Interview Bad Habit

Interview with Hal Marabel Bad Habit's guitarist on 25 march by mail

Valérie : Your 1st cd came out in 1988, now we are in 2009, "Above and beyond" is your seventh album. Is it a choice on your part so long waits between albums? Do you have any solo projects or parallel between two Bad Habit's albums?

Hal : Bad Habit has always been a project where we come together and make an album when the feeling is there and we feel that the time is right... We all do other thing sin between albums – music and other... For my own part, I write songs for other as well as having my side-project ARENA Sweden, whihc a bit more pop/rock...

Valérie : Are you satisfied with the reactions following the exit of your last album?

Hal : The feedback for the new album has been really amazingly good... which is of course nice as we feel very satisfied with the end result of this production...

Valérie : What do you think of the return of the famous bands of 80 years as EUROPE, WHITE LION or MOTLEY CRUE?

Hal : I think there are some great re-unions and some not so great ones...If you do it for the right reasons and can show some form of development of the band or the music, then it’s a good thing...

Valérie : I have the impression that for the Scandinavians in general, good music is an evidence. There are big bands of Rock and Metal in general as EUROPE for Sweden or NIGHTWISH for Finland for example. Have you an idea of where from this talent can come?

Hal : I think that each culture and individual’s musical background add a particular flavour to a band, no matter which country they’re from... Especially if there diverse musical influences in a band... the sound and style will become more special...

Valérie : I did the chronicle of your latest CD, (It's excellent), I think the beginning of "A Lot To Learn » makes me think of U2. What do you think? :-)

Hal : This is actually an older song that has been re-arranged... It was not the intention to make it sound anything like another song but we relised that the intro had a bit of a U2 association... but felt that this would be a homage to one of the great bands of our time...

Valérie : If you had to choose a Metal Female singer to do a duet with you on a title, who you would choose and why?

Hal : Well, the are some really great rock singers out there but the names that come to mind are not metal singers but rather pop/rock... Pink and Kelly Clarkson are two singers I would very much like to work with...

Valérie : What bands gave you the desire to be a musician?

Hal : There are quite a few bands that have been great inspirations to me... The first wave of bands that affected me strongly were: Kiss, Sweet, Slade... The second wave of bands were: Van Halen, Def Leppard, Toto Journey...

Valérie : How do you compose your songs? The idea comes first the lyrics or music?

Hal : Most often it is the melodic hook or chorus that comes to me first... It can be a keyboard flow or a guitar riff or the lead melody... The lyrics always come last...

Valérie : What was your reaction the first time you heard a song of your band on the radio?

Hal : That was back in 1987 with our first ever single release ‘Need Somebody’ which was also shown as a video on TV... Is was the greatest feeling... we were all very proud...

Valérie : If you had to choose bands with whom you'd like to play at a festival, you choose who and why?

Hal : I would love to play with other melodic bands like Dare, Def Leppard and of course Journey – the kings of melodic rock... I think it would make a good line-up as well as being nice to meet the guys in those bands...

Valérie : What is according to you the easiest public and which is the most difficult?

Hal : The right audience for us is obviously the melodic followers... and the crowd wanting to hear more heavy rock would of course be more challenging for us to play for... I think they would like our heavier tracks though but we would have to put together a different playlist...

Valérie : If you had to choose just one song from your new album to talk about your album, which would be and why?

Hal : The opening song ‘I Don’t Want You’ captures the Bad Habit soul and essence in the best way... It has everything that the band is all about... melodic hooks, big chorus, nice keyboards and powerful backing vocals... So, this would be the track of choice...

Chronic of the album here :

Chronic bad habit