I have the pleasure to present this DISMEMBER interview to all the die-hard Death Metal fans. It was like a dream come true to do it with Fred Estby (drummer). This chat was executed in Pécs (Hungary) on the 15th of November, 2004. DISMEMBER played there in the company of PSYCROPTIC, ANATA and SOUL DEMISE. The show was excellent and the result of the interview is enclosed below. From dream to dream we have always been like an everflowing stream...
Hi Fred! Recently you have released your new album "Where Ironcrosses Grow". Are you satisfied with the overall sound production?
- Yes, absolutely!
Where do you worked on it?
- At Sami Studios in Stockholm. It's a nice studio.
As I know you also producing bands and "Where Ironcrosses Grow" was produced by yourself as well, but earlier you worked in Das Boot Studios. Are you still working there?
- I don't work permanently in any studio right now. We just recorded there because of the connections.
You have two new members in your line-up: Martin Persson and Johan Bergebäck. How they came in picture?
- Martin was coming one and half years ago when we were going to do the Holland tour and Magnus was not really interested in playing anymore. So we get fill in the band directly and very quickly made him a member.
OK, and how came Johan?
- When Richard was moving to the States we needed a replacement for any sense. He was going to be away for a while, you know. And then we realized that we did a lot of touring without Richard and he wasn't able to come back to Sweden, 'cause he staying in the States now. So we took him in permanently.
Between your new album and "Hate Campaign" you had like four years of silence. Why was it so long to take out the new stuff?
- We had member changes, we had a lot of other work to do, changing rehearsal room, changing record label, you know. It took some time to write new contracts.
Was it also due because Hammerheart Records renamed to Karmageddon Media? And maybe it's like delayed the release date a bit.
- Yeah. They delayed the release, because they were changing.
Why do you left Nuclear Blast?
- Because our contract was out and we were going to renew it, but they weren't really giving us very good deal compared to what's Karmageddon was giving us.
Not long ago you have released your first DVD "Live Blasphemies" - a double DVD. It includes a very complete material, like old and new stuff. It was released by Escapi. How this deal came about?
- They just offered us to record a live DVD. So we were like: "Yes, sure!". Because it costs a lot of money to make a full production. So they booked the show, did all the work, recorded it and so on. And then we got involved and we were thinking perhaps we should put some old material on it, because we've been collecting the old VHS tapes since the early days until now, you know. Because we let people film our show us and send us a copy of the concert. So we started look through all them and we realized that have a lot of funny old clips, you know. So we put them on the second disc and did an interview too.
Beginning with the "Massive Killing Capacity" album you started to use some IRON MAIDEN influenced riffs here and there, like for example "Tragedy of the Faithful" on your new release. Are you so much influenced or it's just David who likes to involve those melodic parts?
- It's mainly David who does those parts. But we all like IRON MAIDEN.
And what other bands do you like to listen to lately?
- I like a band from Brazil called NEPHASTH. I like bands like GRAND MAGUS, JUDAS PRIEST, MAIDEN, SLAYER, early METALLICA, ANGELCORPSE and stuff like that.
Are you satisfied with your actual tour and with the fans how they treat you?
- They really good. We get really good responses. That's cool!
Yesterday you played in Austria. How was it?
- Really good. Excellent!
You also had a South American tour a month ago. Your comments on it.
- Impressive. It's cool to go to all those countries and play for a lot of people that haven't seen us or heard that much or actually haven't heard us live, you know. It's really cool!
Is Karmageddon Media do things better than Nuclear Blast wordwide?
- Not worldwide. Distribution-wise Nuclear Blast is much bigger and better, but it's more personal working with the Karmageddon, because there not that many people working at the office.
What are your plans for the new album? Do you have some new riffs for it?
- We staring a little bit now.
In what direction they will go?
- I don't know really. I think it can be aggressive anyway.
Did Ukrainian organizers contact you with offers? Because it was told us a while that DISMEMBER is going for a tour in Russia and Ukraine, but nothing has happened. Was it in plans? What's up with it?
- Was in plans. The thing was we couldn't really agree and the time was very short. It didn't work out for the time being. So we gonna try to do it later.
Are you try to appear in ex-USSR countries later on?
- Absolutely.
Last time you were here in Hungary was in company of OBITUARY and NAPALM DEATH in 1992. What is your opinion about Hungary in general?
- I remember it was a really cool show. Haven't seen to much of the country. I went with my parents when I was younger. I think it's beautiful in Budapest, but I haven't seen much more of the country.
There was a strange thing with Richard Cabeza when he left DISMEMBER and went to SATYRICON for a short time. But as a sudden he disappeared from the horizon and even guys from SATYRICON didn't have a clue what's up with him. Can you comment us the details?
- He quit DISMEMBER and went to Norway we didn't know. He wanted to play with SATYRICON, but that didn't work out. So he went back to Sweden.
As I see your new line-up is pretty constant by now. So there's no chance to see Richard in the band again?
- No. I mean, he lives on the other side of the world, you know. It's hard to rehearse.
Will he continue playing music further on?
- I don't know. I think so. But I am not sure.
"Where Ironcrosses Grow" has a killer artwork of Dan Seagrave as your first "Like an Everflowing Stream" release too. Are you going to use his artworks on the upcoming DISMEMBER albums?
- Yeah, hopefully. We'll talk to him when we do the next album. See what he can come up with.
Would you also enlighen us a bit the DVD content for those who haven't familiar with it yet?
- At first, we have two discs. The first one is live gig from Stockholm from last year. And contains like 11 tracks. Then we have the second disc with the history from the early days until now with interviews and tour parts.
Earlier like from the "Like an Everflowing Stream" and "Pieces" eras you were banned, because of the hard image using, like blood and stuff. Do you plan to use something like that in the future?
- I don't think so.
Do you had problems in the history of DISMEMBER with different kinds of religious organizations?
- They tried in England in 1992. But we were there at the trial and we won the case. They tried to ban our music. But if they would succeeded then I think all bands like CANNIBAL CORPSE and all those bands have been banned, you know. But we won the case and that was good. But I think in Australia they've done a lot of that shit. They just banned the albums and telling the distributors if they sell that kind of music in the country they gonna shut their business out.
Do you know something about Ukraine?
- Not much actually.
In the actual tour you play a lot of old songs or you better concentrate on "Where Ironcrosses Grow" songs?
- We do like 3 songs from the new album and lot of old shit, you know.
Any future plans?
- Just continue, try to do the touring ready and start writing for the new album.
That's all I had in my mind. Thanks for the interview. Your last wishes for the Ukrainian DISMEMBER fans.
- Thanks for supporting us through years. Hopefully we can come to play very soon in your country. We can get to see your country and learn about it.
