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Down The Garden Path With JOHANNES ECKERSTROM From AVATAR · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm Johannas from the band Avatar, and our latest album,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Don't Quin the Forest shows I guess exactly what you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: can achieve if you make your tenth album. Feels feel
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: like you're very first one in terms of discovery and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm and and yeah, it's very good.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Dead mate, thanks for joining us this morning.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Happy to be here.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: So, as you say, bro, Avatar released your tenth studio album,
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: Don't Go in the Forest back on October thirty first,
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: so speaking.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Almost two weeks now, I might say, how's the early
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: reception been?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Well? Very good.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I also realized I'm I live in a bubble with
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: who tells me what they think about it? No, but
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it feels No, it's very good. And we do like
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I think, like five songs and are set. Now we're
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: on the road here in the United States is from
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: that album, and it's they're being received incredibly well. It's
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: a good time and people have already embraced what we
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: have done, so so that part is great. Then it's
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: for me, it's such a weird. The first couple of
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: weeks is transitional in the sense that you know you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: are a writer, you're a performer, we are a bunch
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of stuff right. And release, as in putting something out,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: is that word has a double meaning that because release
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: also means letting go. And as far as the writer
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in us goes, you know, it's done, it's gone forever.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It doesn't belong to us anymore, it belongs to everybody.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Which yeah, then they come alive again on stage, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: that's a new way to explore what you've done and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to relate to the You're sick, but that personal journey
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is over, if that makes sense. But luckily people are
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: happy with what we did, and I appreciate that very much.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: All of those lines like it would be it'd be
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: a bit of a mental battle for you, I guess, because,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: like you, guys, put so much of your time and
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: effort into making that album, and then it goes down.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: You've got your.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Expectations, you know what you think of it. Then the
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: whole rest of the world's coming out. You go from
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: this angle and that, and you're supposed to just move on,
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: like in fans eyes, you're supposed to move on and
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: start playing live and start writing the next album. But
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: it's been such a big party for so long, and
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: it'd be hard to emotionally just let go, wouldn't it?
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Well?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I do have a very it's a thing I do
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: for myself, like ever since going back to the Black Walls,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: because that's album started, and I like, don't a quarter
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: live crisis kind of place in our lives? At least
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: speaking for myself and John, we had a powerful moment
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of that around that time, which long story shorts led
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to us really thinking, Okay, but then this is the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: last album, fuck it?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: You know, and.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: That mindset of this is the last album, fuck it.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I've tried to keep that ever since. I mean, I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: have some kind of confidence in that we will get
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to do another one, But it's always that question if
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: this were to be the last album, would I be
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: okay with that?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Did we achieve what we want to achieve here?
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Like if the world hates it, do I love it
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: enough to be at peace with that? And yes, I
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: am so so yeah. I have that little mental exercise
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it to deal with
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: exactly that. But then also again, like as a being
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: in a band or the way we view being in
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a band is, of course you're a musician a songwriter first,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but it is a multi media concept art project, if
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you let it be that, and so it lives and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: moves and breathes in different ways. But the writer in
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you the day it's released or right the day after
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you wake up and the album is out there, there's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a part of me that goes boring. Next like simp
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: if I have if I'm happy enough with what we did,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: so there are no regrets for your personal for whatever
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you needed to get out of it yourself in terms
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of self expression. And next, you know those things that
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: goes into making something artistic, no matter what it is,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and if it did a job for you personally, I
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: believe it's then comes that okay, But.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Then it's done. What else can we do? What's next?
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You know? So so there's already a tiny part of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the brain there's that there's as like a whisper now,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: but it's that whisper that over time will you know,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: grow to a scream, a storm, a fucking dragon's roar
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: at some point, and that is whatever we have we're
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: going to do in a couple of years. So yes,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you know, just one or many voices and a chaotic
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: choir in the head of this, I.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: Actually get the field tamate like while you were saying that,
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: like you seem to me it be sort of like
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: you'd be happy with what you've done now, but you're
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: never actually happy with it. You've always got something more
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: that you want to give to an album, which is
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: why you keep progressing so much with each one.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Like it's there's so much just you know,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: far before you get into any like deep personal meanings
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: behind what you do, or again the reflection on life
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: that goes into songwriting, before you get to any of that,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: just when it comes pure less a musician and stringing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: some notes together and coming up with cool stuff and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: be inspired by other things you've heard and all that.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: On that base level, there's not a chance that excuse me,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: there's not a chance that you, as a musician will
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: get to do everything you have in mind and within
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a lifetime at least, not us, you know, because we
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: we love to explore and try new things, and it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: just and whatever if And also because if you want
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to do that one thing, well, if you want to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: take that idea all the way, it's at the expense
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of all the other possibilities. If you want to get
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: it just right, I mean, if you want to. If
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: you want to make the best horror movie ever, you cannot.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: You cannot try to make the best comedy at the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: same time, you know what I mean. Or if you're
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: going to bake the most delicious cake, you cannot make
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: soup at the same time. So it kind of so,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, we focused this time. We've focused really
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: really hard on making this amazing soup, which means we
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: haven't gotten to make cake in two years here, So
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: then you kind of start craving.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Baking a cake. I think that analogy makes sense. It
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: makes sense in my head.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: It doesn't make seven to thirty in the morning here
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: made It makes perfect sense now.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: I'll read through some of the reviews for the album,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: and one reviewer said that Don't Go in the Forest
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: is your most successible album in years.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Would you agree with that?
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So hard? No, that's so hard to gauge from the outside.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I think there are certainly moments where I would say, yeah,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I get that, because it's when things get a bit
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: catchy and melodic. I mean the title track, for certain
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's not so much too musically, you know,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it's I think it goes straight to your heart, if
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you connect with it, if it resonates with it, it
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't take many detours to get to you. But I
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: also feel there are moments where, I mean, we're not
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a prog band, but you know, there are some sound
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: scapy things happening, you know, like magic lantern or some
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: twist and turns inside of getting on them black again
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: or take this heart and burn it. So I guess
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: it's a bit of columny, a bit of columb be
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: in it, but probably one thing, because I mean, Avatar
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: has always been mainly melodically driven, and even if it's
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the part of us that is rooted in death metal,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: is also there. Even if the tonality is, you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: more traditionally evil sounding, we're still looking for a groove
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and a strong theme in that style as well when
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: we use it. So, but that being said, I think,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I think, I feel like we have evolved a lot
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: in terms of yeah, melodies, the motifs of things, and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I guess there within that lies a lot of hooks,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you know, So in that sense, yeah, I see it
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: from that standpoint, and I think, I mean, it's never
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: by design, it's a bit of an accident, or if so,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: maybe a happy accident rather, But you know, it was
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: only a looking back that I realized that I probably
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: did less harsh vocals in this one than on Past Once,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: which to some people means more accessible. Then of course
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: we operate completely differently with that, but that might be
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a perspective. Well, you know which in hinds, which also
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: not in hinds, but in in return made it that
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the harsh stuff felt so much more precious and fun.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: And I'm just being in the studio getting into those
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: parts and like, oh fucking finally death metal band. It's
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: all I ever wanted to do, at least at some
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: at some point in my life.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: You released the four songs, now we must be worrious
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: in the airwaves, Captain and Death and Glitz. But when
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: you listen to the whole album, those four songs don't
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: even express the surface of the musical layers that you've
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: got across it. So when you're released singles, do you
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: carefully choose them to hopefully represent the album the best
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: or do you sort of more go for those songs
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: you believe the best.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Definitely not trying to choose what's the best, because I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: won't know what I'm sure like because when I listen
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: to other bands and there are albums and they're all
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the old catalogs, I know exactly what I think is
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the her best song on an album. I have no
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: clue when it comes to our stuff. What will I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: can tell you in ten years what I think really
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: did the job or not. So so it's not about
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I think you know too, maybe you looked for something
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: to We try to triangulate a bit what the album
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: is about. So we started with Captain Goat, which feels, yeah,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: it's again one of us. It feels direct as a
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: song in while still feeling big and epic and heavy
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and all the things. But it's very direct in terms
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of catch neists I believe, but also one that shows
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the audience, hey, listen to this awesome song. Isn't it
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: very different from what we did recently, you know, like
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: so you again, get that out of the way. And
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: then and then we wanted one of the Harsher stuff
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to be out before the album again to kind of
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: show the spectrum and with the and with a cool
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: music video idea and everything in the airwaves. Did that,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and then Warriors, I mean I think we once you
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you know, you sit and we sit in a very
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: protective about the you know, motivations behind writing the songs
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: while we write them. But once you've written them, you can,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you know, put on a different hat and say, you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: this might have some legs in terms of marketability.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: You know, we run our own label.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: So and also again with the other two songs, then
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: again triangulates that it's quite a bit of stuff happening.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: So so with that logic that comes out and Don't
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Go the Force as a title track, you know, just
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: felt fitting to give people chazz. This album comes out,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: you know, expand the universe a bit further, smarts, music
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: videos goes and all that. So I mean, so it's
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: a bit more. Yeah, it's I think we turn into
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: label bosses a bit when it's time to choose in
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: what order to put things out.
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: I would say, yeah, the first three songs on the album,
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: you know you must be Worrious in the Airwaves and
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Captain Go, Like they're so conflicting musically, it's actually quite
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: a jolt when you first listen to it, like, yeah,
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: you're well known and respected for your eclectic styles and music,
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: but I honestly.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Don't think there's any other band in the world.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: Mate that could start their album with those three songs
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: and still have people listening by track four like walk
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: that findeline between genres and how do you measure that
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: in the creative process?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Well, that was by the same and I think very
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: d a driving force behind that, like they just a
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: track order this time, like we all did it together,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: but ten was very on top of it, and I
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: think the idea was you could have structured it's more
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: like a you know, a more sthetic curve going in
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a certain direction over the course of the album, but
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: we went with the idea that every song should be
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: feel like a surprise and incredibly fresh when it comes.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: So it's a huge disparity between tempos and stuff between
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the tracks as they as they come. So there was
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: an idea of keeping excitement going. And then I don't know,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: like I think maybe more bands would get away with
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: something like that if they did it, because really our
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: way of thinking about this is incredibly old school and
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: inspired by grades that everybody likes. Everybody quotation mark. But
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean if I say the Beatles
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and Queen, you know, like because those are two bands
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that in many ways we're all over the place on
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: one under Sad like a night at Opera with the Queen,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the stuff that is going on on that album, but
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: it all sounds like Queen because they wrote it, they
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: played it, you know, they worked on it together, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that turns it into your sound. You don't need to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: overanalyze that too much. And we have a very very
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: similar train of thought with what we do. That sure,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: like it's a you know, it's a big leap from
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: one song to the other, but it's still you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: our hands, throats are you know, we are hitting the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: instruments and doing this stuff. And I think that still
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: narrows it down to an avatar sound whatever that means,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: because it's all our sensibilities. So I think it might
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: be a little bit of a lost arts too to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: really go there wherever their means for different bands.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll listen to a lot of new albums in
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: what I do, mate, and there hasn't been an album
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: in a long time that has just grabbed me so
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: hard after the first whatever you is have done stick
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: to it because it's just good listening.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I'm done. No, that's just not right. But fucking Sam's good.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Well, that's great.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: I think what we truly have done is make the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: tenth album feel important to us, you know, make it
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: something that we you know, if we're excited and if
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: we're challenged. That's our best chance to connect with people,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I think, on a real deep level with the music
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and whatever that turns out. That will always mean different
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: things in different eras of our lives, in different writing
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and recording sessions. What is important will change, what the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: goals are will change. It's just very important to have
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a goal and a sense of importance while you make it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Now, there's a quite in the press release
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: that said, we will never do the same song twice
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: and we'll always find a way to read Ventel films,
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: which you've managed to do successfully so far. But your
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: ten albums, Dave, now, mate, like, does it become harder
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: to maintain such a commitment of musical growth the more
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: you release? Uh?
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I will answer it's hard to tell now because
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: so far is so good and let's see what the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: next patch.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: But I would guess no, simply because again I don't know.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I love watching you know, long huge essays of music theory,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: phenomena and jazz music, but we don't do an entire
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: jazz album. But you look at that whole thing and
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you see and you'd go like, I'll take that one,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: thank you, you know, and into great different things. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: there's again so much, so many different directions you can
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: go in that sense. And yeah, there's simply so much
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that you can do. This sense of importance. I think
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I've noticed. It's not hard yet, but it is more
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: conscious now. I'm more aware, Like I'm more aware of that.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: We could say we need to make a new album
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: because we need a new tour, so we can print
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: a new t shirt so we can feed my dogs.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: You could say that, and that would be and that
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: wouldn't quite be enough for us. So it was more
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: conscious that you knowing, I mean. And at the end
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: of the day, the process is still super similar to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the past, but just a few extra steps to getting
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: there to say, hey, watch out now. It can never
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: be routine. It could never be just clocking clocking in.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: You know that that would kill it. So but because
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: that consciousness is there, I'm not too worried. I'm curious
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: rather on what will make the next one importance?
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, now I hope this question's easy.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: If you'd understand because in my head I know what
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: I want to say, but I found it hard verbalizing
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: it well. About the title because right my way of thinking,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: it's a stroke of genius, because most bands like to
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: keep album titles a little bit ambiguous and more up
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: with the interpretation. Listener, but don't go in the forest
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: as a literal statement that actually has no substance because
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: you're not giving a reason.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: For the order.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: So you've managed to come up with the title that's
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: both ambiguous and still maintains enough doubt to allow people
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: to form the ifs.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: It is still quite a direct classic group word.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: So we're all now is why don't you want us
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: to go in the forest? Well?
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I do like your interpretation because there's certainly yeah, you
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: want the album titled too, of course, mean whatever the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: album means to you. And at the same time, yeah,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: if it's if it just strikes as a I don't know,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I try to you know, Nike, just do it to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: just be a thing said At the same time, yeah,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: that's a to stand on its own two legs as
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: being something esthetically something without you know, it should work
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: on the surface and if you dive into it, so.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: No, don't go in the forest. The idea is number one.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I guess is that again an aesthetic feel of the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: you know, old superstitions, an air of mystique, and you know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the the dark knight, and there's something forbidden those things,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, horror movies and fairy tales. But I also
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: we're also think like this that if you are, if
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: you were one of those weird little kids who got
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: into metal to begin with, you're probably one of those
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: who kind of why not, what's in there? I'm totally going,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you know, So it's triggered to curiosity and and.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, part of that is.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: That strange thing that I think metal does more than
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: anything because the music is so you know, okay, dark
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and aggressive and okay, so things sure, but it's also powerful, uplifting, exciting,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and a metal show is more often than a lot
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of fun, you know, the mush pit. Yeah, it can
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: be crazy, kind of violent consensually so, but it's also
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: a good time, you know, and a communal time. So
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: it's simply fun. But while having all that fun, you
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: in the meantime you got like I don't know, Metallica
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: on stage singing about a guy with no arms, and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: all legs stuck in a bed who wants to die?
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And we balance that in a way that no, I
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: don't think out of genres quite do that the way
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you know heavy metal and all the heavy metals offsprings
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: do so. And I think therein lies a bit of
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: that carthartic quality that you know, harder music has for
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of people, and that it's very confrontational then
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: with the darkness. So I think it has this therapeutic
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: quality too many of us, not just to write, but
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: to hear it. And that is something that you experience
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: if you go into that metaphorical forest, you know, where
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: you can confront yourself with the darkness, the fears life
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: in general.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: And this album I feel just that.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And from a psychological standpoint of like half of the
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: song roughly, I think, really we're written and when it
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: comes to the lyrics so way more in a way
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: more intuitive way than I had done in the past,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: as in while writing I didn't need to know when
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I you know, when I wrote that first line of lyrics,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't need to know the exact meaning of everything.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I would just trust the sense of beauty, like oh,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I like where this is going let's let's keep going
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: down this path. And then once it was kind of done,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I could back up and see, oh, okay, there it is.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: It was something so again that is also me, you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: going with a machete out in the bush and finding
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: a path as I went along. So so that is
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: also inside of the title. So you got the mystique,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the horror, the allure, the taboo breaking with therapeutic nature
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and that self explorations. It's it's really because you know,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: again layered in the sense where it becomes because as
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a song title, it's the song you know, there's a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: bit of there again they forbid, and but the shaming
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: and the escaping and going towards something you've been warned
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: for and that that whole journey. But then as an
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: album title, I feel it works because I see all
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: these possible layers that comes in to the title.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Very cool and there's one more quite a depression release.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: There wasn't attributed to anyone in particular, but it says
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: we're always probably me, it probably was, but it's a
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: brilliant It says we're always looking to connect what you
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: hear with what you see, Like it's it's a beautiful notion,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: but it wouldn't be easy to do. Like, there's no
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: denying that you're getting closer to achieving that goal every
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: time you release an album, But how hard does it
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: to musically connect those dogs?
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: How hard is it?
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: It felt this time it felt pretty good a lot,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: you know, Like so, I mean, it was harder when
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we were seventeen. We had no clue how to do that.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: We didn't even know what questions to ask. But again,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the intuitive journey that bled into the songs early on
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: also bled into the latex gloves that we're on stage,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you know, and in the partnership between us in the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: band and you want CALLI and who does you know?
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: We've done the music videos with now for since forever,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: and usually the you know, the main part of the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: photography of us, you see, especially early on in the release,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: is also you want and there we have all these
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: conceptual talks, you know, he hears the music, we talk,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: we interpret, we get ideas for where to take pictures,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and the title falls into plays and everything. It's in
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the best cases, and nowadays it's became very organic what
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: we wanted to achieve with it, where the four as
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a motif the balloon as a motif, and again finding
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the balance between the explosive, fun, exciting, powerful nature of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: doing metal and the darkness it explores, and not letting
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: one take too much of the other.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: It hard in this sense that a lot of work
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: went into it and a lot of effort, but not
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: so not hard in banging your head against the wall
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: saying what does this mean? Hail the Apocalypse? I feel
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: it was more like that where we're like, we don't
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: have an album cover, fuck, you know, and we and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: trying to piece things together and trying to understand what
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: we've done. I think, especially because we did a couple
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: of concept albums, that this is not a this is
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: not one of them. It's thematically connected because it's here
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and now in our lives and everything, but proper concept
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: albums are still In a way, it kind of opened
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: up our brains more to get better thinking big picture
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and how to connect the dots. So after Avatar Country,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I think the industrial nature and the dystopian nature of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Hunter Gatherer that kind of informed that the outfits were.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I think, well, in the Commonwealth of World, do you
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: call him dungarees? The overalls you know, the factory feel,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the filth, together with the dystopia under the heavens that
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: it started to become more yeah, easier, or at least
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: more ease. We were have been quicker to make sense
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: out of things and start to find direction, I believe.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I guess practice makes perfect a sue.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: Of course, every album released by band is a catalyst
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: for a new tool. So what if Avatar got planned
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: by the way of tools.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: From here on?
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Uh, well, we're starting to have a pretty good idea
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: of what we're going to do every day from here
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: on out, well into twenty twenty six. And you know,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: we're in the United States right now. We did a
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: show in Mexico City. Latin America is bigger than in
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Mexico City. We got to go back. We do Europe
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: in the beginning of next year, and starting to piece
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: together US and festivals in Europe after that, and then
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: late summer over here is a very good time for
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Europeans to travel down Under to not get but not
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: get absolutely cooked. So that's on the agenda, you know.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: So it's it's starting to line up like there, and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: it's filling up nicely.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: Very nice, all right, brother, Well, Thanks you. Tom's always
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: a pleasure chatting with you, my friend. The album Going
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: the Forest is out now, and all I'm gonna say
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: is going, I have to listen to yourself because you
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: can't talk to Perlamin's enough about it, Buddy, good album
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: my side.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I believe we'd see a.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Shift that or lots
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: M