The first highlight in your career is linked for sure to your appearance in the “Eurovision Rock Contest”. How were you selected for that festival, and how much different would your actual status as a rockband be without that experience?
It’s hard to tell. The appearance in the Eurovision sure meant a whole lot, it opened a lot of ears to our music and it was sort of our ticket to making the first album “Metal Will Stand Tall”. After that things have just been sort of moving on in a furious tempo.

You use to develop very catchy melodies in the vein of the traditional swedish pop, but are able to armor and turn them to a true hard-rocking sound. How does songwriting grow within a tune created by The Poodles?
The song writing process in The Poodles is different every time. Song come from left and right and then we start rehearsing and doing preproduction and “poodleize” the songs the best we can and turn the songs into songs that fit our style and our way of playing etc.

Matti Alfonzetti helped the band out both on “Metal will stand tall” and on the newest “Sweet trade”. How much huge has his contribution been?
Matti Alfonzetti and Johan Lyander did a great job on our first album “Metal Will Stand Tall” and that’s why we decided to use the same production team on “Sweet Trade”. These guys have definitely done just as good of a job on “Sweet Trade” and they have contributed a lot to the sound and the feel of both albums.

You also wrote songs with a movie actor, and with the bass wizard Jonas Reingold. What other big names did help you with your music projects so far?
We’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a lot of great people, too many to mention here.

Is there any very special thanks you wish to express to some particular artist who appeared on your records?
Everyone who has worked with us on our two releases we owe a lot of thanks but a very special thank you must go Peter Stormare who came in and did such a cool and great job on the song “Seven Seas”.

All the guys in the band feature significant previous experiences. Pontus Norgren was the axeman in my own fave swedish cult band Great King Rat, but your whole background includes relevant memberships in acts like Midnight Sun and Zan Clan. How did each actual bandmate join The Poodles?
We are all guys who have been doing this for quite some time and we have known each other for years sometimes working together in other projects in the past. “The Poodles” in its’ current line-up was pretty much formed around the opportunity to compete with the song “Night Of Passion” in the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.

What are your relations with Wig Wam, the other “best promising act” from Scandiniavia?
We really don’t have any relation at all at the moment. We were supposed to do a gig together with them this summer that didn’t happen but maybe we’ll do something together in the future.

What are the musical terms of reference for your ambitions as a band, both in Scandinavia and abroad?
Well, we always try to look at things from within our selves. A rock band that’s out working as hard as we can to make this thing grow with the world as our market. We want to make the best possible albums, we always give 110% when we’re up on stage and our ambition is to grow this thing and to keep doing this for many years to come.

You’re on tour with Gotthard at the moment. Is there any particular ability in the swiss band that The Poodles would love to own too?
Gotthard is just a great band and all the guys in the band are really cool, nice people and I suppose that’s what we want to be as well.

During the past years, you toured with metal bands such as Hammerfall, who don’ t exactly play your same style of music. How was the crowd’ s response?
It worked very well actually. The Hammerfall crowd treated us really good, clapping and cheering and shouting like crazy so I would say the response was very good. That tour was a great experience for us as a band as well. It was the first tour for “The Poodles” outside of Scandinavia and I think it opened up a lot of peoples’ eyes to this band and to our music.

As for promotional results, are you happy with the work made by your actual Label?
Oh yes, we are currently signed to AFM Records and so far I think they have been doing a great job getting our albums out and promoting them.

Scandinavia has always got a particular attention and taste towards hard rock. That musical culture is also feeded by TV networks which give more spotlight to bands like yours than in the rest of Europe. Did you notice a significant difference in your fame because of this wider TV exposure, in comparison to foreign countries?
I don’t know how it is for bands in other countries but bands that play hard rock music have a very hard time getting exposure on TV and radio in Sweden as well, it’s a constant struggle. Maybe the networks are a bit more open minded in Scandinavia but it’s not easy.

Nevertheless, no plans about a dvd release were announced so far. When will you consider the project to satisfy the requests coming from fans living in less airplay-covered areas?
A DVD is definitely something that we’re planning to do, hopefully within the next year. No definite plans are made yet but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen in the near future.

Who brought in the cool idea of including a duet with an italian singing tenor on the track “Song for you”, included in the “Metal will stand tall album”?
Jakob had that idea of mixing the styles of opera and rock on the song “Song For You”. It’s actually Jakob’s older brother Jonas Samuelsson-Nerbe who does the tenor vocal parts.

Which artistic goal do The Poodles expect they can reach with the excellent brand new album “Sweet Trade”? Do you think it’ s just a confirm of your brilliant and higly acclaimed debut, or has it the potential to do even better?
The sky’s the limit. I think the album definitely has the potential to take us very far and with the right promotional strategy and with a lot of hard work from us and from our record label it might just take us to another level. We sure hope so and we are going to work for it.