Swedish prog/power stalwarts, Tad Morose, in their 20 year recording career (which included a long hiatus from recording 03-13), have had quite a few ups and downs and quite a few line-up changes, but they always came through and delivered the goods! With “Revenant” their newest album hitting the stores/airwaves/interwebs as we speak, Christer ‘Krunt’ Andersson, the band’s guitarist and sole survivor from the original line-up, fills us in on what’s been going on with the band as well as what we should expect in the near future...
Hello, Christer… thanks for doing this interview. Welcome back to metal scene as well!
C: Hi! No problem! Thank you very much!
It has taken the band 10 long years to come up with a follow up to 2003 “Modus Vivendi”! What took you so long?
C: A lot of things! Obviously all the line-up changes in the band didn’t exactly make things easier. But also life in general, I guess. We are just regular guys with the same problems and joys as everybody else. Some of us got kids and houses and so on during this 10 year period, so that has taken up much of our time too and we all have regular day jobs and families to provide for. Since we didn’t have any record deal, no deadline and our own recording studios and the fact that we like to drink beer, time seems to have passed along a lot quicker than we expected! Ha ha ha. However, now with a steady line-up, since a couple of years, we have been able to pick up some momentum again and getting things done. So it will not take another ten years until the next album!
There have been numerous shuffles in the bands membership – do you think that this is a great line-up – the definitive? What happened with J. Comeau? Why did U. Breed depart in the first place? Various people have described him as quite a character, yet others have described him as just normal.
C: Well, you never know, do you? But it feels great with this line-up! We were of course a bit worried that things wouldn’t work with Joe since he lives in USA but he is a nice guy and a very good singer so we just thought that we might give it a try. So we did a few live shows and some demo recordings with him. But in the long run it didn’t work out. It was hard for us trying to be a working band with him over there. He was also a very busy guy. He use to do drum teaching for Carl Palmer in Asia (among others) so Joe was often away on tours. He had to make a living too. So in order to move on we had to find another singer. A hard decision to make but necessary.
Well, about Urban. He has always been different, which is fine, but he had distanced himself more and more from the rest of us the last few years in the band. And finally it came to the point where it was not possible to work with him. So if he quit or got fired depends on who you ask. But I guess we could agree that it was a mutual thing. This happened of course with the worst timing, just about two weeks before we were set to enter the studio back in 2005. This put us in weird situation with the record company and the studio. I guess people that know him as a friend or just bump into him somewhere would say that he seems pretty normal and people that have been more involved with him would say that he is quite a character. Perhaps he has changed over the years too, I don’t know. He lives in USA since a couple of years so I rarely see him nowadays. But we speak to each other whenever we meet.
Did you ever disband? Or was it a really long hiatus, but you always knew you were going to come back one way or another?
C: We have been here all the time, working on this album. We have been playing live here and there too over the years. So we knew that one day, this album would see the light of day. Even that it seemed almost impossible sometimes during this long period. But we never lost fate.
Ronny is quite “a revelation”. Give us a few more details about him. (obviously I know where he’s from but some readers might not…)
C: I have known Ronny for a long time. He lives in Gävle, an hour south of Bollnäs and he has been singing in various local bands since he was a teenager and every now and then we played the same clubs and I always liked his singing. Actually we asked him to join Tad Morose after the split with Urban but he was too occupied with his former band Steel Attack back then so that didn’t work out. But luckily a few years later things had changed and he joined. A funny thing is that Peter, drums, had been filling in on drums in Steel Attack since not much was happening with Tad Morse back then and he played drums on their last album too. So Peter said to Ronny: “Hey! Now I played drums on your fucking album so now you better sing on our god damned album!” Ha ha ha. So he did and it turned out great!
Ronny fits perfect in Tad Morose, a very good singer with an incredible range and power. He is also a good songwriter. And he is a nice guy. That is VERY important! You spend so much time together in a band so you better get along and have a great time. Otherwise it just isn’t worth it.
Initially i had misread the title as “Reverend” but then I saw it was “Revenant” care to indulge into what a “Revenant” is and how you came to pick up this title and why you feel it fits the new album? How do you feel that “R” fits in the canon of your albums? From melodic doomy metal to crunching prog power that bites, you’ve come some way and covered quite a bit of ground!
C: We just thought that it was a perfect title for this album. Kind of: “He he he, we’re back to haunt you! You never get rid of us!”… I mean, we’ve been out of the loop for quite some time so in that sense we are “back from the dead” in a way. Fits perfect with the art work as well I think. Kind of, “we didn’t drown in this ocean of problems and we are bursting up through the surface ready to strike”.
I think “Revenant” is a typical Tad Morose album, a natural step forward from “Modus Vivendi”. On the same path as we took from the “Undead” album and onwards. This has come naturally to us, we never set out in advance to try to sound a certain way, we just write songs that feels good to us and they turn out the way they do. You get influenced by everything around you more or less so I guess all the hard times we have been through over the past years shines through on this album, making it perhaps a bit more angry and dark.
Can you in short give us an account of the recordings of the new album and tell us any interesting facts about them?
C: Hmm… well, about three years ago we were still not a full line-up, but instead of continuing to search for another guitar player we just said that “What the hell, let’s start to record this album now and get it done. We’ll find a second guitar player somewhere down the line”. So we did. It is recorded and produced by ourselves. A hard work indeed but we have at least learned a lot about how you should NOT do when recording an album! Ha ha ha. In other words, we learned it the hard way! Since we rarely were in the studio all us at the same time we actually didn’t know how it sounded until we started to mix it! So that was pretty damned exiting! I discovered guitar melodies and stuff I had forgot that I had even recorded! And also to hear all the vocals, harmonies and so on for the first time was quite a trip!
Also in short – what would each song be about?
C: All the songs are basically about life, death and other morbid tales really. The healthy thing to question things and not just believe what others might tell you. A lyric for a song can also mean different things to different people. So, read the lyrics and make up your own ideas what you think and what they might mean to you.
The recording took place at Claustrophobic Studio and the album was mastered by Per Ryberg. The sound is very powerful indeed. Are you completely satisfied with the final outcome?
C: Well, that is not exactly how it was done. We recorded drums, bass, vocals and some add-on guitars and did the mixing at Claustrophobic Studio in Gävle. (this is Ronny’s studio) I recorded the rhythm guitars and my solos at home in my studio and Kenneth recorded his solos at his place. So we pretty much recorded and mixed this album all by ourselves. We learned a lot! Ha ha ha. This also slowed down the recording process a bit due to lost files, wrong format, new gear and so on. “Revenant” was mastered at Studio Soundcreation here in Bollnäs by Per Ryberg. I think it turned out pretty good in the end! So, yes, we are satisfied with it.
As a guitarist, who would you say were your influences/favorite player?
C: Ace Frehley, Kiss, was the reason I started to play the guitar when I was a kid! So he was my first influence. After that I guess all the great guitar players out there. But of course there are some that really sticks out such as Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Jake E Lee, Chris Oliva. But also Akira Takasaki, the Amott brothers, Andy Larouque and Mike Weed of King Diamond. Well, I guess I could go on forever ha ha ha.
Are there any touring plans for “Revenant”? Could we hope to see you around these parts (Greece) one day?
C: Yes! There are such plans of course. Our management is talking to various booking agencies at the moment and hopefully they do a good job and things starts to fall into place soon. We want to play LIVE! We never played in Greece before so that would be a first for us! So if get the opportunity to go there we will be there in a split second!
C: Hi! No problem! Thank you very much!
It has taken the band 10 long years to come up with a follow up to 2003 “Modus Vivendi”! What took you so long?
C: A lot of things! Obviously all the line-up changes in the band didn’t exactly make things easier. But also life in general, I guess. We are just regular guys with the same problems and joys as everybody else. Some of us got kids and houses and so on during this 10 year period, so that has taken up much of our time too and we all have regular day jobs and families to provide for. Since we didn’t have any record deal, no deadline and our own recording studios and the fact that we like to drink beer, time seems to have passed along a lot quicker than we expected! Ha ha ha. However, now with a steady line-up, since a couple of years, we have been able to pick up some momentum again and getting things done. So it will not take another ten years until the next album!
There have been numerous shuffles in the bands membership – do you think that this is a great line-up – the definitive? What happened with J. Comeau? Why did U. Breed depart in the first place? Various people have described him as quite a character, yet others have described him as just normal.
C: Well, you never know, do you? But it feels great with this line-up! We were of course a bit worried that things wouldn’t work with Joe since he lives in USA but he is a nice guy and a very good singer so we just thought that we might give it a try. So we did a few live shows and some demo recordings with him. But in the long run it didn’t work out. It was hard for us trying to be a working band with him over there. He was also a very busy guy. He use to do drum teaching for Carl Palmer in Asia (among others) so Joe was often away on tours. He had to make a living too. So in order to move on we had to find another singer. A hard decision to make but necessary.
Well, about Urban. He has always been different, which is fine, but he had distanced himself more and more from the rest of us the last few years in the band. And finally it came to the point where it was not possible to work with him. So if he quit or got fired depends on who you ask. But I guess we could agree that it was a mutual thing. This happened of course with the worst timing, just about two weeks before we were set to enter the studio back in 2005. This put us in weird situation with the record company and the studio. I guess people that know him as a friend or just bump into him somewhere would say that he seems pretty normal and people that have been more involved with him would say that he is quite a character. Perhaps he has changed over the years too, I don’t know. He lives in USA since a couple of years so I rarely see him nowadays. But we speak to each other whenever we meet.
Did you ever disband? Or was it a really long hiatus, but you always knew you were going to come back one way or another?
C: We have been here all the time, working on this album. We have been playing live here and there too over the years. So we knew that one day, this album would see the light of day. Even that it seemed almost impossible sometimes during this long period. But we never lost fate.
Ronny is quite “a revelation”. Give us a few more details about him. (obviously I know where he’s from but some readers might not…)
C: I have known Ronny for a long time. He lives in Gävle, an hour south of Bollnäs and he has been singing in various local bands since he was a teenager and every now and then we played the same clubs and I always liked his singing. Actually we asked him to join Tad Morose after the split with Urban but he was too occupied with his former band Steel Attack back then so that didn’t work out. But luckily a few years later things had changed and he joined. A funny thing is that Peter, drums, had been filling in on drums in Steel Attack since not much was happening with Tad Morse back then and he played drums on their last album too. So Peter said to Ronny: “Hey! Now I played drums on your fucking album so now you better sing on our god damned album!” Ha ha ha. So he did and it turned out great!
Ronny fits perfect in Tad Morose, a very good singer with an incredible range and power. He is also a good songwriter. And he is a nice guy. That is VERY important! You spend so much time together in a band so you better get along and have a great time. Otherwise it just isn’t worth it.
Initially i had misread the title as “Reverend” but then I saw it was “Revenant” care to indulge into what a “Revenant” is and how you came to pick up this title and why you feel it fits the new album? How do you feel that “R” fits in the canon of your albums? From melodic doomy metal to crunching prog power that bites, you’ve come some way and covered quite a bit of ground!
C: We just thought that it was a perfect title for this album. Kind of: “He he he, we’re back to haunt you! You never get rid of us!”… I mean, we’ve been out of the loop for quite some time so in that sense we are “back from the dead” in a way. Fits perfect with the art work as well I think. Kind of, “we didn’t drown in this ocean of problems and we are bursting up through the surface ready to strike”.
I think “Revenant” is a typical Tad Morose album, a natural step forward from “Modus Vivendi”. On the same path as we took from the “Undead” album and onwards. This has come naturally to us, we never set out in advance to try to sound a certain way, we just write songs that feels good to us and they turn out the way they do. You get influenced by everything around you more or less so I guess all the hard times we have been through over the past years shines through on this album, making it perhaps a bit more angry and dark.
Can you in short give us an account of the recordings of the new album and tell us any interesting facts about them?
C: Hmm… well, about three years ago we were still not a full line-up, but instead of continuing to search for another guitar player we just said that “What the hell, let’s start to record this album now and get it done. We’ll find a second guitar player somewhere down the line”. So we did. It is recorded and produced by ourselves. A hard work indeed but we have at least learned a lot about how you should NOT do when recording an album! Ha ha ha. In other words, we learned it the hard way! Since we rarely were in the studio all us at the same time we actually didn’t know how it sounded until we started to mix it! So that was pretty damned exiting! I discovered guitar melodies and stuff I had forgot that I had even recorded! And also to hear all the vocals, harmonies and so on for the first time was quite a trip!
Also in short – what would each song be about?
C: All the songs are basically about life, death and other morbid tales really. The healthy thing to question things and not just believe what others might tell you. A lyric for a song can also mean different things to different people. So, read the lyrics and make up your own ideas what you think and what they might mean to you.
The recording took place at Claustrophobic Studio and the album was mastered by Per Ryberg. The sound is very powerful indeed. Are you completely satisfied with the final outcome?
C: Well, that is not exactly how it was done. We recorded drums, bass, vocals and some add-on guitars and did the mixing at Claustrophobic Studio in Gävle. (this is Ronny’s studio) I recorded the rhythm guitars and my solos at home in my studio and Kenneth recorded his solos at his place. So we pretty much recorded and mixed this album all by ourselves. We learned a lot! Ha ha ha. This also slowed down the recording process a bit due to lost files, wrong format, new gear and so on. “Revenant” was mastered at Studio Soundcreation here in Bollnäs by Per Ryberg. I think it turned out pretty good in the end! So, yes, we are satisfied with it.
As a guitarist, who would you say were your influences/favorite player?
C: Ace Frehley, Kiss, was the reason I started to play the guitar when I was a kid! So he was my first influence. After that I guess all the great guitar players out there. But of course there are some that really sticks out such as Tony Iommi, Randy Rhoads, Jake E Lee, Chris Oliva. But also Akira Takasaki, the Amott brothers, Andy Larouque and Mike Weed of King Diamond. Well, I guess I could go on forever ha ha ha.
Are there any touring plans for “Revenant”? Could we hope to see you around these parts (Greece) one day?
C: Yes! There are such plans of course. Our management is talking to various booking agencies at the moment and hopefully they do a good job and things starts to fall into place soon. We want to play LIVE! We never played in Greece before so that would be a first for us! So if get the opportunity to go there we will be there in a split second!
Are things any different now than they were in the music industry10 years ago? Has it been easy to find a label to work with?
C: A lot of things have changed since we last put out a new album. The budget on everything is extremely tight, almost impossible, due to that the record companies don’t get us much money as they used to. But on the other hand it is way easier to reach out to more people much faster. But the vital thing has not changed! Bands still play metal and there are still people out there all over the world that listen to metal! Everything else we just have to manage to work around and adapt to one way or the other. Actually, for us it was not hard to find a label. The reason that we chose Despotz Records is that they are a Swedish label which makes things a lot easier since we can speak our native language with them. And they seem to be a very “modern” label and very good at running a record label in 2013. So far they have done a very good job I think.
Time for some weird questions! Is there a genre of music that you just don’t like? Which?
C: All genres except for heavy metal! Ha ha ha. Yes, I know, I’m very narrow minded and I got complete “tunnel vision” when it comes to music and I’m damned proud of it too! Ha ha ha.
Do you agree with the motto: “Heavy Metal or No Metal at all”?
C: 100%!
You get that “Revenant Ghost” to come to life and do whatever you want just like a Jin – what would you command it to do?
C: Ha ha ha, well, in that case I would tell it to roam around the world and end all stupidity like war, religion, greed and so on that makes people suffer. And tell everybody to shut the fuck up for a while and look at themselves and each other, calm down, have a beer or two and start to listen to each other and contribute to making the world a better place for everyone everywhere!
If you were a historic figure – who would you like to be? (Anyone-any era-any sex)
C: Huh, tough one….hmmm. I don’t know really. I’m pretty satisfied with just being me.
If you Tad Morose’s career was a movie… which movie would it have been and why?
C: Spinal Tap! Ha ha ha. Well, because it is spot on!
Imagine that your girlfriend/wife is selling your whole album-collection just to buy an expensive ring for herself. How would you react?
C: She just had to return the ring, get all the albums back. Pick up her stuff and move out. (i.n.: Hehehe…)
What is the weirdest question that you’ve been asked/weirdest thing/situation that has happened/you’ve been in?!
C: Well, we have been around for a while and we have experienced quite a lot of weird things and so on. But one thing that strikes me now, is when we played in Atlanta, USA many years ago, we were sitting by the pool at the hotel and some random guy asks if we also would like some beer and of course we did so he went in to his room, got a bunch of beers and threw them into the pool from the second floor. We jumped in and got the beer and this guy comes walking down later and joined us. So we spent a while there drinking beer and having a good time. Then this guy leaves and a guitar player from a Canadian band that was there said to me: “Did you recognize that dude?” And, no, I didn’t, but it turns out that it was Midnight! Yes, Midnight! The original singer in one of my all-time favorite bands Crimson Glory! Of course I didn’t believe him but later that night Midnight did a guest appearance with Jon Oliva’s (Savatage) Weapons of Mass destruction and indeed it was Midnight! So that was kind of an unreal feeling to have met and talked to Midnight!
Please salute the Greek fans and all the readers of Grande-Rock.com. Thx for the music! Take care!
C: I hope you like our new album “Revenant”! And I hope that we get the opportunity to go to Greece for the first time and play live! That would feel very special to us! We wouldn’t mind if that happened very soon because winter is really starting to kick in up here in Sweden! So it would be totally awesome to go to Greece!!! And remember, when you listen to Revenant, play it LOUD!
Take care and stay heavy!
Horns up!
Cheers!
Krunt / Tad Morose
C: A lot of things have changed since we last put out a new album. The budget on everything is extremely tight, almost impossible, due to that the record companies don’t get us much money as they used to. But on the other hand it is way easier to reach out to more people much faster. But the vital thing has not changed! Bands still play metal and there are still people out there all over the world that listen to metal! Everything else we just have to manage to work around and adapt to one way or the other. Actually, for us it was not hard to find a label. The reason that we chose Despotz Records is that they are a Swedish label which makes things a lot easier since we can speak our native language with them. And they seem to be a very “modern” label and very good at running a record label in 2013. So far they have done a very good job I think.
Time for some weird questions! Is there a genre of music that you just don’t like? Which?
C: All genres except for heavy metal! Ha ha ha. Yes, I know, I’m very narrow minded and I got complete “tunnel vision” when it comes to music and I’m damned proud of it too! Ha ha ha.
Do you agree with the motto: “Heavy Metal or No Metal at all”?
C: 100%!
You get that “Revenant Ghost” to come to life and do whatever you want just like a Jin – what would you command it to do?
C: Ha ha ha, well, in that case I would tell it to roam around the world and end all stupidity like war, religion, greed and so on that makes people suffer. And tell everybody to shut the fuck up for a while and look at themselves and each other, calm down, have a beer or two and start to listen to each other and contribute to making the world a better place for everyone everywhere!
If you were a historic figure – who would you like to be? (Anyone-any era-any sex)
C: Huh, tough one….hmmm. I don’t know really. I’m pretty satisfied with just being me.
If you Tad Morose’s career was a movie… which movie would it have been and why?
C: Spinal Tap! Ha ha ha. Well, because it is spot on!
Imagine that your girlfriend/wife is selling your whole album-collection just to buy an expensive ring for herself. How would you react?
C: She just had to return the ring, get all the albums back. Pick up her stuff and move out. (i.n.: Hehehe…)
What is the weirdest question that you’ve been asked/weirdest thing/situation that has happened/you’ve been in?!
C: Well, we have been around for a while and we have experienced quite a lot of weird things and so on. But one thing that strikes me now, is when we played in Atlanta, USA many years ago, we were sitting by the pool at the hotel and some random guy asks if we also would like some beer and of course we did so he went in to his room, got a bunch of beers and threw them into the pool from the second floor. We jumped in and got the beer and this guy comes walking down later and joined us. So we spent a while there drinking beer and having a good time. Then this guy leaves and a guitar player from a Canadian band that was there said to me: “Did you recognize that dude?” And, no, I didn’t, but it turns out that it was Midnight! Yes, Midnight! The original singer in one of my all-time favorite bands Crimson Glory! Of course I didn’t believe him but later that night Midnight did a guest appearance with Jon Oliva’s (Savatage) Weapons of Mass destruction and indeed it was Midnight! So that was kind of an unreal feeling to have met and talked to Midnight!
Please salute the Greek fans and all the readers of Grande-Rock.com. Thx for the music! Take care!
C: I hope you like our new album “Revenant”! And I hope that we get the opportunity to go to Greece for the first time and play live! That would feel very special to us! We wouldn’t mind if that happened very soon because winter is really starting to kick in up here in Sweden! So it would be totally awesome to go to Greece!!! And remember, when you listen to Revenant, play it LOUD!
Take care and stay heavy!
Horns up!
Cheers!
Krunt / Tad Morose