Ian Haugland of Europe – Artists With Adam

Ian Haugland: Forty Years Behind the Kit

Ian Haugland has been the drummer in Europe since 1984, which means he played on The Final Countdown and every record the band has made since. He sits down with Adam Pressman to talk about Come This Madness, the band’s twelfth album and first in nine years, out September 25 on Silver Lining Music.

Episode Highlights

• Two weeks of pre-production with producer Tom Dalgety before a single take, though Ian says Europe is a well greased machine anyway after touring almost continuously through the nine year gap.
• Four favorites off the new record: the two released singles “One on One” and “The Cult of Ignorance,” plus “Scandinavian Eyes,” which arrives as a single one week before the album, and a ballad whose title he blanks on live before recovering it as “This Time of Year.”
• No special studio setup for the drums. Ian used the same early 2000s Yamaha kit and Paiste cymbals he tours with, then handed Mike Fraser completely free hands on the mix because the band knew it would come back kicking.
• On Joey Tempest’s voice forty years on, and Adam’s read that Joey and Ian Gillan have grown toward each other rather than apart.
• The band’s move toward blues roots traces back to Last Look at Eden. He calls this album the best of both worlds: 70s British hard rock feel wrapped in 80s melodic thinking and a modern mix.
• Twenty six years at Rockklassiker in Stockholm, every shift from morning show to weekends, and the line that defines it: he never felt like he went to work one single day.
• Why he loves playing The Final Countdown: it is like pushing a button and thousands of people go happy at once, so being bored of that would make no sense.
• The origin story, told first hand. Joey wrote on the road and brought cassette demos to the tour bus every weekend, and Ian first heard The Final Countdown on a demo tape in Joey’s car and knew immediately it was something else.
• The Europe documentary is finished and fully edited, held only by outlet negotiations.
• The tour opens mid October in the UK and Europe with the full Final Countdown album played live, and not one American date. Ian’s message to US fans: keep the faith, we have spent way too little time in America and we are working on it.

Come This Madness

Out September 25, 2026 on Silver Lining Music. Europe’s twelfth studio album and first in nine years, recorded at RMV Studio in Stockholm, produced by Tom Dalgety and mixed by Mike Fraser.

Pre-order the Album | europetheband.com | “One on One” video | “The Cult of Ignorance” video