据说一楼要留给BD。。

Do you have any tours planned for the imminent future?
We don’t have any specific plans right now, but the album is number one in Thailand and climbing up the charts in India. It’s only a matter of time before we get back on the road.
Is your reception in the Middle East and Asia as positive as ever?
It’s always surprisingly enthusiastic. Now we realise the work we did 10 years ago is actually still quite topical, because when we play live we build our concerts around the songs we did in the 90s – there’s really a demand for that. We get a big kick out of playing songs like Someday, 25 Minutes, That’s Why (You Go Away) and The Actor.
Do you ever experience Beatles-esque fan frenzies when you tour?
No – it’s much more relaxed. I think our fans kind of developed with us and are the same age as us. People really want the songs – Michael Learns to Rock isn’t a visual band, we don’t really have a very strong images and I think people really wouldn’t recognise us if we walked around downtown.
Did you deliberately avoid having a set image or fight against being packaged as a band by your record company?
We always wanted to speak through our music. Whether we had an image or not, the radio stations always played our music. Now we’re very glad it’s like that, because it’s a tough business and fashion changes all the time – especially if you only get famous because of your personality or your looks. We have a pretty classic sound – we don’t sound like the 90s, we just sound like classic pop music. We actually struggled with that, because in Europe we really drowned in the grunge era. It was pretty tough for us to get recognition at that time because we didn’t suit any of that. But funnily enough we’re still here and grunge is over. What used to be maybe a little difficult has actually become our strength.
Are all three of you family men now?
We have 11 kids altogether between the three of us. Our drummer has two-year-old twins, I have a three-year-old daughter and two sons who are 10 and 12. Jascha has a daughter who’s 18 – Sleeping Child was written about her.
Is she an MLTR fan?
I think she’s more nostalgic and supportive. She’s into what 18-year-olds listen to now – she likes Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and that kind of stuff.
You never really cracked the Western market. Did you try to emulate any world-famous artists in an attempt to appeal to European and American audiences?
Yeah we tried but I don’t think we really succeeded. When other producers produced our albums, they would say “okay guys, why not listen to Backstreet Boys or Westlife and follow that sound?” I think we put in a decent effort, but somehow we also lost that Michael Learns to Rock feeling, and we could actually see that in the record sales. That’s why we’ve gone back to producing our own albums.
What is it about your sound that makes you so popular in the East but not the West?
To be honest, I think it’s the naïve feeling. English is not our first language, and the lyrics are quite easy to understand. It’s also the music – we’re not brilliant musicians or session players, but we peak as a band when we’re together. When we’re on our own, it hasn’t got the MLTR soul. I think we’re just a very good mix and the influence we have on each other is very healthy.

大概2年前的访问，但还是能了解到MLTR的很多方面。

>so much so that the band performed at the ‘Celebrate Hong Kong’ concert in 1997
可惜他们来香港来得太早(我当时才8岁)
否则我一定亲自去看看
>What was the recording process like?
难怪我由始至终都不是特别喜欢Eternity...
>because in Europe we really drowned in the grunge era
很难想像...
>Did you try to emulate any world-famous artists in an attempt to appeal to European and American audiences?
其实我觉得Nothing To Lose就是很好的例子
Something You Should Know, Nothing To Lose, Magic, Everything I Planned, Paint My Love等等
这些音乐风格都是比较接近现有市场上的音乐
>What is it about your sound that makes you so popular in the East but not the West?
他们绝对是出色的音乐人没错
只是我相信他们在marketing/宣传方面很有问题
单是从世界各地支持者的分布就能看出这一点

百代的宣传有很大问题