VOLBEAT Frontman Says Split With Bassist ANDERS KJØHOLM 'Came Very Naturally'

Guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen of Danish/American rock 'n' rollers VOLBEAT spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune about the 2015 departure of the band's longtime bassist Anders Kjøholm. He said: "It came very naturally, somehow.

"When we end a year of touring, we always sit down as a band and go through all the details of everything we've been through all year and what we're about to do in the coming year. And it seemed like we were not on the same level, there were some things that we couldn't agree on. We just were not on the same level where you need to be on the same level."

He continued: "I stopped trying to push things to a certain degree, where you can't fix it, and you've been trying for a certain amount of time to fix the problem. It's better that you stay realistic to the whole situation, and it was better for him to be at home with his wife and kids. And we just have to soldier on on the road and do our work with VOLBEAT and make that functional.

"There was no big drama. It was basically just us sitting down and trying to figure out how to continue our work this year, and it just didn't seem that we were on the same page."

Poulsen also talked about the addition to VOLBEAT of Kjøholm's replacement, Kaspar Boye Larsen. He said: "The thing is, I know Kaspar from way back, and [drummer] Jon [Larsen] knows him too. Me and Kaspar go way back — since the early '90s, when we were playing death metal. So we've pretty much known each other since we were 17 or 18 or something. We've been in the same environment, the same scene all along. Been playing together on the road, him in his bands and me in the bands I had.

"It's been very easy for us to get Kaspar into the band. The first European tour we did was actually with Kaspar as a stand-in bass player, because Anders couldn't make it because of circumstances at home with his wife and kids. So he's not actually new. People in Europe saw VOLBEAT the first time with Kaspar. And now, he's the new guy and he's doing an amazing job. He has the experience, he's a great musician and human being. So it's been very easy, actually, to get him into the band."

VOLBEAT's new album, "Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie", was released on June 3 via Republic Records.

VOLBEAT spent most of the summer in Europe, but returned last month for SEETHER's Rise Above festival in Maine on August 6, the Heavy Montreal event on August 7, and an opening slot for METALLICA at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on August 20.