Tomas Haake - Meshuggah (16/08/2013)
Forefathers of progressive metal, The 59th Sound chats with Tomas Haake of Meshuggah, ahead of their co-headline tour with fellow Soundwave 2012 alumni, Lamb of God.
Hi Tomas, hanks for talking to the 59th Sound today.
Absolutely. My pleasure.
Excited for your Australian tour with Lamb of God?
For us dude, first of all we love coming to Australia. We only have good memories from there during our tours from the Soundwave festival and all our side shows as well. Of course, coming down there with Lamb of God, who are good friends of ours and a really great band as well, makes us really looking forward to it.
So, where are you guys at the moment?
We’re at home right now. We’ve been at a few festivals over the summer, but not as many as usual because we kind of felt that we needed a bit of a break this summer. Since for the last 5 to 6 years we’ve done 10 to 12 shows every summer and that kind of tires you out before every weekend. So far we’ve only done 4 this summer and we kind of just hit the last festivals a few days ago. So now we are going to take a bit of time off before we come down to see you guys.
The last time you were here was 2012 and the band toured with Devin Townsend and Dredg for Soundwave. How was the impression of your Australian fans?
Like I said, we love coming down here and the fans of course are big part of that. It’s hard to say exactly what it is, but you can go from certain countries and the people a certainly different and if that’s the case then Australians are definitely the most friendly and the coolest people on the planet. So that is one of the reasons why we wanted to come back down there.
And do your fans react different across the globe?
I guess there’s a bit of difference in that too, where maybe in the states, the crowds are more violent but in a good sense compared to some European countries. But overall, the fans that we have are really in it for the music and not so much about the whole whether they see as having this or that kind of image and its more about the music itself and that’s a really cool thing. That also kind of unifies our fans to a great degree globally because they think about our music in a very similar way.
Now the Rolling Stones have labeled Meshuggah as ‘one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands’, and the Alternative Press also said that your band is the ‘important band in metal.’ How do you feel to have achieved such high acclaim from your critics?
You kind of feel humbled and that’s a really cool thing that some people seem to think so. Its humbling and also a testament to us that we’ve been doing something live and the fact that we’ve been able to stay and stick together with the same members over the years. So that’s a really cool feeling.
I noticed that between each release of your albums, there is always a time frame of about 3 to 4 years. Is there a process that the band goes through during that period?
Definitely. For us, the writing and recording of an album is not necessarily pleasurable. It’s a very strange situation, but we do put a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of work to make it into the finished product and for us it’s a chore and joy at the same time. It’s always a good feeling when you’re done but the process itself is not necessarily pleasurable.
And how was the development process for Koloss?
It kind of hard to say, like every album in a sense. We start writing it and it takes a lot of time to write, compile and narrow it down and focus it into an album. With Koloss, it took the same amount of time and effort like the other albums we’ve done. So it’s kind of hard to explain exactly, it’s a long process. I know with some bands they write on the road and when they’re touring they write on the tour bus, which then afterwards they go into a studio for a few weeks, and record new songs where they complete and welder. While for us, it’s a long process, maybe a year at least to try and write and compile the material and once we know exactly which songs we want to use, we’ve already decided how they are going to be apart of each song. So we really don’t start recording until we are at that point. In that sense we are a bit different from other bands.
Your band has known to take a massive stride in a new direction for each album you release. What direction were you hoping to take from Koloss?
We never really discussed the direction of the band. It’s not really something that we sit down and decide if we should go this way or we should try and sound like that. We just know that all of us want every new album to be different from the last one. So that is really the only thing that we carry with us when writing a new album. We never speak out our desires, like I want the album to sound like this or this person wants the next album to be kind of like that. It’s just something we all strive to do, something different with each album and whatever comes out is just a product of that kind of thinking.
During the development stage of an album, I read that you’re the songwriter for the band. In the past, the lyrics have focused on existentialism, what was the central theme for Koloss?
For Koloss, it was way more about religion and religion in politics and so on, criticizing what’s going on in current events around the world. For example, in Australia I heard about the debate on gay marriage and the church trying to keep gay people from getting married, which just annoys the hell out of me, that kind of narrow thinking is allowed in politics and religion I guess is a necessity in someway. It’s not something that you can just take away or something that will just go away, but it is definitely something that should not be there in politics. So a lot of lyrics on Koloss focuses on that and I think on the next album too, there will definitely be those topics again.
Currently, bands of the Djent movement credit Meshuggah as the biggest influence to their style of music. Does it kind of make you feel like the forefathers of this spinoff genre because of your progressing sound?
A lot of those bands that belong or are in those types of genres where we had some sort impact on or influence on. To us that is just a cool thing and if anything, it’s humbling and again a testament that we’ve been doing something cool that led to the longevity of the band and having made a difference for some people. So that is a really cool thing for us as a band but that we’ve been able to do something that not only we are proud of but that other people love as well.
So who inspired Meshuggah during the band’s formation?
For us, definitely the bay area trash bands were a big deal for us, but also the mix of metal that we grew up with. Everything from heavy metal, like bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden when we were younger to Slayer and Metallica. They all had a huge impact but it was also the element of some other bands, like for me it was Rush during my adolescent years. Also during the late 80s, we began listening to some fusion music, like rock fusion and during our early years, we had crazy bands like Mr Bungle, Faith No More also had an impact, Ventura had an impact as well. It was whatever the cool bands that were around at the time that inspired us.
Are you still influence by other bands today and more importantly bands that cite Meshuggah as their inspiration?
I say over the years, we definitely and deliberately turned away from at least using other bands or having other bands influence our music. To some degree it is impossible to completely shut that out. I mean you have to be inspired or influenced by what you go through in life and that includes what kind of music you deem cool and that will have an impact on you. It is also going to have an impact on your songwriting, but we definitely try to not have outside influences to our music and we try to have everything that comes out from our band to be something that people haven’t really heard before.
During your career, Meshuggah’s experimentation and stylistic variations has crossed several genres. Some critics have labeled you guys as maths metal while others have said progressive metal. In your own opinion, what genre do you feel the band is leaning more towards?
I mean is it always weird with the whole componentisation of genres and what you’re supposed to belong to. For us, even the term maths metal is just stupid; I don’t even know what it means, like your writing on calculators. That term to me is just weird; I mean you could make any kind of music with maths if you wanted to, but maths has nothing to do with our songwriting process in any way, shape or form. For progressive metal, when you say that I guess, people tend to think of bands like Dream Theater and stuff like that. To me, it just means something that is pushing the envelope. So in that sense I rather have people label us a progressive metal band than anything else, because that how we see ourselves as being. But not necessarily belonging to how people see us as that genre, with bands like Dream Theater for example, since that we’re pretty far away from what their doing. So its hard you know, you get that question quite a lot and you try to figure out what you really are, but at the end of the day its not really important what people call us. The only thing that is important to us is how people feel towards our music. Even if they hate it, then that’s fine, since we rather have that kind of emotion in someone than someone saying “Yeah, they’re alright.’ We would much rather prefer that you hate us or love us.
And besides the upcoming Australian tour, what else is planned for Meshuggah?
Well, we’re doing the Australian dates, and then we have a tour of Europe and after that we are doing 5 or 6 South American dates and 1 festival in India and that’s it for this album. Then by December we start writing for the next album and try to avoid that 4-year wait in-between each album, so hopefully it will get released within some point of 2015.
Well, again thank you so much for speaking to us again.
My pleasure. Nice talking to you.
Jason Cheung
Meshuggah & Lamb of God
Presented by Soundwave Touring.
FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER – BRISBANE, THE TIVOLI – 18+
SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER – SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Lic A/A
SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER – MELBOURNE, FESTIVAL HALL – Licensed and Unlicensed areas available
TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER – ADELAIDE, THEBARTON THEATRE – Lic A/A
THURSDAY 26 SEPTEMBER – PERTH, METRO CITY – 18+
Hi Tomas, hanks for talking to the 59th Sound today.
Absolutely. My pleasure.
Excited for your Australian tour with Lamb of God?
For us dude, first of all we love coming to Australia. We only have good memories from there during our tours from the Soundwave festival and all our side shows as well. Of course, coming down there with Lamb of God, who are good friends of ours and a really great band as well, makes us really looking forward to it.
So, where are you guys at the moment?
We’re at home right now. We’ve been at a few festivals over the summer, but not as many as usual because we kind of felt that we needed a bit of a break this summer. Since for the last 5 to 6 years we’ve done 10 to 12 shows every summer and that kind of tires you out before every weekend. So far we’ve only done 4 this summer and we kind of just hit the last festivals a few days ago. So now we are going to take a bit of time off before we come down to see you guys.
The last time you were here was 2012 and the band toured with Devin Townsend and Dredg for Soundwave. How was the impression of your Australian fans?
Like I said, we love coming down here and the fans of course are big part of that. It’s hard to say exactly what it is, but you can go from certain countries and the people a certainly different and if that’s the case then Australians are definitely the most friendly and the coolest people on the planet. So that is one of the reasons why we wanted to come back down there.
And do your fans react different across the globe?
I guess there’s a bit of difference in that too, where maybe in the states, the crowds are more violent but in a good sense compared to some European countries. But overall, the fans that we have are really in it for the music and not so much about the whole whether they see as having this or that kind of image and its more about the music itself and that’s a really cool thing. That also kind of unifies our fans to a great degree globally because they think about our music in a very similar way.
Now the Rolling Stones have labeled Meshuggah as ‘one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands’, and the Alternative Press also said that your band is the ‘important band in metal.’ How do you feel to have achieved such high acclaim from your critics?
You kind of feel humbled and that’s a really cool thing that some people seem to think so. Its humbling and also a testament to us that we’ve been doing something live and the fact that we’ve been able to stay and stick together with the same members over the years. So that’s a really cool feeling.
I noticed that between each release of your albums, there is always a time frame of about 3 to 4 years. Is there a process that the band goes through during that period?
Definitely. For us, the writing and recording of an album is not necessarily pleasurable. It’s a very strange situation, but we do put a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of work to make it into the finished product and for us it’s a chore and joy at the same time. It’s always a good feeling when you’re done but the process itself is not necessarily pleasurable.
And how was the development process for Koloss?
It kind of hard to say, like every album in a sense. We start writing it and it takes a lot of time to write, compile and narrow it down and focus it into an album. With Koloss, it took the same amount of time and effort like the other albums we’ve done. So it’s kind of hard to explain exactly, it’s a long process. I know with some bands they write on the road and when they’re touring they write on the tour bus, which then afterwards they go into a studio for a few weeks, and record new songs where they complete and welder. While for us, it’s a long process, maybe a year at least to try and write and compile the material and once we know exactly which songs we want to use, we’ve already decided how they are going to be apart of each song. So we really don’t start recording until we are at that point. In that sense we are a bit different from other bands.
Your band has known to take a massive stride in a new direction for each album you release. What direction were you hoping to take from Koloss?
We never really discussed the direction of the band. It’s not really something that we sit down and decide if we should go this way or we should try and sound like that. We just know that all of us want every new album to be different from the last one. So that is really the only thing that we carry with us when writing a new album. We never speak out our desires, like I want the album to sound like this or this person wants the next album to be kind of like that. It’s just something we all strive to do, something different with each album and whatever comes out is just a product of that kind of thinking.
During the development stage of an album, I read that you’re the songwriter for the band. In the past, the lyrics have focused on existentialism, what was the central theme for Koloss?
For Koloss, it was way more about religion and religion in politics and so on, criticizing what’s going on in current events around the world. For example, in Australia I heard about the debate on gay marriage and the church trying to keep gay people from getting married, which just annoys the hell out of me, that kind of narrow thinking is allowed in politics and religion I guess is a necessity in someway. It’s not something that you can just take away or something that will just go away, but it is definitely something that should not be there in politics. So a lot of lyrics on Koloss focuses on that and I think on the next album too, there will definitely be those topics again.
Currently, bands of the Djent movement credit Meshuggah as the biggest influence to their style of music. Does it kind of make you feel like the forefathers of this spinoff genre because of your progressing sound?
A lot of those bands that belong or are in those types of genres where we had some sort impact on or influence on. To us that is just a cool thing and if anything, it’s humbling and again a testament that we’ve been doing something cool that led to the longevity of the band and having made a difference for some people. So that is a really cool thing for us as a band but that we’ve been able to do something that not only we are proud of but that other people love as well.
So who inspired Meshuggah during the band’s formation?
For us, definitely the bay area trash bands were a big deal for us, but also the mix of metal that we grew up with. Everything from heavy metal, like bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden when we were younger to Slayer and Metallica. They all had a huge impact but it was also the element of some other bands, like for me it was Rush during my adolescent years. Also during the late 80s, we began listening to some fusion music, like rock fusion and during our early years, we had crazy bands like Mr Bungle, Faith No More also had an impact, Ventura had an impact as well. It was whatever the cool bands that were around at the time that inspired us.
Are you still influence by other bands today and more importantly bands that cite Meshuggah as their inspiration?
I say over the years, we definitely and deliberately turned away from at least using other bands or having other bands influence our music. To some degree it is impossible to completely shut that out. I mean you have to be inspired or influenced by what you go through in life and that includes what kind of music you deem cool and that will have an impact on you. It is also going to have an impact on your songwriting, but we definitely try to not have outside influences to our music and we try to have everything that comes out from our band to be something that people haven’t really heard before.
During your career, Meshuggah’s experimentation and stylistic variations has crossed several genres. Some critics have labeled you guys as maths metal while others have said progressive metal. In your own opinion, what genre do you feel the band is leaning more towards?
I mean is it always weird with the whole componentisation of genres and what you’re supposed to belong to. For us, even the term maths metal is just stupid; I don’t even know what it means, like your writing on calculators. That term to me is just weird; I mean you could make any kind of music with maths if you wanted to, but maths has nothing to do with our songwriting process in any way, shape or form. For progressive metal, when you say that I guess, people tend to think of bands like Dream Theater and stuff like that. To me, it just means something that is pushing the envelope. So in that sense I rather have people label us a progressive metal band than anything else, because that how we see ourselves as being. But not necessarily belonging to how people see us as that genre, with bands like Dream Theater for example, since that we’re pretty far away from what their doing. So its hard you know, you get that question quite a lot and you try to figure out what you really are, but at the end of the day its not really important what people call us. The only thing that is important to us is how people feel towards our music. Even if they hate it, then that’s fine, since we rather have that kind of emotion in someone than someone saying “Yeah, they’re alright.’ We would much rather prefer that you hate us or love us.
And besides the upcoming Australian tour, what else is planned for Meshuggah?
Well, we’re doing the Australian dates, and then we have a tour of Europe and after that we are doing 5 or 6 South American dates and 1 festival in India and that’s it for this album. Then by December we start writing for the next album and try to avoid that 4-year wait in-between each album, so hopefully it will get released within some point of 2015.
Well, again thank you so much for speaking to us again.
My pleasure. Nice talking to you.
Jason Cheung
Meshuggah & Lamb of God
Presented by Soundwave Touring.
FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER – BRISBANE, THE TIVOLI – 18+
SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER – SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Lic A/A
SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER – MELBOURNE, FESTIVAL HALL – Licensed and Unlicensed areas available
TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER – ADELAIDE, THEBARTON THEATRE – Lic A/A
THURSDAY 26 SEPTEMBER – PERTH, METRO CITY – 18+