Interview w/ Prospect members, Kenneth Lyng Myrslo, Odd Peder Hoem and Andreas Bye Pedersen

INTERVIEW WITH PROSPECT MEMBERS, KENNETH LYNG MYRSLO, ODD PEDER HOEM AND ANDREAS BYE PEDERSEN
Date: July 18, 2019
Interviewer: Olivier

SOMETIMES, ALL YOU NEED IS TO HEAR ONE SONG AND YOU’LL KNOW THAT YOU’LL LIKE WHATEVER THE BAND HAS TO OFFER. AFTER HEARING THE SONG “ROCK AND SHOUT” FROM NORWEGIAN ROCKERS, PROSPECT, I KNEW THAT I NEEDED TO GET WHATEVER ALBUMS THAT THEY HAD TO OFFER AND I SCHEDULED AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BAND ON THE STRENGTH OF THAT ONE SONG. PROSPECT’S DEBUT ALBUM ‘ROCK ‘N’ ROLL BEATS & ELECTRIC GUITARS‘ DID ARRIVE AT THE SLEAZE ROXX HEADQUARTERS BUT WELL AFTER MY INTERVIEW WITH PROSPECT BAND MEMBERS, KENNETH LYNG MYRSLO (LEAD VOCALS), ODD PEDER HOEM (DRUMS) AND ANDREAS BYE PEDERSEN (BASS). IN ANY CASE, PROSPECT’S DEBUT ALBUM IS A MUST LISTEN FOR ANY FANS OF TRADITIONAL STRAIGHT UP, NO FRILLS, ROCK N’ ROLL.

Sleaze Roxx: So why don’t we get started with how did the band get started in the first place?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: The band started in 2016. I am actually the only original one left but [laughs] I will actually say that we are all originals. But in the first place, we put together some musicians and had some auditions with some guitar players. We wanted to play music. We had a basement and just had some rehearsals and auditions, and we put together some cover songs, and we started to figure out that we wanted to play our own music. And then, after a few rehearsals, the drummer left us because we were going to rent another rehearsal location. We needed another location because we were driving half an hour to the place every time so that was expensive on gas money [laughs]. So we rented another place and the drummer left us so now we have the fantastic [laughs] rock drummer [Odd Peter Hoem] holding the phone right now. He is the best drummer that we could have. I love him and stuff like that [laughs].

Also, we have [guitarist] Snider Heiden. He’s right here right now. He’s one of our guitar players. He came actually at the same time that [drummer] Odd came, at the same rehearsal. From there, we had a band and we rehearsed for maybe half a year, six months or something, and then we lost two members — two guitar players. We were three guitar players.

Odd Peder Hoem: Just to keep it short, we switched the members and just changed our name and we became Prospect. Our previous name was Varied and now we’re Prospect. It’s working pretty good.

Sleaze Roxx: Did Varied release any material?

Odd Peder Hoem: No. Nothing.

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: We were in the studio recording two songs at the moment when we had the name but we were changing it just before the release. The name Prospect was just more natural for us.

Sleaze Roxx:  Is there any meaning behind the band name Prospect? How did you come up with it?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: It was actually our previous bass player. We were actually just sitting down in our rehearsal room and talking about switching our name, and nobody had a name that was right.

Odd Peder Hoem: [Laughs] There was a lot of bunch of bullshit actually!

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: [Laughs] He said, “Why not Prospect?” And then he laughed. For him, it was a joke. Then we were like, “OK. That’s right.” So then we became Prospect. When we became Prospect, everything fell into place. We have the right members in the band. We replaced our bass player because he had some family stuff and now, we are a group with — we’re like a family.

Sleaze Roxx: I must confess that I have only heard one song from you guys so far — “Rock And Shout” — but I really liked it and I am waiting for the CD to arrive. It sounds like you have very traditional AC/DC / Airbourne type music. Is that what you were aiming for?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: AC/DC, Airbourne and Mötley Crüe actually are big influences for us. We’re actually going to see Airbourne here in Norway in October. We can’t wait [laughs]!

Prospect‘s “Rock And Shout” song:

Prospect – Rock and Shout

From the album Rock ‘N’ Roll Beats and Electric GuitarsRock And ShoutI bought a worn down carAnd went driving with my guitarI didn’t have a destinationBut I …

Sleaze Roxx: Now, I understand that you guys just recently went on a tour of Eastern Europe and you travelled a lot of miles from what I can tell. How did it go?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: It went well.We had originally planned five concerts. One was cancelled so in total, four concerts around Eastern Europe. We drove like 6,000 kilometres or something [laughs]. We bought a car this year because we needed something to drive around in and so we got the [1994] Volkswagen Caravelle [laughs]. It’s a really nice car.

Sleaze Roxx: So one thing that struck me about you guys is that you have a different look from the usual Airbourne / Mötley Crüe bands. You have your black shirts with sometimes red tie or red bow tie. How did you come up with your look?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: Well, we figured out we need something else because every rock band looks like a rock band. So we were figuring out, why can’t we just look classic, you know? We did that. We put on our shirts, these red ties and things like that, and people went crazy about it.

Sleaze Roxx: [Laughs]

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: You know, we had a lot of comments that “This is good.” “You look different.” “It’s nice.”

Odd Peder Hoem: I think that the best comment was from a woman who told us afterwards that when she saw us on stage before we played, she just thought like, “Oh! What is this? Is this going to be some boring music?” [Laughs] Because she looked at our stage clothes, our outfits, and afterwards, she was like, “Phew.” She was blown away [laughs] because she didn’t expect it. I think that’s kind of what we are aiming for because people…

Andreas Bye Pedersen: … are expecting something else and afterwards, they’re like, “What the fuck did I just see [laughs]?”

Sleaze Roxx: [Laughs] Actually, I heard your music before I saw a picture of the band. Had I seen a picture of the band first, I would have never even considered your band for Sleaze Roxx because the look was so different.

Prospect band members: [Laughs]

Odd Peder Hoem: That’s cool. That’s cool.

Sleaze Roxx: So I think that you are aiming in the right direction with what you want to do.

Odd Peder Hoem: In the music world, everyone is kind of the same or does the same thing. We have to stand out in some sort of way to be noticed you know?

Sleaze Roxx: What’s the scene like in Norway for rock n’ roll bands like Prospect?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: I would say it’s not that big because where we are living, we are living in a city called Verdal and people here like boring music [laughs].

Sleaze Roxx: [Laughs]

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: We have this festival called the Verdal Norway Festival. It’s a festival with old clothes from the ’50s. It’s from the Norwegian ’50s. You look like a farmer. It’s sort of a country music style but not the original country music. You’re lucky if 10 out of 200 [people] like rock n’ roll. But we have built our own little reputation so now people are looking at this music style and I think that we’ve woken up some old rock n’ roll ears [laughs]. I would say that Norway is medium.

Odd Peder Hoem: I would say that I think that it’s coming back because you know, back in the day, rock n’ roll was the only thing that people listened to. And now, it seems that it’s coming back. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people that “Whoa, it’s like being in the ’80s again. I love it.” And that’s what we want. It’s awesome you know? I think that it’s coming back a little bit.

Prospect‘s “Plug ‘N’ Play” video:

Prospect – Plug ‘N’ Play (Demo)

Prospect – Plug ‘N’ Play music video. Directed by Victoria Hellerud.Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1MRmnRzIkdJ7gw3GIWNZFWFacebook: https://www.faceb…

Sleaze Roxx: Who handles the songwriting in the band?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: After I joined this year, in January — I’m the new guy — after I joined, I’ve been doing a lot of songwriting but we’re collaborating. We’re all doing our part. We wrote lyrics and riffs together.

Sleaze Roxx: What are Prospect’s plans for the rest of 2019?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: For the rest of this year, we have a few concerts lined up. Four right now — one in August, one in September, one in October and one in November I think. We need some more songs so we’re going to do a lot of songwriting.

Sleaze Roxx: Are you thinking of releasing another album in the near future?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: I would not say in the near future but maybe in a couple of years. I say maybe because songwriting takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time. I think and I think that I can say this on behalf of all of us that 2020 is going to be a busy year. So we have a booking manager also thinking that for us. So when we are playing a lot of gigs, we need to do some songwriting in between and also, use all of our rehearsals so I think in maybe two years, we can have a new album, maybe a single next year. We already have some stuff that we can record and like put out as a new single but we’ll see.

Sleaze Roxx: For the songs on your first album that you just released, when were those songs written and who wrote them?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: Well, I like to say that we write all the songs together. We’ve been writing them all together. The music is written by the whole band together. Maybe the guitar player comes with a riff that he has made at home. In terms of when they were written, from when we first starting to [laughs]…

Odd Peder Hoem: I think that we played like maybe roughly 20 shows before we got the idea that we wanted to record an album. So we recorded a bunch of demos first to get a hang of it and then we found the cheapest way for us to record an album. When we practiced our demos and things like that, we kind of had in our minds that when we came to the studio and we finished it. So I think maybe a year or so. It was a bit less than a year before the album came out.

Sleaze Roxx: Can you tell me one thing about each of you that the public would not know?

Odd Peder Hoem: [Laughs] Alright, I can say that I have a guilty pleasure and it is “Boom Boom [Boom Boom]” by Vengaboys.

Sleaze Roxx: [Laughs]

Prospect band members: [Laughs]

Sleaze Roxx: Alright. What about the rest of the guys?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: Well, I don’t know what’s the secret about me. Aaaah! I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.

Andreas Bye Pedersen: Let’s see, what would the public not know about me. Ummm. You know, I know all kinds of fun facts of things that you don’t need to know.

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: When we talk about guilty pleasures, I consider this that I don’t have any guitar;ty pleasures because I am not guilty about liking things. I like them [laughs]. Why should I feel guilty about lying something? So I am pretty open about stuff that I like.

Sleaze Roxx: What are your influences for each of you music wise? You’ve talked a little bit about Mötley Crüe and Airbourne but is everyone on the same page or do they have different bands that they like?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: Yeah, we all have different bands that we like. I listen to a lot of random stuff. I really like going on Spotify and just start playing and listen to it.

Sleaze Roxx: Really?

Andreas Bye Pedersen: I can take it pretty much anywhere.

Sleaze Roxx: What about the rest of the guys?

Odd Peder Hoem: I can say that I can speak on behalf of one of the guitarists that is in this room. He is influenced by Stevie Ray [Vaughan] and a lot of blues players because he just has that kind of style. He’s a really good guitarist and he just catches that vibe. He’s influenced by those people like the big guys and Van Halen and stuff. For me, personally, I was kind of a metal guy so my biggest influence of all-time I would say is Joey Jordison when he was in Slipknot because that is my all-time favorite band [laughs].

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: My influences are, well of course, Bryan Adams, AC/DC, Airbourne are also one of my favourite bands. Avenged Sevenfold. I was also a metal guy so I love Slipknot and I also played drums before I was a lead singer so I was also inspired by Joey Jordison but not on vocals [laughs] but in style. But vocals, as I said, Bryan Adams, Airbourne, and Mötley Crüe. Some Guns N’ Roses. Actually some James Hetfield too but not much, a little bit. And also I can listen to a lot of different music. I can listen to many different styles and take inspiration of other bands and styles, out it together and mix it up. And Ghost. I am a huge fan of Ghost. It’s so different. I don’t know how to say it but it’s very different from other kinds of metal music. It’s like rock n’ roll opera. Freddie Mercury you know is a big inspiration for me. And that’s that. As for the other guitarist — he’s not in the room right now. Have you heard of Rob Chapman?

Sleaze Roxx: No.

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: He has a band called Dorje and I know that the guitarist is really inspired by that, by the guitarist in that band. One of his biggest influences is also Slash, And also the usual — AC/DC, Airbourne, all that crap.

Sleaze Roxx: [Laughs] All that crap…

Prospect band members: [Laughs]

Sleaze Roxx: Is there anything that we haven’t covered that you’d like to talk about?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: I would say our biggest dream is to become rock stars [laughs].

Prospect band members: [Laughs]

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: I would say that we would love to make a living out of it someday and you know, be the support for a big band. Get in tour with some big bands. We have some goals and we are heading in that direction. I think that we are heading pretty fast if you’re thinking about other bands and how slow things can get. As fast as things can get, I think that we are heading pretty fast now. Also, we don’t know if you know but we were on this competition called Wacken [Metal] Battle from Norway.

Odd Peder Hoem: We came in second.

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: Yeah, we came in second in the whole Norway so that was a big thing for us.

Sleaze Roxx: If you would have won, would you have been part of [the] Wacken [Open Air Festival in Germany]?

Kenneth Lyng Myrslo: Yes, if we would have won, we would have then played Wacken in 2019.

Sleaze Roxx: So close! Congratulations on doing that!

Prospect‘s “Inmate #666” song:

Prospect – Inmate #666

From the album Rock ‘N’ Roll Beats and Electric GuitarsINMATE #666Broke the law too many timesYou’re sentenced to life for all your crimesYou’re gonna pay fo…