The Downbeat - Johannes Persson - Cult Of Luna

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

My guest this week is Johannes Persson, vocalist and guitarist of Swedish post-metal pioneers Cult Of Luna. We talk about the band's new EP 'The Raging River' as well as lockdown lifting (shock horror), working with Mark Lanegan, and how to deal with conspiracy theorists. Peace!

What up? What's going on? You can't reply. As ever, you can't reply, but you can send me a little message if you're really desperate to reply. What's been going on with you? With me? Nothing. I imagine with you. Also nothing, given the state of the entire earth. I hope you're listening to this from one of those rare places where they're sort of getting on with things, aka not America or the UK or most of Europe. I basically mean, are you from New Zealand? If so, I hope you're having a lovely time and please be safe and continue to make your country very, very, very, very, very virus-free. Antivirus, New Zealand antivirus.

I'm waffling, I've got nothing for you. I'm twitching. I'm a partner on Twitch. If you don't know what that means, you're too old granddad, grandma, grand they. Yes, I've been on Twitch. I'm on there every day, 5pm GMT. What do we do?

We sort of look at YouTube. We watch drum videos. We watch not drum videos. We watch live at Woodstock videos and freak out about how close everyone is to each other. And then we talk about it in the Downbeat Discord. I'm trying not to make these things a big advert at the start. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

www. The DownBe.a.t. So it's supposed to downbeat if you want a T. shirt or the Patreon slash the downbeat if you want to give me a fucking quid only a quid now i feel okay about asking for a pound now because i thought about it if you're listening to this you must have quite a high-tech phone or the internet which costs many pounds i don't really want your money but you know it'd be nice maybe god that sounded bad doesn't it please sir money question mark My guest this week is Johannes Person of Per.

It sounds, in an English accent it sounds like I'm just saying person. He's not a person, it's person, I believe. Like that little sort of Swedish twist on that. I sound like I'm in there, hit, hit police drama, The Bridge. If you haven't seen The Bridge, if I can check that out. Anyway, my guest is Johannes from Col of Luna. basically what happened is they've got a new EP out, the raging river, and before it came out, you know, I'll listen to them and talk about them a lot on the pot.

I was like, I really want to listen to this early. I wonder if I can abuse my power and message someone and see if Johannes wants to come on the downbeat and at the same time get the EP. Guess what? It worked, and now I'm going to do that all the time. You know what I'm like, I was like, hey, speaking of that, coughing, you hear that cough? I left that in there. I did a podcast with Daniel P. Carter recently on his swim podcast. And I realized when we were doing it, he mutes the mic when he coughs.

And I thought, bloody hell. What a professional man that is. Anyway, back to Johannes. He plays in a band called Cult of Luna. I came up with some terms for them. It's kind of hard to fit them into a genre. Obviously they're a metal. But their new EP has some sort of delightful surprises on there.

Mark Lanner. featuring on there. Mark Lanagan of Queens of the Stone Age and Lanagan band fame which is pretty fucking there's a pretty cool story behind that. We spent about 40 minutes talking about lifting weights and afterwards I immediately got off the phone to him

and I ordered myself a bunch of weights for lockdown. So if you don't like lifting weights, I mean there's parallels, isn't there, with lockdown and getting on with it. But it's about 35 minutes of that so maybe skip to 35 minutes in if you want to hear the Colt Luna shit. but I did this for me, not for you, so I don't care.

What else we were told? I had loads of questions on their older stuff because I'm a bit of Coltor Luna nerd and some of it he couldn't even remember but there were some gems in there some little Easter eggs to look out for in the recordings of other album tracks like little things you can hear in the background

which I thought was really cool. I hope we became friends from this as you can probably hear on these episodes where I don't know the people at the beginning there's a sort of ice shield where they think is this a professional thing

and then they slowly realize not professional and then they thaw and we have a lovely time and I think that happened on this episode anyway I had loads of fun thanks to Johannes for coming on and thanks to Alexis for sorting it out

um yes Johanus person from Cult of Luna on the Downbeat Podcast. I debated giving you a really slow one to match your band. To do like a nice do-mey counting. But it would be a nightmare.

Yeah. How are you? Right, I'm going to get this right because every time I interview someone, I get their name wrong. So, Johannes, correct? Yes. Right, that's absolutely fine.

It doesn't matter. I'm perfectly good. How are you? We don't know each other, do we? I don't think so. Well, we definitely don't know each other. Because the reason we're doing this, I don't think you know this, is I love your band. And I talk about your band all the time on the podcast.

There's a lot of people that have got into your band through the podcast. And usually it's like friends, people that are on sort of Slip Knotts Management, friends of friends. And basically, the other day I decided I really wanted to hear your new album. And at the same time, I could do with, you know, just having a chat with you and hopefully becoming best friends. So I hit your management up and was just like, hey, this would be good for everyone. Yeah, yeah. So sounds like a solid plan.

And like I've lost count of the number of episodes where I just talk about cult of Luna. So I've got questions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, talking about something doesn't necessarily mean it's good. So you just... I said nice things. Yeah, okay, okay, I'll take your word for it. And do you know what? It was always because the podcast, like, it's very loose. It's not like, this isn't, we're at Hellfest and there's a press and you're doing like Johnny's blog and he's just asking, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. I heard you grumble. Yeah, it's always good fun.

And you can hardly hear anyone because everybody, I mean, if the music isn't like too loud, there's too many people talking and the questions are generic. Oh, the questions are the fucking absolute worst. So the new album, a departure from the old stuff, but still the same as the old stuff, the same fucking questions. But I saw on your... Instagram that you've been doing some lockdown lifting as well.

And I was like, okay, I need this guy now. So we're going to cover everything. Oh, are we going to talk lifting? You know, I warn people about talking, talking lifting with me. I have my vent. I have my two group chats where we discuss all the aspects of lifting. Oh, by the way, my cat is going to disturb us 100%. No, that's good.

That's absolutely fine. Yeah, yes, so you know. I have my two group shots where I went all my lifting issues and I warn everybody to bring up the subject because that's the only thing we're going to be talking about for that's good because I've had like do you know who Bryce Crawcheck is? Calgary Barbell

he's a Canadian guy. No. Loves metal. Loves Kotwell Luna actually. But we had him on. on the pod because he's a big metal fan and he you know he actually wrote me a plan to get out of my training went to shit and uh i was like i'm going back to the gym after the first lockdown and i was like what do i do and he just wrote me a plan and it was cool yeah yeah so there's definitely lift

the listeners and i think people just like hearing that people have a hobby that isn't just music you know what i mean yeah yeah um but i saw you had like you've got like you've got got like a bunch of bros and you're just you've got what is it a garage set up or somebody yeah yeah exactly um yeah there was a a friend and uh it's a friend's garage and we have a bunch of yeah that's one of my one of my crews um and the people in in one of the group chats where we discuss the aspects of lifting heavy stuff actually it's one of the old cult of Luna members

Eric Olofson that still he does all the artwork still and he's actually the one that got me under the barbell how long ago was there we have this tradition where we meet up during the summer and have

one bottle of expensive wine and he just got into lifting and like I've been going to the gym pretty regularly for many years but I've been doing a lot of cardioes you know CrossFit kind of stuff and he kind of convinced me that I should try this I mean it's a program called five by five basically it's yeah I mean it's starting strength yeah basically yeah and Mark... Go on, explain it.

Yeah, yeah. Listeners that want to get into it. Yeah. So, yeah, starting strength, I think it's a book and a program by Mark Riptow, which basically is, I mean, the Bible for starting lifting free weights. So, and the thing with me is that I only do stuff with 110. 10% so yeah i started uh i was starting with the program and uh i started to eat like 3,500 calories um a day counting the calories and counting the protein and all that uh and my fitness pal you got my my fitness pal app or one of those apps to track it yeah fuck yeah yeah yeah

my man took it seriously yeah yeah yeah i i i really did and And I started doing some real progress both and when it came to weight. But, well, actually, both the weight that I lift and the scale. So I went actually, well, I started in September. And in December when we did a European tour, I kind of, you know, I didn't really felt comfortable. in the like the mass, my body mass. You cultivated too much mass. Yeah.

And I pretty much had reached my limit when it came to the five-by-five program. I still hadn't failed the squat yet. And I thought that, okay, this is it. This is as strong as I'm ever going to be. now it's time to lose the weight. So I started maybe, yeah, around Christmas I started to, you know, do the travel back to my normal weight of 80. So I had to lose 16 kilos, which I did pretty fast. I mean, it's pretty easy.

Instead of eating 3,500, I ate maybe like 2,000 and did my work. workouts. And you lost a load of strength and you hated it. Oh, wait a second, because I didn't lose as much strength as I thought I would. Really? Yeah. Go on. So hang on.

How long ago was this? This was, well, pretty much exactly one year ago, give or take a couple of weeks. And then. And then I started getting, well, actually, when we got back from the US tour, which pretty much. was exactly when COVID hit pretty bad. And I had a gym very close to my home and I decided, okay, I'm not going to the office anymore. What I'm going to do now is that I'm going to get really serious with the lifting.

So I started, like, I'm not a big sleeping person, so I don't need many hours of sleep. So I got up very early every, like every morning. which yeah and I started doing this new program which is basically kind of a bodybuilding program five days a week to one or two major muscle groups every every day

it takes me like one and a half hour to go through depending on the weeks it's a six week circular program. Is it got a specific name? No, it's actually, you know, I follow this app. It's called Strength Log, a Swedish app. That's amazing. I mean, and I just, I did the first six-week program,

and I immediately saw results, like, visually. I saw muscles I hadn't seen before and also I had lost 15, 16 kilos of weight too which helps and I continued and I've been doing that every single day

well five days a week every since then so I hit this week I started my eighth circle on the same program and my goal is to do it for for one year and after that i might might change uh to something different and the thing is with these uh i mean it's not like um it's not a strong man it's not a um uh you know power lifting no it's not a power lifting program but but i've uh i've pushed my my one rep max uh quite a lot since last

December when I thought I had pretty much maxed out. Yeah, because I saw some videos on your Instagram and I was like, oh shit, he's pushing some numbers. Exactly. Come on. Let's talk numbers. Let's talk numbers. Look, exactly one year ago, I had this personal training for a while.

And I told him that one thing that I really kind of regret is that I never. when I did this five by five five basically you do it's it's five it's it's five called different lifts that you do five times that's it that's it you do five reps five sets but I never tried my one-wrap max in any of the lifts not not bench press or like normal press or or that lift or that lift or or lift or or or anything. So I kind of regretted that. So he told me, okay, today we are going to do a one-rep max deadlift. And I struggled, but I managed to get 180 kilos off the ground. And I really struggle to do that. Today I had my, it was back day, so it was deadlift. So now I, when I get

to my workouts weight, I do five, one set of five reps of 170 kilos and then I do another one exactly like that five rep 170 kilos then I do then I do four hundred and eighty and I realize on 180 is fucking yeah yeah yeah and and and now I realized today I realized like I need to I'm I'm I'm taking it too easy yeah you got you got a 200 in there easily well I did during yeah the Instagram thing uh when I did my one max actually managed to do a 210 which beast uh beast mode uh with uh yeah my my body weight is 80 so it's uh i should be pushing three times body weight in well that i mean that's like elite that's elite people three times i think what was your squat is there 150 squat in there did i see

No, I did 160 something. 165? Let me have a look. I'm going to open that. Put it up. Pull that shit right up. Because I remember seeing it and being like, oh, so now we're going to have more than just being.

Yeah, and the thing is, I should. That's the first time I ever did like a one-wrap max on all three like powerlifting. what's called lifts anyway yeah so after three hours when we went when we finally came to the deadlift the next time I'm gonna eat between

three fucking hours oh you did it like an actual meat yeah all on the same day are you're a cyclones I love it hold on here I'm gonna see opening up right now I need to go back to 2020 okay let's see let's see let's see let's see Okay, here we go.

Sunday the 27th of December. Yeah, so I did 162.5 kilos on squat. I did 120 kilos bench press. But I have, like, I think I have the biggest, I think I could do way more if I ever get my shoulder fixed because I have some problem with that. And then after that, I did 210 kilos. kilos and deadlift.

That's a fucking impressive. At 80 kilos, that is fucking impressive. I think my best ever was 200 deadlift, 170 squat, and a 130 bench. But I was 86 kilos. So six kilos is a lot of body weight more. Yeah. And I mean, one thing that I think is seriously interesting is that, all these

I would say my progress I mean it hasn't it has just like taken less than one year like one year ago I struggled to do 180 and now I did today

I did four four times 180 and I really need to add more weight next week okay here's I'm going to seamlessly throw this into the music world

here um do you think maybe your progress being so much in just a year is because for every other year of your life when you've been lifting there's been tours that fuck up your training it doesn't anymore because we um the last uh a couple of tours we've done we've managed to find gyms in every city which has been an amazing experience i must say uh you you see the world in uh completely in like aspects of the world that you that i've never seen before um and you see the different qualities of of each uh see the quality of the gym the different cities have the different cities have

and milan has the most horrible gym i ever went to where in milan in italy oh my i've probably been to the same gym. I was going to say like Sweden actually, one of the best gyms I've ever been to was in I'm going to say right, Orobrough. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

One of the best gyms I've ever been to. Just full like Aliko like gear to the max. Fucking incredible. And then Spain, I went to one in Nairobi, Kenya. And I scraped a

deadlift bar up my fucking leg in Kenya. Yeah, that can happen. It was not the most hygienic. Oh, no, I can understand. The last gym I went to on tour was when we played Mexico City. Wow. In March.

I think my gym shorts, they, I busted them up pretty bad when I did. did a squat. I mean, they ripped through underwear fully exposed. But the good thing about being in like a foreign country, like, if this would have been like Sweden, Stockholm or, you know, where I lived, it would be a bit embarrassing. But like, I'm not going to see anyone again. You get that. That tall mentality. Yeah, I don't care I need to do the full program before I kind of

wave the white flag I'm not going to do it because of a rip gym shorts The program needs to be finished Needs to be completed I meant like When I got on tour Even I will try and find a gym every day

Because it just helps my mental state with touring It helps me limber up for playing or whatever. But eating-wise, I can never eat enough calories on tour. I always come home, my strength's gone. Well, calories is not a problem, at least not for us. Protein is a problem. I mean, we're all, or most of us are vegetarian,

which is kind of leaves us with pasta and white bread and wine. Euro vegetarian catering. That tofu curry that they all just put a block of tofu, water, and then some sort of fucking spice. Here you go, guys. It's all vegan. If you're lucky, I mean, I would be happy to get some tofu. But I bring tons of protein powder. What should you go to protein as a veggie then?

I mean, you could have a normal weight powder, but there's tons of them. I mean, you have powder made out of peace. And like, I don't care as long as it contains enough protein. I don't care where the source is. I did a three-month, in a minute, I'm going to start talking about music. And as people will be like, oh, you didn't talk about fucking a new album. Um, my biggest bench ever, I did three months of going vegan and my biggest bench ever was at the end. And I did a testosterone check and an estrogen check before and afterwards, because I just did a test because, you know, the media will go, oh, soy increases estrogen.

And so I tested my estrogen before and I tested it after three months of stone cold vegan and my estrogen was actually lower. bench the most I've ever lifted in my life. So just for the naysayers, that kind of opened my eyes to like, okay, I can, I can eat a lot more vegan food. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, I think, I mean, it's a tough topic. I'm not a fan of people saying that, like, over-exaggerating the, the, the, the, the

what like the the the pros of being a vegan and there was some documentary that I'm not sure if it was really science based for real I can remember yeah like for me

it's not I mean basically just just from a workout and like if you want to make progress when it comes to your your weightlifting you need to to keep your macros and keep track of that and for the animals i would suggest going on a vegetarian or vegan diet that's my only concern um when it comes to that

um but basically just just animals not not the planet as well you're strictly animal yeah yeah the planet of course I mean the way we have been living in the Western world for the last 50 well 100 150 years I mean it's not

sustainable and we all know that it's not a matter you can think whatever you like about animal rights but your your meat consumption need to go down that's not yeah it's like proven yeah it's not an opinion it's a fact.

But that's just how it is and you can... People don't want to hear it, though. No, exactly. I think that's it. And I think, look, I've been debating this issue for 25 years and I think... I've learned the hard way that it's not... people get personally offended

when you start talking about these issues and I understand that and they feel personally attacked and in some sense yes they are

but I think it's more I mean in the past I was pretty much demanding that everybody would turn vegan and if it was that or nothing but I think that

right now I'm more of you can at least try for your own health to eat less and for the planet I mean we do need to start things thinking of conserving energy.

And it's a very energy-wasting way of consuming protein, for sure. There's like, the thing I'm trying to do is, so I'm basically trying to make it cool to still eat meat, but not eat that much at all. So I eat, because we know the figures are there, like, if we don't reverse this, we're all fucked. All the animals, all the people. So what I'm trying to do, because after I did the three months vegan, I was like, okay, this fucking rips.

And then I did all of last year vegetarian. And then now I'm like, I'm trying to make it so it's like, I think particularly in, I don't want to say America, but I'm going to say America. There's like bacon culture. Do you know what I mean? where everyone's just like oh but bro bacon and i'm trying to make it like i don't want to say manly

but like cool to fucking fucking not eat fucking shitloads of bacon like that's why i did the test with the estrogen to like prove all i fucking ate was soy pretty much didn't affect me at all exactly and i i think the best way you can do and that's the thing that i've learned through the years is that the best way of, if you want to convince people or something, the most important thing is that you are a good example of the point you want to make. And that's the problem with a lot of vegans these days, that they're not a good example. And they kind of shunned people away from the whole.

aspect and I understand. I mean, I hate vegans too. Yeah, the misinformation in the documentary you were talking about. Like, that doesn't help the fucking cause because people just go, okay, you're all full of shit. Yeah, and people, and a lot of people that turn vegan

act like they've just been, in a cultish way, just been saved and they found the answer to everything. And I just get tired. I'm tired of listening to that. I'm tired of that kind of personality.

It doesn't matter if you're religious or if you just, that kind of a black and white mentality. Just, like... Do you think it's getting old? Do you think you're getting old? Because I was like that with atheism. I used to be a little cunt with atheism. I was insane.

And now I'm like, actually, just do what you want. Yeah, look, I'm as guilty of that as you. I was, and I'm still a very outspoken atheist, but I'm not as aggressive as I used to be. Like, my dad is, he's religious. And I kind of came to the point, like, look, look, you have your opinion, I have mine. And let's see, like, we need to have a relationship as a dad and a son

and as a family, we just need to put these issues aside. I'm not, I'm not like, you have your traditions and you have your way of looking at life. And as long as you're a nice person, I'm not going to get in your way. I do think that religion is probably the worst aspect of, of, of human culture and probably cost most basically has dragged humanity let's say pulled away humanity from living up to our full potential basically yes yes without without a doubt but as you said if people are just nice and and not keeping their religion to themselves, I'm not going to get up in their faces.

But you used to, because I used to, I can hear it. And then, to be honest with you, almost like what you're saying about the vegan people, like, people like, I used to love fucking Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins and stuff. And then Richard Dawkins just got on his fucking high horse so much. I don't even know him. You obviously do if you're an atheist. I do, of course. And I was just like, I fucking hate this guy. I kind of want to. separate myself from him. I was like, you know what? Everyone just do what you want. I think you're an idiot, but do what you want. Yeah, sure. But the thing is, and what people don't understand, the problem is when you

start idolizing people and put them on a pedestal and all that, like, I do think, like, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, I definitely think that they, um, I like them in some, when it comes to some aspects, they make really good points, but they can still be assholes. I mean, there's no, that's the thing when you learn to see life in grayscale. You can still appreciate a person for what they do in some aspects, and then in other aspects they're just a piece of shit. So, like, I'm not, I still, I mean, I've always in some sense been an atheist because I've never, I've never been a believer, but I think Richard Dawkins' work pretty much made me,

I was able to verbalize my thoughts in a better way after reading him, for example, Sam Harris and one of my personal favorites, Christopher Hitchens, of course, which... That's the thing about Christopher Hitchens as well, though. Like, again, I... fucking when I was a kid I loved this shit. God is not great is Christopher Hitchin's, yeah? Yeah, yeah. And then

I heard about his views on the Iraq war and I was like, what are you fucking kidding me? And I was just like, and obviously I know literally everything you just said about Grey Scown and everything, but fuck, some stuff just puts me right off

somewhere. Yeah, but I mean, you don't agree with him on that issue. No big deal. Oh, but when I was a kid, like you said, you nailed it. before I even said it, I idolized him when I was a kid. And then so, yeah, that being less than anyone is listening, just be skeptical of everyone. Yeah, be skeptical of anyone talking fast with convictions.

Because that's one thing that I've seen. And it can be about pretty much any issue. People that talk fast with conviction are very, well, usually get a lot of followers because they talk so fast that there's no room for contemplating what they actually are saying. If you boil down, what are they saying? If you would have it in writing and you would just read it instead in your own pace, you would see the gaps.

You would see the flaws in their arguments. But because they talk so fast, I mean, we have Trump, for example. That's a perfect example of a guy just talking so fast, not hesitating for one second. Doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. Like, no sense at all. Like, yeah, he contradicts himself and if you pointed out, he will tell you to fuck off. And those people are very dangerous.

And not, I mean, those people are, that kind of personalities, we all know these kind of people because they are in our personal life too. I just talked, today I had a chat with a friend about people in, yeah, in the crew, well, in my, well, I would say some kind of a friendship circle of people that are just living at the moment and just talking and talking and talking. and if they find a hurdle, they will say anything to get past that and they don't even

contemplate that they're lying. It just, yeah. The rate of talking thing, you've really fucking just opened a bit of my brain there because everyone I can think of in my daily life who speaks very fast and with conviction is I don't believe a word they say and they're very well-rehe.

first and that's true literally everywhere. Yeah, have you ever talked directly to a real conspiracy theorist? Yes, I have been involved. I was in a band with one. Oh, I'm sorry. Ah, exactly the same thing. I mean, it's a, there's a story for another time, but went on to steal some money off people and stuff. Yeah, but the thing is with those people,

is that you could actually set a clock to the way they, how their argument goes, because it's impossible to get them to stop. It's impossible to, to, to just stay at one point to one conspiracy because they all always move forward. it's like trying to to catch like a slippery eel or something like that because you will never you will always be a step behind they said something totally crazy and when you're trying to point that out they're in in a completely different direction and they continue and continue and continue and you know how it always ends it always ends some of my friends that that are less experienced with conspiracy theorists than I am.

I've had a couple of them ask me how they should confront their friend or whatever. I always say this, is that just let them talk. Just let them talk and sooner or later, they will come to the point where everything is the Jews fault. It's all about the Jews. In the end... With conspiracy theories, people, yeah, it's crazy. I mean, just let them talk and they'll get to the Jews sooner or later and then they'll just tell them to fuck off.

Isn't it insane though? Like, it's, it's honestly, this is totally off tangent, right? My dad's really into poetry and he was on, he's on like poetry fucking Facebook groups and shit talking about keats and all this shit. and there's some guy piled in and with a huge supposedly like a conversation about like a piece of Keats's work or Shelley's work or something

and then it was like riddled with holes and a few people said like this this is not entirely accurate and the guy just keeps going and going and then ends up talking about the Jews like what why? Where does it come from?

The hatred of the use. I mean, I know, but like, why is it always there? Can't we just get rid of that? This is a fucking deep podcast.

We haven't even talked to you around for... No, no, no, no. But I think hatred of the youth runs really deep in Western culture because we come from a Christian culture.

And it doesn't matter if you're right-wing or left-wing. it's something that is first of all it's really scary and it's and like you know i grew up during the 80s and 90s where you thought that these kind of things kind of it was something from the past but i've been more and more aware of that all these these thoughts. It's kind of, you know, they're still there.

And we shouldn't even start talking about the Muslim world about the hatred of the youths there. It's, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's quite depressing. Yeah, you've really brought the fucking tone down here, Johannes. We were talking about lifting. We were at a lovely time.

Should we go back to the lift? No, we should probably start talking about music because I think 43 minutes. I think you've even outdone a championship world record holding Canadian power lifter with the amount of lifting talk. So well done on that. I'm going to tell you a little story of me when I was, fuck, when did somewhere along the highway

come out. 2006? Right. I had so I should know that but really I'm not a fucking interviewer. I'm a guy that likes your band and happens to have a podcast. So I had a party at my parents' house when they were on holiday in 2006 and the house, my parents listened to the podcast as well so they will hear this but the house got fucking pretty fucked up and I someone at the party brought that album that they'd just bought somewhere along the highway. And I'd never heard Colt of Luna

before. And everyone had left the next day and I was fucking super depressed. Like I don't have to talk about what could possibly make you depressed the day after a party. But I was pretty fucking depressed. And they left

that CD and I put it on when I was cleaning my house and I was like, oh my fucking God. This is the best thing I've ever heard. It was the first time I'd heard. I hadn't heard any kind of like, I don't know if you hate this term, but like post-metal or, you know, anything like that. I hadn't heard anything. I think I'd heard Godflesh by that point, but nothing like what you would consider, like, cult of lunar ISIS in, you know, that realm. And I put it on and I was like, in the, now

when I look back at it, I'm like, in my head, I'm like, it's, it's because. the angry the angry to sad ratio exactly sums up what happens in my head on a daily basis like the melancholy that's the right word there and I was fucking just massively

hooked from then and I fucking I think I had a little cry I think I can tell you I had a little cry on that and I followed since every fucking album every iteration since then and I kind of want to know

I don't want to drop it on you but by the end of this I want to know like some of your biggest influences of all time I'm not going to drop it on you right now I'm going to give you the rest of the talk to sort of think about that

and fuck I don't know I just wanted to tell you that little fucking story and then just talk about your band a bit how is it how is your band Are you good? We're good. We're good. I think we're better than ever in some senses. I just, six months ago, I moved back to my hometown of Umbio, which makes practicing much easier. And we got a new studio. And so instead of me,

traveling from Stockholm, doing this massive weekends of just practicing for eight hours a day, which of we practiced for two hours and just shoot the fat for six hours. Now we can practice just one hour here, one hour there. I just came from the studio right now from band practice. You're still practicing even though there's no, I mean, again, I guess you have an album out, but you've got no gigs, but you're still just having a band practice. Yeah, I mean, you need to do something, right? I mean, the rest of my band is in America, so I do nothing.

But I wish I could do that. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much the situation we've been in for 13 years. I mean, it was not an ocean between us, but it might as well be eight hours by train. So that's more than the flight so yeah yeah and um no so so so it's uh better than ever and we can meet up and hang out and and and i mean these band practices that we had um before i mean they we had there was always so much pressure uh involved because we only had had maybe four band practices before we had to go into the studio so we had to get things done now we can pretty much work in our own pace um so yeah so if you had to sorry better than ever i don't want to cut you up fuck yeah um so for people that don't know caught of lunar if you let's say you're at like a christmas dinner and there's somebody's grandma's there uh no let's not go

someone's like a parent is there and they don't know anything about your band how are you describing cult of lunar I prefer not to Okay, what in that setting Because there's always somebody that can do it for me But I don't want to do it I want you to do it Would you say metal band if someone didn't know anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah It's metal it's I'm screaming

That's it And then they go, oh, like Metallica. And then you say... Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's happened a bunch of times. And I say yes. Because if that's the response I get, they're not...

They do not understand the subgenres of metal, so they don't really care and they just want to be nice. I'm not... I'm not going to introduce them to all these subgenres of...

heavy music, um, they can listen to themselves. Okay, so what if the person says, oh, what, like stone on metal? Yeah, oh, okay. Yeah. Then what are you going to say? Are you just going to agree or are you going to, yeah, I don't have an ambition to educate people and I don't really, like, if people don't know my band, uh, and they don't look like they would appreciate it.

it. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not that keen of talking about it. We can talk about something different. Maybe they're golfing. They can tell me about golf instead or something. Golfing Metallica. Yeah. So, George, do you want me to explain your band then? Oh, oh, was that where you were aiming? Yes. Yeah, that was, I was doing a fucking bit. But it became a fun, it became a funnier bit. So, fuck, now and now the, I'm not an actual podcast there. I just like music. And

also now you're so, fuck. I think if I had to coin a new term for your band, I would call it progressive doom. Because I'll put that on the pile of

different has it been said before? I don't think so. Fuck, yeah, put it on the pile. Yeah, but a lot of of things have been said, especially at the start when we released the first couple of albums. We had a couple of good laughs of people trying to describe it. Always been dark, industrial.

I think there were some kind of vampire. Vampire? Yeah, it was so weird. Okay, I'm going to my vampire then. Vampire metal. but I think we progress now you're progressive progressive vamp core

it's heavy it's heavy and I think it's heavy in many aspects of the word and the definition of the word heavy I mean even though we do have a bunch of softer songs I think it could be a case that they're pretty heavy

at least when it comes to where to hit emotionally maybe hopefully um the uh i think the the the the light you know the the the looks a tenebrus if you want to go fucking what's that is that latin light and dark i think

the that is what somewhere along the highway just fucking blew me away because i was just like i don't think i'd heard also obviously like the song Finland the melody and the quote unquote nice parts i mean i'm someone that at that point i just listened to death metal that was it so the the quote unquote nice parts next to the heavy parts i'd never heard it done like that before even like i'd heard neurosis that people always compare you to neurosis but this neurosis isn't as melodic in their lighter parts. Even later,

that sort of mid-era neurosis, the light parts, I don't want to call them light in case I offend you. No, but I think people understand. Yeah, but like, melodic shit. If I had to say, let's turn it this way,

if I had to sum up your band, I would call it, okay, I'm going to change it. I'm no longer calling it. post vamp doom and it's no longer called progressive doom it's called Christopher Nolan core

because it's like you know like a Christopher Nolan story multifaceted there's a lot of different things going on at once and then it all always culminates in the most insane

ending that was not a bad description actually I might hold on to that. Christopher Nolan Corps, top of the fucking pile. I think that somewhere along the highway, that was the first time that we actually had to have like a whiteboard

and just to sort out what guitar played what and how the transitions was going to, how they would transition into each. other just so we knew who who should play what wait what salvation didn't have the structure it did but it wasn't that it wasn't that multi-layered yeah it does pick pick up a fucking notch yeah yeah i think that's that's really where we found our way of of doing the things that we we're still doing. That's also when we kind of finally had all the setup that we do now. Go on. Explain the setup, please.

No, but I think that's the first time we started writing with three guitars and had, and where the electronic parts were more structured and more integrated in the music more than just being some kind of a background. We kind of, yeah, I mean, we pushed forward the melodic aspects of what we were doing, like the melodic instruments a bit and maybe, yeah, that's probably it. And the funny thing about that record is that it was written really really, was written really really fast. We had like a couple of weeks before we planned to enter the studio.

And that's the beauty of just writing straight from the heart or straight from the hip. We didn't have time to think that much. And I think that can be a very good. good thing. Yeah, if you get, if you get, if you got too many fucking demos that sound pretty good, and then you sit on them for a while, you're like, oh, maybe I could tweak this bit. Maybe this could go here and then you end up fucking it up. Yeah, but you could always do that. I think also the recording process, we basically went out to this cabin and recorded as much as we could live. and

early on when we did the second album the beyond we for the first time we actually got some quality like studio time we had pretty much unlimited studio time

and we did the most massive album we could ever do and we did retake after retake with different amps to get the

fattest guitar sound as possible um I think that I mean, there's no right or wrong. It's just a matter of taste here, but I enjoy when the recording is capturing a moment

instead of doing a perfect album, because a perfect album can be recorded now or in 10 years. It would sound exactly the same. So basically, for the last couple of albums, I've said to Magnus that records pretty much all our stuff. Okay, look, I'm going to play this twice. And if there's anything that is not sound perfect, I mean, I don't care. That's what's going to get on the album. And if we have some weird noise from the guitar or from the strings or whatever, that's the way I want it. I want it to sound, I wanted to be a recording from this moment, not like a,

perfect play through. And the way I play guitar, it never becomes perfect because I'm not that good of a guitar player. Do you record like to analog gear?

Your albums always sound analog as fuck, but I know these days that can be emulated. No, no, we don't. I mean, to be honest, we don't. Even like Eternal Kingdom. Eternal Kingdom sounds like it was recorded onto fucking wood. And I don't know if that's maybe like I'm just the whole imagery and the story and shit I'm just like sold on it but it sounds

so analog you're telling me that as a PC I guess I don't know anything about recording to be honest the thing is I don't remember much from that recording the only thing I do remember like the only clear memory I have is that I recorded this it's kind of instrumental track or Ugin is basically some kind of a guitar solo-ish thing and that I did in one take in

it was during the middle of the night and I only had like a one lit candle next to me so that's probably why I remember it because it was so I was trying well I wasn't trying to capture the atmosphere but the atmosphere kind of got

captivated in in that in that piece of music or song or whatever you want to call it. That's cool. The track, the second to last track? I'll take your word for it.

I think so. It's just kind of a... Yeah. Weird noise and guitar shit and then it goes, da-na-na-da-d-d-da-da-da-da-da-cah. Come on. Yeah, okay.

I know you're fucking band better than you know you've had. That's cool. That's for me, right, for me, little bit of knowledge of how you recorded that like something that I've listened to a fucking million times in the van this podcast is all worthwhile I don't give a fuck if people got bored with the lifting stuff I learned something nice yeah that that was uh we've had a couple of of

memorable recordings I remember we did uh and we there came the birds in that college yeah And if you listen really, really, really carefully at the start of that song, we had some mics outside of the cottage. And after the first chord, you can hear some like watery noise. It's actually like melting water from the roof going down just next to the mic. And I think we did that in one take too. Oh my God, little fucking Easter eggs. I love it.

Honestly, I think that's the song I cried to as well. That's what I was talking about earlier. I think that's the fucking cry song. Yeah, I really, I really enjoy that song too. It's one of the... Oh, that song fucking is amazing. That can bring me really nicely onto actually what you're supposed to be promoting,

the Raging River. Okay, so is it track three? With the fucking... The singing? Who is it? okay come on I mean I recognize the voice

but I don't want to offend you I haven't listen I don't actually do it like press this isn't press I've never really had anyone on that I have to listen to the album or get a press release or fucking read it or anything

I don't want to offend you by saying if it's you singing and you're trying to sound like him I don't want to say and then you go, oh, that's the first time anyone said it sounds like him. No, no, no, come on.

Yeah, it's Mark Lannigan. Yeah, it's Mark Lannigan. I was just about to say, if you don't recognize that voice, then you're in a very fortunate position of, of, uh, of, uh, of, uh, not knowing his back catalog or what it's done. And then you have a whole world of amazing music to discover.

I didn't want to like, because some people, like, I can't remember who did it. Someone actually, like the Scott Kelly voice I can't remember what band it is they did it so well and I was like that must be Scott Kelly

and it fucking wasn't I mean luckily I wasn't talking to them be like oh you got Scott Kelly on the track and like oh no actually that was there that was just me so it is him it's not you how the fuck did that happen okay so

the whole story is that yeah we just talked about and with her Kim DeBerge which we wrote in 2005, I think, which is now 16 years ago. Yeah, and when we wrote that, we were, I mean, we weren't literally kids, but we were kids. We were 20-ish something. And with no self-confidence or anything like that.

And when we wrote that song, I had been listening to Mark Lanigan album, Bubblegum, which is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time. And we talked about that song, and that Mark's voice would be perfect on it. And we called the song actually the Lanigan song when we, it was like a working title when we were practicing and all that. But at that point, it was a fantasy. in no way shape or form would we ever even know where to turn and we I mean it was not even it was it was just like I said it was just a fantasy we never ever would even contemplate to

ask him because we didn't even know who to turn to or yeah we didn't have the confidence 15 years down the road though So this song We recorded it in Norway during the Adonte Fair Session And pretty much Not all of the song

But a few of the songs were We had started We kind of started the recording of them During the same session as Adonte Fair And when we got back and kind of started To talk about reworking them because at that point we felt like it didn't really live up to the full potential. So when we got to that song, it just popped up in my head.

Maybe this is a song where we're going to finally ask Mark Lannigan to sing. And now come the boring part about managers talking to managers. But yeah, I just text as our manager and asking, do you know anyone? that knows mark and he it was like it was a half joke i never thought it would it would nothing would come out of it so um but i got uh answer that he know he knows his manager really well and like yeah could he ask him maybe and after that things progressed pretty fast um he got the song and and said that he would do it and i got and finally we got a direct contact through email and he sent me this nice email that he listened to the song and he gladly do it and I had a lot of things to do at that time and I really wanted to send him a really nice email

so it took me maybe a week to answer and I you know I asked him do you want to write the lyrics or do you want me to write the lyrics like you're free to do whatever you want this is but this is like the basic idea that that we've had and i got an answer within yeah a couple of hours where he said that he had already recorded the song the same day he got it and he cannot do any retakes because they torn down the studio he moved away from the house and he don't he didn't even have access to to um to internet so a friend of his was going to send the song later that that night uh and And he just said, if you like it, that's perfect. If you don't like it, you can just throw it away. And I enjoy doing it.

And a couple hours later, we got the song. I listened to it. And yeah, that guy doesn't need to do in retakes. That's so sick. So he just gave it to him and was like, here it is. You either like it or you don't. Yeah, basically. And it's fucking unreal.

and the track after it as well I don't know the names I'm not a fucking professional the track that comes after it is my favorite on that I would I guess you're calling it an EP but it's actually eight minutes longer than our last album is

so yeah it's definitely an EP for us but the track after it is my favorite and the way the two go together is fucking unreal I think it's called I remember yeah inside inside of a dream and I remember I know remember yeah I now remember yeah so did his

lyrical content does it work with what you had in mind the thing is it worked perfectly because I for the last for the last couple of years I worked for my completely different I've had a completely different process than earlier. I mean, I would say from our second, I mean, the first album that we released, that was basically the bunch of songs that we had at that point. The second

album and onward, we have worked we have had a process where we, from the start, have had some kind of a story or a narrative that we wanted to tell and then we have tried to adapt all the aspect of an album to that story.

I mean, the songwriting, the recording process, the arrangements, the production, the artwork, the, well, when we've done music videos. And, you know, every aspect of the album should fall in line with the basic idea or the basic narrative. And they've been very different from album to album, up until the Mariner's. album we did with Julie Christmas. But after that, you know, the thing, and you probably know this as well as I do, the longer you're an active musician,

the harder and harder it gets, first off to write music, because you pretty much, you know, used up all the ideas. You're getting you have fewer and fewer roads to take because you've used up a lot of the things that you could have done.

And I kind of took a completely different approach to writing after Mariner. And that's instead of, or look, I started noticing things that changed in my personal life, like how I value stuff. And what I think is important in life, for example. And the changes has been so gradual that I didn't notice it until I was at the different, like, in a different position than I was earlier. For example, like I never even contemplating moving from Stockholm. That was not, that was out of the question a couple of years ago. But a couple of, well, a few years ago, I couldn't stand Stockholm and couldn't wait to get out of it.

And that gradual change, because that comes from things that I've started valuing other stuff than just my professional career, for example. So anyway, I started noticing these kind of changes in my life. And I thought, okay, what would happen if I didn't plan anything, if I just, if I would just write like an instinct. But what would happen if I would sit down with a guitar and just play the first thing that came to mind and keep it, not throw it away? And what would happen if I sat down

and wrote a line of lyric? And I wrote another one and another one and another one. Like I wouldn't say on chance, but it's just an instinct. And then after the work is done, I take a step back and try to make sense of it. And it was such an interesting experience and it kind of, the reward was way bigger than I thought because things that seemed to be random wasn't. and I could see very clearly okay

this these couple of lines I wrote pretty much in a period where I was thinking about this or that so it was I do the analogy that earlier on earlier albums we kind of had, if you think of it as a jigsaw puzzle

and we knew what picture we wanted to create so we created all these pieces you know the writing and artwork and all that to fit that puzzle but this time all the we started with the pieces and then we took a step back and tried to make sense of what picture it's supposed to look like like almost like an abstract art like it's from the from the subconscious to an extent yes but it doesn't get abstract because when it comes to the human mind

nothing comes from nothing so everything that I write must come from some process in my brain right so that's why a lot of these lyrics make perfect sense

with a little distance to it and that's pretty much what we've been doing ever since and I think it's still an interesting way of working and I'm not like I do not exclude the possibility of maybe going back to writing more

from a already made up narrative but right now it's it feels still new and fresh and interesting and for me it's been very important to to at least feel like there's a momentum in our, you know, in the way we write. And that's something happen. And I don't really care if somebody would say that you sound exactly like you did on the last three albums. So that doesn't bother me as long as I feel that we're covering new ground or that we find inspiration from different sources.

Because as long as I feel that we're moving, that's, I mean, as long as I feel that I'm going to continue doing it. But if I feel that I'm stagnating and can't come up with anything new, then I'm going to take a break until I find a way of doing it in a new way. It's funny that you you worry about stagnating when I think of your band as like a sprawling gigantic

amount of ideas and you're worrying I mean not worrying but like you know you're aware that people might be thinking that I personally with the new one it gave me more I know you said it was recorded at the same time

it gave me more vibe vibe-wise, it gave me more eternal kingdom than the last album. Look, just so you get your fact right.

So when we this kind of process, it created some kind of a creative explosion. So we had a lot of music going into the studio. I mean, a lot. And

But pretty early on you feel that I mean you have some limitations when it comes to an album I mean of course you could release a five hour long album if you I mean there's no record label for good reason that wouldn't release it Well you made your own maybe that's why you did it next album five out long

No it's I mean it's it's too long for me but we had a lot of music and And with the limitations that we did have, but also when it comes to what kind of material that we can now allow ourselves to release, we thought that there were a few songs that we needed to work on that weren't really, like I said, they hadn't really lived up to their full potential just yet, but they will, or they would, as soon as we could now started to re-evaluate them and maybe in some some songs maybe take away a few aspects and in some songs maybe add something that we felt were lacking and that that's actually what we had time with now with when everything got cancelled so and also we continued writing so not all the songs that you have on that EP is quote unquote old there's some so you know I do I offend you there have I offended you with that I'm very hard to offend I can tell you that's no I you know I meant I know that you know songs get we're the same we've got songs that are on our last album that were terrible songs from the writing process for the

one before and then you know you sit on it for two years. Most of the changes. And then it comes out something else. But the demo name is always still the same. It is? We just put a two next to it. If it was called whatever

and then it was like, oh, that didn't really work. Okay, let's try and rework that song and then you just put a two next to it. Yeah, I think it's important to name the songs correctly as soon as possible because the

working title is going to stick. Oh man. Our working titles are horrible. Yeah. And then you have, you do interviews and you don't know the songs that people are talking about because you think of them as heavy song three. I still did,

I did like a drum stream the other day on Twitch. And there was people requesting, like I did a prog rock album with Josh from Silosis. And people were requesting songs from it. And I was like, Do you mean number one handsome man or swingers club? And they have no idea what I'm fucking talking about. And they're calling it like 62 moons or some fucking,

something that came, name that came long after I'd recorded the drums on the album. I have no idea of any of the fucking song names. God, give me a little, give me a ridiculous cult of Luna. You've already given me Lanigan song. Have you had another Like Stupid demo title For a cult of Luna song

That you can just Give me that little tip there I can't think of any I want to know that like Owwood was called Fucking hoot Oh no I mean that was too long ago

Look I hardly remember what I ate This morning So What did you eat this morning Let's start there Porridge nice just strictly porridge

yeah yeah and then some protein powder and then it went to what flavor what flavor is it's strawberry yeah

I think it's some berry I had the same breakfast but with vanilla we got with breakfast bros yeah but I'm not big

on vanilla though my son is I don't know he has like this most boring taste in ice cream like he

he loves vanilla That's it. He doesn't want any other taste. Yeah, but the thing with vanilla, it's such a good base. So, like, if I'm having porridge, if I get a protein powder, I'm always getting vanilla because if I want to add chocolate, I can just add a bit in. If you add chocolate to your strawberry shit, you're a psychopath. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's definitely, you should be locked in, locked in a mental institution or something like that.

That's the craziest thing I ever heard, strawberry and chocolate, yeah. I can't do orange and chocolate either I know that's a big thing I just fucking hate it yeah no working titles nice one thank you getting it back on track well I mean

no no no no no no no oh now I remember we've had I don't know we've had a thing I don't know why we called we called a bunch of songs like dark rodeo one Dark Rodeo 2, Dark Rodeo 3

for when we wrote Adonter Fair But yeah, I forgot which was which That's fine, that doesn't matter I've got one question that if I don't ask you Like people probably fucking hate me Because I'm just asking you questions that I want to know I promise you I'm not like a sweaty little fan

I actually don't really fucking like many bands So it's nice to like a band that's still going I'm one of those people but what I need to ask you because it's my favorite moment of fucking Coal of Lunar and you do it quite a lot it's kind of your like go-to thing I mean not go-to but

you know what I mean the melody at the beginning of track one on vertical when it comes back but heavy I made a meme of that on Twitter a while back and it got semi-viral

and it was it was just like it was a screenshot from a porno with subtitles and it said when Colt of Luna bring the melody from the first song

back in the last song but it's heavy and it was just a screenshot from a porno with someone saying oh fuck it's so big have you noticed

that that melody is actually in more song I know it comes back I know it comes back again in that fucking is it a dawn to fear there's a song on there no no no

no That melody is on three songs on Vertical, but in one of the songs, there's different, it's under a different chord progression, so maybe why it's not that obvious. Let me have a look. On the new EP?

No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm sure on the dawn to fear it comes back for like a tiny split second. Yeah, maybe it does. I can hardly remember But I know I'm looking at my Spotify account

Definitely on a different album Isn't it? Because I remember fucking Shitting myself My Oh You can hear my daughter She's

She's talking in her sleep Really? Yeah Yeah She has this night fright When she was a kid She was like Waking up screaming

For three hours straight And she Now she's Yeah And now she's eight And she's not she wakes up every night talking and yeah she doesn't remember anything the next morning but it must be yeah if you hear somebody scream in the background it's her fine yeah so vertical um i have it on

spotify you you have that melody on the one yeah i think it's on synchronicity and passing through through. Yeah, it's heavy on synchronicity, isn't it? Yeah, yes. And then I'm sure it comes back, maybe it's just an accident. Somewhere on a dawn to fear, there's a, like, a shimmer of it.

I think I lost you for a minute on my phone. Yes, I lost you too. We're good, we're back. I think it comes back for like a shimmer somewhere on there. Or something similar. And similar enough for me to be like, oh my God. You know, like in a fucking sequel when they mentioned something from the first film. I got that.

I kind of like doing references to connecting stuff. I've done that in the past when it comes to lyrics, for example. especially when I feel there's a connection, thematical connection between, yeah, the two. So, I mean, it's more of, I, this is a very cliche, boring answer. But I view our albums more as stories

than actual, you know, just just music. So I like doing small references and we're still working with that attitude. We'll see what will come in the future for the next whatever we're going to do next. But yeah. Fuck yeah. I'm going to like begin the wind down so you don't think I'm being rude but my fucking headphones are going to run out of battery and we're going to got like an hour and a half.

But so the raging river is coming out on Friday. This is when I do my actual professional thing. The 5th of February. Correct. And it's on your own label. Yes. Well, how did that happen? Who pissed you off?

E-rache? Because they piss everyone off. Okay, look. No, nobody pissed us off. And I think that when it comes to Eric, I mean, I have pretty much nothing negative to say about them. I don't either. I just know there's a lot of people out there.

Yeah, there's a lot of people pissed off. And I think it, in some sense, that kind of, you know, it can become like a self-playing piano. People know that it's a label you should, you should talk shit about. Yeah, so everybody gets on the train. But, I mean, we were young and stupid and signed a not so good contract. But, I mean, look, why should we blame them?

Is that what everyone's doing? Because I don't know. I just see the trash. All I do is I see the trash and I see some of my favorite band's albums not on fucking Spotify. And I have to dig the CD out if I want to listen to them. Okay, yeah. But, like, I have nothing. I mean, if it wasn't for them, we would not.

not be in the position where we were in now. And I wouldn't have cried in my shower, Johan. No, exactly. And I still keep in touch with some of the guys. I mean, a few of the nicest people were ever met in the business. We met, we're a-wrake staff. So I have nothing against them at all. It was more of a, yesterday I said we, we,

wrote a five-album deal, which couldn't be the case, at least a four-album deal. And that was one of the reasons why we kept such an insane pace when it came to releasing records. I mean, the Beyond came out in 2003, Salvation 2004, and then 2006 came somewhere along the highway, and 2008 we did Eternal King. I mean, that's four albums in how many years? Yeah, it's six years or something. It's insane. But it kind of put pressure on us because we wanted to be free as soon as possible. Just so we had the options to do other stuff.

As long as you're your have a... you know, a record deal with people having their rights to next record. You're not really free. And after that, I mean, when we took like a five-year hiatus or something like that for free, a few years at least. And when we started shopping for labels, I mean, Eric were definitely free to put in an offer. but we decided to go with another label in the recordings that we have nothing to say, nothing negative to say. But at that point, we also did something that we should have done years ago, and that was getting a manager. Up until then, we've done everything ourselves, like every boring aspect of being a band,

all this stuff that I hate and that I basically knew nothing about. We did ourselves. So after that, I've tried to stay away from the record label thing and just solely concentrated on the music. And after that, we are, and we're actually still on Metal Blade. And they were nice enough to let us do this. So, I mean, that's a pretty big thing for a label to let their band, you know, just wander off and do this crazy project. So you, are they releasing this in the States?

Are you just doing this whole thing yourself? We're doing it ourselves, but they're helping us with distribution in the States. It's just like an imprint of metal blade or something. Cool. Got any other bands on the label? You're going to sign some? So at this point, I'm learning. It's basically most of the heavy lifting is done by me and our manager.

And actually, to be quite honest, it's our manager that knows the business way, way better than any of us do. So he is done most of the, you know, setting up distributors and all that boring stuff. And I've been stuck with the paperwork. So I'm learning. and there's a lot of things that I had no idea you had to do as a record label but now I know One of the things is that you need a shitloads of money And we mean we were lucky enough to to have Kaltabluna as a first artist

So we could get some money in the bank and hopefully and I mean we have a couple of releases that I coming up down the road that are pretty you know secure when it comes to getting the money back and hopefully in the future we'll have enough money so we can take some more chances so we can afford to lose some money because if there's one thing that I really want to do is help other bands get get a platform to I mean to at least help them get the recognition they deserve. And also, since we are an artist in, I mean, that's where we're from, we are not,

and we're not in any shape of form or planning to make this our living. We can afford to give better deals. So we have an artist's point of view and perspective of this whole thing. so yeah that's the long run well in the long run we're definitely going to to try to to sign artists that we believe in and that we think

fit in our kind of realm of music but I mean it can be metal it can be I don't care of what genre it is as long as it's in the same it comes from I don't know Sweden Yeah

Sweden Although as it comes from Sweden I don't give a fun I wouldn't mind But you need to at least carry The same Atmosphere or whatever you want to call it Yeah I wouldn't

I wouldn't expect anything less It would be crazy if you signed Like Some fucking just like Taylor Swift sounding thing. Not that that's a bad thing, but like it would just be insane. Have you seen that new

Colt Luna label signing? Strange. It would seem like some sort of weird like satire on culture, actually. It's probably genius. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. But I mean, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. When Taylor Swift signs.

Okay, right. Yes. Give me some of your... Can you give me your top five artists of all time? Let me throw that in, at the end and then we're going to go. Oh, yeah. I mean, that all depends on

what day of the week and what week in the air. What day is it now? What day is it now? Just give me five. You must have at least three that are always the same. Do you want to mean?

I'll give you my three that I know are always the same. Yeah, okay, yeah. Go ahead. My three that are always the same and then I have two that are rotating. Three that are like, they were just probably my first loves

with. in music and I will always listen to them all the time which is actually funnily enough Metallica Radiohead and Mushugger they are my three like Holy Grail bands I'll never not listen to them

By the way you know that Mesugar is from the same city as we are I didn't even get to go into it there's a lot of good music from the same city Oh yeah yeah definitely It's raised fist from the same city No they're from the neighboring town four hours up north

but that like that whole go on reel off some names for me who you got yeah I mean raid your head for short I mean that that's I would say the only two I can think of

because if in some sense I would like you to limit genre wise because if we would talk punk and hardcore I would have three bands, if we would talk metal, I would have three bands,

if we would talk different genres. Yeah, but I've got radio head next to Musugar. Am I allowed that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I was the Joy Division. Ooh, nice. Radiohead.

I always go back to. I mean, now you can put some punk and hardcore in. You can, you don't have to, now I've got those two. It's called its radio head as well. But the thing is, okay, so I'm kind of a nostalgic person, and I just started snowboarding again after 25 years. And for some strange reason, I started to listen to bad religion, Penn & Wise and all these, like, fat record, no effects and all these.

Nice. Yeah. But I wouldn't say, I mean, you cannot put them next to Joy Division or radio. Yeah, you can. That's the spirit of Colin Luna. Put radio head next to fucking lagwagon. Yeah, I used to listen quite a lot to that when I was skateboarding when I was like 12, 13 years old. Hang on.

It's fucking, a million calling. Who's the Swedish band on Fat Rack? Oh, wow. Yeah, Millen Collin, no. No, they were, I think they're, I think they were on epitaph. You've got Millie Con in the Swedish? Yeah, they're from the city of the best gym you ever been to. Oh, fuck, yeah.

Treasure Fest, that was in Oro, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, God, third band. I mean, I go back to Uncle a lot. Nice, I was talking about Uncle yesterday. Yeah, um, that, I mean, but I wouldn't, if I really would make a list of the most important bands, uh, okay, look, there's this hardcore band that, uh, they were not really hardcore though.

They were from the hardcore scene, but they were more metal. Um, they called Unbroken from San Diego. Yeah, that's probably, that's probably the band that have had the biggest impact of, like, anything that I've ever done since. Uh, I mean, um, And their album, Life Love Regret, is by far the most influential album for me. You know, that's the album, or that's the music that I tried to copy when I started learning how to write. So, man, that's like one of those, like Orange County hardcore. Is that San Diego Countess? County? No, no, no, they're from San Diego and they sound like nothing from that period.

It's metal, but it's definitely not metalcore. Definitely not. I think they definitely, in some sense, it's kind of, they were an influence to a lot of bands that, you know, were they were one of the first hardcore bands that was definitely like influenced by Slayer. But they're very slow. They're very slow. But yeah, I mean, look, I go back to Slayer all the day. Okay, so right, you can cut it there because now I just need to know your favorite Slayer album and I need to know your favorite radio album. And then I can let you go.

Okay, look, I'm going to say, I mean, um, You have the classic Slayer albums, but I'm going to say something that might offend a lot of people. I really think it's not the best because they have made a lot of great albums. And I know a friend that's going to implode when I say this because, oh, I think that. And I guess what you're going to say? Yes. It's not an old classic Slayer album. Yes.

It is or it isn't? It's not. Is it like? Is it God hates us all? Yes. The album fucking rules. Yes. It's so good.

It's so good. And I have that on heavy rotation when I'm lifting weights. Same. Man, the song Disciple is probably my favorite Slayer song ever. Yeah. So I'm not saying that it's the best, but it's definitely up there with the best. I fully fucking agree. And I have so many friends that would also implode.

That's how I knew what it was. I was like, he's going to say it. You got Bloodline, you got Exile. Exile was like one of the fucking, lyrically, one of the most angry fucking songs ever. Yeah. It's it. Yeah.

Favorite radio head albums also very hard. I would probably... Let me guess this one. And if I get this one right, then we need to... to be best friends. That's the rule. Yes. Yeah, go ahead.

I got two. I got two. One's a classic and one is, I mean, still a classic, but not as classic. Now, I feel like you're a, fuck. I feel like you're an in-raimbo's guy. Well, all the albums are amazing, but... Come on, what are you going to say? Amnesiac. And I can actually say that radiohead probably,

the bands that have had the biggest impact on our writing is probably Radiohead and mayhem and dark throne. Jesus, that's a fucking different. Yeah, not musically, but. When we started this band, me and Eric, the other guitar player at the time, we got very intrigued by Mayhem's use of open chords. So we very rarely use just regular power chords. There's a lot of open chords, open minor chords.

And when it comes to radio head, if you listen to to, I might be wrong that song. That kind of way of playing with just basically using one string as a bass and then do some kind of answering with open strings. I think you're going to hear that. If you think of it, I think you're going to hear that in a lot of our songs. And it's kind of become an integrated part of, of the way that both me and Frederick writes.

So, I mean, musically, we are very different from both Radiohead and Mayhem, but they've influenced us in the way we used the instrument. And that's probably why I like your band so much, because Radiohead's one of my favorite bands of all time. And I also love Black Metal. So you've perfectly taken the two of those without taking them. and made a little band for me to listen to. Yeah.

And on that note, my friend, I think we're good. Yeah, we're one hour, 40 minutes down the line. That's a fucking, that's a cult, a lunar album with a podcast. Yeah, yeah, well, let's bring back, everybody, we'll just say the word deadlift now, but differently. And then we've done a cult of lunar album. Deadlift. It's been, you did it.

Man, it's been a fucking absolute pleasure. I'm sorry if I, like, fangold. And you can go back and listen to my podcast. and I've you know there's people from Slipknot on here and stuff and I don't think Should we talk SlipDot before we go?

Okay I'm actually a fan Um Like you know Sometimes there's You know There's these albums That

Um You know It kind of Of It's a slap In the face and you realize that things that you thought had

pretty much being pushed as far as it can get pushed and then somebody like, nope, this is how we can do it too. And the first slip-knit album, I can't remember when it came out, 2000. 99.

Sounds like that. Yeah. I remember hearing it for the first time, like, you know, getting floored like your, getting floored as you only could be when you were 20 and we're still discovering new music like what the hell is this yeah and the first and i think yeah yeah the the the first five six tracks on that album it's it's it's actually a on heavier rotation still in my workout routine i love that you have very similar lifting lifting tracks to me you're right after like

like the sixth track gets a little bit this was made in 1999 some of the later ones as well though but i mean fucking back then it's like oh here's 20 songs and fucking five of them are weird noises but definitely those first five and fucking iowa and when i oh yeah yeah yeah yeah growing up still on the lifting playlist 100 percent yeah and i actually i mean um uh i'm Every now and then, I listen to them in a non-lifting environment. It all depends on which mood I'm in, if it's radio head or if it's seal and ardor. You know, it's very different. I have a very wide variety when it comes to tasting music, and I still, after 41 years,

haven't figured out the common denominator. But there's something. I think it's the minor chord that attracts me. I think maybe, because I'm fucking, I'm a drama, so I don't know fucking anything. But I think whatever attracts you to it, it attracts me to it. And that's why I like your band.

And that's why we can bond over fucking God hates us all, when most people would be like, No, fucking way. Seasoning the Abyss or fuck off. I love it. I fucking love it. Right, I'm going to let you go, my man. This has been fucking sick.

If you can email me your file, I'm going to try and get this up. I'm going to try. It all depends on Notfest, but I will try and get this up. On release date, if not very shortly afterwards. Yes.

Just send me a text or email when it's up and hopefully, I didn't fuck up the sound. We'll see. If you did. We'll do it again. I don't care. Yeah, it's been a fucking pleasure, my friend.

Enjoy your lifting. I do. I hope that, I hope that 250 deadlift is coming your way. Not anytime soon, but in a couple of years time, maybe. Nice one man. Have a good evening. Yeah, you too.

Okay. Bye-bye. Cheers.