by Daniel Hinds
Though the hype that surrounded HammerFall
when they first broke on the scene six years ago has died down, the band
hasn't slowed down a bit. Releasing their fourth record late last year,
the band proceeded to tour the States with Dio and King's X, a very successful
venture for all. While the band has really only progressed in terms
of production, they continue to pump out quality heavy metal the way it was
meant to be made - heavy and fast, but tempered with melody and emotion.
Chatting with vocalist Joacim Cans was a blast, as he's a very nice guy as
well as a talented singer…
How's it going?
Pretty good. I'm just watching a soccer game. I know you don't
like it over there, but it's pretty entertaining. Sweden is doing pretty
good, playing Portugal.
How do you feel the new album turned out?
When I sit here with the results in my hand, I feel this is the ultimate
HammerFall album. It's much more powerful than the previous albums.
To say it's more raw, maybe sounds wrong, but powerful is the best word for
it. Also the production, the guitar is tuned down even lower on some
songs to get this really raw sound to the guitars. It's more of a mid-tempo
album compared to the previous releases. You have the diversity in
the songs with a track like "On the Edge of Honour" (the fastest song) and
the acoustic ballad "Dreams Come True." It's by far the most mature
album we have done I would say. Every single note on the album is there
for a purpose. It's really well thought out without losing...
I mean, we don't sit down and make a plan like, 'We need five songs in that
tempo and we need two fast ones and a ballad.' We just sit down and
start writing it and this is how it turned out in the end.
Are there any songs that are particularly personal to you, lyrically?
Not really. This time I have been trying to link the songs together
but without making a concept album. That's too hard and too many people
have done that and some people made it and some didn't. It takes more
than just a little story to make a concept album. It's kind of a cliché,
but it's the battle between good and evil, between heaven and hell so to
speak. To me, since this album is more raw and more mid-tempo, these
type of lyrics fit perfectly with the music. The ballad on the album
is probably the most personal one but that was written by Oscar himself.
I think he's the more romantic type, I don't know (laughs). I'm the
evil guy! (laughs).
How did you settle on the title Crimson Thunder?
Always when we try to get the title, we want to have one of the tracks.
Naming an album where you don't have a song with the title is a bit awkward
to me, but Crimson Thunder is more of a feeling that you have.
It comes from a song on the first album, the song "Unchained," where we talk
about "the crimson thunder running through your veins." It's kind of
the blood that you have, it's hard to describe in English for me sometimes.
It's a feeling. When it comes to the title track, it goes, "Follow
the sign of the crimson thunder." It could mean to follow your heartbeat
or follow your instinct, but when I wrote the lyrics it was more thunder
in its true sense. I think it's a cool title for the album and that's
enough sometimes.
I see you worked with a different producer in a different studio this time. How did you decide on that?
First of all, as a band, we were really satisfied with the outcome of the Renegade
album which we did in Nashville with Michael Wagener. But in the end
when it is time to pay the bill for the studio, especially when you use one
in the States, it's pretty expensive. Of course, we wanted to invest
a lot of money, but in the end it didn't really pay off. When you have
to pay your bills and the rent, you can't tell the company, well, sorry I
don't have any money - we spent it all in the States. But we wanted
to have a production equal to Michael's' but lower cost. So as always,
you sit down and listen to your favorite albums and check out different producers.
And I found Charlie Bauerfiend who has done amazing work with Helloween,
Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, and we thought that he would be the perfect guy
for HammerFall without losing the personal sound of HammerFall. When
I listen to his productions, he adds more of the band's personality.
Some bands go to a producer who has produced a certain band and in the end
they sound exactly like the band that they had as an influence. That's
a big problem sometimes, but with Charlie we hoped he would make HammerFall
sound more like HammerFall. In the end, we absolutely sounded more
like HammerFall than we ever have before; if that's possible I don't know
(laughs). But it was like, 'Yes! Finally!' Charlie, when
it comes to backing vocals, I knew already what I wanted to have back on
the debut album in 1996, but I didn't know how to do it. For the second
album, we tried even more to get this Acceptish, football choir backing vocals,
but we didn't know how to make it. I just described to Charlie what
I wanted and when I listen back to this album it is exactly what we have
been struggling for ever since 1996. With Charlie, he came up with
a good plan on how to record this album so that in the end we wouldn't lose
too much money but still would make a worthy follow-up to Renegade.
That was the best decision that we've made so far, to work with Charlie.
He's easy-going and, even though it's kind of a cliché to become the
sixth member of the band, it was more or less a very friendly atmosphere
and he was really nice as a person. And really professional when it
was time to work, really kicking our asses sometimes. Especially the
first three days, I was about to leave the band and go back home. No
matter what I did, he said, 'No, come on! Put more edge to it!
Push harder!' And I'm like, 'No, I sound like this, please give me
a break!' (laughs) But then when I understood what he was trying to
tell me it became kind of obvious.
So this is as close as you've come to what you originally imagined for the HammerFall sound?
Maybe not the overall sound, but for me since I'm doing all the vocal arrangements,
I finally found someone who understands what I wanted to have. I'm
not a studio engineer or producer or anything, I just get these visions of
how I want it. And you need a person who can understand what you're
trying to say, even though sometimes you don't even know yourself.
Hopefully we can work with Charlie for the next album and maybe for the next
five or ten years, if we last that long.
Did you learn anything in particular from working with Michael Wagener?
To have fun in the studio. I mean, that was a joy ride working with
Michael. Both Michael and Charlie are Germans and Germans are
kind of strict. They're marching to the studio more or less - they're
not walking, they're marching. (laughs) But Michael has been in the
States for so long that he's Americanized by now, so it was more relaxed,
'Hey, come on, it sounds good, leave it like that!' Charlie was the
total opposite: 'No! Do it one more time, you can do it better!'
But did I learn anything working with Michael… I learned how to cook
better, how to be a better chef. (laughs) I think Michael gained ten
pounds when I was there because I made him a meal every day.
The new DVD is great, a really good mix
of performances and behinds the scenes footage. Were you happy with
it? Does it reflect pretty well what it's like to be on tour with HammerFall?
Absolutely. I think some people actually complained, 'Oh, this is really
bad footage, too much bootleg' but hey, you know, that's the only way you
can show what's going on behind the stage. You don't have a professional
camera guy with you. Because if you do, then all of a sudden, there's
acting going on. A lot of this footage is when people didn't know there
was someone standing behind them with a camera, so then you get the most
honest stuff. I think it really represents the band 100%. Both
me and Oscar sat down and went through 30 or 40 video tapes with each 2 hours
of footage just to find the best pieces, it was really tough. I don't
think we could do it better and I don't think we could show HammerFall from
a more honest way than we have on this DVD so I'm really satisfied.
HammerFall has always had a rather positive
message, lyrics like the chorus to "Destined For Glory." Is that an
important part of HammerFall to you?
In general, to me it is a way of escaping from reality for 45 minutes.
When you put on a CD or vinyl, I just want to get carried away. When
I write the lyrics, I want it to be entertainment, to escape from reality
and feel better. A lot of the lyrics talk about medieval battles, the
Templar crusades, things like that, but there's always a little message they
can interpret in two ways. You can draw parallels with the lyrics.
I'm talking about the medieval battles to daily life. The importance
is to always tell people is that, even though your life maybe bad today,
you can make a change. But you always have to remember that you have
to take the first step yourself. There's a song on Legacy of Kings
called "Dreamland" where I talk about 'the ivory gates' - you have to go
through the door yourself. We're just pointing out directions to people,
but still in the end, it's up to you. And also the importance of following
the beat of your own drum. Why follow a trend when you can create your
own? To me it's important to not make depressed people even more depressed.
And also we're not trying to act like Jesus or something, 'Follow us and
your life will be much better.' We're just handing out some tools and
then people have to decide for themselves.
I like the fact that you've stayed away
from dealing with religious themes in your music. Is that an intentional
thing or just not a topic that interests you enough to write about?
I'm a musician and if I wanted to talk about politics, I would have become
a politician. I think that says it all. I don't want to bore
people too much. If you turn on the TV, switch on the radio, you'll
hear about the bombings in Bali on every channel. There was a bombing
in Finland the other week and it was on the TV 24/7. If you feel depressed
and you turn on the TV, you get more depressed. I just want to give
people 45 minutes of relief from all the misery in this world. On the
new album, though, there might be some parallels since we are now talking
about the battle between good and evil. Because there is so much evil
in this world, there might be some parallels, but that is up to the listener
themselves to decide how they want to interpret the lyrics. But religion
- nah. Nothing really there I want to talk about it because it just
pisses me off sometimes. There's too much lack of respect in the world
today and I just want to change the mode with people.
You guys pick the coolest songs to cover
- how did you decide on Chastain this time around? Was it a spur of
the moment thing?
No, that was actually two or three years ago, I played this song for Oscar,
I made a mix tape for him. I included that song along with other more
or less obscure songs that he had never heard. He freaked out when
he heard this song, he thought it was a fantastic song, and I had the same
feeling when I heard the song for the first time. So much emotion but
with some pretty poor production. We started to play around with what
this song would sound like, first of all, with a proper production and second
of all, with a male vocalist. I was a little scared because when you
hear a female sing, it doesn't sound that high, but they are a natural octave
above the male voice, so I didn't know if I was capable of doing it or not.
But then when I started to sing along with it I realized that it wasn't that
high after all. For the Renegade album, this song just didn't
fit at all, so we put it in the 'maybe for the future' pile. Then when
we started to talk about covers for the new album, we didn’t want to have
a cover on the actual album, we only wanted to have it as a bonus track,
so we decided to do an Yngwie Malmsteen cover for the European release, we
did a Loudness song for the Japanese release ("Crazy Nights"). So we
just wanted to have something special for each territory and wanted to have
the Chastain cover for the US. But then when all the original songs
were done, I told Oscar that I'd really like to have this song on the album
because it really represents the rest of the songs and it feels like we made
this song a HammerFall song, even though it's a cover. So that's why
we decided to put it on the actual album for all the territories and ended
up doing a KISS cover for the States. It's not an obscure thing to
do "Detroit Rock City," but what the hell. We wanted to do Malice's
"Sinister Double," but then I realized the vocals are a bit high and if you
take it down and don't do the high screams, people go, 'Oh, why couldn't
you sing like that?' No, I'm sorry I can't, I have my limits!
(laughs)
What are your thoughts on the current state of heavy metal now compared to when you first started out?
I think it's a big difference in Europe because metal is pretty big over here, especially in Sweden. With Renegade,
we were #1 on the charts in Sweden, we were #1 on the video charts, we had
a gold album and we were doing pretty big tours. So in Europe, it's
pretty huge, but the problem is that now you have too many new bands coming
up. And they're not ready to record yet. You ask them, 'What
do you guys sound like?' and they're like, 'We sound like Gamma Ray.'
And you listen to the album and they do sound exactly like Gamma Ray, but
it's a bad version of it. The power metal scene, now they want to put
labels on each and every band that comes out. HammerFall, we play heavy
metal, but people say, 'No no no, you play Epic Power Heavy Metal' or 'True
Epic Power Heavy Metal.' And we're just like, 'Nooo, please, we play
Heavy Metal and nothing else.' The scene in some countries it became
more or less mainstream again, even though radio and TV are trying to close
the doors, we're trying to force ourselves through the doors, 'You HAVE to
play our music!' And to a certain extent it worked, but I see that
the more melodic fast metal is on the way down. A few more years and
it's hard to predict what it will be like, but the heavier side of metal
will survive longer. You don't have the same problem in the States
because the European power metal is not that big. We gotta make a change,
gotta force-feed the Americans with European metal! (laughs)
Please do! (laughs) I understand you went to MI at one point?
Stefan and I went there. I studied vocals there for a year and Stefan
was there for almost two years. Well at least he was there playing
guitar for one year, I don't know what he did the second year... drinking
and partying, living the Hollywood glamour life, I don’t know! (laughs)
It was a cool thing to do though. I was unemployed, didn't have anything
to do, didn't want to play music or anything. Then I got a phone call
from a friend and joined a band. I realized I never sounded like Geoff
Tate like I wanted to, I sounded more like Lemmy. That was a problem,
so I thought, 'Well, maybe I should give it a try and go to this school everyone
is talking about and see if I can learn how to sing.' I didn't have
any expectations and still thought I was the crappiest singer in the world,
but I came there and people said, 'Wow, you sound great man!' and I'm just
like, 'What are you mental or something?' (laughs)
When I asked Oscar a couple years ago to
describe each member of the band, he said you were "goal-minded, full of
ideas and very visual." Would you agree with that?
Yes, maybe not as much today as I was two years ago because I've realized
that there are more things in life than just music. I'm still the person
who if I come up with an idea at 4 in the morning, I give Oscar a call.
(laughs) It can't wait. If I get an idea, I need to start working
on it right now. I think a lot. I realize that my brain has a
big hard drive and processor but the processor is getting slower, maybe out
of date, but I can't really update it (laughs). That's why I have to
reconsider things; maybe I should focus more on my family. I formed
a record label and now I have my publishing company. I know that in
a few years, metal might be totally dead. I don't know, I can't predict
the future, so I don’t' want to sit here and in the end I can't do anything
else but sing. So that's why I have so many ideas going on at the same
time. I'm writing a musical, I have a staff of song writers in my publishing
company. Of course, I'm probably going to die of a heart attack at
age 39 because it's too much to handle for one person. I think Oscar
was pretty right though. (laughs)
|
|