PAIN Plans To Release At Least Five More Singles In Coming Months: 'Every Song Sounds Really Different'

In a new interview with the And Now The Band podcast, Peter Tägtgren of long-running Swedish industrial metallers PAIN spoke about his plans for new PAIN music following the release of the band's latest single, "I Don't Give A Fukk", via Reigning Phoenix Music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "In a couple of months there will be another video and another song, and I think it's gonna feature a guest maybe. And that's how it's gonna look like for the next year. Every two months there will be a video and single, except in the silly seasons where I'll fuck up. Nothing in December, because that's impossible. Mariah Carey's occupying the, the wavelines."

Peter continued: "We have, like, five more singles that I know of that's gonna go out, and I hope everything is gonna go right, because it's not only up to me. I have a lot of people involved now. So it's not only my will. But it looks like it's gonna be pretty cool, like [release a new single] every second month."

He added: "I don't know if these will feature on the [next PAIN] album yet. Maybe they are all standalone. They will feature other people on there as well. And every song sounds really different from the other one, so it's pretty cool."

Regarding the fact that all the new PAIN songs sound so different from each other, Peter said: "I really love it. I kind of adapt to things. I mean, if I hear something, it doesn't have to be a metal song or anything, if I hear a cool rhythm or a cool melody, it gets into my mind and then I try to do my own version of it, kind of, sometimes, if I hear something cool. But with this, 'I Don't Give A Fukk', I came up with when I was on my way into the shower, because I was watching the news and I was, like, 'I don't give a fuck anymore.' So there it is. And it was just stuck. So I had to develop that. The tricky part was the verses because I'm not a talk singer or a rapper or whatever you wanna call it. So that was the most weird shit. And also I had to write different kind of words than I normally use because here it had to be more sharp and more attack in them a little bit; otherwise it gets too muddy. And I had to open my mouth when I speak. So it was a little tricky in the beginning because I wanted to have someone else guesting, doing the verses, but, yeah, I couldn't get it any time so I decided, 'Okay, fuck it. I'll do it myself.' And I tried to pardon myself with the video that someone else is forcing me to do it."

The lyrics for "I Don't Give A Fukk" offer an unfiltered snapshot of a society consumed by political theater, distrust, manipulation and competing versions of reality. Provocative conspiracy imagery collides with accusations of hypocrisy and manufactured division, capturing the feeling of being surrounded by noise while no longer knowing whom or what to believe.

Co-written by Peter and his son, PAIN drummer Sebastian Tägtgren, the single continues the pair's growing creative partnership while taking the project into another unexpected corner of its sound.

Rather than offering easy answers, "I Don't Give A Fukk" delivers a release: a blunt refusal to participate in the madness.

When "I Don't Give A Fukk" was first made available in late August, Peter said in a statement: "I'm really curious to see how people react, and I'm stoked about the new single. As most of you know, I always try not to repeat myself, and this time I'm sure people will be wondering, 'What the hell is going on?' Sebastian and I wrote the song together, and lyrically I'm throwing my view of the world and of the last ten years right in your face. Hold on tight and get ready to smile."

For nearly three decades, PAIN has operated without boundaries, welding heavy metal, industrial electronics, infectious melodies, dark humor and Tägtgren's singular worldview into music that is as immediate as it is unpredictable. Following the release of PAIN's ninth studio album, "I Am", "I Don't Give A Fukk" strips that formula down to its most direct elements: a crushing groove, a provocative message and a hook that refuses to leave quietly.

For nearly three decades, PAIN has existed according to one simple rule: there are no rules. Created by Swedish musician, songwriter and producer Peter Tägtgren, PAIN began as an outlet for ideas that had nowhere else to go. By the mid-1990s, Tägtgren was already firmly established as the frontman of death metal band HYPOCRISY, but the music taking shape in his studio was moving in a very different direction. Electronics, programmed rhythms, heavy guitars, synthesizers and an increasingly sharp instinct for melody were colliding in ways that did not belong within HYPOCRISY. Instead of forcing those ideas to fit, Tägtgren built something new around them.

PAIN's self-titled debut arrived in 1997, with Tägtgren handling the vocals, instruments and production himself. That one-man approach established the foundation of PAIN and remains central to the project today. In the studio, PAIN is still driven overwhelmingly by Tägtgren's vision, giving him the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads without worrying about genre boundaries or expectations. Onstage, that vision has grown into a formidable live band, currently featuring Peter Tägtgren on vocals and guitar, his son Sebastian Tägtgren on drums, Jonathan Olsson on bass and Sebastian Svalland on guitar.

From the beginning, PAIN offered something markedly different from the extreme metal that had first made Tägtgren's name. The aggression was still there, but now it shared space with electronics, danceable rhythms, huge choruses, bleak humor and a pop songwriter's understanding of how to make a hook stick. That collision became increasingly defined on 1999's "Rebirth" and then exploded with 2002's "Nothing Remains The Same", the album that produced "Shut Your Mouth", one of the defining songs of PAIN's career. What could have been a contradiction, industrial metal that was simultaneously crushing and instantly memorable, became the band's identity.

PAIN continued to evolve with "Dancing With The Dead". Released in 2005, the album pushed Tägtgren's combination of metallic weight and accessibility even further with tracks including "Same Old Song", "Bye/Die" and the title track. Behind the album was a frighteningly literal encounter with its central theme. Tägtgren had collapsed in a Swedish pub after his heart stopped for roughly two minutes, an experience he later connected directly to the writing of "Dancing With The Dead". The record reached No. 3 on the Swedish album chart and marked another major step in PAIN's growth.

By this point, it was clear that PAIN was not interested in repeating a formula. "Psalms Of Extinction" followed in 2007, expanding the palette again and bringing outside musicians into the studio, including MOTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee, CHILDREN OF BODOM's Alexi Laiho and IN FLAMES bassist Peter Iwers. A year later came "Cynic Paradise", which included guest vocals from then-NIGHTWISH singer Anette Olzon and produced enduring tracks such as "Follow Me" and "I'm Going In".

"You Only Live Twice" arrived in 2011, followed by "Coming Home" in 2016. The latter revealed another side of PAIN, bringing orchestral textures and acoustic elements into Tägtgren's industrial framework while retaining the hooks and heavy grooves at the center of the band's sound. By then, PAIN had long since developed from a studio experiment into an international touring act with its own unmistakable identity.

That identity has always been inseparable from Peter Tägtgren himself. Beyond PAIN and HYPOCRISY, Tägtgren has spent decades behind the desk as one of European metal's most recognized producers. Through his work at Abyss Studio, his production credits have included artists such as DIMMU BORGIR, IMMORTAL, AMON AMARTH, AMORPHIS, DARK FUNERAL, SABATON and CELTIC FROST. He also collaborated with RAMMSTEIN vocalist Till Lindemann in the project LINDEMANN, writing and performing the music for "Skills In Pills" and "F&M" before leaving the project in 2020. The breadth of that career helps explain PAIN's refusal to stay in one musical lane. For Tägtgren, production, songwriting and experimentation have never been separate disciplines. They are different parts of the same process.

After "Coming Home", a new PAIN album would take eight years to arrive, but the project was far from dormant. Tägtgren remained occupied with HYPOCRISY, LINDEMANN and other production and recording work. Then, in 2021, PAIN released "Party In My Head". The song became a phenomenon. Built around a massive electronic hook, a pounding beat and the kind of chorus that seemed designed to lodge itself permanently in the listener's brain, "Party In My Head" introduced PAIN to an enormous new audience while reconnecting with everything that had always made the project distinctive. According to PAIN's official biography, the track went on to surpass the streaming performance of longtime favorite "Shut Your Mouth", becoming one of the biggest songs in the band's catalog.

That momentum ultimately fed into "I Am", PAIN's ninth studio album, released through Nuclear Blast Records on May 17, 2024. Rather than settling into the sound of its breakthrough single, Tägtgren used the record to demonstrate just how elastic PAIN could still be. Industrial aggression, synth pop, melancholy, heavy grooves and melody coexist throughout the album, with songs including "Go With The Flow", "Push The Pusher", "Don't Wake The Dead", "Revolution", "Fair Game" and the title track moving through markedly different moods without losing the project's identity. Tägtgren described the goal as bringing more intensity, aggression and industrial atmosphere back into PAIN after the more expansive approach of "Coming Home".

"I Am" also marked an important development inside the PAIN camp. Sebastian Tägtgren, Peter's son and the band's drummer, wrote the music for "Revolution" and "Don't Wake The Dead" and served as a co-producer on the album. His growing creative role brought a new dimension to a project that had begun decades earlier as Peter alone in a studio.

Across nine studio albums, PAIN has built a catalog that refuses to separate heaviness from accessibility. "End Of The Line", "Shut Your Mouth", "Same Old Song", "Zombie Slam", "Follow Me", "Dirty Woman", "Coming Home", "Party In My Head" and "Go With The Flow" may come from different eras and approach the PAIN formula from different angles, but they share the same instinct: make it heavy, make it memorable and never become predictable.

That same instinct carries into the next chapter with "I Don't Give A Fukk", written by Peter and Sebastian Tägtgren. Musically direct and lyrically confrontational, the song takes aim at the anger, manipulation, division, distrust and information overload that Tägtgren sees in the world around him. It is deliberately provocative, irreverent and difficult to mistake for anything other than PAIN.

PAIN is:

Peter Tägtgren: vocals, guitar
Sebastian Tägtgren: drums
Jonathan Olsson: bass
Sebastian Svalland: guitar