SOILWORK Keyboardist Discusses New Album, Drummer Situation

SOILWORK keyboardist Sven Karlsson recently spoke to Live 4 Metal abut the group's upcoming album, "Stabbing the Drama", and their current drummer situation, among other topics. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

Live 4 Metal: How did you approach this album? Did you do anything differently than you had when writing or recording in the past?

Sven Karlsson: "I think that more so than with previous albums, this album was extremely spontaneous. At times in the past it's been quite stressful and there's been a huge amount of pressure and expectation on us, but everything was so much more relaxed this time. We'd just been on tour for a long time and played with so many amazing bands that we were so inspired and so eager to start writing new music. It was more or less literally a case of stepping foot in the door at home and getting down to it."

Live 4 Metal: You chose Daniel Bergstrand to produce. What was it like working with him? Were there many other producers in the frame?

Sven Karlsson: "We'd worked with Daniel before as he recorded the drums for our last album, 'Figure Number Five', and we felt he did a good job, so we'd always had him in mind to produce the drums on the new album too. At the same time, we started thinking that we'd perhaps like to use just one producer rather than a series of people for each part etc. There were other candidates in the frame, particularly Devin Townsend, but he has so many projects and is always so busy that it just seemed like maybe too much hassle. Like I said though, we’re all big fans of Daniel's production, and having worked with him previously he was just the natural choice."

Live 4 Metal: Some people have commented on the fact that this album is perhaps a bit more melodic and polished than your older material. Do you see this as a natural progression of the music as opposed to "selling out?"

Sven Karlsson: "Haha, the million-dollar question! Sure, I can see why people may think that we’re perhaps selling ourselves short a bit, but at the same time we're a band that cannot repeat ourselves. We're always evolving and always expanding, and that's why over the years we've experimented with our sound quite a lot. We simply cannot stand still musically, it's never a choice. It's just something that's always been inside of us and probably always will be. Some bands are happy to, and are indeed very good at using the same formula time and time again, but we're just not one of them."

Live 4 Metal: Since [previous drummer] Ricky's [Evensand] departure, Dirk from SCARVE has been filling in. Is this a permanent arrangement or do you have someone else in mind?

Sven Karlsson: "It’s a messed up situation at the moment. He played on the new record with us, he's filled in for us on a European tour, he did some shows with us in Australia and Japan, but at the same time he's already in SCARVE. Understandably, he doesn't want to give that up at the moment. We completely understand his situation, particularly as he's one of the original founding members of the band, but everyone in SOILWORK wants him as a permanent member. We don't want to steal him away from his band though, so the ball is in his court and we'll understand if he chooses to walk away."

Read Sven Karlsson's entire interview with Live 4 Metal at this location.