Hot Metal: It’s been nine years since The Singularity (Phase I – Neohumanity). I can only presume there’s multiple reasons for that?
Per Nilsson: “Yeah, I suppose there’s a bunch of reasons. We started writing the album, writing and recording most of it in 2016 and 2017. And at the end of 2016, I had grown really tired of playing live with Scar Symmetry. And sort of the entire situation because we never managed to sort our shit out, so to speak. We were poorly managed, and that is because I was managing. And that’s not my strong suit. So it was always very stressful. And whenever we went out on tour and things broke, gear broke, and the flights were cancelled and was just like a shitshow. Like, (it was) some fault of mine, but also (it was) I don’t know, celestial shitstorms, something.
“So by the end of 2016, I was feeling like I probably wouldn’t play want to play live with Scar Symmetry any more. I was like, ‘I think we’re going to be a studio band. But I would love to be able to tour with some other band, where I don’t have to be in charge, be responsible for anything but my guitar playing’. And I suppose the universe provided me with what I asked for, because I was asked to join classic Swedish power metal band Nocturnal Rites, which I did. We did an album and some shows.
“But shortly after they asked me I was asked to start touring with Meshuggah. I joined two of my favourite bands and got to tour and have a lot of fun with them. And I got to experience that thing where I wasn’t in charge of the gear or the crew or the budget or anything. And I got to do that for a few years.
“And while I was doing that, Scar Symmetry was sort of put on hold a little bit, even though we did some shows. Every now and then we kept working on the album also. Very slowly, just kept things going. But it was like Meshuggah was such a big deal. So it was hard for me to book a lot of shows with Scar Symmetry, in case something would show up with Meshuggah. With Nocturnal Rites it was a different thing because there was one clash where I couldn’t join them and then they had just a replacement guy for that show. But I didn’t want to have a replacement for myself in my own band.
“So then in 2019 I became a dad, and then the pandemic came. So that’s basically what happened. And then coming out of the pandemic, and Fredrik returning to Meshuggah, it seemed the perfect time to get the band back together full-time. Full-time and full energy ahead, and (we) finished up the album, got a new record deal, got everything sorted. All the business stuff, all the shit that I seemed to be unable to get sorted before, I managed to get that sorted because we got ourselves a new management and legal representation, all kinds of stuff like that, that really makes it easier. And I sort of learned that I picked up that from being inside Meshuggah; being the big band they are, and the way they conduct their business was very informative for me.”