Daytona and The Eternal Flame of Melodic Rock

Daytona is a melodic rock band from Sweden featuring current and former members of Eclipse, Air Raid, Miss Behaviour, and Osukaru.  Their debut album Garder la Flamme is about to be released via Escape Music, and its stunning reveries are sure to enrapture the senses of music fans all over the world. Highwire Daze recently interviewed guitarist Erik Heikne to find out more about the intriguing artistry of Daytona, being signed with Escape Music, thoughts on his previous band Miss Behaviour, and carrying the eternal flame of timeless melodic rock.  Read on…

We’re here with Erik Heikne of Daytona. Give me a little background on Daytona and where you guys are based out of.
The long story short – I used to play with a band called Miss Behaviour for 12 years. We released 4-5 albums. During the pandemic, I was working a lot in the studio. Those years were kind of hopeless because you couldn’t do anything with the music. I created a lot of music, but you couldn’t play live. So, the songs just stacked on my hard drive basically. And somehow, these songs seemed to turn out a little bit different – it wasn’t like a perfect fit for my other band. So the idea became to grow on me to create something on my own. At first, a solo album was the idea – but then I met Fredrik the singer – he’s from the other side of Sweden – from Gothenburg – and he’s in a few other bands. And we got along so well, and we started to talk about our musical backgrounds and inspirations.

It was a lot of late 80’s American bands, like Giant – these kind of big sounding American rock bands basically. And then when we started working together, we realized we had like so much in common, so we said let’s do a band. So that was the start with Daytona. And then we got Johan on board – he’s the keyboard player. He used to play keyboards with the Swedish band Eclipse. I’d kind of known Johan for many years, but we had never worked together. I invited him to the studio, and he immediately got going on the songs. He hasn’t really been active in music since he left Eclipse, so this was kind of a fresh start for him. So, then he came aboard – and then Niclas the bass player and Calle Larsson the drummer joined – so we’re really a band now. I kind of dislike all these “project” bands – it tires me a bit. I like the authentic band feeling – to create something together. So, it felt great. Two years back we started.

And then how did you wind up on Escape Music?
I’ve known Khalil, who runs Escape, for many years. I know his passion for music. And nowadays, with a record company, you need to create a big team around a band, because it’s so much more than just physical record sales. So, we had to find a perfect partner that could provide decent distribution – and we really wanted to get it out on vinyl especially – and he could do that for us. He is the partner for physical distribution album sales. And then we have a team of people that work with video production and the work with digital promotion. And we got Elio Bordi onboard – he used to work with the Italian company Frontiers before, but now he’s having his own business doing promotion. We have a great team around us. Khalil is really great – I sent him the album kind of early on before it was finished, and he really loved the sound. So, we took it from there. I’m really happy with Escape Music.

What do you think of Fredrik’s other bands Osukaru and Air Raid?
Osukaru I was familiar with, because I actually played some guitar solos on their previous albums – way before I knew Fredrik. It was Oz who asked me. Air Raid was kind of new to me when I got to know Fredrik. It’s like more old school heavy metal – I really like that. When I started to play in bands, it was heavy metal. So, they’re a great band. Also, a bit neo-classical. I’m a huge Yngwie Malmsteen fan, so I can hear some of that into Air Raid as well.

Is there any story or concept behind the album title Garder la Flamme?
Pardon my French – I don’t speak French. Early on, I wrote a song which is the title track – and Fredrik, he wrote all the lyrics for the album – so he came up with that title. It means basically The Eternal Flame. We thought it was kind of a homage to all those classic AOR albums with French titles – like Foreigner Agent Provocateur. We kind of like how I sounded, so we took it from there. So, there’s not much into it, but it’s basically like The Eternal Flame.

The opener Welcome To The Real World is such a good way to kick off the album. Tell me about that song and what it means to you.
If you look back at those bands that really inspire us, like a lot of bands – even though they were not political bands, they were not afraid to write about other things and not just rock and roll and drinking. There were a lot of bands that were writing good lyrics. We just wanted to really want to write about stuff that we care about. I don’t know exactly what Fredrik had in mind with that lyric, but we live in strange times, right? It’s something that I think a lot about, and I know he does as well. Maybe it’s like on that topic.

Also, the first single we released was kind of a statement in some way – Where Did We Lose The Love. You could talk to Fredrik; he would be better explaining the lyrics that way. But Welcome To The Real World was one of the first songs I wrote for the album, and I think it’s a great opener also for a live show.

I’ll ask about one more song and then we’ll move on. Do you have any idea who Kelly is?
(Laughs) I don’t know, but let’s say all those bands used to have a song with girl’s name titles – like Toto had a few. So, it was kind of like a homage to that. But Kelly – you’ll have to ask Fredrik, but I don’t think she’s a person. She’s more like a symbol for that kind of time.

Has Daytona ever played live or is that something you would like to do in the future?
We haven’t played live because we haven’t even got the album out yet. We’re taking this step by step, but we see this long term as something here that will last and hopefully we get bigger and bigger. So, we see long term and we have a plan for next year. So, we’re definitely going to take this live as much as possible. We already have some dates booked for 2025. I don’t think you’re a band really if you don’t perform live – so that’s the goal definitely.

Did Miss Behaviour ever play here in the States, and/or is that something you would like to do with Daytona?
Yeah, I’d love to do that with Daytona. Miss Behavior toured a lot in Europe. We worked with a manager called Michael Sundén, and he was really into doing these long club tours in America. He first worked with the band Backyard Babies, and they kind of made it in the States. Michael was very keen to do a tour. We had a West Coast tour almost booked, but then Michael unfortunately had an accident and died in 2014. So those plans never made it. But it would be a dream because we are very inspired by American bands. In some way, this kind of music originated from America, so it would be lovely to play there.

If Daytona could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
That question has two answers – one more realistic when we think about those kinds of bands that are active today that we would love to play with. That would be bands like Nestor or Electric Light Orchestra – those kinds of bands. But if we look into the past, maybe a band like Magnum or Giant – those kinds of bands would be the perfect fit for us.

I like going back to anniversaries of bands – and it looks like Miss Behaviour has an anniversary on one of their albums – Double Agent – which was released 10 years ago. When you look back on Double Agent and the fact that it’s been 10 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
That’s kind of my least favorite album. I like the songs very much, but I’m not so happy about the way we produced it. Back then, kind of in 2010 – 2011, there was kind of a new wave in AOR, especially in the UK. So, we toured a lot in the UK and we kind of had a big following there. For us, it was the first time when we had to put out an album really fast to be able to go out and play again. Before that, we had like too much time, so it was good from the perspective to learn to be working under pressure and working fast. So good songs, but we could have done the production better, I think. Yeah, it’s 10 years ago – I hadn’t even thought about it…

Is there anything at all going on with Miss Behaviour?
I get this question kind of often now, because even though when we started Daytona, I wanted to separate it as much as possible from our other band – because Daytona deserves to stand on its own. I think it’s good enough to not be connected to those other bands like Osukaru or Miss Behaviour or Eclipse. But whether you want it or not, people are going to ask me about Miss Behaviour, and they are going to ask Fredrik about his bands. But Miss Behaviour – the situation is like – it’s kind of not decided. It’s not like we’ve said to each other we’re not going to make any more albums, or we have not said what we’re going to do. So, who knows? But right now, my priority is Daytona. As it is right now, Miss Behaviour is not making any new music – who knows what will happen. We’re still friends and all that. It’s not a decision that has been made to keep on or not. But I think the last album we did was 2016. Time flies.

Erik Heikne of Daytona via Zoom!

Are you currently involved with any other bands or projects outside of Daytona?
No. I’ve done like guest appearances and some songwriting and stuff that last years. But I was eager to be in a band. I love this. I love every part of it – from writing songs to building a band and doing everything. For me, it was like a missing piece in my life when I worked on my own in the studio, so it feels great. Right now, Daytona is my main priority. I don’t have any other bands besides it now.

Do you have any messages for melodic rock fans here in the States who are reading this right now?
The thing is, I checked the Google analytics for the YouTube channel right before we had this conversation – and actually the last video we did – Slave To The Rhythm – is almost up to like 70,000 views already. And actually, a lot of those are from the States. So, it seems to fit very well for the American audience. It might not be that surprising because we are inspired by American bands. But it’s really good to see that there seems to be a following there of melodic rock. Maybe the way we do it – they seem to like it. We don’t intend to have one foot in the 80’s and another one in the present day. We are fully focused on late 80’s when it comes to songwriting, producing, the way it sounds, and the way it looks. So that’s really fun. And hopefully we can come over and play – that would be great!

Daytona line-up:
Fredrik Werner – Vocals
Erik Heikne – Guitars
Johan Berlin – Keyboards
Niclas Lindblom – Bass guitar
Calle Larsson – Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Daytona online:
https://linktr.ee/daytona_music