MESHUGGAH Guitarist Talks About Forthcoming Album In New Interview

Andrea Chirulescu of Studio Rock conducted an interview with guitarist Mrten Hagstrm of Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH at the Norway Rock festival, which was held July 7-10, 2011 in Kvinesdal, Norway. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Studio Rock: Let's start by asking what's happening in the life of MESHUGGAH.

Mrten Hagstrm: Right now we are doing these summer festivals, about 12 or something, and then we'll probably try to finish up [the new MESHUGGAH] album. The next album is coming along and we're looking to finish it in the fall or winter and Nuclear Blast plans to release it in March, as that's the schedule.

Studio Rock: But what stage are you at right now? When I asked at [Norway's] Inferno [festival], there was one song ready.

Mrten Hagstrm: We could have been far by now if we really wanted to, but the rehearsing is taking a lot away from the writing process. What happens now is that we're still writing. We put down like one song with drum tracks and everything. We're doing it a bit differently now. Normally, we finish [writing] all the songs, get them together and record them. Now we are writing songs and whatever song gets finished first, we record that one. So it could be spread out a little bit. That's why we only have one song recorded so far. When we get back from Italy, on Monday, we're gonna record a second song and then hopefully a week after we're gonna do a third song. We've got like Well, it's too early to tell 'cause we might just change things. Right now we got a lot of material. So it's a matter of getting it together, arranging it. It is a good plan, hopefully.

Studio Rock: Any surprises that I can ask about on the new album? Would you consider going into new instruments or so?

Mrten Hagstrm: Instrument-wise, we are not gonna go anywhere new, but, well, when we make an album, we at least think that we try to do something that's not totally different yet [maintain] our sound with a different groove. This time, from what it feels right now, it's gonna be a little bit slower and a little bit groovier album. But that's just generally. I think that we will like this album better than the media.

Studio Rock: Is it the same writing process with Tomas [Haake, drums] writing lyrics and

Mrten Hagstrm: Yea, this hasn't changed, yet. He still writes the lyrics. Musically, well, actually I don't know about this album, but usually, on previous albums, it's been divided between me and Fredrik [Thordendal, guitar] and Tomas. Maybe Dick [Lvgren, bass] is going to have a song or two now, Jens [Kidman, vocals] as well. But it actually depends on what we decide to have on the album in the end. Right now everybody is writing and we are dividing as much writing as possible between us.

Read the entire interview from Studio Rock.

Fan-filmed video footage of MESHUGGAH's performance at this year's Metaltown festival, which was held June 17-18, 2011 in Gothenburg, Sweden, can be seen below.