How Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’ Fused Disco With David Bowie

Before Europe’s “The Final Countdown” grew to become a worldwide sports activities anthem — and a part of many moments in popular culture — a few of its roots got here from disco and David Bowie.

The story that vocalist Joey Tempest tells relating to the evolution of the music has a standard thread — like many bands, Europe wished an enormous epic that they may use as a memorable opening music for his or her live shows. “The Final Countdown” began from a demo concept that had lengthy been in Tempest’s thoughts, years earlier than he lastly completed the monitor for the band’s third studio album.

During a dialog with UCR, he mentioned the origins of “The Final Countdown,” whereas additionally digging into the small print of “Hold Your Head Up,” the brand new music from the group which previews a deliberate studio album. As they have fun their fortieth anniversary — with a documentary at present within the works — it is clear that there is nonetheless many miles forward for the Swedish laborious rockers.

How did the newest Europe single, “Hold Your Head Up,” come collectively?
We managed to squeeze a while on this summer season earlier than the tour began. We discovered an excellent producer, Klas Ahlund, that we’ve had our eye on for some time. He was keen to go within the studio with us. We went into Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, the place we’d been earlier than [to record the] Bag of Bones [album]. So that was type of acquainted territory for us. There’s an excellent Neve desk in there and the room is nice. We know the studio and Klas additionally is aware of the studio, so we had a good time. The music took place through the pandemic. My dad handed away, sadly. I had some feelings round that, so I wrote lyrics that had been type of based mostly round that, him being very supportive. He all the time advised me to rise up, get going and be proud — that type of factor. I introduced this concept to the blokes and so they stated, “Yes, I think we can do this!” Everybody contributed to the ultimate music. The demo is somewhat bit totally different. We’re so happy with it and the reception once we play it dwell, it’s happening a storm. We’re actually happy that we’re producing one thing now that individuals appear to love. It’s actually cool.

Watch Europe’s Video For ‘Hold Your Head Up’

I do know you all are massive Deep Purple followers. This music honors the historical past of Europe nicely, nevertheless it additionally has a Purple feeling to it.
Indeed. We’re all massive Jon Lord followers as nicely. We know what an enormous function he had in Purple at numerous levels. I imply, among the riffs come from him, the way in which he performed and the way musical he was in himself. We carried that, I suppose, from once we had been younger. I bear in mind seeing them on the Perfect Strangers tour with the blokes in our band. That present was a firestarter for us as nicely. We had been engaged on Wings of Tomorrow and it simply catapulted our desires, seeing them. It was wonderful.

Where are issues at with the subsequent Europe album?
We’re throwing round [ideas]. I’d say three or 4 nice concepts, which is basically good going into the winter. Then we will refill on that over the winter and hopefully do some recording early subsequent yr — or spring. Whether we get one thing out subsequent yr or to start with of 2025, I don’t know. But there are some nice concepts already. We’ve simply bought to get right into a rehearsal room somewhat bit. Probably, [we’ll go] within the studio in March or April. I’m simply guessing.

“The Final Countdown” has been used lots of locations, together with AEW wrestling and Bryan Danielson. Reading his feedback, it looks like you are fairly selective in the way you license the music.
Yeah, we’re a bit cautious. To be trustworthy, we get much more requests than come out with that music. [Laughs] There are generally requests that I’m like, “Oh, that’s not going to happen here.” So we’re type of protecting, however nonetheless, we wish it to be loved. It is used for a lot of various things. In the ‘80s, they used it for big boxing matches. I remember Sugar Ray Leonard [using it] and [also things like] Formula 1 [racing]. I was always really proud of stuff like that. Those connections are great. But you know, there’s a complete lot of issues.

Watch Bryan Danielson’s ‘The Final Countdown’ Entrance

It looks like you took such an attention-grabbing journey when it got here to writing “The Final Countdown.”
It took place early on. We’d already began as a band, however I started messing round with keyboards. I borrowed a keyboard and one night time, I simply got here up with that riff and did a brief demo. I simply had that little concept demo that we saved for some time. We had been hanging out at this bar that had disco beginning at 12 o’clock with an enormous laser present and every thing. They requested me, “Do you have any music for this?” Because we used to hold there. I dug up that little demo. We bought to face there having a couple of drinks on Friday night time at 12 o’clock because the laser present began with that piece of music from that demo. We had been standing there going, “Maybe this could be something? This could be the opening of the show. This could be a song. Joey, why don’t you go home and try to finish this?” So I did that and that’s what occurred. It took some time to place it collectively, nevertheless it didn’t take too lengthy. We [ended up with] a music that was type of progressive on this state of affairs. It was fairly totally different. It made all people rise up and it was cool to have within the arsenal from the very starting.

How did David Bowie issue into the songwriting course of, inspirationally?
One of the primary singles that I purchased was “Space Oddity.” I additionally preferred “Starman” quite a bit. I used to be fascinated with Bowie’s fascination with house and house journey. I bought actually into it myself. So once I was engaged on the lyrics for “The Final Countdown,” I performed it most likely 100 occasions, singing till the correct phrases got here. One day, it simply got here, “The Final Countdown,” after that drum fill. I knew that the verses and every thing had been main as much as the identical factor that he was singing about, leaving the Earth, floating on the market and going some other place. It’s a melodic entertaining music and it type of labored that manner. That’s the humorous factor about that music. People use it for weddings and enjoyable issues and the message is totally different, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an uplifting music.

The tempo was somewhat bit impressed by British new wave and stuff — and what Iron Maiden did. Also, earlier laborious rock by [bands like] UFO. That galloping witch tempo. I discovered it very appropriate once I was engaged on the music. Because once we had been within the studio, Kevin Elson, an excellent producer who produced Journey and every thing, he simply stated, “Put the four on the floor on that.” It would have been a really totally different music if we’d performed that. We tried it for in the future after which we thought, “Eh, let’s go back to that British thing.” It might have been a 4 on the ground music and it might have labored nonetheless, however it will have been totally different.

Watch Europe’s Video For ‘The Final Countdown’

There’s a narrative that is circulated through the years that Europe was provided “Look Away,” a music which was finally recorded by Chicago, whilst you had been engaged on the Out of This World album.
Yeah, there’s perhaps two totally different accounts [of what happened]. But my recollection was that we had Ron Nevison producing. He had a contact at Epic Records who was floating round a Diane Warren music, principally. They had been checking if Ron had an artist. He was working with us on the time and he performed it for us on the tour bus. We listened to it and thought it was an excellent music. But we additionally had “Open Your Heart,” we had songs that had been in that very same type of vein. We felt like we wished to simply be writing our personal stuff. We had been type of adamant about that. We’ve by no means taken an out of doors music. We’ve all the time [written them on our own]. It’s been me or a couple of of us [working on them]. So that was most likely a part of the choice as nicely. We didn’t simply wish to take a music, simply to attempt to get a success. We wish to be a part of the method and write our personal stuff, so it feels prefer it belongs to us.