Daniel Svensson - In Flames (15/10/2014)
In Flames drummer and undisputedly talented fellow Daniel Svensson took time mid-lunch break to briefly chat to The 59th Sound about the band’s 11th studio album, Siren Charms, and their impending Aussie tour with Trivium.
Hey Dan, how are you?
I’m good, I’m great. I’m having lunch.
Are you in your home town right now of Göteborg, Sweden?
Yeah, we’re here for a few days before we start the touring cycle.
You are of course heading out in here in November with Trivium. Are you guys mates?
Yeah, we’re really good friends. We’ve done so many tours with them all over the world, actually. European tours, American tours, we played with them at Soundwave, and we’ve been to Japan together. It’s always great to see those guys again. I think we team up pretty good. It’s a good package, so it should be fun.
Is it hard to find a band with whom you enjoy touring?
It’s pretty easy! We know most of the bands, and we’ve toured with so many of them. If you don’t know them, you get along pretty well because I think touring musicians are a little bit special. We are the same kind of people, so it’s great to see new people when you’re in a band. That’s never a problem. You think it might be, but you can choose who you want to tour with, so things don’t get too weird, music-wise.
Siren Charms is of course the new album. Is it ‘sirens’ like the murderous ones who will sailors in at sea with their hypnotic songs?
Yeah, I mean… Some of the lyrics, or most of the lyrics are about temptations in our society or in our lives today, and those temptations are the sirens. You can be addicted to drugs or alcohol, or you can be addicted to gambling, stuff like that. The lyrics are how you deal with it, or the consequences of it. The siren is the metaphor of your addiction, and what happens when it drags you down in to the hole.
There’s definitely some classic In Flames in there, but a lot of the album is a musical departure of sorts. Was that intentional?
No, no. We never sit down before a recording and talk about how it should sound. Every time we write music for the album, that is how In Flames sounds today. We don’t really have any strategies about it, or around it. We write songs we enjoy to play and it’s just how we sound today. We all develop especially as musicians along the way, and we want to challenge ourselves sometimes. (Front man) Anders wants to sing more clean vocals, and I want to try out new things on the drums. With all these things together, it makes it a little bit different from the previous album. But we want to keep our trademarks, like the melodies and everything. We’ll never leave that behind.
It seems every metal band that isn’t from Sweden goes there to record! Why did you guys decide to record in Berlin, Germany at Hansa studios?
Well with the two previous albums we recorded in Göterborg, and every night you go home to your family. I mean, there’s nothing bad with that, but we thought maybe we’d try to do this totally focused on the album with no distractions whatsoever. So we basically lived with this production for six weeks, instead of taking twelve breaks every day. That’s the major difference. We wanted to do something new, too. As a band we never want to repeat ourselves when it comes to the music. The same with live shows are recording, we want to try new stuff all the time. So we wanted to try a new studio, and this is a classic studio where a lot of really cool bands have been recording their albums, like Iggy Pop and Depeche Mode. So hey, you have some really cool history to it as well, which adds a little bit to it, of course.
Does it give you some kind of energy when people you love have played there and recorded at Hansa as well?
I don’t know if it gives you energy, but it’s inspiring somehow, in a way you can’t really describe. At least now we know we are a big part of the music history, which is pretty cool.
Was it a harder recording process because you were away from home?
No, not really that part. The harder part was this recording was much shorter in time. Then the previous ones. We only had six weeks, compared to (previous album) Sounds Of A Playground Fading, where we had three months to record. So this was hectic, and a little bit stressful. Sometimes I think we need to have a really tough deadline to be creative, because sometimes I think we can be kind of lazy. We think ‘Ah, well do it tomorrow. Whatever’, and not really be focused. I think it was good for this album.
Was there any stuff on a technical level you wanted to try out with your drums for this album?
I didn’t do any drastic changes, but the room I recorded drums had marble tiles for the ceiling and walls, and a hard wood floor. You might think that would be pretty noisy, especially for all the cymbals, but that room made all the difference when it comes to the drums’ sound. It was totally awesome, but very hard to describe. It doesn’t sound like it should in a marble room, it made all the difference. Now I’m eager to play the drums in that kind of room!
You could build one at home. Have one normal room and one marble room depending on your mood!
Yeah, or just move the drums in to the bathroom.
Is there anything you guys like to get up to in particular when you’re in Australia, or do you not have time?
We actually have some time, every time. Because you don’t have a tour bus in Australia, and you fly because the distances are all so far, so we usually have travel days and some days off. We really enjoy Australia. I wouldn’t mind moving there, actually.
We’d welcome you warmly! Finally, any messages for the kids coming to your shows in November?
Just that we are really happy to be back in Australia, and hopefully this will not be the last time on this album. We’ll try to be back at least two more times during this touring cycle. We can’t wait to go down there.
Todd Gingell
Trivium and In Flames tour nationally in November
Nov. 19th @ The Tivoli, Brisbane (18+)
Nov. 21st @ UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney (Licensed All ages)
Nov. 23rd @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+) SOLD OUT
Nov. 24th @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)
Nov. 25th @ HQ Adelaide (18+)
Hey Dan, how are you?
I’m good, I’m great. I’m having lunch.
Are you in your home town right now of Göteborg, Sweden?
Yeah, we’re here for a few days before we start the touring cycle.
You are of course heading out in here in November with Trivium. Are you guys mates?
Yeah, we’re really good friends. We’ve done so many tours with them all over the world, actually. European tours, American tours, we played with them at Soundwave, and we’ve been to Japan together. It’s always great to see those guys again. I think we team up pretty good. It’s a good package, so it should be fun.
Is it hard to find a band with whom you enjoy touring?
It’s pretty easy! We know most of the bands, and we’ve toured with so many of them. If you don’t know them, you get along pretty well because I think touring musicians are a little bit special. We are the same kind of people, so it’s great to see new people when you’re in a band. That’s never a problem. You think it might be, but you can choose who you want to tour with, so things don’t get too weird, music-wise.
Siren Charms is of course the new album. Is it ‘sirens’ like the murderous ones who will sailors in at sea with their hypnotic songs?
Yeah, I mean… Some of the lyrics, or most of the lyrics are about temptations in our society or in our lives today, and those temptations are the sirens. You can be addicted to drugs or alcohol, or you can be addicted to gambling, stuff like that. The lyrics are how you deal with it, or the consequences of it. The siren is the metaphor of your addiction, and what happens when it drags you down in to the hole.
There’s definitely some classic In Flames in there, but a lot of the album is a musical departure of sorts. Was that intentional?
No, no. We never sit down before a recording and talk about how it should sound. Every time we write music for the album, that is how In Flames sounds today. We don’t really have any strategies about it, or around it. We write songs we enjoy to play and it’s just how we sound today. We all develop especially as musicians along the way, and we want to challenge ourselves sometimes. (Front man) Anders wants to sing more clean vocals, and I want to try out new things on the drums. With all these things together, it makes it a little bit different from the previous album. But we want to keep our trademarks, like the melodies and everything. We’ll never leave that behind.
It seems every metal band that isn’t from Sweden goes there to record! Why did you guys decide to record in Berlin, Germany at Hansa studios?
Well with the two previous albums we recorded in Göterborg, and every night you go home to your family. I mean, there’s nothing bad with that, but we thought maybe we’d try to do this totally focused on the album with no distractions whatsoever. So we basically lived with this production for six weeks, instead of taking twelve breaks every day. That’s the major difference. We wanted to do something new, too. As a band we never want to repeat ourselves when it comes to the music. The same with live shows are recording, we want to try new stuff all the time. So we wanted to try a new studio, and this is a classic studio where a lot of really cool bands have been recording their albums, like Iggy Pop and Depeche Mode. So hey, you have some really cool history to it as well, which adds a little bit to it, of course.
Does it give you some kind of energy when people you love have played there and recorded at Hansa as well?
I don’t know if it gives you energy, but it’s inspiring somehow, in a way you can’t really describe. At least now we know we are a big part of the music history, which is pretty cool.
Was it a harder recording process because you were away from home?
No, not really that part. The harder part was this recording was much shorter in time. Then the previous ones. We only had six weeks, compared to (previous album) Sounds Of A Playground Fading, where we had three months to record. So this was hectic, and a little bit stressful. Sometimes I think we need to have a really tough deadline to be creative, because sometimes I think we can be kind of lazy. We think ‘Ah, well do it tomorrow. Whatever’, and not really be focused. I think it was good for this album.
Was there any stuff on a technical level you wanted to try out with your drums for this album?
I didn’t do any drastic changes, but the room I recorded drums had marble tiles for the ceiling and walls, and a hard wood floor. You might think that would be pretty noisy, especially for all the cymbals, but that room made all the difference when it comes to the drums’ sound. It was totally awesome, but very hard to describe. It doesn’t sound like it should in a marble room, it made all the difference. Now I’m eager to play the drums in that kind of room!
You could build one at home. Have one normal room and one marble room depending on your mood!
Yeah, or just move the drums in to the bathroom.
Is there anything you guys like to get up to in particular when you’re in Australia, or do you not have time?
We actually have some time, every time. Because you don’t have a tour bus in Australia, and you fly because the distances are all so far, so we usually have travel days and some days off. We really enjoy Australia. I wouldn’t mind moving there, actually.
We’d welcome you warmly! Finally, any messages for the kids coming to your shows in November?
Just that we are really happy to be back in Australia, and hopefully this will not be the last time on this album. We’ll try to be back at least two more times during this touring cycle. We can’t wait to go down there.
Todd Gingell
Trivium and In Flames tour nationally in November
Nov. 19th @ The Tivoli, Brisbane (18+)
Nov. 21st @ UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney (Licensed All ages)
Nov. 23rd @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+) SOLD OUT
Nov. 24th @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)
Nov. 25th @ HQ Adelaide (18+)