Katatonia

Friday June 20th (Hellfest 2008 1st day)

First interview of this festival, we start with Swedish metal band "KATATONIA". Hard to classify, progressing from old doom to a recent "softer" metal, the evolution of the band is quite unique. Still waiting for their new opus, maybe in 2009, their last release is the excellent "The great cold distance".

Fab : So, are you happy to be here at the HELLFEST 2008, and what do you think about the various bands on the bill ?
Daniel Liljekvist : I think it’s cool, it’s a lot of bands from different genres, and I like that, I like to see the mix of it. There’s a lot of bands I wanna see, especially on Sunday but I’m leaving.

Fab: It leads to my next question: Are you going to attend any show in particular?
Daniel : I’m gonna try to catch as many shows as I can tomorrow, and tonight I’m gonna see PARADISE LOST, DIMMU BORGIR, they’re playing tonight, when we’ve finished they’re gonna start playing, so I’m gonna to just run over there and watch it. (also) IN FLAMES, PORCUPINE TREE…one more…SATYRICON tomorrow. It’s gonna be the blast. I saw them like, a year ago last summer in Czesch Republic when we were playing a festival. They’re amazing, especially the last album to me, fuckin’A. Them and Darkthrone.

Fab: Concerning the cover artwork of your last album “The Great Cold Distance”, is there a special meaning behind it?
Daniel : We like to have it like, the artistic part of KATATONIA is always gonna be there, and we have the music parts, and we felt like, the music we made for this album it’s pretty fitting with what Travis made for this, the last album : the red thing, weird people and man and everything. It’s just fitting. He, somehow, always knows what we want. We emailed like, this is what we want, the music is gonna be like this and this, and we want like this, and he sends us like drafts,

Fab : (cutting) It’s very important to have some kind of link between the artwork & the music.
Daniel : Exactly, that’s what we felt. And that’s why we excluded the whole KATATONIA logo, so now it’s just a font. Because it looks much more better with the rest of the artwork. We still use, we still have that old logo, it’s still KATATONIA, but on the cd it felt better to have just a font on the logo.

Fab: Would you compare your evolution post 2003, with a change of style, as the one of METALLICA, where there is clearly a period before and after Black album?
Daniel : Of course, there’s a difference between for example, the first and the last album but the most extremes are the first albums, if you compare that to “Discouraged Ones”. That’s more extreme, but if you take from “Discouraged ones” up to now, I think that, if you have listened to all the albums in between, it’s not a big step, it’s just a bit (of an) evolution with every albums. If you listen to a song from “The Great Cold Distance”, and then you listen to a song from “Discouraged Ones” or “Tonight’s Decision”, I’m certain it will sounds KATATONIA still, it’s still have the touch. It’s just pinch of more technical stuff and more progressive stuff. We’re not trying to take it like, elephant steps for the next album. We take it bit by bit.

Fab: But at least, you are evolving. Some bands just don’t.
Daniel : I know. Still their fans like that but I wouldn’t like to play the same songs and the same style for ten or fifteen years, you know? It makes things more interesting and worthwhile just to do something else.

Fab : Concerning “My Twin”, is there a special story behind it? Musically and lyrically?
Daniel : I don’t wanna talk so much about the lyrics because Jonas wrote it but of course, there’s always a meaning. It’s a catchy song, I think the most catchy song we have on the (album), it just turned out to be catchy. But it was pretty intentional to make a catchy song, to make a video for it. Because we never made a video before, it’s the first video we ever made.

Fab: Congratulations anyway because the video is very nice… And the girl is so pretty.
Daniel : (general laughter) Yeah, that’s what I always, everyone had been, we said it as well because we came to the video set quite late, the other guys have been shooting all day with the girl and the guy there. And we came in the studio and “wouh”, “who’s that girl?” (laughter). We never met her before, never met her since.

Fab: It’s a shame (laughter).
Daniel : I know! We’re too Swedish to confront her and say like “hey! I’m Daniel, I’m playing drums, you wanna have a beer?” (general laughter). We’re very shy, you know, we’re Swedish.

Fab: yeah, and apparently, you weren’t very lucky with your football team (laughter). As France I should ad.
Daniel : No, fuck! We suck! We lost to Russia!! I mean, we won to Greece, and now we lose to Russia…(ndlr: Apparently, Daniel is very inspired) You played with…you lost to…who did you play against? Holland?

Fab : We lost to Italia also, our “enemies” (laughter).
Daniel : It was a fair game though.

Fab: Some players in France aren’t playing for their country but only for the money, if you want my opinion.
Daniel : I know. The same with thing with Zlatan (nldr: Abrahamovic who plays for Inter Milan), he plays for his Italian team, (getting very close to the mike and speaking loudly) “Do you hear that, Zlatan?” (general laughter).

Fab : Coming back to the video, whose idea it was, the storyline with the guy, the arms & hands coming out of the fridge…?
Daniel : The director surely. He had an idea, he heard the song and he had an idea and asked us “what do you think about this?”. And we said yes, it looks great. Not many people like it though (the arms coming out of the fridge), if you read our forum. It’s too much trick shooting, they think. (but) I like it. First of all, when you make a video, you gotta make a video for MTV to like it, to show it. You gotta be a whore (laughter). It’s a give and take situation with the music business now. But we have our integrity anyway.

Fab : Concerning the voice of Jonas, which is really emotional and deep, did he make special works to succeed in this improvement?
Daniel : Not particularly for the album. When he’s at home, he’s singing all the time. He’s a great singer, and it’s the same with him as (it is) for the rest of the guys, every album is a new, is a revolution. I mean, drum wise I come up with new stuff, same with the guitars, and the same with the vocals and his “sound”. It’s the same but it’s changing in a good way, always. I think he’s been more, how do you say that, comfortable with his singing now than he was before.

Fab: The song writing is still between Jonas & Anders? Can you have your input in it?
Daniel : Basically, most of the times it’s Jonas & Anders. I don’t wanna mess up anything with trying to make KATATONIA songs. I know how to play guitar somewhat, not good, but when it comes to make KATATONIA songs, they’re the best ones to do it. So I think, if there’re best ones to do it, they should do it. And (then) we add something. Everyone in the band say something and do something, but in the end Jonas & Anders are the main songwriters, which they don’t like but they are the best ones to do it, so…The main arrangements are made by them, and then we, I mean, if they make a song, put it on a demo, it will not sound the same on the album anyway.

Fab: Concerning the lyrics, do you think it is possible to write about happier subject?
Daniel : I don’t think so. I think that’s something that never gonna be changed. You can’t play dark music and sing happy poppies. The lyrics have to be hand in hand with the music. Playing dark music and singing about poppies (laughter). (it’s) Quite funny though.

Fab: ULTRA VOMIT, the French band who opened the HELLFEST today does that. Playing heavy music with completely mad & funny lyrics.
Daniel : But they do it, for fun. You know, there was a Swedish band DARK FUNERAL, they had a side-project called WINTER HOLYDAY, they made Black Metal music and were singing about skiers (laughter). It was just a joke and it was quite funny.

Fab: What is your musical personal background?
Daniel : I’ve got a drum set from my grandfather when I was ten, and I just played, in my apartment. And I went to drum school. And then I started a band when I was fourteen and ended up with these guys. So basically, just drums, pop music and heavy metal. That’s my background.

Fab : Are you more Lars Ulrich or Mike Portnoy?
Daniel : I wouldn’t say I’m any of those guys. Concerning Lars Ulrich, I’d prefer the first albums, compare to “Saint Anger”, but I mean, he’s a great drummer, Portnoy’s a great drummer but put me somewhere in between (Ulrich and Portnoy). He’s too much, he’s too good. What is, euh, I forgot his name, he was my influence, Mike Bordin from FAITH NO MORE, he an amazing drummer. And also DEFTONES’ drummer, Abe Cunningham.

Fab: Have you planned something special for your HELLFEST show?
Daniel : We have one thing we wanna do, just for this gig, but it’s a secret. “Surprise” (laughter).

Fab : A rabbit from a hat?
Daniel : (laughter), maybe not.

Fab: Do you find the time to enjoy the pleasures of France?
Daniel : On this festival, yeah, we just met up with…I’m too tired…with Les (Smith) from ANATHEMA, I haven’t see him for a while. And then I’m gonna hook up with the PORCUPINE TREE guys. We’re leaving on Sunday so I don’t get to meet OPETH… Are you gonna do an interview with OPETH?

Fab : Not sure, sometimes, we have to wait for confirmation (finally, I ended up with doing OPETH interview).
Daniel : If you do the interview, say hi for me.
(sorry Daniel, as he wasn’t sure at first, so I completely forgot to tell Mike Mendez about this…oups..I hope OPETH will see it when reading this interview)

Fab: What do you think about the great return of “Old School” bands like HELLOWEEN, TESTAMENT, ZZ TOP who are coming next month in France, etc…?
Daniel : I think it’s great because, there are old fans who haven’t seen them for years. They have to find new bands, you know, who are not, maybe not that good. The old guys are gonna see their old idols again. I’m just waiting for the LED ZEPPELIN reuniting thing.

Fab: I heard they refused 280 millions of $ to make a tour…
Daniel : Maybe they wanted 300 millions (laughter). Maybe it wasn’t the money but something else.

Fab: Do you personally enjoy touring? Some people say that it’s glamour.
Daniel : I love touring. But touring is not glamour. We haven’t seen any glamour on tour, yet, I’m still waiting (laughter). I mean private jets and stuff, that could be glamorous. But twenty guys in a bus going hundred, thousand kilometers, that’s not really glamorous. It’s just gay and sweaty (general laughter).

Fab: Yeah, with the Village People music in the background.
Daniel : Yeah maybe, sometimes it happens (laughter). We dress up in rubber suits, leather cap and just dance, all night. You should see us in the back lounge of the bus.
(apparently, that’s when Daniel snapped)

Fab : You should do a video.
Daniel : Yeah, it’s gonna be on the Dvd. “The gay side of Katatonia”. A hidden bonus, find the leather cap. I will propose that to Anders when I get backstage.

Fab: Except that, what is your best or worse memories on tour?
Daniel : We always seem to forget about the bad things on tour. I mean, the day before the tour, we’re like “Oh, we’re gonna go on tour”, and the day we go on tour, it was like “I wanna go home”. And then we say everyday “I wanna go home” until we leave. And when we go home, the next day “we wanna go on tour”…It’s been sometimes, when the bus breaks down, or some asshole from the crowd throwing bottles, etc… But we forget about that. For the best memory, I think it was some festival somewhere, for me, the highlight of Katatonia was some summer festival, somewhere…, lots of people I mean, we played Turkey, Istanbul with DEFTONES and the crowd was amazing. And we played in a castle, it was beautiful. It was good, a great memory. And the first time we played, how is it called, the german festival, the small one…euh…damn, my memories is fuckin’ off. And we made the dvd from it…(NDR Summer Breeze). It was a lot of people in the middle of the night. Sometimes it’s like “ouh, when is the last song, I wanna go off”, but sometimes we wanna play more but you can’t. And when everything sounds good on stage, when everything just synchs, that’s what I wanna do every night. But we’re not that good yet. For me it’s like, if you don’t have an expectation, you’re not gonna be disappointed. So I grew up in saying well, we’ll probably suck tonight, and if we don’t, great! And if we do “yeah, I told you” (laughter). Stay real.

Fab : A last word for the readers of BSPIX?
Daniel : Hope you’ll like the next album. If you haven’t heard a Katatonia albums yet, buy them all, buy every one, buy all the Katatonia albums now. They’re great. If you don’t wanna buy them, download them.

Fab: And what is your opinion about this internet thing?
Daniel : No one is never ever gonna stop it. I can have my opinion but it doesn’t matter anyway. If you really like the band, I mean, I’m not gonna be hypocrite, I download, but I just download, if it’s a good band, I’m just waiting for it, to buy their next album. It’s as simple as that. But I know people who are just downloading in their computers two million terabytes of music, just to have it and share it. Just imagine if I just knock on your shoulder and say “what the fuck? Can I have a piece of your salary today?” because you just stole my albums, man. But nothing’s gonna stop it.