INTERVIEW: Alex Friberg – Firespawn
The term “supergroup” is thrown around a little too easily these days, but with members having served time in the likes of ENTOMBED, ENTOMBED A.D., UNLEASHED, DIMMU BORGIR, NECROPHOBIC and NAGLFAR, “supergroup” feels incredibly fitting for FIRESPAWN. The lineup is a collection of some of Sweden’s best extreme metal musicians, and over the last six years have churned out a trio of brilliant old-school death metal albums – the latest being Abominate, released on June 7th via Century Media Records (read our review here). We caught up with bassist and main lyricist Alex Friberg to discuss the creation of Abominate, the plans for the album cycle, and FIRESPAWN‘s continued collaboration with artist Paolo Girardi!
Hey Alex, thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. As we’re getting closer to the release of Abominate, how is everyone in FIRESPAWN doing?
Alex: Yeah, we’re quite thrilled about this release. We have a quite hectic schedule, though, with our other bands, so we are trying to plan it very well so we can promote this album, as well as playing with all the other bands. But hopefully this album will be received well, among the media and fans. Personally, I’m most satisfied with this album so far. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do!
You have released two singles from Abominate already – The Great One and The Hunter. How has the response to these singles been so far?
Alex: To The Great One, it was very good response as far as I can see. I think that maybe people expect FIRESPAWN to sound more like The Great One than The Hunter. It was overall a good response to The Hunter as well, but there are people who thought that maybe we have softened down or something like that. People said “I hope they’re not doing an ENTOMBED,” you know, get more rock and roll. But The Hunter is my favourite song on the album. With songs like that, the album gets a lot more dynamic as well. So it can’t be 45-50 minutes of only blast beats, because then people would get very tired. And it wouldn’t be very interesting.
Abominate was recorded at four separate studios all over Sweden. Was that always the plan, or was it just how circumstances played out?
Alex: It is because we live spread out all over the country. I live in the very north, Victor [Brandt] lives in Gothenburg down south, the other guys lives around Stockholm area. It was basically to save some time. I recorded the bass up here in Umeå, and the other guys recorded in Stockholm and Uppsala. When I recorded with LG [Petrov], it was Nico [Elgstrand]’s studio, from ENTOMBED A.D., so it was very convenient to to borrow his studio because it was kind of a short notice, so the larger studios were already occupied. But it was great, it was a great studio. I didn’t have time to fly down to the Stockholm I recorded bass when I could do it here. Lawrence [Mackrory] was the one who tracked the drums with Matte in Uppsala, and he’s a very good producer, with good ears. He’s doing a great job with Matte because they know each other so well, so he could put a lot of pressure on him without it turning out to a fight. With a solid drum track, it’s a good foundation to make a good record.
Where Victor Brandt was the primary songwriter for Shadow Realms and Reprobate, Abominate seems to be much more collaborative. How was it for you to write as a unit, rather than to come into a mostly finished album?
Alex: It was kind of a combination as I said to Fredrik, that I would like to have some more songs from him on this album, because I really liked Damnatio ad Bestias on The Reprobate album, which was Fredrik’s song, and also, since Victor started to play with DIMMU BORGIR, he has no time to write as much as he did before. But he did the main writing on the majority of the songs, but Fredrik was more involved in the final product, changing around little bits, he rewrote some stuff and adding solos. And also Matte was involved in this writing process as well. He co-wrote three songs, or something like that. It’s very good to have the band as a unit write,because now, on the third album, we know each other very well, musically, so we know what we can do. The songs that Matte was involved in writing, you can hear that the drumming is a lot more complex. For instance, the songs on Shadow Realms, that was Victor‘s ideas for drums, not that it was bad, but you can hear that a lot of different thinking on the drums. Also, since Matte is one hell of a drummer, you want to use his entire skill set.
Moving forward, when it comes to the follow up for Abominate, do you think you’ll continue being more collaborative in the songwriting?
Alex: Yeah, for sure. I hope that it will be so, because Victor writes songs very fast and he does it very, very good. But as a band, and as a unit and as a friendship, I think it’s better if we can work together on the song writing, so it gets a better feeling within the band, when everyone knows that they contributed to the album. So hopefully, we’ll do the same on the fourth album. But who knows, maybe Victor all the sudden had 10 songs already down!
With Abominate, there is a real feel in the songwriting to a more traditional, classic heavy metal sound – especially in some of the riffs and the guitar solos. Was this a conscious decision you made as a band, or is that simply the result of Fredik contributing more in the writing process?
Alex: Exactly. That is the result of Fredrik being more involved, because Victor is a straight-forward old school death metal kind of guitarist. He’s influenced by all the old death metal bands. Fredrik is a lot more influenced by the old heavy metal bands. He has a lot of heavy metal in his playing – as you said, one can hear it on Abominate. But it wasn’t a decision that we made, it just turned out that way. When we heard Fredrik’s songs, we really liked them. I liked the heavy metal influence because it makes the album a lot more dynamic. But I think that it’s still on the right side of the line, it’s still FIRESPAWN, [it’s still] death metal. At the same time, we want to push ourselves and evolve on every album, so if people say that Abominate doesn’t sound anything like the other two albums, then that is great, because that is what I want to achieve. I don’t want any of our albums the same sound the same as the others, because there’s a lot of bands out there who release maybe 10 or 15 albums and sound exactly the same on every album, but it’s not something I want to do.
Despite the Satanic image of FIRESPAWN, you appear to use Satanism within the band’s lyrics in a more metaphorical way. What were the main concepts and inspirations behind the lyrics for Abominate?
Alex: It was kind of the same. On this album, I wrote quite satanic lyrics as well, but I use Lucifer as a metaphor, as a force. But I also, just as on The Reprobate, write the lyrics about mankind or the fucked up the brain of a certain person or what people do to each other, really. I think it’s crystal clear that I’m not a fan of mankind. I think it’s absolutely fucked up, the things people do is quite insane. Either if it’s under the pressure of a dictator, or the mass-psychosis of a religion or whatever it is, this is fucked up. But it is an interesting subject. One can find a lot of interesting things to write about in human history, that’s for sure.
You returned to Paolo Girardi for Abominate’s cover art. What was the concept behind the artwork?
Alex: He’s a great artist, and I like him very much. But he’s kind of special to work with, because he is both Italian and an artist, so he acts like one [a stereotypical artist] in the sense that I gave him some lyrics and what the album was all about, and told him that we wanted our demon on the cover as well. During his painting, I asked to see some sketches, so I could correct it if he was completely off. The answer was simply “No, no, I don’t work like that. You will see it when it’s done.” Okay, well, then let’s hope it’s good! [laughs] He had to change some things this time, but it wasn’t any major things. He’s very good, and he has a good feeling of what we want so it was spot on, almost.
Abominate’s artwork once again features the FIRESPAWN Demon. Was the mascot born simply out of a desire to have a mascot, like IRON MAIDEN’s Eddie, or is there a story/stories behind your mascot in any FIRESPAWN songs?
Alex: It is actually exactly like my own heroes with IRON MAIDEN and Eddie, and MOTÖRHEAD and Snaggletooth. I always wanted a mascot for my band. I knew from start that I wanted something which could represent the band as a trademark or brand without the logo. But I didn’t really know what it would look like. So on the first album, he is there, but he doesn’t look like how he’s looking now. He hadn’t taken form yet, on the first album. Then I worked with a very good designer in the United State’s who drew the demon as it looks like now. From here on out, the demon is going to look like that. Different shapes, maybe, but the head will be the same. I’m quite inspired by Eddie. If one can make a good mascot, who looks great without being cheesy, that’s a great thing. But it isn’t easy to have a mascot without it being silly, in a way. But I think we did it quite good.
Is there any desire for you to incorporate the FIRESPAWN Demon into your lyrics, to write stories about him on future albums?
Alex: When I write the lyrics, I write the first thing that pops up in my head as an image. That’s what the lyric is about when I hear a song. So far, I haven’t seen the FIRESPAWN demon in those songs, if you know what I mean? But who knows? Every band that has a mascot, I think, they have a song about the mascot. But I don’t know, if I do it, it needs to be done very well, it can’t be a cheesy lyric.
Playing live will always be slightly more difficult for FIRESPAWN, given the commitments of all the members. Are there any plans in the works for full tours on the Abominate cycle, or will it be mainly festival appearances and one-off shows?
Alex: I think we’re going to focus on festivals. That is simply because we don’t have time to do a longer tour. But I don’t know, I’m not a stranger of going on a long tour. If the right tour comes up and everyone is available, then we might do a longer tour. But for now, we will focus on festivals.
Which tracks from Abominate are you particularly excited to perform live for the first time?
Alex: One is for sure The Hunter. As I said, that’s my favourite song on the album. And the other song is The Gallows End, I’m really looking forward to playing that song live. And also Death And Damnation, that song is quite a fist in the face so that should be fun to play that live.
Does the more relaxed live schedule for FIRESPAWN while focusing on live shows for your other bands help in having such a quick turnover between albums?
Alex: I don’t know. We are always playing live, I think that it isn’t any different if we would play a lot with FIRESPAWN or if I play a lot with NECROPHOBIC or if Victor plays a lot with DIMMU BORGIR. The reason why we have such a short time between albums is that we set out from start to have about one-and-a-half to two years in between albums at a maximum because we want to build this band quite fast. We know it’s very hard for a new band to build a fan base nowadays because there are a zillion bands out there. We couldn’t do as the old bands from the ’90s could do it: they released one album, did some tours and five years later they released the second album. You can’t do that anymore. You need to be faster than that. We simply got a deadline from Century Media, and then we wrote the music and recorded it as fast as we could. We in this band will always work best under pressure. Some friends of mine who are musicians, they tell me that the pressure or a deadline kills their creativity. But I don’t know, for us, it’s the complete opposite. If you have a deadline within, let’s say five weeks, then we know in five weeks everything needs to be done. Just get to work. No excuses. So hopefully, we’ll continue in this space for a few more albums.
You’ve said you are still pretty involved in your local scene. Are there any up and coming death/black metal bands in your local scene you are particularly impressed by?
Alex: Here in Umeå there is a brand new band who released two demos, I think, called MALAKHIM. It is a black metal band who remind me of early MAYHEM. The vibe, and the insanity and the desperation and the vocals also reminds me of Dead. I think that’s quite cool.
Thanks once again for your time today Alex. Finally, do you have any parting messages for Distorted Sound Magazine’s readers?
Alex: Yeah, Abominate will be released on June 7th. For any other news or information, you can check out our official Facebook page or Instagram. And if you want some cool t-shirts for the festival season over the summer, they can check out our merchandise over at Hell Oil!
Abominate is out now via Century Media Records.
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