ARCH ENEMY

-MA : There’s a lot of stuff that’s been solved, that’s been taken care of, and this album, ‘Anthems for rebellion’, came out simultaneously all around the world, which is really a better situation for everybody !

I’ve read than it could be the last album for them ?

-MA : Our current contract doesn’t include any more records, but who knows about the future ? We're currently looking. No decision has been made so far.

-I guess that the long touring for ‘Wages of sin’, and then after ’Anthems for rebellion‘ gave you a greater cohesion as a band ?

-MA : We toured quite a lot, since we’ve lost Matt we’ve been constantly touring or in the studio, recording, so it has been a very busy time for us, but it has been great, it really brought the band together, and I think that if you want to be a good band, you have to keep on playing all the time ; like you said, we’re really together as a live act, I think. It’s lot more powerful now, not only tighter, but it just creates a power within the band, and when we know how to do this, we can do it really well, it’s a good feeling.

-In fact, you’re touring a lot for this album too : is it a need for you to play live and throughout the world ? Is it where a metal band finds its true life more than on a record ?

-MA : I think touring is definitely a big part of it, the kind of music we play is more on the extreme side of things and it’s hard to reach a lot of people through the TV and stuff, we don’t really have those channels to go through, really, we’re outside the mainstream so the only way we can reach an audience is by playing live, playing shows. But also that’s why we’ve done a lot of support shows, like Iron Maiden in the USA, Canada and Japan, Slayer in America, so we did those long tours which have been long and kind of difficult in a way because it was not our audience, with very varied reactions and a lot of hard work, but I think it’s a good way for a band like us to reach new fans. Then, we do our own shows, our own tours and we’re getting bigger and bigger and I think it’s a traditional way of working, instead of having a big hit on TV, suddenly everybody likes this, and the next year, nobody remembers. I think it’s a traditional way for rock and metal music to build up, step by step

-So what are for you the main differences between the two records and the way you worked on them ?

-MA : I like both of them very much. This one, ‘Anthems for rebellion’, is maybe a bit harder, more direct, but we just came off the road : we finished touring on Friday and we started recording on Monday, and between recording and mixing, we were still doing live dates for ‘Wages of sin’, so I think it’s very much a product of being on the road so much, maybe songs like ‘we’ll arise’, like ‘Dead eyes see no future’ ; we’re thinking live, if you know what I mean, thinking about the live show, not just thinking about creating an album atmosphere, but thinking why is this gonna kick ass live, are we gonna put it on a live show, so it’s a bit different !

-How was it to work with your producer : Andy Sneap ?

MA : Very good, indeed : it was a very different approach, he almost became like a member of the band, even if that sounds cliché, every band says that about their producer, but we did actually work very closely with him, we trust and respect his opinions on things. He helped us a lot. Also, everybody in Arch Enemy is a pretty good musician, with a high level of musicianship, so sometimes we can get a bit lazy, we can make stuff sound really good, and all is fine, but he was there, saying : ‘No, do it again, and again’, and it definitely makes us work hard. He’s actually here tonight, recording live shows.

-Will you work with him for the next record ?

MA : We don’t really know yet, we would like to, we definitely were working great, we definitely enjoyed the experience. He’s got a great studio, in the countryside in England, very calm, just cows and fields, but somehow, we have managed to find the right aggression !

-Tonight, you’re sharing the bill with Zyklon : what do you think of them ?

MA : They were recommended to us, Angela likes them a lot, so she recommended them for the bill and we asked our management to contact them. I like it. It’s black metal mixed with death metal, a bit of a hybrid, it’s interesting. It’s very extreme. We have another band called Stompin ground, opening the show, they are more from the hardcore scene mixing with metal, so we have a good section of genres mixing in metal. It’s more fun. Only a few people want to see four bands touring together and sounding exactly the same, but for us, we want to have different flavors.

-You website site is very nice : is it today the essential platform between a band and his audience ?

MA : Yes, and we try to update it as much as possible, like when we’re on the road we leave messages from the tour.

It’s very important actually, and when I started to play in a band, or as a young kid, even when I was in Carcass, from England, then we didn’t have any website, it didn’t exist. I think everything is plus and minus : more rumours now than before, and much easier to create rumors, but also easier to get a lot of information and direct communication with bands. Yesterday, we had letters, piles and piles, but now, nearly no letters at all, only E-mails and discussion forum. It’s very changed, but I’m not afraid of changes ! It’s a natural development and you really have to grab it with both hands, or you’ll be left behind !

-What about Spiritual beggars ? A new record on the way ?

MA : I was running both Spiritual and Arch Enemy at the same level for a few years, and suddenly ‘Wages of sin’ has really broken up, touring all the time, on the road and very busy with that, so it’s much more difficult to keep up doing two bands. But it’s something I’m still doing, and I have some songs written, but it’s just that I have no time to record them. I could do it, but, when you realize an album, it’s a big deal : recording is Ok, but then you have to do the promotion, the record label wants you to be available for this and that, and suddenly you have no time at all. I’m waiting for the right moment, the right timing. We realized an album in 2001/2002 and we did a tour last year. I really enjoyed doing it, but I have a daughter and family at home as well, and I still have to have a life, sometimes ! But I will try. I really like to play that kind of music as well as a contrast to Arch Enemy, a bit more loose, a different approach to guitar playing, but I think the new material I’m writing is even more different, and in the future, the contrast will be even bigger !

-And making the two bands tour together, like Pete Tagtgren or Devin Townshend do ?

MA : I couldn’t run the two bands at the same time, it’s a hard work for me, it’s very much like changing head, I get into a frame of mind where I’m very into one thing, and it’s very difficult to do that the same day, the same evening. Arch Enemy is very aggressive and melodic too, you get really pumped up from that, and it’s a very different atmosphere from Spiritual Beggars.

-What are the Carcass LP you’re the most proud of and why ?

MA : The famous one, I guess, ‘Hard works’, this one is my personal favorite. I’ve never made really perfect albums, we’ve always messed Ok, from my point of view, if you know what I mean, but that one was very close to perfect, for the time and if you think about capturing that scene then at the time and the people and the band, so it’s a good document of that band, I think.

-And your next projects for Arch Enemy : did you start to write new songs ?

MA : We have some songs, but much more instrumental parts, riffs, collages of rhythms, nothing seriously written. We’ll probably take a bit of a break because the two last albums came out really close and with the touring, it nearly never stopped, we’ve been on the road for two years, so maybe we’ll take a little break and then get back together at the end of the year. After this, we’ll go to America again, fourth or fifth time on this album, and then headline to Japan, where we were last month with Iron Maiden. So maybe, after summer, we’ll be more relaxed, we’ll take some time off, not do too many festivals, just a couple. You need some energy as well, you can’t just be a nucleus but sometime you need to get separated and come back together again, then you really need to play with the others. Right now, it’s fun doing it, but we need some time off as well !

Interview made in Paris by Jean Paul Coillard