AMBUSH (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with AMBUSH?
Hi Sergio, thanks for having me. Well, there’s really an exciting spirit in the Ambush camp at the moment, and we are currently working on new material and rehearsing a lot for the upcoming shows this fall. We are looking forward to burning some rubber on the European roads in November.
– You are a quite young band, in fact you recently released you debut album so, first of all, could you please make some history of the band?
Yeah, we have been best friends for quite a long time and the band idea popped up one late night when we were listening to heavy metal & drinking beer. We wanted to form a band that stood up for the music that basically stated our friendship in the first place, early 80’s Heavy Metal. So, we started to jam out to some riffs that Olof had written. From that day on we rehearsed every week, writing a lot of songs and lyrics. We went into the studio and released a demo cassette in August 2013 which generated a record deal with High Roller, who then released our 7” and our debut album “Firestorm”. It’s been a hard struggle, but I think that we are on the right track with this album!
– You play a really traditional Heavy Metal being quite young so; how did you get into this kind of music?
For me, it was natural growing up with the Kiss hype in the 90’s. I was basically listening to all sorts of music, but I fell in love with the great Heavy Metal vocalists and the aggressive and dirty sound of the 70’s and the early 80’s. At that age, almost none of my friends liked Heavy Metal, so I was basically alone listening to Iron Maiden, which is pretty weird when I look back on it. I’ve got more enlightened friends nowadays, haha.
– In fact your land has always been really prolific into the style, with classics suh as HEAVY LOAD, ZONE ZERO or GOTHAM CITY among others. How much of an influence has been the music from your cuntry for the AMBUSH’s sound?
We are proud of our Swedish bands from the 70’s/80’s. Many of them deserved to get much more reputation than they got, and they were the pioneers of the music that we play. So, of course we are influenced by these bands; they are the founding fathers of the music we all love the most.
– And what some of your other musical influences?
I’d say the musical influence of Ambush is just pure Heavy Metal. Nothing more, nothing less. Personally, I like listening to 70’s prog records alot. King
Crimson is heavy shit…
– As I said earlier, your debut album «Firestorm», came out last May so, how has its feedback been?
We are very happy with the response we’ve gotten this far… The old school Heavy Metal scene has the most dedicated fans within this solar system, and we have had contact with metal maniacs from all corners of the world. It is really awesome!
– Now that it has been some months since it was released; is there anything you would like to change or have done differently about the record? Why?
Actually NO. We have said from the beginning that we should create this album by heart and soul, and we think this album is defined by both of these words. There is so much work, so many late nights, and so many hangovers behind the makings of this album, and we are so proud that we made it at last. We are 100% happy with the album, and so thankful to all our fans that support us. Ambush never regrets anything!
– And how of an accurate description of the musical content is the album’s title?
Pretty good I’d say. A ferocious wildfire that sweeps over mankind leaving nothing but ashes, cockroaches and metal heads in its traces.
– Anyway the album’s title (as some of your lyrics) can be a nod to the interest for military stuff and war history, which aren’t the usual topics into the genre. Do you think this is something that can make AMBUSH stand out?
Well, maybe… We have an interest in military history and historical events overall which we find both important and suitable to express in our lyrics. I guess war and Heavy Metal has the same spirit to it in some way, even though I’d choose a good Heavy Metal record over a Russian invasion any day, haha.
– And could you comment some of the lyrical ideas behind some of the songs in the album?
Ludwig and Olof have written some lyrics, which I find quite interesting. My favourite lyrics on this album is Master of pain, which they wrote on a late night of December. It is about some kind of schizophrenic psychopath who encounters his demons during nightfall. He doesn’t know if they are for real though, but nevertheless he decides to put the legs behind his back and run. The lyrics behind Hellbound is also a bit of a favourite. It was intended to be a raw analogy of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
– In fact in general the Metal scene is an overcrowded one, but specially in Sweden there are a lot of different bands taking back traditional Heavy Metal, such as STEELWIG, BLACK TRIP or SCREAMER among many others. What could you say AMBUSH brings to this scene?
You name dropped some great bands there, but we think that the scene is far from overcrowded. It is very simple, but still quite uncommon nowadays, but Ambush aims to bring sincere traditional Heavy Metal to the plate. We live and die for playing this music.
– The production on the album is just great, raw and live sounding. How was the whole recording/production process? I guess such an organic sound might be what you were aiming for?
Yeah, we recorded it in a studio with a lot of old 60’s mics and analogue effects and devices. The whole recording process was a mix of hard work and a lot of fun. The studio guy is a good friend of ours, and his studio is located in the middle of the forest. When the big storm “Sven” hit Sweden, we actually experienced a long power blackout during the drum session. Ironically, it was during the song “Firestorm”, and luckily enough the power shut off just after the whole take was done. So, if you listen to Firestorm closely, you might hear the storm screaming through the mix…
– This debut album has been released by High Roller Records, a quite strong label into the underground. How is everything working with them thus far? It seems to be a quite fitting label for a band like you. Does being with such a strong and well stablished label gives you more strength so to speak?
We have had very good experience from working with High Roller. They are both professional and caring at the same time, and it is clear that they are in it with 100% heart and soul. High Roller has given us the distribution platform that we need to spread our music abroad. I’d say that is the most important strength.
– You have even done a video for «Natural Born Killers». How did the whole process go? And why did you choose this tune?
It was pretty tough to record the live part of the music video. Adam had 39 degrees fever, and we all had hangover since the day before, but nevertheless we managed to make a good result out of it anyway. We wanted to make a classic raw video in fim noir fashion, and we thought that NBK would fit nicely. Adam wrote most of the plot, and we hired a guy to film it. The producer came in contact with a man from Malmö who got the starring role as killer, and our friend Linus (ex. The Scams) was asked to act the victim. Great fun!
– All this about «Firestorm» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Heavy Metal Record!
– As I said earlier, it seems like there’s lately a huge interest for traditional Heavy Metal. Have you noticed this interest with AMBUSH in any way? Is it something positive that there is this interest or maybe it makes things harder, as competence may be big?
We’ve noticed that lots of people want to support us by buying our merch and records. There’s a great bunch of fans on the European continent that goes to festivals like Keep it True and spend all their yearly savings on Heavy Metal records. It is thanks to these people that the underground scene is so amazing. The dedication and passion for this genre will never die, and we will always try to put more wood on the fire by writing relevant Heavy Metal.
– Muskelrock proves what I’m talking about really good. Is probably the best current Swedish music festival, giving room to both classic bands as newer bands with a traditional sound, still being a small an underground event. And you played there just a few months ago. How was the experience like? How good do you think is a festival like that for younger bands like AMBUSH?
Muskelrock is just suited for us. We all love the festival, and it was a great honour to play on the same stage as our heroes in Satan, Mindless sinner and Angel Witch. The festival was a pure success, and since we played on the Thursday, we could go into full alcohol mode when we went off stage aswell! We really recommend Muskelrock to all metalheads out there.
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
We are currently writing new material for our second album. We are also rehearsing for upcoming shows in Sweden, Germany, Austria and Switzerland this fall. Also, preparations for European shows to come during next spring and summer are in progress. Lots of good stuff yet to be announced, so stay alert!
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thanks alot for having me Sergio.
On behalf of all the guys in Ambush, I want to wish all metalheads of Spain a Heavy autumn!
Drink beer and kill deer!
Oskar Jacobsson
Ambush
