Orbit Culture: Just A Small Town Band
“This time around I gave a shit!” We’re talking to Niklas Karlsson of Swedish metallers ORBIT CULTURE about their upcoming EP, Shaman and there’s a distinct sense he’s not being entirely serious. In our time there’s plenty of laughing, highlighting a man that, while his music is taken seriously, doesn’t take himself too seriously and is determined to enjoy what he has, while he can.
Before we dig into the EP itself, we cast our minds back to last year’s Nija, a record that put them firmly on the map and ensconced them in the minds of many metalheads. When we asked how it felt to be the recipient of such glowing feedback, he was disarmingly honest. “I don’t know how to respond to that! It was a great experience, we are learning to live with it every day because people are so nice. We’ve been doing this for almost eight years now and it’s really the last two years that people have started to take notice – and we’re all for it!”
His enthusiasm for music is infectious and it spills over into ORBIT CULTURE’s sound. A many-headed hydra of death metal, thrash and melodicism with plenty of progressive flourishes, both last year’s Nija and their latest EP Shaman exude confidence in their writing abilities and a love of metal of all stripes. Despite the rapturous reception and expectations placed on future material, Niklas remains grounded in his approach. “We still see ourselves as a small band, we just want to record and play some music. And it happened to fall in the right place for some people! I guess there’s some pressure but at the same time, here in Sweden the key to success is we have winter ten months of the year, so we don’t go out much! We just sit by the computer and play music and shit,” he laughs.
Even a cursory listen to Shaman will reveal that, while it’s more immediate than its predecessor, it’s not necessarily a simpler album. Carvings possesses a monstrous, stomping riff while Strangler pairs death metal roars with almost Hetfield-esque vocals in its chorus. This is no accident; Niklas cites both thrash titans METALLICA and the metal juggernauts GOJIRA as influences and favourite bands. When asked about this blend of sounds, he explains, “I think it comes from myself. I have a very broad music taste and genres that I listen to. So if a band does something cool, I try to take everything from all the good songs that have been made and try to do something on our own with that stuff. I think it happens unconsciously. I just sit down and write stuff that I like to hear basically. METALLICA and GOJIRA are two of my favourite bands so I tend to listen to them a lot and see what works for them!” Clearly that’s something that’s served them well.
When it comes to the writing process itself, it’s very much a single-minded effort. “I write and record it all here [at home],” he says. “Christopher [Wallerstadt, drums] does some drums in our rehearsal space when we write. Other than that, I write, record everything here and then hopefully it’s done.” That’s not to say that his writing process is self-indulgent without the input of others; “sometimes I have to kill my darlings,” he explains, “I tend to write a lot of verse, chorus stuff and get stuck on it for a year. I have about seventy of those! But then sometimes, I pick one and get it done in thirty minutes. Which is a sign it’s a good song to work with.”
Thematically, the songs don’t stray far from their usual roots in mental health and struggle but it’s wrapped in metaphor, allowing people to read as deeply into it as they like – something that Niklas is keen to stress. “I find I write better when it’s something that comes from an honest place. But of course, I like to write about dragons and shit too sometimes! It’s a continuation [from Nija], themes of addiction and stuff” but if people want to only read the surface level and hear dragons, as far as he’s concerned, it’s all fun.
In a way, their success over the last couple of years still doesn’t feel real to them – their grounded themes and attitude has led them to still feel like a small band from a small town, as a great deal of their rise has happened with an ongoing pandemic. But despite this, he’s still keen to stress their eagerness to get out on the road and greet their fans properly, despite how odd it might feel to them “I think that’s very strange, because this all happened when we couldn’t go out and meet people! We could only see what’s been written on the internet. It doesn’t feel that real, it will be a wild moment when we go out and actually see the people there!”
Shaman is out now via Seek & Strike.
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