Artist: Face Down

Date:  10 October 2005 

MM - First off I’d like to say thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview with us, it really means a lot to us.  With the advent of your third album ‘The Will To Power’ due for release shortly, how is the band feeling right now?
Joacim Carlsson - Hello there, and thanks for having us. Regarding the imminent record release, we feel really good and can't wait to get our new music out there. So far the reactions have been nothing but overwhelmingly positive so we hope that trend will continue. We're geared up and ready to go! 

MM - Who made the initial decision to reform the band and why choose to do it now?
Joacim - It was our bass player Joakim who decided one day that he needed to ask the rest of us if we were interested in doing a new FD album. Needless to say, we all jumped at the chance.

Personally, I never thought we ever were going to do anything more, so it was a nice surprise when I got the call. Timing-wise, I guess now is as good as any time.. and we're not getting any younger, hehe!  Also, it seems that our kind of music is more in tune with the times now than it was when we put the band to rest in 1999.

MM - Do you feel confident now that the band lineup is here to stay?
Joacim - Very much so. This is by far our strongest lineup and everybody is really into what we're doing musically.. we also get along better now than we ever did before.

MM - I’ve heard a rumour that the band will be performing a special album release party/gig in London.  Can you explain what will be happening on the night and how your fans can be there?
Joacim - The rumour is true! We'll be on stage on UK soil for the first time since 1998 on Saturday the 5th of November at the Marquee Club. We'll be sharing the stage with three up-and-coming UK acts; Panic Cell, Malefice and I-Remain so it's gonna be a good show. We're preparing a 15 song set which will have us up there for about an hour or so. Both lots of old classic songs and plenty of new material to introduce everybody to the T.W.T.P. album. Aside from the gig itself, we'll be doing a meet-and-greet/signing session after the show, and there will be all sorts of promo giveaways. In other words, you don't want to miss it!

More info about directions and so on can be found at the Marquee website: http://home.btconnect.com/PlumPromotions/framesetmq.htm

MM - Is there any secret message behind the name of the new album and what made you decide to choose this over one of the other song titles?
Joacim - The title song revolves around serial killers. Originally it wasn't about any specific one, but along the way it turned out to focus on a particular guy called Carl Panzram, who might not be the most famous of them all but surely is one of the worst of all time. He did some really gruesome stuff back in the early 1900's and we did some research and found lots of Panzram-quotes we could use. One of them is now in the chorus in the title track (“I wish you all had one neck, and I had my hands around it”), and most of the writings you will find in the CD-booklet are also Panzram-quotes. The idea is all about empowerment, and the lyrics of the song are written from the killers point of view and how he needs to keep killing to satisfy his anger against the world and rise above.. i.e. “The Will To Power”. The title itself is actually a Nietsche theory that seemed to fit with the lyrics. Anyway, when it came down to doing the album cover, we figured that the TWPT-theme was the strongest we had so we went with that and created all the imagery to revolve around that song. It's not a concept album though.

MM - How would you compare this latest release to your earlier albums, does it have that classic Face Down sound to it, or have you guys be pushing the barrier to untested grounds?
Joacim - I would say it has the classic FD signature sound, but updated. We all have brought five years of experience into creating the new record and it shows. We're doing some stuff now that we didn't do before. Overall, I would say we have broadened our sound quite a lot. The fast, aggressive stuff is harder than ever and on the other end we have really mellow and slow stuff on the album as well. For me personally, I'm always trying to push the envelope when I'm writing songs to avoid stagnation.

MM - For the songwriting, was everything written by one person in particular, or did all you guys help with writing and arranging?
Joacim - I write about 90% of the songs, but all the guys gets to have a say when we arrange the material. It usually starts off with some riffs that I record at home on my computer, then I present it to the band and we work on it during rehearsal to get a basic idea. After that, I usually work on it at home some more and record a full version of the song, and then we learn it and alter it again if need be. This time, we changed stuff up until the last minute and even edited some stuff in the studio as well in order to make the songs as strong as possible.

MM - You worked with Jocke Skog on the new album, what was he like to work with?
Joacim - That guy is super easy to work with. Always positive, easy-going and he knows his equipment inside out and he likes to show it off as well. I particularly enjoyed working with him on the guitar sound, which turned out to be the best sound I've ever had on an album. He's also very open to the band's ideas and will try almost anything, which is good for us. We'll surely work with him again in the future if it's possible.

MM - Do you have any plans to tour to support the album and if so where are you likely to go?
Joacim - Due to the family situations in the band, we won't be able to do long tours. It's just not in the cards anymore. We'll try to focus on doing lots of festivals and weekend shows instead of traveling for a month in a crappy van and play for 10 people on a weekday. This time we're going for quality gigs rather than quantity. We'll always consider any offer we get so keep 'em coming!

MM - What has been the fans reaction to the announcement of the reformation of the band?
Joacim - Nothing but positive so far. Many people seem to wonder why Marco is suddenly doing music again, but the answer to that is that this band is located where he lives, and we don't rehearse or play shows that often so everybody can fit it into their schedules.

MM - Would you like to tell us a little bit about each of the songs on the new album, perhaps the a story behind them, or how they evolved?
Joacim - Ouch! Well, I don't know much about the lyrics since I didn't help out writing them aside from a few lines here and there. A quick rundown on the songs from a musical POW:

“Drained” - the intro and verse was originally written for my other band General Surgery but was never used, so I played it to the guys and they thought we should use it right away.. simply because it sounds quite Slayer-ish.  I wrote the rest during spring and it was put together rather quickly. One of my personal faves.

“Blood Tiles” - and old song from around 1998 which was recorded for our final demo under a different title. We changed the verse and arrangement, Marco wrote new lyrics and we had a killer song.

“Heroin” - Our drummer and I wrote that one, it's one of the more modern sounding songs on the album, I guess. I'm using a baritone guitar on this song to add a bit of extra heaviness. I think we all have this one as a favorite.

“Insanity” - We needed one more fast song and I stepped up and wrote this one pretty quickly from some riffs I had recorded on my computer. Features one of the best mosh parts on the album in the middle section.

“Will To Power” - this is one of the “big songs”, I guess, since it has a a lot of stuff going on. I actually wrote this one while we were recording the drums and rhythm guitar tracks. We took the weekend off and I felt really inspired to come up with yet one more track, so I worked on it for a whole day at home and came up with the basic outline of the song. Erik then came in to record the drum parts, and then I figured out the last riffs I needed in the studio when we recorded the guitar parts. Later on we added the piano part that bridges the song with “Grey”, and that was played by Jocke Skog. As soon as we had decided on the serial killer theme for the lyrics, I wanted some spoken parts on the song to make it more disturbing and spooky. The first spoken part about how serial killers work is read by an Australian friend of mine (who is actually a forensic psychologist) who was visiting me at the time so that was a lucky co-incidence to get him on the track. The rest of the spoken parts are read by other English speaking friends of the band.

“Grey” - also one of the bigger songs on the album as it was almost completely written and arranged in the studio by our bassist with help from mr. Skog. Features a guest appearance from our first drummer Richard Bång. The piano intro is awesome.

“Heretic” - we wanted to put one of the demo tracks on the album and we felt this one was the strongest. This is also an old track from around 1998 that got some new riffs and a new arrangement and vocal lines and turned out awesome.

“The Delusion” - was written just before we entered the studio from ideas our bassist had laying around for a while. Originally it featured a different intro that we decided to edit out since it didn't serve the song. Once again the spoken stuff were done by a friend of ours. A really heavy track that carries the old FD sound into the 2000's.

“War Hog” - another song from the 1998 period that got a re-make. I was really not sure about this song when we had recorded it, but once Marco came in with a new set of lyrics and yelled his ass off it turned out really great. This will be in our live set for sure.

“The Unsung” - I wrote this one back in 1999 and we played it a few times but in a different version. I decided to re-write it and try it out in the studio, and it's one of my personal faves since it's really doomy and sludgy. It differs a lot from what we normally do and I really like that variation. The baritone guitar is in full effect on this song as well. Features a couple of guest players as well: Max Thornell from Hearse on drums and Mikael Van Tuominen from Fingerspitzengefühl on bass.

Ends the album on a somber note, just as we used to do on our old albums.

MM - Do you have a favourite track off the new album?  If so what is it about this particular track that makes it stand out for you personally?
Joacim - My faves are the title track since we actually pulled it off, it was a lot of hard work getting that one together. Other faves are The Unsung because I like to play really slow stuff, Heroin because it's something I wouldn't normally write and Drained because it's really intense and a great opener.

MM - What was it like playing Sweden Rocks this year, and how did that come about?
Joacim - The SRF crew invited us for some reason that escapes me, but of course it was flattering to get invited since we didn't even have a new album out at the time. I think it was one of the best shows we've played so far. Great crowd! Three songs from this gig will be on the DVD that's in the limited edition of the album.

MM - Is there anything the band has done in the past that you wished you had done differently?
Joacim - We made a quite a few wrong business decisions that ultimately killed the band. Not really anything I wish to dwell on though. This time the keyword is “fun” and we're gonna keep it that way.

MM - The band was quoted to saying that you wanted to put Stockholm back on the metal map, why is this important to you?
Joacim - Enough already of all this melodic Gothenburg stuff!, hahaha! I guess we just want to show that Stockholm is still around and something you can count on to deliver heavy bands that will blow your ears off.. just as it was in the early '90s.

MM - Finally, is there a message you would like to send out to all your fans to close out this interview?
Joacim - Thanks to everybody who still remembers us, you people rule. Hope we can pick up a lot of new fans along the way as well. Get the new album, we're really proud of it and we can't wait to hear what you think of it. See ya all in the pit!

*Thanks Joacim and best of luck with the new album!         

 

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