It took a week to adjust to Swedish time again, ´cause the Jet-lag is more extreme to us. As a musician you have a night job. You get off work at 1 a.m. So you get to sleep at 5 a.m. So you´re so many hours behind. 2 nights ago I actually got back into rhythm so - it´s gonna be good.
In the end your tour seemed to be tragic: Only a few days after you left the US, Dimebag Darrel was shot to death during a DAMAGEPLAN show. You have been one of the first to have a statement on the website. What was it like to play with DAMAGEPLAN on their last tour?
This was the tour that we´ve done where everything has been the most friction-free and happy and in every way possible - it was just a good tour between band members, and crews and everything. It was us, DAMAGEPLAN and SHADOWS FALL. And everybody was having a good time. During our second or third show there was the first time I saw Dime and Vinnie off stage and they were behind us for the whole show, checking out our show. We did almost 40 shows on this tour and you get to know each other very well, and they were just great guys.
Did Dime influence you and your playing style with PANTERA?
I think I´m too old, I´m more influenced by Rudi Schenker and people like that. There is no doubt that he has been very influential on the scene, I wouldn´t be surprised if there´s a little Pantera in every big band there is nowadays. I talked to our tour manager yesterday, he was at the memorial service for Dimebag in Dallas. Eddie Van Halen had given Dime his favourite guitar, and Zakk Wylde had given him his favourite guitar, and Gene Simmons had given Dime a KISS coffin. And he had Eddie Van Halen´s and Zakk Wylde´s guitars with him in the grave. Limp Bizkit had sent them their tour bus so that he can ride a tour bus instead of a hearse to the cemetery. It´s amazing that even Eddie Van Halen acknowledges that Dimebag was such a great guitar player. As he was.
And now there´s a big hypocrisy showing up. The same time people like us are asking themselves how a funny and impressive person like Dimebag could be murdered. And the US conservative media already shows up with statements like "typical that someone is shot who is playing rock music, someone who is forcing the kids to evil behaviour is murdered" and bullshit like that.
I´m very sure that more disco kids die every week than rockers. I´m very sure of that. And I´m very sure that disco kids or techno or however you would call them take more drugs and do more stupid things. I know the people here in Gothenburg who organise a club. They have different club nights, f.e. a techno night, an eurodisco night and whatever. When they have metal night stages, it´s great because there´s never any fights, there´s lots of people and they sell a load of beer.
Is it any different in the US? I mean, in the US it´s much more easy than in Europe to get weapons in general. Is it also easy to get the gun into a concert? Or are the security regards high there at concerts?
You know, getting a weapon is I guess easier there, or getting it legal anyway. Just like in Germany, you can´t just own a gun to protect yourself in Sweden, you need to be hunter or whatever. But still, you can get a gun, if you want. But I´d say it´s harder to get into a club in the US with a gun, because people expect a gun will show up. We don´t think that people have a gun when they walk into a metal concert in Europe. There were certain times on this US tour when we were concerned and maybe even angry that it took so long to get the audience in. We played in front of just half the people and there was a long line outside the house because security was so tight. And after all, evidently they were right. If the information given is right, they had also done everything in this club where Dime was shot and the murderer still climbed a high fence and ran in the back doors. They stopped him at the doors though, he didn´t come in like a normal visitor. If you really want to kill somebody you´ll probably succeed.
To change this sad topic to a more positive one which is your new album "rEVOLVEr": how did you manage to make the most various and variable album of your career?
I think we have started to trust each other more and more. All of us five in this band have been the leaders of our previous bands. We all have a vision, and we´re able to pull a band by our own know-how, strength and maybe talent. Now we let everybody come up and show "what do you want to do?" and we try it. We all play those personal ideas that sound like THE HAUNTED but now it comes out like a different kind of THE HAUNTED. So even though "My Shadow" doesn´t sound like "Hate Song" it still sounds like THE HAUNTED. And "My Shadow" is actually my favourite song on the album. And I had no idea what Anders was doing in the rehearsal room. What are you doing, I don´t get anything, it doesn´t sound like us. It sounded like anything I could not understand. But I know Anders. Ok., we recorded it and Peter put his vocals on and you know, probably just after the mix I understood what they have been doing: Ok, this is what you have been after. And the same thing was with one of mine songs. I had to tell the others, "come on, you´ve got to believe in me on this. It will turn out good." And it did.
So you´re not the kind of band that discusses everything in the rehearsal room until it´s finished and then go to the studio? So it´s a little surprise for everyone in the end?
Well, we do discuss a lot. We are very well prepared when we enter the studio. But even if I don´t understand it I can still agree to record it. We prepare very well, we do all the harmonies ad everything, but I still don´t know really what it will turn out. Because this is a band. If you are a band leader, you always know what the outcome of an album will be. Because you have everything in your head. But this is exciting to see what the others want to do with the songs. I think it´s a challenge to keep up with everybody, to write and come up with good stuff and it´s also exciting to see what the other guys are doing.
You wrote most if not all of the lyrics for the WITCHERY albums. Did you contribute lyrics to "rEVOLVEr" as well, or was it all Peter´s job?
That was all Peter´s job. I think a guitar player writes lyrics like "this is the verse, and this is chorus". And then you always have a verse on the verse riff and a chorus on the chorus riff. When I come up with a song, it is verse-chorus-verse-chorus and maybe a solo or whatever. And Peter goes "No. This is not how I´ll do it. I´ll do two verses, and when the verse riff comes back, that´s when I sing the chorus." I think: Go on, well, I don´t understand that. But when you hear it, and then I say ok, I understand it. That´s what he did with "Three Times" on the first album, and it just turned out amazing. Exactly what he does. He sings two verses even though it´s a verse and chorus.
I think it gives you a new amount of possibilities that he has such a variety in his voice now. He is singing complex lines and they mix up good with your guitars.
Yeah, I think Peter has grown as a singer since the first album. But then again on the first time we had almost everything written except of maybe two or three songs when he joined the band. He joined in a very late state with that.
About him joining the band again: Did you watch each other over all those years? Did you watch what he has done with
... with the PETER DOLVING BAND for example? That band is just like a stand-up base, a guy playing drums on a bucket. And acoustic guitars. It´s kinda hard to compare. But Peter´s always been that kind of way, he is also a toaster in a reggae band. And he is a singer/songwriter and he goes around to schools talking to young musicians about contracts and he has so many things going on.
So did you watch what the others were doing over this period? Did you know that he is still around when Marco left?
Well, I knew that he was around but I didn´t know what he was doing. I knew that he was making his own music and that he was been played somewhat on the radio and stuff, but I didn´t know his songs. I didn´t have the album. We had a hard time finding a replacement when Peter left the band after "The Haunted". And it took a few month before we found Marco. And when Adrian (Erlandsson, the former AT THE GATES drummer did leave THE HAUNTED the same year and headed over to England for CRADLE OF FILTH - laetti) left the band, Adrian spoke to Peter and Peter said "I regretted leaving the band, just a few weeks after I´ve done it. And if anyone would have asked me to rejoin I would have done. But I didn´t wanna be the jerk saying ´I´m in - I´m out - I´m in - I´m out´. So I have to stick with my decision, even though I regret it." And he had no idea that we were gonna ask him again. He was totally at a loss of words. We didn´t made it official that Marco has left the band because we were finally off Earache records. Any little label would have said "Em, maybe this band is losing momentum", or whatever. So we announced that Marco is out, Peter is in on the same day. And on the next day out rehearsal room burned.
What did you do with all your instruments?
It was a huge wooden building and there was also a place where you paint cars, there was a little garage for go-karts, it has all kind of stuff. We were on the second floor. In the far end there was this guy, he was allowed to rent a room there to live in with his store. I don´t know, he took so much weed and he was always awake, he was as good as a watch guy, because as soon as there was a little noise he was always at the window. But I guess he fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand finally and it just took fire.
Did he survive?
Yes, he survived, yeah. He was out there trying to help the firemen. They were: "Hey man, go back there". And he was arguing with them and trying to help. The building was maybe 150 m long, so we only got smoke in our room. The guitars smelled a bit of smoke. The fire marshall closed down the building, because it wasn´t save anymore. So we had to borrow rehearsal rooms the whole time to write this album which was a tough thing
So you wrote your songs on the road, more or less.
Yes, you can say so. We were three weeks here, than we had to pack up and move to another band, and we were two weeks there, and - sigh! But now we have our own stage, finally.
Is it this hard? In Hamburg they renovated public toilets, so that you can now rent a public toilet as a rehearsal room.
Good idea. Here they take old factories. And then they make youth houses out of them. But then again, we´re not exactly youth. We´re not going to school anymore, we live of our music. So the rooms they build aren´t meant for us. We can´t get in there. Like in any other city - all places that you can rent are very expensive. If you want a place that´s save and if you have maybe a toilet or whatever, that´s expensive. But we did find one, that´s a little bit out of our way where we travel, but it´s ok. But there´s so many bands here in Gothenburg, that´s crazy. I mean people think about the Gothenburg sound, but there´s so many rock bands here. In Stockholm is all that disco and techno and all the fancy people that have - you know, make-up and everything. And here are all of them. For example a band likeThe Soundtrack Of Our Lives, there are so many…
.. like THE AWESOME MACHINE, and MUSTASCH, and GRAND MAGUS.
Yes, so many bands, that´s awesome. It´s just not IN FLAMES and HAMMERFALL.
Next question, different topic: Is your other band still existing, or don´t you have time left for WITCHERY?
Oh, yes. We recorded the album with THE HAUNTED in february/march 2004, and when we signed with Century Media they originally wanted to put it out late summer and eventually it turned out to be late october. Nothing was happening so I had a time off. Last summer we wrote and recorded the new WITCHERY album. And it´s the best album we´ve done so far. I don´t even say it just for saying that, but it´s the truth. I know people always say that, but I can say that about the latest HAUNTED and this one, the WITCHERY which isn´t out yet.
What did Toxine do during all those last 4 years?
I don´t know. Taking care of his kids, maybe?
Ok.
Or maybe trying to get Sharlee to come to practise. Fucker!
LOL. Sharlee, who is in the US right now. (Sharlee d´Angelo is the bass player for his main band ARCH ENEMY and is also in WITCHERY and a dozen other projects - laetti)
You´re now signed to a german label. Is there already a tour schedule for Germany?
Not yet, we´re looking for a very good tour. We like to be playing in Germany, of course. The last show in Hamburg was at the Logo - it was so loud. And it was very hot. It was a great show, I had a lot of fun.
Yes, so please come back. And this time maybe a bigger venue.
Yeah. The Markthalle! Not the MarX…
Please don´t stay only the journalists´ pet dogs in Germany.
No, we would like very much to expand, but… Now that we have a German label we´re gonna be able to play more festivals in Germany. And we have so many, I think in 2005 we´re doing all of those festivals, Rock Am Ring and whatever. With a British label - they don´t understand Germany. And we were so mad with Earache. But that´s old news.
Well... thank you very much. And good luck.
