Dark Tranquillity Interview

Interview
Mikael Stanne
Dark Tranquillity

Metal For The Masses Tour
Dark Tranquillity
The Haunted
Into Eternity
Scar Symmetry
The Intersection (Grand Rapids, MI)
4/1/07
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale
Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

Lineup:
Mikael Stanne – vocals
Niklas Sundin – guitars
Martin Henriksson – guitars
Martin Brändström – keyboards
Michael Niklasson – bass
Anders Jivarp – drums

Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

“I guess that’s always the biggest challenge...there are five guys who are really frustrated that are trying to come up with something that feels fresh.”

Gothenburg’s own Dark Tranquillity along with their mates converged on Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Intersection. Nary a ray of sun in the sky made for an interesting and sleepy setting on this cold and wet April day. Not to mention major repairs were underway on the bus…in between the noxiously overwhelming smell of grease that poured from the hatch exposing seemingly thousands of mangled innards [wires galore] in the back lounge where this interview took place. As he desperately tried to wake up, the drained frontman, Mikael Stanne, spoke to FourteenG and then the band was scheduled to perform in a little less than an hour. Join us in conversation as Mr. Stanne discusses the new album, the camaraderie of the band, as well debunking a myth while answering some fan questions.

Karma: Much has transpired since our last meeting of the minds last year during your stint with Opeth...

Karma: In regards to your current stint, how is it going? Definitely seems to be a match made in heaven...

Mikael: …it is! It’s been something we’ve been something we’ve actually been talking about with The Haunted for a long time because we’ve been friends for such a long time and we never really toured together. We did two shows in Greece a couple of years back but that’s pretty much it! Other than that, we haven’t toured together.

Mikael: [Snickers] Yeah! You know [this tour] is perfect, you’ve got Scar Symmetry, I think is one of the best new bands coming out of Sweden and Into Eternity is really fucking cool and interesting, you know…strange! [We all laugh]

Karma: How well is the new material being received? What has been the biggest crowd pleaser thus far?

Mikael: Well yeah so far, you know it leaked onto the internet like a month or so ago.

Mikael: And you know we have that one song out, “Focus Shift” on our MySpace page.

Mikael: Yeah, it is kinda cool, it’s very simple but so far the response has been great, fantastic! We’re playing some new songs every night.

Mikael: A little bit, not much. We’re doing (us and The Haunted) like have equal playing times and stuff like that. But no, it’s been great! People really seem to dig the new songs; it feels good! [Smiles widely]

Karma: You all have been together for some time now, how do you keep it going; how can you keep the dynamic of the band fresh as you did from the beginning?

Mikael: I don’t know! I honestly don’t!! Uuhm, it’s just second nature to us, just hanging out and writing music together. I guess we try to re-invent ourselves. We try to at least have a new perspective when we’re still writing songs, you know. We usually write our songs a little bit differently and I think with this album we really wanted the songs to really be different. Not just an album comprised of like ten different parts. We wanted them to really be special and have their own identity. It was interesting because we figured whatever feels good, will be good, you know. And we didn’t want to restrict ourselves at all so that’s why some of the songs are different from anything we had done before.

Karma: When we spoke last year I asked if you contemplated returning to “Projector/Haven” style of clean vocals and you said that you did not see it happening in as much, what made you change your mind with songs such as “Misery’s Crown” & “The Mundane and Magic”?

Mikael: [Nods head and acquiescences] Yeah…it just felt right! You know it was just one of those things when we started writing like “Misery’s Crown” for instance, it just felt natural. The first time I heard the song, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to have to do something different here!” I came up with a vocal line immediately and it was really simple.

Karma: What has been the greatest challenge that you have had to withstand to date in order to get you where you are at this point in your career especially being eight studio albums in?

Mikael: Öööhhhh, I don’t know, I guess coming up with new songs that we can still be proud of, you know. We throw away so much material like all the time, Martin will write tons of stuff and Anders writes stuff and Niklas writes all the strings and they record and then we listen to that...and 80% of that, we throw away.

Karma: [Shock overtakes my countenance] Really? Suffice it to say it wasn’t good enough or it just didn’t jive or...

Mikael: Yeah or really didn’t feel fresh, something that just didn’t live up to our standards... I guess that’s always the biggest challenge. Not that I write any of the music but there are five guys who are really frustrated that are trying to come up with something that feels fresh.

Mikael: Well it takes a lot of time but it’s worth it. I mean, that’s the greatest thing, we get to hang out and when we finish a song, we almost feel totally satisfied with it. It’s like, “We’ve got it, let’s move on to the next one.”

Karma: Have you or the band set any goals surrounding this release as opposed to previous releases? What are you hoping to accomplish with this particular album that you were not able to before?

Mikael: I don’t know, one of those goals would be to reach out to a wider audience and stuff like that but we don’t really set goals like that. We just do and want to make the best album possible, that’s always the goal. But obviously there are things we want to do, there are other countries and continents we need to conquer and stuff like that!

Mikael: [Chuckles] Actually, I think by now it looks like we’re going to be out pretty much the whole rest of the year and well into next year as well. It’s going to be a LONG tour. [Said through clenched teeth] A lot of sitting in the bus going, “Oh man!” [We all laugh] It’s going to be tough, but fun. And we’re off to a good start!

Karma: Very much so! What’s your favorite song off the album, if you can choose?

Mikael: Perhaps it would be “Inside the Particle Sun” because it’s different and it’s the first time in years that I’ve sung something that Niklas wrote, and it’s great!

Karma: Here are more fan questions (more recently since your fan interview back in February)…

Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

Karma: This next one, which is pretty special, it reads [from Villian] “I'd ask them to make the world a better place...but they've done it already”.

Karma: Why did you decide to bring back your own lyrics, and what do you consider to be the most relevant change in his own inspiration (as for lyric-writing only). [Nicos (Italia DT fan site)]

Mikael: I guess he means from the time when I started writing the lyrics exclusively. I guess actually since Niklas pretty much wrote half the material early on he just felt that the singer should sing his own lyrics and he wanted to focus on writing music instead. It was kind of cool and it works well for me. You know I get the chance to sing about something I’m really passionate about and something that really matter to me, you know. But actually on this album Niklas has written one song. The first time in years and years.

Mikael: Yeah, it is, the music and lyrics, which is sweet because we never really worked that way before. Usually Niklas writes all of the songs and everybody still puts their spin on it. This time we thought the song was perfect as is there you go.

Karma: What role does Anders have in process of writing the songs considering his name appears on a lot of the credits. [Anita]

Mikael: He’s mostly involved in like song structures and stuff like that. He’s very picky about stuff like that, he and Martin are the main kind of songwriters. [Stammers a bit] Anders…[then his voice trails off] …doing mostly the keyboard parts and structures.

Karma: How complicated was the writing process since your arrangements are more complex than ever before. [Rte]

Mikael: [Chuckles] I don’t know, it’s not really my thing to say. I guess you need to talk to Martin or Anders about that. But it’s always tough, I mean sometimes we come to a standstill. Whenever someone feels this song is perfect, and I go “No, no, no, this is crap” you know. We kind of take the whole thing apart and put it back together and see what happens to see if we can improve things. Sometimes we just walk away from rehearsal and go, “Fuck, we have achieved nothing!” It was just a waste of time you know! Then two days later, we solve the problem and finish the song.

Karma: Sometimes stepping away then coming back to something can offer a lot of clarity.

Mikael: It is, or just move on to the next project or like song structure that you have.

Mikael: I really hope so! There are no concrete plans but we definitely want to do it this year. So we’ll see, hopefully we’ll record some of the summer festival shows. We really want to film a show in Italy or Spain or something like that because that’s where the audiences are just amazing there. But it’s really expensive but we’ll see what happens, but we certainly want to.

Karma: [Laughs] I cannot stress enough how many questions surround your black shirt…

Karma: Your infamous black shirt, I have no clue what their obsession is but MANY inquiring minds want to know so let’s debunk the myth, is it the same shirt…is it a lucky shirt…is it hundreds of identical shirts?

Mikael: [Laughs hysterically] I have hundreds of identical ones actually. There are all a little bit different but I have at least five of each.

Mikael: [Snickers] I never have to worry about what to wear, you know. This is what I wear pretty much every day and sometimes I put on a shirt and that’s it. And I have about five pairs of these jeans. [Said in his finest Swedish accent] I may have one other pair, and that’s it, that’s how boring I am! [Hysterical laughter erupts]

Karma: I wouldn’t say that, we all like what we like and there’s something to be said about consistency. Which band would you like to see blow-up next in Scandinavia eller Sverige.

Mikael: Öööhhhh, I would have to say Scar Symmetry actually because I think they are the best new band. Not just because they are really cool guys… [Laughs]

Karma: Something that I wanted to touch on earlier were your actual feelings on the album being leaked onto the internet. Every band has their feelings on it so what is yours?

Mikael: [Pauses as a look of disappointment washes over his paleness countenance] It kind of spoils the surprise, you know. I want everyone to listen to it at the same time, you know, go out and buy the album and listen to it. So, it kind of takes away from that but what can I say, it’s out there and I download albums all the time too, you know. It’s sad, but what can you do.

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

Mikael: And it’s a morning show, and we’re going to have a band called Universal Poplab and it’s just like a three-piece electronic pop band do two of our songs.

Mikael: I don’t know, we haven’t decided yet but “Misery’s Crown” for sure because that’s our next video and then we’ll leave it to the band to decide what they want to do. But it’s going to be really cool! They are actually a great band and good friends of ours and it’s really going to be exciting. I can’t wait.

Karma: Neither can we, will there be a link on your site…oh wait, perhaps YouTube!

Mikael: Well perhaps but it’s going to be on TV so yeah, it’s going to be out on YouTube two hours later. It’s going to be really cool and I can’t wait! [Smiles] We came up with the idea sitting up early one morning. But [MTV] asked us to perform live an acoustic set and we were like, “What the hell! We can’t do an acoustic set!!” There was just no way we just couldn’t pull that off, you know. It would be too weird so we said, “Have someone else do it!”

Mikael: Yeah, because we knew they could pull it off and they also needed the exposure as well. Hopefully it will happen. They want to do it and they can deliver. We had one other artist who we wanted to do a cover [of our song] as well and there’s a Swedish singer named Anna Terheim, she’s AMAZING! She’s like a singer-songwriter, she plays the piano…and we wanted her to do a song but she hasn’t responded yet.

Karma: Well here’s to hoping that she does…men tack så mycket för intervjun igen, Mikael!

We’d like to thank everyone in the Dark Tranquillity camp for making this interview a possibility. Tack så mycket!

Related Links