There hasn't been much heard about you lately. I only saw you somewhere as a producer. Is that job interesting for you? Do you like it? What recordings have you worked on, so far?
Yes, I have been building a studio the past 3-4 years. I have collected superb microphones, and several special modules that work excellent with metal production,- ( as well as rockbased material...) and even purchased an american custom console, that is top of the line as far as eq´s and preamps goes. I also got a Pro Tools Tdm system which is the absolute dream when it comes to music production. Now everything is possible. It´s more than a hobby, I actually am planning to work more extensively on records in the future. I didn´t get to work on alot of records yet, but I have been involved in Exmortem, Artillery, Corpus Mortale, and I am producing a french band "Strangulation" this summer. The Haunted´s live album was mixed here as well. And as the new Konkhra, I´ll be producing it myself like with the new Daemon... My studio is called Starstruck and I have a website: starstruck.dk. Foreign bands shouldn´t hesitate to ask, because my prices are very competetive and I´ll go far to make things work for foreign bands here...
So Anders, what has your band DAEMON been doing these days? It is said that DAEMON have been working on their third album, is that true? What can we expect from the new stuff?
I can guess that you havn´t had the chance to hear the record and thats a little dissapointing. I mean, its easier to talk about something that I know you heard. But I´m very proud of the record. Obviously working with Gene has been a privilege and I think his work on the record is amazing. I don´t think its much like old Daemon records,- nothing "swedish" about it this time, much more speed and aggresion,- the inspiration was older stuff like Deicide, Metallica from "ride" and much else from when I was a kid.
Where's gone the DRACULA logo? I'd also like to know what the cover "EYE FOR AN EYE" is supposed to represent. I'd say that the same author who did the solo album of JAMES MURPHY made it.
Dave McKean did the cover. He also did the cover for the last Konkhra and I was very pleased with his work So I asked him to work on the new Daemon as well. The past Daemon covers have all had Jesus on the cover and we decided to do something like that,- but more fresh with some hints to the knights templar and historic stuff, which is a great inspiration to me. the old logo is gone, because Dave doesnt like old school logos like that, I´m ok with it, it was a dracula ripp off anyway. Dave is absolutely amazing in my opinion and i`m very pushy when it comes to cover art. I think that packaging is crucial and when working with Dave you´re bound to be happy. This time he topped himself I think...
In KONKHRA, you were cooperating with JAMES MURPHY, in the first DAEMON with NICK ANDERSSON and now you've got GENE HOGLAN. How do you succeed to get in touch with such personalities? Is it like that when you need some help, you call that guy and he is like: "Oh yeah, I'll help you with that!"? How does such cooperation begin and how does it work in the time of playing gigs etc.? I bet it isn't easy. Are there any problems sometimes?
I have been playing this music for 12 years or something like that now. During that time I met alot of different guys, and sometimes I ask people if they want to do something with me. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no, but I´ve had the chance to play with great musicians,- sometimes they are a little dissapointing and sometimes something truly great happens and thats definately the case with this Daemon record. I think it turned out really good.
Do you suppose that we will wait to see DAEMON playing live one day?
I will be happy to tour. If Diehard wants me to tour for this record it will happen. Gene is ready to, as long as we can work around the scedules we have planned. So I´m game if the financial situation is ok, I prefer opening for someone with Daemon since we never really toured this band before. But we will see what happens...
DAEMON is kind of reference to the old school of Scandinavian death metal. What bands have inspired you most and which bands do you still like?
I think the only truly great band from Sweden was Entombed. And when working with Nicke in Sunlight you are bound to get some of that swedish vibe going. But I don´t think this new record as anything like any band from Scandiavia. I think the inspiration sources are widespread but generally american in origin and mostly old school. Its just a little uglier and angrier than most of the old stuff.
To be sincere, dear Anders. You can't even imagine how much I love the old KONKHRA albums. I have a VHS, all the albums, a T- shirt etc. ha, ha. but your recent stuff doesn't attract me as much. What opinion about that are you of ? Why has the creation of KONKHRA changed so radically? Why? Why does it sound like METALLICA in spite of the fact that KONKHRA had always been a death metal band? It might be a stupid question, but put yourself in the opinion of a KONKHRA fan, please. This is very important for me.
Well. I guess you can boil it down to this: Making records is always a chemistry situation and the chemistry when we did Come Down Cold was not really that great. on top of that, I think I was tired and uninspired. Per didn´t want to play fast, and the little common ground we had was some rock based material, we were drawing on the Second Coming with Daemon and nothing fast got on the record. I can understand why people get dissapointed when they are used to Konkhra being an obnoxious beast with angry and fast stuff happening. I mean, I don´t even think Per likes Konkhra material and its safe to say that it was a very poor choice on my part to hire him. He left as fast as he got in to play with the Haunted,- when that happened I was relieved to say the least. But thats in the past, and this whole experience made me really eager to get back to roots so to speak, and Johnny who was drumming on the first 2 records got back in the band as soon as Per was out the door. To me this too good to be true, and I think you can tell from the next record we will release that something right is going on this time. when we did "Spit Or Swallow". We are starting to record in April and I hope to have the record on the streets Kim is back as well, so the line up is totally like in the old days in the fall. But there is more to it than that. We supposedly got the top notch producer but he turned out to be a fucking asshole. He didn´t know shit, and we got treated like idiots. That guy is Vincent Wojno and its good advise to any band to stay the fuck away from this motherfucker, he will spend all your money + some and the record will sound like crap.
When are KONKHRA gonna release a new album? What will it contain? What will it sound like? Who are you gonna have for new members? What label will release it? I've heard that not DIEHARD anymore, why?
We already touched base on this a little, but like you know: the line up is complete in its old form and the music is definately very aggresive and its probably the most angry record yet. We don´t have a label, we parted ways with Diehard, the contract was fulfilled and we would like to get a better label this time. Diehard is ok, but they are limited to certain territories and I got sick of having to explain this to people writing in to our website. But we´ll record the album first and then well look at our possibilities.
What is more important for you, now? KONKHRA, DAEMON or anything else? What is the main priority in your personal life?
I´m very happy to be living off music. I built a studio and I will be working with music for the rest of my life. There will be alot of records and projects to come. I´m planning to do a very extreme blast beat death metal record under the name "Killswitch" in the fall, as well as more Konkhra and Daemon records. I´m happy doing this, and producing albums will probably get more attention from me in the future. My dream for the next Daemon would be to get Dave Lombardo drumming on it. I don´t know if he would want to and I don´t know abut the financial aspect of it. But writing songs for Dave would be a dream come true. I still think he is the epitome of metal drumming, and his fills and general aggresion is something rarely found. But future will show what it´ll show...
