This interview was conducted by Philip A. Wickstrand via phone with bass guitarist Fredrik Larsson on June 10, 2011.

Sweden's premier purveyors of passionate Power Metal (try saying that three times fast) have made a career out of catchy, melodic anthems. With the release of their eighth studio album, Infected, they may have tried to distance themselves a little from their longtime image in the artwork realm but the quality of their music remains high and should leave their fanbase with little to complain about indeed give them some new anthems to sing along with.

Phil: First of all, tell us a bit about the new album, Infected.

Fredrik: It's pretty new for us. It's just been released here in Europe and it's going pretty good. We ended up second place in the Swedish charts and it's been going good all over Europe, especially in Germany. So I think we have something good going on here. Most of the fans like it too and that's always good.

Phil: What was the song writing process like for the album?

Fredrik: Well, as usual, it was Oscar and Joaquim who did most of it. Pontus contributed with one song and I co-wrote one song together with Oscar. We've never been a band that jams together and makes songs that way, so they come up the rough idea or pretty finished songs and then we try it out and Joaquim does the vocals first and the melodies and that's pretty much what's going to end up on the recording. Of course, we record everything once again but the first rough idea is pretty much the finished form of the song.

Phil: What was the time in the studio like?

Fredrik: This time it was really relaxed since we just recorded drums outside of Gothenburg, where we live, and then we did both bass and all the rhythm guitars in our own rehearsal space, so we had the chance to sit back and try out some stuff and everybody was really relaxed since it was Pontus and Oscar who produced. They were sitting in the producer's chair and recorded it, so we had a really good time, pretty laid back and could try out whatever we wanted. And we didn't have the pressure to have an expensive studio clock ticking, so it was really a nice recording this time. Then we took off to Nashville and recorded the vocals and the rest of the solos there in James Michael's studio. That was also really, really fun, especially for me. I mean, both me and Joaquim have been fans of SIXX: A.M.'s records. I think it was a good idea for Joaquim to work with someone like James Michael and the role that he took in recording. It was good for Joaquim to have someone that he actually looked up to as a singer instead of just a producer that didn't know anything about the difficulties in the singing process, so I think Joaquim really took a step up and had to fill his shoes really and he really likes James Michael's voice and what he does really much. So it turned out really good, I think.

Phil: What would you say are the strongest points of the album?

Fredrik: I think the sound is amazing. HAMMERFALL have never sounded this good and it's a really diverse record. They have a lot of different kinds of songs on it. Some are really heavy shit, some really fast songs, some straight forward with really catchy choruses and even some darker progressive songs, so it's a diverse album.

Phil: What would you say is your favorite song off the album?

Fredrik: [laughs] It's a really tough question so close to the release. I mean, we've been working with these songs 24/7 for a very long period and now we have taken some time off and just concentrated on the songs that we're actually going to play on the festivals this summer. But I have a couple of favorites, of course, but it's hard to choose. The Outlaw is one of my favorites and also Bang Your Head. And then I'll mention Redemption as well. [laughs] Too hard to choose just one.

Phil: What is the thought process behind choosing a song to do music for? You did a video for One More Time off this album - why choose that particular song?

Fredrik: That was actually Joaquim and Oscar who chose that song, so we were not actually in the process of picking that one. I can understand them and I think it was a good choice in the end because it's a really catchy song, the One More Time thing and the drums… it gets stuck in your mind somehow. I can't say that I think it's one of my personal favorites for a single choice but it's a good song and I think people will remember it and hopefully they want to hear more from it.

Phil: What was the filming for the video itself like?

Fredrik: I'm bit of a zombie geek myself, I try to get my hands on as many movies as I can. It's starting to be really difficult to find new ones. [laughs] So for me it was kind of heaven, both music and a lot zombies. We talked about doing something fun this time and we a talked with Patrick Ullaeus, the director, and he lives in the same town as we do, so I've known him for many years and we always talked about "We need to do something together" and when we came up with the idea of doing a zombie video, he was going and thought that this will be something good, this will be fun. So I think the result was… I mean, this is not a video that you should take too seriously. It's tongue in cheek… it's a good laugh. That's all I can say.

Phil: I understand there's been a lot of negative reaction towards the new cover art; a lot of people are really upset that Hector's not on it. Why was that chosen to be done?

Fredrik: I think it was a mutual understanding from all of us that the music has taken a couple of steps this time. I mean, HAMMERFALL has evolved from every record and every album, but this time we took it a bit further, so we thought that we need to make that show and not just doing the same thing over and over again and putting Hector on the cover would have been just the same thing, to do things over again. I mean, Hector is always going to be our mascot and he's going to be with us forever. He's still inside the booklet and he's going to show on T-shirts and stuff, so don't worry, Hector will be with us. We wanted to do something else this time. We needed to do something different, that's why and I'd say it's still the music that counts and it's still HAMMERFALL. I think we would have gotten equally much bad mouthing if we'd put Hector on the cover 'cause then everybody would say "Oh, they're doing the same thing over and over again."

Phil: What are the North American touring plans for this album?

Fredrik: Eh, they're actually just plans for the moment. We have a lot of plans. We're going to do festivals this summer all over Europe and then we're going to do a proper tour in Europe, then after that we're planning on a US tour. Nothing really is finished yet, so I can't really tell anything about it but at least a couple of weeks, that's for sure. So it's going to be a North American tour.

Phil: Probably headlining then?

Fredrik: Probably, yeah, but nothing is for sure. Nothing is written down.

Phil: How would you compare your current time in HAMMERFALL to your original run with the band?

Fredrik: The guys in HAMMERFALL, there's a thing, even though I didn't play with Anders at that time… I mean, when I left it was '97, we just released the record and got a deal and then I pretty much quit right away, so HAMMERFALL was pretty much nothing. We were just in the beginning of the career, so when I left it was not that much to leave. So when I came back it was a big organization and a lot of people working for us and doing the jobs… I mean, it was really a big business thing when I came back. So I don't like the business part of it but it really feels great to know that we can afford to have people working for us and that we can just go off and do our job and play the music that we love. It's a big difference, but at the same time, I think the people are still the same. So when I was asked to rejoin and do a couple of songs in the rehearsal it felt like even though it was ten years, it felt like it was a couple of months. That's how comfortable it was when I came back in the rehearsal.

Phil: Tell us about your involvement with DEATH DESTRUCTION.

Fredrik: We've been having this band for really many years now, but it wasn't until last year I think that we got everything together and recorded an album. Then we thought that we might do something just to make it happen, so we got a deal with Sony in Sweden and we just released an EP with four songs and three of them were recorded live in the studio. So the actual album will be released in the twentieth of August, I think. It's a fun band to play in. It's a lot different than HAMMERFALL. It's my old buddies, my friends from a long time, so we just have a good time playing.

Phil: So no heavy touring; maybe a few shows here and there?

Fredrik: We will try to do as much touring as we can but I mea, I still have my HAMMERFALL job and we're going to do a lot of touring, so we'll have to see how much I can tour with DEATH DESTRUCTION. We have had a couple of shows that I wasn't able to do, so we had a stand-in bass player called Marcus from DEAD BY APRIL. I guess things have to work out, but if you want it to work out, then it works out.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Fredrik: I don't read that much, but I read a lot of biographies, so I would say one of my favorite biographies is Anthony Kiedis. It's so honest and a really good story. I think it's called Under the Bridge or something. It was a really good book.

Phil: Okay, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Fredrik: I really hope to see our fans live. I mean, that's the reason that I play. Any band can sound good in the studio and there's so many tricks and stuff you can do, but if a band is really good then it's going to show in the live situation, so I really hope that are fans will be able to catch us live somewhere in North America. That would be awesome.

Hammerfall's Fredrik Larsson

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

June 12, 2011

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TO THE TOP

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Formed: 1993
Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Genre: Power/Heavy Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Joacim Cans:  Vocals
Oscar Dronjak:  Guitars
Pontus Norgren:  Guitars
Fredrik Larsson:  Bass
Anders Johansson:  Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

Glory to the Brave (1997)
Legacy of Kings (1998)
Renegade (2000)
Crimson Thunder (2002)
Chapter V : Unbent,
              Unbowed, Unbroken (2005)
Threshold (2006)
No Sacrifice, No Victory (2009)
Infected (2011)

Check out Peter's review of Infected here