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NOWHERE TO RUNFor more than 10 years I am a fan of Hypocrisy and Peter Tägtgren’s Pain. And indeed, he is a great composer, producer and frontman. I will not repeat here his biography with Hypocrisy. I just wanted to add that this interview was done during Catch 22 interview sessions and I thought that I lost it but suddenly I found it. So, now you can read our whole conversation about the new edition or version of Catch 22 and there are also some other details concerning his future activities with the band as well as some interesting topics about his private life. Enjoy!
Hi Peter! Well, too obvious the first question is about your latest record Catch 22. So, why did you decide to re-record and re-publish this issue? Nuclear Blast posted some lines explaining that you were not so satisfied with the production of the first release. Yeah, well mainly it was more of the fans’ comments when album was published back then in 2002. This was the main reason really. Because they didn’t feel it was death metal enough. So, I just went back and did it in a traditional Hypocrisy way. Because when it came out in 2002 we wanted to try something different with both producing and the way of singing and stuff like that. So, it mainly what we do now is to prove people its typical Hypocrisy album. The production was kind of weird and the vocals were maybe too melodic for die-hard Hypocrisy fans. So, this time I just wanted to come back and did it in a way they I think wanted it. Ok, but to be honest, actually there is not so much difference between 1st and 2nd edition (or this is just my point of view). But, how do you look at the first release of Catch 22? Do you like it? Yes, I really like it. It was different from much other Hypocrisy albums. And surely it was in a way that we did it, but I guess people were not ready for such a release. I don’t say “everybody” but let’s say a half of Hypocrisy fans. You know, they said: a, what a hell? From your point of view, what separates now those two versions of Catch 22? Is it only production and some minor changes in songs’ structure or is there something else? Yeah, I think that the production is probably more in the vein of traditional death metal. Although that the first one was in the punkish way. I mean that drum’s sounds were more harsh and punk and the new one is more, I don’t know... moodier sound overall. And also the vocal is deeper and so. Do you plan to film any videos for a new version of Catch 22? No, definitely not. We are not so much into doing videos for Hypocrisy. Actually, 3 songs from this album will be featured live so its a little bit extra for people to see it how it sounds live. Do you plan to publish Catch 22 with bonus DVD (like Virus previously was done) or something like that? There are already three videos down there and plus there is one more bonus song. A track entitled Nowhere to Run. And these three videos are from Summer Breeze 2002. As a matter of fact you have done so many videos for Pain and they’re really great, but again there are only a few done for Hypocrisy. Why? Ah, I don’t know. We’re not video-kind of band I mean one is enough for every album I think. It doesn’t really make any sense to spent 10.000. € anytime you make a video. If we spent less it looks also as any shit. Ok, but is there any pressure from Nuclear Blast to make more videos and promote more band? No, not really. I mean we do basically everything we want. I mean we are doing it for 10 years. For us it’s very relaxed when we work with Nuclear Blast. Pain is once again on Nuclear Blast. The debut was released back then for NB, and now you have returned to them. So, how did it happen actually? Let me see, it was 8 years for Universal, if I am not wrong. And then we tried with Roadrunner but it didn’t work at all - definitely not really well. So, NB was talking to us, we were talking with them, so we just said “lets fucking do it again”. Maybe it’s too early but there are already talk about your next release with Hypocrisy. Actually, I have read some notes on Nuclear Blast site as well. So, do you have any new lyrics, concepts, or even songs? Yeah, Michael has already 5 or 6 songs and I have a rest which I will put together when we will enter the studio next time. And it’s better not to say anything more. I mean, its going to be like Virus album. The fast song - its going to be faster, slow tracks are gonna be heavier and the mid-tempo…you know classical Hypo style. We just hope to make it more extreme in different ways and also much better. And once again to turn back on Catch 22. What about the lyrics? Did you change anything? And what about the topics, I mean, were there again alien and SF based or you have tried something different? I thing that lyrics were more about my personal life, me being pissed up by things and I just wrote about it. And I haven’t changed any lyrics so everything is the same. Aside of aggression and brutality of your songs, the real trademark though all these years actually were your slower tracks, a ballad-like compositions. What’s your point of view about this? I just tried to make more epic and dark work. I think it’s a good ending for an album which is extreme like for example Virus album which starts with Warpath and end up with slow song Living to Die. So, it pretty good. Since now I have mentioned these epic and darksome ballads, I need to ask you - how did you get an idea to create such tracks? I guess growing up with Pink Floyd and stuff like this. I just see these songs like dark atmospheric track a good exemplars for closures. Well, I cannot end this interview without asking you something about your infamous studio Abyss. Have you already quit with your job as producer? Uh, I don’t know. It was too much business and I cannot handle it. In the beginning it was more about bands coming and it was interesting and I haven’t done it only because of money. And as the time passed I just fuck it up. I do it now only for a few bands and friends. But, do you still record any albums? A little bit, but not too much. I have heard somewhere a rumor or something alike that you have bought a whole village in Sweden, so is it true? Yeas, it’s true. Yeah, I bought a small village next to one lake. It’s really nice… Is it true that you have lived in Florida from 1988 to 1991? I went there with my girlfriend and there I met up with some people from Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity and many bands. So I stayed there for 3 years and I had a good time. 
And speaking once more about the lyrics please explain your fascination by aliens and other SF topics? There are maybe 3 or 4 albums inspirited directly by these kinds of topics, other are by murders and horror stuff. It was just a hobby for a long time to collect this information about UFOs, abductions, crushes and these things. It was a different thing to write about it in 1996. There weren’t many bands writing about that stuff. Do you personally believe that we have been visited by aliens or this is just SF for you? I don’t know. For me it’s a cool hobby to let my imagination dwell, there are always different theories about that stuff. So far you haven’t visited Serbia on your tours. So, is there any chance for visiting us? Next time when we release a full-length album we are going to make a big European tour. Aside that we plan to visit all places that we have played already before, in the west, we also want to visit Eastern places where we haven’t been before. Interview done by Marko Miranović |
PUBLISHED ISSUESMETAL SOUND #mpu vorbereitung |
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