MIKAEL STANNE Talks 'Profound' New DARK TRANQUILLITY Album 'Endtime Signals': 'It's A Big Step Forward'

By David E. Gehlke

Frontman Mikael Stanne became the last remaining original member of the long-running and influential Gothenburg, Sweden, melodic death metal outfit DARK TRANQUILLITY after drummer Anders Jivarp left the band in 2021. Stanne has probably experienced more lineup turnover than he would like, but in a rare twist, a pair of ex-members remain heavily involved in day-to-day DARK TRANQUILLITY business, while recent additions like guitarist Johan Reinholdz have taken on the songwriting load. All of this combined led to the creation of the band's new studio album, "Endtime Signals".

It's fair to reason that while a fair portion of the core Gothenburg bands have made it to the other side, DARK TRANQUILLITY has been the most consistent and productive. Instead of running away from their melo-death foundation, the Swedes have instead gradually built upon it, whether through more progressive arrangements, electronic elements and most notably, Stanne's clean vocals. Stanne is now involved in two other legitimate, high-profile bands, but he was more than happy to talk about his first love with BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

Blabbermouth: Between DARK TRANQUILLITY, THE HALO EFFECT and now CEMETARY SKYLINE, when do you find the time to sleep?

Mikael: [Laughs] "I do have time, but I don't know…it's increasingly more like 'office work' these days, like managing everything and making sure we get where we need to go with travel arrangements and that kind of stuff. Most of the hard work is done. We've recorded many albums that are coming soon-ish. We're not going to tour that much with all the bands. There are some shows here and there with CEMETARY SKYLINE; a lot of shows with DT, of course, and also some with THE HALO EFFECT. Maybe I said yes to a few too many things during the pandemic that I'm now sometimes regretting, but at the same time, I'm not complaining. I'm whining about all the work I had to do. But I do enjoy it immensely, and we're having a blast with all of the different bands. I'm happy."

Blabbermouth: All three are different from one another. Is that why you do them?

Mikael: "It's fun. It's not more of the same. It's something new and I'm working with old friends that I've known forever but now I'm doing it in a work capacity. It's exciting. I've learned a lot. That's what inspired me to do it in the first place when there was nothing on the schedule. All of a sudden, I said, 'Let's work with some friends and see what we can come up with.' It's been a great learning experience."

Blabbermouth: Doing a side project or multiple side projects was rarely a consideration in the '90s or 2000s. Now, they're almost commonplace.

Mikael: "Yeah, I used to think that. Many late nights I was hanging with friends and we'd say, 'Let's do something together one of these days.' It never happened. [Laughs] That has changed in 2019 and 2020. All of a sudden, it was like, 'Yeah, we can actually do it.' I used to say, 'I don't really need a side project because everything is available to us in DARK TRANQUILLIY.' All the mellow stuff, electronic stuff, the super-heavy stuff, super-fast, super-proggy — anything that I really like in death metal and our kind of music, we can do. I never felt the need. It was more like, 'What can we come up with if we put our minds together with old friends?' It was more like that than going, 'I need to expand my horizons and finally get to say all the things I wanted to say.' It's not like that."

Blabbermouth: You are now the last original DARK TRANQUILLITY member after Anders left a few years ago. Granted, Martin [Brändström, keyboards] has been with you since 1999, but is it weird to look around and see all new faces?

Mikael: "It's hard when someone leaves the band. When Chris Amott [guitar] said, 'I want to do my own thing. I can't be a part of this anymore.' I was like, 'Come on! You are the best thing ever.' He's such an amazing guitar player. But when Anders said, 'I need to do something else. I need to not focus on this and do my thing and just be independent.' I was like, 'Yeah. That makes sense.' I understood it and was fine with it. I'm happy that the other guys are happier when they're not working their asses off like we do. But I'm super happy with the guys who are in the band now. They are super-passionate, incredible professionals who can play anything better than we could back in the day. It's a cool thing. Actually, Niklas [Sundin], with whom I started the band, is still with us every single day. He does all the artwork and videos. We bounce ideas back and forth musically and lyrically in terms of titles. Almost every day, we're doing that. Martin [Henriksson], who was there from the beginning, has arranged every show. I have to talk to him every day. [Laughs] We're still the same kind of guys doing it. It's fun. Martin and Niklas will come to watch us at rehearsal: 'Holy shit! We could have never done this back in the day.' That makes me feel good that we are an even better band now."

Blabbermouth: With the member changes in mind, who handled the songwriting for "Endtime Signals"? Was it a Martin/Johan collaboration?

Mikael: "Yeah, they more or less did everything. Johan came in during 'Moment'. He had to adapt to our way of thinking and working. That took a while, but then he got into it. When we started this album, we thought, 'We have to work differently, but that's going to be a challenge but also freeing.' We felt like we didn't have to compromise as much. The three of us have a unified vision of what the band should be. It was easy to get going; it was easy to get into what we wanted. Getting there is as difficult as ever. What struck me the most was when we were talking and working on the songs, I felt like we were on the same page. We needed to get it right and make the most out of every single idea that we had. We wanted to make sure it was as emotional as we wanted it to be. As un-compromising as we wanted it to be and have a cohesive feel where all the songs are different but serve a purpose in the entirety of the album. It was incredibly challenging but super-rewarding at the same time to do it exactly like we wanted to."

Blabbermouth: Are you suggesting there were times when the process wasn't as smooth?

Mikael: "Anytime you do something that involves creativity, you have moments like that. There were times, even weeks and months when it was that way. There will be times when we'd come up with an idea or come up with a part where we go, 'Yeah! That works.' For every three days of struggling, you have one day where everything clicks and it feels awesome. That happens all the time. It's never easy, but I know it's going to be worth it in the end because you still think you're the worst fucking singer, lyricist — everything, when you're there. You have to trust the process. You have to trust each other and our way of working. In the end, when the album was mixed, and we were in the studio listening to it, we went, 'All right, cool. We made it.' It worked. All the hard work paid off. We were incredibly proud."

Blabbermouth: Where are you as a clean singer? You've made some strides since you started doing clean vocals 25 years ago, but I'd be curious to get your thoughts.

Mikael: "I don't really feel like a clean vocalist. I like to scream more than anything. We always wanted to say something more than just what is required when you're screaming. The guys would come up with these beautiful, haunting melodies and there's no way you could scream over them. It makes no sense. It's about finding the right tone and expression that suits the music. I've always felt that. I've never been comfortable with it. It's been, 'Yeah, okay. It's needed here. Let's do it.' If a song or a part requires it, it's like, 'Fine. Okay. It's going to be a challenge.' I've never felt comfortable with it. But we wanted the album to have this emotional core that required something else. Usually, the music is written and I'd come up with a vocal melody. Martin and I worked with his piano and keyboard on the arrangements. He knew what each song needed. It was easier this time around. It fitted the songs better. It feels cohesive in that way. It's not something that gets you out of the death metal mode and gets you back in. It fits with the overall melodic picture of the album. The song 'False Reflection' is a song that Niklas wrote because he's constantly writing. He's usually, 'Yeah, I have all this material. If you want to use it, you can.' We took some of the stuff that we really liked from his material and made a song from it. I didn't show it to him at first. After a few demos, we sent it to him: 'Is this what you had in mind?' He said, 'Not really, but you nailed it.' It's like one of those things where you take an idea and transform it into something else."

Blabbermouth: We should revisit what you said earlier about how much your old band members are still involved. That rarely happens. Usually, when someone leaves, they don't stay in contact with their old bandmates as much.

Mikael: "For me, it's the most obvious thing. Everybody developed skills along the way after we started the band. Martin's thing became being the guy who takes care of everything. He does all the bookings and contracts and all the 'office work.' [Laughs] He's so great at it. Niklas did all the artwork. After a while, both of them got tired of touring and it took up too much time. They felt, 'Maybe this is not how I want to spend my time.' At the same time, they didn't want to leave what we had built. It was a natural thing to continue like that."

Blabbermouth: You've never been straightforward with your lyrics. What are you going for with the "Endtime Signals" album title?

Mikael: "Coming out of the pandemic when we couldn't do anything, I remember starting our touring, like, finally getting back to see people. We were really excited, but then, at the same time, there were wars starting in countries we had just visited. You saw how much this influenced everybody and how much changed in the world. We felt like, 'What the hell are we doing? How are we out here enjoying ourselves and entertaining people? What does it really matter?' I think we had an existential crisis. Going into this album, we realized that it has to matter. It has to be meaningful for us, something that we can be proud of, but I also feel like it was a big step forward for us, especially with new songwriters and a new band. It had to be more profound. What we talked about all the time was how we felt there was this 'dystopian' world you sometimes see in science fiction, or you read about it. It's not that far off. I used to be a very optimistic guy, or at least I saw some sense of, 'Yeah, it's going to be fine in the end.' I guess for a while and maybe still, I feel it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. We got into this dystopian idea of visually what the album should look like and what was going through our minds as we were writing. Niklas started with the cover art and then we landed on the 'Endtime Signals' idea. We thought it worked perfectly. We're screaming about the end of something or the end of something we have taken for granted. These are our cries of despair if you want to put it that way."

Blabbermouth: We touched upon clean vocals earlier. "Projector", the album on which those kinds of vocals feature predominantly, is now 25 years old. How does the album resonate with you now?

Mikael: "I remember when it came out, people were like, 'Are they going to go away from their core sound?' As that always happens when a band does something drastic: 'Is this going to be the new direction?' We didn't feel that way. We wanted to get away from the most obvious kind of paths. We got tired ourselves and the Gothenburg sound. It made sense to do something else. It was a matter of seeing if we could pull it off. I listen to some of those songs today and go, 'Yeah, these are great songs.' I love it. It opened some doors, but it also had people worried. I really dig it. It opened up us to the idea of 'Maybe this is something we can do.' Maybe we're not completely comfortable yet. It meant we could experiment a bit more on later albums and use more melancholy that we didn't have on the first three."

Blabbermouth: In circa 1999, Gothenburg melodic death metal was at its peak. Rather than playing it safe, you made an album like "Projector" that enabled you to try tons of new things.

Mikael: "Yeah, I think so. Going in the opposite direction has been our thing. [Laughs] The opposite of what is expected, but also sometimes, we ask, 'What should we do?' If it feels too obvious, we shouldn't do it. If this is what everybody wants, then it wouldn't feel right, be fun or challenging, then we do something else."

Photo credit: Alessandro di Martino