Anders Rydholm is probably no stranger to many who follow the melodic rock scene. From promotion to Grand Illusion Rydholm has consistently put out strong albums and now, with his new band Code, the trend continues with the release of their debut album, the excellnt 'The Enemy Within' HardRockHouse caught up with Anders to find out more about his new band, and a little bit about his past as well...

Code

Anders, Hi. To kick the interview off, would you care to introduce yourself and the other members of Code to the readers of HardRockHouse.com?

AR - My name is Anders Rydholm from Sweden and I am one of the guys in Code. I play, bass, guitar and keyboards. The singer in Code is Sherwood Ball from USA. An amazing singer with lots of power and feel. He really sings with a lot of emotions. My favourite kind of singer. Ola af Trampe is the lead guitar player in Code. A young Swedish guitar player that plays very mature. Extremely melodic and tasty guitar but he also has a great technique.

As a musician growing up, who influenced you and became your heroes?

AR - I grew up listening to Sweet and Queen. But I have been very influenced by David Foster and Jay Graydon. Those guys has formed my way of writing and arranging music. Last year I got the chance to visit Jay in his studio and that was a fantastic experience for me. And Jay has also been co-writing two songs together with me and Sherwood that became truly great. What could be better than to work with your old heroes.

You are credited as a  multi instrumentalist on the new album. Which instruments do you play?

AR - I got my first drum when I turned 5 from my parents. They gave me a snare and a hi-hat as a birthday present and drums then became my main instrument until the age of 17 - 18. I also studied a little bit of piano when I was young and that's the base of my keyboard skills today. Around 14 - 15 I started to play both bass and guitar and soon the bass was my main instrument instead of drums. I still got my old double bass drum Gretsch kit left but I haven't been doing any drumming on my albums more than the snare drums on the intro of "Home away from home". Now I have divided my old kit into two kits so that I could play and train with my two sons. As an arranger I think it's great to play many instruments. That gives me a wider perspective of what could be done with the songs.

Before Code you the driving force of both Promotion and Grand illusion. What in your opinion were the differences between the two?

AR - There are no big differences. It's the same guy's. The only difference is that in Promotion we also had two horn players. When we got signed to Escape Music we decided to drop the horn players, play more melodic music and to change name. We took the name Promotion when we first started in 1986 and when it finally was time to release our first album in 1997, we kept the name despite the fact that no one liked it. After a lot of different name suggestions we nailed it down to four and let Khalil Turk choose the name and he picked Grand Illusion.

Of the Grand Illusion albums, do you have a particular favourite?

AR - I don't have a favourite album. More favourite songs from the albums. But that also changes over time. "Between dark and dawn" is a song that I still like very much. I don't like the mix but I like the song. "Feeling strangely fine" and "Battle for your heart" are also good songs in my opinion.

Grand Illusion played the Gods back in 2003 what are memories of that day and was the this or any other live shows recorded ?

AR - The Gods was fun. We hadn't played live with GI for 10 years so it was a challenge for all of us. Not to play but to get on the stage again. It was fun and all of us had a blast. The only thing that's recorded on video with GI is that we did a 6 camera video recording and a poor sound truck when we had the release part of the last album "Ordinary just won't do". I still haven't edited that show. Neither the sound or the video part. Everything is one separate cameras and a 24 track sound recording. I have worked with TV and editing for 20 years so that's not the problem I just haven't had the time to do this live show yet. We will see if I do it one day. Not to release. More for myself.

Why did Grand Illusion call it day ?

AR - For several years Khalil Turk have been pushing me to work with other people than the Gi guys. I wrote some songs that didn't sounded like GI songs and started to think about other singers. When I started working with Sherwood some of the other guys in GI thought that I should focus more on GI than doing something new. Since i was the only one pushing GI forward and writing songs they didn't liked the competition but still they were not interested in helping out doing anything else in GI than the musician parts. I did ALL the boring work. One thing lead to another and after a couple of months I decided that it was time to move one and focus on Code. Life's short so why not try something new in life and try to develop both as a musician and as a human being.

     

How did you meet up with Code's vocalist Sherwood Ball?

I didn’t try any other singers before Sherwood. Of course I had some ideas about some other singers but one day I heard an old Jay Graydon tune (Holdin' On To Love) in my car stereo. Sherwood co-wrote and sings on that tune and I remembered two excellent shows with the Jay Graydon All Stars in 94 and 96. On those concerts, Sherwood blew me away with his vocals. Bill Champlin was also in the show and so was Joseph Williams but they seemed very pale compared to Sherwood. I started to wonder what Sherwood was doing nowadays. When I came home that day, I did a search on the internet and found Sherwood's web site. "Singer for hire" it said on one of the pages so I sent him an E-mail and asked if he would consider listening to a couple of songs. A couple of hours later he replied and said yes - please send some songs.
That was the start of a very intense communication over the internet. It has been very fun and we have also become good friends. Sometimes Sherwood has sent me stuff before he goes to bed and when he wakes up the next morning there's a new mix or something new added to the song, and I have done the same and received had new stuff in my mailbox when I wake up the next morning, so the 9 hour time difference has also been very good.

Does the band name have any special meaning?

AR - For us Code is: code of ethics, a work standard, something to live by. We don't think of it as Data codes or secret codes.

I wanted Code to be something new and to not be GI with another singer. People always compare too much both with the past and with the other bands. I wanted us to get a fresh start without any history baggage. Still people compares all the time with GI and I think that's boring and to make it simple. Why can they not look at something with new eyes and ears instead of trying to make it as a new chapter of Grand Illusion. It isn't and that has never been the idea either.

Given that, how would you describe the differences between Code and Grand Illusion then?

AR - It's more of two different approaches. The songs are not so far from each other since they come from me but the way of arranging and performing them are different. GI are more circus. Everything is over the top and extreme. All elements taken as far as we could and especially the vocals. Code is more mature and song oriented instead of trying to be extreme.

So does that mean you approached your song writing any differently with Code than when you were writing for GI?

I don't write songs in different ways. It's more arranging. The only thing that could be different is that Sherwood and Peter sing very different and that could in some ways affect the melodies. But I don't think so much about those things when I get an idea for a song. THe best songs are those songs you could hum or sing without needing any musical background.

Gregg Bissonette plays drums on the album as a guest, how did you get him involved and are there any plans for him to be replaced?

AR - Sherwood has played with Gregg in the past so he sent Gregg one song and asked if he would be interested in helping out with the drums for this album. He was and after that it was more a matter of setting everything up. So Sherwood asked around where to record Gregg's drums and who's to engineer the session to get a real killer sound. Jay Graydon recommended that we should use Steve Sykes to record the drums and Steve suggested to record in Castle Oaks Studios, Calabasas, California since it has a very good live room and lots good old gear.

Gregg is a very busy guy with lots of high profiled work. We all wouldn't mind having Gregg on the next album as well but that depends on this albums success. If a lot of people like it so much so here will be a demand for a tour we would of course ask Gregg and see if he's interested in being apart of that. I don't feel any immediate rush to hire a new drummer or bring in another drummer as a permanent band member. We all really like Gregg’s groovy song oriented drumming.  Last week Gregg recorded drums for six of my new songs and once again did a great job. So why substitute someone that's really really good?

Have you any particular favourites amongst the new songs?

AR - To start with I would like to say that there are no songs I don't like but if I have to mention a couple I would pick the title track "The enemy within" . It has a great melody and a lot of power. "In the shadows" and "Alive" are also two songs that i like very much. I think that they are simple but very well written songs with good melodies. Good melodies are the key for a good song that will stand the test of time.

Being that the member of the band are rather widespread geographically, how did you go about recording the album?

AR - All backgrounds are recorded in my studio. Sherwood has been singing in his home studios in LA and Hawaii. Per Svenson from Grand Illusion did a lot of background vocals in my studio. The drums are recorded in Castle Oaks studios in Calabasas, LA. All the songs are mixed in my studio. We have a FTP server we use for sending files back and forth. It works great. The time difference could also be something good. Sherwood send me something when he goes to bed. I work on it and send it back and when he wakes up there's a new updated version to listen too. The only thing that will be different for a possible second album is that we have decided that we should do the song writing sitting in the same room (or hopefully on Sherwood's porch in Hawaii) to do even better songs. it will also be a good way to develop and focus the album even more.

Ola Af Trampe is a very talented guitarist in his own right, however does he write his own guitar parts or do you work them out on the demo version of the song?

AR - Ola is a very good guitarist and he's constantly getting better and better but I write 90 percent of the riff's and guitar arrangements. When we record rhythm guitars it's 50/50 between Ola and me. Of course Ola has a lot of ideas but on some of the songs he only plays the solo. In GI I did 90 percent of all rhythm guitars.

Ola's biggest influence has been Gun's and Roses and Slash. That's what get him started to play guitar. Slash not so much for the playing but more the style and attitude. He also listen's to Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Eric Johnsson, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page, Robben Ford, John Petrucci, Pat Metheney, Yngwie Malmsteen, Angus Young, Mike Stern and Zakk Wylde.

Any current plans for Code to tour or play live?

AR - We hope that we could be playing on some AOR festivals during the spring or summer. Actually that's one of our goals. We will probably not do any tour of our own since we are a new band and have to establish a fan base first, but we really hope that we could be a part of some festivals. Too early to say anything more for the moment. But the goal is to play live cause we all would love to do these songs live. Sherwood has all ready been making plans to come to Sweden and rehearse the songs.

I would love to play live with Sherwood and Ola. Sherwood is a great stage personality and show man. He also sings with a lot of power and that you truly feel when you see him perform live. Ola has also developed into a great guitarist. It’s not edited solos on this album. He could play each and everyone of them live. And he will do it with a big grin on his face. He also absolutely loves to be on stage.

What’s next for Code and Anders in particular?

AR - Since we finished the Code album I have produced an album for Japanese Rock Star Demon Kogure from the band Seikama-II They are huge in Japan and it was a fun challenge to do. The songs are 1980's female Japanese songs. So it's a cover album but arranged in a Melodic rock/pop style. That album was released on the same day as the Code album. But it's only released in Japan and not in Europe.

i have also been working on a lot of new songs that hopefully will end up in two different albums for other artists. To early to say anything more yet. Later on this year I hope that we could start working on the next Code album. So there's plenty of things in the Air. We will have to see where it ends.

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question, is there any thing you would like to add or mention that we haven't covered so far?

AR - I just hope that people will check us out and give us a chance. Go to our web site: www.codeband.net. There, you will find samples of all our songs to build an own opinion. Let the music speak! Thanks very much and take care.

Many thanks to Anders for taking the time to talk to HardRockHouse. Code's new album 'The Enemy Within'  is out now through Escape Music and you can check out the HardRockHouse review here