Hammerfall Interview
By Andrea Bermúdez
Hammerfall the great Swedish power metal band is on the road and granted us the following interview talking about its great present, their upcoming album and future plans.
Hi! My name is Andrea Bermúdez and this is an interview for Metalheads Forever Magazine.
First of all thank you for your time.
No worries, thanks for supporting us.
You are now in a North American Tour, apart from this Tour which plans has Hammerfall in the near future?
Right after the tour we will start the festival season in Europe followed by a short tour in countries we didn’t play on the first European leg. In between we are writing songs for the next album that is due mid 2019.
Is there much of a difference between touring in Europe, North America and Latin America? Indeed, the logistics would be much tougher in some places, but what about the crowds; the ambiance?
In Europe we play bigger halls and pull a much bigger crowd in comparison to North America. But we are working hard in both US and Canada at the moment and it’s starting to pay off at the shows. Latin America is also very good for us and the fans down there are extremely emotional. Love it!
It is known that you will be releasing a new album. What can you tell us about the process of creating the songs for this new album? Will it be the result of a lot of blood, sweat and tears?
It will be the result of extremely hard work and so far we have written 5-6 songs. The overall feeling is very good but it’s way too early to give any detailed info about it. Don’t even have a working title for it.
In this sense, musically what do you want to do different in the new album?
As always I want it to be better in every possible way. From the drums to the vocals and from the song writing to the production. We have had a great run of 22 years and I hope that the next album will take us up another notch.
Have you defined who is going to be in charge of the cover art of the album?
Yes, we have but that is still a secret 🙂 More details later but I can assure you it will be epic.
The music business has changed a lot in the recent years. Digital downloads, the rise of vinyl, social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. How do you have experienced all this changes along these years?
When we started out the CD sales peaked and recording artists could make a living on sales only. But when illegal download began everything change and it’s been downhill ever since.
Social media gives us the opportunity to be closer with the fans and be first with the latest news. Off course there is a downside to it but that you just have to live with.
You have been on the road for twenty five years, which do you consider are the most important moments of your career?
22 years. I think the release of the first album would be the most important moment. We release a heavy metal album in a time no one cared for the genre anymore and open up the door to ”our way of the 80´s”. That gave us the opportunity go out on our crusade for heavy metal world wide.
If you have to choose a song of your career that defines you as a musician, which song will you choose and why?
Impossible I would say. I have written and co-written so many songs that it’s impossible to pick only one. A song like Hearts on Fire meant a lot off course and is the biggest ”hit” we ever had.
Apart from Hammerfall do you have another personal projects?
Not at the moment but I do both radio and TV from time to time.
Which are your favourites bands in the metal scene and in which way they have influenced you as a musician?
I love RIOT from the early days and they still sound amazing. Lately I listen a lot to Beast in Black from Finland.
Any final comments for our readers?
Thanks for supporting HammerFall and I hope to meet ya all on this tour!!!
MHF Magazine/Andrea Bermúdez
