THE HAUNTED Frontman Says Family Life Won't Interfere With Band

In a recent interview with the Chronicles of Chaos webzine, THE HAUNTED guitarist Anders Björler and singer Peter Dolving spoke about the group's split with Earache Records and Dolving's return to the band following the departure of Marco Aro, among other topics. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Chronicles of Chaos: Now, Marco left the band because he said that he wanted to spend more time with his family, but Peter — you have two kids at home as well. Do you see that being a problem in the future? Do you think you're going to be able to survive being on the road and being away from your family for such extended periods of time?

Peter Dolving: "I don't see that as being a problem, because I've had my musical career and I've been playing music since I grew into some kind of semi-adulthood. But that's what I do — that's my job. My kids were born with me, and they know their dad in that way. If the touring gets so extensive that it will affect my family, then they'll come out, because if we tour that much then we'll have that extra money and we'll sort something out. But it has a lot to do with attitude and my family is in on that. I've always been a touring musician, and to my kids — they've grown up in a van and in studios, so to me that's not a situation that's very complicated, and not for my family either. I mean, I'm sure it is a complex thing, but I honestly don't see it as being any more difficult than having a normal job, where you wake up at six in the morning, and you go away all day and by the time you get home you're so tired you can not communicate with your kids. So, you send them off to bed because you're too tired to play with them, and you try to have some sort of social interaction with your wife, and then you get up at six in the morning the next day until Friday when you get smashed. I'd rather live like this."

Anders Björler: I think that one good thing about this situation is that it gives you a chance to spend more effective time with your children. You have sometimes three weeks where you're doing nothing. And as for touring — it's all a matter of planning ahead.

Peter Dolving: "To me, I really enjoy this. The other really big difference for me is that myself and my wife have a lot of friends — a really supportive group of people — and we always help each other out with kids and things like that. I think that was one of the major problems for Marco. His wife's parents are gone, as well as my wife's parents, but the big difference is that we have a really big network of people around us. For anyone to take care of a bunch of kids all by themselves — that's not going to work for anyone. You need the support. You need the network."

Read the entire interview at this location.