INTERVIEW: Jonas Asplind – Follow The Cipher

Looking to follow in the footsteps of SABATON, Swedish power metal outfit FOLLOW THE CIPHER are set to release their debut record with Nuclear Blast Records. The band originate from Falun, which has seen the likes of TWILIGHT FORCE, CIVIL WAR and IN MOURNING rise to prominence over recent years. Distorted Sound recently had a chat with bassist Jonas Asplind to discuss the upcoming record and more.

Follow The Cipher is the band’s self-titled debut album – how does it feel knowing that the record will be out worldwide soon?

Jonas: It’s absolutely fantastic! It’s been a really long wait for us, we started recording this album three years ago so we’re really looking forward to sharing it with the world. We’ve worked hard on it and don’t really know what to expect because we are such a new band so it’s all fun!

What were the writing and recording processes like?

Jonas: It was pretty smooth – we live in different parts of Sweden but we sent files between us, and the most time was not to write the songs, but finding the right sound and how we all wanted the album to sound. That’s what took the longest as I think we recorded it wrong about two years ago and then we did a bunch of mixes which went well.

Are there any specific messages or themes that feature in the album?

Jonas: Not really no. We tried to write music like it’s for a movie; you should get that feeling when you listen to music that you are in a big movie, so we tried to make a futuristic theme around this album, a more post-apocalyptic feeling so that’s the theme that goes through the album, but nothing really special.

What are your expectations for the record as a band?

Jonas: Well we love it ourselves, that’s the first thing so we hope that the rest of the world likes the album as much as we do. That’s our main expectation, but so far so good anyway. I think the main thing is to do something that you love yourself.

Looking back at the origins of FOLLOW THE CIPHER, it was formed by Ken Kangstrom, but how did the band come to be originally?

Jonas: Well originally Ken started it up as a solo project; he’s been a song writer for so many years, and in particular he’s been writing songs with Joakim from SABATON for their last three albums, so he felt like it was time for him to do his own stuff where he could write the music he wanted to. That’s when he decided to form FOLLOW THE CIPHER, so then he did auditions for singers and that’s when he found Linda – she was one of the singers who auditioned and got it almost straight away, and you can understand that when you hear her. Then they were in the studio and he felt that they should make a band of this, so that’s when the rest of the members came in. Ken knew me through SABATON, and he knows my skills so he wanted me to come into FOLLOW THE CIPHER and contribute with what I know, and I said ‘if you want me you’ll have to take the drummer’, and that was Karl, so he got me and the drummer for the price of one! Then he wanted to take in another songwriter as well to FOLLOW THE CIPHER which is why he asked Viktor because they worked on a couple of songs together and he wanted to bring him in, so he took him in as a guitar player and a singer, so that’s the story before we started recording!

Of course SABATON have been a big part of the band and we’ll talk in more detail about them soon, but which other bands have helped influence FOLLOW THE CIPHER?

Jonas: Well all of us in the band like different types and styles, but the main influence is the Gothenburg sound like IN FLAMES and bands like that. Ken really likes that kind of sound, but he also likes the electronic music from the dance scene like dubstep and stuff like that, so he wanted to blend everything together; the symphonic sound like NIGHTWISH and that stuff as well, and the goal actually was to do as much hard music, like really, really metal music, but also that our grandmothers can listen to it. The goal was the have a huge metal sound that all the metalheads will like, but also that the older people could listen to as well and say ‘this is pretty good’ – I guess really the best way to describe it would be like BON JOVI in a metal style.  

SABATON have had a huge impact on the band, and Ken helped co-write Carolus Rex which the band covered so that must have been a special track to record?

Jonas: Definitely, and really SABATON are very close friends rather than just an influence. With Carolus Rex, we originally thought we needed a cover to play live just for fun, because it’s always nice and we said to Ken Wwhy don’t we do a song you actually wrote?”, so we did it live and the record label guy Marcus actually signed us from that gig. He saw us do that live and said to us “you should put that on the album as well”, and we thought why not? It’s a good PR thing and Ken can do it in the way he wants to, so we did it and it was really fun, especially when it’s a band we’re such close friends with!

And of course with Linda fronting the band it gives a different twist to it as well?

Jonas: Yes exactly, and I think Linda can get away with it because she has such a powerful voice, which you need when you sing this type of music. It was a bit difficult as well because we had to up the pitch by about four or five steps from the way Joakim sings it in his tone, and of course Linda sings much higher so we had to step it up – but it’s a good thing we have seven strings so we can still keep it heavy!

Your hometown Falun has produced some huge bands over the years, how do you feel the scene has changed over the years, particularly in Sweden?

Jonas: Well I’ve been around for quite a while now following the scene, because I’ve been working with music for over 20 years now, and I think it’s developed really well. It’s always had different towns with bands, especially in the metal scene, and I think here in Sweden, generally in metal all the bands help each other. When you’re in a close town like Falun, there’s only about 50,000 people so you know everyone and all the bands know each other, and instead of fighting with each other we all help each other which is really good. The scene originally was very stiff hard metal, and the power metal scene really started with SABATON, and since then other bands started to play a similar style of music. Here in Falun all the members have played with one another in some way so really it feels like the same band for so many years!

Moving on to touring now, you played Sabaton Open Air in 2017 – what was that experience like?

Jonas: It was awesome because it was our second gig ever! It was strange because we did our first concert at Masters of Rock in Czech Republic in front of 20,000 people, so we started to wonder where do we go from here! Usually you have to play a club gig with one person or something, so by the time we did our second gig we felt that we could do it even better, which we did and it was a really good show, and having it in Falun too was wonderful!

What future plans are there in store for FOLLOW THE CIPHER?

Jonas: We don’t really know! We’ve got two shows booked, and that’s Metalfest in Czech Republic on the 2nd June, and then Graspop in Belgium on the 21st, so two pretty big gigs! That’s what we have booked, and we hope that we can find some suitable partners to work with around tours, because we really want to go on tour, and playing music is what we love. The plan really is to get on the road as fast as we can, if people want us to come and play of course!

Follow The Cipher is set for release on May 11th via Nuclear Blast Records.

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