SONIC SYNDICATE
"Well, I'm a teenager so I don’t give a fuck if people call us a "Teen-Band", haha!"
(Interview with Robin, August 2008)
You
won the Nuclear Blast
band contest in 2005. Since then it goes up and up with your career. Didn't this
happen a little too fast for you? I mean, since then you went from a „Garage
Band“ to an absolute top act.
I
wouldn't say that it happend "too fast", but of course it's way faster
than most of the bands careers. We're a band that works really hard and try to
stay on top of things all the time, so I would say that Nuclear Blast and Sonic
Syndicate has done a great job together. As soon as we signed the deal, all the
cool things started to happen and we're a pretty effective touring band, so I'm
really proud over all the things that has happened to us.
You
also can be proud and content with your past career. Are you?
I
would say that we are more than proud and happy over all the things we've been
through together. We're a big happy family that tries to have as much fun as we
can, but still take this as our serious job. As you say, we're a pretty young
band, so we really tried to show our feet in the beginning of our career, when
we started to tour with all these big bands. But today, I would say that we are
a professional touring band and we've climbed up some levels, I mean, people
knows who we are times like these so our only goal, according to this, is to
stay on top and still work really hard for this band.
Did
you have enough creative freedom for your personal music? Or do the” Nuclear
bosses” have a say as well?
If
someone would try to tell us which kind of music we "should" play, we
would just give them the finger and tell them to sit down and shut up. I would
say that I, and the rest of the guys, totally Loves Nuclear Blast since they've
never asked us anything like that. They have never said anything like "You
should play like this" or "You should play like that". I'm really
thankful that they trust us 100% and never worry over our music, because they
know that we can deliver great music, otherwise they wouldn't sign us. We've
always been writing the music that we love and can say that we are proud over,
and we will continue this way.
Some
music fans out there degenerate and designate you as “Teen-Band”. What do
you think about those people?
Well,
I'm a teenager so I don’t give a fuck if people call us a
"Teen-Band", ha ha. There's a lot of bullshit and rumours out there,
but that’s nothing that bothers us, we just laugh about all that. I just
don’t get it how people even have time to sit on their asses and write bad
things about a band over internet. Why don’t just dislike a band and than just
don’t give a shit about the rest of it? Whatever, it just makes us laugh so it
doesn't make a difference, haha.
And
what do you think about the comparisons to IN FLAMES etc.? It is also my opinion
that there are a lot of their influences in your sound. Is this a complement for
you or not?
In Flames is a great band, which I, personally, have been listening to a lot over a few years. But today, I wouldn't say that they are among the biggest influences that we have. Alot of all these new bands like us, from Europe and especially Sweden are being compared to In Flames, and I think a lot of people compares everyone to In Flames since they are one of Europe’s biggest metal export. I don’t think it's wrong that people compare our sound to In Flames, but I would also say that our new record "Love and other Disasters" are not even close to anything that In Flames has done. Alot of stuff on the latest In Flames album reminds of our album Only Inhuman, so maybe it's just a matter of time before people compare In Flames to us, haha.
On
Wikipedia I found a strange style designation of your music: „(Un)true nuclear
metal “. Can you fill me in?
We
don’t have anything to do with Wikipedia, I mean all the stuff that are
written about us there have not been written by anyone in the Syndicate. I think
that the "untrue" thing has been written by us a long time ago, and
what we mean about that is that a lot of people write "We're a true metal
band" on their bands myspace, but these bands are
long-haired-beard-corpse-painted dudes. We are just the opposite to that. A lot
of people can't even see that we're a metal band just because we don’t dress
or act like one. The "Untrue" thing were a joke we had, which maybe
are true, I don’t know and I don’t care. People call us a Emo band just
because we were make-up, but common dude, fucking black metal bands even wear
more make-up than my mom does, ha ha!
Tell
me something about your personal music taste. Did you listen to the same stuff
which you celebrate or are there some other different musical preferences?
Every
member of Sonic Syndicate has the same, and way different taste of music.
Everyone is listening to metal, but also a lot of different genres as Punk and
pop, and whatever. When we burn mixed cd's for the bus, we can blend everything
from Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir to Pink and My Chemical Romance. We're a very
open minded band, when it comes to music, and that reflects to our sound also.
Some of our songs are pretty heavy and fast, and some songs are mellow and
catchy. When I get home from a tour, I love just sit by the TV and watch MTV for
a couple of hours which there's no Metal.
Your
new album „Love and Other Disasters“ will be released at the end of
September. I had already the pleasure to listen on it. And I’ll also do the
review. I know! It is my job! But I would like to get a personal
statement about your newest masterpiece.
The
new album is far by the best we've ever done. For the first time in our career
we've worked together when we create the music. Before, it has always been one
in the band who writes all the music, but now we wanted to change and get to a
higher level which we did by making every member as one song writer. A lot of
people ask us if there's a problem to be six people in the band and write music
without fights, but I would just say that it's positive since there's six people
with six different great ideas. This made the whole sound step up a bit. We're
really proud and happy over how it turned out to be, this is a great album.
The
new long player was, like “Only Inhuman”, produced together with SCAR
SYMMETRY guitarist, Jonas Kjellgren. Has this guy any influence on your song
writing and does he gave some constructional inputs during the recording
sessions? And what is it like to work with him generally?
Jonas is probably the best producer when it comes to metal in Sweden. I mean, both personal and work wise, he's a great dude to be with. He has a lot of great ideas, and yes, a lot of great inputs so he has a finger in the game when it comes to finish up the songs. We felt that he did such a great job behind Only Inhuman, that we wanted to use him again. We knew that he had more to give us, so we decided to work with him again and that was great because the album turned out way better than we expected it to be. We love Jonas, and hope to work with him somehow in the future. He's a great guy.
Tell
me something about the album title. Are you disappointed by love?
Love
is a great feeling, but it could also be a pain in the ass. I mean, in the end
it always turns out to be a disaster no matter how you do. You can be in love
with someone, and eventually it breaks our someone dies, and it turns to
disaster. All the lyrics are based, in some kind, on love. For an example,
everyone loves the world, but everyone fucking destroys it everyday and it will
soon be chaotic. Some lyrics are like a "Wake up call" for everyone to
realize that if we don’t do something soon, the end will be even closer before
we know. Love is great, but also a fucking disasters and everyone has been
through it somehow.
As
a live band you are very present and you already played big Open Air Festivals (Wacken,
With Full Force etc. in 2007 - or Summer Breeze, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park
etc.) this Summer. How were the feedbacks from the audience? Particularly at
such big events?
It's
a suprice everytime, dude. I mean, when we play all these huge festivals in
Germany, it's always between 10 and 25 thousand on the shows and that feels so
fucking great. To see all their hands in the air and everyone jumping to our
song "Flashback" is amazing. That's what we've been dreaming about
since the start, and now we are here. I love playing open air, because it's so
big and that many people and it's always a great time being there to meet all
the fans and all the other bands we've toured with. I love summertime when it
comes to festivals.
Richard
and Robin. You are brothers. SONIC SYNDICATE are often on the run. Doesn't this
have some negative consequences to your brotherhood?
Absolutely
not. This is a job, we're pro's. We know that we can fucking fight like kids
over shit when we have a job to do. There's actually never fights or anything
like that when we are on tour, and I also mean the band overrall. Just because
there is brothers in the band, we don’t act like that. We don’t stand behind
each others backs when we are having conversation. Sonic Syndicate are just a
big happy family.
And
how is the mood generally on tour?
Everyone
is really happy since it's the best time always. We love touring, and we love
the tour bus because it always happends all this crazy shit. We're soon hitting
the road again and we've been waiting for a long time now because we knows that
it's always a great time with a lot of fun. Also, we get to meet all our loving
fans and play all the cool venues.
Did
you like it to be on the road? And what do you guys do, when you have a day off?
A
day off can be two different days off. One is like this:
We
wake up about three in the afternoon. Knock on each others bunks, and ask "When
did I say goodnight last night, I cant remember when I fell asleep?", and
the other guy is still even to drunk to remember. Go down to the lounge in the
bus and plays Xbox for a couple of hours, then go up to the bunk again and just
sleep the day away.
The
other kind of Day off looks like this:
We
wake up eight in the morning and take the subway or whatever to the city to go
and see how it is. We love to visit new cities and discover all this cool things
in each and every town. In the evening, we go out and having a nice Italian
dinner and just enjoy being on tour.
When
it comes to touring: At the end of September the European Tour as supporting act
of IN FLAMES starts. You’ll also be in Switzerland on October 18 and 22 -
for the Swiss fans: What do you expect from Switzerland? Will there be
time to do some sightseeing or do you already know Switzerland?
We've
been in Switzerland a couple of times now and we really enjoy and having a great
time there. The Swiss fans are really great and they always gives us the best
time. I remember last time we were there, we had a big fucking party just
because it was a really cool day and the gig went awesome. It will definitely be
sightseeing, and probably a lot of party!
Thanks for the interview, best regards and good luck for your future!
(Interview by Pink)