Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / SABATON’s JOAKIM BRODEN On Legends, History, And Returning Down Under

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SABATON’s JOAKIM BRODEN On Legends, History, And Returning Down Under · HEAVY Music Interviews

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, you're working from Sabaton here.
0:03
Speaker 2: Lovely, thank you so much.
0:05
Speaker 3: Legends mark Sabaton's eleventh studio album after two decades. What
0:09
Speaker 3: still excites you about stepping into the studio?
0:13
Speaker 1: Oh, studio is always fun. I don't know, it's like
0:18
Speaker 1: no matter what we do, especially the create part of it.
0:23
Speaker 1: I mean, some of it is just like put it
0:26
Speaker 1: down because it's already been written. But let's say drums,
0:32
Speaker 1: our drummer Huntess might do something new on almost every track,
0:37
Speaker 1: which is really I find it highly exciting. And guitar
0:43
Speaker 1: solos for example, stuff like that, improvising, testing new stuff
0:48
Speaker 1: with vocals could be fun. Or you know, any new
0:51
Speaker 1: addition that wasn't there, you know already in the pre
0:54
Speaker 1: production because that's already been done. The excitement is gone.
0:57
Speaker 1: Then we just put it down if it weren't. Yeah,
1:00
Speaker 1: but yeah, hearing, hearing the whole thing come together, even
1:04
Speaker 1: though I mean, after yeah, so many years of recording
1:07
Speaker 1: now already been writing a song in your mind, even
1:09
Speaker 1: though it's a year left until you're going to record it,
1:11
Speaker 1: You eighty five percent of the end product is already
1:15
Speaker 1: in your mind before the pre production is done. Basically, yeah,
1:18
Speaker 1: so in many cases it's it's a good thing because
1:22
Speaker 1: it makes you better at it because you can anticipate
1:25
Speaker 1: how it's gonna sound. But a bit of the magic
1:28
Speaker 1: is gone in that sounds as well, which is a
1:29
Speaker 1: negative because there are fewer surprises the yeah.
1:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
1:34
Speaker 3: Does it Did this album take a long time to
1:38
Speaker 3: lay down?
1:39
Speaker 2: Or like, are you pretty picky? Or was it all
1:43
Speaker 2: like recorded really quickly?
1:47
Speaker 1: About average? I mean, the problem is usually in the songwriting,
1:51
Speaker 1: when there's a lot of performance anxiety. You want the
1:53
Speaker 1: songs to be good enough and stuff like that. In
1:56
Speaker 1: these days, our band members are such good musicians. I
1:59
Speaker 1: don't have to really worry about that. Hannas gets in
2:02
Speaker 1: on a Monday morning, we rig up the drums and
2:05
Speaker 1: we start doing takes before lunch, and he'll be done
2:08
Speaker 1: by Wednesday or Thursday. That the drum's done, you know. Yeah,
2:12
Speaker 1: so that's never gonna take too long. Sometimes it's more
2:18
Speaker 1: like mixing and the details can take a lot of
2:22
Speaker 1: time if you want to do something different. Also, we
2:27
Speaker 1: have a lot, a lot, a lot of choirs on
2:29
Speaker 1: the album that could put down some extra time because
2:32
Speaker 1: obviously there's a limit on how much you can sing
2:36
Speaker 1: in a day.
2:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely, And this is the first time every
2:41
Speaker 3: band member also contributed to the songwriting process.
2:44
Speaker 2: How did that change the creative dynamic?
2:48
Speaker 1: Nothing? Really, It's just by chance. I mean, I've written
2:51
Speaker 1: songs with Hanna's before, but it was on an album
2:54
Speaker 1: where Chris wasn't writing, I think. And I've written with
2:57
Speaker 1: Tuba before and part before, but they just happened at
3:00
Speaker 1: the same time. So just pure luck and it was
3:04
Speaker 1: nothing different really.
3:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, And obviously how was that process of having everyone involved?
3:10
Speaker 2: He loved it.
3:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I spent enough time alone in the
3:15
Speaker 1: studio writing music anyway, so anytime I'll get to write
3:18
Speaker 1: with someone, I'm happy about it. Even our producer Yunasis
3:22
Speaker 1: on the last No second to last song the Cycle
3:25
Speaker 1: of Songs was written with him because basically we had
3:29
Speaker 1: some cancelations on the on I can't remember what it was.
3:35
Speaker 1: We were supposed to do something one day that didn't
3:37
Speaker 1: pan out, so we started writing a song and we
3:40
Speaker 1: thought we wouldn't be ready for this album. We started
3:44
Speaker 1: writing a song, and then obviously because Tommy, our previous
3:49
Speaker 1: guitar player, announced that he left. He told us late
3:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and we were recording in early twenty
3:55
Speaker 1: twenty four, so all of a sudden we didn't have
4:00
Speaker 1: new guitar player. Yet we knew we were going to
4:01
Speaker 1: finalize the record because we wanted to find a new
4:04
Speaker 1: band member and for that band member to be on
4:06
Speaker 1: the record. Yeah, by the time we found Tomba or
4:13
Speaker 1: brought him back sort of recycling is good these days,
4:15
Speaker 1: I heard, yes, So we had enough time, so we
4:20
Speaker 1: managed to squeeze one more song into the album, which
4:23
Speaker 1: is good.
4:24
Speaker 2: That's so awesome.
4:25
Speaker 3: And the album dives into figures like Joan of Arca
4:28
Speaker 3: Napole and Julius Caesar and Mia Motto Musashi, which legend
4:34
Speaker 3: story resonated with you the most well, writing.
4:38
Speaker 1: Oh good one. Somehow, it's tricky with these because some
4:44
Speaker 1: of them are so prevalent in popular culture that they've
4:50
Speaker 1: been there all along. I mean the templars. They will
4:52
Speaker 1: pop up on anything from historical documentaries to modern conspiracy
4:58
Speaker 1: theories basically y But I don't know. I think for me,
5:07
Speaker 1: the biggest surprises I guess would have been the cycle
5:14
Speaker 1: of songs that I talked about earlier is the sentence
5:16
Speaker 1: it at the third ancient Egypt eighteen hundred before Christ
5:21
Speaker 1: or something like that, and a lot of stuff that
5:25
Speaker 1: was totally new to me because I haven't been too
5:28
Speaker 1: much into that. I also, even though parrote the lyrics
5:30
Speaker 1: and did most of the research, lou Bou and Tiger
5:34
Speaker 1: among Dragons also a gap in my historical sort of
5:39
Speaker 1: education or self education, if you will, So that was
5:43
Speaker 1: a lot so new for me. Since then, I've put
5:46
Speaker 1: the you know, late Hauntingnesstay, three Kingdoms era of China
5:50
Speaker 1: into my ah to be looked into in the future. Listen.
5:55
Speaker 1: So those are the two sort of that were most
5:59
Speaker 1: unknown to me before. Yes, and I guess the one
6:04
Speaker 1: I thought I knew a lot about but I learned
6:09
Speaker 1: even more about would be sort of impaler blood and
6:12
Speaker 1: also Hannibal.
6:14
Speaker 2: Ah.
6:16
Speaker 3: Interesting, It's so good you answered that for me because
6:19
Speaker 3: that was going to be one of my questions. You
6:20
Speaker 3: must have learned so much new information. I know you're
6:25
Speaker 3: really into your history, but it must have been a really.
6:30
Speaker 2: Exciting process for you.
6:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, we do have an overview about well
6:36
Speaker 1: not everything, but most of the things we write about
6:39
Speaker 1: in going into it, we are familiar with the topic.
6:43
Speaker 1: But when we decided like oh, maybe this is gonna
6:45
Speaker 1: be something that's on the album. That's when the research
6:47
Speaker 1: really starts. And I've found out that no matter how
6:51
Speaker 1: hard we research this, how deep down the rabbit hole
6:54
Speaker 1: we go. Because it's some songs you find what you
6:57
Speaker 1: need or are looking for to write the lyrics or
6:59
Speaker 1: something inspiring really quick. Other songs will take you down
7:03
Speaker 1: a rabbit hole of I don't know, three books and
7:06
Speaker 1: forty four documentaries, it feels like, and you still don't
7:09
Speaker 1: know where to start. Yeah, and where was I going
7:14
Speaker 1: with this? Hm? Yeah. Sometimes it's easier when you're let
7:22
Speaker 1: down a path and you don't have too much prior knowledge.
7:26
Speaker 1: But you're like a child in a candy story. You're
7:28
Speaker 1: discovering new stuff all the time. So the quicker you
7:31
Speaker 1: can get into the sort of oh this is exciting,
7:34
Speaker 1: you know face, the better the lyric is going to be.
7:40
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, yeah, it's so cool.
7:42
Speaker 3: And you guys are known for your historical accuracy. What
7:47
Speaker 3: was the most surprising fact you uncovered during your research
7:50
Speaker 3: for Legends?
7:54
Speaker 1: Oh? Surprising fact? I got to think back now, it's
7:58
Speaker 1: been a while since. Yes, sorry, it's pricky. We mixed
8:02
Speaker 1: it a year. It was done over a year ago so,
8:07
Speaker 1: and a lot of the work with it happened in
8:09
Speaker 1: late twenty three early twenty four. There's always a bunch
8:15
Speaker 1: of facts. I mean, every song almost has something Oh shit,
8:20
Speaker 1: I didn't know that, And especially then later we have
8:22
Speaker 1: our YouTube sabaton History channel being going on, and then
8:26
Speaker 1: we sort of hand that over to professional historians. And
8:29
Speaker 1: that's funny, no matter I found out that, no matter
8:32
Speaker 1: how much research I did, and I thought I read
8:34
Speaker 1: it all and watched it all, because at a certain point,
8:36
Speaker 1: once you read enough books and once you seen enough documentaries,
8:40
Speaker 1: the same information starts repeating and very little new stuff
8:44
Speaker 1: comes in. But to this day, there hasn't been a
8:46
Speaker 1: single sabot On History episode where I didn't learn something new.
8:51
Speaker 1: So obviously there's a big difference between a passionate amateur
8:56
Speaker 1: historian me or professional historians.
9:00
Speaker 3: Can you tell us a little bit more about how
9:02
Speaker 3: this YouTube channel started.
9:05
Speaker 1: Well, in many cases, our music, which is like you know,
9:10
Speaker 1: let's say three to eight minute song of heavy metal,
9:14
Speaker 1: it's got choruses, so certain things has to repeat. We
9:19
Speaker 1: can't sort of make tell the whole story. We can
9:24
Speaker 1: only choose on one aspect of the story. Most of
9:26
Speaker 1: the time, so sometimes we can tell a bit of
9:28
Speaker 1: a larger narrative. It depends on the song, but we
9:31
Speaker 1: are sort of confined by the structure of the song.
9:38
Speaker 1: But we always felt there was so much more, and
9:40
Speaker 1: in many cases there were so many easter eggs in
9:42
Speaker 1: the lyrics that we feelt people are missing if they
9:45
Speaker 1: don't have that, you know, have that pre prior knowledge,
9:51
Speaker 1: and there was so much more to these people or
9:53
Speaker 1: these battles or events that when Pad met Indy was
9:59
Speaker 1: doing the Great War Channel, they really clicked and we
10:04
Speaker 1: decided to embark on that adventure. We haven't had that
10:07
Speaker 1: many obviously. We haven't released new music in a while,
10:10
Speaker 1: so we haven't had that many new episodes. But now,
10:12
Speaker 1: I mean, we're really busy at the moment. So it's
10:14
Speaker 1: gonna be a while until we can start filming because
10:16
Speaker 1: you know, there's gotta be scripts written and research done
10:20
Speaker 1: again and then filming of a lot of people. But yeah,
10:23
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. I'm really looking forward to doing
10:25
Speaker 1: you know, Sabbath and history on these things because there's
10:28
Speaker 1: still quite recently in my memory. I haven't forgotten all
10:31
Speaker 1: of it yet, and to see what new stuff I
10:34
Speaker 1: can learn about it.
10:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so so awesome. And you guys it's pretty
10:38
Speaker 3: successful as well. I had a look at it and
10:41
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my gosh, Like you guys have
10:43
Speaker 3: really collaborated with people that know about all these topics.
10:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have, you know, paid for access to all
10:53
Speaker 1: of these archive material websites so we can use proper
10:56
Speaker 1: film from I mean, it's not going to get any
10:58
Speaker 1: film from a lot of these legends that we have
11:04
Speaker 1: because basically there wasn't any cameras back in these days.
11:08
Speaker 2: That's right.
11:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe the camera was invented during Napoleon's lifetime, but
11:17
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure. It will be around there. It
11:21
Speaker 1: will be around there, right, But I think the camera obscura,
11:24
Speaker 1: they were experimenting with those things at a later point.
11:28
Speaker 1: But the proper camera where you could actually document and
11:31
Speaker 1: save a picture for later, I think that's late eighteen hundreds,
11:35
Speaker 1: isn't it.
11:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, And now here's the embarrassing part. When did Napoleon
11:40
Speaker 1: die again? It must have been some time around there.
11:42
Speaker 2: I have no idea. No, very interesting. I love this
11:46
Speaker 2: stuff anyway.
11:49
Speaker 3: The Jewelists and Lightning at the Gates both have strong,
11:53
Speaker 3: a strong cinematic field. Do you approach writing them like
11:57
Speaker 3: scoring a historical film.
12:02
Speaker 1: No, not really. I mean, I mean, obviously, in most cases,
12:05
Speaker 1: not all of them. I'm inspired by the topic or
12:09
Speaker 1: the events, but I don't know the exact words. In
12:12
Speaker 1: some cases words sort of not only a demo of music,
12:16
Speaker 1: but a demo of lyrics comes as well, where things
12:19
Speaker 1: change around. Yea, and sometimes, I mean, it happened a
12:23
Speaker 1: few times where I knew exactly what the song is
12:25
Speaker 1: about and a lot of the lyrics came at the
12:27
Speaker 1: same time with the music. On the other hand, it's
12:30
Speaker 1: also happened quite a few times that I have no
12:32
Speaker 1: idea what the topic is going to be like because
12:34
Speaker 1: we're let's say, in between two album or in the
12:39
Speaker 1: middle of a tour or something, and we just made
12:42
Speaker 1: an album. And if I were to write a song
12:44
Speaker 1: right now just for fun and I found, you know,
12:48
Speaker 1: found something great, then I might have no it might
12:52
Speaker 1: have no correlation or no idea at this time, was
12:54
Speaker 1: starting to write the song what it's going to be
12:56
Speaker 1: about because we haven't decided what the next album is about. Yeah,
13:01
Speaker 1: at that point. It's happened several times that even though
13:04
Speaker 1: it was a great song. It didn't fit any of
13:07
Speaker 1: the topics we had on the album. But then I
13:10
Speaker 1: do it. Just wait for the next album, you.
13:12
Speaker 2: Know, that's it. That's it. Oh, that's awesome.
13:15
Speaker 3: And again, some of the songs seen built for massive
13:19
Speaker 3: live singalongs. Were you thinking about the crowd reactions when
13:22
Speaker 3: arranging them?
13:27
Speaker 1: Hmmm, good question. It's happened sometimes that you're thinking about
13:32
Speaker 1: stuff you can do with the crowd or the show.
13:34
Speaker 1: I mean not only I mean the crowd is harder
13:38
Speaker 1: to control than the pyro. But yeah, there are sometimes
13:44
Speaker 1: and not every time. So it's hard to say every
13:48
Speaker 1: song is different in how it's written. Does it start
13:51
Speaker 1: with an idea of the topic? Does it start with
13:53
Speaker 1: just a guitar riff or a rhythm? During that time,
13:56
Speaker 1: will we have an idea about the lyrics or the
13:59
Speaker 1: show or crowding interactions? Maybe? I me In most cases, no,
14:05
Speaker 1: we are not focusing on how to deal or interact
14:09
Speaker 1: with the crowd when writing a song. No, the focus
14:12
Speaker 1: is usually let's make a great song. Yeah, However, there's
14:15
Speaker 1: usually a lot of these ideas come up after the
14:18
Speaker 1: fact or while in the studio. It's like, oh we
14:20
Speaker 1: can do that.
14:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, for this part we could, yeah on stage to
14:24
Speaker 3: this Piro everything.
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so cool.
14:27
Speaker 3: And Australia and New Zealand will be among the very
14:29
Speaker 3: first to hear songs from Legends live. What can fans
14:34
Speaker 3: here expect from these shows and how does it feel
14:36
Speaker 3: to debut new material on the other side of the world.
14:42
Speaker 1: Well, being on the other side of the world isn't
14:44
Speaker 1: gonna matter aw song as a song no matter where
14:46
Speaker 1: it's played, unless it's played on the actual day or
14:49
Speaker 1: the battlefield where it happens. That makes it somehow, you know.
14:53
Speaker 1: And it's also nervous when you're playing something for the
14:55
Speaker 1: first time. So we're gonna, of course we're gonna play
14:58
Speaker 1: something from theupcoming album. On the other hand, we've never
15:02
Speaker 1: really headlined toward down there, so there's a lot of
15:09
Speaker 1: well older stuff that we never had the chance to
15:12
Speaker 1: play live in Australia, and our plan and hope, without
15:15
Speaker 1: making promises, is to make it back again during the
15:18
Speaker 1: Legend cycle. So we're going to focus more on the
15:22
Speaker 1: other stuff because the whole album isn't out yet anyway, yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, so to focus more on the older
15:30
Speaker 1: stuff that we haven't had the chance to play for
15:33
Speaker 1: you guys, and then you know, timing and hopefully we'll
15:38
Speaker 1: make it back before we do anything else, and then
15:41
Speaker 1: we can focus on the new album, which would make
15:43
Speaker 1: more sense otherwise it would be more of a similar experience,
15:48
Speaker 1: you know.
15:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, definitely, I think we're all itching to hear
15:52
Speaker 3: your older stuff because it's been quite a while anyway
15:54
Speaker 3: since we've heard from you guys, So that'd be great.
15:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, last time we were there, we had kind of
15:59
Speaker 1: kind of short some good times festivals, yeah, not too
16:02
Speaker 1: long sets, so we didn't have time to play anything else,
16:05
Speaker 1: and then the sort of most expected songs.
16:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's right. And what challenges came about with this.
16:12
Speaker 1: Album, Oh, the usual performance anxiety right when writing the music.
16:18
Speaker 1: That's usually where the big crunch is writing music and
16:21
Speaker 1: the lyrics. Is it good enough? And both us as songwriters,
16:27
Speaker 1: but also the fans. There's always the danger of judging
16:32
Speaker 1: one single album based on a best of of a
16:37
Speaker 1: whole career, and that's really dangerous. It's stifling for the
16:42
Speaker 1: creative process, and it's also unfair when judging the album,
16:47
Speaker 1: as in, you know, you listen to the album and
16:49
Speaker 1: then you're thinking if you're comparing it to every other
16:53
Speaker 1: single album, then that's fine, you know, but you can't
16:56
Speaker 1: compare it to ten are greatest hits of ten albums.
17:00
Speaker 1: That's impossible. And getting out of that mindset when sort
17:05
Speaker 1: of writing the album is tricky. Ah, this thing, this
17:11
Speaker 1: isn't as good as that or hm hmm. Yeah, yeah,
17:16
Speaker 1: but focus on doing the absolute best you can and
17:21
Speaker 1: then if it's not good enough, take it away. Stop
17:26
Speaker 1: the comparisons, you know, Comparing too much can be detrimental
17:33
Speaker 1: to the creative process. It's better to create, start creating,
17:37
Speaker 1: and then throwing it away starting over than being stuck.
17:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
17:43
Speaker 3: So obviously the fans reactions mean a lot to you.
17:48
Speaker 1: Yep.
17:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
17:50
Speaker 1: I mean in a sense, if somebody who doesn't like
17:52
Speaker 1: Sabaton doesn't like this, I couldn't well, I don't give
17:56
Speaker 1: a shit really exactly. If somebody who's positive about Sabaton
18:03
Speaker 1: releasing an album, looking forward to it with not unrealistic expectations,
18:09
Speaker 1: if they are disappointed, then yeah, we failed, and that's
18:12
Speaker 1: the biggest fear. Yeah, there's well, without being rude, there's
18:18
Speaker 1: always going to be some people who have unrealistic expectations
18:23
Speaker 1: because they are comparing a whole new album to the
18:26
Speaker 1: best of ten albums. Sorry, nothing we can do about that,
18:30
Speaker 1: you know, But yeah, the biggest fear and the biggest
18:37
Speaker 1: failure we could do is to have somebody coming into
18:40
Speaker 1: this with a positive mindset looking forward to a new
18:42
Speaker 1: Sabaton album, who doesn't have unrealistic expectations. If they go, ah, no,
18:48
Speaker 1: Sabatan lost it, that's like, no, we shouldn't do that.
18:51
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel confident that's not going to happen
18:53
Speaker 1: with this album. But that's that's the starting point anxiety
18:57
Speaker 1: that always comes.
18:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I think people as well might have
19:02
Speaker 3: maybe they've got a particular album of yours that was
19:04
Speaker 3: their absolute favor favorite and that captures an era of
19:08
Speaker 3: you guys, and it's like, you're never going to create
19:11
Speaker 3: the same stuff.
19:12
Speaker 2: You know, You're going to keep evolving.
19:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean we're not a revolutionary band by
19:18
Speaker 1: any means, So I mean, from one album to the next,
19:21
Speaker 1: it's not maybe a huge difference always. I mean, especially
19:23
Speaker 1: Great War and The War Wandal Wars both about World
19:26
Speaker 1: War One, written during almost the same time, so the
19:30
Speaker 1: musical differences aren't huge. But now we're moving into totally
19:35
Speaker 1: different topics. Yeah, there's a bigger variety and difference in
19:38
Speaker 1: this album than on those or between those, for obvious
19:42
Speaker 1: and natural reasons, every topic will take us to a
19:47
Speaker 1: different place sound wise.
19:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely, And the Vinyl editions tied to individual
19:54
Speaker 3: historical figures are unique concept.
19:57
Speaker 2: How did that idea evolve?
20:00
Speaker 1: I think that's more part and Chris, who are really
20:02
Speaker 1: into that, because they both collectors, Especially Chris, he is
20:06
Speaker 1: collecting everything himself and he loves all the artwork details.
20:10
Speaker 1: And for me, I want to be I want to
20:14
Speaker 1: do the music and then I don't want to think
20:16
Speaker 1: about it anymore. I mean, I'm happy to see a
20:19
Speaker 1: beautiful artwork, but I'm I'm visually challenged these things, so
20:26
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about design or artwork and stuff.
20:30
Speaker 1: I mean, I appreciate it, but if somebody shows me something,
20:33
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you what's wrong with it. At least
20:36
Speaker 1: it doesn't.
20:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair enough. At least you're honest and you've collaborated. Sorry,
20:44
Speaker 2: looking back, how do you see.
20:46
Speaker 3: Legends as a continuation or evolution of albums like Heroes?
20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say it has some similarities to Heroes
20:55
Speaker 1: and last stand those two because of the concepts are
21:00
Speaker 1: more compatible, especially Last Stands, where you know, from a
21:03
Speaker 1: lyrical standpoint, we're a little bit everywhere historically and time wise.
21:08
Speaker 1: I mean that one goes back to before christ as
21:11
Speaker 1: well with the last Standard the Spartans. So this album
21:19
Speaker 1: I would say, is almost as free lyrically and topically,
21:24
Speaker 1: you know, and choice of events like Last Stand and
21:30
Speaker 1: heroes as well. Yeah, maybe it's got a musically a
21:33
Speaker 1: bit more heroes vibe than the The End of the
21:37
Speaker 1: War to End All Wars, the War to End All
21:40
Speaker 1: Wars and Great War. Wow, we should stop making complex,
21:45
Speaker 1: complex titles for albums.
21:47
Speaker 2: It's a lot.
21:54
Speaker 1: And well the first one was taken already Great War.
21:56
Speaker 1: We already made that one.
21:57
Speaker 3: So that's right, so you had to get you had
22:00
Speaker 3: to adapt and change. You've played to sold out arenas worldwide.
22:04
Speaker 3: Do you see Legends as an album that will expand
22:07
Speaker 3: the live show even further?
22:10
Speaker 1: Yes, I do. I mean it becomes a very expensive
22:13
Speaker 1: thing to start to build because it's a lot of everywhere.
22:18
Speaker 1: I mean, if you build something for World War One,
22:19
Speaker 1: it can be used for anything. World War one right now,
22:22
Speaker 1: if we build something that's suitable for cenusret the third
22:25
Speaker 1: from eighteen hundred before Christ. That's not going to be
22:29
Speaker 1: appropriate for Napoleon eighteen hundred Christ, that's right. So but yeah,
22:34
Speaker 1: I mean it gives us a bit more variety visually
22:37
Speaker 1: for sure.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, excellent.
22:39
Speaker 3: And you guys have earned a reputation as one of
22:42
Speaker 3: the hardest working bands in metal.
22:44
Speaker 2: What keeps that drive alive after more than twenty years.
22:49
Speaker 1: Well, genuinely enjoying it. I think we've been, you know,
22:54
Speaker 1: at a certain point, back long back in time, noticed that,
22:59
Speaker 1: you know, when we did a hundred and seventy or
23:00
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty five somewhere between their shows in
23:03
Speaker 1: a year, plus all the travels, the days off and
23:07
Speaker 1: everything else a band does except touring, I mean there
23:10
Speaker 1: might be recordings and interviews and everything else. We ended
23:14
Speaker 1: up with a situation that was not sustainable. So we
23:16
Speaker 1: learned to say no, and we became at the same
23:20
Speaker 1: time large enough to start to say no to things.
23:28
Speaker 1: And yeah, we're not the biggest band in the world
23:30
Speaker 1: by any means, but we're large enough to at least
23:34
Speaker 1: being able to afford to say no when things get
23:37
Speaker 1: too intense, which is really a luxury, because that's a struggle.
23:43
Speaker 1: We've been through that. I mean it's been a few
23:45
Speaker 1: years now, but we've been through that phase when like
23:48
Speaker 1: you're just starting to make a living as a band
23:52
Speaker 1: and you're dependent on a constant stream of shows albums
23:59
Speaker 1: too constantly be there because you're not making enough to
24:04
Speaker 1: create or tour and then take that break, you've got
24:08
Speaker 1: to just keep rolling and breaking free of that wheel
24:13
Speaker 1: is truly a hard struggle for a lot of bands,
24:18
Speaker 1: or all the bands, I would say, at a certain
24:19
Speaker 1: point in their career. All we can hope for is
24:23
Speaker 1: that you pass that quick enough before you burn out.
24:26
Speaker 3: Basically, yeah, yeah, no, definitely, I know what you're talking about,
24:29
Speaker 3: that sacrifice of having to say yes to every opportunity
24:33
Speaker 3: when you're just starting out or in that period, and
24:36
Speaker 3: it's like that it can lead so quickly to burnout
24:39
Speaker 3: if you just keep saying yes to everything.
24:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:44
Speaker 3: And with historical themes as your foundation, are there still
24:47
Speaker 3: errors or events you're itching to explore in further albums?
24:52
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, everywhere. I mean, there's enough, there's enough
24:57
Speaker 1: in military history for twenty bands to make twenty albums
25:02
Speaker 1: about it. So God, it's different. I mean, I've said
25:07
Speaker 1: in the past what I'm into at the moment, and
25:10
Speaker 1: people have been expecting that and none. They've been disappointed
25:12
Speaker 1: when the next album was about something else else. So
25:15
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too much into it. I mean,
25:18
Speaker 1: but our interest in history is not limited by military
25:22
Speaker 1: history by any means. For me, I mean, a few
25:26
Speaker 1: years back, it was the behind the scenes Cold War
25:32
Speaker 1: spy games. Before that, it was the rise and fall
25:36
Speaker 1: and the yeah, history of the Medichi family in Renaissance Italy,
25:43
Speaker 1: how they managed to get popes on, you know, and everything.
25:48
Speaker 1: So I'm pretty much everywhere. I'd never become an expert
25:53
Speaker 1: in any of the subjects, but I'm a kid in
25:55
Speaker 1: a candy story. I like to discover new things and
25:57
Speaker 1: it's super exciting. And then once I once I come
26:01
Speaker 1: deep enough into a subject where fifty percent of what
26:05
Speaker 1: I'm reading or watching is a repeat of what I
26:09
Speaker 1: already know, I move on from a personal point of view.
26:14
Speaker 1: If it then becomes professional, as if we decide to
26:16
Speaker 1: do a song about something, that's when we go past.
26:19
Speaker 2: That, definitely.
26:21
Speaker 3: So is it fair to say that a lot of
26:23
Speaker 3: your downtime is spent watching history documentary?
26:26
Speaker 1: So yes, I would say eighty percent of what I
26:34
Speaker 1: watch personally is non fiction or seventy five at least,
26:41
Speaker 1: but not limited to history. But nonfiction for sure, Yes,
26:47
Speaker 1: scientific literature or documentaries for sure. Historical and not only
26:53
Speaker 1: military history. Military history is like something that comes and goes.
26:56
Speaker 1: If I just made an album, I tired of military
26:58
Speaker 1: history in that at the moment, so I'll watch something else,
27:01
Speaker 1: and then it'll ramp back up once I haven't done
27:04
Speaker 1: it in a while.
27:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome. You can get really interested in things
27:08
Speaker 2: over time.
27:10
Speaker 1: I like my rabbit holes.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah.
27:15
Speaker 3: And last question, if you could step back in time
27:17
Speaker 3: and witness one of the events from legends in person,
27:20
Speaker 3: which one would you choose?
27:21
Speaker 2: And why?
27:22
Speaker 1: Wow? That is an awesome question. I have no idea
27:25
Speaker 1: how to answer it, though, from a purely visual point
27:33
Speaker 1: of view and based on myths and legends. Hannibal crossing
27:41
Speaker 1: the Alps, that would have been a sight, wouldn't it,
27:44
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah? Because there aren't that. I mean, if
27:48
Speaker 1: we're looking at Napoleon, we know a bit more about
27:50
Speaker 1: how things looked, what people were wearing back then. At
27:55
Speaker 1: least I don't know that much visually about how a
27:58
Speaker 1: Carthaginian army with elephants walking over with us. The visuals
28:02
Speaker 1: of that, I can't I can't imagine that as easily,
28:06
Speaker 1: you know, Yes, so that would be my choice.
28:10
Speaker 3: That's a good one. That's a really good one. I've
28:11
Speaker 3: always wondered about that too, About.
28:13
Speaker 2: The elephants crossing in like the snow, like it just doesn't.
28:16
Speaker 1: Make I mean, but something that shouldn't be there for sure,
28:21
Speaker 1: you know.
28:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it. That is so awesome. Oh yo, Kim,
28:25
Speaker 3: thank you so much for your time today. We're so
28:27
Speaker 3: excited to see you guys here so soon.
28:30
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me