IN FLAMES Guitarist Says All The Touring Has Made The Band Stronger

Jenna Williams (a.k.a. "The Scream Queen") of TheScreamQueen.com conducted an interview with guitarist Bjrn Gelotte of Swedish metallers IN FLAMES at the Englewood, Colorado stop on this summer's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival on July 17. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

TheScreamQueen.com: So, you've been touring since 1993?

Bjrn Gelotte: Yeah, '93-'94... And it's you know, you learn a lot from touring. So, that goes into the songwriting as well, because you understand what's possible to do live, and how you can get really good, and what you can do better. So, of course, it will change a little bit. Also the fact that the other guitar player [Jesper Strmblad], the one I was bouncing my ideas off, and he was bouncing his ideas off of me, he quit. So, yeah, Jesper quit. That obviously altered the songwriting [approach] a little bit. But I've been writing since I joined the band, in '95, something like that. So, it's not new for me. But I've been working really closely with the other guys, Anders [Fridn, vocals] especially; our singer, so we could work around the vocals a lot more, and I think that made the whole album more solid, and not just riff based and you put the vocals on top. This way we could actually do the vocals where it actually made sense and get the energy in the right spots and everything.

TheScreamQueen.com: I saw you guys in 2008 at the Fillmore here [Denver] and you guys had so much energy, the crowd was literally drained by the end of the show! So that brings me to this question... When you're writing an album, or recording, how do you really try to incorporate that energy that you get from doing a live show into the album, or do you?

Bjrn Gelotte: I think the important thing is to find the right dynamics in the song because you can't keep all that energy up. I mean, in the music; it's not like we're running around doing backflips and stuff like that. But it's within the music and that comes through good arrangements, I think, or really well-thought-through arrangements and dynamics of the song, and, of course, to add some hooks in there, melodies that people remember, that helps too.

TheScreamQueen.com: Like "The Quiet Place"...

Bjrn Gelotte: Yeah, exactly! And trying to invite the audience up on stage, basically... I mean, in a mental sense, you know? I think that's important, and it gives us the most pleasure if we manage to do that in a proper way because that gives so much back.

TheScreamQueen.com: Yeah. As you said, you try to invite the audience on stage, how do you do that exactly, or how does that happen?

Bjrn Gelotte: We love what we do, we really do. And that's why there's always huge smiles on our faces when we play. Music for us is dead serious. But you should be able to have the (inaudible) in the eye or whatever. You should be able laugh around it, have a good time. I think that shows up and that's one way of inviting people. And also not trying to be behind, like I am right now, sunglasses or a huge image or something. We've never had that. And we kind of focus more on the music than looks, you know?

TheScreamQueen.com: As you said earlier again, when you're writing, you focus on the dynamics of the music. How do you write your music so that has the dynamics within it? Or what is it that really brings the music to life?

Bjrn Gelotte: I think, in the end, it's the arrangements and the way you try to work around (pauses) I really like when it goes fairly straight to the point in a song. I don't like to wait for eight minutes before the first chorus, you know? And that's one way of inviting people fairly quickly [on stage]; to start out with a theme of the song, and then it comes really quickly into the first chorus. It doesn't need to be a full chorus... But that's one way of just glimpsing at the full potential of the song kind of early. I don't know, I've never thought about it... I just write songs the way I would like to hear them myself and get to the good, fun stuff, you know, so you don't have to wait.

TheScreamQueen.com: A lot of artists have this feeling, when they're on stage, that they're on "fire" as I've had it put to me before, or they feel something... What exactly is it that you feel?

Bjrn Gelotte: I think... What we talked about earlier is the more the give-and-take, the more the people respond directly to what you do, and they like it... That is a feeling of being on fire, because, you know, when everything clicks, the sound is great in your ears, the audience is happy, the whole band plays great, then you know, that's fantastic! But those days, they're not rare, but the days that are rougher, they always, towards the end of the show, always feel that way, always feels awesome. We just might take a couple more songs before we really get into it, but most of the time; this is a really short set that we play [Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival], 35 minutes, and that is for us, having made ten albums, it's kind of tough...

TheScreamQueen.com: What is something that you've been through that's made you stronger as a person and as an artist?

Bjrn Gelotte: I think basically, all of the touring, all of the hardship that is on tour... I mean, it's not tough work to be on stage, it just is fantastic. But the rest, for instance now, we do 35 minutes, that leaves, you know 23 hours and 25 minutes to do something else... And this is a nice relief, you know, doing some interviews, and we have, as I said, a meet-and-greet, and signings, and stuff. That's only a couple of hours, so we spend a lot of time together, we guys in the band. We really get to know each other. And it hopefully can make you stronger. We lost one guy earlier, as I said, he couldn't handle the touring, but that only made us stronger. We have a great time on tour. We know what mistakes not to make now...

TheScreamQueen.com: What is so special to you about heavy metal?

Bjrn Gelotte: I think the dedication that the people put into the music; it's more than just background music or something. It's a lifestyle. If you really like this, you choose to be a metalhead, and you are a metalhead, and you will stay a metalhead, you know? I don't know many people that are [like], "Oh, I've quit metal." I don't think I've ever heard that. But then you were never into it, but that's not by their own choice then... It doesn't matter, it's after all a fairly free world. But so I've never heard somebody go, "Oh, I've quit metal. I'm all into synth, pop music now." That's one of the things I really like with metal, the metal community, it's very supportive of the band's work, and you don't need to be super-famous. We still get respect and love from people and bands of all sizes can tour together. That's not the same thing with pop music, or anything else.

Read the entire interview at TheScreamQueen.com.