Björn Gelotte of In Flames

As I'm about to interview Björn Gelotte from Swedish melodic death metallers In Flames, their PR sends me the latest CD 'A Sense Of Purpose' released today, Monday 7th April, and it fawkin' rocks! After a whole day of rockin' out to the album I spoke to guitarist Bjorn Gelotte about the new CD, life on the road, that guitar Hero game, and how life is for the songwriter and guitarist who joined the band as the drummer in 1995 and switched to his current position on guitars after Niklas Engelin left the band.

I've been listening to the new album most of the day today and it kicks ass, what's your favourite track on it?
That's really hard to say, they all have their different space on the album and they all have purposes but at the moment I think the opening track is the most fun to play, if that's something to go by for a favourite. But there's a reason each of these songs are on the album, we actually did sixteen or seventeen songs for this album and we chose these twelve to be on the main, regular release because they are all the best.

Can you describe each band member of In Flames' most annoying habits?
Well, I probably could but you're going to publish this. We all have our small annoyances, it's like being in a family, spending this much time together you get to know the other guys more than you actually want to know. I've been sharing a tour bus with these guys for the last ten years and we've done some pretty intense touring so you can just imagine different sounds you can hear coming from them at different times during the day, small things that you can get really annoyed. But as soon as you're not on tour you kind of miss them.

You played drums for the band before you played guitar - are you a trained musician?
I actually just picked it up along your way. You should check out the earlier albums, the first two albums I played drums on the first two albums 'The Jester Race' and the 'Whoracle' album. But that was only because In Flames needed a drummer at the time I actually started out playing guitar, and that was my main instrument at the time. But at the time they needed a drummer and I knew a bit about it because at the time I was working at a youth centre teaching bands how to play together. So I could helpfully play a little bit of drums and that needed to be developed. We did two albums which don't suck, so I did something right there too.

What made you become a musician in the first place?
I don't really know if there was a moment. I've just never thought about anything else, I never had plans to for anything else. After elementary school I went to be an electrician but that was only because my band mates and all my friends playing music at that time also went to that school. I never really had a moment where I decided. I grew up in a family where, especially my dad, is an old rock guy, well not that old, but he was all into Black Sabbath, well still into Dio, Rainbow, Purple and that's how I grew up basically and its always been there. It's been interesting seeing live show I went to a bunch of them before I started to play.

What's the best gig you've been to then?
Probably one of Dio's gigs because he's always been a huge inspiration, this guy has been rockin' now for what is it 150 years or something and he's still seriously kickin' ass and his voice is as good as ever almost. Some of the first lyrics I heard was by him and he's always been very melodic in everything he's done and I've definitely brought that with me in the music that we're doing. So, he's definitely been one of the best influences for me and obviously some of his shows have been just amazing! It's probably one of those but I can't remember exactly which one because I've seen him a lot of times now. We've been fortunate to play with him at some festivals and I've seen him a couple of times in Gothenburg as well.

What's the best festival you've played at?
We've done pretty much as many as there are festivals in Europe now, we've been doing festivals for at least 10 years now. We've played most of them, all the different sizes. It's really cool to be on a main stream festival like Rock An Ring or Rock Im Park which are more mainstream. But it's also extremely cool to be on a festival like Download or Wacken or Hell Fest or something like that where it's more extreme, extremer music, they are all good but headlining Wacken last year and two, three years ago was simply amazing 70,000 people standing around there and staying there for the whole set, that was pretty cool.



When you go to festivals do you get a chance to see other bands play?
That's one of the main reasons why playing festivals is so great. It's a lot of fun, you meet a lot of friends that you've met over the years, a lot of bands that you've played with in the past and a lot of bands you hope to play with in the future and it's just a great way of seeing what they do live and especially what they do on a festival stage since that's kind of different from a regular stage.

So how do they vary?
First of all it's the size. Then also the fact that you're not able to bring your own stage props, you're not able to feel as safe on one of those, but at the same time the size is one of the good things, because if you really have experience of these babys you can really use it to your advantage instead and you have good people working with you that can control the lights that already on there and really make a cool show out of it. But it's really different the small club stages to the festival stages is miles of difference but they both have their ups and downs.

Are you looking forward to playing at Download?
Very much so, we have played there a couple of times and it's always been a great experience for us, people have always taken us in and we're kind of hoping that they continue to do that. We have a new album out so it's going to be really fun to play. Really looking forward to it playing that live. When we do our European tour later on we're going to try a couple of different places in the UK. It's hard for us because we're such a global band, we've never focused on just one market or one country we've always been everywhere and the UK has been a bit neglected unfortunately.

So after Download you'll be coming back to the UK?
Yeah, yeah definitely we have no idea yet how many shows or where they are going to be. We'll definitely come back as part of the European tour and do a proper UK tour. We actually did one with Motorhead, perhaps two years ago and that was a great experience. We also did one, with Slipknot and that was pretty cool but it's these tend to be kind of short and only focused on the UK. It's kind of hard to sort of wrap that around, it's a little bit too short to be a proper UK tour and a little bit too long to be part of a European tour usually.

You've played on tour with the likes of Motorhead, Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, who has been the best fun to tour with?
Well most of these bands are doing it for the same reasons as us, they really really like touring and they have not only grown as musicians but as entertainers and they try to have a great time and a great vibe. These bands that we are talking about now have been together for many years. Another band that it was extremely and educational to tour with was Slayer. We've done a couple of tours with them and it's just amazing to see the crowd go wild every night and they are playing long sets, they have never been afraid of playing enough songs to keep everybody happy. The cool thing is they have their audience and they are not afraid of going out there and kicking the shit out of them, that's what they're expected to do, you know. Everyone has a great tour, they have great guys taking care of us and it's just really cool.

Who would you recommend as an upcoming band for our readers to listen to?
Well, nowadays for me at least, it's getting harder to keep track on a grass roots level as our schedules are extremely busy, we did an album, we try to rehearse a bit, we do the promo and then we're off on tour, and we're out constantly you know. The time that we're not spending on the road or in the studio we try to spend with our families we've all got kids and spouses and so I'm sadly not going to as many concerts as I used to. But if you're into Extreme Metal, it's not really up and coming, but 'Despised Icon' that's really extreme, it's extremely good, I heard they had a new album coming out and that's for the extremists out there, the extreme metal heads, it's a Canadian band.

What about Swedish bands, how is the metal scene in Sweden at the moment?
The fact is there are not that many outlets anymore, there used to be a lot of smaller clubs, rock clubs, there are still rock clubs, but no live rock clubs. It's not like it used to be with a show every now and then with unsigned bands, now it's established bands, with at least a record or two behind them that get to play these smaller venues. That's sort of sad, but at the moment I don't get much chance to see it anyway, so. I'm not really worried though, I'm very confident that there are a bunch of really talented bands out there, it's just for me I haven't been able to see them.

Do you all contribute to making the record?
Yeah, in one way we all do. Basically it starts out with my and Jesper the other guitar player bouncing riffs and melodies off each other and then seeing what sticks and fits in different constellations. Then I just write lyrics on top of that and vocal melodies, we try to just do a basic sketch of a song, it's not really a complete song but you could listen through it, but it still wouldn't make any sense. Then all of us get into it the drummer and bass player as well, they put their sounds and input on there and then all of a sudden you have an In Flames song. We start arranging, cutting it to pieces, moving around stuff and making it fit and making it work. So yeah we all have input on it.

Which track do you like most playing live?
It differs on a daily basis, I mean it's always different it can depend on such a weird thing as where it's put on the set list, you can be looking forward to a song and all of a sudden when it comes it's not as fun as you were kind of hoping. All these songs it plays we've played a million times. We haven't truly tried the new ones live and so I'm looking forward to that, all these new ones are going to be really exciting.

So will you be playing them at Download?
We'll be playing a few at Download and a few on the UK leg of the tour definitely a couple of more, it's going to be interesting.

You're on the Guitar Hero game do you ever play it?
Yeah, I actually do we have one in the studio. It's a lot of fun, it's fuckin' hard though, it's a lot of fun I can kick arse if I play on medium, but as soon as I play our own song on like hard or the next one, I'm gone it just looks like a rain of these small green, yellow and blue dots. It's really, really complicated. I think it's a lot of fun it's a perfect social game, you can sit around and have a couple of, of.... beers and then just play that the whole evening.

So which member of the band is best at it then?
I would actually say the drummer that's not because he's more talented, it's because has ae extremely competitive streak, he can't lose, he can't stand the thought of losing. He used to be a soccer player and he brings that mental state. Actually he brings that mental state into his drumming too, that's one of the reasons why he's the best drummer I've ever played with, he's never doing any mistakes, everything is calculated, everything is in the backbone, super tight all the time. That's why he can't lost at Guitar Hero.

Do you have any musical side projects we should know about?
Well usually In Flames takes up more than 100% of my time it's pretty much everything I do all the time. Breath, sleep, eat In Flames but there has been a little down period just before we started writing for the latest album and I actually had time, together with Jesper to write some songs for my sister's band which is called 'All End' which is still metal but it's two girls singing and trying to get to the chorus as fast as possible sort of thing. And it's very melodic it's really nice, I really enjoy it and it's like a good outlet to do stuff that you wouldn't do in In Flames.

Lastly what's your favourite T-shirt?
Well I don't wear T-shirts on stage anymore, I like having fun T-shirts. Usually it's a black workers shirt on stage, very strict and easy to wear. But my favourite is "Rehab is for Quitters." Then I have a bunch of X rated ones too that are quite fun.

Thanks Björn, have you got a message for In flames fans?
Check us out at Download and makes sure you come and see us on our UK tour dates and when we come back for even more touring.

FUTURE GIGS