It’s a wintery Monday afternoon here in Chicago when Treat guitarist Anders Wikström graces my Zoom screen direct from the equally wintery Sweden. It is now well into the evening hours in the land of ABBA. Wikström sits in the comfort of his home studio with a big smile upon his face, and for good reason. Treat have just released their 10th studio album, The Wild Card, and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, it is as top shelf as their 9 previous albums. Yes, even in their “mature” years (a subject we touch on in this conversation), there’s no stopping this melodic hard rock juggernaut. In this brand new interview, Wikström reflects upon the band’s creative process, 20 years of Treat’s post-reunion run, and the late, great John Sykes.
Greetings Anders and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Anders Wikström: I’m fine! Thanks a lot for having me!
I’d say it’s a real “treat” to have you, but you’re probably sick of that pun.
AW: No, it’s fine! It’s real fun to speak to new people. I’ve done a lot of interviews lately *laughs*, but I’m good.
I’d like to start by congratulating you on yet another tremendous Treat album in The Wild Card.
AW: Thank you. I don’t say that we progressed that much these days *laughs*, but we keep the level of the quality of the songs and the production as high as we can. We do our best. People have a lot of expectations these days. The hardcore fans we’ve had from the start, they get used to that, “OK, there’s another Treat album coming.” They’re really waiting, so they’re really checking out everything about it. It feels good. The reactions and the response we’ve been getting has been tremendous. It just feels really, really satisfying for us as a band, to work that hard and get that kind of response.
How soon after 2022’s The Endgame did work get started on this one?
AW: For me, I write most of the material and the songs and all that. I never stop writing. That’s my method *laughs*. I’ve been a songwriter for a long, long time. I’ve written songs for a lot of artists. For the band, it starts pretty early after we release an album. I always have some ideas I complete, and I have ideas sitting around that I rework. I work on new stuff all the time. By the time I get the guys to make a decision to make another album, I’m prepared to work on an album already. It feels like I’m writing mostly all the time, but it doesn’t just come in chunks like that. I started this record in late ’22, beginning of ’23, something like that, and kept on working.
Last summer, I had a lot of songs, more than we actually recorded. We made the decision to make another album while we were doing the Monsters of Rock Cruise. We were in Florida, in Miami. We sat down, had lunch one day, and said, “You guys, you wanna make another album? You up for it?” *laughs* Everybody said, “Oh, let’s see here. Do we have any songs?” “Yeah, I have plenty!” *laughs* Then, the process starts. It’s a long process and everybody gets involved with the songs, but usually, I have to be the one who actually comes up with the proposal for the rest of the guys. It worked for us!
Has there ever been a case in Treat’s career where you’ll be working on a song, but ultimately decide to shelve it for a future album?
AW: Oh yeah! We’ve done demos like that. There’s been songs sitting around for years *laughs*. Actually, a couple of albums back, we had a couple songs. At the same time, same with the last album. We had a couple of songs that were leftover. I don’t know where they’re gonna end up later on, but they’re really good. We actually have finished songs, mixed and mastered, that didn’t see the light of day. It really comes down to the fact that we have a very democratic way of choosing and picking the songs on an album. That’s the way we’ve been keeping this band together for all these years. It’s a good way, and it works for us.
We have a grading system from 1 to 5. Everybody hears all the demos and you have to grade it from 1 to 5. The songs with the biggest results get on the record *laughs*. That’s the way we rock. I have to kill my darling sometimes. It might not be favorite, all of them, but I do respect the way that we work. Everybody gets happy and everybody has to be behind it 100%. For us, it works. Luckily enough, we have enough songs to fill a record that’s good enough *laughs*!
Was there anything the band did differently when writing and recording The Wild Card as opposed to past Treat albums?
AW: Not really. The way we work these days, we have a producer guy called Peter Mansson that works with us. He’s been involved with the band for 15 years. He’s also touring with us these days as our front of house sound engineer. He’s been helping out with production. He started out on the Coup de grâce album. He mixed half of that record, and we got him involved in the next one, Ghost of Graceland. Since then, we are a team of 5 members in the band and him, so it’s actually a 6 piece band, you can say. His opinion, his objectivity towards the band, is very, very important to get the ball rolling. He’s also the guy with all the technical know-how, and he’s the best studio engineer I know. He mixes a lot of records over here, a lot of songs for a lot of artists. He’s also a musician, and he knows exactly what we’re doing, so his opinion and his input is as important as anybody else in the band, which has brought us to a working method.
We start out in a bigger studio to get the right drum sounds. Then, we move onto a small studio, our producer’s studio, to do all the vocals. I have a studio at home, which I’m in right now, so I’m working a lot of guitars and backing vocals. That’s the way that you do it, but we always start out the old, traditional way together and cut backing tracks. We believe that’s a way also of kicking the project into motion and it feels like now we’re rolling, instead of sending each other files, which is the normal way of doing it these days.
Which songs were your favorite to record on this album and why?
AW: There’s a couple of songs that are really, really energetic. I really like “Out with a Bang”. That’s a real energetic song to play. There’s a couple more. I do like a lot of them. “1985” is cool because it reminds me of our younger days *laughs*. Even the whole arrangement and way we did it flirts with that, but there’s a lot of songs. I really like “One Minute to Breathe”. That’s a great song to me. It’s really dynamic and has a lot of texture to it. I’ll not only lay down the guitar…there’s a lot of solos and stuff going on. In some songs, there’s no solos. It depends on what I think the song needs and what suits the song good, but there’s a couple of songs I really liked playing.
One of the key songs on this album is “1985”, which just so happens to be the year Treat released their debut album, Scratch and Bite. When you look back at that era now, 40 years ago, what memories immediately come to mind?
AW: That whole year was a very different experience for us. We came from a rehearsal room and we released two singles. We got some support tours with W.A.S.P. and bands like that over here in Sweden. We recorded an album. We produced it ourselves. We didn’t know shit, to be quite honest with you *laughs*. We had an engineer and we actually had a couple of good songs on there. Then, it went boom in Sweden. It just broke. Some of these albums do that. We never expected it, but we did something right at the right time. A band like Europe was the only band existing doing the same kind of stuff, but no one else, so we came like a fresh breathe of air into the room.
That whole year was a very, very fun memory for me. Everything was new. Everything was the first time. We broke attendance records in Sweden in several places that still stand today. We played everywhere. We were all over Scandinavia, but only in Scandinavia, for a start. We played every little city there is. In that time, that was really important. There was no internet. There was nothing to spread the word other than just go out and play, play the cities. *laughs* It’s really hard rootwork, to say the least. It gave us a position that we had something to do and work further on. That whole year was a really, really good year for us at home. I came from nothing. I could quit my little shitty day job I had and go play for a living *laughs*. I was happy.
Your guitar playing has always reminded me of the late John Sykes. Did you ever cross paths with John back in the day?
AW: Yeah, I did. Good question, I should add. I met John in 1983, for the first time, in Sweden. He played with Phil Lynott on a solo tour. That was actually after his stint with Thin Lizzy. They were breaking up, Thin Lizzy, and Phil had a solo tour in the summer in Sweden. He brought a band with him and John was in the band. They played in Stockholm and stayed in Stockholm. I met him several times, actually, during that tour. He invited me and another guy in a band at that time, the other guitar player, to a show outside of Stockholm. I saw him several times. I actually talked to him.
I actually stood onstage with him, checking his guitar gear *laughs*. That’s a true story! We were together with this other guy. “What do you think about this amp here?” It’s true. I had met him. I really, really liked him. In Whitesnake, I think he was amazing. I liked him already in Thin Lizzy. I can only imagine what Whitesnake would’ve been if they had kept those two (David Coverdale and John Sykes) together a bit longer. They would’ve been the biggest band in the world! He was such a guitar hero for that time. He was like a cartoon, and he was also a great player.
I’ve said that same sentence for years: Had they been able to do another Whitesnake ’87, they really could’ve been the biggest band in the world.
AW: Sure! It was such a shame. I don’t know the story behind it, but for me as a fan of the band, I would’ve loved it. I saw them. They played this TV show in Sweden on the Slide It In Tour. John was in the band, and Jon Lord and Cozy Powell. This lineup was amazing. I saw them live playing in a small ballroom that was televised. They were amazing! Seeing them that close instead of seeing them in a hockey arena. I remember John was playing so loud. The TV people went nuts! They were screaming like, “Ahh!” *covers ears*, the cameramen and everything. They were going crazy, and he was like, “I’m putting everything up to 10!” *laughs* He wasn’t taking any criticism. He was like, “I do what I do, you do what you do, OK?” *laughs* That’s rock n’ roll! It goes to 11, you know? *laughs*
Something you and John both had in common was coming up in that era of the guitar hero, so to speak. Who was yours?
AW: There were 3. The first one that I really, really adored, and I think I nicked a lot of licks from him over the years, is Michael Schenker. I actually got to play with him. We played the same show in Madrid in Spain a couple years back, and I actually got to hang. I could stand beside him onstage, watching the whole show. He was amazing. I talked to him and we took pictures and everything afterwards. He’s one of my childhood idols, but I also love Gary Moore. I think he was amazing. That tone, that kind of bite he had, was amazing.
And Eddie Van Halen: He changed my world, but mostly for his rhythm playing. He was an amazing rhythm player, the way he handled everything, his timing and everything like that. His soloing was a little spaced out sometimes, but his technique was so unique in a way. He invented stuff, which is really taking it further. That’s why he is such a legend today. I really, really loved him, the way he played. These three people are my heroes. Sometimes, I hope I can get a little bit close to any one of them *laughs*. I’m not sure, but as long as you have those guys to listen to, you can work on your stuff. I still do rehearse. I still do a lot of exercises and stuff. I have to at my age. I’m still as fond of guitar playing as I was when I started.
Next year will mark 20 years since Treat first got back together to play Sweden Rock Fest. What has been different about this second go-around as opposed to the band’s original run in the ’80s and early ’90s?
AW: When you reminded me that it’s 20 years since we reunited the band, it’s like, “What?!” We never planned that at all. We did a compilation record that Universal put out in 2006 and we said, “Yeah, let’s do a couple of shows. Maybe we can get on the Sweden Rock Festival and some other places. That should be it.” Here I sit 20 years later with 5 albums down *laughs*. I’m like, “What happened?!” The difference, and the reason we’ve kept together for such a long time, is we’ve been captains of our own ship for a long time. When we started up, after Scratch and Bite, and we came up to The Pleasure Principle and Dreamhunter, we started going out in Europe touring. We did Monsters of Rock. We did stuff like that. We had management. People were trying to push us really hard. “You gotta breakthrough big now! You gotta do that!” It was pressure for me, as a still young guy, I was only 22 years old at that time, to come up with stuff. We always had that hanging over us. “You can’t be the newcomer. You have to do that.”
Management, and the pressure from that, in an era where a lot of melodic hard rock was topping the charts with all the Bon Jovis and Def Leppards and everything like that, this was something that people saw as a commodity. It became something that I don’t really like. I do like writing great songs, but the pressure of succeeding, I can’t really control that. It’s up to people if they really like it and if they wanna buy the records. This time around, when we started out, we did it for the reason that we just want to make great music and keep together as long as we feel this works. So far, it’s been good.
We have our differences, sure. Personalities, sure. But we’ve learned to live with them and we learn to accept them for what they are. As long as we can go up there as such and be happy about that one and a half hour, the band is fine. That’s what it is. It keeps you young, it does! The music, what you do, you have to deliver. You have to be on top of your toes. You have to get up there and do the shows and prepare for this. It’s a good thing for you. I’m 60 this year. For me, it’s something I don’t feel like that. I don’t feel at all *laughs*. For me, that was an old fart when I was young, but I don’t feel it. I feel like a kid still! It’s a good thing. Music keeps you young.
Not only has Treat been going stronger than ever this century, but with 4/5ths of the classic lineup intact, which speaks volumes in an era where other bands of your era are currently touring with one original member, or in some cases, none! What is Treat’s secret to maintaining a happy and healthy band chemistry?
AW: I think what I just said. We have to accept each other’s personalities. We make fun of each other because we’re so different, but when it comes to music, we’re on the same wavelength, which is really important. It’s not like, “I want to do a disco record now. I want to go country.” It’s not like that. Everybody sees this as a holy unit. We do what we do and we’re proud of it. If somebody wants to do something else, they’re free to do it with other projects, and people do. For Treat, we keep our trademark and brand as it is. Enough people love it as it is, and we did some changes in the sound and all that when we came back in 2010 with Coup de grâce. We took it a notch further there because there was a lot of music coming out over the years that influenced as well. Like I said, you have to accept peoples personalities, and try to avoid situations where we actually could start arguing over shitty things that don’t matter anyways. That’s the thing. As long as we can keep that, that’s fine.
In hindsight, Coup de grâce was a bit heavier and more metallic than usual by Treat standards. Was that a conscious effort or rather a natural evolution?
AW: I think it has both sides. It’s got very melodic songs on it, and there’s some heavier stuff as well. The songs came natural. When I started working on it, it took me a while to get that album together because I also produced it. I had to work a lot with other people. I had to do all the vocal production on my own. The album itself has a lot of great pillars, a couple of songs that the album stands on. There’s actually a couple of songs on that record I think we should not have released, to be quite honest. I think it’s a little too long, but in retrospect, the album was so very welcomed by our fans, and in some cases, new audiences as well. It did really good. It did better than we expected. It took us somewhere. I’m really proud of it.
I think it was a really important album for the band. It was a comeback album. You can’t do a comeback album twice. That’s why some people say it is the best Treat album, because it was fresh when it came. Nobody had any expectations. After it, people had expectations. It’s a psychological thing. Ghost of Graceland is a great record if you listen to it today, but it got a little bit sidestepped that everybody loved Coup de grâce. When people talk back to me today, they say “I listened to that record (Ghost of Graceland) and it’s great. It has some great songs on it.” The style, we didn’t consciously try to change anything. We just tried to make it a little more interesting for the time being, 2010. We stopped making records in ’92. There’s a couple years in between there to listen to a lot of stuff coming through the speakers and everywhere.
Over the course of Treat’s 40+ year career, the band has only played one proper American show, and taht was at the 2018 edition of Melodic Rock Fest in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Realistically, do you think Treat will ever play America again, and has there been discussion of such?
AW: Yeah. We had discussions afterward, but the thing is, somebody’s gotta invite us to do it. There’s gotta be some promoter that says, “I really wanna take you out.” To just do it on our own without knowing anyone, I don’t know. We’ve gone down to the Monsters of Rock Cruise. There’s a lot of American people on those cruises. It’s great. The last time was amazing. We’ve packed house and everything. That’s been good, but to actually play in America, we’ve been having that dream for a whole career! It’s not that easy for a band like us to do that if you don’t get a proper invitation or offer to do so. If we can, we will!
I’ve told the FM guys this story. When you played that festival, I was 19 years old. It was about 30 minutes away from me, and I was seriously contemplating getting a fake ID just to catch it! I slap myself now for not doing so.
AW: *laughs* We’d love to come back. I’ve talked to some other people. There’s people in Los Angeles, for example. “You gotta play the Whisky!” We were talking about it actually because some collegaues of ours here in Sweden have done it recently, so why wouldn’t we? If there’s a possibility, we will.
In closing, what does 2026 have in store for Treat?
AW: We’re not playing any shows this year as the album just came out and it’s late and it’s Christmas soon. We’re actually starting the tour in April and we start in Japan this time. We go to Japan for two really good shows. We’ve been to Japan several times over the years. This is probably the biggest headlining tour we’re doing. Even though it’s a few show, the places we’re playing are pretty big. It’s gonna be really fun. The album has been getting a very well response in Japan. We have a lot of fans that have been with us since…we did our first tour of Japan in 1990, so we’ve been there 5 times. There’s a lot of fans there who really like the band still. I’m really excited for that.
We’re planning a lot of shows all over Europe. We’re gonna do a lot of festivals in Sweden. We’re gonna do Sweden Rock. We’re gonna do a couple of other big festivals over here in the summer. We’re gonna continue over the summer. In Europe, we’re gonna play different places. We’re actually planning a tour right now. It’s not really finalized yet, but we’re working on the last details to get out there. We have a really solid following in Germany, Spain, and countries like that, so we’re gonna go there. Hopefully, what we are trying to do is also to get the band to places we’ve never been to like Latin America, Australia, if possible. There is a significant interest for that, but we’ll see. And the US, of course, would be my #1 because I believe that we have fans in the US! Checking out our stats for the listeners in the US, it increases everyday! It’s getting better and better and better! *laughs*
The new Treat album, The Wild Card, is available now on Frontiers Records. For more information on Treat, click here.