Interview

No.

Why not, didn’t you like it there?

*hesitating slightly* yeah, but... there was... some... personal problems with people in the band, and when Ronny the drummer quitted, I decided to quit too. I felt that the cheMIstry in the band was disappeared when Ronny disappeared. So I decided to quit, cause if I don’t feel that I’m like 100 per cent behind it then I don’t wanna do it. So I...but they’re still going, with a new line-up [neues Line-up], a totally Finnish line-up. They’re on a tour right now.

Yeah, I saw them last Sunday.

Yeah?

Roope from Waltari?

Roope, yeah?

He is playing in the band, isn’t he?

And I think they have a Swedisch session guitarist.

To replace you?

No, to replace Roope. Alexi is still in the band, but because of this [??] he can’t do this tour, so they have a session guitarist, but after the tour, Alexi will always be with them.

So you are much happier with things as they are now?

Yeah!! Being in In Flames, being on tour, ... yeah!

Did you like the tour so far?

Oh yeah!! It’s been great. Over our expectations.

Really? Why?

*surprised* why?

Yeah.

Oh, first of all because of the turn-ups, it’s been really good, a lot of people come to the shows.

How many, average?

In Germany it’s been average of 700.

Oh, that’s really good, pretty much!

But, it’s been up and down, Holland is always... Holland, I don’t like to play there.

Because of that *making unambiguous sign of smoking pot*

*Laughing*

Ay, because... well, of course, I always love to play, but you can... it’s like... for us to come to Germany is to come home!

*laugh and do not quite believe*

*seriously* it’s the best, and Holland is really hard to get going the crowd. They are really like lay back and stand like this *makes refusing gesture*

WHY do you think that is? *unambiguous sign again*

*laughing*

I guess, it has something to do with this! ... I need the energy from the audience for myself to get energy, too, to... to give it back. Cause I... it’s kinda hard to stand and show off, with much of the people standing like this *leans back and looks kind of disgusted* So... but people show up, there’s been like lots of people in that tour, and some... so it’s good going and I’m really looking forward to the rest of it, cause we’ll come back and then we’ll play in Italy again and then in Spain, for the first time, in Finland and Norway, ...

How are the fans in Finland and Sweden and Norway?

How? I just heard they are GREAT, but we’ve never been there.

Oh. But you played at home, in Sweden?

Yeah, Sweden is getting much, much better! (Whatever he means by that, red.)

When you play in Finland, is this the same tour then?

Yeah.

You won’t be headliner anymore, will you? (In Flames are headliner on the tour in Germany, red.)

No, it will be Children of Bodom, of course *pronouncing it Booudom* But the rest, we’ll be headlining, and COB and Dark Tranquility switch. Here in Germany, DT play second, and when we come to Holland and Italy, COB play second.

How do you get along with the other bands?

Really good!

Really good?

*enthusiastically* Yeaaahhhh! It’s no problem at all, so... that’s another thing that makes this tour so nice, because we’re really good friends, since before, with DT, we are from the same town and also we are friends with the guys of Arch Enemy, because they’ve been in [??]very long to record their albums and of course Alexi and I are good friends, so it’s great.

You played at the Wacken Open Air this year?

Yeah!

How did you like that? How do you like Open Airs in general?

Yeah, I like it! The gig was excellent, the gig was really fine. The gig was the only thing that was good at this festival - for us.

Why?

Ah, because the - I don’t know if you were backstage or anything?

No...

No, because, I don’t know what... what it was, but the crew, the whole organisation was so BAD, they treated us like... shit, so we were really- I lost the... I- one point was that the Fuck this, we’re going home, because, it was a lot of small things. It was not one single guy on the whole organisation that was NICE. Really, I don’t know where they find those guys, because they ruled it.

I guess, their problem is, they were like to have as many bands as possible, not as good bands as possible.

No, but I mean, I’m no... I’m not demanding anything extra, you know, I don’t think I’m a Rockstar or anything, but I just demand to be like... how do you say... treated with respect, right, but: they didn’t! The crew *pronouncing this word obviously quite disgusted* was the stars, so that first of all they treated the crew better than, I mean *general laughter* they got all the better food, they got the showers, we didn’t even get the showers!

*appalled* You didn’t get any showers?!

I got, I wanted one shower, and then I got the worst bashing I ever had from a guy, he was like shouting in German and pushing me away, cause that was "crews only, crews only!!" And that happened all the time!

That’s hard! We heard that there were some problems with the security?

Yeah, I almost got in a fight with a security guy, just a few Minutes before we went on stage, so we were kind of pissed of when we played, but I think it was a great gig and we had luck with the wheather, cause a few hours later it started to rain I heard...

Yes, but you were in broad daylight, the sun was shining

It was great, yeah!

What do you think about the sound and everything, I mean, that’s a big problem on the Open-Airs that there are hundreds of bands, but noone really gets a decent sound, do they?

No it’s-

Go on stage, plug in the guitar and PLAY!

Yeah, for the band it‘s really hard, cause we need our monitors to be really good, but I’m used to it, I mean as long as I’m here the drums and some of my guitars, it’s okay. And I know that the sound quality is, I mean, it’s impossible to get a good sound, because, I mean, there’s no way... nowhere for the sound to go, I mean, it just flies away, you know, you need to have walls for the accoustic, you know. So, but, I’m used to it, it’s no problem to me. Well, it’s hard... it’s better to play in ähh... *hesitates as MI takes a picture*

Just keep on talking...

It’s a better sound often in the tents than on the big stage.

Yeah true! And if it rains, you’re better off!

Yeah, true!

Are you content with the success of your new album?

Oh, it’s fine.

Does the selling go well?

I guess so. I don’t really know how much has been sold, but I know that it’s good. It entered the official charts, so I guess that the selling is going really good.

And do you think that is because you play better than before or do you think it’s basically because the whole Heavy Metal/ Death Metal music genre is getting more and more popular?

Well, both, I guess. Impossible to measure. I just know that "Colony" (the latest release of In Flames, red.) is a great album and I guess that’s why people buy it, because... I don’t know. And also we did a lot of touring and all festivals, so that makes people get their eyes open for us.

So it’s basically just recording an album, touring to promote it and recording another album. What about videos, for example?

Yeah, we have one video, for Colony.

What’s it about?

Ordinary story. But what I heard, it’s still on the desk of our label, BUT I got a mail from a Dutch guy that saw it.

What does the video show, then?

It’s about - I mean, we don’t have this big budget, so we can’t do - so the concept of the video is... a big party that we had in my house.

You filmed it in your house?

Yeah, in my apartment. I have a really big apartment, so we told all our friends "come on Thursday night, we will shoot a video, dress up, we buy..." we had liqueur and beer, so they just partied and we stood and played in front of everything, then we MIxed that with some clips of the singer and ... it’s no big deal. Well, it turned out good, it looks for once really professional

Cool!... You said, you have a rather big apartment, so can you live off the music?

Yeah! No problem!

This helps to pay the rent and everything? No dayjobs anymore?

No way!

*laughing*

No but, we’re lucky, we have a really good deal with the label (Century Media, red.) We are one of the few bands. We sorted everything out. And also I have Hammerfall. I write songs with that band, that makes pretty good income, so luckily I don’t have to worry about that. I can concentrate on this, I can do this full time.

So do you concentrate on the music only or do you have some other things that fascinate you, too?

Yeah, I don’t do that much, I have my dog and my girlfriend (MInd the order! red.) I spend a lot of time with them and have long walks with my dog, fishing, cause I live at the sea. That’s a bad thing, we all love to go fishing, we do that on the day time, fishing and bowling... No, we love that! That is what the days look like, it’s wake up, go fishing, go bowling... and also we have to rehearse a lot, cause obviously we have to make a new album and we have this tour. We try to rehearse every day.

Do you write new stuff on the tour?

Ah, we try, but... we always say that we will, but we play so much, and when you’re off stage you don’t want to play.

Well, during soundcheck or something?

Yeah, sometimes we rehearse then, but often the soundcheck time is said to be one hour, but everything is always delayed, so we have soundcheck for twenty Minutes, so usually we don’t have the time to rehearse.

So what else do you do on tour, when you arrive in some new city you haven’t been before, are you just killing time or...

One of the worst things on tour is that it can be really boring. Today is cool, cause we have this area here with the pool tables and can play pinballs and stuff (there are some gambling dens outside the hall, red.) But sometimes you end up on the MIddle of the world, so you can’t do anything, just sit waiting and waiting and...

So you don’t see much of Germany then or of the other countries?

No. Sometimes when we play in big cities, then I always try to go out and look at the city, when it’s a big deal like Berlin or Hamburg. Yeah, I try maybe to find an internet café, write some mails and buy some clothes and stuff like that.

So you use the computers, internet, e-mail a lot?

Yeah. I’m obsessed.

*laughing* Cool, so are we!

Yeah, I spend like three, four hours a day, I play a lot games...

Do you like role playing?

No, I play Quake!

You may be chatting a lot?

Yeah! I have ICQ, but I’m not on... what is it called, IRC. Sometimes when I’m bored, I go there.

Would you give us your ICQ number?

I WOULD, if I had it!

*someone brings postcards and stamps*

That’s a good idea, we have stamped postcards, so you don’t have to go out and look for it, you know.

So you write home? To your girlfriend... to your dog... parents... everything?

Yeah, to keep them updated, cause we’re out a long time.

You don’t miss home when you’re on tour?

Of course! It’s always like that. When you’re home you wanna go on tour, and when you’re on tour you wanna go home. But my girlfriend will come in two days and go with us on the bus, so that’s okay. And of course I MIss my dog!

What kind of dog is it?

It’s a Golden Retriever, his name is Gibson. I mean, I spend like 24 hours a day with him, I don’t go anywhere without him and then, suddenly, you have to be without him for five or six weeks. That’s kind of hard. It’s like a member of the family, like your baby, you know. That’s hard, but you mustn’t think about that, then you’d go crazy. You have to say: well, here I am, there’s nothing else to do about it and just make the best of the situation.

Alright, now, to finish this up, what about plans for the future, for In Flames?

Well, finish this tour, then home one week, go to the States for three weeks with Moonspell, as support, and then Mexico, Canada and Columbia I think. Then back home, then we will TRY to go into the studio in January, but there’s only the songs MIssing.

In January, so you don’t have much time to write them!

No. That’s it, I mean, it’s not the first thing you want to do when you come home, rehearse. We’ll take like two weeks off and then we’ll try to concentrate on the writing of the new songs. Cause it usually goes really fast, when we are writing it takes like a few weeks and we have an album ready.

*suddenly discovering Jespers [??] T-Shirt* Why do you wear the T-Shirt?

We played with them as support.

As support? Not exactly the same style of music!

No, I’m not, just because I play this music, listening to it all the time. It’s maybe the least thing I listen to, actually.

So what do you listen to?

...Everything! Especially when I’m on tour I listen to non-Metal music.

Would be too much Metal then?

Yeah, the whole day... I have a lot of jazz with me and like house music and stuff like that. Something that’s definitely NOT Metal.

But you cannot be without music, even on tour?

Hm...NO!

Alright, okay, thank you very much!

No problem! (arw)