a pretty high level because we did big night clubs and big shows with pyrotechnics and stuff. We did everything from classic Europe stuff to Iron Maiden and WASP. Pontus Egberg had been helping us out from time to time even before the Eurovision thing came up, so naturally I felt that if things turn out that we are going to do this for real I would like to have him in the band. Then I asked Marcus who had been my right hand man for so many years - I gave him first refusal if you like, but he was obviously in Royal Hunt, and he didn't feel comfortable with the Eurovision thing anyway. Then Pontus Norgren had came off the Europe "Start from the Dark" tour where he had been doing sound engineering, so he was the natural person for me to question next! He obviously had to give it some thought as he is very successful as a sound engineer, and has so much work in that area, so he had to pick a path. But I'm so happy that he decided to give it a try because The Poodles has exceeded everybody's expectations. Of course we weren't to know that when we started!

I think it's actually had a lot of people scratching their heads, because Pontus' image was very much the neo-classical shredder, but to see him get involved within the context of this classic fresh metal is great...
Yes, it's a good combination, and he always enjoys this kind of music anyway, and as we'd worked together for so many years, it felt kind of natural.

How did the outgoing guitarist and bass player react? Are they a bit resentful now they've seen your success?
Well, one of them is. But I felt that long before this came up we had given him a lot of chances to show his better side, to take more responsibility, but in the end he didn't take the chances. I didn't want to compromise on anything. I'm so happy with the decision because when you're on a tour like this, it's so comfortable to have people who know what they're doing, play really well, and know their skills really well. Even if there's no sound check, they just say "Okay" instead of having a fit about it.

You are all excellent musicians and also highly proficient in the studio. Does that make things easier or is it more difficult because everyone has an opinion?
(Laughs) Well it's a little bit of both, but 99% in a positive way. Every band leader needs to be questioned from time to time. I don't mind that, because they are so talented and so good at what they do. I always find that the best decisions are made when we sit down and discuss things. If we didn't have such big success maybe I would have questioned more, because it was me who had the chance to do this, and I picked the guys I wanted, so it's kind of natural that everybody respects the vision and what it means to me. But the longer you go and the longer you work together and the longer you build your relationship then it becomes more of a band situation. But still we are four very different people with a lot of ideas, so someone still has to stand up and make the decisions (smiles knowingly).

Like a "first among equals"?
Yes, that's a good expression!

I understand that someone connected with The Poodles approached Wig Wam in Kiev in 2005 and said they were so impressed that they wanted to take the concept to Sweden. Any comments?
Ah, maybe it was someone from the record label. Our record label (Lionheart) is very much rooted in the Eurovision thing. Every year they have around half the artists in Sweden who take part on the label.

Really? That is so far from the case in the UK, where people tune in for a bit of a laugh - nobody takes it seriously, so to have a label that's really focussed is pretty amazing!
Oh, it's like the biggest musical event in Sweden! It has a lot of respect.

Wig Wam came third with "Crazy Things" on their first attempt, then were invited back the year after and won, obviously going on to represent Norway in the final in Kiev. You came fourth in May 2006. Aren't you tempted to have another go?
Yes, and if the schedule falls into place we would not hesitate to do it again because we had a great experience. We've had a lot of gigs out of it, and stayed on the charts. We've had three hit singles from the album, and we are alone in that. There no-one who has had so much success in so short a time after the contest. We feel like we were the winners from that year.

I also read that there was some controversy anyway about the winner – Carola. The telephone voting process?
Yes, I heard that too, but nevertheless it was a great experience, very professional people, professional organisation, great artists. It was a lot of fun.

The debut ‘Metal Will Stand Tall' charted well (No. 2) in Sweden and went gold. ‘Night of Passion' went platinum, and the subsequent two singles (‘Metal Will Stand Tall' and ‘Song For You') went gold. The album now has a release in the UK. Any plans to release in other territories?
Well, we are on King Records in Japan. We haven't been there to play yet but I just heard that they are going to bring us over some time soon. They were quite early to get on board, I think by the end of last summer or something like that, so they are very keen.

I notice that the original lyrics of the first verse of ‘Metal Will Stand Tall' have changed from the Midnight Sun version – any particular reason for that?
Well, like most of the lyrics on that album (‘Metal Machine'), I felt that I hadn't done them, as I was so late coming in, and everything was more or less written. I'm not actually into all that metal gods type stuff, so when we had the chance to re-record the song with the Poodles I re-wrote it as it was a way to make it blend with the rest of our material. I was about to change the chorus as well, but then it flowed really easily, so I thought "What the hell."

I thought I detected a bit of Manowar in there – would you count them amongst your influences?
Well, I'm not influenced that much by Manowar – I think they're pretty cool and I respect what they do. (I proceed to tell him that Brother Firetribe's debut album is called ‘False Metal' and he laughed like a drain).

I believe Christian almost died a couple of years ago in a stabbing incident. That must have affected you badly, as I understand you are great friends?
Yes, he's a great guy, a great friend. He comes from a rough area of Sweden where a lot of that shit happens, but he made a great recovery. But when we first hooked up Christian we were so different, but it has been a good journey for both of us and I am so happy that he is on the stage with me.

Do you think you'll ever complete The Ring Trilogy?
I would love to, and I actually have the whole second album written – it's demos at the moment of course. It's really good stuff, but it's all a matter of time. Right now we are just happy to have time to get into the bathroom for half an hour!

You have a distinctive keyboard sound – who is your "fifth member"?
(Laughs) Ah, it's our producers, actually. We have a digital recorder, a multichannel thing that has some keyboards and some effects which are triggered by Christian. But all of the guys are great singers too, so everybody does backing vocals live.

Whose idea was the band name, and wouldn't Rottweilers have been a bit more "metal"?
(Laughs) Well, the name was Christian's idea. We have this nickname for this kind of rock music, like "poodle rock" – like "hair metal". And those are king poodles on our t-shirts. You think of poodles as neat little dogs for old ladies, but those big ones can be quite vicious. So it's a cute looking vicious dog I guess.

Why did you decide to do the Ultravox cover?
Well we discussed whether to do covers or not, and everybody was saying no, because we had so many good songs. There is always a risk in doing covers because everybody relates to that song instead of the whole album. Then my wife who is the designer for all the stage clothes and stuff was sitting with me one night, and we were drawing out some designs and listening to some music. Suddenly this song came on, and I thought it might be the one, because it's been around for ages, but I haven't listened to it for a long time. So it was certainly lost and found for me. For me, that's one of the things you should have when you do a cover – it should feel like a little bit lost and found, something that many people recognise but aren't sure what it is.

Okay, tough question to round off the interview. Is this a band with longevity or is it an industry product (7 out of 12 songs on the album were written by committee), and what can we expect from the Poodles in the future?
That's a very fair question. First of all we recorded half the album before we even participated in Eurovision, so the album was coming out anyway. The reason we co-wrote with so many different people and took on a lot of songs was that so many bands out there today do album after album, and they have only 2 or 3 good songs on the album. So I wanted to pick absolutely the best, and our A&R guy was saying the same. I wanted to surround myself with as many good writers as possible to get an album that could conquer not only Sweden, with 3 hit singles or whatever, but an album that could open many doors for us. When you've got the opportunity to work with people like Holly Knight, for example, and Tommy Denander - I've already written two songs for the new album with him - I felt it was a great opportunity to make a fantastic album. But we all worked very hard in putting it all together, from the written song to the final result on the album, so it was definitely "Poodlised" on the way. So that was the thought behind it - to have a really good album, instead of "well, unless we can write all our own stuff we don't want to do it". That has a lot to do with me, of course, because that was a decision that I had made long before everybody had said yes to getting involved - to make a strong album. I feel we came pretty close to the goal, and I've already written 35 songs for the next album, with Pontus and Pontus, Tommy, Jonas Reingold etc, lots of different people, so the next album will be really good as well.

Well, it's obviously a winning formula, and if it's good enough for Aerosmith...
Well, exactly, that's what I think, and we were also discussing this. There is no-one questioning when Kiss are co-writing with different people, or Aerosmith or Bon Jovi, so the Titans have been doing it for years!

Well, thank you very much for your time Jakob, and as a parting gift, have a copy of Fireworks – hopefully you'll find some time to read it!
Thank you so much, and thank you for a great interview. It's always good to speak to people who have done their homework. See you tomorrow at the show.