ILLDISPOSED (Eng.)

– Hello, hanks for your time and congratulations on your new release. First off, what’s ILLDISPOSED currently up to?
Touring! 2011 will be a year of touring for us. Not least because it’s our 20 year anniversary this year.

– You’re now touring Europe, how is it going? Will more dates going to be announced?
Yes – many more dates will be announced. After the tours in April and May we’ll play some festivals and after that we’re planning a tour with our friends Raunchy in October.

– To start with your brand new «There is a Light (but it’s not for me)», please tell us a bit how’s being it’s feedback so far.
Most of the feedback has been very positive. That’s nice because we’ve really put a lot of work into this album.

– And I’m also curious about it’s title. What does it mean and how did you come up with it?
It means that sometimes you feel that the sun is shining on everybody else but yourself. Everybody feels that sometimes. It fits the overall topic of the lyrics very well. They are all about the negative and depressive things in life.

– What I first thought about the album is that is your most varied record so far. How do you feel about it? Was this something planned?
It was planned that we wanted to do something different than the last few albums. And our friend who is doing the synthesizers got divorced last year so suddenly he had plenty of time to work with us.

– It has Gothic Details, certain Industrial vibe, proggie elements, some Thrash feeling… What music styles (beisde Death Metal) have influenced you?
I don’t like the word “gothic”, never liked that kind of music or the lifestyle in general. All our electronic elements are inspired by the electronic music we’re listening to, for instance Depeche Mode and Röyksopp.

– Some tracks from «For those who Walk Behind us» were written even before «The Prestige» was released. Are songs from «There is a Light…» new?
I started writing immediately after the last album was recorded. It’s not because I’m in a hurry – the music is simply coming to me all the time. I can’t help it. It’s a gift I guess!

– «The Prestige» was a raw and straight-forward album, and it seemed with «For those…» you went for a more melodic approach, but «There is a Light..» sounds like the perfect mix between both things. Is this a way to keep yourself and your fans interested and never get bored?
It’s mainly a thing we do not to get bored ourselves. We easily get bored if we do the same thing again and again. But we’re also getting a lot of critics for changing from album to album. Some people just want the same shit over and over again. We like to move on.

– In fact, I could say this album, though still with your very own trademark and melody, has a
more pure Death Metal vibe. Could we say you have somehow, gone back to your roots?
I totally agree. I’m happy you say that because most people just saw “modern, new school” etc. immediately when they hear the synthesizers. But as you say the music is actually going in a more straight on death metal direction.

– If compositions in «For those who Walk behind us» were better than in «The Prestige», I think this time have improved once more, as they seem to be more well-cared and catchy. So, how has been or how’s like the usual composition process for ILLDISPOSED? Are you still the main songwriter?
Yeah I’m still writing all the songs. And it’s difficult to do it any differently because the songs just appear in my head. I can’t say “now I’ll write a good song”, that’s not how it works. It just appears the way it is – and then hopefully it’s good.

– You previous album was produced by you, but this time you have worked with the experienced Tue Madsen, why did you want an «outisder» this time? Did he understand what sound you wanted to get?
Sometimes it’s a good thing to get another person joining the creative process when you record the album. I still produced the new album together with Tue. But Tue came up with some cool ideas and that’s great.

– And how has been this time the production process?
I made all pre-productions myself at my studio at home. Then we went to the antfarm studio and tracked the drums. The guitars, bass and vocals were recorded back at my house again. And then Tue mixed and mastered the album.

– Lyrics, as always, seem pretty real. What are your main inspirations?
They are all inspired by life – mainly the bad things that happen. Stuff that brings you down. The cruelty of life.

– Much people label this brand new album as your best effort so far but, how do you perceive it?
It’s definitely one of the best 3 albums we did – in my opinion. I can’t say if it’s the best one yet – that takes time. You’re always hyped about the album after recording it – after a few years truth is coming.

– During your career you have been constatly evolving. You started as a basic Death Metal combo and now (in the last years) have became a Melodic Death Metal band (but with a characteristic sound). Is this a sign you’re getting older?
Yeah, getting older has something to do with it. We all change when we get older. But it’s also because we evolve as musicians. On the first album it was all about being the most brutal band in Denmark. Now we’ve got nothing to prove anymore. We just want to write good songs that we like to play.

– Have the several line-up changes had something to do with these changes in your sound or has just been a natural evolution?
It’s all natural. People grow up and get tired of the tough music industry. Death metal ain’t feeding your kids.

– Your last 4 albums have been released by different labels, 2 of them via Massacre Records. Do you think your relation with Massacre will be steady?
Yeah, I think that finally we have a good label we can stay with. It sucks to change label all the time, we didn’t do it just for fun.

– You have changed from a major label as Roadrunner to «mid» companies as AFM or Massacre. How positive was this move? And how was your cooperation with Roadrunner?
The Roadrunner years were great. Everything just worked and we didn’t have to work that hard ourselves. But when that is said we were also stuck because Roadrunner only released our album in certain countries. I think we belong in the mid-range.

– You’re now celebrating your 20th anniversary. Looking back to your beginnings, what balance could you do from all these years of career?
The main thing we’ve learned is not to care about anything. If you start caring about the bad things that happens along the way as well as the bullshit people are saying about you, then you’re going down.

– And will you do any special anniversary celebration?
We’ll tour some more than we usually do and play songs that covers all of ou
r career. We didn’t come up with more than that so far – but maybe we’ll get some good ideas.

– Finally, what are your near-future plans? What can we expect from ILLDISPOSED?
A lot of touring for the rest of the year – and then I’ll hopefully have another album ready sometime within the next years.

– That has been all, thanks once again for your time. If you now want to add any last words, last lines are yours.
Thank you for the interview – and hopefully we’ll meet some of you out there! Cheers