This
Swedish rock band appeared literally from nowhere with full-length
album “Expect Nothing”, and it turned to be an excellent example
of old-fashioned doomy rock with different influences of few more
rock genres. To my surprise I’ve discovered that it’s not just a
collection of cool tunes with good hard rocking: they have Per
"Hellbutcher" Gustavsson on vocals!
Can
you believe that vocalist of such acts like Necrocurse and Nifelheim
has impressive rock vocals? He has, believe me! And believe me or
not, but one of the songs was recorded with the help of Johan
Langqvist himself, the man who sang for Candlemass legendary debut
“Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”.
Yet
overall Dead Kosmonaut is an highly professional and artistic band,
we had a conversation with its founder Mattias.
Hi Mattias! How are you? What's
going on in the sonic space of Dead Kosmonaut?
It's going well, thank you. Last
weekend we had our first ever band rehearsal. For me it was a thrill
to for the first time actually hear songs performed as a band for the
first time ever!
You have your debut full-length
on hand, and the spring is time of rock festivals. Did you manage to
catch the train and get into some loud fest to spread the word of
Dead Kosmonaut?
We
have not really tried, to be honest. We will play at Muskelrock here
in Sweden on 3rd
of June this summer.
Dead Kosmonaut - Henrik Johansson, Jonas Hansson, Fredrik Folkare and Mattias Reinholdsson
Photo by Tobias Sandberg
Did I get right that you start
the selling of t-shirts with the band’s name translation into
Cyrillic. What is the connection for the band with Mother Russia?
No
particular apart from the name. I thought it would be a fun thing to
do to have the name of the band translated and put on a t-shirt.
Drummer Henrik Johansson knows a little bit of Russian so he helped
me out with that. I can confess I have a slight fascination for
things Soviet. From an esthetic point of view I really like old
propaganda posters from the very early communistic days. I am not a
nerd in any way, but hand on heart, was not the Soviet space
programme way cooler than the American? The bands name was Astrakaan
from the beginning, for Swedes that is more known as a sort of apple,
but its also (with a slightly different spelling) a part of Russia.
“Expect Nothing” is a
remarkably professional album, it's very interesting to listen, it's
damned good in every detail and in every layer. How did you work over
this material?
Since
its recorded over more than a decade, under very basic circumstances,
I have really tried to focus on the sounds to make it coherent. I
have worked with really good musicians to be able to live up to the
high standards of albums I have enjoyed from the past. Thinking of
albums like Black Sabbaths Mob Rules or Iron Maidens Piece of Mind.
Both produced by the great Martin Birch by the way. But it has to be
said that without the aid of Fredrik Folkare, co-producing and mixing
it, it would have been less professional. I got nothing but praise
for that man!
Do you really mean that the album
was done almost 10 years ago?
The
oldest recordings was done almost eleven years ago. Songs Grey Hole,
Time is the Wound and Craving Mad has drums recorded back then. Plus
some guitars and bass. But Pelle's vocals were recorded last autumn
and Johan's about a year and a half ago from now. The other songs
have been recorded in-between. I think the very last recording made
for the album was my bass track for Concrete Sky made just prior to
the mix. The file was flawed and had to be redone.
Dead Kosmonaut – Craving Mad
Did you work with producer or was
“Expect Nothing” a DIY album in that sense?
I produced myself. I gave Fredrik
Folkare a co-produced credit cause he has come up with so many ideas
while we have been working so I thought it was fair to do that.
Credit where credits due.
Mattias, one of the first
questions which came to my head is about the vocalist, how did you
manage to lure Johan Langqvist in the band?
Me and two friends made a Candlemass
fanzine called Candlemass Chronicles. We did an interview with him.
So since I had managed to find his phone number I simply asked him if
he would like to sing a song for me. Much to my surprise he said yes!
But he sang only one song “Grey
Hole”, right? As others songs were done by Pelle Gustafsson… How
do you plan to organize gigs for Dead Kosmonaut then? Only with
Pelle?
Pelle is the lead singer for Dead
Kosmonaut. Johan was only ever intended as a guest singer. So Pelle
will sing Johan's part live of course.
Songs' lyrics are dark and
somber, just as Rock Cult demands. What kind of particular lyrical
themes you prefer to pick up for your songs?
Things
I think about. More than a few are self lived experiences. Although I
describe them from a perhaps more sinister angle. Concrete Sky is my
observation on how people tend to not want to be free, finding
comfort in the limitations of religion. House of lead is a series of
questions and observations of a imprisoned person. And of course
every proper metal band has to have a song about ancient Egypt, hence
Amduat.
Dead Kosmonaut - Johan Langqvist, Pelle Gustafsson and Mattias Reinholdsson
Photo by Soile Siirtola
And speaking about professional
approach, may I ask about musical background of Dead Kosmonaut crew?
Me
and Henrik Johansson have been playing together for a number of
years. We had a band called Book of Hours, in which Per Broddesson
(ex-Griftergård, ex-Year of the Goat, ex-Wolverine) also played. Me
and Henrik also did a Maiden tribute called Food for Thought,
released in 2005. Fredrik Folkare is a death metal superstar, if
there is something like that. He now plays in Unleashed and Firespawn
beside working as a producer and mixer with his Chrome Studios. John
Shamus Gaffney from Sinister Realm plays the up-right bass on House
of Lead. Pelle Gustafsson is also known in the metal community as
Hellbutcher in Nifelheim. The lesser known musicians, drummer
Fredrich Rönnholm, guitar players Jonas Hansson and Pär Fransson,
all friends, have made crucial contributions too.
Jonas and me have a dynamic duo in
Onda Radio. Not metal, but other sorts of rock music. Concrete Sky
started out as a Onda Radio song by the way. Me and Fredrik added a
lot of guitars for that one, but the drums are the same that I
recorded for Onda Radio as well as Jonas tape echo guitars. A bit of
trivia for you.
Pelle is Hellbutcher?! I was
really wondering if it’s him! Hah… how did you persuade him to
sing this way?
I just asked him. I heard him sing
Mercy songs live for a tribute concert (easily found on Youtube) and
knew he was the voice I was looking for. I think he was a bit unsure
to start off with, as he had not done vocals like this properly
before. But he did as good as I “heard it in my head”. I was a
little unsure whether he would fancy a song like House of Lead, but
it was the first song he wanted to record!
Mattias, you have such an amazing
lineup and I see that the band is very shy in promotion. Do you push
the band forward only by yourself? Or do you have some labels,
distros or promoter behind Dead Kosmonaut?
Its
very much a DIY operation so far. TPL records, is a small label run
by a friend of mine. They put up the money to print records. The
recordings and everything around that have been paid by me. The
worldwide digital distro are done by Playground Music Scandinavia.
Playground have helped out a bit with promo for Sweden but the rest
is conducted by me. I hope that the word will spread within the metal
community. So for now I am fine with this. I don’t t expected any
career from Dead Kosmonaut. I have done this cause I love this sort
of music and had to do it.
There are both old school rocking
vibe in your songs and cleaner modern sound, how did you know where
to stop? Was it difficult to keep the balance?
I really tried to achieve the sort
of balance that could be found on albums from the later part of the
seventies. Heavy rock bands had “ballads”, acoustic songs, long
heavy songs, blusier stuff and short rockin songs. I was aiming for
what Judas Priest did on Sad wings of destiny and Sin after Sin. Or
Black Sabbath did with Dio. I am interested in that era before things
turned “heavy metal” or other genres.
If we talk about the sounds on the
record I tried to steer away from the retro sounds that seems to be
so popular these days. But I also did not want that contemporary
super compressed sound that “modern” metal bands have. I really
don't like compression overused. Me and Fredrik talked a great deal
on how to mix. I wanted the early eighties sound of Martin Birch and
he did his best with the crude recordings I gave him.
Short answer: No I did not find it
difficult style wise as I did not put that many restrictions on what
to do or not.
Dead Kosmonaut – Grey Hole
How do you value the result of
your efforts on “Expect Nothing”? What about your ambitions?
It turned out better than what I
hoped for. There is just a few, very minor things I would like to
change. I feared for a long time that I would have to do the vocals
myself. So to find out that Pelle, whom I have know for almost 20
years, could sing like this. I was more than happy. For this album I
deliberately choose songs of a slower, “doomier” character. For
the next one there will be more up beat songs as well as some
“proggier” (for the lack of a better word for it) and really
heavy songs.
It’s interesting that you used
description “doomier”, didn’t you intend to compose old school
doom rock album in vein of Sabbaths? The genre is demanded nowadays,
I
have drawn a fair bit of inspiration from Candlemass. But to me Doom
metal is a dogmatic genre. I don’t want everything to be slow and
heavy. Uriah Heep had super slow and heavy songs like Rainbow Demon –
but they were not a doom band. Black Sabbath was a very heavy band
but hardly a doom metal band. Candlemass is actually a good example.
They are considered a Doom band but they have plenty of up tempo
tracks. It’s very important with dynamics. Like I said I want to
make metal as it was before the genres was “invented”.
What are your plans for 2017? Do
you set a goal to record stuff regularly?
Plans for this year is to maybe
release a single. There are songs that did not end up on this album,
more or less done. Maybe we can do some more gigs, if Fredrik's and
Pelle's schedules allow it. Both are pretty busy with their regular
bands.
I record on and of all the time.
Working on songs and recording them. The next album is well on its
way. I recently played some of the guys my demos and got thumbs up.
Words by Aleks Evdokimov and
Mattias Reinholdsson
