“Stay”, the new video from Mike Tramp, can be seen below. The clip shows the former WHITE LION singer in total isolation, living the life of a forest worker in the beautiful Scandinavian woods.
Says Mike: “With this video, I’m opening a new chapter and taking one step further towards being who I am, and distancing myself even more [from] the past. All the packaging [has] been shaved off and it’s just me being me.”
“Stay” is taken from Tramp’s latest solo album, “Nomad”, which was released in August 2015 via Target Records. The follow-up to 2014’s critically acclaimed “Museum” was Mike’s fourth release for Target.
According to a press release, “Nomad” sees Tramp “complet[ing] what he calls his trilogy on his journey to show who he is and where he stands. With ‘Nomad’, Tramp reaches the final step on the ladder he started climbing (with ‘Cobblestone Street’), with a full band album, from first to last song.”
Said Tramp: “Without the no-compromise [approach] on ‘Cobblestone Street’ and ‘Museum’, I would never have found my way home to ‘Nomad’. Each previous album gave me the freedom to follow the songs wherever they wanted to go, and with ‘Nomad’, my vision was clear as a bell. Once again, I just had to be who I am.”
Mike in February 2015 once again squashed any rumors of a WHITE LION reunion, claiming guitarist Vito Bratta had no desire to play music.
“A WHITE LION reunion is impossible,” Mike told the Jakarta Globe. “Bratta has shown a negative response [to the idea]. He stopped playing guitar, stopped recording; he is just not interested in music anymore.”
Tramp’s last attempt to revive WHITE LION resulted in the 2008 album “Return Of The Pride” with new members Jamie Law on guitar, bassist Claus Langeskov, drummer Troy Patrick Farrell and Henning Wanner on keyboards.
“I really love the album but it’s just not the sound of WHITE LION,” Tramp told Hot Metal back in 2012. “I never really wanted to record under the name of WHITE LION again because so much of the sound and the songwriting came between Vito and I.”
He continued: “Writing a new album is not sitting there and baking bread. The idea has to come to you. That works well when it’s Mike Tramp writing new songs. But WHITE LION has restrictions. It’s known for an image, for a sound and so on. You’re limited already and that’s tough when you go in to do that. I don’t want to be that as a songwriter. Then it becomes a pre-fabricated product, then you get KISS. That’s not what I want to do in this case.”
Tramp went on to say: “There’s a big difference between going up and playing classic WHITE LION songs and presenting new WHITE LION songs. WHITE LION isn’t there. The sound of WHITE LION when it came to songwriting was Vito Bratta and Mike Tramp. That can’t be changed and that will never happen again.”
Tramp will make a number of festival appearances with his band during the summer, including Sweden Rock, Jelling and Nordic Noise, just before he embarks on a massive solo tour around the U.S., culminating with a performance on the Monsters Of Rock cruise.
Source: Blabbermouth