1. I will start with my usual starting question.......why "Madder Mortem"??
Well, I can't really say that there is some unrevealed mystery behind the name.
We realised that our old name Mystery Tribe didn't cut it anymore, since
we'd gotten a totally new line-up and the music didn't sound like it once did.
After a very long periode of hard thinking, my father showed us a colorsheet
with names of many different colors and Madder seemed to fit our expression perfectly.
It's a reddish color and red as a colors have many strong assosiations to it.
It's a very passionate color and I think it fits our music all the way back
from our demo Misty Sleep to our new album Deadlands. Mortem was a natural word
for us to choose, though I can't exactly remember why, probably because we're very
metal and thought Mortem sounded really cool with Madder.
Directly translated our name means Red Death. But, as with most of our lyrics the
name is draped with metaphores. It's not a statement, more like a description of
what we sound like. Everyone can make up their own mind on what it means to them.
To me the name in a way says, be passionate with
the things you do in your life. Even if you're going to get burned, it'll be worth it.
In the band connection it's like we're giving all of our life,
draping and slowly killing ourselves with this passionate project.
I'm not very good at describing things with words, but in a weird
way that's what I meant to say.
2. You have recently finished recording a new album, Deadlands, Tell me
about it...
I think it's extremely good and holds a very high standard.
First of all I have to say that the recordings was like mental hell.
It didn't seem like we were ever going to get it finished. In addition
to the extremely thight schedule and working two/three shifts per day,
there was people drilling in the walls and the roof in the building
we where sleeping in. You should have heard that noise, it was insane!
I'll try to describe it. It was almost like going to the dentist,
but the dentist isn't there so his assistant offers a woodpecker
the job and he gets a new assistant, an elephant, to jump up and down
on your head with his feet while the woodpecker works on your teeth.
Then take a machine gun and glue the trigger to an energy source like
a wheel with a hamster in it and point it right beside your head.
Bang, bom, bash, biff. We had a hard time recording this album,
but we're extremely ambitious with what we do, so that's what's
it's going to be like.
On a more serious note, it contains 9 songs + intro. It's 57:13
minutes of Madder madness and is one hell of a monster.
The songs are quite different from each other, but not as schizophrenic
as on our previous album, All Flesh Is Grass. When you put it on, there's
a very dark vibe surrounding you. The weird intro "Enter" fades into one
of our heaviest songs ever, "Necropol Lit" and from there on it's complete misery.
Just kidding, it's not complete misery, but it's not a verry happy album.
The individual songs are very different to each other, but they have a
strong connection in the way that the dark atmosphere is apparent
all the way through the album. Even though it's not very happy,
it's very cathcy and melodic. The listeners doesn't need to be afraid
that it's an album only for muscicians to listen to, as many reviews
stated last time. It's not! It's just a question of giving it time and let the
songs grow on you. We know we're a demanding band in the sense that
we need to get the listeners to listen to it enough to get into the
whole Madder madness, but I think you'll find that even if it takes
a bit of work, it gives a lot back to you. You won't regret investing
that time after descovering what lies underneath the surface...
If you like gloomy, heavy and melodic music you're really going to
like Deadlands with all its emotions.
3. Deadlands will be your fourth release. What does it bring new, compared
to the previous ones??
It brings a heavier production, improved playing and singing.
In my opinion the songwriting is also much stronger than before.
We've worked more as a unit with this record and especially
the rythm-section have gotten much more worked through and I think
you can hear the difference from last time.
I also think you can hear that we're the same line-up as last time.
It also really brings out the dark side of us.
4. Are you planning to tour extensevely with Deadlands?
If the decicion was up to us, yes. But, we're not the ones with the finances.
Nothing are planned at this moment, but I hope we'll get
to tour a lot this time. We have only done one tour so
far and I hope that was just the beginning. The thing
is that if we don't sell a lot of albums, no one dares to
pay money to get us on the right tours and that is kind of
a backwards way of thinking, since touring is the right way to go to get
our music out there. I think that we're a really good live band
and by touring more we'll improve that way more. In addition to
that we also love playing live, so hopefully we can tour
a lot with Deadlands.
5. How are you getting along with Century Media??
Pretty well. There's always differences between labels and their bands.
We have our little disputes, but most of them are solved easily.
That said, I really hope that Century Media will dare to put enough
money into this band, since we don't sound like everybody else and
need individual promotion to get heard. It's hard to get
a listener interested in what we do only by regular promotion
since we're not a very easy band to describe. Just "female vocals"
or "metal" doesn't really make a good description of what we
sound like, it's much more to it than that.
6. How do you see metal in the new millenium??
I think and hope that genres will be less important, that bands
like us get a fair chance even though we're not easy to label.
For sure there'll be more retro trends, exactly what it's
going to be is hard to guess. The last couple of years it seems
like the eighties have had it's time again through powermetal and
I think that particular trend will fade away soon.
Gnu-metal will probably be dominating the marked for a little longer.
I hope that the bands that get attention are the ones that take
an interest in doing something different instead of just
facelifting and shoplifting other bands.
Maybe Hammerfall and Limp Bizkit will make a collaboration and name
it Limp Hammerkit. The new mix of angry american men and swedish
leatherwear sounding like rap-o-ween.
7.A final word.......
Thanks a lot for this interview. I hope that your readers
get a copy of Deadlands. The cover art is really original and special.
Add that to the music and it'll definitely be worth the money spent.
Also remember to visit us on the web: http://www.maddermortem.com,
new website will be launched the 21st of October.
1. I will start with my usual starting question.......why "Madder Mortem"??