Interview Amaranthe

Artiest: Amaranthe

Geïnterviewden: Olof Mörck & Elise Ryd

Interview afgenomen op: Graspop Metal Meeting

Label: Spinefarm Records

We troffen Amaranthe aan in het persdorp van Graspop Metal Meeting na hun daverend optreden in de marquee. Olof Mörck en Elise Ryd stonden ons te woord over hun festivalervaring, het nieuwe album en de recente line-up wisseling.

Rockfest and now Graspop, the festival season has started well for you! You are busy until september with festivals?

Olof: We’re going into high gear now. The last one is in September, so it’s the whole summer basically. Actually almost every week, so it’s the most packed festival summer that we’ve ever had. How did that happen? I thought we were going with a bit less. But then I saw the schedule of the whole summer and that’s ok I guess, who needs vacation anyway.

Later this year you are touring with Powerwolf. How did that come to be? Looking forward to it?

Olof: I was just thinking how was it… I think our agent had a connection at Rockthenation and I guess he’s working with the Powerwolf guys. I knew about Powerwolf from the few songs that I heard and I thought it was a cool band, but it was only when viewing the live videos that I realized that it is a killer band to be on tour with.

Elise: They are fun, very entertaining and a theatrical show, I like that.

Will it be a mixed audience, fans who come only for Powerwolf and fans only for Amaranthe?

Elise: I think so yes.

Olof: And that’s the point also. I think with Powerwolf you have a lot of fans who are open minded. They like cool melodies and a good live show and are not judgmental. I think their crowd is not too niche. The idea is to play for the new fans. If we would play with a band a bit more similar, they might all have heard about us already.

Do you have bands that are similar to Amaranthe?

Olof: Well no.

Elise: Exactly!

Olof: I wonder if I will get away with this now. But I guess there are closer bands out there.

Amaranthe produces albums very quickly, every 2 years I would say. Maximalism is from 2016, so is there a new one coming up still this year? Any details?

Olof: This year yes, in October. And the first single is coming out in August, so we are still on schedule.

Elise: It’s worth the wait for it. We took time in January, February and March to write and record it. We have fire in our pants or something!

Will it be typical Amaranthe or something new to expect?

Elise: Both, we hope.

Olof: We went maybe a bit less from the heavy side with the last album and that’s what people might expect from us now, but it sort of switched as well. I might shock people and it might surprise people at some points. But it will definitely be very recognizably Amaranthe and maybe even more than before. I think this is really the core of our sound.

You always have I would say 1 crazy song on the albums, for The Nexus for example that was Electroheart, for Maximalism it is On The Rocks. Where do you get the inspiration for such funny songs?

Olof: In the case for Electroheart for example, I think we just wanted to see if we could bring that out, without people murdering us in our sleep (laughs). When you push the boundaries already as much as we did with the first album, then it was just funny to see. Some parts of Electroheart are actually quite heavy, so how far can we go with mixing these things up? I think it’s a similar thing with On The Rocks as well. We definitely have a few of these songs.

Elsie: We do have them on the new album as well.

Olof: It’s the combination of wanting to do some new things and also tease people a little bit. The fans like it, though!

Elise: That’s true. It’s nice to show that we don’t have those kind of limits. Like we don’t always take things so seriously. I try always to think when we write songs as to have it in everyday life. We have sadness and anger and joy, we have the child within that needs to be stimulated sometimes, I think those songs are from that part. I don’t want to push it away, it’s also welcome to the party.

The song 21, Henrik literally sings “drop the mic” and then some seconds silence before launching the song again. How do you come up with stuff like that? Spontaneously in the studio?

Olof: That was a studio thing. You talk and it’s literally on the top of your head, that idea. Once again, sometimes we’re serious, sometimes we’re not. And that’s one of our not so serious moments (grins).

Elise: I think the seriousness needs a balance, in life, and it’s also in the music.

Amaranthe has undergone some line-up changes with Maximalism. Did it affect the fanbase? What are the reactions?

Elise: We haven’t heard anything about that yet. Maybe it will be more visible when we release the album because then you are actually going to hear the vocals. Live it’s working amazing, so welcomed by the fans, they seem to like it.

Olof: Nothing negative so far, no. But it’s going to be a different thing. People are going to think. But I think Nils did an amazing job on the new album, so we’ll just let that speak for itself.

Elise: He’s a fantastic singer and I know people in this business really respect people with talent. And he should get that respect.

Olof: It’s one thing if you change your singer and he’s bad or it’s worse.

Elise: So yeah, they seem to accept it very well.

How did you get to know him?

Elise: Sweden is a very small country, it’s more compact. So we know most of the bands of course. Dynazty is one of those more mainstream bands and everybody loves them. I think even more people know about them than us in Sweden, because we’ve not been so visible in the media in Sweden. We’re mostly outside of it so maybe in about ten years they are going to know about Amaranthe (laughs). Anyway, I’m just kidding, it doesn’t matter for us, it feels good to travel the world and this is a good job, but Dynazty has been in the press and on tv, they even did this Eurovision thing for Sweden, so I guess that’s where people got to know them. We heard that he liked Amaranthe, Nils, he was very inspired by the song writing for his previous album with Dynazty. When we heard that, I think that’s what grew a little seed. When we had to search for a new singer, we talked from our perspective about metal people that are great singers and that are not super busy. We knew Dynazty doesn’t tour a lot and we knew he was good and we looked at the schedules for touring and he liked the music, so maybe we could ask him to tour with us because we needed a replacement for that at first.

Olof: It was an ongoing conversation for a long time. It was more like, what would you think.

Elise: He sent us a demo and it sounded really good. So we asked if he was interested and yes. He really grew into us as a friend so it felt so natural to ask him to become the permanent singer. That’s how it happened.

It seems like the Graspop organisation didn't hear you last time here, you yelled for the next time main stage, but it's now the marquee.

Elise: It felt good, it was filled all the way to the back. Coming to there like from the main stages where everybody watches the bands, it’s like coming to the club, indoor having a party for a few minutes. We could use the lights, which is good. The positive things were that it felt familiar,  it’s like a close party. It was so full so we were very happy and the people seemed to have fun. Also the good thing is that we have goals for the future, so that maybe we have a spot on the main stage some day.

Olof: I would say it like this: we played at the same time that Skillet did and musically they are very close to our sound type, with the different singers. Some of their songs sound very close to songs that we do but maybe a bit less heavy. But at the end of the day, I heard people say that there were a lot more people watching us than them. So Graspop, if you are listening, take heed.

Elise: Yeah, but for us it felt so good, it was so much fun. If the fans decide who goes where and want us on the main stage, we could do that (laughs).

Olof: We have a new great album coming out, just put us on the main stage (laughs)!

De boodschap van fans en band is duidelijk, Amaranthe volgende keer op Graspop!