Sweden's Dark Tranquillity brings out their most ambigious album ever in their 15-year carreer. The album is titled Character and will be released by the end of January 2005. Pitfather had the opportunity to speak with mr. Niklas Sundin, guitarist of the band.

Since I email my questions to your local promotion department in the Netherlands, with whom of Dark Tranquillity have I got the pleasure to do this interview?
You have the pleasure of doing the interview with Niklas (guitars). Hello!

On your upcoming album Character you start off like young trashgods, where does all this agression and need for extra speed come from?!
Certainly not from youthfulness, since most of the members are in their 30's now. I don't know, really. We usually try to come up with something different for every album, and this time it felt interesting to try to take the music into a more extreme direction. It takes 4-5 songs before you know where a new album is heading at, and once we had the framework established, we were all very excited about making some faster tunes again.

You must be overflowed with inspiration bringing out a demo-live album package, an EP and now a full-length studio album in relative short time?
I don't know. The compilation album had been planned for years, but it just happened to be released in 2004. The EP and the full length album was recorded at the same time, so it's not like we've been constantly working on stuff. But the inspiration is flowing nicely right now, so it feels good to have a lot of releases out.

Listening to your new album, the band seems to have found a better balance between melody and speed/virtuousity. Have you been extra working on this or did it just happen to go that way?
We never make any grand plans when beginning to write songs for an album, and we never set any particular goals of trying to achieve this or that. It all boils down to trying our best to come up with quality songs, and as we change as persons and musicians every album is bound to have its own approach. I don't know if there's more virtuosity displayed on "Character", but it's certainly more technical and complex than - for example - "Damage done".

What is for yourself the biggest progress accomplished on Character?
I have no idea. I never analyze our own material and it's impossible to be objective about an album after you've spent so much time working on every single detail. It's up to the listeners to dissect the album, we just play, ha ha!

What do you think is the biggest progress for each individual bandmember, according to you?
Again, I don't know what to reply. I guess that everyone is constantly learning and developing new skills as a musician, but I've never thought about what the particular progress peaks for this album is.

It is also the first time your music is used for a soundtrack, "Lost to apathy" will be featuring on the original motion picture soundtrack to "Alone in the dark", how did this happen?
I have no idea. We didn't even know about it before reading it on Blabbermouth, which says something about the communication in the music business, ha ha! It's a cool thing, even if I suspect that the actual movie will suck massive balls.

Looking back in your career, what do you think of your previous albums? Is there one you think of as GREAT and still proud of and/or are there any you are not so fund of anymore?
I don't really care about the old albums. I like them for what they are, but I never listen to them myself unless it's absolutely needed. Every release is a documentation about our goals and ambitions at the given time, and it'd be impossible for me to try and compare them and analyze them. They all have their strong and weak points, but I can't have an opinion about them like I would with any other band's music.

The title for your new album is a strong one, everybody can have his own thoughts with it. Which other names did you consider and why did it became Character?
Let's see...I actually think that "Character" was the only serious suggestion. Originally, the song "Am I 1?" was entitled "Character", so we took it from there, and it instantly felt like the right word to sum up this album. As you say, it's possible to read a lot of different meanings into it.

You seem to put a lot of time and effort in the promotion for Character (more then with previous releases). How high are your expectations of Character? Do you feel this album can take you a big step forward?
I actually think that will happen, since the promotional powers behind the album is so much stronger than what we've had in the past; we're doing way more interviews, have more important magazine covers and - above all - we'll do much more touring for this album. Seeing how all these mechanics work, I'd be really surprised if "Character" doesn't do very well. The reviews and general feedback has also been excellent, which can only help as well, but if we're totally honest everyone knows that good promotion sadly is more important than good music if we're talking about record sales.

I saw you even have a sing-along piece of software to download on your website?! How many people download it and what are the reactions?! Have you ever heard anybody sing along with the software yet? It is a cool way to train the audience for singing along during your shows!
We had quite a lot of downloads, and it's a really cool thing that a fan actually has sat down and programmed a whole software application for us. We really should ask people to send us their recordings of themselves singing along with the songs, ha ha!

Your bass player got an endorsement with Warwick, how did this happen?!
I'm not 100% sure, but I think he was contacted by the Swedish distributor of Warwick and was offered an endorsement deal.

Since the pointless shooting of Dimebag Darell I'm getting more afraid the world's intolerance and hardness is even reaching the metal scene. This is something I've held as pretty impossible before this shooting. How do you see this incident yourself?
It was a great tragedy, of course, and probably something that most people never thought possible within any sort of music.

Do you have some final words for our readers, for example your life motto or something else?
Well, thanks for reading the interview and feel free to check our new album out!

Interview by Dennis van Elteren


Fonti: www.dark-tranquillity.nl