DEATHSTARS Members Talk About Touring With KORN, Upcoming Album

Soundshock.net recently conducted an interview with DEATHSTARS members Whiplasher Bernadotte (vocals) and Skinny Disco (bass). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Soundshock.net: You're in the middle of a [European] tour with KORN, how's that going for you?

Whiplasher: Yeah it's going really well so far, they're a really sexy bunch! We've been partying with them and stuff, so everything's going really well. When we go out it's normally the same as in Sweden; we hang out, do a load of blood shots, we have our regular places which we go to and we always end up at the same hangouts. Garlic and Shots is this Swedish bar in Soho that we always go to, I was a regular there when I lived in London, so they know me well.

Skinny: I was actually surprised so far that the people at the shows liked us. I thought it was going to be too much of a difference.

Whiplasher: It was quite nice actually as it was KORN that invited us. I think it was Jonathan Davis that invited us on personally.

Soundshock.net: Both DEATHSTARS and KORN have had members pull out of this tour [DEATHSTARS drummer Bone W. Machine and KORN guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer have both left for "personal reasons"]. How difficult is it to play shows without founding members of the band?

Whiplasher: Yeah, Bone didn't leave the band, he's only left this tour. He has a kid to look after and stuff, you know…

Skinny: Of course it's really strange to have a member leave, especially one who's been around all the time. We had to get a new drummer, and it's basically like having a new girlfriend or new boyfriend. Adrian [Erlandsson, legendary AT THE GATES drummer] is starting today, it's his first show tonight! He was an old friend of ours through his bands, so we gave him a phone call… he couldn't do all the dates but he could fill in starting tonight. We're big AT THE GATES fans, we're going to catch them on their reunion tour in the summer.

Soundshock.net: So how is the new album going?

Skinny: Fantastic! Yeah most of it's done, so really, really good.

Whiplasher: We started it in New York and then have done some of it in Sweden, then took a break for the tour, but it's all sounding really good. I think the album is a bit more outgoing. It's difficult to describe the sound, but I think a bit more outgoing is the best way to describe it. There's more detail. I think that because we come from Sweden we get a lot of influences from that scene, but there's a lot we like from L.A. as well. Our stuff is a mixture of the dark side with more modern rock. I think it's a mixture of those two elements. We're thinking about adding a few more songs, as we're in the process of writing some and it would be silly not to finish the work. We want to make sure that everything is 100% finished, there's no point in rushing it. We need to get it out of course, but we don't want any pressure. It's stupid to rush it.

Read the entire interview at Soundshock.net.