Soilwork
Remaining Adventurous

27.11.2015

This interview has a long pre-history. The initial plan was to have a talk with Swedish modern melodic death metallers Soilwork back in February, just before the release of their DVD “Live In The Heart Of Helsinki”, then the communication medium was changed from phone to email, and we, regardless of our disappointment, sent over our questions, just to never hear back from the band. However in late July we were suddenly offered a new opportunity to talk via Skype to Dirk Verbeuren, who has been drumming for Soilwork relentlessly for more than a decade. We naturally jumped at the opportunity, though we were quite skeptical about it this time. However, it did work out. Dirk presented himself as a great interview subject, and our conversation turned out very informative, so if you want to learn more about the making of Soilwork’s great new album "The Ride Majestic" and their first ever DVD, as well as about many other things, here’s the right place!

As our first attempt to reach you was made just before the DVD release, let's talk about it firstly. How do you feel about your first DVD in 20 years and why did it take so long to make one?

He-he-he... Well, it's a big project and we talked about it for many, many years – about getting the logistics together and finding the right place and the right time and budget, etc. It proved to be a little bit more difficult than we expected. But I think in retrospect it was a great thing that we waited so long because we as a band are in the good place now with the line-up and also with the music. And "The Living Infinite" was a great album to use as a template for a DVD because it was an album that people really seem to enjoy a lot, we like it as well, and it had a lot of songs, so we could really use it as a baseline for our setlist and then make sure that we included also something from every other Soilwork album as well. For us it's important that we play something even for the people that had known us from the early days. So in the end it was a great time, I think.

And why did you choose Helsinki and the "Circus" club particularly as the shooting location?

Well, Helsinki and Finland in general have been always very welcoming to Soilwork from the very beginning. So we wanted to do something there and the club just kind of came up as a good-sized club that was available around the time that we needed. That wasn't something that we chose but something that was suggested by the promoter Uni who helped us set up this show. But it was important for us to pay homage to the Finnish fans because the really supported Soilwork a lot throughout the years and it seemed like the most appropriate place for us even though, of course, there've been other people across the world that have given us amazing support, but somehow that seemed the right way to do it. I'm sure the next DVD will be shot somewhere else.

And did you like that club? To be honest, it's not my favorite place in Helsinki - I was there once and I didn't like the sound. What is your opinion about that club?

Well, we had a chance to do one day of soundchecking before the day of the show and so we managed to have a pretty good sound live and also on stage. For me personally it was pretty comfortable and it was a really good atmosphere so I enjoyed it. It was the first time that I played there and I really have no complaints about it, I had a lot of fun there.

Сould you tell a few words about the duet with Floor Jansen in the song "Let This River Flow"? Did it take much time to rehearse this duet and especially the vocal parts?

I think Björn (Strid, vocals) and Floor first worked together on ReVamp because I think she is a Soilwork fan from what I understand and she had asked him to do something on one of ReVamp songs. This was a number of years back and they finally ended up meeting some years later, and they got along. When the time came to do our DVD Björn had this idea to contact her and see if she would be interested to do a duet. But there was very little time to prepare because we had a tour that was going pretty much up until the DVD shoot so she basically just came out on the day prior to the DVD being made and we practiced the song a few times on stage and it was amazing from the beginning. She's obviously a very talented singer and she had done her homework and came up with some really cool melodies together with Björn. We all had to play the song a couple of times and then she was ready to do the big gig, so I was super-impressed with her capacity. She was also a very, very nice person to be around, so, yeah, in the end, I think, her vocals add a nice extra dimension to "Let This River Flow".

But still I'm wondering: you play a lot of big festivals, so why did you decide to make a DVD out of a club performance, not of a festival one? And in a related question - what kind of venues do you prefer: clubs or open-air stages?

Well, the reason we did it in a club was that at a festival the problem you have is that you usually have very little time to prepare anything. Even if it's a festival like, for example, Wacken Open Air which has a lot of cameras and the sound system set up, as a band you come there and you have like 15 or 20 minutes to throw your gear on stage and get ready to play. For us and probably for most bands it's not really an ideal thing if you wanna be able to figure out a good stage sound and run through the songs and be prepared to deliver a good show. Of course it can happen that you end up having a great sound but sometimes you don't, and when you're shooting a DVD for an official release, especially for the first one - we didn't want to take that risk. Also we wanted to be able to play for as long as we played which is an hour and 40 minutes or something, so it’s a really, really long setlist which you wouldn't have been able to do at a festival either. If you are a headliner band at a festival then maybe you could do something like that and have some more time, but for us at most festivals we are not in the headlining list so therefore a club was the perfect choice.
As to the second part of your question... I like both. They are both very different. Club shows are obviously a lot more intimate and it's sometimes easier to get a kind of interaction with the crowd going and feel that energy, but a good festival show can also bring a lot of energy. There have been some shows that we played like, for example, opening for Metallica in Madrid back in 2008 with 40-something thousand people there - I can definitely say that when you hear THAT crowd roar you get pretty excited. So they are both fun, but it is very different.

Now let's talk about your forthcoming album "The Ride Majestic", it's going to be released next month if I'm not mistaken. So, is everything ready?

Yes, absolutely! We've been doing a lot of promotion, we're working on a music video which we hope to have ready by the time "The Ride Majestic" comes out. We're super stoked about the album so now we just have to see if people enjoy it.

It's interesting that you've just mentioned the music video and I have a question about your outstanding music videos like "Light The Torch", "Deliverance Is Mine" and "Spectrum Of Eternity". We all love them and we wonder if you are going to continue the story?

We might... At the moment there are no plans for that but in the future it might happen. Actually the "Light The Torch" video at the time was a student project, people kind of offered to do it for us and we liked it so much that we carried on with the story and so we managed to do it for the next two videos you mentioned. But for now we have some other plans for the songs that are gonna be having videos from "The Ride Majestic" so we'll see.

Talking once again about these videos like "Light The Torch" and the others I've just mentioned - who was in charge of these videos concept: you or your label?

Like I said, the initial "Light The Torch" video was a student project so it was some students from Sweden that basically listened to the song and enjoyed it and they put together this story and just proposed it to us. It was basically pretty much gifted to the band which was awesome at that time. This was just before I joined the band so I only heard about this, I wasn't there for that. Then for the next two videos which were "Deliverance Is Mine" and "Spectrum Of Eternity" we basically said, "Let's try and take the story to another step", and we took the lyrics of those songs and worked together with the people of Rock The Nation, which are the digital design team, and worked out the storyboard and the concept with them. Those two videos had more involvement from the band, I would say.

Now let's return to "The Ride Majestic". I know that you composed very songs for the previous album, "The Living Infinite". Did you use any songs, any groundworks from the previous sessions while composing the material for "The Ride Majestic"?

We didn't actually, because we recorded pretty much everything that we wrote for "The Living Infinite". In total, I think, I ended up recording drums for 26 songs and one of them we decided not to complete, so there are just drums for that one, because in the end we didn't feel like it would work for us. But the 25 others were completed, so there are 20 on "The Living Infinite" and there are 5 on the EP called "Beyond The Infinite" which came out in Asia last year. That was all, and I think we have nothing left. So we just started fresh for "The Ride Majestic" and once again Björn and David (Andersson, guitar) wrote a lot of material for this new album, Sylvain (Coudret, guitar) wrote a couple of songs, and I wrote one song which, well, actually ended up being the bonus track on Japanese version of the CD.

I was asking because according to your Facebook page you composed 27 songs, so I was wondering what happened to two of them. It’s 26 now, and one was thrown away, so...

Yes, you're right, actually there were 27 songs written and we decided to skip one in the rehearsals for the album, so that one I didn't even record drums for. We just thought that it was an "ok"-song but it wasn't fantastic so we decided to drop it. And then there was the one I mentioned that I did record drums for but then throughout the studio sessions the guys decided, “Let's leave that one aside”. So you're right about that.

"The Living Infinite", contains some, let's say, progressive metal elements and I think that it's your most complicated album actually. What about the new record? I've heard the title track but it's not enough to judge. Is the new album similar to "The Living Infinite", or shall we prepare for a more straightforward record?

I think, a little bit of both. There's definitely similarities in the sense that we are remaining adventurous in the writing style and bringing in a lot of fresh ideas and different directions, so you will find some songs in there that are quite different and, in my opinion, pretty unique compared to what we've done before even though, of course it's Soilwork still and you can still recognize us. At the same time there are definitely a few songs that are a little bit more straightforward. There are a few songs that are a bit of throwbacks to some other earlier work that we've done on the first three albums and everything in between. It's a pretty diverse recording once again, and I think that's the biggest step forward that we made after the mid-period era of "Figure Number Five" (2003) and "Stabbing The Drama" (2005), and "Sworn To A Great Divide" (2007). We kind of decided to not go for the specific direction but just really write what comes out and try to do the best with that. We didn't have any pre-conceived plan about what "The Ride Majestic" should sound like but instead we let our inspiration do the talking and then worked on the stuff together until we were happy with it.

It seems that the cover artwork for "The Ride Majestic" is gloomier than all your previous covers. Was such a gloomy cover idea dictated by the musical mood or by something else, and whose idea it was actually?

The idea was Björn's and he referenced paintings by Gustave Doré. Another point of reference was the cover for Bathory’s "Blood Fire Death" album. That was kind of a basic idea, and it was definitely dictated by the mood of the music and the lyrics which, in turn, were dictated by what happened when we were making this album. Several band members lost close friends and family throughout the recording. Unfortunately in a short period of time a lot of people that were dear to us passed away so... some were ill and others... it was very unexpected, so a lot of bad things happened. Of course this cast a bit of a shadow over the whole process of making the album and, at the same time, we had no choice but to make the best of it and kind of honor those people's lives and let the music kind of be a tribute to them. So, this explains the gloomy cover.

I see. That's sad to hear.

It's life.

Anyway, the album is going to be a tribute.

Yes, it is for sure. I think if you read the lyrics you'll see that it's definitely a death metal album in a sense that the lyrics a pretty much about life and death exclusively which is supposed to be... at least in my opinion it's an important part of what death metal is about. We don't necessarily have the traditional gory or violent approach per se to that kind of thing but more of an approach that is taken from our own lives.

Talking about death metal and melodic death metal - you are one of the most influent melodic death metal bands along with At The Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Do you track the new releases of these bands and if yes, what is your opinion about these records?

It's interesting because I actually haven't been able to listen to any of those bands' new albums. I've heard a few songs of the At The Gates one and I've seen both In Flames and Dark Tranquillity perform live in the past 1.5 years. But I haven't actually heard any of the records but I definitely will check them out when I get a chance because it's always interesting to see how every one of those bands follows their particular path, you know. What I've heard so far, especially from At The Gates, has been very promising so I'm actually looking forward to getting the whole of that so I can check it out in its entirety. It's definitely interesting because if you look back some 20 years ago and see what all these bands were doing then, and see where we are now... there's some very different stylistic approaches that were followed. I think that's what makes the genre interesting.

Is there any possibility of a kind of "The Big Four of melodic death metal" tour involving Soilwork and the bands I've mentioned before?

You know what? That's a fantastic idea! And that would be so much fun, man! We really should do it.

Yeah, I also think so. That's why I'm asking.

We’ve actually been wanting to do some touring with those bands and we've discussed with all of them but so far nothing concrete has happened. But I'm gonna keep your idea and pass it on.

Hope it will happen!

Yes, that would be great!

As far as I know, you're currently collaborating with Breaking Bands LCC which is headed by Chuck Billy and Jon and Marsha Zazula, whose names need no introduction. Has anything changed for Soilwork because of that, and what exactly do the do for you?

That has definitely changed a lot because the previous management that we had was quite problematic for us and we had a lot of issues which actually came close to ending the band - that's how difficult it was. When you work on a daily basis with people who are there to help you guide your career and help you evolve as a band it's very important to have understanding and to have a common ground. With our previous management unfortunately we made a mistake and we chose people that we didn't get along with at all in the long run. Having Chuck and Jon and Marsha, and also Maria Ferrero who is the head of Adrenaline PR which is the biggest metal PR company in America... having those people and their combined experience to help us kind of build up for this album and set up the tours and stuff is a huge benefit because they have learned so much over all the years. Jon is, of course, known for having worked with Metallica in the very early days and Chuck, like you said, needs no introduction. So whenever we have a question or concern, we can just call those people and figure something out and get their very helpful advice. They've also helped us set up the album release and all the coming tours that we will be doing in a very good way. So it's a very, very positive and happy situation for us right now to be working with those people and we are very grateful that we get to do it.  

That's great! You've just mentioned the United States, and as far as I know you live in the U.S. at the moment, don't you?

I do, indeed, yes. I live in Los Angeles currently.

And how is the weather in L.A. now?

Well, actually right now I'm calling you from Sweden because we're doing some practicing right now since we have some festivals coming up and the first one is this weekend. But I was in Los Angeles a few days ago and the weather was fantastic as it usually is.

Yeah. It's quite cold here in St. Petersburg, and I guess it's quite cold in Sweden too.

It's quite mild here actually, it's like mid-twenties, which is pretty good for Sweden but...

Well, you have better weather than we do!

Sorry to hear that, ha-ha!

So, as far as I understand from your answer, your working process with Soilwork takes place in Sweden. Isn't it difficult for you to travel to Sweden and then back to the United States? How does it work?

Well, I don't sleep much. (laughs) I mean, you know, it's a lot of travelling and it's a lot of flying but it's what it takes. Also it happened before that we were sometimes practicing in America so it really depends on everybody's schedule. For our previous U.S. tour which was in 2013 when "The Living Infinite" came out, we did a week of rehearsals in America so it kind of depends... For me, I don't really mind the flying and the travelling as long as I get some time to sleep and deal with the jetlag, so I usually try to come one or two days earlier so I can rest a little bit. The first rehearsal is usually pretty tough but, hey, we are metal guys, we can take it.

And what about the collaborations with other bands and musicians? I know, you've had and you still have lots of such collaborations.

Yeah. I have my own studio called Die Crawling and I do a lot of recordings there so I really enjoy working with different musicians and bands because I learn from it every time. There are so many talented people out there, and I feel very fortunate that I get to work with them. For me it's also a good way to earn some extra income when Soilwork doesn't require my presence even though I pretty much do things for Soilwork every day because I'm very involved with the band's business as well. But, you know, there's still some downtime and during that downtime I have other things to do - either teach drums or record music with people, so I do this as often as I can.

I know that you played violin as a child. Can you play anything now?

Oh man, I would probably sound like a scratching cat if I tried. (laughs)

Ok, and what about guitar, do you still play it?

Yes, I play guitar. I wouldn't say I'm a good guitar player but I play enough to write. I've written a couple of songs for Soilwork by myself now and I hope to write more in the future, that's my plan for the next album - to contribute some more music than I have done so far. Also I play guitar in my own grindcore band which is called Bent Sea - for that kind of style I can pull it off.

Do you have any plans to play in Russia? You haven't been here for almost seven years if I'm not mistaken so when are you going to visit us again?

I know, man, it's been way too long and hopefully next year, in 2016, we'll have an opportunity to come again. We've been looking at some different offers but nothing has really worked out for us. It's always a tricky game of finding the right time and finding a good offer and finding good people to work with, but with our new management we also got a new booking agent so we are looking at touring as many countries as we can in 2016. Hopefully Russia will be one of them because we'd definitely love to come back - it was a lot of fun when we came there in 2008.

You should check the "Moscow Metal Meeting" festival because Dark Tranquillity is playing here this year so you could play the next one.

That sounds good, man, sounds really cool. When is this festival happening?

It's happening, I think, in the end of August, something like August 31.

Cool! You know what? I will mention it to our agent and I will see if he can maybe get us on the next year’s edition.

Yeah, that would be great! I will definitely come to see you! But for now I'm running out of questions so finally and traditionally - could you say a few words for our webzine and for your fans here in Russia? We are waiting for you to come.

Of course! First of all, I really wanna sincerely thank you for taking the time to do the interview with us for HeadBanger.ru and I also would like to thank all the people in Russia that have supported Soilwork over the years and that have bought our albums and given us their feedback. Without you, guys, we wouldn't be here doing this, it means the world to us when we hear from fans and when we hear some comments. It's really, really heartwarming when we get that feedback and even though unfortunately I don't always have the time to respond to everybody, for example, on Facebook and stuff, we do get a lot of good feelings from that. It motivates us to keep on making the best albums we can, so thank you, everybody!

Thank you Dirk, and hope to see you soon!

Yes, man! Thanks a lot for the good questions and for the good tips as well.

Soilwork on the Internet: http://www.soilwork.com

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Pavel Vlasov
July 22, 2015
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