One of the surprise packages for us here at Sentinel Daily this year were Sweden’s Captain Black Beard, who broke away from the Euro AOR pack with their perky and very attractive Neon Sunrise Album. We knew we wanted to feature the album in These We Have Loved, so out went the feelers, and in came bassist Robert Majd, keen to talk up the record – away you go, Mr Majd!

Congratulations on Neon Sunrise – we’ve been loving it here at Sentinel Daily HQ since the day we received it!  Although we’ve never featured the band in the Mag before, this is your sixth full-length in all – how do you think the industry has changed in the eleven years since your first, self-titled album came out? “Hey, thanks! We’re so happy you like it. Yeah, the industry has changed a bit. Probably for the better actually. You still don’t make a lot of money from streams but vinyl has had a major revival which is great! Serious labels almost always do vinyl and cd. That certainly wasn’t the case when we started”.

We’ll look more thoroughly at the individual tracks on the album later – but can you give those of our listeners without much grounding in the sound of the band a bit of a background to Neon Sunrise? And would long time fans of the band who perhaps haven’t caught up with the record yet be surprised by the new album? “Although we’ve been around for a while and released a bunch of albums, it wasn’t until Sonic Forces in 2020 that we sort of found our identity. That’s also when our frontman Martin (Holsner) joined the band. We tried to take what was good with that album and develop it a bit further. It’s maybe a bit more energetic. The sound is eighties influenced melodic rock with super catchy choruses. It’s pretty hard and direct…. Old fans that haven’t listened to us in a while might be surprised how we’ve developed but will recognise the heart and focus in having fun that’s the same as it always was”.

And can you tell us a little about the personnel on this album? “Well, for once I’m happy to say it’s almost the same as the last album, haha! It’s me and Chris (Ek, guitars) from way back… bass and guitar… our drummer Vinnie has been with us for a long time and Martin joined us on the last album. The only new dude is Daniel Krakowski who handles most of the lead guitar. Daniel joined the band just before we released Sonic Forces. We also had a lot of help from Wildness drummer Erik Modin who produced and added keyboards as well as backing vocals. The songs were then mixed by Ronnie Björnström“.

4. Do you have any plans to tour behind the record both home and overseas? Touring, though getting back to some sort of normal, seems to be a delicately-balanced process at the moment, especially with the sheer number of bands wanting to get back out on the road! “Yeah it’s definitely tough to get the good slots. We’ve got some cool festivals coming up and will try to get on board a tour if it suits us. Everybody in the band has work and family to consider so it has to line up just right. We love playing live and will do it as much as we can!”

Hopefully that might include a few shows down here in Australia! Now, could you give us a brief insight into each of the tracks on the album? The intro track is called Flamenco. “Ah, the obvious opening track. When Chris played me this demo it was almost completely done. Erik came up with the keyboard intro and the girls from The Night Flight Orchestra were gracious enough to supply backing vocals. Thanks Anna and Anna!”

We’re The Forgiven is next. “A lot of these tracks were put together by Chris and myself at the rehearsal space and within a short period of time. I think the verses are particularly great on this one!”

What about Physical? “Our second single. Just a catchy little number. Great melodies from Chris as usual!”

Next up is Moment of Truth (my personal fave on the album!) “(laughing) one of my favourites too! I had a complete demo but Chris helped me to change the entire melody to make it a much better song”.

Wasted Heart – tell us something about this track. “A song that we didn’t think too much of but Ronnie who mixed it, the label and most reviews says it’s one of the better ones! We responded by making it our third single. Fun fact maybe… I play the guitar solo”.

Gotta love a fun fact! Night Reaction is the next track. “Time for something fast and heavy! The chords are nice to play a guitar solo over so we gave Daniel a lot of time. He used it well! Jona Tee from H.E.A.T. supplied the blistering keyboard solo”.

Gotta love a celebrity cameo! Up next is Chains of Love. “One of the first songs me and Chris demoed. It’s based on a demo Chris had started. When we’d finished this one we knew we were gonna make a great album! It also has extra meaningful lyrics”.

And what about Burning Daylight? “Based on a demo Daniel contributed which gives it a slightly different sound and broadens the album in a nice way”.

Break (Into Forever) follows Burning Daylight. “Erik added some nice keys to this little number…”

We’re deep into side two now – Invincible is next. “…and Erik added even more keys to this one. Chris had this riff since the last album and I really liked it so I got the assignment to finish the song”.

The last ‘proper’ track on the album is State of Denial. “This is actually a song Erik wrote for Wildness. He suggested that we recorded it and we did (laughs)”.

Neon Sunrise closes things out. “This is just a fun little outro. Not much to add other than that”.

How do you think 2022 has been overall for our kind of music? Outside of Captain Black Beard, who else have you been listening to this year? “It’s been really good! I’ve really enjoyed the new Soilwork album. H.E.A.T. did a great album… I kind of rediscovered Styx and the Jackson 5. Hellacopters finally released new music and my other band, Metalite, did a live EP”.

Exciting times! Melodic hard rock/AOR as a style is getting incredibly saturated at the moment – how hard is it for you as a band to keep what is essentially a legacy genre fresh and exciting? “I think as long as it’s exciting to yourself then it will be exciting for others as well. That’s why it’s nice to have the writing partnership that I have with Chris. A song is only considered great if both of us likes it a lot! That is not always a easy test to pass”.

Well you certainly passed it on this album! Anything else you’d like to tell the readers of Sentinel Daily about the album? Or the band in general? What are the band’s plans for 2023? “Thanks a lot for the support! Seeing the great response to this album means the world to us and makes us so much more excited to enter the studio again early next year to record the follow up! We hope to do a bunch of shows and release the next album after the summer. Again, thanks a lot – and thanks for the interview! I’m actually in Australia on vacation (Mooloolaba at the moment)!”