HYPOCRISY/PAIN Mainman: 'I Want To Make A New Album Better Than The Previous One'

Imhotep webzine recently conducted an interview with HYPOCRISY/PAIN mainman Peter Tägtgren. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On how HYPOCRISY's new lineup has improved his songwriting:

"When it comes to the structures of the songs, we like to work as a team and all can tell what they think about the song in question. When I make a song, I ask for the others' opinion and sometimes they might have really important tips, like 'We should only play this riff twice,' or something. But I still mostly write the music, because that is basically what I do all the time. But this new lineup was the reason why the new album surfaced so quickly. I was simply so inspired by the abilities of the new members. Like the song 'Warpath' on the new album, I made it simply because I was so influenced by Horgh's ability and skills and his talent to use fast blast beats and double-bass drums. I wanted this song to kinda show everyone that 'Hey! We really have a new drummer!' This album was really refreshing to do. HYPOCRISY has more finesse to it than for a long time. And I am not really a good guitarist, so I had to practice some of the stuff a lot. I had to learn a lot of new things and the tempos were faster than ever. I was whipping Horgh to play faster than he did in IMMORTAL, and I think I succeeded. Super-fast and super-long double bass drum stuff."

On whether he feels any kind of pressure when writing music:

"The only pressure I feel is coming from me. I just want to make a new album better than the previous one. This doesn't depend about what other people say, but more about what I feel the result was. I really try to achieve what feels best for me. I don't like to do anything that is not stimulating. I have always been capable of getting myself out of doing things I don't like and being able to do what I like. You can't take everything so seriously and think that 'You should have the biggest band in the world etc.' Everyone's only gonna kick your ass then. I am fortunate to have been able to do music for ten years and not having to get a normal job. Even if stops tomorrow, I could still be proud about being able to what I really like for 10 years and pay my bills etc. That might sometimes create some small pressure, but nothing that would affect my songwriting."

On the differences between PAIN and HYPOCRISY:

"I never would have imagined PAIN became so big. Of course everyone wants to get higher sales figures and bigger crowds, but I don’t really know about that... With PAIN it is about experimenting and with HYPOCRISY about sheer brutality. I will continue PAIN for as long as I feel it is necessary for me. I also write a lot of pop stuff, blues stuff, rock stuff… I only put the kind of ideas to PAIN and HYPOCRISY that fit. I could do almost any song for the other band, because basically the only difference is the production. I put more electronics in PAIN and that's about it. I also loop around with PAIN, or actually I don't do it that much anymore. I always hear right away which band's melody or riff it is when I start with a new one. And then I compose the rest of the songs accordingly. I used to write all the PAIN songs on keyboards, but now I've started using the guitar too."

Read the rest of the interview at Imhotep.fi.