Below is a record of my conversation with Amon Amarth drummer Fredrik Andersson before a recent headlining show here in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I remember it was damn-cold that night, and except for my eyeglasses fogging over, I was glad to get in to the warm confines of their tour bus in order to talk.  Fredrick’s insights into Swedish history, the songwriting process, and his emphasis on the importance of band unity, as well as his candid admission that nobody gets along all the time, gave me an even deeper respect for this band of Swedes than I already had going in.  I’d say I liked Amon Amarth when I entered, but I was a fan when I left.  Seeing their show didn’t hurt either, by the way.  Don’t miss it if they come to your town!

 

Let me start things off by asking about the title of the new album and its accompanying mythology.  Who writes the lyrics, and how would you describe the inspiration for them?

 

Mostly Johan [Hegg], the singer.  He writes about 99% of the lyrics.  His interest is in Viking mythology, Norse myths, and stuff like that.  He’s been interested in it since he was like 10 or 12 years old.  But the title of the new album, With Oden On Our Side, comes just from our own experiences.  Basically, the albums are very personal for us.  They describe pretty much what’s going on in our lives at the present moment.

 

You mean in a metaphorical sense?

 

Yeah, in a metaphorical sense.  They’re all about Vikings, but it’s rewritten and metaphorical.  There’s stuff that’s just made up, but most of it comes from our own experiences.

 

So does that mean Oden is on your side?

 

Apparently.  When we started writing the new songs, we felt they were going the way we wanted them to, and we felt really strong for them.  It’s like “wow, things are going our way at the moment,” and when we were done recording the album, we felt like it’s the best we’ve ever done, and so we surely had someone with us or something like that.

 

Oden is the chief god in that part of the world, right?

 

Yeah, in Norse mythology.

 

Would it be right to suggest that all of your songs revolve around this common lyrical theme?

 

No, I wouldn’t say that.  There are battle lyrics, there are lyrics about people dying, and then there are straight mythology lyrics like “Across the Rainbow Bridge,” but I would say there are different themes in all the songs.

 

I was talking to someone recently about Satanism and the church burnings in your part of the world, and he suggested to me that there might be some deeper story behind the relationship of paganism and Christianity.  I was wondering if you could speak to that.  I’ve never been to Sweden or Norway and don’t know much about them.

 

Well, Sweden didn’t have the church burnings.  That happened mainly in Norway.  When that happened, they were kids.  They were teenagers most of them.  So it was, I guess, kid pranks.  Most of them regret what they did now.  There was a revolt against society, though.  I mean, in Scandinavia, Sweden, and Norway, religion isn’t really that popular.  We are a Christian country, but if you look at how many actively go to church, it’s less than 10% of the population.  And nowadays, you’re not even born Christian any more.  When we were born, you’re automatically born a Christian, but I’m not baptized and I actually stepped out of the Church, but nowadays you’re not automatically born into the Church in Sweden.

 

But is there a history of oppression?

 

It was actually a Swedish king who introduced Christianity into Sweden, although it wasn’t actually a country back then, and we feel a bit that our history has been taken away from us, like it’s been stolen from us because now even in school you don’t get to learn much about Norse mythology.  You get to learn about Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, even about Muslims, and every religion that you want, but very little of our own history, at least that of our ancestors.  And I think that’s a shame.  It’s like they’re taking our culture from us a bit.  That’s a bit what we feel, that we have to restore it.

 

I read that you used an outside producer (Jens Bogren) for the very first time on this new CD.  What exactly does a producer do for you in the studio?

 

We work a lot on the songs ourselves, so basically what he did is he created the sound on the album and he’d cut maybe 5% in the songs.  He’d cut out parts that he thought weren’t necessary, or maybe add this chorus one more time.  Stuff like that.  Made them more listenable, I guess.  But his main job in the studio was to really push us and make us do 120%, to do our absolute best.  Especially with Johan when they worked on the vocal parts, they would go through it line-for-line and look in to the lyrics, and if there was some word that they didn’t really feel fit in, they would search for another way to sing it.

 

What would you say you changed for this album?  Do you see yourselves progressing in certain ways musically?

 

Actually, what we did was to go back to when we were kids.  Back then, we wrote all the songs together in a rehearsal room.  We had daytime jobs, and the band was still a hobby, but we were doing it on a full-time basis.  As we got more successful, we had to step away from that more and more.  For Fate of Norns for example, most of the songs were written in the guitar players’s homes, we didn’t rehearse it that much, and we weren’t even in the studio at the same times when we recorded the stuff.  We felt that it lacked a bit of the feeling that we create together when we make music.  What we said with the new album is that we’re going to be working on this as a group together, from day-one basically.  I would say that’s the main difference.

 

One of the things I noticed immediately with the sound on the new album was that the guitar solos were back.  Was that something that the new producer got you to do?

 

No, that’s actually a fan request.  They were missed on the previous album, so they made an effort to make more guitar solos.  But we’re not that kind of band.  We’re not soloists.  We’re a team.  We’re five people who write good music together.  We don’t want anyone to stand out and be the rockstar in the band.  So solos have always been a necessity, but we always say that if it doesn’t make the song better, we don’t need to have a solo there.

 

Does that mean the solos are likely to disappear again on the next album?

 

It’s nothing we plan like that.  Every once in a while I think it’s good to have a guitar solo, but what we did on the new album was we did the dual-solo things, which makes it less solo-ish and more like a band, but it’s still very melodic.

 

Good point.  Now over the years, Amon Amarth has kept its lineup pretty much intact.  With bands having to spend so much time on the road, the pressure to succeed, and all these internal struggles, bands change lineups all the time.  I was wondering, what’s your secret?

 

Well, we went through the five-year bump.  We had our struggles and our differences, but we basically decided that the music was too good to throw it away.  It’s like a relationship.  We’ve been through hardships.  We tried to split up the band a couple of times, and there’s been moments when members don’t talk to each other for a long, long time.  But over the last two years, we’re stronger than ever.  I don’t really know what our “secret” is.  I guess it’s just a matter of we like what we create together, and we want to keep that.  And we all are involved in the songwriting process.  We all take a share in the downsides and the upsides.

 

Is that what explains the fire that you bring to the songs?  I’ve noticed that the energy is one thing that is consistent throughout all Amon Amarth albums.

 

It’s a give-and-take.  If we get energy from fans, we will also accumulate and give energy.  That’s what happened with the last album.  We felt really strong for the songs, so we felt like we could give even more.

 

You were supposed to be rolling through here with Decapitated.  How did you find out about Vitek’s passing?

 

I read about it on blabbermouth, and even though we never got an official statement from them, we instantly knew that they weren’t going to make it.

 

Do you expect them to stay together as a band?

 

We haven’t been in contact, but I’m actually guessing they’re going to continue.  Polish bands are like machines.  Look at Vader and Behemoth.  They go through anything.  It’s just like a tank.  Every hardship and they will make it.  I hope so, at least for Decapitated.

 

A few months ago, you were on the Sounds of the Underground tour here in the US, and I remember thinking it was a really strange fit for you.  Weren’t you the only European band in the lineup?

 

When we signed on, it was something that Metal Blade wanted us to do.  They said it would be really good for us, but we didn’t know any other bands that would be on it when we signed on.  But we thought it could be good for us to reach out to new fans.  We were also promised to get a 45-minute set, but obviously that changed.  But we had an awesome time, actually.  We were in doubt when we finally saw the lineup, and we thought we have to do it but we’re not going to enjoy it, but at the end of the day we had a really good time.  I think as a tour in America, it was one of the best things we’ve done.

 

Who among your touring colleagues were you most impressed with?

 

I was very impressed with Gwar’s show.  I haven’t seen them in over 15 years.  Last time they played in Sweden was like ‘88 or ‘87.  Apart from that, I’ve always liked Chimaira.  I think they’re a good band.  And of course Goatwhore is a great band.

 

What would you say about the current state of metal?  Lots of people think it’s stale, but I think it’s never been as healthy as it is now.

 

I agree with you, actually.  Of course, there’s the commercial aspect, but a lot of the younger bands don’t realize that you have to have commercial music to make the scene big.  I mean, that’s what made 80’s hair rock big.  It got commercial, and from that metal got big and all the subcultures got big.

 

Do you have a top-ten list of albums for 2007?

 

No, I don’t.  I can’t even remember what albums were released . . . I guess I was really pleasantly surprised by the new Carnal Forge album.  They have a new singer, and I thought it was their best album up to this date.  Apart from that, I was a little bit disappointed in the new Behemoth album.  It’s still good, but it’s not as good as I had hoped.

 

Well, I will let you get to your pre-show preparations.  Thanks for the interview, Fredrik!

 

Thanks.