Arch Enemy seems to be a band who loves to tour and play live. Do you get exhausted from playing out so much? What keeps you going?

Yeah, we’ve been touring a lot over the two past years, and I have to admit that life on the road has its ups and downs. It can be rough sometimes when you’ve had a shitty show and you’d rather be somewhere else than on a tour bus! But there are a lot of ups as well, like when you’ve had a really good show or when you see people (fans) that are totally into your music and often has come a long way just to see the show…The fans make it all worthwhile!


How was the Jägermeister tour that you did with Slayer and Hatebreed? What was the crowd’s response? Was there a lot of Jägermeister drank on that tour?

Well, Jägermeister sponsored the tour and their people traveled with the rest of the tour company to every show, in other words there was an abundance of Jäger bottles on every bus…The tour was successful for us, we got to play for a lot of new potential fans every night, and we didn’t get “slayered” once. Our style seemed to please a lot of people on the shows and many were surprised over the fact that Angela actually is a woman! Actually I think the mix of bands was great, us being what we are, Hatebreed being heavy hardcore and then Slayer who were really good on this tour…


Do many of your fans ever make it back stage at your shows? Have you met many fans who seem to think they know more about your band than you do?

It happens that some fans come backstage, but that usually happens if they’re invited by us or if the club lets people in there without asking us, haha!…When you’ve played a show it’s nice to have a few minutes on your own before seeing any fans or anyone else for that matter, but it’s all good in the end! I like meeting fans or anyone that’s into our music, after all they buy our records! Occasionally you see people who take meeting the whole band for granted, which sometimes can’t be done even though we hang out a lot! The most common question though is still “ Hey, is Angela on the bus??? “, which after being put a thousand times makes you feel quite neurotic!


What would be your advice to them if they want to know what they can do to get signed or become more well-known?

Just keep writing and recording your music, send demos out to labels and magazines and play shows…if you’ve got something going someone will eventually pick up on it. There really isn’t any secret was to success, you gotta work for it…I mean, just look at us!


In the beginning, did Arch Enemy have troubles getting fans locally and establishing a good fan base? Or did the popularity seem to pick up right away?

Well, ironically the first record (Black Earth) never did much of an impact locally. It sold some copies here and there and I think we played just one show in Sweden to support it, we weren’t much of a live band at that time…But it was well received in Japan and the band got a support slot on a Cathedral tour, which went down really well. We’ve had a good career in Japan ever since. Now, the rest of the world is picking up on us, which is fantastic. We can pretty much tour everywhere without selling our mothers to afford it!


Were there any bands in particular that you performed live or toured with a lot before you became a signed act?

No not really, seeing as we didn’t tour before we got signed!


What/who are your influences musically and non-musically?

Musically it’s everything from classical music to black metal or whatever, every member of the band has their own taste…we cover a vast musical spectrum on the five of us! I guess bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Slayer have influenced us a lot over the years, but then there’s more odd stuff that you might not expect a metal band to listen to as well. Non-musically…apart from literature, movies and so on I guess you get inspired by life in general really, with all it’s “ups and downs” and the way that makes you feel…eh…


Are you completely satisfied with your newest album, “Anthems of Rebellion”? How would you compare this to previous releases?

I’m quite satisfied with it. Usually when you’ve made an album, you can’t listen to for a while, you need a break because you’ve heard the songs almost every day for a couple of months! But I’m over that phase now and we’ve played some of the songs from the album live…they all go down great with the crowd! It’s definitely our most worked through album so far. We did the whole production, from recording demos up until the mix/mastering with Andy Sneap, so he had an input and was a part of it as well. We’ve never really worked with a producer like that before. Compared to “Wages of sin” it’s a little less melodic and ”polished” but I think it’s heavier and better!


Is Arch Enemy already creating songs for your next album or have any plans to do so? Are there plans for another US tour in 2004?

We were actually rehearsing on a new song today! We’ve got a few more new ones lined up, but it’s not like finished songs…yet! Apart from the dates we’re doing with Iron Maiden there’s nothing confirmed, time will tell!


What do you do when you are not on tour or practicing with the band?

If I’m not practicing with the band I’m practicing new beats and fills on my own, haha!…Apart from that I spend time with my family. I haven’t been (or had time to!) working since we started touring for “Wages…”


I noticed in the band member’s profiles you listed a few favorite alcoholic beverages. What is a good mixed drink or beer that I should try?

I think you’re talking about Angela’s profile…I really don’t drink that much…just kidding, haha! Well if you try something new Sharlee will mix it for you! I’m pretty comfortable with the classics: Jack and coke, Gin and Tonic and so on, nothing new or exciting with that!…A good beer would be anything BUT Budweiser, Coors or Miller’s!


Thank you for taking the time to do the interview. Are there any final words that you would like to add before this interview comes to an end?

Well, thanks Adrenalin for this interview! Good luck with the magazine! To all fans, see you tour, thanks for your support!!!
 

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