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Interview with Pain of Salvation at ProgPower V - Pain of Salvation
For the Swedish group that is often times hard to classify within the realms of the metal or progressive world, 2004 will be looked upon as having been an eventful year for Pain of Salvation. Coming off the tails of their acoustic record 12:5 and their new elaborate conceptual piece, simply titled Be, Daniel Gildenlow and company made the trek to the States this year to play Prog Power V in Atlanta to treat the attendees to an amazing set that left us all in awe, showcasing the musicianship and the energy that these guys bring to the table. Well now on the table that me Daniel Gildenlow, Christopher Gildenlow, and Johan Hallgren are sitting down at, these guys begin to admire my tape/phone recorder sitting between us, as we situate outside the Fairfield Hotel.
Tommy Hash: Yeah it's old technology but I don't know if I could handle a digital machine, hell, I tried to answer my new mobile phone today and accidentally hung up while trying to answer the damn thing. So how has everything been in America so far?
Daniel Gildenlow: Pretty good, we just wish we had more sleep, but we are in a time crunch.
Christopher Gildenlow: The best thing was the landing I think.
Johan Hallgren: Oh Yeah
DG: We are thinking about going to Six Flags, but now we don't have to.
TH: Were you guys out running around during the hurricane.
DG: We were landing during it.
TH: Is this your first Trip to America?
DG: It's actually our fourth and I have been here with The Flower Kings.
TH: "Being" (Laughing about the pun) several albums into your career at this point, how do you see yourselves with the latest album Be.
DG: (Laughing) We're just getting worse and worse. Were aiming to become Oasis or something.
JH: Maybe we will start earning some money.
DG: I just feel like for every album, you just want to make music that you want to hear yourself, music that you are always missing out there, and that will cause a certain development unto itself, I'm not saying that it develops in a certain direction or anything, but it's just the situation at the time. Every album is kind of a snapshot of a band "today" or at that given point of time.
Obviously, after one hears the Be album, the snapshot will be looked upon as being extremely intricate. Backing up a little bit here, with the release of this year's 12:5 album, Gildenlow explains that the material had to literally be reworked for an acoustic performances and that the idea to actually record a record like this came about on a sudden meeting of fate, well actually some quick events that came about in a short amount of time rather than having been an idea that had been toyed around with for some time.
DG: They were opening this new stage in the place where we were rehearsing, and we were asked to maybe play/record something and were like well. But then we thought, maybe we can do something acoustic, play a few songs acoustically, without bringing all our stuff down and we ended up enjoying that. Then we were asked, by a radio station first, if we could do some type of a live show or something. So in that case, we decided since we were going to do this, we would go back and really work on the material, to make it "well dressed" for the occasion so to speak.
JH: You play a different way with the acoustic guitar than you do an electric, so you have to sort of re-work them.
DG: If you created the song from the right way in the beginning, hopefully, every change that you make will not be a change for the worst, whether you are playing it differently or the exact same way. 12:5 was old material, but it was kind of rewritten and rearranged.
Pain of Salvation are known to create elaborate concept albums, the album that put these guys in the limelight was 2000's One Hour by the Concrete Lake, an album that instead of being based on Science Fiction, is based on true to life facts, the album is actually about that lake in Russia that expelled deadly fumes, a theme that left all "fantasy" connotations aside, not to mention that the latest album Be, being with the evolution of life and how threaded we are with reality that could lead up to the demise of mankind. It is taken in a highly philosophical standpoint, being multiple parts within several sections that make this eerie and dark concept record. So what creates the "blueprint" for their writing?
DG: I like to read Popular Science, and I especially like to take information or facts from one area and move it to another and see if they can make sense together, looking for connections in different areas. It comes from a natural point of view, I have always had the opinion that if you want to express yourself with lyrics, it better be about something, because otherwise you might have the melody right but the lyrics just might not make sense.
With Be being a record that incorporates an ensemble that features different string, woodwind, and brass instruments, which are very prominent within the record (ie: oboe leads) rather than just providing background(not to mention being real rather than played on a keyboard,) it was a challenge to work around the different musicians and instruments that help make the latest record a surprising feat for this otherwise aggressive band.
TH: How did the recording process go?
DG: It was hell actually (laughing), we played it live and we recorded the orchestra section live, so there was first a lot of synchronization and "file handling" really, it was really messy. During this time, I was building a studio, and there were a lot of computer problems along the way. In the end, mainly in the last few weeks, everything went as it was supposed to.
TH: Do you guys use Pro-Tools?
DG: Logic, and then Pro-Tools for the drums actually.
TH: How has the Digital Audio Workstation technology changed you as a musician and producer?
DG: When it comes to function, the digital revolution, I mean, I love it. Unfortunately though, you have all those computer problems that you might not have experienced in the same way when you were using analog, but you couldn't do the same things either that you can do with digital, but I guess that's just taking bit the bad and the good, or as I say "The Pain of Salvation"
Speaking about their current label, Inside Out, Gildenlow explains that getting signed to the label was a dream come true, its not everyday that a band gets to sign to a labels that they would like to be on, it's hard to imagine how these guys felt when they heard the reaction form the label.
DG: When we released our first album in Japan, no other territories would respond. When we recorded the second one we sent it out to several labels, and Inside Out was one of the labels we wanted to be with, trying to get signed with them was one of our priorities. When they received it, we got a phone call from them and the phrase "it's a killer" was mentioned and we will always remember that.
Knowing that these guys have worked with other bands, I then asked them if there was anything in the works as far as any production or guest appearances, but all kidding aside, the eye is on the prize and Pain of Salvation remains a priority with these guys among other possibilities.
DG: I'm involved with The flower kings, and I played the Transatlantic tour, and then I am going to work on something called the Genius Project, so it's been nice and really stressful at the same time. The main focus is Pain of Salvation, as far as any other side projects go there is nothing planned yet.
Influences come from a wide variety, Pain of Salvation cites everyone from Abba, Elvis, Maiden, Beatles, Queensryche, and King Diamond as the musical mantra that inspired these guys.
DG: Of course that is something that you deny when you are younger (referring to the Abba influence), but when you really listen to the music, it's different. Later on I was turned onto Kiss, although my first album was Alan Parson's Projects' Eye in the Sky, which is really an odd to have as your first.
CG: I was more into pop music, stuff that was on the charts, but I come from a different background that really had nothing to do with music, I was a football/soccer player at one time. But when I started playing music, I played piano.
TH: Is there any musical training in your backgrounds.
DG: We were all educated in music in the sense, we were taught our instruments, and we went to colleges and so forth.
TH: I know with the album coming out next month it might be too early at this point, but what holds the future for Pain of Salvation?
DG: Well, I really don't know, we end up surprising ourselves as much as we surprise the listeners.
There is no doublt that we will all be surprised when listening to this record, although hard to grasp at first, you can't deny that the thought that was put into the record was extensive, and the outcome is extremely complex, whether referring to the musical or lyrical content, which is surprising that the whole storyline fit onto one disc. Now with the interview wrapped up, Daniel grabs his metallic silver Parker Fly axe that had been lying in the grass next to the table, at this point we are only a couple hours away from their set, where they would be the second to the last band that would close this year's Prog Power.
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Written by Hashman - 9/29/2004 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Morten (Anonymous) - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 | This has been the one album I have been waiting for so-oooo long, three years or so.
My absolute fave band, no more no less.
I'm going through my second listen, and as always new thing emerge, and this will happen for a long while. I have'nt even begun to grasp BE yet. Being a musician myself, the music and melody line is very much my focus point, during theese first times listening to the album. Lyrics is second priority.
First reaction, I'm missing a little bit of the ballsy guitars and heavyness... but it is still way too early to find out if this is true.
The concept is a huge thing to grasp, and if Daniel Gildlöw has pulled it off again or not, he probaly has, I'll be disapointed if he has'nt, is as I said before way too early to tell.
But man am I happy it's here. Thank you so much, see you on tour!!
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| Comment by Mads Aanum (Anonymous) - Friday, October 1, 2004 | Man I want my copy now... can wait anymore...
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| Comment by Mads Aanum (Anonymous) - Friday, October 1, 2004 | damn my spelling skills... I can't wait anymore... ahhh hate when that happens...
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| Comment by The Fat Friar (Anonymous) - Friday, October 1, 2004 | @ Mads
Hey man that video stuff on Neal Morse' website was shot by Barry but they used some video captures to get pics of Neal playing guitar in his Diary section that was filmed by me...so far most of the pics and video stuff were from Baryy...he was able to be there more than me because i had to work!
Look for a review of his new album "One" soon.
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| Comment by Mads Aanum (Anonymous) - Sunday, October 3, 2004 | @ David:
cool I'll be looking forward to that for sure...
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| Comment by Mads Aanum (Anonymous) - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 | So I got my copy of "BE" today... and man I was happy, after the first listen I didn't know what to think... it's this good or is this bad... then I listned to it again and then "BE" opened the doors to me, and I am now on my fourth listen and I am falling in love with this album... I has everything you want in a Pain Of Salvation album, and then some... a complex concept and a some of the best play music in a long time... in short this album is the best album this year... can't be denied...
Mads Aanum "pain Of Salvation addict"...
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| Comment by Kvazimoda (Anonymous) - Saturday, August 20, 2005 | VzdroChKaMy my my love message My my my love
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