How
and when did you start falling into your 'evil' identity? How do you think
the whole generalization came about?
The kind of hardrock I prefer is usually wrapped in a fictional skin.
And as in most good stories and fairytales, there is often a presence
of the two opposites of good and evil in some kind of conflicting scenario.
Since I have an author's freedom of choice, I tend to choose the
darker side to fantasize about. Something evil has to be present to get
a story as exciting as possible. Just take a famous work like "The
Lord of the Rings" as an example. That old book would never have
had as many followers, and would never have been adapted for the screen,
if Tolkien had edited out Mordor and the Dark Lord Sauron. Religions had
never become so powerful, if it wasn't for the horrible evil that
would strike you if you didn't follow the word of the Almighty Good
One.
So
is religion then then playing a part in how you think and in the things
you write?
I enjoy religion in the sense of its entertaining stories, but I find
the whole phenomenon more harmful than good. I consider myself an atheist
and 10 years ago I finally signed the papers to leave the religion I was
born into. Most religions are violent under the surface, and seldom preach
understanding for other people's way of thinking. This is somewhat
confusing in a religious point of view because as I read the Bible, and
especially the Old Testament, it seems like the "good guys"
actually are the most bloodthirsty of them all. A religion is told by
its preacher to be the right path to follow. Are the preachers evil, confused
or lying? Should we only read the "nice" parts in the Holy
Scriptures? Isn't the complete works intended to be guidelines to
the believers? The "real world" isn't a bit less confusing.
The more you think about it you soon realize that there are few truly
honest individuals out there that want you nothing but good. Too many
people put on their best suiting mask for a given situation so that they
can gain as much personal winning as possible, regardless what others
might suffer from the consequences. I see evil masquerades almost anywhere
I look. When I occasionally come across one of the unique decent human
beings out there I am very happy if we get to be friends. I really can't
say when I fell into the evil identity but I know I wasn't born
into it. For more than half of my life I had the problem of believing
the best of my surrounding world, only to be disappointed time and again.
It wasn't easy for me to understand that I needed to expect less
to be able to co-exist with others in a functional way. I still prefer
to spend a lot of time by myself. Not only for spiritual maintenance but
also because that's the best way to be creative and write more music.
Do
you ever think that one day the evil might "run out", and that
you will want to take a different direction with the band's concept and
songwriting?
It seems to be an endless source to dig from. I don't know about
the song writing. I never really tried to follow one certain direction.
I guess success would have come quicker if I did, but I would probably
have faded away into boredom by doing so. I've always been experimenting
with music and trying out new things. But I think most fans have recognized
themselves in the songs anyway, because they still support what we do
and the troop seem to grow with every new release. I'm very thankful
for this and it must mean that we do something right.
So,
when you were younger, before you knew that you were going to grow up
to be the rockstar Henrik Flyman, what kinds of things were you interested
in doing with your life? Did you get much schooling in any one particular
area, or any degrees in anything?
I've always been interested in music. My parents told me that as
soon as I barely could stand up I was holding myself to a table next to
their stereo and tried to follow the beat in some favourite song. I was
fascinated with the sound from my mum's nylon stringed guitar before
I could reach around it. I was 9 years old when I did my first real attempt
to play an instrument. The choice fell on the flute. And when I as a drummer
started my first band at the age of 14 there was no longer any doubts.
Later on, at the age of 16, I got even more hooked when it became clear
that I was somewhat talented as a songwriter. From there on I had little
room for anything else but music. Before I became the complete music nerd
I had some hobbies. Most of them were as transient as a sundown, but some
of the less casual ones included collecting cactuses (I had a couple of
hundreds), chess, swimming and spending a lot of time in the woods (which
I still try to do whenever a chance is given). I did the compulsory Swedish
school attendance as expected and after that I completed an upper secondary
economics course for 3 years. A waste of time, but at least I learnt it
was a waste. Most of the business skills I practice today are self-taught
and a whole lot more useful than what any school did provide.
Any
other hobbies (transient or otherwise) that you're still keeping up with
these days?
The
answer is sadly and simply a short 'no'. I have always been
very focused at what I do. It was the same as a child. I always found
it necessary to go over the top with what I thought was most important
at the time. Today music has made me go far over all tops - leaving no
room for anything else. Thank you for un-intentionally pointing this out
for me. I really must do something about it.
So,
what moves you besides music?
Talented artists and beauty move me.
Someone once said to me that the main reason any
guy wants to learn how to play an instrument is because he thinks it will
get him more girls. Is that true? Did that rationale play any part in
your decision to start to play guitar? What DID motivate you to pick up
a guitar for the first time?
I know that's a common motivation for many musicians that never
get anywhere. But I think that if you're dead serious about being
a good instrumentalist, it will also prevent many chances of meeting the
opposite sex because you need to stay focused and practice to achieve
your goal. Practicing means spending a lot of time alone. Luckily enough
for me I wasn't particularly interesting in follow my classmates
to the discotheques, where the music only was an excuse for the guys to
be allowed to squeeze on the girls and vice versa. I spent that time rehearsing
instead. I was the drummer in my first band and the reason to why I switched
to guitar was simply because I always ended up showing our guitarist how
to play. He made a much better drummer than guitarist so everyone was
happy. So I guess I picked up the guitar by a coincidence. A couple of
years later I started writing my own music. Nowadays I only practice when
I have written something I can't play. And that happens quite often.
I
have heard very vague accounts that some of the older Evil Masquerade
material might be based on nightmares you had when you were younger. Can
you shed some light on this uncertainty? Is there any truth to the stories?
It is true that I suffered from a long period of nightmares. Sometimes
I woke up screaming in my sleep. My mind was very disharmonious as a result
of different negative personal- and artistic related experiences. I needed
time to sort my thoughts and did that locked inside my studio concentrating
on writing music and meditation. Everything else came in second hand or
was ignored.
What
about some of the characters in your songs? For example, Bozo The Clown,
the Children Of The Light, Harlequin, the Demolition Army...Where do they
come from?
I use those figures as fictional shells on the real world. The shells
are a result of my imagination, but the figure's alter egos are
sometimes too real. I have my personal ideas about who might be wearing
the made up costumes in the masquerade. I think I would spoil the listeners'
fun of making up own stories and personifications to go with the characters
if I gave away my personal idea about who they might be. I think different
people will find different faces hiding behind the masks. But to give
a hint, I'd say that Bozo could be one of many twisted world leaders
of today. The children of the light can be about the wisdom of doubting
what's supposed to be pure and good. The harlequin might be someone
hiding away from reality. The demolition army is a somewhat humorous told
story about revengeful thinking.
When
you're listening to your own finished albums, what kinds of things are
you thinking? Does your own music move you as it does to your fans? Do
you feel like you're listening to something that was especially created
for you and by you, or do you end up catching all the imperfections and
getting aggravated by them?
The music always moves me when I write it. But when it finally has travelled
the long way to the inside of a compact disc, it's not always that
I'm as pleased with it as I first was. There are a number of reasons
to this. The # 1 reason is often that I have heard a particular song too
many times when it finally is digitalized and released. But such song
usually gets better after releasing yet another album. I bow to the mighty
power of forgetfulness. I rarely listen to the latest release. When an
album becomes the second most up to date in the discography, I'm
often much more positive to it again. I guess I need that break from the
songs. An exception is our upcoming "Third Act" that I still
listen to, even though I don't have to anymore. It will be a tough
one to beat on its follow up. But I'm of the stubborn kind, so I'm
sure it can be done! When I look at my back-catalogue, I'm pleased
to say that I like most of what I been involved in. Occasionally when
I hear old works there are some things that annoy me, but most old imperfections
have their charms. If I had the chance to re-mix, re-master and re-release
the old stuff I would most likely not do it. It was something created
then and there and should remain its original costume to preserve the
magic of time. But that's just my personal opinion. I'm sure
some record label, sooner or later, will come up with such an idea and
I guess we must take it from there. Some people are never satisfied with
what they have created. Most commonly because they think they could have
done this or that in a better way when the finished product rests in their
hand. If they really were able to do that in the first place, why didn't
they? I think it would be strange and ignorant not to pick up more knowledge
along the way. But if such education must lead to disappointment because
one's wisdom wasn't as great yesterday as it is today and,
as a prolongation of that, the best thing would therefore be to re-do
everything that was done prior to today's glorious enlightenment,
we would most likely be better off not learning anything ever again. I
always do the best I can in a given situation. I have therefore no problem
in allowing myself to be glad for any newly gained knowledge that can
be used on the next coming release. In the end, it's all about a
feeling manufactured by a creator's private philosophy of life.
The end result will remain the same. But there's a huge difference
between being happy for what you do, and being in a constant state of
disappointment. I've seen both kinds of attitude and made my choice.
You
once wrote something very interesting to me. You said "When I have
composed the music and the vocal lines - the rest more or less comes by
itself. It's like the text was already written just waiting for the music
to approach it". Can you tell me more about that?
I know it might sound strange but it's true. I really don't
know how to explain this in an understandable way. I put a lot of effort
in the compositions and when I have written and arranged a complete song,
or just a separate part, so that the only remaining bit of the puzzle
is the words to be sung it doesn't take long time to get the words
on paper. Sometimes I don't even write the words down because I
already know them and therefore record it right away. Many times it's
first when all vocals is recorded I get a piece of paper and a pen to
write it all down. But I try to approach new songs in different ways to
avoid falling into a pattern. So who knows? Next album might be created
in a whole new way and none of this will be true. Only by pushing oneself
harder every time will improve on the final result. Of course it gets
more difficult to be satisfied but at the same time the reward comes in
form of the finished album. So in the end it'll always be worth
it. The big question is how long time it will require to achieve satisfaction.
If things stay as they are right now, I see no problem in releasing an
album next year as well. I just cross my fingers.
All
the Evil Masquerade album titles and covers have theatre motifs--are you
a fan of the theater? Please tell a little bit about that!
The theatre is the perfect place to experiment with crazy ideas. Anything
goes and only the imagination is the limit. I like to be working under
those conditions. I believe a band needs some kind of image to stand out
from the crowd, and we thought this was the natural approach for this
band. In the short-term search for success it's seldom an advantage
to stand out from present trends. But Evil Masquerade is not here as yet
another casual metal act. I'd be surprised if this orchestra wasn't
around also 10 years from now. Therefore it would only be stupid of us
to follow the flow and modern trends. We do what we want; we do it well
and will do it even better in the future. It's much more interesting
being a leader instead of a follower. A theatrical surrounding allows
us to fly free.
Also, what's with the little goblin on all the
Evil Masquerade covers? Who is he? Who invented him? Does he have a name?
You must be speaking of Crimson. Katja Handberg invented him when we needed
someone prettier than us to represent the band. He will continue to follow
us also in the future. I find this very nice of him since that will make
our albums easy to recognize.
What
happened to ZooL? What happened to Martin? Is there any chance of ever
hearing him on any Evil Masquerade releases?
Martin and I are still good friends and who knows what the future will
bring. Right now Evil Masquerade's vocalist is Apollo and I see
no reason in changing that. Apollo has a great voice, he's professional
and I like his company. I've always searched for everlasting band
members and I hope we can keep this line up. Let's hope Mrs. Bad
Circumstance leaves us be. About my old band; we had a short time of success
with ZooL, but when it got clear that important persons in the current
line up had problems with their artistic priorities at the same time as
it became clear that our business partners were extremely unprofessional,
I lost all interest and decided to move on.
Why
are Moahni Moahna albums so difficult to find? Were there not many printed?
Or were they not released in many places?
I'm actually happy to hear that they finally are difficult to find.
We got totally ripped off by a couple of criminal record labels and never
saw one cent in royalties. That was a harsh learning experience and one
of many things that together ended up killing the band. Nothing was ever
said about ending the orchestra, but all joy was gone and we had no economy
to continue releasing more music. We also had severe communication problems,
which made it even less attractive to make another attempt to carry on.
A bit of a shame because we did some cool stuff when the sun was shining.
Okay,
let's talk about the new lineup. How did you end up considering Apollo
Papathanasio as a vocalist, and how did you ultimately get him to join
the band?
When it got clear that we needed a replacement behind the microphone,
I thought about some of the good vocalists I'm fortunate to know.
But none of them was a perfect match at the time. It was mostly because
of daily life schedules with no room for artistic space and other practical
boring stuff. It was when I spoke to my old friend Richard Andersson I
learnt that Apollo was out of Time Requiem. Richard thought he might be
up for the task. I had only met Apollo 2-3 times before in connections
to gigs with Richard. Anyway, I phoned him up and discussed the idea and
then it was clear. This was an interesting development of Evil Masquerade.
Now we had the opportunity to use vocals in a more demanding fashion because
of Apollo's power and wide range. It's always difficult to
change the singer in a band and it really must add something to the sound
to be accepted by the fans. With Apollo this was not a problem. He's
an important component in the great sound of the upcoming album "Third
Act".
Do
you think that having Apollo on vocals will help to draw new fans to Evil
Masquerade, for example the fans of Time Requiem and, to a lesser extent,
Vitalij Kuprij for example?
That would only be natural. I think many of Apollo's old fans already
knows about Evil Masquerade, but we will probably see some new faces because
of his entrance in the line up. And I'm sure that Apollo's
old fans will be very happy for his participation, because he delivers
one of the best performances in his career.
How
is it different creating with the band with Apollo than with Henrik Brockmann?
Is he excited to be involved, or is he just pretty content to sing his
lines?
As I said, there's a huge difference in power and range. I think
he wants to be more involved than he has had a chance to be, since everything
were more or less ready in detail when he joined. Now we have a different
situation and I'm excited to see what development we will see.
The
new samples from the album sound a little different production-wise than
on the previous releases, although the songwriting and overall sound are
the same Evil Masquerade that we all love. Who was involved in the production
on "Third Act" and what kind of sound was the band ultimately
shooting for?
I'm still producing the albums and Tommy Hansen did the mix, just
like he did on our previous release. I think the main reason to the new
and improved sound is that we know more about how to achieve the desired
result, plus that we know each other better now. The sound we were after
is pretty much what you will hear on the album. I'd say it's
a very modern and powerful old school production that doesn't sound
like thousands of other bands. We needed something that could support
the broad spectra of songs on the album to maintain a good flow. I don't
think we could have done that much better then we did.
How
was it working with Tommy Hansen? How was the dynamic in the production
studio?
Tommy is very professional and relaxed at the same time. He's very
much the kind of person I enjoy working with. Just like last time we had
an easy going atmosphere in the studio and everything went as smooth as
one could ask for. In the end it all comes down to being well prepared
and having a clear goal. You will most likely see us working together
again.
Can
you tell a little bit about the ideas for the upcoming video shoot for
"Black Ravens Cry"? How involved is the band in the planning
and making of the video? Will the band star in the video?
My idea about this video is not to interfere with the planning more than
absolutely necessary. The reason is that I don't know much about
moving pictures, and therefore couldn't be happier to allow other
better knowing to do what they think is best. In the creational phase
of the music I have very well defined ideas about the finished result
and am therefore all over everything all the time, so it will be a nice
change to be the guy that just does what he's told. We have a really
cool and talented film crew planning and doing this and I have a good
feeling about everything. They have captured the Evil Masquerade spirit.
How it will turn out? Time will certainly show, and hopefully some cool
TV stations. The band will be in the video. That's at least one
thing I know.
Any
plans or potential offers for releasing "Third Act" on the left
side of the Atlantic Ocean?
It seems to be hard to get a decent metal label on that side of the pond.
For a starter it doesn't seem to be many to chose from, and secondly
it seems like the few small ones aren't very professional. Of course
we're interested in finding a good partner in every corner of the
world, but not at any cost. It's however strange that it's
equally hard to find a good label in North America as it is in Africa.
I know we have many US fans so it's pretty strange that no label
wants to sell them our albums instead of letting European and Asian labels
steal their profit through export. But what do I know? I'm just
a stupid metal guitarist.
|
