DREAM EVIL
DREAM EVIL is a Swedish heavy metal band from Göteborg (aka Gothenburg), who formed in the late 90s. They have not always been so active through the years, but will release their 7th studio album, "Metal Gods", on Friday, July 26 (review here) via Century Media Records. So I sent some questions to them, and Peter Stålfors (bass) was kind enough to answer on July 23, 2024.
You have been around for some years now, but how come you started the band?
- Hi, well why do you even start a band at all? 😊
When you as a child learn how to play an instrument, you always have a wish to get somehwere. That wish doesn't disappear if you continue to play, and for Fredrik (Nordström, guitar) it was like he as a producer saw many local talents get a record deal and record records. So then he thought: "why not try it yourself?". It was a Greek band in his studio (Studio Fredman), I think their name was EXHUMATION, which he later met on a vacation trip to Greece. A friend of one of the guitarists in this band was Gus G. (FIREWIND, ex-Ozzy Osbourne, NIGHTRAGE), which Fredrik shared his ideas with, and later on Gus traveled up to Gothenburg to record some demos and try some fellow musicians. It was then I (Peter) and Niklas (Isfeldt, vocals) joined the band, and the rest is yet another story.
It has taken 7 years between your last record and the new album, "Metal Gods". What was the reason for the long break?
- The reason is first of all that we are lazy... he he..
Well, we are not doing DREAM EVIL on full time. Fredrik has his Studio Fredman and the rest of us work on the side to make the private economy work. To write songs is something that you can do in a hurry if you want to. But if you want inspiration to write music that you think is good, then there will be many demos which is discraded before you get songs that you want to play and release. So it simply takes time. Maybe a little extra long time if you are a bit lazy.
Although it sometimes takes time between your releases, it's really good stuff that you deliver when you finally get an album out, and you seems to really burn for heavy metal. What do you have to say about that?
- Thanks!
Yes, it's the musical style that we have all grown up with and which is our big inspiration, and as I said, there will be many songs that don't fit. You don't want to release something that you don't want to listen to yourself.
How does the creation process work then? Is it one person who come up with all ideas or do you create together? And what inspires you to write the lyrics that you do?
- In most cases each one sit at home at his chamber and come up with ideas that we use to meet in the studio to listen to to see if they are worth to keep working on. Here maybe a new song loop or some change pops up that you take home and continue to work on.
When it comes to text writing it almost always comes in second hand. You work along the song loop which is produced for the song, often a song loop with just blah English. Some words in this blah English gets stuck and is used in the lyrics, and can sometimes inspire to what the lyrics will be about. In other cases you find (at least me) inspiration to lyrics maybe in some movie you have seen, something that happened on the news or maybe a documentary about a serial killer.
The new album will be followed by some touring. So what's up in the nearest future?
- Yes, we have some in the works starting at the end of August when we will play at a rock club in Eskilstuna, Sweden. Then it takes off to Atlanta in USA, where we will play at the ProgPower USA festival in the beginning of September. In the middle of October we are doing a Sweden tour: Sundsvall, Gävle, Stockholm, Malmö and Göteborg, to end the fall with a tour in Australia in the end of October and November.
Do you have something to add? Have I forgotten to ask about something important?
Our new album, "Metal Gods", will be released on Friday, July 26, and that will be a lot of fun. We have received many great reviews already, so it feels very good. Hope you will like it as much as we do.
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