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You have a new album out called "Prey". Why did you choose this title for the album?
I think it speaks for the album really well. In the lyrics, there is malicious contempt which is like a red thread running through all the songs. They all deal in some way or another with the concept that we are all a prey, there's not a lot of men who can say that they are not slaves to anything, it could be alcohol, drugs, sex or religion or whatever. That's the basic thoughtline that runs through all the songs. That word sort of summed it up really good.
Johan sings on the title track: "No love without a prey". Do you agree with him in this issue? Do you also believe that two persons cannot be equal in love?
No, I believe that two persons can be equal in love, but there's always - maybe not all the time - situations where one or the other is sacrificing something or themselves for the other one, which in some cases makes them prey, if you verge through the hardline.
Your guitar player Thomas Petersson has already left Tiamat two times and then returned back to the band. What is the reason for his departures?
(laughs) I think he left even more times. First time he was fired right before "Wildhoney" when all of the band was fired, it was yet before my time. After they toured a lot, Magnus, the guitarist they had after Thomas, was apparently not really working out on tour, so they asked Thomas to come back, and he said yes. Then he was in the band for "A Deeper Kind Of Slumber", but after that he settled down, got a family, bought a house and stuff like that, so he couldn't find the time to do the "Skeleton Skeletron" album (1999). When we did the album, he broke up with his girlfriend, so he was invited back again. He was on "Judas Christ" and this new one, but now he has a new baby, so he probably won't do the next tour. He's present when he can.
So who's gonna be the guitarist on the tour?
We have a guy called Henrik, he's a friend of Lars (Skold, drummer) from Stockholm, who did the Pain tour we did last year, so he's already familiar with the older stuff. He's a really good guitar player and a good friend. It seems that maybe will have to accept that now we are not 19 anymore and everyone can't just skip their entire lives to go on tour without making any money when they still have to pay the rent. We have two guitar players and we have two keyboard players who alternate, so me, Lars and Johan have been a sort of core thing for the past couple of years.
There is much more female vocals on the new album. Especially the song "Carry Your Cross and I'll Carry Mine" is nearly fully sang by the female voice. What is the reason for it? And who is the girl who does the singing?
Starting backwards, the girl is from Germany, her name is Sona, she's a friend of Johan from Hamburg, who's a studio vocalist and plays in several bands around the Hamburg area, nothing that has ever released anything. She's a lovely girl. And the reason for her singing the lead vocals on "Carry Your Cross…" is when we started writing it was very apparent that this song was not for Johan to sing. It was always supposed to be someone else. It could have been me or just anyone, but we have learned over the years that the contrast between an innocent female voice and Johan's voice is very effective, so we went for that.
The next question is about Johan. I remember the interviews he gave in 1997 or about that time, and back then he was a very talkative person, he even said once that "you can read my life like a book." But now he's quite reserved and he always answers in just a couple of sentences. Did he change over the years, or did reporters change? Maybe their questions have become more stupid…?
(laughs) I don't know. Some journalists are not as bright as others, as all human beings differ. But I don't see that big changes in Johan or the type of questions we get asked. I don't know, maybe you've just read some very heavily edited interviews, but I think he's quite talkative actually. Me and Johan have been doing a lot of interviews together over the past couple of years, so maybe he gets lonely, I don't know. (laughs)
How much did you contribute as a songwriter to "Prey"?
The songwriting on "Prey" was done entirely by Johan. We contributed a lot to the sound and arrangements and stuff like that, but all the songs on "Prey" were written by Johan.
Why did you choose "Cain" as the first video for the new album?
Actually that was the record company's suggestion, we thought that another song should be the first single, but they commissioned the single edit of "Cain", which is quite different from the album version. I was also wondering myself if this should be the first single, but when I heard the edit, it became very clear, because they reduced it to about four minutes, and it was a perfect choice to represent the album. This single is more for Tiamat fans who already like the band, not as much for getting new people in.
In general, what is your favorite Tiamat video?
I think the new one is actually light years ahead of anything we have done before. It was the first time we worked with a Swedish producer who's done a lot of major league hip hop and rap stuff, who knows how to make everything look really the way he wants it. I think it was really cool.
There seems to be a tendency that many metal bands now work with producers of rap videos. What do you think of it?
I don't know, it depends on whether you like the videos. Patrick lives in Gothenburg as well, so I've known him for years. Whenever we did the videos, we thought, "Hey, what about that guy?" But he was always so expensive. But now he's on vacation, because he really doesn't like rap music, he's a metalhead, so he took a year off and said, "I'm just gonna do the videos I like."
On the "Judas Christ" album, you play not only bass, but also some guitars. What was the reason for doing it?
On the "Judas Christ" album I wrote a lot of songs, and sometimes it was easier for me to play it instead of teaching Johan or Thomas. I'm a guitar player from the beginning, so it was not a big step for me to just play the guitar.
The limited edition of "Judas Christ" contains very strange bonus tracks, the so-called "Hamburg Tapes". Where do they come from, and what is their meaning?
They are actually from Hamburg. That was one of the first stuff Johan recorded in his home studio, just coming home from pubs or clubs, being really drunk, having good ideas and having the opportunity to record them really quietly. We were thinking about an album like that, not under the name of Tiamat, just for fun. We haven't got around to doing it, but who knows…
We've heard that the division of songs on "Judas Christ" into four sections basically means nothing. What was the purpose of doing it then?
That's not really right. It means nothing in the conceptual way, but it has a lot to do with sequencing the album, which is something we are very particular with - getting every song in the right order. If you look at how the songs are structured, there is like a chapter for every style of music, which leads nicely to the next one, it's like a journey from the harder and metal-like side of Tiamat to very quiet singer-songwriter stuff. In that sense, it's very weird if you listen to it on random on your CD player, but you take your time to listen to it in headphones it makes a lot of sense, I think.
The track "Spine" (off "Judas Christ") features famous producer Peter Tagtgren. What instrument is he playing there, and what was the reason for inviting him?
We were recording the album in Copenhagen, Denmark, and he's an old friend of ours, so he just happened to be there doing some promo stuff. He had nothing better to do, so he hang round with us in the studio when we were mixing that track. We just said, "Hey, do you wanna do something on it?" And he said, "Sure." He's actually not playing anything, he's doing the German counting.
Who's gonna play keyboards on the upcoming live shows?
Martin Brandstorm from Dark Tranquillity.
Why don't you hire a permanent keyboardist?
I think we're pretty much OK with doing it ourselves in the studio. It's just for live shows, because we don't really wanna play with clicktracks and sequencers and pre-recorded tapes. We wanna be a rock band and prove that we can play the stuff that we put out on an album in a totally live environment. We have been doing that for some years now, which, I think, is trend-breaking, because every metal band now plays with a click-track or a DAT-machine. I think it's somewhat boring.
An obvious question - how was it like playing live in Moscow in spring 2002? What are your brightest impressions about Moscow?
You guys were crazy! It was a really cool show. The thing that was not so good about it, but had nothing to do with Moscow, was that all of our gear was stranded in Amsterdam. We had to play with a borrowed gear, which put a little damper on things. We couldn't really get the exact keyboard sound, I borrowed the bass from the opening band, which was a fine bass, but I had no extra strings. So if I had broken a string, the show would have been over. It was really somewhat scary to play it. We spent a couple of days in Moscow, it's really a nice town. I was watching pictured from it the other day.
Shall we expect a live CD or a live DVD from Tiamat anytime soon?
Not anytime soon, I would say. We are planning a DVD, we are hoping to record it at a show somewhere on tour next year, but we have to sit down and figure out what kind of show it should be. I personally would like it to cover all the sides of Tiamat, the harder stuff and the more atmospheric stuff and maybe some of the acoustic stuff, a little bit of everything. Maybe we'll play a one-off show of 2.5 hours or something like that, which we could quite easily do to get everything from the last two songs on "Judas Christ" to "Sleeping Beauty". I would like to use a DVD for that, this is a medium that has a lot of opportunities. We should also start looking through everything that we have filmed over the years to see what we can put in there like a bonus stuff. We have a lot of footage from the recording and touring and everything like that, so it could be quite a lot of fun for anyone who's interested. I don't dare to give you an exact release date.
Tiamat has always been with Century Media Records. What are your impressions from working with this label? Some bands have quit it recently and have said bad things about it…
I'm not gonna say anything bad about it, they have had their ups and downs, but in general, I think, they've been very good to us, and we've been very good to them. This is actually our last album for Century Media under this contract. I don't know, we might re-sign it for another couple of albums, but that's to be decided after the tour, it will be quite unethical to start looking for a new label now. I have nothing bad to say, they are a record company, they're interested in making money, and that's always gonna clash somewhere with the musicians' point of view. Of course, we've had our differences, but I don't think that's specific for Century Media, I think that goes for every record label.
How did you get the job with Tiamat?
I was playing in a band called Cemetary. We split that band and started a band called Sundown. But a couple of weeks later I figured out it was not anything for me, so I quit that band. At approximately the same time Johan and Johnny Hagel went separate ways as well. I've known Johan since 1987 or something like that, we've always been keeping in touch over the years. I played bass in Tiamat in 1991-1992 as well, it was before they found Johnny. So me and Johan were talking, and he said, "Oh, I don't know what to do, I've just split with my bass player and my girlfriend, and these new songs are really weird, and we're going to record them in three weeks or whatever." And I said, "Oh, do you need a bass player?" and he said, "Yeah, do you wanna do it?" And I was in the studio four weeks later.
We've just found out that the single "For Her Pleasure" contains a remix done by your Cemetary bandmate Matthias Lodmalm. Are you still in contact with Matthias?
No, I haven't seen him since Dynamo'97.
Did you argue with him or did you split amicably?
We had our arguments just before I left, but we're not enemies or anything, he just doesn't live in Gothenburg, so we don't really keep in touch.
Does that mean that you won't be a part of the Cemetary reunion that Matthias has announced?
Yes, it does.
Don't you want to, or do you think it won't be OK for you?
Actually I don't want to, and I think Matthias doesn't want me to do it either.
What are the rest of the guys from Cemetary doing at the moment?
I really have no idea, the only guy I have met recently is Thomas the bass player, he's just traveling around the world, doing the hippie stuff. That's really all I know.
In continuation of the question about labels - what were your impressions from working with Black Mark Records when you were in Cemetary? Is it true that Cemetary broke up primarily because of the record label?
Yes, that's true. They were a small label, and they didn't give us any tour support. We could never go on the road, we were just waiting for things to happen. If we wanted to have a chance to continue playing music, we had to do something else, and we had a lot of records left under a contract. So the only thing to do was to break up the band and start a new one.
Is that why Cemetary did so little touring?
Yes. When I was in the band, we only did two tours.
The last Cemetary album - "Last Confessions" (1997) - is said to be a collection of outtakes from the "Sundown" sessions. What was the reason for leaving these songs out, when "Sundown" (1996) is quite a short album?
I really don't know, I haven't even heard that album. I haven't even seen it actually, I don't even know if I'm on it. I really can't care less about that.
Cemetary's style changed very seriously from "Black Vanity" (1994) to "Sundown". Why?
I only played on "Sundown." We did a long tour after "Black Vanity", and we just found out that the style of music that we were developing didn't fit the line-up really well. One thing about Matthias is that he likes to change around a lot, he gets interested in new stuff and wants to try his hand on that. I think that's something he's been doing until now.
In Cemetary you were a guitarist, and in Tiamat you play bass. And what instrument do you personally prefer?
Nowadays I actually prefer bass. When I started in Tiamat I was more of a guitar player, but I found out that bass is a much cooler instrument. You get to be heard all the time if someone mixes you too low, everybody really hears it, and you get more girls than the guitar players. (everybody laughs)
The Tiamat web-page mentions a project that involves you and Angel Dust singer Dirk Thurish that was supposed to come out in autumn 2002. What is the current situation with this project?
It was released in August this year, it's called Mercury Tide. It was fun, we came to Essen, Germany, with a few good friends, there was a drummer from Flowing Tears as well. I went down there, learned the songs and recorded them in a day, and after that I just drank beer and watched football.
Are you into power metal?
No, I'm not actually. We changed the songs around so that album is not that much power metal, it's more hard rock, modern hard rock. I'm not a fan of power metal at all.
An obvious question - what kind of music do you prefer at the moment? Do you ever listen to your old records such as Cemetary or Ceremonial Oath?
I listen to them sometimes when I'm drunk with friends, if some of the guys from that period are around - we start drinking and listen to them for a laugh. Other than that, I don't really listen to my own stuff for pleasure. (laughs) I listen to all the Tiamat stuff when we need to learn new songs, and when we're touring, I don't listen to metal that much at all. I prefer to listen to country rock or singer-songwriter stuff like Johnny Cash, or a lot of The Clash and Ramones.
Can you tell us a bit about the band Rickshaw that you were involved with in 2000 and 2001?
(seems surprised) You're very well read.
Thank you!
A couple of friends of mine, they're from Gothenburg as well, suddenly found themselves without a bass player, and I offered to help them until they found a new one. I played on a single, they released a 7-inch vinyl single, and I also produced one of their albums and played a little bit of guitar here and there on almost of their releases.
What kind of music is it?
It's like garage rock, somewhat like the Stooges or MC5.
You played guitar on the first album of In Flames, but some sources also say that you were a member of the band already in 1990-1992. Is it true?
I was not a member of In Flames, I only helped them on that first album. Jesper (Stromblad) was not really sure of his lead guitar playing at that point, so he asked me to help them.
By the way, are you and the current bass player of In Flames, Peter Iwers, brothers or relatives?
Yeah, he's my little brother, he's three years younger than me. Our last name is very unusual in Sweden, we're the only family with that name.
Is there any chance that old Ceremonial Oath records or demos will be re-released? "The Lost Name Of God" EP (1991) and the first album "The Book Of Truth" (1993) are quite hard to find these days…
I don't know, probably we won't be re-releasing anything, we were asked to do that, but in that case we wanted to re-release the "Carpet" album (1995) again and maybe record four or five new songs for it to make it a proper album, and the record company was not interested in it, so we decided not to. However we were offered a contract from Century Media to do a new album. That might happen if we ever find the time.
Who's gonna be in the band in this case?
Me, Jesper, Anders from In Flames, and Anders, the drummer from Dark Tranquillity. I think that's probably gonna be just four of us, I'll probably be playing both bass and guitar.
You were in Ceremonial Oath from the very beginning. How did the band get together?
First there was me and Oscar (Dronjak) from Hammerfall, we started the band, because we were in the same class at school. We started as a basic cover band playing Slayer covers and stuff like that. Then we started writing songs, and it just escalated. We found a studio that was really cheap, so we could record in it, we were the first band to record an album in Studio Fredman, and not the last band. (everybody laughs) After that Oscar wanted to do stuff more in the vein of Hammerfall, and we couldn't work together. So he left, and I found Anders (Frieden), who just left Dark Tranquillity), and I found Jesper as well. I don't know, we were just a gang of friends hanging around. Us, Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates were the earliest bands in this scene, we were a bunch of 15 friends drinking beer and rehearsing in the same studio.
Ceremonial Oath is now considered a very influential band, but what was its status in the early 1990s? How many people were coming to your shows back then?
About 200 or 300 or something like that. But we didn't play many shows back then, we only played around Gothenburg and Stockholm, we never did anything outside Sweden.
What was the purpose of having two singers (Anders Friden and Thomas Lindberg) on the album "Carpet"?
It was because that album is a collection of two demo tapes. Anders had just left the band when we recorded the second one, and Thomas helped us out. We did a lot of helping out in our bands. He was always one of my best friends, and he wanted to help out, and of course, we let him.
Who was singing on early Ceremonial Oath releases such as first demos?
Oscar did.
Oh, was he growling there?
Yeah, hell yeah! We did an album with him on vocals, but it's really hard to get now.
During your career, have you ever received invitations from other bands to join them? We mean bands that you never joined, but that wanted you to be their member?
Yeah, sure, of course. Some I can't say, because they were going to fire their bass player or guitar player in this case. One of them was Dark Tranquillity - their guitar player left and their bass player switched to guitar, so they asked me to join, but I couldn't because I was in Tiamat. They found Michael instead. That's the band I wouldn't mind playing in, I think they're really good. There have been a couple of other bands who said, "If you're gonna join, we're gonna fire our bass player." I can't really name them. (laughs)
You toured with Lacuna Coil in the second half of the 1990s. How did you get to know them? Why was this cooperation so short?
When I got back from the Deeper Kind Of Slumber tour, our manager called me and said, "Hey, do you wanna go on tour?" I said, "Sure." "Then I have this band, both of their guitar players and the drummer have just left in mid-tour, can you help them out?" I said, "Yeah, sure. When is the first show?" And it was the next day! I got the album through UPS a couple of hours later, I stayed up all night and learned songs, and I went onstage the next day. It was the first time that I met them.
Did you like playing this tour?
Yeah, sure, it was good fun. We were opening for Moonspell, and since I've known Moonspell for a hundred years, I got to drink a lot, and I was paid more money than everyone else on that tour. Lacuna Coil are really good people, I really like their band as well.
When Sergio Crestana left Moonspell earlier this year, did they ask you to become their new bassist?
(laughs) They didn't, the bastards, but they wanted to buy one of my basses.
You performed with Johan's side project Lucyfire as a live guitarist. How much does playing with Lucyfire differ from playing with Tiamat?
Oh, a hell of a lot. I play rhythm guitar there and I sing a lot, so that's a completely different story. I was actually quite sad when we never got to tour with that band. That was a really good band - the bass player from Ritual and Martin Brandstrom.
And will there be more releases from Lucyfire?
I really have no idea, I don't think so. I'm always persuading Johan to do a new album so we can go on the road. But that doesn't seem to happen.
Can you name the album that features your best and worst performance as a guitarist/bassist?
"The worst as the guitar player" would have to be the first Ceremonial Oath album, I could barely play. The best playing I've done… I'm really good at getting a song and recording it immediately, so the Mercury Tide album is really good in that sense, because I had never heard the songs and then I was recording them two days later. That's the kind of challenge I really liked. And I think I played really good on that one.
Is there any chance for Tiamat to come back to Russia?
Right now there are no proposals, but I'm sure there will be next year. That show we did was really successful, so I'm hoping we can come back and maybe play some other cities as well.
Are there any chances that you will play more stuff from early Tiamat albums, not only "The Sleeping Beauty", but also something else from "Clouds"?
I don't know, we have eight albums to choose from, and time is limited, we can't really play for 2.5 hours. I'm guessing we will play longer, maybe for 1.5 hours, on this next tour. We'll have to skip some songs from "Judas Christ" to add songs from "Prey". We've always spoken about playing something from "The Astral Sleep" (1991), but we'll have to see. Not long ago we played "Smell Of Incense" from "Clouds". We are actually really tired of playing "The Sleeping Beauty", maybe we'll switch that for something else, but a few times when we left that out of the set, we were almost hanged. (everybody laughs) That's our "Smoke On The Water", we have to play it. It's fun to play it, but it really sucks to rehearse it.
Special thanks to Gerrit Mohr (Century Media Records) for arranging this interview
Felix "the Comrade", Roman "Maniac" Patrashov
December 8, 2003
Grabbed from Russian Darkside e-Zine
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