I translated this rather interesting Mikael Stanne interview from the latest Inferno zine (Finnish), so I thought I could as well post it here. If anyone else has non-english interviews made recently, you could also post that here.
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The Swedish act Dark Tranquillity has been together for over thirteen years, and has become one of the most legendary acts of melodic death metal. The band's recently released sixth album, Damage Done, continues on slightly more progressive path than it's predecessor, but their ability to compose catchy riffs and melodies hasn't gone anywhere. We talked with vocalist Mikael Stanne about the new album, movies, and abusing alcohol.
Dark Tranquillity was founded in 1989, and right from the beginning the band formed their concept on philosophy, poetry, art and of course enthralling music. From the beginning, their music has combined thoughtful and romanticist lyrics with musical metamorphosis. The 1999 release Projector was a turning point in DT's career. On Projector electronics and Stanne's clean singing made a debut, and musically it was the band's softest album. The next record, Haven, took a step back with a simpler song-structure and by leaving clean singing out. The new album Damage Done is closer to Haven than Projector, but clearly avoids repetition. Next we give a voice to the cheerful sounding Stanne:
Have you been busy?
-Oh yes, all I've done is do interviews and go straight to bed. It's hectic, but I don't mind.
How has the new album been received?
-Really well. Damage Done has got great reviews in many magazines, and the feedback has been incredible. We didn't know how it would be received, and everything has gone better than we had expected.
Damage Done is in my opinion very close to The Gallery because of the similar progressive ideas.
-Yes, that's very possible. We were conciously striving for an aggressive sound and it's true there are lots of progressive elements. We improvised a lot in the studio and tried different things, we were going for a similar aggressive sound like on our previous albums. It was ready in March, after which we sent it to the record label (and ATG
). I have to admit the wait has been sheer hell.
For the third track, Monochromatic Stains, there is also a music video. What kind of video is it?
-It's a brilliant one. It's got a real story and real actors, you can see me for just a few seconds on the whole video. The video is on the retail version of the album, and you better watch it, it's really great.
For the next topic I chose Dark Tranquillity's lyrics, which are like modern poetry with their complex metaphors. I've noticed that many songs are about escape from life and have a certain craving for freedom. Am I completely lost?
-No. A lot of songs are about escapism, as all of us just want to get away from the routines of life. Routine existance is so fucking boring, and like you know the winters here are very long, so you just get this feeling of wanting to get away from it all. Many go drinking, to get away from reality for a little while. It can be something else than watching movies or reading books too. I watch movies for the same reason of escaping from monotony. I don't want to reveal myself in the lyrics too early, I want to make the lyrics more complex and open to interpretation. I also don't want to let the listener too close to myself, and that's why I mask things about my personal life into the form of storys, to create a fictional context around them.
So where do you get your inspiration?
-In the beginning when me and Niklas wrote the lyrics together we got a lot of influences from english writers. For example Wallace is one of my favourites. I tend to include quite many allegorys and metaphors in my writing. That style of writing is my personal favourite.
To return to yet another art form, movies, could you tell me what kind of movies you like then?
-I like all kinds of movies. My favourites are American underground movies and scifi-movies like Blade Runner. I'm also a pretty big Star Trek fan, and one of my favourite movies is City of Lost Children. I'm quite a movie-freak, I collect DVD's, and I've got a few in my collection.
Is Dark Tranquillity releasing a DVD?
-There's been talk of that, but it has to be done properly, and we can't use live-clips from just any gig. Everything is still in the planning phase really.
And through this clever bridge, we get to our next topic. On one fan page, there's a pic of you driking beer through a bong. Could you enlighten us on how this grotesque procedure is actually commited?
-What? You've never tried it? You're finnish, so you should know all drinking methods (laughs)!
No... call me a heretic if you want to.
-It's incredibly fun. One of my friends drank a six-pack in two minutes with it and looked like he was pregnant afterwards! The beer is basically poured through a funnel and drunk through a pipe as fast as possible. You just have to keep it in the right angle. I'll show you how it's done when we come to Finland.
So when is that?
-We're doing one gig here in Göteborg, after which we go on a European tour around autumn. So we're coming to Finland some time during the fall.
That's a deal then.
The 2000 release Haven introduced two new members, keyboardist Martin Brandström and bassist Michael Nicklasson. The later replaced Martin Henriksson, who took up guitar duties when Fredrik Johansson left the band. I seem to have noticed that the songs have got more pop-elements and hooks since you got a keyboardist.
-Well, we had some softer elements already on Projector, but that's because we grew up with both metal and electronic music. We listened to Iron Maiden, but at the same time also Kraftwerk. Martin still listens to electronic music mostly, he hadn't even heard much metal when he joined the band. Martin is a classically trained musician, so he has a grasp on many areas of music we don't. It's always very interesting, and Martin has definatly brought new dimensions into our sound.
I hear you gave him a metal-quiz when he first joined.
-Yeah, we asked him all kinds of silly questions and he had a day to find out the right answers. For example, we asked him who was the original singer of Iron Maiden, and he totally panicked, and kept asking wasn't it Bruce Dickinson?
How did Martin become a member then?
-We originally asked for his help when we were recording some covers, I can't remember what they were. They didn't really work out in the end, but Martin was very interested. When he heard some songs from Haven, he got excited and felt he had enough room in these songs.
When a band has been together for this long, it's prudent to ask Stanne how he sees the evolution of the band over the years.
-We've had fun the whole time, we've got to play, do gigs, make records. We're all good friends and meet each other on our free-time. Sometimes you get bored of making songs and touring and that's why we have experimented with new things. Even though we have grown as people and matured, many things are still the same as in the beginning.
What bands have influenced you?
-Kreator, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Destructor, Black Sabbath, Morbid Angel and of course Death. For me personally the biggest influences have been Kreator and Black Sabbath.
You were originally DT's guitarist, how did you end up as the vocalist?
-I wrote lyrics and arranged the vocals with Niklas before that, so at one point I just decided to leave the guitar and start singing.
It's appropriate to ask what is your favourite finnish swear word at this point?
-Every time I visit Finland I hear people saying "vittu, saatana". My girlfriend is finnish, and every time she gets mad she starts swearing in finnish, like vittu, saatana, perkele. I have no idea what she is saying, but it sounds cool, and I use those words myself when speaking swedish. I know other finnish swear words, but I'm not making a list because my pronounciation is probably all wrong.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to end this interview, even though I could have talked with Stanne to the morning. But so you don't have to turn to the next page, here's Mikael's comments on every track on Damage Done:
Final Resistance
-One of the last songs that was written for the album. Very aggressive and grabs your attention, so it fits perfectly as an album opener.
Hours Passed in Exile
-This is the last song that we made, and a very strange one. It tells about how you conciously choose to be isolated, and don't want to belong in anything.
Monochromatic Stains
-The first song that we made, and there's also a brilliant video for this one. Definatly my favourite song on the entire album.
Single Part of Two
-There's a lot of stuff here the same as in Haven. There's a slow, melodic part, and then a faster heavy part. Lyrically I was inspired by the Italian author Italo Calvinol.
Treason Wall
-This song is about refusal, simply saying no to everything. There's a lot of hatred against narrow mindedness and general ignorance here. Refusal is a last reaction against everything. I'm ashamed I even have feelings like this, but I had to put them on paper. A very intense song.
Format C: for Cortex
-This of course was written for all the computer nerds (laughs)! Well, the song is actually about travelling back in time and seeing how your mistakes could have been fixed then. A very heavy and beautiful song.
Damage Done
-A very strange track, at the same time very fast and heavy. There's also a guitar solo in the song, that lasts until the end.
Cathode Ray Sunshine
-This is about man's unhealthy interest in everything that is new and shiny and material in general. The song itself is very speed metal style, and also includes an extremely cool piano part by Martin.
The Enemy
-This is about how you hate everyone and everything, and finally become your own worst enemy.
White Noise/Black Silence
-This starts very Priest-style (laughs)! The title refers to a certain kind of on/off state, that I have myself. Sometimes a person totally isolates themself and shuts out people around them. A very diffficult and complicated song.
Ex Nihilo
-The last track is an instrumental and fits really well as an album closer. A very melancholic song and a great ending, after which you can start listening to Damage Done all over again.
Bong:
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The Swedish act Dark Tranquillity has been together for over thirteen years, and has become one of the most legendary acts of melodic death metal. The band's recently released sixth album, Damage Done, continues on slightly more progressive path than it's predecessor, but their ability to compose catchy riffs and melodies hasn't gone anywhere. We talked with vocalist Mikael Stanne about the new album, movies, and abusing alcohol.
Dark Tranquillity was founded in 1989, and right from the beginning the band formed their concept on philosophy, poetry, art and of course enthralling music. From the beginning, their music has combined thoughtful and romanticist lyrics with musical metamorphosis. The 1999 release Projector was a turning point in DT's career. On Projector electronics and Stanne's clean singing made a debut, and musically it was the band's softest album. The next record, Haven, took a step back with a simpler song-structure and by leaving clean singing out. The new album Damage Done is closer to Haven than Projector, but clearly avoids repetition. Next we give a voice to the cheerful sounding Stanne:
Have you been busy?
-Oh yes, all I've done is do interviews and go straight to bed. It's hectic, but I don't mind.
How has the new album been received?
-Really well. Damage Done has got great reviews in many magazines, and the feedback has been incredible. We didn't know how it would be received, and everything has gone better than we had expected.
Damage Done is in my opinion very close to The Gallery because of the similar progressive ideas.
-Yes, that's very possible. We were conciously striving for an aggressive sound and it's true there are lots of progressive elements. We improvised a lot in the studio and tried different things, we were going for a similar aggressive sound like on our previous albums. It was ready in March, after which we sent it to the record label (and ATG
). I have to admit the wait has been sheer hell.For the third track, Monochromatic Stains, there is also a music video. What kind of video is it?
-It's a brilliant one. It's got a real story and real actors, you can see me for just a few seconds on the whole video. The video is on the retail version of the album, and you better watch it, it's really great.
For the next topic I chose Dark Tranquillity's lyrics, which are like modern poetry with their complex metaphors. I've noticed that many songs are about escape from life and have a certain craving for freedom. Am I completely lost?
-No. A lot of songs are about escapism, as all of us just want to get away from the routines of life. Routine existance is so fucking boring, and like you know the winters here are very long, so you just get this feeling of wanting to get away from it all. Many go drinking, to get away from reality for a little while. It can be something else than watching movies or reading books too. I watch movies for the same reason of escaping from monotony. I don't want to reveal myself in the lyrics too early, I want to make the lyrics more complex and open to interpretation. I also don't want to let the listener too close to myself, and that's why I mask things about my personal life into the form of storys, to create a fictional context around them.
So where do you get your inspiration?
-In the beginning when me and Niklas wrote the lyrics together we got a lot of influences from english writers. For example Wallace is one of my favourites. I tend to include quite many allegorys and metaphors in my writing. That style of writing is my personal favourite.
To return to yet another art form, movies, could you tell me what kind of movies you like then?
-I like all kinds of movies. My favourites are American underground movies and scifi-movies like Blade Runner. I'm also a pretty big Star Trek fan, and one of my favourite movies is City of Lost Children. I'm quite a movie-freak, I collect DVD's, and I've got a few in my collection.
Is Dark Tranquillity releasing a DVD?
-There's been talk of that, but it has to be done properly, and we can't use live-clips from just any gig. Everything is still in the planning phase really.
And through this clever bridge, we get to our next topic. On one fan page, there's a pic of you driking beer through a bong. Could you enlighten us on how this grotesque procedure is actually commited?
-What? You've never tried it? You're finnish, so you should know all drinking methods (laughs)!
No... call me a heretic if you want to.
-It's incredibly fun. One of my friends drank a six-pack in two minutes with it and looked like he was pregnant afterwards! The beer is basically poured through a funnel and drunk through a pipe as fast as possible. You just have to keep it in the right angle. I'll show you how it's done when we come to Finland.
So when is that?
-We're doing one gig here in Göteborg, after which we go on a European tour around autumn. So we're coming to Finland some time during the fall.
That's a deal then.
The 2000 release Haven introduced two new members, keyboardist Martin Brandström and bassist Michael Nicklasson. The later replaced Martin Henriksson, who took up guitar duties when Fredrik Johansson left the band. I seem to have noticed that the songs have got more pop-elements and hooks since you got a keyboardist.
-Well, we had some softer elements already on Projector, but that's because we grew up with both metal and electronic music. We listened to Iron Maiden, but at the same time also Kraftwerk. Martin still listens to electronic music mostly, he hadn't even heard much metal when he joined the band. Martin is a classically trained musician, so he has a grasp on many areas of music we don't. It's always very interesting, and Martin has definatly brought new dimensions into our sound.
I hear you gave him a metal-quiz when he first joined.
-Yeah, we asked him all kinds of silly questions and he had a day to find out the right answers. For example, we asked him who was the original singer of Iron Maiden, and he totally panicked, and kept asking wasn't it Bruce Dickinson?
How did Martin become a member then?
-We originally asked for his help when we were recording some covers, I can't remember what they were. They didn't really work out in the end, but Martin was very interested. When he heard some songs from Haven, he got excited and felt he had enough room in these songs.
When a band has been together for this long, it's prudent to ask Stanne how he sees the evolution of the band over the years.
-We've had fun the whole time, we've got to play, do gigs, make records. We're all good friends and meet each other on our free-time. Sometimes you get bored of making songs and touring and that's why we have experimented with new things. Even though we have grown as people and matured, many things are still the same as in the beginning.
What bands have influenced you?
-Kreator, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Destructor, Black Sabbath, Morbid Angel and of course Death. For me personally the biggest influences have been Kreator and Black Sabbath.
You were originally DT's guitarist, how did you end up as the vocalist?
-I wrote lyrics and arranged the vocals with Niklas before that, so at one point I just decided to leave the guitar and start singing.
It's appropriate to ask what is your favourite finnish swear word at this point?
-Every time I visit Finland I hear people saying "vittu, saatana". My girlfriend is finnish, and every time she gets mad she starts swearing in finnish, like vittu, saatana, perkele. I have no idea what she is saying, but it sounds cool, and I use those words myself when speaking swedish. I know other finnish swear words, but I'm not making a list because my pronounciation is probably all wrong.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to end this interview, even though I could have talked with Stanne to the morning. But so you don't have to turn to the next page, here's Mikael's comments on every track on Damage Done:
Final Resistance
-One of the last songs that was written for the album. Very aggressive and grabs your attention, so it fits perfectly as an album opener.
Hours Passed in Exile
-This is the last song that we made, and a very strange one. It tells about how you conciously choose to be isolated, and don't want to belong in anything.
Monochromatic Stains
-The first song that we made, and there's also a brilliant video for this one. Definatly my favourite song on the entire album.
Single Part of Two
-There's a lot of stuff here the same as in Haven. There's a slow, melodic part, and then a faster heavy part. Lyrically I was inspired by the Italian author Italo Calvinol.
Treason Wall
-This song is about refusal, simply saying no to everything. There's a lot of hatred against narrow mindedness and general ignorance here. Refusal is a last reaction against everything. I'm ashamed I even have feelings like this, but I had to put them on paper. A very intense song.
Format C: for Cortex
-This of course was written for all the computer nerds (laughs)! Well, the song is actually about travelling back in time and seeing how your mistakes could have been fixed then. A very heavy and beautiful song.
Damage Done
-A very strange track, at the same time very fast and heavy. There's also a guitar solo in the song, that lasts until the end.
Cathode Ray Sunshine
-This is about man's unhealthy interest in everything that is new and shiny and material in general. The song itself is very speed metal style, and also includes an extremely cool piano part by Martin.
The Enemy
-This is about how you hate everyone and everything, and finally become your own worst enemy.
White Noise/Black Silence
-This starts very Priest-style (laughs)! The title refers to a certain kind of on/off state, that I have myself. Sometimes a person totally isolates themself and shuts out people around them. A very diffficult and complicated song.
Ex Nihilo
-The last track is an instrumental and fits really well as an album closer. A very melancholic song and a great ending, after which you can start listening to Damage Done all over again.
Bong:
