Introduction
Black Oak County formed in Denmark in 2012. They have blended classic rock with metal and grunge. This mix creates a unique signature sound. With a diverse discography and thrilling live performances the band have built quite the following!
They have released three studio albums with the most recent “III” being released in 2024. They have also worked with Grammy-nominated producer Jacob Hansen. It’s fair to say their sound is only becoming more refined and brilliant.
For Fans Of – Scarlet Rebels / Shotgun Revolution / Bad Touch
Interview
What was it like Niels left? What was it like when he returned?
Black Oak County – Niels leaving the band at that critical time was definitely a punch in the gut. We auditioned singers and tried to find our footing for a long time, but once we realized René was our ideal new singer, we got right back on track with Theatre of the Mind.
Honestly nothing has changed much prior to Niels leaving and compared to now when he’s back in the band. We’re still the same four guys playing music together, and Niels’ decision to leave wasn’t personal.
Do any of you collect Lego? If so what is the most impressive piece in your collection?
Black Oak County – René is a huge Star Wars fan, and has a few Lego sets – the biggest being the Millennium Falcon! Mike has a few sets too, and Niels even used to work for the Lego Group when we started the band!
René spent our entire German tour browsing used Lego Castle sets on Facebook marketplace.
What is the story about your new single ‘Fire Inside’?
Black Oak County – The song is based on an idea of Jack’s. He suffered a big personal loss around the time we wrote the song, and wrote a snippet of lyric for the song, along with the riffs.
We then took these snippets to our producer Nicklas Sonne, who helped us piece the snippets into a song, with Niels and René sharing the vocals.
Any plans to tour the UK?
Black Oak County – We are in contact with festivals around performances in England, and can’t say much, other than we’re dying to play for our fans across the pond!
Your sound is fairly unique , how did you come up with it? I sense some metal,classic rock and grunge in there!
Black Oak County – We all have very different tastes in music, and it’s a combination of all our individual preferences, what we’re listening to at the time, etc.
Our style has evolved a LOT from the first album, through the second and now for III, as we’ve grown older, our taste in music has changed, and we’ve started working with a producer as well!
Honestly, we love all sorts of music from classical, classic rock, pop and death metal. But we’re glad it shows in our music!
Which Danish bands do you look up to? And have you ever met any of them ?
Black Oak County – Dizzy Mizz Lizzy was a particular big inspiration for René, and we’ve played with Danish national heavyweights D:A:D way back.
The music scene is big in Denmark, but once you start getting your foot in the door you realize everybody knows everybody! So in some way, shape or form we’ve met and worked with a lot of people, including Grammy nominated producer and Invocator frontman Jacob Hansen; we even shared his studio with Volbeat, D:A:D and Dizzy Mizz Lizzy while recording our albums.
We really admire our friends in Kellermensch, who played massive festivals including Roskilde Festival, Rock Am Ring, touring the UK, and much, much more. And of course Volbeat: we’re really proud that a Danish band can tour the world, top of the bill, and makes us think there might be a place for us on the global music scene as well!
Who is pretty pistol about ?
Black Oak County – René wrote the song after watching a tv special on sugar-dating. He was so appalled by the whole concept, that he wrote the lyric in an instant.
If you could cover a non-rock song , what would it be and why?
Black Oak County – Great question! We always thought it would be fun to cover the legendary Danish euro dance act Aqua in some way! Maybe a song like Around the World or something like that, who knows!
Whats the best venue you have ever played a show at ?
Black Oak County – That’s hard to say: we’ve played tiny clubs with people crawling up the walls during the show, and have played some of the biggest venues in Denmark like Amager Bio and Vega – but honestly, we’re having a great time on stage as long as the crowd is down the front! We’d play a Tesco Parking Lot if people came!
Following on whats the best food you have had on tour ?
Black Oak County – We’ve had some amazing food in venues all over. We had some amazing schnitzel when playing our first ever German festival, Sicking High Rock back in June!
Rock/Paper or Scissors ?
Black Oak County – Paper! No… Rock, of course!
Where did the name of the band come from ?
Black Oak County – We were going by the name Great White Buffalo before, but when we signed with our record label, Mighty Music, we were informed we had to change the name due to issues with trademarks. After a brainstorm, we settled on Black Oak County. Our local county insignia has a large tree included, and we wanted our band and music to represent the other side of the coin of our daily lives.
If you could pick one of your songs as your favourite , which song would it be and why ?
Black Oak County – You’ll get a different answer from all of us!
René: Back For Blood, as it’s just a freaking banger! It’s a lot of fun to play, and I love the interplay between Niels and I!
Mike: The Bogeyman. It’s the first song we wrote, and I just love to play that double kick pattern live.
Jack: I can’t pick a favorite, it’s like picking your favorite child!
Niels: I love If You Only Knew, it was really personal to me when we wrote it, and the first song of ours to soar past 1.000.000 streams on Spotify! But right now, I love playing Boom Boom Baby live; the energy is just through the roof!
Where was you when you saw the inspiration for boom boom baby ?
Black Oak County – Jack had written the main riff, and while writing the new album, the riff caught Niels’ ear. The melody for the chorus came while listening to the riff, and we pieced together the song based on the vocal hook.
Boom Boom Baby isn’t really a song about anything, but it’s a fun party song based on an experience of a friend of Niels’ at a party almost 20 years ago!
It’s a song about a few men represented by the voices of Niels and René, drunk as a skunk and making a move on someone at the party: only for the listener to realize by the final verse and chorus that the fair maiden of the story isn’t in fact a lady at all.
Let us know what you thought to the interview with Black Oak County!
All the rights to the songs in this interview belong to Black Oak County. This site claims no rights over them. The photos used were provided by Black Oak County and were taken by Rasmus Alenkær.
Fox Reviews Rock 
Let Fox Reviews Rock know what you think!