Sabaton reacting to comments
A DIFFERENT KIND OF INTERVIEW
By Chelf
Hello hello!
Joakim Brodén: Hello METALHEADS FOREVER!
You are releasing a new single in a couple of days, the 3rd official single from your new album.
You are obviously doing a lot of interviews, and you are almost always on tour, I reckon
you are currently in Poland and you are performing tomorrow, so I thought we would do
something fun together and try to de-stress you.
Joakim Brodén: Awesome! Let’s do it!
I gathered a few of the most interesting random comments that people have left under
your music videos or interviews, and we are going to read them together and have you
respond.
Joakim Brodén: Sounds like a very interesting and different interview, thanks for
that!
Joakim, before we start please feel free to share anything that you’d like to, regarding the
upcoming album, the tour and what’s new on the Sabaton world.
JB: Well, we are doing festivals this summer, had to jump in at Hellfest, even
though we were not supposed to play, I lost my voice, but it happens you know?
Releasing the new single, the third official single from the new album, and we are
excited as this is the most ‘Sabaton’ song so far
OK! Let’s get to the comments!
‘It almost seems like Joakim doesn’t
know how great Sabaton is.’
Hahaha, I think that’s for the fans to decide. My part is to be involved in every part of the
process, the song writing process, to put a set list together. For me it’s like that, I’ve heard
everything we do a thousand times already, I’m sick of it, I can’t be the one deciding how
great we are, that’s for the fans to decide.
Sabaton has to do a song about
Michael Collins.
Right! Are we talking about the American astronaut or the IRA man from Ireland? Well,
Michael Collins the astronaut that would be really interesting, but it wouldn’t be a very
heavy metal song. Wasn’t there a movie about him as well?
‘He has to stop drinking beer it is not
healthy!
YES IT IS. Vitamin D.
‘Sabaton = Best history lesson ever!’
Oh! I’m happy to hear that but that’s not our plan. Just by being musicians and covering
military history, we cover let’s say a battle in three and a half minutes or in a whole album
we cover 4 years of conflict. We can never be the teachers, we may be the source that gets
people inspired to find out more, the starting point, and the trigger. There’s more needed
to get the bigger picture! Maybe the Sabaton history channel! If you go through that, then
we’re talking!
‘Seriously, you guys should partner up
with History Channel or something.’
Yeah, we decided to do our own instead. It’s so much fun you know, besides all the crazy
stuff we’ve done besides the music and being on stage, this is the one I think it’s the most
fun to do. NO matter how much research we’ve done there’s always so much new stuff to
learn about the history part.
I’m looking forward to the CD and
my son and I will be seeing you
Sabaton on October 11 in Los Angeles.
:thumbsup: \m/
That’s one of the things that makes me really happy, seeing the diversity in the crowd,
not only younger and older but also men and women, not having a sausage fest with
the 25 year old males only. Hahah, not that I mind you know but I love the hole mix,
and I think heavy metal is for everybody not only middle aged men like myself. All
people can have that experience with music. There’s something to talk about. Not to
say that we are unique in any way, but there’s one extra lever here, by having so many
different people at concerts there’s a good chance that we can talk and exchange
thoughts not only on music, but lyrically, the stories. Also when we are meeting fans!
I’m not saying anything bad for other bands, not at all, but we have that extra plus, if
we meet a fan, what can we talk about? We can talk about the music, trust me we’ve
heard those comments before, they are nice to hear but they cannot sustain a
conversation. Let’s say I meet somebody in a bar, who turns out to be a fan. We start talking.
It very easily turns into a questionnaire, when is the tour when is the new album coming out,
it turns into an interview or in some cases an interrogation. Hahah,
but with history, everything is different. To meet somebody, say from Brazil and then
talking about their grandfather fighting in the expeditionary force, all of a sudden we
have an interesting conversation about something we have in common, something
that we are both interested in
‘They are much more superficial than
I expected. I really thought they´d be
more philosophical.’
Well, yeah, everybody can think different things. We don’t think about it as we are
delivering a message, should we be technical, should we be aggressive, it’s totally different
for every song. In a way we tell stories, no matter if it’s political or religious or whatever,
so, sometimes we pose questions which might seem a bit philosophical, sometimes we tell
the fucked up side of a story. And if you think about it, we are too deep into this,
researching and writing the music and the lyrics, getting too deep into these, trust me it
can be very depressing!
‘Considering how calm Joakim is
when he talks, you’d never know he
has a voice that can shake mountains
to the ground’
Hahahaaaa, Shake Mountains to the ground! It would be kind of silly if I was answering
with my singing voice. You know, I’m not very loud too, I came to the band as a
keyboardist, and they asked me if I could sing until they found a singer, and you know I’m
still waiting for the singer to arrive.
I never trained to be a vocalist, I am not a good singer at all, however I may be the best
Sabaton singer because everything I’ve done has been specifically tailored to the band.
‘It’s honestly so weird seeing him
without sunglasses and with a casual
voice’ OR ‘Jocke has eyes?’
Hahahaa, well, yeah, surprise! I have eyes. I do prefer to have the sunglasses on actually,
but sometimes, it feels weird to do it in a room when you are having an interview with
someone face to face, so then I’ll take them off. I’m not that much into the whole image
thing. If it serves a purpose sure, I’ll do it, like when we are taking promo pictures or when
we are on stage. People don’t realize they have a really, really good practical purpose as
well. It’s not about looking cool, dude, never mind that. Imagine running offstage, and it’s
pretty damn strong lights and then all of a sudden its dark, you need to get some water,
good luck! Where’s your night vision? It’s gone! You’ve been exposed to so much bright
lights. But when I have my sunglasses on its easier to run on and off the stage. It helps the
guitarists as well, to be able to see and not fall off the stage you know?
‘SOMEBODY GIVE THAT MAN A
TANK!’
No, thanks, don’t need it. We already have two and they are a bitch to park
MHF Magazine/Chelf
