SABATON's JOAKIM BRODÉN Says 'It's A Struggle' For A Lot Of Bands To Make Money On The Road

In a new interview with AndrewHaug.com, SABATON vocalist Joakim Brodén opened up about the realities of post-pandemic touring, including increased travel expenses — gas, tour buses, hotels and flight costs. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's tricky in a sense… A lot of us — not only us, but a lot of bands — have tours with tickets sold a long time ago that have been postponed. And those tickets are sold with a special calculation in mind, that these are our costs, and that's what we need to be able to make. So there's the reason as well for a lot of bands that even if they sold out a show, they're gonna lose money because of the increased costs. So it is a bit of a struggle for a lot of bands. Luckily enough, we're not in danger of becoming bankrupt, so for us it's more of a situation — luckily enough — that we aren't really making much money but we aren't, on the other hand, on the brink of extinction either."

Joakim's comments echo those of FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares who told the "Vulgar Display Of Podcast" about his band's upcoming tour with STATIC-X, which was originally scheduled to take place in 2022 before being postponed: "So much has changed in those couple of years, because look how much the economy has gotten really, really over the top, with gas and even availability on certain things, even drivers; just getting a driver, it's hard. People really don't understand the cost that goes into doing these tours. Everything affects you, whether it's venues taking a big cut of the merch sales to insane diesel and gas prices. A lot of people don't realize that these buses take diesel, and diesel is more expensive than gas. So that adds up, when you're spending eight hundred to a thousand dollars just to fill up a tank of a bus. People don't realize the cost of all that. So it's getting harder and harder.

"It's really kind of weird, because when we first booked the tour, the economy was much lower than now," Dino continued. "And then we do these show contracts for 'X' amount of dollars, and all of a sudden we postpone the tour to a year or so later, and so much has changed. Now these contracts, it doesn't match to where the economy is at now. A lot of people don't realize that either, that a lot has changed so much. I wish we can go back and renegotiate our contracts, but it's too late — can't do it. It is what it is. We're just not gonna be making the money that we would normally make to do that tour, but we're still gonna do it; we're committed to it. We can't wait to get back on the road and just play in front of all those people."

This past September, SABATON announced a new EP trilogy titled "Echoes Of The Great War". The trilogy features new songs specifically about World War I, coupled with topically related catalog music.

SABATON climbed the international charts with its tenth studio album, "The War To End All Wars", securing No. 1 positions in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Finland. Having achieved the top position for the second time in Germany, Sweden and Finland, the album peaked at No. 1 in Poland, Hungary and Austria for the first time in the band’s career. This and additional outstanding results in other territories have made "The War To End All Wars" SABATON's most successful album so far.

SABATON announced the rescheduled dates for the European leg of their tour, known as "The Tour To End All Tours", as well as an extension of "The Great Sweden Tour" with 20 additional shows in 20 more cities taking place in early 2023.