Deathstars – 24/11/2007

Andreas Bergh (this interview appeared earlier on Reflections of Darkness)
By: Sabine van Gameren

 
– Hello how are you?
I am excellent.

– First, how would you introduce yourself to people who’ve never heard of Deathstars before?
Like describing the band? I don’t know, it’s the bedroom of music… So.. That’s it. If you want to sleep in my bed, you should listen to Deathstars.

– What makes Deathstars unique?
It’s just every inch of it which makes it unique. Five idiots which are placed together. I don’t think there is anything that makes us different from any other bands. I don’t think there is any band that is any different from other bands. They are just the same. I can’t sit and describe our music because then it would be like I am selling our music which I don’t, so I can’t really say why we stand out. I don’t see music as a competition.

– Today and upcoming weeks you will be touring with Mortiis, how has this combination Deathstars/Mortiis been made?
Nightmare and Mortiis now each other for a long time. I think they spoke about, but mainly it’s our management and their management. I had nothing to do with it. We are very much alike. All Scandinavians, so there is a lot of party with Mortiis.

– Termination Bliss has been released in 2006 while synthetic generation was already released in 2003. How was the process of writing new material after the debut album of Deathstars?
It took quiet a long time, because we had some problems. All of us had personal problems. It was pretty hard to get everything together but we finally decided to get into the studio, it was a tough time.

– Is there a sort of hidden message in the Termination bliss album?
No not really, It’s just an album that is much about conflicts, to face darkness and to grow from it, to learn about yourself. It’s a lot about that, but of course all songs are different. It’s a drama.

– On synthetic generation limited edition there is a cover of Billy Idol’s White wedding. How does the idea started to cover this song which was also covered by bands like Sentenced, Murderdolls, Devlin, Dementia and many more artists.
I have never heard murderdolls in my entire life, still haven’t but I heard they covered it as well. I did not know about this. The thing is, this song has never supposed to be released at all. It is just the label that put it on the album. It was not ok with us. Stuff like that happens. It’s a good song and maybe thousands band have covered this song, just like depeche mode’s “Personal Jesus”.

– 4 video’s have been released. Which one was the most interesting to make?
We party a lot when doing the videos. They are very interesting to make. Last video was fun to, because we were very good friends with the crew. Now we are releasing a new video from virtue to vice which is finished almost. I think that video was the most fun because there is no performance in it.

– Do you like the shooting or the results more?
The shooting. But videos are just videos; they are just one aspect of the song. The song itself is much richer. I see it as just a visualized aspect of the song. I don’t think it’s much more then that.

– There seemed to be a lot of troubles… Gear which has been stolen, a rehearsal room which has been on fire. Is this the devils revenge?

Well… I don’t believe in the devil but I believe in bad luck. I usually say that bad luck is the best friend of the band because we can rely on it. We have so much bad luck when it comes to a lot of stuff. There happened so many things. It is ridiculous. It’s a good companion on our way.

– If you have to choose between a cozy clubgig with fans only, or a big festival with many people who never heard of you before, where would you rather go for playing a gig?
It’s so different to play at gigs and festivals. Hopefully our fans have seen us already so many times that we can play for another audience for one day.
 
– Does it attract you more to play for a new audience or for fans?
For the fans of course.

– Will there be a Deathstars dvd in near future?
Yes there will be a dvd in the future. We don’t know when we will release it, but we have some unique footage. We are collecting material right now. It will come.

– What effect do the new media, like internet, forums, myspace etc have on the fame of the Deathstars?
I hate internet, it’s so tasteless and it destroys the underground when it comes to black metal. I like it better how it used to be, with tape trading. Of course it’s a good thing for bands to grow and it’s useful but it was cooler when internet did not exist.

– On the internet I have read things about sharing socks with your fans. Is that true?
Ohw.. I have no idea… may be it is.. Sometimes fans are really fanatic and want personal stuff. It happened that I gave them socks, which I used onstage. They lick them.

– In Sweden you seemed to be pretty well known. Your music has been banned of television. Your fame here in the rest of the world is rising more and more as well. Where do you see Deathstars in five years?
Because of the band is growing so fast, and we worked a lot for it. We have played music for 15 years, I think the band has a strong foundation and a big heart and I think it will grow even more. In five years I see us at a comfortable level

– So do you see yourself playing stadium gigs like Metallica does?
No, I don’t really think about that at all. This band has never ever had any career thinking. We are not a very smart band when it comes to that because we don’t do thinks to really grow like that. Every song we do is about our lives here and now. We take one step at the time. I don’t think there is one of us who walks around and thinks like maybe in five years… and stuff like that. As long as we are passionated by it I don’t really care that much.

– What are upcoming plans?
We are going to do the new album now, so we turned down almost every festival that asked us, but we will do the album in New York, so we go there and hopefully it will be released next year and then we will be touring, touring and touring.

– With which bands would you really want to go on tour?
We would love to play with Danzig. That would be fantastic.

– If you needed a female featuring in one of your songs. Who would that be?
All the time when I write the music and I have a song with female vocals it is just because I feel that it really adds something to the song. Except from that I don’t really enjoy female vocals that much in music like we play. I think it sounds better when guys sing it. There are a lot of good singers of course, but I don’t think it really fits in our music so I have not considered it at all. But maybe… Debby Harry.

– Imagine, There is bandbattle… The winner is allowed to stay in music forever, but the loser will be forbidden to make music ever again. You can choose your opponent. Who will be your opponent?
*Silence* It’s hard.

– Who would you ban out of music forever?
No, no! I am thinking the opposite way. I am thinking of a band that’s more important then we, so they can continue making music, because they beat us. Like Kiss. So they can continue write really good music. I would give up everything for that.

– You are not afraid that you will be the one who wins?
Oh.. I don’t know… Then I commit suicide.