I told them that they were assholes and that they can leave the band! (everybody laughs) Actually Gus had a problem being part of the band because he was living so far away from Sweden. Also he had other ideas, different from what we had in the band, and during the recording of “The Book Of Heavy Metal” (2004) he decided to leave. That was a sad moment, because he was always a good friend and he is still a good friend. But he decided to leave and push forward with his other band Firewind, where he can be the boss and have control of everything instead of sitting in Greece and being unaware of what’s going on. I totally understand and respect this. So we found a replacement in Mark Black, he was in almost directly, because he used to be a stand-in for Gus before when we did small shows in Sweden. He was a natural choice for us.
Then we started touring, and a lot of stuff started happening with the band. Niklas thought he was getting a problem with his voice, he was struggling really hard to make it working, and then on a show in London there was a really big management showing up, and there was a chance to make a big break for the band, but Niklas was like, “I don’t think my voice will work for this. I want to turn the microphone over to another guy to manage singing, because I don’t want to fuck it up for you guys.” We respected that, of course, we said, “No problem!” Then Peter got married and was gonna have a baby, so he said, “This is a totally wrong time in my life to go on a six-month world tour. I am leaving the bass, find another guy.”
So there were me, Snowy and Mark left in the band, and we were searching for a replacement. I don’t know why, but it was like an eternity, it was absolutely impossible to find anybody to replace them. In the end, me and Snowy called Peter and Niklas and asked them, “Come on, do you wanna come back in the band? We will make one step back, we won’t do this tour, fuck the management, we’ll continue as we did before.” And they said directly “yes”. Thus, we took this one step back… and then Snowy left. (laughs)
I think he left because he felt that the band had a potential, but we couldn’t do all the touring that he wanted to do. That’s what I think anyway. We are not that close friends, we meet and we talk sometimes, but we don’t speak about that, we talk about other stuff. That’s what the story anyway. It was a very hectic time for me, there were moments when I was feeling totally alone, I was a guy without the band. Now it feels like everything is solved, we have new members who are on the same level as we are. Everybody in the band are friends of each other.
Snowy and Gus were responsible for a lot of the material on the previous album “The Book Of Heavy Metal”. How did the songwriting process was without them? And in general, how much did their departure change Dream Evil?
Snowy was a big part in the songwriting for “The Book Of Heavy Metal”. But on the previous album “Evilized” (2003) there were mostly Peter and Niklas writing music, and on the “Dragonslayer” album (2002) there were mainly me and Gus. We have been switching around from album to album as far as the shares in the songwriting is concerned. Maybe with Gus’ departure we lost a bit on the songwriting side and a little bit of the technical guitar stuff, but we have Mark coming in and he’s filled that part. As to Snowy, he used to write songs like “Man Or Mouse”, which I call “the more German style.” There is nobody else like that in the band, so that part is missing, we don’t do that German bum-bum-bum music, we’re into more melodic style. Right after Snowy left, me and Niklas started meeting each other much more and writing new music. Of course, we lost some fans, but we get new fans, too. Some parts are missing, and some parts have come in, and I don’t think there is a big difference to what it was before.
Can you say a few words about the new guys – Mark Black and Pat Power (drums)? How did you find them? Where did they play before?
When we had small gigs in Sweden, we didn’t have the budget to fly Gus in. We asked Gus if it was OK to get a replacement for these small shows, and he said it wasn’t a problem. So we were asking around, and everybody pointed their fingers in the direction of this guy, saying that he was the best guitar player around. That’s actually how we found him. And when Gus left, it felt natural to keep him in the band. As to Pat, he’s an old friend, he was in the background of the band for a long time. It was actually Snowy’s idea when he left the band that Pat should join in. We got a lot of suggestions via e-mail from other drummers that wanted to join in, Put pat is a local guy, a very good drummer and the person who was helping the band with a lot of stuff over the past
years.The last track on the new album is a cover version of Eurovision winner song “My Number One”. As far as we remember, it is the first cover version in the history of Dream Evil. So how did you end up choosing and recording this track?
This happened two or three months after the contest, when Snowy was still it the band. He was sitting at home with one of his guitars and playing a riff. (imitates the guitar with his voice) He was like, “Oh, I’ve come up with a nice riff,” but then he realized that it’s (singing), “You’re my lover, undercover.” He told us how he started playing this Eurovision winner song by accident, and he suggested that we should record it. This was a moment when Niklas and Peter just came back in the band, and we said, “Yeah, let’s go for it!” The song was very fresh, it was on the market, so it could be a potential single release, but the record label didn’t want to release just a single with one song, it wanted to have an upcoming album, and we didn’t have a date for it. The song was just lying there, so when we did “United”, it felt like it should be there. “My Number One” also features Gus, he did a guest solo. It would be stupid to just throw away this song, especially after Lordi won the Eurovision contest. When Lordi won, we thought, “If we come after Lordi with this song, it’s gonna be hilarious.” Maybe some people will think we are trying to gain ground by using Lordi, because the plan was to make a video for it. But let’s see, you never know, because there are many people involved, including EMI, who originally released this track. Anyway, in Greece it’s already been played on the radio, and many people like this cover version, so maybe we will eventually come down to making a video for it.
Speaking about Lordi, were you surprised by their success? Do you think it has had any effect on the status and popularity of heavy metal?
When I saw this band, I liked this song, it’s very good, and I thought they had two options with it – they would either be last or first. They won, and that’s awesome, I think. I also feel sorry for them with masks and all this stuff – can you imagine, it takes them three hours to put them on. They do it every day now! (laughs) That’s why I feel sorry for them.
As far as we know, metal is very big in Finland, and metal bands often hit number one in national CD charts. Why isn’t the same thing happening in Sweden, when there are a lot of great metal bands in your country, too?
The thing is that the bands that hit number one in Finland are only Finnish, at least as far as I know – Nightwish, Children Of Bodom… The Finnish people are very patriotic, they love their country and their bands. In Sweden metal is going well, In Flames have reached number one in the charts, Hammerfall are doing well, and there are a lot of other bands that are doing well. Five years ago if you were listening to heavy metal, everybody around said, “What kind of horror you are listening to?!” Now it’s OK to listen to heavy metal, maybe it’s even becoming a bit of a fashion, there are a lot of punk and gothic girls going around with Motorhead T-shirts on, so I don’t think there’s a problem.
You filmed a great video for the song “The Book Of Heavy Metal”, and as far as we can see, it’s quite expensive. Where and how often was it played? Do you think the money invested in it has paid off?
(laughs) There’s not that much money invested in that video, I can tell you that. But it took a lot of work by me and Snowy and others. As far as I know, the video has been broadcasted a lot in Sweden, Germany and wherever. And when it comes to the cost of it, for example… I don’t know if I should tell you that, but OK, I will. The outfit I wear in the video, I built it totally by myself, and it cost me six euro and two days of work. It’s made of leftovers from the military supply, a toilet carpet, toilet paper, paint and glue. I used all my inspiration when I was building all this stuff. We went to a store where you buy construction materials, and we found a lot of stuff we could use. (laughs) There was a lot of work with costumes and so on, but it was also very funny. And everything is filmed in a garage.
Unbelievable! It looks like you have invested thousands of euros in the video.
Yeah. That’s why we used the same video director, Patrick Ullaeus, again this time. The guy is awesome. He told us, “The Book Of Heavy Metal” is one of the best videos I’ve ever made, and it’s gonna be impossible to make anything better, so we have to do something different this time.” We did a new video, and it’s indeed different, that’s all I can say.
Speaking about promotion, you have been with Century Media from the very beginning. Are you satisfied with the work this label has been doing for you? And are you satisfied with the popularity Dream Evil has at the moment?
I don’t choose if people wanna buy my albums or not, so it’s up to the listener to decide whether he wants to downlo
ad the music or go to a store and buy the CDs. In my opinion, we have sold very many CDs, and people like it when we are playing live, so I’m happy with that. As to Century Media, I think mainly they have done nice work. I have been working in the music business for a long time, and I have seen all these complaining bands, and before we signed to Century Media we tried to make the contract as good as possible. So both parties felt happy when we signed it, and I am mainly satisfied with Century Media.Songs like “Chosen Twice” indicate that you don’t take yourselves too seriously, but the lyrics were written by Snowy, so we don’t know if it’s also true for you…
(laughs) Yes, of course, but we also have another song, “Higher On Fire”, on the new album, and the lyrics are mainly the same. (sighs) Well, to explain what Dream Evil is… There is a magazine called Sweden Rock, and they wrote an article about Dream Evil with the title that I think is very good – “Undeadly Serious”. One part of our music is fun, and the other part is serious. We don’t believe in dragons walking on the streets, but we also need to have fun in what we do.
Well, you see, a lot of people believe that you started Dream Evil as a sort of revenge on the musicians whom you produce and who leave you in the shadow, so to say…
(cracks) No, it’s not like that. I’m not the guy who loves to be onstage, I have a hard time with it actually. When we go to Japan, and all the people get crazy and run after me asking autographs all the time, it’s fun for a week, but then I love to come home, take care of my family and be on my own. I know the backside of popularity, and that’s not something I’m really longing for. For example, people think it’s glamorous to travel by tour-bus, and I can tell you it’s not. So it’s not the revenge, it’s just that I’ve always been playing music. When I found Gus, I felt like this was the right guy to start a band with, because I had had a plan to start a band for many years. For a long time I couldn’t find the right people, but then I met Gus in Greece, he followed me to Sweden, and finally I realized, “This is the guy I wanna be in a band with.”
“The Book Of Heavy Metal” featured a lot of guest musicians, including such people as Mats Olausson (keyboards, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen) and Metal Mike (guitar, ex-Halford). What was the purpose of involving so many people in the recording? And are there any guests on the new album?
Yes, there are lots of guests… (some noise is heard outside our window) Is there anybody shooting a machine-gun in the background?
No!
It sounds like that sometimes.
No, that’s definitely not it. We know there are lots of crazy rumors about Russia, but shooting a machine-gun in the street is not something that happens here on a common basis.
(laughs) OK, this may be just a telephone line.
Or maybe neighbors!
Yeah, right. Coming back to Mats Olausson, we met him on the Evilized tour with Candlemass in Japan. He’s a really nice guy, and he was in Gothenburg when we recorded the album. So Gus and I asked him if he wanted to jump in on the keyboards. Back then I didn’t realize what a professional guy he was (laughs), it was more like, “You can come over for a cup of coffee and play some keyboards.” But that’s a keyboard player who’s really talented and really good. And then in the studio next door there was Joacim Cans (Hammerfall) doing his solo album, and he had Metal Mike there. We did a switch – Gus did a guest solo on Joacim’s album, and Metal Mike played a guest solo on our album. The only guest that we have on “United” is a very famous Swedish comedian that speaks on the song “Doomlord”. And he speaks in Swedish, so you have to find a Swedish-English dictionary to understand what he says. (laughs)
We remember an interview that you did back in 2002 after the release of the first album, and back then you said that you don’t expect touring to be a lot of fun. What are your impressions from touring now?
The same. (laughs) Of course, the time that you play and maybe some hours around it are cool. But all this traveling… You come to the venue and you sit there all day waiting for something to happen. You are not even trying trying to see the town, instead you’re falling into some kind of coma, you are just sitting there with an open mouth. (laughs) And it’s the same for everybody. I actually went to the backline people asking if they needed some help because I wanted to do something, and their reply was, “No, you’re not in that position. We’ll tell you when you gotta play.” It’s not bad, there are a lot of funny memories, but unfortunately there are a lot of very boring hours.
You have produced a great number of albums, and you also have your own band. Do you ever listen to music just for pleasure?
No, not very often. (laughs) In this case I listen to some old stuff, like
Van Halen’s first album, as I have some good memories about it from the days when I was young. The same is true for Thin Lizzy’s “Black Rose”. Of course, sometimes I hear some really good stuff, I own some albums of Porcupine Tree, I also like a singer called Seal, he’s got a great song called “A Kiss From A Rose”, I don’t remember the name of that album. But most of the pleasure comes from listening to the awesome production or how people are performing stuff. You get sort of working damage or whatever it’s called, it’s the consequence of playing with your own band. Maybe sometimes when you’re out with friends at a bar, and they’re playing stuff like “The Number Of The Beast”, you go crazy and start jumping off the tables… (laughs) But I don’t come home and turn on the CD player, I rather come home and turn the CD player off. (everybody laughs)Yes, because you have too much music in the studio…
Like today – 12 hours of drumming. (laughs)
Is there a kind of competition between producers on the metal scene? Do you follow what, for instance, Daniel Bergstrand or Hiili Hiilesma are doing sound-wise?
No, they follow me! (everybody laughs) Actually I’ve never been into Daniel’s stuff, there’s nothing bad about him, but different persons have different tastes. For example, a guy like Andy Sneap has a really cool sound, but there are other things that I don’t like, he’s very much into putting everything together very tight, everything should play exactly the same at the same time. This makes music sound very German and very mechanic, and that’s maybe not my cup of tea. But other people like that, so they hire him. That’s good, everybody has different ideas. Of course, sometimes there’s gonna be competition between producers. Actually now I’m having some kind of a competition to work with an American band, I’ve just sent them sound samples to tell them I’m the best. (everybody laughs) This is something I believe in – try to improve yourself and go forward with your work all the time, don’t stop on a certain level, “OK, we will do this with everybody.” Earlier this year I threw always all my gear, my console and everything…
Oh my God, that’s a lot of money!
Yeah, but I didn’t actually throw this stuff away, I sold it. And I invested everything in a brand new Pro-Tools system. I used to be an analog guy, I’d always be working with an analog console, a tape recorder, but I went totally digital. This was a big step to do, but in the end I think it was a good investment. You upgrade the tools you’re working with, you start working in a totally different way, and you gain some bonuses along the way. For example, I can do total recall – I can do a mix, I can put it down and start working on something else, then I can open the mix again two years later, and all parameters are exactly the same as when I left it. This was a bit problem with analog recordings, as when I mixed some recording and then wanted to do a different mix, every time I had to start over.
What is more difficult for you – to produce other people or to produce your own band?
The first Dream Evil album was very hard to do... But in general, I don’t know, there are two different things. With your own band you are much better aware of all the music than when you work with other people’s music. You can’t be in the rehearsal room with the band, this happens with bands like Metallica, but a normal metal band cannot afford that much money, this doesn’t make sense. So these are two different ways, but the procedure is almost the same. (laughs)
By the way, you say that you don’t run around calling yourself “producer”. Why?
I don’t know…
OK, how would you like your occupation to be called?
A studio guy, something like that. (laughs) Sometimes you’re really deep into the music of the band, but sometimes not. There are so many people walking around saying, “I’m a producer!” To me it’s not important. Sometimes people ask me, “What is your occupation? What do you do for a living?” And I tell them, “I’m a heavy metal producer!”, but that’s more for fun.
What do your wife and children think about the music you play? Would you like your children to be musicians, too?
(laughs) Mainly my kids like the stuff we’re doing. One of my sons is 14 years old, and he’s having a band right now. He’s taking my old gear, and he and his friends are running a heavy metal band together. Of course, if they wanna play music, it’s great. If people find what they want to do, it’s right anyway. If they want to be lawyers or musicians, it’s up to them. To me it doesn’t matter, I will be happy for them anyway. But if they decide to be hookers, I will not support them. (laughs)
When you were a teenager, what kind of music influenced you? We know that you started playing guitar after seeing Jimi Hendrix on television, but how did you get into death and black metal?
Death and black metal were not around when I was young. Back in those days I listened to the bands like Kiss, Sweet, Scorpions, Van Halen and Thin Lizzy. The first time I came into contact with death metal was actually through my work in the studio. I recorded a death metal band, and when I first heard them, I understood nothing, it was too fast and too aggressive. Then I did some death metal albums, and I started liking it more and more. But my main influence is the U.S. metal of the 1980s.
A lot of people consider your work on the two latest Dimmu Borgir albums (“Puritannical Euphoric Misanthropia”, 2001, and “Death Cult Armageddon”, 2003) to be your biggest achievement. Would you agree with them?
Yeah, both of them were really big projects. And actually today we started doing the next Dimmu Borgir album. Of course, the expectations for this album are very big, but this time we’re not gonna do a full symphonic orchestra and so on. Yes, the Dimmu Borgir albums helped me put some soil on my ground. Another very important project was “Slaughter Of The Soul” by At The Gates, which we did in 1994.
Was it with Dimmu Borgir that you worked with classical instruments and musicians for the first time?
Yes. This was on “Puritannical…”, we had a 14-piece string section in the studio, and then I used the same string section on my own album, “Dragonslayer”. Then we went down to Prague with “Death Cult Armageddon”, and it was a big machine. I used a huge studio, conductors and all that stuff. There were three guys from Dimmu Borgir, the orchestra conductor (Adam Klemens), the arranger (Gaute Storaas), and me. And I was the link between the classical music and the metal music. When I had something to say, I had to speak to the arranger, who was a Norwegian guy, he had to speak the language to the conductor, who speaks Italian, and I don’t understand it. I understand some parts, but not all of it. When I heard somebody playing something wrong, I would say, “There’s some screaming instrument, can you take that off?” And the arranger would say, “Yeah, it’s the flute, he has to play more fortissimo” and blah blah blah… I was like, “OK, do it!” (laughs) But it was a very good experience.
When you record so many bands, how do you evade a burnout?
It’s better to burn out than to fade away! (everybody laughs)
Have you ever been approached by a Russian band who wanted to work in your studio?
Yes, I had a Russian guy here in the studio. That was 1.5 years ago, but I don’t remember the name of the band, there are so many of them. (It was a band called AnJ – ed.) They later went on to shoot a video with the director we’ve been talking about, Patrick Ullaeus.
So what are your impressions from working with them?
A little bit different, actually. I never met the band, there was just the manager girl that came to the studio, I did a mix of one song, and then she took it with the band to Patrick Ullaeus, and they shot the video, which I haven’t seen. This is a bit strange when people just stop by the studio on their way to somewhere else, you do a job for them, and then it’s gone.
The current Dream Evil line-up consists of the people who are on the same level as you are, and everybody lives in the same country. How do you see the future of Dream Evil? Will there be more touring and more festival appearances next year, or will you go on like you used to do after “The Book Of Heavy Metal”?
We’ve taken one step back, as three of the band members have small kids. Our plans are to drop the touring, there won’t be long nightliner touring for three or four weeks, we will instead do festivals, when we are absent from home for two or three days. That’s the plan right now. We really want to come out and play, but for family reasons we can’t do full tours. We are hoping to do some good festivals next summer, and if somebody wants to invite us during the winter or spring, of course we are ready to do that. We’re gonna go to England in November and do some shows there, we had plans for the United States which were cancelled for some strange reason, and then we have some Swedish shows that we’re gonna do. That’s actually it for the moment. Let’s see what’s showing up. Maybe some Russian gig?
Yeah, we would love to see you here!
It should be really great to come to Russia, because I’ve only heard very good things about Russian people, they are very friendly and very open-minded, which is nice.
We hope we won’t disappoint you if you come down here!
Of course. You have the vodka! (everybody laughs)
And finally, do you realize all your musical ambitions in Dream Evil? Or will you one day create a solo project or a different band?
I have a lot of ideas that don’t fit Dream Evil. But honestly I will not start one more band! (laughs) I have so many things to do. This morning I woke up about 12 hours ago, and I’ve been fully occupied, so I haven’t even seen my kids today. Tomorrow we’re gonna start working at 8 o’clock in the morning, and at 9 o’clock in the evening I’m gonna do interviews again for at least two hours. I feel like it’s more than enough. So when I think of planning a solo project, it feels like, “No!!!”
Special thanks to Gerrit Mohr (Century Media Records) for arranging this interview
Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Natalie “Lynx” Khorina
October 9, 2006
25 äåê 2006
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