I found this Dan Swanö interview when I was surfing on the Finnish metal forum on www.imperiumi.net. It was made by the site admin (metalglory), but was never released in any form. He posted it a few days back. Although it was made a few years ago, it's quite general. I found it an interesting read, and here's the interview as it appeared:
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Have you been following the European Championship Football games?
- I saw a few games, yes. I used to be really into sports and shit when I was younger, but after a while I realised I was too fat to be any good at any sport. And I was always to afraid to "sacrifice" myself for the game because I might hurt myself and then I couldn't play drums for a while and that'd kill me!!
Your judgement towards the organized houliganism?
- I have been pretty close to houliganism, playing in Edge Of Sanity say no more!! I hate their guts!! They totally ruin the game. I have been thinking of taking my son to a game sometimes, but judging from the sights I see in the city after a game with some of the "houliganish" teams, I rather stay home and watch TV or something.
Do you practice any sports yourself?
- The only sport I practise these days is playing football with my son in the hall. It's really rough sometimes. I also train my right arm a lot not doing what you think you filthy bastards, I am married you know No, I tend to excercise it by flipping the mouse around working with my Mac based musicempire in the livingroom!!
Your view on the NWOTHM (New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal, that is), when bands are formed to hail the old metal gods from Priest to Frost? To some extent, I think also the rising trend of stoner rock belongs to this wave of glorification of the old days. Your opinion? Should these bands be only not-too-serious projects (let the dead rest?!), like Steel, or should we welcome all the hammerfalls and guillotines with a mighty metallic handshake?
- I think all trends where something is going from being totally unsellable to being the most in-thing ever is bizarre!! When we though about STEEL in the first place, we wanted to something that was SO OUT that we barely dared to think about it. The first track we recorded, just for fun (Like 30 seconds long called "Guitars & metal") we played it at a party and people where kinda worshipping this track and they felt it was the joke of the decade After a while I heard of Hammerfall and Nocturnal Rites and these guys and I felt sorry for them being so dramatically OUT but gosh, who's wrong??? Now Hammerfall's real big!! I am sitting here because of a trend you know. If it wouldn't have been for the deathboom around 90-91 I would never have been given the opportunity to record an album with EDGE OF SANITY and the rest, you know The most untrendy thing I have done was to dedicate my life to symphonic rock/pop in 1989. Nothing could be considered more ANTI-ROCKSTAR than playing pretty complex and "arty" progressive symphrock back then. Then DREAM THEATER broke big and we were all of a sudden a bit trendy, though we refused to use the Metalvibe they had, later on we changed toward a more mainstream sound, and died
Two songs from the Steel demo sessions were released only as a ltd.ed.pic. 7"ep. I suppose that was the whole idea of it, releasing true metal in its original format? And Steel is still very, very dead and buried one-time project, right?
- Yeah! I totally refused to do anything concerning STEEL. I was so afraid of having people accusing me of being a trendfollower and doing that becuase it's IN etc. But when these guys asked use to do a pic. 7", it was pure instict that said yes. I just gotta have one of these to show my grandchildren
By the way, who released this seven inch?
- A Label called Near Dark in Sundsvall, Sweden.
Did Steel have other songs apart from those three?
- Not apart from "Guitars & Metal" no.
In my opinion, your vocals sound a mixture between Udo Dirckschneider and Rob Halford, any comments?
- Right on the spot. I wanted it to be the bastard child between Udo and Rob. The vocs should be like "Fast as a shark" meets "Freewheel Burning"!!! It was the most horrifying experience I have ever had vocally. I'd rather swallow a ton of razors than go thru that again.
Me and my friend have been half-seriously talking about forming a "true metal" band and telling everybody how true and METAL we would be with this upcoming megastar band, but in reality we would write the songs and lyrics with a pure tongue-in-cheek mentality (how long does it take to write true heavy metal lyrics anyway? 10-15 minutes?) and steal every cliché from the 80's metal pioneers. Do you think if this kind of cheating would succeed, in the recent metal scene? Or, sarcastically, have we already witnessed such, in the form of *place a band's name here, if you wish* ?
- I do not wish to mention any names. It always comes back to you. But I refuse to believe that all these bands being all that metal really sounded like that before the trend. Maybe they had like one riff that was a bit metal and from that they claim to have sounded like that all the times. Just because you liked Judas Priest in the 80's doesn't mean you had to play it in their style. My old band GHOST was true metal/hardrock (in 1984) before any of the other bands from my generation (born 1973) that are out there now. We sung in Swedish because we were too young to know English but we did it all with the make up, sword, posing with your mothers high heeled boots etc. some translated titles are "Midnight", "Emperor of the Night", "The fog of death", "Screaming for Vengeance" (I wonder whre I stole that???) "The Enchroatchement of the Demons", "Rock and Roll" (No translation necesary!!) "The Devils Triangle" "Fight for your life" etc. etc. We released like 3 demos in your heavy style (Sold it to friends at school, we even had a fan-club!!!) then we wimped out!!!! I was 11 years back then...It feel's kinda weird that some people playing it now is like 31!!!!
At your website you "declare" that Unicorn has been the only real band you've ever been involved in. However, as far as I have understood, you were the most creative member of Edge of Sanity, writing most of the songs and lyrics, and you were considered as the 'main member' of EoS. Can you, honestly, say that when you STILL were in EoS, it was ONLY a project for you?
- Of course. EOS was a project from day to the last song. It was like I knew all along that our days were counted. It was just a matter of how long I could stay with three punkrockers and a die hard metal fan I am a symphrock poser for god's sake!!! There were moments when I tried to convert EOS into a band. I quit my job, tried to get a manager, but the other guys seemed happy with their "Not care too much about anything" attitude so I scrapped the idea. A bit later on I met my wife and together we formed some kinda of band!! Not musically, but It fulfilled the other vibes I had longed for since Unicorn kinda turned project.
You have written, recorded and released music varying from prog rock to brutal death/black metal, and almost everything in between.
- Well I have done reggae, techno (long before the "boom" though), hardcore, punk etc. I don't think I'd ever try out to do a classical piece. It would be too bad compared to the amsters. I only see myself writing in the genrés where I have a decent chance of ending up somewhere in the top spot quality wise. I don't master, or really understand classical music. I'D NEVER EVER DO HIP-HOP!!! I used to help out some locals doing a joke thang like 10 years ago, even that turned me off. HIPHOP is the worst shit there is, and the f**kers that don't ever know how to rap in sync with the music...ooohh, that scares me!!!!
Are there any kind of music you'd never write (and release)? Or any subject you'd never write about (speaking of lyrics, I mean)?
- I find it hard to write about broken hearts and stuff like that since I have never been brokenhearted. Yet. Hopefully never.I am also incredibly uninterested in politics and stuff.
It seems that the activities of Mr. Swanö never "grow old", so to say, since you seem to move on with different things all the time. During the 90's you were involved in so many bands, projects and recording sessions etc. that it's impossible for anyone to keep record of everything you've done, regarding music. Where do you get the spirit to try and do new things all the time, never settling for too long?
- What can I say?? It's a bit like a drug. I feed from the emotions flowing in your at the very beginning of a session. I think all of us reading have been drunk a couple of times in their lives, right?? Here's a little comparsion: recording v/s drinking. What we're really after is the excitement of knowing you're going to get drunk and hopefully have a good time. The first 5 beers , the music, everybody getting weird, the indepth discussions of Bill Andrews drumfills on the "Leprosy" album, why things break etc. after a while the fun ends You're a bit too drunk, something unexpected happens, someone is punching your best friend in the face, you throw up, you go out to the pub and talk/scream like a maniac, not hearing a word from your friend anyway. People you don't know, knows you since long and wish to talk you about things you know never happened!! The morning after you go: aaaahhh, this suck. never again. Yeak! You spend the whole day regretting last night, doing nothing worth mentioning Then you do it again sometimes even the very same evening!!! So, what I am trying to say Well, I enjoy the soundcheck, the initial writing/polishing session. I don't really like the rest but it is a must to get a product, right. Then it's the mix either it's a disaster (like all my albums as a studio-owner) or something really cool and educational (like the stuff I have done after closing the studio).
Do you consider yourself a musical vagabond?
- A vagabond!!! Yeah, maybe that's what I am??? I kinda lost track of everything when I needed to record things in order to get money to support my family. Every blank spot in the almanac had to be filled with work If no one booked the studio, I formed a band and had it signed. Yes, to get the money!!!!! Sometimes I wake up in the morning thinking I am the biggest crook that has ever lived. I have totally abused the deathmetal related underground in order to make money so that I can buy myself a really really groovy home studio where I can record my soft popprog albums? Well, it's true in one way, but I often forget that I once was a dedicated death maniac that cut my arms, smeared my face with the blood, yelled at "normal people", dyed my hair black and wore upsidedown crosses, spat at priests and spent my days with Marduk and Abruptum people But underneath all that I was always the Genesis dude anyway Double personality, who??
Are you nowadays doing any studio work for others except your own projects?
- It happens. I have done a few things lately, like THE PROJECT HATE, ART ULSTER, AUTOMOON, EDGE OF SANITY (it's not my project anymore, you know!!!) DREAMHUNTER and so. I might do some stuff in the future aswell.I'm driven by the morbid taste of 19" stuff.
What have been the most memorable moments as an engineer for you?
- I wish I could say a lot of records here, but most of them really suck soundwise. I hate myself for that and I appologize a 1000 times to all bands whose records I screwed up. I think the 59 Times the Pain album "End of the Millennium" sounds good. I still hope that the new Diabolical Masquerade will be the best I did and wish to be remembered for (and after that the next mix I'll make and then you know ).
What about the bad ones you (perhaps) never wanted to experience?
- The 1st (unreleased) Dark Funeral album is a complete nightmare. The mini is kinda OK but the mix of that first album sounds like it's made by a ten year old high on O'boy. Sorry Micke, David and the others - I couldn't be more sorry. I can only imagine having to live thru that session. Poor guys. They even paid me for it. I am eternally grateful/mournful for that. The list goes on. This is not minor details and shit. The whole balance of the sound is often fucked. Way too much bass or treble or mid. It's very rare to find a Unisound recording that sounds perfectly balanced. It always sounded good in the speakers, but what did it sound like compared to other records Well, I didn't bother to compare too often, when I did I was paralyzed and didn't care and thought the masteringroom would turn it into a record, but hell no Anyone wonder why I quit???
What was the first recording you did behind the mixing board?
- Can't remember. Must be some old GHOST recording on that old Tandberg recorder. The first ever full-lenght was HARVEY WALLBANGER.
Is there a release by some other artist you'd be especially proud of if you were in charge of the sounds on it?
- Not really. I am hard on myself. But hey, compare the OPETH albums I did to the stuff they do now at Fredman and you'll see I enjoy MOONTOWER (which is my own album) but that doesn't count??
Why wasn't the cover of Manowar's 'Blood of my enemies' mentioned in the list at your website?
- Oh, forgot that huh??? I'll try to remember that. It's very much a part of THE SPECTRAL SORROWS for me so I often forget that we didn't write it!!
Are there any other cover songs that we probably should be familiar with?
- I once recorded like 6 tracks from the band ASIA as "Green Day-punk" It's great!!! Subway Mirror recorded a great cover of "Forever Young" from ALPHAVILLE, then some stupid technofucks did it and the whole idea was spoilt. It even cost us a recorddeal with White Jazz Unicorn did a quite bad cover of Genesis' "Afterglow" but I might have written that one at the website?
Have you heard any covers done from Edge of Sanity's (or any of your bands/projects) songs? I know two Finnish bands that (have) play(ed) 'Black tears'.
- I have heard one Black Tears version and that was quite entertaining. One classic is the band from Stockholm that covered ENIGMA from EDGE and III from PAN-THY-MONIUM on their debut demo. Totall misery and classic at the same time
Your opinion in cover songs and tribute albums in general? At least you've participated in several tributes, so.
- Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Boooooooooring. It is cool whenever you feel there is some magic about it, maybe a good opportunity to praise the ancient gods. But now everyone is having a tribute thing coming out and the bands on there actually have to rehearse the tracks cause they don't know them! I cut "Melissa" because I can still see myself sitting in front of my fathers old SCANTIC stereo in the livingroom recording that one to the penpal that I was in "love" with at the time (like when I was 11 or 12 or something). We used to send each other mix tapes and I recorded that song because I though it was a really beautiful ballad I WAS SOOO WRONG. She hated its guts and since that day I have had a special relation to that track and I am pretty proud of my version on the Polish tribute. It was the dawn or a new era for me as a musician. From that moment on I knew I had made the righ decision to quit EOS and go solo.
Pan-Thy-Monium, one of the weirdest death metal bands I've ever heard. However, while exploring your website for the first time and realising that PTM's concept was more or less an inside joke, I felt a bit disappointed.
- Sorry I just wanted to form this band that went on the top of things. Tuned down as low as possible. Tried to avoid the normal drumbeats, base the songs with bass and keyboard upfront and sing in our own language!!! Just do what was not possible and do it even worse!!!! The Raagoonshinaah things is another of my weird inventions. We also had our own religion. Satan sucks you know I made up all these places and characters and I was quite amused by the fact that people bought it. I laughed hard at that!!!! Sorry if I hurt your feelings Jussi.
And who the fuck is Raagoonshinnaah anyway?
- Raagoonshinnah is/was the god of gloom.
Does the clock-ticking on every release symbolize something or is it just some kind of trade mark?
- Not really. It just made the intros and outros less boring. We need the playing time so
By the way, have you noticed that on the re-release version of Dream II the song titles roughly form some kind of inverted cross? Subconsciously satanic, after all?
- Maybe? I don't know. We did some photoshoots with me wearing corpsepaint in inverted crosses and all that shit. We were supposed to have this great fire but the weather screwed it up so we ended up with this huge smoke and got the hell out of there before the firebridgade would come!!! Evil huh???
When will you release the remix version of PTM's demo (+ bonus tracks?)? I thought there would be some brand new songs, but that isn't the case after all, or.?
- It's ready!!! I will add something very ambient to it as well, using some riffs and drumbits off the PTM records to squirk in the background..and of course some clicking. Playing time you know.
The song 'Sacrificed' on The Spectral Sorrows must have left many death metal purists mouth wide open since the release of this EoS album. A song that seems to be in a totally wrong album, yet it somehow fits in by breaking the death metal atmosphere for its +3 minutes. To my knowledge, Black Mark used this song to promote TSS back then. It was similar to the promotion of Lake of Tears' Crimson Cosmos album: the promo single consisted of songs that were totally different from the general style of the album. Comments on this?
- Can't blame them can you. I work as a salesman nowadays and you pick the most sellable things about your product when you tell people about it. You play the coolest sounds on that new KORG keyboard even though you know they will never ever make a track where that specific sound will fit. It's a show off, a teaser. I wanted EOS to go in a slightly more Gothic way, adding more normal vocals etc. You can hear some pretty re-arranged gothsongs on the UNTIL ETERNITY ENDS mini. But then we found out that we were Slayer and scrapped everything and did Purgatory Afterglow But did it turn out to be that savage after all?? I think it's rather corny!!! Twilight rule though.
As far as I have understood the co-operation between you and Black Mark has always been very fruitful and successful. However, the same goes - what I have heard - with only a handful of other bands/artists, since the label has so many smaller bands under its wings that they (BM) certainly cannot provide all of them with reasonable promotion. Opinion? What are your personal favourite bands on Black Mark, apart from your own stuff of course?
- "Fruitful and successful." Naah don't know about that. They have managed to hide my latest releases from humanity in a way only someone that hate my guts can do. I am sure they mean nothing bad and only want things to get better. But every time they change their way of being, whether it's being bought by that, sold to this, distributed by them, my record gets jammed in the process. I stay with them because I know all recordcompanies are only in it for the money and if you don't have the smallest personal connection with the boss you are doomed! EDGE was the first new band ever on Black Mark. I have been with them for 10 years now and I know that I could have made more money on other labels but I would also have owed them a lot of money. Think about that. And what happens when youre in debt to labels?? THEY MAKE YOU DO THINGS!!!! Like tour with them, write more like that, go more commercial, "This sound is in, please write a song for the radio!!" AAAARRRGGGHHH!! F**K THAT!! I write and release what I feel is right. Do you think that any other label with a similar size to Black Mark would have accepted MOONTOWER? Don't think so. That synthesizer sound is repeated enough to make most people crazy, but I love it and some others too They knew it was a part of my vision and never ever commented (maybe they even didn't listen?) BLACK MARK ROCKS, MAYBE NOT THE HARDEST BUT THEY SURE ROCK!!!
About Nightingale, then. I really enjoyed the debut and its gothic rockish elements, but the 2nd album was somehow a disappointment for me, personally, since I'm not too fond of rocking progressive music. However, the latest, mysteriously entitled I (I or one?), brought back my enthusiasism for Nightingale's works with its deeply melancholic and overall sad atmosphere. You've stated that the music you've listened in a certain points of time can be heard from the recent Nightingale album, so what have you been listening while composing material for I? Joy Division, perhaps?
- Not really. The process of this album is different. I wrote the track "I Return" for the ODYSSEY minialbum two summers ago. Kenth thought it was way too commercial so I wrote "I CARRY A SECRET" instead. Then I began to think of what to do with that other good track that way not too hard or not to soft either!!?? One day I visited my brother and he played me some re-recording that he'd done with his soloproject TOM NOUGA. The songs that came out of that hi-fi was pure Nightingale, with Swedish lyrics. I played him "I RETURN" on an acoustic guitar and we both agreed to start digging in his history for Nightingale tracks written years before Nightingale ever existed. We found goodies like "ALONELY", "DEAD OR ALIVE", "DROWNING IN SADNESS", "THE GAME" and a riff to go with the ending section of "THE JOURNEY'S END". I went back home and picked up "SCARED FOR LIFE" again. Converting it from what could have been the most noisy UNICORN track ever and made it Nightingale. We had gone from having no song to six songs in one weekend, almost INFESTDEAD speed in the writing here!! TOM custom-made "GAME OVER", I completed what was about to become "THE JOURNEY'S END" out of old unused Unicorn stuff. He came over to my now historic rehearsalstudio (The Sanctuary) and we wrote "STILL IN THE DARK" together from a riff I had made the other day. I went home and felt we had it almost coming.Then I found the missing link "REMORSE & REGRET" was written and demoed all by me the day before we were supposed to nail the basic tracks. So, there was really no dark depressive things involved here. More of a patchwork really.
The lyrics for all Nightingale albums were included in the booklet of I, but why weren't they released in the first place then? Or are the lyrics meant to be read as a whole, and now when I closes the Nightingale trilogy, it was reasonable to print all of them?
- I was too lazy of sick and tired of the other two albums when I was about to assemble the layout for the albums. Since all the lyrics were handwritten on telephonebooks, the little things you write the titles on in cassettes etc. All I had was the recorded versions. But then Japan demanded lyrics as a bonus and I still remember that horrible evening picking them all out. What a waste of time! But now I am happy for it. This other guy from somehwere sent me the lyrix for the second album from out of the blue The poor guy had picked 'em out all by himself. I completed them and returned them to him. So, for the third album I had PC going for stuff like typing letters, lyrics etc (I use Mac for music) so with everything already being computerized it was a piece of cake to put them in the booklet. I'm lazy, oh yeah.
If all your instruments and electronic devices related to composing music would be destroyed in a fire, would you call that bad luck, will of a higher force or the end of the world? (considering your equipment was NOT insured)
- Since I don't carry any hard to find products in my homerig it would just be a financial disaster. The hard drive might contain some stuff unable to buy somewhere (well, soon you'll find anything as MP3's on the web anyway ) but the rest is re-purchasable. But I am pretty poorly insured (thanx for reminding me) so I'd be very sad. Please don't set fire to rig folks!! It wouldn't stop me. It would only bring me back WITH A VENGEANCE Recorded somewhere else!!
How busy is Dan Swanö with his musical activities during the latter half of the year 2000?
- I am currenly editing the new DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE album "Deaths Design". Me and Blakkheim locked ourselves up for 7 days in "The Livingroom" and wrote and recorded the bottomline of music and vocs. I will mess with it for a while and hopefully send a master CD to his Italian label before the end of August. (I am not sure what year that will be I'm known for being quite a perfectionist!!!).
By the way, what does this all Y2K hype mean to you, if anything?
- I am a bit bit surprised really. Normally I take every possible chance for a fresh start. Like, now I have formatted my audiofule harddrive. From now on every file will have a proper name, yeah right After two minutes I name files "rjfåe´", "qewrety", "äöluh", "äljh" and stuff like that I have no sense of making things easy for me. Naming a file "älkjh" is easy but finding that lost guitarpart two weeks later isn't that easy. Then you wish you'd called it "Rock me baby, guitartake 11". That's me in a nutshell. So I didn't make any weird promises and stuff. I watched the fireworks and went home. I watched some kind of "The best of the celebration of year 2000" and adding those ceremonies together, gosh, could we have like a 10 million dollars right there? Why not spend the change in peace and give all that money to the poor people, that probably doesn't even know it's the change of millennium. I am sounding like a Live Aid dude here, but blowing all that money for one special occation is too goddamned bizarre!
Is Infestdead dead? In the first place, did you start Infestdead only aiming to a record deal or did you write the ultra brutal blasphemous verses for sheer perverse pleasure?
- A fine blend there Me and Dread co-wrote "Burn me " as a Deicide tribute years and years back. You see, even though I claim to be the die-hard progrocker (well, I am!!) I have occational outburst of the purest deathmetal. Infestdead and Bloodbath are two typical incidents (Edge of Sanity was one of them aswell as Pan-Thy-Monium, Incision, Route Nine the list goes on that brutal shit is addictive!!!). Then I felt the smell of money. To me money is 1) Food and pay the rent 2) Buy all the stuff in the Studiomagazines I used to dream of. I don't really see money as money. I always translate it into stuff. I cash in this much money on this recordings That's equal to that new sampler I gotta have. Balam, I make the record and if it would be for legal reasons I'd rather have the sampler in a box right at my door instead of the mailman delivering that envelope that says "You've got money in the account!!".
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Have you been following the European Championship Football games?
- I saw a few games, yes. I used to be really into sports and shit when I was younger, but after a while I realised I was too fat to be any good at any sport. And I was always to afraid to "sacrifice" myself for the game because I might hurt myself and then I couldn't play drums for a while and that'd kill me!!
Your judgement towards the organized houliganism?
- I have been pretty close to houliganism, playing in Edge Of Sanity say no more!! I hate their guts!! They totally ruin the game. I have been thinking of taking my son to a game sometimes, but judging from the sights I see in the city after a game with some of the "houliganish" teams, I rather stay home and watch TV or something.
Do you practice any sports yourself?
- The only sport I practise these days is playing football with my son in the hall. It's really rough sometimes. I also train my right arm a lot not doing what you think you filthy bastards, I am married you know No, I tend to excercise it by flipping the mouse around working with my Mac based musicempire in the livingroom!!
Your view on the NWOTHM (New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal, that is), when bands are formed to hail the old metal gods from Priest to Frost? To some extent, I think also the rising trend of stoner rock belongs to this wave of glorification of the old days. Your opinion? Should these bands be only not-too-serious projects (let the dead rest?!), like Steel, or should we welcome all the hammerfalls and guillotines with a mighty metallic handshake?
- I think all trends where something is going from being totally unsellable to being the most in-thing ever is bizarre!! When we though about STEEL in the first place, we wanted to something that was SO OUT that we barely dared to think about it. The first track we recorded, just for fun (Like 30 seconds long called "Guitars & metal") we played it at a party and people where kinda worshipping this track and they felt it was the joke of the decade After a while I heard of Hammerfall and Nocturnal Rites and these guys and I felt sorry for them being so dramatically OUT but gosh, who's wrong??? Now Hammerfall's real big!! I am sitting here because of a trend you know. If it wouldn't have been for the deathboom around 90-91 I would never have been given the opportunity to record an album with EDGE OF SANITY and the rest, you know The most untrendy thing I have done was to dedicate my life to symphonic rock/pop in 1989. Nothing could be considered more ANTI-ROCKSTAR than playing pretty complex and "arty" progressive symphrock back then. Then DREAM THEATER broke big and we were all of a sudden a bit trendy, though we refused to use the Metalvibe they had, later on we changed toward a more mainstream sound, and died
Two songs from the Steel demo sessions were released only as a ltd.ed.pic. 7"ep. I suppose that was the whole idea of it, releasing true metal in its original format? And Steel is still very, very dead and buried one-time project, right?
- Yeah! I totally refused to do anything concerning STEEL. I was so afraid of having people accusing me of being a trendfollower and doing that becuase it's IN etc. But when these guys asked use to do a pic. 7", it was pure instict that said yes. I just gotta have one of these to show my grandchildren
By the way, who released this seven inch?
- A Label called Near Dark in Sundsvall, Sweden.
Did Steel have other songs apart from those three?
- Not apart from "Guitars & Metal" no.
In my opinion, your vocals sound a mixture between Udo Dirckschneider and Rob Halford, any comments?
- Right on the spot. I wanted it to be the bastard child between Udo and Rob. The vocs should be like "Fast as a shark" meets "Freewheel Burning"!!! It was the most horrifying experience I have ever had vocally. I'd rather swallow a ton of razors than go thru that again.
Me and my friend have been half-seriously talking about forming a "true metal" band and telling everybody how true and METAL we would be with this upcoming megastar band, but in reality we would write the songs and lyrics with a pure tongue-in-cheek mentality (how long does it take to write true heavy metal lyrics anyway? 10-15 minutes?) and steal every cliché from the 80's metal pioneers. Do you think if this kind of cheating would succeed, in the recent metal scene? Or, sarcastically, have we already witnessed such, in the form of *place a band's name here, if you wish* ?
- I do not wish to mention any names. It always comes back to you. But I refuse to believe that all these bands being all that metal really sounded like that before the trend. Maybe they had like one riff that was a bit metal and from that they claim to have sounded like that all the times. Just because you liked Judas Priest in the 80's doesn't mean you had to play it in their style. My old band GHOST was true metal/hardrock (in 1984) before any of the other bands from my generation (born 1973) that are out there now. We sung in Swedish because we were too young to know English but we did it all with the make up, sword, posing with your mothers high heeled boots etc. some translated titles are "Midnight", "Emperor of the Night", "The fog of death", "Screaming for Vengeance" (I wonder whre I stole that???) "The Enchroatchement of the Demons", "Rock and Roll" (No translation necesary!!) "The Devils Triangle" "Fight for your life" etc. etc. We released like 3 demos in your heavy style (Sold it to friends at school, we even had a fan-club!!!) then we wimped out!!!! I was 11 years back then...It feel's kinda weird that some people playing it now is like 31!!!!
At your website you "declare" that Unicorn has been the only real band you've ever been involved in. However, as far as I have understood, you were the most creative member of Edge of Sanity, writing most of the songs and lyrics, and you were considered as the 'main member' of EoS. Can you, honestly, say that when you STILL were in EoS, it was ONLY a project for you?
- Of course. EOS was a project from day to the last song. It was like I knew all along that our days were counted. It was just a matter of how long I could stay with three punkrockers and a die hard metal fan I am a symphrock poser for god's sake!!! There were moments when I tried to convert EOS into a band. I quit my job, tried to get a manager, but the other guys seemed happy with their "Not care too much about anything" attitude so I scrapped the idea. A bit later on I met my wife and together we formed some kinda of band!! Not musically, but It fulfilled the other vibes I had longed for since Unicorn kinda turned project.
You have written, recorded and released music varying from prog rock to brutal death/black metal, and almost everything in between.
- Well I have done reggae, techno (long before the "boom" though), hardcore, punk etc. I don't think I'd ever try out to do a classical piece. It would be too bad compared to the amsters. I only see myself writing in the genrés where I have a decent chance of ending up somewhere in the top spot quality wise. I don't master, or really understand classical music. I'D NEVER EVER DO HIP-HOP!!! I used to help out some locals doing a joke thang like 10 years ago, even that turned me off. HIPHOP is the worst shit there is, and the f**kers that don't ever know how to rap in sync with the music...ooohh, that scares me!!!!
Are there any kind of music you'd never write (and release)? Or any subject you'd never write about (speaking of lyrics, I mean)?
- I find it hard to write about broken hearts and stuff like that since I have never been brokenhearted. Yet. Hopefully never.I am also incredibly uninterested in politics and stuff.
It seems that the activities of Mr. Swanö never "grow old", so to say, since you seem to move on with different things all the time. During the 90's you were involved in so many bands, projects and recording sessions etc. that it's impossible for anyone to keep record of everything you've done, regarding music. Where do you get the spirit to try and do new things all the time, never settling for too long?
- What can I say?? It's a bit like a drug. I feed from the emotions flowing in your at the very beginning of a session. I think all of us reading have been drunk a couple of times in their lives, right?? Here's a little comparsion: recording v/s drinking. What we're really after is the excitement of knowing you're going to get drunk and hopefully have a good time. The first 5 beers , the music, everybody getting weird, the indepth discussions of Bill Andrews drumfills on the "Leprosy" album, why things break etc. after a while the fun ends You're a bit too drunk, something unexpected happens, someone is punching your best friend in the face, you throw up, you go out to the pub and talk/scream like a maniac, not hearing a word from your friend anyway. People you don't know, knows you since long and wish to talk you about things you know never happened!! The morning after you go: aaaahhh, this suck. never again. Yeak! You spend the whole day regretting last night, doing nothing worth mentioning Then you do it again sometimes even the very same evening!!! So, what I am trying to say Well, I enjoy the soundcheck, the initial writing/polishing session. I don't really like the rest but it is a must to get a product, right. Then it's the mix either it's a disaster (like all my albums as a studio-owner) or something really cool and educational (like the stuff I have done after closing the studio).
Do you consider yourself a musical vagabond?
- A vagabond!!! Yeah, maybe that's what I am??? I kinda lost track of everything when I needed to record things in order to get money to support my family. Every blank spot in the almanac had to be filled with work If no one booked the studio, I formed a band and had it signed. Yes, to get the money!!!!! Sometimes I wake up in the morning thinking I am the biggest crook that has ever lived. I have totally abused the deathmetal related underground in order to make money so that I can buy myself a really really groovy home studio where I can record my soft popprog albums? Well, it's true in one way, but I often forget that I once was a dedicated death maniac that cut my arms, smeared my face with the blood, yelled at "normal people", dyed my hair black and wore upsidedown crosses, spat at priests and spent my days with Marduk and Abruptum people But underneath all that I was always the Genesis dude anyway Double personality, who??
Are you nowadays doing any studio work for others except your own projects?
- It happens. I have done a few things lately, like THE PROJECT HATE, ART ULSTER, AUTOMOON, EDGE OF SANITY (it's not my project anymore, you know!!!) DREAMHUNTER and so. I might do some stuff in the future aswell.I'm driven by the morbid taste of 19" stuff.
What have been the most memorable moments as an engineer for you?
- I wish I could say a lot of records here, but most of them really suck soundwise. I hate myself for that and I appologize a 1000 times to all bands whose records I screwed up. I think the 59 Times the Pain album "End of the Millennium" sounds good. I still hope that the new Diabolical Masquerade will be the best I did and wish to be remembered for (and after that the next mix I'll make and then you know ).
What about the bad ones you (perhaps) never wanted to experience?
- The 1st (unreleased) Dark Funeral album is a complete nightmare. The mini is kinda OK but the mix of that first album sounds like it's made by a ten year old high on O'boy. Sorry Micke, David and the others - I couldn't be more sorry. I can only imagine having to live thru that session. Poor guys. They even paid me for it. I am eternally grateful/mournful for that. The list goes on. This is not minor details and shit. The whole balance of the sound is often fucked. Way too much bass or treble or mid. It's very rare to find a Unisound recording that sounds perfectly balanced. It always sounded good in the speakers, but what did it sound like compared to other records Well, I didn't bother to compare too often, when I did I was paralyzed and didn't care and thought the masteringroom would turn it into a record, but hell no Anyone wonder why I quit???
What was the first recording you did behind the mixing board?
- Can't remember. Must be some old GHOST recording on that old Tandberg recorder. The first ever full-lenght was HARVEY WALLBANGER.
Is there a release by some other artist you'd be especially proud of if you were in charge of the sounds on it?
- Not really. I am hard on myself. But hey, compare the OPETH albums I did to the stuff they do now at Fredman and you'll see I enjoy MOONTOWER (which is my own album) but that doesn't count??
Why wasn't the cover of Manowar's 'Blood of my enemies' mentioned in the list at your website?
- Oh, forgot that huh??? I'll try to remember that. It's very much a part of THE SPECTRAL SORROWS for me so I often forget that we didn't write it!!
Are there any other cover songs that we probably should be familiar with?
- I once recorded like 6 tracks from the band ASIA as "Green Day-punk" It's great!!! Subway Mirror recorded a great cover of "Forever Young" from ALPHAVILLE, then some stupid technofucks did it and the whole idea was spoilt. It even cost us a recorddeal with White Jazz Unicorn did a quite bad cover of Genesis' "Afterglow" but I might have written that one at the website?
Have you heard any covers done from Edge of Sanity's (or any of your bands/projects) songs? I know two Finnish bands that (have) play(ed) 'Black tears'.
- I have heard one Black Tears version and that was quite entertaining. One classic is the band from Stockholm that covered ENIGMA from EDGE and III from PAN-THY-MONIUM on their debut demo. Totall misery and classic at the same time
Your opinion in cover songs and tribute albums in general? At least you've participated in several tributes, so.
- Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Boooooooooring. It is cool whenever you feel there is some magic about it, maybe a good opportunity to praise the ancient gods. But now everyone is having a tribute thing coming out and the bands on there actually have to rehearse the tracks cause they don't know them! I cut "Melissa" because I can still see myself sitting in front of my fathers old SCANTIC stereo in the livingroom recording that one to the penpal that I was in "love" with at the time (like when I was 11 or 12 or something). We used to send each other mix tapes and I recorded that song because I though it was a really beautiful ballad I WAS SOOO WRONG. She hated its guts and since that day I have had a special relation to that track and I am pretty proud of my version on the Polish tribute. It was the dawn or a new era for me as a musician. From that moment on I knew I had made the righ decision to quit EOS and go solo.
Pan-Thy-Monium, one of the weirdest death metal bands I've ever heard. However, while exploring your website for the first time and realising that PTM's concept was more or less an inside joke, I felt a bit disappointed.
- Sorry I just wanted to form this band that went on the top of things. Tuned down as low as possible. Tried to avoid the normal drumbeats, base the songs with bass and keyboard upfront and sing in our own language!!! Just do what was not possible and do it even worse!!!! The Raagoonshinaah things is another of my weird inventions. We also had our own religion. Satan sucks you know I made up all these places and characters and I was quite amused by the fact that people bought it. I laughed hard at that!!!! Sorry if I hurt your feelings Jussi.
And who the fuck is Raagoonshinnaah anyway?
- Raagoonshinnah is/was the god of gloom.
Does the clock-ticking on every release symbolize something or is it just some kind of trade mark?
- Not really. It just made the intros and outros less boring. We need the playing time so
By the way, have you noticed that on the re-release version of Dream II the song titles roughly form some kind of inverted cross? Subconsciously satanic, after all?
- Maybe? I don't know. We did some photoshoots with me wearing corpsepaint in inverted crosses and all that shit. We were supposed to have this great fire but the weather screwed it up so we ended up with this huge smoke and got the hell out of there before the firebridgade would come!!! Evil huh???
When will you release the remix version of PTM's demo (+ bonus tracks?)? I thought there would be some brand new songs, but that isn't the case after all, or.?
- It's ready!!! I will add something very ambient to it as well, using some riffs and drumbits off the PTM records to squirk in the background..and of course some clicking. Playing time you know.
The song 'Sacrificed' on The Spectral Sorrows must have left many death metal purists mouth wide open since the release of this EoS album. A song that seems to be in a totally wrong album, yet it somehow fits in by breaking the death metal atmosphere for its +3 minutes. To my knowledge, Black Mark used this song to promote TSS back then. It was similar to the promotion of Lake of Tears' Crimson Cosmos album: the promo single consisted of songs that were totally different from the general style of the album. Comments on this?
- Can't blame them can you. I work as a salesman nowadays and you pick the most sellable things about your product when you tell people about it. You play the coolest sounds on that new KORG keyboard even though you know they will never ever make a track where that specific sound will fit. It's a show off, a teaser. I wanted EOS to go in a slightly more Gothic way, adding more normal vocals etc. You can hear some pretty re-arranged gothsongs on the UNTIL ETERNITY ENDS mini. But then we found out that we were Slayer and scrapped everything and did Purgatory Afterglow But did it turn out to be that savage after all?? I think it's rather corny!!! Twilight rule though.
As far as I have understood the co-operation between you and Black Mark has always been very fruitful and successful. However, the same goes - what I have heard - with only a handful of other bands/artists, since the label has so many smaller bands under its wings that they (BM) certainly cannot provide all of them with reasonable promotion. Opinion? What are your personal favourite bands on Black Mark, apart from your own stuff of course?
- "Fruitful and successful." Naah don't know about that. They have managed to hide my latest releases from humanity in a way only someone that hate my guts can do. I am sure they mean nothing bad and only want things to get better. But every time they change their way of being, whether it's being bought by that, sold to this, distributed by them, my record gets jammed in the process. I stay with them because I know all recordcompanies are only in it for the money and if you don't have the smallest personal connection with the boss you are doomed! EDGE was the first new band ever on Black Mark. I have been with them for 10 years now and I know that I could have made more money on other labels but I would also have owed them a lot of money. Think about that. And what happens when youre in debt to labels?? THEY MAKE YOU DO THINGS!!!! Like tour with them, write more like that, go more commercial, "This sound is in, please write a song for the radio!!" AAAARRRGGGHHH!! F**K THAT!! I write and release what I feel is right. Do you think that any other label with a similar size to Black Mark would have accepted MOONTOWER? Don't think so. That synthesizer sound is repeated enough to make most people crazy, but I love it and some others too They knew it was a part of my vision and never ever commented (maybe they even didn't listen?) BLACK MARK ROCKS, MAYBE NOT THE HARDEST BUT THEY SURE ROCK!!!
About Nightingale, then. I really enjoyed the debut and its gothic rockish elements, but the 2nd album was somehow a disappointment for me, personally, since I'm not too fond of rocking progressive music. However, the latest, mysteriously entitled I (I or one?), brought back my enthusiasism for Nightingale's works with its deeply melancholic and overall sad atmosphere. You've stated that the music you've listened in a certain points of time can be heard from the recent Nightingale album, so what have you been listening while composing material for I? Joy Division, perhaps?
- Not really. The process of this album is different. I wrote the track "I Return" for the ODYSSEY minialbum two summers ago. Kenth thought it was way too commercial so I wrote "I CARRY A SECRET" instead. Then I began to think of what to do with that other good track that way not too hard or not to soft either!!?? One day I visited my brother and he played me some re-recording that he'd done with his soloproject TOM NOUGA. The songs that came out of that hi-fi was pure Nightingale, with Swedish lyrics. I played him "I RETURN" on an acoustic guitar and we both agreed to start digging in his history for Nightingale tracks written years before Nightingale ever existed. We found goodies like "ALONELY", "DEAD OR ALIVE", "DROWNING IN SADNESS", "THE GAME" and a riff to go with the ending section of "THE JOURNEY'S END". I went back home and picked up "SCARED FOR LIFE" again. Converting it from what could have been the most noisy UNICORN track ever and made it Nightingale. We had gone from having no song to six songs in one weekend, almost INFESTDEAD speed in the writing here!! TOM custom-made "GAME OVER", I completed what was about to become "THE JOURNEY'S END" out of old unused Unicorn stuff. He came over to my now historic rehearsalstudio (The Sanctuary) and we wrote "STILL IN THE DARK" together from a riff I had made the other day. I went home and felt we had it almost coming.Then I found the missing link "REMORSE & REGRET" was written and demoed all by me the day before we were supposed to nail the basic tracks. So, there was really no dark depressive things involved here. More of a patchwork really.
The lyrics for all Nightingale albums were included in the booklet of I, but why weren't they released in the first place then? Or are the lyrics meant to be read as a whole, and now when I closes the Nightingale trilogy, it was reasonable to print all of them?
- I was too lazy of sick and tired of the other two albums when I was about to assemble the layout for the albums. Since all the lyrics were handwritten on telephonebooks, the little things you write the titles on in cassettes etc. All I had was the recorded versions. But then Japan demanded lyrics as a bonus and I still remember that horrible evening picking them all out. What a waste of time! But now I am happy for it. This other guy from somehwere sent me the lyrix for the second album from out of the blue The poor guy had picked 'em out all by himself. I completed them and returned them to him. So, for the third album I had PC going for stuff like typing letters, lyrics etc (I use Mac for music) so with everything already being computerized it was a piece of cake to put them in the booklet. I'm lazy, oh yeah.
If all your instruments and electronic devices related to composing music would be destroyed in a fire, would you call that bad luck, will of a higher force or the end of the world? (considering your equipment was NOT insured)
- Since I don't carry any hard to find products in my homerig it would just be a financial disaster. The hard drive might contain some stuff unable to buy somewhere (well, soon you'll find anything as MP3's on the web anyway ) but the rest is re-purchasable. But I am pretty poorly insured (thanx for reminding me) so I'd be very sad. Please don't set fire to rig folks!! It wouldn't stop me. It would only bring me back WITH A VENGEANCE Recorded somewhere else!!
How busy is Dan Swanö with his musical activities during the latter half of the year 2000?
- I am currenly editing the new DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE album "Deaths Design". Me and Blakkheim locked ourselves up for 7 days in "The Livingroom" and wrote and recorded the bottomline of music and vocs. I will mess with it for a while and hopefully send a master CD to his Italian label before the end of August. (I am not sure what year that will be I'm known for being quite a perfectionist!!!).
By the way, what does this all Y2K hype mean to you, if anything?
- I am a bit bit surprised really. Normally I take every possible chance for a fresh start. Like, now I have formatted my audiofule harddrive. From now on every file will have a proper name, yeah right After two minutes I name files "rjfåe´", "qewrety", "äöluh", "äljh" and stuff like that I have no sense of making things easy for me. Naming a file "älkjh" is easy but finding that lost guitarpart two weeks later isn't that easy. Then you wish you'd called it "Rock me baby, guitartake 11". That's me in a nutshell. So I didn't make any weird promises and stuff. I watched the fireworks and went home. I watched some kind of "The best of the celebration of year 2000" and adding those ceremonies together, gosh, could we have like a 10 million dollars right there? Why not spend the change in peace and give all that money to the poor people, that probably doesn't even know it's the change of millennium. I am sounding like a Live Aid dude here, but blowing all that money for one special occation is too goddamned bizarre!
Is Infestdead dead? In the first place, did you start Infestdead only aiming to a record deal or did you write the ultra brutal blasphemous verses for sheer perverse pleasure?
- A fine blend there Me and Dread co-wrote "Burn me " as a Deicide tribute years and years back. You see, even though I claim to be the die-hard progrocker (well, I am!!) I have occational outburst of the purest deathmetal. Infestdead and Bloodbath are two typical incidents (Edge of Sanity was one of them aswell as Pan-Thy-Monium, Incision, Route Nine the list goes on that brutal shit is addictive!!!). Then I felt the smell of money. To me money is 1) Food and pay the rent 2) Buy all the stuff in the Studiomagazines I used to dream of. I don't really see money as money. I always translate it into stuff. I cash in this much money on this recordings That's equal to that new sampler I gotta have. Balam, I make the record and if it would be for legal reasons I'd rather have the sampler in a box right at my door instead of the mailman delivering that envelope that says "You've got money in the account!!".
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