Sweden's MESHUGGAH have been one of the most influential bands within the Metal community for many years now. Their most recent album, 'Obzen' was released earlier this year. Additionally, they have done many highly successful tours including Ozzfest, TOOL and most recently, MINISTRY's final North American tour. It was on that tour that METALEATER had the chance to catch up with MESHUGGAH drummer, Tomas Haake.

What was the writing process like for "Obzen"?

"It wasn't very different from how we wrote any of the other albums. I mean, 'Catch Thirty-Three' was kind of an off thing where we kind of all sat together around one computer and kind of wrote and recorded as we went, like the four of us, we did everything together, kind of co-wrote the whole album. But apart from that, usually how we write is we each sit by our own computer, you know. The major change this time around is that we were all kind of stationed in the studio rehearsal space that we have where we also recorded the album and we were all there throughout the whole writing process, we had all the computers, like a room each, and we'd sit there, all of us. And that was the great thing, 'cause you could walk into Mårten's space, kind of check out what he was doing and in that way, kind of feeding off each other for ideas and inspiration and so on, so it was a very healthy process, even though I think it took quite awhile to get all the tracks together, but I'd say the writing process was probably around a year, but the last six months of those was where the main part of the writing came about. And then another six months, pretty much to record and do all the... we did like, twenty-five different mixes or something, so we spent a lot of time on this album. We spent the time that we felt was needed for it and I think as far as production, especially, I'm very glad that we did spend that time. So the whole writing and recording process was a bit longer maybe than previous albums, but I think the album came out strong and we're all really happy with the production."

What is the rehearsal process like getting the new songs ready for live performance?

"That can sometimes be awkward 'cause we don't really rehearse the stuff as a band before we record them. Usually Martin writes a song, he programs the drums for that and I emulate the drums and before we start tracking drums, I of course, for months and months, I have to practice the stuff before we start tracking. But of course, I have to learn all the songs, but Mårten only knows his songs, Fredrik only knows his songs, Jens only knows his stuff, so basically we've never played it together. When the album's released, we still have not played it, the songs together as a whole band. So that whole process comes later, before this tour. We started rehearsing the new stuff just a bit in December, but mainly late January and throughout February is where the biggest portion of the rehearsing has been done."

What's your favorite song of the new album and why?

"That's always hard. I don't really have, like, favorite tracks, but I like all the tracks for this album. I think 'Bleed' is a really strong track for it's output and it's kind of a different thing, a new thing we've never done before with all the fast bursts and permutation of those throughout the whole song and it's a really fucking tricky song to play. We're doing it now live, but I don't know if we've nailed it once yet, you know, 'cause if you lose it at any part of that song, it's really hard to get back into it. It's just kind of tricky that way. But that's a strong track, absolutely. 'Electric Red' is one of my favorites and the last track, I think, 'Dancers to a Discordant System' is a really strong finishing track, so no real favorites, but I think 'Bleed' is a really strong live track."

I do have one question about the cover art and it's kind of one of those little hidden things, like what MOTÖRHEAD had on their 'Sacrifice' album, I was just wondering about this part down by the guy's lap, kind of reminds me of a certain CANNIBAL CORPSE song.

(laughs) "Yeah, well, unfortunately, no such hidden things there, not intentionally. There's another hidden thing in there, I don't know if you've noticed that one, not a lot of people have - the way the hands are turned differently, so they make an arc of sixes. That's why that one's turned up and the other one's turned down. Not a lot of people have seen that one. It's not that easy to... it's not the kind of thing that you'd focus on necessarily. That's the saying, the inherent evil in man or whatever."

Is there any possibility of a live album or DVD sometime in the near future?

"The near future, I couldn't say. I think that what we're aiming at right now is recording a live DVD, mostly likely it will happen in Europe during the Fall tour and if it doesn't happen then, then it will happen on the U.S. tour that we're planning on doing from mid-November to mid-December, so we're coming back here late this year again and either one of those tours, we'll probably record that one."

Headlining tour or as a support act?

"Yeah, headlining tour."

Have you put any thought yet into who you might have opening for you?

"No, not really, not yet - it's kind of far ahead still."

Are there any songs you'll never play live?

"On the new album you mean or overall?"

Overall.

"There's a shitload of songs that well never play live. There's songs from each album that we will never play. We're never going to play the whole of 'Catch Thirty-Three' live 'cause it's one track, we're never going to play 'I' live, most likely... well, maybe we'll put like seven minutes of it together somehow, but it's really tricky stuff. For the new album, for 'Obzen', it's really kind of hard to tell whether there are some tracks that we will not play because most of them are actually playable, like live material type songs. I would say probably not 'This Spiteful Snake' and probably not 'Pineal Gland Optics', but you never know."

Is there any song you prefer to play live above the others?

"I really dig playing 'Rational Gaze' off of the 'Nothing' album - I think it's a strong track. I enjoy playing that one. And... well, I kind of enjoy all the songs, but some of them are more of a pain in the ass than actual enjoyment. 'Bleed' would be one of those - I'd like to be able to perform it and be able to do... but at the same time, I have to really remain focused to really be able to nail that song. It's not your typical headbanging type of output track. But 'Rational Gaze' is one of my favorite tracks as a live track."

What do you do to kill time on tour, when you're not setting up or doing interviews?

"Well, nowadays on this bus, it has wireless; you email or you chat with your girl, whatever - stuff like that. We watch movies, listen to music - that's basically what we do, you know. I try to, during the days, I don't mind, I'm usually up there with my drum tech setting everything up, tuning the drums and doing stuff like that - I really like to get hands on with stuff like that. I prefer not to just leave it up to someone else, 'cause if something happens, I like to be able to blame myself too, not just point my finger. It's usually no problem getting the base. Like for instance, when we get in early, I'll be walking around the area quite a bit - I we nt out to Radio Shack and down to the music store."

As long as you don't walk around in the general vicinity of the venue, you'll be fine. This is sort of the central area of Crackhead Alley, as we like to call it. (laughter) Okay, a friend of mine wanted me to ask you if you guys play a lot of video games on tour.

"Sometimes. We used to, but so far on this tour, we really haven't played any, we haven't done any of that. We'll probably come to that, but... I mean, the last tour, the last time we were around here, I think pretty much that whole tour was spent on 'Grand Theft Auto' and stuff like that, so we did play a lot more previously."

What are your thoughts on the rise of National Socialism within the Metal community?

"To be honest with you, I wasn't even aware... is there a strong rise in that?"

It's kind of bubbling. It's getting more and more prevalent - a lot of the neo-Nazi scumbags are crawling out of the woodwork.

"Alright. First of all, we haven't been here in two and a half years and the times that we are here, we're just here for a number of weeks and we don't really have a check on what's going on. We barely even have any kind of check on what's going on with the bands out of Sweden and what's going on in Stockholm and that scene. We're kind of reclusives like that - we don't really... we're kind of the outcasts in some ways and we prefer to kind of stay that way. We're not really a part of the scene in any way, we just kind of hide away and go out on tour, then we hide away."

It's more prevalent in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries than anyplace else, but a lot of it is gaining ground and popularities in other places.

"Oh yeah - I know there's a strong thing going on over there, but I thought you just meant the United States."