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Interview with Raise Hell - Raise Hell
We were lucky enough to get the possibility to meet up with some members of Raise Hell for an interview at Wacken Open Air. I guess everyone was a little twisted in mind due to the intense festival partying so some of the questions probably seem a little weird...
Present is Torstein Wickberg (guitars) and Niclas Sjöström (bass, background vocals). At the first question, Jimmy Fjällendahl (vocals) was also sitting at the table.
We'll start by talking a little about your new singer, Jimmy. What is his musical background?
Jimmy : I've done a lot of clean vocals in bands before. Before Raise hell I was in a band called Driftaway that was kind of like Guns'n'Roses, Motorhead, AC/DC, that kind of music. I played in a Heavy Metal band before with Dennis (Ekdahl, drums) and Jonas (Nilsson, guitar) called Immortal Worship. But it was still more clean vocals.
Torstein : We were actually kind of worried because Jimmy always did the clean vocals. But he's such a good friend from back in the days and we thought he would be really good in the band! The chemistry in the band has to be good both on tour and in the rehearsal room, we like to hang out together too. So we were a bit worried and Jimmy was as well, but it turned out fine! The first two or three rehearsals he took these big leaps, always got really much better, from having never done this kind of growl thing, with an aggressive voice. It was really cool to see how he developed and after just a week, he sounded like he does now! It's great!
Niclas : Yeah, you get a chance to hear him later!
So have you played any gigs with him yet?
Torstein: Yeah, we've done a couple of gigs like two or three small club gigs in Stockholm and the Inferno festival in Norway.
And how was that?
Torstein : Inferno was really good!
Niclas : And good response from the audience, everything just clicked! And it was a good arrangement too!
What would you say is the biggest difference between Jonas and Jimmy?
Torstein : Well, the biggest difference is when we play live, because Jimmy has no guitar to worry about, and our live shows get much more interesting to look at for the audience! And that's the biggest difference, also for Jonas, because now he has also just one thing to worry about, the guitar, and some backing vocals. But that was the reason we changed that, because Jonas didn't want to sing anymore, he didn't feel comfortable live.
Niclas : There's not a very big difference vocal like, they sound pretty much alike.
So, will Jimmy also be taking part in writing songs?
Torstein : Yes!
Niclas : Yeah, we have started to write lyrics.
Torstein : But he's so bad at keeping the papers, he's just loosing them all the time, hahaha!
What can you tell us about the stuff you've done so far, the new material for the next album?
And how far have you got in writing the songs?
Torstein : We have done one finished song, and a few half finished songs. We're concentrating on more aggressiveness, still Thrash, and more "to the point"-songs, we're cutting down the minutes a bit, just keeping a red line through the songs, and talk before we do the songs. We say : "Okay, what feeling should we have in this song?", and them we stick to it. I guess our goal is to have a more compact approach. That you can really hear it's thought through!
Is Wacken one of your biggest shows yet?
Torstein : Yes, we played Wacken in the year 2000 and we had a really good response from the audience then! I must say for all of us, it was our best show so far! And of course the Inferno festival we played with Jimmy was awesome as well!
Niclas : But it was not as big!
Torstein : No, not as big. But then again we have been touring , but that's a whole different story.
Do you do anything special to warm up for a gig like this or in general?
Niclas : Drink booze, haha!
Torstein : Haha, well Dennis can't drink a beer, not a single beer..I try to warm up my fingers..
Niclas : We usually drink a whisky before we go on stage. Whisky shots!
Torstein : We have a ritual whisky shot!
Now I'm just curious because I heard on the internet that you took your name from an Anthrax demo..?
Torstein : No, that's not true..!
Okay, I just had to ask.
Torstein : Yeah, of course, it's good to get rid of rumours.
Niclas : We just heard from another guy, that there was a rumour going that no one from Raise Hell speaks English, hahaha!
Torstein : We just proved that wrong now!
Niclas : But I guess there's a lot of rumours going on!
Torstein : We usually just laugh about it, it doesn't hurt us or anything. But I think it was Jonas who came up with the name Raise Hell, and it did fit our concept, because we play Black Metal and Thrash, it's a really fitting name. We wanted to have this double meaning for it ; Raise Hell like literally raising Hell and Raise Hell like we're just making noise, we kind of liked that!
Niclas : Raising Hell in the audience!
Torstein : Raising Hell on stage!
I was wondering : can you live of music or do you have other kinds of jobs?
Torstein : No, we can't live of it yet. We get like pocket money from time to time. We get a little money, but we all work to make a living.
Okay, I would like to ask some questions about the latest album, Wicked Is My Game, because I think your sound has changed pretty much from each release. Did you feel like trying new stuff or did it just "happen", or.?
Niclas : I think a part of our band is that we always want to develop and put something new into each record, because we don't want to be one of these bands who keep repeating themselves album after album, just the same songs in a different way! So we always try to add something new to each album. But I think Wicked Is My Game is much in the same vein as Not Dead Yet, just with some new influences.
Torstein : And because we were so young when we released our first album, it's natural to develop as a man and grow up, and so the music does as well. But as I said; more Thrash and aggressiveness for the next album, we're still into Thrash!
Niclas : Of course!
But do you feel like you've found your own sound more with this album?
Torstein : More and more, yes. And it's always a good thing I guess to not be totally comfortable, or to be really, really satisfied with what you do, because then you never do things a little different! That's why we do it, it's natural for us!
Niclas : I think one thing we'll do on the next album as well, is to use Jimmy's clean vocals, in some ways, to put an extra dimension to the music.
Torstein : Yeah, we have never really put any thought into the vocals when we write the music. We just write the music and then we write the lyrics when we are about to record the album. But for the Wicked album we thought more and more about the lyrics, and now with Jimmy, we'll really, really concentrate on that!
How important do you think the image is for a band? I'm also thinking about the first release where you were covered in blood, and...do you consider that very important?
Niclas : Of course it's important, I mean every band have an image, but I don't think we have such a specified image anymore, we more and more go to just being ourselves.
Torstein : And that's what we write about in our lyrics as well, we have this metaphor when we're singing about the devil, it's just your ego. When we say "the devil" then we mean yourself, listen to yourself, dance with the devil; dance with yourself, and do what you want! That's always been the context in the lyrics.
Niclas : Then back on the Holy Target album, that's when the Black Metal scene was the biggest, and we were really into that at that time, so that was our image them.
Torstein : It was a lot of hate against Christianity, and for the Not Dead Yet album we were more into partying, hehe.
Okay, a little different question now. I was wondering if you could be any band that was alive in the 80's, which one would you have been?
Torstein : My greatest idols and the band I totally enjoy the most is Metallica, so I would say I would be anyone in Metallica!
Jimmy : I think I would say Guns 'n' Roses!
Torstein : Yeah, you would be Axel Rose.
Niclas : I think I'd say Metallica as well!
Would you like to tell us your funniest or most embarrassing concert moment?
Niclas : Jonas did a pretty funny thing, he didn't really know what he should say to the audience on the first tour, he's always been a bit.not comfortable with that. So once he said : "Okay, we're Sweden from Raise Hell!" Haha! On the whole tour he introduced us as Raise Hell from Sweden, because it was our first tour, so.
Torstein : And then on the same stage in Hamburg when we toured two years later on the Not Dead Yet tour, he did the same thing! Only because we said "Ohh, it was here you said that!", and then he was like, ohh, shit, and then he said it again, haha!
This is a very deep question..
Torstein : Philosophical.?
Yeah, I just thought about it yesterday....so, when you think about it; what is your goal in life? You personally.
Torstein : .or what's the meaning of lif? Yeah, well, I'd say that my dream in life is, that Raise Hell will be very big, and that we can live of our music. That is my dream! Our goal.yes, of course we're working on that, that's our goal.or our dream, because I don't really think with our kind of music that we can do that, but that would be really awesome!
Niclas : Maybe that's not reasonable to say that.you never know!
Torstein : Other goals.I don't know. Be happy! Be happy and have fun! Be rich, hehe! Be economically independent!
When did you know that you wanted to become a musician?
Torstein : I knew it when I was 11 and a friend of mine learned to play "Enter Sandman" on guitar from Metallica, and I thought Wow! And I wanted to do that as well. And then I learned like 12 songs from Metallica in a short while, and I just thought to myself, this is really cool! Metallica is just one of the biggest for me! I don't know about you Niclas...?
Niclas : Yeah I don't know, I'd say it kind of changes, but Metallica is always one of those.yeah that band was one of the biggest bands for me too!
Well, I think that's pretty much it..!
Torstein : Okay! Good interview!
If you have any final words for our readers, now is the time.
Torstein : Yeah, of course we would like to say hello to our fans and thank them for supporting us, that's important for us, because we wouldn't be here otherwise! So we're thankful and check out the next album, because it will be great and it will be a Raise Hell album, and not so different from Holy Target and Not Dead Yet!
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Written by Nina - 8/17/2003 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Kust (Anonymous) - Wednesday, August 20, 2003 | O´beaff
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| Comment by Mattias (Anonymous) - Monday, August 25, 2003 | Jag har legat med alla i Raise Hell.
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| Comment by karlsquell (Anonymous) - Wednesday, October 8, 2003 | all right, what i got to say? well, you did a great gig at wacken this year and in 2000 as well. and im looking forward to the upcoming album. so, thumbs up! or should i rather say: raise hell!!!
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