Simon Rushworth
Earlier this week we brought you part one of an exclusive interview with long-time Europe keyboard player Mic Michaeli (pictured, far right).
In part two the man responsible for kicking off The Final Countdown every night talks about cocking up that song, his part in US number one smash Carrie and what life’s like as a rock dad.
Remember you can catch the band live across the UK all this week!
rushonrock: You gained your first songwriting credit with Europe on mega-hit Carrie – does that mean a lot?
MM: I’m very proud of the part I played in Carrie. It was the first songwriting credit I had on a real album. But listening to the song today I have to admit that there are certain things I’d change! I like parts of the song but to me it feels very dated. When we play it live now we try to give it a fresh spirit but a lot of people love that song and we’d never take it out of the setlist. I’m very proud to be part of a song that so many people like.
rushonrock: What was the story behind that classic?
MM: I joined the band on the Wings Of Tomorrow tour and I was the one in the band who was always into writing and jamming and trying new stuff with Joey. One day we were just rehearsing for a show or maybe for the Final Countdown sessions and I just had an idea for the song that became Carrie. It just grew from that point. It was a song which came about as a result of two very open-minded musicians sharing thoughts and listening to each other’s ideas. We used the basis of it as an intermission in our show in the early days. It sounded slightly different and it was more like a jam session.
rushonrock: These days the songwriting seems to be more of a band thing but that wasn’t always the case with Joey and then outside writers dominating…
MM: There was certainly a big issue on the Out Of This World record which meant there wasn’t the songwriting input there should have been. When Epic signed us all the record label guys in New York were right behind us but suddenly all of those people who liked us were sacked. Suddenly there was no-one at the label who believed in us anymore. Somebody said they weren’t really happy with the direction we were taking the music and they brought in some other people to write the songs. At the same time we just turned to some friends and other people we knew to try and do our own thing. Eric Martin of Mr Big was one of those people. Joey wrote a couple of songs with him but it wasn’t an ideal situation and we didn’t feel like we had enough control as a band. If it was now we’d have had more confidence to go back with a ‘screw you’ attitude.
rushonrock: On the new album, New Love In Town is another song you’ve crafted for the band – and it could well be the best Europe song for 25 years…
MM: New Love In Town is a fantastic song. It turned out really well on the last album because it was another of those tunes that me and Joey had been jamming together on for a number of years. It actually dates back to the early 90s and the Prisoners In Paradise sessions. I remember Joey and I had a really good hangover from the night before – in those days we were still young enough to have a good hangover! These days it’s always a bad thing. We’d been out partying until the early hours and later that day we were probably still drunk. We went to the rehearsal space we had at the time and Joey played the drums with a mic and I played the keyboards. We just started playing this stuff and pretended we were playing to a big audience and we were playing live. It was very much ‘in the moment’ and it spawned the song that would become New Love In Town.
rushonrock: Was that its original title?
MM: It was originally called Skywalker and it just lay there collecting dust for years. But we recorded that whole session. We looked at it again and realised it’s just one of those very natural songs that has real emotional attachment when Joey sings it. We didn’t set out to write that song for Last Look At Eden but the tune was so good. All the lyrics are different – it’s all changed but the history is there.
rushonrock: You’re a father of three but does being the keyboard player in Europe mean you’re Daddy Cool?
MM: I think my kids think it’s quite fun what I do now. My oldest child Marcus was born in 1986 and when he was young Europe were at their height commercially. When he first went to school the teacher asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up and he said travel, play music and play computer games. That’s what he saw his dad doing for so many years! As for my two daughters? At certain points in their lives I think you could say both of them have been a little bit ashamed of what their father does! But they’re now 14 and 16 and I think they accept what I do – I wouldn’t go any further than that. But they might even be a little bit proud. Now they’re a bit older they have the confidence to stand up for what they thing is right and they’re their own people. Funnily enough a lot of kids their age are getting into Europe right now and some of their peers have actually asked them if they’re related to Mic Michaeli. I hope that’s cool.
rushonrock: Have you ever messed up the start of The Final Countdown?
MM: I have made mistakes with The Final Countdown before. It’s one of those mindfuck things that I just can’t explain. I get ready and I’m thinking to myself I know this song. Then I start playing it and sometimes I don’t know why I do what I do. I once made a really obvious mistake at a gig in Sweden and the whole song sounded ridiculous. It’s not a song that we rehearse because we shouldn’t have to. It’s a song we always play and I have a blast every time we do. I can live off the audience reaction for weeks. It’s the fans who make that song for us and we’d never dream of not playing it. And I try very hard to get it right every night!