Fanzine On-Line w/ Peter Tägtgren

Damage Jackal Fanzine On-Line -Hypocrisy interview


                         with guitarist/vocalist Peter Tagtgren

The following is from a phone interivew I conducted with Hypocrisy guitaristt/vocalist Peter Tagtgren right after the release of
their newest shredder Abducted. 

So how are you doing'? 

"Uh pretty good man!" 

Are you feeling good about the new record...Did it turn out the way you planned? 

"Ya of course!" 

I think it's pretty damn good I really enjoy it. 

"Cool!" 

On The Forth Dimension and the new one you started to add more melodic guitar work, keyboards and stuff, why did you
decide to add these elements to the Hypocrisy sound? 

"I don't know it's just a thing that happened, we didn't plan on anything, we just write riffs and put together some songs...You
know listen to them when they're done and if they're good we'll keep 'em. We don't decide if we're gonna do a fast song or a
slow song or anything like that, it's just a coincidence." 

So when did you first start to get into death metal? 

"Oh that was like, '80." 

Did you like other types of heavy metal, regular metal like Mercyful Fate stuff like that? 

"Oh ya and then Venom came out, I've been into it a long time you know." 

The first thing I noticed about Abducted is your vocal style, it's not as deep as it is on The Forth Dimension, so why is that? 

"I don't know I just wanted to change it a little bit, you know not just the same thing all through the album...just try and change
it, like if it's an aggressive song sing more aggressive, if it's slow you sing more deeper. It all depends, you get more variety." 

Some vocal parts remind me of you vocal stuff that you did on the Abyss album The Other Side, did you realize that, it's not as
high pitched, but it's along them lines. Anyway, the theme behind a lot of the songs on the album are about alien abductions and
stuff, do you feel alien abductions are a big problem? 

"Ya I guess for the people who have been abducted you know, I mean a lot of people are scarred for life, the mental, the
physical stuff. You know it's so hard to get proof, you never know 100% of what's real or not. But I mean it's pure terror..." 

Actually the thing that really bugs me about all that alien stuff is all the government secrecy and cover-ups, so you have strong
opinions about that? 

"Oh yeah definitely cause the people have a right to know what going on. The government feels that the public is not ready for it
yet." 

I think if it were to come out officially it would change humankind's thinking and whole way of life. 

"Ya the whole shit would change totally, I mean the physics laws and all kinds of stuff. The religion would crash, oil and
electricity, it would be a chaos...But I think that is one of the reasons why they're keeping a lid on it. Plus they collect weapon
technology, I mean look a the Stealth (Bomber) plane that America built. I wonder were that idea came from, I mean it's the
perfect weapon cause you can't see it on the radar." 

What do you think, all the abduction stuff maybe the government has been conducting experiments on people, and putting the
alien idea in there head? 

"Ya that could be one thing, but you know every time you see something in the sky it doesn't have to be a UFO, I mean it could
be the military doing some experiments with things they may have captured from aliens and stuff like that." 

Or even the government might have some technology or something that they came up with on their own, but we'll never know
really. 

"Ya, you will never know what's going on. But I mean for the public right now it's getting more official, it's more hyped, I mean
you see the X-Files, and all the talk shows. And people are getting more and more use to it and maybe that's the idea, their (the
government) are gonna walk out of the dark and say it is true. So maybe people will be able to understand it when they are
better prepared." 

The Forth Dimension was kind of a big step for the band music wise compared to the past stuff, what was the fan response like
to The Forth Dimension, did it sell good? 

" Ya, I mean it's the best selling album for us, I guess it proves that we went in the right direction." 

Do you think Abducted will do as good? I personally feel it will. 

"It doesn't really matter, as long as your happy yourself. That's the main reason why we keep on doing this." 

On the song When The Candle Fades you can easily understand the vocals and the lyrics, you don't always stick with one style,
did the vocal diversity just work out that way or was it something you were planning on? 

"I wanted to experiment a little bit with my vocals, try and push it to the limit, see what I could hand and not." 

Your guitar work on Abducted proves to me that you have little or know trouble coming up with great riffs, how easy is song
writing for you? 

" It's very easy, but then you have to see what's good and what's not good. So I mean it's maybe only 50% that comes on the
album that I write. Cause the early days the first two albums there were no throw away songs, the songs we wrote came on the
albums. But now days we start to get more picky and stuff. We recorded Abducted in March ('95) and listened to it for a
week and we said fuck it it doesn't sound good, so we threw away five or six, ya half of the songs, we trashed them and started
all over again. We did it like that four times, so actually in August we had a all the songs we wanted to put on the album." 

Were there songs that were very easy to write to very hard to write? 

"Um, Buried is a very basic song, that one is easy, but it's the groove in it, you can get into it, I think it's got a special groove to
it. Roswell 47 was very easy to do. It all depends, the easiest songs usually sound the better, because it's easy it's right in your
face." 

The last two songs Slippin' Away and Drained are quite a bit of a departure for Hypocrisy, being that they are kind of mellow
and slow, was it an easy decision to put these songs on the album? 

"No it wasn't cause I wrote these songs two years ago myself, for my purpose just to see what I can handle, that was just for
me but the other guys listened to it then they wanted to put it on the album. All the other people that listened to it said it was
good. First I did not want to put them on cause it is not Hypocrisy, it was a side project that I was fucking with, but after a
while we decided that there are no rules for what kind of music you put on an album, so we said okay lets do it an worry about
it later." 

I think they are pretty good songs and I like them will you do stuff like that in the future? 

"No, no I don't think so, that was just a thing I did for myself. I mean I should never say never, but I doubt it." 

Why don't you include the lyrics with your releases? 

"Because I wasn't really happy about some of the songs, there was two or three lyrics that I wasn't 100% happy about with
them, and I didn't want to print them. You know that's the last thing I do, when the song is done we record everything and put it
on a tape and listen to it, that's when I start writing the lyrics. I doesn't come out in the beginning it's the last thing I do..." 

Can you explain some songs (lyrics), what is Killing Art about? 

"It's about white religion, how I fell about white religion, you know all of them using weaker people and stuff like that to gain
their power and money. So it basically say's line 'em up and shoot 'em down. I mean really it's the hate I feel against them, it's
just a fist in the face from me to them..." 

What about Point Of No Return, what is that about? 

"It's about back stabbing people also, they go so far...it's a point of no return, every time you turn around they'll stab you in the
back and take whatever they can take from you." 

You did a part two of The Arrival Of The Demons, where you planning on doing that when you wrote the original on The Forth
Dimension? 

"It was just a last minute thing in the studio for part one, I had a riff on an acoustic guitar. We just put it on with some crazy
vocals and keyboards. We said lets put a part one on this (The Forth Dimension) and next time we'll do a real one, so just do
part one on now and worry about it later and deal with it." 

The artwork on the CD booklet is kinda, like weird, did you help come up with the concepts and ideas? 

"Ya, ya, we wanted to do something really weird, because we wanted to stick with the alien subject. On the front cover you
can see a person, it looks like a person being experimented on, like the alien abduction usually is." 

You know what it reminds me of, you know Vio Vod, it reminds me of their kind of stuff (artwork), their technological kinda
weird stuff. Okay now I've got some questions about The Abyss, in early '95 you released The Other Side which was a
traditional speed to the max. black metal album, why did you decide to do an album like this? 

"I mean this album was done like over a period of four years, like a couple of songs here a couple of songs there. What would
happen when we would practice when we were done we would switch instruments, I'd sit on the drums and we'd just start
jamming. That's how the songs came up, and when we had enough songs we just released it. I mean it wasn't a big deal about it
we didn't want to have any advertising saying that it is Hypocrisy and buy it because it is Hypocrisy. We just wanted to
document it ourselves on CD, it wasn't anything for the public eye to even bother caring about. We just wanted to remember
the songs that we did." 

It's kinda funny that you say you really didn't want it for the fans, but I taped a copy for a friend and he loves Hypocrisy and he
thought it was crap, but I think it is amazing and in fact that album actually got me into black metal. Ya I listened to that and I
fuckin' when nuts and started getting into Cradle Of Filth, Emperor, Ancient and all that stuff. So I think it's amazing! Will you
do some more Abyss stuff do you think, or will that be the end? 

"I would probably take a while, but I wont say never, cause you never know. But right now we don't have one song, we'll see
maybe if we start thinking about it we'll do it." 

Why didn't you just record the whole album yourself, cause it's obvious that you can drum really good, why didn't you do it all
yourself? 

"I don't know because, we all wrote music, we all wrote the songs on that one..." 

So it was everyone's stuff? 

"Ya, it wasn't a solo project or anything, it was everyone's mind put together over these past years." 

So your into black metal, why do you think it's so popular right now? 

"I don't know I have no idea..." 

Do you think it's more popular than death metal right now? 

"No, no it's not, maybe for the public eye but if you look at the sales and stuff. I mean ya it's a trend right now like everything
else that comes a little bit bigger than underground." 

I think it's just some death metal fans getting tired of death metal you know, they're trying to go for something more extreme. 

"Ya different. It was the same thing in the eighties when Venom and Possessed and all these bands came out. And then thrash
metal came, and then the late eighties death metal came in. So now it's back to black metal, and it's coming back to thrash
metal again, so I think it's just going in circles, people just want something new." 

You built your own studio, Abyss studio, was it difficult to put together financially? 

"No not really because I took it piece by piece, I bought a little bit here and there. Bands came in and recorded and the money
I got I invested in the studio." 

How is the studio doing, other bands come and record there? 

"Ya there are a lot of bands recording, that's like my job you know, that's how I make a living." 

Do you produce all the bands albums? 

"Not produce, well ya there are some bands I produced, it's basically recording." 

What bands have recorded there? 

"Right now I'm working with Marduk a black metal band from Sweden. And I did Dark Funeral's new album, it will come out
in a couple of weeks. I did some death metal, I do anything that I can do rock, pop, blues, even hard core stuff. I just don't
stand in one place, cause if you want to become a success as a producer or recording engineer you have to do a lot of music
stuff otherwise you can't handle all the shit." 

It's obvious you have strong contempt for Christianity, when did come to realize the many Hypocrisy's of this pathetic religion? 

"Oh since I've been a kid cause my mom and dad aren't really fans of the religions either religion. They taught me some stuff, all
the shit that goes around in the world." 

So you've embraced, I don't know if you are an actual Satanist, are you a Satanist? 

"I wouldn't say I'm not that because, I mean for a while now after the second album I just went too far when it came to
practicing black magic and stuff like that, so I just had to take a step back because when people around you start being afraid
of you, it's not good. You have to rethink, because nothing should be controlling you, you should control over you own life and
that's the way it is. I'm always for it." 

So you were heavily into black magic and rituals and stuff? 

"Ya really because that was the way I've always been, that kind of person. When your head is fucking with you that's when you
fucking gotta take a step back." 

Ya I understand. What role do satanic philosophies play in your life, do you live your life by these philosophies?
" Ya, it's a life style it's not a thing you can switch on and off. If you look at the black metal bands, because they where corpse
paint think they're Satanist's. There is only four or five actual black metal bands that you can call a real black metal band. The
other ones are fucking stupid singing about snow, storms and shit like that, Vikings and all that bullshit, they don't have a clue
what they're doing." 

Have you ever heard Cradle Of Filth...Do you like them? 

"Ya, I mean they're cool guys, but they're philosophy is just not my cup of tea." 

Ya they deal with vampires, Eve and gothic themes. 

"Ya that's not my thing." 

Actually I love those guys they are my favourite black metal band! 

"Ya they're cool guy's also, it's not what it's all about." 

What are your tour plans for '96? 

"We're going out in two weeks with the European tour right now. I've been talking to the guy from Kataklysm in Canada, and
he's trying to put a tour together for us in the States, so we'll see what happens." 

I hope you can get over here and do some Canadian dates, cause I'd love to see you guys. 

"That's what he's supposed to do a week in Canada, and three or four weeks in the US, but we don't know yet." 

I know it's kind of early to ask, but when do you hope to start recording the next Hypocrisy record, you know after the tour,
when do you hope to be in the studio again? 

"I don't know, it's not gonna take that long, maybe the next album will be out in a year, year and a half or so. I mean we don't
want to keep people waiting or anything like that, if we've got good songs we'll record them and put them out." 

THANX PETER, THE INTERVIEW WAS GREAT!