Mike Tramp, the iconic voice of White Lion, is set to perform the songs of White Lion in Australia for the first time in 20 years. This marks Mike Tramp’s first tour of Australia since 2008, and it promises to be a spectacular celebration of White Lion’s timeless hits.
Over the past few years Mike Tramp’s White Lion has now released two volumes of reimagined White Lion classics. The Songs Of White Lion, Volume 1 & 2, breathing new life into the hits, anthems and some classic album cuts all of which have both been well received by media and fans alike. The songs sound fresh and are a clear representation of Mike Tramp’s musical evolution, four decades into his career.
Now with Mike getting ready to return to Australia he sat down with Dave Griffiths to chat about the upcoming tour.
“I actually lived in Australia for ten years,” Mike explains as we begin talking about his obvious love affair with our great country. “So this is going to be kind of emotional for me. I know that when I arrive in Melbourne it’ll be sort of a homecoming both sad but also excited because I’ll be about to meet some familiar faces.”
“Australia is a country I completely adore,” he continues. “I love the Australian way and I have so many great memories as well. I came to Australia for personal reasons, first in Tasmania and then in Melbourne. Being a rock ‘n’ roller I put a band together with a bunch of Aussies. We got out there and started playing – it was a great time and I enjoyed being part of the scene. The sad thing was though that I saw within a few years that it was almost impossible to establish a base and break through into an already tough music scene. There was no support on TV and I saw that it would be impossible to do anything with my music there. Eventually I started to get more work in Europe and the US and I just had to go back.”
From there we started to talk about Mike’s recent journey back into the classic music of White Lion.
“It was only a few years ago that I allowed myself to go back into that vault,” he admits. “I wanted to have a look and see whether or not I could bring the music back to date. I wanted it to feel natural and not just a desperate attempt to pay the rent.” Once I sat down and started to play the music with our guitarist we found it worked. And yes we were playing the tracks note for note but we also wanted to update it. Even with the recordings we wanted it to be refurbished – in a way it was new version but we wanted it to still hold onto everything from the original song had.”
“And once we started singing the songs in a lower key, because I’m 35 years older than when we originally wrote these songs, something started to tell me that this made sense,” he says. “Now I can actually stand listening to the recordings because I have updated recordings. They all feel up to date but they also feel like they make sense. It also made me realise that there is a lot of classic rock with White Lion that people forget about because they were so focussed on the videos or whatever. Yes we are a band from the 80s but now it is about going out there and playing the songs rather than just shaking your ass back and forth. Now there is the joy of going out there and getting the chance of going out there and play the songs as a true muso.”
“What I did in the 80s is everything that I knew,” he explains when we begin to talk about what it was like going back to re-visit his classic tracks with a lot more personal experience behind him. “What I do in the 2020s is everything I know! And that is another 40 years added to that. Looking back at those recordings from the 80s I know get to got back in there and do it again. I’m walking in there, and without using the word mistake or mistakes too much, I go in there and now and say I am doing this the way that I should have done it. A lot of times when you record a song for the first time you have never played that song live and for every live show I have done over the years where I have sung those songs I’ve had a new experience. And it happens everytime. Every time I go on the road and start singing new songs with the guitar around my shoulders and my band behind me I loosen up and I am not seeing that red lights that says ‘recording.’ I just flow at that time – and it is that kind of freedom that I have had issues with when I am recording.”
“That only happens live,” he continues. “So now when I go in to record a song that I have sung live a thousand times I have a completely different freedom and relaxation. I don’t need lyrical sheets because the song just sits in the back of my head. So those are the benefits of getting to do something all over again.”
To finish off the interview I ask Mike what the fans can expect from these shows and he laughs.
“I can tell you what you aren’t going to get,” he says still laughing. “Fire, dragons and drums rising up into the air. No you are getting a great band who are gonna play the songs. And I think that we are really going to meet the audience half the way there and make that connection to say that this is about the music and the music only. We are not packing any spandex or hairspray into our suitcase!”