Photo: Anders Bergstedt
Interviewed by Mark Dean (Journalist/Writer/Contributor) Myglobalmind Webzine
special thanks to Garry Brooks
Easy Rider Records recently released ‘Hisingen Blues’ and ‘Lights Out’ on cassette. As self confessed vinyl lovers this must be welcome to have these albums available on both vinyl and tape!? Do you think cassettes are the new fad/gimmick/hipster format or on par with the almighty vinyl in terms of collectability and sheer charm and of course….the warm sound!?
Joakim: Well I think it’s fun that the album is released on cassette and also I guess that it is mostly for nostalgic reasons. But everybody doesn’t have new cars with cd, so for some it can be useful. But the sound where never that good so It cannot really be compared to vinyl. Don’t miss them.
Are all your albums mastered separately for the vinyl format?
Joakim: Yes, they have to be because you have to increase treble and bass on vinyl.
And also our first album was mastered analogue for the vinyl.
Nuclear Blast have made a shift towards rock bands like Graveyard Orchid Witchcraft and more recently Kadavar. It’s nice also to see album covers that have artwork and a band photo in the front cover like the aforementioned Kadavar and ‘’Hisingen Blues’. What’s it like been on such a big label with limited bands of your genre look and sound and does coming from an independent label background still have a connection to the label as them being fans of the band or is it more business at this level?
Photo: Anders Bergstedt
Don’t really understand what you mean but we are happy with nuclear blast, they have done a great job for us. Don’t care what other bands they are signing and don’t listen to other bands from our so called genre.
What was it like going from being a small band to making a living from music? Did this affect your creative process when it became a job?
Don’t really see any difference in the creative process. But when making Hisingen Blues we did the recording during night and then went to work in the morning and that was exhausting, so I think it’s a lot better now days.
All the great rock bands have a live album, and in some cases was their best representation i.e. Frampton’s Come Alive. Will Graveyard add a live album to their discography at some point and what is your favorite rock live album that you would aspire to if recording one?
Joakim: We have been talking about releasing a live album but I think it’s been put on ice for the moment but I think it will happen in the future. If we could do a live album as good as H.P Lovecraft’s from 1968 I would be really happy.
It’s hard not mention the new Black Sabbath album ‘13’ and its success. In an interview with Graveyard it was said ‘which band isn’t influenced by Black Sabbath’’, never a truer world spoken. What do you think of the album and seeing the Vertigo swirl again on an LP?
Joakim: It’s great to see the vertigo swirl again. Have only heard the new album once and I don’t think it’s going to be remembered as one of their classic ones.
Photo: Anders Bergstedt
Graveyard have two music videos for ‘’Endless Night’’ and ‘‘Goliath’’. Both have a very B movie kitsch quality to them, not like the CGI used in most music videos these days. Are you influenced by film and when you got this opportunity on screen did you get to show some of your influences?
Joakim: Yes I guess you could say that we like B movies but we didn’t have much input in the videos. But It is the same company that made all of our videos and it’s because we liked the result.
What has it been like touring with a band as big as Soundgarden and have you learnt anything from them in terms of them also coming from a small label back in the day?
Joakim: It’s great to get the chance to play for big audiences but you never get the chance to sit down and disguss with them. It’s mostly sitting around waiting for your turn to do your thing. What we have learnt is mostly practical things from their crew.
Sweden is a very heavily populated when it comes to bands, was this daunting when starting your own band and to find an identity or was it case of we can do it to?
Joakim: Don’t really care what other bands do but I guess it’s easier when there is a tradition.
Fellow swedes Ghost are a band who have risen straight to the top of the business touring with the biggest bands in the music industry. How do rate this band and what is called the retro rock movement?
Joakim: It is not as vivid as the music I usually listening to but it’s not bad. What I do hate though is the expression “retro rock”. I think that the music in the 60’s/70’s was retro too (lending from earlier blues and jazz) and I think all new music is kind of retro so why is it that only rock music that gets the attribute “retro”.
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