Band Interview: Dead Lord
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life had the pleasure to chat with Swedish classic/old-school rock band, Dead Lord. What follows is a transcript of some of the major talking points.
You can check out the full interview on Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts with the full YouTube video below.
You’ve been doing a fair bit of live-streaming. Do you find yourself comfortable with them?
I mean, you know, it’s more like a rehearsal with someone holding a camera in your face. The weird part isn’t the playing. I mean we know how to do that. It’s just not getting anything back.
Like, that’s what you feed off when you’re playing a live show. It’s like that 14 year old dude standing and shouting in your face for an hour gives you sort of, you know, a connection or he tells you where it’s at. (With streaming) You don’t get that sort of feeling, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s like a symbiotic relationship. Your energy on stage is for us and likewise our reactions is for you.
Totally. Yeah. And also, if you’re playing a bad song or if you’re like playing a terrible show, if you’re playing in front of people, they’ll happily tell you that it’s not good. Whereas if you’re standing there on your own, you’re like, you might get lost in your own language.
We’re now in the twilight period of the release of your new album, Surrender. How are you feeling about it?
I’m fairly proud. You know, I think pretty much every band, they always think that their latest album is the best album and whatnot. So I’m gonna try not to go there. But, you know, it was fun. We did this thing as a three piece because our guitar player left the band and we had a meeting and we were like, you know, discussing should we do another album?
So we said, okay, lets do it as a three piece. And if people like it, then we’ll just get out play. And it actually ended up being really fun. Me and Martin, we both played guitar and bass, different tracks. It was kind of challenging to, first of all, to play the bass because it’s really, really hard. It’s probably the most difficult instrument there is, in my opinion, really.
That and tambourine is really hard. But then also, you know, the other albums were recorded live in the studio, and this time we had to put down one track at a time, which is kind of confusing in my mind. If you’re recording and you’re standing there as a full band and you’re just doing it, you know, if it’s a good take or not, you can hear it. But if you’re starting off with drums and then you add a guitar and so on, you don’t really know where it’s going until you pretty much get down the vocals. So, it was kind of an emotional roller coaster, I’d say.
Absolutely. Almost like, dare I say, starting again and changing up entirely. How you’ve operated from the previous albums.
Yeah. Almost terrifying. Yeah, yeah. There were a few nights there when we were in the studio and I went home and I felt like the worst musician alive. But then, you know, the reward is the album when you get it and get to hear what makes us and it actually sounds pretty decent. That kind of makes it all worth it.
So what about some of the themes or ideas behind it? Was there a unified goal here or was it a matter of just what sounded good?
I sang from the viewpoint of the villain or the bad guy. So that sort of narrative is kind of throughout the album with a few heartbreak, personal heartbreaks that ended up being songs as well.
It’s interesting because both feet of Dead Lord are rooted in the classic rock signature sound, the expectation is that you’d be mostly avoiding musical statements. Strong musical statements. Instead, just kind of go for energetic, catchy, memorable feel good moments. But you do both here, strong musical statements and the energy catching memorable numbers. How easy was it for you to balance that?
Well, the rule is or the equation is, the more depressing the topic, the snappier the song needs to be.
I don’t really think in those terms. I get inspired from things that are happening in the world that I can’t do anything about. And if for some reason that sort of feeling makes me want to write songs and then I do and I just try to make them somewhat, you know, good rock tunes. That’s pretty much it.
There’s some strong moustache game going on in Dead Lord. Any advice for those would be moustache growers?
A moustache needs time. It needs time. Be patient, your moustache will show up.
