Transcript of an interview I recorded with FREDRIK LARSSON of HAMMERFALL - 20200901. Full article here. MAL-
Talking to Fredrik from HAMMERFALL, Fredrik. Thanks for taking my call. FREDRIK- Thank you for calling. MAL- Good to be talking to you. Now, I was just thinking about this before the phone call, but my, I guess you could say, introduction to HAMMERFALL was 'Last Man Standing' and that's 13 years ago. Now, where's the time gone? FREDRIK- Wow, 13 years. Yes. I have no idea where the time's gone. That was actually my first video coming back to HAMMERFALL. I mean it was a long time ago 'Last Man Standing' is probably one of the biggest songs for HAMMERFALL, that really made a big impact and strangely enough, it's on what you call it an album compilation. MAL- How has your time been with the band since then? 13 years, it's gone quick. FREDRIK- Yeah, it's gone quick. It's been really great. I mean, it's just like I never left actually it felt really good from the beginning then we had some ups and downs. We took 2013 off I think and from then it's been only going up but I would say. We have a really good time. Everybody has matured and we had a great time together now, that's really nice. MAL- That's the important thing. Tell us about 'We Make Sweden Rock'. Tell us how that came about. FREDRIK- At first it felt like we have a festival in Sweden and Metal magazine that's called Sweden Rock. So it felt like oh, I hope people don't think it's an advertisement for the festival and the newspaper because this is actually an anthem for all the Swedish metal and rock bands before us that we been growing up with and impressed by, so but it turned out that it really worked especially with the video and all the song quotes. So people get it that it's not a Sweden Rock Festival song. MAL- Yeah, it's pretty obvious when you see the film clip what it's about. Tell us about on the last album getting Noora from BATTLE BEAST in. How did that come about and how do you think that went. FREDRIK- We have this song which is a collaboration with James Michael SIXX AM producer and singer and we did that song as a duet and when we going to do that tour with BATTLE BEAST we thought that Noora is a great singer. Why not use this tour and make it a duet with her and that turned out to be such a great song with her on that we just had to do a video which wasn't planned at all so that it turned out really good and and to have Noora on stage every night on that tour was really great. She's such a great person and singing every night. It's a really emotional song. So yeah, it was fantastic MAL- Okay. So we've got a live album coming out in October now that was recorded earlier on this year. Am I correct? Yes. Now was there a plan to have a live album coming out anyway, or did, as in the case of some other bands, covid sort of dictate that 'we've got this live recording. Let's put it out'. How is the plan for it? FREDRIK- It was actually planned to to be recorded and released even before this court because we did this, I mean we finished our tour just when the covid has started to break out so we had no idea about it, and everything was planned for, we had a great set up with sound and videos. So we thought that it's been eight years since we released the last live album. So we have a lot of new material and this is the biggest stage set that we've been out on tour with so we really like to present HAMMERFALL like it is presented today for the people who can't show up and see us. MAL- Yep. I've only seen one live video. It is a very big impressive setup, isn't it? FREDRIK- Yeah first day on tour when we came down to rehearse before for the shows, I guess that no one really did know how big the stage set was. So we actually needed to hire a lot more stagehands and stuff for the whole tour. It was enormous. It was really huge. It was really great fun. It was like when I was young and sAW Iron Maiden coming with their stage sets. It was really really great to be on that stage for once. MAL- Now, it's a it's a big package too, I mean, there's 20 songs. So that's a big effort. FREDRIK- Yeah. I mean We did want to make a proper headline tour, with a lot of time and then it became a lot of songs all of a sudden it's getting harder and harder to fill up, I mean, we have so many songs today that it's hard to get a proper set list, but it feels like we picked the songs from every album and some songs that we haven't played live before or very rare occasions. So yeah, there's some some special songs on that album. I think it's gonna be a good ride for the audience. MAL- Just getting back to the picking a setlist thing that you hinted at there. Looking at it the other way. What is one track that you think you'll always have to play? FREDRIK- 'House On Fire' is the song that we just have to play. We can't do a live show without playing that I would be a really big mistake, I guess. We have a couple of songs that people always demands that we play but we're okay, we're not there to just to please them. We want to pick our own songs as well. But some songs will be in there for sure. That's how it is. MAL- Now. Everybody's plans have been thrown into disarray, of course with this whole covid thing. None moreso in your industry than the bands that these days rely on touring to generate a living. (Yeah) Much more than in the old days. So how has it been going? Do we see light at the end of the tunnel and how bright is it? FREDRIK- Hmm right now it's kind of far away and it's not that bright, I guess. I mean we were really lucky to be able to do a full European tour right before this started. (Yeah), so that was a really good thing for us. But I mean we lost at least a year of touring and income. I don't know if in a half a year, maybe we can start to see something in Sweden. They just opened up for shows for 500 people. It's not a lot but it's something. I'm not sure. I don't think we can do anything like that, but I mean we're starting to get there and it depends on how well the rest of the world can open up before we can see any touring at all. I guess it will take some time for sure. MAL- Hmm. It's a bad situation isn't it? FREDRIK- Yeah absolutely. MAL- But you are lucky like you said that you were finished a full tour just before it hit, so that's good. FREDRIK- It's strange times. Live music is something we all live for. I mean, I don't mind recording in studio and release albums. That's that's fine. That's a really great way of living but being on stage is something that I absolutely love and I really miss it. I can't wait until we can get out on the road again. MAL- Anything else you wanted to talk about with the with the new album? FREDRIK- Pontus did a fantastic job bringing out the audio for the record. It sounds absolutely fantastic in my opinion. It's a really live album. If you listen carefully, you will hear this little I mean, there's mistakes and wrong things here and there but it's the full amount of atmosphere and power that it brings with that it's not fixed in the studio afterwards. Of course, we did some some finishing up that was obviously wrong, but most of it it's it's live performance. Nowadays when you listen to a live album, you could easily just turn on the record and it sounds pretty much the same. It's kind of boring in my opinion. If it's live. It's live you go to a live show to experience something else than listening to the record. MAL- I couldn't agree more. I don't mind hearing the odd mistake in a live recording because it's live, you know that it's live, you know that it's not fixed or auto-tuned or anything like that. I absolutely agree with you there so well done for having the will to do that. FREDRIK- Yeah. I mean it's hard to jump around on stage and and hit every note equally perfect in time and and pitch so that's not what the audience is there for, at least not when they listen to to HAMMERFALL and this kind of music the it's a difference if you would get it and see an orchestra or something. But in my opinion this is live and it should sound like..., it's like in the early days on the 70s and 80s you hear that they are really playing live. So that's what I really love. MAL- So that's coming out October 23. That's the new HAMMERFALL live album 'Live Against The World', looking forward to it. FREDRIK- Really like to see the the audience reaction to this one. Well, it's been quite some time since we were visitors to Australia. We only been there once but I really hope we get back maybe not in the near future but within, I don't know, two years maybe. It would be great to be back. We had a good time last time, so it was good shows as I recall it. So hope to see you pretty soon. MAL- Okay, Fredrik from HAMMERFALL. Thanks so much for taking my call. Best of luck with the new album 'Live Against The World' out on Napalm on 23rd of October. Thanks for talking to me. FREDRIK- Thank you very much for calling. Comments are closed.
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