Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Flying Close To The Sun With JANNE CHRISTOFFERSSON From GRAND MAGUS

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Flying Close To The Sun With JANNE CHRISTOFFERSSON From GRAND MAGUS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Hello people. This is JB from Grand Magas. I'm a
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: singer and guitar player and we're a three piece band
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: from Stockholm, Sweden and this year we've actually been around
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: for twenty five years and we're releasing our tenth album
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: called sun Raven in on the eighteenth of October this year.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Brilliant, Welcome, Thanks, no worries.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: There's so many people that are glad Grand Magas is back.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Did the time all whey really help you focus in
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: on what you wanted Sun raven to be?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I think so, I really do. Funnily enough, the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: whole pandemic thing, even though it ruined half a tour
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: for us because we were on tour when it happened, Yeah,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: so that was really bad. But on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: after that tour, I'd been looking forward to taking a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: break actually, so the timing wasn't that bad for us.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So when it all happened, we just said that, hey,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: let's see where this ends up, and let's keep in
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  Speaker 1: touch and when things get back to normal, if they do,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: let's think about doing some new stuff. And so I
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: guess two years just disappeared for everyone across the globe.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And yeah, and then it took a while to kind
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of get into the groove again, literally speaking, and and
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: but yeah, when things started to get back to pretty
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: much the way they were before, I felt the inspiration again.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we just said that if we're going to
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: do this, we're going to do it properly. So we
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  Speaker 1: took a whole year to write and record it. And yeah,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: it was a it was a big thing. We didn't
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: know that this was going to be possible, but apparently
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it was so yeah.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like the bright kind of did you
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: some good in a way.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because what we deal with in this band is
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that we everything we do is based on emotion. So
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: if the passion's not there, we're not going to do it. Yeah,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And we've been very regular in over the twenty five
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  Speaker 1: years with you know, releasing albums and touring and releasing
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: albums and blah blah blah. And after a while, I
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: think it's you need to step away from it a bit,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: or at least I needed to step away from it
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a bit, and it just happened that it's happened this way.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And how would you describe the sound of sun Raven
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: compared to your last album.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I think it's in the same vein. I think. I
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: mean we recorded in the same studio with the same engineer, mixer, producer,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: with the same three idiots in the band, and so
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that it's not a big difference, I would say. But
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  Speaker 1: obviously the songs are different, and every album we've done
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: is different from from the last because they've all been
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  Speaker 1: they've all been very much like a like a diary
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  Speaker 1: statement of where we are as people and as a
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  Speaker 1: band at that point in time.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. I saw that you
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: guys played Bloodstock. What was that like and were there
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: any bands that played that you guys look up to?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, well, we played Bloodstock many times and it
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was great. Yeah, it was great to be back because
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  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously those those types of festivals was one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that you I thought that maybe this
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: will never happen again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was, you know, great and emotional. And
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: we happened to play the same day as old friends
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  Speaker 1: like the band Clutch for instance. It's great seeing them again.
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  Speaker 1: Fantastic line band and great guys. And we also played
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  Speaker 1: the same day as Opa, who are close friends of
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  Speaker 1: the bands on the band, and they did a brilliant
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: show as always, and I mean most memorable was to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: see the crowd again and to interact with them the
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: way we used to. You know.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh that's awesome.
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  Speaker 3: And speaking of some bands that you like, can you
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  Speaker 3: tell me some of your biggest musical influences.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's a big one. I got in I got
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  Speaker 1: in touch with heart of music very early on because
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I had two brothers who are, you know, eleven and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: fourteen years older than me, So they were they were,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you know, horrible teenagers when I when I was born.
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  Speaker 1: So they were into the seventies bands like you know,
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  Speaker 1: Deep Purple and Alice Cooper and Uriah Heat and all
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  Speaker 1: of those bands. So I heard that from a very
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: early age, and I guess it just struck a chord
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  Speaker 1: with me. I can't stop with the puns. I'm sorry
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: about that. And so when I got into my teens,
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  Speaker 1: I discovered bands like Zamon and Bathory and Motorhead and the.
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  Speaker 2: More heavier metal.
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  Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, yeah, and also bands like accept and
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  Speaker 1: Judis Priest and Saxon and so yeah. So they're a
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  Speaker 1: huge part of my inspirational thing. And also man Ar
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  Speaker 1: and been a huge influence on Grand Vegas. Yea, and yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's so many demands, but I think you get the just.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: And can you describe the interesting story behind sun Raven
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  Speaker 3: and the mythical sort of thing to it.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, So, the the sun Raven album revolves around the
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  Speaker 4: Beyo Wolf poem story, but it's not a it's not
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  Speaker 4: a like retelling in detail or word for word or
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  Speaker 4: anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: It's just a starting point for my own fantasies and
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  Speaker 1: ideas and themes that, to be honest, are pretty much
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  Speaker 1: the themes that we've always exploreded Grid Megas. But in essence,
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  Speaker 1: the some of the songs are written from the perspective
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  Speaker 1: of Bewolf yep, and some are written from the perspective
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  Speaker 1: of Grenvil, which was the monster that they will fought
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  Speaker 1: in Denmark. Yeah, and also yeah and also Grandle's mother,
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  Speaker 1: which she also thought at the head off of And
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  Speaker 1: so yeah, the whole album. This is like the framework
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  Speaker 1: for the album, but the themes and ideas and everything
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  Speaker 1: go beyond that, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I think that's really awesome and really are
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  Speaker 3: unique to waiving that mythology.
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  Speaker 2: Is there a favorite song on the album for you?
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  Speaker 2: And why?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a difficult question. I mean, when you do
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  Speaker 1: an album, it's such it's almost like an out of
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  Speaker 1: body experience because for me, at least a certain part
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  Speaker 1: of yourself, it's not involved. There's something else going on,
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  Speaker 1: and so it's very hard to be objective. And it's
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: also hard to be subjective about the stuff you do
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  Speaker 1: on your own stuff, you know. So my answer would
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: be that it varies which song I like the most.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, they're all favorites.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Suppose well on a good day, they're all favorites on
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: a bad day.
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  Speaker 3: And I just wanted to mention that for a three
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  Speaker 3: piece band, you guys sound absolutely incredible and special mention
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: to your awesome guitar solos. Is it hard to sing
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: and play so complexly at the same time.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, the good thing is that, thanks by the way,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the good thing is that I don't have to sing
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  Speaker 1: while I play the solos. That would be that would
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  Speaker 1: be a challenge for sure. But the rhythm guitar stuff
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: that I do is very straightforward. I would say, I'm
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not like you know, David Staine and Megadeth. He
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  Speaker 1: plays the most complex, weird, incredibly challenging stuff and things
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: at the same time. That's not what I do. What
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I do is very very meat and potatoes guitar stuff
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  Speaker 1: while I sing, and then when it's time to play
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  Speaker 1: the solos, I shut up. So it's not it's not
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  Speaker 1: that hard once you get the once you get past
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  Speaker 1: the hurdle on singing and playing at the same time.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It it's it's kind of a natural thing because yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because they all they both go together in the sense
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: that I wouldn't write a lyric or a melody that
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: wouldn't feel right with the stuff that I play, if
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: you understand, Yeah, if someone else wrote the lyrics and
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  Speaker 1: the vocals and told me, hey, sing and play this
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  Speaker 1: at the same time, that would be that would be
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  Speaker 1: a challenge, you know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I could imagine.
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  Speaker 3: Another thing I loved is your energy, particularly in the
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  Speaker 3: Skybound music video you see with such conviction.
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  Speaker 2: And then there was also a video of you.
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  Speaker 3: Guys playing live and you handed out some temporary tattoos
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  Speaker 3: to the crowd. Can you come to Australia and do
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  Speaker 3: that please?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? We would love to. You know, we've we've never
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  Speaker 1: managed to to get over to your part on the
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  Speaker 1: globe ever, and it would be such such an experience
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  Speaker 1: to go over there, and I know that there's a
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  Speaker 1: very strong metal Yeah, there's a lot of metal heads
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  Speaker 1: over there, and it would be great to meet you all.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, well we'll see what the future brings,
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  Speaker 1: but if the circumstances are for tutors, we wouldn't hesitate
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: one second.
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  Speaker 3: Oh awesome, No, we really hope you can come over here.
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  Speaker 3: What do you think you would be doing if you
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  Speaker 3: weren't in a metal band.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know. I you know, I actually have
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  Speaker 1: another job. So for me, yes, so grand megas have
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  Speaker 1: always been something that has only been fueled by passion,
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  Speaker 1: not for the needs to make a living, so which
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  Speaker 1: was important for me pretty much from well maybe not
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: from the start, but once we kind of got into
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  Speaker 1: the the frost roads of deciding whether or not to
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: do full time, it felt like the right decision not
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  Speaker 1: to do it because I don't want I don't want
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  Speaker 1: it to turn into a job. You know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a huge undertaking as well, to decide to
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  Speaker 3: make that your full career.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, sure that's I mean, I had many many
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: friends in full time dance, and I know exactly what
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: kind of sacrifices that entails and also the very scary
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: parts of doing that. Yeah, I mean we talked about
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  Speaker 1: the pandemic. I mean that was disaster for a lot
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of people that I know. But anyway, I would I
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: would love to be a forest ranger. That would probably
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: be my ideal hyper life if I do.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: You spend you obviously spent a lot of time outdoors.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: I really love the Viking undertones in your music and
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: on Sun Raven's cover art as well. I recently found
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  Speaker 3: out that I'm one percent Swedish. What in particular about
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  Speaker 3: Vikings resonates with you, guys.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's part of the part of growing
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: up in Sweden. When I did the Viking thing, it
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was very prevalent. You know, in school we learned about
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  Speaker 1: the Norse mythology and everything, and I was my dad
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  Speaker 1: used to tell me stories about thora and Olden and
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: things like that, bed time stories, you know, And so
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  Speaker 1: it's always been some thing that I've been fascinated with,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: not necessarily you know, the uh, the Viking raids and everything. Yeah,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the the you know, the the mythological and legends aspect
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  Speaker 1: of it, you know, and yeah, and also the yeah,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and also the artwork and yeah, you know, the the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: kind of did the old religion or whatever you want
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  Speaker 1: to call it that they practiced was always very fascinating,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: so I think. But that's one of the reasons. And
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: also for me, like I mentioned earlier, that our music,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: it's very much based on emotion and then it has
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: to be something that's inspiring. And for me that the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: whole Viking thing is the perfect let's say that, the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: perfect father for heavy own music, you know, yeah.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Like their spiritual Sure, yeah, you've been making music for
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: twenty five years in your own words, how would you
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: describe what Grand Megas is and what it means to you?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, Grand Vegas is I think I can say now
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: after twenty five years that were a true metal band
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: because there are no we don't cheat. We are three
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: three guys making noise. And what you hear is it's
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: it comes from us directly and there are no it's
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: us watch and all, just like not red ware, and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, and so if you like that, the
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: honest part of music, that's what we're about. And for
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: me personally, I mean it's almost h it's it is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: half of my life that I spent doing this, and yeah,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it's a reflection of my ideas and my fantasies and
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my inspirations, and so it's I mean, it's a huge
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: part of who I am.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Do you find that you guys are often compared to
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Motorhead in.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: A way, Well not that much, funnily enough, because I
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: think we are very like. I'm just mentioned that we
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: have a lot of similarities with modern yeah or three piece.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: The music is it's not complex, but it's it's heavy
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and it's to the point. So I guess maybe if
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: we played, if we have more fast songs, maybe the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: connection would be clear, you know, but we we tend
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to write songs that are more like mid tempo and
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: probably zering towards the heavy rather than the fast, you know.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, all right, And the album Summer Even is
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: out October eighteen. If you're into heavy metal and mind
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: blowing riffs and solos, I urge you guys to check
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: it out. Thank you so much. I want to say
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: this right, Is it young? Is that completely?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: No, it would be young Young.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say again. I'm sorry.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you so very much for having this interview with
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: us today, and please try and come to Australia in
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: the future. We really hope you can make it and
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: hand out those tattoos as well.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Please it would it would be my pleasure. And thanks
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: for this chat and all the best.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you you too.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Take care.
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: My child. O. So s science.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: To be s swrong kind of swoln cleve don't rain's
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: going strong Adam learning to fly.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Through So I went to the fiends standing into whim
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: so down every liance we snot strong out through.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Them roun w A god flash.
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: To you about the pain growing strong up damn learning
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: to fly through the Sainte sees gam right of the.
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: Hide, right weed.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: S s.
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: Long things going storm again, learning to fly.
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: Through the something let us say again rising the hid