• PROVENANCE IS A NEW BAND IN THE ATMOSPHERIC METAL GENRE. SOON THEY WILL RELEASE THEI NEW ALBUM FROM SCARLET RECORDS. SO WE ARRANGED THIS INTERVIEW TO LEARN SOME MORE THINGS ABOUT THE BAND.

1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND’S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE ITS MEMBERS.

• Hi there, this is Joel Lindell from The Provenance. Well, The Provenance is a group of five, four guys and one girl, who since –95 has strived to realize a common musical goal. We have Emma Hellström on flute, Hammond and vocals; Tobias Martinsson handles the screaming and other vocals as well as guitars. Joakim is our fantastic lead guitarist supported by another fantastic musician namely Jonnie Täll on bass. And last but not least, I hope, myself in charge of drums and lyrics. Important moments you say… the first that comes to mind is when Joakim joined us back in –97 I think, not to mention Jonnies arrival of course. But the two milestones in our history are of course the two recordings we’ve come to follow through. We’ve had our ups and downs like any other band but these are the only three I can think of right now…

• In the beginning we called ourselves Asmodeus, which we thought was kind of kinky, plus the fact that several other bands carried the same name. When Joakim and Jonnie joined forces with us we felt it was time renewing ourselves so The Provenance it was. A suitable name for the music we play I think, like you said, a good indicator. Plus, we then had our very own whisky collection carrying the same name, which we of course didn’t know when deciding upon it. But that too turned out very suitable since we simply love single malt whisky...hehe.

• Over the past years we’ve managed create a very personal sound, which in my opinion can be described only as The Provenance. Perhaps a meagre attempt of describing our sound but… melancholic Gothic Metal with 70’s Progressive rock elements and acoustic parts featuring flute and female vocals…? I’m not sure which biography you’ve read but genre-wise we are close to these bands and why not compare us to them, if not for the mere indication of what type of music we play. We have never been afraid to “compare” ourselves with larger, more famous groups and quite honestly, why should we? I think you are the first person ever to indicate that what we play isn’t original… and as for the expectations, I know we live up to them since the only expectations we mind are our own.

• This will be our second release since we entered the public scene with “25th hour; bleeding…”. Since then I consider us having matured much as a band and we know more now what fits and what doesn’t. I also think our vision was clearer to us on what we wanted from “Still at arms length”. We’re still contempt with “25th hour…” There are many likenesses though, same basic ideas, nothing changed in our instrumentation etc. It’s just an earlier The Provenance. The progression toward a newer The Provenance will continue alongside with us growing as individuals and musicians. It’s a natural thing to evolve throughout the remainder of an existence, I assure you!

• I like to regard my lyrics as documentations of events from my every-day life. Of course they are more dramatically written but they’re basically mirrors of what I’ve felt during these different episodes of my life. I simply enjoy addressing the misery of this world, of being human, the hardships we all deal with whether it’s lack of faith or how foolish people sometimes are. I pity mankind, I pity myself and to me the future is nothing but black, although I intend to enjoy every last second of it. As for what could take away my inspiration, I honestly don’t think anything could. I see so much every day that inspires me and writing is a natural thing for me. The only thing I could imagine would distract my attention from the writing, would be some groundbreaking incident of huge character.

• I haven’t thought of it in that way. It’s always been natural for us to use all our skills within the group. You simply have more possibilities with two vocals instead of one, I’m not saying one is better than the other but you have a wider range of input with both sexes represented.

• We are not unfamiliar with the thought of adding further instruments but beware to always have a purpose behind doing so. Of course metal can be entwined with other styles, if doing it in an appropriate form. There is much to be explored within the metal genre.

• For starters it’s an album we are very proud having recorded, and it turned out exactly like we wanted it to. The album could be considered an outlet for the every-day frustrations you face so it’s a dark album indeed. The title track “At arms length”, which is the last song on the record is about undying friendship. No matter how many problems or fights you go through, there are always those who face them with you instead of run and that might be one of several “messages” included but we are not to be regarded as preachers… The album was recorded at Oral Majority Recordings here in Gothenburg with the ingenious producer Roberto Laghi (Transport League, LOK etc.). It took approximately one month to record all songs and we had the time of our lives during this period.

• We’ve played quite a few times here in Gothenburg actually both headlining and supporting bands like Tiamat, Dark Tranquility and Soulreaper to mention some of them. We haven’t had any real accidents during any of our gigs but we’ve been just a little bit too drunk on several of them, hey, who can blame us, we manage to do our job quite well considering. I can’t say I remember much of our first gigs, probably cause I’m in denial, having repressed these awful memories…hehe.

• I’m not a very good sales person so I’d simply ask him to listen to the product, which I’m very proud of taking part in and then it’d be up to him/her whether they wanted to leave it at that or buy it. The worst part of our music is that you so easily can be discarded as pretentious, in a bad sense. The best thing is that we don’t have any set rules as to what we’re supposed to do musically and the fact we have such a great time together of course.

• A word that springs to mind is frustration; I believe that to be the general emotion expressed by The Provenance. The painting would most likely show you talking to me…hehe…seriously, I don’t know. I’m certainly not a painter. Maybe Mona-Lisa, that mysterious smile of hers…

• I’d kill myself right away. I wouldn’t want to live in a world without music but that’s not the case so why bother speculating?

• I have no such wish so I honestly can’t think of anyone. I’ve been sitting staring at the question for fifteen minutes and still no name that comes to mind. I find it quite childish actually.

• I wouldn’t ask him anything, I’d break his back if handed the chance. Okay, I’d ask him whether he was seriously mentally disturbed or if it was an accident, his creation, I mean.

• I would wish for man to become aware of what we all really are and thereby showing the path to a better world. The only God I know of is Man and I pity Man for not realizing that every decision is one of consequence and placing decisions in Gods hands is the most repulsing way of not taking responsibility. Responsibility is what makes the world tick!

• Actually it came from you, question nr 14. Hence the strange answer. A question I’d like to be asked, how do you personally anticipate the future of The Provenance? Answer: I anticipate a very bright future for us where making lots of records and gigs all over. It is my firm belief that we will, no matter how dark the shadows rest upon us, continue making and performing the music we so love.

17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?

• I hope you all check out “Still at arms length” when it comes crashing in to your local record shop January 27th and if you want more info on what’s going on I suggest you visit our website at www.theprovenance.com. Cheers everyone and take care!!!

/Joel Lindell/The Provenance/