AM : First, can you introduce the band and tell us how it all began ? What's your musical background ? To make a history short...
Sonic Syndicate : Hello and thanks for the interview! I was
introduced to VoA through Ashmedi of Melechesh who put my name out there to
Napalm. I feel very lucky to have him as a friend and colleague because I feel
he saved my sanity when it needed saving. I had basically hit a point with my
former band that I needed a change and I wanted to have a more active creative
role in the music of which I was singing.
The first time I actually met the band face to face was about four months after
joining and sending numerous emails back and forth. We got together for our
first tour which was the Romantic Darkness tour. I hadn’t really believed
in fate before that point, but after meeting them, it was as if the cosmos lined
up. The instant connection we all had was remarkable, as if we had known each
other much longer than we had.
AM : About the bandcontest from Nuclear Blast , how did it happen, how did you know of it and decide to be part of it ?
Sonic Syndicate : We heard about this contest which the first prize was a record deal with Nuclear Blast, and that was really interresting for us, since NB has been a dream from the start of this band. We never thought that we were suppost to win this, but we gave it a try and send them a demo. After some weeks, they calls us up and told us that we won. We couldn’t believe it first, but now it feels so goddamn great to be a part of the acts on NB, dude!
AM : Am I wrong if I say you're fans of In Flames, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, as these seem to be your influences ?
Sonic Syndicate : You’re not wrong. But, nowadays we don’t influences as much from them, as we did some years ago. Now, we get influences by everything and anything. But of course, In flames and Soilwork will always be in some kinda way compared to us... or we compared to thoose maybe haha.
AM : How is it to have 3 brothers in a band, for the brothers and for the other members ?
Sonic Syndicate : It feels good, since we dont work together as brothers. We don’t fight as much as normal brothers does. But we can be very honest to each other, like no bullshit. If Roger (guitar) shows me a guitar riff that he thinks rocks, I can honestly tell him that it sucks big time, like, I think you get me. I don’t know that the rest of the members sees us as brothers.
AM : Who is writing the music and lyrics ? I have to point that with this first release, you hit really hard with the perfect mix of agression , melody and groove...
Sonic Syndicate : Thanks! It’s mostly Roger (guitar) who does like a core of a song. He comes up with some riffs, which he later shows to me. I put in some of my stuff to it, and we bring to rehersal so everyone can get in touch of the writing-a-song-process. It’s mainly Richard (vocals) who writes the lyrics, but if Roland (vocals) wants to change any sentence or something, they comes up with ideas together. This way works fine and I think we will work like this on the next album also.
AM : You have a killer sound, despite the fact that the producer is not (yet) a big name, how was it in studio for this first album ?
Sonic Syndicate : It was the best time, dude. Jonas Kjellgren (Scar Symmetry) did a awesome job as a producer! He’s crazy, man. I think that I’ve never met a guy who’s more funny than him. He really made us in good mood and kept up the energy all the time. Everything in the studio went great! We worked really hard and it turned out great!
AM : The dual vocals are perfectly balanced and complementary, how did you work on this ?
Sonic Syndicate : Well, it’s just two dudes who scream the hell out of them... pretty much. I don’t know really, their voices sounds perfect together so there have been no problem when we’ve worked on the vocal arrangment. Richard is a kickass screamer and Roland is a kickass Clean vocalist (which also can handle the screaming awesome), so that’s pretty much it.
AM : You're going to play the Wacken and other gigs, how do you feel do you have an experience in gigs ?
Sonic Syndicate : Yeah we’re out playing alot! And it’s just getting better and better! To be booked to wacken was a big suprise! That has also been a dream from the beginng. I remember when I always saw their adds in some magazine and felt like “Fuck, I need to go there and see all thoose bands”. It was pretty much planned that we were suppost to go there this year, just to watch all the good bands. But we get booked, and that is definitly better than just stand there and watch haha.
AM : I let you the last words, thanks a lot for your time and all the best for sonic Syndicate !
Sonic Syndicate : Thank you for all the questions, and hope everyone who’ve read it have got their answers! New Album ONLY INHUMAN out soon! Be sure to check it out!! Rock n Roll!