Hypocrisy – Superior Devotees

Friday, 29th March 2013

Blistering.com: Let’s backtrack a moment and go to the Fourth Dimension album from 1994. Do you recall what your headspace was back then?

Tägtgren: Oh shit [laughs]. I remember when I came down to the studio I was working in and a keyboard was laying around. That’s what really changed it for Hypocrisy. Even the second to the last song on the Osculum album [“Attachment to the Ancestor”] had those elements and that opened some ideas. We had done two fast albums in a row. In the beginning, we started off as a Deicide/Morbid Angel/Entombed band. That’s what I wanted to do, but then you start to grow in your own path. I was just writing – you don’t think any different if the tempo is slow.

Blistering.com: You lived in Florida in the early 90’s for a couple of years, right?

Tägtgren: From 1988-91. For me, it was impossible to find a band in America where I could get my ideas out, so I went home and a friend of mine opened up a 16-track studio at the time. I had the opportunity to go there and that’s still what I’m doing today.

Blistering.com: Ever wonder how things would have played out had you put the band to rest in 1997 like you initially intended?

Tägtgren: I don’t know…I’d probably still be doing the same thing since I’m the main writer. It would probably sound the same, just with a different name [laughs].

Blistering.com: And that was after you did Abducted, which many consider to be the preeminent Hypocrisy album.

Tägtgren: I remember with Abducted, we recorded that shit three times. We recorded it once, then threw away half of the songs, recorded it another time with new songs, then threw away those songs, then we did it one, final time. There was a lot of hard work with it.

Blistering.com: Along the way, Nuclear Blast has been one of the few constants. Can you imagine Hypocrisy on another label?

Tägtgren: I don’t know…I don’t see Nuclear Blast as a label anymore – I see them as friends. When you call them, you know who you are talking to. It’s not one of these labels where they have new people all of the time and you don’t know who they are. Usually, nowadays, when they promise you something, they keep it and they’ve always done that for me. They have a lot of respect for me and I have a lot of respect for them. We’ve been through tough times and good times together. As Hypocrisy, also the label grew and vice-versa. Me and Markus [Steiger, label boss] are good friends. We’re constantly texting each other with stupid things.

Blistering.com: Finally, what’s on the agenda going into 2010?

Tägtgren: The plan is not to burn ourselves out like we did with the Virusalbum. The plan is to do a headlining tour in every country as a headliner. That’s the most important thing. We’ll do Europe, then Russia, I hope we’ll do Australia and Japan and try to do a proper headlining run in America.

www.myspace.com/hypocrisy

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