More about “Salt”… and a pinch of pepper maybe?

Katrin: Hehe, ok on with “Salt” now… Will the new album be released via Locomotive Records again?

Erik: Uhm, I don’t know. Basically we negotiate from album to album. I’m sure it will still be somewhere under the umbrella of Sensory in the States, because there’s no reason not to be. We always option the albums in various territories. So when we’re finally approaching the release we’ll know who’s going to release it…

Katrin: What can we expect musically? I mean “The Shadow Cabinet” was a lot more aggressive than the previous ones… or will it be a bit more “romantic”, dreamy and with folk influences like “Far From The Madding Crowd”?

Erik: Well yes. Because the intention with “The Shadow Cabinet” was to make a dark, aggressive heavy metal record and we don’t do the same again, so it will certainly be different in some way. We couldn’t do a more heavy, aggressive album. Well, if we could, we haven’t tried enough last time. What I mean is: There’s no point in going further that road. We always tried to do something different each album. Exactly HOW it will be different I’m not quite sure yet, but it seems like there will be a bit more sort of folk rock… or probably it will turn out sounding the same shit anyway, whatever, haha… No, but the intention is to make it more… I wouldn’t say acoustic, but I’d like to have some more “air” in the sound… Because “The Shadow Cabinet” is very compact and very “full on” all the time. Well that was the intention and the concept for that one, I won’t do that again. I’d like to have it different, maybe a bit more room for each instrument…

Katrin: With some real folk instruments as well?

Erik: It’s always nice to have a part. I don’t write for that specifically, but if you have a part it’s always nice to blend in a couple of real acoustic instruments… It lets a certain sound through that you can’t reproduce with synthesizers. You don’t necessarily have to do everything acoustically. That would cost way more than we budgeted and will take a lot of time. You don’t necessarily have to do that. But blending in a few real instruments helps to sell the whole thing… and it’s fun to do that stuff. I remember recording the bagpipe for “Far From The Madding Crowd”… You can’t tune a bagpipe, it has nine notes and you have to play in one key… it was a challenge! …A girl from here played it, from a pipe band, Copenhagen Pipes or whatever, a real pro! That was cool.

Katrin: Yea. But think about the live situation and then you’ll have all the stuff from the tape… like yesterday…

Erik: Ah yea. That didn’t work either, hehe… Well, I’m not a fan of playback. I rather play this scrambling raw, totally live thing that we do than sort of having the drummer with earphones and backing tracks and stuff like that. It can work with some bands but that’s not what I want to do when I play or when I see a live band. I much prefer “the real deal”.

Katrin: Is that what you listen to in your free-time as well? …The “real deal”?

Erik: Yes. I don’t listen too much to power metal or progressive metal these days. It’s very rare that it comes to something really original in that genre… maybe Týr! Very interesting and a phenomenal live band as well. And they do it live, sing brilliantly, all of them. You know, I grew up with the 70s rock. And those guys, they played live and sang harmonies on stage and shit. Go see Uriah Heep – and that’s live, fuckin’ rock’n'roll! My heroes did that and it would be wrong for me to sort of have backing vocals… can’t do that.

Katrin: Will you sing something on the new album?

Erik: The world hopes not, haha! No, I always sing some backing stuff, some falsetto shit, various growls and whispers… But I’m no real singer, so there would be no point in that. I will always have a few assorted voices on each album, you might hear it when you know where to dig. And that spoken part “Reason” – that’s me as well.

Katrin: Oh, is it you? That’s not too bad, haha…

Erik: Yea. The interesting thing is that it’s actually the demo version that is on the album, because it was perfect. The sound was fixed of course but there was no point in trying to recreate the whole thing again. So yes, it’s the demo.

Katrin: Ok, if you can not get Nils Patrik for the next album and you could wish for whatever other singer – who would that be?

Erik: Eric Adams. Haha!

Katrin: No, really? I mean he has a good voice… but…

Erik: Of course I’m being silly, because he only fits in Manowar, but I do believe he is the best heavy metal singer in the world… but only in Manowar of course. He’s probably an asshole anyway. But well, I don’t know of any singers as good as Nils Patrik, so it would take some search to find someone totally unknown, hidden somewhere. I don’t know anyone who could do it.

Katrin: And then it’s the question again if he could go to play some gigs with you…

Erik: Exactly. I think that’s more the problem. I don’t think that there will be any problem in making the record. The question is: Do we want to make a record if that’s all we can do? I think we have to sort that out. But you’re right… I’d have a hard time imagining to make the record with anybody else, that’s for sure.

Katrin: All in all, how far have you come with the new album? Everything already written?

Erik: No, not at all. I believe I have the written tracks for about 5 songs and I have the other couple of 3 or 4 songs sketched out, but there are no demos finished at all. No guitars, no instruments… just sort of basic programming of the arrangements, and the lyrics and ideas of course. I think it will turn out pretty good. I’m not quite set on how exactly it should sound but I think the songs are really good.

Katrin: So could it be released in 2009?

Erik: I hope so. I won’t make any promises, because something always goes wrong…

Katrin: How important is the artwork for you? Does it have to go hand in hand with the music?

Erik: It should, yes. But there is nothing yet. The trouble with artwork is that my ideas usually don’t go too well with the label. And since they’re the ones with the money they say yes or no… I think the last one was pretty good. It was not as radical as I would have liked. First the idea was that you don’t see anything on the cover, just the shadow of what was supposed to be on the cover. So the first version didn’t have much on it, a lot of white on it, which I thought was pretty cool. It was very un-heavy-metal, but the label didn’t like that too much. So we had to sort of take out a bit of “nothingness” from the album. But hey, it’s not a big thing for me. I’m much more worried each time that they make mistakes in printing the lyrics and stuff. But I prefer something that’s not too much cliché stuff, which can be difficult, because that’s what labels usually want clichés. It’s always a little fight.

Katrin: And what would be your idea for the next one? Something plain white – maybe just a pinch of salt?

Erik: Well no… But that is a good one. Take some salt and photograph that. I’ll think about that… No, there probably will be some ocean and stuff. But there will probably be something completely different, I don’t know.

Katrin: Alright. Will you watch some more bands here tonight?

Erik: Yes yes. I’m going to watch some bits.

Katrin: Ok. What do you think about the headliners, Pain of Salvation, if you can call them headliners…?

Erik: I’d like to say something nice, because they’re probably nice guys. I thought that their first two albums were really good, at a time when I was more into progressive metal than I am now. I haven’t followed them the last years. It’s probably a bit too intellectual for me, there is something “arty” about it, you know, something I really have a hard time with. I like music that has a sense of humour – and I don’t think they have too much of that. They’re certainly good musicians, but it’s not a favourite band of mine.

Katrin: Then it might be wise to stick more to some 70s bands… Jethro Tull maybe!?

Erik: Jethro Tull certainly have a lot of humour, that’s a good example. No, I think also a lot of new bands within the sort of folk metal – a genre that basically exploded within the last few years – they have a lot of sense of humour, and I really like that. I have a hard time with musicians taking themselves too seriously. We certainly don’t! Maybe we should, haha! … No I think you should take your music very seriously, your fans very seriously, but I think you should approach to yourself with a healthy dose of humour.

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