INTERVIEW: Lasse Revsbech and Mattias Melchiorsen – Baest

It’s been a wonderful introduction to the UK for BAEST of Denmark. The death metallers had a lot of positive reactions from their tour last month with Polish heavyweights DECAPITATED and with a new album set for release later this year, it’s clear that the only limit is the edge of the atmiosphere itself. Following their set at Thekla in Bristol on the tour, Distorted Sound sat down with guitarist Lasse Revsbech and bassist Mattias Melchiorsen for a quick chinwag, all whilst the cameras were rolling and shooting for an upcoming documentary for Danish TV channel DR3.

Guys, thank you very much for talking with Distorted Sound today. Is this your first time touring the UK?

Both: Yes, it is.

And how are you finding it so far?

Lasse: Very good.

Mattias: Yeah, it’s been very fun to play the UK.

Lasse: People are so friendly and nice to be around; I agree that it’s very fun.

Mattias: And very chatty

Lasse: Very, very chatty, yeah!

How do the UK crowds compare to come of the others that you’ve played in front of?

Lasse: Good.

Mattias: Yeah, we are the opening band but they’re very rowdy.

Lasse: Yeah, especially in Ireland. [laughs]

That sounds about right! What’s it like playing on a boat [their venue in Bristol tonight]?

Lasse: It’s actually quite fun. This is actually the second time…no, third time we’ve played on a boat.

Mattias: Yeah, we played in Budapest at the A38, on the Oslo ferry going from Copehagen…

Lasse: And now Thekla. This is definitely the smallest boat that we’ve played out of the three though.

It can get quite cramped, agreed, which made me appreciate how well you used the space on stage even more!

Mattias: Yeah, we had about a metre to stand on, if that! [laughs]

What’s the weirdest venue you’ve ever played in?

Mattias: Ooh, that’s a good question. We played in a barn once…

Lasse: …yeah! [laughs]

Mattias: It was at a small, private, Danish festival…

Lasse: Yeah, and our drummer couldn’t set up his chair because the stage was so small, so he sat on a bench that was already in the barn and played on that.

Mattias: The ceiling was like the tour bus we’re in now, very low!

Lasse: Actually, when we played the Oslo ferry as well, that was weird because there was a storm going on while we were playing and even though we were below deck, we were still quite high up and the boat was sailing.

Mattias: Yeah, the crowd probably found it a little much because, given the conditions, they went from side to side no matter what they tried.

Lasse: I got pretty seasick whilst playing as well!

Ah man, that really sucks; at least ours doesn’t move! You brought out debut record Danse Macabre last year, the follow up to the Marie Magdalene EP. What’s the comparison between the two?

Lasse: I think it’s more professional, not only in terms of production but also how we write songs. I think that we are all very proud of the songs on Danse Macabre; I certainly am.

Mattias: We gave ourselves a theme for the album as well which helped.

Lasse: Yeah, exactly. We have a concept story that we are trying to follow and write both lyrics and music for.

Do you find that with a concept album you find it harder to for the music to the lyrics or vice versa, because you have to keep to the storyline in place?

Lasse: I actually think it’s easier because you don’t have to write a new story with every song; it’s just parts of a bigger story. It’s not like a huge novel or anything, but it’s our concept, we get it and we know where we are within the story when we play the songs live.

Cool! So for those who may not have known it was a concept or perhaps not looked into it too much, can you give us a brief overview as to what the story talks about?

Lasse: Death [laughs]. Well, it basically is because the Danse Macabre is the dance of death, but it’s also about human sin and…that’s basically all there is in this world!

Did you also want to consolidate the sound you’d brought up on Marie Magdalene with Danse Macabre because it was your first full album, as opposed to trying anything vastly different to what you’d done before?

Lasse: Well it’s with the same producer and he, like us, had changes we wanted to make this time around, but we think that it got better as a result. That said, we’re still really proud of Marie Magdalene.

Was it very important to keep the same producer as before?

Mattias: Yeah, definitely, we have a very good working relationship with him.

Lasse: He will do the third album as well, which is due to come out in September.

And you’ve just answered my next question! Any information you can give me at this stage about it?

Lasse: I think we can say that the concept will be the follow up to Danse Macabre.

So will it go down the same path looking at death, will you flip it and look at life or something else?

Lasse: well…we can’t say too much at this stage I’m afraid!

No worries! What sort of stuff inspires you, both musically and in a wider context?

Lasse: For me, it’s a balance between taking time and being under pressure, which is weird.

Mattias: Yeah, we’ve been like that with all the albums up until now.

Lasse: I write great riffs when I sit down, take my time, schedule parts of the day to try and do stuff and that’s definitely where it starts, but we write great stuff, perhaps even better, now that we are on the road and we’re pushing ourselves.

Do you write on the road as well, then?

Lasse: Yeah, sometimes – I wrote a riff for one of the new songs in a hotel when we were touring in Germany, for example – so some small parts are but mostly it’s at home in our own studio.

Fair enough! You’re on the road with DECAPITATED at the minute – given everything that happened with the band in 2017, was there a bit of apprehension around taking this slot on tour with them, or was it a fairly easy decision now that it’s all passed?

Lasse: I think…we discussed it a bit, around whether we should take the slot or not, but they were found not guilty and we have to trust that. The guys from DECAPITATED are doing a really great job on this tour as well; they’re not drinking any alcohol for a start.

Mattias: Yeah, they’ve been really nice.

So from an insider perspective, it looks like they’re really making an effort to clean up their image and fully put the past behind them?

Mattias: Extremely so.

Lasse: I think they just want to play as well, they need to…

Mattias: They’re a touring band like us as well, so we have that in common that we just want to play concerts.

On the subject of concerts, have you got much planned for the summer?

Mattias: Yeah, we’re doing Copenhell, biggest metal festival in Denmark, and then we have another one that we can’t say yet…

Lasse: We’ve got two that we can talk about I think, that one and the Dynamo festival in the Netherlands and…I think that’s all we have planned so far. But we did talk a lot about going to the UK again, and playing somewhere like Bloodstock, which I think would be very cool.

And you’d be a perfect fit for that festival as well! To finish off then – what’s the ultimate dream?

Mattias: Living off the music and being a professional outfit.

So you’ve all got jobs on the side of this?

Mattias: Yeah, we all have to. But that is the dream. It doesn’t have to be champagne every night or anything, but just being able to live off recording, writing and playing for a living. I guess it’s the ultimate dream for most musicians, but it would be so nice to wake up and know that the only thing I had to do was music.

Lasse: And taking care of friends and family as well.

That’s really cool to hear. Guys, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me today.

Both: Thank you!

Danse Macabre is out now via Century Media Records. 

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