INTERVIEW CITY KEYS

This is the first interview at Systematic Desensitization Zine, which remains in it's origin, or better said, I didn't translate it into German. I think everyone who's interested will be able to read it - otherwise you have to take lessons in English language, haha. CITY KEYS are a relatively new band, consisting mostly of ex-members of the mighty, but not longer existing hardcore outfit Anchor. They have released two EPs on the german label Evil Greed Records from Dortmund. Here we go, enjoy reading....
    
First of all, please introduce CITY KEYS to the readers of Systematic Desensitization Zine . Who’s in the band and some members has been in Anchor and Gust?!
   
Carl: It’s a five piece unit and four of us have been part of Anchor in one way or another . We got Claes on lead vocals, Fred and Martin on guitars, Sören plays bass and I’m  drumming. Fred used to be part of Gust, that’s true. Sören is our danish guy that didn’t play in Anchor nor Gust, haha.  

  
Until now you released two Eps. Do you see big differences between them and why ? When will you record and release the first full-length ? I think CITY KEYS is actually one of the most promising bands mixing Metal and Hardcore, and  I think there is a bigger „commercial“ potential (within the borders of extreme music of course) for you stuff. What do you think ?

Carl: The first Ep came together with us being in different continents and wanting to try out something new from mixing hardcore with something else, but still keeping the roots of scandinavian hardcore. It turned out to be The „Tip The Scale“-EP, a bit groovy but still hardcore enough for the moshpit. Our new EP „Rites“ made us feel like coming home. Every riff and different part of each song was well thought through and we played some songs live before recording them to try them out. Heading more towards darker melodies and the old school death metal genre was also what we found interesting with this new band, since we have all been listening to that since forever. Not going all out death metal, but combining it with some newer d-beat and northern europe hardcore made so much sense to us while talking about where to go with the new material and what we want to achieve with CITY KEYS. As you say, mixing metal and hardcore is what we want to do. Playing both hardcore and metal shows is what we are aiming for without ever selling out or compromising the integrity of the band. We are talking about getting a full length out next year and certainly tour a lot on it too.

I was surprised a little bit, that there are so much connections to the (old) Swedish death metal scene, you recorded the newest EP at the legendary Sunlight studios and Tompa from At The Gates (and countless other bands) did guest vocals at one track. To be honest, at the first moment when I heard about CITY KEYS including some ex-members from Anchor, I never made a connection to death metal. By the way, are there still a lot of bands who are recording at  Sunlight Studios ? In the 90ies it was  a synonym for quality death metal from Sweden. It is a legendary name worldwide, but I have heard it is a very small and simple place…And what do you think about the many newer old school death metal bands from Sweden such as Miasmal, Tribulation or Tormented ?. Do you know Lifeblind from  Stockholm which i can recommend a lot , or Crawl (Stockholm as well) ? Or do you prefer the „originals“ (Dismember, Entombed, Grave, Unleashed, Nihilist etc) ?

Carl: I understand that you got surprised by our new EP and how much harder it is from the Anchor stuff, and we like that. Doing a new band that sounds like the old band doesn’t make any sense to us, and we’ve been talking a lot about what we wanted to play and it came down to mixing death metal with our hardcore roots. Having Tomas Skogsberg producing and helping us out has been great since he really likes what we are doing and makes us feel at home in his studio. It would have been a bit boring to go death metal “all the way” with the HM2 pedals and the stockholm death metal sound, since we aren’t a metal band. But doing his ways of recording and not trying to be what we´re not was the right way to go. There are other bands that records at Sunlight, and not only metal bands for sure. His studio is inside an old barn, where horses used to be, and he has a little cabin for bands to stay at while recording, which gives you a very relaxed atmosphere.

I like Tribulation and Tormented alot, and Lifeblind are our friends actually. Haven't heard Crawl, but i will check it out. The old school death metal bands Entombed, Dismember and Grave from Sweden are hands down the best death metal bands in the world in my opinion, and they will always be my favourites.  

You mentioned influences from Entombed, Integrity, Rise & Fall (whose vocalist contributed as well) and Disfear. Other bands to mention here ? And did you listen to Swedish death metal in your younger years as well and which bands exactly ?

Claes: As Carl said we have like three main influences reaching between d-beat punk, to hardcore and metal/some death metal. I think the thread in this is that we want City Keys to sound raw, heavy and dark. But as for other bands that inspire us we´re all over the place and I don’t think you necessarily will be able to trace that, it's more a feeling that you catch. Anything from Neurosis to Pulling Teeth to Kickback can give that inspiration, really.

For me I got into death metal at the same time as I got into hardcore around 94/95. The scene on the west coast of Sweden was huge then, I started listened to mostly local stuff and bands from the old Gothenburg label Black Sun Records. Bands like Sacrilege, Crown Of Thorns (later The Crown), Impious, Lord Belial and so on. However those bands and that scene wasn't in my eyes half as cool as the Victory Records bands that I would get into soon after.

Can you tell us more about the lyrics ? They are about what  and who writes them ?

Claes: I've been writing most of the lyrics in the first phase,  then we all look into them and bounce ideas back and forth. It´s been a very creative process that I felt very comfortable with. Especially for „Rites“ which ended up finishing with the five of us in the van just throwing out ideas and listening to pre-recordings. It most definitely requires mutual respect and a good vibe to make it work but a really cool way of doing things that I feel brings the band closer together. We're a solid unit and its a big plus to have Martin who´s Scottish and obviously knows the language ten times better than us Scandinavians.

For content, „Rites“ was all about the way things progress in our society right now. I try to keep a positive mindset in life but it´s hard and I feel like the band is a good way to work through and express the emotions that you carry with you. For me the destruction of the environment is something that stresses me on a daily basis. As well seeing a lot of basic human / workers rights that people fought for for the past 100 years or more now slowy dispearing one after another. The music is dark so lyrics ends up there too pretty naturally. 

The german label Evil Greed releases your stuff, are you satisfied with their job ? Can you tell us more about this label and how the contact happened ?

Carl: Evil Greed was the first label showing interest in us, and since we knew how hard working those fellows are, we were very happy to be signed indeed. They run everything very professionally and are our personal friends too. They reach out all over the world and get things done very fast.

Somebody from your band does Fvck Life Studios, can you tell us more about this ?

Carl: Fred is not just a riff master and drum guru, he also has his Fvck Life Studios yes. He co-produced and mixed both CITY KEYS-EPs and he used to run it in his hometown in Sweden, but since he now lives in Poland it gets harder to produce bands on daily basis. But he certainly still records bands and looks for mixing jobs any time. Hook him up! And check out his page on facebook for contacts.

What about your latest tour with Lowest Creature , which took place in Germany, Italy , France, Belgium and the Netherlands etc. ? In which kind of venues did the  shows happen and how many people visited the gigs ? Did something unexpected or funny thing happened worth to mention here ?

Carl: It was a classic d.i.y. - tour that mainly consisted of punk venues and by people we´ve met before in our years of touring. Some shows were better than others, and to mention the Hardcore Help Fest in Hengelo was a highlight for sure. To bring Lowest Creature with us was something we were all very excited about, because they are one of Sweden's best bands, and seeing them play every night was a blast every single time. I'm the worst to remember stuff from tour, but having a great laugh at each other and becoming great friends was my top memory. Also seeing an Italian dude riding his scooter into the mosh pit in Bolzano was great.

  
What do you think about Swedish Black Metal, which is worldwide well known as well, I think to bands such as Dark Funeral, Setherial, Sacramentum, Bathory (of course), Watain, Dissection, Craft, Marduk, Funeral Mist and so on…. ?

Claes: I listened to some of those bands over the years. I respect any band that's consistent in what they are doing. Sweden has got a long tradition of heavy bands that do really good which I think is really cool considering it´s way harder to get out and tour and be in the centre of things. However thats nothing special for that scene but something all musicians in Scandinavia that wanna get anywhere have to struggle with. When it comes to the Black Metal thing in general, well, I can´t relate to that scene or the content of that scene. I´m about different ideas and ideals. Still, some of the bands are bad ass, thats for sure!

This blog is located in Cologne, so can you tell us more about your impressions concerning this city, you have been in Cologne with the band for two times until now ?

Claes: Yeah we played Cologne both on our tour with Wolf Down and the one we recently did with Lowest Creature. It´s been really cool for us and we've got some really good friends in Cologne. Good friendly vibe and the shows have been good. I hope we´re back very soon!

The last words are yours…

Thanks for checking us out and supporting this band! Much love to our friends in the area!