[Interview taken from Full force magazine]

We got the opportunity to interview the drummer of the Norwegian heavy metal band Grand Lux, a band that's surely up-coming, and will have many bright years ahead of them!

Hello Ran-Dee! Can you please introduce yourself for our readers who doesn't know you or your band?

Ran-Dee: Where to start.. I'm a blond, '74 model that enjoys life, and like my family, friends and God. I play drums in the heavy metal band Grand Lux, a classic heavy metal band, with a positive message. Grand Lux is a band that I'm very proud of being a part of!

Norway is mostly famous for their blackmetal scene, who did you chose to play heavy metal with Grand Lux?

Ran-Dee: It has never been an option for me or Grand Lux to do that kind of music. We listened to 70's and 80's metal when we were growing up, and this is the music that we know how to play, and perform. And it's also the most fun style to play. J

Which bands have inspired you through the years?

I'll have to speak for myself here, but I'm sure that the others would say almost the same. Dio is an huge inspiration with all he has done in Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and solo of course! Ozzy and Black Sabbath is also a big inspiration, as well as Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Kiss, Judas Priest, Stryper, Europe, and of course our local heroes in TNT. And many more, there are many great bands out there!

6 months have passed since the release of "Carved in Stone" in Sweden and Norway. How has the response been so far?

Ran-Dee: The reviews and response we've gotten so far has been overwhelming! The song writing has gotten positive words everywhere, and that's of course something that feels great when you put your heart into writing as good songs as possible. Some reviewers have complained that we're not very original, which is true I guess, haha. But as I said, the response have been really great, and we're very happy about it!

You did a video for the song "Escaping the clouds". Can you please tell us about it, and also why you choosed that specific song for the video.

Ran-Dee: We felt that many of the songs on the album could have been used as the video song, but our choice fell on "Escaping the clouds" since it's not too long, the chorus is kind of catchy, and it fits perfectly to our vision with the video, with lots of expolsions and pyro effects. Actually many of the explosions didn't make it to the video, but we're still satisfied with the outcome.

It seems that you've gotten a great live reputation, and that fire, pyro effects and explosions is an important part of your show. Is this true?

Ran-Dee: Yes it's true! Lately the fire department has showed up at many of our concerts, because of all the pyro and fire, and we think that's a good sign! But seriously, we've always liked bands like Kiss, and it's always fun to watch their show. We believe that the audience wants a show to not only sound good, but that also the visual is of importance. So we've lately used fire, flames, flame throwing, pyro effects, smoke and smoke bombs in our shows, and we've felt that it's been very much appreciated!.

Have there been any tours since the release of the album, and what plans are there ahead?

Ran-Dee: We haven't been on a larger tour yet, but we've played some single shows and festivals since the release of the album. We're planning on touring more this fall, so we'll see how it all will end up.

"Carved in Stone" is now out in North America through Nightmare Records, could this mean that a US tour might be possible?

Ran-Dee: Touring the US would be one of our biggest dreams coming true, so we really hope that it will happen someday. The market is hard though, and it's kind of expensive to fly over, but because of all the great response we've gotten from North America, we'll REALLY try to do it someday!

Can you tell us what's going on in the Grand Lux camp right now?

Ran-Dee: Well, right now it's vacation a couple of more weeks. Then we'll start preparing at full force for the coming concerts, and also to start the song writing for the next Grand Lux album, and we're really looking forward to that!

Thanks you so much for this interview, is there anything else you would like to tell us?

Ran-Dee: Be nice to those around you, and be grateful for what you've got. Check out our album "Carved in Stone", and thanks for this interview!

Rock for the king
// Ran-Dee, Grand Lux