Crazy Lixx

CRAZY LIXX: CRAZY LIXX:

Hard Rocking Your World

Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by Joe Schaeffer

Crazy Lixx is back and ready to rock your world! Their latest album Street Lethal has arrived via Frontiers Music Srl, and it’s jam packed with raging tunes! The band recently performed on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise, bringing the melodic rock party to the high seas! Prior to the Cruise, Highwire Daze caught up with lead vocalist Danny Rexon to find out more about the almighty Street Lethal, their 20th Anniversary as a band, workimg with Chez Kane, and more! ..

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Street Lethal title?

We usually have a loose concept – at least that’s what we’ve done for the past few albums. And I think it all started on the Rough Justice album where the whole album process started with us getting requested to do the three songs for the Friday The 13th video game – which meant that the three songs were already planned before we started doing the album – they set the mood for the entire album after that. So, after the success of that, we wanted to replicate that same kind of working procedure – but since we didn’t have anything to work against, we kind of made up something instead. So, on the next album, we invented this hypothetical fighter pilot movie that we wanted to have as a source of inspiration. And the same went for this album, where we envisioned like a decade 80’s, 90’s martial arts kind of movie. So, stuff I grew up with basically and that I have been influenced with since then.

When I first looked at the album cover for Street Lethal, I

thought this would make a great video game!

Yeah, actually it was supposed to look like a movie poster, but I agree it looks even more like a video game from that era. I was a Sega kid when I grew up – I played like Street Fighter, Streets Of Rage, Double Dragon, and stuff like that. I get the same feeling when I look at it, so I’m very happy with the results.

Let’s talk about a few of the songs. What was the inspiration behind the single Rise Above?

For that one, I kind of envisioned the last battle. It’s a bit strange – it’s the opening track on the album but at the same time lyrically it’s about this final confrontation that is kind of the last battle in this hypothetical movie. It revolves around making it to the end and fighting against all the evil that you can meet. So, you can of course choose to see it like a metaphor for other things in life, but I envision like an actual movie scene in a fighting situation. We thought it would work very well as an opening track, especially with the instrumental intro that we added later that I think sets the mood for the album very well.

Let’s talk about Anthem For America and the inspiration behind that one.

When I was growing up as a kid, being from Sweden, we were fed a lot of the American culture at the time. I’ve always been very inspired by it. When I was a kid, the US was undoubtedly the best country in the world, and we looked up to it in almost every aspect when it came to music and cartoons and comic books – everything that was coming from there was always so cool compared to what you had in your own country in Europe. So, this song is about the bit of disappointment I sometimes feel when I look at America today, because I feel that the kind of cultural impact America had in the 80’s and 90’s is more less gone – and in some ways has become the laughing stock of the world, which is sad because that’s not how I remember it when I was a kid. It’s like a tongue and cheek reminder that the US used to be so great – especially when it came to rock music – and I’m just so sad to not seeing it anymore. The stuff that comes out from the US – first of all it’s not rock, usually – and when it is, I don’t think it has the same rebel kind of attitude that it used to have. So yeah, that’s what made me write that song.

Has Crazy Lixx ever played here in the United States or in the Los Angeles area?

We’ve done only one show in the US, and that was in Chicago at a festival. The problem has always been the work visa situation, which is complicated when it comes to paperwork, but also quite expensive. We have a show booked for the Monsters Of Rock Cruise in February – which will technically not happen in the US – but the US fans get to go on the cruise. We always try to plan other stuff and try to get the US in on our schedules. We’re looking into that now, but it also depends on how good the album is selling. We have a big following in the US, so I’m a bit saddened that we don’t get to play there more than we’ve had.

You produced this new Crazy Lixx album. You also produced the Chez Kane album. How did you become involved with that, and what was it like producing another artist?

For me, it was a very big step forward. As you say, I’ve been producing the Crazy Lixx albums for the last three albums – and I had actually been co-producing them earlier than that. There’s a big difference producing your own band and someone else – obviously, you can distance yourself in a certain way when you’re doing someone else. Actually, it was Frontiers our label that asked me if I would be interested in doing some production work outside – and I think by that time I had matured enough by producing our own albums that I was feeling confident in taking on someone else. I told them I wasn’t interested in doing another band project where I would be part of the band, but I would be interested in writing songs and finding the solo artists. And it was my own idea that we were going with a female solo artist – because there are a lot of retro 80’s artists with male singers – but I think there are very few female 80’s retro bands. And I always loved bands like Heart – so I always thought there was something in that department missing. From the success we’ve seen, I think that there’s actually some truth to that. A lot of people seem to enjoy that music, and they haven’t heard it for quite a while. What I am

working on now is a follow up to Chez Kane – the first one was very successful, so we’re hoping to have it out sometime before the summer.

2022 marks the 20th Anniversary of Crazy Lixx. What has it been like to do something – anything – for 20 years?

Well, you know a lot of people have actually told us about the 20th anniversary, and I never thought about it until they mentioned it because in a way it does mark the 20th anniversary of the band getting started, but we were quite slow to the start. We only had the record deal for the first album – that was released in 2007. We had a period where we were trying to get someone to work with, but it was slow from the start. And also from that time, we’ve changed members a lot. I think the first really stable line up was with the New Religion album – that was the lineup that held for 5-6 years. And then of course we have the new lineup. In a way I see it as it is the same band – but looking back as 20 years ago, it’s just me and the drummer who are still in the band. It was totally different people, and we were doing totally different stuff. We were basically going in a van through Sweden playing small bars and stuff. So much has changed. Also, the music industry back then - you kind of had the idea that if you got a record deal and had a CD out, then you were set – that was the goal back then because the CD was a big thing. And that all changed during our career, and online playing has become a whole lot more important. You know, it’s been a part of my life for so long. I also have a bit of a problem feeling it’s the 20th anniversary, because I usually start the calendar at 2007 when the first album was released – so maybe it’s been 15 years. But in reality, yes, it’s been 20 years when we got started.

Do you have any messages for your fans out here in the United States?

I hope we will be able to come over and play, and I do hope that this album will also be liked by the younger audience - because we tend to get the audience that kind of listened to this stuff back in the day. We’re of course hoping to break through to the younger audience as well. When we had the video game, we noticed that we were able to reach out to younger audiences as well. But yeah, I hope we are able to come over and play if the pandemic isn’t too bad. It would be awesome to visit the West Coast definitely! It’s on the bucket list…

https://www.crazylixx.com/

Promoting the all new full length album, "Down In Wuhan" out August 28, 2021. World-wide on all major platforms

Thursday, April 21, 2022 WHISKY A GO GO with ENUFF Z’NUFF