HAMMERFALL
I don’t think Hammerfall
is a band that needs any introduction. Their star started shining back
in 1997 and they managed to maintain their crowd throughout the years.
Lately they have released a live CD and a DVD, so Behind The Veil did an
in depth interview with the band’s main man, Oscar Dronjak. Enjoy!
1. HELLO OSCAR! YOU ARE ABOUT TO RELEASE A
DOUBLE LIVE CD AND DVD. WHY DID YOU PICK THIS TIME FOR SUCH A RELEASE?
-
Hello! We decided to do this because it was a
good time…it was a good time for us actually because we always wanted to
release a live album. If you want to release a live album too early, having
1-2 releases, it will just be like playing your studio albums again. We
wanted this to be like a complete coverage of our career and sort of like
a best of that’s what we try to do with all our tours with Hammerfall and
I guess that the time was just right! We felt that we had a good show,
a good concept to present to people and it’s nice because it’s not, like
you said, just a live cd but a dvd release as well.
-WHERE WAS IT RECORDED? FROM WHICH LIVE SHOW OF
YOURS?
-
It was in Gothenburg in February of this year,
2003 and actually we decided to recorded in Gothenburg because the expenses,
the cost to do it anywhere else were too high and we wanted to use with
as many cameras and equipment as possible. It would be too expensive to
do it anywhere else, plus it’s our hometown and it’s always good for us
to play live here!
-WITH WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU CHOOSE THE SONGS INCLUDED
HERE?
-
Hmm…Like I said earlier…Well first of all this
album contains the songs we played in our live shows. It wasn’t designed
to be a live album. It’s a part of this tour. It’s just one night from
the “Crimson Crusades” and we captured it on film and on tape, so we chose
the songs carefully of course, but we didn’t choose them for the live album,
we chose them for the tour.
-SO YOUR BASIC CRITERIA WAS TO PICK OUT SONGS
THAT THE FANS WOULD ENJOY HEARING…
-
Yeah!!! I hope so!!! Hahahaha…
2. IN THE RECENT PAST YOU HAVE RELEASED ONE VIDEOTAPE
AND ONE DVD IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN?
-
Ahhh…they are two releases, one is the “First
Crusade” and the other one is the “Templar Renegade Crusade” and both are
available on VHF and DVD. It’s 2 releases.
-SO WHAT NEW HAS THIS NEW RELEASE TO OFFER TOY
OUR FANS?
-
This releases definitely offers something that
the other 2 couldn’t offer, full scale production, our show in terms of
what we do, it’s also a professionally shot show with 8 cameras I think.
Plus it’s for people who have the other ones and live lets say in
South America or the U.S. or in Japan for example they’ve seen a Hammerfall
show, but what they haven’t seen is the full show with all the moving stuff
on stage, we can’t bring them outside of Europe it's too expensive to ship
it, so this dvd is a way for people to experience what it’s like in a full
Hammerfall show.
-AREN’T YOU AFRAID THAT SOME FANS MIGHT ACCUSE
YOU OF FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT?
-
First of all nobody has to buy anything! If you
don’t want this release you probably are not a fan of the band! Actually
I don’t think I have to explain this to anybody. This is a really stupid
question, no offence to you, but I get it from time to time and it’s always
from Greece actually for whatever the reason, but if we have a product
that we are proud of then we want to release it cause there are people
who might be interested in it. There is no way that I defend that thing…If
you do like let’s say re-releases, without including bonus material, etc,
just to have things out I can see how this could be a valid question. If
you just to the second album again with nothing more on, I understand this,
but this is a totally separated release from all the other ones. It’s like
a totally new thing.
3. HOW “LIVE” IS YOUR ALBUM? DID YOU HAVE TO CORRECT
ANYTHING IN THE STUDIO? MOST OF THE BANDS CORRECT STUFF AND DO OVERDUBS…
-
I don’t think you will find one band today that
has a good sounding live album out that hasn’t corrected stuff in the studio
and I don’t think you would have found this in the 80s either! I think
it’s a matter…the way I see things, cause I am a fan of live albums, I
love live albums…if you have the live feeling on the album, if you can
feel this sounds like this guys do this live then it doesn’t really matter
if they did 3 notes or 500 notes.
-YES OF COURSE! IT’S IF THE SONGS “MOVE” YOU,
IF YOU LIKE THEM…
-
Yes! Exactly! What you experience when you hear
it! It shouldn’t matter how much it’s redone in the studio afterwards,
because if you have a big stage show, big stage doesn’t allow you to hear
things well, so you can make many mistakes, plus if you move around a lot
then it’s easy to make mistakes! Whether there are mistakes made or not
it’s still important to get a great sound on the live album, I mean a great
sounding live album, so I think it’s necessary for any band to redo some
things afterwards.
4. WHEN YOU RELEASED YOUR DEBUT ALBUM YOU
HAVE BEEN CHARACTERIZED BY THE MAIN PART OF THE METAL PRESS AS A BAND “PHENOMENON”
THAT COULD CHANGE AND RESURRECT CLASSIC HEAVY METAL. DO YOU THINK THAT
ALL THESE WERE JUST EXAGGERATIONS OR DO YOU THINK THEY WERE VALID?
-
I think we definitely played a part in heavy metal
coming back to where it is again now, when we released “Glory To The Brave”
in 1997 there was no heavy metal sounding band releasing albums, no new
bands I mean, we had Helloween, Manowar, all those bands release an album
every 4 years or something but no label was signing any new bands and Nuclear
Blast took a big chance by signing Hammerfall to a contract and releasing
of our debut album, cause nobody thought that anyone would want this kind
of music anymore. They knew and I knew that people who thought that this
music was out were wrong. Heavy metal will always have its fans! I am one
of them!!! If you say something like that to me, I am very proud that we
have something to do with this, cause this is my life. I spend the last
20 years listening to this music and loving it, so if I helped in any way
to bring the spotlight back on melodic heavy metal again I am honored to
have done that!!!! I definitely believe we played a part, but not that
we were the only ones to do so! It takes an effort from a lot of people,
from many bands to do this, but we were on the front line for sure!
5. HOW DO YOU FEEL SEEING ALL THE BANDS WHOSE
SONGS YOU HAVE COVERED, REVIVE AND REUNITE? WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SOME GREAT
BANDS FORGOTTEN BY THE NEW METALLERS, THAT YOU HELPED IN A WAY SPREAD THEIR
NAME. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? BANDS LIKE PRETTY MAIDS AND WARLORD…
-
Yeah! That’s great too! I am a big fan of these
bands, I love the music they have recorded over the years and some bands
like Stormwitch or Warlord didn’t really get any recognition or at least
the recognition they deserved! So, if as covering a song from them, gives
them a bit more of the recognition they deserve then this is great! And
also makes me feel very proud. We just record the songs that we love! Songs
and bands that we like a lot, it’s as simple as that.
6. HAMMERFALL BESIDES THEIR NUMEROUS FANS ALSO
HAVE SOME SWORN ENEMIES…
-LIKE THE ONE ATTACKING TO YOUR SINGER…
-DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR LIFE IS IN DANGER FROM
SOME PEOPLE LIKE THAT? HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS ATTITUDE AGAINST YOU?
-
Hmm…I think it’s…well the most probable explanation
I can give is jealousy and also there must be something wrong with somebody
who hits a guy from behind with a beer glass. Which is what happened to
Joakim. These are NOT normal behaviors, so there must be something wrong
with him…I don’t know!!! We are just trying to do our thing and have as
much fan as possible doing it. I am not afraid getting hurt or being in
danger. I don’t think that anything like that might happen, because we
have so many fans following us and telling us they like what we do and
the portion of those who dislike us is smaller. On the other hand if someone
was man enough…well disasters might happen, but I don’t feel I am in any
danger like that because the percentage is not that big plus I’ve never
done anything wrong to anybody. I just try to live my life and have fun
and party and if I want to drink a beer I’ll drink a beer if |I want to
listen to music I’ll listen to music, I don’t disturb anyone, I don’t bother
anybody…
-SO I GUESS SOME ARE BOTHERED BY YOUR SUCCESS…
-
I guess success is the reason…some people have
a really hard time understanding where we came from, where most bands come
from actually. If you achieve success, people have a hard time dealing
with that was either are not the ones achieving this success and they get
jealous because of that or they feel jealous because they think you’ve
done nothing to deserve it, which both are ridiculous. We fought for this!
-AFTER ALL MUSIC IS A MATTER OF TASTE! IF YOU
LIKE IT IT’S GOOD AND IF YOU DON’T JUST DON’T LISTEN TO IT!
-
Exactly!!!!! You are 100% right!!!!
7. IN THE BEGINNING YOU HAD IN YOUR LINE UP SOME
FAMOUS SWEDISH METAL MUSICIANS. DID HAMMERFALL START AS A PROJECT BAND
AND AFTER THE SUCCESS YOU HAVE DECIDED TO FIND A MORE STABLE LINE UP?
-
Not really. What we did was… like you said this
was a band kept on the side for a couple of years. I formed the band in
1993, to live out my heavy metal dreams. I guess that’s it!
-IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN YOU WERE INVOLVED IN THE
SWEDISH DEATH METAL SCENE BEFORE…
-
Yeah! In the beginning of the 90s I was. So for
me heavy metal was everything. I started out playing this heavy metal stuff,
then I moved on a little bit to death metal for a while and then went back
to heavy metal cause that’s where I really belong. Playing at that time
in Hammerfall was so much fun, cause we just had fun. That was the whole
idea! Getting together a couple of friends, playing and enjoying themselves,
but we didn’t play much, we didn’t write many songs, because all had other
bands and they had higher priorities. It didn’t mean that we took Hammerfall
lightly, cause everything we did with Hammerfall was serious, but we didn’t
do a whole lotta stuff during the years… Then when Joakim started singing
with us we got a record deal shortly after that and Joakim and I felt that
we had something really special going and this is something we wanted to
try to take it wherever we could go with it. It was too good to just let
it go, it was too much fun! So, when we had recorded the album “Glory To
The Brave” we said to everyone in the band we’d love to have you continue
playing with us, but if you will play with us you have to make Hammerfall
your top priority, cause otherwise you can’t have 3 people giving everything
they have and 2 people doing it on the side. That’s impossible! So, what
they said was “Ok! I understand! I don’t want to leave whatever band I
am in right now, so I’m gonna leave Hammerfall instead”, so we got 3 new
guys to take their places! But these all was done before the “Glory To
The Brave” was released. At the same time when we did this is when we were
contacted by Nuclear Blast. We were signed to a small Dutch label in the
beginning.
-BY THE WAY, WAS MIKAEL STANNE, DARK TRANQUILLITY’S
SINGER EVER INVOLVED IN THE BAND?
-
Yeah, yeah! He was singing in the first couple
of years with us!
-REALLY? WHAT KIND OF VOCALS DID HE DO? BRUTAL
ONES OR…
-
Ohh no, no! This has always been a heavy metal
band, so he sang like a heavy metal singer! Not like Joakim though… more
like RUNNING WILD rather than HELLOWEEN…
8. DO YOU AGREE WITH THE TERM “TRUE” METAL OR
DO YOU JUST CONSIDER YOURSELVES A HEAVY METAL BAND? HOW DO YOU “LABEL”
YOURSELVES?
-
I would label Hammerfall heavy metal! That’s what
we have always been saying. We get all kinds of labels all the time, but
heavy metal is what we are! The term true metal, I don’t care for, very
much, because it implies that your music is truer than any other musician’s
and this is always in the eye of the beholder. If you think grunge is the
best thing you know, then that’s the true music for you, if you like heavy
metal, then it is heavy metal true for you. If you like soul, then soul
is true for you! I don’t like the term true metal so much. I prefer to
call my band heavy metal, because that’s what it is really.
9. ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES AS A BAND IS
WARLORD AND WILLIAM TSAMIS. WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS HE AND HOW HAVE YOU
FELT WHEN YOU COOPERATED WITH HIM ON YOUR SECOND RELEASE?
-
I don’t really know him that well, because I only
met him twice, when he did a solo for “At The End Of The Rainbow” for the
“Legacy Of Kings” and what he did was , we sent him a tape and he recorded
a solo and he sent it to us on a tape, so we put it in the music. We didn’t
really get together then. Joakim is singing with Warlord sometimes. I don’t
think if he still is, but I think so…so that’s where I met William twice.
I don’t know him very well. I don’t know how he is as a person. I think
he is very calm, very intellectual.
-YOU SAID EARLIER THAT YOU WANTED IN THE BAND
PEOPLE THAT WOULD 100% FOCUS ON HAMMERFALL, SO HOW DO YOU FELL THAT JOAKIM
SINGS WITH WARLORD FOR TIME TO TIME? DO YOU FEEL THAT WARLORD TAKE UP TIME
FROM HAMMERFALL?
-
No! They don’t, because if they would, he wouldn’t
be doing it I think! We have this understanding…the thing is, what I meant
with that is that people can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t
interfere with the work of Hammerfall. If you have a band on the side that
you want to do, like Stefan has with Fullstrike, he has a solo project
going, then if he has to choose between playing live with Hammerfall and
Fullstrike, it will always, always, always be Hammerfall and so it is!
I don’t have a problem with that! If we get to the point that some person’s
project would interfere too much with the work of Hammerfall, we’ll have
to have a long talk and decide how we should continue, cause we can’t work
like that for a long time, not on this level we are working on right now.
10. EXCEPT FOR YOUR LAST ALBUM, YOU MADE COVER
SONGS ON ALL YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO RELEASE AN
ALBUM FULL OF COVERS MADE BY YOU?
-DIPLOMATIC ANSWER!
-
Hahahahaha! It’s the truth! We don’t have any
plans to do it. Even if we work in such a release, it won’t be before our
next studio album. We’ve been asked this question a lot and we’ve thought
about it a lot, cause like you said we have a lot of covers.
-YEAH! BESIDES IT’S VERY OFTEN LATELY FOR THE
BANDS TO RELEASE COVER ALBUMS…
-
Yeah! It’s a good idea! We might do it sometime,
but I don’t think we’ll do it in the near future. It will probably take
a little while…
-WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER OF INCLUDING COVERS OF
EXTREME METAL SONGS?
-
No, noooo never! That’s noooo fun! How would Joakim
sing? He can’t do those songs!
-NO, I MEAN SING IT WITH CLEAN VOCALS…
-
If I had a serious love for a song like that we
might think about it, but there are way, way, way too many heavy metal
songs out there that we haven’t made covers of…
-IN A TRIBUTE ALBUM TO HAMMERFALL WHICH BANDS,
FAMOUS OR NOT, WOULD YOU LIKE TO PARTICIPATE?
-
Haha! If anybody was gonna do a tribute to us,
I would be extremely proud and that would be the highest compliment you
can get by an artist! I don’t know! Just pick any band!!! It doesn’t matter
what band does the song as long as they do it with the right heart and
the right attitude, cause I feel our music has a lot of energy, you need
to feel what you’re doing, you can’t just go and do it. It doesn’t work
this way. That’s the same thing with the bands I love like Judas Priest
or Stormwitch. Those songs have so much energy in them and this energy
we try to channel when we record our studio albums. So, if a band did it
because they like the music of Hammerfall and the song they chose to cover,
it doesn’t matter what band is as long as they enjoy what they are doing
and they do it seriously!
11. ALTHOUGH YOU ARE A FAMOUS BAND HERE IN GREECE,
I THINK WE HAVE SEEN YOU ONLY ONCE WHILE YOU WERE SUPPORTING GAMMA RAY.
WHICH IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GREEK METAL FANS AND IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE
YOU IN THE FUTURE FOR A LIVE SHOW HERE IN GREECE?
-
Every time we are supposed to do a tour since
then, since those Greek shows we did in 1997 with Gamma Ray, we always
ask the promoters to try to find and close us some shows over there and
every time they have a hard time to find a booking agency or a promoter
to work with, a promoter they can trust and make all the necessary arrangements.
So far we haven’t been able or they haven’t been able to work with. As
soon as they do, I bet we’re gonna be back there, because everybody in
the band wants to come there. We had such a great time with Gamma Ray there,
I think it was just incredible and let’s just hope that we CAN come back.
If it were only up to us we would! If it were up to us, we would go to
the whole world! They have to be put together by a promoter and there has
to be demand from the fans as well…I mean the promoter has to think it’s
gonna worth it, because otherwise he’s gonna lose a lot of money cause
flying tickets to Greece are not cheap! So, I guess it’s all a matter of
finding the right guy to work with and if we do or if our booking agency
does, cause they have many bands in their agency like Gamma Ray, etc. then
I hope we’re gonna be back. Until then we have to keep our fingers crossed!
Hahaha…
12. ANY PLANS FOR A NEW ALBUM? WHEN SHOULD WE
EXPECT A NEW RELEASE?
-
We have plans for it of course…at least we’ve
talked about it…what we’re gonna do… It’s gonna be a little while. I was
in a pretty serious motorcycle accident 10 weeks ago and I still haven’t
recovered 100% from it yet
-I HOPE YOU’LL GET BETTER SOON…
-
Thank you very much! I am not really bad right
now! I broke my arm. It’s well now, but it’s gonna be a couple of weeks
before I can play like I did before and because of that we have… well the
next studio album for Hammerfall was planned for maybe a year from now,
let’s say October next year and because of this accident I guess we had
to postpone it for a couple of months…maybe up to six months, it shouldn’t
take longer than that, so the next studio album for Hammerfall should be
out in the beginning of 2005.
-SO YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING READY AND YOU DON’T
KNOW WHERE THE NEW ALBUM WILL LEAD YOU?
-
No! Not really! I haven’t played the guitar in
10 weeks, so it’s really hard to say what’s gonna happen when we start
doing it! Sorry! I have no idea!
13.WHICH IMPORTANT PERSONALITY WOULD YOU LIKE
TO MEET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
-
Hmm…I don’t know! I would like to meet…Actually
I am not a religious person, but I would like to meet Jesus and to see
if he actually existed and if he indeed was the son of God or not. Because
if he wasn’t then the whole foundation for Christianity would fall! I’d
like to know that, if that was true or not! So many things that happened
in the name of Jesus throughout the centuries that it would be interesting
to find out if those claims were made seriously if the people who committed
all the dirty deeds they just used Christianity as a way to justify it…
14. WHICH IS THE FUNNIEST INCIDENT OCCURRING TO
YOU WHILST PERFORMING LIVE?
-
Ahhh…At the end of every tour there are some funny
things happening. Actually the greatest thing that happened on this tour,
not at the end, but in the middle of the first part of the European tour
I was having my birthday and we were in Bordeaux or somewhere in France
anyway, so in the middle of “Crimson Thunder” Joakim just stopped the music.
He said “Stop the music!”. I didn’t know anything! I didn’t know what was
gonna happen. I thought “What the hell is he doing now?” and he started
telling people that it was my birthday and then from behind, you know the
warrior that we have, someone came out with a bottle of champagne and it
has a pyro attached on shouting flames and he came out with that and this
was one of my greatest memories!
15. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD
IT BE?
-
Hahahahaha! That was THE BEST question I heard
in my whole life I must admit!!!
-THANK YOU!
-
(note: Unfortunately the tape was destroyed here
and I can’t understand his answer… Sorry!!!).
-IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
-
Hm…I think it would show, people having
a good time, doing what they love!
16. WHICH IS THE FUNNIEST/STRANGEST QUESTION SOMEONE’S
EVER ASKED YOU?
-
Hmm…in an interview or otherwise?
-ANYTHING! ANY QUESTION YOU REMEMBER BEEN ASKED
THAT WAS FUNNY OR STRANGE…
-
The strangest thing someone’s ever asked me was
in an email, maybe a 10-12 year old guy, a fan saying he liked our albums
and he asked us if we had a drum kit that he could get from us! He wanted
us to give it to him because he didn’t have one! He wasn’t very old…But
we don’t actually have 10 drum kits lying around just to give away to people!
Hahahahaha! Now, that was a weird question I think! I don’t think he really
meant that, he just wanted to play music!
17. IF YOU WERE A FLY, WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO
BE?
-
A fly? Hmm…I don’t want to be a fly because they
are disgusting and they don’t live very long…ahhh….HARD! (note: after a
little while…) Actually I don’t want to be a fly!!! I can’t find any good
place where I’d want to be! I don’t think it would be useful being a fly!
Hahaha!
18. THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING
AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
-
I don’t think so! I think this was a very extensive
interview with a lot of in depth questions! I hope you got all the answers
you wanted!
-YEAH! IT WAS INTERESTING AND I HOPE YOU DIDN’T
GET BORED ANSWERING ALL THOSE QUESTIONS!
-
Ohh no, no, no, no way! It was very pleasant!
I think we managed to do an interesting interview!
-INDEED! BYE, BYE!
-
Very nice talking to you! Bye, bye!
Christine Parastatidou
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