ES: We’re performing a mix of old and new, focusing on the last album “Modern Ruin” and our debut album “Dreams of a Cryotank” that we recently re-released as a special anniversary edition on vinyl. And probably something unreleased that might end up on the upcoming album “Leaving Babylon”.
Joakim Montelius quitted performing live. Why did it happen?
JM: There were two main reasons for that decision. Most importantly, I became a father and I wanted to be around my daughter as she grows up and that’s rather difficult when you have to spend months away on tours every year. Secondly, I had begun to grow unhappy with performing live. I never dreamed about being on stage and the reason I did it was more by accident than by wanting it. I’ve had a lot of wonderful experiences and I often miss the travels and meeting people, old friends and new ones.
But sadly this life doesn’t always allow you to do everything you want to, so I had to make a choice. For me personally it was the right choice. I feel better mentally and emotionally and I get time to focus on a career as a writer, which is something I never quite had the possibility to do before.
Daniel Jonasson will be onstage instead of Joakim Montelius. On your official page you call
ed him a superstar DJ. Could go into more detail and tell the readers about him? How did he become a part of the band’s live lineup? JM: Daniel Jonasson is a club and festival promoter, a sought-after DJ as well as a founding member of the band Dupont. He’s been a key figure in the Swedish scene for many years and an old friend of ours. He also worked with Covenant before as a tour manager and lighting engineer. So when I decided to stop touring we had the idea to ask him. Luckily he accepted and I think he’s an excellent replacement. We are of course different personalities and perform differently, but I see that as nothing but a positive thing.
Joakim is still in a band in a studio lineup. Doesn’t it cause difficulties to have different people recording and performing?
JM: Not at all. To Covenant it’s always been two distinctly different activities to tour and to work in the studio. Like I said, I always felt most comfortable in the studio and I think my particular qualities as a musician are much better suited for the focused, somewhat introvert, creative part of Covenant. Performing the music on stage is whole other game, so there is no contradiction in this arrangement. I don’t have special, personal playing style or anything like a guitarist or a drummer would perhaps have, that needs to be emulated.
Are you satisfied with the fans’ and critics’ reactions on your latest album Modern Ruin?
JM: The album was very positively received, so that was of course nice. But I don’t think you can talk about satisfaction or dissatisfaction in that context. An album is always a shot in the dark, something that we make mostly for ourselves. I mean, we don’t sit in the studio trying to figure out what people will like or dislike. So we just make what we think is right, cross our fingers and hope someone else will like it too and then we release it. So in a way, everything that is not a disaster is a victory. Luckily we seem to have a certain appeal to a lot of people and everything we’ve done so far has been comparatively successful. At least after some time, since we tend to grow on people rather than hit them smack in the face.
Modern Ruin was released almost 2 years ago. What about the next album?
JM: The next album is in the making. We call it “Leaving Babylon” and we aim for a mid-2013 release. I have a strong feeling you’ll hear at least something from it at the Synthetic Snow Festival.
Several music websites call Covenant one of the founders of futurepop style. What can you say about it?
JM: Oh man… I was never happy with that word and I wish I would have had enough foresight to come up with something better myself, but we never imagined that it would turn into a sub-genre in itself. But yes, I think we are guilty as charged. None of us thought about it as a new style back then, so it really wasn’
t done as any sort of movement, but in hindsight it’s remarkable that Apop, Covenant and VNV all released albums at more or less the same time sounding relatively similar. But that was a pure coincidence. Sure, we all knew each other but we never had a plan to create a genre as such. I think it was simply a result of the fact that we were all roughly the same age, we came from similar backgrounds and we were all inspired by much the same artists. And none of us were Germans. Both Covenant and Apoptygma were heavily influenced by dance music. VNV were at least in the beginning slightly more traditional. But it was a short period of a couple of years and then we all went off in different directions again. Today I don’t think that anyone would see much similarity in those three bands. So to conclude, we did create a part of the monster. By accident.How did the electro scene change through the years since the time you started acting as a band until now?
JM: When we started out there was very little contact between different types of electronic music. The different “scenes” were kept isolated from each other. Today’s musical climate is much more open-minded, something that I’m very happy to see. On the other hand, that also means that there is less of a homogenous “scene” and more difficult for new artists to gain an audience. But on the whole there has been a strong will to evolve. And that is a wonderful thing. Today there are also so many fantastic bands and artists around. Back in the early ‘90s there was much less to choose from.
How does the process of writing your tracks usually go? Do you work on them together or individually? Is it a long process?
JM: We usually start off with something you could call a “hook”. It could be a melody, a beat, a piece of lyrics or just a great noise, but something that grabs our attention, something that could work as a basis for a song. From there we build a structure, program the soundscape and write lyrics more or less simultaneously and then it’s mostly a matter of stubbornness and handicraft to reach a stage where it is a self-sustained song. Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes it takes months and often it ends up in nothing and gets locked up in the vault of postponed ideas. So there is no real pattern. Music has a weird way of taking the path it wants, almost as if it has a will of its own.
What is your favourite song of Covenant? Why?
JM: That is an impossible question to answer. To me, music is an emotional thing. And like most people, I have a wide range of moods, so what I prefer to listen to varies with my emotions. Some days I like something rough and heavy, other days I want sad and mellow and yet other days I want beautiful melodies. And so on. I think it’s very evident when you listen to our work that we make music in that frame of mind as well, considering how many different types of songs we’ve written over the years. I mean, we’re known for dance floor fillers with bombastic beats and melodies, but we’ve done so much more than that.
Please, leave a comment to your fans in Russia and the readers of Darkside webzine.
ES: It’s going to be great to get back to Mother Russia. We’ve always had a fantastic time in your amazing country. Get on over to the Synthetic Snow Festival and blow out the ceiling with us!
Interview by Ekaterina Kiseki
4 äåê 2012
 |
|