| Sweden
rocks! ARISE rocks! The question is: is there
a chance for A Beautiful New World as the title
of the new record announces? How would this world look like? Let’s
see how things are going on up in the North, I asked drummer Daniel
about his present and future prospects.
Leo:
Hello! It’s a pleasure form e to do this interview! I hope
you are doing fine.
Hi Leo. I’m Daniel the drummer answering your questions.
Let’s begin.
Leo:
How did you find the band’s name? Did you listen to a certain
record?
When we started the band back in 96/97 we used to listen to bands
like Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head a lot and played covers
of them. So when we should come up with a name it was Sepultura
who had to contribute with the name ARISE. We
thought that was a good name and it’s a short simple word.
Leo:
Are you going to use more modern influences in the future?
I can’t tell about the future yet. We will for sure not
use lots of clean vocals like many other bands do. We decided
however to try it out once on the new album. And we won’t
destroy the songs with tons of samples either, so I guess we’re
not going to use modern elements that much.
Leo:
The lyrics of the new album entitled ironically The Beautiful
New World, draw a pessimistic view of the earth - How will
the world end?
That’s right it’s very ironic. We don’t think
it’s going to be a beautiful world – everything is
going for the worse in my opinion. I think the nature will go
crazy in the future because of how we are mistreating it. We are
draining all the nature resources and what will happen when there
are no more...? Maybe there is a new ice age to come, I don’t
know. Or a World War with nuclear weapons that will devastate
most of the earth and make it look like planet of the apes...?
Leo:
How would you imagine A New World could look like?
A new world for me is a world with machines running everything,
and we are not very far from that actually. I’m not saying
it will be better with more machines – I don’t like
it a bit, but that’s just what’s going to happen.
The machine is replacing the humans and soon we don’t have
to go out the door. It is frightening. Or we could start to be
careful with the developing of the machines and take care of our
nature instead – then we might have a green new world in
the future.
Leo:
Which ARISE songs do you prefer?
I like Strangled Love, How Long Can You Pretend
and Tribute To The Flesh the most. Not only because I’m
involved in those songs, but that I simply think they are the
best we have.
Leo:
What are your main influences?
For me it’s Carcass, early Soilwork and maybe some Strapping
Young Lad and Vader. In some songs you will hear those influences
very easily. The only thing we got in common with At The Gates
- that every one is reminding us about – is the speed of
the drums and a little bit the vocals and that’s it. We
are heavier and more melodic than they ever were. I think we get
our influences from a lot of different music. We listen to all
kind of music in the band.
Leo:
What was the best thing in life happening to you?
The tour with Vader was awesome! Going to Japan would be cool
to. Otherwise I’m still waiting for the best thing to happen.
Leo:
Which are your favourite CDs?
Oh, there’s too many to mention. Strapping Young Lad’s
City is great and so is Carcass Heartwork. Dissection’s
Storm Of The Light’s Bane, Behemoth’s Thelema.6 and
Vader’s Litany are some more…
Leo:
Do you like good old Vinyl or are you a CD collector?
In fact I am collecting both. Mostly CDs though. I can’t
afford expensive old vinyl. Since I’m a Carcass collector
and there are insane prices on the old stuff I have to keep a
low profile in my collecting. Now I got mostly everything they’ve
ever released, but it has cost me some…I have sold a lot
of my CDs also – I couldn’t store them anywhere, so
I just kept the ones I use to listen to pretty often. I’ve
got maybe 500 CDs and 300 vinyls. I got to have some space left
too!
Leo:
Do you think CDs are too expensive? How much is a CD in your hometown?
We were told here in Sweden that if we joined the European nation
the CDs would be cheaper. I thought I was great – but they
become more expensive instead. Now a CD is like 18 EUR here and
it’s totally fucked up. I can understand why people are
downloading music from the internet, 'cos most out there can’t
afford those prices. Let’s say two of your favourite groups
are releasing their new albums at the same month. Then you will
have to pay 36 EUR and eventually shipping if you don’t
have a good store nearby. It’s way too much, if you ask
me. A CD should cost about 10 EUR.
Leo:
Why is ARISE different?
Well, we sound typical Swedish, I can agree with that –
but we ARE from Sweden for God’s sake! What we have which
is typical for ARISE is that we are mixing the
speed and heaviness with melodies. And I think we are pretty unique
in that way. But then of course it so easy to just claim that
we are At The Gates rip offs. I would say that you haven’t
listened to the albums properly then.
Leo:
What’s the most difficult Swedish word?
Hard one….I can’t think of a word which is really
difficult, but we have this unique Swedish word – “lagom”
that doesn’t exists in any other language. “Lagom”
is like when something isn’t too much and neither too little
– it’s something between them, and that’s when
it becomes “lagom”. There might be some similar words
in other languages, but I’ve been told you can’t translate
the word “lagom” to any other language.
Leo:
Do you need to do another job beside music?
Yes we do. To be able to live as musician it takes a lot of sold
albums and touring and also media activity, like radio and television.
I’ve read somewhere that you have to sell at least a hundred
thousand records and tour often to be able to make it. So every
one of us is working besides the music.
Leo:
Is it difficult to manage normal jobs and tour life?
It really is. Not every boss will grant you a month off for going
touring. I lost my job when we did the Vader tour and we have
always to plan our gigs carefully. I think that your boss at your
work should show some respect to you as a musician and try to
solve things out instead of just saying “no”.
Leo:
Is there a tour planned, or maybe some festivals in Germany/Austria?
Not for what I know today. I’ve recently mailed our label
asking them about tours and future plans, but I haven’t
got an answer. Besides we don’t have any booking agency
for the European market, and that’s why it’s hard
for us to play at festivals. But the good thing is that we’ve
got so many great reviews with this album and so many mails and
questions asking us to come to Italy, England, Scotland, Germany
etc that our label have to realise they have to send us out soon.
Let’s hope we’ll see you after the summer!
Leo:
What has changed since the debut The Godly Work Of Art?
Most of things did. The song writing is a lot better. The
Godly Work Of Art had many demo songs on it as it
was our first album. And the performing is way better now. Another
thing I’m very satisfied with speaking of the new album
is the sound. It’s so much better than the old school sounding
Kings Of The Cloned Generation. I think
most of you out there will agree on that one.
Leo:
What can we expect for the next album?
We have only two songs finished at this moment. But I can tell
that you can expect more fast and less slow songs next time…
Leo:
Some last words (in Swedish with translation?)
Hoppas ni gillar den nya skivan och att vi ses på turné
i år – vi kommer till DIN stad för att släppa
helvetet löst!
Hope you out there like the new album and that we will see you
on tour this year – we are coming to YOUR town to raise
hell!
Tills
vidare – Skål! 'Til then – Cheers! |
