Interview with In Flames
via phone
By Kevin Kitchel for Infernal Dominion

Björn Gelotte: Hi, Kevin.
ID: Hello. So, whats new with In Flames?
Björn: Yeah, we got this brand new cd now.

ID: Clayman. Just actually got a copy.
Björn: Actually, I'm sitting here with a copy, the first printed one. I didn't even get to look at the lyrics yet. Should be interesting reading them tonight.

ID: Does Anders just write the lyrics without telling anyone about them?
Björn: He never tells anybody, not even press, about the lyrics.

ID: Oh.
Björn: Yeah, it's his way of doing it. He just likes to paint a picture for you, and you interpret it for yourself. There are enough people telling you what to think and do all the time, and he doesn't want to do that. He wants you to experience it yourself.

ID: So are you calling from Nuclear Blast in Europe?
Björn: No, I'm calling from Philadelphia, doing a lot of promotion all week.

ID: On to the questions. There was a huge progression in the total sound of the band from Colony to Clayman. Is this album very different for you from the rest of them, progression-wise?
Björn: I think that Colony took a bigger step from Whoracle, but I think you can see it from different angles. I mean, we have the same line up for two albums this time, which is very different, and we have never done it before. And that will make something with the sound on the album. It's hard to see what is the biggest step we have taken, but we always try to progress. Just a small one, or a small leap. Nothing big, but we still try to incorporate what is In Flames, the sound that we have, and still try to incorporate something new. Like on Colony, with the samples and the drum loops and some industrial stuff; we took that this time as well, but we used the synths, and tried to make it part of the music instead of an extra element. Also try to make it more diverse and dynamic.

ID: Some people accuse Colony of having one constant tempo, but Clayman is very dynamic in comparison.
Björn: Well, we learned a lot of things from the tours we did...like what works like, and what didn't.

ID: Do you think that Clayman is going to be harder to reproduce live?
Björn: I think we always try to make the songs possible to play. We are not a studio band, we are a live band these days. We try to make the songs to sound good live, but I don't think it will be hard to reproduce this live.

ID: Was Clayman harder to record?
Björn: There are many things that have to do with the recording, as I said, the whole group is a family now. We had always been three friends and two session musicians, but now that we are family it was easier to make the recording. Because right after the US tour we went back to Gothenburg and started pre-recording stuff, so we got, you know, the pure energy from the touring. It wasn't just producing different riffs and melodies and stuff. And everybody got to say everything about it, which didn't happen before. Me and Jesper just wrote the music, and Anders wrote the lyrics, and we told everyone what to do. I think it's important to maintain this momentum and family feeling that we have, and if everyone is working with the same thing then we get more teamwork, and a better angle of looking at the music. I think it really turned out good when everybody had something to say about the music.

ID: Did you compose the music all together, or you bring parts to practice and piece them together?
Björn: Well, it's still me and Jesper who write all the music and the melodies and we put it together as a team to get a diverse feeling. Maybe I write a really fast riff, and Peter says, "Slow it down a little bit." So everybody has their say. It feels really good; we never did that before. This is my favorite so far.

ID: How come there is no instrumental?
Björn: Well, that's not the way we do things. We record what we feel is right. That's the reason why we sound a bit different every time. If we recorded the same album over and over again people would be happy the second time, but the third time we would DEFINITELY be bored. It would be boring to play the same kind of songs every tour, every gig. It would suck, we have to do something interesting all the time, and the bottom line is what we wanna do, not what other people wanna hear. That's the reason why we started this band, and why we still are here. Because this is important for us, this is what we want to express. If people don't like it, too bad. It's important for us.

ID: So, you're coming back to the US in the fall I take it.
Björn: In August, hopefully. For three or four weeks.

ID: There wasn't much of a break for you guys after the Colony tour. Was it an inspiring experience to get back into the album-writing process?
Björn: After a couple of days, me and Jesper started throwing riffs at each other. And then we went to the studio and just let everybody be incorporated in the work. We worked for about a month, and we had some time off. Then we started recording them.

ID: Some of the songs weren't done when you went into the studio...
Björn: Oh, no! Well, there was a lot of arrangement, no problems, but we did some work with the arrangement in the studio. Took some parts away, and added new stuff. Actually, we wrote one song entirely in the studio, the "power ballad."

ID: "Satilites and Astronauts?"
Björn: Yes. We wrote that mainly in the studio. We had some ideas and stuff. We did the arrangements for them.

ID: That's a very different song for you.
Björn: Yeah, that's the diversity you get from the whole group.

ID: It's my favorite song on the album. So, other than In Flames, what do you guys do. Do you have day jobs or families?
Björn: Actually, I work in a music store in Gothenburg. An instument store, not a cd store.

ID: Cool.
Björn: Yeah, I get to work with all these nice guitars and stuff, and try the new, latest stuff, which is really cool for me. And I meet a lot of people really interested in music, so it's great for me. Also it's relaxation, instead of just playing music, you get to talk other kinds of music with other people. Everything from pop music to the darkest gore metal. For me, everything is really cool. Daniel is working as a teacher somewhere, teaching Latin and Italian or something like that. Peter is going to have another kid soon. He has a wife and a kid, so he is pretty happy with that. He is really a family man. Anders has Studio Fredman. He has his hands full. Jesper has a family, with a couple dogs and a girlfriend. Well, he has just one dog now. And a big apartment, just writing music all day.

ID: So, when you guys practice do you do it in a studio, or in someone's basement?
Björn: We have a rehearsing room. It's a real dump. But it's a great location for it. It's just that we are so lazy, and never fixed it up. Could be really, really nice, and we have all of our stuff there. So, we have a few beers and go down there. We don't really rehearse, we just play for the fun of it because we play so much live anyway. We try out new stuff, and arrangements for playing live.

ID: How did the summer festivals go for you?
Björn: They went great! We did some Swedish festivals, and it was the first time for us here. Bigger Swedish festivals. The metal scene is Sweden isn't really big, there are a lot of kids. When I say kids I mean 14-15 year olds who are coming to shows. This hasn't happened before for us. It used to just be the die-hard metal fans coming to concerts. But nowadays younger people are coming to concerts, that gives me hope for the future because it didn't happen before. It's important to have some fuss about this music, the best way I guess is to play on these big festivals. To get attention in the media, to help other metal bands out. Make the metal scene healthy again.

ID: What are some big bands in Sweden right now? Not metal bands.
Björn: Rap. Lot of rap. Rap in Swedish.

ID: Ha! (Imagining the Swedish Chef [from the Muppet Show] rapping.)
Björn: It's cool, 'cause they are very...anti-social. They are pretty cool guys. And we have all sorts of music, it's not all Swedish music. It's maybe mainly not Swedish music. But it's the same stuff that's popular over here, excuse me for saying crap. I can't really stand it. You know "Cryyying." Too much.

ID: Boy bands?
Björn: Well, I wouldn't say that about boy bands.

ID: Well, the Backstreet Boys are my secret love that I don't tell anyone about.[Seems you just told the world, Kevin. --Jamie]
Björn: Yeah! That's the same with us! We rarely speak about it, but we listen to that stuff. The songs are really well written, and the choruses are excellent.

ID: Really? I get ribbed a lot for liking it. On to the scandalous question. Why is the Clayman release party postponed?
Björn: Release party, postponed?

ID: Yes, I read it on the website.
Björn: It's postponed now? I didn't know that. Ahh, shit. Maybe I should call home. I didn't know that.

ID: I'm sorry.
Björn: Nah nah, it's alright. It's good that someone tells me.

ID: So, what music are you really into these days. Where do you find inspiration?
Björn: Well, it's hard. I like everything. If it's the Backstreet Boys, or Slipknot, which I find very interesting. I listen to Meshuggah. I listen to everything. I think it's important to maintain a diversity; to get a healthy perspective on music. I mean, Jesper listens to everything from power metal to brutal death metal; he loves Macabre. He really enjoys some Britney Spears songs. I mean everything. Anders is a great fan of Tea Party and Tool. We listen to a lot of different things. You shouldn't be afraid of listening to different stuff, or we might produce the same album all the time. I know people who say "Oh, I only listen to my own albums" of their own.

ID: That's too bad.
Björn: Yeah, I mean you get no fresh perspective where you could take the music one step further. It's always important to have some momentum and make things interesting for youself, because people can tell.