So welcome to Vaken Winternights 2019 where I'm with Apocalypse Orchestra from Sweden. First of all guys, how is the band doing? Circa 2019. Yeah, we're doing very well. We are. Yeah, it's been quite busy since we released our album about 18 months ago and 2018 was all gigging all the time. And we are hibernating back into the studio now to write some new material. So this was one of a very few number of appearances this year on the stage. We've been longing for writing new material for a really long time so we're looking forward to getting back into the studio. Yeah, you have said that you are in hibernation at the moment so when could something come out that we could hear? Well, probably not until 2020. That's my pessimistic guess at the moment. And we're quite perfectionists so the smallest detail can take very long time. But we want to feel that we're satisfied with the results and that we need to top our first album. So yeah, it might take a while. And since the songs are quite long and lots of parts in details so yeah, it's a slow process but we're doing it. Okay, and can you tell me what kind of musical direction are you going to take? We've been talking about making it a bit more variation. Even if Michael said the music is quite detailed, I don't think we've had enough of it yet. Difference is in tempo. There's a lot more weird instruments to bring into the mix. Yeah, more medieval stuff. He can play about anything. Some of them. Yeah, and if you talk about lyrics, there's so many stories to tell. The medieval times was full of it. A lot of weird ideas, weird people and there's no shortage of stories. And beautiful artwork and lots of inspiring things. So yeah, we have a lot of material to choose from. Okay, so let's start from where does the interest come? You know, with the music of the olden days for 11th century music. So where does the interest come from? For me, it was a group called Garmana. I heard them when I was 18 and I was totally hooked. And they're playing like folk rock versions of the Swedish medieval ballads. And that was the thing that started it for me. So they have a Hurtigardy, the cranking instrument that I play. And I had to have one, so I bought one. Yeah, and Michael and I have known each other for a long time. We've been playing different kinds of folk music together in different bands. And some of them folk rock bands. And since a previous band went into hibernation, oh, this sounds menacing. That band went to the side and Michael had this idea of bringing it from rock up to metal. And slowing temples down, doing a lot of older melodies. And I've listened to medieval music and early music since I was teenager. So I was hooked on the idea right away. So yeah, folk metal has been around for some time now. But what are your feelings, mixing those old folk melodies with modern metal? Basically, so where does it all begin? It's a lot of interpretation because it's very difficult to say exactly how music sounded 800 years ago. Not much of it is written down. You didn't have temple signatures. You don't know what key they were playing in. It's a lot of interpretation. It's not wrong to do anything. And there's different kinds of folk metal. The ordinary kind of folk metal is like dancing and drinking beer and quite jolly music. Polka. Yeah, polka. They like the accordion. I love the accordion too. You said it. Yeah. But we wanted to take a little bit darker roots and go more medieval. I don't want to blame the Swedish melancholy for this either, but we're quite happy guys. But I've always felt that a melody and an arrangement of music in symbiosis can bring out the best of both parties. And folk music back in the day was a melody or a drum and you danced or you sang a story. So doing what we do is an ultra modern interpretation of mixing these things. For me personally, I love everything crossover, be it food, culture, music. So I almost can't imagine playing in a band where you don't mix two genres. Playing just metal? No. That is insane. You have to have some strange instruments. Okay, so when it comes to the tales, where do you draw inspiration? You said it's like a old Swedish tale. The Norwegians have their Eda and so on. So where do you draw inspiration? Yeah, the Eda is a bit older since that's more like Viking age. So I guess we're a bit more modern, but it's like from the 11th century. And there's lots of stories from the common theme in our music is the plague, the black death. And there's lots of inspiration to take from there, from the stories. We find them in books and stuff. So that's where we find them. We like the weird stuff, like the flagellant movements where they whip themselves into frenzy just to please God. And the plague doctor who is with this fearful mask going around prodding people. Bring out your dead. We like the strange stuff. Well, Swedish history is quite a war-ridden. Yeah, so you draw any inspiration from that? Yeah, we do. We try to avoid this glory of battle stuff. It's not really our thing, we believe that being on the battlefield wasn't a fun thing to do. It was probably very horrifying. So we want to bring that out instead. Yeah, I mean, you had very few people who could actually experience the glory of war. Most of the people actually going to war had no choice to be there. They were forced, they owed money, they had to make a living, they were slaves. And they were harsh times to begin with. So we want to, it's hard to like call yourself historically correct when there's few sources for information. But we try at least to have an authentic take on the lyrical themes and try to imagine what it would have been to be around in those times. And our collective feeling so far that it wasn't very nice. Yeah, it wasn't very nice. And we want to bring that feeling to the listener as well. It was harsh. Yeah, I guess we can all agree on that. And yes, Sweden was their war-ridden. We've been around the world doing bad stuff. So we do not condone that. So coming back today, what else have you planned on 2019? You know, in addition to studio 10? Yeah. Well, there may be a few live surprises yet to be announced. But they will be few this year. I'm sad to say. We love being on the stage and last year has been a real bliss for us. Going all over Europe and Scandinavia. And we've had so many good experiences on the stage. And so far, so we really want to keep doing that. But we need to make more music if not for anyone else for ourselves. Yeah, the audience clearly loves it. But what makes a gig good for you guys? Yeah, the audience. They're reaction. You said it. Then we are happy. So that is number one. And if we can see that they're singing along in our lyrics, that is magic to us. Yeah, and we usually, as you could see today, always want to bring something extra to our shows. Since we don't have maybe the opportunity to tour around like many other bands doing playing 30 shows every other month or so. So we want to bring it all when we actually go on the road and travel long distances like this. So have some extra performers or some other surprises. It's always a big deal for us. And that usually gets the crowd going as well. So it's good to see that they actually like our effort. Yeah, that is, we're planning each gig separately for what we want to do. And yeah, we have lots of ideas for future gigs as well. Well, that's commitment. Thank you guys so much and all the best. Thank you.