Formed: 1995 Höör, Sweden
Label: Pivotal Rockordings
Genre: Power/ Melodic Death Metal

Joakim Karlsson: Vocals
Andreas Edlund: Guitar, Keyboards
Johan Reinholdz: Guitar
Martin Hanner: Bass, Keyboards
Joakim Jonsson: Drums, Guitar

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Skyfire's Martin Hanner

October 21, 2009

Interviewer: Jesse

DISCOGRAPHY:

Timeless Departure (2001)
Haunted by Shadows EP (2003)
Mind Revolution (2003)
Spectral (2004)
Fractal EP (2009)
Esoteric (2009)

TO THE TOP

Jesse: First of all, thanks so much for taking the time for this interview!  For those who are new to Skyfire and might only be listening to the band for the first time with Esoteric, describe how the band came to be and what your initial goals were. Is this where you thought the band would be 15 years after its creation?

Martin Hanner: Me, Andreas, Tobias, Johan and Jonas all come from the same small town, Höör, and we used to hang out when we were teenagers. We all had the interest for music (especially metal) in common; all of us except Tobias also attended to the local music school, so after while we decided to play together as well.

To be honest I am not sure where we thought the band would be today 15 years ago. We still share the same passion for music we did back then and we are just happy to be able to release albums, write music and tour.

Jesse: The formula for Skyfire’s sound hasn’t changed too drastically over the years, but in my opinion, Esoteric is your crowning achievement. Along with bringing Johan Reinholdz and Joakim Karlsson into the band, what did you do differently when writing Esoteric and what aspect did you put the most emphasis on? How much of an impact and influence did Johan and Karlsson have on the rest of the band, if at all?

Martin: Thanks! We didn’t really do anything different in terms of how we wrote the songs for Esoteric, but we did have a lot more time on our hands this time. This is mostly due to the fact that we were able to use our own studio. That gave us much more freedom when we arranged the songs, plus we could remove and re-record parts that we weren’t satisfied with pretty far into the recording process. Usually when you record in a studio and only have 2 weeks to get it done, that that isn’t an option, because there just isn’t enough time to do that kind of thing.

When Johan joined, we did decide to use solos in some of our songs since it would be crazy not to when you have a guitarist like that. So I think that adding the solo parts is the only thing that was affected by the new members’ participation on Esoteric. In the future though, I want to include them more in the songwriting process, because they are great musicians.

Jesse: It looks like most of the band are also members of other bands.  Would you say that Skyfire is everyone’s top priority at this point or is it still difficult to find the time to rehearse and play live when everyone is trying to balance their schedules with different bands?  Was Johan Reinholdz “borrowed” for the writing and recording of Esoteric or are there plans for him to continue on with Skyfire as a permanent member?

Martin: Johan has been a permanent member of Skyfire for some time now and even if he didn’t write any material for Esoteric, I am sure he will in the future and I think that will help us to achieve even more diversity in our music.

Yeah, all of the members in Skyfire also play in other bands, so that means that it is really important to have schedules. We try to book things as far ahead as possible. That way it is easier for everybody involved to get things to work.

Jesse: Speaking of playing live, how has the touring been?  How has the response been to the new material in the live setting?  How realistic would a North American tour be with other bands?

Martin: You know, we haven’t had the opportunity to try out our new material live yet, but we are going on a UK tour in November so I am stoked for that one. I think the new songs will be really fun to play live especially since they are pretty fast and they have a lot of symphonic parts in them. So as long as the sound guy does his work, I hope we can deliver some epic stuff in our live performances.

Unfortunately I don’t think that a US tour is very likely at the time being, but I really hope we get the chance to get over and play there some day, because that has been one of our dreams all these years.

Jesse: I understand that Powernest Studios is the band’s own studio.  After spending so much time and money recording in other studios, how nice was it to actually be able to record at your own pace in your own studio?

Martin: Personally I loved it. We could do everything at our own pace and I really think that the end result came out way better than it would have, if we had recorded in another studio with “limited” time and under pressure. 

Jesse: Would you agree that melodic death metal has gotten stagnant over the last several years or are people just not looking hard enough for those diamonds in the rough? Since forming Skyfire back in 1995, how has the genre changed or evolved from your perspective?

Martin: I think it’s a combination to be honest. But then again, how do you decide if a genre has gotten stagnant or not? I mean, take the death metal genre for example, many bands still sound a lot like death metal bands used to in the 90´s but no one is complaining. Instead, I see reviews that say that it is nice to hear some old school death metal. And then we have the black metal and heavy metal genre. Lots of bands there still sound exactly like bands did 10 years ago, so I think it’s hard and somewhat irrelevant to talk of it like that.

But I do agree with that something happened to the melodic death metal genre just like it did with the power metal genre some years ago. I think what happened was that since the genre got more popular, too many bands got signed and labels signed bands that didn’t deliver the quality you normally would expect from a band that has a record deal. That said, many reviewers (especially here in Sweden) can’t seem to give a melodic death metal band a fair review these days. They just say that all melodic death metal sounds exactly the same and that is just fucked up if you ask me. I mean, what do they want bands to do; incorporate chainsaws and toilet flush samples in their music?

Just because a band use melodies and plays metal, there are still tons of things that could separate them. For example, if I hear a melody and I get the chills when I listen to, then it is a good melody and an original one. Some reviewers though (and also others, because to be fair not all of them are reviewers) don’t think of the music like that, all they hear are a melody in a death metal band, and since they hate melo death, then it can't be any good.

Jesse: Who were some of your influences that inspired you to form the band and take it in the current direction?

Martin: When we were little, we listened a lot to bands like Sepultura, Bolt Thrower and other death metal bands, but as we got older we also found about bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X etc. One thing that really inspired me was some of the music in films. I still think that the soundtrack to “The Rock” is awesome. I really like that bombastic, epic feeling I get when I listen to it. But since I am also sucker for more aggressive music, combining these two things is what I love to do.

Jesse: I read that you spent over two years writing Esoteric.  Was this just a matter of finding the time and conflicting schedules or were you just content on taking as much time as necessary?  Was it challenging to keep the right frame of mind over such a long period of time?

Martin: I think we spent almost a year writing for Esoteric, but I mean some of that time we didn’t write anything at all while other times we wrote maybe 2 songs in a month. It all has to do with when the inspiration decides to set in and that’s why I don’t like to schedule when you are supposed to write the material for an album. It has to come naturally. Some days everything you write just plain sucks, but other days you are on fire. To be honest, I think more bands should take more time off to finish writing their material, because more time usually equals more inspiration which hopefully results in better songs. 

Jesse: What does the immediate future look like for Skyfire?

Martin: We have a UK tour coming up in November and after that we might do some gigs here in Sweden. We are looking into tour offers for the beginning of next year and although nothing is confirmed yet, I hope we will do 1 or 2 additional tours before we begin to write for the next album.

Jesse: Any last thoughts for the readers?

Martin: Thanks for the interview! To all fans out there, check out our new album Esoteric and if you like make sure to get a copy so we get out on the roads more often and play, drink beer and have epic talks with you!

Jesse: Once again, thank you for your time and I wish for the very best on the success of Esoteric and for the future of Skyfire.

Martin: Thanks! Take care

Check out Jesse's review of Esoteric here

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