Blistering.com: Drum-wise, you’ve really stepped the intensity on some of the songs like “Impetuous Constant Chaos.” It’s your most aggressive stuff in years.
Wildoer: I think so, definitely. This year for me has been a total trip. We did the Darkane songs and recorded the drums in February, so it’s been a while. I already knew then I would be doing the drums on the new Old Man’s Child, so I started figuring out some more aggressive parts because I have some more black metal-type stuff coming up. I think also Christofer is a huge fan of the speedy drums, not the super-fast stuff like Nile, but like Human from Death where it’s intense. I think we wanted to do that with the drums – keep it intense and not fade out and get softer.
Blistering.com: Any expectations heading into your North American tour this winter with Soilwork?
Wildoer: It really feels at the moment since Layers of Lies, I wouldn’t say it took off, but the tour we did [in 2005] with Fear Factory, Soilwork and Strapping Young Lad really helped us to develop the name and the sales went up a bit. We sold three as time as many CD’s after the tour than we did before the tour. At the moment, we want to concentrate on the North American market, so that’s why we agreed to do this long tour. It’s 50 shows in 52 days. It’s going to be hell, but cool [laughs].
Blistering.com: What were your impressions the 2005 US tour?
Wildoer: We had so many expectations, but we didn’t know what to expect. For the fans of those bands, Darkane could appeal to those people. I would say that tour was amazing for us. The response, the fans that came up to us after the shows. It was a total ego-boost [laughs]. We never felt that before. We never did a serious tour like that, not even in Europe. We got tours, not as big and as long, so it’s going to be cool to do that again. Everything fell into place, and it was better than we expected, so the hopes are big for this tour, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that people show up.
Blistering.com: We’re about 10 years removed from Rusted Angel. What are some of your memories attached to that album?
Wildoer: I just remember how easy everything was [laughs]. Nowadays, I spend hours every evening because we’re handling everything ourselves – there’s so much other stuff you have to put your time into. Back then, we rehearsed and recorded the album. We didn’t know anything; we just did it for fun and I remember how spontaneous everything was. We recorded the album and mixed it in 17 days. That would never happen again [laughs]. Nowadays, we don’t spend full-time in the studio because we have our own.
We discuss it a lot as to how well that CD turned out. But I think it was the vibe of it and the fact we rehearsed everything before. That hasn’t happened since. We always go into the studio, we never have rehearsed the songs and I haven’t played the songs with the guys before recording them. I want to go back to that spontaneous vibe.
Blistering.com: Any chance “Bound” gets worked back into the set?
Wildoer: We have 45 minutes in the US. We’ll play three songs from the new album. We’ll do two from Layers of Lies, two from Expanding Senses and one from Insanity which is “Distress.” Then we’re left with Rusted Angel [laughs]. We have to do “Convicted” and then the other two songs are either “Bound” or “Rape of Mankind.” We’ve rehearsed both of them, so we’ll see what will work out for the tour.
Blistering.com: For a brief period, Darkane was known more for their weird promo shots with the cellophane [ed: see the shots for Insanity] than anything else. What was the motive behind those pictures?
Wildoer: The biggest reason was that we wanted to do something different. At that point, all the bands we liked – Arch Enemy, early In Flames, all the bands coming out of Sweden, went softer, more melodic. The only thing we realized, is that we wanted to do a record that was faster, more insane than the first one. For our career and sales, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. For us, we didn’t want to line up with the other Swedish bands and turn softer, we wanted to do something insane. That’s the reason for the layout. We did the cellophane thing back when we were Agretator, but that was limited to 500 CD’s, so we already used to that idea. But I think that was a response from us saying, “We’re not going to go that way.” It was the opposite of what everyone else was doing at the time.
Blistering.com: You mentioned you were taking a full year off to just be a musician. With the economy being as bad as it is, how are you going to make this work? Are things as bad in Sweden as they are here?
Wildoer: For sure. The Kroner, our money, is so bad at the moment. We usually have an even thing with the Danish Kroner, but now we have to 1.50 to get one Danish Kroner. For the US dollar, we used to get a dollar for five Kroner, but now we have to pay 8.50. Our money is not worth a lot anymore. And now with Saab and Volvo being owned by General Motors and Ford, they have big issues right now. People are having to quit their work. You always get scared. For me, nothing has changed, but when you hear on the news that the world is going down and the economy is getting worse, everyone’s views start to get lower. In a way, it’s affected the whole country.
It’s always a risk to concentrate on music, especially since the business has been what it is the last five or six years. I knew I had the recording with Old Man’s Child and the new Pestilence CD, plus the Darkane tour is coming up. After the Darkane US tour, I will do a tour with Pestilence, then the festivals with Darkane and Pestilence, so I knew this year would be booked up anyway. For me, it was safe, so I’m having no worries. The financial situation never affected me in my decision to do this full-time.
Blistering.com: Are you flattered/surprised that you’ve become this in-demand drummer?
Wildoer: I’m really a typical Swedish guy [laughs]. I’m having a hard time as to why people are calling me. I know I can do some cool parts, but there are so many good drummers. I’m just flattered those people called me, but there are so many other guys I look up to. For me, it was cool that people respect what I do and all the hard times and time spent practicing paid off in the end. It’s been an amazing year for me.
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