SOILWORK : BJORN AGAIN !

-You have a new album out, ‘Stabbing the drama’ : what’s behind this title ?

-Bjorn : With this title, we pretty much wanted to declare that we want to stab the musical drama out there, ‘cause everything is so over dramatized, with genres and stuff like that, up, hypes, genres, like ‘it used to be Gothenburg sound and now it’s new wave of American heavy metal’ and all that, and we really want to show people that we stand alone, and have something else to say than just being in this genre and bring on attitude.

-What are for you the main differences with ‘Figure number five’ ?

-Bjorn : As far as inspiration is concerned, we’ve been touring a lot the last two years, so I guess we’ve been very inspired by playing live and what actually works out live and I guess we also realized that you don’t have to make everything so technical ; you can make good songs, less technical and still have that punch and intensity in it. This new album is, I would say, very live oriented, the guitars are very up front and sounds very acoustic in a way as well. It’s catchy, but not as polished as it used to be, it used to be more polished with the keyboards up front, guitars very atmospheric, so that’s what we wanted to do with this album : a production a little bit different, but you still can hear it’s Soilwork, as we always developed our sound for each album and we don’t like to repeat ourselves.

-The vocals have maturated since the last record...

-Bjorn : Yes, I think I have developed a lot as a singer, and thanks to the touring again, as the vocal chords are getting used to the way of singing, switching from screaming vocals to clean vocals, and I have a lot more confidence, I wrote a lot lately like the last three years I would say. With this album, I really wanted people to be able to hear my actual voice and not put too many harmonies : you can hear the shape of my voice and everything, it is very up front as well, not too many effects. And so I would say it’s more catchy in a way as well to just have one single melody line instead of tons of harmonies and overdubs.

-Again, you worked with Daniel Bergstrand for the production : is he the best producer for Soilwork ?

-Bjorn : He’s probably the best producer for Soilwork in Sweden right now, and we wanted to take him to different studios, where we don’t get like the Daniel typical sound, I mean we like it but we wanted to try something else, and so it was pretty much a challenge for everybody involved like producers and the band as well, because they’ve never been in those studios and didn’t know the equipment very much, and they had a very good equipment there, but I think together we produced a very cool sound.

-I’ve seen that Orjan Ornkloo, from Misery Love Company, co produced the album

-Bjorn : Yes, for the last five years or so, he has been Daniel’s assistant, and he’s very good with keyboards and arrangements, and Sven was doing like other stuff and Orjan had some good ideas, I think it’s because he comes from a very industrial background, and that’s cool.

-Would you consider producing an album yourselves one day ?

-Bjorn : Yes probably, but not in three different studios : if we produce ourselves, it's gonna be like a unit, everybody would be there in the same studio and not spread out. We will see in the future !

-So what about Dirk Verbeuren (French drummer, from Scarve) : did you find another drummer ?

-Bjorn : Well, we want him in the band, but he still has his band, Scarve, and he doesn’t want to leave it, and sooner or later, the tour is gonna collide, and he would really like to be in Soilwork as well, so he’s gonna do the first tour for this album, US tour, and then we’ll have to see, try and find a solution for it. There’s nobody who can play the drums on the album like he did.

-We can find two extra songs, one for the digipack special edition (‘Wherever thorns may grow’) and another one, special for Japan ( ‘Killed by ignition’) : Can you tell us more about it ?

-Bjorn : We didn’t choose the songs before entering the studio, we just recorded everything and those songs were, we felt, more like bonus track oriented songs, so we decided those songs could be there. But they're still great songs, I would say !

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-Is there a strong theme in ‘Stabbing the drama’, some subjects specific to some songs, or rather a more general inspiration ?

-Bjorn : I would say that, in general, it’s stabbing the musical drama and, personally, like stabbing the mental drama, I went through some tough years and there’s a lot of things that I want to leave behind, and for me that’s also a declaration that my own personal mental drama is stabbed as well. So there’s a strong statement.

-Something very different : I suppose you’ve heard that Dimebag from Pantera has been killed recently : what is your reaction ? Do people have to be afraid to go on stage now, if anyone disliking your new record or your band or your haircut can kill you for that ?

-Bjorn : It’s really scary in a way but we shouldn’t walk around being scared all the time, it’s not very healthy I would say. Of course I’m a bit worried about touring in the States, but I guess the security will be better, so I guess there’s no need to worry : people like that exist everywhere, not only in the States ! But they have those gun laws in the States and that's just affecting the whole thing as well. It is stupid anyway : if you admire a person so much and he said that Dimebag stole his lyrics as well, somehow, they listen to the music in a wrong way, they don’t get the real message.

-As we’re an Internet site, what do you think of this media ?

-Bjorn : I would say it’s very useful today, as a lot of kids nowadays just hang in front of their computer all day, watching sites and whatever, and there’s a lot of information you can get on the Internet, and a lot of bullshit as well but, if you find the right places and the more serious sites, there’s a lot of information you can get.

Sometimes, you can get it first on the Internet and not from magazines.

-And if you were a kid, starting to be interested in music, what would you rather choose: Net or magazines ?

-Bjorn : I’m watching a lot more Web sites than reading magazines, but we need a combination. And I think there's a cool part in buying a magazine and sit down to read and not being focused in front of a computer, it’s more relaxed to sit and read a magazine.

-Will you have a new video for this album, and do you intend to put out a DVD with live and video stuff ?

-Bjorn : We have recorded a video for this album, the title track, and it probably will be released one month before, as a single, but only in Scandinavia actually ! We’re planning to release a DVD next year, which will be pretty much our tenth anniversary for the band, and probably we’ll have a real cool concert from somewhere on the upcoming tours, and also a lot of backstage material that we have collected through the years : we have tons of it !

-If Soilwork were a movie ?

Bjorn : I would say a mix of ‘Scarface’, ‘The doors’ and ‘Eyes wide shut’ !

-Next, touring in France ?

-Bjorn : Not for a while, it’s scheduled for November. But we’ll do a lot of festivals before, so...

Interview made on January18th 2005 by Jean Paul Coillard.

Trad : JP et Marie.

Photo : DR et JP.

Thanks to Valérie Reux for her kindness.

Soilwork official site : www.soilwork.com.

Stabbing the drama’ is available on Nuclear Blast from February 28th.