Swedish melodic rockers, The Poodles, have released their sophomore album, “Sweet Trade” and HRH were lucky enough to get a moment in singer Jakob Samuel’s busy schedule for a few words. Paul Williams (with more than a little help from Mike Exley and Dougie) asks the questions….

Hi Jakob. Thanks for finding the time to talk to us. To kick things off, would you care to introduce yourself and the other members of The Poodles to the readers of HardRockHouse.com ?

JS - First of all we have drummer Christian Lundqvist – “Kicken”, he comes from the northern part of Stockholm and he is maybe the new guy in town for us, but we’ve been working together for 5 or 6 years. Then we have Pontus Egberg, the bass player and he is a long term friend from the past but we haven’t worked together for many years but we joined forces about 2.5 years ago. So we have definitely the same musical background from high school. Then there’s my partner in crime for many years Pontus Norgren the guitar player .

Jakob Samuel

Am I correct in assuming that The Poodles is a continuation of your old band Jekyll & Hyde ? If so, why did you change the name and what in your opinion are the differences in the bands’ sound and style ?

JS - I guess it’s the same guitar player and vocalist, so you could say that it as an extension of Jekyll & Hyde, but we definitely don’t see it as that. We’ve been working so many years together in different projects and different bands and tours so if you look at it in that perspective it is a development from Jekyll & Hyde but it’s not like we reference it like that at all. For us now it’s almost 10 years since we split up Jekyll & Hyde so that’s past and we can enjoy other music that we wrote.

Your debut album was incredibly well received by fans and critics alike – was it a daunting prospect to record a follow-up and maintain the same high standards?

JS - I wouldn’t say it was that hard as I’ve always been a writer who writes a lot. I did 35 songs for Sweet Trade with different people, co-writers, with Pontus and Pontus in the band and a lot of other great people. So we had a big candy box to pick from and I think that’s the way to do it, certainly for me. To write a lot and then kill your darlings. It’s a good way to do it. The things that doesn’t achieve the album, we can leave til next time.

Whilst retaining the obvious melodic rock style, Sweet Trade, as an album, has a darker and heavier edge to me – was it deliberate to have an album that was a little darker and heavier and more difficult to get into possibly ?

JS - Possibly. All my favourite albums, almost, have five or six very direct songs and five or six that grow on you. It makes for longer lasting enjoyment. I really enjoy songs that have that kind of effect. You need to listen to them and you hear something in there so you give it another try and another try and then find it the best song on the album.

So what has been the initial reaction to Sweet Trade ?

JS - Well the general reaction back home is surprise that we follow up with another strong album. Our management found out some of the reviews for us. We haven’t had that much time to look at the reviews yet – a lot of them are coming in now but the first some of them are that even though the first album was good the second is better. We really have a lot of good reviews from it. On the other hand the first album back home was really hard critic. They really went hard on that one. The main thing is that it’s much better back home and the European ones, Spanish, Latin American and the others have been really really good and I was really really happy. It feels like we are moving in the right direction. On the other hand with reviews, the good reviews and the positive reviews it’s good to keep with you and the others you should leave behind you. That’s my philosophy, unless it’s very good critic. Some bad critics can be good. It’s not that often. If someone is very positive in what you do then you should take that energy with you and try to do good things.

It was bitterly disappointing that the Thunderground festival (At which The Poodles were scheduled to appear) was cancelled. Will the UK fans get to see you live in the near future?

JS - It was totally disappointing. I was really sad when I heard that. I don’t know what was behind that but we definitely want to get back to Britain to play and we will.

Is there anyone you would like to share a stage with, as part of a double-bill or festival line-up ?

JS - I would love to tour with my heroes. One man that definitely comes to mind is David Coverdale. I would love to support Whitesnake. I would love to supported Audioslave. I would love to support Bon Jovi. For instance I am touring to the music they are doing now and they are a band that had a great impact on the rock n roll scene. And definitely a band like Guns N Roses. And if Queen were around I would definitely love to have toured with them. That would be fantastic. And all the greats in Europe you have. I got the fantastic chance to tour with my childhood heroes Talisman. That was great for me. Back then Yngwie Malmsteen and them were the people that meant so much musically to me. When I got the chance to play with them I was only 19.

There has been a lot of talk recently on various message boards about the state of the melodic rock scene and in particular people not supporting the scene – what are your thoughts ?

JS - I didn’t recognise that view of it. I really feel that people do attend and haven’t experienced anything like that. We only did a few shows in England and there could be hundreds of reasons why people didn’t attend this particular show (Thunderground). My view and experience is that people do attend and support the scene so I didn’t really understand that criticism.

Given your experiences with the first two albums, is there anything you would do differently next time around and why ?

JS - I would definitely write a lot more songs again. We would do the pre-production much more ourselves. Everything has been running really smoothly. Maybe it’s been a bit long. We have been working for a long time. We started recording Sweet Trade in November last year so it’s been a long process, so that is something. I would also love to go away to record. To some other town or place. To go away from your normal situation with your private life running on the side. That would be a new experience for me. To go away together as a band to a good studio and good environment and record. We have been given a lot of interest from producers so we’ll see what happens.

And finally to wrap things up Is there anything else you’d like to add ?

JS - I really want to say we have a great tour ahead of us so please attend if you can. Follow us on our website which we will update every day and you can follow our tour really nicely on our webpage so please attend there if you cannot get to the concerts.

Well thanks once again for taking the time out to talk to us.

The Poodles sophomore album Sweet Trade is out now via AFM Records and you can check out the HRH review via this link. To find out more about The Poodles then you can visit their official website @ www.thepoodles.se of their MySpace site @ www.myspace.com/thepoodles