Danish rockers Cold Drop released their self-titled debut KILLER ROCKING record on the 27th of February 2023 via Lions Pride Music, and today we’re going to sit with them and dig deep into it .
First, we’re happy to have you here with us on Rock Era guys, hope everything is going great.
- With such a rocking sound I’d like to know about your heroes, who influenced each one of you to pick up his instrument and start playing?
Allan: I was blown away the first time I heard Van Halen (and I still am). But also Whitesnake and Led Zeppelin have had a huge impact on my musical carreer.
John: My first Band I heard was The Sweet and after that I head a Danish Band Call Gasolin, and then I went fast with the Hard Rock Scene inm the 80`s and I listen to Kiss –Judas Priest – Bon Jovi – Iron Maiden – Whitesnake – Poison – Europe all this kind of melodic Hard Rock Bands.
Henrik: My first influences were Don Powell from Slade and Mick Tucker from The Sweet. That was back in the early 70s and I was only 7-8 years old when I started banging rythms on everything using fork, knives and whatever would make for some kind of drumsticks.
Rick: My good friend Hendrik he played the guitar and that’s what I wanna do, start learning Kiss songs.
- You guys have killer chemistry and you’re all seasoned musicians who’ve been in the business for quite something, how did Cold Drop come together?
John: Me and Rick Hanson meet in the late 80`s he was playing in Pretty Maids at this time, after he split with Pretty Maids he went to Florida with a new band call Shots, and as he came back to Denmark after a quite a while, I meet Rick at a festival in a small town in Denmark 2017, we talked about to do some music together, but Rick did not know some many musicians here I Denmark anymore, and I had a big inside in the music business, because I had a Recording studio call ABstudie, so I call some of them and we started as cover band, we had a few drummer before I get my friend Henrik into the band, and after he came into the band, Rick had some riff that he would share with us so we could do some original songs, we did not know what he was thinking with this riff ́s but after a while it turn into our first number call All Night Baby, and after that we just will go for original songs, Rick had an idea to call the band COL DROP. We have had some guitar players, and in 2018 I came up with Thomas Hansen that I have done some music with in my studio, and he like to join us. The singer we had was not the right guy anymore so we had to find a new singer, I have worked with Allan G. Pedersen also in my studio, but I knew he was realy busy with other bands, Henrik knew Allan and would realy like to work with Allan, so I send him some demos and after a week in 2019 Allan join the band and Cold Drop had the right Lineup.
Rick: Me and John AB meet at party and start talk about starting a new band and that’s where Cold Drop was born, we when through a hand full of people and the final line up is what you see today.
Allan: Well I came into the band in 2019 when John reached out to me. And immediately we had a good chemistry, so the songs just evolved from the original idea to the final version quite fast.
Henrik: John and Rick had formed this cover-band for playing 80s classic hard rock. I came in shortly after they started. John and I knew each other through a mutual friend. Rick came with a riff that we started jamming over. It turned into All Night Baby and we desided we would be an original band instead of a cover band.
- Ricky, since you’re the one who came up with the name Cold Drop, would you tell us what’s behind it and what inspired this name?
Rick: The name Was a fun joke but also a serious whether problem in Spain also called (a cold drop) I just thought it sounded great
READ ‘COLD DROP ALBUM REVIEW HERE!
- You self-titled record sound super consistent and put together, would you please walk us through your writing process?
John: Rick and Thomas is coming up with some riff, and we try all to find the right spirit to the riff ́s, and after we than find the basic for the track, Allan is trying to find a melody with singing Na Na Na, and then he thinks about some lyric, but as he not is so good at write lyric ́s we have some who help us with that, and one of them is my Good Friend Keld Rasmussen, and the other is Sid Falk former of Overkill, and also Allan and Henrik is writing together.
Rick: it’s me and Thomas that brings the idea Ind too the band and we start taking from there and forming the song all 5 of us.
Henrik: Quite simple really and almost the same process every time. Rick or Thomas have a riff to try out. We jam a little over it or they maybe have a more stuctured vision already in their minds. We arrange it together all of us. Allan usually come up with some lyrical bits in this proces. Sometimes we work with those. Sometimes they are rejected and we start over. Allan writes a lot of the lyrics and sometimes assisted by me.
We have uot side help when we get stuck. For instance the lyrics for ‘Hold On‘ were written by Bob Falck from Overkill who is one of Rick’s old friends.
Allan: Well basically either Rick or Thomas comes up with an idea – either the entire song or just a riff. We then polish that idea until we are all happy with it. And somewhere along the way, I come up with a melodi that matches the song. And finally we either write the lyrics ourselves or get someone from outside the band to help us.
- Are there any particular inspirations that lead to the writing of Cold Drop or any of its songs?
Henrik: What inspires the lyrics is ordinary life stuff. Of course the ever present topic of love. Good or bad. But a track like ‘Freedom‘ is about the feeling of riding a motorbike. ‘Sweet Lucille‘ comess off as a guy wanting this girl. But it is actually about a guitar.
John: The inspiration is coming from all the music we have heard in the time that went by. We just feel what our hearts are telling what is right for us to play and what feels right in our ears
Rick: Not for me, I make songs in my head and put them down on my guitar and then record them.
Allan: Past relationships have inspired us for some of the songs
- You guys are getting in the studio to start recording your 2nd album, can you give us a hint about its sound or direction?
John: The second album which we are already working on and now have 4 tracks ready for recording, is like the first album, mabe some of the tracks is a bit more Heavy. The first Album We recorded by us selfe with my studio that I have moved out to the rehearsroom, I did all recording ́s and did the mix and maste, but I would like to have a other engineer to do the mix and master to get some other ears on the music, I contact Tue Madsen my friend from Ant Farm studio, he have done lot of metal stuff like Rob Halford from Judas Priest, so he get my mix so he knew what direction we like to have the sound, and he gave us the last twist for the Cold Drop sound. The next album we talk about to go to a other studio and use a producer, but we havn ́t decided yet.
Allan: We stay faithful to the style of the first album: Melodic, Classic Rock. Perhaps a few more uptempo songs.
Henrik: Well, we are more in the writing phase alongside of rehearsing for the tour that will run through this year. So far only in Denmark. But we have 3 new tracks finished and they will be on the setlist for the tour. And there are at least another 3 being formed in rehearsal as we speak. What we need is time to make complete compositions out of all the ideas. Nothing has been properly recorded yet but we are discussing the approach this time. The first album we recorded ourselves at our rehearsal room which is in effect John’s studio – the AB Studio.
As for the direction, we don’t decide on a certain way we want to go. There’s no big scheme to that. We take the ideas that come and turn them into finished compositions sort of how they feel natural to us. We have no desire to reinvent the wheel so we just stick to the rock’n’roll that comes out of the band when we plug in the instruments.
Rick: I hope the sound going to be new but at the same time something people still recognize.
- What song would you pick off Cold Drop for someone who wants to get into your music?
John: Don ́t Count Me Out
Henrik: Well, I love playing them all, but choosing two favourites I would pick ‘Don’t Wake Me Up‘ for the slow kind of dragging feel which is great to play. It gives aff a great kind of swing. My other pick is ‘Don’t Count Me Out‘ for the straight ahead party rock feel. Actually Sweet Lucille does quite the same. Still all of them are great fun to play and that’s probably what I’d like for people to get out of this: That we have a lot of fun playing these tracks and I hope that it rubs off so that people pick up on that and have fun listening to us.
Allan: Looking For Love
Rick: I believe that any of the songs could make any one too a Cold Drop fan if they are into hard rock music.
- Are you planning any tours/gigs to support the release of your debut?
Henrik: We are touring Denmark from March and through the summer months. We are still booking so we don’t have an exact schedule as such yet. But we are looking into booking for a more coherent tour in the fall.
We hope to be going to visit our neighbouring countries soon or even going further out too. We’re open to invitations so let’s just see what might pop up in the future.
John: We are going to do some gigs here I Denmark, some is festivals and some is Club. We in between August and November we are trying to go to schwitzerland – Holland – Belgium and Germany, and the plan is to see if we can take a little World Tour as a Support band for a bigger band to get more known, we have a Booker from Berlin who is taking care of that, and here in Denmark we try by us selfe to do some booking and we also have a booker here in Denmark that is taking care of that.
Allan: John is trying to set us up for some gigs – possibly a tour…
Rick: Yes! We are starting our tour 12/5.
- Thanks so much for your time guys, looking forward to more killer releases, cheers ????
Henrik: We would like to thank you for reaching out to us and supporting us, Hazem. Big thanks to you and to your Rock Era Magazine readers for helping us two words: COLD DROP. You guys ROCK!
