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 WHEN FOLK MEETS FALCONERWell, Falconer seems to be one of those bands they are always there but never received a proper promotion. After couple of Power Metal albums, those Swedes are now trying to prove themselves in some other fields. They actually did one record with more folk influences. One could notice that their music still have heaviness but this time mixture with some pure Swedish folk tunes. None the less, Falconer has once more delivered one interesting piece of work and there's no doubt that their all-time-fans will welcome this newer opus warmly.
Hi there! How are you doing? I hope everything is going well in Falconer team! Hi there. Yes, everything is just fine. In a few days your upcoming record is going to be released though Metal Blade Records. So, please could you give a short preview of ''Armod'' to our readers? It is our most folk inspired album yet. The main focus this time was not to have 6 fast songs, 1 ballad and 4 mid tempo songs. It was about paying tribute to the Scandinavian folk music in our own language. I checked few times your upcoming record ''Armod'' and now I could easily label your music as a pure example of the mixture between Folk and Power Metal. Do you agree with my point of view? Yes, we have not been more folk metal than now. For me, some of the songs on this album are the perfect examples how folk metal should sound. The Power metal side of Falconer I think have taken a step back on this album to make place for more folk. If I am correct the entire record, when it comes to lyrics and singing was written in Swedish, why? Was there any particular reason that you would like to do it in this way? We’ve done it in the past some times and it was a part of making the album stick out and also to fit the music as well as possible. The Swedish language is what works the best with this kind of music otherwise it would be like Los Del Rio singing in English, it wouldn’t fit.  Before you started to write and compose the material for the new record was there any aim that you would like to record one album more into folk vein which will be different from other records? I got the idea during the time we worked on the last album. The record label and some fans asked for this kind of album from early on in our career but we always had so much new material that couldn’t wait to be released. This time I thought it would be fun and about time to make a more trad. folk oriented album and also not to take so much work for me, but I think I spent just as much work as usual anyway. Haha! The only pros was that is surely would become different but also would fit the band and be an easier album to make. It was a thing that would happen at some time. The cons are of course that the Swedish language isn’t the most clever thing to sing in if you want a wide promotion and a big chance to sell albums and the Americans are not keen on things they don’t understand. Please, could you compare your forthcoming opus ''Armod'' with your previous full-lengths? If you compare this album to previous ones I would think you’d consider it to have more acoustic passages, less orchestrations, less complicated structures, a more down-to-earth feeling which might be harder to get into than before. Who is the person on your cover artwork? I guess this person has strong historical background. Am I correct? No you're not. He’s just a dude. Someone who could represent a common farmer in the 18-19th century with all the hardship that means. Also, I guess that there is a strong link between the cover for the new album and the lyrical background story and since that the entire lyrics are written in Swedish it will be nice if you can give us some notes about them. I think that the title and cover sums up the lyrical concepts in a good way. Very much based around medieval ballads and the 19th century with immigration to America due to bad crops and starvation, famine, folklore, fear of god and death. As a matter of fact your members are very active also in some other Sweden bands as well, like in King of Asgaard or Mercenary. Is it hard to keep the band ''in one place and focused'' since they are active also in some other musical projects as well? No, not really since Falconer is not a very time consuming band. What normally takes the members time is rehearsal for a new album and maybe now and then a gig or two. That gives time to do other things, whether it is other bands, family or working on your house apart from the day jobs. What was the best and the most important and the most successful album in Falconers history so far? Perhaps ''Chapters from a Vale Forlorn'' or any other? The best album according to me is “Northwind” with no doubt but I think the most important and most successful was the debut album, which I can respect and understand, but it is not my opinion. Most albums except “Sceptre of deception” have their own highlights and individual qualities. Are you planning now to have the full tour across Europe and when? Are you going to be support act or the headliner? Are there in pan any festivals during upcoming summer? No, no and no. As usual Falconer does not tour. Summer festivals will not happen this year. We will take a year off now to do things apart from music that is very time consuming. For 2012 I think we will try to get more festivals. And after that more music in some kind of way but it won’t be a folk album in Swedish and it won’t be a copy of what we’ve done before either. And for the end of this interview please could you tell me something about your activates in your former band Mithotyn? I still remember many interviews and reviews in Black Metal magazines which I have the opportunity to read when I was a kid... I would say that both Falconer and Mithotyn worked in the same way. It was mostly about rehearsing, writing and recording. An inner circle of musicianship so to speak, not extrovert at all. In fact we never understood or got to know how popular Mithotyn was when we were active it came afterwards, but we had a good and fun ride. A sort of continuation of Mithotyn is “King of Asgard” apart from the softer variation of Falconer. I would like to thank you for this chat and your time. i wish you the very best. See you somewhere on the shows across Europe! Thanks, hold one eye open for the music video for “Vid rosornas grav” in both an English and Swedish version that will be released in a few weeks. Answers by Stefan Weinerhall |
PUBLISHED ISSUESMETAL SOUND #mpu vorbereitung |
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