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July 20, 2008 |
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Björn "Speed" Strid
December 15, 2005
By Brian Davis
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Inducted into the ranks of metal's elite by toiling away in the trenches and merciless grit and grind of the highly competitive Swedish scene, SOILWORK have secured their importance to the evolution of modern metal through an ever-evolving embrace of both the intense and the melodious, delivering a dominating and effectively distinct brand of Swedish Metal prowess. Tearing across North America in one of the strongest touring line-ups for 2006 with country mates DARKANE, Vancouver's resident maniacal metal miscreants STRAPPING YOUNG LAD and California's mighty FEAR FACTORY, SOILWORK vocalist Björn "Speed" Strid took some time to reflect on the past, the evolution of SOILWORK's style, both individually and as a whole, and reminisce over a bit of past mischief nostalgia.
SOILWORK is becoming a pretty big mainstay here in North America; you've toured the last three records over here pretty steadily. How do you like it?
It's great touring here. There's usually a very good turn out and it feels like we have a very big fan base now. And I would say that Ozzfest was building the final foundation to get us up there where I think we belong. It's been taking time.
It's paying off finally though.
Yeah, we've always gone the long road and that's healthy for the band, I think.
You mentioned Ozzfest - was that a good experience for you guys?
Yeah.
Is that something you guys would do again?
Hmm...Well, I can't really see myself being on the rotating bill again; we'd have to get on a steady slot, and don't have to pay as much money as we did because that's, after all, kind of a rip - off.
Yeah, that's one of my main complaints about the whole Ozzfest thing. So how's your drumming situation? I know you had some chaos after "Figure Number Five" came out.
Yeah, well Dirk Verbeuren is permanent now; or more permanent than ever.
I interviewed Peter (Wildöer) from DARKANE a while back and we talked about how you did the vocals on their first two studio songs when they first became DARKANE.
Yeah, they had just started the band and wanted to do a promo to get some labels interested, so they asked me to go into the studio, and I did. Then some things started happening with SOILWORK, so I decided to go with SOILWORK instead and concentrate 100%.
Ironically here you guys are years later on the same bill, with both bands doing pretty well. Have you guys toured with DARKANE before?
We've done some small tours in Europe, like weekend gigs, weekend tours, stuff like that.
How have people been receiving "Stabbing The Drama"?
Really good, I must say. It seems like we got back some of the old fans that became kind of critical of "Figure Number Five", and we brought back the intensity a lot on the latest record, I think. It feels like we got some of those people back, and the fans that liked the whole "Natural Born Chaos"/"Figure Number Five" thing still appreciate the album.
Looking back now to the first two albums, "Chainheart Machine" and "Steelbath Suicide", what's the main difference in your approach and focus now as opposed to then?
I think that the sound has become a little bit more straight-forward and I guess we realized that you don't have to make everything so technical. You can still do it, but with a little bit of finesse instead making everything so technical. There are always surprises in SOILWORK's music - you never know what to expect, and we always aim to make it a challenge for both ourselves and the listeners out there. So if you compare the latest album, it's more naked in a way; the sound is raw and very upfront, it's not very atmospheric; some parts, of course, but it's more naked than the previous albums.
Each album has been somewhat of a progression in your sound, developing various aspects like your vocal range and things like that. How much of your direction and sound is planned, and how much is spontaneous?
It's hard to say...I mean, we always have a certain mindset of what we want to do with the next album, and you get inspired by touring and what works out live; and that's kind of the mindset we had for this album, because we noticed what works out live. So for me it's really like a live-oriented album. But I would say most of the things like the songs' riffs and melodies kind of come out naturally; it's not really like, "Ok, well we have to do it like this."
Do you do a lot of writing on the road as you go, or do you do it in a cluster when you get home and can focus?
We've never done that before, but we started on this tour. We brought some V-amps with us and computers and stuff, we're going to start trying that out now since we don't have that much time at home; so we're kind of forced to do it this way.
Where do you see yourselves going on the next album? Do you have a framework?
I've started working on some melodies; I always want to have timeless melodies that make sense even if you were to play the record 10 years from now, or 20 or whatever, you know? I always try to have that kind of mindset; for me that's a very natural thing, because I have a very diverse background; I've been doing different types of music and playing guitar as well. So it's really hard to say what kind of direction is coming - we just love playing with the balance between aggression and intensity vs. melodies and softer parts.
How much more touring do you guys want to do for the album before you head back to the studio?
Well, we've said that from the beginning we wanted to tour the shit out of this album, and we've already done over 100 gigs since March. Now we'll have a Christmas break and go out on a European tour in mid-February, then come back here in late March/April. And then we're going to do all the summer festivals in Europe, maybe another tour in Europe or here, and then we'll go into the studio.
I read an interview with (your guitarist) Peter (Wichers) saying that you guys kind of regret that you didn't get to tour "Natural Born Chaos" as much as you wanted.
Yeah, that's one thing that we realized through the years - that you can tour a lot longer for each album, especially here in the States. It was like, "Ok, we're done. We've done one European tour, one US tour, we did Japan; let's go into the studio again." But we were not selling as good back then as we are now, so it's also a question of money as far as tour support from the record label as well. So it's hard to say if we could have done another tour or not.
What would you say is the most vital element needed to make a solid record? Could you narrow it down to one specific thing, a foundation?
Well, to me the key has always been melodies, really.
Do you think there was a shift as far as the North American fanbase, a shift when "Natural Born Chaos" hit? Do you think that was a tangible change for people noticing SOILWORK in America?
Yeah, I think people started to pick up a lot on SOILWORK when we released that album. I think also Devin Townsend has a big name over here as well, so I think people were very curious to hear it. And I also think that he has a bit more of a cult status now several years later, which is kind of interesting. Everybody is talking about "Natural Born Chaos" all the time.
And that's a lot of people's favorite album; do you have a favorite?
I love that album, it's just that you get so picky when you hear your vocals and say, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that", and I think I've developed a lot as both a melodic vocalist and screamer as well.
That's cool though that you can look back on an album and apply what you've learned toward the next one.
Yeah.
Personally, my favorite is probably "A Predator's Portrait". Can you tell what the band's mindset around that time and what went into making the record?
We were wanting to make a very technical and very...how do you say...atmospheric record; a lot of solos, a lot of things going on all the time. That's also the first album I took the step out and did more clean vocals, which of course was a challenge. So when you listen to those vocals now it doesn't feel very confident, but it's still great melodies. I think it's a cool balance between...let's say like virtuoso and Death Metal in a way, and add melodic vocals to that as well.
It really got my attention. Like you say, now you hear more progression vocally and what not, but the integration of everything is really what grabbed me; "Shadow's Child" especially.
Yeah, that's a great song.
Can you tell me about the concept of that song?
Lyrically, uh...wow...I guess what I was thinking back then was that there was always something holding me back; I'd always been afraid of taking that step out there. And for awhile I felt like my opinions didn't count, sort of like a shadow's child, hiding in the shadows.
How about an update on TERROR 2000?
Well, you probably know we've recorded our third album; it's released in Europe right now and it's going to be released here in the United States in January. It's a great fuckin' album, I'm very proud of it. Very spontaneous, really cool Thrash - like very technical and very fucking funny, too. We decided to add a lot more of the screamy old school Thrash vocals. So I was elaborating a lot with my vocals, I had no boundaries whatsoever; I wanted to break the boundaries of Thrash and do something funny that people can party to but still will get that fucking fist banging mania.
Okay, we have to talk about this - my first introduction to SOILWORK was maybe 2 - 3 years ago. You came over with HYPOCRISY, SCAR CULTURE and SINGLE BULLET THEORY.
Yes, and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE.
Yeah, but they weren't here for that show, which sucked because I love that album (they were touring: "Alive Or Just Breathing"). And this was at the Experience Music Project museum.
Yes.
It was the last show in America, maybe the last show of the tour altogether…
Yeah.
It was just complete chaos, especially HYPOCRISY, vandalizing the sets; they stole SINGLE BULLET THEORY's singer's microphone, they were dismantling (laughs) SCAR CULTURE's drummer's kit while he was still playing; you guys got douched with - what was it, powdered hot chocolate?(laughs)
(laughs) Yeah, that was insane.
And then HYPOCRISY came out in their underwear and were later doused with water while they played. (laughs) Looked like a good time.
That was a great time, but I kinda feel embarrassed nowadays because it was a little too much. It was the first metal concert they had over there, and it was the last. (laughs) And it was really bizarre - I mean we were playing on stage and there were guided tours through the museum while we were playing. It was like, "Ok, ladies and gentlemen - here to the right you have a Heavy Metal band." (laughs) It was just crazy. [FIN]
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