Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Architects Of Your Own Demise With TOM ENGLUND From EVERGREY
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: This is the eloquent Tom s England from Gothenburg, Sweden.
- 0:05Speaker 1: I'm the vocalist, founder, and guitar player and a bunch
- 0:10Speaker 1: of other things in Swedish metal sensation Every Gray. We're
- 0:16Speaker 1: currently releasing our fifteenth album and we're coming to Australia
- 0:20Speaker 1: in a few weeks, so hence the interview.
- 0:23Speaker 2: I guess fantastic man. Thanks for joining us.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Tonight, Thanks for having me, Thanks for having me, and
- 0:29Speaker 1: it's morning here in Sweden obviously, so yeah.
- 0:31Speaker 2: That's been the ChIL end of the night is opposite
- 0:34Speaker 2: ends of the spectrum.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go.
- 0:37Speaker 2: There made Every Gray.
- 0:39Speaker 3: Release your fifteenth studio album, Architects of a New Weave
- 0:43Speaker 3: on during the fifth So how you feel about it?
- 0:47Speaker 1: Great? Honestly, really really good. First reactions are coming in
- 0:52Speaker 1: a few album of albums of the month and a
- 0:55Speaker 1: bunch of great reviews, and the reception from from the
- 0:59Speaker 1: fans have been stellar so far. We released two different
- 1:03Speaker 1: kinds of songs for this album so far. One we
- 1:06Speaker 1: released like a prior to the album. It's a song
- 1:09Speaker 1: called Oxygen, which is how you call it, an obnoxious, dark, brooding,
- 1:15Speaker 1: complex type of song. Six minutes and twenty seconds, and
- 1:19Speaker 1: then we release the song called Architects of the New
- 1:23Speaker 1: which is four minutes straight to the point, sing along
- 1:27Speaker 1: in heavy metal. So in between those two worlds, I
- 1:30Speaker 1: guess this album it's where this album lives, so yeah,
- 1:34Speaker 1: which I love. That's the cool thing about being in everygrade.
- 1:36Speaker 1: We we can do pretty much whatever we want and
- 1:40Speaker 1: fit everything into the everygrade package. Yeah, yeah, y.
- 1:45Speaker 3: So we dive into the album a bit deeper musically
- 1:47Speaker 3: and tell us what you're gone for the stumm around.
- 1:50Speaker 1: I mean, we don't really set out to do anything
- 1:53Speaker 1: like deliberate other than making the best possible songs we
- 1:57Speaker 1: can ever make. But I guess every album is colored
- 2:02Speaker 1: by what we have around us. And and you know,
- 2:04Speaker 1: the state of the world today. I mean our next
- 2:06Speaker 1: single is called the World Is on Fire, which is
- 2:09Speaker 1: fucking timing, is profound and sad in a way. So
- 2:16Speaker 1: I mean it's I don't know what's going on in
- 2:17Speaker 1: the world right now. It feels like we lost our
- 2:21Speaker 1: sense of compassion and humanity and love for the next
- 2:24Speaker 1: one And and I guess that's what this album is
- 2:28Speaker 1: also a reaction to. It's not it's not a it's
- 2:31Speaker 1: not a mere story of how I see the world.
- 2:36Speaker 1: It's also an uprising against what we see and that
- 2:40Speaker 1: we do not accept the world as we see it.
- 2:42Speaker 3: So yeah, I short of mentioned this, but there's a
- 2:46Speaker 3: subtle change between the name of the song, which is
- 2:48Speaker 3: Architects of that New Wave, and the album is Architects
- 2:52Speaker 3: of a New Wave, Like, what's the reason behind that?
- 2:56Speaker 1: Well, the reason is that in the album context I
- 2:59Speaker 1: wanted to I mean, it's about creating your own future
- 3:01Speaker 1: and becoming yourself the best at that you can become.
- 3:05Speaker 1: And I want to just speak in more general terms
- 3:08Speaker 1: when it comes to the actual album title, but when
- 3:10Speaker 1: it comes to the actual song, it's about me and
- 3:14Speaker 1: I very much know how I'm viewing my future and
- 3:16Speaker 1: and who I am and who I become and learned
- 3:20Speaker 1: to be. So that's that's the slight difference.
- 3:24Speaker 3: Right right Right Then the album is described as being fast, heavy,
- 3:28Speaker 3: and cinematic, So to take us into the cinematic side
- 3:32Speaker 3: of the album a bit more and how hard it
- 3:34Speaker 3: is to get that that feel and that emotion through music.
- 3:39Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think this whole album it has
- 3:41Speaker 1: it's I mean, even for a song like Architects of
- 3:44Speaker 1: the New Weave, which is a fairly straight to the
- 3:48Speaker 1: point song. As I said before, it also holds so
- 3:51Speaker 1: many details when you listen to to the song in depth,
- 3:54Speaker 1: you know, and and that's how I want it. I
- 3:56Speaker 1: want you to be able to connect with the song immediate,
- 4:00Speaker 1: just because it's a great song. And then I want
- 4:02Speaker 1: you to be able to sort of live with it
- 4:04Speaker 1: for months and years to come, hopefully and discover things
- 4:09Speaker 1: that that intrigues you or that you notice that we
- 4:12Speaker 1: put a lot of emphasis on. And and that's I
- 4:15Speaker 1: guess what we do on all the songs. Basically, it's
- 4:18Speaker 1: like we we there are so many layers of production
- 4:21Speaker 1: and detailed work for drums or keyboards or whatever it
- 4:27Speaker 1: might be, but there's also this immediate song and that's
- 4:31Speaker 1: I guess something that we're trying to refine for every
- 4:33Speaker 1: album we do getting better at that, you know, handing
- 4:38Speaker 1: you a song that you immediately understand and and like,
- 4:44Speaker 1: and then also you're able to sort of dive deeper
- 4:48Speaker 1: into our world and what's going on there. So and
- 4:51Speaker 1: that goes throughout the whole of this album. It's so
- 4:53Speaker 1: many it's so much music on this album. You know,
- 4:56Speaker 1: we even we even left out three or four songs
- 4:59Speaker 1: that we on like a limited edition version because because
- 5:03Speaker 1: we didn't want people to have to have to buy
- 5:05Speaker 1: a double vinyl for sixty euros, you know. Yeah, so
- 5:08Speaker 1: how everything fits in within one album and we're getting
- 5:11Speaker 1: better at that, you know, the music quality wise as well.
- 5:14Speaker 1: You know, you can fit stuff more into an album nowadays.
- 5:17Speaker 1: So but yeah, it's just too much money for me
- 5:20Speaker 1: in my mind to pay sixty but for.
- 5:23Speaker 2: Now, definitely.
- 5:25Speaker 3: And you've got Michael's study on vocals video on the
- 5:28Speaker 3: track of Burning Flame.
- 5:29Speaker 2: So firstly, why have him on that song? And then
- 5:33Speaker 2: what did he bring to it?
- 5:38Speaker 1: When I wrote the vocal melodies for this song, a
- 5:42Speaker 1: Burning Flame, it reminded me of him somehow, and since
- 5:46Speaker 1: I never had him on any music before, and we've
- 5:48Speaker 1: been friends for a long while and colleagues for thirty
- 5:51Speaker 1: five years, it made sense for me to ask him.
- 5:54Speaker 1: And at the same time, at the moment where I
- 5:57Speaker 1: was writing it, I also learned about Tom balin Berg.
- 6:00Speaker 1: It was the vocalist for At the Gates or was
- 6:03Speaker 1: the now late Tompa Burgh and and he also sort
- 6:07Speaker 1: of woke something in me that made me think about
- 6:12Speaker 1: Stany and how the three of us are lead singers
- 6:14Speaker 1: and in bands from Gothenburg that somehow made it decantly well,
- 6:20Speaker 1: and you know how we become inspirations for other people.
- 6:23Speaker 1: And Tompa was a real inspiration for me and Michael
- 6:25Speaker 1: Stander because he was first, you know. And they went
- 6:29Speaker 1: on tour and they they took their music with both
- 6:33Speaker 1: grotesque and and at the Gates out into the world
- 6:36Speaker 1: and we stood by them, looked at them in awe
- 6:40Speaker 1: and were inspired to do the same. And nowadays we
- 6:44Speaker 1: hope that we were inspiring younger musicians to also get
- 6:49Speaker 1: out into the world and become musicians for life.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Very guys, you sort of touched on this bit before.
- 6:55Speaker 3: But the album does come with the Bius album featuring
- 6:58Speaker 3: new songs as well as the live version in the
- 7:00Speaker 3: Falling from the Sun, the demo version of Longing, But
- 7:03Speaker 3: it's the instrumental version of Leaving the Happiness that intrigues me. Like, firstly,
- 7:07Speaker 3: why too is that particular song to leave as an
- 7:09Speaker 3: instrumental and and what do you what do you hearpe
- 7:12Speaker 3: to listeners get out of here in the song without
- 7:14Speaker 3: their vocals.
- 7:16Speaker 1: I'm hoping the other that they become like me.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Now.
- 7:22Speaker 1: But about honestly, it's it's why we chose that song,
- 7:27Speaker 1: is that is one of those songs that, on the
- 7:30Speaker 1: surface sounds like a straight up even major sounding song.
- 7:36Speaker 1: And I'm talking about like the chord progression, and it's
- 7:42Speaker 1: very immediate, it's sing along type of heavy metal song.
- 7:47Speaker 1: But then when you really take away the vocals and
- 7:51Speaker 1: listen to the music, it's very complex, you know, and
- 7:54Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like that. And that's that's an art
- 7:56Speaker 1: in itself. And I guess, honestly, to be honest to
- 7:59Speaker 1: talk about music a little bit, that's the art with
- 8:02Speaker 1: pop music. They make it sound so easy, and that's
- 8:05Speaker 1: the art of making pop, you know, because it's not
- 8:08Speaker 1: that easy to make you believe in a song that
- 8:11Speaker 1: doesn't carry anything, you know, other than drums and the melody.
- 8:14Speaker 1: Right so now, but this song, it's a poppy heavy
- 8:18Speaker 1: metal song, I will say, but it's it's heavier than
- 8:22Speaker 1: most of the songs on the album, and it carries
- 8:24Speaker 1: a very intricate, difficult guitar part for the theme, which
- 8:29Speaker 1: is which I'm practicing right now. It's difficult.
- 8:34Speaker 3: So, as we mentioned before that this is your fifteenth album,
- 8:39Speaker 3: So do you think it becomes easier or how did
- 8:41Speaker 3: it come up with new and fresh hand of material.
- 8:44Speaker 1: The more you write, the more I write, the more
- 8:48Speaker 1: inspired and intrigued I get, and the more surprised I
- 8:53Speaker 1: get that this still is exactly as much fun as
- 8:56Speaker 1: it was when I started writing music, when I came
- 8:59Speaker 1: to that point where I was able to record the
- 9:01Speaker 1: first album, and I'm still loving that sensation of being
- 9:07Speaker 1: lost in the world of creation and creativity and just
- 9:12Speaker 1: indulge myself in the world of making this album for
- 9:16Speaker 1: a year. It takes around a year for me to
- 9:18Speaker 1: write and recording, or for us to write and recording
- 9:21Speaker 1: an album. So it's obviously hopefully, hopefully we have gotten
- 9:29Speaker 1: better on our instruments and we play better and we're
- 9:31Speaker 1: singing better, and we're getting to be better songwriters. But
- 9:35Speaker 1: at the same time, that's secondary for us. We're making
- 9:37Speaker 1: music for ourselves and and and as long as you
- 9:42Speaker 1: do that and being sincere about it, I think that
- 9:46Speaker 1: really shines through, and really I think the audience really
- 9:51Speaker 1: can notice that and appreciate that fact that you're not
- 9:54Speaker 1: doing it for money or for fame or for you're
- 9:57Speaker 1: doing it for the love of the music. And that's
- 9:59Speaker 1: certainly why we're doing this. If it was for the money,
- 10:02Speaker 1: we would equip.
- 10:03Speaker 2: Tell me there ain't no money.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Many years ago.
- 10:08Speaker 3: As you said before, Made have a great return to
- 10:10Speaker 3: Australia very soon for a run of show. It's kicking
- 10:13Speaker 3: off April twenty eighth in Perth and you hit Tambra,
- 10:16Speaker 3: Sydney and Melbourne before finishing in Brisbane on May the third,
- 10:19Speaker 3: so it's not far away.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Made get packed and ready to go.
- 10:23Speaker 1: Yeah, well not packed yet, but we're doing Brazil first
- 10:27Speaker 1: and hopefully that nobody bombs the golf so we can
- 10:30Speaker 1: get over there, you know. So that's the only thing
- 10:32Speaker 1: I'm getting a bit nervous about. But other than that,
- 10:35Speaker 1: I mean, it's been two decades pretty much to the
- 10:37Speaker 1: year that we since we were in Australia before, and
- 10:41Speaker 1: we're still here doing the same thing, playing fucking heavy metal.
- 10:43Speaker 1: So it's't that just lovely. I can't wait to get
- 10:46Speaker 1: out there and meet the Australian music lovers once more.
- 10:51Speaker 3: So, as you say, it has been a Waller's two
- 10:53Speaker 3: thousand and seven year out of your last. So how
- 10:55Speaker 3: would you say your live show has changed and gotten better?
- 11:02Speaker 1: I mean, obviously going to Australia, and maybe that's also
- 11:05Speaker 1: why it takes such a long time in between. And
- 11:08Speaker 1: obviously twenty years is ridiculous. We should do it every
- 11:11Speaker 1: fifth year at least. But it costs a lot of
- 11:13Speaker 1: money and it also makes us have to think in
- 11:16Speaker 1: different ways because we have to reduce our crew, we
- 11:20Speaker 1: have to reduce our stage shows. But in the end
- 11:23Speaker 1: of it all, it's about the songs, right, you know.
- 11:25Speaker 1: So we have gotten better. We released fifteen albums. Have
- 11:31Speaker 1: the hard the hardest thing for us right now is
- 11:33Speaker 1: to pick songs. You know. We have to play some
- 11:36Speaker 1: of the old fan favorites and we also have to
- 11:38Speaker 1: play a lot of the new stuff because the new
- 11:40Speaker 1: stuff is doing better than the old stuff, you know.
- 11:42Speaker 1: So it's like it's it's a balance in between the worlds.
- 11:45Speaker 1: But I love both. So yeah, So instead of trying
- 11:51Speaker 1: to fit everything within the hours we're playing in Australia
- 11:55Speaker 1: this time, let's come back again sooner and then we
- 11:59Speaker 1: can change out to set this a little bit more.
- 12:01Speaker 2: Now that's a good idea to me. Well, thanks very
- 12:03Speaker 2: much for your time. Tom.
- 12:04Speaker 3: The album Architects of the New Readers out Streeen fifth
- 12:07Speaker 3: the chur kicks off on April twenty eighth, so everyone's
- 12:10Speaker 3: going to get plenty of every gray over the coming months.
- 12:12Speaker 2: Mate, So we'll see you in a couple of weeks.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Can't wait. Thanks so much for having me Man,