Björn 'Speed' Strid (Soilwork)
September 2007
The most significant change since the previous album is Peter's departure in 2005. Were there any signs of him leaving?
In a way yes because on the last tour I could see a change in him. I mean he used to be kind of the band leader and made the most important decision and suddenly I could sense a change in that as he was more like pushing away stuff like "You guys make the decisions and that's fine." I could see that something was wrong going on with him, so when he broke the news I was not very surprised. Of course I was very sad to see him go and everybody else too of course. We started the band together and to see him go was hard but we thought that we had so much more to give, so we just had to turn it into something good, something positive despite of the situation. We knew that we were able to write songs. We've always been contributing with songs on the Soilwork albums and I don't think we should underestimate ourselves either. We've been very positive about it and I'm really proud of the band that we've pulled everything together to make such a great album.
Didn't you even try to convince Peter to go on?
Well, we tried, of course, but he's the kind of guy who never makes any drastic decisions, so I knew that this is what he wanted to do. I've asked him a couple of months later "How do you feel now? Do you see yourself coming back?" He said "No, I think I really made the right decision. It's something I had to do."
What is he up to these days?
He's trying to become a producer and a songwriter. He's living in Nashville right now. We talk on the phone every now and then and we usually talk for very long. He's still a very very good friend of mine.
Do you see him ever back playing again?
Well, it's hard to say because he doesn't like the touring side of the whole business. I can't really see that happening now. I see him more as a songwriter or a producer.
How did you hook up with Daniel?
Well, I've met him before because he's playing in Dimension Zero as well, where also Jesper from In Flames is playing. I've met him in Gothenburg before and we were taking and partying a little bit and he seemed like a really cool guy. Then I didn't meet him for quite some time and I think it was Ola who met him and just asked him if he was interested in trying out for Soilwork. We've made a lot of auditions with different guitarists but Daniel just had that something we were looking for.
How many people have you tried out?
We've probably tried out 10 guitarists and we've toured with three of them. It was a hard decision to make because they are all great players and good people but as I said Daniel had that extra that kind of reconnected the band and brought some fresh new blood into the band.
How did the tours work out with the stand in players?
They all worked out fine. They are all great players. We did one UK tour together with Andreas Holma who used to play with Hypocrisy. We also tried another guitarist, named David Andersson, he never really played with any established band but he was with us on a US tour. And then we tried Daniel on the European tour and some festivals.
Is Daniel still in Dimension Zero?
Yes, but that doesn't take much time. They don't tour very often. If they do it's mostly like weekend shows or festivals. I don't think that's gonna be a problem.
What were the main criteria as far as the new guitarist?
We wanted somebody with a really warm heart that could really come in and reconnect the band because sometimes you tend to take each other for granted and walk around... because you are living so close together you become like a family. He came in and he brought back a really cool vibe into the band. We've never really been fighting or anything like that but sometimes it takes someone else from the outside to come in and reconnect the band especially in those hard times. We were a little bit nervous starting writing songs without Peter but we really pulled it together. And Daniel was also with us to write some songs.
I think that was kind of important with the departure of Peter...
Well, we actually said that the guitarist that is going to replace Peter doesn't have to be a very productive songwriter because we knew that we can do ourselves. But Daniel really has the knowledge and the sense for melody and he didn't really have to adjust to the Soilwork sound, it came out really natural, so we ended up writing song together.
So, how did the first ever songwriting process without Peter go?
Really good, I must say. In the beginning we had to digest the whole situation and then the inspiration really started to flow because we were able to turn it around making something positive out of it and see it as a challenge. I think we ended up writing about 30 songs and we never done that before. Then we picked out the best songs pretty much. It was very interesting and a big challenge and I picked up the guitar again and have contributed with a couple of songs that I wrote from scratch starting with the guitar and then do the lyrics and then the vocals. And it is kind of new to me to do like that. And those songs ended up really cool. The whole band have been involved pretty much also in the songwriting. This is new to us that the whole band was really involved.
Did you only record those songs that are on the final product?
Actually, we've recorded drums for 19 songs but we decided only to record the rest for a total of 13. There are 11 songs on the regular album and we also recorded 2 bonus tracks. They are both Soilwork songs and not cover tunes. As usual Japan always get an exclusive bonus track and there's also gonna be a bonus track on the limited edition worldwide.
How long have you been in the studio this time?
Well, we've never been this long in the studio before. We've been there for five months.
Wow!
Yes, that was quite some time in the studio. (Laughs) We recorded everything but the vocals in our hometown Helsingborg in Darkane's Not Quite Studio. Klas and Peter from Darkane helped a lot to produce the album. We had the chance to go home after the day's work and rest our ears and we got a bigger prospective of the whole recording, which was good in a way. It just took a longer time because when you have the possibility to go home of course you do. But normally when you are in the studio you book it for a certain amount of time to record and mix the album and that time is really stressed out and there's a lot of pressure to make it in time. Now we had pretty much unlimited time to finish the album.
And how about Devin Townsend? Are you considering working with him in the future again?
Absolutely. I also said this to the guys since I went to Vancouver to record my vocals for this new album it was absolutely amazing. He really knows how to push me and I feel so relaxed and I can really concentrate on singing my heart out when I record the vocals with Devin. And it was really cool to be at his place and not flying him over because he's the kind of guy that feel lot more comfortable working at home. So I said to the guys that I'll definitely continue recording my vocals with him in the future.
Have you heard his new album?
The Ziltoid? It's really fucking funny. It's really cool. I was actually there when he recorded the video that was posted on MySpace. I was able to meet Ziltoid himself. (Laughs)
Well, let's get back to your new disc. How would you compare Sworn to a Great Divide to your previous output Stabbing the Drama?
I think there are more thrashier elements and also more twin guitar harmonies. Also the vocals are more powerful than ever before and they sound a lot more confident. I guess you could compare it a little bit to Natural Born Chaos in a way. It has that kind of groove and the thrashy elements that we had back then because we really liked the whole vibe over that album. We didn't try to make Natural Born Chaos 2 but we just captured that feeling and the vibe we had on that album.
Was Stabbing the Drama your biggest success to date?
Yes, it was. Every album has been selling a little bit better than the one before, so we've gone the long road and I think we built up a really loyal fanbase, which is good too.
Is there any story behind the album's title Sworn to a Great Divide?
Yeah, and as usually you can see it in different ways. It kinda refer to how Soilwork has always been a pretty brave metal band because we've kinda been separating ourselves from most other bands in that genre and never been afraid to go outside the norms of metal every now and then. We always develop our music and we never really afraid of working with different elements. That's what I refer to when I say sworn to a great divide. Also great divide can be translated into like a big ocean. And ocean is symbolising all the influences we had. Like and ocean of influences. We came from different musical backgrounds as well.
Do you have any lyrical concept going through the album or you tell separate stories?
It's not really like a concept album but in general I would say the lyrics are more personal this time. I1m looking more inside myself instead of being an observer that I've been on most of the other albums. I guess I just had to sum up all the years that I've spent with Soilwork. I was 18 when we started the band and now I'm 29, so it's been going so fast and I just had to stop and kinda go through how I develop as a person because there's been a lot of things happening in latest years in my private life as well. It was quite interesting to try to go through that and see how I feel nowadays and how I react different to things.
Do you think lyrics make more sense for a metal band with clean singing than when you are growling when it's very hard to understand anyway?
No, not really. In some cases there are a lot of bands that you can't hear one word when they are screaming. (Laughs) I have worked a lot to articulate the words even when I'm screaming because I really want people to hear what I'm saying. And I think you can hear on the new album that even that you can't hear every single word but it's getting closer and closer to be as easy to hear the words as with the clean singing.
Do you have a favourite tune on the new album?
There are a couple of ones but one song stands out for me. That is Exile. The lyrics on that song would be like the first love lyric I ever wrote. I always wanted to write a really good love lyric and that's really hard to write that because it's really easy to turn into a pathetic thing. You don't want to end up like Enrique Iglesias with a bullshit love lyrics. And today on mainstream radio mostly you can hear love lyrics that are pure bullshit. They are so predictable like "I'll be there for you, blahblahblah." I really wanted to capture something that I really experienced myself. I mean we've all been dumped by girlfriends and you know the feeling when you really love someone that much and you can feel that they start to distance themselves from you. You try to repress it but you know that she would break the news pretty soon. And when she does that whole darkness that comes in, rolling in and just taking over your whole body and you feel that you've been redirected from the face of the earth in two seconds. I don't think you can compare that feeling to anything else. It's so definite.
This one became the first single off the album. Is it because of the radio potential?
Of course it has very big potential because it's very catchy and still have that dark feeling over it as far as the powerful opening riff. There's a really nice rhythm to it. I guess it's just suitable for a single.
Are you planning on releasing more singles?
We released the single and it's not gonna be that many copies. It's also because hopefully we're gonna get a lot of airplay with the video we recorded for Exile. As far as I know there's gonna be at least two more videos and probably singles as well off the album.
Did you record a performance video?
It's pretty much like a performance video but there's also little bit of a story behind it. It's a pretty crazy story. It's about the band being inside speakers and amps. We're stuck inside of speakers and amps and we're playing inside of them and there's this girl walking the dog and she finds all those speakers and amps in the bushes. She's getting really curious of what it is, getting addicted to it and she wants to present it to the world. She's dragging around those amps all over the place to expose them to the world and we're fighting against her inside and keep on playing, so she's really struggling and we're struggling back. That's the whole concept, I know it's pretty weird. (Laughs)
Where do you get the most airplay as far as radio and music TV?
Hard to say. I mean there's a big market in the States of course and the UK is getting really big. And Germany is also very good for us.
Many of the Finnish metal bands are successful on home soil. How about in Sweden?
Yeah, it's getting better because there's a new generation is growing up with kids who are really into metal. There's a lot of kids listening to metal and there's a lot of bands starting as well these days. I can hear it when I go down to the rehearsal place. There's like 150 bands rehearsing there and you hear so many kids are playing metal. It's unbelievable. Back in the day there were only bands in Sweden but no fans but now it's both I would say.
This is the first time there wasn't regular promo CDs printed of a Soilwork album. Nuclear Blast does the promotion campaign through the Internet...
Well, it was the record labels decision but I mean in the past all our albums ended up on the Internet three months before the release and that's not a lot of fun. So to prevent that Nuclear Blast has done it in a new way. It sucks that it had to be done that way but I guess we have no choice. i mean imagine yourself, you're working so hard on an album for such a long time and then it just ends up on the Internet three months before the release. You want the whole package to be presented to the fans. You want people to see the cover and hear the music for the first time. It doesn't make any sense if only the music leaks out. I don't know how to prevent things like this to happen. It's hard to say. We live in a world where everything is getting too easy, everything is for free and it's not a good development because people don't realise this. They think, "Well, they're rock stars anyway, they have so much money, so it doesn't matter if I steal their music." But what people don't realise is that it's kind of affect them as well because it's gonna be impossible to finance tours and even if there's a tour ticket prices are gonna be insane. So, it's gonna affect everybody in the end and this is what people have to realise.
Speaking of touring... you're going out on the road with a huge package. What do you think about it?
I think it's a really good package. Chimaira jumped off so now Dark Tranquillity replaced them. We toured with Dark Tranquillity before and they are really cool guys. It's gonna be a pretty long tour lasting for five weeks. Tickets sales are looking pretty good, so everything's gonna be great.
How about Caliban and Sonic Syndicate?
Well, I'm not a huge fan but I'm really looking forward to seeing them. I never judge bands until I see them live. Both of them are definitely talented and have something, it's just my personal taste. We'll see when I'll be able to see them live every day for five weeks, so maybe they will catch my attention and get me into it.
Are you gonna headline the entire tour?
We headline almost all the dates except for Germany. It's gonna be Caliban headlining in Germany. So, we're gonna headline in Hungary where we've already been a few times. You alway have really good food, really nice looking women (laughs) and good crowd.
You're gonna play on a boat this time...
Now way! Are we???
Yes, on a boat on river Danube.
(Laughs) That's awesome. I didn't know that. Really cool.
For closing, can you tell me about the current status of your three side projects?
Disarmonia Mundi and Coldseed... I decided to move on, so I'm not gonna do those projects anymore. I'll do Terror 2000 when I have the time or feel like it. I'm mostly focusing on Soilwork now.