Interview with Ez Gomer 

by Scott Shiffer

This past month I was blessed to interview Ez Gomér, the frontman of Jet Circus.  They have been pretty busy lately, and have a new album coming out with Dance Mix versions of their latest songs.  You can check the band out on Myspace, they have a few of their songs up so you can listen to them as well.  As usual, my questions are in Bold, the answers are not.

Scott: Thanks, I really appreciate this.

Ez: Hey man, my pleasure.

1. How would you define your sound, and who are some of your biggest musical influences?

My sound is all about attitude and nerve, more than anything else, so I leave the technical side of things out here. The actual sound of my bass and my technique is indeed very important to recognize me playing, but the flair is as much in the attitude.

I have one thing in mind when I sing and play bass and that is to deliver. To express what’s on my heart and mind and really come through. I’m not asking for your attention - I grab it.
I want a moment of your time and will use it to get to your heart. If you go in with anything else in mind - like, just showing off some musical talent - it will come off flat. And there’s nothing as bad when you speak about music. It’s a waste of time. Deliver as your life depended on it - that’s where your sound starts.

Next one about influence is a little bit tricky to answer, but I will give it a try.
I guess I’m influenced most by the 70’s hard rock scene, from when I grew up and learned to play bass. I would sit eight to ten hours a day and just practice on my own, or playing to my records. It would be bands like Uriah Heep, Alice Cooper, Slade, Nazareth , Led Zeppelin, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, Rush, Queen, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow and the progressive/symphonic bands of those days -Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Greenslade and some others.

“Musical Influence” sounds anyhow to me a little bit, that someone has stolen a little piece from some one else and I find that not very exciting.

But if we instead talk of inspiration to write and perform the music I do, it would not always be other musicians or singers. It can be anything that gets my mind going and reaches my heart.
Still, I have soaked up a lot of music during the years and of course I'm influenced too, but in the periods when I set my mind for composing, I don’t listen to any other music. Could be for months, just to dig from the inside and avoiding to be too influenced by anyone else. At the same time I do seek inspiration, but not from music at that time.

2. Will you be playing in the US again anytime soon? Coming to Texas ?

No tour plans right now, but if and when I play in the US , I would for sure want to play in Texas .

3. What was it like being a part of the Liberty N' Justice CD? "Kings of Hollywood" was a great opening track to the album. Would you like to explain your take on the song's meaning?

Thanks a lot, I’m glad you liked it.

Well, it was a fine project and I liked doing it. Justin dropped me a note and asked me to sing a song on the album, obviously meaning he wanted me to write it too. So I got some lyrical lines from Justin, then I wrote about thirty more lines, wrote the song, played bass, sang and produced KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD in my studio Hypersonic Studios in Gothenburg , Sweden . I had Mikkey Dee from Motorhead coming in and play drums and Sayit and Tommy Denander playing guitar. I sent it over finished, mixed and mastered and that was it.

The meaning of the song is: Don’t waste your life on junk and daydreaming - Seek the truth and find it.

After Kings Of Hollywood, Justin came back and wanted me to finish writing, playing and producing a song they could not get right. So I co-wrote, played bass and produced all the back tracks for KILLER GRIN for them as well. Stephen Pearcy from Ratt did the vocals, Michael Ulvsgärd played drums. Sayit and Tommy Denander played guitar on this one too. Same lineup as on “Kings Of Hollywood” except for the change of drummer.

4. What would you say you believe spiritually? Are you a Christian?

I’m a happy and grateful, born again Christian.

5. What do you think of the belief that Jesus Christ is the only way to get into heaven?

I have no doubt at all that Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life itself.

6. Are there any artists besides Liberty N' Justice who you have collaborated with? Any artists you would still like to play with?

For sure I have collaborated with more musicians than I can remember.
I recently did a song for Australian Goth Rock band TEMPLAR, called WITCH HUNT.
I co-wrote the song, did the vocals, played bass, produced and mixed the song. I had Torb Weinesjö from Veni Domine playing guitar and Jani Stefanovic (Divine Fire) playing drums.
It was released last month and you can listen to a cut on myspace.com/jetcircus and order it through www.soundmass.com. It’s a fun and dramatic, hard rocking song. Don't let the cover scare you off..

In the pipe right now is writing and performing another song for Liberty N' Justice's next album “Independence Day”.
The lineup this time is me on vocals and bass, The excellent Tony Carey (ex Rainbow) who I am very happy to work with, will sing too and play keyboard, Michael Ulvsgärd on drums and Sayit on guitar. I’m actually now as we speak taking a break from the vocal recordings of this song to do this interview. The rest of the night will be in the studio.

Other collaborations is playing some bass on the next Veni Domine album. It will be a treat as I really like them a lot, I’m a fan. Plus they are super guys and close friends.

Musician friends I have tossed some ideas with is Jani Stefanovic (Divine Fire), again Torb Weinesjö (Veni Domine), Christian Rivel (Narnia), Ronzilla (Monsterus), to name some. There are a lot of artists I would like to work with. Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep and Alice Cooper would be an honor.

7. What has been one of your favorite songs you have recorded?

Except some songs I did with Leviticus, they are all top notch, but the fastest one I recorded was LOOK AT DEATH NOW, which I did not even write before I recorded it. It was a first take on the bass where I improvised around an new idea I just got, as I was working with a totally different idea to a drum loop that was rolling. So I told the studio technician to press the record button and then I played continuously for 2.47 minutes. No cuts or rearrangements. After that I wrote the lyric at an outdoor lunch break on Vasaplatsen in Gothenburg and later on had Stefan Elmgren from Hammerfall and Sayit playing the guitar. Mikkey Dee (Motorhead) did the drums the same day we did KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD...Which, by the way is a fast one too, as I wrote it in exactly 1.5 hours including the recording of the actual bass cuts that are used. You can hear that in the end of this song I have twisted the rhythm around on the theme (after the word “Hollywood" and in the solo part) because 90% of the song was done ad hoc in one take as well, I did not remember what I did in in the beginning when I wanted to play the theme in the end. I didn't notice myself at once but when I did, I kept it as I liked it and Sayit was already in the studio waiting to record the guitar. I’m sure not many people will notice this rhythmic little twist without knowing - If you, the reader did notice, that’s why.

It was also the last song I wrote around the Look At Death Now sessions.

8. You have a very powerful voice, were you classically trained or did you just start singing one day?

Thanks a lot. No I’m not classically trained.

Two years before I recorded the LOOK AT DEATH ALBUM I remember a moment where I thought to myself - “hey man, I can do whatever I decide to do - but I will never front a band as a lead singer”. Maybe I did not like that idea, I anyhow started to really check my voice capacity singing out loud to a song in my CD player, as I was driving my car. I was surprised to find I liked what I heard.

So in a few weeks singing in my car I decided that it was time for me to do a solo album. This was actually turning out to be the JET CIRCUS album LOOK AT DEATH NOW as long time band mate Terry Haw quit the band around that time. I trained myself in my car. ..That might be a classic training in some way?

To me, most of all I see my vocals as a gift from God. He had it worked out as Terry was hitting the catapult button. Myself, I'm just thankful.

9. Musically one of my favorite songs you have up on myspace right now is "One Dime Scapegoat." Would you like to tell us a little bit about that song?

Yep, It's got a great groove and it was a favorite for me too when I was composing the album. Due to my rather busy schedule I do most of the composing all in my head. This one I wrote at my favorite Chinese restaurant "Ming", then I went to my studio and recorded the bass, so I would have the backbone of the song tracked.

The lyrics is about using a beggar as a scapegoat. Tossing a dime to a poor soul could serve as a way to feel good about yourself. In fact, not giving to make the poor person happy, but rather yourself. A person can feel proud of him or herself for the good deed he or she just did. Maybe so proud you don’t need to be forgiven by God? You fool yourself as you try to be self-righteous. It’s also a comment on that even acts that might look like they were made out of love were just meant to serve the doer. I heard a former beggar once telling that he received a dollar from a lady and he said he awed her the joy she got herself from giving him this tiny bit. It stuck in my mind for years until it was the starting point of the lyric for ONE DIME SCAPE GOAT.

10. Is there anything else from Jet Circus that we can look forward to hearing and seeing in the near future?

Absolutely, There will be a release now in february for the new album “JET CIRCUS - REGROOVED - DANCE OR DIE”

It’s a very cool album where I have worked together with about thirteen of the best dance music producers around the world to have all the songs from LOOK AT DEATH NOW remixed into heavy dance music.

So, please note: it’s not at all the ordinary, hard rock Jet Circus album, but a very classy and fresh dance album with a very cool and heavy, metal vibe. It’s well suited for radio airplay.
Listen to the cuts on myspace.com/jetcircus and dance your butt off, brothers and sisters!
It will available to order on the myspace/jetcircus site too, as well as on www.jetcircus.com, where you who reads this also can sign up for the Jet Circus newsletter and if you want, pass me a note on the Q&A section. You're welcome as well to read the full biography on jetcircus.com.

Thanks a lot for your support and God bless you!
Ez Gomér