SABATON (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking your time. If I’m not mistaken you are now on the States, how is everything doing?
We have returned from the states, at the moment we are almost right at the border of Poland and Germany. After US we flew into Poland for a pressconference and two videoshoots. After that we were supposed to take the tourbus to Sweden but unfortunately it needed some repairs so we got a little delayed. But the mood on the bus is perfect anyway. When we had nothing to do we started a great party!
– You will soon release your new album, “Carolus Rex”, which I think marks an important moment and state of the band. How are you feeling about it?
We are curious to see all the reactions, its indeed a important album for the band. Even though it is recorded with the old members it will show the future of the band. Luckely we are feeling amazing and comfortable that we have recorded our best album ever!
– After the last line-up changes you are one of the two founding members remaining in SABATON. Could you say the band is facing a new period?
We are now Sabaton Mark 2, a new chapter in Sabatons history. But I see a bright future for the band and many great experiences in the future.
– After that changed happened; did you ever want to give up?
I felt really bad for a while, that was end of last year. I had lost a lot of inspiration and did not knew why. But I changed my mind and focused on the future, built a huge tour and said that I already invested everything I got in the band. Without it I have nothing.
– To start getting deeper into “Carolus Rex”, first of all I would like you to tell us the concept behind it.
The concept is the Swedish empire, about 100 years in the 16th and 17th century where Sweden was in war with many neigbouring countries and our kings and queens had high ambitions to conquer. Sweden was feared throughout europe. It was troubled times and war was always imminent. This is the most interesting time in Swedens history so we decided to focus the conceptalbum on this.
– Even historian Bengt Liljergen helped you with the concept. How did you work on the lyrics for this new record? And due to this, how important are lyrics on this effort? Are as important as the music?
Bengt helped us to find the interesting topics for songs that we would later use for writing lyrics. He helped us to find the right sources for information and finally me and Joakim would write the lyrics. During the writing process Bengt was always availible so we could ask him if we did something wrong at a place or so. It was great to have someone to ask for that.
For us lyrics is important even if the music is always number one. But we prefer to write lyrics about things that actually matters.
– I think this time you have depicted quite good with your music the essence behind the lyrics and the whole idea. Was this something important for this album?
Indeed, we had the topic of the album before the songs were written so Joakim had always in his head what the songs would be about and for sure it helped.
– In fact I could say this is your most epic and bombastic opus to date. Was this what you wanted to get?
Yes, that is what we aim with everything we do. We always want to push what we have done before and create something that fits the Sabaton fans aswell as also we want to try to better ourselves, create a better sound and such. On the new album the sound really took a leap since Peter Tägtgren did a fantastic job.
– You have released a Swedish version of the record and an English one as well. Why did you decide to do something like this?
We had some ideas that parts of a song should be in Swedish, but when we started to get closer and had a few beers we came up with the amazingly crazy idea to write the whole album in two versions. It was such a huge project. First to write in two languages and then to sing it. And its not just Joakim singing in two languages but a whole choir.
Many people thinks its just to translate the songs and sing once again, they are really wrong. Its really a lot of work behind this.
– The special edition contains covers of AMON AMARTH, STATUS QUO and RAMMSTEIN. If you don’t mind I would like you to elaborate a bit on this: how did you come up with the idea, why did you pick these concrete songs, etc.
Since we sing about Swedish history we wanted to have something connected to that. And there we have Amon Amarth with their Swedish viking songs. We are big fans of Amon Amarth and good friends.
With the song In the Army now I think the title of the song explains it all since Sabaton is about the military themes and such.
The final one is the Rammstein cover. We had the idea to make a song which is very unexpected and where we really do something crazy. Joakim sung this song before live once and we recorded it.
– All this being said; how could you describe “Carolus Rex” in 3 words?
Epic, Best, Sabaton
– Finally, what does future have in store for you? I see you have plenty touring these months.
Huge tours around the globe is in the future for Sabaton. We have started to announce parts of the tours which is at the moment only western europe. But the tour will continue and the mission to restore the Swedish Empire is wast.
– That has been everything from my side, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add some final words, feel free to do it.
Thanks for being so patient, sadly we do not tour Spain that much. I do my best to change that. But you have been amazing fans when we come around so please do not forget about us. We are coming back.
