Sometimes we get a little time at the end of interviews to cover off some of the questions readers have sent in, or simply just to ask a few random questions we’d not normally ask in an interview in the style of ‘old school’ fan magazines! We’ve called this bit of fun’ Off The Record’ and as it’s Christmas Eve I thought we’d put up one of my favourites we did in 2019 with Eric Mårtensson of Eclipse
Mark: If you could trade places with any other band or artist past or present just for one day just to see how they see the world, who would it be?
Eric: AC/DC
Mark: Fantastic
Eric: AC/DC is the reason I started playing guitar and I still love them to death today, to me it’s the root of all of my love of music.
Mark: And it looks like we might be getting some new stuff from the too.
Eric: Yes, I heard, there’s a lot of rumours going on.
Mark: Which band would you love to tour the world with, taking your music right around the globe, who would you love to share that experience with?
Eric: Past or present I’d probably go for…
Mark: You can keep saying AC/DC
Eric: Well I was thinking AC/DC 1978, but I’ll go for Judas Priest I love those guys.
Mark: What artist would you most like to collaborate with on a single recording?
Eric: (pause) It would be Brandon Flowers from the Killers I think he has a great voice an I really love their stuff, there’s just something about them
Mark: What has been your most memorable or crazy fan encounter to date, one that’s publishable in a family-friendly magazine?
Eric: I think the most strange for a European is when you visit Japan and you come out after a gig and there are shit loads of fans with presents for the band, everyone gives you a present and they really think it through “This is from my home town”, or “I think you’ll like this” or “I heard you like these, here’s an AC/DC T-Shirt” it’s wonderful and kind of overwhelming, but very unusual if you live in a western country. And the first time we played in Japan that as so special and unbelievable.
Mark: A wonderful place and a very interesting culture
Eric: It is and it’s very different. If you go to Australia or to New Zealand from Sweden which is literally the other side of the world it’s kind of the same, and as you travel Europe there are different cultures of course but Japan is so very different, up is down and left is right (laughs) I love it.
Mark: If you could have been credited with any song ever written what song would you like to have eternally attached to your name?
Eric: The one special song for me is ‘Guns For Hire’ because that is the song that made me pick up the guitar from ‘Flick Of The Switch’ that’s the song that meant most to me, that or maybe ‘Johnny B Goode’ by Chuck Berry as well.
Mark: Tell us something about you Eric that we don’t know?
Eric: Oh I don’t know. I had no interest in being a Rock musician or making a living out of music as a kid. For me it was all about driving motocross. That was my main interest and I wanted to be a motocross professional. That was up until I had a crash when I was 18, a really bad crash and I broke my left foot really bad so I had eight weeks in plaster. I could hardly walk and all I could really do was play guitar which I’d done since I was 11 or 12, so I just played more guitar and that sort of shifted things, and then it all tipped over into music.
Mark: So we have the dangerous sport of motocross to thank for the wonderful music of Eclipse (laughs).
Eric: (laughs) Mark, I’ve been in an ambulance seven times! (laughs)
Mark: Was that all motocross or any Eclipse-related ambulance rides?
Eric: (laughs) No Eclipse so far, all motocross and downhill skiing as well. I love skiing. I had a motorcycle a 750 cubic inch regular street bike, but I had to sell it because it’s like a drug (laughs)…
Mark: (laughs) the need for speed!
Eric: (laughs) If I still had it I’d be dead by now!
Mark: I know how you feel, those days for me are long past.
Eric: I have a Yamaha, it’s a Harley Davidson copy called a Dragstar, it’s got 42 horse [power you can speed even if you want to! It’s just impossible, it just shakes and makes a lot of noise if you drive too fast! (laughs) but I still have a motorcycle…. But I can’t drive fast anymore (laughs)
Mark: Thank you so much for being our guest on ‘Off The Record’ Eric, we’ll see you soon.
Eric: Thank you Mark, take care.
Catch Eclipse Downunder in March at the Melodic Rock Fest
Melbourne March 6-8 2020
