The New Wave of Classic Rock is now a thing with the release of it’s first Metal For Muthas-styled compilation album; Sentinel Daily speaks to another of the leading lights of the movement in the second of a series of chats with some of the artists featured on the record. Dig the new breed!
Welcome! For the benefit of our readers please identify yourself and your role in the band! “Hi! I’m Filippa Nässil, guitar player, songwriter and founder of Thundermother“.
It’s great to have you aboard! Now, Thundermother were well established before the whole New Wave of Classic Rock phenomena kicked off, with your own fanbase already – but did you find that it assisted the band to perhaps become more widely known when you started to become associated with NWOCR? “I still don’t really know what it means (laughs), we always just did our thing which is classic rock inspired from the seventies. But if we are part of this, it’s amazing and I feel honoured!”
The movement covers a wide range of musical styles and genres – what does the term ‘classic rock’ mean to you? “The first thing I think about is good sounding amplifiers with a classic crunch distortion that really only can be used if the songs are really great. Groovy rock with kick ass musicians. Bands like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Band, The Black Crowes or Bad Company. I’ve always loved classic rock and all I ever wanted is to bring it back and carry on the heritage”.
That’s as good a raison d’être to have as any! If you could have appeared on any classic rock album from the past, what would it be? “It would probably be something legendary, like playing a solo on Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd”.
Good choice… It’d be something by Kansas for me! But we’re not here to talk about me so on with the questions… Who would you say were your favourite artists who appear on the The Official New Wave Of Classic Rock – Volume 1 album? “There’s many cool bands on this album and I’ve discovered a few new favourites from being involved… Blackwater Conspiracy is like a mix with The Cardigans with Bon Scott and Bryan Adams (more laughter), a really great band and an amazing vocalist! Bad Touch has this classic great sound, Skam, Phil Campbell and the Bastards Sons are super and we met at Motörhead‘s last gig in Sweden before Lemmy passed away and we were supposed to support them, The New Roses are great; we shared many stages together and they’re great guys and you can’t believe they are German when you hear Timmy Rough sing like a real American”.
The Cardigans meets hard rock… a combination to behold! Obviously it’s hard to talk about anything music industry-related without mentioning COVID – how did the pandemic impact the band, and what plans do you have moving forward if and when things return to normal? “We have been extremely fortunate if you compare us to other bands because we did three and a half Covid Safe tours in 2020. We really turn every stone to make our shows happen, even if there are only fifty people. We just finished a Stadium show stream in Berlin with fifty people but we will stream it worldwide. We decided to release our album Heat Wave anyways to spread some joy in the world”.
Have sites like The New Wave of Classic Rock Facebook page been useful in maintaining momentum for you over the last fourteen months? “I don’t think we have our biggest market in the UK and it’s been a while since we were there so therefore we appreciate everything the organisers have done with this album since we’re planning to go there soon”.
Here’s your chance to curate your own stage at Sentinel Daily’s virtual classic rock festival – which five ‘classic’ bands would you select? “Ooh.. That’s so hard but If I think of what I would like to see live it would be; The Black Crowes, Robert Plant with Alison Krauss, Doyle Bramhall II, Blackberry Smoke and finally I would wake Jimi Hendrix from the dead and make him play for me!”
Seems reasonable! Better than a hologram, anyway… Finally – is there anything else you’d like to tell the readers of Sentinel Daily? “Support and buy NWOCR Volume 1 and discover that classic rock ain’t dead and won’t die!”
The Official New Wave Of Classic Rock Volume 1 releases on July 23rd.
UK readers will be able to see the band later this year at the following venues:
22/09/21 – Edinburgh, SCO – Bannerman’s
23/09/21 – Carlisle, ENG – The Brickyard
24/09/21 – Bradford, ENG – Nightrain
25/09/21 – Blackpool, ENG – The Waterloo Music Bar
27/09/21 – Newcastle, ENG – Trillians
28/09/21 – London, ENG – The Underworld
30/09/21 – Wolverhampton, ENG – KK’s Steel Mill
01/10/21 – Buckley, ENG – The Tivoli
02/10/21 – Newport – WAL – The Patriot
03/10/21 – Plymouth, ENG – The Junction
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