Interview with Volbeat Guitarist/Vocalist Michael Poulson

Michael Poulson
Photo Courtesy Nadia Guardado

Hard-Rock-Reviews.com Interview w/Michael Poulson, guitarist and vocalist from Volbeat.

He talks at great length about the music, life, nature, tattoos and the new Cold/Volbeat tour!

Who is Volbeat?
The first Volbeat song I ever heard was “Wild Rover from Hell.” It’s not often I’ve listened to a band or a song for the first time and found myself sitting there (afterwards) thinking “WHAT the hell was that?” So I did the most natural thing that we unapologetic music enthusiasts do. I started digging around on YouTube.com and found a few of their Vevo YouTube channel videos. I didn’t quite know what to make of this potluck of pop, fast-paces bluesy guitar mixed rock & oldies that had a sing-a-long tug on every chorus. Honestly, I had to Google the word “rock-a-billy.” Really? But I don’t LIKE rock-a-billy. I was baffled, to say the least, but in a positive way, by this band from Denmark.

The next day, I got the itch to go hear WRFH again, along with more songs, but instead of YouTube, I pulled them up on Facebook, and was pleased to find many of their tracks right there on the band/music page. Let’s just say I didn’t ask for that hour back in my life. That was more fun that listening to a band on Facebook should be. I visited their website, found some of the coolest shit in a long time: old school, gangster, western fonts, cartoons of good guys/bad guys, Cadillacs, shiny patent leather shoes, the old style of tapered leg jeans with pointed-toe boots, band photos in the dessert and even their GUITARS look like a stroll through the fifties and sixties. 2011 just got a heavy punch in the gut and I loved it.

The Music...

Below Hell/Above Heaven is their latest album and they’ve toured everywhere but the moon and Mars; not sure if there’s a country or a state where they haven’t performed but they are filling arenas and it’s like “honey in the jar” for any band that gets on a tour with them. The Volbeat/Cold Tour kicks off July 29, runs through early September, then a break til late Sept., when they hit the road again and tour through late November. Damn. Serious Road Warriors. I won’t go into whom they’ve toured with in the past, who they sound like, what they write about, you can dig that stuff up on your own at their website or on their Facebook page. I’m not going to waste your time by re-writing their band bio. But I will tell you that after talking with their singer, guitarist Michael Poulson, I was even more intrigued, especially about the lyrics.

The style & sound of the story...

You may notice I purposefully did not bother to amend the grammatical and informal nature of this interview (where Michael’s answers are concerned) because if I do, it will seriously detract from the inflections (see italicized words) in his voice that I heard or the idioms in his culture and country that are shared in conversation. He has an accent, of course, and along with his sometimes poetic vernacular, the emphasis to some of the words and descriptions in the intricate stories he shared with us makes him a bit of an inimitable storyteller.

If you scan the interview and don’t read carefully, you’ll walk away thinking this guy’s a heavily-inked, Elvis-loving, blues fan (or a blues-loving Elvis fan) with a deep-seated and poetic love for nature and the stories people tell in life. Read closely and there’s more to him than meets the eye. He’s not trapped in a time machine, he’s not recycling all the music he loves, and he doesn’t do anything live other than plug in & play; NO technical guitar effects. “You get what you get.”  I’ve heard both negative and positive things about the kind of genre-less music they’re making and I can tell you this; for every one person that doesn’t like this, there’s ten more that do. Find out for yourself. They’re on tour with Cold, so check out the music on their website and Facebook

When I talked with Michael, he was outdoors, walking with his dog, towards the water near his home. He’s moved away from the city life and is enjoying the finer things in life such as fresh air, family time and quiet. Even among the success that’s accumulated on the skirts of their careers, and is quickly climbing higher, we found that Michael has a good firm grip on what it takes for him to remain humble, modest and true to himself, even among the throngs of fans that are clamoring for a signature, a pick or an acknowledgement from them all. He enjoys being a normal, regular guy that loves music just as much as you and I.

Angela Villand:  With respect to maintaining both your humility and privacy, do you feel you have to get away from the public when you’re home?

Michael Poulson:  You know you want to enjoy the silence; you just want to be away from everything. When the success exploded with Volbeat, it was just like – when I came home, I could not even walk out the trash before without people sitting in their cars taking pictures. It became too much noise and attention, so when I had the opportunity to buy a good house away from the city, that’s what I did. I’m really enjoying being away from the city and being able to walk where I’m at right now, you know, out to the water, feeling the silence and the nature of everything.

Angela:  What were your favorite songs on Below Hell/ Above Heaven that you wrote and which are your favorite to play live? Do you have some particular songs that perhaps are close to your heart?

Michael:  I don’t know because every song has some kind of mood to itself where I was going into a box every time I was writing a new song. The song “Fallen,” which is dedicated to my father is an emotional song, which also is very emotional for me when I perform it live. So of course it has a certain place in my heart. There are other songs that works out really good that just sound great live or has a good energy to it. Every song has to work out somehow and it has to move you or else it should not be on the record. Emotionally, (for a favorite) it would be “Fallen,” and if it had to be energy-wise it could be “Evelyn,” or it could be “The Mirror & the Reaper,” or something like that.

Angela:  The Volbeat music has a “timeless” vibe and sound. I would imagine growing up, you were exposed to a variety of different genres of music, based on the collective mix of southern rock, blues, some pop and rock n roll that can be heard on all the albums.

Michael:  When I was very young, it was mostly music from the fifties that I would listen to, because that was what my parents was listening to. All the time, they would put on Elvis Presley, Rick cursor???  Chuck Barry, or Johnny Cash; you know, legendary performers from Sun Studio (Memphis, TN) and if it was not on the stereo, it was on the video. My father was collecting a lot of video tapes, and recording a lot of stuff from TV. There was always music spinning in my home, so the fifties melodies is always something that’s been stuck to my mind and my head and I think that’s why Volbeat sounds like what we do today. It’s a combination of a lot of different styles I grew up with; as a teenager I grew up, listened to heavy metal, because one of my sister’s  boyfriend was listening to Black Sabbath, Metallica, Dio and Rainbow and bands like that. Later on, you discover a brand new world, you know, what kind of bands you like in the heavy metal scene and other scenes and suddenly it was not really about just being addicted to one certain style but it was about having the right feeling about what music touched you. It could be everything from a good country song or a good metal or reggae song but it really didn’t matter as long as it did something to me. So, there was always a lot of different music in my home and if my parents weren’t playing, then I would play for them so they would discover bands they did not hear of before.

Angela:  It’s hard for unsigned artists if they don’t have the financial support (i.e. tour support) from a big label or a deal with big distribution companies, and so some of these bands fall through the cracks and don’t get as much attention as they perhaps could otherwise. Are there any artists or particular genres of music that have caught your ear, even though they are under the radar?

Michael:  You know, I think there's always these bands that deserve a lot of attention. I think there’s a lot of Blues musicians from around Tupelo, Mississippi that deserve a lot of attention: CeDell Davis, Johnny Farmer, Blake, Patton and many more;  some of them are dead and some are still alive. You know that’s an interesting blues scene going on in Tupelo. But it seems like a lot of the blues musicians don’t LIKE the attention; they just want to go to the local club and do their work, play their songs, get paid and go home to their family and put bread on the table. It’s not about being recognized; it’s about doing the job, and that’s somehow very beautiful. 

Angela:  What sort of things do you enjoy doing when you’re not on the road touring? Are you into golf? Fishing? Sports? Outdoors activities? Cooking?

Michael:  (Laughing) I have a wife, so that’s her job – the cooking and all that. We are very, very old school. We both definitely believe there are certain things that belong to a woman, and there are certain things that belongs to a man. (Laughing) And it’s not the “evil” way; we have a happy marriage and we are very happy to be in the position we are in, and we feel good about what we are doing. But what I really like is – I’m a huge Boxing fan, so I will use a lot of hours being on the Internet, reading about Boxing: you know, fight news, the coming fights and my favorite fighters. So I use a lot of time on that. I also just like to relax with my friends, walk a long distance with my dog, visit my family, basically just normal things. There’s nothing really original or unique about that but when you’re so much away from home when you’re on the road and you’re on stage, that’s where you have your spot, feeling that you’re something special or whatever. So when you’re home you just want to be the regular guy who is just doing normal things. Basically I like to just be at home with my wife, visit the family, walk the dog and read a lot of fight news.

Angela:  Your tattoos are all over the place; beautiful, tributary. Do you have some favorites, how many tats do you have and are there any tats you’re currently working on? Are there some tats that mean more to you than the others?

Michael:  I definitely don’t know how many tattoos I have, and I would just say that I don’t have enough, yet; it’s a long process. You know, the important thing about a tattoo is you have to have a story. I think it’s beautiful when I take a walk with my dog and I find a bench; there’s this old guy who sits with his very, very, very old tattoos and you cannot even see what it is cause it’s so old school and the sun has burned it out, cause the technique they had back in the day and the colors is just is not what it is today. But that’s the charm of it. If you sit down on that bench and talk to that old guy, he has a story. He probably was somewhere at that certain time when he got that tattoo. You know, what was going on in his life when he got that tattoo? Why did he get that tattoo? So I think it’s important that, at least, if you decide to have a tattoo that you can tell a story about it.

Beyond Hell/Above Heaven

My own tattoos - you know I have a lot of Elvis tattoos and the reason why is that I’ve been inspired by Elvis for many, many years. I’ve been reading a lot about it and I think his personality and his talent for music is very much something that I look up to and it means something to me. Also, of course, my father was a huge Elvis fan and my father was the guy who learned me to listen to Elvis. I have some Johnny Cash stuff on me, and that’s the same story. Then I also have some Demons and Angels and they somehow represent my own deeds or both good and bad side of what is going on in your life, what you’re struggling with and somehow telling people that I am not perfect; I have a demon but I also have a good side. I have my wife’s name, I have my parent’s names on my hand, I have some notes that shows a story about my parents. I have an Eagle on my hands that’s Daddy because my father had an Eagle on his chest. He was very much into Eagles. When he died, you know, I was of course very much falling down into a black hole. At that time, I went to Memphis and I was putting my father’s hairbrush, you know, his comb, I was putting that on Elvis’s grave. Then I wanted to go to Tupelo, MS where Elvis was born and the location in the car just blacked out and I said, “Well what the hell am I going to do.” There’s this Eagle following me all the time and I think, in my mind I was just asking myself, “Is this the old man telling me where to go?” So I just followed that Eagle and suddenly, it took off and I was in Tupelo, Mississippi! (Laughing) So when I went home I said, “I gotta have this Eagle tattooed on my hand!”  And that’s what I did, you know, that’s what the story is.

I can actually tell a story from all my tattoos. I also have a name that says “Little E,” which means Little Elvis. That came actually from James Hetfield when I was touring with Metallica, you know, Volbeat had been touring with Metallica in the U.S. One day James Hetfield came up to me; he came into the dressing room and he asked the other guys, “Where’s Little E?” So he finds me and says, “What’s up Little E?” and I say “What is Little E?” and he says “That’s Little Elvis, that’s you, man!” So when I came home, I had to tattoo that name because it’s a great story and it’s a name that I got from James Hetfield. There’s a lot of stories combined to my tattoos.

Angela:  Tattoos are sometimes very close to a person’s heart and hold more meaning for them than just a cool design.

Michael:  Exactly! That’s what it’s all about. It’s about telling a story and that you’re dedicated to life and you appreciate what’s around you. For others, it’s just about having Roses or whatever tattoo. That’s their thing. But, if I have to get ink, at least I need to be able to tell a story and it has to be very important.

Angela:  Do you get the “itch” to feel the needle again?

Michael: You know, as I said, I am far away from done and sometimes when I hear the needle, when I go to a tattoo shop just to get a new appointment, when I hear the NNNNnnnnnnnnaaaaaa (needle), I’m just, like “Man, I need this again!” (Laughing) Not only the motives but also that you feel the pain that This is for life. And that’s what life is all about; it’s about feeling great, but it’s also about feeling pain.

Angela:  The album titles are fresh, different and always connected to the stories in the songs. Do you get a lot of questions about the meanings behind the album titles or the song titles?

Michael:  There will always be so many different ways to think about what I actually mean with the titles and that’s what I like. It’s just not up to me to tell people what it’s all about because if you look at the titles you will be able to have your own story on what it’s all about. I like to fool around with words. I also have Social Distortion tattooed on my arm and people say “Yeah, that’s a great band.” I say, “Yeah it is, I’m a big fan of it. But if you analyze it – what is social distortion, what does it mean to be socially distorted - you would be able to write a book about that line. Definitely there’s some words that have a lot of meaning. It can be positive and negative and it can be both at the same time. Of course, there are stories that are connected to my album titles, which you can find on the album, but there will always be different ways to look at it. That’s when I think stuff becomes deep.

Angela:  You’re launching the Cold/Volbeat tour. Was this tour something you guys initiated or was it something your booking/publicists put together? Have you seen Cold live before or met with them?

Michael:  You know, I haven’t met them yet, not any of them, but I have their albums. We always decide who we want to bring and for me, it has to make some kind of point, you know. I am definitely looking forward to sitting down and talk to the guys. I have the albums, I like the words and I can easily imagine that Scooter is deep and he has something on his heart because it’s very obvious in his music and in his lyrics. I’m very down to earth so I’ll just let things go with the flow and I’m sure during the tour there will be a day when everything just connects and we will sit down and talk about stuff.

Angela:  You don’t use pedals or effects! That’s surprising and refreshing. So many musicians MUST rely on the technical aspect of music to perform live what they’ve conjured in the studio.

Michael:  No, it’s just pure. I don’t trust in too much technical stuff, that’s how I do it. You have to remember where things come from and you have to remember how people were performing in the old days, not that I’m THAT old school. But I like stuff simple and I don’t like to use any kind of fake stuff to be able to bring out what I need. Of course, I have a guitar tech to take care of my amps and stuff. I started to use wireless because suddenly we were play so big stages that we didn’t have wires that were long enough to be walking around on stage. So I had to go and compromise and use the wireless system, and that took me a while, because I thought they were soul-less. No I don’t use any pedals or anything that’s faking anything. You get what you get.

Angela:  Very excited to see your show in Madison WI at the annual JJO BampCamp outdoor gig in a few days! I have no idea what to expect from a live Volbeat performance, but I have the feeling it will be fun and eclectic!

Michael:  We definitely like to show people that we are from this age but also we definitely have the inspiration from the legendary performers that people should still love & respect.

CONNECT WITH VOLBEAT:

• Official Volbeat Facebook
• The official Volbeat Website
• Follow Volbeat on Twitter
• Volbeat on MySpace 

Written by Angela Villand
All Rights Reserved
ang@hard-rock-reviews.com
© Hard-Rock-Reviews.com

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