Too Old To Die Young: Hammerfall's Fredrik Larsson on Life, Family, and Hammer of Dawn
What do you think your kid thinks is cooler? That his dad is in Hammerfall or that his dad knows Sabaton? Probably that I know Sabaton Hammerfall are a Swedish power metal band founded in 1993. With eleven albums in their career, several of them considered to be among the best heavy metal albums of all time, they remain an extremely influential band, not only for power metal, but for metal as a whole. Just last week they released their 12th studio album, "Hammer of Dawn", and to talk about that and a few others things, I am joined today by Fredrik Larsson, the bassist of Hammerfall. Fredrik, first of all, congratulations on the album, and thank you so much for speaking with me today. Oh, thank you for having me. It feels so good to be finally out with this new album.
I can imagine! It's probably good to also feel out of the of the enormous chaos that we have experienced the last couple of years. I mean, it's been pretty rough. And just as we start to get out of our first once in a lifetime crisis, we're just starting to enter into another. So, before anything else... How are you doing, Fredrik? I'm doing really good right now.
I mean, we've been through the pandemic for two years now. We came home two years ago from from a really successful European tour. But finally, it feels like things are moving and we are starting to get the dates together to get out on tour again and to have a new album out. It's just great to be back.
Speaking of being back, have you been able to play at all during the last couple of years? I checked online a little bit... I thought that you had a show last year No, nothing. We haven't done anything.
I mean, we were really lucky. We came home two years ago, and on that last tour we recorded a live album, and a Blu ray as well. So we already had that in the plans.
So when other bands were streaming small club shows without an audience, we could at least release a full Hammerfall show with a big audience and pyro and everything. It was really lucky that we were able to do that. And also, we had planned our next album to be released early 2022.
That was a good thing. In your new album, you have a song called "Too Old to Die Young," I thought it is a fantastic title, I also felt a bit identified with this. At some point in your life you go like, "Well, I didn't die young anymore." We were planning to get some shirts with a crossed out "27" on them. We're too old. We passed that! We can be members of the 27 Club anymore.
You are absolutely right. One of the things mentioned by musicians who have been touring for a long time, is how aging can sometimes have an influence on touring. Not in the sense that their bodies cannot take it, although sometimes that happens too, but rather that touring is pretty tiring, right? You go on a bus and you're not exactly living a life of luxury for a long time.
I mean, unless you're maybe like, Motley Crue in the 80s or something. So, in general, it can be a pretty rough time. So I speak with some musicians who tell me they don't really miss touring, while others say that they live for touring. So I'm curious about what your situation is.
I definitely live for touring. I don't miss everything about touring, of course. there's a lot of waiting and a lot of boring stuff. But I think the touring part makes us younger.
It feels like we come alive when we are out on the road and get to go on stage every night. I think these last two years we have all aged about five years, because we need something that makes us young. When I look at my equally old friends, many of them are really, really old right now. I think that the touring life makes you really young. And and what do you like about touring? Of course, being on stage, that's the whole thing. Meeting people, seeing new cities and the energy that the audience gives you back when you're on stage.
That's just amazing. I think that was something that that felt very strange for me Last year I went to a show by the Swedish black metal band Marduk, And and it was weird to be in a show, particularly of that type of music, where it is all sitting down, since there isn't any of the energy that that you're so used to perceiving in a heavy metal show. So it is so great to see that, all going well this year, we're going to have maybe Wacken and Hellfest again, as well as your amazing tour, which we'll discuss in a minute, with Helloween.
So it really looks like this year if things go well, we might be able to get back to a little bit of normalcy. And speaking of normalcy and of going back to life as usual, you just released your new album, the 12th in your career, Hammer of Dawn. I was really interested reading about it, because I saw an interview that Oscar did a few days ago where he mentioned that parts of the album were actually finished even before "Dominion" was released, your 2019 album. So can you tell me a little bit about the making of the album? in the sense that it seems to have lasted from beginning to publication, a fairly long time.
I think that before this, Oscar would set aside a period of time to write music. Sometimes it can be kind of stressful just to have a period where you have to focus and you have to to get the material right. But a couple of years ago he changed all that. So he actually brought his recording tools on the road or on vacation or wherever, so that when when he was in a good mood, he could write music. Actually, when we came off stage, pumped with adrenaline, covered in sweat, and just having a beer, He'd actually take his kit and his computer and write some riffs, just because he was in a good mood.
He felt the energy. He could do something with it. So that's been going on for for a couple of tours now. And I think it's good for him to capture that.
I mean, he had a couple of songs that were already written when "Dominion" was released, so we we actually got the material really fast this time so we could listen to it form our own opinions about it, and do our own stuff to it. So that was much easier this time. What about you? Because I know that this isn't the only band you play with.
You also played with Cans, and you also play with this... I forgot the name now, but it's an offshoot from Evergrey - Oh, Death Destruction, - Correct. How do you work as a songwriter? Are you also working all the time trying to come up with something, maybe trying a nice bassline? Or do you just have this period of songwriting When the songs are ready I usually get them as files and then I sit down and and just listen to them. I try not to focus on playing them because I want to listen and get the feel of them, and then my mind starts working around them.
As soon as I have the songs in my head I can I can walk around and come up with melodies in my own head. Then I capture that on tape and, when I'm ready, we take it all to the studio or to a rehearsal room. And we we talk back and forth about what's fitting and what's not.
So it's in the studio that we set what's going to be on the record Just for Hammer of Dawn, what was your role? I mean, I know you're the bassist of the band, obviously, but I mean your role in the making of the album I ask because the promo I got from Napalm Records didn't include any songwriting credits. I know that Oscar tends to write the majority of the music Yeah, Oscar is the driving part in this. He writes almost everything, and Pontus contributes with a song or a couple of riffs, and they do that together. And Joakim brings the melodies and the lyrics, And then it's about adding the drums and the bass to that. So we're not writing anything. One of the things that you've probably noticed as a bassist and you've been a bassist for many years, is that bass tends to be the butt of every joke when you talk about musicians and stuff like that.
Sure, I can make the world's greatest guitarist. The price? Your soul. - My soul!? No way! What can I get for a dollar?! What do you think people misunderstand about bass? I don't think most people understand how bass is the bridge between drums and the rhythm section. It can be really a rhythm on its own with the bass, or it can be part of the melodies, like a guitar.
So it's really a bridge between that. I think it's really important to have a good foundation for the guitars with drums and bass. If you don't have that, it's not going to sound good anyway.
You might have amazing guitar players, but if they don't have a solid ground to stand on, it won't be a good song anyway. I don't think I really understood the role of bass until I started to listen to Iron Maiden, since they're all such bass-driven songs, since Steve Harris really does everything there. But there it's very dominant, whereas in other bands, I think Hammerfall is one of them, the bass isn't as dominant in the mix, and it tends to be more subdued. What were the bassists that influenced you in your playing, and how do you determine exactly how prominent you want to be in the music, precisely because bass sometimes plays that "hidden" role in the music.
I'm not a virtuoso. I don't play fast or in that kind of style. So my heroes are people like Duff McKagan. He plays with attitude. Every note counts He has this attitude in his playing.
It's not what he does. It's how he does it. Peter Baltes of Accept was also a role model when I was younger. He makes the songs groove and then, from time to time, he plays some cool fast licks in between. That's what I like, Bassists shouldn't be on the front of the stage. It's more of a groove thing for me.
What attracted you to the bass? When I was about 12 years old, there was a band that asked me if I could join them. But the guitars were taken, and the drums were taken... the bass was left, so I just took it. But then after that, I understood that not many were playing the bass, so I could actually join a better band and a better band. And I grew up musically much faster than the guitar players because there was always a lack of bass players.
So it was a good opportunity for me to be playing with much more skilled musicians. You're not the first bassist who tells me, "Well, I was going to play guitar, but that position was already taken... and well, I don't know. I bought a bass and here I am!" But it's not I was a bad guitar player and so I chose the bass instead.
In my world, it's not easier to play bass than the guitar. There are less strings, but I think it's harder to play on those strings. Yeah, by all means.
I think that it is just that when you don't know anything else, and you see that a guitar has six strings and a bass has four, with bigger separation between the strings. Then you think it must be easier. But not really. Not if you want to play well. The title of your new album, "Hammer of Dawn", is inspired by a video game.
The game Gears of War. I saw that Oscar mentioned this. I haven't played that game, but it made me curious because I know that a number of bands are sometimes on tour, playing games trying to do something on tour during their breaks. Are you much of a video game player? I was, but I guess not anymore.
Since I got kids at home, and my video games playing just went down. I haven't played a game for a long, long time. I love playing games, but I don't have the time. I guess I could take the time, but you know... Priorities, of course, I absolutely get it.
Since you mentioned your family; and this is something that I try to ask to every musician that that mentions their family. How did that affect your touring? Because it is a big challenge for musicians that suddenly, once they're parents, they still have to go for a few months on the road, and hope for the best. Has this been very difficult for you, as you started to develop your own family? Yeah, of course. I mean, it's hard to leave your family even if it's just for 5 or 6 weeks. It's hard. It's a big part of your life, and especially your kid's life when they're young. It's hard for the whole family.
But this is my job. I love my job. It's something that I have to do anyway, so I don't complain at all. But we try to not be away for too long, at least have a small break in between to just come home and show ourselves so they don't forget us. and how we look.
Six or seven weeks tends to be the maximum, and then we have at least a small break and then go back. I've spoken with, for example, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, Marco Ietala of Nightwish, precisely about this topic because one of the big challenges, for somebody in your position, is going from playing the main stage at Wacken or Hellfest, in front 100,000 people A situation in which the fans really worship you ...and then you get home and you have to change diapers. There's a very big change from idol to just a normal dad How has that been for you? I think it's a really, really good thing. They really show you that you are not a rock star. you get home and you're down to earth with both feet at once. In their eyes you're not a rock star at all.
So that's a good thing and you have to be both. You can't live high up in the air. You have to be grounded and and focus on the important things.
Obviously you don't need to tell me anything personal about them, but are they old enough to listen to your music and understand it or are they very young? They are seven and nine... almost ten. So what do they think about your music? The old one is a metal head. And when we got home from the US tourSabaton, I had to listen to Sabaton every day, every waking hour because he loved them. So that was the funny thing.
Were you trying to tell them... "Hey, Hammerfall are pretty good too... He listens to Hammerfall too but...
I mean, it's his father's work, so it's much more fun to listen to something else, I guess. And I don't mind. I prefer not to listen to Hammerfall when I'm home.
What do you think your your kid thinks is cooler that his dad is in Hammerfall or that his dad knows Sabaton? Probably that I know Sabaton. You joined Hammerfall back in 1994, you left in 97, then came back ten years later in 2007. Tell me a little bit about your start with Hammerfall in the 90's I played with Oskar in a death metal band before, in 93 or something like that. We released an album and we got to know each other that way. And when he started Hammerfall, there were a couple of other bassists before me, and he called me and asked if I wanted to join for a special occasion.
It was like a rock contest. And so we got in the rehearsal and rehearsed a lot and and did that. And Joacim joined the band, so it was a big thing happening.
We did the show and a friend of mine taped it with a video recorder, and sent it to... We sent it to a small label and got a deal with that video And then nuclear blast bought that recording from that label. So it became pretty big, pretty fast. But I didn't know what to expect because we were nothing.
I mean, it was a really small band. We were pretty much laughed at, at that time because it was all about grunge or heavy music like Pantera. Aggressive stuff. Nobody listened to heavy metal at that time. Of course, there were bands playing heavy metal, but it was kind of a joke for them.
But we stood our ground, we dressed up in leather and studs and did our thing because we thought it was. It was great. I mean, this is the music that we grew up with. So it was kind of cool to be able to stand our ground and do that show We were breathing fires on stage and- I mean, we didn't have a budget for that, but it was a small thing. Bit when everything started rolling, I decided I decided that I wanted to explore the extreme music, and we played heavy metal.
I had played death metal with Oskar, and I wanted to move in that direction, a bit more of thrash metal as well. I played with another band, so I decided to leave actually to to have someone who wanted to do this 100%. So that's the beginning. You were hoping to pursue death metal and thrash metal; how did that go? I mean, I know eventually you came back to Hammerfall. I played in a lot of local small bands.
We didn't release any records of stuff. But I mean, that was me at that time. So I don't think I would have chosen just to play heavy metal at that time anyway. So it was the right thing for me to do. And then after ten years, Magnus left the band and I actually didn't have a clue. But all of a sudden Joacim called me and asked me if I wanted to come into the rehearsal room again.
I didn't expect that at all. But it worked out really well. It felt like coming back to something I really knew. The guys were the same, pretty much. They had a new drummer who has been with them for 9 or 8 years. I don't know.
But it was great to be back with the guys again, and then it felt much more right for me to do that. I notice because you mentioned that the leather thing, I think Oscar is the only one who continues to live up to that standard, right? Because every time that we are live in a show, you're wearing a shirt... I'm looking, I'm looking right now at a photo that I took at one of your shows.
You're wearing a shirt and pants, but Oscar goes full on Rob Halford when he's on stage. That's enviable. I would not wear that.
So enviable self-confidence. Speaking of classic heavy metal in this album, you work in the song Venerate Me with King Diamond, really a gigantic symbol of heavy metal, one of the most recognizable voices in the genre. And just a trailblazer artist.
How did that collaboration end up happening? I think that Oscar wrote the song and Joacim delivered the vocals for it, it felt like it had a different kind of vibe. And Oscar was thinking that It would be so great to have like someone like King Diamond. I mean, King Diamon is a childhood hero for for all of us. I can't say how many times I listened to those albums when I was younger.
We spoke about it, and Pontus he is a great front of house guy as well. He does the sound for King Diamond. So we talked about it and he just said, "Well, I'll give him a call and see what he says." He doesn't do that often. I don't even know if he's done it before.
But he said "OK, I'll give it a try and make a small appearance" It's not like a "Featuring King Diamond" It's just a small part for us and we love it. I mean, to have a King Diamond on the record for us, it's a really big thing. We're huge fans and you can instantly recognize his voice on the record. So that's a cool thing. It must be really amazing to to admire somebody like that and to end up working with them. I mean, it's really cool. At the same time, whenever you know you speak with musicians, all of them have had similar experiences, if not working with them to suddenly say, "I couldn't believe that I was on the same stage--- that an hour later, Metallica would be playing on" or something like that.
Yeah. What was the first time you think that that this happened to you? When you were really like, "Holy shit, I shouldn't be among these people!" It has happened quite a few times, actually. We did a festival. I think it was called Sonisphere, in Stockholm, and there were a lot of big artists on that show. So we played on the stage during the day and I looked back and saw. I think it was Tommy Lee, and.
And Nikki Sixx standing at the side of the stage because they were going to play later that night on that stage. They probably were just checking it out, but that was a cool thing to be on stage, look back, and see them onstage. Later this year, speaking of other bands, you're going to go on tour, as I mentioned before, with Helloween. This really promises to be great because we're talking about two bands that in one way or another, revolutionize power metal, although I'm not sure how comfortable you are with that particular description, And you both influenced countless of other bands. So how did this idea come about? I think it's an interesting tour package, especially because you're not both from the same label or anything.
So how how did this collaboration happen? Because it's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be so awesome to share stage with with Helloween. I mean, they were childhood heroes as well. I was checking out the records, you know, flipping through albums and I saw the cover of Helloween, and I immediately knew that I had to buy this album.
I'm not sure how the talk went, but on the last tour we actually met a couple of guys from Helloween. They came to our show just to look at it, and we had a talk, and I think it grew from that. I mean, we are both in the same kind of genre.
Music wise, We call ourselves heavy metal, but I personally don't mind if you call it power metal. I don't care about it, but I think that's the beginning. At least they liked our show and we thought we could do something great together. Do you think you're going to perform together at any point like a Halloween used to do it For example, when toured with Gamma Ray? They'd have like 5 minutes playing together or something. But then again, of course, Gamma Ray and Helloween have a gigantic connection because of Kai Hansen, of course.
I haven't heard anything about it. We haven't started rehearsing yet, so we'll have to wait and see, actually. How does that look like to rehearse for a tour like this? What does it actually involve? Well, there are a lot of things that have to be settled. Of course, musically, we need to know. We rehearse the whole setlist.
It's pretty much a set setlist, so everybody knows what what song is coming when. But we have a couple of songs that we can take in or out and try out, probably in the first couple of shows, just to see how it works. But otherwise, it's a set setlist and then we have to focus on what to do during the show. I mean, pyros and stuff, and implement that in a good way. And to see how the stage works, what stage sets we're going to bring and positions with microphones and stuff. So there are a lot of things that need to be planned for.
How much of the show is already planned in regards to your behavior on stage? Because se there are times when you do some synchronized movements on stage, etc. So is that something that is kind of spontaneous or is there a certain amount of rehearsal for that? No, we don't set anything in the beginning, but some parts come naturally. So if we do it for one show and the next show comes, we think, "Oh, we did that thing there." So it might be good. So we keep on doing it.
So we don't sit, sit down and write down everything we will do, It's spontaneous from the beginning, but sometimes a thing works so we keep doing it. But nothing is written down. Fredrik, we're out of time, regrettab ly. I really enjoyed having this conversation with you, but I know you have more, so I am not going to to keep you.
Thank you so much for your time. I am really looking forward to this tour. I've been enjoying the album, so I'm going to keep listening to it and I sincerely hope that your kid can one day meet Sabaton, since I know that that would be nice for him to see a a good band. Yes, I'll make sure he does. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Take care of yourself.
2022-03-11 20:40
