Hammerfall
Focus On Hector

26.11.2014

In 2012 Hammerfall, the long-standing leaders of Swedish heavy/power metal, announced they’d be taking a break for “recharging the batteries”. Though they spoke of one year, the break actually lasted almost twice as long. Finally, a new album was released late summer this year and immediately found itself at the top of European charts. As it is becoming a trend nowadays, Hammerfall decided to go back to their roots with this album, to embrace once again the kind of music that made them famous back in the day. And to do so they put Hector back on the cover and brought knight stories back into the lyrics. Now the Swedes are getting ready for their first world tour in two years, and it’s gonna start very soon in Moscow, where Hammerfall will headline the first day of Aria Fest. As you will know from our interview with vocalist Joacim Kans, it’s not only the fans, but also the band who are very much looking forward to it.

How are you? Getting ready for the show in Moscow?

Yes, we’ll start rehearsing next week. We haven’t done anything except for recording the album and doing a couple of festival shows during last two years, so… We’re really eager and anxious to start touring and it’s gonna be great to start the whole world tour in Moscow.

You’ll share the stage with Edguy and Stratovarius. I know it’s not the first time you are touring with them…

Yes, this is the third tour, kind of, that we do together with Edguy. We did a big tour in Scandinavia in 1999 and we did a U.S. tour with them in 2005, so yeah, we’re really close friends, we have worked a lot together in the past... It’s always great to hang out together with these guys ‘cause they are so down-to-earth and easy to work with. I think they feel the same way about us. I really hope so. (laughs)

Looks like there’ll be a lot of fun in Moscow.

Absolutely!

What do you prepare for Russian fans?

You know, what you’ll see there will be the first show of the upcoming tour, so this is all brand-new. We also have a line-up change since our drummer Anders (Johansson) left the band a couple of months ago. So that’ll be the first show with the replacement drummer for this tour. And also since the bass player Fredrik (Larsson) is waiting for the second baby now, our former guitar player is playing the bass on this tour. It’s gonna be a very unique show.

Do you know the band which is gonna be the host of the festival? I mean, Aria.

Yes. I just came from a wedding in the U.S. and the girl who got married, she is from Ukraine. She is a big Aria fan and we listened to Aria the whole wedding party.

Did you like it?

Yeah, it’s cool. Really cool songs.

Great. So talking about your line-up changes… Why did actually Anders leave?

Well, he’s been in the music business for 35-40 years. I think he felt that he didn’t want to sacrifice his family going out on tour again. I just feel that he got tired of the whole business situation. Probably he just wanted to do something else for a while.

Is David Wallin a temporary replacement?

Yes. He’ll do the upcoming tour and then we’ll take it from there. Because Anders left quite… How to say it? Things got complicated when he left. ‘Cause we were working with visas and flight tickets to Russia and to South America, and we needed a temporary replacement really quickly. So we just called a friend that we knew and asked him, “Hey, can you help us out here?” And he said, “Yes, sure, I can do that”. We’ll see. I’m not sure if he is interested to be a permanent member or not. Let’s do the tour first and see what happens.

I know it’s kind of a trend now to get back old friends… So how about inviting Patrik Räfling for example?

Oh, that would have been a cool thing but he’s not been in the music business since he got out of the band back in 1998 and we had to let him go for a reason. It would be a weird signal if we took him back. I think that we need a musician on a higher level. You know, we’re touring a lot so this is our profession more or less. Patrick has been doing other things than music since he left.

And what about Stefan Elmgren? As far as I remember he left because he wanted to be a pilot. Why did he come back? Is he tired of flying?

Well, I asked him because when Fredrik said he won’t be able to do the tour, I thought, “Oh, shit. We need a bass player”. And I thought that maybe as a treat for the fans of Hammerfall we could ask Stefan if he wanted to take a little leave from the pilot occupation and go back on tour for a month and a half. He really wanted to do this ‘cause I think he misses the whole thing. This will be not only a treat for the fans but also a treat for the rest of the guys in Hammerfall, and also a treat for Stefan. I think he misses us a lot. We miss him, too.

But he is still a pilot, isn’t he?

Yes. He will go back to work in late February.

You had almost two years off from the music and touring… What did you do during that time?

Well, I was working really, really hard. First I released a solo album in Swedish. It’s more of Swedish folk music, a pop rock thing. It’s very different but something I really felt I wanted to do. And I also did almost 150 shows at a theatre. I did one of the main roles in this musical called “Rock of Ages”. That was something new to me and I really enjoyed working on the theatre stage. So I was really busy.

Which part did you play?

If you know the musical or the movie, my part was Dennis Dupree, he’s the club owner. In the movie the actor who did this part was Alec Baldwin. And I know when they did “Rock of Ages” in New York, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister did my part. So it’s kinda really cool part.

Did you try to look like one of them?

No. Probably, I did my own interpretation of the role.

Do you want to continue working in a theatre? Or maybe a movie?

Yeah, absolutely. That would be something I really wanna do. But at this point Hammerfall is taking more or less all my time, but I’m looking in the future. I mean, maybe there will be little breaks here and there when I can do something else. Something completely different. The acting part was something I really enjoyed doing.

You know, I listened to some of the songs from your solo album. I must say, I was really surprised, ‘cause it’s anything but metal.

Right.

Why did you decide to do such a different thing?

I always wanted to do something in the Swedish language. I think this type of music goes hand in hand with the Swedish language. It was a challenge to me. When I grew up I listened a lot to both heavy metal music and to Swedish singer-songwriters music. Since we had a break from Hammerfall, I just wanted to get rid of some songs, get some songs out of system, because I had so many great ideas which I couldn’t really direct into Hammerfall. It was also very cool to be able to work with different musicians, different instruments, and different producers. Yeah, it was a great journey.

I liked the song called “Svart” most of all I heard. I don’t speak Swedish, so could you explain what it is about?

Yes, it’s “Black” in English. In fact, it’s not a positive song by any means. I would say it’s really, really dark. But then, the whole album is very dark. It’s something I really wanted to talk about, the down sides of alcohol and you know… The other side of metal, so to speak.

Oh, I see. Ok, I know Oscar (Dronjak, guitar player) wrote a book during this break. Have you ever considered doing something like this?

Well, maybe not about Hammerfall, but yeah, I thought about it a couple of times. But I’m not really sure I’m ready to do it yet. Because if I write a book, especially if it’s an autobiography, I want to include everything in it. And including everything means that I would step on a lot of people’s toes. And I’m not really ready to do that. (laughs)

Maybe later, when you are retired…

Well, you never know.

When taking this break you were talking about recharging your batteries and everything. And as I can see now you didn’t really have time to do that. So did you manage to have some rest?

No, not really. I need a vacation. But I think the tour, especially the first leg when we’ll go to Moscow and then to South America, will be very relaxing. So I’ll try to enjoy my life in between the shows.

Is it possible to relax during a tour? Usually musicians say tours are really demanding…

Ahh, the tours are demanding ‘cause you do a lot of shows. But in between the shows you don’t do anything. So I’m really taking chances to go sightseeing, do a lot of running, training, stuff like that.

Ah, I see. Your first show this year was Wacken Open Air. You did it in the end of the 90s for the first time. How did the festival change since then?

One of the biggest differences is that in the first year we played there, it was 1997, there were 15,000 people. This year it was 85,000. I mean it started as a small secluded festival in the middle of nowhere and now it’s one of the biggest metal fests in the world. It’s amazing how big it is! In my opinion it’s a little bit too big. Because being a fan you can’t really see anything ‘cause there are too many people in front of you. That’s the sad part of it. Though playing there is a really good career move if you have a good slot.

Do you have a favorite festival?

Well, not really. I mean we played so many festivals and everyone is unique, I would say. I never go to festivals as a private person or as a fan anymore. Wacken Open Air is a fantastic festival, Sweden Rock festival is great, too. So, those two are at least the most important to us.

Can we speak a little bit about your new album “(r)Evolution”? We didn’t have a chance to do an interview when it was released. The first single off that album was called “Bushido”. It’s about samurai warriors, right?

Yes. Bushido is a code of the samurai warriors and also this is a kind of continuation of the song we did on the “Renegade” album (2000) called “The Way of the Warrior”. It has more or less the same meaning. So the ending of “Bushido” is a kind of… ehh, a version of the song “The Way of the Warrior”. Those two songs are now connected. And of course in the single artwork Hector is a samurai, so I kind of wove a samurai warrior and Hector, the Hammerfall warrior in the story.

Do you know the difference between the samurai code and the one of the European knights?

Well, I wouldn’t say I know that much about it. I just think that the code of samurai is a little bit stricter. And this shame and honor thing, they’d rather commit suicide than lose in battle or get humiliated.

Are you interested in the Japanese culture? I heard you even practiced taekwondo.

Not really. The fact is I did taekwondo only for one year, but Oscar and Anders, they did taekwondo for many, many years. Anders ended up being red or black belt and Oscar was a red belt. I only got a yellow belt. ‘Cause I broke my arm.

Does the song “Winter Is Coming” have anything to do with “Game of Thrones”?

Yeah, that is a very clear Game of Thrones reference. Like many other songs we did in the past, there are references especially to Game of Thrones, since Oscar who wrote the song is very, very influenced by it. By the books, not the series.

And what about you?

I’ve never read the books. I saw the first season, but… I don’t know, I have a problem with paying so much attention to one thing, so I usually fell asleep and I didn’t really get the story. But I think it is cool, I really have to re-watch it during the next tour.

What about the name of the album? What’s revolutionary in the album?

It’s a little word-play, the “R” in within the braces, so it’s both Revolution and Evolution. For me, the revolution part of Hammerfall is that we came in 1997 and kind of caused a new revolution within the music industry because no one really thought that heavy metal in the way we played it would come back with such a strong force. And that in my opinion is the revolution. The evolution part is that even though we’re still staying true to our style we’ve been able to develop the music. I think, there’s been evolution within our music since day one, we’re constantly evolving, so to speak. So here you have both revolution and evolution.

I also noticed that you started to write lyrics about knights again. Your previous album was all about demons and all this stuff.

Yeah, we kind of went back to basics a little bit, put a lot of focus on Hector. I mean, in this song “Hector’s Hymn”, there’s a lot of references from other Hammerfall songs. In comparison to “Infected” (2011), it was more of… a very open-minded album I would say. It was exactly what we wanted to do back then, when we did that album. And now, after this break we thought, “Ok, this is what we want to do and this is what we have to do”.

Talking about “Infected”, on that album you covered a song by a Hungarian band Pokolgép. Why did you choose that song?

First of all, it’s a fantastic song and we wanted the world to hear it. I mean, not so many people know about Pokolgép outside of Hungary, so we thought, “Let’s do the song but let’s do it in English because it’s easier for people to understand or to get into the song”. So, first of all, this is a tribute to Pokolgép, just to give them some attention. Secondly, we did that song also in Hungarian, so there is a version where I sing it in the original language without knowing one word in Hungarian. It was really tough. It’s a great band, they should get a little bit attention, I think.

Did you achieve this goal? Did you help them somehow?

I don’t know. It’s really hard because they are a band singing all in Hungarian, they are huge in Hungary but I’m not sure they have played that much outside. I think this limits their success a little bit.

Do you know anything about heavy metal in other Eastern European countries?

You know, I’m not really following the music scene that much anymore. When I had a break I was working harder than ever, so… Nowadays it’s really hard to follow ‘cause I’m not searching that much on the Internet anymore. When I wanna hear some new music I just backtrack and listen to the old music. So I have a hard time following what’s going on.

Back to your new album. It’s your first album with no covers on it, right?

Yes, I think so. You know, we have done so many covers, we even released an album with all the cover songs we’ve done. I think there are no covers left to do. It wouldn’t make any sense for us. We had some ideas of some cover songs, but we had so many songs of our own that we already had a bonus track that we had written ourselves, so we didn’t see a need to include a cover song on this album.

It’s a pity, ‘cause your covers were really fun to listen to. Sometimes even better than the original versions of the songs…

(laughs) Thank you.

But that’s true.

We picked bands that we really loved, bands that sometimes lacked good production, more obscure bands. We would never do a Manowar cover or Iron Maiden cover because we can’t do it even half as good as they did the original song. It wouldn’t make any sense.

How would you react if somebody records a cover album of Hammerfall songs?

I would be very honored. Very honored and extremely proud. As long as they do the songs well. (everybody laughs)

Yeah, obviously. You know, a lot of your songs finally end up in some kind of sports. Like that curling thing and now a hymn for an ice hockey team. Why do your songs fit so well into sports?

I think the energy within the music kind of makes it perfect for sport entertainment. It’s not like we’re chasing the sport people, they have been asking us all the time. You know, in sports they wanna have this up-tempo steady heavy metal beat. I think it’s kind of going hand in hand with the sports. And we’re also huge sport fans.

Do you like ice hockey?

Yep. I’m a big fan of ice hockey. I also follow football, but I think ice hockey is my game, yeah.

What’s your favorite team?

In Sweden there’s a team called Mora, like the place where I was born. They’re not in the main league. But in the main league it will be the team from Gothenburg called Frölunda.

And what about NHL or maybe KHL?

In NHL I support Minnesota Wild now, because they are using a Hammerfall son. (laughs) Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames are also among my favorite teams. As for KHL I lack information. I’m not really sure of what’s going on. For us it’s still kind of a new league, but a lot of Swedish players come over there so it’s getting more and more interesting to follow what’s going on. And we also had this huge tragedy when we lost Stefan Liv, one of the best goalkeepers in this plane crash a few years ago.

Yeah, it was just terrible… So, did Minnesota Wild contact you?

Yeah. They were working with some music publisher or something and they wanted to have “Fury of the Wild” but without vocals. So we re-mixed the song, everything was done in three days.

You know, it looks like ice hockey is really connected to heavy metal. They play parts of heavy metal songs during the breaks and now two of NHL teams have songs written by heavy metal bands as their hymns (the other one is Los Angeles Kings, with a song written by Fred Coury of Cinderella, - ed.). What do they have in common?

I think, it’s the energy. The music really boosts the people because it’s all based on energy and there’s a lot of… ahh… I mean they’re fighting all the time. So it gives them something. You know, a ballad would never work and neither would a pop song or a rap song do. They would just freak them out, I guess.

Yeah, I think so. I have also some personal questions for you, not only from me but also from Russian fans. Is it true that you like to cook?

Yes. But I’ve been a vegetarian now for almost one year and I’m not cooking as much as I did before. Now I’m learning a brand-new cuisine, because cooking vegetarian is so different from eating a lot of meat.

What’s your favorite dish to cook?

I think it should be… cod fish with brown butter, some potatoes and some green pieces. That’s perfect.

And why did you decide to start producing your own whisky?

Because I’m really interested in cross-promoting of Hammerfall stuff. You know, both music with other stuff. I’m not a big whisky fan but I enjoy a good whisky. I was contacted by a company and we tried out so many different types before we found exactly that kind of taste Hammerfall could stand for. I think that nowadays you have to do other things than just music because the music industry is getting smaller and smaller, so you need to look for other sources of income. But it’s also very cool to have a really great tasting high quality whisky with your own name on.

Why whisky? Why not beer for example?

We started with red wine last year and now we did whisky because this is kind of a collectors' item. Beer is the next step, there’s a lot of volume in beer. Compare that to whisky of which we only do 5,000 bottles and that’s it. So maybe later we’ll do beer, too.

Is it only sold in Sweden?

The thing is it’s a very strictly limited edition, so as far as I know it’s only available in Sweden and in Germany. That’s it.

Is it easy to find it in supermarkets?

No, you can’t buy alcohol in supermarkets here. You have to go to a special store and even there you have to order this bottle. So it’s a bit tricky.

It’s a challenge for a real fan, I see.

Yes. But it’s worth the hustle, it’s a great whisky.

You’ve been one of the biggest Swedish bands for a long time, but now there is another Swedish band, Sabaton, getting bigger and bigger. Do you see them as competitors or are you just friends?

There’s no other way to see it. If we start competing against each other it would kill the industry eventually. Everything goes up and down, we started way back in 1997 and they were not even around. Bands come and go and we have to help each other and we’re really proud that they’re doing so well.

I’m asking because you released albums this year and there were a lot of fans on the Internet watching which album will be higher in the charts and everything…

That’s a typical fan’s perspective. I was thinking in the same way when growing up.

And now you don’t care about those things, do you?

Well, of course you always want to have your album as number one.

Last year it was kind of the 20th anniversary of Hammerfall, but you were not around to celebrate it. Any plans for it?

Not really. What we did celebrate was 10 and 15 years, but we started counting from the year our first album was released, so the next big celebration will be in three years.

Thank you. I ran out of questions. Do you have any last words for the fans?

Yeah. We’re all really eager to come back to Moscow and do the big premiere of the new tour. That’ll be great.

Hammerfall on the Internet: http://www.hammerfall.net

Special thanks to Alexei Kuzovlev (The Motley Concerts) for arranging this interview

Ekaterina Akopova
November 12, 2014
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