Vypera – Stormwind Approaching
Tuesday, 27th June 2023
Many followers of melodic hard rock/heavy metal hold a special place for the 1980’s-era in their hearts. MTV was brought into millions of homes, introducing heavier forms of music to an audience craving new material. Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen a resurgence of younger artists taking that old school sound to put their own take on the movement. Vypera of Sweden is another quintet that live for those bygone days – releasing two albums in the past two years chock full of endearing vocal melodies, addictive choruses, creative riffs, lead breaks, plus solid rhythm section support to drive this songs home.
We spoke to guitarist Christoffer Thelin about the newest album Race of Time, the challenges of developing new songs in a well-established style, their thoughts on balancing the sound of the past with the technology of the present, using social media to create a wider following globally, how Frontiers helps give the band a bigger push beyond their own capabilities, and future plans including a possible acoustic record down the line.
Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell us about your earliest memories surrounding music growing up in childhood? At what point did you discover heavier forms of music, and eventually want to start playing an instrument/performing in bands?
Christoffer Thelin: I have some really early memories because my father has always played the guitar. He was more into country music and stuff like that. He did listen to some Led Zeppelin and stuff like that so that was my first experience with harder stuff. I started playing the drums first, and after a while I wanted to be more creative. It’s much easier to be creative with the guitar than with drums. Especially when writing songs and stuff like that. I had access to his guitars; I think I was about ten when I started playing the guitar.
Mostly I taught myself the guitar, with a little bit of input from my father of course. I’ve never been to a real teacher, I tried things until I thought it sounded good.
Dead Rhetoric: Can you discuss the transformation of Madhouse into Vypera, were there any major differences as far as members or style that took place, and what were those early rehearsal and songwriting sessions like?
Thelin: From the beginning, when we were Madhouse, we only focused on some cover songs. I’m not really sure, when we rehearsed some covers, I had written some ideas myself. This is before we talked about making our own songs. Slowly it moved into us writing our own stuff with acoustic guitars, developing our own ideas. This is what we wanted to do, we wanted to write our own stuff. It was a slow progression, but I’m not sure we can look at a specific point to say this is when it happened.
Band members were changing, most of the band members though are still the same though since Madhouse.
Dead Rhetoric: Race of Time is the second and latest Vypera album – the follow up to last year’s debut Eat Your Heart Out effort. What do you feel are the major differences between the two records – and what did you learn most from the first album that you dug deeper on to make this new record that much stronger or better?
Thelin: I think this album, we have gotten better at finding good melodies overall. I think this album has much stronger melodies than the last one. We are trying a lot of different influences, from the 70’s and the 80’s as well. We are trying to find the best way we can make songs that we are happy with. It’s the same there, a slow progression kind of thing. We are writing better and better songs, and I think we will keep doing that on other albums. We will try to challenge ourselves to write better stuff. We still want to keep the 80’s feel the songs have to them. Especially in terms of the production. Better melodies would be the key words for this album I think, in my opinion.
Dead Rhetoric: As you said, you want to have sounds of the 70’s and 80’s – how do you achieve that with the production values of today? Have you ever thought more about recording in an analog way versus the digital methods that exist now?
Thelin: Yeah, it’s a real challenge. One of the biggest challenges is when we are trying to get a mix that we have specific thoughts. Most professional mixers today don’t mix the way they did in the 80’s. Because technology has evolved, there is a much cleaner sound today. We miss that old feel. Icon – Night of the Crime, the feel of that album, we want to try to reach that type of sound, with a smaller modern touch. It’s a fine balance to try to get there.
Recording in analog back in the day, it would be much more difficult in many ways. You have to weigh the options and pick the best one for the situation. It also depends on how much time you have. This album Race of Time, we were in a bit of a hurry after we wrote this one. We didn’t have the luxury to choose everything like we would have wanted to, but it turned out well.
Dead Rhetoric: You shot videos for “Hey You” and “Riding on the Wind” – were these obvious single choices to premiere from the record, and what are your thoughts on the video medium in these social media platforms and their importance in building the brand of the band?
Thelin: Yes, I think “Riding on the Wind” was the first song where we said we really wanted to make a music video for this. We wanted it to have a summer theme. That was an obvious choice. “Hey You” is a strong opening track. It reflects a lot of our music really well. If we had an endless amount of time and money, we would have made a video for every song. We love making videos. We have a lot of ideas for other songs as well. The track “Daytona” is a personal favorite of mine, I would love to make a video for that one someday as well.
I would like to think that YouTube is a great way to reach people nowadays. There are a lot of people that you can only get the attention of with a video. Back in the day, it was another thing with MTV and stuff like that. People who may not have listened to you started listening to you because they saw the video a couple of times. That’s much harder to achieve now. You can reach out to more people through social media and stuff like that now. There is so much on the internet, it’s hard to capture someone’s attention. There are both good and bad things with how it is today.
Dead Rhetoric: Playing in a classic melodic hard rock/metal style with a lot of influences from the 80’s/90’s, are there any specific trademarks that you wish to inject into a Vypera composition, and how critical are you as musicians to have the best material make the final grade?
Thelin: For me, personally, I want to write some great riffs of course. I really like it when the songs are riffier. That’s one part of course, for me, and the rest of the band as well. The melodies of course, something that Andeas our singer thinks are really important, especially different types of singing. The production and the hooks are important as well. When it comes to songwriting, a good riff, a good song melody, and a little bit of a different construction to it, not too predictable. Some songs turn out predictable anyway, but we try not to make them that way. We will try to bring more unpredictable elements every time we try to write a new song.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you consider some of the biggest challenges facing the band right now at this point in your career as far as establishing more of a foothold and stronger following within the global marketplace?
Thelin: Our biggest challenge, one thing I said earlier has to do with getting people’s attention now. There is so much music circulating now. I’m not really sure, I haven’t thought about it that much. It’s one of the reasons why we are thankful for being with Frontiers, they are great in reaching out to people. They are well established on the market.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you assess the state of the current hard rock/metal landscape across Sweden versus other parts of the world? What excites you about the movement, and what changes (if any) would you like to make for the greater good of all parties involved?
Thelin: One thing I can say is that I feel that the rock scene in Sweden is really healthy. From the small town we are all from, we all found each other. This sound we are into is probably a bit different from most people. Compared to other countries, it’s hard to say. It feels like there’s the start of a reignition of this old rock style now. At least in the last couple of years, there are a lot of newer bands that want to sound a bit more retro starting to show up. I think it’s a healthy future for this kind of rock hopefully. It’s usually the case that there are a lot of people listening to 50’s and 60’s music as well, you get a certain distance from the 80’s, it’s a long time ago now. That distance makes it interesting, and people start to go back to things from the past.
Especially in the 80’s, there was a special kind of metal in those songs that I miss in today’s music. We want to bring those aspects as well. Just because you bring something back doesn’t mean that you are going to copy it. You will make your own songs and your own type of music with your own touch with that sound. That’s what we are after.
Dead Rhetoric: What would you say are three of the most underrated hard rock/metal albums from the 80’s / early 90’s that you love that you think more people need to dig into and appreciate?
Thelin: Oh! There are a lot. If I’ll say three bands, Icon. King Kobra. And I’m not sure Danger Danger, how big they got in the US. I’ll say those three bands, they have a lot of good records to listen to.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you have any special hobbies, interests, and passions that you like to engage in outside of music when you have the free time and energy to do so?
Thelin: I really like history, science, things like that. I like reading factual books, stuff like that. Something in the science community. It’s hard for me – music has always been my biggest passion.
Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the next twelve months shaping up for any activities, touring, festival appearances for Vypera? Are there any other special projects or side bands we can also look forward to?
Thelin: We have talked about doing some stuff – some acoustic stuff that we hopefully will release before the next album. Before next year, hopefully. We are not sure, we have an acoustic version of “Riding On the Wind”, there is stuff going on with that. We are preparing to play some live gigs. We have a lot of stuff going on. We are not just going to (hold) back; we will keep on making music and playing.
