Ohhh!!!Thank you very much!!!! 

Ohhh man!I don't know..! What would that be? The main key factors I guess... Releasing the first album was very important and the member change we did after the first album, later releasing "The Gallery". I think these are some of the most important moments looking back on it. I don't remember something really special happening to us, so many other stuff were going on at the time. Also going to CENTURY MEDIA, getting all that promotion and getting out there and having the album professionally distributed and of course all the concerts and the people we met. There are many things... 

It kinda came from the lyrics that we wrote and it was me and Niklas's idea to name the band this way. We wanted to have a name connected to the lyrics and also have a deeper meaning and have something more to do with the whole experience of the band and it kinda represented what we were aiming at with the whole thing of writing music. I hopefully feel it looks still the best. 

Well, you know it' an album we've been working on for almost one and a half year and we wanted to take what we did on Haven and take it one step further doing something different, adding more agressiveness and intensity to it and kinda take off from there and do something new having this in mind. It's more agressive album, it's more raw. 

Well, this could be true I guess. It has this feeling that we had... 

Yeahh!!This uncompromising nature I guess and adding new stuff. I dunno...We wanted to make a more agressive and intense album and kinda take all the stuff we've done over the years and make something new with it. It was a great experience to write and we had a great time and couldn't be happier with the result. 

Well..what should we say? We are a band that needs to constantly change and make something new and we can't continue to do the same old thing, album after album. This is not our thing. We don't want to end up being a cover band of our own songs. All these things are necessary for us in the band, we need to make the best of what we can do. I'd say that all these albums are like time documents representing a part of our life when we played music together and I think it never even come up in discussion that we'd ever kind of comform or adopt an idea coming from outside and listen to what people would like us to do. That's not even an issue for us. We do what we really love to do and we are really satisfied with what we did in the album and hopefully people will get into it. First of all we pay attention to ourselves. 

Noo, noo!I don't think I have. I really don't aspire to arrive to any conclusions or solve anything I guess. Just to reflect on things I find frustrating and infuriating. Things that make me angry. The way we deal with each other, the stupidity and unnecessary actions based on lack of trust and insight and experience. Things that I need to scream about! Things that I can't even begin to express in everyday speech. Put down a paper and run to the rehearsal room and sxream about, because we bcome so far and we are just stupid mammals that we can't get along. It's amazing how litle evolved we are in fact. It's weird. I base somethings into it but I don't want to be to obvious and expose myself too much. There are some things I don't rather talk about and hide it up in words and alligories... 

That's what I do, but I am not a very pessimistic guy, you know I believe that people deep down can be really nice and there is hope I think. Sometimes I feel I can not lose that hope. Deep down I feel it's just misunderstanding and lack of trust and that kind of stuff. I am not a pessimist I am more of a realist I'd say. I tend to keep an optimist mind because I don't wanna be a bitch about stuff, these are things that irritate me and I write about it in my lyrics. 

Ohhh No!It's just a weird thing! The jury were some good old friends and I don't know...It's a weird thing that we were nominated for and I really despise all these GRAMMY things it's just a way to pat each other on the shoulder, it's just more promotion so it's just a stupid thing. Well, we said OK!It's a cool party let's go and we kinda new that we'd win anyway so we went up to this big party in Stockholm and it was a blast, getting totally drunk for free and meeting all these famous people. We got a lot of free promotion because actually someone somewhere fucked it up and when they announced the nominies they had "The Gallery" up nomination instead of "Projector", so kinda all the press jumped on it ohh they were nominated for a 3 year old album, of my god! chaos, so weird and they blew it totally out of proportion, so we were in big pictures and full pages or 2 pages everyday for a couple of weeks. We all knew it was a misprint, someone made a tiny mistake so it worked for our favor! haha.. It hasn't affected us in any way when it comes to writing music and being anxious for our upcoming releases. 

Yeah, yeah!!! It's amazing actually, we've never even been remotly close before to anything like that and we are also in the Swedish charts and we are still in metal charts in Sweden. It's totally amazing actually for us! I don't know what this mean or if it means anything for the future but we are happy for that.haha... It's kinda cool! Because here in Sweden metal is really getting more attention and more and more people are getting into it... 

Yeah..we always had many bands but not that many fans... 

Hahahaha...!!! That's true I guess, so I guess band's don't buy other band's records, who knows...! There was always a problem with people not showing up on shows, it's really really hard get shows going in Sweden, but it's really getting better These past 2-3 years it's getting better and things were very good... 

Yeah yeah!It's about time!!!We've been always believing that if we play our music loud enough and scream more eventually people would listen and that's what's happening right now...hahaha! 

11.SOME RUMORS SAID THAT YOU WERE PLANNING TO DO A PROJECT THAT WOULD BE CALLED "THE GALLERY" AND YOU'D PLAY THERE IN THE OLD TRANQUILLITY WAY. IS IT TRUE? WHAT'S GOING ON?

What was that!?!?! hahahahaha...I've never heard that rumor before so there's no ruth in it. Never heard it before! Where did this come up from? 

Someone dream it up I guess..hahaha 

Ohh it's just two bands growing up at the same time I guess. When In Flames were starting out they needed a singer so I helped them out do get some experience. I never was a full time member. I helped them get some experience while recording their first album and this was good for me and then a couple of years later I joined them for some other stuff. All these bands from around here have some shared memories and we are really close that we kina grew up with. It's a cool thing and we've been close for a long time. There was always a comparison from people seeing it as a race between these two bands. That's stupid! 

No, no, no! That's what I think too. I don't think the comparisons are so accurate but it's somethig the people keep doing... 

Well, yeah! They are ripping us off!!hahahahaha...!!!! Yeah, it's a great album and it's different! 

Aahhh...We are very much excited that we'll go to America. It's our first time and we're gonna have a blast. We'll be with the guys from IN FLAMES and SENTENCED and it's gonna be a great tour I think. It's gonna be really exciting! We can't wait to play all the new stuff. We've done a few shows here and it's been great! We're gonna come to Greece on the 19th and 20th October I think with CANDLEMASS and ENTOMBED. We're coming back in vengeance cause the last time the sound was terrible... 

Ooohhhh...!!! We want to capture some personal stuff. I haven't really thought about that in years. We have the title and we want something beautiful to match it with that will kind of capture the serenity of the album and most of all the lyrics. To make it different and not a standard death metal style. So, in "SKYDANCER" we have this bright blue sky and the sun that reaches the earth through the clouds... I think "The Gallery" was intended to have like a living, breathing painting inside a gallery but it just didn't happen. Christian that did the album had another idea but it turned out to be really cool. Then for "Mind's I" me and Niklas, we had an idea just to have a photograph and include elements from the songs like a tiny little hint of what we were dealing with, all these little things that were symbolizing what we were dealing with in the songs and also in "Projector" we wanted to capture the anxiety of this album and how personal it was and introverted. That's my interpretation at least anyway, that's how I see it. It's very dark and strange and then for "Haven" it was definitely showing a chaotic enviroment, it's kind of a refuge in a very hostile enviroment and that was the whole thing and the new one... 

Yeah, yeah, yeah! They took some pictures of me whilst doing the vocal parts for the album and they captured the whole feeling of the album.. 

Yeah!Exactly! With all these red colors kinda symbolizing the angry natrure of the songs and there's a contrast between black and white and red and white... 

Ohhhh men!I dunno..!!!I don't compose that much of music but mainly write the lyrics, but...I don't know!!! It would be better to ask me what would I do if I couldn't sing anymore... 

Yeah!Ok! I don't know!!!Man!!! Probably write stories for magazines, I'd be a reviewer for computer games or movies or something like that. I'd be probably something I can get into or just work with children as I do now... 

...Aahhh! Wow!I don't know!!There are always things that need development. Always improve and that's what we want if we said that we were perfect right now then it wouldn't be any point of going on, right? 

So, there's always room...I always think I can write better lyrics and I know I can sing better in the next album and the other guys can also do better... Everything! That's it! I think now that this is the best album we've ever done but I know that the next one can be better! 

Hahahaha...!!Ohhh well..!Hahahaha! I heard some really weird ones but I don't know about irritating...I remember once I was really irritated... I don't like to be aksed really personal questions... When it comes to questions I haven't received and I'd want to...I really don't know! I haven't ever thought about it...I have received all kinds of weird questions I think...Hahaha!! 

No, I don't think so...Sometimes you want to quit the whole business side of it, your disappointed with the people making some decisions for you. We don't need that kind of agrovations anymore but still I hate that kind of the band when money comes to display that's the most uninteresting part. When it comes to reviews you know I don't really care but we had some really weird ones. Actually I read one today, a plane one mean saying that our new album is the worst ever... 

Well, I don't agree either...!Hahaha This is totally unprofessional bullshit. We don't give a fuck for people aying such things without any constructive or at least having an objective view on it. There's really no point. I never lost hope in making music! 

Change something?!?! Well, I would like to stop all form of religion. Just get rid of it forever and go with logic and common senses. 

Cause there's a strong symbolism and we have something as a reference and it is a very powerful reference. And it works! It always comes back to the struggle between good and evil and it's a powerful icon. It's very easy to relate to...There are metaphores and great icons in religion. 

Ooohhh...men!!Probably I'd like to go to the ancient Greece, those days and go into it and see all the decadence and experience it. It would be fun, just for the hell of it, being really disgusting for a while! I'd miss most of our music I guess and my computer! But probably would have a lot of fun anyway...I'd miss telephone, internet, that stuff... 

Oooohhhh...If it was a painting probably it'd be a combination among all our cover artworks. I don't know...That's an important part. Niklas would do the best painting ever and he really knows. I trust him completely! It would be pretty good and complex and it'd be in many layers. 

Haha...No, no! I can not! If it was a feeling it'd probably be anxiety! 

Well,that's where most of it comes from actually... Because most of the things you can express come out immediately. When you are happy you laugh and when you are sad you cry or when you are angry you scream and anxiety is the best to put in words for me and also it's a good way of getting rid of anxiety anyway. As I said I don't wanna be an angry person or being nasty. Usually when I write I stay up all night I have a hard time to sleep so I sit up and all the anxiety is kinda building up and the more you write the worse you get but then when you wake up you feel relief. 

Oh well, it's made by a Greek video director. We met him in Germany a couple of years ago and then last year in Greece and he did some terrific paintings of us and we had great times and we talked about how much we love movies and he moved to UK to study something regarding movies I guess, I don't know the exact words for it and he asked if he could do a videoclip for us and we said yes! GIve us your best shot! I gave him the lyrics for "Monochromatic Stains" and an early rehearsal version of it and we had long discussions of how I thought the lyrics and visually...It looks like something made in Germany of the 30's. It lloks like a silent movie with that kind of story telling, big visual thatrical movements and a lot of anxiety as well and he added characters to it. It looks really really weird and it has animation and live action...It's really bizzare and we are all featured. It's really beautiful and it captured the whole song and it's a visual representation of the lyrics and I am very proud of it! I am very happy! 

Well, I don't know...I just..hhmmm...No, I don't think so! You pretty much covered everything! And hopefully we'll see you on your birthday then! That would be nice! 

Christine  Parastatidou