Skyfire

SKYFIRE might come from Sweden and play melodic death/black metal, but their sound is different from what this country got us used to listening. I think this difference explains how a heavy/power metal label like ARISE have signed them. The multi - talented musician Joacim (drums and guitars) speaks to us about their new work and gave us tons of interesting information. It's up to you to read and discover this new melodic death metal rising force...

1.CONGRATULATIONS FOR "SPECTRAL"! IT'S A GREAT ALBUM!
  • Thank you very much , it means a lot!!
2.WHICH ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY? INTRODUCE THE CURRENT LINE UP.
  • 1995 , started the band. 2001 our debut "Timeless departure" got released and recieved excellent reviews. Tobias left and I took over his duties. Three weeks in September 2002 , we recorded what would become "Mind revolution". Hammerheart released the limited "Haunted by shadows" MCD in April 2003. 30th April - 11th May 2003 Skyfire toured around Europe on the "Generation armageddon" tourpackage. We played 2 shows in South Korea August 2003.Our record deal with Hammerheart expired and we wanted a change so we contacted a few labels , Arise were chosen. We wrote and recorded "Spectral" three weeks in February/March 2004. May 21st "Spectral" got released.
  • Henrik Wenngren - vocals
  • Martin Hanner - guitar and keyboards
  • Andreas Edlund - guitar and keyboards
  • Jonas Sjogren - bass
  • Joakim Jonsson - drums and guitar
3.YOU BELONG TO THE MELODIC DEATH/BLACK GENRE AND,
ALTHOUGH, YOU COME FROM SWEDEN, YOUR SOUND IS CLOSER TO THE FINNISH SCENE AND BRINGS TO MIND CHILDREN OF BODOM. DID YOU DO IT ON PURPOSE, BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO DIFFER FROM THE REST OF YOUR COPATRIOTS THAT PLAY MELODIC DEATH?
  • No the sound came naturally , we didn't chose what direction we would play in , the songs and the sound just happend to be in the vein of the finnish sound. I think we 've got our own style of melodic death/black metal. We have much more progressive elements in our music and we use blastbeats quite often.
4.THE KEYBOARDS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN YOUR MUSIC AND THEY HAVE A STRONG RESEMBLANCE TO AMORPHIS, HAVING THE SAME PSYCHEDELIC TINGE. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THIS SOUND? ARE KEYBOARDS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR MUSIC?
  • The keyboards are really important in our music, they create atmosphere and blend perfectly with the guitars. We tried some new and more experimental lead sounds on this album, but we still have our traditional piano and string sounds. We wanted to refesh our sound even more so we added some samples and effects to create even more atmosphere.
5.IF I ASKED YOU TO PRESENT "SPECTRAL" YOURSELVES TO
THE READERS, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM? WHICH WORDS WOULD YOU USE TO DESCRIBE IT?
  • The most complete Skyfire album yet. Progressive /melodic / atmospheric and bombastic piece of music. Crystal clear production and smashing coverartwork. Extremly strong melodies, fast as well as heavy. Something like that :)
6.THIS TIME YOU SELECTED 2 DIFFERENT STUDIOS FOR THE
RECORDINGS OF "SPECTRAL". WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY DID YOU GO TO LOS ANGERED ONLY FOR THE DRUMS? DOESN'T UNDERGROUND STUDIO HAVE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT FOR THE DRUMS?
  • We chose to record the drums in Los Angered cause we really like the sound there. Also we were late to book studiotime so Angered only had 5 days available and Studio Underground only had 2 weeks in row , so we didn't have that much of a choice either. It's really good to work with several people on the production to get as many ideas and inspiration sources as possible. That way you get the opinions from several people and blend the best ideas into one , in fact it worked our so great we might consider doing it again. 
7.YOUR 2 PREVIOUS ALBUMS HAVE BEEN RECORDED IN THE
FAMOUS ABYSS STUDIOS WITH TOMMY TAGTGREN, WHO IS ONE OF THE TOP PRODUCERS. WHY DID YOU CHANGE NOW AND WHY DID YOU SELECT THIS STUDIO AND PRODUCER FOR THOSE 2 ALBUMS? WEREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT YOU'D HAVE A SOUND SIMILAR TO TONS OF OTHER GROUPS?
  • I wasn't a member of the band under the recording of "Timeless departure", but the others were really satisfied with both the production and working with Tommy. On "Mind revolution" we chose to work with Tommy once again and were quite satisfied with the production. This time around we thought it would be fun to try something new and different, new label , new sound. I also agree with you that Abyss has got it's sound and many productions sound quite alike so that's another reason we chose to record some place new.
8.WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RECORDING OF "SPECTRAL"? WHY DID YOU SELECT PETER IN DE BETOU FOR THE MASTERING? WHAT NEW DO YOU THINK HE HAS OFFERED TO YOUR SOUND?
  • Andy LaRocque is responsible for most of the drum sounds and also some producing. P-o Saether is responsible for the rest basiclly , we were the head producers of course but we listened to their ideas and came out with a fantastic end result. Henrik and I went to Peter in de Betous "Tailor maid" and mastered the whole thing. We added the intro there and adjusted some levels and decided when and where the starting points would be on the record ,meaning when song number one would end and when song number two would start and so on.... 
9.WHICH ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
BETWEEN "SPECTRAL" AND "MIND REVOLUTION"?
  • Spectral is a continuence of Mind revolution in a way, we have grown as both musicians and songwriters. The production is a very big difference.The material on Spectral feels more complete in some way , Mind revoltion was the beginning of a new era in Skyfire's sound I think , we just pushed it a bit more right on track , so to speak.Everything is much clearer and brighter sounding on Spectral than our previous albums. The vocals are much higher in the mix and each instrument is much easier to hear.
10.RECENTLY YOU CHANGED RECORD LABEL AND FROM
HAMMERHEART YOU MOVED TO ARISE. WHY? WEREN'T YOU
SATISFIED WITH HHR? WITH WHAT CRITERIA DO YOU SELECT A LABEL?
  • Our contract with Hammerheart expired after "Mind revolution" so we thought it was time to try something new and different, so we contacted a few labels that we were interested to work with. Arise came up with the best deal and we 've heard so many great things about them so our ink ended up on their contract. We got much more priority on Arise than we had on Hammerheart so that was an important reason to leave HHR. We wanted to work with a label that really worked for us and Arise seemed like a natural choice. 
11.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO? WHICH ARE THE TOPICS THAT INTRIGUE YOU AND YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?
  • Well both self experienced as well as fantasy. Henrik wrote most of the lyrics while Jonas contributed with "A dead mans race". Martin wrote "Cursed by belief" and Veronica wrote "Effusion of strenght". The lyrics match the mood and atmosphere the music has.
12.COULD YOU EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT WE SEE IN THE COVER
ARTWORK? WHAT DO THIS MAN AND THE LITTLE GIRL STAND FOR? WHAT DO THEY REPRESENT? IS IT CONNECTED TO THE LYRICS?
  • In a way yes, the biggest connection is actually the man and the mirror. The mirror image was supposed to be the actual cover but we thought it wasn't the exact image we were after. The cover represents some lyrical concepts and the title as well. Quite hard to explain actually , we want people to come up with their own interpretation as well. 
13.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? HAVE YOU
DECIDED WITH WHICH BANDS YOU'LL TOUR PERHAPS?
  • We haven't got anything booked yet unfortunally , but I think we 'll do some touring this year. We are really anxious to get out and play our new material and meet our fans. Hope to see you guys soon!! 
14.YOUR SINGER IS GREAT! SO, RECENTLY WE HEARD HIM DO
THE VOCALS FOR VICIOUS, WHO ALSO RELEASED A GREAT
ALBUM. SO WHICH IS HIS PRIORITY? DOES HE BELONG OT
VICIOUS AS WELL? HOW DID THIS COLLABORATION OCCUR?
  • The Vicious album is great isn't it? Skyfire is Henriks main band. Henrik and I live in V?ster?s( note :sorry but the swedish characters are not compatible) and Vicious comes from the same town , we have known eachother for years and they needed a vocalist so Henrik got the job.It's always good to have variation and trying new ideas in different bands and music styles. Henrik does an awsome job in both bands!
15.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHICH IS YOUR TRADEMARK?
  • My personal favorite parts are the really fast ones, I love blasting!! Our strongest parts are of course the melodies, which we consider to be our trademark. The worst parts...hmmm, the more slow parts perhaps :)
16.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
  • Hmmm , many emotions , anger , frustration , joy... I think the painting would be quite hard to figure out.
17.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF WE LIVED IN A WORLD WITHOUT
MUSIC?
  • I would be dead a long time ago! :) I don't know , building houses or something like that, as long as it's creative.
18.WHICH IS THE FUNNIEST OR STRANGEST QUESTION YOU 'VE BEEN ASKED?
  • Hmmm...oh yeah , one journalist asked me "how I would handle both drums and guitar at the same time when we 're playing live"!! I think it was a joke.Hahaha...
19.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
  • Thank you very much for this really interesting interview!! Check out "Spectral" in stores now! "Timeless departure" , "Haunted by shadows" and "Mind revolution" are still aviable. Visit our website for more information , http://www.skyfireonline.net Cheers!!
Christine Parastatidou
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