1. Hello Nephente, how are you doing? You have released an album which gets great review from all over the world. How do you feel about it? Do you think you can relax now and appease yourself with such achievement?

Hey there! I am doing fine, thank you! Yeah, we have just released it and we are very pleased by the reviews we are receiving. It is a great reward for all the hard work put into making the album. But we are not relaxing at all; we are currently in the first stages of recording our next album and we have been working on those songs since last winter. So it is busy for us all. I am doing my best combining answering interviews with writing lyrics. But this is our life and our passion so I could not think of a better scenario for us!

2. Well, new album in progress? Damn, nice to read it! Anyway, are you preparing some other surprises for it? Like session musicians, etc. like at first album…

There will be fewer people involved but there might be some surprises in store but I will not say more about that at this time. And we will also complete work on another recording in parallel to be able to release something before the end of the year. We will take our time with the album so it will most like not surface until later next year. But it will be worth the wait, I am totally excited about our new tracks to be honest!

3. Together with friends we have agreed that “Ghost Collector” is unusually varied album, with almost hypnotic catch. In previous years you haven’t concentrated on such atmospheric music. Why this change happened?

Well, I think we have basically always been writing this kind of music but with time we have gotten closer to making our ideas into a more specific sound. We try to write music with good melodies and combining that with darker/extreme parts. When we started Netherbird our vision was to write brutal music with beautiful aspects and we are continuing that journey. So I am glad you think we are moving in the right direction.

4. A lot of bands, coming from Sweden, are known for their melancholic music. I found melancholy quite typical for Swedish music. What influences you to do so?

I think it is rather typical for the Scandinavian mindset. We are a bit melancholic compared to others, and if you look at our musical roots the old folk music here has a lot of melancholy in it and a lot of the Scandinavian bands have hints of that in their music and so do we. So I think it is a result of our past, our musical traditions were shaped by living in a part of the world where six month every year is cold and dark. I certainly feel it now as autumn is approaching. It is a bittersweet dark feeling that goes very deep and of course it shows in the music I am involved in creating.

5. In one review I read about similarity with early Cradle of filth. I don´t think that it was fitting, but I could find a few mutual aspects. Have you ever felt influenced by these Brits?

Well I can still remember when I first got a flyer from Cradle of Filth in 1990/91. I was already playing death metal then and I remembered thinking that they had a strange name. I naturally picked up their first album when I came across it. Dani was the first one I heard combining growl and really high pitched vocals and that must have made an impression. But I haven’t really thought about it since I have done vocals that way since 1993 myself but that might, at least partly, be a result of hearing CoF. When I listen to our music I think influences like At the Gates, Unanimated, Edge of Sanity, Dissection and My Dying Bride gives a better idea what we sound like. We have a very wide range of influences and our music has a lot of different moods that we combine. Thou I always state that I was, and to some degree still am, a big fan of CoF since they have made a couple of outstanding albums;“V empire” and “…..dusk and her embrace” are monumental recordings!


6. Ex- Cradle of filth drummer, Adrian Erlandsson, also participated on the album, together with some more well-known musicians. What made this cooperation possible. Does those musicians contacted you by themselves, or you had to do so?

Yes, some people appearing on “The Ghost Collector” are well known people. They appear because we thought they might be the right people for the songs where they played. We have been active for quite a while in the underground so it was not such a big step to approach these people and let them listen to the demos for the tracks to see if they were interested in playing with us. So if the chemistry was right we proceed to recording together.

7. There are two drummers on the new album, right? How come that drums do not sound disordered? One would say, that two different styles of playing won´t make such great ensemble, but as we hear, it is possible.

It is really three drummers appearing: Adrian Erlandsson, Mojjo and Janne Saarenpää. It is possible to hear their different drumming styles but the reason it isn’t that evident is that we asked each of them to play on songs we thought might suit their particular way of playing drums. So it fit rather naturally. So yes it is possible and it turned our very interesting I think. All three are extremely skilled musicians and it was a thrill to hear them create their magic.

8. Yeah, it depends on the quality of the man, I think… Anyway, Adrian Erlandsson is from UK, that? So how about cooperation with him?

Adrian is living in the UK, that’s correct, but he is from Sweden originally. For us the chemistry in the band is very important and Adrian is one of the nicest people I have ever met so it has been a pure pleasure working with him. We also got a lot of musical references in common, first time we met we were sitting for hours just listening to old Swedish metal albums in Studio Fredman. So we connected on a personal level which is damn important.

9. Not just that two drummers were used. Album was also recorded in three different studios. Underground, Berno and Fredman studios. These are quite exclusive, how come that you recorded in those places?

Really it is far more than three studios; those are just the most well known ones. There are at least three more locations used. The reason for us recording at different studios was mostly a matter of finding a studio that was available when a certain musician had time to record and to reduce travel for our guests. It also gave us the chance to try out some different studios to see what they were like. Some I like better than others, I can tell you that much haha. Since the album was recorded over a long period of time we were able to spend some of our savings because well know studios are also rather costly. The tracks we recorded last are all done in our own studio in Stockholm called Scarecrow Studio. That is where future Netherbird records will be written and recorded, a bit of a dream come true for us!

10. The ghost collector is a mixture of various vocal styles. From the large scale of your vocals to men choir in “Blood Orchid”. Why have you used this choir? I think that it was great idea.

Thank you, damn glad you like it! The choir we used are all very skilled and serious musicians. It is part of a large male choir that has song on the Nobel prize party among other places so those guys know what they are doing and we learned a lot by working with them. I, for example, had to learn how to write a partitur for the chorus. Interesting experience! We will continue using a wide range of vocals, both extreme like scream/growl but also different form of clean vocals. It is all a matter of making songs interesting if you ask me. I really dislike music if the vocals lack variation and the rest of the band shares that idea so we will keep on working with different styles and layers of voices.

11. Another of positive aspects, is the usage of untypical instruments, which are shape the atmosphere to a greater extent. Had you ever imagined in past years, that you would compose an album with such variety of instruments?

From day one we said we would try to use acoustic instruments in our songs, like grand piano and guitar. But we also wanted to avoid those being seen as separate from the “real” songs but rather as intertwined, as natural parts of the Netherbird palette of sounds. So I don’t think we ever will make an album entirely of alternative instruments but we might use more such parts on some records but that is something that will be balanced with other musical parts as well. At least that is what I think right now. Netherbird is a metal band and we really like distortion, hehe.


12. Personally, one of the main points on the album is it´s visual interpretation. What inspired you in making of cover art?

The artwork is very important to us since we want Netherbird to be a complete experience where all aspects fit. So we work with music, lyrics and artwork as a parallel process. Sometimes the artwork inspires me to some lines in the lyrics and that results in arrangements on keyboards turning into something we first didn’t expect them to. Me and Bizmark often have some ideas for the artwork and then we work with an artist creating the artwork because we want that to be just as professional as the rest of the things we make. So it is a process that always starts with Bizmark writing the song on guitar, then I put a title to it. From that point on we work with music, lyrics and artwork in sort of a “controlled chaos” until we finally arrive at a point where we feel it all makes sense and forms a complete piece of art. The cover artwork for “The Ghost Collector” is made by Bleed for Me who captured the idea of a ghostly presence in a way we liked. We have already started with the artwork for the next release just as we have started writing lyrics and music.

13. I once listened to your project Fear the future. What about them? Is it still active? IF yes, will you someday release a new album?

Fear the Future still exists but is currently not very active. I know some songs have been written and I will do the vocals when there is enough material for a new album. I don’t know when that will be, perhaps next year or so. My main priority nowadays is Netherbird but I am still part of FtF.

14. I just have to ask. What about live playing?
I would be cool, if you would bring some musicians who participated on new album, with you. I guess that you would be called all-stars then, :-).

We will have a more solid line up for the recoding of the next album and the same people will most likely also be the ones performing live. I cannot say who will be in that line up but some of them are well known, that is correct, and all of them capable of making Netherbird something really interesting live. I really look forward to that!

15. Well, I´m close to end.
I would like to say that I really appreciate your friendly attitude and willingness. Good luck in your personal and musical life.
Last words are yours of course.

Thank you kindly for this interview! I look forward to hearing more of both you and your readers in the years to come. We are only getting started here! Thanks a lot and take care!

Informace o článku

Informace o článku: Přidáno: 09.10.2008 Přečteno: 153x Napsal: Under

Komentáře k článku