INTERVIEW: Olof Mörck – Amaranthe

AMARANTHE have managed to steer their ship through choppy waters recently with surprising ease; despite losing founder member Jake Lundberg at the beginning of last year following his hiatus, the pop-come-death metal crossover band are firing on all cylinders in preparation for fifth album Helix which is released this week. Distorted Sound spoke to guitarist and keyboard player Olof Mörck recently about the new record, their replacement singer and the troubles at this year’s Bloodstock Festival.

Olof, thank you very much for joining me today. To start off, enlighten me: how did you come up with combining pop and death metal in the first place?

Olof: Well, we all came from very different musical backgrounds to begin with, I think that’s the obvious thing. Everyone had a different point of view when it came to what we wanted to create, but I think also individually we also have a lot of different inspirations and musical genres that we listen; for example, I grew up on classical music but at the same time my sister was listening to pop music and then my dad got me into metal when I was 8 or 9. It was especially prevalent when it came to starting a band because I wanted to do one based on my tastes and style as opposed to just joining a band that already had that concept. I just think that in my head there was a lot that could be done with combing unexpected things and become a breath of fresh air. I also didn’t want us to take ourselves way too seriously; I think that metal is a very serious genre and I think that a little bit of light-heartedness combined with the aforementioned styles would benefit us.

Definitely, and finding that balance where you’re still taking your music seriously because it’s your job and your life but maintaining that fun element where it is a little bit silly and colourful can really take you places.

Olof: Exactly, that’s what I feel because at the end of the day there’s a lot of effort being put into it and a lot of seriously lyrical themes but when I say ‘take yourself too seriously’ I mean falling into that mindframe of ‘metal is the greatest thing ever invented and I’m some sort of prophet and whatever’. I think it’s easy for people to get into that seat and opinion and for me, whilst I think it’s about creating as great music as you can and important lyrical themes, you’re also in the entertainment business if you’re playing live shows and that’s something I feel you should keep in mind when you’re writing your music; that’s just my opinion of course! [laughs]

Of course! Fast forward eight years then from you starting, AMARANTHE have released fourth album Maximalism on October 21st 2016 and two weeks later the news comes out that Jake is going on hiatus which then led to him eventually leaving the band. Was there any inkling beforehand that he was going to do that?

Olof: Well, within the band, yes – it was back in February of that year when we came to writing Maximalism that he notified us that he would probably not only go on hiatus but leave the band and so at that point what we did was say “Okay, we’ll give you the time to think things through to make sure you’re not making any hasty decisions or whatever, but at the same time we need to continue to work on this album because it’s going to have to be released in October,” which it was, but I think that by the time he’d notified us he’d already thought it through.

Chris Sörbje stepped in to fill the gap in between the tours – was there the potential that he would join as a permanent member or was it always going to be a touring thing until you found someone full-time?

Olof: When he started touring with us it was just from the perspective that he would fill in for Jake; this was back in 2015 so the idea wasn’t really on the table because Jake hadn’t notified us that he was thinking of leaving permanently but when he finally stepped down we did discuss it as a band and with him as well. But he had his own band (SMASH INTO PIECES) and he was really into the potential of them, so I don’t think it was possible for him to take both slots and balance it out. So we quickly came to the conclusion that we needed a singer who was potentially in another band so he had the experience, but wasn’t as tied down to them as Chris had been.

I can understand that. So you ended up bringing Nils Molin in; how’s he settling in?

Olof: Yeah, fantastically. It’s interesting because he did his first show with us in Gothenburg in March last year and at that time he was just trying out for us; we’d told him we were looking for a permanent replacement and I’d always liked his vocals – I’d heard him sing plenty of times before and he’d done a recording audition with us – so we were all thinking that he was pretty perfect but we needed to see what he was like as a person, how he would cope with touring and what his chemistry was like between band members which is extremely important when you’re travelling 250 days a year, but after a couple of months he’d grown into the fold so quickly that we sat down after that first show and decided that we wanted him permanently, Even now it already feels like he’s been in the band for years! [laughs]

That’s always a good thing for sure: I guess it’s a bit different for yourselves when you’ve got three vocalists but people often say that when you replace musicians they can easily come in and replicate parts but it’s really hard with a singer because their voices can be so different. It must be nice that he’s settled in so quickly because you guys have gelled quicker and there hasn’t been that awkwardness of getting it all fine tuned.

Olof: No, exactly. You’re right that changing the lead singer can change the entire sound of the band and whilst I wouldn’t say it’s been a fundamental change with us, it’s still had a vital effect on the sound and we’re only changing a third of the singing. Of course it’s going to be easier though – think about QUEEN’s trials in replacing Freddie Mercury, it was never going be the same, or IRON MAIDEN when they switched to Blaze Bayley – he’s a decent singer I guess but it didn’t really work out with the fans at all.

The jury will forever be out on that one! Moving on to upcoming album Helix – I read somewhere that it only took two months to write this record; given how intricate AMARANTHE’s music can be, that’s mental!

Olof: Yeah, it’s strange when you think about it because at the beginning of the year there was a single note existing for this album. There was a strong idea though, we had a lot of concepts and things we wanted to get in there but no actual pieces of music, vocal lines, guitar parts etc. I think it really helps if you know exactly where you want to go in terms of the contrast in musical styles and the like. We were also able to complete it in two months because we didn’t go on tour or play any one-off shows; we were in such a fantastic creative zone that we just wanted to compose. If I compare this to the previous records, the process was a lot smoother and inspiring and worked out better that at any point before, so as a result I think this a more coherent and better album in all aspects than we’ve ever managed.

Of course. Outside of the change of vocalist, have you tried anything new this time around that you didn’t with Maxialism, for example?

Olof: I think that Maximalism had quite a different direction and was trying to accomplish different things whilst remaining in the AMARANTHE concept and style because I was really into fine-tuning songwriting in itself and working a lot with electronics and keyboards and actually being very inspired by contemporary pop at that time – there was a lot of interesting things happening in that department and that time. It’s still a heavy album, but I feel we concentrated more on the metal aspect of AMARANTHE this time around and attempted to create a résumé of our entire career; take all those elements and put them into one album, introduce a load of new ideas and crank the whole thing up to 11.

You also said that composing this with Eliza [Ryd, AMARANTHE vocalist] was a dream collaboration. Isn’t that the case with every record given that you’re the main songwriters or was there something a little more magical this time around?

Olof: Honestly, I don’t know. Without wishing to badmouth Jake at all because it has nothing to do with his own talents and skills, when you’re composing as a three it’s naturally a lot more complex than when there’s just two. Add to that the fact that me and Elize have been writing since the beginning, when you’re in the same song working together and you don’t have to explain your ideas to anyone else or bring another person in it’s a lot easier. Beforehand I was composing separately with both of them and bringing it all together, but this time it was straightforward and inspiring, just in the sense that we could focus on our own thing.

Additionally, we’ve always been very sure of what we wanted to do and so this time there was absolutely no hesitation as to where we were going with the album and that’s in part why we set a tight deadline for ourselves because in the back of our heads we knew we could deliver on it. There’s no cockiness involved there either, we were just very inspired.

Of course. You recorded it again with producer Jacob Hansen like the rest of your albums; what’s so good about him?

Olof: Many things! [laughs] In my opinion he’s the best producer you can find in Europe. He’s a very musical producer and mixer: a lot of sound engineers are very much into the soundscape itself and they don’t necessarily – and paradoxically – know a whole lot of music in itself because composing vocals lines, lyrics and songs is a completely different animal. I wouldn’t say Jacob contributed in terms of songwriting but he understands where we are going musically and can translate that into the production without us having to push anyone in a certain direction. His productions sound very different from album to album but they always fit our vision and that’s something I consider quite miraculous!

As he’s worked with you for so long, are you comfortable now discussing the songs with him and asking for feedback about where to tweak songs here and there?

Olof: Sometimes we are, and actually on this record we’ve asked him a bit more so we could have a third opinion, but I wouldn’t say that it’s something that has any massive impact on the album itself other than in production. He’s a fantastic vocal producer as well – he knows exactly how to get the best out of the band.

Awesome! We’ve already had lead single 365 to listen to and enjoy – what’s your personal favourite song off the record?

Olof: I would say the title track, Helix – there’s just something there that for makes it the textbook example of what an AMARANTHE song should be. It has the heaviness, a good amount of depth and seriousness in the lyrics, the trademark keyboard/synthesisers, a great chorus and vocal lines. I’m really happy with it; it’s just one of those songs where everything comes together perfectly.

I’m looking forward to checking it out. Now, Bloodstock this summer – give us an insight into your set from a band perspective.

OM: Oh man [laughs], it was a real challenge, I have to be honest. Obviously there were a lot of people who witnessed the horrendous situation that was Bloodstock – I will not point fingers obviously but for reasons that were not to do with the band or its crew, there was not a monitor technician in place to allow us to hear anything as a band. We didn’t know this at all, we went on as normal because of the tight changeover, so when we went up on stage and Morten [Sørensen, AMARANTHE drummer] found he didn’t have a click track or metronome to play to, we had to stop the whole thing and fix it ourselves, set up the monitor ourselves and connect it properly. Naturally I don’t want to put shit on Bloodstock or anything like that but we had twenty festival appearances this summer that all went super smooth and we had great shows, but this one was a complete nightmare. It wasn’t intentional from Bloodstock of course, it was just a misunderstanding that meant things just didn’t really connect with us at it should have and everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but when mistakes happen on these sorts of stages there’s going to be 10-15,000 people witnessing but I think we turned it around pretty well; our bassist [Johan Andreassen] did a stand-up comedy number to pass the time for fifteen minutes and then we played all the songs we had time to play and the audience seem to appreciate it so when you look at the result we were still able to play and the audience enjoyed it and that’s the most important thing.

Exactly, and AMARANTHE are back here in November for a one-off show with POWERWOLF at the Koko in London – looking forward to it?

Olof: Yeah, massively – I’ve always loved Koko as a venue. We played a show with my old band around 14 years ago at the Underworld and went to Koko afterward for an after party and saw a band perform there and since then I’ve always wanted to perform there with AMARANTHE. From that perspective it’s going to be awesome to be back in England, in London and in Camden Town performing at such a glorious venue.

Will there be more shows in 2019 over here?

Olof: Well I can’t say anything is confirmed but we are looking firmly at the possibility of a longer UK headline run in the first half of next year.

Cool, and will you be looking to come back to Bloodstock to rectify what happened this year?

Olof: Oh yeah, definitely, and next time we’ll headline! [laughs]

Would you say that it was the worst festival experience you’ve ever had, or is there one that’s above that?

Olof: [laughs] Well it’s not the worst but it’s definitely in the top three and once again I’d like to point out that it wasn’t the fault of the audience or Bloodstock themselves whatsoever, but it’s not top; that would be Nova Rock in 2013 or 2013. DRAGONFORCE were playing right after us and the whole thing was a logistical nightmare. The changeover was way too short and we had too few in our crew for the slot, which was our own fault because we weren’t prepared to play that big a stage. We had two crew members to set everything up in 20 minutes and we just weren’t done on time. Sometimes we can gamble on it a little bit and hope that everything’s connected up correctly and then you go out and realise it isn’t – everything was a complete mess in the band’s ears and whatever was going out to the audience so yeah, that wasn’t pleasant at all.

Well those sorts of things are few and far between, thankfully! Olof, thank you very much for speaking to me today.

Olof: No problem, it was a pleasure to speak to you as well.

Helix is set for release on October 19th via Spinefarm Records.

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