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RoR - Could you go over some of the history of the members of Darkane? I know that you have played in many different bands, have the other members? How did Darkane come about.PW - Christofer (guitar), Jörgen (bass) and I played for almost seven years together in a band called Agretator. That band also included guitarist/oralist Pierre Richter. Agretator started out as a "usual" death metal band and developed into a progressive metal band influenced by the likes of Meshuggah, Death, Cynic etc... We released two CDs which didn't get any proper distribution. The last three track demo were recorded in October 1997 and never got released because the band split up in January 1998. The reason why the band split up was that Christofer and I felt that we couldn't develop anymore. All the time we tried to become more technical and progressive and finally felt that we were trapped in a corner. We decided to split the band and start a new band which would be more straightforward, intense metal with a progressive touch.
Jörgen began to play in a band called Rehab that Klas (guitar) already played with. Rehab plays metal in the vein of Machine Head. After a while Christofer and I asked if Jörgen wanted to join Darkane and so he did. Shortly after that Klas also joined forces.In February 1998 we did two tracks (Convicted and July 1999) for the WAR Compilation CD "WAR Dance". On that recording we used Björn Strid on vocals. We engineered and recorded the two tracks ourselves.
After that Wez from WAR Music wanted to sign us and so we did. Christofer and I started to write music and lyrics for the debut album. All the song were written in five months.We didn't meet our present vocalist Lawrence, until we entered the studio in August 1998. We only heard a few tapes that he sang on and decided to ask him to do the vocals on the CD. He is just a great vocalist and are able to sing in a lot of different styles. We never rehearsed the songs with vocals before we entered the studio!
Lawrence plays in two other bands called Forcefeed and F.K.U. (Freddy Kruger's Underwear). Forcefeed is a "alternative" band like Korn, Coal Chamber etc... but with more metal. F.K.U. plays music in the vein of S.O.D. and M.O.D.
RoR - Did you know Chris Amott before Armageddon? Was he the person that contacted you about Arch Enemy?
PW - I didn't know Chris before the Armageddon thing. It was Mike Amott that contacted me about Armageddon. He had heard from another guy that I was playing drums and so he called me up. He told me that his brother were going to do a record on WAR Music and wondered if I wanted to do the drums. This was only three or four weeks before the recording. Of course I took the opportunity. A few weeks later Mike asked me if I wanted to tour with Arch Enemy. First we should tour in Germany and The Netherlands, then we should go to Japan!!! No problem deciding what to do.
RoR - One more Arch Enemy question... Your playing has a very distinctive style, and you were credited with co-writing all of the material (except Beast of Man). The overall feel of the album was completely different, was this result of different rhythms, a change in songwriting, or a combination of those two factors? Was it known beforehand that Daniel Erlandson would return to Arch Enemy after the Eucharist album?
PW - Cool that you think that I have a distinctive style. It's always good if you are able to actually hear what people are playing what instrument, without having to read in the booklet.
Actually I didn't co-write the songs, I co-arranged them. All riffs are written by Mike, Johan and Chris. I only was involved in what riffs should be played where and how they should sound. Beast of Man was done after I had left the band.
The reason why the album (Stigmata) is different to the first (Black Earth) is that Mike was totally into bands like Savatage, Vicious Rumors, Nevermore etc when he wrote the riffs. After we got home from Japan, where they just love guitar solos, Mike wanted to do a record that would fit the Japanese market. That is also a reason why Stigmata sounds as it does. He also told me to play more groovy and heavy with a progressive touch, like using double ride cymbal stuff for example.
It wasn't decided that Daniel would return to the band after he had completed the Eucharist album. Chris just phoned me one day and told me that Daniel would join the band again. It was kind of boring in the beginning, but everything just turned out for the better. I was able to concentrate on Darkane full time.
RoR - As of now, only knowing the two Darkane songs from the WAR dance compilation, the style seems to be more aggressive than the standard "melodic" Swedish Sound, with a slight bend towards satanism in the lyrics. Did the new vocalist change this sound? If so, how?
PW - The full length CD "Rusted Angel" (release Japan: December 1998, release U.S. and Europe: February/March 1999) contains ten songs, including one intro with choirs and one instrumental piece with guitars only. The songs are fast and intense with a few melodic choruses. I guess you could best describe the music a mix of bands like At the Gates, The Haunted, Strapping Young Lad and Death, I really don't know. The production is very raw and aggressive with a big stereo sound on some parts like Strapping Young Lad.
Actually we are not a Black Death Metal band. Sometimes the lyrics are very dark, but I wouldn't say satanistic. I just love horror movies like Hellraiser and get a lot of inspirations for lyrics from them. The same goes for Christofer.The new vocalist Lawrence contributed with a different vocal style than Björn on the Wardance compilation. He did a lot of harmony vocals with twin vocings on some parts. The overall feel of the vocals is very thrashy. All of us are great fans of thrash bands like Dark Angel, Testament, Exodus, Destruction, Slayer etc. I just love how the vocals turned out, Lawrence is really a very talented vocalist with great ideas. Daniel Bergstrand (the producer), Lawrence, Christofer and I really experemented with different ideas for the vocals.
RoR - Now that WAR records is being distributed by Relapse in the United States, is it possible that the WAR bands will be able to tour over here? If you could, would you tour over here? Would it be worth the emotional and financial investment for the band?
PW - There are already some lose discussions about WAR bands going to tour the United States. If we got the opportunity to tour in the U.S. we would go there. In fact that is one of our main goals. It would definietly be worth the emotional and financial investment.
RoR - You mentioned that you work in a music store, many people seem to think that most bands can support themselves solely by playing and selling records, what's an average day for you or the band?
PW - All of us are working or studying daytime. I would say that an average day for me would be that I begin work at 12:00 and leave at 18:00. After and before that I concentrate on music or do things with my girlfriend. Music takes up a large piece of time in the lives of all of the Darkane members. I also do drum clinics/workshops for a living. Before I got the full time job in the music store I was teaching drums.
I guess that only a few metal musicians can support themseves solely on music. RoR - What inspires you in your playing? More specifically, what influences you and the band in creating music? (Books, movies, life,etc...) PW - Things that inspire my drumming is of course other drummers. I try to listen to as many different music styles as possible like metal, jazz, fusion, world music, funk etc. It is very important to be open minded about music, that way you can incorporate different music styles in your playing.Some of my favourite metal drummers are Sean Reinert (Cynic, Death), Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad), Rick Colaluca (Watchtower) and Tomas Haake (Meshuggah). All these guys have their own style and incorporate different musical styles in their playing. Some non-metal drummers that inspire me a lot are Trilok Gurtu, Dave Weckl, Oliver Gene Lake, Morgan Ågren, Dennis Chambers, Terry Bozzio, David Garibaldi, Vinnie Colaiuta, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Gary Husband, Chad Wackerman, I could go on forever, but these guys just passed through my brain.
When we write music for Darkane we are inspired by different bands, not only metal bands. Some musical ideas just pop up in our heads without any specific reason. A lot of riffs and ideas are created when we practice individually. Lyrics are mostly inspired by movies as I said before.
RoR - How do you feel about "side-project" bands, where basically bands seem so limited in what they are allowed to produce that they release songs which may have a "different" sound as another band. Do you feel that it dilutes or enhances the music scene?
PW - Armageddon was a kind of "side-project" band. We had totally free hands to do what we wanted and I think it turned out quite good. We had no specific pressures to do something since it was the first CD and a project. A lot of the drum stuff were improvised during the recording for example.
Personally I think that it's cool with different projects. Sometimes you are able to hear different musicians from different bands playing together in the same band. Mostly I think that it enhances the music scene.
RoR - How is the music scene where you are now? I live on an island which makes it difficult for outside bands to play. I never realized how important seeing live music was for my playing until I moved here.
PW - In Helsingborg, Sweden where I live there are about ten metal bands, who I know of. Two different places have metal bands playing live every now and then. Most of the bands are unknown swedish bands, but a week ago Meshuggah and Entombed played live here. I think Sweden overall has a lot of talented good bands but very few places that have live metal music.
I also think it's very important and funny to see live music. It's one thing to hear music on CD but a totally different experience to see it live. The cool thing is that you can actually see what the musicians are playing and of course there are a lot more energy live too.
RoR - How do you see the internet affecting the music world in the next ten years?
PW - I think it will affect the music industry a lot. There are already many bands distributing their music over the internet. The importance of record labels and distributors will probably cease. It can also be a threat against the ones who write music and lyrics since it will be more difficult to control the rights for the owners of the music.
Hopefully it will help bands to spread their music. It is also good that you can find information, live dates, sound files etc... from your favourite bands.
RoR - How was working with Daniel Bergstrand, and the whole recording process in general? Is he pretty open to input? One cool thing about July 1999 is the delayed snare hit at the beginning of the track. Who comes up with those ideas? It really turns something which could have been ordinary into an interesting twist...
PW - It was just great to work with Daniel. He is very open minded and talented. Everything he does is under total control. Just to check the drumsound took one and a half days. For me it was very interesting since he loves to work with the drums a lot.
Daniel is always very calm even if he works under a lot of stress. In the end we only had one day to do the final mix and he just did a hell of a job. Personally I was able to ask a lot of questions about the recordings of Strapping Young Lad and Meshuggah. For example how Gene Hoglan worked in the studio.He is just like me and the other guys very much into experimenting with sounds and other stuff. This time we didn't have time to experiment with a lot of things in the music but we tried many different stuff on the vocals. I would say that the vocals are one of the things that I'm most satisfied with. I hope that we will have more time experimenting in the studio next time.
The delayed snare in the beginning of July 1999 was actually an idea that Christofer came up with when we wrote the song. We wrote all the songs with a drum machine, guitar and a four track portable tape recorder. He said that it would be cool to have a delayed snare and I just programmed it that way. The other special effects and cool things comes from all of us. We also used a real string section on the title track Rusted Angel and a real choir on the intro and the outro of the CD. Those two things were just two ideas Christofer and I had had for a long time. This was the right time and a good opportunity to make these dreams come true.
RoR - What plans do Darkane have for July 1999? What direction do you see the band taking?
PW - First of all we will be somewhere on the Northern Hemisphere of the earth since the Southern Hemisphere will be destroyed in July 1999. Perhaps, or should I say hopefully, we will be touring Australia.
If we are really lucky, people will like the CD and buy it, which would make it possible for us to tour a bit. At the moment it's very hard to predict the future since the CD hasn't been released yet.
Musically I think that Darkane will continue to play fast and intense metal, perhaps even more thrashy, I don't really know. It would also be cool to work more on the production next time. Perhaps a bit more towards Strapping Young Lad.
RoR - Any words of wisdom for those about to rock? Or for maybe someone who wanted to travel through Sweden on a backpacking tour?
PW - Just stay metal!!!
If you have plans to travel through Sweden, bring a lot of warm clothes. Most of the year it's not to warm here but it's very beautiful.
Thanx a lot!!!Darkane - Rusted Angel, 1999 WAR Records
Christofer Malmström - guitar
Peter Wildoer - drums
Jörgen Löfberg - bass
Klas Ideberg - guitar
Lawrence Mackrory - vocalsDarkane's Official Home Page can be found at: http://home.swipnet.se/darkane
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