Plutonium
The Swede, Mr. J. Carlsson
has set off for a difficult journey with his band Plutonium, since this
group incarnates and depicts the visions and musical needs of this sole
person. It's hard to be responsible for everything, but on the other hand
when the final result justifies your efforts, the content you feel surely
must be greater. Don't you think? Well, let's see what J. thinks about
that and many other things...
1.FIRST OF ALL PLEASE PRESENT THE BAND TO
THE READERS AND POINT OUT YOUR AIMS...
Plutonium is a trio performing extreme industrial
metal. The members are J. Carlsson (that's me!) on vocals, lead guitar,
programming and dictatorship, Lars H.-bass and H. Fossmo – guitar. Our
aim is to realize my musical (and lyrical) visions without compromises.
To create dark, sinister and mind penetrating music.
2.WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO FORM A BAND COMPLETELY
ON YOUR OWN, A BAND THAT WOULD PERSONALIZE AND BRING TO LIFE YOUR SOLE
MUSICAL VISION? DO YOU THINK IT'S EASIER THIS WAY? AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT
THIS MIGHT BRING STILLNESS OR PERHAPS LEAD TO BORING AND LAME
COMPOSITIONS?
The reason I wanted this band to be a non-democratic
entity is the fact that I've been playing in different bands throughout
the years and I've always been forced to make compromises with other bandmembers,
studio engineers, record companies and... well you name it! The last band
I joined I were totally aware of the fact that I couldn't influence the
musical outcome, and I guess that was quite comfortable at that moment
since I could just concentrate on handling my instrument. Everything worked
out really well, these guys were very focused and like what they did. However,
the music they did wasn't my thing really, and I wanted to realize my own
visions so I quit. In other bands I made most of the music, took all the
hard decisions but in the end always had to sacrifice my integrity. I feel
free with Plutonium, I just do the things I enjoy, and the other members
know that Plutonium is my thing. So it's definitely easier with Plutonium.
And I would like to make one thing clear: You will never experience boredom
when listening to Plutonium. I am very selective when making music, if
some riffs bore me I just throw them in the garbage can. I would never
include a piece of music on our releases that I couldn't stand for. Plutonium
must offer quality.
3.YOUR MUSIC IS HARD TO BE LABELED. HOWEVER I
THINK I'M PRETTY CLOSE WHEN I SAY THAT YOU TEND TO BE CLOSER TO BLACK AND
DEATH METAL WITH A GREAT DEAL OF MELANCHOLY, A DOOM TOUCH AND MODERN METAL
ENRICHMENTS. RIGHT? IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO DESCRIBE AND PRESENT YOUR
MUSIC TO THE LISTENERS WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Well, it's your description, and I have to
say you have a point! I am very influenced by death and black metal (except
for the Cannibal Corpse-wannabe crap), I've been listening to that kind
of music for about fifteen years and I'm still interested in new releases,
even though I am extremely selective when buying albums. The melancholy
is of course there since Plutonium deals with a lot of sinister and dystopic
themes. Doom...well, if you mean heaviness and slow parts, of course you
have a point as well! I mean fast parts can be very efficient (and that's
why we use them) but a slow part or a slow, heavy song really creates a
sinister atmosphere, don't you think? As for modern metal, I'm not sure.
If you mean bands like Slipknot and stuff like that I can't really agree
(nothing bad about Slipknot though, they are surely worth a listen every
now and then). But I think you missed to mention the industrial influence.
As I mentioned earlier, I would like to label Plutonium as “Extreme industrial
metal”. When referring to industrial I do not only mean industrial noises,
I also include the monotonus, bleak, cold feelings that I associate with
the term industrial. So, Extreme Industrial Metal is the best description
I could come up with.
4.LIKE YOU WRITE ON THE DEMO, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR EVERYTHING AND YOU PRESENT THE WHOLE THING AS YOUR OWN DICTATORSHIP.
MOST OF THE PEOPLE DON'T HAVE THE GUTS TO ADMIT SUCH A THING... ANYWAY,
IS THIS THE REASON WHY YOU'VE CHOSEN TO ENGINEER AND PRODUCE THE ALBUM
YOURSELF?
I don't find it very daring to present it
this way, I mean this is the truth. The “band democracy”-thing is a myth.
Can you think of any band where every single member have had equal influence
on the music? Look at Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Morbid Angel..I could go
on forever. Most bands have one or two people doing the hard job, and the
others are interchangeable. The reason why I decided to record the demo
by myself is that I wanted a certain aura in the soundscape which I thought
noone except for myself could create. Of course I could ask some friends
who are more used to working with recording gear, but I suspected they
would try to attach a clean and polished sound to my songs, and that would
be disastrous! I wanted a raw industrial sound. So, as this was the first
release I thought I could give it a try and do it by myself.
5.WHICH ARE, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST PARTS IN YOUR MUSIC? IS THERE A FIELD OR ANY ELEMENTS YOU'D LIKE
TO EXPERIMENT WITH IN THE FUTURE?
Hm. A strange question I must say. I mean
I would not record something I could label as “worse” or bad. The worst
parts are gone before we start recording! I trashed lots of parts I've
thought of using in the song “World wide vulture” as I thought they weren't
good enough. If there is any field I would like to experiment with: you
should definitely expect more industrial/ electronic elements on the upcoming
Plutonium releases. This is something we work very hard on for the next
release.
6.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? WHAT SHOULD
THE FANS EXPECT TO SEE IN ONE OF YOUR GIGS?
Well, I'd really like to make some live shows,
but it's not our no 1 priority for the moment. I think we have to expand
our repertoire a bit before entering the stage. There are for the moment
only eight Plutonium songs written, and I'd like to have more to choose
from when making up a setlist. But the day we enter the stage, people will
experience an intense show that's for sure. Lots of light effects (at least
as much as I can afford) and in the future I hope we have the possibility
to project different atrocities at the backdrop...
7.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU'VE GOT
THIS FAR? WHAT WAS THE BEST AND WHAT WAS THE WORST AND MOST UNFAIR COMMENT
YOU READ ABOUT YOUR MUSIC?
I'm pretty satisfied with the reviews. The
best reviews I think are those where the reviewer tell they get the feeling
I want to create, those who say they think of war, the end of mankind,
endless anxiety etc when confronted with our music. The best feedback is
either total admiration or total disgust. I mean, reviews that goes like
“Plutonium is a typical standard black metal band” are the worst I guess.
Then of course there are some people who do not understand the concept
of Plutonium as they won't accept anything outside the typical metal cliches.
But I don't care too much for them really.
8.HAVE YOU AROUSED THE INTEREST OF A LABEL? WHAT
KIND FO THINGS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN ORDER TO SIGN WITH A RECORD LABEL?
Actually, I have only sent copies to two labels
so far. One of them got in touch with us after hearing some good words
about us somewhere, and wanted to hear our music. So we haven't gone labelhunting.
For the moment we haven't got enough material for a full lenght, we can
as well release our music by ourselves. There are only two things we demand
from a record label 1. Artistic freedom and 2. our rights to be members
of STIM, an association who observe composers rights. All labels won't
accept this, and this seem to be a very delicate issue for some reason.
9.THE DEMO'S TITLE IS "WIND OF CHANGE". I HAVE
ALWAYS TENDED TO BELIEVE THAT THIS EXPRESSION HAD A POSITIVE MEANING, BUT
WITH YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS I'M NOT SURE ANYMORE... SO WOULD YOU BE KIND
ENOUGH TO ENLIGHTEN US ON WHAT YOU MEAN?
I like to use worn out cliches and make them
mean something else. When I'm around, all bad puns are intended! You got
it right, the “wind of change” phrase is mostly used when talking about
a brighter, happier future and such things, but if you put these on a picture
portraying a barb wire fence, the empty words get a new meaning. Also,
I thought of the Scorpions song as some have figured out, one of the worst
songs I've ever heard. That song for me is the essence of all the things
I hate with metal. The next release will also have a very straight and
ambigous title.
10.BY THE WAY TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE LYRICS.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM, SO PLEASE TELL ME WHICH YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
ARE?
The main source of inspiration is humanity
and people in general. You wake up every morning just awaiting the first
stupid comment from the man on the street exposed in the paper, the TV,
radio or what the fuck ever. I just read “1984” and it seems like the society
described in that book is more and more becoming a reality here, although
the state might not be the worst enemy. Other books like “Brave new world”
and “Fahrenheit 491” also inspires me. Other sources are movies (documentaries,
horror, sci-fi), other books and so on. The concept of mind control is
very interesting, I guess you'll be able to discover that in our newer
songs.
11.WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COVER ARTWORK? HOW
IS IT CONNECTED TO THE DEMO TITLE? WE SEE WIRES AND A FENCE AS IF IN A
PRISON OR ANYWAY AS IF BEING RESTRICTED IN AN AREA, SO WHAT DO YOU WANT
TO SUGGEST WITH THAT?
I wanted something that should evoke an inhospitable
feeling, you should feel uncomfortable. I guess I described the title in
question 9. However to develop my ideas a bit: almost the whole 20th century
there has been some land, some regions in the world that has been marked
off from its closest surroundings. Often with barb wire, so noone could
escape from their destiny. The lyrics are revolving around the concept
of dictatorship, takeover, and a future which doesn't seem bright at all.
So I think I couldn't get a more fitting cover artwork.
12.DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW SONGS READY? IF SO, WHEN
DO YOU PLAN TO RELEASE THEM AND POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES
AND SIMILARITIES TO "WIND OF CHANGE".
Actually we have four songs ready and we're
about to enter the studio this summer to record them! We will start with
all guitars and bass, and after that I'll do the vocals. So I guess they
will be released this year! The biggest difference will probably be the
fact that the industrial parts will be more dominant than on “Wind of change”.
There are also more songs on the new recording compared to the debut. Also
I hope the soundscape will be a bit different. The guitars will be a bit
different and the drumsamplings are better this time...This time we will
not stress, last time I had some deadlines with the vocals and that fucked
things up a bit. Since this is the second time we're recording with Plutonium
we're much more relaxed this time I guess, some things got out of hand
last time...
13.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Hm, maybe confusion, but that may not qualify
as a feeling, does it? I have to mention at least aggression...and maybe
resignation as well. Tough question! If it was a painting, I would go for
“The scream” by Edvard Munch. Although I could think of some of the renaissance
paintings that depicts hell on earth, they are pretty bizarre especially
when you study the details. But “The scream” is really a fist in your face.
Interesting question, I'm quite interested in art, but I never imagined
someone would ask me to compare my music to some famous painting!
14.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO INVITE FAMOUS PEOPLE
TO PARTICIPATE IN ONE OF PLUTONIUM?¦S LIVE SHOWS, WHO WOULD YOU
CHOOSE AND WHY?
Phew. This is definitely hard to answer as
we haven't played live yet. If you mean famous people in the metal scene
I'd really like if Blasphemer of Mayhem joined us on guitar for one song
or something, he's the best guitarplayer around in my opinion! As for other
celebrities....if Lee Hazlewood called me up and ask if he could join us
on stage and we would like to accompany some of his songs I'd definitely
say yes! No way that would happen though!
15.IF YOU WERE GIVEN A BIG BUDGET TO SHOOT A VIDEO
CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
I'm not sure if a Plutonium video would benefit
from a big budget. Most movies made these days do not as far as I'm concerned.
The only thing you get when going to the cinema is more expensive and stupid
special effects. The song I'd choose would be one of our new songs (yet
unnamed) and I have a clear vision of it. The video will be in black and
white. The concept will be the “right to choose” which is something which
seems to be a very important right for people today at least in our enlightened
western society. But in our video, the alternatives will all be equally
fatal. Whether alternative chosen will lead to hell...and you only have
yourself to blame. Pretty harsh! I won't tell too much about it since we
might be able to realize this in the future.
16.THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE
TO MENTION AND I FORGOT TO ASK YOU?
No, I'd like to thank you for this very interesting
and thought-provoking interview. Visit our website http://www.plutoniumsite.com/,
buy our first demo “Wind of change” from us or some of the distributors
like Treats from the underground, Paradise Noise or Total Holocaust Records.
Hopefully it won't last long until our next demo is officially released!
/J. Carlsson
Christine Parastatidou
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