In Flames
The Sounds of Sweden
2007-12-13
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Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell is probably the only other white dude who could rock dreadlocks as hard as In Flames’ Anders Fridén. Though Fridén confessed that it was strange playing for 500 or so people in a “B-market” city like Synthesis’ hometown Chico, CA, after selling out 2,500-seat venues in larger cities, Fridén and the veteran Swedish metal act still stormed the cozy Senator Theatre and created an arena-worthy atmosphere. Maybe the venue was a step down from what they’ve become accustomed to, but the group is no doubt still riding a major high. Their most recent effort, Come Clarity, debuted at 52 on the Billboard charts in February 2006, which was not only their highest US debut, but largest debut for their new label, Ferret. Fridén took time away from a heated Xbox 360 FIFA matchup on the plush In Flames tour bus to tell us why the other bands featured on Sounds of the Underground Tour better watch their wallets.
I read in a past interview that you weren’t happy with the job Nuclear Blast was doing for your albums here in America. Are you pleased with the job Ferret’s doing so far? What do you think they’ve done that perhaps hadn’t been done for your past releases?
They’re reaching out to people in a different way. They have higher goals. They don’t rely on the past. They want to take things further. Nuclear Blast would be happy if they sold 40,000 albums, but that’s a disappointment to Ferret. I’m here to sell albums. Even though making music is the greatest fun ever, if you’re not here to sell albums and reach out to people, then you can be home. I wouldn’t be touring and staying away from my family for this amount of time. I’m happy to have a record label that’s striving for great things. And we have a cool dialogue with them all the time.
In the end, Nuclear Blast was controlled by Century Media over here in the States. Nuclear Blast is doing great things for us in Europe. We’re doing great over there, and we’re not thinking of changing anything. But over here, it just didn’t work. Some people at Century Media—higher up—were talking shit about us, about how we were dead or whatever. And we were like, whatever, fuck you, we know better.
One of the songs I really liked, “Dead End,” and you’ve done this on past albums, featured a female vocalist, Lisa Miskovsky. She’s a platinum-selling pop artist in Sweden, isn’t she?
Yeah, yeah.
How’d you guys hook up for that song?
Oh, we just asked her. It was that easy. We’d talked about having someone, and I came up with the idea, and I asked everybody what they thought. We met her at a festival. I asked the label person to introduce me, and she was awesome. We hit it off immediately, and she said “of course.” She liked the band as well, which was a surprise to me. She’s a metal chick from the beginning, not in her music, but she digs a lot of metal and she comes from the same city as Meshuggah. She went to a lot of their shows when she was younger. It was cool to do something different, something unexpected, especially in Sweden where with metal, you’re not supposed to do this, you’re not supposed to do that, and we hooked up with this pop singer and people were like, “Hey, what the fuck?” Which is one of my intentions, I want people to be a little bit like that.
You guys are hitting the Sounds of the Underground Tour this summer, are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing?
Cannibal Corpse will be cool. Behemoth is going to be cool to see…
Have you ever seen GWAR before?
No I haven’t, except for videos and stuff like that, but that’s going to be a spectacle for sure. The As I Lay Dying guys, we toured with them before, so I know them, and I’m waiting for them to put their money on the tables so we can play some poker.
You think you’re going to take their money?
[Laughs] Oh yeah, for sure.
I read in a past interview that you weren’t happy with the job Nuclear Blast was doing for your albums here in America. Are you pleased with the job Ferret’s doing so far? What do you think they’ve done that perhaps hadn’t been done for your past releases?
They’re reaching out to people in a different way. They have higher goals. They don’t rely on the past. They want to take things further. Nuclear Blast would be happy if they sold 40,000 albums, but that’s a disappointment to Ferret. I’m here to sell albums. Even though making music is the greatest fun ever, if you’re not here to sell albums and reach out to people, then you can be home. I wouldn’t be touring and staying away from my family for this amount of time. I’m happy to have a record label that’s striving for great things. And we have a cool dialogue with them all the time.
In the end, Nuclear Blast was controlled by Century Media over here in the States. Nuclear Blast is doing great things for us in Europe. We’re doing great over there, and we’re not thinking of changing anything. But over here, it just didn’t work. Some people at Century Media—higher up—were talking shit about us, about how we were dead or whatever. And we were like, whatever, fuck you, we know better.
One of the songs I really liked, “Dead End,” and you’ve done this on past albums, featured a female vocalist, Lisa Miskovsky. She’s a platinum-selling pop artist in Sweden, isn’t she?
Yeah, yeah.
How’d you guys hook up for that song?
Oh, we just asked her. It was that easy. We’d talked about having someone, and I came up with the idea, and I asked everybody what they thought. We met her at a festival. I asked the label person to introduce me, and she was awesome. We hit it off immediately, and she said “of course.” She liked the band as well, which was a surprise to me. She’s a metal chick from the beginning, not in her music, but she digs a lot of metal and she comes from the same city as Meshuggah. She went to a lot of their shows when she was younger. It was cool to do something different, something unexpected, especially in Sweden where with metal, you’re not supposed to do this, you’re not supposed to do that, and we hooked up with this pop singer and people were like, “Hey, what the fuck?” Which is one of my intentions, I want people to be a little bit like that.
You guys are hitting the Sounds of the Underground Tour this summer, are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing?
Cannibal Corpse will be cool. Behemoth is going to be cool to see…
Have you ever seen GWAR before?
No I haven’t, except for videos and stuff like that, but that’s going to be a spectacle for sure. The As I Lay Dying guys, we toured with them before, so I know them, and I’m waiting for them to put their money on the tables so we can play some poker.
You think you’re going to take their money?
[Laughs] Oh yeah, for sure.
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