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“… when I was much younger, there were a lot of songs where I didn’t understand what they were about…”
I guess you get asked a lot of questions about
the new album, so we’ll keep that one short! Can you describe „The Hunt“
in three words?
JB: True, powerful, metal.
What does the hunter who’s depicted on the cover stand for?
JB: Well, that’s part of the thing I want the listeners
to find out by themselves. The whole album has got a theme and it deals
with the relation between nature and mankind. All the songs deal with
this in one way or another and people have to make up their own minds
about what the artwork stands for.
How did you get Arik Roper as cover artist?
JB: We worked with him before, he did the cover for our
record „Iron Will“, so we knew that he’s a great artist and totally
understands the band and everything around it. It was pretty easy, we
basically gave him the title, talked a little bit about certain things
and the he came up with the perfect artwork for the album.
Could you describe (new drummer) Ludwig Witt in three words?
JB: Oldschool, professional, superdrummer!
Three words about Fox?
JB: Star quality, best friend. That’s it!
The title track features a line that says
„there’s a beast inside of me“. Is there beast inside JB? If yes, how
does it manifest itself?
JB: Well again, I’m not trying to be difficult, but I
never go into detail about the lyrics, because I’ve always felt that
when you listen to music, especially metal, music that has some kind of
meaning just beyond „I love you“ „Let’s have a drink“ and things like
that, the impact is much stronger when you find things out for yourself
as a listener. When I listened to Mercyful Fate or Bathory when I was
much younger, there were a lot of songs where I didn’t understand what
they were about. When I finally found out, it became so much stronger
than it would have been if for instance Quorthon or King Diamond would
have said in an interview that for example A Dangerous Meeting is exactly about this and that…
But suffice it to say, I believe that mankind has gone
too far away from its “animal instincts”… And I certainly feel that I
have a very strong connection to animals. Sometimes much stronger than I
have to other human beings. This is something I think many people need
to realize for themselves, you know!
That’s certainly true! So, what would you regard as your best character trait and which one would be the worst?
JB: Wow… one of my best character traits is discipline. I’m very disciplined. And worst? Well… I worry too much!
Stereotypical Tourimpression: Grand Magus & Bullet
What’s your day-to-day routine like when you are not involved with Grand Magus at all?
JB: I usually work a day-job when we are not recording
or touring, so normally I get up early in the morning and go to work.
Nothing really special! But this is obviously only in periods when we
are not on tour! Then it’s the same as with every other band: you just
try to get through the day until you have your hour or so of fun in the
evening… I like to have variation in my live. I wouldn’t want to be
doing exactly the same thing every day. Touring can become really
stereotype, you know. We’ve been on tour with bands of whom you could
say to have a more boring live than working people do because every day
is exactly the same! I don’t want to have a live like that.
I hear that from a lot of bands actually. Every
day’s like: next city, next place to sleep… same shit, different crowd
so to say!
When did you start singing or making music in general and are you still in possession of your very first instrument?
JB: Haha! No, I don’t have my first instrument. That was
some very bad Les Paul copy, called “Duke”, I think it was Japanese,
but none of the good ones! I guess it was alright, but the neck was
fucked up. Got that from my older brother and I don’t know where it is
now. I started playing guitar much earlier than I started singing.
Singing I started very late actually, when we did our first album in
2001, I think I had only been singing for about four years or so.
What’s your opinion about the current European Heavy Metal scene?
JB: I don’t really have an opinion, because I’m mostly
concerned with my own band and my friend’s bands. I’ve never seen bands
as part of a scene. All bands that are really special, they are much
more than part of a scene, you know?
We never felt part of any movement or any scene like
that. We do what we do and other people do what they want to do. I’m a
huge fan of many bands, but most of them have been around for at least
ten years!
What do you think about women making heavy music? E.g. Crucified Barbara from Sweden…
JB: Well, that’s something I have never really thought
about! We know the girls in Crucified Barbara, they’re a really good
band. I don’t really care if it’s an all-girl band or whatsoever. Of
course they have a different type of challenge compared to male bands.
They also get attention because it’s not that common, but I don’t really
care as long as the music is good. I think the most important thing is
that you feel they do things for the right reasons, that they really
believe in what they do. Then they deserve my respect.
The next Swedish Super-Group: Crucified Magus
A friend of mine and myself were trying to get
some GM merch besides the tours, but we utterly failed! It’s really hard
to get some cool stuff outside of Sweden… just two items for sale on
your website… What’s the matter???
JB: This is going to change now! Nuclear Blast now have a
shitload of different shirts on their webstore. We haven’t really
sorted this out in the past, mainly because we’ve been so focused on
playing music and merch wasn’t the top priority… It’s really our own
loss, you can actually make a lot of money from that, but that’s never
been the reason for us to start the band.
Regarding the website, we just don’t have people to run
it, we do it by ourselves. I think it’s fucking boring, you know. But
we’ll fix it, I promise!
Are you interested in football at all? I just got the latest Allsvenskan results on my desktop!
JB: Ok! Well, Fox is really interested in football, I’m
more of an ice hockey person. Today the World cup starts, so that’s
where I’m gonna be!
What’s your favorite team in the Swedish league?
JB: My favorite team is not in the top league anymore, they’re called
“Björklöven”, The Birch Leaves, from my hometown of Umeå in the north
of Sweden. My 2nd favorite team made the finals this year. they’re
calles “Skellefteå AIK” (from Skellefteå, which is near Umeå).Cool, I’ll keep an eye on that! That’s it for today. Thanks for taking the time, I hope you liked the not so obvious questions, too!
JB: That’s cool! I really liked the new stuff! Thanks!
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