Danny Rexon (Crazy Lixx) – interview

Danny Rexon (Crazy Lixx) – interview

25 Novembre 2014 0 Commenti Alessandro Lifonti

interview by Alessandro Lifonti
italian version

MR: Crazy lixx have just released their fourth album and it’ s about time to chat with their great singer Danny Rexon! Danny, thank you for sharing your time with us!
DR: No problem, any time

MR: Danny, let’s start from your latest release: the self titled of the band! Can we say that this cd has brought us back to the crazy lixx roots as the previous album (riot avenue) is a bit different from “loud minority” and “new religion”?
DR: Yes, you could say that but we prefer to call it the perfect blend of our old style from the first two albums along with the best elements from Riot Avenue. The production, sound and backing vocals are more in the vein of the old albums but it’s more riff oriented and there’s a lot of twin guitar work, just like on Riot Avenue. So I guess it took us three albums to really find our true sound.

MR: When we met you at the Frontiers rock festival last may, you told the crowd that you were writing this new album. When did you start planning it and how long did it take you to record it?
DR: We actually started recording the first drum tracks back in october 2013. But naturally we didn’t work on it every day since than time. This time we decided we were going to take the time we needed and record when we felt inspired and up for it instead of booking an expensive studio for two weeks and tr to cram it all in during that time. So all in all you could say it took us nearly a year from the first recording to the final master. But if you take songwriting in accounting it was even earlier.

MR: Many bands say that their latest album is always the best. What do you think about this brand new crazy lixx record? 😉
DR: It is the best we’ve done. But I really don’t think I’m the only one who feels like that.

MR: One of the strongest points of the band are the lyrics! As you are the main songwriter of the group, how can you switch from writing such a funny song as “Lock up your daughter” to writing such a deep one as ” Children of the cross”?
DR: I get my inspiriation for lyrics from all aspects of life, and just as with the songs, there’s both the good times and more serious matters. It usually starts with the hook, like in the case of “Children of the Cross” – I started to hum on a melody and that hook line fitted perfecly. When I had that, the title, the rest of the lyrics pretty much wrote themelves. So that’s usually the case – I find one great hook and then build the lyrics around that. Then, naturally, I don’t write two of these songs on one day so the mood I’m in at the moment greatly influences what kind of mood the song gets.

MR: I’m asking you this question as a fan of the band. If I told you: “I put my faith in your heart, now it’s tearing me apart”, what would you say? After 4 years I can’ t get sick of that song (blame it on love) ! 🙂
DR: I agree. It’s one of my absolute top three songs I’ve ever written. Funny thing is that I had the chorus lying around on an old demo for quite some time before the work on New Religion started. It had a totally different verse that didn’t suit it very well but I really liked the chorus so I decided to re-write everything else on the song. I sat down one night and started to play the chorus over and over and out of nowhere the verse chords and melody just popped up in my head. It was really one of the easiest songs I’ve ever written in that aspect. I finished the lyrics in the same session and suddenly I had what would become one of our most popular songs.

MR: Which are your favourite bands? Where do you get the inspiration from?
DR: KISS and Iron Maiden are my absolute all time favourite bands but when it comes to song-writing I really look up to the fantastic producer and song writer Desmond Child who I think co-wrote some of the greatest rock anthems of the 80’s. But I listen to a lot of different rock and metal, mostly from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.

MR: At the moment there are not many Crazy Lixx tour dates in sight! Are you going to tour more in the future?
DR: Right now we’re gonna sit back and see how the album goes and then decide what our next step is going to be.

MR: As we are italians, would you like to tell us anything about Frontiers?
DR: Don’t know much about them to be honest. We’ve enjoyed a great deal of creative freedom while under the label and we conduct business with them through long distance – I’ve actually only met them once, on last year’s Frontiers Rock Festival. But it’s a great label that’s easy to work with and they make a great effort to get good rock music to the audience, something that the major labels have long since forgotten how to do.

MR: We can find several videos on youtube where we see the band playing acoustic outside the stores, and some people pass by like nothing happens. How does it feel? Is that frustrating?
DR: It can be sometimes but then again, we played in a mall were most people weren’t there to see us so it’s understandable. The whole thing was actually a quite spontanous thing we set up in a couple of locations in Sweden for the ‘Record Store Day’ a couple of years ago. It was a cool experience and a lot of people have told us we should do more acoustic stuff after that.

MR: What do you think about the italian rock scene at the moment?
DR: To be completely honest, I can’t name any Italian bands in our genre. Sorry =(

MR: Danny, we really appreciate your kidness! We hope to see you soon in Italy!
DR: Thanx! Hope that too!

© 2014, Alessandro Lifonti. All rights reserved.