Karma: Nice to meet you.

Alex: Do you speak Swedish? [Smiles]

Karma: A little, I'm taking it up.

Alex: Cool, cool!! [Smiles]

Karma: Well, I'd like to thank you very much for doing the interview with me.

Alex: No problem!

Karma: How does it feel to be the “Godfathers of Metal”? Tell me what is the secret of your success for survival, for close to 20 years of being in the Industry and being three-time Grammy nominees?

Alex: It feels good first of all and I don’t know, we just keep going with it. We don’t really think about it too much; we’ve been doing this since we were about 13 - 14 years old. We never thought that we’d be doing this…now we are in our thirties. With every album, every show, every tour, and every day we’re just like, “Oh! We did another one, we did one more!” [Smiles] We just take it one day at a time; it seems it worked so far.

Karma: Do you have any advice for others for longevity?

Alex: If you want it bad enough, it’s a lot of work. A lot of bands are successful and do one or two albums but then they meet obstacles that would make the band split up or… The classic one is fighting with the label and a lot of costs build up with lawyers and stuff like that which always makes for a classic split up situation. We’ve been through all of these things but somehow we’ve managed to hold it together. It’s hard to give advice really because it’s something that you can’t relate to unless you’ve been there. The only advice I have is you have to get in there and if you want it bad enough, keep at it; those are the things that work.

Karma: Seems that Candlelight has been a saving grace for you here in the States in regards to distribution for Inferno, ironing out the Koch records and Century Media fiasco. What really happened there?

Alex: We were talking to Century Media but we had a deal for the whole Three Man label [Alex’s record label] in Europe we were on Music For Nations, so we licensed everything from 3 Man to Music For Nations, for some reason they assumed they had the rights to release it in America. So through one of their companies that they work with over there (Koch Records) released the album without us even knowing it. So before we could stop it, the album was out and the whole deal with Century got a little complicated because of that. At the same time, we were doing a deal in Europe with this other company and Candlelight is part of that company over here so it felt better to do it with them. Though I’m sure it would have been great with Century too. We met them and everything it was like, done! It just wasn't meant to be this time.

Karma: Wow… Switching gears a bit, what did you grow up listening to?

Alex: Iron Maiden and old classic rock, hard rock, I used to paint my face [we both laugh] like Alice Cooper and stuff like that.

Karma: As far as your work is concerned, which song is your favorite off Inferno and why?

Alex: I’m gonna have to go with the song “Nobodaddy” actually! It’s got a bit of a hook in the vocals and a chorus for once.

Karma: [Smiles] I think it's awesome that you worked with ballet dancers, etc. that's very different for your normal Swedish metaller. Do you have any plans to work with the Royal Swedish Ballet Company at Stockholm's Royal Opera in the future and or take Unreal Estate further?

Alex: [Smiles] No that was a once in a lifetime thing. It was really, really great to do. These two choreographers [Bogdan Szyber and Carina Reich] that approached us, I don’t know where they got the idea, but we said yes without knowing what we were going to be a part of. One of the things they had done [shifts train of thought] they do all these crazy performance art kind of things. The only thing we had seen was a short film and based on that we thought they were cool people and whatever they wanted to do we’d try and do it.

It was a great experience. We’re actually amazed that it actually turned into something that you could watch appreciate, and listen to. Still, it easily could have been one of those things that came off over pretentious.

Karma: Yet, it turned out wonderfully!

Alex: Yeah! It did! We’ve been asked to do other things like stupid TV shows and stuff in Sweden. We usually say yes to things that we think are interesting but this one thing that I'm thinking of would be really fun to do but would just turn into an unwatchable TV show. I couldn’t watch it! [Laughs]

Karma: Why was it so unwatchable to you?

Alex: It was just a bad idea. We were just the house band in this show; we played in between segments and we did our best, but we looked stupid. [Laughs]

Karma: How long did you do the show?

Alex: We did it for one season, then they had another band do it the next season, then they just pulled the plug on it. That was really fun to do, but unwatchable. That’s why I was really concerned with [Unreal Estate], I knew that it would be really fun to do but you’re never sure if it’s going to be at the other end of it like if it’s watched or not.

Karma: How do you think your songwriting has changed since Left Hand Path?

Alex: I guess we just tried to write better songs. After the first two albums now we just try to concentrate on writing and we like to simplify things a bit. I like the first two albums; they had a lot of riffs. The second album especially was complicated, technical as we were influenced by a lot of the technical bands of that time. It was hard for us to play live so we decided to simplify things a bit and concentrate on the songwriting. Does the song need 5 riffs or does it need just 3 riffs…so we just tried to be better at songwriting I guess. [Smiles] It’s what we are still doing.

Karma: Do you think your fan base has changed since the beginning if you felt it has changed at all?

Alex: It's probably some fans that have changed or evolved with us and like the changes with our style from album to album because we never really stopped evolving. It's inevitable when you hear new music that you like it kind of ends up influencing you and that pisses some people off. You lose maybe the hardcore and death metal crowd but we definitely have people from the earlier days still coming to the shows. There were guys walking up to us today who saw us for the first time in '98, "Oh you've been my favorite band since then!" for some reason! [Smiles]

Karma: And speaking of influences, who are some of yours?

Alex: I listen to a lot of music, a lot of rap and hip-hop. I really like Nine Inch Nails too. Anything, I don't really categorize music and I don't make a difference between music and film, books…everything influences me. It's just one big pot to pick from. Any given day it can be anything from Bob Dylan to Emperor to…

Alex: [Smiles] Yeah, we just played with them last night in Cleveland; they're on tour with Suffocation.

Karma: Well he had this question for you, "How did you get those sick, sick, sick guitar sounds on your albums” I know he is particularly fond of Wolverine Blues.

Alex: [Laughs] Because we have sick, sick, sick minds!

Karma: [Laughs] Okay. How was it working with Per Gunnerfeldt [who is best known for his work with The Hives] any future plans to work with him?

Alex: It was a great experience; we got to know the guy in '96 or something like that. Since then we've always said that we should record something one day like record a song or something. After Morning Star, we felt like we didn't want to go in and do the exact same thing again or do it ourselves. We just called him up and asked if he was interested and he jumped at the chance to do it. The big difference I guess was that when we went in with him, we gave him a lot of freedom to chose the studio and let his ideas… [changes train of thought]... otherwise, it would have been him just being there. He got us to play live pretty much for the first time in the studio for the first time. That was the biggest feat, I mean we usually all play but we end up just keeping the drums and then redoing everything.

This time without telling us, I guess he planned all along to have us spend more time in the beginning with more sounds from the guitar. Usually we concentrate more on the drums first then we just play whatever on the guitar bits because it doesn’t really matter because it's redone. That's what made this album so special to us as well as it ended up getting a more lively feel. What he came from he had been listening to a lot of our albums and seen a lot of our shows and when he listened to our albums he felt that something was missing. He wanted to get more of a live feel.

Karma: Okay, if you could choose to collaborate with anyone whom would you like to work with?

Alex: A producer or someone to do a song with?

Karma: I was going more for the producer end of it but I like the other the question as well.

Alex: I'm a big fan of Rick Rubin as a producer so I would love to work with him. As far as a song is concerned, [Dr.] Dre! [We both laugh] That would be something to make it out there!

Alex: Don't shit where you eat! [We all laugh hysterically]

Erika: Now that's a good one!

Karma: That's a good philosophy! If you could book the perfect tour, with whom would you love to tour with?

Alex: I would have said but I would really love to tour with Slayer again! [Smiles] They are one of our all time favorite bands; it was just great to be able to watch them every single night, you know, it was really cool! [Smiles]

Karma: I can imagine! [Smiles] Favourite quote?

Alex: [Laughs] I should have had these things written down! You have all of your favourite quotes, as it is just a matter of remembering them!

Karma: Exactly!

Alex: I might think of something later.

Karma: Okay, fair enough. What's you favorite color?

Alex: I like black!

Karma: Food?

Alex: I like pasta! [Eyes brighten]

Karma: Oh yes! [We both laugh] How about your first Industry job?

Alex: Playing in this band.

Karma: Any phobias?

Alex: Not really!

Karma: What pisses you off?

Alex: Stupidity in general!

Karma: I hear you!

Alex: When common sense is not used, ignorance complicates things. Stupidity pisses me off!

Karma: Favorite sound?

Alex: My girlfriend's voice. [Smiles]

Karma: Favorite smell?

Alex: Her smell.

Karma: Other than svensk & engelsk, do you speak another language?

Alex: No, I want to be able to speak Spanish. I took it for a year but then you don't remember much of it past that.

Karma: And without practice it becomes harder. I know that all too well, I took it for 4 years in high school and have practically forgotten all I know.

Alex: Yeah, it goes away! But I would like to be able to speak Spanish.

Karma: If you could travel the spans of time which era would you visit?

Alex: Backwards?

Karma: Backwards, forwards, the sky's the limit here!

Alex: Ok well then I would say late 60's early 70's that seems to be a lot of fun. Now things seem to be so strict! I mean people seem to be getting into a lot of fights and shit and seem to be missing the fun part. [Laughs]

Karma: Do you have any nervous habits?

Alex: Not really, I mean I don't bite my fingernails or anything like that?

Karma: Still get nervous before you go on stage?

Alex: No not really; I would probably be a lot more nervous if it was just me up there with an acoustic guitar but you get away with a lot more if it's five of us up there. No, I don't really get nervous.

Karma: Favorite childhood memory?

Alex: Remembering things are hard! [Laughs]

Karma: Especially when it's 1:00AM in the morning! [Joe's like to have late shows on Sunday nights]

Alex: [Laughs] Yeah! Okay, I'll have it for you after the last one.

Karma: That was my last question for you! [Laughs]

Alex: Ok! [Smiles] I've always liked Christmas and stuff like that, the night before lying awake and waiting. That's always good memories!

Karma: Tack så mycket för intervjun!

Alex: [Smiles] Tack så mycket.