Text: Anne-Marie Forker
Photography: Hikari Yuba
Hi Yngwie! Congratulations on your 40th anniversary! Why did you choose Japan as the setting for the 40th anniversary live album?
I did album called “Parabellum”, and with this album I was on tour and going around the world, and all of a sudden somebody said to me, “hey it’s the fortieth anniversary from when you started”. January, 1984. Since then I’ve been a solo artist and a lot of people don’t seem to understand, they think it’s a group thing but it’s always been a solo thing. We were playing in the most amazing places. You name it, Singapore, Malaysia, you know? All over the world, Rome, the ruins in Istanbul and in fantastic venues. It wasn’t until we came to Japan and the Japanese promoter said, “oh, we want to film the show”. I’m like, “okay. If I get to the footage for my own use”, so it wasn’t really planned. But it’s funny because I was in Japan in January 1984 with another band. It wasn’t really meant to happen that way.
It’s at one of the Zepp music halls. Are they known for being particularly good with sound, because the sound on this is impeccable?
Well, I think most Japanese music venues are really built for music, you know, whereas in Europe and America they often use factories or something to make a rock club. They really make it for the stage. The sound is fantastic. Backstage, everything is perfect.
How hard was it to choose a setlist to represent 40 years when you have 22 albums?
I’ve done thousands of shows and I don’t play the same setlist. So, I say like half an hour before the show, I say to some of the guys, “okay, I’m gonna play this set tonight”. Not the same as the night before, and I go stage and I play a different set anyway. So, it’s never the same and the only thing I added for this show was “Hiroshima Mon Amour”. I added more songs, so it’s always different.
You’ve played with Symphony orchestras as well as bands. It’s not the same where you stick to the same set list if you’re with a band.
What I did is quite different from what other rock bands did. I didn’t just put the orchestra behind me playing my songs. I composed for electric guitar and orchestra specifically. It’s completely different from my rock stuff and no drums.
When did you first get your hands on your first Strat?
I got my first guitar when I was five years old. I started playing when I was seven and it was an electric guitar but it wasn’t a Strat, it was just an electric guitar. I got my first Fender after painting my mother’s house for the whole summer. I took her money that she would have paid painters with to go and buy a Strat. It was 1976. I was 12 years old. I was fearless with things like that. Two stories, I was up there painting the whole house because I thought you have to earn your money, you know, nothing for nothing.
Absolutely. Which bands did you listen to growing up?
Well, when I was a kid, I got into classical music very early. But when I became a teenager and went to parties and whatever, I would hear bands like Thin Lizzy and AC/DC. I grew up in a family with all classical musicians and opera singers, scales on the piano, that’s all I heard all day long. I got a violin on my fourth or fifth birthday. When I was seven, I saw Hendrix smashing up a guitar on TV. It was only one or two channels on TV, but they showed that and wow. I started looking through everybody’s records, you know? I heard Deep Purple when I was eight. I’d never heard Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Then I heard a band called Genesis, an album called “Selling about by the Pound” and I thought “What is this?” They were very Bach oriented. My mother had hundreds of records so I started listening to them. I was already into the rock sound, so I just started learning notes, listening, and I played them loud. It became what they now call neoclassical. I freaked out when I heard Paganini’s arpeggios. So, I started saying “well I’m going to do that on the guitar”. This was in the mid-seventies. Nobody did it.
How do you stay inspired?
You have got to keep a distance. You know, I go out in my cars, I do things like that, go to gun range, whatever. Other things. Then when you do play, it’s fresh, new and exciting. It’s sort of a gift. It’s kind of like something just happens and then and you have to capture it.
Does it happen more to you in the live setting, when you’re improvising than it does at home?
There are so many factors. I’m really particular when you see the lighting, when you see the smoke machines. I make sure that it has to be the way it has to be. Would they call me a control freak? Guilty as charged, call me get a control freak if you want. This is my thing, this is what I do. When I go on stage and something is not quite right for the lights, I get a little annoyed. I’ll learn not to get too annoyed now, but in the past it could ruin my concentration or whatever, but 99.99 of the time, in between the audience and the sound, it’s just the moment where things are happening. It’s us. Always great. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in the studio too. I could, technically, I could write whatever you want me to right now. You tell me what you want, I can do it that because it’s all building blocks, it’s very easy. To me, that’s not the real thing, the real thing is when it happens and it surprises me. And I think “wow, what’s that?” That happens when it happens. There’s no rhyme or reason with that. Even when I improvise it sounds like it’s written, because it’s so hardwired into me. Do something crazy. I’m always mathematical, but it’s without thinking in mathematical currents, you’re not necessarily following the rules. It’s like a new version of what you can do within the rules.
Are you going to come back to Europe?
We’re planning a European tour right now. I think it’s limited to England and Italy but I don’t know for sure. You will have to keep an eye out.
I certainly will. What comes next for you?
I have more touring but I’m recording new stuff. Building up the ideas and everything until I find it’s perfect to put it out a record. From June onwards I’m pretty much booked.
First published in Norway Rock Magazine #2/2025
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