Jesper Strömblad (In Flames)
February 2008
First I'd like to ask you about the reception of your previous album, Come Clarity...
It was received very well by the media as well as by the fans. For every release we get people that think that we sold out or that we took a step in the wrong direction but also with every release we gain new fans. Overall it was a great success for us.
Do you keep track of how many units an album sells?
Not really. I would say Come Clarity sold about half a million worldwide and we're really satisfied with that. That was the best selling In Flames album so far. Every one of our albums sold more than the previous one, so now we're gonna sell even more of the new one.
Come Clarity was out on Ferret Records in the United States and now it's Koch Entertainment. What happened?
We signed a deal with Ferret just for one record and when it came to the time of negotiating a new deal we found out that we got a more interesting offer from Koch. It was a better offer both in terms of what they can do for us and also financially. They have more power in the States and we want to reach as much people as possible.
Speaking of record labels, Nuclear Blast stopped printing promo CDs at the end of last year and they only do promotion through the Internet. What do you think about it?
I think it's the right thing to do because as soon as they sent the promos out the album was leaked on the Internet. We try to avoid this because it's only for the press to hear it to make reviews and not for people to steal your music. That's why they had to do that.
You're on Nuclear Blast for almost 12 years now. How does the co-operation work?
Yeah, as you said we've been with them for 12 years and that's for a reason. That's because they are doing a really good job for the band and we just enjoy working together with them.
Since Clayman you keep this two year gap between each and every album. Is it intentional or accidental?
It's not really intentional, it's just a nice album cycle. It usually last one and one and a half year with touring and promotional work and then you have to write and record the next album. It's just accidental but I think it's quite a perfect gap between albums. You shouldn't release them too soon and you shouldn't wait for six years like some bands do.
How much of the last two years were actual song writing?
We started coming up with ideas for the new album after the summer of 2006 so we've been working on it for almost one and a half year.
Did you change anything in the formula as far as the writing process?
I don't think so. We do as we usually do but this time around I think the whole band was more involved with at least the arrangements of the songs and that's really cool.
Did you have a clear vision of how you wanted the new album to sound?
We just went into the studio and started working on things. We knew how we planned the recording with our choice of producer and the choice of studio. We just knew beforehand that it's gonna be a really heavy sounding record.
Yeah, the album is fast, heavy and melodic, probably one of my favourite In Flames albums to date...
Oh, thank you, I appreciate that. I would say this album is just a step forward for the band with some elements from our old albums. I think we did a pretty perfect mix between old school stuff and maybe the later stuff we did. Really melodic and really heavy as usual. (Laughs) It's hard to describe.
Where would you put this album musically in the In Flames discography?
I personally think it would fit with Clayman maybe with some more clean vocals and a little bit more mature songwriting. I love all of our albums but maybe Clayman is my favourite. And I think the new one is a perfect step for us.
There's a song on the album that is quite different from the others, The Chosen Pessimist...
Yeah, it just kinda happened because we wrote that song after we started recordings. And it was our intention to have some breakdown in the middle of the record. We wanted a song that is completely different and kind of mellow. We never knew it's gonna be so long but we came up with so many great ideas and we started experimenting with the clean guitar sound and Anders' voice and it turned out to be 8 minutes long. But I love that song.
What is that song about as far as the lyrics?
I'm not really sure. It's very personal stuff to Anders. I think the concept of the album lyrically is the continuation of Come Clarity. A Sense of Purpose talks about getting older and as we grew older we see things and the world a bit differently from how we saw 15 years ago when we started the band. Some of the guys in the band have kids now and they can see that maybe there's another purpose in life than just drink beer and play the guitar. We have responsibility for our children growing up in this world.
Do you think lyrics are more important when it comes with clean vocals or it doesn't matter if it's clean or death metal vocals?
I think it's equally important. You tell a story and of course you might not hear what the singer sings sometimes but you read the lyrics when you listen to the songs anyway. And I think in our case Anders is very clear however he sings, you can almost always hear what he says.
What song you like the most off the new album?
Right now my favourite song is Disconnected. It's because I think I came up with such an awesome melody in the chorus and also it's pretty hard for me to play as a guitar player. I worked on it a lot of hours in the studio to get it on tape but I did it and I think that song turned out amazing. But it's a hard question, right now all the songs are favourite because it's so new. It's like our new baby, it's hard just to pick one.
I would pick Delight and Angers...
Yeah, that also sticks out a little bit as an In Flames song. It's kind of mellow but at the same time it's really really heavy. I think that's a song that you might have to hear a couple of times. It's not like a direct hit but you want to hear it over and over again. I'm really happy with how that song turned out to because we were kind of sceptical about that song when we heard the instrumental version. But as soon as Anders put his vocals on, it has changed. It's also one of the band's favourite songs.
Did you know that Nuclear Blast was listing your song "March to the Shore" as "March to the Store" on their site in the beginning?
No, I didn't notice that. It's very funny. Maybe it was a subliminal message. (Laughs)
What do you think could be the best live song from the album?
I think The Mirror's Truth is gonna be an amazing live song. It's the first song on the album and it's also the first single we put out and it's the first song we made a video for. It was the band's choice for the single and the video.
Is it because you think it represents the album's direction and sound?
Yeah, I think so. It represents how the album sounds and it has a little bit of the elements that the band is known for. It's just a fresh heavy song that is kind of direct. You hear it once and it sticks to your head already I think.
Can we expect more singles off A Sense of Purpose?
I'm not sure about that yet. You can definitely some more videos from the band but we don't really know yet of what songs are they gonna be.
And how about the video shooting of The Mirror's Truth?
It was a really cool video shoot. First of all, we flew up to the Northern part of Sweden and we were shooting it outside of an abandoned factory. It was fun because the team was really professional. Usually it's a hard work to do a video as it takes about 14 hours just standing there with your guitar but it was pretty quick for us. It wasn't more than two hours and in the meantime we could come inside into the heat and have a cold beer. I think it turned out really cool. It's gonna be out on our MySpace page tonight.
You also released three songs on the single that are not on the album. What are those songs?
I wouldn't say that they are leftovers because we recorded 16 songs and we had to decide on four songs that couldn't make the album. We just voted which ones we wanted to have on the album and then we decided to put the rest of the songs on the single, so when the single is out you're gonna hear four brand new In Flames songs. So all the songs we have recorded will be released.
There's going to be a special edition of the album that comes out only in 1500 copies. What makes it special?
First of all, the artwork on this limited digipak is gonna be amazing. It's gonna be very special. Then it's gonna contain a DVD with documentary of the entire recording session with interviews with the band members and the producers. So it's gonna well worth to pick it up.
When will you make up your mind of what songs to play live from the new album?
I think we'll decide when we're going to the studio and start rehearsing. I think we'll pick 5 or 6 songs from the new album and one thing is for sure, we're gonna play The Mirror's Truth live. But the other ones... we're just gonna sit down and talk about it what songs we think would be the best for a live environment. It's gonna be hard because we would like to play all the songs but we can't. It's gonna be a tough discussion within the band.
You've already been part of the Ozzfest and now you're going on with the Gigantour. What are your expectations?
We're really looking forward to it. It's a big honour for us to be chosen by Dave Mustaine to support Megadeth. And also it's gonna be fun because our friends in Children of Bodom are gonna be there as well. So it's gonna be five weeks of partying and watching Megadeth every night. I think it's a good package for In Flames because Megadeth has a big following also with older generations of metal fans that might never heard about us. It's gonna be fun.
Do you know the other bands on the bill?
Job for a Cowboy and High on Fire? No, I never heard them. I just heard about them. I think I'm gonna check them out on tour. I think I've heard only one song from High on Fire and it sounded pretty cool as far as doomy kind of metal goes. It's gonna be interesting.
You have only announced a few festival dates for the summer in Europe. When can we expect a full headlining tour?
I would say around September. We're gonna make an extensive European tour after the summer festivals. It's gonna a be a really big one with full production and everything. We might bring 3 or 4 bands with us so it's gonna be like a mini festival. It's something we're really looking forward to. We haven't done that for a long time. The last proper headlining tour we did was in 2006 with Sepultura.
Speaking of the Sepultura tour, how did that turn out for the band?
I have great memories. They were such cool bunch of guys. That tour went so good for both bands. I remember of playing a lot of FIFA on the XBox with the guys of Sepultura. They are crazy about football. It would be really cool to go out again with them sometimes in the future.
You also played in Hungary on that tour...
Yeah. I think we've been there three times now and it's always great. I know that there's a big park outside the venue where we played last time. We never had the opportunity to go downtown unfortunately. Hopefully this time we'll have more time to look around. But we drove through Budapest and that's a beautiful city.
You're also involved in Dimension Zero and All Ends. Both bands released an album last year. How about the feedback they got?
When it comes to Dimension Zero, I haven't seen that much of a reviews because we decided to release the album in Japan only but the feedback over there has been great. But it's more like a fun project so we don't have any ambitions to be any big band or anything like that but people seem to like it. As for All Ends it's doing great. They have some cool festivals coming up and their single was on the charts here in Sweden. They are planning to release more videos and singles now. It's exciting to see what's gonna happen.
Dimension Zero recorded a bonus track, a studio take of a Norwegian children story by Thorbjørn Egner called "Folk og røvere i Kardemomme by" (A három rabló). How come?
I know how come but it's pretty impossible to explain it. It's kind of very inside bizarre humour, so we know it why within the band but it's hard to explain. You'd think that we are really crazy. There was this guy in Sweden that was accused to kill the Prime Minister Olof Palme 20 years ago. This guy named Christer Pettersson was an alcoholic junkie that has become quite a cult figure in Sweden. They made a lot of documentaries about him and he just died a couple of years ago. He was kind of just a funny junkie and in one of the documentaries he's really really drunk and he's singing this song. We actually sampled it in the beginning so you can hear the voice of Pettersson singing it. It's just a bizarre inside humour we do within the band. A lot of times we called him because he said a lot of funny stuff. So it's a little celebration for this very bizarre person, so to speak. It was just for fun. If you listen to it closely you can hear that it's actually the same melody as the original song.
Could you mention your top3 albums from last year?
As Daylight Dies from Killswitch Engage if that's last year (2006). The Blackening from Machine Head and Hardcore Superstar's Dreamin' in a Casket.