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Amon Amarth - Johan Söderberg

07/06/13 || Pr0nogo

Let's get ready to rrrrrrrrrrumble!

Pretty much everyone knows these guys inside and out, so very little introduction is truly necessary. This is gonna be a short and sweet interview with melodic death metal giants Amon Amarth. Johan Söderberg gave Global Domination some time, talking quite a bit about how the band works and the new album they’re releasing on 25 June. Pr0nogo took the liberty of scrawling his words down for your entertainment. Enjoy.

Global Domination: Hey Johan. How’s it going?

Johan: I’m doing well, thanks.

So, Metal Blade is just about to release “Deceiver of the Gods”. What can you tell us about this record? What can we expect from Amon Amarth’s latest?

I would say that you can expect the same kind of music. There aren’t any big differences: the same kind of stuff, only better.

So we can still expect to hear the same badassery the band showed with “Surtur Rising”?

Yeah, except with more punch, and more of a groovy feeling to it. We just wanted to make our sound better than it was before.

From my first impressions, the album comes off incredibly strong, particularly the vocals. Like you said, it definitely feels like it has more punch. Was that a goal with this record?

The real goal was to do whatever we think is best, and not care too much about whether or not it sounds like something we’ve done before, or if it sounds like something we’ve never done. We just write every song in the way that we feel is best for the album as a whole.

Johan Söderberg himself. Where do you guys draw influences from? I see the other Johan in his Dark Tranquility hoodie in almost every one of these promo pictures.

For me, it’s classic metal guys, like Iron Maiden, Accept, Metallica, that kind of stuff. That’s probably where some of the groovy bits on this album came from.

Well, now that it’s out, what are your plans for supporting “Deceiver of the Gods”? Are you planning any big tours or the like?

Yeah, we’re gonna play on Mayhem in the US, but before that we’ll be doing a few gigs in Europe. After Mayhem, we’ll head back over to Europe and other parts of the world.

On the topic of songwriting, what part did you have to play?

Me and Olavi share the songwriting for the most part. We’re in charge of the basic song structure. When that’s done, everyone contributes their instruments, the vocalist writes the lyrics, and the drummer gets his drum tracks done.

Two Johans means twice the metal. The rest of the band's there, too.

How does the band compose lyrics?

It’s all written by Johan [Hegg]. Most commonly, we have a demo of the song that we recorded at the rehearsal space, and he listens to it and tries to hear what kind of feeling the song has. He writes the lyrics to fit with the feeling of the song. Sometimes, though, he already has lyrics written, and we look at that and try to fit our songwriting ideas into his lyrics.

From your perspective, what has been the driving inspiration for the writing of the album? What made you guys decide to make something like “Deceiver of the Gods”?

That’s something we have to do, you know, to keep on touring. We release an album, we tour in support of that for a few years, and after that we go back into writing mode. It was just the knowledge of the fact that now we have to make an album. When it’s time to make an album, we do it.

Specifically talking about how the band works inside the studio, what allowed you to keep that inspiration during the recording process?

First we record demos at the rehearsal space, because by then pretty much everything is done structure-wise. Then we move into the real studio space and talk to the producer, since he usually has some ideas. For “Deceiver”, we were there for six weeks, recording a couple hours every day.

I spy with my little eye... goats? Oden, what have YOU been up to?

We’ve seen a lot of variation in the band’s album artwork over the past few releases. How did you guys settle on the artwork for “Deceiver”?

We went to Tom Thiel, who also made the three last ones. He also made artwork for “Versus the World”, too. He’s the guy we use most of the time. Basically, we give him an idea that we had – in this case, a battle between Loke and the gods – and put together some pictures based on that idea. Then he paints it, and we look at it and tell him how awesome it is.

From these mini documentary videos that go up every now and then, I hear talk of using Loke as a recurring character. What inspired his usage in “Deceiver of the Gods”?

I think he’s just one character we haven’t used too much in the past, so that’s why we wanted to use him. We also were thinking of a more evil theme in a sense, and that’s kind of what his personality is like.

In your opinion, would you say that the band’s sound has changed at all, or has it stayed the same?

I would say it mostly stayed the same. We’ve been doing the same process when it comes to writing for the past ten years. We get together and write all of our ideas down, and then we isolate the best and write more in that theme if we need to.

And then I srs'd.

How do you go about warming up for gigs and performances?

We start tuning the guitars on-stage and making sure that everything’s ready to go for the performance. We usually practice before we get to the venue. It’s easy for us since we’ve done it for so long.

I know you guys had to work on top of touring and writing music. How has that affected your lives as musicians?

In the past, we all had day jobs. We’ve been able to live off the music for the past seven or eight years, though. That’s why we tour so much. When you need to make a living off the music, you have to tour almost six to seven months out of the year.

Would you say that you prefer touring all the time to working a day job?

I would say so because when I’m home, then I’m home and can really concentrate on my family and do stuff with them instead of working. I would probably compare it to working on a shift or something: you’re away for a month and then you’re home for two weeks. It’s more relaxing when I don’t have to worry about working during my time off.

Take heed: fire is always metal.

Have you read any reviews or heard any feedback from the fans?

I’ve only seen one or two reviews so far, and I’ve seen comments on the clips that are on YouTube, and they’re totally very good. Nobody seems to think that it’s bad or anything. Everything I read tells us that the fans think it’s even better than the last album.

How do you feel about the direction the band is going in with this album? How will it translate to the future of the band as a whole?

I think we have a more loose approach now. In the past, it was more like, “it has to be our old sound”. Nowadays, we’re being more lax about it. We can do whatever we want with it, and I think that’s better.

Thanks for giving us some time, Johan. Anything else you’d like to say to those who might be reading?

Yeah, come on down and see us at Mayhem Fest, and check out the new album! We think you’ll really like it.

Check out all things Amon Amarth at www.amonamarth.com

Even their logo is more metal than you.

Interviews