| (...interview continued) page #3 |
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SCENE THERE IN SWEDEN? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BETTER
BANDS, LABELS, MAGAZINES, ETC... IN YOUR OPINION?
The scene is great here, apart from the live scene which is totally under developed compared to for example,
Germany. Good magazines are for instance, CLOSE-UP & METALWIRE which are both written in Swedish &
pro released so you can find them almost anywhere. When it comes to bands I think Sweden was & still is the
best country in the world for Death Metal. My personal faves are bands like PRIMITIVE SYMPHONY,
KAAMOS, NOMINON & many more in Swedish underground. One of the great things are that when you read
the demo pages in the Swedish magazines you find shit loads of good unsigned bands which you can get demos
from & that is more fun than ordering the latest CANNIBAL CORPSE album or what ever.
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE SWEDISH MUSIC SCENE TO THE AMERICAN MUSIC SCENE?
I think the US scene is totally into that fucking DYING FETUS/CRYPTOPSY shit. On our label FOREVER U.
you can finds heaps of those kinds bands & I can't really say that I understand shit of that music... Apart from
that I don't really know much about the US scene anymore. I love the first stuff by bands like MASSACRE &
DEICIDE, but apparently that music isn't played much over there anymore, which is too bad.
WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF PAGANIZER DO WHEN NOT DOING WORK FOR THE BAND?
Me & the bass player are non working fuck ups, the lead guitarist works at a bakery & our drummer works at a
cheese factory! I used to work there as well & I can tell you that it was no fucking game, haha! It's like working
in a steel mill or something & everyday when you get home your body was totally fucked up, so I can't really
say I mind being unemployed...
DO YOU LISTEN TO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE
SOME OF THE BANDS YOUR CURRENTLY INTO?
Well as I mentioned most old Swedish Death bands spin in my player as well as more relaxed stuff like LAKE
OF TEARS & SENTENCED. I also like earlierAmerican stuff as well as the Polish gods VADER. As for other
music than Death Metal I'm totally into the American singer/song writer Roky Erikson, which is a fucking
amazing guy & I also like all the old CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL albums & the solo stuff by their
sing John Fogerty. The solo stuff by Dan Swano/ex. EDGE OF SANITY is also great like NIGHTINGALE,
MOONTOWER & STEEL. To be honest, me & our drummer are quite taken by stuff like SHAKIRA,
BRITNEY & DESTINY'S CHILD as well...haha! I'm a sucker for girls who sing AND look sexy...hahaha!
DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE & WHAT YOU WERE DOING WHEN YOU FIRST
HEARD ABOUT THE 9-11-01 ATTACKS HERE IN THE U.S.? WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE LIKE
THERE IN SWEDEN? ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS TRAGEDY?
My parents had recently moved from thier house into an apartment & I was there cooking dinner together with
my father when he turned up the volume on the radio. Then we turned on the TV & watched the pictures & then
we just kept watching all evening as more & more pictures were shown. I'm not really easily shocked, so I
thought it was quite interesting that something finally happened of these proportions, but of course the reaction in
Sweden was as in most countries, on the news people speculated on who was responsible & so on. Any
thoughts on this for me? Haha, that would not be very nice ones! Anyway, I really hate Arabs, so that this
happened was maybe a good thing since now the USA can begin to wipe away these creatures from the earth. I
really hate religion in all forms, but I think that Muslims are the scum of the earth since they mainly live for war,
terror & oppress their women. So even if I imagine the affected of this tragedy feel grief maybe this was meant
to happen to set off the igniting spark that is needed for the west to terminate the Muslims.
WHAT IS NEXT ON THE HORIZON FOR PAGANIZER?
We have already recorded half of the next album at Soundlab Studios together with Mieszko/NASUM as
producer. Sometime in Febuary we'll be recording the final material as well as mixing & mastering the album.
Then we hope to get it released in April. Apart from that we are taking it slow & are awaiting the response on the
current album. Hopefully some live shows will be set up next year, but we don't count on it...
THAT'S ALL THE QUESTIONS FROM ME. THANX FOR DOING THE INTERVIEW, WOULD YOU
LIKE TO ADD ANYTHING ELSE TO CLOSE OUT?
My standard answer is & will always be...ONLY DEATH IS REAL!!!
BANDS, LABELS, MAGAZINES, ETC... IN YOUR OPINION?
The scene is great here, apart from the live scene which is totally under developed compared to for example,
Germany. Good magazines are for instance, CLOSE-UP & METALWIRE which are both written in Swedish &
pro released so you can find them almost anywhere. When it comes to bands I think Sweden was & still is the
best country in the world for Death Metal. My personal faves are bands like PRIMITIVE SYMPHONY,
KAAMOS, NOMINON & many more in Swedish underground. One of the great things are that when you read
the demo pages in the Swedish magazines you find shit loads of good unsigned bands which you can get demos
from & that is more fun than ordering the latest CANNIBAL CORPSE album or what ever.
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE SWEDISH MUSIC SCENE TO THE AMERICAN MUSIC SCENE?
I think the US scene is totally into that fucking DYING FETUS/CRYPTOPSY shit. On our label FOREVER U.
you can finds heaps of those kinds bands & I can't really say that I understand shit of that music... Apart from
that I don't really know much about the US scene anymore. I love the first stuff by bands like MASSACRE &
DEICIDE, but apparently that music isn't played much over there anymore, which is too bad.
WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF PAGANIZER DO WHEN NOT DOING WORK FOR THE BAND?
Me & the bass player are non working fuck ups, the lead guitarist works at a bakery & our drummer works at a
cheese factory! I used to work there as well & I can tell you that it was no fucking game, haha! It's like working
in a steel mill or something & everyday when you get home your body was totally fucked up, so I can't really
say I mind being unemployed...
DO YOU LISTEN TO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE
SOME OF THE BANDS YOUR CURRENTLY INTO?
Well as I mentioned most old Swedish Death bands spin in my player as well as more relaxed stuff like LAKE
OF TEARS & SENTENCED. I also like earlierAmerican stuff as well as the Polish gods VADER. As for other
music than Death Metal I'm totally into the American singer/song writer Roky Erikson, which is a fucking
amazing guy & I also like all the old CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL albums & the solo stuff by their
sing John Fogerty. The solo stuff by Dan Swano/ex. EDGE OF SANITY is also great like NIGHTINGALE,
MOONTOWER & STEEL. To be honest, me & our drummer are quite taken by stuff like SHAKIRA,
BRITNEY & DESTINY'S CHILD as well...haha! I'm a sucker for girls who sing AND look sexy...hahaha!
DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE & WHAT YOU WERE DOING WHEN YOU FIRST
HEARD ABOUT THE 9-11-01 ATTACKS HERE IN THE U.S.? WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE LIKE
THERE IN SWEDEN? ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS TRAGEDY?
My parents had recently moved from thier house into an apartment & I was there cooking dinner together with
my father when he turned up the volume on the radio. Then we turned on the TV & watched the pictures & then
we just kept watching all evening as more & more pictures were shown. I'm not really easily shocked, so I
thought it was quite interesting that something finally happened of these proportions, but of course the reaction in
Sweden was as in most countries, on the news people speculated on who was responsible & so on. Any
thoughts on this for me? Haha, that would not be very nice ones! Anyway, I really hate Arabs, so that this
happened was maybe a good thing since now the USA can begin to wipe away these creatures from the earth. I
really hate religion in all forms, but I think that Muslims are the scum of the earth since they mainly live for war,
terror & oppress their women. So even if I imagine the affected of this tragedy feel grief maybe this was meant
to happen to set off the igniting spark that is needed for the west to terminate the Muslims.
WHAT IS NEXT ON THE HORIZON FOR PAGANIZER?
We have already recorded half of the next album at Soundlab Studios together with Mieszko/NASUM as
producer. Sometime in Febuary we'll be recording the final material as well as mixing & mastering the album.
Then we hope to get it released in April. Apart from that we are taking it slow & are awaiting the response on the
current album. Hopefully some live shows will be set up next year, but we don't count on it...
THAT'S ALL THE QUESTIONS FROM ME. THANX FOR DOING THE INTERVIEW, WOULD YOU
LIKE TO ADD ANYTHING ELSE TO CLOSE OUT?
My standard answer is & will always be...ONLY DEATH IS REAL!!!
| Rogga Johansson Slanbarsstigen 8 B 59431 Gamleby Sweden Paganizer@hotmail.com listen.to/paganizer ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF PAGANIZER INTERVIEWS MAIN PAGE |
