BiB: Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquility): Swedish Grammy Wins, Bus Rides with In Flames, and 13 Albums!

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Bring it backwards.

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Bring it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. What is

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going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringing It Backwards, a podcast

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where both left. Legendary and rising artists tell their own personal

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stories of how they achieve stardom. On this episode

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we had a chance to hang out with Mikael of the band Dark

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Tranquility over Zoom video. Mikael was

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born and raised just outside Gothenburg in Sweden

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and talks about how he got into music. Mikael first became in love

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with music when he started to see different metal bands from the 80s

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on television. He also had a group of friends on his

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street who all ended up forming Dark Tranquility.

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But they're all fans of music and started to like heavier and

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heavier bands. He talked about cassette trading as a way of learning

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about new bands and discovering new music. Mikael talked about

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forming Dark Tranquility. He has some wild stories about this

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bus line that they would take. He lived in the suburbs of Gothenburg and they

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would take this bus to go into town and like

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guys from in flames and at the gates would jump on the bus and it

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was all, all of them hanging out. Mikael also sang on the first demo and

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the first album for In Flame. So he tells us all about that

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and Dark Tranquility is getting ready to put out their

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13th full length studio album.

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But he gets into the major milestones of the

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band, one particular from around

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1994. And then he tells us about how the band won

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a Swedish Grammy in 2020 and how weird it

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was going to the Grammy Awards, having to be social distanced and

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texting the other band members that they won because the whole band wasn't allowed

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to go to the the ceremony. But then he gets into this new

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album and the differences going into this album

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versus the other 12 without anders

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as the drummer. But the new album from Dark Tranquility

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is called End Time Signal. So check that out and

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check out the video version of this interview on our Facebook page and

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YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It'd be amazing if you subscribe

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to our channel like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram,

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Twitter and TikTok at Bringing Back Pod. And if you're listening

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to this on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts,

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up with a five star review. We'd appreciate your

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support if you follow and subscribe to our podcasts. Wherever you listen to

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podcasts, we're bringing. It backwards with Dark

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Tranquility. Hey, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. How are

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you? I'm fantastic. I appreciate doing this. Awesome.

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Thank you. My pleasure. I'm Adam, by the way. Nice to meet you.

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I'm Mikael. Nice to meet you. Cool. Well, this is about

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you and your journey in music and we'll talk about the

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new album you have coming out. Yeah, couple months.

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Yeah. Sweet. Awesome. Awesome. All right.

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Well, I always start off with kind of your. Your personal origin story. So, like,

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where. Where were you born and raised?

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20Km outside of Gothenburg. Place called Bildal, which is.

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Yeah. Kind of like a suburb along the coast of the west coast

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of Sweden. Oh, very cool. Down south. So were

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you fairly close, like the water and everything down there? Yeah, a couple of

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minutes away. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. And then

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lived in this kind of newly built street, at least

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when we moved there in the mid-70s. And

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that's where I met all my friends back then. And that's where

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we started the band. We lived on the same street. No way.

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Okay. That's awesome. As far as music goes, like, you come from

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a musical household or like a creative family.

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I mean, sure, I listened to my parents records,

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but it was mostly, yeah, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix,

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Tom Jones, that kind of stuff.

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But it's more when I kind of discovered heavy metal through.

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Actually it was kind of TV. So in mid-80s in

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Sweden, it became kind of like a thing to

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show off the horrors of this new heavier

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rock. That was kind of, you know, WASP and Twisted Sister,

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bands like that. And there was big kind of,

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you know, upheaval among parents. They were like, oh, are

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kids gonna listen to this horrible music? You know, that is

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leading them into depravity and whatever. And. And

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of course, that made us love it even more. And so

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isn't that funny how like, every time, you know, your parents, like, oh, we can't

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have them listen, you're just so much more intrigued. You're like, oh,

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even further, of course, like. So

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that was. Yeah. And then some and then. But it still wasn't kind of, you

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know, super, super interesting. It was more kind of, you know, fun. And there was

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always kind of like, either you're into kind of synth or you're into

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metal, you know, and that was the big kind of thing. At least in. In

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our part of Sweden,

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you got beat up if you're not into metal. And you beat up the

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metal kids if you. If they're into. Not into synth, you know,

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Depeche Mode and craft Valk. Math. Like that.

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But I loved them both. I loved everything that was

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kind of different from what was regularly played on radio.

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So I was drawn to kind of the heavier

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stuff. And of course it was Judas Priest and

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Maiden. And then, as per

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usual, someone has an older brother who is into something even

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cooler. And that was the case. A friend of mine,

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his older brother had some thrash metal albums, you know.

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And so I got to hear Creator for the first time, Larry

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EP. And this was in like 88 or something like that,

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87. And I was like, this is the coolest thing I've ever heard. Like, I.

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I never want to listen to anything else. This is it. I finally found

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this. And. And at the same time, there were a lot of us in that

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area and on our street and we just hung out listening to. Listening to

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music and. And that was it. Like, that's how we bonded. That's how we.

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Whenever we met, we just played music to each other that we had found, you

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know. And back then it was cassettes and vinyl records

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and demo tapes. So we started getting into tape trading

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with people all over Sweden and then all over the world just to find more

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music. Because there was only one record store or there were

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two, but there were one kind of more underground that. Where you can walk in

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and go, like, what should I listen to? What should I buy? And they were.

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You had to trust the guy, you know. Yeah, yeah, that kind of guy working

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there. So that was cool. But then getting

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into the underground and tape trading was where it really happened

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for us, where we discovered this incredible

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American bands like Atheists and Morbid angel and

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Nocturnus and stuff like that. And then even more obscure stuff

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from Germany and South America that we just loved.

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And it became everything. And at the same time, my

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friend Thomas Limberg, who's the singer for at the Gates,

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he lived, you know, on the other side of the street. And

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he was into fan scenes and he had started a fancy. So he

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got tons of stuff sent to him. So every day I would go over there

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and just listen to new music and new stuff that no

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one else had. And it was a fascinating insight into kind of the

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underground scene. And it made us want to be a part of it,

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you know. So eventually, you know, after a show, I think it was

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in late 88 here in

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Gothenburg, where Creator played. And it was the first time I seen kind of like

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a international band, you know, here. And it

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just blew my mind and I decided to form a band

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and we started the following year. So. So that was it. Like,

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it's just. Just. And it was, yeah, of course, like a huge impact on us

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when we were, you know, 14, 15 years old. As,

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you know, as. There's always something that kind of shapes your life when you're

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at your most kind of malleable or

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open to new ideas, or when you wish for something else than

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maybe what your parents had decided that you should do with your

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life, you know, it was an escape from the normality and

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like the. I don't know, like the. Yeah, the most obvious,

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you know. Sure. You played guitar, right? In dark tranquility in the beginning.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, like, instrument that you learned how to play.

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Me and Nicholas, who started a band, we just. We bought

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guitars and then we learned a couple of riffs and then we sat and tried

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to copy every record that we liked. And eventually we started writing

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our own material. And we asked the other guys who lived on the same street,

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basically, you know, a couple hundred meters away from each other. It's like, yeah, you.

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You play drums. You're the, you know, the most athletic, you know, strong

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guy. Anders had the longest hair and he. So he

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was going to sing and that was it. Like, just see

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if we can come up with it. And then I moved to a bigger house

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where we had a garage where we could practice. So we

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built our rehearsal room there. And then we just

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started. So, yeah, that was. It's just a matter of convenience,

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but also, like, how. How important that.

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That part of our lives was and how important music was at the time. Like,

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it was everything. Like, so.

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So what was fun was that there was a bus line that led

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from this suburb of Gothenburg into town,

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and we would always take the bus into town to kind of hang out, sit

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in the park, drink beer and bring a

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cassette player and play music to each other. And

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so I walked on, on the first stop, and me and Thomas went on. Then

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the next one was Anders, who's now In Flames, and the other guys from dt,

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and then a couple stops later, it was the guys from at the Gates

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and In Flames. And it was on the same bus line, you know,

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for 30 minutes into town, basically. And then we would just sit there and kind

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of, you know, just exchange, you know, music and experiences

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and talk about dreams of starting bands and doing.

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Yeah, something else than what we were doing. So it was a

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cool thing. Like, it was really kind of bonding,

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like a time of where we really got to know each other and

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also kind of start something that we thought was really cool. Not, of

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course, thinking that this would eventually be, like, considered a scene or

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an important sound or anything like that. It was just us having fun and kind

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of trying to impress each other with the music that we were making. You

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know, let's see if we can make a song that is as good or better

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than the other band, you know? Yeah, that was it. Yeah. Because

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at the time, I mean, even now, right,

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Gothenburg and Stockholm were our huge areas for

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like the death metal. A lot like death metal scene. I mean, like, so many

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bands are out of that. That area. I mean, were you

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like early on? Would you see. I'm trying to think some of the.

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Because it really started what, in like the 80s, right? Early 80s out there.

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Late, late 80s, I would say late 80s, early 90s. So. Early

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90s, yeah. So we started in 89 and then we had our first show

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in like 90, 91 and around the same time,

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like Inflame started late in 94

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and then at the gates around 93. So

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it was. But it was just. And the fun thing is

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like that same bunch of people, like everybody along

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that bus line and everybody I knew back then,

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we still hang out and we still kind of talk about those days, but also,

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you know, still hang out as we've been friends ever since. So it's. It's

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like I love how. How impactful that was to our lives.

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That even. Even the people who were just hanging out, maybe not in bands

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or they were in bands for a while, but then realized they wouldn't. But they

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went on to do something in music or

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in culture, you know, like one of our friends, she hosts like

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the big culture TV show. And one of the guys is a. A

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fantastic writer about metal and rock and hosts TV shows.

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So everybody went on to do something within the same kind of

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sphere, which is another testament to how

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impactful it was too. So nobody kind of grew up and went like,

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yeah, that metal thing, that was just a face. Yeah,

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it was never over for any of us. What's wild is

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like on that one bus line you have you just mentioned

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three bands that are such massive

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artists. Not only that, but like so influential to so many other

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bands. Like, and just they were more in the 30 minute bus line.

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Yeah, there were more to like the Hammerful guys lived during that bus line as

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well. And so. Yeah, it really

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was. And it's. Yeah, so it was pretty. Of course it would make

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perfect sense to us. That's how we kind of, you know, get to see each

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other. But. Yeah, but it's fun to think about. After all these years, the

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talent of everybody kind of in that same bus.

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You played in Flames didn't you? In the beginning, or are you saying on their

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demo or something? I sang on the demo on the first album. So it was

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just after we had recorded our first album, Sky Dancer, and

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I didn't want to play guitar anymore because I was horrible

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at it. So I started to sing instead. And then Inflame started

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at the same time and Jesper asked me if I wanted to join

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because they didn't have a singer. So I said, sure, I need the experience. And

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then. So I sang on that first album. I was never kind of like a

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full member or anything like that. We did two shows and that was it. And

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then they moved on to someone else and then eventually found Anders, who's still there.

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Okay, and you just stayed in. I mean, you were always in

228
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Dark Tranquility, right? The whole time. You never left the band. It was just. No,

229
00:14:26,010 --> 00:14:28,730
no, you just did that as kind of, what, like a favor to see, like,

230
00:14:28,730 --> 00:14:32,090
oh, I'll just get more. You know, kind of like. I just wanted them to

231
00:14:32,090 --> 00:14:35,620
get a demo, like to get a record deal. Because. Because I thought the sound

232
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on the demo sounded great. But then Jesper called me

233
00:14:39,220 --> 00:14:42,620
one day after they said. Or like a couple of days after they sent out

234
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their first demo and they said like, yeah, the first guy we sent it to

235
00:14:45,540 --> 00:14:48,100
loved it and want to release an album. Can you sing on it? And I

236
00:14:48,100 --> 00:14:51,900
was like, no, I don't want my first album as a singer to

237
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be another band, you know, not Dr. Quilty. But he said, I'll

238
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buy you beer. And I said then, okay. Like, all right. I guess.

239
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That became Lunar Strain. So. Yeah, so with. Because you said

240
00:15:05,710 --> 00:15:09,510
you wanted to help them get a record deal. Where was Dark Tranquility already? Kind

241
00:15:09,510 --> 00:15:13,350
of a bit. Yeah, we had already and everything. Yeah, we

242
00:15:13,350 --> 00:15:17,110
had already released our first album. So. Okay, so you're on Spine Farm and

243
00:15:17,110 --> 00:15:20,910
everything at that time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay. Wow. And even

244
00:15:20,910 --> 00:15:24,750
getting that first record deal where you guys just started off just playing. Well,

245
00:15:24,750 --> 00:15:28,590
like locally. And then how do. How does the fan base kind of just start

246
00:15:28,590 --> 00:15:30,990
build? Was it like a word of mouth? I mean, it's not like tape trading

247
00:15:30,990 --> 00:15:34,210
and all. That was a big deal back then. Nobody was still.

248
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So it was. Yeah, through kind of fan

249
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scenes, small magazines

250
00:15:42,450 --> 00:15:46,250
and. Yeah, sending out our demos and we made

251
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like an ep, you know, like two song, seven inch.

252
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And someone in Finland picked that up and Spineform Records wanted to sign

253
00:15:54,410 --> 00:15:57,450
us and we said, yeah, let's make a record. But we never thought we would

254
00:15:57,450 --> 00:16:00,870
do anything more than that. It Was just a matter of, like, if we have

255
00:16:00,870 --> 00:16:04,110
an album, we have done something, you know. And

256
00:16:05,150 --> 00:16:08,430
then that album kind of eventually

257
00:16:08,510 --> 00:16:12,310
reached Osmos Records in France and they

258
00:16:12,310 --> 00:16:15,710
wanted to release something and then some of them restarted. But

259
00:16:16,350 --> 00:16:19,630
it was strange. Like, none of us had any idea what to do because

260
00:16:19,950 --> 00:16:23,550
the death metal scene was tiny back then. There was not a lot of

261
00:16:23,790 --> 00:16:27,080
labels, there were not a lot of

262
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,880
opportunities. And, like, you didn't really know, like, could we get signed? We're

263
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,480
just a tiny little band here from. From Sweden. Like, there was no way we

264
00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,280
could imagine us, like, being on the same label

265
00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:41,720
as, you know, some of our heroes, you know, that was never even possible.

266
00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:44,760
Like, at the Gates was the first band to kind of get signed by,

267
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,840
what was it? Peaceville at the time. And that was the coolest thing in the

268
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,280
world. Like, you had. They had some of the coolest bands that we loved.

269
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So. So that was a big deal. And of course,

270
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like, it was all about. Kind of realized that, okay, maybe.

271
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,320
Maybe we can do that too, you know, maybe that's. That's possible, you know.

272
00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,600
And so it was. It was a really

273
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:11,080
interesting time. And then it was weird. Like in the mid-90s when we started,

274
00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,160
everybody released records and everybody was on tour constantly. All of a sudden, like, we

275
00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:19,000
didn't see each other anymore. We saw each other, like, at shows and sometimes at

276
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,610
festivals. And that's because you're all going your own

277
00:17:22,610 --> 00:17:25,530
ways. And as the bands get bigger, it's like, okay, we're going to be doing

278
00:17:25,530 --> 00:17:29,290
this. We're on this tour. On this tour. Yeah. What would

279
00:17:29,290 --> 00:17:33,090
you say, like, I mean, obviously getting signed and that really kind of kicks the

280
00:17:33,090 --> 00:17:36,890
band off and everything else? What would you say, like, another

281
00:17:36,970 --> 00:17:39,370
big kind of milestone that you can remember

282
00:17:40,650 --> 00:17:43,970
or like. Or what was like the next kind of stepping stone for the band?

283
00:17:43,970 --> 00:17:47,810
I think it was 94. We. We

284
00:17:47,810 --> 00:17:51,530
kind of had changed our lineup a little bit. We brought in Freddie once

285
00:17:51,530 --> 00:17:54,170
on a guitar, and I started to sing and

286
00:17:55,370 --> 00:17:59,010
we recorded the Gallery and at the same time, and we recorded that in

287
00:17:59,010 --> 00:18:02,850
studio. Fredman, who was kind of like a up and coming kind of

288
00:18:02,850 --> 00:18:06,610
studio, he recorded some metal buddies had recorded like a

289
00:18:06,610 --> 00:18:10,410
demo with a band called Ceremonial Oath that kind of splintered off into In Flames

290
00:18:10,410 --> 00:18:14,250
and Hammerfall. Later on they record a

291
00:18:14,250 --> 00:18:17,530
demo there and I hung out in the studio and I thought, you know, the

292
00:18:17,530 --> 00:18:21,370
guy who ran it was really cool and the sound was great. So. And then

293
00:18:21,370 --> 00:18:25,130
at the Gates recorded an EP there. We

294
00:18:25,130 --> 00:18:28,050
were like, okay, this is a cool studio now. We record There and then at

295
00:18:28,050 --> 00:18:31,850
the Gates and Influence recorded their next albums there. So

296
00:18:31,850 --> 00:18:35,610
then the Gallery, Just Erase

297
00:18:35,690 --> 00:18:38,330
and Slaughter the Soul came out the same year

298
00:18:39,700 --> 00:18:42,740
and all recorded in the same studio and kind of similar artwork and that kind

299
00:18:42,740 --> 00:18:46,220
of stuff. And it was kind of like, oh, now there's a scene. And we

300
00:18:46,220 --> 00:18:49,380
didn't think of it. We thought, you know, all the bands were very different and

301
00:18:49,620 --> 00:18:53,180
they are very much different. But at the time we tried our

302
00:18:53,180 --> 00:18:56,660
hardest to be different. And all of a sudden like we go on tour

303
00:18:56,660 --> 00:19:00,500
and I remember like going into the bathroom and

304
00:19:00,500 --> 00:19:03,300
I'm seeing this flyer on the floor and I go like, okay, you know, check

305
00:19:03,300 --> 00:19:06,430
it out. And there's like German band playing true

306
00:19:06,430 --> 00:19:10,270
Gothenburg death metal. I was like, what the. What's that? Like I had

307
00:19:10,270 --> 00:19:14,070
never heard that, you know, term before. And all of a sudden it became a

308
00:19:14,070 --> 00:19:17,870
thing like, yeah, that's the melodic death metal stuff

309
00:19:17,870 --> 00:19:21,470
is from Gothenburg and they all sound the same. They're all

310
00:19:21,550 --> 00:19:24,630
the kind of, you know, friends and playing the same studio. And of course most

311
00:19:24,630 --> 00:19:28,430
of that is true, but at the time we felt it was an

312
00:19:28,430 --> 00:19:32,030
insult, you know. Oh, I bet. Yeah. Wait a minute. We're trying

313
00:19:32,350 --> 00:19:35,950
hardest sound the same. Yeah, to be as original as we possibly can

314
00:19:35,950 --> 00:19:39,530
and like it's just part of the scene. Like everything's the same. Of course

315
00:19:39,530 --> 00:19:43,130
nobody thought that, but it felt like that. But that's one way

316
00:19:43,690 --> 00:19:46,810
those like 95, 96, like that, that changed

317
00:19:47,610 --> 00:19:51,410
a lot for us and for all the bands. Like all of a sudden like

318
00:19:51,410 --> 00:19:55,090
you got recognition, we got offers for

319
00:19:55,090 --> 00:19:58,010
great tours and yeah, so it's been

320
00:19:58,970 --> 00:20:02,490
a lot of work ever since then basically. So that was cool. That was

321
00:20:03,530 --> 00:20:07,270
a milestone stone in the, in the biggest way that we.

322
00:20:07,350 --> 00:20:10,790
That in the history of the band, I think. Wow,

323
00:20:11,910 --> 00:20:15,190
that's crazy because like, I mean, you're at what, 13,

324
00:20:15,830 --> 00:20:19,590
like this, this, this album that's coming out is your 13th studio. I

325
00:20:19,590 --> 00:20:23,350
mean to be a band and to, to be able to put out

326
00:20:23,430 --> 00:20:27,030
13 full length albums, like that's just like unheard of

327
00:20:27,030 --> 00:20:30,710
nowadays. No, I mean, it's not, but it's. But it is strange.

328
00:20:30,710 --> 00:20:34,230
Like I remember thinking at one point when the second

329
00:20:34,390 --> 00:20:38,190
Death album came out, I was like, wow, a second album from

330
00:20:38,190 --> 00:20:42,030
a death metal band. That's awesome. You know, who

331
00:20:42,030 --> 00:20:45,790
knows if this is gonna work because that's what I've always felt like back

332
00:20:45,790 --> 00:20:49,430
in the day at least, you know, like, oh, let's do this while it lasts.

333
00:20:49,430 --> 00:20:52,590
Like, while we can still do it while it's still fun. While People still care,

334
00:20:52,590 --> 00:20:55,990
you know, But I don't know if this is gonna work, you know?

335
00:20:56,630 --> 00:20:59,500
And then here we are, 35 years later.

336
00:21:00,380 --> 00:21:03,380
Wild man. So I just want to. I want to fast forward real quick because

337
00:21:03,380 --> 00:21:07,100
I also want to get into this new album. Of course. So the.

338
00:21:07,660 --> 00:21:11,380
The album that won the Swedish Grammy. Right?

339
00:21:11,380 --> 00:21:15,060
That was a moment. Is that that album? Yep. And

340
00:21:15,060 --> 00:21:18,300
were you, like. Because that comes out, what, during the pandemic?

341
00:21:18,620 --> 00:21:21,980
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It came out like. Yeah, late 2020.

342
00:21:22,300 --> 00:21:25,890
That was crazy. Were you. Did you put that. Were you like, tell me about

343
00:21:25,890 --> 00:21:29,570
the album. Was it recorded all prior to. Yeah, we

344
00:21:29,570 --> 00:21:33,290
started prior, but we ended up just during. Like, we were supposed to

345
00:21:33,290 --> 00:21:36,930
be done by end of February, but then everything kind

346
00:21:36,930 --> 00:21:40,410
of shut down by the early February. And then all of a sudden,

347
00:21:40,410 --> 00:21:44,210
okay, what do we do? Where do we go? All of a sudden, like,

348
00:21:44,210 --> 00:21:47,930
all of our plans that we made about releasing albums and touring and all

349
00:21:47,930 --> 00:21:51,490
those things, like, went away. So we ended up spending more time in the

350
00:21:51,490 --> 00:21:55,210
studio instead and releasing it somehow. Late. Some somewhat later, but

351
00:21:55,210 --> 00:21:59,050
still. And that was a big kind of thing. Like, do we release something

352
00:21:59,210 --> 00:22:03,050
or should we just wait? Wait. And of course,

353
00:22:03,050 --> 00:22:06,130
like, no one knew how long it would take, so it was kind of like,

354
00:22:06,130 --> 00:22:09,890
yeah, let's put an album and see. See what's gonna happen. But that was

355
00:22:09,890 --> 00:22:13,610
strange. It really was. Yeah. Tell me. I mean, not

356
00:22:13,610 --> 00:22:17,450
only winning the Grammy was kind of, oh, going to a party. Because we've been

357
00:22:17,450 --> 00:22:21,250
to the Grammys before. It's awesome. Yeah. You can only go. Two guys in the

358
00:22:21,250 --> 00:22:25,030
band, and you're not supposed to sit next to each other. Could.

359
00:22:25,030 --> 00:22:28,870
We could only kind of party, like, on a big boat, but, you

360
00:22:28,870 --> 00:22:32,710
know, really. Wait, hold on real quick. Okay. We had very different

361
00:22:33,030 --> 00:22:36,790
restrictions in Sweden. Oh, okay. So. Well, was this the

362
00:22:36,790 --> 00:22:39,630
first. You said that this wasn't the first time you had gone. Had you been

363
00:22:39,630 --> 00:22:43,110
nominated prior? Yeah, we nominated in 2000, and then,

364
00:22:43,910 --> 00:22:47,750
I don't know, 2010 or 15 or something like that

365
00:22:47,750 --> 00:22:50,950
again. Okay, so a couple times prior, but this was the first victory.

366
00:22:51,420 --> 00:22:55,260
Yeah. So when you get the nomination, you can. Only two people

367
00:22:55,260 --> 00:22:59,020
from the band can go, and you can't sit near each other. Like what? I

368
00:22:59,020 --> 00:23:02,460
don't know. They were like. There was like, this big theater. Normally it's a big

369
00:23:02,460 --> 00:23:06,260
tennis hall, whatever, and, you know, we're a big theater in Stockholm,

370
00:23:06,260 --> 00:23:09,500
you know, and it's a big deal, and everybody's there and everybody's, you know, hanging

371
00:23:09,500 --> 00:23:12,660
out. And that's part of the fun, of course, to meet like, you know, all

372
00:23:12,660 --> 00:23:16,460
these other famous people. Because it was 2020. I see what you're saying.

373
00:23:16,460 --> 00:23:20,270
Is that why it was all weird? Yeah, it was

374
00:23:20,270 --> 00:23:24,070
too super weird. Like, you know, social distancing

375
00:23:24,070 --> 00:23:27,630
and make sure everybody had to do the test before we walked in.

376
00:23:27,630 --> 00:23:31,430
And it was kind of like just such a weird thing, like. And

377
00:23:31,430 --> 00:23:34,590
we were so happy, like, yeah, we won, but then we had to, you know,

378
00:23:34,590 --> 00:23:38,390
text to our. The other guys in the band, like, yeah, we won. Sucks that

379
00:23:38,390 --> 00:23:42,030
you're home, you know? Right. Oh, my God.

380
00:23:42,350 --> 00:23:46,190
Yeah. And the party, that's usually the big thing. It

381
00:23:46,190 --> 00:23:49,390
was kind of like, yeah, a couple people on a big boat, you know, the

382
00:23:49,390 --> 00:23:53,050
harbor of talking, like, just hanging out. It was still fun, but.

383
00:23:53,130 --> 00:23:56,010
Oh, I bet. What a moment, too. I mean, how about.

384
00:23:56,970 --> 00:24:00,570
That is so big and so validating. I'm sure for you all, even.

385
00:24:00,730 --> 00:24:04,570
Yeah, it was. It's not a big deal. I

386
00:24:04,570 --> 00:24:08,010
think, you know, we don't really worry about it, but it was still fun, you

387
00:24:08,010 --> 00:24:11,570
know? Yeah. As you said, it's. It's recognition, you know, and it's kind of cool

388
00:24:11,570 --> 00:24:15,210
that more extreme metal has been up there,

389
00:24:15,210 --> 00:24:18,870
right? Yeah, exactly. Nominated even in the US I feel

390
00:24:18,870 --> 00:24:22,470
like for the Grammy Awards, for the metal albums, you see some

391
00:24:22,470 --> 00:24:25,670
bands that you're like, wow, this band is really heavy. I'm surprised they're actually

392
00:24:26,390 --> 00:24:30,150
considered in this category instead of, like, maybe a band that I

393
00:24:30,150 --> 00:24:33,830
wouldn't maybe consider a metal band, but. Right. And of course, there was a time

394
00:24:33,830 --> 00:24:37,350
where I would go, like, you know, there was a time in history where I

395
00:24:37,350 --> 00:24:40,790
would go, like, fuck that shit. You know, why would we take it?

396
00:24:41,830 --> 00:24:45,570
But now I'm just happy that, you know, people are okay with this kind of

397
00:24:45,570 --> 00:24:48,970
music too, you know? Yes. Well, so going into

398
00:24:49,370 --> 00:24:52,970
this, this new album, right, this is you guys,

399
00:24:53,210 --> 00:24:56,650
what, your original drummer, Andres left. Right.

400
00:24:56,970 --> 00:25:00,410
He left the band. So was that. How different was that going into. I mean,

401
00:25:00,410 --> 00:25:04,090
you probably, what, put 10 albums or 12 albums out with the guy before.

402
00:25:04,250 --> 00:25:08,010
Yeah, yeah, we had, actually. And yeah, it's been there since it's the

403
00:25:08,010 --> 00:25:11,510
beginning. And then like. And he's always written tons of material,

404
00:25:11,510 --> 00:25:15,190
especially the last two, three albums. Like, he written most of the

405
00:25:15,190 --> 00:25:18,790
material, but he wanted to go in a very different

406
00:25:18,790 --> 00:25:22,470
direction and didn't

407
00:25:22,470 --> 00:25:26,150
really want to do the things that we were planning to do, like

408
00:25:26,150 --> 00:25:29,230
just endless tours and that kind of stuff. And it just

409
00:25:30,030 --> 00:25:33,790
made sense for him to kind of go, like, I'll focus on something else and

410
00:25:33,870 --> 00:25:37,510
do my own thing. And as weird and sad as it

411
00:25:37,510 --> 00:25:40,660
was, of Course I understand it. You know, I get it. Like, I don't. I

412
00:25:40,660 --> 00:25:44,100
don't want to, you know, have someone in the band who's not, you know, 100%

413
00:25:44,100 --> 00:25:47,860
dedicated to it, who really loves it, or, you know, sometimes you kind of fall

414
00:25:47,860 --> 00:25:51,340
out of love with something or you find something else that you. That kind of

415
00:25:51,340 --> 00:25:55,020
catches your interest. And that was the case. So it

416
00:25:55,020 --> 00:25:58,740
was. It was strange, but at the same time kind of liberating because, yeah, going

417
00:25:58,740 --> 00:26:02,500
into to writing a new album, we. There was none

418
00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:06,260
of the kind of normal way of

419
00:26:06,260 --> 00:26:09,100
writing that we'd done the last five, seven years.

420
00:26:09,740 --> 00:26:13,460
So we kind of started fresh without expectations, without

421
00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:17,020
kind of inhibitions, or we could

422
00:26:17,260 --> 00:26:20,700
kind of go forward without compromising at all.

423
00:26:20,860 --> 00:26:24,620
And I think that Johan and Martin and I really had a vision of

424
00:26:24,620 --> 00:26:27,540
what we wanted to do early on. We talked about it a lot, like, how

425
00:26:27,540 --> 00:26:31,290
we wanted this album to sound and how we wanted the

426
00:26:31,290 --> 00:26:35,050
band to move forward. Like. And we had a kind of

427
00:26:35,050 --> 00:26:38,770
like a vision for what it should be. Then, of course, it took

428
00:26:38,770 --> 00:26:42,450
forever to get there, but. But it was. But it was different.

429
00:26:42,450 --> 00:26:45,050
But at the same time, I think, you know, the three of us have been

430
00:26:45,050 --> 00:26:48,890
very kind of. We. We've shared like, a common kind

431
00:26:48,890 --> 00:26:52,650
of idea of. Of what this should be. And. And of course, throughout

432
00:26:52,650 --> 00:26:56,090
the years that's always been the case. But, you know, you. You have

433
00:26:56,580 --> 00:27:00,180
different band members thinking about different things and wanted to go different directions. But

434
00:27:00,260 --> 00:27:03,700
here we. I think we were very much kind of sympathetic and

435
00:27:04,580 --> 00:27:08,380
aligned in our. In our vision. What would you say,

436
00:27:08,380 --> 00:27:12,140
like, going into the album, like, after all that happens, or now

437
00:27:12,140 --> 00:27:15,100
you have to, what, find a drummer at this point? Yeah, and do. And do

438
00:27:15,100 --> 00:27:18,260
all these things. And then it's like, okay, we. We all have the same idea

439
00:27:18,260 --> 00:27:21,860
for. For what we want it to sound like. Do you feel like it was,

440
00:27:23,750 --> 00:27:27,590
you know, a big departure from the previous three. Three

441
00:27:27,590 --> 00:27:31,350
albums or two albums before that, or. Yeah, big departure in terms of

442
00:27:31,350 --> 00:27:34,630
writing, but. But at the same time, it's so much easier. Exactly, though.

443
00:27:34,870 --> 00:27:38,469
Yeah. No, but, I mean, Joachim is such an incredible

444
00:27:38,469 --> 00:27:42,190
drummer. Like, he's such a pro that he comes in like, fresh and

445
00:27:42,190 --> 00:27:45,590
he could. He can play anything. So anything we throw at him, he's like, yeah,

446
00:27:45,590 --> 00:27:49,310
sure. The first rehearsal we had with him, his audition was kind of

447
00:27:49,310 --> 00:27:52,560
17 songs, and he was like, damn, all right,

448
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,280
we're going to play like a show in next week. Like, do you want more

449
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:58,840
practice? Like, do you want to start it with something easy? He was like, no,

450
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,600
I got it. And he nailed everything. So he's incredible.

451
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,040
And so that's made it a lot of fun to write as well. Like thinking

452
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,880
what he could do and kind of like challenging him and kind of pushing him

453
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,440
a little bit and to play even faster

454
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:17,040
or heavier or weirder. And it was fantastic.

455
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,320
And Christian on bass is an old friend of mine who was part

456
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,760
of the scene here in Gothenburg in the early 90s.

457
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,440
And it just made such perfect sense to have him in the band. And he's

458
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:32,040
just like such a musical mind and such

459
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,680
a rhythmic player and easy. So that was

460
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,520
amazing. To just like

461
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,240
at first kind of expect what it should be or imagine what it's going to

462
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:47,040
sound like, but then also kind of fulfill that and have it sound better than

463
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,800
anything we've ever recorded was felt like

464
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:54,520
a triumph once we heard the final mix, you know. Yeah. Because

465
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:57,960
going into. Were you guys nervous at all or were you personally nervous? Like, oh

466
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,080
yeah, like, is this gonna be. How different is this gonna be now that we

467
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,880
don't have. I mean, I'm nervous, but you know, you trepidatious, you go like,

468
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,720
hey, what are we gonna do? Like, what do we need to do in

469
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,360
order for this to be different but yet familiar, you know. And

470
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,520
so, but. But it was a lot of just us talking and hanging out in

471
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,240
the studio make kind of figuring out where to go and trying out

472
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,320
ideas and bouncing songs off of each other and

473
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,400
rearranging and scrapping and throwing away and starting anew

474
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,000
and eventually we, you know, you have to.

475
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,240
As much as you doubt yourself individually and also as a

476
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,960
band, like, we have to trust the process and in each other in

477
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,520
order to move forward and because you know that

478
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:46,280
eventually if we are all okay with it, you know, all five

479
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,800
of us, you know, it's. It's going to be good. Like I

480
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,520
trust the other guys, but I, you know, it doesn't always feel like that.

481
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,160
Well, as with any creative thing, you know, you doubt yourself more than.

482
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,360
Right, right. You're happy with what you do. You know, if you had all the

483
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:04,760
time in the world, you'd probably just tinker with the littlest thing. You're like, oh,

484
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:05,720
of course, of course.

485
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,730
That's with. So when you got. Do you always go in knowing you're gonna

486
00:30:12,730 --> 00:30:15,770
write an album or is it just start with songs? Okay, I figured

487
00:30:16,250 --> 00:30:19,970
yeah, it had to be that just because you have so many full length albums.

488
00:30:19,970 --> 00:30:23,730
It's like nowadays everyone, it's more like, oh, we'll have a single

489
00:30:23,730 --> 00:30:27,450
and then another single. Every. Every song has to breathe or you know,

490
00:30:27,450 --> 00:30:30,890
give it a moment. But I love that you just do a full album. You're

491
00:30:30,890 --> 00:30:34,330
like, yeah. And also like, you get into writing mode and

492
00:30:34,730 --> 00:30:38,090
kind of like, okay now because yeah, I want, I love the format of an

493
00:30:38,090 --> 00:30:41,360
album. I don't. You know, sure, you can release singles and that kind of stuff,

494
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:44,240
but that's just promotion for the album. Right.

495
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,800
And then eventually comes out as an EP with every song you've

496
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,560
released, the bonus, which is this next single.

497
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,440
Yeah, yeah, but no, but we think of it that way.

498
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,120
And also, I mean the whole writing process takes. Takes a long

499
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,840
time and pre production and everything like that.

500
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,190
So. So we kind of devote time to. Okay, we now we have a year

501
00:31:07,190 --> 00:31:10,950
off from touring. Let's focus on writing and then

502
00:31:10,950 --> 00:31:14,750
we, we get into it. So. And we would never. Or I

503
00:31:14,750 --> 00:31:18,590
don't think so. I don't think we would work like that if to

504
00:31:18,590 --> 00:31:22,149
just like, yeah, let's do a song now and then another song later. It's like,

505
00:31:22,149 --> 00:31:24,750
nah, I don't see the point of it. And I don't think we, we would

506
00:31:24,750 --> 00:31:27,630
work like that. We've done some, some stuff like that with

507
00:31:28,350 --> 00:31:32,160
events, but it's. It's a bit strange to me. Yeah. So

508
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,960
do you have like a concept going in? You're like, okay, this is what the

509
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:38,720
idea or is it just. Yeah, I'm ready. Starting

510
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:42,440
point. You know, you start off somewhere and you see where it goes and then

511
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,520
you kind of, you know, you kind of distill it down to a certain

512
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,200
kind of overall theme or a mood or a feeling.

513
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,440
And that was kind of clear for us in the beginning. Just knowing that,

514
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:58,040
yeah, this is, this is where we're going. It just felt right. And then we

515
00:31:58,260 --> 00:32:01,860
moved from there and. This is the first album obviously since

516
00:32:02,100 --> 00:32:05,900
the COVID all that stuff. So this, this is going to.

517
00:32:05,900 --> 00:32:08,380
Are you guys going to be back to the. We're going to release this album

518
00:32:08,380 --> 00:32:11,660
and do a big support tour for it because you probably couldn't do that as

519
00:32:11,660 --> 00:32:15,340
much for. No, we can do any. So.

520
00:32:15,340 --> 00:32:19,140
Right. Yeah, so. So yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing. Like the album comes

521
00:32:19,140 --> 00:32:22,580
out during Summer Breeze here in

522
00:32:22,580 --> 00:32:25,460
Germany, August 16th. Yeah. And.

523
00:32:26,180 --> 00:32:30,018
And I believe the tour starts in August

524
00:32:30,162 --> 00:32:33,890
21st or something like that in Atlanta at Prague Power Festival. And then

525
00:32:33,890 --> 00:32:37,570
we tour for five weeks together with Amorphous. So we're doing a

526
00:32:37,570 --> 00:32:41,410
co headline tour with them and we've done that before and it's awesome. And we

527
00:32:41,410 --> 00:32:45,170
love those guys so much and it just makes Perfect sense. So we're doing

528
00:32:45,170 --> 00:32:49,010
that and then it's a European tour immediately after that and Christmas, and

529
00:32:49,010 --> 00:32:51,930
then we start the next year with

530
00:32:53,130 --> 00:32:56,930
another tour in Europe and summer festivals

531
00:32:56,930 --> 00:33:00,690
and then back to the US after next summer. And

532
00:33:00,690 --> 00:33:04,370
then, so I'm going to be off next Christmas is what I'm looking forward to.

533
00:33:04,370 --> 00:33:06,730
Then maybe we could get into some writing again. But

534
00:33:08,090 --> 00:33:11,810
that's quite a while. I mean, it's so, it's so wild to me.

535
00:33:11,810 --> 00:33:15,650
I mean, speaking of artists and bands, like, you have your whole like, year right

536
00:33:15,650 --> 00:33:18,970
planned out, like, you know, where. It's just so crazy to me like that.

537
00:33:19,290 --> 00:33:21,810
Well, we're going to be here. We're going to be here for this many months

538
00:33:21,810 --> 00:33:25,600
and this many weeks and we're back to the US like, that's awesome. But it's

539
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:29,400
kind of good. Like I keep always looking at my schedule

540
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,240
and we have like a, you know, a unified schedule for everything that's going on.

541
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,840
So we know that, you know, some. Something comes up and it's like, hey, do

542
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,960
you want to go to that show? We're going to that festival. Hold on. No,

543
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,360
I don't want to go to actually somewhere else. Like

544
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:49,240
that's the downside, of course. Like, we don't get to, we don't spend enough time

545
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,840
at home, but. But it's kind of, you know, ebbs and flows kind of like

546
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:56,520
that. So it's, we're going to try to, to make it

547
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,920
more balanced. Like three years ago I was away for

548
00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:03,560
165 shows. I think it was

549
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,919
in one year. That's. That's a bit. That's a lot of

550
00:34:06,919 --> 00:34:10,720
shows. Wow. Wow. Mikael. Well, I appreciate

551
00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:13,960
your time. Thank you, man, so much for doing this. I'm excited for the album.

552
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,720
I have one more question for you. I want to know if you have any

553
00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:21,130
advice for aspiring artists. Ooh.

554
00:34:22,170 --> 00:34:26,010
I don't know how things work nowadays, even though I started

555
00:34:26,010 --> 00:34:28,010
three bands in the last three years. But

556
00:34:29,930 --> 00:34:33,650
it's old timey people who've done this forever, so. No,

557
00:34:33,650 --> 00:34:37,370
but it's. I don't know, I think I've always said,

558
00:34:37,370 --> 00:34:40,730
like, you know, you have to find your sound first. Like if you think about

559
00:34:40,730 --> 00:34:44,330
what you look like on the Instagram or if, you know, you think about the

560
00:34:44,330 --> 00:34:48,090
first single and how it's gonna be cooler than anything else, then you're trying too

561
00:34:48,090 --> 00:34:51,680
hard, I think rehearsing and finding your sound and

562
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,640
playing as much as humanly possible, not

563
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:59,320
necessarily in front of an audience, but just together so that you become

564
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,560
a band, then that's where you should start

565
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,920
then. It's not easy. It's a difficult

566
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,760
scene. It's easy for us when we start a new band with members

567
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:15,600
from other bands. People know what to expect and we could

568
00:35:15,950 --> 00:35:19,670
kind of pre sell stuff even though it's brand new but

569
00:35:19,670 --> 00:35:23,230
for new bands. And I speak to a lot of bands who are

570
00:35:23,310 --> 00:35:26,310
kind of up and coming and they go like, yeah, what should we do? And

571
00:35:26,310 --> 00:35:29,990
I was like, I'll try to help you out by sending it to the people

572
00:35:29,990 --> 00:35:33,110
I know in the industry. But other than that I don't know. Maybe you build

573
00:35:33,110 --> 00:35:36,750
a following. I honestly don't know. It must be pretty

574
00:35:36,750 --> 00:35:40,350
rough. But originality will

575
00:35:40,430 --> 00:35:44,150
go a long way. If you're a good band that plays

576
00:35:44,150 --> 00:35:47,950
well together and has a unique sound, then good things

577
00:35:47,950 --> 00:35:49,390
will happen. That's what I think.

578
00:36:06,270 --> 00:36:09,290
Bringing it back, bring it back,

579
00:36:09,850 --> 00:36:11,610
bring it backward.