| 26/09/2002 |
IN FLAMES:
Interview with Björn Gelotte
|
| by Matthew "Matt" Haumschild |
| 22/09/2002 - at THE RAVE in Milwaukee- Wisconsin (USA) (gig with Sentenced - Dark Tranquillity - Killswitch Engage) |
Björn Gelotte and Matthew |
| WHEN YOU PLAY DRUMS, IT CAN BE USEFUL WHEN WRITING MUSIC |
| Matt: Hello, please state your name for the record.. Björn: Hello I'm Björn Gelotte and I play guitar for Inflames. Matt: This is Matt from Gryphon Metal, obviously, this is my first interview ever so PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION! Björn: (laughs) Matt: The Record "Re-route to Remain" how did it take you to record the CD? Björn: The actual recording took a month, but we did some pre recording twice before that, we pretty much knew what it was going to sound like before we entered the studio. Matt: In your past albums, you had Frederick Nordstrom record and produce your past albums..why the change? Björn: Yeah we already on Clayman decided ,we wanted to do something different because we worked with Frederick with every recording we ever did we felt that he might not be able to do stuff that we needed to be done with this album, because this is a very diverse album it's hard to get it under the same package like sounding the same like other songs it's hard job, and we feel like we found the right person for the job for this one. Matt: What was the deal with the Violin on "Metaphor" who's idea was it? Björn: Actually that song started out as a Instrumental first, it was only guitars, I was sitting at home just writing instrumental parts so it was kinda nice as soon as Anders and the other guys heard it, Anders said "Let's do something different with it" Lets put lyrics with this lets put vocals on this, because we've already done acoustics and instrumentals and stuff we started working with that, we kept all the parts and melodies, but instead of having it repeat we wanted to add something different to it and I wasn't in on this decision but I heard it before we accepted it I think it was Dan or Anders idea and it was a really cool Idea, I didn't like it at first but now I like it. Matt: That's cool, So how long have you guys been in America Touring? Björn: First show we ever did in the US was the Milwaukee Metal fest, I thought it was a great opportunity for people to see lots of different bands, but there was no backstage and your gear was out in the open and it's wasn't cool. Matt: When was this? Björn: 99' Matt: Are you guys excited to go back to Europe? Björn: Yeah, we've been here for 2 months so.. Matt: You all are touring with Soilwork when you guys get back? Björn: It's going to be a killer package, we're going on tour with Soilwork and Pain we're really excited about it. Matt: You guys get all the good tours over there! Björn: Oh yes (laugh) Matt: (Laugh)....... Do you guys have a City preference? Björn: In North America there are several places, a really good city is Montreal actually, it's always been good to us, since day one, it's only getting better and better, also on the west coast is really good like playing in Seattle, San Francisco, or L.A. all these places are really really good. But I mean, Milwaukee, we've been playing here since day one, this is the first town we ever played in, it's been really good to us. Matt: I also heard Chicago is also a good place to play in. Björn: It is it definately is, I mean in every town there's a shit load of metal heads in every city, it doesn't matter if you play in a town you've never heard of, there's bound to be a crowd there. Matt: Like Lawrence Kansas? (Inflames had played there the night before) Björn: Well, yes there actually were alot of people there and we had a good time, the crowd did to and that's all that counts. Matt: For all those who don't know, Lawrence is near Kansas City Björn: It felt like we were in the middle of No where, it was like a college community, it's was really cool. Matt: How about Europe, any city Preference? Björn: Gothenburg, is really nice because we have alot of friends there and there's always a ton of people. Matt: Are you from Gothenburg? Björn: Yeah actually Matt: Ah, I didn't know if you were from Uppsala or Stockholm or something. Björn: No no,(with a smile) we recorded the RTR in Uppsala. Matt: Do you think there are too many festivals? Or do you think that playing just festivals get boring sometimes? Björn: Festivals are cool because you get to see a lot of cool bands at the same time or I get to see bands I've been listening to for years or I get to hear new bands that I never heard of that are really good. Actually I prefer to play them. Matt: Do you guys have day jobs at home? Björn: Yeah I mean, it all depends, Anders has a studio back home, so there's always a shit load of work for him to do Matt: Now I know where he got the engineer and co-engineering part from Björn: yeah yeah, I work a lot with Computers, Jesper doesn't do anything else really, he does write for other bands and he's really busy at that, Daniel works as a Teacher or a assistant teacher or a personal assistant, Peter's got a family so he's busier then all of us. Matt: Relating to that question a bit, do you guys have girlfriends waiting back home? Björn: Yeah, all of us actually, well mostly all of us I should say (Laughs) (Anders enters the room and laughs) Björn: We all want to go home, its great being on the road, but it's got it's downside is that you can't be with the ones you care about. Matt: Didn't you used to play drums for this band? Björn: When I joined Inflames I joined Inflames as a drummer because that's what they needed at the time, my main instrument is guitar, it always has been guitar, I love playing guitar but I figure that when you play drums, it can be useful when writing music, I also play a little bass, piano, and a little of everything. Matt: You guys have a lot of endorsements on this album. Björn: yeah yeah (laughs) Matt: I saw Dickies on their.. Björn: oh yeah Dickies, great stuff Matt: Yeah when you guys toured with Iced Earth, I saw all of you wear Dickies Work shirts with pants I thought that was unique. Ever since that's all I wear now is Dickie pants and Band worker shirts. Björn: The reason why we wear their stuff is that their dependable and look good especially live and they don't break, there made to get beat up and stuff like that, and everybody can get the same color which we do. It's really good to have endorsements because if something goes wrong we could just call them up and take care of it. Matt: Like ESP? (guitar) Björn: Yeah like ESP is the same thing, their great solid guitars (Anders walks in the room and gets coffee and chimes in with..) That's all you do (jokingly) take questions from stupid journalists. (everyone is laughing) Matt: The tower question: This is a typical question asked to all the bands Gryphon Metal interviews, Let's say, there's this 'tower' and you want to get on top of this tower. But only three bands can fit on top of this tower, and you have to knock off one of those bands, which band would you knock off? Soilwork, The Haunted, or Opeth Björn: Oh shit (both Anders and Bjorn look at each other and start laughing) Björn: um.. let Anders answer this one. Anders: I wouldn't even knock anyone down because I believe there is room for everyone Björn: Very Diplomatic answer very good, I would never really do that I think all really good bands, you kinda put me in a tight spot there! Matt: No problem I'll accept that answer Matt: Thank you very much for all this so say good bye to everyone Björn: (says whatever bye is in Swedish) Matt: See ya next tour Björn: enjoy the new album everyone! |
Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland