Sweden for quite a time?
Christian: Well, that scene is growing. And we´re growing out of
it.
Anders: For example MUSTASCH are from Gothenburg as well and
they´re
pretty close to our style. But I don´t think there´s many more good
ones.
Christian: No. It´s us, MUSTASCH and BOOGIEMAN, of course.
They´re from the
same town as well. And we share a rehearsing room. A funny thing with
MUSTASCH is that they actually formed after seeing a show of ours. And
we´re all friends, so it´s quite fun.
MUSTASCH do have a major record deal and seem to get on pretty well
with
it, if you look at press reactions or all the advertises they get.
Anders: Umm...
Christian: That´s the big, big difference between being on an
underground
label and being on a major label. But, as I told you before, we know the
guys in Mustasch pretty well and - it´s not easy being on a major label
as well. There´s good things and bad things.
Anders: The good thing for us to be on a small independent label
is that
we have complete freedom about what we want to do with the music. And,
for example at Mustasch´s, the record company comes in at a very early
state and tells them what is okay and what´s not about the songs. And
that may pull down someone a bit.
You´re signed to Dortmund based "I Used To Fuck People Like You In
Prison", or People Like You in short form. Even compared to
other underground labels they´re not an ordinary label.
Christian: Yes, that´s true.
Anders: And they´re growing as well, our label.
But why did you put a link to Warner Music on your web page?
Christian: It´s our publishing company.
Anders: Since our last album Warner bought the publishing rights
from
the old publishing company. That´s very good for us, because they now do
work for us...
Christian: ...the other company simply couldn´t do. Because Warner Bros.
is
huge. And it´s pretty cool to have the logo of Warner Bros. on the
records as well.
Concerning the record: Did you produce this record yourself again as
the
last one "Under The Influence"?
Anders: No, this time it was a guy called Roberto Laghi. He´s
known very
well in Sweden. He´s produced MUSTASCH´s first album.
Christian: First two. The EP and the Album.
Anders: And you´ll probably know HARDCORE SUPERSTAR? And B-THONG,
TRANSPORT LEAGUE. So he´s a big producer in Sweden.
The other bands do mainly so called "Alternative Music". And he
created
a pretty modern sound for the latest HARDCORE SUPERSTAR album.
Anders: Yes, but we definitely knew what we wanted to do. So he
didn´t
change hardly anything about our music. He just connected with us on a
kind of level...
Christian get´s more concrete: He pushed us a little bit more.
(Christian is
acting like Roberto Laghi: "This was good, but you can do it better
again"). That´s something everyone needs, because sometimes you think
for yourself "Well, this is good." And two years later you listen to it
again and you´ll think: "Oh no! Why didn´t I just have one fuckin´
more try." Roberto´s such a good pep-talker, he´s really a pusher. I
think I put down guitars for four tracks in a row while I was putting
down the guitars. When I was going for song no. 5 he said: "Let´s take a
break". I always brought my dog to the studio. And he said: "Let´s take
a walk with your dog. We stop working, come back later." And after that,
it was all fluently again. On the previous album that we produced all by
ourselves, we didn´t have that input from another person. Ok., the guys
who worked in the studio, but they were not really listening, it was
always the same "Umm, it´s good."
Anders: We always had to decide if it was a good take or not.
Christian: This time, we, too, recorded our songs by ourselves on a
demo,
before we went to Roberto.
Which studio have you been at this time?
Oral Majority in Gothenburg.
So it´s his studio where he works mainly?
Together: Yes.
Christian: Hardcore Superstar where there two month before us.
And after
Hardcore Superstar there was a german band, and then he did us, so he´s
very booked. He´s well known for all his skills like doing the sound and
pushing the musicians to the greatest.
For your first album you worked with Andy LaRocque (guitar player of
King Diamond - ed.). He produced several so different albums from black
and death to classic metal. What was it like to work with him in
comparison?
Christian: Well, we already knew Andy LaRocque personally. We got
in contact with him and asked him if he was interested. And he said
"yes, I don´t wanna do death or black metal at the moment, I want to do
something more alive." And... (pausing) ...good friends work great
together.
To point out some good friends of yours - I don´t know, if you´re
good
friends, but I heard that some guys of In Flames and Tiamat have been in
the studio last time?
Anders: Yes, for the last album "Under The Influence"
But this time you had no guests?
Both together: Tobbe, the drummer from BOOGIEMAN, he is on the
on "The
Ghost of Patroklos".
Anders: We´ve got Tobbe from THE AWESOME MACHINE playing in one
speaker
and Tobbe from Boogieman playing in the other. And there were some more
guests...
Christian: Björn Hedin from AGENT ORANGE - they are a very good
band, but
they didn´t release anything.
Anders: He was a co-writer on one song...
Christian: On the title track "The Soul Of A Thousand Years".
But, the
friendship from the UNDER THE INFLUENCE-Album once again. Anders Iwers
of Tiamat is a very good friend of mine, we live 10 minutes walk from
each other. He works at a big record shop nearby and we often hang out
with each other. Me and him are big fans of Thin Lizzy and when I was
thinking about that guitar solo, I was thinking: "Anders is going to do
this with me." And he did, brought his guitar and said: "Here we go."
Jesper Strömblad and Björn Gelotte from IN FLAMES helped us out,
too. We like IN FLAMES, they like us - and we just asked them. Jesper
lives a little bit further down street as well. It is a small community
in Gothenburg. Everybody knows everybody.
I think, the songs of "The Soul Of A Thousand Years" are more on the
knob. I think, The idea behind was brilliant but sometimes you lost
yourself in "Under The Influence". Did it help you to ask your friends
about it (both say "No") or has it been the influence of the
producer?
Christian: This is very much the benefit of the producer,
Roberto. But as
well we´ve grown as persons and song writers. Because we toured a lot
after we released "Under The Influence". And, yes, I think Roberto has
one big, big part of this. When we rehearsed before the recording, he
came down to our rehearsal room and listened to us. It was quite odd,
standing there and playing a song and he goes like this, right in front
of you (he´s pantomiming a concentrated Roberto, Anders is laughing). I
was asking myself: "Am I doing something wrong?" But he just
listened.
Anders: And afterwards he knows every part!
Christian: ... and knows where to push in the studio. And he
never says "You
suck", he just suggests "Ok... May you try this one? Or that? Or we´re
don´t do anything, because it´s all good already."
Who´s writing your lyrics?
Anders: Mainly, 95 percent, Lasse. And sometimes Christian comes
with
something, once in a while some other comes with some words here and
there, but mainly it´s Lasse.
So, what´s up with your singer Lasse now, he´s not with you on this
tour.
Anders: The problem with Lasse started already in the studio for
the
recording of "The Soul of A Thousand Years". He got throat infections.
We had to stop in the middle of the recordings for about two weeks,
because he couldn´t sing at all. After that he came back and did a
marvellous job, but when we started to rehearse for the tour again, it
happened once again and then again and again. So he rested for a while,
we tried again, and it happened again. Finally he went to the doctor´s
and they told him if he wanna have any voice at all, just for talking or
whatever, to stop singing for a long time. So he don´t know if he´s ever
going to sing again.
Shit. Especially after those brilliant lines he sung on "The Soul Of
A
THOUSAND Years".
Anders: Yeah, that´s right.
Christian: Everybody´s says that. And it´s a shame,
because...
Anders: I think the problem was that he pushed himself to do such
hard
things that were right on his limit. He made it but it was right on the
limit. So his throat turned itself in and out.
Christian: On one track you can actually hear when his throat
cracked. Every
time I hear that song on the album I remember that time. He went out of
the cabin and couldn´t talk at all anymore. He sounded like a vacuum
cleaner. Everyone went "Oh shit, this is bad".
Anders: Andreas Thomasson is singing his part on our tour. He´s
singing
in a local band in Gothenburg as well, called Roach. They´re a very,
very good live act and even on recordings. But they´re unsigned for the
moment.
Christian: He was the obvious choice to bring on for the tour.
Because it´s
an important tour to do for us right after the release of the album.
We´re coming back in april and hopefully we´ll have Lasse with us then.
But Andreas is doing a hell of a job.
... as everyone could see at the gig afterwards. Now for a funny
thing,
you have a beer sponsoring. Ok., beer is very expensive in Sweden, so it
makes sense...
Anders: Yes, booze is expensive, but the main part is that this
is...
Christian: ...our favorite beer...
Anders: ... of all categories. It´s Samuel Adams from Boston in
America.
And it´s a very special beer, we think.
How does a band from Sweden come in contact with a beer from
Boston?
Anders: I drank it first time when I was in America. But then in
Sweden
this brewery is not very big. We´re not a really big band, but they´re
even a smaller beer brand here in Sweden, so why not just go for it. So
I called the agent in Sweden and said, "well, we could help you." And
they said, "Well, ok, let´s go." We got some beer, they made some shirts
for us.
Christian: With the "Samuel Adams" logo on top of ours.
Your Tattoo Endorsement deal seams quite more common.
Christian: Yes, it is. The thing is that most people don´t
ask.
Anders: Many bands think that it´s so hard to get sponsoring. So
they
don´t even do the call. But we just go for it. We had some people say
"no" of course but many people say "well, cool. Yeah. Let´s do it".
Christian: It is quite good, because I remember when METALLICA
was sponsored
by Carlsberg. And now we are sponsored by Samuel Adams.
Anders: The Tattoo sponsor is really nice as well, we have a new
sponsor
there, Harai Tattoos in Gent in Belgium, so me, Christian and Frederik
from BOOGIEMAN have Tattoos made on this tour. Very good.
Christian: It´s funny, because Shawn, the guy at Harai Tattoo in
Gent, he is
an Awesome Machine Fan. And he saw us twice on the last tour. When we
played in Leuwen together with Karma To Burn he and his girlfriend were
there with two friends, and they were cool. On the third tour we did
after that together with Mushroom River Band, we walked up to them and
talked to them and changed email adresses. And when we found out that we
are coming to Gent on this tour, we wrote: "Hey, John, we´re coming to
your town. Do you want me to put you on the guest list?" "Oh, can you do
that?" "Of course." Then we were starting about tattoos, and he said
yeah, but this was the last time we were there. First we didn´t care
because if people are drunk. But he said: "No worries, I will do" We had
a day off before, so we went there and I did a big thing here, and
Anders did a big thing on his arm as well, it was quite hard to play
that night."
Anders is scratching his arm unconsciously on this words, Christian
is
looking same direction, grinning. And what´ your part in those
sponsoring deals?
Anders: We´re wearing the T-shirts.
Christian: And we are telling the press about
target="_blank">www.haraitattoo.com.
To change the topic towards music once again, I thought over the last
year, that stonerrock as a music family has come to an dead end where it
can´t go further.
Christian: In the end it´s just a term. There´s some bands in the
genre,
that just paint themselves in a corner. But the thing with THE AWESOME
MACHINE was never to do that. We like to try other things like some folk
music, some bluegrass. We recorded a track, that didn´t come on the
album but gonna be released like a B side, and that´s pure grind. People
don´t expect that, but we´re try all things. Sometimes it´s crap, but
this is really good. And there´s always a red line from the hardest song
to the softest song on the album. We want to spread. Some songs on this
new album even my mom likes to listen to. And that´s a good point. And
there´s heavy sounds on the album as well.
My mom was young in the seventies, maybe that´s the connection
between
the seventies music and what you´re doing now...
Christian: I´m very influenced by the music that my father
played. He played
The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Cream, The Doors, Psychadelica ... It
makes my music decision quite easy. I would have liked to grow up in
that period.
What are you listening to nowadays? Still this old fashioned stuff,
or
newer bands as well?
Anders: That´s very separated. I think all four in the band
listen to a
wide spectrum of music, starting with Elvis, The Beatles, The Doors,
Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple. Today there are good bands
like Entombed or In Flames.
Christian: The Crown! I used to work in a post office sorting
mail together with Magnus, the
bass player. We stood at the same spot, listened to heavy rock and
sorted: "That goes there, that goes there, that goes there..."
