MP: Is it annoying to be asked all the time about your "black metal roots"?

JE: Oh, there are worse things in life, it does not affect me that much. the problem is really is it true or not, that is my only point.

MP: Would you still consider Tiamat as a metal band? You are pretty big in the metal magazines like Rock Hard, Hammer and so on here in Germany?

JE: Well that is because Tiamat is a band with a metal record company (Century Media). If that makes us a metal band I can not say.

MP: Compared to your last album "A Deeper Kind Of Slumber" the new one "Skeleton Skeletron" is again completely different. Still very Tiamat yet different. Is this kind of a plan?

JE: There are two things I want to reply to this. First thing is that we learn every day how to make better music. We learn every day how to perform better and to write songs better than before. And the second thing is that we want to do something we never did before or something that is exciting. We struggle very much I think and therefore it's not possible for us to do a thing we already did on the last album. Already when we started to work on the new album we decided to do everything that we did not do on the one before.

MP: Did your move from Sweden to Dortmund affect somehow the concept of the cd? (Johan lives in Hamburg right now)

JE: Naaaay. I dont know - I think this is tooo romantic. I think the songs are within you and I can't really change my mood whereever I am! No I don't feel really any big change.

MP: Can it be that you become lately more of a storyteller on "Skeleton Skeletron"?

JE: Well I got a bit fed up with myself on "A Deeper Kind Of Slumber". It was too much self pity and whining and I got a little bit bored of it. There are so many bands that just complain and drown in self pity and whine on forever. So I wanted to go a bit further away from just expressing my really inner feelings and rather tell little stories about things in life.

MP: There are a few mentions about guns and bullets... are you again on the harder path?

JE: Well I just enjoy weapons. I think generally we go more in the direction of entertainment. I dont think it is heavier at all or about being heavier. I think it is about waking up and making something people will enjoy and not standing on a stage and play goddamn boring music until everybody falls asleep.

MP: Where do you get your inspirations from? You told me once that you hate the eighties.

JE: Its really quite simple I think. It's like this: if I try to write a very good song that's build after a traditional pop song, than I do this becaese I just don't want to write a song for myself. I want to see people dance to it. That is something that changed - I never thought about it before but now when I see people dancing to a Tiamat song that makes me very happy. And therefore the songs turn out a bit more like this. I cannot help it: the music mixed with my voice sounds like this. I can't change it...it's nothing I am struggling for: to sound like the Sisters Of Mercy - although I like them. But it is very accidental for sure.

MP: What role does the producer play? Do you listen to his ideas or are you more of a dictator in the studio? How much of the influence do you take from him?

JE: If I was a dictator I would not need a producer. The only point with having a producer, if you can be open minded, is to listen to what he wants to say. Me and Dirk (Draeger) work very well together. He's always involved at a very early state of the recording - actually even before we go to the studio for the recordings. We worked at my place then and therefore I would say he is like a band member more or less. A very priviledged band member that does not have to go on tour! (laughs out loud)

MP: Before starting to work on your latest album "Skeleton Skeletron" you did a remix on a Rammstein single (Rammstein covered Depeche Mode's "Stripped"). How did you get that job?

JE: Oh, we met here and there when we played festivals together. And I know a girl that used to make promotion for them and now works for their record company. They are very friendly people and after I met them a couple of times they were looking for somebody to do a remix. So they approached me...

MP: Do you think that right now there are too many remixes on the market?

JE: I don't know. I have no clue really. My problem is that I'm not a music fan really. It is very long ago that I was a fan of other bands meaning that you would realy care about them and read everything about them or you would even buy a single, cd... Then you had very strong opinions on what was on the b-side of the singles or how much value you got for what you paid for. But I am not a fan anymore. I put on the radio and I don't care what they play. So while I do the dishes I might even listen to Tina Turner. I'm too simple minded to answer that question.

MP: Dont lie! - Is it annoying to be asked constantly the same questions? To be asked constantly about your feelings?

JE: What we did on a few albums, especially on "Wildhoney" set up kind of a reference what people are going to ask - even today. We created this weird psychodelic-depressive-mood that actually makes people think that I have a very deep explanation of all this when in reality I was just a very young guy that wanted to sound like his favourite band Pink Floyd. It was as simple as that. And all those questions about my mood, wether I wanted to commit suicide, or if I was not a happy person this kind of prooves that we really got close to what we wanted with the music. But still it is very hard for me.

MP: By the way: if journalists are getting on your nerves do you lie at times to silence them or to escape their questions?

JE: I dont think I lie. I think I always mean what I say at the moment but it might be different from one day to the other. But I meant it both times...

MP: Your former guitar player Thomas Petersson is joining you again for the tour. Would you like to have him back in the band?

JE: It would be great and he would be very welcome - talk to him! I think to talk about members is not the easiest thing when it comes to us...

MP: What do you hate about touring?

JE: I would not say that I hate touring - there are of course very good points for making a tour and that is the hour every day we stay on stage, playing in front of an audiance that hopefully likes it. That is a very strong feeling and that can always be stronger than all this bullshit around. And I don't think it is important to let everyone know what is exactly going on anyway. If I go as a fan to a concert I do not want to know about all the problems one month before the tour or backstage or whatever. As long as the band do their best on stage... and that we will do for sure.

MP: Are there already songs you are sick and tired of playing?

JE: No! As we have not played for two years it's going to be fun to play all of them. It goes hand in hand with our aim to entertain that we now decided not to take always the most complicated songs for self-pleasing. Just playing the stuff we would enjoy and be very introverted about the whole thing. This time we want to play songs that are already kind of approved. It's easier when you have made already some albums: you can go back and see what songs were the most successful - and those we are going to play.

MP: And for the first time you are going to take a keyboarder with you on tour.

JE: Yes. we do this mainly as a reaction to our fans who actually questioned us why we didn't have a keyboarder with us last time and simply played the parts from tape. So this time we want to please our audience...They pay a lot of money. I not always understood that but this time I want to compromise: I want that we as a band are very pleased with what we do and the audience likes it as well.

MP: How will you visualize your music this time? Will there be bodypainting again?

JE: The bodypainting thing was completely connected with "A Deeper Kind Of Slumber". That we thought even back then. I think the way we have been presented on band photos recently is probabely how we are going to present us on stage. ...female underwear and things.

MP: Really?

JE: No, I don't know... (laughs) try to imagine that.

MP: If your music would be the soundtrack to a movie, how would the movie look

JE: Probabely a homemade tourist film from the seventies. A family on holiday to Eastern Europe.

MP: You are presently in the web with your own site, do your visit the web regularly?

JE: Every day. I always check the swedish newspapers and read everything about my favourite football club. For that purpose internet is really cool, because as I live in Germany now it's not easy to find swedish newspapers.

MP: You taped a demo under the name "Lucyfire". Isn't it enough work to be the big boss in Tiamat?

JE: Enough work, but not enough money.

MP: What direction are you following with your new project musically?

JE: Gobsmacking gothic rock´n´roll. No more, definitely no less!

MP: If there would come a fairy queen and would grant you one wish for Lucyfire, what would that wish be?

JE: 1.000.000.000.000 Dollars.

MP: Thanks for the interview, Johan.

© MEGALOMANIAC PRODUCTIONS 1999

Tourdates you'll find at http://www.centurymedia.com
Tiamats official Homepage: http://www.wildhoney.org
Informations about Johan Edlunds Soloproject: http://www.lucyfire.com
You can find older material about Tiamat in our glorious archive!