Dark Tranquility : The gates of Sweden
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Can we really call Dark tranquility a young band? Yes and no: although these young men from Gotheborg,
Sweden, were barely seventeen on average when their recorded their first demo in 91, they are now the
authors of four respected LPs, the last of which, "Projector", was a total hit, partly on the death scene
and mostly everywhere else, opening like a venenous and beautiful flower, transcending their previous
style for a new, far more melodic and ambitious direction. How could we describe their melodic death, a contradictory term in itself : joy in pain? Maybe that's what Dark Tranquility is all about: a ferocious mix of extreme savagery and a kind of quest for eternity through sounds and instruments, clear singing and hellraising riffs. We met Mikael Stanne (looking for the Eiffel tower) in the sun, a few hours before their sold out gig in Paris. Projector : camera : action ! |
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-First, where does the name "Dark tranquility", which is rather gothic, come from? -It came from an old song we did, ten years ago, called "Void of tranquility". It's like this idea of no particular meaning, like a special place, it could be death, it could be life, a totally quiet place and tranquil. We were very serious at the time, now it's something that can't take that long to think about! -What are your musical roots? -We all have different musical roots, but when we started the band at the beginning we listened to a lot of melodic speed metal, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Kreator, Sodom, German bands, Sabbath in England were a big influence to us, Maiden, Bon Jovi, we were kids ! Depeche Mode, pop stuff, all that very different, some metal, but nobody listens to metal anymore! -What do you listen to when you're at home now? -Sarah MacLachlan, Tori Amos, Jeff Buckley, Ozric Tentacles, Oingo Boingo, Morrissey, stuff like that, usually mainly vocal artists, and the prog rock like Yes, Rush, old Genesis, King Crimson, Nick Norton, which is my all time favorite band. But very rarely metal... -The covers, for the Mercyful Fate LP, for example: do you like it and do you intend to do more in the future? -I enjoyed doing it. If we had the time, we feel it's something worth doing. For the Mercyful Fate cover, it was fun, but my voice got fucked up and I don't like it at all.We did Metallica and Maiden in Japan, that was good; our next cover will be "Street spirit" by Radiohead, we are working on it. I like doing covers, and we will do more, for sure. -Did your departure from Osmose coincide with the end of your death period? -I wouldn't say that, because we recorded this album for Osmose, they paid for the recording and everything but we didn't have a contract yet. We just felt, after the recording, listening to the album, that it wasn't a record that would suit Osmose because they have a certain way of doing things and this album was far away from them. It has nothing to do with Osmose, who were great to us, that's just one personal thing we wanted to do. -Your new label, Century Media, is taking great care of their bands: is it why you chose them? -Yes, because they are very open minded, they appreciate what you do and they don't wanna change you, they can promote you very well, they are very versatile when you talk about promo, distribution, marketing, they are limitless and that's why it feels so good, doing whatever you want, without having to care about what label it is, the promo is over six lands and we are very very happy with it, so... ! -Where does your inspiration for "Projector" come from? It's very different from death metal. -All is different from death metal, we took our inspiration from anywhere. For "Projector", we wanted to do something very personal, that we all would love, very far from death metal, that's what came out. For us it was a release we all felt very strongly about. Not anything in particular, just personal... things! -Is this inspiration just a step for an album or a long time need for you? -We always wanted to do different albums each time, we didn't want to go on making the same record forever, or another "Gallery.." or another "Mind's I". So, the next album's gonna be a different thing, another different project: we leave this one and we go on to the next. Every project and album is a transition for us, because we choose where we are going. I think you'll be surprised by the next album: to change the rule, to us it's natural! -As far as the singing is concerned, is it a new orientation? -It's something I've always done, you know: I did it on "Skydancer", and live all the time. I'm always singing at home, I play the guitar and sing, I write things, do covers with friends, I love singing, and it's always great to have a new way of expression, you could do so much more...And my voice is so fucked up from my death metal singing. It's really sad, because I broke my vocal chords, I have like a knot in my throat singing vocal chorus, and I have to be very careful with it, in rehearsals or on stage, taking it easy all the time and I don't like that. I'm going somewhere else doing different things now... -You're producing yourself. Is it a deliberate choice or haven't you found the good producer yet? -We mainly produced the Lp ourself, with Fredrik Nordsröm doing some stuff and helping us record it, but we had already the majority of the songs finished when we got in studio, we don't need a producer, we just need a sound engineer. Fredrik helped us a lot to record it. But I would like to try to work with a big influential producer, who could work on your songs, develop your sound, it could be cool; I don't know if it could be good for us in the band, but it could be interesting. I sometimes like the way producers are doing their stuff, but I have no dream producer. -How did your audience and previous fans react to your new orientation? -We didn't know what to expect, once the album was finished, we loved this record but we thought hardcore fans would probably hate it because they'd think we sold out or whatever and new fans would not get into it because it's so complex: but we were so fuckin amazed when we got all thoses amazing responses from people and magazines who loved it, we were very released. Some people hated it because it's not what we are used to do, because it's new, but we don't want this kind of people as fans because we want open minded people listening to our music. We don't really care about it: a lot of people said they loved it on the tour, it's been so excellent, we are just very happy about it. -How do you see the death metal scene now? -I don't care at all about the death metal scene: we have been in this scene for ten years, and two years ago, I was still into it, checking every new band which comes along, but now it's so bad, I don't care anymore, I don't have the time or the interest to really get into the scene. Of course there are a lot of great albums out there, but it's too much to get into. I'd rather do something else, and get into it... -Do you still feel akin to the famous "Gotheborg death sound"? -I guess so, but with this album, it's a kind of a way to escape from all this so-called Gotheborg scene, but of course we are still from Gotheborg, we still play some kind of metal and naturally people still talk about us that way, but I don't really care. The members of all those bands are great friends, the death metal world is pretty big, but there's nothing to think about, nobody in the band does, we just play, and there's not a scene, there are just musicians playing in bands and having a drink together. That's what we do. This scene is what people talk about, I can understand why. -Who is Johanna Andersson, who sings on "Undo control"? -She's the drummer's girlfriend! She was in the studio when I was singing, and I couldn't do it, with the right contrast. She said: "Would you gimme a try ?" So we did, and that worked : simple as that ! -Japan seems to be very important for you : is it THE country to conquer when you're a band? -We never thought about it cause it's so far away ! We never kind of realized how big we were there, and during the year we were appearing in readers' polls and were voted best vocalist of the year and I said: "Wow !" We only knew the scene seems to be good but we really didn't care about it, so far away. But now we were there and loved to go: everything was excellent and I really want to go back now! It was one of the highlights of my life to be there: it was so beautiful, people were great, we had a five stars hotel and luxury restaurants; if they knew what poor bastards we were living in some place in Sweden, they never would have treated us like that! It was a beautiful and excellent time for everything. We didn't record extra track for the Japanese version this time, but the packaging is really really cool. They want to have something special each time, the coversleeve or the inside cover, so they can export it, maybe... -You were guitarist in the band at first, now you're the singer. How did this happen? -I was a very shitty guitar player, and I'd always wanted to sing, and when our previous singer left the band, I said: "I wanna sing" and I quit the guitar, 'cause I'm not a good guitarist. I love to sing and that wasn't a problem for me at all. -Did you obtain a better stability with this line up? -Absolutely: everybody is so focused on the band and so very excited about writing and touring and everything and I feel so much better now: we could do anything, and now we have a permanent keyboard player, who has all sorts of programs. No song had keyboards when we wrote it, and we added keyboards for playing live. The situation is excellent, we are all great friends! -Internet: you've got a very nice site. Is it for you a new action field? Would you sell a record this way, or do special concerts? Do you chat with fans? -I love the Internet, I surf everyday, when I'm home. I wouldn't sell records this way, but it's very good because we have a close contact with the fans, they can directly ask things and you directly answer. It's an excellent form of communication : in January, we released some songs, including covers, and we got 12 000 downloads in a couple of weeks as an immediate response, which is a very good thing. -You recorded your first demo in 91 when you were only 17. How do you feel about your career, from there to now? -I judge it by the way it was recorded. I think that our first demo is an excellent documentation about what we did at the time, I'm not embarrassed or anything by our old stuff, by the way it is and if we did it now, we would do it in a totally different way; it's a document of at least ten years of being together, and every song we've made at that time was the best we could do, and each year we've been better of course. Some things could have been done differently but, hey, we can't go back in time and change it, so, why bother? ! -What is the future for Dark Tranquility? -Finish this tour in two weeks and go home, kiss my girlfriend; we rehearse a lot, getting very excited by getting home and finishing the new songs; probably something in America, Mexico, and afterwards we go back and enter the studio, in April, that's what we're gonna do, and I'm very happy with it ! INTERVIEW BY JEAN PAUL COILLARD & MISTER "Dark tranquilitiX", 12/10/99 in Paris. D.T WEB SITE : www.darktranquility.com Mail : info@darktranquility.com "Projector" is a Nuclear Blast release. Thanks to Jean Marc Tristani. |
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