Dead Rhetoric: During the downtime around 2008 Inmoria started – releasing 2 albums to date. How did this begin and where do you differentiate your contributions there from Tad Morose?
Andersson: It differs, Inmoria is Danne Eriksson’s baby totally. He played drums on the first Tad Morose album, and then he got away from the music business for quite some years. Then he contacted me, he had written a bunch of songs and wanted me to listen to them. He asked me to put down guitars on the material, he’s a friend and a fun guy. We recorded the album, did a tour, had a really good time. Danne wrote all the songs and lyrics, we were hired guns so to speak. In a way it was really relaxing, as I only had to focus on playing the guitar and playing the songs correctly.
Dead Rhetoric: Are there any plans for a third Inmoria record on the horizon?
Andersson: I don’t really know. He lives here in Bollnäs so I bump into him every now and then. He writes music, but he seems to write more and better music when he doesn’t feel that good himself. I think he has a good life now so there isn’t more songwriting going on right now. Who knows, whenever we have the time to do it, we may record another album.
Dead Rhetoric: Being an old-fashioned, vinyl guy – what are some of your favorite metal vinyl records that you own and love to spin for positive energy and inspiration?
Andersson: Oh… all of them I would say. I have piles and piles of vinyl myself. Of course, the one I spin the most is Rock and Roll Over by Kiss. I got that… it was released in 1976, before that I didn’t really know what music was. I heard that one and I got a guitar and here we are 30-40 years later. I play that a lot, we have Black Sabbath, Savatage, Crimson Glory, you name it.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see the state of heavy metal today? There seems to be a great surge of younger bands in Europe influenced by the classics – while the classic bands like Accept, Armored Saint, Raven, and Saxon churn out quality records…
Andersson: Yeah. As you said there are a bunch of new bands that are pretty good. I’m ashamed that I spend too little time listening to newer bands, I don’t have the time as I would like. There’s always been a huge market – it may not be huge among the regular people, but you always have these diehard fans that don’t give a fuck around what’s in or hip.
Dead Rhetoric: Ice hockey being your favorite sport, did you ever play it growing up and what players/ teams do you like to follow?
Andersson: Yeah, I played a couple of years when I was younger. I spent most of my time in the penalty booth anyways (laughs). I was the bad guy. In the winter, ice hockey makes the time pass by quicker I think. I also follow Frölunda HC, if you’ve heard about that in the SHL, the highest hockey league here in Sweden. The team that Henrik Lundqvist, the goaltender for the New York Rangers, he came from that team as well. The World Cup is nice entertainment, and it’s really fun to follow all the Swedish players that are now in the NHL. The whole amount of people that live in Sweden is less than what you have in New York City, so to speak. And we produce this amount of really good hockey players, which I think is very fascinating I think.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have fond memories of playing US festivals like the ProgPower V in Atlanta as well as the 2005 edition of the Chicago Powerfest? And how do you handle the different atmosphere of club/theater touring versus festivals?
Andersson: It’s always fun to play live. No matter if there are 3 people in the audience or if there are 7,000, it’s still very fun. If you play for a packed venue it’s easier because you get instant feedback from the audience. It’s still fun, I’ve only got very fond memories from the shows that we have done in America. I really, really hope that one day we will be able to go back there. The ProgPower festival was really amazing, everything was perfectly organized and they took very good care of us. The fans were amazing, we met people from Puerto Rico and other people that travelled far away to come see the bands play there. It’s an astonishing atmosphere there. When you go on a club tour, if you aren’t really satisfied with your performance, you can always play every night and tighten things up. When you play festivals, it’s like you have one shot and you better not screw it up. It’s still fun, festivals are hectic when it comes to putting your gear on stage, make room for the next band, the time can go by so fast, did we really play all those songs in an hour? Time just flies by so fast when you play festivals. It’s convenient in one way to do a club tour because you can set up proper sound checks and take things easy, see that everything works.
Dead Rhetoric: Being from Bollnäs, you have a lot of metal bands from your home town like Morgana Lefay, Bloodbound, and yourselves. Have you developed good relationships with those bands?
Andersson: We have known each other since we were kids, Morgana Lefay and ourselves. This is a small city, about 15,000 people living here. By US standards, it’s kind of like a tiny village. Of course it’s a healthy competition between the bands- if you see some picture of one of our friends that recently played a huge festival, you know that you want to be there too. We work harder to write better songs and we want to play better live so it’s a healthy thing.
Dead Rhetoric: What are the plans for Tad Morose over the next 12 months? Are you hopeful for some consistent touring action, or will you stick to more select festivals for live performances?
Andersson: We will take whatever comes our way. We know that we have a few club shows booked, we are opening for Death Dealer, Ross the Boss’ new band on their European tour for Sweden. We have a small fall tour booked in September for Europe, festivals next spring but that’s about what we know now. We would just like to play more live. It’s really hard for European bands to get over to the states because of all the government visas and extra expenses before you even start the tour. We want to play a bunch of shows, it’s just sad. The piles of paperwork to file is ridiculous, and you never know. Six months prior you have to apply, you have to have all the facts and fill in the forms. What band is supposed to know all of the facts for every show they are supposed to play six months in advance? All of a sudden you aren’t allowed, they don’t tell you if it’s going to take two weeks or six months for them to make a final decision.