Road to the band's heart is through its stomach.
At least if we're talking about In Flames who explain a lot about their tenth album SOAPF by talking about Weber Grills, Japanese beef tongue, stuffing and chicken, with a beer can shoved up your ass. Bon appetit!
"The grilling is the only thing I have control over. My Smeg 6130T is like a mental zone for me."
Do you glaze grilled sausage? "
"Twice. Mango, chili and hickory. An exciting mix. Glazer's a bit of grilling moisture barrier, it must taste and the juice must stay inside the food."
"How are you darling? We've just eaten."
"I could not resist. Check out the embers, it is completely suede grey, it is the Thai term, it is once in a lifetime."
"You are an addict, Fredde.
"Around May, I bought a grill for eighteen cardboard, why can not I ..."
"Have you bought a grill for eighteen thousand dollars?"
"You can not cook beef stew!"
Sounds familiar replicas? There are those characters: Fredde (Johan Rheborg) and Mickan (Josephine Bornebusch) fighting on a male's favorite hobby in the first season of "Soldisan", the popularity judging Swedish people's best loved laughter mirror, then rewarded in January 2010.
Grill section called "Am I the father of the child?" is the only one In Flames’ guitarist, Björn Gelotte, has seen. But it is enough for him to be able to answer the question "Who are you in the 'Sunny Side'?" - something that supported and soaked all of DN's Cultural Changes to magazine Katty & Co - without hesitation. Battle for grilling might as well have played out on a patio in Sävedalen outside Gothenburg, even if there’s rarely beefsteak the night there.
Well, I can recognize myself in Fredrik, tans Björn. "But honey, I have to cook." I love to grill and make it a lot. It can be a bit manic at times. Sometimes it is poorly planned and then you have to start testing at eleven o'clock in the evening. Should I grill with hickory chips, they have to soak and it takes time. Now in pre-season, grilling is under control, but in summer I could cook every day if I could. But sometimes my wife and my children want food that is not grilled.
On the patio is not just a grill but four of the sphere model. One with gazole, and "two medium-sized and a giant" from Weber, the grill's answer to BMW (Swedish Smeg may be regarded as the Rolls Royce-class). He can’t have any model he wants but does argue for coal vs. gas ("LPG is extremely smooth, but to work up a nice glow is part of cooking") and for charcoal versus barbecue briquettes (briquettes do not get as hot but burns much lower , which suits my slow barbecue style better ").
An "extremely geeky" friend keeps abreast with the latest news from Swedish and American barbecue blogs and excites the guitarist to constantly sharpen barbecue technique. Globes Grills suit particularly well for indirect grilling, which means that you cannot put food directly over the embers, but let the heat circulate through reflection on the lid. Meat and vegetables cook slowly and cannot be burnt, but it’s nice to finish with direct grilling to get a nice surface.
Soul and time is the key to success really well” Björn continues. With three kids and a job all day, cooking in the kitchen is almost a necessary evil, so everyday you cannot add two hours to throw together something. Grilling may be done on the weekends.
This year the barbecue season premiere in February. Bjorn was on a skiing holiday in the mountains and was eager dancing chicken. The recipe is that you work it into a big chicken with a good rub - a spice mixture that rubbed into the raw food before cooking - and pushes out one-half empty beer can in the ass on it. I tested the recipes in "Jamie's America" by Jamie Oliver, where it has the more literal name “beer butt chicken”. It looks directly vulgar, but has its advantages.
The flesh is very juicy, "explains Bjorn dreamy. It was a good holiday. One day we made the chicken, the other ribs on low heat. "Low and slow", it is the motto that applies.
Fish is too fast to be really fun to barbecue and chicken are the result of too much of the marinade, jerk guitarist. Beef and pork are more forgiving, also have access to good meat is much better then meat from Sävedalen hall opened in December last year. Now he can get hold of the chips and smoked tenderloin not have to look after Kamben at Hemköp in February.
Kamben is a fantastic barbecue detail! It brushes on a glaze, then you can just let them lie.
Timing is important not only for taste, it makes the grill a social experience and gives time for the important beer intake.
I love beer, but I am certainly not the type who must have an IPA or a Belgian abbey shipped two hundred miles by monks in sandals. Light beer from Germany and Czech Republic are favorites, but often it is time to decide what is best. In the U.S., can I drink Bud Light tour a lot and think it is the world's best beer. There are some great micro breweries in the U.S., but you may not always hold in their products. Then fat become secured cards as Coors, Miller and Bud. I do not need to add two hundred bucks on a trappist just because of that.
As the guitarist was not so busy putty walls of the pub in 2112 - see side box - we would certainly be able to fill the rest of the magazine with barbecue snack. But there is another person in the band who also wants to talk food. Bjorn's interest in food and drink is quite modest when compared to his colleague Anders Fridén, which we soon come to notice. Singer almost manic passion has rubbed off.
He is incredibly talented, praises Bjorn. There is such great fun to try the whiskey with him because he has an eye on history, production and everything else around the drink. It tastes a bit better when you know why and how it is produced.
By now you may wonder which fungi the author has taken. Why you should read Bjorn Gelotte barbecue tips - information worthy Expressen Sunday Annex - if you are curious about the In Flames’ tenth studio album "Sounds Of A Playground Fading", released by Razzia on the 15th of June? There should be more important to know what strings he has on the guitar than what temperature he has on his Weber, isn’t it. Allow me to change a little better when you know why the taste being what it is and how it is produced.
Without detracting from the guitarist Niklas Engelin, bassist Peter Iwers and drummer Daniel Svensson, it can be said that Bjorn Gelotte and Anders Fridén are In Flames’ creative core, although the songwriter and the last original member Jesper Strömblad left the band in February last year (more on him later). Bjorn and Anders like a lot to eat and drink. Their attitude to the things you can eat and drink is very much linked to how they see their band. It must be damn good ingredients, to cook with love and they will bid on any new, unexpected taste sensations.
It sounds awful, but I'm more excited to talk about hot dogs and whiskey than on the new album, "says Anders Fridén.
No wonder - the day before we talk, the singer and “All About Whisky” columnist had chance to taste the whisky stored since the second World War: a Glenlivet 1940 (vintages 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990 were also tested in order to put the experience in perspective) .
It was absolutely awesome ", he exclaims enthusiastically. It breathes and tastes the part of the story. Imagine that one cask has coped by bombing during the war and everything that has happened since then. In addition, the wood tastes in booze, but it had not happened with this dish. A young and resilient lady! If pop up a bottle on the system learns the cost upward one hundred fifty thousand, so I am humbly grateful to be invited to these kinds of tastings.
Earlier this week, he was also on course in cramming - a red-hot culinary trend as much as a much needed response to the question "what the hell is that in Formica sausages anyway?"- from sausage prophets Taylor and Jones on Hantverkargatan 12 in Stockholm. There he could learn to grind the meat just the right rough, mix the right amount of fat, spices and liquid in the batter, manage casings and be extremely careful about hygiene. Now he has bought a meat grinder addition to their kitchen assistant and looked though the book "Sausages: the tastiest sausage stuff you" by Christopher Franzen.
Now I'm home and experiment for the barbecue season”, Anders cuddles. This will create magic. If the sausage machine tag along on tour. No, it would be a bit too advanced. But in doing Mayhem tour in the U.S. this summer, it will be great to grill, for the American bands are masters of barbecue.
Sausage fascination is closely linked to interest in commodities generally, whether they be placed in the mouth or ears. Equally reluctant to expose himself to a cool radio or symphonic deathcore. Snobbery? No, common sense and consumer awareness.
Vegetables he buys on the season in the market hall in office work with management and label Selective Notes call him to the inner city, local butchers have locally produced free range meat. Tomato, pepper and fresh herbs he grows at home on the site as time permits.
I would like a greenhouse, but do not have time to manage it. Now I wait for summer and all the fresh vegetables in the market hall. I can really go in time to watch the carrots, fennel or lamb brisket and feel "damn, what quality”. Wrappers vegetables, vacuum-packed meat is awful. Semi is not my thing.
Last year I bought super chef Mathias Dahlgren the three wedge sole book "The natural cuisine", and hoped to accomplish great things. Unfortunately I have neither the juice extractor, thermo blender (a food processor with temperature control) or pacojet (a device which processes frozen raw materials) at home, so I had to content myself with fried rhubarb from Flen and have not dared more recipes since then.
But you do not copy outright, opposition Anders enthusiastically. He lets himself be inspired by what looks good and makes his own version. Cooking is very much like music in that respect, it is a creative art form. If you love what you do usually get well. I improvise a lot time, taste and trust my instincts. Recipes are not to follow slavishly. If you know how sour, salty, bitter and sweet works will be very long. Damn, people are so afraid of sugar, but it really spruce up. They should not be afraid to fail either.
Last time Anders felt really disappointed in the kitchen was on New Year's Eve. A soft touch of almond and cauliflower, topped with dill, caviar and lemon, got the wrong balance between the cabbage and potatoes. Dinner guests thought it was delicious and right grilled, but the chef went around and teased on the kitty that only he himself noticed.
I can be pissed off at myself for blemishes, like I let a piece of meat to get some of the high internal temperature.
Are you as a perfectionist in the studio?
Yes. Much of what I do in the band and the kitchen is the same thing. I love to create and is damn geeky, in a good way.
What would he like to invite In Flames fans in order to awaken their inner foodnerd? The response comes less than a second's reflection (vegetarians and vegans may be lenient).
Decent sausages would impress", he says thoughtfully. Sausage standard in Sweden is alarming low, most people are still accustomed us with sausage meat and fifty percent would be an eye opener to real homemade sausage. To this I would serve a mustard that I grind myself, plus a simple touch of tomato, peppers and onions. Balsamic, I would also splash in, and so chilies for a little bounce in the taste. For this fit a good coleslaw, so we do a cross between sauerkraut and regular pizza and salad with a little parsley. The glaze I suggest a good lager, such Dugges Lager No. 1, Sigtuna East River Lager or Landsort Lager from Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri. Just dig in!
As young children rushed dad, he inevitably cook the fair share of the sausage and macaroni - but then it's pretty damn good hot dogs and macaroni.
When I'm home, it is always me who does the cooking and the kids are there in a hurry. A good sausage with plenty of meat, lovingly stewed macaroni, a good mustard and a bit pickled cucumbers - then you are at home. Whether it is a party or everyday it's very meditative to cook.
A spontaneous measurement memory from Japan pops up suddenly: from Kobe beef tongue, world famous for its taste and tenderness (and a price per kilo of thousand dollars and up).
Grandma and Grandpa used to have heavy home. I remember the salt and crap disgusting when they cut it up. Kobe Beef Tongue was the mistress and how good any time. Beef is also quite breathtaking. The chef presented it before the meal and explained how the seasons affected the meat flavor. That kind of concern for the overall experience I love.
Inspiration comes from the mother, from the books (except sausage book is Hakan Fällmans meat bible «Meat - select, manage, cook" on the nightstand) and from good restaurants. However, not from the food blog, although he likes the concept ("dog blogs are so wonderfully geeky!"). Last year, he was practicing one day in the kitchen at Fredsgatan 12, one of six restaurants in Stockholm, which has a star or more in the Michelin Guide.
Unlike my brother is my only hobby my chef, says the singer. Being in a real restaurant kitchen is both impressive and frightening. It should not be in the way and all are stressed, but it's cool to see how effective all the stations are and what cooking methods are available - vacuum, thermal baths instead of roasting and others you can not do at home. I learned that you can tune the fish in salt water so the meat becomes firmer.
This background now in place, we can approach the "Sounds Of A Plalground Fading" album. I really hate cooking metaphors in music journalism, but at this time, it is justified: In Flames tenth album is the result of a chef - Jesper Strömblad - retired and those who remain have found new spices in the pantry.
"The Attic" has something like Dire Straits guitars. "Darker Times" sounds a bit Nine Inch Nails influenced. The verses in "Ropes" are reminiscent of Interpol. “A New Dawn" boasts romantic strings. "Liberation” is a roller stadium of colossal size and the most obvious concert wind the band has ever written. So where can you draw them out of nearly every track and in each one finding new angles, new sounds and new voices by Anders. While it is an album that could not be done by someone other than In Flames. If you listen it back to back with "The Jester Race", one might wonder what the heck happened on the way, otherwise not.
It would be the Devil himself if not fifteen years difference was that startled. Over the years we have been very open and confident in our sound. Much of what has been already heard on "The Jester Race" - my voice, Bjorn guitar playing, melodies, aggression - I can hear it in the new songs, but we have been far better at expressing what we are saying.
It's more fun to write songs and create in the studio now as when Anders and I joined In Flames in 1995, continues Bjorn. We always place the bar a little higher than we actually do, it keeps us rolling.
Over the years, the singer appeared to present the wide-eyed inquisitive music love in In Flames. It is he who regularly falls in love with new teams and play in the tour bus, while the other sits on its hands and wondering what is so why even try anything else?
The others are also getting a bit adventurous ", says Anders. Björn would never ever admit that Nine Inch Nails has influenced an In Flames album. He shudders every time I name of Trent Reznor. But it's like food: you want to try new things.
I am not a militant reactionary, oppositions Bjorn. But I have my roots in the old rock: Mountain, Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath. There is a contrast to all the new things that Anders - an extreme omnivores - likes. We wear out and pulling in different directions and in the end it will issue any infallible In flames.
But the singer also has limits on what might fit within In Flames. Lately, he has snowed in on dubstep and other dark electronic dance music, but he will never make a Morbid Angel album and challenge fans with techno metal.
No, or then I do a solo album. At home, I write a lot of sad and slow music inspired by Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Isis and similar, as therapy and as fun creation. If it comes out on top some day I do not know. That's all from the finished tracks to small snippets lying around. A day or days, I examine myself and see what can come of it.
Although this valve, it sounds as if the vocalist - consciously or unconsciously - slipped into more of his record collection from In Flames than ever before. But so is In flames, another songrwriter dynamik than three years old "A Sense of Purpose": Instead of arguing with two people - Jesper and Bjorn - vocalist now has just to mess with one in order to have his prospective indulged.
If a brake pad disappeared with Jesper? It sounds awful, but I understand what you mean. If I'm ahead and Bjorn in the middle, he is back. He listens really not new music. Fixed a stumbling block, he was not, just a different kind of shoes that were very good at their thing. Jesper has always been a guitar icon in In Flames and standard-bearer for the metal band, even though Björn is a technically adept guitarist.
Jesper is a songwriter and melody maker first and a guitarist in the second, develops Bjorn. It's an interesting approach that I have learned a lot from. I have written materials to In Flames since day one - it was a prerequisite for me to go with - but to learn how to arrange songs and create dynamism is a craft. I like when the goodies come quickly, while the case to ration them and do not put the entire batch at once.
Jesper, who left the band in February 2010, agrees that he has been reactionary.
You could probably tell. I'm an avid metal guy and have tried to stick to one sound. The gods know that I have been a bad team player, but over the years it got better. Prior to "A Sense of Purpose", I decided to go with a completely open mind and listen to what the other had to come up with, instead of thinking 'now is the song finished, my vision is best. "Then you run solo. While I think there are collisions that have made In Flames as well.
Anders tie the sack
Our differences beget common ideas that are far better than the starting point. Take the disc's title track, for example. The verse was very straight and felt like a straight road section, In Flames standard model 1A. Mom's street, the safest possible. After much arguing on my part, we chopped up the drums and did a different verse, which was much better. But it was not about that I would shine as a singer, but the song could shine.
That is how the whole band appliance works, explains the singer. In Flames is better than the musicians involved. All songs written, all decisions will contribute to a functioning whole. It is therefore Jesper is not in the band along. Alcohol problems created social problems and flight terror, which led to him being able to communicate with two days notice that someone else had to jump in as a touring guitarist. Nobody wants to machinery In Flames to function so. Neither Jesper, Anders and Björn want to make a big deal out of it, so we do not.
In 2006 I had my first leave from In Flames, since there has not been fun, "says Jesper. After the gig, I sat in the back of the bus with a beer and a book. Unpleasant, I have not been, but introverted. It has affected the mood.
On 12 December 2009, on a crowded Scandinavium in Gothenburg, he made his last live appearance with In Flames. Audience reception was overwhelming, but the guitarist came up with himself to think about what he would eat for dinner.
I was happier when my World of Warcraft-old man was level eighty, then something is wrong. It was not fair to the fans. I had thought a long time to jump off the band's best, but it was when I stood on the stage that I decided.
"Rehab is for quitters", one could read on his shirt. After two detoxification, he could only joke about the misery.
In Flames would go on tour in South America in February 2009, he recalls. In the autumn before was tough. Boring factors in my personal life has made it tough to be away from home, which led to my collapse. I am not as tough on the others in the band, so I took to the efficient but poor method to drink a lot to screen out the bad thoughts. So I sat there in my empty studio and took a pizza and a half Whirly Tube every night until I decided to quit, cold turkey. Then it was straight to the psychiatric emergency room and eat a Valium and get B12 injections in the butt for a week Psych Wiki is not a fun place. Man eats wife diet with an aunt who has been throwing up and shit down. Then you get an eye-opener.
It was there he ended two days before the plane would lift to Mexico. Niklas Engelin was called upon as an emergency replacement until it was time for him to be a father, since the band made dozens of frustrated European Events quartet and was placed in the remaining sixteen.
I understand the disappointment of not being able to trust me, "says Jesper," Can you Play? "" Do not know. "I feel much better now. Stay away from brandy, young people, if you are going to be rockers.
In Flames-door has definitive closed for him, but he is very much looking forward to hearing "Sounds Of A Playground Fading".
I can think of no better place than Niklas, and Anders is phenomenal in pushing the band forward, he praises. He has a vision that is much larger than the music he hears. There are rumors that they are playing organ on the new record, it must be his idea. Listening to it will be a bit like the four guys pulling on one's wife, but it's my own choice, he tans contentedly.
Bjorn feels that concern has turned to joy in the band.
You do not know how it gnaws in the coffin when it pulled into a tour. Jesper has always been the perfect ball status as a songwriter, but Niklas is a breath of fresh air as a guitarist. We can jam together in two hours, it has never happened before. In Flames has a new air into the fire.
Anders says that In Flames in 2011 is about to go on, not restart. Therefore, the music speaks itself.
Listen and shut up! The album title, I am already tired of having to sort out and then I have not had to explain it once more. All that is important to talk about is whisky, or how cruel it is to go in a covered market with freshly picked vegetables. Or my new beer brand.
And then we were back about where we started: the taste buds on the tongue. While "Sounds of A Playground Fading" placing frontman’s hope to project Frequency should be ready to reach the general public. There is one brand that he and a friend are taking forward in partnership with Sigtuna Brygghus. The idea is to "embrace the beer from a music perspective. "
Everyone knows that the humble taste of hops, but equal to the taste at a frequency of 600 Hz or 12 KHz? Tastes like the Fu Manchu, or Black Sabbath? We have some test kits and is clear about three of the four we thought to start with. A low frequency stout or porter, one or two ales in the midrange and high frequency as a warehouse.
They aim to sell the frequency as an alternative to summer festivals. Anders agrees that the links between beer and music is a bit of a gimmick, while pointing out that one product says something significant about the second (which is also the whole point of this article).
There are people to reach with what we do. I will not name any brands, but I think you pissed on the people by pumping out such crap. At festivals, there are probably many who would like an option. If you can choose our handcrafted beer instead, it is the same sort of choices when selecting our music instead of someone else's works made by hand by the best seasonal produce, with emotion and passion for the craft.
[ PENDULUM
In Flames has never been electronically charged as in "Self vs. Self", a track which appears on British-Australian drum'n'bass band Pendulum's second album Immersion from last year (Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree also makes an unexpected cameo in "The Fountain ").
The singer and producer Rob Swire visited Göteborg when they were passing by during a tour. Björn Gelotte may not directly relate to Pendulum's own music, but thinks "Self vs. Self" was "damn intense and interressant”.
A good mix of where I come from and what Anders wants to do”, he sums up. It sounds like In Flames, where we removed the rock force and made the music clinical, stomp and loop-based. In theory, a future In Flames could sound so, but I want to be told it is a rock band that plays.
I discovered Pendulum a year before we did "Self vs. self" and thought they looked really cool, "continues Anders. They go home in both rock and club audiences in England. The cool thing is that they have a DJ of clubs and a touchdown with rock guitar, bass, drums and the whole kit. I have expressed our song live with them in London and Stockholm, it was a blast. The gig was in Stockholm for a club audience who probably wondered who was weird guy on stage who just stood and screamed. ]
[2112
After twenty years in the restaurant business, it might seem to be time for In flames duo Björn Gelotte and Peter Iwers to open their own. Unfortunately, their extensive experience from the wrong side of the bar, so that's a whole new world opened to them at Store Street 5 in Gothenburg. During wine-themed, they have seen the former pizzeria and wine bar Den Lille Fete transformed. First, a battlefield of wood and sawdust, then to something more like a fresh pub with a restaurant section. On April 21, beating establishment 2112 - after Rush album of the same name - opened its doors.
We have been to many pubs over the years and seen what is cool and less cool, says Bjorn. Instead of complaining about what others do, we thought we'd try for ourself and see how easy it is. We really like beer, so we will have a wide and comprehensive range of fifteen-sixteen taps and a good charge bottled beer. Very stock, but also ale and stout. I who like watery beer have made sure that we get Coors Lite on draft, which is a bit unusual. It is not exactly the king on the chessboard, but a good option for someone who want quenches his thirst.
The restaurant area is serving "home cooking with a gold star on the edge". Good ingredients, plenty of food on the plate and carefully matches with beer and wine is the ambition.
We have been with us a young but ambitious and extremely interested chef from The Bishop's Arms. He does things that are exciting without the need for any unnecessary frills. Swedish home cooking is a common favorite, but it is not in that gross way, but with a twist.
Along for the adventure is also his friends Victor Marin - tape coordinator of Motorhead, a former assistant to In Flames - and Martin Thomsson, who has been involved in driving Kelly's Bar and two The Bishops Arms in the city. One of four owners with more industry experience than dreams may be considered to be a really good starting position.
Peter and I may be a little flexible with 2112 as the tournament makes it difficult to fill a post, but we have Martin, Victor and other staff to. We welcome guests and learn a bit about how to run a restaurant.
From the restaurant's sound system Bjorn wants to serve hard rock's answer to stuffed cabbage and potato pancakes: Van Halen, Deep Purple and other rock cheeseburger.
We like the idea of a place that is not a typical rock bar with huge stack volume, "he says. The music will get people in all ages in a good mood and the noise level is moderate. You should be able to talk in peace. Colleagues should be able to come here before or after a show and relax, they should not have to go on a noisy rock club.
Maybe 2112 for metal fans what Hornborgasjön is for bird watchers. The guitarist looks like that the restaurant brings together people from the Gothenburg scene.
There are lots of musicians in Gothenburg, which we've never met, but we certainly have much in common with. But we should not build any Spy Bar! Just because I play in a band, I will not have better service. I behave like an ass, I will have worse service or go out into the street. The feeling that it is the same for everyone is important and we will convey. There will be a nice atmosphere the whole way. ]
