Was Renegade written on the road at all or after the tour?
Afterwards only.  Maybe a riff here and there, ideas pop up, you can never control that, but there is no actual song-writing going on on tour.  I need to be more relaxed, doing whatever I want.  On tour, you have to adapt.  If you feel like writing a song at 8 o'clock at night, usually you can't.  [laughs] 

Was working with Michael Wagener a good experience?  Was there anything that surprised you as far as the way he worked in the studio?
He was the best producer we could have worked with.  I had talked to him on the phone before we went in, just to get a feel for the recording - what he wanted and what we wanted to get out of it.  The most special thing that we weren't used to was the order in which we did the recording.  Normally, we have always started out with the drums and the bass, then the guitars, then the vocals and solos - just instrument by instrument.  But Michael said, 'This is how I work and I hope you can agree with it because I really want to do it this way.'  What he did was, we did the drums and bass of course, to have a foundation to build on, then we went through song by song instead of instrument by instrument.  It gave Joacim [Cans, vocals] one day off between each song, instead of having to sing for three or four days in a row and wear his voice out.  He got to go all out for a couple of hours because he knew he'd get to rest tomorrow.  Each song took two days, because we did the guitars and vocals on the first day and then overdubs and backing vocals on the second day.  He was really benefiting from that and I think you can tell if you compare this record to the ones before, because his voice is powerful all the way through.  So that was Michael's' greatest thing, apart from his ears.  He's just so good at hearing stuff.

Do you think you'll work with him again?
Yeah, if this album sells enough, because he cost a lot of money. [laughs]  But if we are lucky enough to get to go back, I don't think there's a question in anyone's mind that we will.  But it will also depend on what his schedule is and ours.  It's going to be a little while before we record our next album also.  The cool thing about it is, after a couple of days, we were best friends in the studio.  So it was more like 6 friends having fun together instead of one producer and a band recording.  That helped a lot to make us feel comfortable and relaxed.

How was it recording in Nashville?
Really cool, actually.  When you are going away from what you're used to for two months and have to produce something, it might be a problem, but we had a lot of fun.  Nashville is not a big city, but it was really cool.  This was my first encounter with standard U.S. life, instead of just being on tour.  We got to do all the things normal people do, so it was a lot of fun.

'Always Will Be' is one of the best ballads you guys have done yet.  Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration for that song?
Traditionally, on each album, there is one song that I write all by myself.  All the others, Joacim and me write together, but this one was the special one for this album.  It was based on kind of a personal experience.  I guess there is a line between reality and what I made up for the song, to make the song better, but somehow it is based on real life.  That makes me very happy when you say it is one of the best ballads because it is one of the more personal songs - the most personal song on the album.  Another thing working with Michael and having that relaxed atmosphere, he worked with each individual and really brought out the best in each of us.  You can tell that from the voice, especially on that song, because he worked really hard on the different emotions to get just the right emotions for the right lines and melodies. 

The first album was very immediate, while Legacy took several listens to get into fully.  Is that something you see, that the new album is maybe a little deeper?
Maybe.  Some people have said this and some people say it is really easy to get into it.  I think the song structure is more thought out this time.  We've been working harder on the songs for this album than for either Glory to the Brave or Legacy of Kings, so I think maybe it will take a little bit longer.  But that's a good thing, also.  If you listen to the songs, there is not one song where you say, 'What is this?'  When it takes a little bit to get to know the songs, then they last longer.  Hopefully at least. [laughs]

I understand there has been a bit of a delay in Renegade's release in the US.  Why? 
I have no idea actually.  I asked somebody here the other day and they didn't really know.  I think the decision was made en Germany.  We were behind schedule with the layout and stuff like that, so that might have played a part in it.  We wanted to get a tour here in November and December, but since the album wasn't out 'til Nov. 26th, there was no point in touring in December, so we had to postpone that.

I understand the video to "Renegade" is doing quite well.  What can you tell me about it?
We decided pretty early on that, if we were going to do a video, let's do it right - do a video that is compelling to watch and not just the band playing live somewhere.  Nuclear Blast and us decided to put in a little bit more money than before to get a lot better results.  The look of the video is really professional, though it didn't cost a couple of million dollars like most videos do.  The director got in touch with a production company that had a lot of computer guys that did animation.  They would have cost like ten times what they did cost because they wanted to do this, they're not used to doing music videos.  They're used to doing more like business presentations, stuff like that, so they thought it was a cool idea and maybe a way for them to break into the market.  So we said, 'This is the amount of money we have - do whatever you want with it, but we can't get any more.' [laughs]  Without them, this video would never have been as good as it is.  We tried to fulfill another of our childhood fantasies, to have a really cool heavy metal video, like the ones Judas Priest did in the 80s.  We get to play superheroes and there's monsters and explosions and even motorcycles in the video, so it is kind of a dream come true.  It's doing really well on TV, being aired in both Germany and Sweden on national TV.  We didn't expect that - we hoped for it of course, but we never expected it.

How do you go about picking the singles?
Usually, we have an idea of what will work and what won't.  This time, we actually decided on the first song on the album, "Templars of Steel," to do that as a single because it has the catchiest chorus.  This was decided a couple of months before the recording.  During this period, I played the songs to my brother and some friends who weren't into metal that much, but they know a good song when they hear one.  All of them, after hearing the album once, said '"Renegade," I remember this one, it was my favorite,' because they could sing along to the chorus and it was easy to remember.  Which is basically why you release a single, so we listened to people, plus Michael Wagener said, 'Please take "Renegade," it's my favorite!" [laughs]

Tell me a little about the personality of each of the members of HammerFall.
Let's start with our new drummer Anders [Johansson].  He's like a clown mostly, he's the one that keeps everyone entertained all the time.  He is talking constantly.  If people talk about themselves constantly, it's no fun, but he just makes conversation and tries to get people, if he doesn’t' know them, to say things or to get a laugh out of them.  He's very easy going off-stage, but when he's on-stage playing, he's dead serious.  Usually…  Sometimes, he just freaks out and plays a fill that takes up a whole verse and nobody knows where they are anymore. [laughs]  But we don't do that live, just in rehearsals.  He's a very nice guy; that's why we wanted him in the band, because his personality fits so well with everyone else.  And that goes for everybody in the band, everyone respects one another.  Nobody goes around thinking they are better and everybody has respect for everyone's opinion, which is incredibly important if you are going to spend so much time together.  Joacim then is very goal-minded - he knows what he wants to do and he sets out to do it and usually succeeds.  He has lots of ideas and is very visual.  Stefan [Elmgren] is very laid-back, he likes to hang out at home and watch TV most of the nights.  He's very mellow and a great guitar player, a lot of fun working with him.  Magnus [Rosen, bass] is probably the most nice guy you could ever meet.  He's so kind to people.  He likes mankind - mankind for him is something good and everybody who acts in a bad way is because of society or they don't know any better, but there is something good in everybody.  That helps a lot in discussions, because he is so calm and has a very soothing personality.  And for myself..  it's harder. [laughs]  I think I'm kind of stubborn.  When I want something, I usually end up getting because people end up getting tired of arguing with me. [laughs]  I'm also a little nice because I judge people only by how they behave towards me and not by what people tell me about them.  Everybody talks bullshit about everybody else, so I don't listen to it - I prefer to find out for myself.  For example, when we were touring with Death here in the States in '98, everybody told us about Chuck, that he was hard to get along with, a real prima-donna type - almost exclusively bad stuff, and some really bad stuff, so we were worried before we went.  The guy that Chuck was, the guy that we got to know, was the exact opposite of what everyone said.  He was really nice, very sharing.  This was a Death tour and we were just tagging along as the support act, so all the drinks and food on the bus was their stuff.  The first thing he said was, 'Everything you see here is yours as well as ours, we share everything.'  We had so much fun on that tour, he was just the coolest guy ever and the other band members were really nice, too

That kind of answers my next question, which was did you enjoy the US tour?
It was ups and downs like any tour, but as a whole, it was a huge success.  The album sales were doubled afterward from what they were before the tour.  We got a good reception from the fans, even though most people didn't know about us.  There was always a handful of HammerFall fans at each show - it ranged from a handful to about 75%, which we had in L.A.  We showed everyone what we were all about and convinced at least some of them to check it out, and that is the whole meaning of a tour.

Any chance of a live album at some point?
It's not going to happen this time.  I think we need another album, 4 studio albums to choose from before we do a live album.  This is not anything definite, but it might happen:  we do another studio album, then go on tour and record the stuff there, and then release a live album shortly after that.  But it is just speculation.  We want to do a live album, partly because we are very much a live band, but also because when you do a live album you also do a live video or DVD.  A HammerFall show is something that should be experienced.  We try to put on a big show, as big as we can anyway.  The music alone is not enough o show people who haven't seen the band what a show is really like, so I'd love to do a video.

Heavy metal has survived 30 years and seems to be stronger than ever.  What do you think its future will be?
I guess it is a little bit different over here.  From what I can tell, things are growing really fast and heavy metal is just getting stronger day by day.  That is good that we have all these new bands, not just all the old bands reforming because they see that the music they once did is now cool again or whatever.  A lot of bands from Sweden, for example, melodic metal bands that didn't exist a couple of years ago.  A lot from Germany too, because the labels saw that they could make money off heavy metal again, so that's why they are signing all these bands, hoping they will be the next HammerFall or whatever.  But you can't just release an album and hope people will buy it, you have to do promotion and the album has to be worth releasing.  The future of heavy metal and the growth of the music, it is really good that all these bands are around.  I don't know where it is going to end, but I think it is going to be a lot bigger than this.  It's not going to be like in the 80s with Iron Maiden and stuff.  The music scene is too big for that, there are too many various types of music nowadays that weren't around in the 80s.

How about the future of HammerFall?  Do you have any goals you haven't reached yet?
You always have goals and whenever you reach them, you set some other goals, maybe higher or different.  Right now, I'm just waiting to go back on tour again because it has been so long.  Apart from this one festival we did in Spain, we haven't played live since August 25th in 1999, so you get the ache for it.  Playing live is where you get to meet everybody and perform and that is what we love.  It's not going to happen until January in Europe and in the States, we're looking at March hopefully.  They are still working on it, but the tour is the immediate goal.  And to just spread the word of heavy metal.  It's getting to a point, especially in Sweden, a lot of people who don't know what heavy metal is, before they just shielded their eyes and said, 'Oh, I don't want to have anything to do with it.'  But when they listen to the music and get into it, they understand that it isn't as bad as they think. [laughs]  So, opening people's eyes is basically the goal that we have.  The crusade for heavy metal must go on.