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AXIS MUNDI Unleashed: EDDIE BERG On IMMINENCE’s Brutal New Era · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So my name is Eddie and I'm the singer and
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: violinist of the Swedish metalcore band Imminence. Cheers, mate. Thanks
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: No problem. So Imminence, release your sixth studio album, Axis,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Monday on October the 2nd, bro. Not too far away now.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: How are you feeling?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels great. I'm really excited to get this
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  Speaker 1: album out. Not bad, man.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Can you tell us a bit more about it from
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  Speaker 2: a musical point of view and what you're going for
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  Speaker 2: with it?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, when we create an album, we try to
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  Speaker 1: be very free in the creative process and not judge
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the work as it's kind of unfolding. So we just
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: crack on with writing songs. And then when you come
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  Speaker 1: to a certain point and you have maybe 15 songs,
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  Speaker 1: you start to see the pattern in front of you.
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  Speaker 1: this writing process felt really great for us, because we
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  Speaker 1: felt that we did end up on a new path
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  Speaker 1: for IMMINENCE, but in the best way possible. Yeah, nice.
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  Speaker 2: This album follows your highly successful 2024 album, The Black,
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  Speaker 2: which took IMMINENCE to a global audience, right? Was it
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: tending to rehash what was obviously a winning formula from
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  Speaker 2: that album on this one, or was it important to
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  Speaker 2: move forward musically?
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  Speaker 1: I think what's the winning formula for our band is
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  Speaker 1: writing music that is meaningful to us and being able
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  Speaker 1: to express ourselves in whatever way we want to. And
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly how we wrote our last record, The Black.
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  Speaker 1: So in that sense, we didn't really change the formula.
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  Speaker 1: But of course, we changed the style because that's the
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  Speaker 1: way we work. Yeah.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: The opening track, Twisting in the Wind, is a beautiful
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  Speaker 2: piece of music, man. It starts with a soothing vocal
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  Speaker 2: delivery over string instruments. It's both ominous and alluring at
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the same time. But what was the thought process behind
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: opening for that particular song?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: We recorded 16 songs, actually, in the studio for this
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: album because we weren't sure which ones we were going
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  Speaker 1: to pick. And then We wanted to give every song
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a second chance. As you know, many things can happen
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  Speaker 1: in the studio. And then we started workshopping different track
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  Speaker 1: lists and exchanging songs here and there. And this is
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  Speaker 1: just how we ended up. We felt that it was
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  Speaker 1: a great opening track that kind of sets the premise
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of the album.
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  Speaker 2: It shows well because it definitely does that, man. It
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  Speaker 2: grabs you from the start. You know, like I've never
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  Speaker 2: heard much of your music before and that came on
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  Speaker 2: and it's just like, ooh, this guy's got something going
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  Speaker 2: on here.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, mate.
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  Speaker 2: And the album's been described as an album of massive
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  Speaker 2: contrast from crushing heaviness versus a sweeping orchestration. Then there's
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the brutal screams and the sore and clean vocals. So
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  Speaker 2: as a vocalist, how taxing was the record on you
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  Speaker 2: emotionally and physically compared to previous releases?
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  Speaker 1: It's not been extremely taxing. I mean, the way we
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: recorded the vocals is that we record them here in
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  Speaker 1: my home studio while we're writing the album. So that's
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: what's ending up on the finished album. So it's not
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  Speaker 1: like I went into the studio and tortured myself for
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: three weeks.
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  Speaker 2: You stayed at home and tortured yourself instead. the conceptual
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: side of the album it's elaborate and engaging like taking
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  Speaker 2: place in a fantasy world created by the band so
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: run us through that world and then how it integrates
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  Speaker 2: with the music.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I mean it all it all started with the artwork
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  Speaker 1: you know and we work with the same graphic designer
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: has done every album artwork for us um in our
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: career a great friend of ours and um he gets
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  Speaker 1: the album earlier the demos and he presented us with
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  Speaker 1: the first mood board, which was, he had chosen some
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: images of nights against like a very modern background. And
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  Speaker 1: we felt there was something compelling about that. And the
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  Speaker 1: contrast in that imagery was something that really spoke to
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  Speaker 1: us in terms of like the sonic direction as well.
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  Speaker 1: So once we had that kind of decided, this is
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  Speaker 1: the path we're going down into, We started talking about
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  Speaker 1: the visual universe and what kind of a story are
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  Speaker 1: we going to tell with this album? And obviously, the
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  Speaker 1: lyrical theme is not about being a knight. That's a metaphor.
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  Speaker 1: And we got pretty early the idea to make a
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  Speaker 1: short film around this whole album. And so we started
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  Speaker 1: hashing out what could this story be like and what
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  Speaker 1: is it supposed to be about? So me and Harold,
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  Speaker 1: we talked a lot about what we feel that the
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  Speaker 1: record is representing for ourselves and then how are we
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  Speaker 1: telling that through a story? And once we had the
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  Speaker 1: outline of the story, we got a scriptwriter on board
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  Speaker 1: to help us just bring it all home.
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  Speaker 2: As a casual listener perhaps, is it important that they
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  Speaker 2: know the concept to appreciate the music fully or are
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  Speaker 2: they two separate entities that combine together?
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  Speaker 1: I think you don't need it. It's just we have
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  Speaker 1: created a universe and if you're just there to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: the music, you can enjoy the music. Like I said,
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  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of things that you can
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  Speaker 1: relate to in the music without thinking of it, you know, but...
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  Speaker 1: If you want to dive deeper, then I think there
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  Speaker 1: is a world to discover.
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  Speaker 2: How about when you start integrating the songs into your
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: live set list? If you've got conceptual things jumping in
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  Speaker 2: amongst other songs, does it feel disjointed in some way
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  Speaker 2: for you to play?
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  Speaker 1: We're still to play our first album tour of this cycle.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: But we played some new singles this summer and that
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  Speaker 1: worked really well in our set list on the festivals.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's just about trying to find the right
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  Speaker 1: balance and build a set that you feel like is
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  Speaker 1: flowing nicely.
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  Speaker 2: And now this album was self-produced by the band Outside Malmo.
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  Speaker 2: So what were some of the challenges and freedoms of
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: producing your own work at this stage of your career?
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  Speaker 1: Is it... I mean, it's not self-produced. I mean, me
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and Harold has produced it together with Hendrik, the mixing engineer.
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  Speaker 1: And then we had a co-producer in Drew Falk and
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Lucas Geppert as well. So we had some help on
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: this as well.
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  Speaker 2: Nice. You mentioned before the film side of it. So
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: you've got a screen in a film version of Access
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  Speaker 2: Monday in cinemas globally. So what was the process like
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: expanding your music into a bigger sort of realm of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: the movies?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it was pretty wild to us. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: we were presented with the idea to do this and
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we immediately wanted to do it because we've
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  Speaker 1: always been a very cinematic band and taking our music
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: videos very seriously. And so this just felt like the
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  Speaker 1: next step or the next challenge that we felt like
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  Speaker 1: we wanted to do. And it's been a crazy process,
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  Speaker 1: you know, of seeing all the script versions and seeing
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: even auditions and everything, like every little detail we've been
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: involved throughout and it's been incredible.
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  Speaker 2: Well, did that make you want to do it again
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: or did it make you want to stand back and
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: never do it again?
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  Speaker 1: We'll see. We'll see.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Have you got any, any chores or any shows planned
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: to celebrate the album?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to North America in November and then
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: we're hitting Europe in January. So almost, almost back to back.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Very nice, man.
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  Speaker 2: Before we go, do you remember the first time you
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  Speaker 2: ever heard one of your songs on the radio? And
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  Speaker 2: what song was it and where were you?
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever been in the moment. We've
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  Speaker 1: had quite a lot of airplay in America, but I haven't.
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  Speaker 1: been there when the song is playing. And I haven't
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  Speaker 1: caught it on Swedish radio yet. Yet.
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  Speaker 2: All right, anymore, thanks for your time, bro. The album
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  Speaker 2: Axis Monday is out on October 2nd and very impressive
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  Speaker 2: slab of music, brother. So best of luck with it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.