DARK TRANQUILLITY Frontman Wants To Abolish Religion

Deadtide.com recently conducted an interview with DARK TRANQUILLITY frontman Mikael Stanne. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Deadtide.com: Another album, another tour... What's different this time?

Mikael Stanne: Well, the album, I think, is pretty damn different. The tour is, I think, better than ever, the sound is good. We're more confident and we're extremely proud of this new album, but it's kinda weird though because we're touring before the album we made is actually out. That's kind of strange, but it seems like everybody's heard it already anyways.

Deadtide.com: How did Tue Madsen do in mixing the album?

Mikael Stanne: Really, because we recorded everything in Martin's studio, everything sounded like crap all the time. We didn't mix it at all, it was flat, it was boring, it was horrible. Usually when we do the recording in Studio Fredman, Fredrik will be there, and mix it during the actual recording, but this time we didn't really have that. But once we finished the whole recording we were sitting there, going "The songs are alright, but the sound is horrible." Then Tue came, took our hard drive, and started mixing, and a couple of weeks later, we got them and we were blown away, really. I was in Scotland in the time, and I got messages like "We fucking sound cool again! It's the best thing ever, the vocals are perfect, the drums are excellent, the guitars are crushing, and all that," and I was like "Fuck!" I had to stay there for a couple more days, it was so frustrating, I wanted to hear it. But I was blown away, he did an excellent job. We were kinda nervous about giving it away to someone, because usually we were sitting right behind Fredrik in the mixing room like "Oh, more of that, less of that." But this one's much better. He did an excellent job, never sounded this good.

Deadtide.com: What elements of your personal philosophy surface through your music?

Mikael Stanne: Our way of kinda putting ourselves down. We always tell each other, "We're nothing, we're crap, we have no reason to be here." It's very self-deprecating, I guess. We never have high hopes for things, if it happens it happens, and we'd rather be pleasantly surprised than disappointed. So that's always in their music and in my lyrics as well. And then there's the feeling where sometimes you don't want to be anything to anyone. You don't want to be affected by anything, and you don't want to affect anything.
Deadtide.com: What drives you to keep making music and touring?

Mikael Stanne: We haven't done that perfect song yet, that perfect album. That's something that you always try to do. And we love doing it. We love hanging out in the rehearsal room and writing songs, we love playing them. And we're constantly pushing each other, like "come on, you can do better, play faster, play heavier," stuff like that, and we're constantly trying to improve. We could do this for many years.

Deadtide.com: What's your opinion of the state of things, direction in which they are heading?

Mikael Stanne: It's pretty crazy. I really re-evaluated life when my daughter was born, and there's so much scary stuff out there, and now I have to protect her from that. So, I dunno. People are nuts, for all the wrong reasons. Religion, of course, is one of them, it's the most stupid thing ever, it's the reason that we're all fighting all the time. But as far as politics go, I don't really keep up. I try to be off the grid when we're home, and I don't really need anything. I'm pretty self-sufficient, I have enough money to do whatever I want at home, and my family can do the same, and it's pretty sweet. We're trying to stay away from all of the crazy stuff, like we want to move out to the countryside when she gets older, make sure she has a safe environment. But I don't know, it's probably all going to go to hell! That's just how it is, we are all very destructive. The environment is going to keep sucking even more than it does now, and we're going to keep killing ourselves until there's nothing left

Deadtide.com: What do you have to say to the critics that say that "Fiction", "Damage Done", and "Character" are all basically the same album?

Mikael Stanne: (chuckles) Well they are a bit similar, abut I think that "Fiction" is way different. I think that "Damage Done" is more straightforward, more to the point. "Character" is more complex, more progressive in a way, and "Fiction" is kind of a return to the stuff that we did years and years ago, or at least it has elements of that. (laughs) People can think whatever they want, I don't know.

Deadtide.com: If there were one change in the world that you could make, what would it be?

Mikael Stanne: Ban religion, or just get rid of it. Just remove it, I don't want it to be banned, because that will mean that people will still believe, but I want it to be removed from everyone's memory, so that nobody will ever care about that.

Deadtide.com: What's the difference, in your mind, between religion and philosophy?

Mikael Stanne: Well, philosophy is your own. It's controlled by yourself. But religion is controlled by another, it's another person's idea, that we, for some reason, believe. That kind of group mentality is dangerous as hell. Philosophy is your own, it's something that you come up with, something that you believe in. That helps you. It's a security system, and you need to believe in something.

Read the entire interview at Deadtide.com.