Garza Podcast - 181 - IMMINENCE | Eddie Berg: Metalcore, Violin Riffs, Sweden & Training Martial Arts

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Garza sits down in-person with Eddie Berg. Vocalist & violinist for the Swedish metalcore band IMMINENCE. New album "The Return of The Black" Out Now! https://imminenceswe.comSPONSORS:Garza Podcast Coffee - https://garzapodcastcoffee.comCHAPTERS:00:00 - Growing Up in Trelleborg, Sweden04:31 - Learning Violin09:19 - Self-Funding12:50 - Dreadlocks15:27 - Gateway Bands17:26 - Training Martial Arts23:10 - First Violin 25:38 - Reading Music27:45 - Playing Local w/ Orchestra32:04 - Harry Potter35:08 - Rig Rundown: Violin, Pickup & Pedalboard 42:37 - Writing47:08 - Finding Your Sound55:16 - Becoming Confident1:02:09 - Different Tunings1:04:38 - Tone: Violin Demonstration1:06:46 - Eddie & Garza Freestyle Jam #11:09:19 - Freestyle Jam #21:10:47 - God Fearing Man1:16:26 - Improv Breakdown Jam1:18:06 - Creativity1:27:20 - Rocky1:29:22 - Self-Recording1:31:18 - Video Production1:36:29 - Unlearning1:37:02 - The Violin Scream

How you feeling, man? Great. Good to see you. You too. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. Eddie Berg. Eminence.

Yeah. It's honor just to freaking hang out with you, man. Yeah, likewise. Likewise. Did we meet before? I'm sorry for your memory. Yeah, we actually did. Okay.

We played a show with you guys in Gothenburg. Okay. It was a few years back, though. Mm-hmm. Think. Do you remember what year? 2016. 2016.

Yeah. Almost 10 years ago. Almost 10 years ago. I'm sorry, I was in a, I guess you would call it a whirlwind. Yeah. No, it was. Yeah, once Eddie joined, we went on a full on to back-to-back world tours. You know, like you know how it is.

Like your brain is just, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like your brain is just like bouncing off your skull. Especially us being like a local opening band for you guys for just a one-off. Do you see how far the band's come already, man? Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah, thank you. And you go, so just so people are aware, which I didn't know, I didn't know this is going to happen.

So you, today's your day off. Yeah, correct. And you chose, you chose this. And I truly appreciate it, man. You drove from Arizona. Yeah. It was a six-hour drive. Yeah.

That's cool, man. I appreciate the opportunity, too. So thank you. Anytime, man. You guys are, I was looking on a map. and you guys are from like literally south Sweden. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Sorry, I don't speak Swedish.

Chilleberg? Yeah. Okay, cool. And that's around the third largest city in Sweden as well, right? Yeah, Malma, yeah. Did you grow up in a village? Yeah, yeah, I did. Is that more up north or around?

So you could say that I grew up in a village right between Treleboi and Malma. Got it. Okay. Just the countryside kind of. Nice. Okay, I was still looking at because, yeah, I typed in what I thought, like you said, and it put me somewhere way up north in Sweden. I don't think he moved there as a kid.

No. Way, way up, way north. But you might have seen something mentioned by Harold, our guitarist. Okay. So he was more north than Sweden. Okay. And he moved down when he was pretty young. Okay, yeah.

But you grew up around the same area? Yeah, yeah. We went to the same school. Yeah, you guys went to the same high school together. Yeah, yeah. Nice. So I didn't notice about you, but you started, so you found a violin when you were five. Yeah.

Right? Okay. And your dad, you have a brother. Older or older brother? Older brother. And your dad would play a metal to make you guys fall asleep. right yeah yeah yeah so when we were like babies just to make us used to loud noises he would play as metal because he loves metal too so okay it's uh we grew up with you know loud music in our home

and yeah i don't really understand his concept i mean it's it sounds so you play metal to make you guys fall asleep to get so used to loud noises what exactly so but he would do what's the theory he would do he would do different things like he would start vacuuming or shit like that just to get a noise level to make us be able to sleep through anything. And it really worked. Like, I sleep through almost anything. So his theory was get him used to loud noises. Yeah, yeah.

So when you're asleep, nothing's going to wake you up. Yeah. Is that like what the stock process? Yeah, yeah. And it worked. Yeah, it did. What was you playing? I mean, he would be playing a lot of, like, rainbow, Black Sabbath.

Okay. Stuff like that. Okay. I was like metal, that's like over here. I mean, that's, yeah, that's, it's, it's a, it's a reversed kind of thought process, right? Yeah. So this is not, this is not going to make you fall asleep. I guess, uh, I guess your dad treated, uh, he treated a, treat a metal as a white noise.

Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Cool. All right. So, uh, so metals is making you and your older brother pass out and then, um, so what, so you're, there was an open house at a music school. Yeah.

Yeah. And you originally wanted to play guitar, but... Yeah, like, I was just five years old, and I thought it sounded like a fun thing, you know? We didn't really have many activities or stuff like that, and I was not really into sport, even though I started to do sport as well. Like, I trained taekwondo at the same time, yeah, yeah.

Old? Five. Five. But, yeah, so... And it's a series. Okay, got it. We went to this open house, checked out the different instruments. And I think I was more inclined to, you know, like drums or guitar,

because growing up listening to rock music, right? Yeah. But at that school, I was, first of all, I didn't like the drum room because there were like 15 kids banging on everything they could find in the room. So I was like, yeah, I'm going to leave. Then I wanted to check out the guitar room. And I was too young to play. they had an age limit

oh I was like because it didn't make any sense like he's listening to the metal but he's too okay so the school had an age limit yeah what was the age limit it was like seven

why is there an age limit I don't know huh I don't know but the violin was available and yeah I thought it was kind of cool when I when I checked

that room so it was just kind of happenstance you know just by circumstance yeah weird So in a weird way, it kind of chose you, you think?

Yeah. Huh. And was this the same music school that you would eventually take lessons for 15 years? Or was it a different one? Yeah, it was for about 13 or 14 years. That's a commitment, dude. Yeah. And, you know, it's a school for younger people.

Like, you don't really take lessons there as an adult. Okay. So I had to quit eventually, but then I started to play in an amateur orchestra. And the orchestra leader, he was like a really prominent violinist, but he was retired. So he was just playing in this orchestra for fun. And so I started to take private lessons from him. And that's where the private lessons came in. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, it makes sense. What was the age limit for the, for the, for the bar? violent school? Because it was just for kids, right? Yeah, I mean, until you kind of, I think it was... What, like 15 or something? No, 20 or something.

20? Yeah. Okay. So you had to be like, okay, you're like an adult. Yeah. It's like, it's like... I think it's kind of when you go to, or go through regular school, you can also do that. Like, they're separate, but I think it's kind of mandatory.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they kind of treat you like when it was kids that, uh, that was too old to go out. trick-a-treeing, huh? Yeah. I took a tree in high school. It's kind of embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah.

But then you see the looks, okay, I'm not going to do this anymore. Yeah. Too old. Okay, cool, man. And then you met your guitar player, Harold in a high school. Yeah. Cool. We actually first met, because we both grew up in small villages, but they were separate.

And so I would go to, like, elementary school in my village. But then for high school, I had to go to. to his village. Oh. So that, we met, because we had, like, classes before high school. Like, we would travel to that village for, like,

French, or if you chose German or for some other sports classes. So we met in French class. You're taking a French class? Yeah. Like, in Swedish school, it was mandatory to have a third language. A third language. So you could.

choose between French or German. Okay. So where did English come in? Like when second grade or something. So like we would be six or seven when we started to take English classes. Classes. Yeah. English class. What what great is that? Yeah. For us it's what what what what great is that? Fuck. I don't know. I get we we have we have different like you're right yeah yeah. But for us it was a second class. I know they do it even younger now in Sweden. Younger. Yeah. I probably should took English. I should take English every freaking year, dude. Oh, Eddie, this goes out to you, man. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, dude. Yeah, and congrats on all the success of your band. I know that you guys made a lot of sacrifices. Yeah. You know, you guys like, you literally like you put your own money

into doing your first record. Yeah. You guys get your own money to book your own tours to, I mean, producing your own videos. Yeah.

You guys just full on like 100%. Yeah, I mean, we started actually the company pretty early, like 2012. Okay. Just because we could save on some taxes and stuff, but we would put our private money into of the company.

Yeah. And we would, each person put in like tens of thousands of dollars, yeah. That's what's up. Yeah. Over some course, like over a period of time, of course. Okay. But everything, you know, we had everything that was expenses,

like the company or the music was making zero money. So. Of course. Everything. Yeah. You're just spending money and losing money. Yeah. It's like no matter what you do, you're just,

Just losing money. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of like, dude, I'm trying to get back to that mindset. Like, how do you, how do you put in so much time and money into something and be comfortable with, no matter how much time you put into something? Once you first start that business, it's just, you're just losing money. And there's just, there's no amount of time that that could fix it. Yeah. You know, it's, and being a kid, like, you know, like early 20s and we're just, you know, you're just jamming shows.

perfectly comfortable. Yeah. How did you, what was that mindset? I don't know how that worked out. Like I was making maybe, like when I was finished with school, I was making maybe a thousand bucks a month

on my part-time job. And I somehow managed to make that work, you know. What was your job? I was working in a grocery store at my first job. Okay, first job? Yeah, but like with fish. Fish? Yeah.

Okay. Because I was an educated chef. So it was easy for me to get a job like that. But I didn't want to work in a restaurant. Yeah, but you got to work at a restaurant, dude. That's when, that's when, yeah, you get, I always see this, but man, I think everyone needs to work with food at some point. Yeah. It's, when you're around food, it's, because it kind of sucks.

Yeah. Boy, no, it really sucks. Yeah. So, yeah, it's kind of, I don't know, it does something to your, I don't know, it does something to your, I don't know, psyche yeah you know or your ego went you uh so your band's been pretty intact so you guys formed in 2009 2010 yeah cool uh so it was you harold and Alex yeah yeah how does you mean Alex he was a friend of a friend you know so Alex went to school in Treleboi um but when we were starting you know to build our band we knew like oh there's you know there's one guy

in the in the next city that can play guitar and likes metal so yeah house is here actually yeah hell yeah man did you did you have long hair then um no no no me either it's fine yeah i did huh you did yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah long long hair in high school yeah yeah yeah hell yeah when did you cut it uh after i like so when i went to um chef school um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um um Oh, you probably had to cut it, huh? No. No? But I got dreadlocks.

Yeah, dreadlocks? Yeah, I did for a summer. You have any photos? No, they're gone. They're erased. You destroyed them. It was an accident, though. Like, I had an old hard drive that fell to the floor.

With all the, you know, we had recordings of all the first shows we did with Eminence, a bunch of pictures. Oh, no. It's all gone? Yeah. Oh, that sucks, dude. So, like the first four years was saved on that hard drive. I'm sorry Thor.

Yeah. But I hated to have dreadlocks. It was way too hot for me. So yeah. I just cut it off. Man, man. Yeah.

We had, we had someone take care of like all of our first shows, like first five shows. Yeah. We had someone take care of it and that footage is gone. Yeah. It's like you can never get it back. Yeah.

Like you, like right now when like what were you guys are at, we had perfect just to. Yeah. Oh man. It was so cool to fucking put it out, man. Yeah. Wow, dude.

All right, cool. So your first job was working with grocery. Yeah. And fish. It seems like you guys were really into, like, communicating. Like, hey, we're just going to go all in and start, you know, do the record full time and just start going or what? Yeah. Yeah, we did.

Like, maybe we were doing different things at that time, and Harold was studying it. university and so um but i really felt early on that this was something that i wanted to do something that i wanted to pursue um because i was actually thinking about doing classical music and studying classical music but i knew that i would have to make a choice you know i wouldn't have time to do both yeah i chose metal you chose metal yeah and it's kind of a trip for you like you can you ever even with how much time you put into it. You didn't even imagine yourself being a

like a solo violinist. Like you never once even like consider it with your band. No. Until like your second record? Our third record. Your third? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes life is literally like sometimes what your answer is just

right right in front of your face. Yeah. It was right there the whole time dude. Yeah. Yeah. So you get out of high school and then you were you started to you started to really get into like pop stuff like 30 seconds to Mars

like Ed Shearing kind of stuff yeah is that around like at the same time am I in my mom there 30 Thanks from Mars was a bit earlier so that's like one of my Gateway bands I would say and like Linking Park stuff like that then I had like a

proper new metal face of course yeah yeah I heard you talk about a Link a Park a lot so I'm trying not to re-hash you. Yeah, but I was listening a lot to corn, to mud vein, all of those bands.

Explains a lot. Yeah. That was one of the first records you bought with your own money, huh? Yeah, I think hybrid theory might have been one of the first ones. We used to go to a record shop and just like check out CDs

so I would check out. If they had a cool album cover, you could You could listen to it in the store a little bit with the headphones. It was sick. Yeah. There's something about those headphones, too. Yeah. There's something about that.

You look back and I'm like, what was this? What is there's something about? It's the way it's a way you hit your ear. I'm like, there's something about it. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing like it. The only, the only feeling you get that's close. It scratches the edge, but it won't fully scratch it,

is when you're hearing back songs from the first time in the studio. Yeah. there's something about raw sound coming out of speakers it scratches the itch from like when you're a kid there's something about those speakers there in those rooms yeah i know what you mean yeah and also what scratches to itch is these these headphones do yeah when i hear people play like it's just there's something it kind of kind of takes me back there yeah it's awesome man well cool do you still up i'm sorry to go to go backwards but uh do you still when was the last time you trained uh Taekwondo, when was the...

I stopped, like, when I got out of school. Okay. So I think I was 18 or 19. What did you learn? Did you just how to kick ass? What's the... Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of, like, self-defense and a lot of, like, patterns and stuff like that. Okay.

So you're there for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Like 13, 14 years. Fuck, dude. I think that's so important for people to learn. any kind of like martial art. Yeah.

In my mid-20s, late 20s, I don't want to talk about it because I feel like I'm trying to be cool. Like, oh, this is, I did this. But after, yeah, like 27, I got into Muay Thai. Yeah. Started treating Muay Thai like once a week. Yeah. Because at the time, we didn't know that if we were going to, is this you?

We'd, uh, we'd, uh, do you still have the ghee? I might have I think You can't lose the game man It might be somewhere at my parents' place You gotta keep those man I can't remember Like what happened to

Because I've moved a few times since I packed it down So Yeah Man yeah There's something about learning I think everyone should learn Some kind of Oh no

Like I guess the dumb way to put it Is learn some kind of fighting style. To me, it ups your confidence, but also at the same time, again, it goes back to that backwards thinking. It makes you not want to get into a confrontation. Exactly.

It is something to me. I did that for a few years, and I'll pop in now every once in a while. But it's kind of knowing, knowing what you would do to somebody. You know, I don't know, it's just, yeah, at, like, I don't know, at the bar, you'll see,

I don't know. Yeah, there's like a couple of times at the bar where, like, someone's trying to be weird, but, I don't know, there's something about it. It just calms you. And when you start training, the last thing you want to do is fight anybody. Yeah. So it's like a backwards, the last thing you want to do. Yeah.

So you ever been in a fight at all? No, not in a real fight. Good. Yeah. Because we were always, we were taught to, like, de-escalate or to get away, you know? It was only self-de-execlade. defense like it was yeah yeah that's one thing I was gonna ask you what's like your big take away from from classes a lot of a lot of that but a lot of discipline and and respect yeah that's

why that's why you respect people yeah how do you yeah how do you deescalate because a lot of people don't know how to do that I usually those two times I've been in the situation. I just used my voice, actually. Getting in the middle, screaming someone in the face, basically. Yeah. I don't know if that's the right tactic,

but it worked. So someone had a higher voice with you, but you came in with like a very calm. So it was like, we were out with a couple of friends, and, you know, there were some guys walking around with, like, iron pipes being cool.

Oh, those guys. Yeah, we had one guy with us who was, you know, he was triggered by stuff like that. So he would just run straight in and try to start a fight. Oh, no. We were a group, they were a group, but I got in between and just like, made everyone go home. Like, hey, everything, you say, hey, everything's cool, but you want to do some. I mean, I could fuck you up. Dude, yeah, I had a, dude, it's true.

I had something that happened to me in, um, It was. You ever played the soundstage? The what? A sound stage in Baltimore. But yeah, I think we did. Yeah. Baltimore, I think, is the proper way to, uh, to say it.

But, uh, yeah, we went to, no, no, we were just, okay, I'll be honest. I was talking to, me, me and some chick were talking. Yeah. And then apparently, she was with a guy friend that liked her. Yeah. So, okay. But, but they're leaving as guy like. like a guy in my face yeah I'm not doing it I'm just chilling she's hanging out with me man

and then you guys you guys were leaving and I was kind of walking with them because literally they're they're walking towards a car but our transportation is survived by their car so it's awkward yeah so I'm walking with you guys it's oh you know I told me it was it's up dude it's like don't don't fucking touch me but I was just so just even killed yeah it's just it makes someone not want to do anything yeah it's like you're not I say why why would you you fight someone that's just talking calmly to you. Yeah. You know, it kind of, yeah, I just that, yeah.

I mean, I haven't thought that, but about that in years, but I think, I think Muay probably taught me that. Yeah. Just knowing what you would do, I was like, how would this fucking kick your knees right here, dude? But yeah, but that's the last thing, you know, what we would do. Do next record, next, next music video, bring out the ghee. Because I'd, okay, first of all, I'm pissed because he came here,

wearing a blazer. I could have brought my blazer, dude. It would have been sick, man. Yeah, sorry about that. It's all good, man. Okay, so, yeah, so you took lessons for violin for, I mean, over 15 years, and

thank you for bringing it and bringing your setup, man. Yeah. So just be transparent. I don't know anything about the violin. Yeah. I don't know, like, any like brands. Yeah.

So how did you go about, like, you know, finding one and how do you... I think I found it because, you know, we didn't have a lot of money growing up. Like, we were not poor, but it's like... Sure. Couldn't afford expensive instruments. And the first violin that I could afford to buy for myself was GAVA. And it cost me like a thousand, a thousand bucks. Okay.

And that's actually the brand I'm still playing on. Oh, it's a G-E-W-A. We put Gaba, I think. Not guava. Okay. So they do... Sick, dude. They do many different, like, levels of violence, like, cheaper student violence, too.

Okay. Nice. Okay. It's sick, dude. So this is what you've been playing since you were a kid, same... No. That's what I bought, like, when I had a job. So before that, I had, like, a really cheap factory-made,

Yeah. Now, you have some discipline, dude. Did that come from, did that come from, like, your martial arts training? Because taking lessons for 15 years, dude? I don't know anyone that took lessons for 15 years. I don't know. Like, you know, you go through different phases of growing up, right? And they're all your phases.

Yeah, but every time I had, every time I had, you know, one of those fits where you're like, I think I want to quit, my parents would say, you know, please give it one more year and see how you feel. Like, they were never pushing me into the music or forcing me to do anything, but they also didn't want me to just quit something that I've had done for years. So I just stuck with it. So even when you want, so you wanted to quit at some point? Yeah, a few times. like through it when you go in high school. Sure. I think it was when I stopped at that music school,

I think I had like maybe a year or something without taking any lessons. And then I started to miss it. And that's why I joined. Oh, wow, that's cool. That's why I joined that amateur orchestra. So the orchestra kind of reunited the... Yeah, it was really fun.

It was really fun to play, not just play for yourself, but to play together with other people and have like real concerts and, you know, having a goal with your playing. Oh, yeah, so it kind of gave you like a goal. Yeah, yeah. Say, hey, we got to show,

and you're playing with like, correct me if I'm wrong, you're playing with people that know how to read music, correct? Yeah, you have to if you want to play in an orchestra. You know how to read music. Yeah. So you could sit there and play in real time and read this, right? Yeah.

I always wondered that if I see an orchestra, I'm like, are they just learning in real time? Because they're just looking and they're all playing at the same time. Yeah, but I always wonder like how that worked. I mean, you need to practice a lot. So it's not just like looking at a new piece and just playing it, unless you're incredibly talented, I guess. Or Wonder Child. Dude, I haven't read music since I was a child.

Yeah. I learned Mary had a little lamb. Yeah. That would start somewhere. Yeah, just with a high E, but I couldn't read music, so I learned it, I memorized it. So I made it, made a teacher seem like I was playing, like I was reading it, but I always said, I didn't memorize the song. All right. Yeah.

Yeah, read, how, fuck, you're reading music is, that, that's the other level. And you've been around such talented people. Yeah, I mean, I would assume that will really give you a fire. Yeah. Seen. Were those your first shows or? No, we'd done stuff before. Like, before we started, Eminence, we started to play, like, a bunch of friends just playing covers.

So I think that was when I was 15 or so. So is that at you and Harold and Alex and the community basement? No, not Alex. So it was me, Harold, and some other people. Okay. So that's why, that was never imminentous, you know. And we played some shows, like local things. So I've been on the stage before and also going to the music school, even from the beginning, you would have like one or two times a year a concert.

So you had to play by yourself, like together with other people. but you played separately, show your parents or relatives, like how you're progressing, I guess. So I was kind of used to doing that. Yeah, so you have to show them, hey, I'm learning. I'm learning, dude. I'm killing violin, dude, with a bunch of freaking awesome people, dude.

Yeah, because in a band you could kind of hide behind, like, you know. Yeah. But if you're in an orchestra, like you're kind of, you're kind of in at the forefront right you're kind of like if you fuck up you kind of hear

it yeah like so we we had a pretty small orchestra and as you know you have like sections of violinists so you have three different sections

playing three different things but you're multiple people in each section so I think we would be maybe around five people perception. But, you know, the band leader there, he was pretty ruthless. Like, during rehearsals, he would call someone out. Like, stop, stop playing and just, like, localizing who he did wrong. Yeah. Yeah. So he would go through each one, like, now you played,

and you had to play alone without anyone else. And when it was, and when it was, yeah, that was brutal. That was brutal. But it probably helps you, though. Yeah, because he would then show how to do it properly and like try it more like this yeah would you know that would you know when you fucked up like oh shit yeah he definitely heard it yeah Eddie Berg stand up you fuck all right cool hell yeah man okay so um first of all I've been uh I got to be professional for a second uh dear your record the black it's it's a very uh interesting record and that's self-released. Yeah.

Correct. You guys have been doing things yourself. Yeah. I thought, I mean, what's like, what's that workload light, man? Holy crap. Yeah. I mean, for this record, you know, like, we have a distributor. So it wasn't really much more to it.

I mean, a few different things that you were more responsible for, I would say, than when you're on a label. Yeah. But it wasn't too bad. No? You can't... If this makes me a sense, you can't tell. Yeah.

Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, yeah. I did, like, find, like, research. Oh, shit, like, was this up release? Oh, wow, I didn't even know. It's just... So I guess when you put on Spotify, you just, you know, assume...

Yeah. You know, it's just signs of this or... Or not. It's kind of inspiring, man, to see like a band like successfully do it. Thank you. You know? Because everyone was trying to figure out new ways to,

to do something. And just, I wasn't too sure what, so then you released it again. Yeah. Right? So was that just with like, with like some, some more singers on there,

like more. Yeah, we had some feature artists. Okay. We had two new singles with it. We had one new instrumental track. And then we have some, remix us as well from

Val who's in the studio here today as well Mm-hmm Yeah Sounds sick, too, congrats Hell yeah Thank you Do you still have your Harry Potter books? Yeah, I do

Still got them? Okay, cool, hell yeah, man You found out Yeah, yeah You're digging deep Oh, yeah, okay How, uh, because those, that's a Yeah, how big is that series?

This is, seven books. It's seven books, yeah And you read this before you were 11, right? I think I was reading the first book around that time, like when I was 10, 11. Okay. It was pretty cool because I read them all through my childhood, and then they would come out to the theaters as well. And I was kind of like in the perfect age, like I was the same age as Harry Potter in the books.

Oh, you serious? Yeah, when I was reading. So it was really cool. Weird. Yeah. It's kind of like you guys were like growing up together. Yeah, it's really cool. What was the language of the book?

I was reading it in Swedish. Swedish, right? Okay, I figured that. Yeah. Because, I mean, it's a massive. Yeah, yeah, it wasn't that advanced in English by that point. Okay. Yeah.

There's something about having books around you. Okay, so there's seven. Yeah. And he's growing up as, as, as, reading yeah okay is that is that what's happening yeah okay did you ask your parents hey i just want some harry potter books or what's the yeah i mean they would encourage us reading i think my brother had it at first he's three years old than me um so i would just i would start reading too yeah i'm just gonna read read this yeah i was gonna ask you what when you were

growing up in the in the village what were you like you know what was your upbringing like nothing super exciting I would say like it's very small

calm village in Sweden middle class family because Momo is I think as a 204 the population is 300,000 Yeah.

And, uh, Filleberg is, I think 70,000? Yeah, that's the whole municipality, but I think, yeah. The city might be 30, 40,000. Okay.

Okay, no. Nice. So you're pretty chill. Yeah. Kind of explains, okay, I'm just, did that help you discipline at all? Like,

I mean, I think, I think it helped me to continue doing those activities. Like, okay. Playing the violin and training taekwondo. because you you wanted something to do you wanted an activity to do yeah so I'm just you know what dude I'm gonna shred it's gonna freak gonna freaking shred dude yeah well awesome man can we uh can we uh so you brought you brought your pedal board yeah okay um

and you have pedals so so you put so you put your violin through the pedals yeah Okay, that's sick. And these are... These are guitar pedals. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I mean, I guess like what else would you use, right?

Yeah, there isn't anything specific, I think. I've seen some stuff come out, but this is how I started, so it works out great. What has come out since? Well, the pickup that I use... Yeah. This brand, they also do pedals for acoustic instruments. Okay. So I think, I mean, I don't know if they're mainly targeted towards acoustic guitars,

but I think it's like in general for acoustic instruments. But I haven't tried them out. But that's just the pickup itself. That's the freaking. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So how do you, so how does it pick up the sound?

So the pickup is here. It's integrated into the bridge. Okay. I want me to show to the camera. And then that wire goes through the jack mount. That's it. And then wireless transmitter to the pedal board. Do you still Velcord that thing down?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's pretty loose. So for the shows, you put it in here, so it sits tight. Okay, so where it is, again, Eddie, I don't really know, I don't know anything about violence. So it's like a, like, a wood you get?

Is there like a certain, like, scale length you get? And what's like the... No, I mean, this is standard. This is a standard violin size. That's a standard violin size. I mean, you have, like, the... There are people who make these freak things, you know, with five strings or, like, modifying it, then there's more, like, electrical violin and stuff like that.

But if you just look at a classic violin, this is, like, a standard. That's this classic. Yeah, yeah. And they have five-string violins? Yeah. Have you played them? No. No.

Okay. I haven't even tried an electric one. Really? No. You just know what you love? Yeah. Okay. Do you know the award on that?

What's the... What kind of wood is that? Good question. It's just a straight up classical. It looks beautiful, man. Yeah, I'm not sure which would this one is, to be honest. This is my latest one. Awesome.

Okay, so where does that go into? So that's plugged in. Yeah. And what's the signal chain? So first here. Okay. To the receiver. That's the Syner Wireless, correct?

Yeah. Okay. And then this is my newest edition. I bought this on tour. That's an octaver. Oh, you put the bog, dude. That's sick. Oh, I'm horned up right now.

That's sick. Okay, cool. Yeah. And then Sunset, Stryman, Distortion, I use both, like, I have a setting. So A mode is for when I scream into the violin, and B mode is for, like, distorted violin playing. Also, so the Svryman's Sunset is a distortion pedal. Yeah.

Oh, I was wondering what that one was. I'm more familiar with the other two. Okay. Yeah. And then I have the delay timeline. Timeline. Okay. Also, strimon.

Yeah. It's pretty new to me. I haven't, like, I don't use a lot of the features. I actually just use two presets that I like. But I know you can do so much more with it. Okay, so you have just strictly two presets. Yeah. Okay.

It's just for. You know what you like. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Nice. And then lastly, I have the blue sky for reverb,

which is basically almost always on. It's always on. It's always on. It's just a favorite setting, so. What kind of, what kind of reverb is it? I mean, it's pretty, pretty big, pretty roomy. Okay. Maybe, maybe, like, a hall or something.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think I, because you can really, it doesn't say on the pader we have to look in the manual, and I think I have to some kind of hall setting. Okay. And for people that are just listening, we're probably make a separate video because people want to see it. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's simple. It looks very simple. Yeah. So I just keep adding one thing at a time. What else would you even add? I would add maybe chorus, maybe tremolo or something, like more modifiers to just play around with the sound of the violin. That would be nice. That's a great idea. Yeah. It's good.

It's scary, man. Once you add one more, it keeps going. Yeah. If you get a chorus in, I put a chorus in everything. A chorus, you add a phaser. Yeah. That's a guy. There's trim all, dude.

Yeah. Yeah, we use a lot of chorus on, like, guitar leads as well. Yeah. I mean, there's a, I mean, your sound has evolved so much with, like, every single record. Now, it's just nice little things that you could add, you know. Yeah. And you haven't put the Pog on, have you put the Pog on a record yet? Or no?

No. Like, I usually don't have this at all for the record. Like, I would add effects, like, VSTs. Got it. So this is a way for me to kind of, like, replete. some of the effects, but it's still, then it becomes like a different sound, so like a live sound.

Yeah. Instead of what you hear on the record. But the more stuff I add, I think I might have to start using them as well in the studio. We'll see. Yeah, it's kind of like an analog vibe. Yeah. You know, hey, Jay, can we get, uh, elicit their records? I want to try to pull something up.

I'm not sure you have like a list of their records somewhere it's a very simple just yeah what's this guy so that is a favorite switch it's like a mini switch go to the block tree so I was planning to use it for

the sunset but I figured out I need a software update on the sunset so I'm not using it right now now, but once I do, it doesn't matter if these knobs get twisted around. I can just set my sound, kind of what I have on the blue sky. Oh, okay.

Smart. I was going to ask you, Eddie, what was, what do you do for the verse at, uh, come what I do? Yeah. God, do God for you, man. Yeah. This is actually even a better verse. There you go.

There it is. There it is. Yeah. How'd you come up with that? with that that that that that particular verse part that verse part um it started with the first verse is that a minute 48 in nice nice it started with the intro to be honest so it's it's the same lyrics uh or partly the same lyrics um and that's sometimes how we write songs is like you you have an idea gives you a strong vibe and gives you a feeling and that kind of yeah it tells you where it

wants to go if i yeah if that makes sense and you get out of your own way yeah oh okay and you're trying to get that out yeah you're just following on that path and and and see where the song takes you hmm i was curious because of i was thinking about that does like does like how do you write songs, it's like the melody coming to him? Is it, he thinks of like this violin line, there's like a lyric coming to him first, or he is what's the...

It's usually either I have something, a shorter idea, or Harold has an instrumental idea. But in almost every case, the violin comes last. It comes last. Yeah. Okay.

So the lyrics are first? And then you kind of... Yeah. Yeah. You put this, so you put this fucking wall of emotion on top of it. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, because a violin is just, it's a fucking, I don't know, I look at it as like, it's why I'm trying to figure out how, how you learned it. It's such like a, it's a universal thing. Yeah. You know, like, whenever someone hears violin, you just, it's like, everyone, you just feel that, like. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, and you, remember one time I was walking. quick, quick story. And then I was walking at, so you're right, so you're right by Disneyland. You're like right by it. Yeah.

So that's in Anaheim, which you played the House of Blues last year. Yeah. And there's this, just walking around. There's this, there's this guy. His name is,

uh, you want to know a new artist, uh, Drew Tredic. He's, uh, he's a really cool, uh,

uh, player. And, uh, you just hear it and I, I just started crying. Yeah. A grown man, I started crying him.

He had three CDs, I bought him. Yeah. That's so cool. And it's just like a... It's just like a... It's such an emotion, man. Oh yeah, he is an older guy. You ever hear this guy?

No. Drew Tredic. He might be only local. Okay. Oh, he's sick, dude. This is one of the songs... It just awakens something in you, man. Yeah.

It just... Yeah. It's just... Special. It's just fucking... And so it's interesting for you. It's last. Yeah.

Interesting. It's usually how it goes. Because you kind of... At the end of the day, you're writing songs, like, as a band. Yeah. With, obviously, with vocals and lyrics, and you want to have that in place, you know, to see... Totally.

Yeah. Then sometimes, you know, the violin can become a bigger part of the song, like, have its own soul. like we had on our last record. But that kind of, yeah, it's the same thing. It kind of, it reveals itself because it feels like the natural thing to do. It just comes to you.

Yeah. You just get out of your own way. It's kind of crazy how, yeah, I'm free to talk about is, like the more time that passes, the more you strip away and let the violin kind of, be more prominent

you know yeah yeah that and that uh from your first record to the second you took a lot

a lot more time yeah because you're you're really trying to find like a you're really trying to find the sound yeah you know

we were um first of all we were not really happy with the outcome of our first album just like

how it sounded um we had a different vision in our heads and for us it felt kind of like you know we were not really a known band but we still had some videos that went well um for us at least before that album came out and then we felt there was kind of a decline in a way with the first album like it didn't have the same response as those previous EP's they put it out

I think we just wanted to try something new and see what we could come up with what was their first song you came up with that was oh we should follow this was it this is goodbye? Yeah okay was that the first one was like oh wait

there's like there's like kind of something here yeah and that was also the first time that me and Harold was like starting to learn how to work in a DAW. Before that, it was Alex and Peter in the band who was working in the DAW and recording the demos and stuff like that, and we had no knowledge of that.

And so in between writing those albums, we tried to learn a lot how the DAW works, how we can record ourselves and become better songwriters. Mm-hmm. So I think that took some time to To figure out And it took some

Took some songs as well Yeah, how do you figure that out? Were you just Let's just keep Okay, we got something here We just keep writing songs Yeah And see where this goes

Is that How do you, how did you Develop that? Yeah, we just wrote songs and I think we were never really like happy. It didn't feel like we had an album, even though we probably had songs enough for it. Interesting.

So you had a record like, is something's missing? Yeah, it's more like it doesn't feel like we do have a record yet. Like there's no, doesn't connect, there's no red dots, there's no feeling of it. And when we found the news sound, Then we got excited and then we got inspired to create something completely new for us. It's funny how this is goodbye. Is that the last track of that record?

Yeah, I think so. Huh. Okay. Or it's the first one. I don't. I think it's the first one. It's the first one? Oh, wait.

Wait, is it both? Yeah, it's an acoustic. That's what, okay. That's why I got fucked up. watch so so we're both right I'm like someone's wrong don't even look like an idiot Eddie geez trying to kill me dude geez yeah so there's there's acoustic so how many songs did you have when when that song came up did you was the so the record was kind of done what a no no like well you had like six songs or like nothing we we scrapped everything

threw everything away oh but but but but how many many songs did you scrap so what you so you wrote so you wrote you wrote you wrote a record almost yeah so how many how many you have hard to tell maybe 10 to 15 but not like at least you know started ideas like her half written songs too so huh but yeah probably 10 full songs and some more ideas were you like we We guys like, this is fascinating. So what you just kept writing a song after another, like nothing really clicked or just kind of writing songs. Nothing was feeling right, but you guys.

Yeah. Yeah. And then what was the conversation like where, hey, we should probably scrap everything? I don't think it was really a big conversation because we never committed to those songs or like went to the studio with them or something. It's just demos. So when we found this new thing.

We just got really excited, started writing more songs in this type of style, and then it kind of started to make more sense. So what was different about this song? Did you write it the same? Would you write it differently? I mean, it was a bit different for us. Like, we would use way more synthesizers than we had done previously. We would, like, work more with, like, the vocal.

and vocal arrangements. It's definitely more poppy. I think it just excited us to try something new. Okay, so did you, was it like, we're going to try something new, or this was an accident? It was like... Yeah, like in a way.

We started working, like, between those two albums, we did an acoustic short EP. And that's the first time we worked with a producer who were like sharing the same building as us where we had our rehearsal. And we knew he was like a pop producer. So he helped us to rearrange and write these acoustic tracks

and would record my vocals. And we just liked the way that he worked and it was like a total different focus on the vocal aspect of the song and to have everything fit together

melody-wise so it was cool because made me be forced to use my voice in ways I haven't tried before and that was an interesting

path to follow So, hey, try this, you're like, no. No. You say, oh, no, no, no. But what you tried and it's worked? Yeah. Yeah, we like to work with him. And then we wanted to try something new for the new record.

It's funny how you didn't, you never, was that, so again, it wasn't, you mentioned earlier, it wasn't until your third record where you, you didn't see yourself as like a solo, violinist. Yeah. So this was like really like the like the beginnings of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean for our first album, I had strings on some songs, but it's more like arrangement. Second album, we just kind of threw that away. Tried to do something new. So yeah, it wasn't until the third one and when it came up. You know, I was, was that a, was that when you came up with this song, uh, infectious? Yeah. Okay. So that, again, like another thing where I, so that was, that was the first song, right?

Of that, that, that, that you guys wrote for that, put that record, correct? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, so same, same thing. It was a backwards effect of the one before. Yeah.

You didn't write last. You wrote it first. Yeah. Cool. It's just fascinating how you did something Pretty much your whole life, Eddie And you didn't even think to like, hey, this is like It was right there

It's right there, do it, it's right there, man To be honest, it had a lot to do with me not being confident enough as a player Did you get that from school? Or the amateur orchestra, you think? Yeah, I definitely what made me more confident was taking those private lessons because I got to,

I think I did it for like one and a half year or two years, something like that. And he fixed a lot of problems I had with my playing. What problems do you have? Just things like posture and position of how you hold a violin or the bow and yeah so he helps you with with your confidence yeah that's massive man yeah if you're confident it's it's a it's a game changer man if you're just i remember i was i was like sweating because i was

pretty nervous to start taking like lessons from him uh and the first lesson we just he just wanted to look in my sheets and and he asked me to play something from it and it took like one second and told me to stop. And then he was like, who was your teacher before? You can forget everything you've learned. Oh, you serious? 15 years? Holy fuck.

Yeah. What did you think? I mean, I thought it was great because I learned so much from him. I learned more from him and those in that time than I did like through my whole childhood. dude 14 15 years yeah got to unlearn that holy crap well they i mean i i hear that a lot with uh if you want to involve if you want to evolve whether it's your business or you as a person or for our uh thing is band or an instrument sometimes you got to unlearn yeah like like learn how to unlearn quick that's how you can evolve

quickly it's so true man yeah i've i've i've i've i've i've I've learned a lot. Yeah. You know, instrument this, getting your confidence back. Yeah. Or sometimes someone will, someone will tell you something. Like, oh, it could be junior high or fucking high school. Like, it just, that little nugget of, like, insecurity just stays there.

That, that fuck-up thing someone said about you. It just stays right there and it affects everything. Yeah. I've had that. Yeah. Wow, dude. All right. So first second, you said, unlearn.

Okay. then at that point you're just just strapping for it, ready for the ride or? Yeah, yeah. What were, like, I don't know, what do you think the big thing once, what was the biggest thing you had to unlearn?

That was like the hardest to unlearn. I mean, it wasn't really that, I wasn't playing the violin upside down or some shit. It's just, just more minor tweaks. but it I felt like it really helped me you could you could you know when you feel it when you're learning something you feel that it's getting like better and by a lot and for a short period of time that's the feeling I got and what and what period were you in as with the band as you're taking like the private lessons must have been

Let me think that that's hard, man. I think maybe it must have been after the first album, I feel like. Okay, so the timelines pre-dead that on. So the first record is done. You're fucking not stoked, you're pissed. And then you're learning as you're writing the second record. Am I? Yeah, I'd like to say that, but I'm actually.

I'm actually unsure about the timeline. Were you partying too? Huh? Were you partying too? No. Okay. It's just, I don't know, a lot of things that happen around that time. I definitely started in the orchestra, like, coming out of school.

So that would have been 2012. So I think I'm pretty correct with the timeline, because I would play there for a while before. I started taking the lessons. So I think it's around that time, yeah, around the time we released the first album. Did the jamming with the orchestrated, did I do the same thing?

Did it digress you, actually? Or no? That really helped me too. Oh, so it helped, okay. Yeah, yeah. Because you would, I would learn a lot, and like I said earlier,

that it put up goals, you know. We had concerts to play and you had music to learn that you need to perform. So it was great. So yeah, so private lessons help gain confidence. Yeah. It's massive man. Yeah. Wow, dude.

That's fascinating. Unlearned. Yeah. Stop. Stop playing, dude. Fucking suck, dude. Yeah. Man.

Okay, then what was the big one? So now, so now that's the opposite and then we can move on. What was the big thing that you learned with the private lesson? I think it was just getting better and being motivated. I don't know if I can pinpoint like one thing. It's just playing more correctly and learning faster how to do so. Yeah, because with other instruments it's like kind of, With other instruments, it's kind of okay to play wrong.

Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. So what violin is it strictly like, it has to be correct? Yeah, I guess in a classical sense, for sure. Okay. It's so different, dude. It's so fucking different, dude. Dude, I was going to ask you, can we hear it?

Yeah. We haven't heard it yet. I actually play the verse, and we just kept going. All right. And then, once we hear it, I might, I might play a riff, dude. Let's see. And what's crazy about your band, too, is, like, you guys are all different tunings. So I was trying to play some, like, breakdowns for you guys, but I'm, like, I'm all over the place.

Is this E? Is this G? I heard, I heard double C. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, you got crazy. Yeah. Crazy.

Transpose. Just so we are able to, that's a way for us to experiment with. like where does my vocals go like which range am I going to choose for the song so that's usually why we how we decide or we just like like some songs you want them to be heavier or like thicker um yeah we often change keys just for my vocals but but the vocals come after yeah but you know we write the song together with the vocals oh yeah so yeah so you You might have an instrumental idea, maybe not even a full song, but then we piece it together, try to, like, complete a song.

Interesting. With the vocals. Yeah, because I heard singers talk about how they struggle to sing in key. So for people, I get it, like, it's metal sounds like, okay, it's just one fucking tone. But I've heard vocalists talk about, oh, like, I can't sing in that fucking key. I can't, I can't sing that. Yeah. Or I can't scream that, I guess.

Yeah. But you could go any range, it sounds? Yeah, but I have my limits on, like, how high I can go. Sure. So it depends on what type of chorus you want. Like, do you want a full power, like, clean, mixed with scream kind of vocal? Then we know, like, the sweet spot. Okay.

But if you want to do something different and try something new. Okay. like we did. I feel like we did that a couple of times on the new record. I think continuum is a great example where it's just a

softer vocal in the chorus. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I never, I think I've never heard that. All right. Can we jam, dude? Yeah, so

I can just show you the basic sound here. Let's do it. Now it's just a reverb. That's beautiful, man. And that's his reverb. Yeah, yeah. Sick. You were talking about a violent scream?

Yeah, yeah. What's that? So it's something we figure out when I got the sunset. Okay. So, because this one doesn't really pick up so much from my vocals now. Okay. Just hear like a short from the reverb maybe. As soon as we got the distortion, we know it's like,

Like, this shit is feedbacking as how. And like you're getting actually picked up vocals from it. So it was just an idea to start using it. Because on some parts of the record, like I was talking about before, we're like using VSTs. There are vocal parts where they're overly distorted vocals. So that's typically when I tend to use the violin scream. screaming too.

You just screaming. Oh, so you use it as a mic too. Yeah. Literally picks up your voice. Yeah. Interesting, man. Yeah.

That's cool. Not to put any pressure, but just such a joke earlier, I was just kind of playing one notes and you were able to play with it. Yeah. Can I play like a rip or some?

Okay. Yeah. So everyone knows listening to Washington, this is completely freestyle. We have not rehearsed this. No. And Eddie, this goes out to you, man. Thank you for playing, dude.

Honor. Cheers, brother. I'm not a great freestyle player, though, so I love my game. And same, that's fine. Promises. Let's see if this sounds. Tuning, are you in? Drop A.

A. E, A. Yeah. And I'll probably be around, around E. That was his freestyle. See? You got it, man. That was awesome.

Did you hear the delay? Oh, that was the, uh, that was a, uh, that was a, Timeline? Timeline. Nice, dude. Holy crap. That was freestalling. Yeah.

We had no idea what the heck were you doing. Could you, one last thing. Could you, if I play a riff, could you kind of match it? Because I don't know why, but I like minor changes. So it kind of sounds off like a, let's see if we're doing this. Big dude. I wasn't really matching you, but. It sounded fine to me.

Yeah. I like I like hitting I like getting wrong notes Yeah It's fucking sick Hey Jay can we go back to that one video Where uh

I wanted I want to edit to play the The verse Yeah God Yeah God for you man Okay so now we know the verse Is two minutes in

Yeah So this This riff dude About two minutes in That's the way So it's right after this part Yeah it's like Three

places in the song, but... Yeah, what are you doing there? Huh? What are you in there? Where? The verse, yeah. I mean, here I'm just singing. There's a cello in the background, but then it's...

Oh, okay. That's sick, dude. It's a pretty simple melody, but I like simple melodies. Well, it's hard to write as... And simple one. It's hard. It's hard. Yeah. I guess we even go to the...

Is that E? Is that... No, I mean... How do you tune that? Okay, yeah. So you have G, D, A, E. So it's different from a guitar.

Okay. It's in quarters. Oh, okay. Got it. Because I notice in this part, it hits one of those off notes that I like. Yeah. It's like when you hit like a minor, like an off note at the very end, that's literally like one of my favorite things that someone does on a violin.

Yeah. It's sick, dude. It makes you want to cry. I start crying, dude. Yeah, but like, I said, the new... Oh, the pog, dude? You got to do the pog? Yeah.

Fucking sad, man. This at the same time, I think. But yeah, it sounds pretty cool. Actually, I use it sometimes with some distortion. Like, at the end... At the end of God for your man, you have this, like, this sound in the breakdown. So I just use it to like whip the violin. Okay.

With the pog on. I think, yeah. Just like aggressive. I may just want a freaking head bang, dude. Hell yeah, okay. That was the biggest reason I bought it, but now I start to play around with it live for some different parts.

Okay. Because then you get like, you get like the range of something in between a cello and a viola. Okay. So viola, you just, if you move everything down, so you start with a C. Okay. If you octave that down, you have a cello. But since I'm on G, and if I octave this down, I'm in between those two instruments.

Okay. That's pretty dope, man. Yeah. It sounds awesome. so uh so you it was it was before the uh it was before the record

the black um you were playing with like I'm trying to put it in I know this not the proper term but I'm trying to put it in simple terms but you're playing with like a mini orchestra like behind you

right and you said that's what really like inspired the band and really incorporate that yeah into into the record right yeah Okay, nice. Because we did that for our last record, Heaven Hiding. We did that live session with a quartet. Yes.

I mean, obviously, we already had some strings in that album, but it was more of a mixture, I would say. Okay. So some of those songs, we got, like, we elaborated the string score. Okay. And it was actually one of our friends who did that for us because I didn't have time. for this live session. Yeah, this was the exact session.

Yeah. After that, I just, when we went into writing for the Black, it just already imagined that we have this quartet with us. And it would make everything so much easier because I would, as we were writing the songs, I would write down the sheet music at the same time or like after the session maybe. Yeah.

Because at one point, I'm going to need to re-record this stuff. And it's way easier if I have just the sheets in front of me than having to, like, what did I do there? Like, go back and listen. So everything is already transcribed and you just hand them over to someone else to play it as well. Okay. I noticed they're doing the same thing we're talking about earlier. They have the sheet music in front of them. Yeah.

And they're just shredding, dude. Yeah. That's shredding to me. That's fucking. That's shredding, dude. Dude. I kind of had a quick idea. Hmm?

Can I play a fucking... Can I play a freaking breakdown, dude? Yeah. Okay. This is gonna be a drop one, too. Cool. I can give you my classic breakdown thing here.

Nice. Thank you, man. Thank you. I was wondering how I was talking to sound about a quick chug, dude. Yeah. Appreciate that, man. No worries. I could freestyle jam for it for a while.

Yeah, because when I'm alone, I try to put a, you know, I'll have like these, I'll have like these clean wrists, but I don't know, like, that I try to transpose it on like logic, but I don't know what I'm doing. So I always wanted to jam with someone before. Thank you. That was my, that was my first time ever jamming with the player. Yeah, yeah. I'm all right, man. Likewise, you. That's fucking badass.

What up? What of, is there anything about you, Eddie, or, or your, your band that, uh, you're, you're a band that, uh, that you want people to know about anything? I mean, we just put out our extended edition of the Black. Yes. But are you thinking of something else? Yeah, something maybe like personally, maybe you want out there. It could be about you.

It could be about the band, about your playing. This is your stage. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. we leave ourselves out there pretty much. And we have some really exciting things coming up, but you know how it is. You can't tell until it's official.

But I can say we have been working on riding. We have been doing so for a while. So it feels really exciting, actually. You're always riding. Yeah. I could tell that you're a very creative person. You know, you have that vibe. You're always writing.

It's like you can't tell people that you're writing a record because, well, what's changed? Yeah. Yeah, we tried to keep, we try to keep that fresh, you know. Because that's what happened after having hiding. We took a break from writing. Why? Because usually I feel a bit drained, like I'm out of ideas.

I need to have a little bit of a break to get inspired again and to find this, you know, what is the next thing going to be? So when we were starting riding for the Black, we were kind of late, so to say. Okay. That's where we decided to record and release singles as we went along. Oh, okay. So that whole process was actually just us. Okay, here's a single that's recorded and release it. Which gave us some time, you know, to still be consistent and we could still be relevant on, like, release new music while we're still working on the album.

Okay. But after releasing the Black, we picked it up pretty soon. So we just started to write again just to keep that fresh. Yeah. Yeah, so what happened with the last record? So how long did you, how long did that take for you to kind of get, kind of get ideas going again? Because I know, I know people struggle with that sometimes.

It just, it's just not there. Yeah. How do you get that ideas to come back? So what we did in the past was like we would do a couple of acoustic songs. That was a way to like keep being. being creative while you don't really write new songs. It's just different versions of the song. Oh, wow.

So it was a way for us to just be creative, but be creative with something different and not metal. But it took us, we released Heaven and Hiding in 2021. So... Good three years? It took us at least, like we had probably, two-year break. A two-year break?

Almost from writing. Because we started releasing singles for the Black in 23, and that's when we started writing for it, too. We did that album in like nine months. Like from scratch, scratch. And no scrapped songs either. Yeah. We learned a lesson.

Every song is on the record. Oh, wow. Yeah. So a two-year break just to cleanse them, I don't know, I don't know what even called that, the creative muscle, the soul. I don't know why it took us some time, but that's how it is.

You can't force it, man. I think we were also, it was also due to the fact that we rode heaven hiding during pandemic. Yeah. 2020 was the, was the year. We wrote everything, released in 21. And then we were still, you know, we couldn't tour. Yeah.

And then we started touring in 22. And then there was pretty busy year because everyone's out the gate. And, you know, we had an album tour. We had an acoustic tour. And then we had summer festivals. And then we had the tour within flames. Yeah. So it's like a pretty packed year for us.

So you're taking a break where you're still kind of, you're doing? Yeah, we're still working that album. So it doesn't feel like imminence is on a break. We did the acoustic stuff for that record too. Recorded videos for that. We did the live session with the strings. So we're consistently doing new things anyway. It's just not for a new album.

It's still working on that same record. Yes. Doing something but not the thing. Yeah. Do you congrats on the In Flames Tour. I know how big. you know to be honest i really i really didn't understand like the impact um that band is made on on on people and especially for for you guys it's kind of cool to get you guys to get you guys

to be on tour with them yeah it was massive for us yeah just do that that child is always yeah we did it from yeah from a freaking village yeah exactly i spent 15 years taking lessons i just How it unlearn? Yeah. What do your parents think? I mean, they're super proud. They're really happy. Did it come out to shows?

Yeah. I mean, they do. It's not, like, they wouldn't travel, like, to a different country maybe. Yeah. But, like, when we're playing close by. Hmm. Yeah, what do you even play, like, around there? We usually play Copenhagen.

Yeah, because, yeah. You're right by Kobe Hagen. It's right there. It's like right across. But we've been talking about how cool it would be to do a real headline show in Malma because we never really done that. Yeah, because I guess, so in a high school, there was a little local scene, but it kind of died off, right? Yeah.

Okay. And then even like touring bands or even club, successful club bands were struggling. Yeah, in Malma especially. Yeah. But I think it's just so close to Copenhagen. People just went to Copenhagen or something. Yeah, I think bands did that. And I think, you know, there's an interest to play, like,

you have big festivals, like metal festivals in Denmark. So I think for a lot of bands, maybe strategically it makes sense to focus on, like, on Copenhagen, because in Sweden you can play Gothenburg or Stockholm. Yeah. And didn't you guys have the foresight what's happening with like your local scene kind of going away, hey, we need to go down to Europe? Because it's not, because there's no, there's no way. Yeah. I mean, we're still doing things in the local scene at that time and doing quite well. Like we would put together our own kind of like mini festival in Malma. That did pretty. decent you know uh but we always knew europe's going to be the next step that's where we want to go we want to go toward you want to put in that 100% yeah that's cool man as cool to see you um harold and alex and if we're saying 15 years yeah haven't killed each other exactly that's important

man yeah yeah we've uh it's cool you know you know when you've gone through everything together, and you started off in a little family car, basically, touring Europe, sleeping on couches and garages or, you know. Yeah, being harassed by cats. Yeah, you saw that too. What's up with you in cats? What's your beef with?

Oh, I guess cats have beef with you, right? Yeah. Okay. Nice. That explains your two dogs. I have five. You have five dogs? Yeah.

Oh, shit. Okay. And they give cats a second chance. This is a second. It's fine a cool cat. Do you guys still watch Rocky before every record? Yeah. Yeah?

What a movie. Yeah, it's amazing. When you watch Rocky, dude, or even, like, put on that fucking song, dude, you get instantly, like, inspired. It's so incredible. It is motivating, dude. Yeah. But it's just, did you watch it? Before the black?

Yeah, we had like, because this time it was like a split up studio time. But definitely one of the sessions we had there. We had like, we watched all of them. All of them? Yeah. How many Rockies are there again? I don't know. Six?

Yeah, it must be. Yeah, how many are in their Rocky series? one six yeah six and then the creed movies six so six technically nine would you so would you count the creeds

you think I wouldn't count them in the same I mean it's the same universe but it's not the same series but we did watch them too this is a special record let's watch all nine dude there's something about that first and I talk

about Universal, dude. It just pumps you up, dude. If I, you know, there's like, there's certain things I do if I'm lost and there's certain movies that you could watch it's put you right back in the center.

Could be a song, could be some songs. That movie is one of a version. Yeah. It puts you right back. You're like, okay, re-focused. Fuck everybody. Yeah. I mean,

take over the world, man. These days we have like also separate studio time because it's a bit much to be away. like four to six weeks all of us together when we're touring so much

and you want to spend time with your family and stuff. Yeah, man. So we usually just record one-on-one. And with the black, did you really use your record is from home as your main tracks?

My vocals, everything is from home. Really? Yeah. Because you were trying to recreate the vibe and he couldn't. Yeah. It happens. As I've gone more into, like, production,

not for other people, but for us. Yeah. Like, it becomes more and more fun to, like, be creative with it, like, with different types of effects or just, like, getting that right vibe of the song with the vocal delivery. And that's just, I found it, I find it so hard sometimes to recreate,

especially if you worked a lot on it to make it sound perfect to you. So why re-record something that sounds perfect? Yeah, I couldn't tell us until I found you saying it. I was like, oh, wow, I couldn't, I didn't even know. Yeah. Sometimes when you hear something

that changes your perception, I'm like, oh, shit. I couldn't sound fun. Yeah, sometimes when you're trying to, like, recreate something, It's just something's missing. Yeah. Something is missing, dude. I mean, we do the guitars, like almost everything, but that's because we love to play with real ampas.

Of course. Especially with having so many different tunings. We don't really use transpose in the studio. We tune down the guitars to the right keys. Yeah. So that's something we still do, but we might keep a few things. like a few leads or if there's something special that you did on guitar that's like a focus

point maybe you keep that from the pre-production too i heard you talk about uh alohando gonzalez he uh he's a director for the reverent uh birdman he has a last name by can't pronounce his last name iniarito yes yes yeah eri eri eri eri eri eri eri eri eri eri I meanerito. I think. Erarito. So he's a Mexican filmmaker. Yeah. And I never seen the Reverend.

Is it? I hear it's badass. Yeah. The Revenant. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The Revenant, dude. That's go. That's a great film. That's freaking go, man.

No, it's really, really cool. And he did, he also did Birdman? Yeah. Right? I recently rewashed it because I watched it when kind of when it came. came out and yeah that's a while ago uh i rewatch it now i just i loved it too yeah it's uh it's holding up because you guys i mean you've also directed some of the videos yeah yeah did you have any uh influence on on on some of them or i mean maybe i think like in an aspiring sense like i would

watch a lot of films in my teenage years and early 20s just be just loving film so that was always something that you know i would get inspired by or like you wanted to figure out like what kind of lenses are they using or like how do you make something look like this sure but that was me getting into video is actually actually just a way to save money. It's like, because the first music video we did ever with a guy, he had a cheap like DSLR camera. Okay. And that video cost us like 400 bucks. And that was still, you know, that's super cheap for a video.

But for us at that time, it was still a lot of money. So I just looked up what kind of camera you have. and it costed something like that. It was a cheap one. So I was like, maybe I just buy one myself and we'll figure this out. I'm going to buy the camera. And then that became an interest too. It's a whole other way to get creative.

It's crazy. Yeah. Then you get into editing and like lighting. And it, I can't put worse to it, but it influences the music. Yeah. There's some connection with the, with the cameras and music. I haven't put my finger on it yet, but it's something. Yeah.

You know, you kind of look at music at like a different way, you know. Yeah. Trying a bunch of weird shit, you know, or just keep the muscle going. We were talking earlier about being jaded. Yeah. You know, it's something that keeps your mind going differently. Yeah. I can't put, again, I can't put my finger on it, but working, doing other things like creative, just,

hissed the music away. I don't know what it is. It's something that inspired me a lot for writing the black too. Like thinking of making the score is more cinematic. And we also

have a few instrumental pieces there which are definitely more they could be in, you know, could have been written for a movie or for a series or a game. It's just something that I really love as well, like that type of music.

So it was cool to draw those influences and to play that out. That's awesome, man. Cool. Well, Eddie, I mean, congrats on how far the band has come, dude. Thank you. It's pretty sick. Anything come to mind yet as far as something that you want out there? I'm pretty happy, actually.

Yeah. Pretty happy where I'm at. You look, you look happy. Thank you. At the band, the guys are intact. I always say like, you know, people, it's a common question. We always get it. You know, how are you?

What's up, dude? How are you doing it? And I always say, I mean, my, my lady's happy, I'm happy. My, the guys are happy, I'm happy. Yeah. Because if they're not happy, I'm fucked. Yeah. If the girl's not stoked, I'm fucked.

Yeah. So if, like, if the guys were happy, I'm happy. Yeah. You know? That's your, that's your family, man. Yeah. That's your Swedish family. Yeah.

You know, and now, I'm in it. Exactly. Thank you, dude. Thank you for jamming, dude. It was sick. Yeah. It was a pleasure. Pleasure, yeah.

It was, again, that was my first time jamming with a violent plan. Not only that, but like a very talented one. Thank you. Thank you. One last question. How, how, how long. did it take you to unlearn what you learned the past 15 years? Yeah, probably that time, like one, one and a half years, but it would still...

It took that long. Yeah. To unlearn. Yeah. Wow. But it's like, it's things you constantly work on, like fixing details, you know? Fixing details. Man, it took you a year and a half to undo 15 years of work, man.

Yeah. Worth it, though. Yeah. Do you want to try to scream? Let's do it, yeah. Let's do it, man. Do you want to scream? I'll try. I mean, I'm not a singer, but I have one kind of scream. So it sounds a little bit different in the headphones. Because when we do this live, this will feedback.

And now we won't get the feedback. I'll give you some delay too. So I just scream in this fucking thing? I think. Soon as sight. I'll get in again. Freaking you do this thing, dude. Yeah.

Morning, I've been a couple of times. I have one tone. That's all I got. You're good. You're good. Yeah. You guys, I might show you what. So like that?

Yep. Yeah. I thought you were going to grow, man. fan right there yeah yeah we would uh we'll get a hammer and just scream scream at high yeah that's my first time growling too yeah nice it's not it's not terrible okay shit and that's from from that guy right yeah yeah so i got it tweaked kind of the way i like it and uh and then when you add more stuff you can have more fun like you can use the pog too okay if you want to have a different uh yeah sick well uh eddie thank thank you for making a drive man should uh yeah

was a question um yeah any close closing thoughts closing thoughts closing feelings um i'm grateful to be here and uh i'm looking forward to playing here tomorrow i really feel like we are blessed being able to do what we do and being out here on the road and meeting incredible people like yourself so I'm just thankful to be here. Pleasure, man. Thank you, man. All right, Eddie. Until next time.

Until next time. That's it. Later.