EVERGREY Keyboardist: 'We Will Try To Evolve All The Time'

EVERGREY keyboardist Rikard Zander recently answered several fan questions via the band's MySpace page. A couple of excerpts follow:

Q: How did you find your way to the band — like what did you do in order to be where you are at now?

Rikard: I have been playing keyboards for a long time in a number of bands. In 1999 I moved to Gothenburg and a couple of years later a friend from the band MAYADOME called me. He told me that EVERGREY was looking for a keyboard player and asked me if he could give them my number. A few months later I did my first gig and the rest is what you call history.

Q: How did you decide you want to make and play music for a living, and how did that decision affect and what was it like to your parents and to your friends?

Rikard: I haven't really decided that. Of course that is what I want but it more or less just happened. It's not easy though. Sometimes the rent is a bit late if you know what I mean. My friends and parents have always supported me in my decisions so I guess I'm quite lucky in that matter.

Q: The material on "Monday Morning Apocalypse" shows EVERGREY taking a more structured approach to songwriting, with less emphasis on the epic soundscapes found on "The Inner Circle". Do you see this more as a conscious effort to change direction or as a natural progression?

Rikard: I think earlier EVERGREY songs were more of riffs stapling on each other. On "Monday Morning Apocalypse" I think we were more building songs around one riff. Probably that is more traditional way of songwriting and that is why it does not sound as epic. It's natural to try and find different ways in the creating process. That is the reason you do your first album, you want to do something new.

Q: Many fans discredited "Monday Morning Apocalypse" for supposedly being stripped down from the usual EVERGREY sound. Will the new album differentiate from this?

Rikard: Like I said we will try to evolve all the time just to keep it fresh for ourselves. I'm not into doing something you have already done again. In my opinion the basic is still there, although the arrangements and the sound is little bit different.

Q: As the color of the band, how is your role in the new album shaping up? Are you going for a more traditional piano/string sound or are you experimenting with more synth sounds?

Rikard: We are just in the starting process but I have recently bought a new synth so I will see how that will work in the EVERGREY sound.

Q: How did you and EVERGREY take the departure of Michael [bass], and how much do you think that will affect the final product of future albums?

Rikard: When I saw EVERGREY the first time Michael was the one I remembered most. He has an outstanding charisma. Of course it was sad that he wanted to leave the band but we are still good friends. I don't think think the final product will be affected that much because of Michael's absence. He was never really involved in the songwriting process.

Read the entire interview at this location.