I remember I was feeling very excited about
finally go into the studio and record a full lenght album for the first time.
We had, as you know, been to studios before, but this time it wasn't a quick
visit to record a demo, so the feeling was special as it was a two week long
studio time that laid ahead of us. I also remembered that the record company
boss, Börje „Boss“ Forsberg (from Black Mark Records -author's note) gave me a call in the middle of the recording
session and ask how we could be in the studio recording as we haven’t signed
and returned the record contract yet, hahahaha, so we signed it in the studio
and all was OK again. I have the photos from the studio when everyone was signing the deal. We also managed to get Tomas Skogsberg (Sunlight
Studio) very upset one Friday afternoon, because we brought too many friends
over to the studio. Only two of them, Michael of Unanimated and Richard of Dismember, were there because they had a task, they should do guest
vocals that day, but since it was Friday and the weekend started, it ended up with 20-30 people tagging along to
then go out and party.
Wow! Thanks for those words about our album.
I have of course understood lately that „The Nocturnal Silence“ is considered a
milestone and means alot to lots of people around the world. It makes me very
proud. We are metal fans ourselves, so we liked the songs also, and we got
overwhelmed by reading all the great reviews it got. I remember also getting
goosebumps in the studio for some of the songs.
I understand that there are such things bands seem to be doing with their old albums that are having anniversaries. We are
actually thinking about doing it, since next year, as you said, „The Nocturnal
Silence“ is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary. With this said, it’s not a
promise, but we are thinking about it and want to try to put some serious time
with learning those old songs again. It’s a huge project to do, time wise,
since most of those songs weren't played live in over 30 years. The song „The
Nocturnal Silence“ has been played on every show since 30 years, like Iron
Maiden have always played the song „Iron Maiden“ (yes, that’s why!), but apart
from that, the other songs we have played every once in a while, are
„Awakening…“ and „Before the Dawn“, so there are six songs that need to be learned
almost from scratch again, haha. But, we will, as I said, give it some time and
then come to a decision on if we will do shows like „playing the entire album“.
We just couldn’t identify with the rest of
the death metal scene, already from our beginning. We had always had a vision
from the start of this band, but it took some time to develop and search for
our identity. Dissection is not our influence, but they seem to have looked for
the same things as we did. We slowly found our “keys” to write what was going on
inside our heads and picked up how we wanted to look imagewise and early I got
a letter from my Norwegian friend Øystein (aka Euronymous) where he told me
that he really liked our music and the way we looked, as he didn’t like death
metal bands in white t-shirts and short pants, where we had black leather
jackets and leather pants very early. So to answer your question about our development
towards more black metal on “Darkside”, I can say it came naturally. I also
want to add that we are not really calling our music black metal, so I invented
the description in interviews I did around 1991-1992 to “Blackened Death Metal.
Which album do you personally have the deepest connection to, and which do you like best? Is there anything you would change about certain albums in retrospect? And were there any other decisions regarding the band that you would describe in retrospect as an absolute stroke of luck or, on the other hand, as a mistake?
I like all our albums and they are a mirror
from where we were when they got recorded. Of course some of them are stronger
in my opinion and closer to my heart. One thing I regret though, is when me and
Tomas Skogsberg were at Cutting Room to sit beside Peter in de Betou that
handled the mastering of “Darkside”. It sounded very strong and powerful there with all his equipment and I asked him “Does this gonna sound as good
as this when our fans will play it on their stereos and so on?” whereupon he
replied “I guarantee you it will sound the same even on the lousiest
equipment”. Which it didn’t when the albums was pressed. I asked to bring a
tape home to check, but that was undoable, according to him. Lesson learned
from there on. Never trust a mixing or a mastering until you got the chance to
listen to it at home.
On the more positive side, I think “Hrimthursum” is one of the strongest
releases. Both in the way it sounded, but also how we recorded the album. I
like Sunlight Studio and Tomas Skogsberg and all that, but to be able to set
your own studio pace, not run by a calender and 9-5 hours time schedule, was
really more creative and more relaxed. We had bought some own studio equipment
and we tracked/recorded the album at a close friend’s house, in his basement.
It was already built like a studio, but together with him and a more relaxed
situation, still more focused, we all managed to come up with a hell of an
album. It was also the first time we worked with Fredrik Folkare, that helped
out engineering things a bit, but took care of both mixing and mastering the
album. Since “Hrimthursum”, we have always continued to work with Fredrik
Folkare.
Necrophobic were also nominated for a Swedish music award, tell us more about that!
I can’t recall on how we got to know about
it, but all of us, of course, were very chocked, in a positive way, as soon as
we found out. We felt really proud to be nominated, but we never felt, really,
that we could win. Of course you should never say never, but it would have been
too good to be true. Anyhow, as this event took place during the pandemic,
there was a restricted amount of people that were allowed to come, so just two of us were allowed to come. The band decided that I should go, as I founded
this band and have always been in the band and then also Sebastian.
The event was a cool experience and we met a lot of collegues and had a really
nice and cool time. We did not feel to go to the official afterparty, but Sony
Music Entertainment, that handle us in Sweden, hired a nice boat where they
served all their artists a nice dinner and a lot to drink, so the evening and
early night was also really good.
When you look at the whole band history, what were the greatest and most euphoric moments for you? What were the low points and when was the motivation at its lowest?
It’s a too big question and really a tough
one to answer. There have been lots of ups and downs during all these years,
but overall, the ride has been excellent and fun. Just think about it. Some 30
years ago, me and two of my class mates decided to start a band. The world is
big and there are tons of bands all over the world. I could never think that I
would still do this at this day and age. I have recorded many albums and I have
travelled the world with Necrophobic, because we were lucky to become recording
artist and we have a fan base that actually buy our music. For many, many bands
from all over the world, that is just a dream.
What are the next plans for Necrophobic? How are things on the live front?
The two years of corona are more or less over
and our shows have started now, so we are playing a lot of postponed shows at
the moment and new bookings are also coming in and added to the list of shows
for us, so our plan right now is to be on the stages as long as we can and that
a new pandemic is not stopping us.
15 years ago, me and Robert started a death metal band called Souldevourer and we had like 8-9 songs and were aiming to record them, but stuff in our lives happened, the time for it wasn’t really there and that band ran out in the sand. Me and Robert have been friends since the late 80’s by the way. Anyhow, in the early days during the pandemic, Robert sent me a song he had written and was asking me what I thought about it. I was blown away! Firstly, because it was so great and secondly because the music was not what I expected, since it was not death metal. He then asked me if I wanted to form a band together with him and create more of this kind of music and I directly said yes. This was challenging and new for both of us and also great to play with Robert again and also that it's not music that reminds of either Dismember or Necrophobic.
We have 10 songs now, including the two songs we have released on Spotify,
Apple Music, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Youtube and we are looking for a label
that likes this kind of metal and wants to sign us and then record a full
album.
Apart from that, you have been surprisingly restrained with side projects, was that due to a lack of time resources or was Necrophobic always enough for you?
I wasn’t really interested in side projects
and to play the same kind of music I do in Necrophobic.
Can you tell us something about your musical socialisation? What were the first bands you listened to, when did you first get in touch with metal and what were the first contacts in the more extreme area like death and black metal? When I follow your posts on Facebook sometimes, I get the impression that you still like a lot of the old classics and listen to them often.
The first music I remember listening
to and enjoying was Elvis and ABBA, to name stuff you know. Then later on I
started to listen to more aggressive music, like some kind of punk rock, but in
the summer of 1982, when I was at a summer camp, a guy there showed me Iron
Maiden and I was hooked right away. So from there I strated to buy and listen
to more and more of heavy metal, by bands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath,
Mötley Crüe, KISS, Judas Priest and Accept, to name a few.
A friend bought the first Bathory album in 1984, but none of us liked it at that
time and I was not really ready for that extreme music. It actually came later
that year, but it was Metallica that made me start liking the more extreme
music and I found out about bands like Slayer, Celtic Frost and Kreator at first.
I returned to listen to Bathory in 1987 and then I appreciated it and it led my way
into death metal and black metal. I strated to buy fanzines and demos in late
1986 and also strated to trade tapes from all over the world and that created a
path into the more underground death metal and black metal.
I appreciate that you like my posts on Facebook/Instagram, by the way.
Regarding the current political situation, Russian fighter jets have increasingly entered Swedish airspace in recent weeks, haven't they? What do you think about Sweden joining NATO?
I have nothing thoughtful to say here, but I
am tired of men with power, but have no brain or any humanity. Men have created
lots of great things, but too many men have destroyed so much and commit shit
on a daily basis.
And another political/social question: I heard from a friend in Gothenburg that houses and buildings are constantly exploding in Sweden as a result of fighting, competing gangs. I recently read in the German media that more than twice as many people are shot in Sweden than in the European average and that a similar amount of explosions is otherwise only found in Afghanistan. We Germans in particular tend to associate Sweden with the ideal world from the Astrid Lindgren books....How do you see or feel about this issue?
I have not the statistics that you refer to,
but Sweden is not as safe as it used to be.
The last
words are yours!
Thank you for taking your time to interview me. Support bands instead of
listening to music for free. Buy the music, buy the merchandise and come to the
shows!
