02/06/2004 |
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HEARSE : interview with Max Thornell,
Johan Liiva and Mattias Ljung
organized by Irascible Distribution and GryphonMetal.ch e-mail interview by Boris "Azrael" Witta ___ 24/05/2004
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| THE SKY IS THE LIMIT |
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Boris
GM- Hail
Johan, Mattias and Max, thank you very much for the interview! Here we go: Max: Ironic?
How come? Anyway I guess that Johan got the title idea from the old
classic movie “Hiroshima mon amour”. Well, I guess that each day we´re
getting closer to the end of it all and somehow humanity seem to want it
that way, cos´ we´re doing absolutely nothing to change that! So somehow
it looks like humanity is in love with Armageddon, doesn´t it? You
seem to like long and extravagant classic guitar-solos. Who are your
guitar heroes? Mattias:
When it comes to looonng solos there´s
really no one that can equal David Gilmour. Max:
My guitar hero would be Fast Eddie Clarke!
Not because he´s the best technical guitarist around, but what he did in
Motörhead still rocks big time! One ton of attitude! A
dirty metal hero! Then of course there´s a bunch of other dudes whose
style I really like; all the Ozzy guitarists, Dimebag, Ace Frehley,
Blackmore, Alex Lifeson and a bunch of others. Guitar solos rocks! When
I look at the lyrics, they’re all very negative, kind of angry and
discontent. What’s the reason and where do you take your inspiration
from? Max: The
lyrics mostly deal with the world of today and I guess you don´t have to
be Einstein to notice that the world we live in ain´t exactly paradise.
This world is actually a pretty ugly place and...and what the hell. I
guess you just have to do the best of it. How
would you declare your music? At my opinion, it’s more than
“only”Death Metal. Max: It´s
always kinda hard to describe your own music. But I´d go for groovy,
interesting, sometimes weird, heavy, cool, loose, fucking awesome metal!
What about that!? I´d
say we´re heavily inspired by the old death metal bands, but I´m not
that sure I´d call our music death metal really. At least I don´t think
in terms like “now I´m gonna make a death metal song”. Guess you can
find a lot of influences from 70´s rock, death metal, 80´s heavy metal
and even some pop music in our music. Guess it all has to do with the fact
that we don´t just listen to metal. Feels much more evolving to listen to
all good music, whether it´s metal, pop, rock, samba, calypso or
whatever! Your
sound shows a lot of influences, for example Rock’n’Roll but also
modern elements. Do you make yourselves any frontiers how far you can go
with the songwriting for Hearse or is everything possible? Max: I
say like Tom Petty: The sky is the limit! I definitely don´t feel much of
limitations when I make the music for Hearse. Well, I guess we try to keep
it within some heavy rock´n roll, but otherwise I don´t see any reason
to set up limits. I´ve always been a lot into bands that you can´t
really categorize. Guess we´re making it a bit difficult for us, he he!
We could as well just copy some of the big bands and probably sell a lot
more albums, but that´s not really what we wanna do. So I guess we have
to live with the fact that some people will really hate the stuff we´re
doing, he he! Can
you tell me something about the Cover-song “Cambodia”? I didn’t find
anything about it. Max: It
was originally recorded by Kim Wilde back in the early 80´s. I still
think her two first albums are just awesome! And Cambodia has always been
a favourite. That song is just awesome! Guess I had a real crush on Kim
Wilde back in the days, he he! Johan,
you played once in Arch Enemy. What’s your relation to the guys from the
band today? Johan:
We
naturally don't hang out quite as often as before, but stay in touch via
e-mail and so on. I'm glad that it turned out this way, not that I ever
could imagine that we'd ever talk to each other again, but you know - it's
not just one big smile when you have to leave a band which you care for so
much as I did for A.E., so..." How
difficult was it to restart from zero with a new band? I men, with Arch
Enemy, you had a big status in the scene. How is this with Hearse? Johan:
I
don't mind starting from scratch every now and then - it's in my 'nature'
kind of I guess. It's part of the fun to build up things from dust and
turn it into gold, haha! With Hearse it was little of a
"silver-plate"; line-up, songs and a lot of the basic stuff was
already there - the only thing missing was lyrics and one helluva singer
who is able to scream like a little piggy." Max:
Like
a little piggy? So that´s why you sound that way, Johan? What
about the people when they hear the name Hearse: Do they say, “Ah,
that’s the band of the Ex-Arch Enemy-singer” or do they remark that
Hearse is a completely own band? Max: It
seems that people are talking about the band of the ex Arch Enemy
vocalist. And that feels a bit weird as it automatically makes people to
compare us with Arch Enemy. And well...I´m pretty sure that if Johan hadn´t
been in the band they wouldn´t even have mentioned Arch Enemy. But what
the heck...Arch Enemy is one helluva band, so I´d rather be compared with
them then some other shitty band. Can
you tell me something about the Swedish Metal-scene? Here in Switzerland,
it sounds often like Utopia when we read about the bands, the community
and the Live-clubs which you have in Sweden. Max: Hmmm...if
I´d have this question like ten years ago I´d probably agree with you.
But today? I might not be the best updated person around but... I wouldn´t
agree on that today. Back in the days, like 10-12 years ago I think that
the death metal scene here in Sweden was just awesome! A lot of cool
bands, clubs, zines and...you name it! All the bands also seemed to help
each other out back then, instead of competing. But I have to admit that I´m not that updated nowadays as I´m just
not that interested. Guess I got stuck back in the late 80´s / early 90´s
when it comes to death metal. The bands from that time are still the ones
I listen to; Entombed, Dismember, Grave etc. Guess I´m just old and
bitter, he he! Ehm,
do you know the band The Crown? Because for me, the beginning and the and
of “Tools” sounds exactly like their song “Face Of Destruction –
Deep Hits Of Death”. Or is this just chance? Max: I
saw this band back in 1993 when it was called Crown of Thorns and to be
honest I don´t even know if I´ve heard this band since then. So it´s
definitely a coincidence if we sound anything like that band. But I guess
it´s a cool band, so perhaps I should check it out, right? What
were your best and your worst experiences of playing live, and may we hope
that you play once in Switzerland? Max: The
thing is that Hearse hasn’t done any live shows yet! We´ll do the first
gigs in September in Holland and Belgium. Will be superduper! Otherwise I
can´t come up with any terrible experiences when it comes to live gigs. I
really love playing live and it has always been a true pleasure! Now
our typical gryphonmetal -last- question:
the game. To the bands we interview for the very first time we
propose the Game of the Tower: there is a very high tower, and on the top
of this tower, 3 bands are waiting for you. You must kick down 2 of them,
saving only one. The 3 bands for you, Johan, Matthias and Max, are: In
Flames, Manowar and Dark Funeral. Max:
Hmmm...that´s
a tough one! But I could start by kicking down Manowar. I´m not that fond
of halfnaked men in leather to be honest. Don´t mind the women in leather
though! Xena is no. 1! Then
it´s more difficult really! But what the heck! I kick down Dark Funeral!
Corpse paint has never been my thing really. So then we have In Flames
still left on the top of the tower. It´s truly a great band, even if it´s
not really my kinda music! And they seem to be nice people! So,
that was it, thank you very much again and good luck for the future! |
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