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"THEY MADE ME DO IT... :
SLAYER vs. AT THE GATES"
Letīs have a couple of words about your new
album next, "... Made Me Do It". When you started
to write songs for it, did you have kind of īan advanced planned
recipeī existing somewhere how you wanted it to turn out?
JENSEN: Nope. Weīve always done our music kind of
spontaneously. Itīs mainly me and the twins (=the Björler
-brothers from the defunct AT THE GATES) who write the music.
And we come from different styles and have all experienced song
writers because of our previous bands. So we write the songs
- or the riffs which we bring to our practice place and show them
to the other guys. Everyone is allowed to say whether this
or that stuff is good or not īthatī good. What Iīm trying
to say is that we never sit down and say: "We are gonna make
a more melodic album this time...". I think thatīs
just stupid. As for the more melody on our new album, that
just happened that way because of our bass player Jonas who wrote
a whole lot more material for this album as he did for our 1st
album, too, as a matter of speaking. Thatīs why "...
Made Me Do It" turned out more melodic.
Now if Iīm claiming "T.H.M.M.D.I."
is closer to the soundscapes of AT THE GATES than SLAYER due to
its more melodic song arrangements, would you agree with that
statement without any hesitations?
MARKO: Yeah - thatīs just because of Jonas.
Thank him for that, HE!
JENSEN: I agree, too, as Jonas was one of the main
song writers for AT THE GATES, so itīs just natural, yīknow!?
When your debut came out 3 years ago, many
references to SLAYERīs "Reign in Blood" were drawn out
and SLAYERīs name was stamped all over THE HAUNTEDīs material by
the press people over and over and over again - mainly because you
were the ones who managed to capture the similar intensity and
aggression of that particular album we just talked about here.
Have you ever felt kind of frustrated or even pissed off by now
due to all these constant comparisons to SLAYER?
MARKO: The thing is that you could actually
compare us to a lot of īworseī bands...
Thatīs true - like comparing you to, -eh?
MEGADETH?!
(-laughing!-)
JENSEN: No, no... -MEGADETH is a good band.
Well, maybe not that great nowadays any more. But I think
you always have kind of a tendency to be compared to SLAYER if you
play fast Thrash, if you donīt tune down your guitars and you
play tight, then SLAYER is always there - absolutely!
MARKO: Yīknow, the thing also is that if youīre
supposed to introduce any band - like from a fan to a friend; and
if youīre just talking ībout some certain bands, everybody is
always using preferences just to introduce these bands to each
other as he/she may not have any idea how some certain bands sound
like. So, when someone says we sound like SLAYER, he/or she
may get interested and picks our albums up, yīknow!? So you
kind of never can avoid using these references.
JENSEN: I hope when people compare us to SLAYER,
they could compare us to that SLAYER how they sounded like 10-12
years ago. Because this SLAYER that was back then, doesnīt
sound like anything like they sound nowadays. Itīs
certainly not the same SLAYER today.
Did all this press people change their
opinions about you when they got to hear "... Made Me do
It"; and not comparing you to SLAYER that much any more, but
more to AT THE GATES instead?
MARKO: The AT THE GATES -thing has calmed down a
little bit now, too...
JENSEN: I donīt personally think it wasnīt that
much A.T.G. on the first album either.
MARKO: Itīs been only the īashesī of AT THE
GATES there when people have been talking ībout us basically...
JENSEN: It has always been the ashes of A.T.G.;
the history of that band and stuff, but thatīs the way to sell
more albums, yīknow!? For me, itīs always the ashes of
A.T.G. as I wasnīt in that band, yīknow. I mean, we have
three remaining members in the band who played in AT THE GATES,
but still it shouldnīt matter that much. You know how
things tend to grow when some certain bands split and stop
existing. Like JIMI HENDRIX whoīs such a well-known name
NOW - and JAMES DEAN - or MARILYN MONROE; they are all legends
NOW! Whatever bands stop existing, people always tend to go like:
"Oh, the good old days were better with bands like J.HENDRIX,
THE DOORS, etc. ...". Who knows what would have
happened if AT THE GATES had chosen to continue because their
singer Tomppa (a.k.a. Thomas Lindberg) wanted to take it into more
īPunk/Crustī-direction.
MARKO: And that doesnīt go well with that melodic
īGothenburg soundī or anything...
"EARACHE vs.
"headache(!)"
How has the selling been for your new album
so far worldwide anyway... ?
JENSEN: We are not sure... (!)
Doesnīt EARACHE keep you up-dated too often
regarding the sales or... ?
JENSEN: Well, they do, but... (!!) - Iīm not
sure...
(-laughing!-)
Could you at least spit out some sales
figures for the new album, -eh!?
JENSEN: We donīt really... (!?)
MARKO: We donīt wanna speculate about it too much
because... (!!!)
How did your debut do, then... ?
JENSEN: Thatīs the same thing with it, too.
Itīs really EARACHEīs thing to give those selling numbers out;
the same numbers what we get from them, too.
But you can see all that money out of the
selling for your albums on your bank accounts alright, HE! HE!
MARKO: OH-HOH... OH-YEAH... - we are just laughing
all the way to our bank accounts...
( -laughing!-)
JENSEN: I wrote about 60% for our 1st album.
They took the money to pay off the AT THE GATES tour debts.
And I wrote 60% of it...
MARKO: Thatīs EARACHEīs politics to work things
out that way...
Hmmm.... ? Are you happy with EARACHE
at all how they have been promoting THE HAUNTED thus far - or are
there possibly some things in EARACHE which they could do slightly
better for you? I mean, are the staff of EARACHE
understanding and open-minded people for your ideas if thereīs
something youīd like to improve or just make better between the
band and the label?
MARKO: On this last album, they actually made an
effort. It somewhat paid off, but thereīs still a few
things that could be a lot better, but no labelīs perfect.
We just try to keep the peace with them and be happy for a while
and somehow just maintain that good work. I donīt think
thereīs no point arguing at this point when they are actually
doing something for us. But thereīs still some criticism
that could be thrown to that direction.
But I assume youīre still communicating
with them every once in a while, talking about things in general;
how business should go between you and them and stuff... ?
MARKO: We have Jensen and Anders, our business men
in the band...
JENSEN: But I donīt wanna talk about these
things, I really donīt if you donīt mind... !?
"A TREAT FOR
CENSORSHIP"
OK, I understand, so letīs just move on to
the next question. I must say that the title of your new
album, "(THE HAUNTED)... Made Me Do It", has quite a lot
of irony in itself. Was it originally meant against organizations
like the gloriously pathetic P.M.R.C. as we all happen to know
that the people in that organization tried their very best making
some scapegoats out of Heavy Metal music for soooooo many times in
the past? On the other hand, what do you overall think of
censorship in music, especially in this particular genre?
JENSEN: I agree we had some irony on our albumīs
title when we thought about it. And yeah, we partly directed
it to P.M.R.C. as we donīt think censorship does any good for any
bandīs... -well, call it "an artistic orientation",
whatever! I really donīt think if itīs that necessary at
all. I mean, if a band doesnīt have any goals, whatsoever,
itīll disappear by itself. And if thereīs some kind of
intelligence; an intelligent message with a band, then people will
surely recognize it, I hope. I donīt think metal public, or
audience is stupid, yīknow!? Iīd say artists like BRITNEY
SPEARS and alike are probably more stupid just because, yīknow,
they get fed by what they are supposed to like. I donīt
think censorship is that necessary in metal at all.
MARKO: Censorship is more like just for degrading
people. Because, yīknow: "You donīt wanna see this...
- this is not good for you!!". What THE FUCK someone
knows what I like and I donīt like?! Itīs just stupid, I
think.
JENSEN: Itīs like they donīt understand what
they are seeing. They obviously think these people must be,
yīknow, promoting murder or whatever!! But thereīs a lot
of people out there that write just average... - like Stephen King
or whoever. I mean, itīs just his own fantasy; itīs all
just fantasy...
But if you think of Heavy Metal - or
especially some of its sub-genres like Black Metal for example a
bit more rationally when some bands sometimes, tend to go sort of
"off the edge" by trying to shock people on purpose with
the most gruesome and vomitive album covers or promo shots or
whatever, do you then think it would be better if some kind of
censorship entered the picture - just in case? As you may
know, NUCLEAR BLAST refused to use the very original cover concept
for DIMMU BORGIRīs new album where they had this female torso on
it...
JENSEN: I canīt actually see a point in that kind
of covers īcoz you may go from one extreme to another extreme
just because you kinda wanna shock people more and more.
They had a female torso on this new one, yeah; next time they may
have just one massive, big asshole on the cover! Yīknow
what my point is?
MARKO: ... and you just gave away our next album
cover...
:) ...and everybody burst into laughter... :)
JENSEN: But on the other hand, we donīt get into
any pornographic stuff just to sell more albums. We are
aiming at other artistic areas as far as our album covers are
concerned.
"HAPPY GRAMMY
WINNERS..."
OH, by the way, congratulations for winning the
title as "the best Swedish Hard Rock band" in the Grammy
Award which was held in Stockholm for some time ago already.
JENSEN & MARKO: Thanks...
What did it mean to you personally to get
nominated as "the best Hard Rock band" - and then
winning it and beating up such big Swedish names there as
ENTOMBED, HAMMERFALL and THE HIVES?
JENSEN: We weren't counting on it that we could
ever have a chance to win that kind of awards. Quite
honestly! We honestly thought it was all HAMMERFALLīs deal!
But of course it felt good to achieve that kind of status as being
the best Hard Rock band from Sweden. Other than that, it was
just good for anything else like showing that shiny and nice prize
to my grandmother, yīknow!? But actually it opened a lot of
doors to a bigger press. Like we had the biggest Swedish
newspaper following our tour. It gave us a 2 whole
page-spread. It was crazy!! And we were on a national
TV, too. Yīknow, how many bands of this kind have a chance
to get some seconds on TV in Sweden? Simply NONE (well,
since ENTOMBED and HAMMERFALL, of course!!)!!
What kind of channels do you have in Sweden
that show even more extreme music there?
MARKO: Just none...
JENSEN: Itīs a public service channel that shows
it, of course! But still, I mean... it reaches people. Like
my doctor said to me for some time ago: "Arenīt you in the
band... ??" I, for some obvious reason, became kind of
surprised and confused at the same time and just wondered how the
hell he knows and only managed to spit out one word like:
"Yeah...?!" My doctor is a 50-year-old dude... -
and he was watching that channel at that time.
(-laughing!-)
And I guess supposedly you felt pretty
flattered and got blushed as even he had a hint who you are and
that you are playing in a band... ?
JENSEN: Yeah. "And thatīs why youīre having
a hurting neck..."
(-laughing!-)
"THE SWEDISH THRASH
GRENADES"
Nowadays itīs kind of easy to talk about
some sort of a 2nd-coming or wave of aggressive Thrash Metal
coming from Sweden as thereīs really a great bunch of new Thrash
acts there that have been gaining a lot of attention amongst the
media, record labels, etc. from all over the world; bands like
CARNAL FORGE, DARKANE, THE FORSAKEN, MAZE OF TORMENT, SERPENT
OBSCENE...
MARKO: ...SOILWORK, DEFLESHED, THE GARDENIAN,
TERROR 2000...
Yeah, LOTS of Thrash- orientated bands
indeed. Can you see any reasons for that phenomenon why the
Swedish ground for this type of metal has been so fertile and
responsive for bringing Thrash Metal back to the metal people
again?
MARKO: Thatīs a difficult question! I donīt know
why. I even donīt have an answer for that, HE!
JENSEN: I donīt either. But, yīknow,
Sweden has been big on metal since early ī80s...
But itīs no denying that itīs been
actually Sweden that has started many cool trends particularly in
metal music and many have tried to follow what YOU have been doing
in metal...
JENSEN: Well, the Finnish metal scene is pretty
damn good at what they have been doing, too...
Cīmon Jensen, you DO know that we have
always come after you guys... hiding behind your shadows...
JENSEN: HE, I donīt know about that. I donīt
know, maybe if thereīs a lot of people in one country; I mean,
Sweden is a big country, so more or less everybody that knows how
to play - and knows someone who can play some instrument, too -
and so on and so on and so on, then all of a sudden, everybody
knows each other some way and if they share the same interests as
far as music goes, thereīs always lots of new bands coming up
from these crowded areas. So if you had like ENTOMBED starting
playing in Stockholm - before they even got their 1st album out -
and bands in the U.S.A. and Germany heard them, they may have
started copying them. Other bands in Sweden naturally had
already heard the ENTOMBED sound (as a pre-ENTOMBED called
NIHILIST) maybe for years before they got their 1st album out.
So, yīknow, you get a headstart. And if thereīs a healthy
scene, yīknow, thereīs always gonna be kind of like all these
Gothenburg sounding bands there, bands having many things in
common musically. I guess thatīs one of the reasons for
that why the Gothenburg scene and sound is so well-known as a
concept everywhere in the world now. And then, yīknow, when some
bands in Gothenburg became familiar with this particular sound
before - like a year before than anybody else heard it and became
big, many other bands in other countries just started to realize
how well they were doing by getting recognized by that unique
sound. You understand what I mean by all this, donīt you!?
Yeah, absolutely!!
JENSEN: We had like years head of time compared to
the any other scenes in other countries...
I know what youīre saying. Making it
a bit more in a nutshell; you meant that even if bands in Sweden
knew that you had had this special thing going on there in Sweden
for quite some time already, the rest of the world got awakened by
that for some years later and thought itīs something totally new
and groundbreaking, right?
JENSEN: YEZ!! Exactly!! Thatīs what I
meant. Itīs funny because when some bands start copying -
or sounding like some popular (Swedish) metal bands, I mean, when
they have noticed this band is really doing well in the whole
world, thereīs maybe a great bunch of new bands in Sweden that
have chosen to go into other direction and even that "new
direction" these bands have taken, may end up being like a
new trend - whatever again after some while, yīknow!?
"... AND LET
DEMOCRACY REIGN IN THRASH, TOO..."
Then something ībout your song writing
habits. I was just thinking how do you guys share your song
writing inside the band? Is everyone of you allowed to
contribute it and bring their own ideas in and how easy difficult
is it actually to mix all your personal ideas together in that
very final process of your song writing when youīre about giving
the finishing touches to your songs?
MARKO: Oh yeah, definitely!!
JENSEN: I can write a whole song by myself and the
rest of the guys may say: "This is good, thatīs
fine...". And next time I may come up with a whole song
again and the other guys may go like: "No, the chorus isnīt
good at all...", f.ex. And if I say: "Well, OK -
show me something better..." - and if they do it - and it
really is better, then itīs better and we go for choosing that
instead of what I came up with originally, yīknow!? But if
you think your stuff is better, you have this tendency to argue
from time to time. Itīs just natural. Our band is
pretty democratic as far as our whole song writing thing is
concerned. Jonas writes a lot of music - and I do quite a
lot myself, too. Jonas writes a little bit, more or less,
almost every day some music for the band. I need to get
concentrated on my own song writing thing - and if Iīm in a truly
inspirational mood, I may write music like, letīs say, 8 hours a
day. But itīs really difficult to get concentrated
sometimes if you arenīt in the mood or your mind is traveling
restlessly around, yīknow!?
Obviously youīve been keeping your note
pencils sharp since "... Made Me Do It". Could you
already tell us what kind of direction has this new stuff of yours
taken compared to all that what you have done previously?
MARKO: Itīs hard to say yet as we only have
a bunch of riffs ready and not much else really.
JENSEN: Itīs really kinda too early to describe
it yet, I guess...
Well, call me pushy - whatever!, but what
kind of riffs youīre talking ībout here? More aggressive,
violent riffs - or more slower, heavier riffs - explain more!
JENSEN: Thereīs all kind of stuff. I
donīt think itīs a good idea to say thereīs gonna be more
brutal stuff on our next album or anything. First of all,
our new stuff is in such an early stage - and then, we may drop
some stuff and come up with some new stuff that may be completely
different compared to all that stuff we came up with at first.
And if you tell too many people that you have this or that kind of
stuff, then youīve kind of painted yourself into a corner as
people are expecting that our next album HAS TO BE a certain type
musically; more brutal or faster or whatever really! So
thereīs really no sense to describe whether our next album will
contain more brutal or slower or faster stuff when we are back at
a studio recording it, yīknow?! Itīs better to keep the
fun and just kind of experiment and come up with something that,
well letīs say, doesnīt push you towards any particular corner
and leaves you a bit more space to be creative in the terms of
coming up with music which comes straight from your heart without
any restrictions or obligations to anybody, you know what Iīm
saying?
Well, I guess I do. Letīs move on -
as far as Iīve understood you Marko are living down in Stockholm
with your wife and kid - and the rest of the guys are all living
in Gothenburg. Has this fact had any effect for your song
writing because of the distance between these two beautiful
cities?
MARKO: No, not at all. The biggest problem
for us right now is that we donīt have a rehearsal place.
JENSEN: We were kicked out from our previous
rehearsal place, so we donīt rehearse together that much as you
can imagine, HE! HE!! We were kicked out from our rehearsal
place last New Yearīs Eve which we shared with IN FLAMES.
At that time they were out doing their U.S. tour and when they
came back home right before X-mas and went to their families - and
when they went back to their own apartments for checking out their
mails, they noticed that: "OH-HO, weīve got a letter in
November saying that we have to be out before the last December
and thatīs already tomorrow...". So, I had to call to
everybody, yīknow, on New Yearīs Eve. We had start moving
and clean that place up...
SHIT!! That had to be quite an awful
situation for you guys...
JENSEN: Yeah, it was - and they donīt have a new
place yet and we need find one ourselves, too. And itīs
gonna be very hard here in Gothenburg to find a proper rehearsal
place where we could practice at īcoz we have so many bands in
this city.
Well, could you then describe me what kind
of an event is a standard THE HAUNTED rehearsal session usually?
What kind of elements does it contain most often?
MARKO: Just plug in and let it go. The thing
is that usually they have a song already done and they send a CD-R
for me to put the lyrics on. And then I come down to the
rehearsal and we go thru these songs together how they sound like
with my lyrics and vocals on them. More or less we just sit
down and play and play and play; just playing the songs all over
again and again - and eventually they turn out to be good or bad.
Quite simple indeed.
JENSEN: We donīt jam our songs at all...
So I assume you try to make them as ready as
possible at your own homes and bring them to your rehearsals as
ready package as possible, correct?!
JENSEN: Yeah, thatīs very true. On the
other hand, I think we should let you know that the thing is that
we all come from such different musical directions. So if I
have something down with me and the other guys have something down
with them - and we play that certain thing together and it sounds
cool, then we donīt sit down and try to come up with something.
Because if I start filling around the guitars, the other guys may
not understand what Iīm doing and they may say: "Thatīs not
good at all...". So, I need to get home and get
prepared. And itīs the same thing for them as well.
If you bring something to our rehearsal which sounds like a
"half-made", I tell them right away that they should try
harder and get prepared better beforehand, too. Itīs kind
of like, yīknow, going to school and do your homeworks before you
present it. And if it isnīt any good straight away, you
just have to start all over again. Itīs just as simple as
that. So, thereīs not much jamming in our rehearsal
situation at all. I guess thatīs why we donīt sound much
like KYUSS, HE! HE!!
Next one goes for Marko only. Since
you became a vocalist for THE HAUNTED, which way did you have to
change your vocal style when you left FACE DOWN in order to start
off in THE HAUNTED as a vocalist again?
MARKO: For me FACE DOWN was more like a
darker pitch, lower pitch vocal-wise. And I had to put a
higher pitch to the vocals. But it didnīt turn out that was
the pitch I was looking for. I feel a lot of more comfortable for
singing this way compared to what I did when I was in FACE DOWN.
On which areas could you say youīre
slightly better in your opinion than the ex-singer of the band,
Peter Dolving as far as different ranges of your vocals are
concerned?
MARKO: Thatīs a hard question as I could never
compare myself to him because heīs a good singer as well.
But I guess I do the yelling part a bit better than him.
Jensen! Where do you think Marko beats
Peter in your opinion?
JENSEN: Well, I think that question is kinda
strange īcoz we didnīt fire Peter in order to get Marko in.
Peter just left the band and like Marko just said, heīs a REALLY
good singer; very energetic onstage and all that. We were
without a singer for 6 months; we were without a replacement for
that long, so when we got Marko hired to the band, weīre
naturally more than satisfied. And Marko is better musically
in the band īcoz Peter didnīt want to do the metal thing any
more. Peter is a singer/song writer nowadays; just an
acoustic guitar and his voice. He has been on a national
radio for a couple of times already and seems to be quite popular
as a singer, too. Heīs doing pretty good actually, but on a
whole different area music-wise.
Could you be a bit more specific... what
kind of stuff is he doing these days?
JENSEN: Heīs singing - and writing songs, like
letīs say, Bob Dylan. That type of thing...
HMMM... (!!), thatīs kind of īweirdī move
from him; to leave a totally crushing Thrash Metal band in order
to do that kind of stuff...
JENSEN: You tell me, HA! HA!!
MARKO: (-just laughing his ass off...-)
As for tonightīs
gig, youīll be playing with Finnish deathrockers GANDALF who
will open up this event and make the audience ready for your
blistering sonic-torment later today. What you think of them
musically?
MARKO: I havenīt heard them ever...
JENSEN: Me either...
They are on the same label like you are...
MARKO: Yeah, theyīre on WICKED WORLD which
is EARACHEīs sub-label.
JENSEN: The thing is that we donīt get too
many free CDs from many bands. Or at least I donīt.
"ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS
A HARD-TOURING BAND..."
MARKO: This is the end of our European tour.
JENSEN: Yeah, thatīs right - this is the end.
We did the European tour in March with NILE, CARNAL FORGE and THE
FORSAKEN. It was a really cool tour for us. Very nice
indeed!!
MARKO: Itīs was really great! We had
such a blast on that tour!! All the bands were great, the
audience was great - you cannot ask for more!! And this tour
is kind of a warm-up to the festivals.
JENSEN: First we did Japan; then U.K. - and
then we went back to Japan again. After that we did Europe,
Scandinavia and and the U.S.A.. And this is the show right
after the U.S. tour. Then weīll do festivals every weekend
until August.
I bet all your shows were really crowded,
werenīt they? How were the NILE -guys like, by the way?
JENSEN: Yeah, Iīm so happy that people came
to see us. There was a co-headlining thing between us and NILE -
and both us and NILE had a lot of great time together. They
were really cool guys.
MARKO: We did the Scandinavian leg, too; the
main part in Sweden and then we did one show in Copenhagen and one
in Oslo. I really donīt know why we didnīt come to Finland
on that one!? Because, yīknow, it was called
"Scandinavian Tour" anyway and Finland definitely is an
integral part of Scandinavia...
JENSEN: We were probably heading out here,
but for some reason that show was cancelled; like a week before we
were supposed to come here or something... Well, not even that;
just a few days before, I guess... (?)
MARKO: Just a few days, yeah...
I have also heard/read that youīve been
playing a couple of AT THE GATES songs on your gigs, namely
"World of Lies" and "Blinded by Fear", that
are. Are you still playing those songs on the gigs?
MARKO: That era is dying out. It
depends on the mood we have onstage. If the audience is
really good and thereīs nobody yelling for AT THE GATES, maybe...
JENSEN: If nobody yells for AT THE GATES, then OK,
we play AT THE GATES. But if you go out there, you naturally
play first THE HAUNTED songs. If like 3 people start yelling
AT THE GATES, yīknow, - NO WAY!! You have the wrong crowd, youīve
the wrong show, man!
If assume you pretty much agree with me when
Iīm saying THE HAUNTED is more of like a live band ratherv than a
band which spends time at a studio making records - am I right?
JENSEN: Oh yeah...
MARKO: Weīre definitely a live band.
JENSEN: Thatīs what I consider myself as īa real
bandī should be. Yīknow, if you only sound good on an
album - and cannot do the same thing onstage, then why bother to
play live anyway. You also have to be capable of kicking ass
- not only on your records, but live as well. We donīt use
so much effects at all. The only thing we have onstage, are
tuners. Just right into the amp; no distortion pedals or
anything like that. And itīs, yīknow, right there. I
think we sound better live anyway. Well, youīd be the judge
alright...
Iīll definitely do my best tonight by
slagging your live performance down as much I possibly can; I
promise you that!!
(-laughing!!-)
Talking about working at a studio a bit
more, I was just wondering when will you start recording a
follow-up to "... Made Me Do It"?
MARKO: Hopefully in the fall...
JENSEN: In the fall - sometimes in
November/December, maybe...
MARKO: And hopefully having it out by Feb/March
2002 or something like that. Again, we have to find a
rehearsal place to make the songs. Thatīs the schedule that
we have in our minds. Itīs not put down on any papers or
anything. Itīs just like a wish that we have; going into a
studio in the fall.
How long have you been on the road in a row
thus far?
JENSEN: More or less since October...
Doesnīt it start feeling like kind of, yīknow,
boring and frustrating to be on the road for that long time? Youīve
been doing gigs for over 7 months...
MARKO: (making some loud snoring voices...)
(-laughing!!-)
MARKO: No, because you kind of forget all that
frustration when youīre out on the road. But of course it
feels so great when you finally come back to home. But then
it takes like 1-2 weeks and then you canīt wait to get out again,
so...
JENSEN: One of the major frustrations for being on
the road is...
MARKO: Hurry up and wait! HA! HA!!
JENSEN: No, is having no shower. You donīt
believe how much we enjoy a shower. I mean, if you play like
a hour under hot lightning, yīknow, you wanna go straight to a
shower after a show.
MARKO: You reach that certain age when you
appreciate a shower after a show.
JENSEN: When you are 20 or something, itīs
just enough for you to get drunk after a show and you just sleep
on that fuckinī floor and wake up in the next city. And
thatīs fine, yīknow!? But as you know, we are not
20-something any more, HE!
"A DAY-OFF...! AGAIN?
AW F**K...!!"
How important do you consider these day-offs
for you on tours? What do you exactly do when you get
blessed by a day-off or two?
MARKO: Spending money (if we have any?)...,
get drunk..., be bored... HA! HA!!
JENSEN: Usually these day-offs are spent for the
long drives we have between concert places. You stop at a
gas station somewhere occasionally, īcoz your driver has to
sleep, too. So you sit at a gas station and...
(... Jensen pounding his fingertips against the
table, having "farting-is-the-only-fun-I-have" furrows
in his face...)
JENSEN: ... somewhere in the east-Germany...
(adding some empty whistling all over the boredom
they
may have at that gas station in their thoughts...)
( ...everyone of us bursted into laughing
here at the same time... )
JENSEN: Thereīs NOTHING that kills your
enthusiasm like a day-off at a gas station in the middle of
nowhere.
MARKO: Because youīre in a groove and then you
get interrupted - and then you have to find a way back to that
groove again. On the U.S. tour, f.ex., we had way too many
day-offs, I think.
JENSEN: Thatīs because distances between cities
there are long, so we had to drive a lot.
MARKO: Like the longest drive we had, it was 30
hours, wasnīt it Jensen?
JENSEN: Yeah, something like that. Our
driver had to sleep 8 hours and did two 15-hour drives. I
hated all that...
I can imagine that itīs not that
"funny" to be on the road if you have to spend too many
hours sitting in a bus and just wait to get there...
JENSEN: Yea, thatīs really pretty damn
frustrating. Luckily itīs better in Europe īcoz cities are
closer to each other.
MARKO: And when youīre driving thru Arizona or
something, the A.C. in the bus is just working all the time and itīs
still warm, warm, warm...
Cannot say I envy you too much, HE! HE!
So, Jensen, how are things standing for your other
band WITCHERY nowadays, by the way? When are you supposed to
record with them again?
JENSEN: In fact, we already were recording a
new album in February at the Berneo Studio. We had the same
line-up as we had last time - apart from the fact we had a new
drummer this time around. Our old drummer got a kid and
became a TV-producer, so I can understand him if he doesnīt wanna
tour with us any longer. The album will probably be out in
August/September, I think.
Thru NECROPOLIS RECS or... ?
JENSEN: NECROPOLIS will do the North America.
We have another company in Europe that will do a whole lot better
job here.
Also, Iīm aware of another fact that you
used to play in SEANCE and did a couple of albums with them in the
beginning of 90īs (that were "Forever Laid to
Rest" in -ī92 and "Saltrubbed Eyes" in -ī93).
Now, those albums on BLACK MARK have been out of print for quite
some time already, I guess - and thatīs why theyīre very hard
items to get these days. Have you ever thought of putting
them out again as a double-CD package or something?
JENSEN: Yīknow, BLACK MARK is probably THE WORST
company to get involved with because they made a bit more money
than they put into a band; that was good. Let me explain some
more: You made an album and it had to be cheap and if they
got a few thousands D-marks back - more than they put into it,
then thatīs fine. No tours, no promotion - simply NO
NOTHING!! They didnīt set up any interviews or anything. So
it was very frustrating to be on that label and, yīknow, we got
tired with them eventually, but you certainly cannot blame us for
that. however, itīll be up to BLACK MARK if they are ever
going to re-release those SEANCE albums again. But what I
have heard, theyīre on very shaky legs right now, so they may go
bankrupt. Besides that I donīt know who owns the rights there for
our two SEANCE albums.
I noticed that you had a song called
"Haunted" in SEANCEīs debut. Is that where youīve
taken the name from for your current band?
JENSEN: Yeah, exactly. Because before SEANCE
I had a band called ORCHRIST and we had a song called "Seance".
So when we started looking for a new name up here, we came up with
the name, "Seance".
Namely just before I came here all these
plans for an interview in my mind - like 2-3 hours before coming
here, I have to confess that I did some research for you
background and spotted that song title right from your 1st demoī91
titled "Levitated Spirits" - and there it was... the 1st
song on that tape is actually called "Haunted"...
JENSEN: Well-done... you got it.
OK, I guess Iīve been taking your time
enough for just one interview, so I cut it here now. THANXX
a lot for this interesting chat to both of you and best of luck
for your gig!
JENSEN: Thank you very much!!
MARKO: Thank you. |
When
THE HAUNTED hit the metal world for the first time back in 1998 with
their explosive self-titled debut, all the true metal maniacs were on
their knees straight away in amazement. The new conquerors
of hard-biting, smashing Thrash Metal had usurped the leadership on the
almost dying-out fields of punishing Thrash Metal - showing many
suspicious motherfuckers everywhere how some trends may be coming and
going, but the TRUE Thrash shit cannot be wiped away by any of the
past,- or current- or upīnīcoming trends. NEVER!!!
