Interview Peter Tägtgren Hypocrisy

Lineup: Peter Tägtgren - vocals, guitars  Mikael Hedlund - bass  Horgh - drums  Andreas Holma - guitar

Annihilation of the Wicked Tour Nile Hypocrisy Decapitated / Raging Speedhorn Soilent Green With Passion HOB 1/30/06 Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

 “That’s all there is, music and fucking!”

Sweden’s legendary Hypocrisy is at it again with a new tour in support of their eleventh album, Virus. This go round on the Chicago leg of the Annihilation of the Wicked Tour, frontman and guitarist Peter Tägtgren was kind enough to speak with us even after a long weekend of partying. God bless the Swedes for their unending tolerance for alcohol and their never-ending passion for music! Read on…

Karma: Thanks a lot for talking with me again Peter.

Peter: No problem, no problem!

Karma: So congrats on the tour!

Peter: Thanks!

Karma: How is it going so far?

Peter: Pretty good so far, we’ve gotten a really good response and we’re having a good time so that’s cool.

Karma: So the response to the new material has been good?

Peter: Oh yeah!

Karma: Then after this stint you are headlining the “Destroy the UK” tour, correct?

Peter: Yeah.

Karma: Any plans for a headlining tour for the US in the fall?

Peter: Yeah, we’re thinking about coming back in September I think to do a headlining thing so we just have to check out which bands and exactly when, but that’s the plan.

Karma: Awesome, looking forward to it.

Peter: [Smiles] Yeah.

Karma: Then the Neckbreaker’s Ball tour sounds like an amazing bill… [Hypocrisy, Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, One Man Army & the Undead Quartet, and Amorphis]

Peter: [Eyes begin to brighten] …yeah, yeah, for sure.

Karma: So how did you hooked up with that?

Peter: Uh, our management actually hooked that one up so we still have a few things to figure out on that tour, but it’s going to be a good one, definitely.

Karma: I touched on this a little the last time we talked but since you are on both sides of the glass (in front of the mic and behind the control panel)…

Peter: Yes.

Karma: …what do you achieve as a musician that you cannot as a producer? Does it make you more creative to be able to work with others in their creative process on thereby seeing their mistakes and or triumphs…? Could it hinder you as an artist?

Peter: Uh, I mean for me it’s more just trying to get the best out of the band, trying to get the best sound, and trying to get the best out of every musician, that’s more my job I think. It’s pretty…I mean when we record Hypocrisy albums we ask, “Does that sound cool, or is this a cool sound?” I mean we work together anyhow.

Karma: Congrats on the album, it’s amazing!

Peter: [Smiles] Thanks!

Karma: It is the perfect mixture of newer and older Hypocrisy.

Peter: Yeah!

Karma: It seems like all are happy with the outcome. Would you change a thing?

Peter: No, not really. I think it’s pretty good. I don’t think of anything that I would want to change or anything.

Karma: How was the making/writing process of Virus for you since this was Horgh’s first album with the band how different was it for the band?

Peter: It was better because he's a totally different drummer than Lars, you know. We can do much more I think now. Because we can do more blast beats and stuff like that, that Lars had problems with, you know.

Karma: And not to mention Horgh’s dedication too.

Peter: Yeah! [Smiles]

Karma: As far as the lyrical content is concerned, it seems more hateful, angrier, and much more graphic than that of previous releases…

Peter: Oh yeah!

Karma: …particularly “Bloodrenched”. Were there any specific events that led you to create these lyrics?

Peter: No, not really, it just felt like it was time to write about something different this time. It was like, “let’s not overdo it” so I just changed a little bit and wrote stories really.

Karma: And having said that now that you dropped the alien subject matter do you think you will reach a different target audience now that lyrical content has changed?

Peter: Yeah, I just did what I felt like. I didn’t think if it would less sells or more sells, I just wanted to write about.

Karma: I know you said you didn’t want to write a concept album however isn’t all based around the concept of hate and vengeance anyways.

Peter: Yeah, yeah, exactly!!

Karma: I heard that you had taken time off during the recording process during Virus. Do you normally record this way?

Peter: No, not really.

Karma: Then it was a one-time thing for you?

Peter: Exactly.

Karma: So did you find this process worked better for you this go round?

Peter: Yeah, I think so. We get a better overview of all the songs after we had written them and recorded them. So, when we finally go to do the real recording, you’ll know what needs to be changed but you listen to the demos for a while. It’s really good to do that.

Karma: Whose idea was it to make the album a HDCD?

Peter: [Laughs] A what?

Karma: A High Definition Compatible Digital CD.

Peter: [Shock fills his countenance] It is?

Karma: Yeah... [Laughs]

Peter: I didn’t even know that!

Karma: It’s great because it's so crisp as far as the production's concerned, you can hear every little nuance.

Peter: [Smiles] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Karma: What’s the one question you would have wished someone would have asked about the album that has yet to be asked?

Peter: [Pauses] I don’t know right now. I have no idea.

Karma: Do you have any additional comments on the album?

Peter: Oh yeah, that I hope people enjoy it and hopefully we’ll come back in September and play for one and a half hour instead of forty minutes.

Karma: Thoughts on Dimmu Borgir's Stormblåst as a whole, since you also produced Enthrone Darkness Triumphant? How do you think the album turned out, especially in relation to their maturation process?

Peter: I think it was pretty cool. I mean I wasn't too much into Stormblåst, as in the original one. But I think they really spiced it up on this one, definitely. It sounds much better, just the attitude and everything. It was cool to do that again because I did Triumph and the one after that, Spiritual [Black Dimensions]. It was cool to have them back and record again; it was almost ten years ago.

Karma: Are there any new and interesting projects in store for Abyss these days?

Peter: [Shakes head] No, not really. Let me see, I’m gonna do Mnemic’s next album but we don’t know when it’s gonna happen and so on because I have some other stuff. Hopefully… I also have the new Dimmu album.

Karma: Cool! What are your thoughts on the new Dark Funeral album [Attera Totus Sanctus]?

Peter: Uhh, it sounds good, I think.

Karma: Which genre is poised to blow up next? Which genre will be the new wave of metal?

Peter: [Laughs] Blues metal! No, I don’t know, I think it goes in circles all of the time you know. Once this one’s big, then this one’s not… Power metal, death metal, black metal, I don’t know. [Smiles]

Karma: If you could commission an artist to cover a Hypocrisy song, who would do it and which song would they cover?

Peter: Oh shit, I don’t know! [Laughs] I have no idea! [Looks at Horgh] Horgh, help me!! [Looks back at us] It was a tough weekend... [makes universal sign of smoking...wink wink]

Karma & Erika: Ahh!!

Erika: Enough said!

Karma: Okay, here’s one you won’t really have to think that much about. On your site on your bio you have a couple of words up there about your hobby and life’s philosophy…no one will translate them for me, really, so I figured I get it from the source: runka…

Peter: Yes, runka.

Karma: [Laughs] So is that jacking off?

Peter: Yep!

Karma: And is it knulla på?

Peter: Yeah.

Karma: Is that like fucking people or something?

Peter: [Smiles] Yeah. [We all laugh] That’s all there is, music and fucking!

Karma: Alright! Well thanks for the interview again, Peter!

Peter: Thank you!

I'd like to thank Peter for being so awesome och tack så mycket för din hjälp med min hemläxa, to Brian, their tour manager, and to the fine PR dept at Nuclear Blast Records for setting it up.

Related Links & Other Points of Interest

q      Click here for photos from tonight's show

q      Here for interview with Horgh

q      Here for first interview with Peter

q   Review of the band from their tour with Soilwork

q    Here for an album review of Virus

q   Here for interview with Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir