- Oct 4, 2005
- 6
- 0
- 1
Hi fellow tranquillians!
My first post ever! weehee...
I have been a watcher at the forum for quite some time, but never posted
until now, anyway I conducted an interview with Niklas Sundin a while back
and have not shared it with you people yet ..I guess late is better than
never (I hope! )
I actually had to retype the questions on the computer since it appears my original e-mail have gotten deleted ...Im so glad I printed it The interview is from 2004 some time, so...
Thanks to Niklas for answering the questions and I hope you all will enjoy it
1. What happened with the Hex custom made instruments? Will there ever be custom made instruments from you guys? That would have been cool!
(maybe a Mikael Stanne custom made guitar
We had some bad luck there; the company went out of business, so nothing happened. I have no idea if there will be another chance for custom guitars, but we're definately hoping for it.
2. I remember I saw a thing in a chat or something about re-recording your earlier stuff... Is there even a possibility of that happening?
(Alone, Alone '94, Alone '04... That surely sounds nice) Shadow Duet '04 (wow!)
Umm...I don't know. I'm generally against re-recording old songs. Even if we probably could get a better sound and better playing now, it's hard to do a new version of a song without the original magic getting lost. We've got some bad experience by playing a re-made version of "The gallery" live on the "Projector" tour...It really wasn't good.
3. What about a tab book, lyrics book or maybe a biography?
It'd be cool, but it's really not up to us to decide. A book needs a publisher, and the are lots of factors involved as well. But the liner notes on "Exposures" are almost like a book in themselves. Lots of things to read.
4. What about the lyrics on your webpage? ...I think it was talked about having lyric meanings there?
I'm working on it, so something will be up soon.
5. Have you ever thought about acoustic versions of your songs? (That would absolutely ROCK!!!)
We've thought about it, but so far nothing has been recorded. But it's definately something that would be interesting to do, as an experiment.
6. Are there plans for more DVD's? What about a documentary?
(The story from the beginning to now, how has it been)
What about a special edition of the new album with a DVD? (sweet...)
*Since I shipped this e-mail the last time, I have read about the 14 hours DVD material, and that the next one will get even better... (Weehee!)
I hope that we can make another DVD with a more "historic" approach, but it's too early to decide now. The thing is that we don't have_that_much material recorded from the earlier years, but hopefully we can find at least some cool stuff by looking through the archives. It's all very disorganized, so we'd have to collect all old VHS tapes and see if there's something usuable on them, so it'd be a really big project.
7. I remember I asked about filming in the studio, have you done that?
Have you done that for any of your other albums?.. (Meat for the DVD...)
A deep look at you guys playing your instruments would have been cool, especially guitar since that is the instrument I play.
We're pretty bad at documenting the studio sessions. None of the band members have a video camera, and being in the studio is so stressful in itself that it's hard to find the motivation to record any good footage. You're 100% focused on the recording and everything else is a distraction. Same thing with the other albums, unfortunately - but we might be able to find some goodies if we search for them.
8. Are there any Dark Tranquillity posters out there? I really want a poster with your autographs on...
Century media makes posters for every album, but unfortunately we don't have any ourselves. They're usually used for promo purposes (being sent to record stores and so on).
9. What about the Septic Broiler track and A Dying Fragment of An Elderly Dream and Soulbreed, will they ever be released? (I guess it will be on Exposures 2)
Umm....Yes, let's save them for "Exposures 2" Seriously, the S.B. songs are horrible and will never end up on a CD, and we never recorded "Soulbreed" and "..fragment..." in the studio. The live versions that we made mp3's out of a couple of years ago are the best recordings of those songs that I know of.
10. Do you have tabs for your songs? (I really want official tabs)
We don't really have time, and most of the tabs on the homepage are very well done and close to perfect. There are some official bass tabs, but it'd simply take too much time to sit down and write down tabs for our own songs.
11. I remember I read somewhere that things fucked up during The Mind's I recording. That it was originally going to be crystal clear, but that it didn't turn out that way. Is this true? Aren't you pleased with the recording?
This sounds really weird, so it must be a misunderstanding. The albums sounds as planned, and I don't remember us being disappointed with it.
12. Are there more unreleased material then that on Exposures and A Dying Fragment Of An Elderly Dream and Soulbreed? (From the demo days, Skydancer, The Gallery, The Mind's I or some other time)
Nope. All other songs we've made have appeared on the albums.
13. The standard question: Are there anything you would like to say before this interview ends?
He he, well, not really....Things are very stressed out with the album recording, so I have to keep it short but sweet.
One thing that I might mention (To Mikael): Maybe it's just me but I really missed the 2 parts where you sing "And again, and again, and again" On Lethe. Since you didn't do that on Live Damage. This is just my opinion, but I think you should leave it in there, it's so intense... Please comment.
Mikael usually lets someone in the crowd sing that part, but I guess that noone on the Polish gig was up to the job, so that's probably why it's not on the DVD. Otherwise, it's probably just a coincidence.
Dark Tranquillity forever! Hail Dark Tranquillity!
My first post ever! weehee...
I have been a watcher at the forum for quite some time, but never posted
until now, anyway I conducted an interview with Niklas Sundin a while back
and have not shared it with you people yet ..I guess late is better than
never (I hope!
) I actually had to retype the questions on the computer since it appears my original e-mail have gotten deleted ...Im so glad I printed it
The interview is from 2004 some time, so...Thanks to Niklas for answering the questions and I hope you all will enjoy it
1. What happened with the Hex custom made instruments? Will there ever be custom made instruments from you guys? That would have been cool!
(maybe a Mikael Stanne custom made guitar
We had some bad luck there; the company went out of business, so nothing happened. I have no idea if there will be another chance for custom guitars, but we're definately hoping for it.
2. I remember I saw a thing in a chat or something about re-recording your earlier stuff... Is there even a possibility of that happening?
(Alone, Alone '94, Alone '04... That surely sounds nice) Shadow Duet '04 (wow!)
Umm...I don't know. I'm generally against re-recording old songs. Even if we probably could get a better sound and better playing now, it's hard to do a new version of a song without the original magic getting lost. We've got some bad experience by playing a re-made version of "The gallery" live on the "Projector" tour...It really wasn't good.
3. What about a tab book, lyrics book or maybe a biography?
It'd be cool, but it's really not up to us to decide. A book needs a publisher, and the are lots of factors involved as well. But the liner notes on "Exposures" are almost like a book in themselves. Lots of things to read.
4. What about the lyrics on your webpage? ...I think it was talked about having lyric meanings there?
I'm working on it, so something will be up soon.
5. Have you ever thought about acoustic versions of your songs? (That would absolutely ROCK!!!)
We've thought about it, but so far nothing has been recorded. But it's definately something that would be interesting to do, as an experiment.
6. Are there plans for more DVD's? What about a documentary?
(The story from the beginning to now, how has it been)
What about a special edition of the new album with a DVD? (sweet...)
*Since I shipped this e-mail the last time, I have read about the 14 hours DVD material, and that the next one will get even better... (Weehee!)
I hope that we can make another DVD with a more "historic" approach, but it's too early to decide now. The thing is that we don't have_that_much material recorded from the earlier years, but hopefully we can find at least some cool stuff by looking through the archives. It's all very disorganized, so we'd have to collect all old VHS tapes and see if there's something usuable on them, so it'd be a really big project.
7. I remember I asked about filming in the studio, have you done that?
Have you done that for any of your other albums?.. (Meat for the DVD...
)A deep look at you guys playing your instruments would have been cool, especially guitar since that is the instrument I play.
We're pretty bad at documenting the studio sessions. None of the band members have a video camera, and being in the studio is so stressful in itself that it's hard to find the motivation to record any good footage. You're 100% focused on the recording and everything else is a distraction. Same thing with the other albums, unfortunately - but we might be able to find some goodies if we search for them.
8. Are there any Dark Tranquillity posters out there? I really want a poster with your autographs on...
Century media makes posters for every album, but unfortunately we don't have any ourselves. They're usually used for promo purposes (being sent to record stores and so on).
9. What about the Septic Broiler track and A Dying Fragment of An Elderly Dream and Soulbreed, will they ever be released? (I guess it will be on Exposures 2
)Umm....Yes, let's save them for "Exposures 2"
Seriously, the S.B. songs are horrible and will never end up on a CD, and we never recorded "Soulbreed" and "..fragment..." in the studio. The live versions that we made mp3's out of a couple of years ago are the best recordings of those songs that I know of.10. Do you have tabs for your songs? (I really want official tabs)
We don't really have time, and most of the tabs on the homepage are very well done and close to perfect. There are some official bass tabs, but it'd simply take too much time to sit down and write down tabs for our own songs.
11. I remember I read somewhere that things fucked up during The Mind's I recording. That it was originally going to be crystal clear, but that it didn't turn out that way. Is this true? Aren't you pleased with the recording?
This sounds really weird, so it must be a misunderstanding. The albums sounds as planned, and I don't remember us being disappointed with it.
12. Are there more unreleased material then that on Exposures and A Dying Fragment Of An Elderly Dream and Soulbreed? (From the demo days, Skydancer, The Gallery, The Mind's I or some other time)
Nope. All other songs we've made have appeared on the albums.
13. The standard question: Are there anything you would like to say before this interview ends?
He he, well, not really....Things are very stressed out with the album recording, so I have to keep it short but sweet.
One thing that I might mention (To Mikael): Maybe it's just me but I really missed the 2 parts where you sing "And again, and again, and again" On Lethe. Since you didn't do that on Live Damage. This is just my opinion, but I think you should leave it in there, it's so intense... Please comment.
Mikael usually lets someone in the crowd sing that part, but I guess that noone on the Polish gig was up to the job, so that's probably why it's not on the DVD. Otherwise, it's probably just a coincidence.
Dark Tranquillity forever! Hail Dark Tranquillity!
...you mean you want to live in Norway rather than Mexico? Then you can't sit by the cactus and play guitar with your sombrero on (unless you get a portable cactus that is) ...do you really want that? 
