Aiming High into the Future with Alien

Photo Credit: Tommy Holl

Aiming High into the Future with Alien

Alien is a Swedish rock band that has been a cornerstone of the hard rock scene since 1986, known for their melodic hooks, powerful guitar riffs, and the unmistakable voice of Jim Jidhed. Formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, the band quickly gained recognition both domestically and internationally, building a legacy of powerful albums and unforgettable live shows.  Alien’s self-titled debut album, released in 1988, introduced their melodic hard rock style to the world. Only One Woman, one of Alien’s most iconic songs, is closing in on nearly 6 million streams on Spotify!  And now Alien has released When Yesterday Comes Around on Pride & Joy Music, featuring dynamic original songs such as If Love Is War, In The End We Fall, and Aiming High – as well as a brilliantly inspired cover of Strange Way by Firefall!

Highwire Daze recently interviewed Jim Jidhed to find out about the amazing new When Yesterday Comes Around magnum opus, his thoughts about Only One Woman having such a massive impact on Spotify, working with other iconic artists such as Mikael Erlandsson and Tommy Denander – and more!  Read on…

How did Alien wind up on Pride & Joy Music?
We did have other offers amongst, for an example, a bigger company. But we have been around for so long now that we need to feel that we’re working with the right people. Pride & Joy who is led by Birgitt is a really, really good person with a great knowledge. We choose Pride & Joy because of her way of working.

Let’s talk about this new release When Yesterday Comes Around. Is there any overall story behind that album title and that song?
The thing is, the last record we made, Into the Future, in 2020, was like an experiment with hard rock metal, but still with the melody in the front. And some two years ago, we were approached by a music person, so to speak, here in Sweden, who said, “Why don’t you do an album? Like the first one in the same fashion.” He had some original songs that weren’t released, but were written back in the day. We tried to do some demos and after a while we thought maybe if we should do this, we need to start writing that kind of music that we wrote back in the 80s. We really put in a lot of effort and went back with a modern sound, of course, but we really tried to get back to how we wrote music back then. Then I thought When Yesterday Comes Around, it is sort of a “We have a song title for the album is also titled for a song.” But it’s really going back. It’s you’re going back and when yesterday comes around, it’s like yesterday comes and say “Hello!” The album is in the fashion of back in the day. So, there it is.

If Love is War is probably one of the most awesome singles I’ve heard in a very long time. Give me a little background on that song.
As I was telling you that we got many original songs that haven’t been released. This was one of those songs. So, we kept two songs from this guy, Magnus, who approached us and inspired us, and has helped us through the process. Love was war is to us. It’s really what it’s all about. It is melody, catchy chorus. Of course we worked with the song. We arranged it in our way. But that was one of those songs that we kept for this album, and we really love that song.

You also covered Strange Way by the band Firefall. What made you decide to cover that song and has any member of Firefall heard it yet?
Now, the thing is, I don’t know personally. But that’s the second song that we kept from the first period.  Because I thought we were presented with the song mainly because of my voice. So, he thought, “Listen to this!  I hear Jim’s voice on this. We really love that song. Because it’s mainly in the same key, it doesn’t go so many places musically, but it’s still a very good song and very good creative song by this band. We will also do video for that song come March. We’ll release the video with the album.

What are you looking forward to the most about the upcoming Swedish Rock Festival and then your tour in South America?
Of course, we are looking forward to Sweden Rock and we are getting gigs as along the way now. We are doing a few gigs before that, and I think that’s great that we have the opportunity to do that. But we do look forward to Sweden Rock. We were there I think in 2010. In South America we had a contact with them yesterday. So that’s something we are going to sort out the next couple of weeks.

Has Alien ever toured here in the States, or is that something you would like to do in the future?
I can tell you, it’s very funny that you said that, because Tony told me, “Tell him that we want to play in the States, can you do something?” Tony is turning 70 this month. But he’s really like a 20-year-old energy-wise. Sadly enough, we haven’t played the States, and we would like to play good gigs where we can get them. And of course, our music and sound are in many ways like a US sound, I think. Today, it’s the question about booking agencies. The music industry looks very different from back in the day. But as long as we are out there, anything can happen. Hopefully, we will come to you.

I’m actually in the Los Angeles area, and it would be so cool to see Alien play at the Whisky a Go Go. That would be awesome.
It would be for us to really because we went there February/March 88, and we recorded at Sunset Studio in the San Fernando Valley.  We recorded our very first album there.

Let’s go back 20 years ago. 20 years ago, you did an album called Dark Eyes. When you looked back on that album and the fact that it’s been 20 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Interesting question. The first thing that comes to mind is that I really love many of those songs. The sound, well, maybe. But I don’t really like that album and love some of the songs.  The thing on that album is, Tony has a bit of a blues background too. I come from the 70s. I’m born in 63, so I have Status Quo. I had Thin Lizzy and then when I got older teenager, I started to listen to American bands like Christopher Cross, Dave Roberts, Toto, and those band. But when we did Dark Eyes, we really did a mixture of Thin Lizzy and a little blues here and there. It was a straightforward rock album that was very nice.

Only One Woman has nearly six million streams on Spotify. What does a number like that even mean to you?
When you say it, it means much. Because it makes you think of, “Oh, that’s a lot!” That’s many people who have listened to this song and probably love the song. I do interviews these days, as you know. Only One Woman is a fun story because when we were presented with that song from the label, Virgin. I thought to myself, “What is this? What are we going to do with this?” So we sat down, I think it was me and Tony who arranged the song in a whole different way. And made it heavy and slower and then we suddenly thought maybe it is something here. The funny thing is that we had this largest radio show called Tracks here in Sweden that every week had people voting in new songs. So the show leader there, he loved the song and he tried the song in let’s say January something 88. But it didn’t make it in. Then we came to you in Los Angeles and started recording the album and suddenly after many weeks there, we heard from the label, “Do you know they tested the song a second time and it went straight in – and straight up to the top?” So, there we got a hit. But it was the second time around, when they tested the song on this voting field. So it’s a very funny story, how things can go.

One of my favorite albums of last year was the Radioactive album Reset by Tommy Denander. And you were on that album. What was it like working with Tommy on the Radioactive album?
I work with Tommy in 2002 – we did my solo album Full Circle. I have known him for many years now, and he’s one of the most gifted persons I have worked with in the music industry. He called me and asked. “Would you consider doing four songs on my next album?” And Tommy and I are close in that way. We talk music and I said, “Yes.” And I heard the songs and of course, I’d do it. I don’t do it that often, really not very seldom (record with other people). But in this case, I did. I like that album too. Tommy is very gifted.

You also worked with Autumn’s Child on a song, Juliet. Could you tell me what that experience was like?
One of the songwriters in that group is Claes Andreasson. He is also a guy who knows my voice. I’ve done another song for him some years ago, and it was the same with Mikael Erlandsson. Apart from Alien, I don’t sing that very much as I did before. I could sing at parties. But I don’t find that so exciting anymore. So when Klaus and Mikael asked me, I thought, why not? I come, we do it. It was very nice.

Do you have any messages for Alien fans here in the States who are reading this now?
I really would say to all of you that I really hope you’re going to enjoy this album. It is in many ways old-fashioned 80’s melodic rock with a very modern sound. So, I really hope you’re going to like the album. And all the best to you all from me and the band.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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