{"id":35698,"date":"2018-09-04T08:23:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T22:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=35698"},"modified":"2018-09-04T08:21:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T22:21:43","slug":"tom-petersson-of-cheap-trick-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2018\/09\/tom-petersson-of-cheap-trick-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026we aren\u2019t the kind of band that can figure out what people really want to hear, like it\u2019s just the luck of the draw and doing something that we would like to hear and that\u2019s all we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Since exploding onto the music scene in the mid-1970’s, they’ve been blending elements of pop, punk and even metal to create soundscapes that are immediately recognisable. Consistent touring over the past five decades – notching up more than 5,000 shows, appearances on 29 movie soundtracks plus 40 gold and platinum recording awards has seen them become one of the top and most prolific rock bands of all time.\u00a0 Fronted by the dynamic Robin Zander, and comprising founding bassist Tom Petersson, famed for his 12-string bass, with Rick Nielsen on guitar and his son Daxx Nielsen on drums, Cheap Trick are a vibrant on-stage force like no other.<\/p>\n

In Cleveland, Ohio, Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick gave us a call to talk about the band\u2019s return to Australia, creating music over four decades, being an influence, and a great story about one of their biggest songs.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re heading back to Australia this October, tell us what can people expect if they come out to a Cheap Trick show?<\/strong>
\nWell I don\u2019t know what they expect because we don\u2019t know what to expect, we change our sets up all the time with all sorts of different stuff, we\u2019ve got now twenty studio albums. It\u2019s just really kind of random, we just choose things as we feel like it and it drives our crew crazy as we should tell them a little ahead of time what we\u2019re gonna do but we really just change it up all the time and we show up and an hour before the show we\u2019ll write a set list.<\/p>\n

Being to Australia a number of times, do you have a stand out memory of a previous trip here?<\/strong>
\nOf course the first time was still interesting, I love it in Australia, I don\u2019t even know how many times we\u2019ve been there it\u2019s been many times and we\u2019d like to be down there more than we are actually. We love the whole culture vibe.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re All Alright\u2019 was released about a year ago, looking back to your first record is there anything you still use or that you\u2019ve done when making albums that you still use to this day?<\/strong>
\nClose, probably Rick may use a couple of the same guitars he had back then, I use a lot of the same, \u00a0not exactly the same ones I had but close, Gibson Thunderbird\u2019s, the twelve strings, I didn\u2019t have a twelve string bass at first, the only bass I owned at the time when we first started was a 1964 Gibson Thunderbird so really those are my favourite things.<\/p>\n

In terms of song writing, what for you has been the biggest challenge in writing music over four decades?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s challenge but the biggest challenge is that we all come in with a lot of ideas and a lot of things, really the biggest challenge is sorting it out and figuring out what actually is worth perusing and it changes so much. We\u2019ve got for example on our first album we recorded \u2018I Want You To Want Me\u2019 and it didn\u2019t even make the record, so who\u2019s to say what we do with that sort of thing, we keep writing and working out ideas constantly and it\u2019s been forty years of that, so there\u2019s a lot of back catalogue and a lot of things we go back through and go wow, I had this track or this one thing or this bridge in this one track it was great, we\u2019ll play stuff for each other and if it strikes somebody else as a fan they\u2019ll say let\u2019s work on that I\u2019ve got an idea for that, that\u2019s really how it works. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that things are rejected or bad ideas it just didn\u2019t happen to strike somebody at the time, who knows? Then we go back and we go wow, why didn\u2019t we do this *laughs* and a lot of the time it\u2019s our producer that will look into the stuff we\u2019ve done before and go what the hell why didn\u2019t you record that? Or what\u2019s this thing? And we\u2019re like oh I don\u2019t know, that was like twenty years ago that idea. He\u2019ll say oh my god that\u2019s great and we\u2019ll expand upon that. So we just keep kind of stock piling ideas and it\u2019s nice because you\u2019re always in a creative mode, when you\u2019re riding around in a car or whatever you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re on a plane and think oh that would be a good idea, or a great chord change we\u2019ve always got a recorder so that\u2019s a big thing for us.<\/p>\n

Cheap Trick have been cited as influences of many, many bands over the years, has there been one that\u2019s stood out as someone you wouldn\u2019t have pinned as a fan?<\/strong>
\nWell *laughs* we hear that occasionally and it always strikes us as funny because we don\u2019t really hear it, I\u2019ll hear somebody say \u2018wow you\u2019re one of our biggest influences\u2019 and then I\u2019ll listen to them and say wow, this sounds like The Kinks *laughs*. So nobody really, it\u2019s just so off the wall that it just doesn\u2019t make sense so none I can think of. The funny thing is that people will come up to you and say \u2018Oh you\u2019re one of my all-time favourites\u2019 and they\u2019ll say \u2018I love you guys\u2019 and then they\u2019ll add somebody else in that we can\u2019t stand *laughs* and it\u2019s like \u2018oh\u2026\u2019 and it completely ruins it *laughs* let\u2019s just well enough alone don\u2019t throw in a bunch of others. Oh I see you like us and ewww\u2026. *laughs*. We\u2019re the same, people are kind of snobbish and whatever about the music they like and I think in general if you don\u2019t like something that it\u2019s shit, it just means you don\u2019t like it, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s no good, it\u2019s good for somebody, there\u2019s certainly no accounting for taste *laughs* so I don\u2019t know what the heck is in people\u2019s heads sometimes. If you hear something and you like it then you can\u2019t help it then you find out that you love the song and you find out it\u2019s Justin Bieber and you\u2019re like oh my god I can\u2019t believe I just said I love that song, now I have to hate it.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s sometimes easy to say what\u2019s changed in your time in a band but what would you say is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same in your time together in Cheap Trick?<\/strong>
\nJust the way we approach recording, we really just record things that we think that sound good to us, we never were good about trying to figure out what people want to hear or what\u2019s happening or influenced by things that are happening or whatever it might be or we\u2019ll hear something and think oh I wish I thought of that, but we aren\u2019t the kind of band that can figure out what people really want to hear, like it\u2019s just the luck of the draw and doing something that we would like to hear and that\u2019s all we can do.<\/p>\n

As a band for well over forty years, what is it about being in Cheap Trick that you still enjoy?<\/strong>
\nYou know we\u2019re so used to doing this that it\u2019s like second nature, I don\u2019t know. I think we\u2019d be kind of lost if we weren\u2019t doing it put it that way.<\/p>\n

Is there one song out of the entire Cheap Trick catalogue that you feel epitomizes the band?<\/strong>
\nNo. I think we are pretty diverse in the kind of material we do, we\u2019ll do a straight out pop thing, kind of like \u2018I Want You To Want Me\u2019 which was written, well a lot of the things we do is tongue in cheek but sort of a dig at an ultra pop song. A really poppy pop song, like let\u2019s just do one that\u2019s is really over the top pop. Then on the other hand we like heavy music and the hard edged so the actual live version and the way we did it originally it was like The Yardbirds doing a pop song. We recorded in another way, we recorded it for our second album and it was not a hit, the studio version, our producer decided that would be a great radio hit but it was way too heavy, we had to make it more radio friendly and said I know what people want to hear and yadda yadda, so that version of \u2018I Want You To Want Me\u2019 was a joke, it was terrible, it was not the way we sounded and it was as bad as we could get and it turned out that was not a hit, what became a hit was the live heavy version. On the other hand the one we did on the second album the reason we did a live album is that fans in Japan, that version we did was a big hit in japan so we did it live and prior to that we weren\u2019t even playing it in our set anymore in The US or anywhere else *laughs* but we were going to Japan on our first tour and it wasn\u2019t in our show and the promoter goes \u201cwhat the hell, what\u2019s going on, where\u2019s I want You To Want Me, it\u2019s a big hit\u201d and we go really, alright we\u2019ll put it in and we did it the way we normally do it and it became a hit, so I guess in a backwards way the studio version worked out for us, we thought back it was totally the wrong approach and it wasn\u2019t a hit anywhere except in Japan so there you are. So in other words what the hell do we know?<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2018 Cheap Trick will…<\/strong>
\nWill still be working.<\/p>\n

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CHEAP TRICK | 2018 TOUR DATES<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Presented by\u00a0Chugg Entertainment\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

MELBOURNE<\/strong>
\nMonday 15th October\u00a0\u2013 Palais Theatre (All\u00a0Ages)<\/strong>
\nticketmaster.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

SYDNEY<\/strong>
\nWednesday 17th October \u2013 Enmore Theatre (All Ages)<\/strong>
\nticketek.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

BRISBANE<\/strong>
\nThursday 18th\u00a0October \u2013 The Tivoli (18+)\u00a0<\/strong>
\nticketmaster.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Also appearing at Botanic Park Adelaide, Sunday 14th\u00a0October, with Foreigner\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Rockford, Illinois, USA<\/p>\n

Band members:\u00a0<\/strong>Robin Zander \u2013 lead vocals, rhythm guitar, Rick Nielsen \u2013 lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, Tom Petersson \u2013 bass, backing vocals, Daxx Nielsen \u2013 drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.cheaptrick.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> We\u2019re All Alright (Out Now)<\/p>\n

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