IN FLAMES Won't Start Thinking About New Studio Album Until Next Year

PureGrainAudio's Mitch Lafon conducted an interview with singer Anders Fridén of Swedish metallers IN FLAMES at this year's edition of the Heavy MTL festival, which was held August 11-12 at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked of IN FLAMES is already thinking about writing the follow-up to last year's "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" or if the band will continue touring in support of the latest CD, Anders said, "We'll probably continue touring for whole next year, and then we're gonna think about what we're gonna do. I mean, we already have some stuff in our heads, but the actual writing process is something that we do when we get off the road; we need to focus on that. The thing is that you have so much [free] time, really, when you're on the road, but we can't focus; I don't know what it is with us. There's so many distractions around you. I'd rather go out and have good food and good beer than sit by a computer and record. I do have my own stuff with me — I have a Pro Tools rig, I have a small, little keyboard where I can play… I do that. And I write, basically, for myself, just to keep sane. But, actually, IN FLAMES, musically, we need to relax a little bit and then start thinking about it."

On the topic of whether it's still important for a band like IN FLAMES to make full-length albums as opposed to putting out singles and EPs, Anders said, "For me, it is, definitely. I think about the album format. And I think today, it's actually more important than ever, when it's so easy to just release singles and small snippets of music and it's out there. I think it's important to still have that feeling. Maybe kids growing up today don't have that, but I'm too old school in my thinking — I'm used to that, used to the vinyl. I wasn't that fond of the CD format, because it was so easy to skip music — even though I have, like, one million CDs. But I'm more of the album type of guy."

IN FLAMES' tenth album, "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" (Century Media),sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart.

IN FLAMES' previous CD, "A Sense of Purpose" (Koch) opened with 20,000 units to land at No. 28. This was slightly less than the opening tally of "Come Clarity" (Ferret),which shifted just under 24,000 copies in February 2006 to enter the chart at position No. 58.