Dismember Vocalist Matti Karki
Interview and Live Shots by
Arto “Death” Lehtinen & Luxi
“Metal” Lahtinen
The Swedish Death Metal legends Dismember literally rose from
the grave into the daylight with a new ass-kicking album WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW.
They've clearly proven the band’s
blade for murderously heavy Death Metal hasn’t become rusty
after being on hold for four years. Dismember’s reputation and
achievements as one of the true Stockholm Death Metal pioneers
are already sort of legend. Even if Dismember has battled
through several setbacks, the band has always still managed to rise
up on its feet during these past few years of the band’s
existence.
The band’s vocalist and main man Matti Karki politely agreed to
have a long and interesting chat with the
Metal-Rules.com´s “Finnish Death Metal duo” along with an Imperiumi journalist to talk about the new album, old members,
and studio experiences and amongst other things that more or
less surprised even us a bit.
So let Matti continue from this on by his own words…
Last time when we played here in Finland, it happened at
Nummirock in 1999. Yeah, we played in the same day as Motörhead
and their drummer Mikkey Dee came to me all the time and said:
“Du är svenska… eller? Från Göteborg?" I stated him for a while
and spitted straight to his face: “FUCK Göteborg… we are from
Stockholm!!”.
Is it so that people both from Stockholm and from Göteborg
don’t get along with each other that well at all as I have
heard?
Blah, it is a childish thing like you say here in Finland:
“Saatanan hurrit…!” as we in Sweden say: "Finnjävel…!”. It´s
just such a funny dispute, ha-ha!!
WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW
So Matti, did you aim to return back to the classic
Dismember sound of the first or two of your previous albums with
your latest album WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW?
We had that kind of feeling, as we thought when during these
four years we had some line-up changes, we changed a record
label and all this kind of shit, and eventually we just needed
to have to take a break. We started smoothly doing new songs and
pondered in which direction we should be heading to. During
these years the whole scene went totally different and all these
mean and most extreme bands just seemed to vanish away or they
started playing totally something different. So we thought the
field was free and we could do exactly what we wanted to. We are
one of these Death Metal bands that still left out there, having
been around since the beginning. We were just like: “Let’s
return back to those times that introduced us to the Metal scene
back in the day…”. And it felt totally normal that this is
exactly what we wanna do. We started getting a little bit back
to that specific sound of Death Metal that we had on our 1st two
albums. When we did the HATE CAMPAIGN album, we actually had
quite a bad relationship with our record label Nuclear Blast at
that time, but the album wasn’t done in purpose to get rid of
the deal, but the whole thing happened the way that we had to
fight with the label guys and we just did that album. And when
it was done and it felt like “Arrghh… finally!!” it’s about the
time to move on now.
What are some of the main differences between the studios
you have used for the recordings of this new album and your
previous album, HATE CAMPAIGN? I mean by that HATE CAMPAIGN was
recorded at Das Boot while your new album was done at Sami
Studios; both kinda different studios after all…
Das Boot is a good studio. But when we were there, the studio
was under construction; it wasn’t any peaceful place as the
floor was being built when we were there… and steps and so on.
Originally we were supposed to do a demo for some of these new
songs to check out whether they were good enough because we
wanted to do a good album. Then Fred said let’s try out this
Sami Studios as he knew some people from there and the studio
costs sounded reasonable. However, it took some time before
things started running for us. Luckily we had written a
truckload of new songs ready before we entered the studio.
Firstly the drums were recorded. It sounded damn good and we
kept going on and drank a barrel of whiskey during all that time
while we were there to record WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW, heh!
Why did you reject to use Sunlight Studios for the
recordings of WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW where your, in so many
ways, classic 1st two albums have been recorded?
After the DEATH METAL album it felt like too much stuff was
coming from Sunlight. It was difficult. There were a lot of
people coming and going all the time. Sunlight Studio was some
sort of a gathering point for all the musicians living in
Stockholm more than anything else. Thomas (Skogsberg) wasn’t
even there helping us out with the production that much at all,
so it was Fred basically who eventually did the whole job for
him for the DEATH METAL album as far as the production in it is
concerned. Besides he had used to work there before, so we at
least had a vision what kind of production fro that album we
wanted back then. After that album we went to Das Boot and
recorded HATE CAMPAIGN there. Like I mentioned earlier, Das Boot
was basically a construction area all the time. Then the owners
of Das Boot made this deal with Sony and quite soon a vast
stream of new pop artists started to book studio times from
there for demo recordings and stuff. Occasionally there were
quite strange looking people, I must tell. Then we got to know
about Sami Studios, chose eventually that for the recordings of
our new album and it was luckily much more peaceful place to
record an album all in all.
Were the new tracks for WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW processed
under these four years period when you were kind of ´on hold´
-state?
Well, actually quite a lot of riffs were made by other guys
at their own homes during that time. When we got together to the
rehearsal room, all the riffs and songs were put together there.
Basically the album was made during four years, but songs were
put together during three months, including the recording as
well. There were some changes, of course. Putting songs together
was a quick process, but when we had this long break, all of us
were spending lots of time at our own homes, recording stuff on
tapes and preparing to record a new album as the time was right
for it.
Did you have any last minute changes at the studio while
you were recording this album?
Not that much after all. Of course we pondered a little bit
how many times some certain thing should to be done in order to
make it sound right and so on. Some little changes here and
there, but nothing that drastic, though. That’s why we went to do
that demo because we wanted to make a strong album. We wanted to
hear if it is what we wanted and we figured out that’s exactly
what we wanted do. So we went to record WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW.
The album was recorded in parts and something unexpected came up
and Salhgren left in the middle of the session and David played
all the guitars for him. Then Richard had to move to the States
and David was forced to record almost all the bass parts for the
album. To be honest with you, it was a quite a hassle to record
the album due to these ´last minute´ calls.
As your drummer Fred Estby handles all the production
issues, so is it a belief for you because you don’t take hire any
outsider to work with you?
I have played with Fred for a long time and it is good
because Fred knows how I work in the studio. I mean, he has
always been there in the studio environment although he hasn’t
done anything that specific. He just watched, listened and was
there. He knows exactly how I work in the studio. I can’t stand
the stress, I hate it. I take it as easy as possible as I’m able
to think in a more relaxed way if something is good or not. And
he knows precisely that I am that type of guy who is used to
spend lots of time in a studio, being locked in there as long as
I have to in order to get things done properly and just after
that go home and rest a little bit before the next studio
session.
Are topics about war in general still close to Dismember’s
lyrical world?
I read a lot about the World War II and obviously some
inspirations come from there, so I could say yes we actually are
quite a bit.
As it´s widely know fact already, you have roots in
Finland. Just of our curiosity, have you ever been thinking of
writing about some of those past events in Finland’s war history
the way like f.ex. Impaled Nazarene have previously done on
their albums - and who actually did a very patriotic favour to
our veterans almost recently by making a bunch of new Impaled
Nazarene T-shirts and selling them to people for 15 euros - and
all this money out of them goes to our veterans…
That’s a very appreciated thing from them to do indeed. Those
veterans kept and fought the freedom and independence of
Finland. Of course it is important for me even though I have
never lived in Finland, but if the veterans hadn’t done their
works back in the 40’s, I wouldn’t have been in Dismember –
that´s for sure. I am proud and grateful to them for what they
did in the 40’s.
NEW HOME AT KARMAGEDDON MEDIA
You are on Karmageddon Media nowadays. So what went wrong
with Nuclear Blast after all?
The whole thing between us and Nuclear Blast went totally
upside-down when they became so big label by signing all these
big bands like Manowar, Danzig, HammerFall and so on. When we
were working on the DEATH METAL album in ´97, they called us to
the studio and asked to listen to the stuff via phone. Can you
believe it? Well, then we agreed to play our new stuff for them
a little bit and they were like: “Oh no guys… you cannot do this
kind of stuff, this doesn’t sell, you have to change your
style…”, etc.
Well, what kind of style did they want you to incorporate
your sound then?
Well, toward this particular style that used to sell big
amounts of records at that time… more Power Metal orientated
shit!!
S**T… are you kidding with us?! That would have meant you
should have changed the name of the band at the same time, too,
because Dismember´s music is supposed to be about Death Metal
musically – and not about any other style of Metal, definitely
least of all about Power Metal! What were they thinking…?!
Exactly!! We were like: “What the hell…?!!”. After that we
had a small, but a very serious conversation with them. Thinking
of everything afterwards that was between the band and them, we
basically had to fight all the time with them as they hardly
agreed on anything with us what we would have wanted to do in
order get some things done. It was somehow always damn hard and
difficult with them for some reason. And things with them
unfortunately got even worse and worse all the time. The best
part came when the DEATH METAL album was under the recording
process when there didn’t exist any title for that album back
then. So we were just sitting and talking in the studio about
what they had told us before as far as a change of our musical
direction was concerned. Then, like all of a sudden, our drummer
came up with this brilliant idea to name the album DEATH METAL
because they in Nuclear Blast used to believe Death Metal is
dead and it doesn’t sell anymore. Then we just named the album
simply DEATH METAL as that’s what Dismember has always been, is
and will always be.
And they were pleased with the result…?
Of course not!! Of course we didn’t do what they wanted us to
do.
After your deal with Nuclear Blast was over, Karmageddon
Media came to the picture and signed Dismember eventually. Was
their offer the best one that was available back then or how did
you end up signing a new recording contract with them in the
first place?
HATE CAMPAIGN, our last album to Nuclear Blast, closed our
deal with them, so we had to start looking for a new deal. We
just spread the word all around that we are free now if there is
still interest. We gave them a fair chance to explain why we
should have stayed with them in the first place, but obviously
there wasn’t any good enough reason to be given to us as our new
album was released through Karmageddon Media a while ago, ha!
So now when you have signed to Karmageddon Media, it is
obvious they don’t come to tell you what to do and I suppose you
have free hands to do whatever you want to with you music,
isn’t that so?
Yes, you are absolutely right. That indeed was one of the
biggest reasons why we signed to them. The chief of the label
flew to Stockholm in order to meet us. He wanted Dismember so
much that he jumped into the plane and came to Stockholm and
brought all the needed papers. He was like he wants to do this
and this and we had our own thoughts concerning the contract
like we want to have full rights for our songs and t-shirts. And
he agreed. So we eventually signed with them and I think it was
the right decision to do because he was really enthusiastic
about us to have Dismember in the Karmageddon´s roster.
And things concerning promotion and stuff, have been taken
care of a little bit better this time, too, as I can assume…?
Goddamn… I have never ever done so many interviews before
until for this new Dismember album WHERE IRONCROSSES GROW!! I
spent one week from 10AM till midnight on the phone, doing
interviews and more interviews and even more interviews. I have
never done so many interviews in my life before. The Karmageddon
Media guys have done a really tremendous job for us and we
honestly need to thank for them for their incredible support
toward Dismember.
So, Nuclear Blast didn’t beg you to come back to them at
any point then?
No. However, I have met some staff of Nuclear Blast in some
festivals. I think they are quite boasters and so on… But they
gotta be a bit envious to us, too, I believe.
RETURN OF OLD SCHOOL DEATH METAL
It seems to me like some of those old school Swedish Death
Metal bands that started out in the beginning of the 90´s, seem
to disappear from the Metal scene for an unknown period of time
like Grave or Unleashed or Entombed or Dismember just did a
while ago - and then they come back with a huge blast…?
Everything goes around and around, you know. The old music
comes back, but being packaged in a little bit new format, just
like all this Punk–orientated stuff like Green Day, Offspring
and bands like them, for example. Then all these Helloween's and
others were goddamn huge at one point. Now it has all come back
and that type of music is popular again amongst people
especially here in European territory. Now it seems like Black
Metal is going away little by little, nearly almost vanished
away and Death Metal is strongly making its new coming which is
a good thing thinking of bands like us, f.ex.
I think it´s really the same thing with Thrash Metal… just
look at such bands as Exodus, The Haunted, Testament, Death
Angel, Destruction, etc. etc. …
Heh… everyone is getting back! At least we can be proud in
Dismember and say that we have been around all the time.
You
never made any compromise for your music or you´ll be
lost... Well then, let´s move on. How do you feel when Chaosbreed
(who are considered some sort of a ´retro´ Death Metal
band) play in the same day at Tuska festival with you guys - and
who even very openly swear in the name of old Swedish Death Godz
such as Dismember, Carnage, Entombed and the likes. Apparently
it is a big thing for some people to sound like some other bands
from the past, ´glorified times...´, he!
Ha-ha..Yes it is. I haven’t heard these new Death Metal
´tribute bands´ yet because I personally don’t listen to that
type of music that much as I have done this thing for so long
time. Of course I still have an interest toward the music, but I
seldom go to find new bands. I listen to my old Maiden, Autopsy
and Death albums from the late 80’s, and that is enough for me.
But nowadays I find very rarely something new which would be
something like: ”Wow...!!” You know what I´m saying.
At least some Brazilian Death Metal bands seem to have a
good thing going on these days… just like Krisiun, for example?
Krisiun!! Goddamn…!! We were on tour with Krisiun and goddamn
those guys... I can’t understand them how they can sound so fast
onstage? I had my jaw wide open when I was just staring at them
and wondering at the same time what the hell they are doing and
especially the drummer who is a damn talented and brutal
drummer! Goddamn… Great guys indeed!!
Did Murder Squad project have anything to do as some sort
of an influence on the writing process of the new Dismember
album? Did you get any inspired by it at all?
Well, it was at that time when we had a lot of problems with
the record label and members got changed. We had a feeling that
everything was so difficult. Fights with the record label, new
members and we even lost our own rehearsal room back then. It
was so difficult with Dismember for some time. Then we had this
break. I and Richard started doing this Murder Squad which
started as a hangover side project thing when you have nothing
to do. We just went to a rehearsal room and smoked a little bit
weed and played some Autopsy covers. The whole thing started
from that and started growing more and more and then we finally
started doing our own songs all of a sudden. It was a good
inspiration to play with other musicians, but only with the
Dismember guys. It opened the whole new world for me. For
example Uffe from Entombed is a damn hard-boiled guitarist, he
is so talented and so is Peter also. They are old friends and we
had a good time. It was goddamn fun to do those Murder Squad
albums. It just came to us like: “This is damn fun to do...”
kind of thing. We did the first album and agreed that we should
also make another one. We called Christ Reifert from Autopsy and
asked him: “Do you wanna play on our next album? We will pay
your flight over here and back if that´s ok with you…?”. He
agreed right away and came to Stockholm for a week. While being
in drunk, we recorded the second Murder Squad album.
Both of the albums have been done kind of
´tongue-in-cheek´ -vein....correct?
Oh my… We really gave raise to a terrible anarchy in the
studio, I can tell. Of course it is good sometimes to do
something else, and not only Dismember. To experience something
else and new, and have a chance to play with other musicians.
You can only learn new things and grow into new ways to express
yourself in my opinion.
As a matter of fact it is kinda hard to imagine all these
splatter & gore stuff for Dismember these days…
We started with that gore & splatter stuff and things like
that, basically being influenced by all that shit and ripping
some bits out from here and there from some horror movies and
stuff, but that era has pretty much completely been left behind
Dismember nowadays.
After your 1st two albums, LIKE AN EVERFLOWING STREAM and
INDECENT & OBSCENE, you started to take a bit different approach
lyrically…
Yeah, we dropped almost all that gore & splatter stuff out of
our lyrics after those two albums. After the second Dismember
album, INDECENT & OBSCENE, the whole gore/splatter thing felt
kinda outdated, worn-out and may I even say, overused thing;
every Death Metal band seemed to be heavily into it back then.
So we just started looking for some new ways to express
ourselves lyrically. I have nothing against that gore/splatter
shit, though. I love everything what a band like f.ex. Autopsy
did on their albums. They did the same style from one album to
another and never changed their style. So hats off for Chris for
staying loyal to his stuff ´til the very day Autopsy called its
quits...
GOING AROUND TO FESTIVALS
The gig that you just played here at Tuska festival one
hour ago or so, was great from its every possible angle. Also
the audience seemed to be surprisingly supportive toward
Dismember as well, so I guess you pretty much enjoyed being on
the stage and playing in the front of all those crazy and wildly
acting people at Tuska festival this year, didn´t you?
Man, it was just great to play for those crazy people in the
crowd. It was awesome to see the crown going crazy and support
us the way they did. I just loved it!!
You have played a bunch of gigs here and there this summer
as well?
Yeah, we have flown all around, criss-crossing from one
country to another and I gotta admit that the response from
every crowd has been damn great everywhere we have played so
far. So I cannot complain a bit…
I remember you playing one helluva gig at Wacken festival
last year? Do you have any cool and worth mentioning memories to
share with us from that particular gig?
Oh goddammit...!! That gig was just so brilliant from us!! I
have done this thing for about 15 years by now and just never
ever felt any nervous before when I walked on the stage, but
then I saw those thousands and thousands people waiting there
for us, shouting our name and then it happened for the very
first time mean. I mean, I got this strange feeling to my
stomach, you know, sort of ´stage fright´ -feeling. There was so
many people out there, watching us playing there for them. That
gig was one of our strongest and most special gigs we have just
ever played with Dismember which I´ll surely remember for the
rest of my life.
You also have a DVD coming out. Will it include some
footage from your gig at Wacken festival, too?
I think so, even if I honestly gotta say now that I am not
that sure yet. But most probably, yeah, it will…
Have you got any clue when yet it will be released then?
Well, there have already been some advertisements in the
latest issues of magazines like Swedenrock and Close-Up, but I
haven´t got that specific info yet when it will be put out by
Escapi (“well, it´s already OUT and titled LIVE BLASPHEMY” –
Luxi wants to advertise politely… ;).
I noticed that you played a plenty of tracks from your
debut album LIKE AN EVERFLOWING STREAM at Wacken festival last
year. It seems like it is considered as sort of PLEASURE TO KILL
or REIGN IN BLOOD of Dismember. Do you subscribe this statement,
too?
Oh yeah, several people seem to think that way, thinking of
it as our best album. Of course all these songs that you have
been involved in at a personal level, feel all somehow special
and good for yourself, but then again I somehow oddly find
myself always returning back to that first album of ours. I can
still remember all that intensity and passion when we were
working with LIKE AN EVERFLOWING STREAM. That feeling still
comes up from time to time when we play f.ex. “Skin Her Alive”
and it makes me feel damn good. Can you believe we haven’t done
any single gig without playing that song in Dismember´s entire
history; we have just never missed to play it! Whenever that
song is played, that same great feeling always fills up my
veins… hell yeah!!
Does it bug you at least a bit that your audience is more
eager to hear the older Dismember stuff whereas such albums from
you as HATE CAMPAIGN and DEATH METAL have both to stay under a
huge shadow of your older stuff?
Well, maybe a little bit, yeah… We have a hell of lot songs
after all, but for some reason it always goes back to the first
album, I admit it. But we have decided that these gigs that we
do now, are meant to promote our new album WHERE IRONCROSSES
GROW, and the new songs are of course a part of our live set
list. If you don´t play new songs off the album at all, people
may easily forget it. Therefore we also need to play them
because people should keep in their minds that we couldn´t do
this if we only played our old stuff. We also have to be able to
create new stuff and try to get it sold in order to keep this
band going on, if you know what I´m saying here. We can’t live
by doing old songs all over and over and over again. But
whenever we do these set lists, our old songs are of course as
important to be there as our new songs, too. Both the old – and
new stuff have an equal place on our live set lists. But yeah, I
really cannot deny it that it´s always nice to play old
Dismember stuff for our crowd.
How often do you change your set lists, dropping some
songs off from them and adding new songs to it?
It is basically the same all the time. Especially now we have
Johan from Necrophobic helping us out, so we can’t give 40 songs
to him and say: “You have to learn these songs now…”. We have
pretty much a standard set list which is changed when we get
bored to play some songs on it.
How many times have you played at Hultsfred festival?
Just one gig in ´93. For some reason Hultsfred doesn’t like
us. I don´t know why…
I remember having seen a short live clip on the Swedish TV
from your Hultsfred gig back in the day...
Yeah, it was from that particular gig that we played there in
´93. After that we haven’t got any request from them to play
there.
Does Dismember usually get offers to play in festivals in
Sweden?
Yeah, these smaller festivals seem to be interested in us all
the time. When speaking of a harder side of music, people
usually first get familiar with a band like Entombed. They seem
to get gigs from everywhere wherever they want to.
That is kinda weird because you and Entombed basically
popped up from the Swedish underground Death Metal scene at the
same time…
We have forever fought against this “Entombed’s little
brother” -thing and yeah, like you said, we started at the same
time with them, but people know them better because they got the
album out first. We came from the same schools and we are good
friends. Back then everyone was listening to the same type of
music. Of course we also had a few things in common with
Entombed musically when they started, but they have changed
their style over the years whereas we have stayed pretty much
the same sounding band since we recorded our 1st album.
But I assume you have still maintained to keep a good
relationship with them for all these years?
Of course!! I haven’t met them for a while because I have
been busy with my own life.
ABOUT LINE-UP CHANGES…
Let’s talk about some line-up of Dismember next by a few
words. So what’s up with your permanent bass player Richard?
Richard left us in 1997 because he was so pissed off because
of all this Nuclear Blast hassle. We had one tour that got
fucked up and then he left. After a while we found out he was in Satyricon, he moved to Norway and joined Satyricon. Fortunately
we got Sharlee D’Angelo for HATE CAMPAIGN as he wanted to come
to help us as a friend. He did the album and toured with us.
Then Sharlee left and it was quite a silent period for some
time.
Eventually Richard got back from Norway. I don’t know what
went wrong between him and Satyricon because as he just left
them for some reason. He was sitting in a bar one night and
asked to loan 100 Swedish kronor and flew back to Sweden. At
that time Dismember had to do the US tour, so we gave a call to
him and asked if he was willing to do that tour with us and he
agreed. The whole tour was a real positive experience and
finally Richard came back to Dismember as a permanent member.
Now we have Johan replacing him because Richard got married
with one American chick. Then this chick got pregnant - you
know, a ´normal and happy marriage life´ and so on. This girl
was supposed to come to give birth to Sweden, but some passport
things went wrong, so eventually Richard had to move to the
States instead. He has been there for about one year by now and
we don’t know what to do with him. But we have to keep playing
and therefore we hired Johan to fill up Richard´s boots in the
Dismember line-up.
Also, this guy named Robert Sennebäck left after the DEATH
METAL album?
Yeah, he did. He had kids and thought it would be better to
focus on the family life. He didn’t wanna do the touring and
wanted to keep the whole band thing in a little bit lower
profile. We needed a guitarist who is in with us 100%. But we
split up with him in good terms anyway.
And then it was Sahlgren´s turn to step aside from
Dismember after HATE CAMPAIGN?
Yes, he was on HATE CAMPAIGN, but then there was a little bit
longer break between albums and he became more familiar with
this ´normal and regular life´ -thing and realized that it is
good to a normal job and have a regular incomes, so he just ran
out of interest toward the band. And now we have got Martin
Persson to line-up to play 2nd guitar.
What will you do with Johan? Are you going to try and make
him a permanent bass player for Dismember as it is obvious the
man definitely enjoys being in Dismember and he has a real
strong stage charisma, too?
Yes, he has done a lot of gigs with us, but first we are
waiting for Richard what´s his answer is gone be as far as his
position as Dismember´s bass player is concerned and whether if
he is coming back from the States or not. As you probably knew
already, Johan also plays in both Amon Amarth and of course in
Necrophobic as well.
By the way, is Necrophobic on some sort of hold at the
moment?
No, Necrophobic just does gigs quite seldom.
AMOTT – CARNAGE – QUORTHON
Do you have any contacts to Johan Liiva, formerly known as
Johan Axelsson (that ex-Carnage, ex-Furbowl, ex-Arch Enemy, ex-Nonexist
–fame)?
No... I haven’t heard from him for many, many years…
How did you exactly feel when Amott removed him from the
Carnage -rank and you stepped in to do the first Carnage album?
Well, I don’t know. He is a little bit difficult guy what I
have heard. And he is quite an eccentric person. It was
difficult to work with him. That’s why they removed him. That’s
an explanation what I got anyway.
Was it any surprising to you personally that Amott started
working with Johan Liiva in Arch Enemy?
I didn’t even know he was involved with that band
ever….he-he!!
Well, for your enlightening info kit, he growled his lungs
out on the two first Arch Enemy albums…
I have never listened to Arch Enemy. I have met him, but I
didn’t know at all that he had growled in Arch Enemy, too. All I
knew when this chick showed up on the stage in some festival and
I was like: “Is this Arch Enemy…?”. And she was: “Yeah, it is.
Didn’t you know there is a chick singing in the band nowadays?”
My immediate response to her was: “No, I did not…”. Anyways,
like I mentioned previously I don’t listen to the music that
much nowadays. I have my job, kids and family to take care of. I
kind of stay in my own small world, ha-ha!!
Do you long for the good old times when tapes were traded,
people were corresponding to each others through hand-written
letters and so on?
Of course… it is the goddamn nostalgia, y´know. But thinking
of it a bit closer now, actually no, I don’t. I enjoy what we
have here and now.
As you surely know, the mighty Quorthon died recently. Can you imagine what his tragic loss will mean to the
Swedish Metal scene?
Uh, you tell me about it!! I support this AIK ice hockey team
from Stockholm and Quorthon was the AIK supporter. He was always
in hockey matches, sitting there alone and wearing army pants
most often when I saw him. I yelled to his direction:
“Quorthon…! Quorthon…!” and he just kept on watching the game
and ignored me totally. He was always alone there. He was a
loner. But as for your actual question, I don’t know what will
happen, maybe millions of tribute albums will be put out. Isn’t
that already quite obvious anyway?
WELCOME TO FINLAND
… Matti Karki started recalling Dismember´s 1st ever trip to
Finland in the early 90’s:
We were boozing goddamn a lot on the ferry and there was one
young guy sitting in the bar with some older guy with him who
had a glass eye. They asked if we played in a band and we were
like of course. This other dude with a glass eye, he was a
jailhouse dude and had all these tattoos and so on, and he
didn’t say basically anything to us. A little bit later he asked
from us with his bad English: “Do you want to go to drink Vodka
in our cabin?”. We were like: “Hell yeah, free booze, of
course...!”. So we ended up going to their cabin. After a short
while this glass-eyed dude started acting quite unpleasantly in
the cabin as some of us – curiously, but obviously mistakenly,
happened to ask about his glass eye and he got fuckin´ pissed
off like all of a sudden and started yelling to us: “What the
fuck are you asking such a thing from me…?!”, or something like
that anyway. Then luckily he calmed down a bit and started
staring at our bassist and said surprisingly: “I want to fuck
you”. The bassist just laughed at him and said: “Yeah, fuck you,
too… Ha-ha-hah!!”. He responded immediately: “No, I really want
to fuck you..!!”. Can you believe, he actually really wanted to
fuck our bassist and took the knife out from his pocket and
started to swing it around in front of our frightened faces!
Then we simply run out from that cabin and we ran out from there
fuckin´ quickly indeed!! We were like: “Thanks for the free
booze anyway and so long for good…”. That young guy who was with
him, I just had no clue what bitch he was. Quite funnily enough,
all what that glass-eyed guy would have wanted from us, were our
asses…he-he!!
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www.dismember.se