FEATURES

Sweden's Fatal Smile has just returned home after spending two months in North America, touring in support of their new album, World Domination - which incidentally is the band's mission statement. While criss-crossing the United States and Canada, Fatal Smile opened 24 shows for W.A.S.P. and 22
shows for Doro. Now, in addition to working on a forthcoming live DVD, Fatal Smile prepares to open a pair of shows in Europe for Dio. Unbeknownst to many who witnessed Fatal Smile live for the first time on this recent trek, the current lineup, with the exception of guitarist Y, is completely different from that which appeared on the first two Fatal Smile albums: Neo Natural Freaks (2006) and Beyond Reality (2002). Y explains why he ousted
the previous vocalist, bassist and drummer and replaced then with Blade, Alx and Zteff respectively.

"It all started out very naturally, because we tour a lot and the old members didn't want the same things as I wanted for this World Domination album. They didn't want to be on the road. They didn't want to focus 100% on the music and I wanted to take it to another level. So I simply got rid of
the old guys and brought in the new ones." For many musicians, the task of finding three new band members would be enough to cause them to throw in the
towel. "I didn't do it all at the same time," says Y. "But I had my mind made up that's what was going to happen. So I took it bit by bit. I called Alx the bass player first and asked him if he wanted to stand in for our opening slot on W.A.S.P.'s tour of Norway. It worked out really well so I asked him if he wanted the job? The same with the old singer, he wanted to spend time with his family. I'm really happy with the new band! It feels like I'm starting all over again - in a really good way. The band I have now is the band I always wanted to have. You have to love your bandmates because on tour, you have to live with them - onstage, offstage, in the bus, you have to get along and it feels like we've known each other for ten years."

The legendary Michael Wagener (Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Skid Row) mixed World Domination. How did you convince him to work with Fatal Smile? "This album was make it or break it! I wanted him because I've been a fan of his work since the early Dokken days. It turned out that our label (Locomotive Records) had a contact that knew him. So they asked him if he wanted to mix our album? He wanted to hear what it was all about, so I sent him a couple of rough demo mixes and he loved what he heard."

The album cover of World Domination is very similar to that of Neo Natural Freaks. They both feature the same tribal dragon, the only real difference being a black versus a red background. "My thinking there was to keep the dragon, just modify and update it, like Iron Maiden does with Eddie. We want people to recognize it as the Fatal Smile mascot."

You actually wrote a song called 'Fatal Smile' for the World Domination album. Why now and not on the debut disc? "It's too obvious if you do it on album number one, but it felt good on number three. One of the guys asked me why I hadn't done a song called 'Fatal Smile'? So I decided to do it now."

The '80s era of hair metal and glam rock is obviously a huge influence on Fatal Smile. There's a lot of Dokken in your music, are you a big George Lynch fan? "Absolutely! He's one of my biggest heroes; we are totally into him. It's cool that you can hear that. I grew up on all that '80s music, a
lot of Whitesnake and Ratt. We mix up our old influences and try to keep it fresh. It's a lot of fun."

The opening track, 'S.O.B.' sees Fatal Smile riding that fine line between clichéd and cool with the lyric, "Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll is all I ever do." That's been heard a million times before, yet somehow you manage to get away with it. What's the secret? "I don't know. We're not 20 years
old, but still that's the story. You have to have something behind the story to make it real. We mean what we sing." The song goes on to say, "I was a rebel and they locked me up - so I did some time." Did you really spend time in jail? "Our dear singer Blade has. It wasn't really anything bad. He was just driving way too fast - and he's done it a couple of times. When he did it on his Harley, they put him behind bars for a month. In Sweden, they are pretty hard on stuff like that. If you lose your driver's license three times, you have to spend some time in jail. Now he's older - and hopefully wiser."

It must be asked, is 'Run For Your Life' - a song about a crazed gunman firing at the band while they're partying in bassist Alx's cabin, a true story? "That one is not a true story. It could be, but in this case no. It's fictional and thank goodness because it would have been a fucking disaster if it was true."

Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy and Pain has lyrical co-writing credits on two songs: 'Stranger' and 'No Tomorrow'. That seems an odd pairing, as the stylistic differences between his bands and yours are huge. "Actually, Peter and Blade have been good friends for a long time and I've got to know him as well. Peter was at Blade's studio while we were there and listened to a couple of the songs. He offered his help if we wanted it. It was really cook working with him; he's a really nice guy. We also recorded all the vocals at Peter's studio - The Abyss."

Fatal Smile vocalist Blade is often seen wearing a Jim Beam shirt and Alx usually plays a Jim Beam bass on stage. Does Jim Beam endorse the band? "Yes. It all started because we love the stuff! Everybody's into Jack (Daniel's) but we always drink Jim Beam. By coincidence, we ran into the Jim Beam guys in Stockholm when we were at Gibson Guitars. We started to talk with them and they offered their help. We don't do it just because; we do it because we love Jim Beam!"