What’s the story for THE AUTHOR'S CURSE ?
Hi! Thanks for having us here. The story of The Author’s Curse is a tale of almost going insane along with your supposed masterpiece. The title preceded the curse. 5 years on the day after surviving a severe busfire on our European tour together with Deathstars, we were finally able to release the album on October 25th 2019. It is now time for the curse to be passed on to the world.
Who composes ?...How does it work in the band ?
I write most of the songs and lyrics for the band. Although on the latest releases there are some external songwriters. We’ve teamed up with people we think write really good melodies and understand the world of The Dead And Living. Like Rikard Löfgren and Per Tilkku from Bay Laurel and Henning Hartung who also worked with and did an amazing job with a band called Deaf Rat recently. I write and process music and lyrics in my head all the time. I collect impressions, sounds, ideas, melodies and glue them together in a quite chaotic manner. When we have enough songs we believe in, we hit the studio and refine everything, until every song has something extra. Spending weeks afterwards cleaning up, mixing and making sure everything fits in the mix and mood of the song.
Who writes the texts ?..What are they talking about ?..How does inspiration come ?
When it comes to lyrics it’s all up to me these days. Looking at the new album The Author’s Curse, every song has a theme that reflects on the world today. The title track revolves around the manic author who’s lost control over his masterpiece. There’s two tracks, The Chronic Emptiness and The Rope, that dig pretty deep into depression and apathy towards the modern world. While City of the Light is a homage to our hometown Karlstad and No Man’s Land is about refuge, from war and opression or from one self.
Why the name THE DEAD AND LIVING ?
We wanted a name that had a 19th century vibe. Something that could as well have been a title for book. First The Dead END Living came up out of nowhere. It didn’t really make sense. Though The Dead And Living did, and it didn’t seem like it was used before. So we took it and have been misprinted ever since. People tend to call us Dead and The Living, The Dead and The Living, The Living Dead and what not.
What's your best live memory ? And why ?
I think I’ve worn out the soles of my concert boots a bit. Having gone to live concerts every other day for more than 20 years. I think I might still be looking for the ultimate live experience. Rammstein though is way up there. Having seen Rammstein about 40 times the show becomes almost like a state of mind. I was guitar tech for Deathstars on the MIG tour with Rammstein. Bercy Arena, Paris 2012 two nights in a row was insane. Not to mention in Stockholm this year. The show just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Their excellence is quite undeniable.
In studio, what was the atmosphere for your new album ?...etc.…
We drank a lot of hard liquor. We spent some time in the studio of our friends in Eyes Wide Open. They bring home a lot of alcohol from their tours, but they’re not heavy drinkers. Us though, having booked the studio for the whole summer of 2016, we managed to empty their whole inventory. Other than having an amazing time with late nights of creativity, the whole process was quire rough this time. I think we grew out of our shoes a bit this time, which resulted in some growing pain. But in hindsight I believe it was worth it. We might have finally pulled of the record we’ve always wanted to make.
