Soundwave Festival

Biography

*****Meshuaggah Interview*****

Swedish five-piece legendary metallers Meshuggah are about to rip shreds off the competition when they arrive in Australia later this week to play alongside metal greats Anthrax, Anvil and Faith no More to name just a few at the 2010 Soundwave Festivals. Forming back in 1987 this legendary metal outfit finally made their way to Australia last year playing to sold-out crowds in support of their most successful studio album to date ‘ObZen’, leaving metal maniacs across Australia wanting more. Earlier this month Meshuggah fans across the globe were thrilled when the band released their first ever live Dvd titled ‘Alive’. The Dvd showcases the band on the road doing what they do best, playing to loyal and fanatical metal fans. Reports have flooded various forums since the Dvd’s release with fan’s expressing their opinions on the bands first ever live Dvd and praising the band for finally releasing the ultimate live Dvd.

Meshuggah have played with the best of the best and are known for their captivating, intense, and aggressive live performances, and that’s just what they are promising to deliver when they hit town in a few days time! I had the pleasure of catching up with the bands guitarist Mårten Hagström last week to talk about the bands upcoming return to Australia, the kick ass new ‘Alive’ DVD, as well as the bands plans for the next studio album and more.

The time has come to paint this place ‘Electric Red’ with one of metal music’s finest guitar players Mårten Hagström!

Soundwave: Hi Martin, it great to speak with you tonight, how’s everything been going?

Mårten Hagström: Everything’s been going pretty good, we’re pretty swamped with work up here right now in Stockholm, there’s still a lot of stuff to be done with the tour! This may be the final tour that we do for the ‘ObZen’ album; we’re kinda trying to switch into the writing mode for when we get back from this tour, so we’ve got shit loads to do [laughs].

Soundwave: [Laughs] Firstly mate congratulations on the new live DVD / Cd ‘Alive’, fans have been waiting quite a long time for you guys to put this one together… how has the response been from those who have already seen the dvd?

Mårten Hagström: Well, so far it’s been awesome! We have personally been getting a great response, so we’re very happy! Its only just been released and we have done a couple of interviews but I haven’t been checking the internet or anything for reactions but the people that we’ve given it to and the people that we work with are ecstatic about it.

Soundwave: ‘Alive’ is certainly something that the fans have been screaming for now for years! Was there any reason it has taken so long for you guys to put together a live dvd?

Mårten Hagström: Yeah, for a number of reasons actually… we did discuss it through the years, every once in a while the idea pops up or someone from the Nuclear Blast office asks if we are considering doing a live dvd anytime soon. We had been focusing on other stuff, we thought we could’ve done it quick and got it out there but we really wanted to wait until we felt that we had the proper focus, not only us but the guy that we knew we wanted to work with for it. After we released the ‘ObZen’ album Ian McFarland [writer/producer] who did the ‘Bleed’ video had a sit down meeting with us in Boston. We discussed how we felt about the video and the fact that we didn’t really have anything to do with it. Ian said “guys, I’d really like to do a documentary film or a live DVD with you, I think I could make it look really cool”. We started discussing it, a couple of months later we were heading back to the United States for a headlining tour with Ministry and we felt it was the perfect time. Ian had the time to do it, he had everything set up, we could pick a couple of shows that we felt would be a good representative of what we’re doing on the road and we knew what we wanted out of it! It was just good timing and like you were saying, a lot of people have been complaining about us not doing a DVD for some time now.

Soundwave: Martin, more and more artists tell me how they don’t like doing live recordings cause they don’t feel they can capture the energy of the band live… do you feel that same way or do you think that ‘Alive’ sums up the live Meshuggah experience?

Mårten Hagström: I don’t know… it’s still too early to tell. Being onstage in that chaotic environment, how to directly transfer what that feels like in a live situation over to a DVD is pretty much impossible. For us, it wasn’t only about capturing the most bad ass live set we could produce but we wanted to represent what it was like on the road, that’s why we included four shows rather than one consecutive live show. We wanted it to feel authentic, it was a challenge, but you have to go off the word of the people that know what you look like from on the stage, and it feels like we came really close, we have no reason to complain, we’re really happy with it!

Soundwave: It’s certainly awesome to see that you guys have the new ‘Alive’ DVD and Cd out now, but the fans are dying to know… have you been working on any new material.

Mårten Hagström: Not much, what we’ve done is more of a practical nature. We have a studio here in Stockholm and we’ve been rebuilding it somewhat, we did a major renovation last year, we actually ripped out everything in the basement and just built a whole new studio. It turned out really good but we weren’t really 100% satisfied with the acoustics so we bought someone in from the outside to help us set it up exactly how we wanted it. As far as writing, we have got some stuff, I wouldn’t call it leftovers but more stuff that we didn’t have the time to get finished before the ‘ObZen’ album, so we’re going to see what we can do with it, see if it still feels fresh. We’re going to approach the writing process a little bit differently this time… we’re going to jam a little bit more as a band, not to the full extent but we’re gonna play around within the earlier stages of the process rather than handing demos to each other and working of the ones we think are best, but that’s all we know for now.

Soundwave: When you decide collectively as a band to approach an album differently to your previous work it must make the whole process feel new and much more exciting especially after doing so many albums, is that one of the reasons for doing the next album this way… to keep it fresh and exciting?

Mårten Hagström: That’s true… maybe? You have to change things around and put yourself in a new setting and put yourself into a new creative environment to see where you can take the band from what it is today and see what you can do with it. Of course it differs where you are in life and where you are in your career on what you do with your music. I would say that mostly these changes come about because of the simple fact that hopefully we’re realizing more and more with every album what we want to do, what’s lacking from a perspective where we can do our best, we want to put ourselves into a situation where we can do our best, with that challenge comes the creative spark as well!

Soundwave: Mate, this coming weekend Australian fans are once again going to witness you guys live at the Soundwave festivals… No doubt you are happy to be returning to Australia for some more shows?

Mårten Hagström: Yeah definitely, it’s funny it feels kind of weird. There were so many years that we were looking to go down to Australia, we got offers or had something else to do or vice versa so the timing was never right, so last year when we came down it felt like... finally! Now we’re coming back for the second time in a year which is cool. We really had a great time last time so of course we’re looking forward to doing it again.

Soundwave: Doing the Soundwave festival’s this time around you are billed with many great bands like Anthrax, Faith no more, This is Hell and Anvil to name a few. Are there any bands you are looking forward to checking out during the festival run?

Mårten Hagström: Anthrax I have seen a bunch of times live, that’s one of the bands I grew up listening too and I guess that goes for most of us guys in the band so I will be checking out Anthrax at least a couple of times! I want to see Faith No More, I want to check out Isis but honestly, I haven’t sat down and looked at the roster and thought I have to see this or this. I guess it will happen when we’re there; we’re going to be walking around and checking things out for sure!

Soundwave: Martin, when you travel half way across the world to be part of something like this, besides the actual shows what do you most look forward to?

Mårten Hagström: Well, you guys have the best weather now when we’re coming down, it’s freezing here, and we have snow up to our waist at the moment so that’s going to be really nice! You guys are renowned for your nature and that’s something that I’d like to check out a little bit more if I have the time!

Soundwave: For many years now you have been touring the world, does it ever get any easier to leave home and hit the road for weeks and in some cases months at a time?

Mårten Hagström: Yes and no, it’s gets easier cause we’re more in charge of the periods of time that we’re out now! The eight or ten week tours are few and far between nowadays, but back in the day most tours were like that. We have come to a decision in our careers where we are able to pick and choose a little more, not entirely but more so than before and in that respect it gets easier. Most of the time its four or five weeks and we try to keep it at that if we can! At the same time… it gets harder! We’ve been doing this for such a long time, I have a kid that is a little over a year old and Freddy has a kid that is a little over two years old, so leaving the family gets a bit harder.

Soundwave: There’s no doubt that when you’re playing on the large festival bills, it can be a fantastic way to expose the band to a lot of people who may have never heard you before. For those people attending Soundwave that are interested in checking out Meshuggah… in a few words how would you describe the band live and what can the metal fans expect when you take to the stage this time round?

Mårten Hagström: Oh man, intensity [laughs] in a live setting we are an intense band that’s for sure! We want it to be a darker and more intense experience. We are a weird and aggressive band so I guess we’ll put on a weird and aggressive show [laughs].

Soundwave: [Laughs] You have shared the stage with so many great bands over the years. Who has given you the best advice whilst on the road and what was it?

Mårten Hagström: We’ve been given a lot of advice by a lot of people that we respect tremendously! I would have to say Tool, if it comes to terms of advice. Tool was a band that we got a long great with. They hand picked us to go out on the two runs we did with them in the United States for their ‘Lateralus’ album. Adam gave me advice on how to not get too stuck in the role of being in the band, try and get a perspective of what is happening with the band from an outside point of view, be really aware of everything. It was really good stuff to think about. Going on tour in the US with Tool meant a big arena tour and with a lot of bands you know you can really get kicked around but they were just the opposite. Tool took us in and we became great friends, we were hanging out a lot. We’re still in touch with them and they still come out to our shows when we’re in LA.

Soundwave: Martin, we’ve hit the part of the interview where our readers get to find out more about the real you…. What was the first concert you ever attended and how much of an impact did that have on you musically?

Mårten Hagström: Oh a lot, the first real show where I bought a ticket and went to see was Metallica in 1986 in Stockholm. The first real show I went to see would turn out to be Cliff Burton’s last show and that was an impact, firstly because it was a fucking killer show from the Master Of Puppets tour, Anthrax were opening up and then Metallica… I was just blown away. I was like fifteen years old and the day after the show my dad called the apartment where my friend and I were staying and he told us that one of the guys in the band just died, we said fuck off and thought he was lying, we went and got the papers and just couldn’t believe it!

Soundwave: There is no doubt that after seeing a concert, you would become influenced more and more in heavy music but I was wondering… growing up did you always envision yourself as someone that would end up doing music as a full time gig or were your goals different?

Mårten Hagström: I don’t think I thought of it that way, It wasn’t one of those things where I was interested in music and picked up a guitar and thought this is what I am gonna work with and live off. When you’re a kid you pick stuff up because you like it, of course I wanted to play the guitar but what intrigued me early on was writing songs. That was something I envisioned myself doing but probably not doing it for a living. I knew I would keep it up through the years and it became more and more obvious how big a part of my life it was and how little I wanted to do everything else [laughs]. I wanted to be a hockey player, I wanted to do music, there was a lot of things that I wanted to do when I was a kid, it became really apparent that it wasn’t something that I chose to do, it was something that I had to do!

Soundwave: Before we wrap it up lets go way back to your early childhood! Thomas and yourself have been friends and playing together for a great number of years now, what comes to mind when you look back on those early days together jamming?

Mårten Hagström: It’s funny a lot of people pick up on that, like you said we started playing really early on, I have known him since I was six; I never look back on it and say “hey, look we’ve been together for all these years, we’ve been inseparable since we were kids”, it’s just been a natural thing and I really don’t know much about playing with another drummer. I guess it’s a really cool thing that it went down that way and to still be the best of friends… we’ve become family in a way, looking back on the early days we sucked more on our instruments… two fucked up guys messing around [laughs].

Soundwave: [Laughs] Martin, lastly a question I ask of everyone that I speak with… who is the one band you never want to hear again and why?

Mårten Hagström: Oh man, that’s a great fuckin question but I don’t have an answer for it right now… it won’t tell you much but it’s true nonetheless, there’s this one artist in Sweden, a piano player named Robert Wells, he’s a Swedish dude in spite of the name and he does these summer tours every fuckin year where he brings in whatever’s hottest with the Swedish crowds right now when it comes those people aged 50+. It’s such a fuckin massive campaign every fuckin year, you see him everywhere and you hear him everywhere and that annoys the fuck out of me! He’s been doing that for about twelve years so he could actually give it a rest!

Soundwave: [Laughs] Dude it sure sounds like it! Thanks once again for speaking with us today Martin, I look forward to seeing you guys at the Soundwave festivals… do you have any last words for our readers?

Mårten Hagström: Come check us out!

© Cameron Edney Feb 2010

*****Meshuaggah Bio*****
"One of the ten most important hard and heavy bands" - that’s how Rolling Stone describes Swedish sonic extremists MESHUGGAH. It is impossible to talk about experimental or avantgarde metal without mentioning this truly groundbreaking act: MESHUGGAH mix ultra-complicated rhythmic patterns with massive riffs and aggressive growls, combining Death Metal, Mathcore, Thrash and Progressive Metal to create their unique style.

"ObZen" is their newest offering and one thing is for sure: expect the unexpected. MESHUGGAH have once again delivered a masterpiece of diversity and surprises and they have reached a non-human level with this one... but to be honest: That's exactly what we hoped for.

So what can people expect from a MESHUGGAH live show?

“Meshuggah put on a mind-bending set of crushing, instrumental virtuosity to kick everything off. The Swedish quintet maintained an assault of raw, rhythmic fire.” – Artist Direct

“Instantly the crowd is thrust into a frenzied sea of uniformed head banging as the band let off riffs like shotgun blasts in slow motion, unconditionally blowing away this horde of awestruck metal-heads.” – The Skinny.co.uk

The band was labeled as one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press.