“It all had started in 2006 as a project inspired by bands such as Europe, Scorpions and Def Leppard. The first thing after writing all songs was to get hold of a good drummer. Richard Holmgren – a very talented drummer and former member of “Vanessa - now playing in Wolf joined vocalist Pelle Saether. Guitarist Peter Ledin (ex Vanessa) was next – his style of playing is perfect for this project that now had turned into a band.
Peter understood quickly the vision of GRAND DESIGN, and after Fall 2006 songs like “Air it out”, “Love Sensation”, “Sad Sound of Goodbye” and “Sheik Iddup” had become reality. During Spring 2009 all bass was done by Anders Mood, a good friend and also a member of Wolf. Dennis Vestman (ex Steelattack) performed some extra guitars and Saether himself took care of the vocals.
The singer/ producer comments he sound of GRAND DESIGN: “We wanted that Leppard sound to it. You know: 96 channels of choirs just running you over – and we nailed it!!! This album features a big 80’s rock sound combined with great songs with BIG choirs.” With songs like “Air It Out” and “Love Sensation”, “Time Revelation” is gonna be a rock sensation. GRAND DESIGN will bring the rock of the 80’s back into your players and to the big stages.”
Grand Design - how and when did the band come together and what is the inspiration behind the name?
The band was from the beginning just a project that developed into a band
We started recording drums for this album back in 2006 and carried on with the guitars during free slots in the studio 2006 and 2007. At that time it was only me and the drummer+one guitarist. The rest like bass+vocals were made spring 2009 now with a full band. The name “grand design”was made up by Janne Stark-a good friend of mine – don’t know the background of that.
The band could be described as "Melodic Hard Rock" and "AOR" how would YOU describe the sound of Grand Design?
We like the phrase “classic 80´s rock” – I think it is between those two phrases you mentioned. “Melodic Rock” is to hard for us and AOR is to smooth I think-hehe
Can you introduce each member of the band please?
Drums: Richard Holmgren-great drummer and a cool guy. Plays like a metronome.
Bass: Anders Modd-very tight bass player with his own sound I think.
Guitars: Peter Ledin-kinda rock guitar player perfect for Grand Design. Very good solo player.
Guitars:Dennis Vestman-on rhythm guitar one of the tightest I ever worked with-a funny guy.
Vocals: Pelle Saether-well I sing and do it all the time everywhere-hahaha.
You have two awesome songs on Myspace called "Air It Out" and "Love Sensation", can you tell us all about those two songs?
I really like these two songs – I think they turned out pretty nice.
From the beginning they were not so high up on my list but with the lyrics + the cool choirs they really exploded!!! They have totally different verses but both manage to fit in to the bridge nicely. Both choruses have like a call and response feeling to it, the lead vocals is answering the choirs.
What are some of your personal favourite "sounds of the eighties" and how much of an influence did they have on the sound of Grand Design?
I like productions from the 80´s from bands like TNT, Leppard, Yes.
For that time the guys really did a helluva job!!
Sweden where you are from, has a major market for the kind of rock music that you play. Where do you see the band fitting into both the worldwide and Swedish music landscape?
This kind of 80´s inspired rock is on the rise here in Sweden, bands like The Poodles, Treat and H.E.A.T have really open up doors – also in the USA bands like Wildstreet and OUTLOUD are doing great – maybe the world is ready for a new era of 80´s rock!!
You have signed to the record label Metal Heaven Germany. Can you tell us how that came about?
Well we put out the 2 songs (that you can hear on our Myspace) in the middle of June – 2 weeks later we had 5 labels that wanted a deal. We choose Metal Heaven because of his personal engagement – so far he has done a great job
What has the interest been thus far in Grand Design both locally and also internationally via Myspace and word of mouth?
So far it has been crazy – the response has been a total oyeah from rockers around the globe – also already on some radio stations world wide - so hopefully this will work out
If you had the choice of touring with 2 bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Europe and Def Leppard. Why?? – Because they ruled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you had to pick just one song to introduce someone to the "sounds of the eighties", what would it be?
Women with Def Leppard or Final Countdown with Europe – ooops thats 2 - hehehe
What lies ahead for Grand Design in the coming months? Album release, live shows, worldwide domination?
The album will b out 23 of October and beginning next year Japan. Hopefully will be playing live 2010 to support the album – we are working on it. Then world domination-hehehe
