for Painkiller Mag
December 2004
Interview
1.How did you feel about last London gig? The crowd called you back twice. You came to London this time just for one single show? Who invited you to come?
Lissa the promotor for The Underworld at Camden invited us back for her 30th birthday because we're her favourite band or something. She's currently setting up a smaller tour in the UK; things are really starting to pick up there. This latest London show was even more successful than the previous one, which was also sold out. We all had a good time, maby a bit too good, as Fredrik had a little too much to drink before he went on stage and therefore had problem playing properly. But the audience didn't seem to mind, the rest of us made it work fine.
2.Mark replaced Gus to be the lead guitarist. Why Mark? Could you introduce him a little bit? His style of playing, his influence… Is he a songwriter? How do you compare his performance on stage with Gus, as I haven't seen Gus playing gigs?
Mark is very good and a technical player, but so was/is Gus. He hadn't really played with any successful bands before. I heard from a mutual friend when asking around that Mark is a super guitarist, so I just called him up and then went to see him perform live with a King Diamond tribute band. He's 34 years old or something like that and lives in a smaller town, an hour outside Gothenburg, a much more convenient distance than Thessaloniki, Greece where Gus lives. Haven't seen whether Mark got some song writing skills or not at this point.
3.Does Gus leave the band permanently? Since when has he considered to leave? Do you think the age gap is somewhat a reason?
Not really, he matured very fast and I rarely thought about the age difference when we were together, but maby that says more about me…ha ha! Just maby he wanted to take the Dungeons and Dragons cliché lyrics a bit more serious than the rest of us, which probably is a age thing, I used to love epic Manowar type of lyrics and believe in them when I was his age. If he left permanently, this 2nd time around he did yes, I respect his decision but I do miss him as a friend in the band now. We've been foolin' around with the concept of having Gus replacing Fredrik, and then Fredrik will play bass and we'll have 2 great lead guitarists. So if he left permanently or not, only time will tell.
4.You contributed most of the songs in The Book of Heavy Metal. I heard that you brought some 25 songs to the studio before recording. How come you being so energetic?
Simply because I wanted this album to be as good as a Dream evil album could possibly be. And writing songs is what I like doing the most.
5.Are you serious that the title song The Book of Heavy Metal [March of the Metallians] is written for Metallian.com?
No it's not. We added that subtitle for the shortened video version of the song but it has nothing to do with that site.
6.Is Fredrik's intention or everybody's idea to make the sound and style of guitar so rough and primal or say cliché throughout the album? Is it based on the aim to do a tribute to 80's metal?
The aim with Dream Evil is not to break new grounds or to be original, nor is it to make progressive music with deep profound lyrics. We're happy if we can make easy listening party metal that the listeners won't need a musical education to comprehend.
7.Niklas' voice is amazing. Has he taken any professional vocal training? How do you value his performance on this album, compared to the previous two?
Niklas is self-taught or you could say blessed with a great singing voice from birth and has never taken any lessons in vocal training whatsoever. I'm jealous. I think he managed to broaden his style of singing a little bit for this last album.
8.What is your purpose to invite so many guest musicians? I think the vocal made by Andy in the song No Way is tricky! How did you get that guy to do the Ozzy-like vocal? Is it Gus who writes this song? He is an Ozzy fan?
Fredrik and Gus wrote the music while I wrote the lyrics for that particular song. I don't think any of us are any more Ozzy fan than the other. To me the if sounded like it could have been a song from the Bark at the Moon period that had gone missing or something. So I wrote 3 different lyrics to that song, though my intention was trying to catch the characteristic Ozzy type of words, clichés like rock ´roll will never die and so on. This guy Andy from Hellfueled, we invited to spice the resemblance up a bit. It's almost spooky how much he sounds like Ozzy. To have guest musicians appearing on your album may have commercial aspects to it but that was never the case here, it was just for the sheer fun of it. We ran into Mats Olausson who was home in Gothenburg for the X'mas holidays and invited him down to the studio to do a little guest appearance. He is a phenomenal keyboard player to say the least but personally I was totally against having that much keyboards on that many songs, it made them more neo classical pompous sounding like Rainbow or Yngwie Malmsteen which is not what I thought we were setting out for on this album. We had even more guests but on songs that never made it unto the actual album, and there is also one less appearing than credited. The mysterious so-called 14-year-old diehard metal fan Råberra Axelsson doing the crazy outro solo on the title track, … Well, that was actually me.
9.Do songs titled Chosen Twice and Unbreakable Chain convey any consequent or contradictive message, when related to songs like The Chosen Ones and Break the Chain in previous albums?
Chosen Twice was at first just a joke and word play from my point of view, because I thought the vibe of the song reminded me of Chosen ones, and then we just kept it. I don't know if we can top that for a new album, Chosen Once or Frozen ice maby, I don't know. The chain songs have no relation as far as I can remember though, …maby I don't remember really. The funny thing about Unbreakable Chain is that Gus had had this idea for a song for some time, and him and me being diehard Scorpions fans, this song sounded very much like a mix of several of their ballads like some tribute to the old Scorpions. I came up with the title and wrote the words and initially I also designed the album cover, which was like a metallic plate with our logo hammered into it. Well anyway, all of a sudden The Scorpions having their come back and return to their heavier 80s style with a new album called Unbreakable, and a metallic cover very similar to the cover idea I had done. It's strange how things work sometimes.
10.Dream Evil is getting heavier and heavier each album. Do you think it's because your idea is involved more and more? …And how would you define Dream Evil's genre?
It think, in fact it has a lot to do with my involvement, sorry it's my fault. But I don't think we should overdo the heaviness with Dream Evil. I also wrote a bunch of softer, popier tunes for the album in the vein of Children of the night etc, but we decided to stick to the concept of the title and focus on a little heavier songs. On the other hand I wrote songs that were too heavy for Dream Evil and for Niklas' voice. I would say our style of music is Redneck Schlager Metal in the 80s vein with a healthy sense of humour.
11.Music in the "Book" is heavy but melodic. Where does your inspiration come from? Do you listen to other bands?
I used to of course, when I grew up but I sort of lost interest for contemporary bands in the mid 80s. I hardly listen to music at all nowadays and when I do it's mostly nice pop hits on the radio that I appreciate.
12.Your lyrics are more realistic each album. But M.O.M. seems too humorous. : Why doing a song like that and only giving a shortened title?
Century media had problem with that title for some reason, I bet they didn't understand that Man or Mouse is a very common English saying, so they decided to go with our abbreviation the way we usually put long song titles on the track sheet out of laziness or to save time writing it. It's been a conscious choice for my part to stray away from the so typical power/true metal fantasy lyrics with warriors, dungeons and dragons and go for a bit more realistic approach in the lyrics. Not that I really feel it's appropriate to deal with real serious topics on top of these kinds of songs. It still have to serve the purpose of getting away from the grey reality and daily grind and just have some fun for a little while.
13.I guess that today's Dream Evil is already not like what Fredrik imagined to be at the very beginning. Then what is your direction for the future? What is the next album gonna be like? You've already made "The Book of Heavy Metal". Haha…
Yeah, how can we possibly top that. We have some different ideas, but haven't really decided on a certain direction or concept at this point yet. We'll see what happens. Yeah, you're right, this may not be what Fredrik first envisioned for Dream Evil, if he did have any real plans beyond the first album, but then again The Book of Heavy metal is by far the most critically acclaimed and best selling out of the albums.
14.When you work with different bands like King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Notre Dame…and Dream Evil (I'm surprised to see you in Kee Marcello's K2), your level of involvement must be different. What are (did) you trying (try) to achieve personally with each band?
My involvement differs with every band, which also explains why I have left some of them. With Notre Dame I did everything while with K2 I only play drums basically. What I try to achieve? Some sort of satisfaction I guess.
15.At the beginning of Dream Evil, you only agreed to be hired as a session drummer. Then you became a full-time member. After only there years you wrote most of the band's songs and even did the digital photo edit. I'm wondering how Dream Evil has changed you? It's magic.
I admit I have a tendency of taking over the band I'm in at the time because my passion and dedication most of the time exceeds the other members lukewarm attitude. I never really wanted to be in someone else's band and just play drums. How dream Evil has changed me? It actually made me appreciate playing live again and how much fun it can actually be being on the road. I somehow got sick of touring at a point and tried to avoid it as much as possible. When I was in Mercyful fate and they called me up to say there was a massive European tour coming up, I just felt, fuck, I hate this shit and quit, I had felt unhappy for quite some time though. And that is something many people would have killed for! It wasn't a case of stage fright or anything like that, I just felt that I needed to accomplish and create something on my own; otherwise I couldn't see the point in it. I felt that I neglected my own creativity and it made me miserable. With Notre Dame we only played sporadic live shows up until this year when it became a bit more frequent, because I enjoyed it again and that I can thank Dream Evil for.
16.Which artist/album brought you into heavy metal? When did you start to play drums? And I find you multi-talented. Playing drums and guitars, which started first? And can we hope to hear more than just narrations from you on Dream Evil CD? I mean you sing.
I'm doing some backing vocals here and there on the album, the narration like you say and the high pitched Metal screams on The Book of Heavy Metal. I listened to Sweet, Nazareth and Deep Purple and so on when I was a kid but it wasn't until I discovered KISS Destroyer when I was 8 years old that music became that important. It had a huge impact on me and still has, but it has just as much to do with their awesome superhero/ larger than life image as with their music. At the time I was too young to sort it out though, but that fantastic album changed by life forever and shaped my whole perception of what being a rock band should be like...as you can clearly see with Dream Evil's new look. After about 2 years of total obsession I felt cheated and lost all interest in KISS and started listen a lot to Thin Lizzy and later on AC/DC, but nothing really had such a life changing impact on me as KISS until Manowar. I had developed an interest for drums because of Peter Criss who had the coolest drumset, but when I first picked up the drums when I was 12 -13. I was more into Swedish Pop and Punkrock bands. Later I realized it was complicated writing your own songs on drums so I would take the guitar out of the guitarist's hand trying to show him what I meant the song should sound like. And from there on I developed gradually. I sometime regret that I didn't go for singing instead but what's done is done.
17.You seem to love making up. I'm surprised to see the band in the booklet and the video dressing up like THAT but playing such primary music. Are you influenced by KISS or King Diamond (the person)?
Like I said earlier KISS changed my life, just like I think they changed King´s.
18.Seen from your Web site that you have just announced to stop your band Notre Dame. What is the reason? How long have you considered to break it up? Is Dream Evil your only band now?
No, it isn't. I already have a new project that I'm currently writing music for, music that will complement what I did record almost 2 years ago. I'm very excited about this, and this is exactly the kind of music that I have felt like doing for some time. For the last couple of years Notre dame have felt a bit like a burden because of all the bullshit with our record label etc. It feels good having cleaned out all the skeletons from my closet and to move on. Besides Dream Evil I'm also involved in K2, you know.
19.As Dream Evil comes up and Notre Dame goes down (to your priority), does it suggest that you come into "happy" music and turn down the darkness and horror? How come you changing such a lot?
That's quite hard for me to answer. Maby I get more easily bored than other people, or another probable cause might be that unlike a lot of people doing half pace through their music life, I dive head first into something and the project becomes my whole being 24/7 and that probably means that I grow tired of it quicker as well. From the outside it may seem like I'm doing wild drastic manoeuvres when in reality it's not that strange at all. I will try my best to explain how this works for me. In my life I have always liked a lot of different music styles, sometimes more and sometimes less in different periods, but one doesn't exclude the other, I like some of it just as much. And while doing a certain project I have use for a specific set of influences, and those moods, sounds and so on. For example with Dream Evil's melodic mid 80s metal, my love for Scorpions' music comes handy and also I have great use for my early Manowar obsession in the lyric department. While my Police, Rush or Plastic Bertrand influences for instance has absolutely nothing to do with Dream Evil and have to stand back for the time. So if the urge gets too strong to play that sort of style I must do that elsewhere. Of course I've tried to combine it all into just one band, I tried that to some extent with Notre Dame, but it's practically impossible without getting a totally schizophrenic result. A certain style requires a certain sound, and if the end result will be satisfactory is of course very much depending on the way it's done and recorded. So I figure, either I can be involved in a couple of bands or have a few projects going on simultaneously, but there's only 24 hours per day. For me it's amazing to see people playing the exact same kind of songs for decades without getting bored to death.
20.How has Sweden's metal scene changed from 80's till now? Did it experience the alternative revolution (Nirvana etc.) in early 90's?
Of course it did, all of a sudden everyone looked like wharf workers in flannel shirts and goatee. I didn't mind much though, it's good that things aren't static, and besides, the metal scene as far as I'm concerned had already went straight to hell and become a Las Vegas circus half a decade earlier anyway. I think Nirvana was an excellent band, although I always feel a bit of restriction at the height of a hype, the same as I felt with Guns n' Roses. I suspect I don't wanna be like everybody else.
21.Please compare your gigs in European Continent, UK and Japan. What are the differences between different people's feedback?
Don't know about other Asian countries but the fans in Japan are outstanding, exceptionally good. The gigs themselves differ very much from city to city within the same country all over the world. Depending I guess on how spoiled the crowd is with having good bands visiting their town.
22.What do you think of Labyrinth's performance on this London gig? You know Painkiller magazine invited them to Beijing in May this year and they played a cool gig. Would you like to come to China next time you do an Asian tour?
I'd really love to, but so far we haven't had any offers. Please invite us over and we'll be there. Unfortunately I didn't see their show though, I only heard the singers birdlike high pitch shrieks, amazing! It would make both King Diamond and Kate Bush green with envy. I talked to them backstage and so on though; they were very nice guys. I don't wanna sound arrogant but I rarely watch other bands at festivals or at our shows, even when we're the support act. In general I'm a lousy consumer, I just do my thing on my own terms with very little interest of what others do or what's in fashion or not. I rarely listen to my own music once it's done, for example I have never even listened to The Book of Heavy Metal album once it was finished.
23.Thanks for taking time to answer these. Please say something to your fans in China!
Didn't know I/we had any!? But I love you all the same, can't wait to get to play China. 2005 maby?