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It was great and of course I took it very serious, as I do with everything. I was 13 when I recorded an album with our Theatre/Vocal group at the youth club. I was 15 when I joined Mabel, so all there was before was just a bit of messing around with my friends at our local youth club.ĭo you remember as a child the first time you sang on tape? What was the name of that band and did you sing or play any instruments? I’m not into suicide.When you first started in music even before Mabel and Studs, you must have had a garage band. It’s basically choosing between health and death. “It’s a shame if some of these kids don’t like us living a sensible life,” Tramp said. After all, even pop metal bands rely on young guys who prize rowdyism and revere the life’s-a-party ethic. This clean image wouldn’t necessarily have any negative effect on established metal bands like Aerosmith, but could it be deadly for younger bands like White Lion that are still shaping their identities. These days, touring with those former bad boys of rock is like being on the road with a bunch of monks. White Lion, opening for AC/DC on June 22 at Long Beach Arena, is currently opening for Aerosmith-a perfect traveling companion. They’re part of this new breed of healthy musicians who don’t hang out and misbehave at parties. But if you’re looking for the good parties, don’t ask the members of White Lion. Now it’s available here on tiny Grand Slamm Records.Įverybody is always asking rock ‘n’ roll musicians, “Where’s the party?” They’re expected to know since so many of them are notorious party-crawlers. “Fight to Survive” was released in Japan and, as an import, got some attention in the American rock underground. “It was made with some people who hadn’t been in the band very long-people we don’t have in the band now,” Tramp explained.
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Elektra Records signed the band, but didn’t think its first album, “Fight to Survive,” was good enough to release in this country. When Mabel finally faded in the early ‘80s, Tramp had developed into a good singer.īecause of his fascination with American rock ‘n’ roll, he migrated to New York and eventually formed White Lion with Bratta, who became his songwriting partner. For him the best thing about the whole experience was that it was like being paid to go to singing school. Tramp didn’t have anything good to say about Mabel’s six pop albums. They didn’t hire the handsome youngster for his singing talent. Tramp was recruited into this band, whose members were 10 years older than him, in 1976 when he was 14. A native of Denmark, Tramp, who still has a Danish accent, now lives in Santa Monica. “We were bigger than the Queen,” recalled Tramp, 27, of his years as a teen idol. Yet, according to Tramp, when he was in a pop band with that name in Denmark in the late ‘70s, he was the Danish Michael Jackson. It’s hard to imagine that a band with a corny name like Mabel could survive, let alone have sex appeal. They call for real singing, from way down deep inside. “I like songs like these because I can really pour my heart out on them. On White Lion’s previous album, “Fight to Survive,” he’s partial to the moody ballad, “The Road to Valhalla”:
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His favorite song on “Pride,” which is full of booming rockers, is a low-key, folkish ballad-done without bass and drums-called “When the Children Cry,” which seems to belong on another album. “But I’m not really a screamer,” insisted Tramp, maintaining that his melodic, bluesy style was shaped by the influences of Rod Stewart and Joe Cocker. Because of its pretty-boy image, White Lion can’t escape the Bon Jovi tie-in, but some observers, when discussing Tramp and Bratta, prefer to pinpoint similarities to Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Its distinguishing features are Tramp’s voice and the adventurous, inventive playing of guitarist Bratta who, in another band, might be the star. OK, so White Lion does have some musical talent. “Looks never got anybody into the Top 20,” argued Tramp, who was determined not to have White Lion lumped in with the handsome no-talent groups proliferating in pop-metal these days.