The guest we interviewed today is Ronnie Atkins, longtime lead singer of the Hard Rock band Pretty Maids.
Ronnie told us stories about his hard life and his new album “One Shot” that was released via Frontiers Records.
If you are a well done Melodic Rock lover, without useless and filling-only musical notes, this is the record for you and he is the rock star who wrote it! Enjoy the reading!
Hi Ronnie! Welcome on Metalpit! It’s nice to hear from you, how are you?
Thank you! I’m pretty good these days !
Given the actual global situation I think you cancelled concerts, promotion tours and projects too. How are you dealing with this moment?
Well, of course it has affected my plans and doings like it has for everyone around the world. I guess you’ve got to roll with the punches so to speak cause the situation seems to change time after time. That’s life and we all have to deal with it somehow !
Tell me more about your new record, when did you record it and how did you come up with ithe deas to write new music?
Well I decided to do it like a year ago when I was diagnosed with incurable cancer! It was my way to focus on something positive and put the bad aside. I had a lot of ideas/songs and I’m basically always writing and counting. The album was recorded on/off between late May and October 2020.
The artwork of the CDs are often unnoticed but in my opinion they are still important. Can you tell me something about the artwork of your new album?
I think it’s so beautiful! Well, I can’t really tell you that much, but it was my artwork that came up with the concept and I just kinda liked it so it was pretty smooth. I think it fits the overall concept of the album pretty well.
“Picture Yourself” opinion is a great song to me, can you tell me something about it?
Well I like that a lot too. I wrote the song during the spring last year and I just couldn’t get that chorus hookline out of my head once I’d written it, so I knew I had something good going. The lyrics are a bit about of what’s going on in our world these days, a bit about the climate change, etc. Some sort of a shout to mankind you could say, but in general it has got a positive message!
“One Shot” is a song I like a lot, it has got a great tune, can you tell me more about it?
It’s probably one of the best songs I’ve written in many years if I may so my self. There’s a nice atmosphere to it and the message of the song is that we should live in the now! Life is precious and there’s no reason to save the best for last. It’s all there in the lyric really, the song was written entirely on piano!
In these weird days where do you get the inspirations from to create new music?
I don’t really know where it comes from and sometimes you’re more creative than others. But it was somehow always easy for me to write melodies. I guess that was my gift of birth so to speak.
How do you face up the bad situations of the life?
I take things as they come and I deal with it as good as I can; in general, I’ve got a very positive outlook on life.
Please, tell me 3 or more albums that are important for your personal life.
Well It’s impossible to answer such questions for me, I could give you a hundred . But in generel I’m pretty openminded to music so… I listen to everything from The Beatles to Gorjira, really (smiles).
You are an artist with a career lasting more than 40 years, according to you what has changed in the music business in the last 10 years?
I just think it’s way harder to be a recording artist in general. There’s not much money involved anymore and if it wasn’t for the fact that I love creating music, I wouldn’t do it. I’m sure most musicians/singers would agree with me on that.
“Undress Your Madness” is a fantastic album, I love it! After many years you still come up with great sounds with your songs, how do you do that?
Well, I don’t know ! As I said before I love creating it. A good song is a good song but yeah I really do think that we’ve been very consistent the last ten years.
Are there going to be any news about your band Pretty Maids in this year?
We have nothing planned at the moment. I’d say we’re in a bit of a limbo, people are working on individual projects I guess. Let’s see what happens in the future
I don’t think talent shows are healthy for the music, many people think that a rock band coming out of it will have a long career but we see these bands fading away instead. What do you think about it?
Let me put it straight: I hate talent shows and I never watch them. Music isn’t a competition.
Finish this interview the way you prefer, thank you very much for the time you dedicated us. As a young fan of your music I hope to see you live as soon as possible. Ciao!
I just hope my Italian fans and supporters like the new album and I’m grateful for the love and support I’ve had the last year and a half.