From Luleå, Sweden, The Duskfall's guitar player answered to us. Talking about everything, LP's end recording sessions with Mikael Sandorf we done a little trip in them philosophy and history: |
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| Webmurder: |
First of all we like that you introduce your self and the rest of the band. |
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| Mike: |
I´m Mikael Sandorf, guitarplayer in the band. I´m the spider in the web and I try to keep all things under control.
The other guys are: Kai Jaakkola - Vocals, this guy has lungs bigger than an airbag. Kaj Molin - Bass, a really nice guy, a machine in the recording booth. Oskar Karlsson - Drums, the human metronome, never skips a beat. Joachim Lindback - Guitars, he is the father figure of the band as he is older than the rest.
The band was formed in January 1999. Back then it was supposed to be more of a "jam/cover" metalproject, playing metal in the vein of Pantera and Judas Priest. It only took a couple of rehersals until we realized that we wanted to put together a full-time band, playing our own music. At that time I had plans on doing a soloproject after Gates Of Ishtar was buried, named Duskfall, but I changed my mind and took the written material to this new project instead. |
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| Webmurder: |
Ok, Now let's talk about your last work, Source. What do you prefer about it? And, if there is something, what you don't like?
Is there anything that you would do a little bit different, now that it has been out for a while? |
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| Mike: |
We felt much more confident with this recording, as it was our second session in Dug-out studios. This time we all knew what to expect and how Daniel and Örjan preferred to work. Our intentions were, as always, to record a good CD for our fans, but now we focused even more on the arrangements and the important choruses. This resulted in more "listenable" songs, still carrying the power and aggression we wanted this CD to have. I think that we have returned to our roots with this CD, taking a step towards a harder sound again. |
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| Webmurder: |
Your Lyrics are very angry.isn't it? There's a lot of discomfort , disappointment towards our actual society. There were any particular argument, event situation that inspired you? |
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| Mike: |
The lyrics on "Source" continues on the same path we started on with "Frailty". It´s about inner demons, greed and religion, basically all things that are wrong in the world today. Kai uses his lyrics as a way of dealing with his every day life, of course they are far beyond driven but that is just his way on getting through with a clear message. Here are his own words on the matter: Kai "- I'm really not the kind of person whose path you should follow, nor do I think that you should follow anyone elses path for that matter. Make your own choices and mistakes, strength trough strife is what I'm after. Although it isn't that easy to think that everything will make you stronger when it's going bad as hell. Secondly, this world has already gone to hell in my opinion, and yes I've lost hope in this shitty place, but it doesn't mean that I've stopped to live or enjoy myself? Nor am I going to kill myself because of this, there are still many many years for people to destroy this planet and it's a lovely race, so there is no rush people. Enjoy the company of your family and friends as long as it lasts." |
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| Webmurder: |
What about the recording session(where and when, producers.) ...any trick to obtain your results ,strange or important events? |
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| Mike: |
At first we were scheduled for 5 weeks, same as for "Frailty", but this soon changed. I recieved a call from Daniel and he called on the behalf of In Flames. They needed to change some of their scheduled time due to the fact that their drummer and his GF had a child on the way. We allowed them to start their recordings of the drums 2 weeks earlier and after that we entered. The problem here was that IF needed Daniel to start packing for his trip to Danmark so wee lost a week and therefore the album was recorded in just 4 weeks. It was a bit stressful but we all worked around the clock so everything worked out properly in the end. We worked by a strikt schedule, at first we recorded the drumparts for 1 ½ days. Then we started on both vocals and guitars at the same time, using 2 separate studios. Vocals were recorded at Daniel´s place during a week or so and rythmguitars in Örjan´s studio for about 2 weeks. After that we recorded bass for one day and then the rest of the time were used for additional guitars and mixing. |
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| Webmurder: |
Could you tell us something about your equipment (all the band if it's possible) and the differences between your live stuff? |
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| Mike: |
I use a Ibanez RG guitar and I have a Marshall JCM900 rig as amp. Joachim plays a Gibson Les Paul axe and uses a Mesaboogie Mark IV amp. Kaj plays an ibanez bass and uses a Marshall valvstate amp to get the distortion in his sound. Oskar plays Tama drums, trigged by a korg module and he prefers the sound of zildjan cymbals. We try to use the same kind of gear live as well, to get a similar sound to the one we have in the rehersals. |
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| Webmurder: |
Which kind of atmosphere do you prefer when you are recording, mixing and composing your songs? |
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| Mike: |
Lack of time is always good:) I work 10 times better under pressure but I´ll probably end up dead from cardiac arrest unless we slow things down. |
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| Webmurder: |
Tell me something about you beginning. Who helps you (people-societys-government.)..if something done it, who believed in you and who stayed closer to you in hard moments? |
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| Mike: |
We have had no help at all from any branch of the society or government. We have had a few people that has supported the band throught all rough times and they all know who they are! |
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| Webmurder: |
What about your approach to the music world, in particular to the metal scene? |
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| Mike: |
Our hometown Luleå is a very poor town when it comes to metal. We have like one, maybe two metalshows/year here and that really blows. There are a couple of local metalbands, but the only ones with a deal are Helltrain(Oskars side-project) and Satariel. We would love to play more in the south of Sweden but there´s a big problem with the distance we have to travel to get down to the bigger citys. The people that book bands in the south rather use local acts to keep the travel costs down, this leaves us out of their calculations for shows and festivals. Hopefully things will improve now as we are getting a reputation as a good live band. |
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| Webmurder: |
Instead, what kind of stuff are you listening to (Like a top 5 more less), and which bands or artist left the biggest sign In your stile? |
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| Mike: |
Meshuggah, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Deicide, Defleshed, Scarve, Napalm Death, Lost Horizon, Europe... etc... It´s soo hard to choose only 5 ;) |
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| Webmurder: |
What do you know about Italian metal scene, and what do you think about it, or them? |
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| Mike: |
The only band that comes to mind right now is Rhapsody and I like them a lot, great musicians! I know that I have heard other bands from Italy but right now my head is empty, sorry! |
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| Webmurder: |
And.talking about labels...which is you situation now in Black Lotus Records? Everything gone like written?
Do you think the BLR support as well his bands? How? |
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| Mike: |
Things has been working out quite well with BLR and we will see what the future brings now when our deal for 2 CD´s are fullfilled towards them. We choosed to sign to them because they were the only ones confident enough to gives us free hands and a big studiobudget. Right now there are several parties interested in the band but we have not deciced anything, we wait for the right time and offer. |
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| Webmurder: |
Anybody of you has got side projects? What can you tell me about future...works, gigs, shows...? |
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| Mike: |
Kai and Oskar are the only ones involved in other bands as well. Oskar is the studiodrummer in Raised Fist and Helltrain, but he never plays live with them so this is not a problem. Kai screams in death/thrashact, The Deathbound, and they only play very few dates per year. We have very competent and dedicated members on all positions in the band and the future looks bright for the first time in years! We will focus on doing some festivals this summer/autumn and then we will record our next CD in April 2005. We will return to Dug-out for a third time but with a twist to get a new sound and a fresh imput. |
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| Webmurder: |
If you have anything to say to our readers in Italy.this is your moment! |
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| Mike: |
Are you´re fed up with bands that has gone too mainstream with their music, using clean vocals and gay keyboards? Then we are the remedy for you! We offer some good old Deathmetal in the melodic way, in full stereo and packed with attitude! Don´t hesitate folks, get your copy of "Source" today and we might throw in a free set of stakeknifes ;) Visit our webpage (www.theduskfall.com) and d/l some samples and then decide if I´m barking up the wrong tree here... |
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| Webmurder: |
Now I will give to you, your label and your great country a big embrace and many thanks for your time and availability! |
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| Mike: |
Thanx alot for the support and the interview, sorry for the delay, life is hectic as fuck here!!! Cheers! |
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By
Webmurder .
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Indietro
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