When it comes to the pure passion of the genre, there’s nothing quite like creating anthems that make listeners want to stand at attention, screaming their hearts out to every lyric holding fists high to the sky. Dream Evil is one of those acts continuing in that traditional mold of acts like Iron Maiden, Dio, Saxon, Accept, Manowar, and Judas Priest that started in 1999 and twenty-five years later still create compelling albums. Metal Gods is the newest platter, another molten statement worthy of numerous spins. We reached out to guitarist/producer Fredrik Nordström to learn about the long wait between records, video thoughts, how the band arrived as a hobby outfit versus full-time proposition, band chemistry, production talk including tips for younger musicians, plus future plans.
Dead Rhetoric: Metal Gods is the latest Dream Evil album. You mention in the background information that work began several years ago, but your busy work/family lives – plus I imagine the pandemic – slowed the pace of getting the album finished and together longer than anticipated. How does the songwriting and recording process develop at this point for the band – and do you believe this long wait between releases makes fans anticipate (and appreciate) more when something finally drops?
Fredrik Nordström: I don’t really know. I know that most bands these days try to release an album every second year. We are not that type of band – of course the pandemic fucked that up also. At this time, we had a little bit different of a writing set up. We would end up meeting together in the studio once a week, if somebody had an idea the whole band would be included in most of the writing of the songs. Peter, our bass player did some songs by himself, myself and our drummer Sören did some songs by ourselves. We recorded everything except the bass here in my studio. Previously, the two last albums we did some drums in the studio, Niklas our singer would do his work at his home studio, I would track guitars at home – so the process takes forever. We had a proper plan and set up.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you remember some of the earliest songs that developed for the record, and how far back in that process they had developed?
Nordström: Several years, actually. When we met up the first time, we had five or six song ideas that we decided we should start working on. We had twenty-two to twenty-five songs, and we decided that not all the songs were completely written. We had to leave off some stuff that I thought was really good, but we hadn’t created the right verses and choruses, so we decided to keep those songs for the next album.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the choices of guest lead guitar spots come about with Johathan Thorpenberg, Tommy Johansson, and Christopher Amott on this record? What do you enjoy most about their styles and techniques that add additional coloring to the album?
Nordström: Jonathan Thorpenberg, he is a very, very good guitar player. Chris is one of my favorite lead guitar players. And Tommy, he was in Sabaton, and I really like him a lot. We also have Andy LaRocque and Pontus Norgren from Hammerfall on four other songs that will be released later on this year, I hope. We recorded fourteen songs in total.
Dead Rhetoric: The title track references the strong impact of specific bands in 1982-83 like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, and Manowar among others. Which of those acts and albums made the biggest impact to you and still speak strongly to your love of the genre today?
Nordström: For me, my absolute metal god is Dio. But this is written from the singer’s lyrics, and how he got in contact with metal music. It’s from its heart. I was a bit disappointed that Dio was not here. But the other guitar player said yeah, but you’ve called the band Dream Evil after a Dio album, that’s a tribute enough. If you are going to sing about all the true metal gods, the song would end up being about forty minutes long. (laughs).
Dead Rhetoric: So, for you Holy Diver would have been the album you would have picked in those years?
Nordström: Yes (laughs). I think that Niclas wrote the song from his heart, so it’s all good for me.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve made videos for “Chosen Force” and “Metal Gods” – do you enjoy the process of bringing to life visuals and imagery that match the uplifting nature to your music?
Nordström: I’m not the type of guy who likes to stand in front of the camera. We have a third video for “Fight in the Night” that was just released, it’s a very silly video. We work with Patric Ullaeus – he has done videos for Hammerfall, In Flames, Arch Enemy, tons of others – he’s a big fan of the band so we have a lot of fun making the videos together to be honest. It’s a necessary evil for me to be standing in front of the camera. Recording is fine, but acting in front of the camera is… ugh.
Dead Rhetoric: You do understand the visual appeal though through social media for these videos, even if it’s different from the major media outlets of Headbanger’s Ball back in the 80s and 90s?
Nordström: Yes, yes. All this social media stuff – we are a bit too old for that. Thinking of ways to post clips four times a week. We are bad, we are trying though.
Dead Rhetoric: Early on during the 2000’s the band’s output was fairly regular – but then things slowed down a bit between the United and In the Night releases. Did you always know that Dream Evil was going to be more of a hobby / passion outfit versus a full-time viable touring/recording entity – and does that help keep things fresh and interesting for the band when you come back together to develop a new set of material?
Nordström: My plan from the beginning was to be a full-time musician and we had the option to go there also. Then our bass player and singer said no, that’s not going to happen – and they quit the band. Then we tried to find new members for like eight months or something, and we knew it wasn’t going to work. We actually called up Peter and Niklas again, we will follow your path, not play out too much and not go all in to be a professional band. I’m happy for it to be honest. We have thirteen kids in total in the band. It was a tough time to playing a gig on the road, your wife sees you come in from a show, and now it’s your time to take care of the children and you are ready to go to sleep for two days.
On the road there is also a lot of drinking, which didn’t help. On the opposite side, when it’s more of a hobby band, even when you meet up at like five o’clock in the morning, it’s always fun to see each other, a big smile. There have been very few fights in the band. Between 2003-04 when people were going in different directions, there was a bit of fighting. Now we just laugh, have fun, have a great time, play for awesome people, and it’s a privilege.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you also enjoy the long-time support you’ve received from Century Media, who you’ve been with since the band’s inception?
Nordström: Yeah, I think we have a good relationship. We’ve had the same A+R guy since the start, and he still works for us. The contract is actually over now, but nobody in the band feels like we should go shopping. It’s best to stay with them. I know many bands complain about their record labels, but we don’t.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you describe the band chemistry within Dream Evil? What do you enjoy most about this set of musicians you work with?
Nordström: The chemistry overall, we have so much fun together. There’s never fights, it’s like being married, except with four other boys that you don’t have sex with. We stay away from each other for long periods, so it’s always super fun to see each other. Our bass player Peter is a very good organizer, I’m doing the recording, our other guitar player Mark stays up with the social media, Niklas does the merchandise stuff, and our drummer only worries about the beer (laughs). He’s a good constructor, so if we need something like that in the band, he does it. He’s like Bob the Builder (laughs).
Dead Rhetoric: When it comes to your production work over the decades, what would you consider a few of the more underrated releases across the metal genre that you believe people need to spend more time diving into and appreciating?
Nordström: One album that directly comes to my mind is Spiritual Beggars – Ad Astra. That was a Michael Amott side project that I think is a really good album. There is a lot of stuff I did over the years that just disappeared and kind of vanished. I did one thing with a Greek guy; he grew up in Russia and he grew up with his grandmother – they listened to Lenin and Stalin with their fight songs. He got permission from the Russian government to use those recordings and make a metal album of it. It was super cool, but I never saw any release or anything. There are a lot of underestimated albums out there.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see your role as a producer – and how has it evolved from your early days to your outlook / approach today?
Nordström: It’s the same but the technique is different. Back in the day we used analog tape, now everything is digital. I have calmed down a lot. Back in the day I had a lot of stress – for example, mixing an album would be really stressful. You get older, you get more like an adult. I haven’t thought about that to be honest.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you think you were more of a perfectionist in the early days, and that’s why you got more work due to your work ethic?
Nordström: Yes, also back in the day I would spend so much time in the studio. It was seven days a week, twelve hours a day recording and recording. Normally, an album like early In Flames, they didn’t have a lot of money for a budget so they would spend about two weeks in the studio. Buying tapes to record on, it was $1,200, and then the recording it could get expensive. At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul and Dark Tranquillity’s The Gallery were the first records that I got more than four weeks. An Architects album you can spend ten weeks on, Dimmu Borgir at least the same.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have any tips for the younger musicians to pay attention to before they go into a studio like yours?
Nordström: Being prepared is very good. It’s a nightmare when someone comes to the studio that has been growling his whole life and says he’s going to sing clean. Have you ever sung clean before? No. Okay – this is going to be fun! (laughs). Most of the musicians today that I work with are way more skilled than people were thirty years ago. You have YouTube and the internet itself to educate you so much better.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about the ever-evolving, always changing musical industry landscape the currently exists? Are there aspects that please you, and where do you see changes or modifications that need to be made?
Nordström: The development of the internet stuff, I’m not too happy about that. But I saw that it was coming, and I remember talking to Leif, our guy at Century Media. For me, I want to buy an album, put something in my car. Drive to the record store, buy the CD for $20 and then go back and give it to my daughter. Now I can download and have an album in five minutes on my computer. Overall, the record labels didn’t realize what was going on. It’s cool that you can have easy access to music on Spotify. I don’t like Spotify for how the material sounds – compared to a CD, the CD sounds so much better. There is one streaming service called Tidal that they have good sound quality.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you value and appreciate more at this stage in your life that maybe you didn’t take as much into consideration say ten or twenty years ago? Are there specific things that you do to practice forms of self-care and keep yourself from burning out?
Nordström: I burned myself out when I was young. Now I take things easier, and I try to be relaxed. My stress level has slowed down a lot. I’m really bad at practicing anything specific.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have any specific passions or interests outside of music and producing?
Nordström: For a long time, I had my kids doing motorcross. I would spend more or less every day either in the garage preparing bikes or out practicing, and then the weekends for full competitions. Now they are 20 and 22 so they manage themselves a bit more. Now I can go to the meets, make some coffee, and just watch.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the schedule for promotional activities, tours, festival appearances, and future events either for Dream Evil or in your production schedule?
Nordström: What’s happening in the studio? I have a lot of stuff going on. During the autumn I will record a pretty big band, but I can’t tell anybody. In September we will play in Atlanta at the ProgPower USA festival, and we play at another festival in Sweden the week before. We will tour also in Australia. That’s what I know for now. Hopefully we will have more stuff going on next summer for festivals.