Intervista realizzata con Mikael all'Evolution Festival 2006 (15/07/2006). Trovate la traduzione integrale dell'intera intervista su questa pagina.
Hi there! First of all, thanks Mikael for spending some time answering our questions and welcome back to Italy once again! So let's start!
1. In October the recording sessions for the new album will start. How is the songwriting going and what do you expect from your new release?
So far we are just finishing up all the songwriting, we just recorded a demo of most of the songs yesterday and... it sounds fantastic! We are just really really excited about it, but there are still so many things that could change until the last minute so we don’t really know... it is definitely an extreme album, it is different in many ways, but also I think it kind of adds up what we are about. What we are really proud about the new songs is that they show we paid no attention to what other people are doing, to what the trends are or what other people are listening to, to what the audience and the record company want... this is pure Dark Tranquillity material!
2. On the official website I read you will be using both blastbeats and acoustic parts. Does this mean the new album will add a The Gallery–like sound to the experimental path you walked on with Character?
We want this album to have all sorts of different songs, instead of combining tons of different elements into one song. We decided to do a totally different thing: there are fucking fast songs with blastbeats and all that stuff, one is really really slow, other are kind of mid-tempo. We don’t actually think about that, and go like “oh, let’s make a song that sounds like something we’ve been making ten years ago...”, that doesn’t make any sense to us. But I imagine it has many elements we used back then, and lots of experimental elements as well.
3. Reading the titles of the new songs and the splash-screen on the official website it seems like you’re taking a new direction based on subtle allusions and explicit lyrics. Is this the case? Will the new album have a ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker on it?
No, no, no! (Smiles) It’s just for fun, there is no song called ‘Insignificunt’, that was just a joke. It was fun to see how people would react to it... but definately it is music that “you touch yourself to”, that’s for sure!
4. Will there be any place for clean vocals, female vocals or duets on the new album?
Ehhmm... I'm not really sure. We are still thinking about it, we are absolutely still planning. There is one song that I feel perhaps it would be appropriate and it would work so we are thinking about it and, while we are recording these demos, we will try it out and see what happens, and if it sounds good. But, yeah, definitely that is a possibility, even having female vocals is a possibility.
5. What about Johansson? Ever thought about bringing him back as a special guest for some special song to be published as a bonus track, for example?
The thing is I just met him last week after fucking five years... that is too bad! We don’t really hang out at all anymore. He is a great guy and I know he is busy with other stuff. I know he is still playing and it could be fun but... I don’t know... it wouldn’t really make any sense to us to bring him back and I don’t know if he would want it either. I rather drink beer with him and play with the band.
6. Every time a new album comes out people start making the most variate predictions on how the sound will be. Some say you’ll become a progressive-metal band, other say you will turn to a metalcore style. Do you feel like you can be influenced by what people expects from you?
All of this is true! (Laughs) No, seriuosly, we keep absolute distance from that. I mean, if we were to do that, that would pollute our music and would make us become something that we are not, and it would just be stupid. Of course it is interesting to read what kind of expectations people have but it is just for laughs... you go like “woo! ok people think we gonna do that...” but it doesn’t matter in the end. I really appreciate it, that is what I like too: when there are some of my favourite bands in their songwriting process I go nuts speculating... it is fun, but to us it doesn’t make any difference.
7. What about wearing onstage-uniforms (just like In Flames or Slipknot do) or using pyros?
Mmmm... Outfits are costing... Anyway, we thought about it and it would just feel weird for us, it has never been out thing so it would be stupid to start it now. It is surely fun but it can be cheesy if it is not done the right way.
8. Do you consider yourselves more a swedish band or an internation band? Is there a ‘swedish-pride’ feeling that guides you?
Sure, I mean, obviously we are Swedish and we love our country. For me there is no better place to live or be, I’m really proud of being Swedish. All the great bands, all the musical and cultural heritage we have is great and I totally appreciate it. But I guess that since we can play anywhere, being our music is universal - I think -, and we sing in a language which is not our own then we are an international band rather than a totally Swedish band in that respect. I don’t feel we are a typical and totally Swedish band, like preaching the Scandinavian ways to people or anything like that... you know, we are from Sweden but we play everywhere and we bring our sensibility and our background to people through our music. We are not like all those folk bands, I mean, our music is so influenced by German music, by American music so, obviously, it is not totally Swedish. Music should be universal, otherwise there is no point in making it.
9. Are there any plans for making a new DVD or is Live Damage still too close in time to think about making a new one?
I don’t think it is too close in time. I mean, there are no plans right now, but we would love to do it and we are thinking about it. I think we should do it after the upcoming album is out, so we go out touring and record some stuff that will end up on the DVD, but there are no concrete plans.
10. In live shows, headliners usually have a more carefully balanced sound than the support bands. Do you feel the quality of your performance gets better when you’re headlining?
Obviously it differs every night more or less. If you are headlining obviously you have the most time to do the soundcheck, preparations and stuff like that. But if you have a crew that is experienced and that you’ve been travelling with then you don’t really need that anyway, so it’s really fast. Obviously it’s better to headline... you get the proper time and you can play as much as you want and so on... while sometimes you do a support tour where you have like 40 minutes and it could be a total fucking mess because you don’t have the time so set up things properly... but if you have the right guys it could also be perfect.
11. Now a fun-question from a user of your official forum, who is your number 1 Costa Rican fan: is there any chance of having Malmsteen play as a special guest? It could indeed be a great idea!
(Laughs) No, no I’m not really a big Yngwie fan... I like the vocalist, Goran Edman, and I would like to have him participate into an album, or even Yngwie‘s touring singer, but I don’t think it would really work in a Dark Tranquillity song. I mean, he is fantastic but it is not really my thing.
12. Another question from another official-forum-user: why do you always close with Final Resistance? Any chance you will change that in the future?
Well, actually we like it so much... it is a fast and really intense song, then it is also really short and it has a perfect ending. It is not just because of the title, I just think the song really works. We might change it, but tonight we are going to do it. It is like one of those songs you feel very comfortable about. But we probably should change it, that is also true.
We gonna play a new song tonight! It is the first song that we wrote for this upcoming album... “Blind At Heart”... it is the first time we ever play it in front of an audience. Since last year this festival was kind of fucked up we are going to play songs that we haven’t played for years, years and years. We have actually been working hard to rehearse for this show, since it feels very special, I love it so much!
Intervista realizzata con Mikael all'Evolution Festival 2006 (15/07/2006) da Nico - Traduzione
