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Powering Through With TOMMY JOHANSSON From MAJESTICA · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: This has told me from the band Majestica from Sweden,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: where I play guitar and the lead vocals, and on
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the seventh of February, we are releasing our new album
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: called the Powertrain, available worldwide within a matter of.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Weeks, matter of weeks and day. Thanks for joining us today, Tommy.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you glad to be here.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Oh so, yes, you say, Majestica release your new album
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Powertrain on February seventh. So how you feeling about it?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I feel great, really.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: It's an album we've been working with for a long
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: time to make sure the songs are you know, as
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: good as they can get.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: And I don't know if it's just such an amazing
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: album in so many ways, how we perform the songs,
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: how the songs are written, the idea behind the album.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: You know, everything is just banger. You know. I'm very,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: very satisfied.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: If this would be my last I ever did, I
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: would be you know, satisfied with that. But let's hope
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: that's not the case.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: So tell us a bit more about it from a
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: musical point of view and what you were going for
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: with it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Well, of course it's a melodic power metal but some
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: songs are a bit. I mean, the album goes up
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and down. Really, It's like we have, of course a
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: couple of fast songs like you can expect from a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: para metal band, inspired by Stratavarius Halloween, but it also
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: has a couple of heavier songs inspired by hamber Fall,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and then we have some eighties songs very very much
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: eighties style to it, and then we have a little
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: bit more mid tempo songs, you know that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So there's at least one song.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That anyone could like, depending on what kind of song
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: you're into.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: So you've released the singles Powertrain and the Story in
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: the Night so far. So are they good sonic representation
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: of the album overall?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I would say so absolutely. I mean Powertrain is like
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a mid tempo power metal song, and then Story in
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the Night is of course the fastest one on the album.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, if the album is, you know, from zero
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: to five in power I would say Powertrain is about
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: three and Story Night is full five. You know, so
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you still have a lot more points to discover on
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: your own with this album.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Oh and how does it differ musically to your debut
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: album Above the Sky that came out.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I mean it's a bit more mature from that since
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: that time, but still it's you know, power metal past melodic,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: catchy choruses. We still have an eighty song we haven't
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: you know, sailing across the Sea triplet power metal song
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: with catchy chorus.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: We have some humor, a lot of you. I would
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: say more humor in this one.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's one song is about how it would
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: be if Martin McFly traveled back in time, but instead
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of traveling from nineteen ninety five going back thirty years,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: he's traveling back thirty years from now and he ends
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: up in nineteen ninety five, which is insane. Ten years
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: after they recorded the movie, he goes to nineteen ninety five.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I realized, oh shit is so much better than what
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: we're living now. So I want to stay here. And
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: I was like, dude, we need to get you back,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: we need to get you home. But then it's like, no,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I want to stay here.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: So you get to release that as a single with
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: a film clip, that'd be cool.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: That would have been very cool.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: But you can see a time traveler in the music
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: video for Powertrain as a representation of that song.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: That's very cool and I love the album. The album
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: cover features a vivid drawing and training characters that look
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: like they're coming out of some sort of electrical storm,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Like what's going on there? It's really really great details.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Good cover.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the idea was to create an album cover
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: that really shows everything that happens in the album. I mean,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: we have a train travel because the train is a
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: metaphor for the album. So when we say welcome ard
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: the powertrain, here's your ticket, it's like here's your CD.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Enjoy the album. So that's why when we say enjoy,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: welcome on board the powertrain first song, and then all
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: of the other characters on the train in the music
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: video represent the song. So therefore, the album itself is
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the train. The train is the album.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: Personally, it's called the album an exciting new journey the band.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Would you agree?
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I would? I would say absolutely. I mean musically and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: also how we perform on stage.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: It brings another stage set with this album, so it's
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and also when we now have a new album, it
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: means that we're more attractive for booking agencies and you know,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: festivals to book a book booker shows. So with this album,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: it's definitely a game changer for our us at this
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: moment for sure.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: And you guys are recorded and produced power try and
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: not by yourself what you normally do. But what are
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: some of the advantages and disadvantages of doing all that
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: like as a band instead of giving it to someone
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: else today?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: The advantage is that you can do it in your
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: own paste.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, you do it whenever you have.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Time, and you can do it making sure there is
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: as good it turns out as good as possible, and
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: it doesn't cost you, you know, money for hiring a
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: producer or recording studio, because me and Chris we have
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the knowledge to do this since many, many years, so
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: it's just stupid not to use it. But the bad
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: thing about doing like we have done is that we
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: do one song today, maybe we do two tomorrow the
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: day after I you know what, we ended.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Up late last night.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Let's just do one song and then we'll do the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: rest in a couple of weeks. Oh, we can't meet
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks. Oh well, let's do it
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: in two months. Next time we meet. It'll be fine.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Like that, you don't really have a time frame like
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: you would have if you would be in a recording
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: studio doing it with someone else.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: But it's you know, pros and cons.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: That's if we would have been in a studio, maybe
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't have so much time to you know, change
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: things in the songs during the recording, like we've done now.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you well realizes that this thing that you
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: have written here, Tommy, it's impossible to play. We have
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to change it because I can't play that. It was,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: for an example, a part that I did where the
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: high hat goes, and it was a bit hard to
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: play that because he has the travels so much with
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: his arms. So how about we played a little bit easier.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I rewrite the guitar riff and it turned out much better.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Stuff like that would not have been possible if we
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: would have been in a studio because they're here. They're there,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: they're getting paid to press a button, not to be
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: part of the songwriting.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: That's right, But part of the like part of that
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: process is got to be critical of your own work,
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: like in to try and look at it objectively, Like
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: do you find that difficult with something that you've actually
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: written yourself?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I would say it's different because I hear everything in
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: a in another way than someone else hears it. I
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: hear all the details even though it's not there, and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: sometimes it's not there at all, but I still hear it,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: you know, up here, and things like that makes it,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you know, hard to make or everything is everything is there,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you know, like and there's the choirs. Yeah, this is
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: gonna be awesome, but we didn't recording acquires there. Oh yeah,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: that's right. If we forgot about that, you know, stuff
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: like that. That's why I'm not mixing any of these
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: songs because working with them for so long, you get
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: to know the songs, and then when you start mixing them,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: like I said, you forget things.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Because you hear them in another way.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: So even if they're like very low in volume for me,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I still hear them very well because I know that
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: it's there.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Cool and Jessica that there's a lot of really good
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: power metal bands in the world made, but Jessica one
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: of the ones that have been successful. Like what makes
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: you stand out from the rest of you think.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Well, I think maybe because we're not trying to you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: do do like we have a certain image or trying
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: to sound like anyone else, Like you know, like Beast
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: and Black for example, or a Battle Beast. I love
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: the the I love the bands, I love the people.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I have nothing bad to say, but when it comes
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: to my taste in their music, the early work was
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: more power metal, and then it changed. It turned it
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: into more commercial, a little bit more, which means that
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: they have received a bigger crowd and they have both
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: been more successful, but it's not as much power metal,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: and we felt we didn't want to do that.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: We I mean, if.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It's we can get an image, we can all get
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: super fit, beautiful, four beautiful guys, and we can play
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: metal that works fine on the radio. But is that
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: what we want to do or do we just want
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to write music that we love and hope that people
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: out there we love it, we like it as much
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: as we do. Yes, that's what we want to do.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: We just do our own thing without thinking what will
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: people think, because when you start thinking about what everybody
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: else will think, then you kind of kill the creativity, you.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Take away the fun. And I try to think like that.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: When we did the singles, the two singles were released
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: and it took like seven, eight or nine songs to
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: write before we could find a good song that would
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: work because I always start to think what will people like?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Will this work on the radio, And without even showing
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: it to people, I decided, no, this doesn't work. But
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: with Majestica, I write a song and I just send
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: them to the guys and say, hey, guys, another song
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: added to the album. Like it?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You know, like that?
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: So cool it?
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: Pray big, all right, Mabell, Thanks very much for your time, Tommy,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure speaking with your. Powertrain is out
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: February the seventh. He's the cracking album from what I've
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: heard made, so best of luck with it and hopefully
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: we'll see you out in Australia in the New Fusia.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I hope so too. It would be glorious to come
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: back to Australia.