SECOND SUN (Eng.)

– Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. How is everything going right now with SECOND SUN? What are you currently up to?
Hello there, no problem at all. Always fun to answer some questions about music! It’s going great thank you, we’ve finally established a steady line-up, containing Marcus, Sofia and Jakob so right now we’re rehearsing for future escapades!

– First off, as I guess some people won’t know about you yet; could you please make some history of the band? I’ve seen on Facebook you were formed on 2010, so what kind of activity have you had until the release of your debut album?
Well, as stated on the Facebook page, we formed on the floor of a friends hallway on new years eve, me and Micael from Lamagaia (killer band, check it out!) wanted to start a band that sounded like the first Pentagram singles plus 16 Horsepower basically. We rustled up a bass player in Jonka, also in Tribulation – also from the same little town as me, and an organplayer in Marcus. Time passed, we did crappy recordings under the influence of too much folköl (swedish phenomenon where weaker beers are sold in grocery stores, up 3,5% alcohol.) and cheap whiskey that Micael used to buy on a ferry he was commuting with. Good times, but not necesserily good ideas always. Then Micael moved away, then I moved away, then I moved back, and then he moved back. We’re now in 2013. Marcus started playing bass and I thought that we were going to take the traditional band-road, were you do a demo, book a lousy show, do a new demo, do a little-less-lousy show etc etc. But in reality, we never rehearsed, and I felt like doing a recording, on my own basically, could be the way of getting a few gigs in order to get the band rolling. So in may 2014 I recorded four songs on my own with some additions from Marcus on synthesizer. Henry from Electric Assault got a hold of the songs and asked if I wanted to make something out of it, and I already had some songs lying around, so I recorded them in the fall, and the record got released this april! I guess that’s the short story.

– 2010, that’s before you joined TRIBULATION, so different to SECOND SUN. What does each band bring you?
The two bands might seem very different, and maybe they are, but to me it’s basically a question of personal outlet. I think all people have different sides to them, and you need to let your sides come out from time to time.

– On SECOND SUN you are the vocalist and guitar player. How different is that to play drums?
Well, it’s mainly different on stage where you have all the eyes on you and no where to hide. And that’s a cool change for me! Scary too, but cool! Other than that, I don’t really think about it, you’re a group of people creating something together, it doesn’t really matter who does what.

 
– As I said earlier, you recently released your debut album, «Hopp/Förtvivlan». As it have been some months since it came out, how do you now regard at it? How is the overall response being?
The response has been positive! I didn’t think anyone was going to care at all, and that wouldn’t really have mattered, but people seem to like, which is of course a nice bonus! I like it, but I’m really looking forward to make the new recording happen where we will record as a band!

 
– «Hopp/Förtvivlan» basically means «hope/despair». A really inspiring title. What’s the actual meaning behind it? And what do the lyrics on the title track deal with?
It deals with the ups and downs of life, the fact that as long as you live, there is a slim chance of living a little bit more, and that’s hard to try to explain without sounding like a person with stones that has “Carpe Diem” written on them in their window. But something in that general direction. The last part roughly translates to:
A high without a low is just a flat line
A smile without a tear is just a facial expression
A sunshine without rain burns the ground to ash
In life – there is death, hope and despair

 
– And what are some of the other lyrical themes on the record?
Loneliness, anger, the feeling that nothing’s ever going to work out, wrecked relationships, late nights containing a lot of the aforementioned. It’s not a very happy record, really.

– This opus came out via the New York label Electric Assault. How did you hook up with them in the first place? They have a really diverse catalogue, but always manage to sign high quality bands from all around th globe.
I’ve known Henry since a tour we did with Tribulation in the states in late 2013, so as I said he contacted me after hearing the tracks and wanted to collaborate and I was more than eager to work with him! As you say, diverse high quality music, just like my record collection in general, haha!

 
– Musically you seem to be influenced by 60’s and 70’s experimental music, ala Folk/Space Rock, with nuances to JETHRO TULL or HAWKWIND. What bands could you say inspired you to form a band like this? Were there any artists you found yourself listening more to while writing your album?
I’ve always listened to metal, and from there I’ve explored everything that I’ve liked! Bands like Nektar and Jethro Tull that Iron Maiden did covers of. And also the punkier side of things with Hellacopters that I’ve always loved which led me to listen to Stooges, MC5 and Alice Cooper. You know inspiration leads to discoveries which lead to more inspiration, I guess I just liked the direction where the folk and space rock took me with Eloy, Steeleye Span, Flower Travelling Band and so on. Which took me to Popol Vuh and Irish folk music which took me to… Well, you get it! Wolf People from the UK is probably the band that meant the most though, they were great musicians, looked awesome, had killer songs, seemed like nice people, AND they had released a great album the year before! They inspired me to get to work on the songs, the sound, to complete the process and to gather the loose ends. It was like “Hey! You can actually do this kind of music right now, it’s just a matter of getting going on it!”

 
– Folk seems to be an important part of your sound too, thus giving importance to harmonies and melodies. Could you say this is something you actually focused on?
Yes I would, much of my inspiration comes from Swedish and Irish folk music, I guess you can say I use their tonality a lot. I don’t really know what I’m talking about theoretically here, so please don’t shoot me all you music theory professors out there, but I feel like I use a lot of folk notes in all the melodies.

– Melodies are almost mesmerizing and captivating, without being really psychodelic. It feels when listening to «Hopp/Förtvivlan» that you really knew how you wanted it to sound. Did you have a clear vision on how should the album sound like or do you work on a more spontaneous way? As it doesn’t lose the fresh, honest element either.
Hard one! I actually did the whole album in five days, so I had to have clear vidion I guess, but on the other hand I hadn’t really sung on a proper recording before, so I had to come up with some spontaneous solutions. Like the vocal harmonies on the first track, I think they’re not even the same every time, I sang it a little differently a few times and then we took two that sounded good together,

 
– Vocals are the perfect support to those captivating melodies. How did you approach your vocals?
Why thank you very much! Like I said I hadn’t really sung before, so I would say I approached it with a feeling of doubt and a bottle in my hand.

 
– They enhance the aforementioned atmosphere, which I think are specially built by the guitar melodies, as we can hear on the title track. Would you mind to elaborate a little bit on this song? How was it born?
The riff had been around for some time, and had had many costumes before I found this one, with the Hawkwind chords and the pumping bass. I really liked that, so I kept it for the verse. Then I remember sitting jamming the chorus with a friend and she said it sounded really good and I’ve always trusted her so that could stay as well. The outro is probably some other song that I’ve tried to play on guitar and failed to get out right, kind of liked the result, elaborated it and forgotten where it came from. Happens all the time, and then you’re stuck with a melody that you can’t get out of your head.

 
 
– All lyrics on the album are sung in Swedish. I think it may be easier to you to just use your mother tongue but, did you ever consider having English lyrics?
It is easier! It’s easier to hit the notes for some strange reason. We used to have about half the lyrics in English, when Micael was in the band in the beginning, because he wrote really cool lyrics in English! I think we might record one of the earliest songs we did, where he wrote the lyrics about an old William Gibson short story, at some point! That will be cool!

– In fact it caught my attention almost all your Facebook posts are in Swedish too. Is there any reason behind this? Don’t you think this might make you not get more coverage or a wider audience? Or you just don’t care about this kind of things?
I haven’t thought about that actually, I guess the reason is that I feel better when I write in a language I can really handle. I actually do try to think about it, but when we do a gig in Stockholm on a Thursday or some internet zine writes a review in Swedish, I estimate the risk of someone outside Sweden being interested in it as pretty small, haha.

 
– All this about «Hopp/Förtvivlan» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Bitter, broken, bruised

 
– And finally, what are now your near-future plans?
Right now we’re rehearsing for some gigs that we’re going to do, and for a recording session that will commence as soon as we can get all the pieces together! I always write songs so as soon as there’s time there will be music!

 
– That’s all, thank you  once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Work less, buy less stuff, do something that makes you feel good.

Tania Giménez
tania@queensofsteel.com