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It's nice to talk to people kind
with a good sense of humor, but also people who have an opinion for what's
going on today and not just simple observers of reality. It's a joy to
talk to people who stand on their feet. Well, besides that I can't lie
I have a natural love for Sweden in general cause this country has proved
us many times that has great musicians who are meant to become leaders
of hard music. Here we have a new promising band that is doing its first
moves. I wish them the best and eternal success. Lets see what Mattias
the bassist of the band has to tell us!
1.GIVE US A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF THE
BAND. INTRODUCE THE MEMBERS.
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”Souldivider was formed in 1999, we
recorded our first demo in May of that year and did our debut gig as opening
act for Terra Firma shortly there after.We recorded a second demo(Below
the astral surface) later that year. In 2000 we didn't record any new material,
we did a couple of gigs and wrote material for what was to be ”The big
relax”.We recorded ”Relax” in January 2001 and released it as a demo.We
got good response from media and some labels but nothing really happend
but we received more and more good reviews.Then we got in touch with
12th planet music and it was more or less ”instant love” we signed the
contract in early August.”The big relax” was re-released after it had been
mastered. The band consists of Jonas Gustafson on Vocals, Martin Henricsson-guitar,
Andreas Hahne-Guitar, Claes Lysen-Drums and me, Mattias on bass.
2.COULD YOU EXPLAIN US WHY YOU CHOSE
THIS BAND NAME AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY WITH IT?
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”Well, it´s a pretty simple story.
At first we didn´t have a real name but when we had our first gig
coming up we needed one to put on flyers and ads. Jonas had the word souldivider
in one of the earliest songs we played and we thought it fitted our sound.
The meaning of that word I don´t really know since the word actually
doesn´t exist. Jonas might had a deeper thought to it when
he first wrote that lyric, but I think the meaning got lost somewhere on
the way between then and now,ha,ha! No seriously It´s a cool name
and it somehow suite us.
3.HOW MANY ALBUMS HAVE YOU RELEASED?
ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH YOUR LATEST CD "THE BIG RELAX" OR WOULD YOU
LIKE TO CHANGE SOMETHING? WHY HAVE YOU RE - RELEASED IT?
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”We have released 2 demos, a compilation
and the mini-CD ”The big relax”. The mini-CD was out as a promo at first,
but when we got signed to 12th Planet Music, they decided to master
it and re-release it.We are satisfied with the fact that the album got
good reviews from all over the world and that it helped us to get a record
deal. The albums is great but there are some things that we could have
done different. But keep in mind that we didn´t have that much time
to record that album since we were unsigned at that time and had to pay
for the whole thing by ourselves.
4.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
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"Jonas is writing all lyrics, so I
don´t know much regarding the actual meaning behind everything. But
he writes in a way so you somehow can relate to his words. As I see it
a lot of the lyrics is about relationships and deep thoughts and feelings.
I think that Jonas pretty much wants people that are listening get their
own opinion.
5.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC?
STONER OR DOOM? WHICH IS THE MOST IDEAL FOR YOU? MOST OF THE STONER BANDS
COMBINE THEIR MUSIC WITH THE USE
OF DRUGS. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY?
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”We have been labeled as a stoner band
from the start. Are we? Well, I think that we play 70´s influenced
hard rock/metal. If you like to call us a stonerband it´s ok since
people at least got some clue about what you are up to. I prefer Hard rock
though,but stonerrock is ok.When it comes to stonerrock and drugs,
well, all I can say is that I don´t think that stonerrockers don´t
smoke more weed than other musicians, Stonerrockers just don´t hide
it.
7.LET ME DO THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. MOST
PEOPLE THINK THAT DOOM/STONER BANDS DO NOTHING MORE THAN COPY - PAISTE
THE MUSIC OF BLACK SABBATH. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO ANSWER TO THEM?
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"I think that a lot of bands do try
to copy the old Sabbath sound, I really do, but I haven´t heard a
single band that manages to get the same sound as them. But I want to say
that there are bands from the seventies that meant more for our sound than
Black Sabbath, I´m talking about Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple and maybe
Captain Beyond. Black Sabbath has of course also meant a lot for us but
if you listen to our sound I think we have more of a Thin Lizzy feeling
to it. But I want to declaire strongly that we´re not trying to sound
as any of the above mentioned bands, we just take inspiration from them.
But sometimes that inspiration shines through. So the answer to your question
would be Yes, some bands try to copy that sound. But there is none of them
that have succeded with it.
8.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? DO
YOU LIKE PERFORMING LIVE?
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"We love preforming live,we have had
some luck with the fact that we,for different reasons, found ourselves
playing with a lot of established bands, such as Entombed, Awesome machine,
Terra firma, In flames, Hellacopters only to name a few. This had made
us somewhat familiar with larger audiences as well the smaller ones.
9.WHICH ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES AND
SIMILARITIES IN YOUR MUSIC AND TO YOU AS PERSONALITIES FROM THE DAY YOU
FIRSTLY FORMED THE BAND TILL NOW?
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"That´s a very hard question
to answer. Because when you are in a band you work so hard with the music
on a daily basis so you don´t really see if you change in one way
or another. But what you can do is to listen to older work and compare
them to the newer ones. And when I do that I think that we have developed
from having a traditional ”Stonersound” to become more uniqe, there are
not that many bands that sound like we do today. We have kept a special
vibe in the music since day one and I can´t point my finger on what
that vibe really is but as long as it´s there I´m satisfied.
And our personalities are the same except for the fact that we look upon
music in a much more professional way than we did when we formed Souldivider
back in 1999.
10.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T
ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?
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"Perhaps a potsmoking archeologist
or ,history professor . Anything that got to do with humanoria or/and historical
research. But that´s hypothetic, I can´t really think of a
life without not being able to create and play music
11.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IDEAL
TO REPRESENT YOUR MUSIC FROM ALL THE SONG YOU' VE COMPSOED?
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"I can´t answer that, all songs
represent us in some way. And to pick one wouldn´t do any good since
I would have a different opinion on that next time you would ask me. But
songs like ”Strange feeling 4 am”” and ”anymore” pretty much represent
our ”Mainsound” . But I can say that the song we have written for our upcoming
fullength release are the best songs we done so far. Ask me again
when the album is out =)
12.WHICH ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
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"This goes for me but the other guys
is pretty much in the same league when it comes to musical taste. I listen
to a lot of music, spanning from Barry White to Slayer. But what
I mainly listen to is music from or inspired of the 70´s rocksound.
To name a few: Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, COC, Sea of Green, Black Sabbath,
Buffalo, Trouble. Then I listen a lot to Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.
Hell I could go on forever. I have A LOT of records and I love them all,
well almost all anyway.Oh ,shit I almost forgot Iron Maiden, Judas
Priest and Motely Crue. Then I can get influenced and inspired from other
things than music, you figure it out!?!?!?!?!
13.WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE
ITALIAN METAL SCENE? THESE LAST YEARS HAS BECOME VERY FAMOUS.
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”To be honest I don´t know to
much about Italian metal. I´ve heard A few bands that I think is
OK I think ufomammut are from Italy, they are great.Then there is
a band called Skywise that I like. But then I don´t know of many
more but I´m sure that there is a lot of great bands down there.
14.DO YOU LIKE READING BOOKS? WHICH
IS YOUR MOST BELOVED BOOK AND AUTHOR?
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”I read a lot of books, mostly books
about History,religion,philosofy and astronomy/Cosmology. I have no particular
author that I like more than any other. As long as I learn something new
each time I read a book it´s OK. I read to learn not to kill off
time.
15.WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMPOSE THE SOUNDTRACK
FOR A MOVIE? WHICH MOVIE WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
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"Yeah sure!! But I can´t think
of a movie right now that would be my instant choice. Perhaps
some horror or Sci-fi movie.
16. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE
POLITICAL SITUATION DEVELOPED NOW WORLDWIDE, AFTER THOSE TERRORIST ATTACKS
IN THE U.S.A?
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”What can I say? It´s terrible,
but something has to be done about it. These people call themselves religious
but they are not. If you know anything about islamistic beliefs you´ll
also know that it´s a religion that strongly forbid violence
upon innocent people. So my point is that we must understand that Islam
is not the enemy, it´s the weirdos that use religion as a tool for
their own sakes. I could discuss this further but I think I made my point.
Terrorists should be rooted out no matter if they ´re Christians,
hindus or whatever.
17.THANK YOU!THESE LAST LINES BELONG
TO YOU...
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I want to thank everyone that has done
something To help the heavy music scene, zines,labels,fans and so on.Thank
You!