Jonas Ekdahl (Evergrey)
September 2008
Your previous album Monday Morning Apocalypse was quite an experimental record compared to your previous records. Did the fans appreciate the change?
With that album we've got way more different opinions than with any other of our albums. It was good and bad. Many people blamed it on the producer as they thought that he was a pop oriented producer but it wasn't the reason that the album became different. We were just trying out different ideas that time.
Did you regret releasing that album that way?
No, not a chance. I'm very proud of that album. It was a huge experience for us to do an album like that since we have never done it before and we have learned a lot of things from that in a lot of different ways. We are thankful for this to Sanken Sandquist and Stefan Glaumann who produced and mixed the album. I think it's a great album and even though it's a lot more direct and not as technical as the other albums I really feel it a great and strong album.
After seven years of successful cooperation Evergrey left InsideOut. What happened?
We needed a change. We didn't want to stay with them any longer. We have released four CDs, a live DVD and a live album on InsideOut and we felt that it was enough. We wanted something new and fresh and we felt that SPV was the place to go.
But you didn't go too far because basically InsideOut belongs to SPV too...
Yeah, I know. But SPV was the label that showed the most interest in us. We got many other offers from other labels but they just didn't feel right. SPV just felt right with their offer and interest in the band. We are very excited about working with them.
Did you also get offers from major labels like EMI, Sony/BMG...?
Hmm... I don't think so. But I'm not sure signing for a major label is always a good idea. It depends on how a major label would push your band with tour support and promotion. And it also depends on where would they put you on their rooster. If you just end up being a band that is the least priority on a big label then you won't get much attention. It's much better being one of the priorities on an indie type of label.
SPV already announced that they will reissue the entire Evergrey back catalogue. Do you plan to re-work some of the material?
Well, this was the band's idea as we regained the rights for all our releases so we can do whatever we want with the albums. We haven't talked about remixing or remastering the back catalogue yet but I don't think that'll happen. Probably we'll add some B-sides or some old unreleased material but I'm not sure what are gonna end up on those albums.
Speaking of B-sides, what is your favourite non-album track from Evergrey?
Probably Trilogy Of The Damned from Recreation Day is my favourite bonus track. That's a really dark song and I think Henrik played the best solo he's ever done on any Evergrey song. And it's cool because that song is like a medley of three Evergrey songs.You seem to have problems with bass players over the last couple of years. First Michael left the band after 7 years and then his replacement Fredrik left for HammerFall...
Yeah, that's true. It was a sad moment for Evergrey when Michael decided to leave the band but there's nothing we could do about it. He felt that he wanted to do something different with his life and that's the main reason why he left. We tried to make the best out of the situation and since Fredrik was already in the band doing the guitars, he was like a roadie, we asked him and he gladly joined the band. It was a very smooth transition. When he decided to leave it was very disappointing because we got along so well with Fredrik. We just didn't need another member change again at that time. It was a really bad timing and we were really fed up with the bass player changes but as they say, "the show must go on". We needed another bass player and we wanted to have an audition and put out on our website so anyone could email us and apply to be the new bass player. But then we got a phone call from a friend of ours, a Norwegian journalist, who said that we should check out this Finnish guy that played for Stratovarius before. We called him up and he came down from Finland to rehearse three songs and he played them amazingly. We were blown away. We played for like ten minutes and that was it. We sat down and talked to each other and we agreed immediately that he was the right guy. He's a really cool down to earth guy so he fits in perfectly both his playing skills and personality. He's a great dude, we're very lucky to have him in the band. As far as Michael and Fredrik we have absolutely no hard feelings or anything. I just met Michael the other day and we had a few beers and talked. We all are very good friends with the other bass players. (Laughs)
What happens if Stratovarius reunites? You never know with those guys...
(Laughs) Yeah, that's true. Hopefully for us that won't happen. (Laughs) Seriously, I don't know. That's Jari's decision but we really wanna have him in the band. We don't wanna let him go.
Did you involve Jari in the writing process of the new album?
Well, he mostly contributed with his bass playing. When he came in and recorded his bass he had a lot of ideas of how to play it his way so we discussed it and he just did his thing and he did it really really good. (Laughs)
How long did it take overall for the songs to take shape and reach their final form?
Me and Tom started really early to write the songs for this album. When we started writing the first songs Fredrik was still in the band so it was really long time ago. Some songs were taken six months to complete. (Laughs) Some ideas were born even before we started actually writing, when we were just jamming together. This time we kind of worked differently than how we used to. This time it was more like spread out. Henrik and Rikard were working on stuff at their home and I was writing together with Tom most of the time. Then one or two days a week we sat down together and shared whatever we had and we tried to fine the best pieces for a song and took everything from there.
Did you record any extra tracks for different editions of the album?
We recorded twelve tracks. There's eleven on the regular album and we also recorded one bonus track for the limited edition of the album. It is called Caught In A Lie and it's a typical Evergrey song with strong melodies and a really nice atmosphere and cool breathing parts. It's very dynamic as well. It was all the trademarks of Evergrey. (Laughs)
Will SPV release a single off the album?
No, not that I know of. We're releasing Broken Wings as video and that's it basically. The video is already recorded and done. It's a really dark video and we had to make three versions of it because we don't think that TV stations will be able to play the darkest one. It's really touchy and kind of uncomfortable, which I find very very cool. Then we have a band version and a kinder version for TV stations. We worked with the same guy that helped us making our two other videos and the DVD.
We talked about the previous album that was done by an outside producer. The production of Torn was done by you and Tom. How do you feel about the process and the end result?
Everything was in our own hands so we could only blame ourselves if something didn't sound right or something was wrong. It was a lot of work opposed to just coming in and playing drums and then leaving the studio letting the producer to take over. But it was a really good experience for me. I've learned so much during both the mixing and the recording and the mastering process. It was a lot of fun. I'm really satisfied with how things turned out. I think it's a great album. It has that really organic kind of vibe over the whole album. I don't know how we managed to get that but I love that it's there. (Laughs) That's why the songs work so great when we rehearse them or play them live. It's like they were meant to be played live and this way we can take them to another level and that's really cool.
So now you wrote songs, played on albums, produced an album... what other musical challenges lie ahead?
(Laughs) I don't know. I haven't thought about that. I can't think of any right now but I'm sure I'll have some. At the moment I just wanna have fun and play rock 'n roll and metal and enjoy myself with that. (Laughs)
What are your touring plans with Torn? Is SPV giving you the budget to do a proper tour?
Yeah, we're going to start with bunch of shows in Sweden and spread over Scandinavia and then we're doing some fly ins in different kind of countries where we normally wouldn't be playing like we're going to Poland, Russia and Romania. We are totally booked until the beginning of next year.
Is there any band that you'd like to go out and tour with? Would you prefer supporting a big band or headlining?
Hmm... for the first tour I would prefer going out supporting a really big band and for the second tour we could do the headlining with a smaller band supporting us. There's one band I really would like to have supporting us is a Swedish band called Bullet. They are a fucking fantastic band playing AC/DC type of rock. They are a kickass awesome band. As for the big band maybe I would choose Iron Maiden to support. (Laughs) That would be really nice.
You've already been to Hungary a couple of times. What kind of memories can you recall of your stay here?
We did a festival in Hungary and also a few club gigs as far as I can remember. The festival was really good. And also we played in a club with a lot of Indian statues and stuff inside, that was kind of weird but we had a really good crowd. We had a good time there.
You just did a festival gig in Lillehammer a few weeks ago. You were basically the only band that had rain while being on stage...
(Laughs) Yeah, it just started raining when we were supposed to go on stage. But on the other hand when you play an outdoor festival rain is the metal way to go so it was okay. (Laughs) It was early in the day but the show was good, we met a lot of friends, our friends from Freak Kitchen. We saw the gig of Opeth that night. They are a fantastic band. We also met a big guitar hero and idol of some of us in the band, Richie Kotzen. He played an acoustic gig the day before and we got to see that and it was really cool to watch him play and sing. It was a really nice festival all in all.